Category: Inter-Korean Issues

Apartheid South Africa was banned from the Olympics for their human rights abuses, but North Korea may get the opportunity to host them with a far worse human rights record?  I would hope the IOC would laugh this proposal out of the building, but considering the IOC’s history of corruption enough white envelopes may make this a reality:

South Korea and North Korea agreed on Friday to inform the International Olympic Committee (IOC) formally of their intention to co-host the 2032 Summer Games.

The two sides reached that agreement during their sports talks in the North’s border town of Kaesong.

Following their first sports talks in four months, the Koreas issued a joint communique, detailing other areas of cooperation.

The Koreas said they will try to field a joint team at next year’s men’s handball world championships.

The Koreas also agreed to form unified teams at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and to work with the IOC and international federations of summer Olympic sports to make that happen.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but any bets on who will pay for all the new infrastructure, stadiums, hotels, etc. in North Korea to support hosting the Olympics?

The darker blue "peace zone"–no armed ships, no military exercise, no large weapons use. People /Marines on islands isolated, not allowed to defend. Han River estuary, historically an invasion route, to be joint use/patrol, wide open for #NorthKorea to enter Seoul. https://t.co/3pBZ3je8x7

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) October 31, 2018

Would that be the country that’s at least 50 times richer than North Korea, an open democratic society, backed up by the most powerful nation on earth, yet vigorously censors itself when it comes to crimes against humanity? https://t.co/YLbveE973f

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) October 30, 2018

Am I supposed to be excited because North Korea closed a couple of doors?

The entrances (circled) of artillery positions on North Korea’s Jangjae Island bordering South Korea in the West Sea is seen closed on Oct. 31, 2018, one day ahead of the implementation of the Sept. 19 inter-Korean military agreements, in which the two sides agreed to set a maritime buffer zone spanning around 80 km in the East and West Seas to prevent unintended naval clashes. (Yonhap)

This is just another example of an easily reversible so called concession by the North Koreans.  They can just open the door and use their artillery when ever they want.  Why doesn’t Seoul have them remove the artillery as well as their silkworm missiles and confirm it with an inspection?  That would create a real buffer zone instead of the pretend one the Moon administration is agreeing to.

By the way the below graphic provides a breakdown of North Korea’s artillery and missile positions in the Yellow Sea:

This seems like an awful lot of money to renovate an office building:

South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Sunday unveiled details about the money it spent to renovate the inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, amid criticism that it spent too much on the project.

The ministry sent the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and unification a document containing details of the costs of the office, which launched on Sept. 14 as a communication platform for cross-border cooperation and exchanges.

Of the total expenditures, which amounted to 9.78 billion won ($8.56 million), the cost for renovation materials, including construction equipment and pipes, was 3.49 billion won, while labor costs amounted to 2.58 billion won.

The costs for materials to construct the office’s main building, accommodation facility and other amenities were 1.22 billion won, 570 million won and 560 million won, respectively, the ministry said.   [Joong Ang Ilbo via a reader tip]

How about he instead take Kim Jong-un to the memorial for the sailors killed in the Cheonan sinking:

President Moon Jae-in said Sunday that he could give North Korea’s Kim Jong-un a tour of Mount Halla, South Korea’s tallest mountain, on the southern island of Jeju, if the leader comes for a visit.

Moon made the remarks in response to a reporter’s question about what he would show Kim should the communist leader reciprocate his own visit to Pyongyang last month for the third inter-Korean summit aimed at fostering inter-Korean rapprochement and cooperation.

“As we have an expression like ‘from Mount Paekdu to Mount Halla,’ I could give him a tour of Mount Halla if (he) wants,” Moon said during talks with reporters after climbing up to a peak of Mount Bukak just behind the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here is another indication that the Moon administration is getting played by the Kim regime over the NLL issue:

Touching on the controversy over the North’s position on the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de-facto sea border with the South, Jeong said that working-level North Korean officials have yet to accept the NLL as the maritime border, despite leader Kim Jong-un’s apparent recognition of it.

In April, the leaders of the two sides agreed to turn the tense area into a “maritime peace zone.” They used the term “NLL” in their joint statement.

President Moon Jae-in said it indicates that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has virtually recognized the NLL.

The North’s navy, however, had continued to claim its own security line until recently, sending repeated warning messages to South Korean ships crossing it.

That appears to be because North Korea’s front-line troops have not received any new related instructions from Kim, Jeong said.

He added that the North’s working-level officials have not yet agreed to accept the NLL.

Gen. Park Han-ki, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the South urged the North not to take issue with the NLL during the bilateral general-grade talks last week.

“(We) clearly told (the North) to stop sending such inappropriate radio messages,” he said.  [Yonhap]

Kim Jong-un of courses recognizes the NLL, what he recognizes is his definition of the NLL.

It’s one thing for polisci experts to discuss unification and denuclearization. But another pressing assignment, for sociologists esp, is to rly start thinking about what the post-unification national discourse should look like. And it shouldn’t be like this: misogyny and racism https://t.co/UYTMmpgYBW

— Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim) October 25, 2018

If you have been reading the ROK Drop this news should come as no surprise:

Pyongyang’s version of a military pact signed by both Koreas last month mentions the northern limit line (NLL) in angle quotes, which may mean it doesn’t acknowledge the maritime border between the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea.

Seoul’s version doesn’t place any punctuation marks around the same words.

A lawmaker from the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) exclusively revealed the North’s version of the agreement to the JoongAng Ilbo on Thursday. Former South Korean National Defense Minister Song Young-moo signed the military pact with his North Korean counterpart, No Kwang-chol, on Sept. 19 during the third inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.

If the North had indeed refused to acknowledge the NLL in September, it would contradict remarks made by South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier this month.

The Blue House chief said on Oct. 11 that the North acknowledged the NLL in the latest summit. Both Koreas agreed to create a so-called peace zone around the area to prevent possible military clashes and establish a joint fishing zone, he said.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but Moon’s maritime peace zone that the Kim regime is so happy to sign an agreement on will surrender sovereignty of the NLL to the North Koreans by allowing joint fishing along the maritime border.  This plan actually dates back an entire decade to the Roh Moo-hyun administration when Moon Jae-in was President Roh’s Chief of Staff.  This map shows why the North Koreans are happy with the is arrangement:

The current NLL is depicted with the Blue line and North Korea’s claimed NLL is depicted with the Red line.

Moon’s peace zone would allow the North Korean boats to pass the current NLL to nearly the red line the North Koreans claim.  The giving up of sovereignty of this maritime territory will make it harder to defend the South Korean islands along the NLL.  Such an agreement would also set a precedent that the Kim regime’s claim against the legitimacy of the NLL is valid.  The last time a South Korean leftist government tried to give away the NLL the ROK Defense Ministry was furious.  That is likely why the Moon administration cleaned house at the Ministry of Defense before moving forward with this plan.

South Korea has made all these concessions to weaken their defenses against a North Korean attack and the Kim regime has yet to move one artillery battery away from the DMZ in return.

States (here #SouthKorea) shall prevent (banks) from opening branches in North Korea–that's pretty clearly stated. Secondary #sanctions affect not only the banks, but their client firms as well. Moon Jae-in should not gamble with #SouthKorea's economy. https://t.co/daaRczIXUL

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) October 23, 2018