The Olympics continue to prove to be extremely wasteful and Pyeongchang is the latest example:
An aerial view of Olympic venues in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province on Aug. 22 /Yonhap
Gangwon Province is mired in massive debts after hosting the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang earlier this year.
The mountainous province with a population of 1.5 million had to host the biggest Winter Olympics so far, and six months on conflict with locals and unpaid wages continue to plague the local government, while the astronomically expensive venues sit empty.
The biggest headache is what to do with the speed skating rink, ice hockey center and Alpensia Sliding Center that have proved a bottomless pit of maintenance costs.
The province has to fork out W20.3 billion until 2022 just to keep the facilities running, but nobody knows what will happen afterwards (US$1=W1,109). Gangwon Province has asked the National Assembly to have the central government take on 75 percent of the upkeep costs, but the central government refused since it could set a bad precedent for allocating state funds.
The alpine skiing venue in Jeongseon, which was built on a 101-hectare piece of land owned by the Korea Forest Service, faces demolition. The government footed 75 percent of the W203.4 billion cost of building it and Gangwon Province the rest. A precondition was to return the land to the government after the Winter Olympics, but now locals want to keep it, hoping that the facility can generate income for the remote province.
Environmentalists and the KFS insist it must be demolished and the forest restored. [Chosun Ilbo]
Notice that the ROK ambassador said nothing about North Korea wanting to maintain momentum to denuclearize. The Kim regime is of course willing to talk in hopes of gaining concessions for little to nothing in return:
South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Cho Yoon-je (Yonhap)
North Korea remains determined to maintain the momentum of dialogue with the United States despite a recent hiccup, South Korea’s top envoy in Washington said Thursday.
Ambassador Cho Yoon-je dismissed a view that Pyongyang and Washington are shifting back to a confrontation after months of diplomatic engagement.
“North Korea’s intention of maintaining dialogue momentum is certain,” he told South Korea’s Washington, D.C. correspondents.
He was referring to “various speculations” driven by media after President Donald Trump called off Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to Pyongyang this week. [Yonhap]
Below are excerpts from some more great analysis by Professor B.R. Myers about the state of Inter-Korean affairs and the United States. This first excerpt shows how President Moon really feels about the US-ROK alliance:
B.R. Myers
This is in line with the remarkable discretion Moon Jae-in has sustained since the start of his election campaign. Never does he speak more guardedly than when around foreigners critical of the North. Shortly after he took office I asked two Americans who had talked with him on separate occasions what impression they had got: “well-rehearsed,” said one, “well-drilled” the other. Had he given vent to the sort of anti-American, pro-North remarks Roh Moo Hyun went in for (though Roh was conservative in comparison), his policies would have encountered more resistance.
His base knows how he really feels. During the presidential election campaign in 2012 the novelist Kong Chi-yŏng, a prominent supporter, tweeted cheerfully that the Yankee-go-home candidate Lee Jung-Hee sounded “like Moon’s inner voice.” The conservatives pounced, and she had to do a quick Prufrock: It wasn’t what she’d meant at all. Since then the Moon camp has shown remarkable discipline. Professor Moon Chung-in is an exception of sorts, since it’s his job to send up trial balloons. [B.R. Myers]
I have long believed that President Moon is just a better polished, smarter, and more disciplined version of former President Roh Moo-hyun. Remember Moon was Roh’s Chief of Staff during his presidency, so learned well from all of Roh’s mistakes. This discipline and political smarts he learned has allowed Moon to sell himself as a centrist when he is in fact a leftist.
This next excerpt shows how the Moon administration plans to implement their confederation plans with North Korea:
To assume that the two Korean administrations do not already see each other as confederates, and behave accordingly, albeit discreetly, is like assuming that a man and woman planning a marriage are not yet having sex. When we ask for Moon’s help in getting the other half of the peninsula to denuclearize, we are in effect asking this fervent nationalist to help remove the future guarantor of a unified Korea’s security and autonomy. Why should he comply? The only remaining point of the US-ROK alliance is to ease the transition to a confederation — which would obviate that alliance altogether.
The recent news of South Korean violations of sanctions (and of a presidential award just given to the main importer of North Korean coal) is merely illustrative. It’s trivial in comparison to the basic truth staring us in the face: No true liberal-democratic ally of the United States would think of leaguing up with an anti-American dictatorship, let alone one still in the thrall of a personality cult. I’m not sure whether the Trump administration is unaware of this or merely pretending to be.
At any rate a peculiar pattern has repeated itself every few weeks or so since Moon took office. It goes like this. First the Blue House is caught in some statement or act of disloyalty to the spirit of the alliance — like appointing an unrepentant former enforcer of North Korean copyrights to the second most powerful post in the government. (I don’t mean the prime minister.) South Korean conservatives then shout in chorus, “The Americans won’t stand for this!” Whereupon the White House rushes to say, in effect, “Oh yes we will!” It seems to revel in making pro-American, security-minded South Koreans look foolish. (…….)
It’s therefore easy to imagine Trump or Pompeo expressing support for whatever “peace system” Moon and Kim happen to agree on, so long as progress toward denuclearization is made first. Any significant step in that direction — which we can expect the upcoming Pyongyang summit to announce with great fanfare — would then compel the US to sign off on confederation, thus encouraging the South Korean public to do likewise. Before we know it, the ROK could be locked in an embrace it might eventually need American help to get out of. [B.R. Myers]
As always I highly recommend reading the whole article from Professor Myers at the link, but at some point you would think the Trump administration would start pushing back on President Moon’s pro-North Korean agenda. Possibly the suspension of Inter-Korean railway inspections by the United Nations Command is the start of a push back?
I am sure it was sweet to beat Japan in the Asian Cup Finals, but the fact they don’t have to do their mandatory military service is probably the most satisfying part of this win for the players:
South Korea defeated Japan 2-1 to defend the men’s football title at the Asian Games in Indonesia.
In the final match at Pakansari Stadium in Cibinong on Saturday, the men’s football team finished the 90-minute main game in a scoreless draw.
During extra time, Lee Seung-woo scored the first goal and Hwang Hee-chan added another minutes later.
South Korea successfully defended its Asiad title following their victory at Incheon 2014 and came to hold the most Asiad titles in men’s football with five.
The victory also gave the 20 Taegeuk Warriors, including captain Son Heung-min, exemption from mandatory military service that usually takes about two years. [KBS World Radio]
Royal Australian Air Force to conduct joint training exercise with Japan Air Self-Defense Force in Japan for the first time, coming September 10-30. https://t.co/kcBTYWKl90
President Moon appears to be doubling down on his policies:
President Moon Jae-in (L) walks into a Cheong Wa Dae meeting room, along with Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon (R) and Rep. Lee Hae-chan, head of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, on Sept. 1, 2018. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in called Saturday for an unswerving reform drive despite a falling approval rating and controversies over his economic policy.
He was speaking at an unprecedented gathering of all ruling party lawmakers, Cabinet members and presidential officials.
It came two days after Moon’s first Cabinet shake-up to replace five ministers, including the defense chief and the top education policymaker.
Late last month, the Democratic Party of Korea picked Rep. Lee Hae-chan, a seven-term lawmaker, as its new leader.
“The task of the times that we have to achieve together is clear,” Moon said at the meeting held at his office Cheong Wa Dae.
It’s to create a fair and just country through strong and constant reform measures, widely dubbed the “liquidation of past malpractices.” [Yonhap]
I wonder which malpractices is he referring to? Is the founding of the Republic of Korea one of the malpractices? It may be considering how President Moon has denied that the ROK was not founded in 1948.
He pointed out that South Korea is at a time of a “grand shift.”
He stressed the need for addressing the gap between the haves and have-nots via an appropriate distribution policy and promoting the co-prosperity between South and North Korea on the basis of denuclearization and a peace regime.
What is an appropriate distribution policy? The only distribution I have been hearing about is the ROK money expected to be redistributed to Kim Jong-un. Also notice the term “peace regime” being used by Moon. That is the preferred term now by ROK leftists to disguise their real intention of forming a confederation with North Korea.
To that end, the president said, Cheong Wa Dae, the ruling party and the government should make concerted efforts.
Moon, in particular, cited negative side effects from South Korea’s growth-oriented approach in the past, such as widening income disparity and misconducts by some vested powers.
Inter-Korean relations were once broken and the cloud of war was cast over Korea, he said. [Yonhap]
President Moon does not like South Korea’s growth oriented economy that has brought remarkable affluence to South Korea in an incredibly short time? Also by vested powers is President Moon referring to the United States?
This seems like something that should not be lifted until North Korea fully agrees to denuclearize and act like a responsible member of the world community:
A staff member stands at the reception desk of a hotel, backdropped by a world map, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Oct. 23, 2014. The U.S. Thursday extended until Aug. 31, 2019, a ban for its citizens to travel to North Korea.
The U.S. on Thursday extended the ban on Americans’ travel to North Korea for another year, saying it was too dangerous to go there.
“The safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas is one of our highest priorities,” a State Department official said. “The travel warning for North Korea remains in place — the Department of State strongly warns U.S. citizens not to travel to North Korea.”
The travel ban extension, in force until August 31 next year, comes as Washington’s efforts to negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula with Pyongyang have stalled [VOA]
