South Korean Culture Minister Do Jong-whan and foreign diplomats stationed in Seoul walk onto thej “Foot Bridge” during a visit to the Demilitarized Zone bisecting the two Koreas, north of Seoul, on Sep. 7, 2018, in this photo provided by the culture ministry. The bridge is where South and North Korea’s leaders strolled and talked during their summit on April 27. (Yonhap)
This really shouldn’t be surprising to anyone, the only thing surprising is how open this South Korean diplomat was about how pro-American diplomats have been marginalized in the Moon administration:
New Korean Ambassador to Vietnam Kim Do-hyun
The Foreign Ministry Tuesday admonished the new ambassador to Vietnam, Kim Do-hyun, for his critical remarks about the United States during an interview with a vernacular Korean paper.
The remarks in question are as follows: “The reason why the inter-Korean summit was successful is because pro-United States diplomats were not put in charge. … a majority of Korean diplomats have thought they could get promoted if they were close to Americans and if not, they would have no future.”
A ministry spokesman said, “Ambassador Kim went to his post several days ago. Since he will have many chances to have interviews with media, we have internally taken necessary steps.”
He said that he didn’t reveal what steps were taken but didn’t object when asked whether it was tantamount to a “verbal warning.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I infer from Kim’s remarks that the Moon administration has marginalized diplomats considered pro-US and are only using North Korean sympathizers to interact with the Kim regime. This is not surprising considering the Moon administration has many left wing North Korean sympathizers. For example President Moon’s Chief of Staff, Im Jeong-seok is a former supporter of North Korea’s juche philosophy.
There must have been something or someone that tipped off US officials to seize this package because it is pretty serious to take a diplomatic package like this:
North Korea has claimed that the United States recently mugged its delegation carrying a diplomatic package in New York, calling on Washington to provide an explanation on what it calls a provocation.
According to the (North) Korean Central News Agency on Sunday, which quoted its foreign ministry, a group of government officials and police officers from the U.S. took a diplomatic package from its delegation Friday at John F. Kennedy International Airport before it was about to board a flight home.
The delegation was in New York to attend the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it added.
“As the diplomats vigorously resisted, they grabbed the diplomatic package using physical violence and made off,” the ministry was quoted as saying. It called the incident a “planned and organized provocation.”
The ministry also asked the world to “seriously reconsider” New York as a venue for major international events and demanded Washington provide an explanation for infringing upon its sovereignty.
“If the U.S. fails to give its due response to our demand which is all too reasonable and fair enough, it will be totally responsible for all the consequences to be entailed,” the ministry said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but it was believed that the North Koreans used a diplomatic package to bring the VX nerve agent into Malaysia to assassinate Kim Jong-nam. I don’t think they would bring something like that to New York, but I would not be surprised if they were taking money out of New York from some criminal enterprise they have going on.
Another creepy ajushi in the Seoul diplomatic corps is in trouble:
A South Korean diplomat has been convicted of taking indecent photos of women.
Seoul Western District Court fined the lawyer-turned-diplomat, 38, identified only as Kim, 70 million won and ordered him to take a 40-hour education program on sexual crimes.
He was apprehended on Aug. 5 last year for taking photos up the skirt of a woman on a bus. Police later confirmed that he had used his smartphone to take photos up women’s skirts 16 times between April 2015 and August last year. One photo was taken in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lobby in Seoul. [Korea Times]
In its first official response to the high-profile defection, the North accused the South of launching an “anti-DPRK (North Korea) smear campaign and confrontation.”
“The Park Geun-hye group of traitors in South Korea carried out an operation to bring to South Korea a DPRK’s diplomat who fled his mission in London with his family for fear of legal punishment for his crimes,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English dispatch monitored in Seoul.
The KCNA did not identify Thae by his name but claimed the fugitive “was instructed to return home in June last for questioning as regards the embezzlement of huge amount of state funds, leakage of state secrets for money and rape of a minor.” [Yonhap]
I put this story in the category of unverifiable rumor, so who knows how true it is:
North Korean diplomats, fearful of reprisals from the state for their children’s positive remarks on life outside the country, are sending their sons and daughters to mental hospitals to protect them from state surveillance.
A source in Dandong, China who is familiar with the situation in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Wednesday that parents use bribes to cajole psychiatrists for admission into hospitals under false pretenses.
Cases of North Korean foreign service officers using mental health clinics as a refuge for their children are on the rise, according to the source.
“[Diplomats] with children who know the truth about the outside world are afraid of punishment and are sending them to mental hospitals [as a preventive measure],” the source said.
North Koreans in the foreign service are typically elites who are well cared for by the state, and take residence in Pyongyang, where the standard of living is significantly higher than in many parts of the state. [UPI]
