Kim Jong-un may not have exactly told Koreans to surrender to his demands, but that is essentially what is being said in this statement:
North Korea sent a rare announcement addressed to “all Koreans at home and abroad” on Thursday, saying they should make a “breakthrough” for unification without the help of other countries, its state media said.
It said all Koreans should “promote contact, travel, cooperation between North and South Korea” while adding Pyongyang will “smash” all challenges against reunification of the Korean peninsula.
The announcement, issued after a joint meeting of government and political parties, added Koreans should wage an energetic drive to defuse the acute military tension and create a peaceful climate on the Korean peninsula.
Military tension on the Korean peninsula was a “fundamental obstacle” for the improvement of inter-Korean relations and unification, the North’s official news agency said.
It added joint military drills with “outside forces” has shown to be unhelpful for the development of relations between North and South Korea. [Reuters]
This message makes it pretty clear that the Kim regime wants the inter-Koreans ventures such as the Geumgang Resort tours and Kaesong Industrial Complex reopened as a means for foreign currency and to circumvent sanctions. That is why the Masik Ski Resort is being promoted so heavily as part of the Winter Olympics charm offensive by the North Koreans. They see that resort as another potential cash cow to circumvent sanctions.
This message also continues the Kim regime’s efforts to separate the ROK and the US by demanding joint military exercises be cancelled. I would not be surprised if the ROK government asks to cancel the already delayed Key Resolve exercise.
If anyone wants to get a dose of live North Korean cultural propaganda next month is your chance:
These photos taken Jan. 23, 2017 show the Gangneung Arts Center in Gangneung, 260 km east of Seoul, (top) and the National Theater of Korea in Seoul. (Yonhap)
North Korea has selected two concert venues in South Korea for its proposed art performances celebrating the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next month, the unification ministry said Tuesday.
In a message sent to South Korea on Tuesday night, North Korea said its art troupe hopes to perform at the Gangneung Arts Center in Gangneung on Feb. 8 and at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul on Feb. 11, the ministry said.
Gangneung, a coastal city located about 260 kilometers east of Seoul, is one of the Olympic venues along with nearby PyeongChang.
North Korea said its delegation plans to cross the land border into South Korea on Feb. 6 for the concerts before returning home on Feb. 12, according to the message, which was released by the ministry. [Yonhap]
Via a reader tip comes this news that the Blue House would like everyone to show respect towards North Korea during the upcoming Winter Olympics:
A conservative activist sets fire to a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the North’s flag in front of Seoul Station Monday in protest against the North’s participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
South Korea’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae called on the public Tuesday to show more respect to all countries that will participate in the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, including North Korea, one day after a group of conservative activists staged a violent protest against the communist state.
“North Korea too is a participating country and we ought to respect it as we would respect all the others,” a ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told Yonhap News Agency.
The official added that the presidential office was set to release an official commentary on the issue.
The move comes one day after the South Korean activist group staged a protest rally in front of Seoul train station as a visiting North Korean delegation arrived there following its overnight visit to Gangneung, 240 kilometers east of Seoul, to inspect possible venues for a musical performance before or during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. [Korea Times]
I would like to know what is there to respect about the Kim regime? Should Apartheid South Africa have been respected? As bad as Apartheid was it was nothing compared to human rights violations and threats to world peace posed by the Kim regime and they were banned from the Olympics.
ROK citizens should have the right to show their displeasure with the Kim regime. It will be interesting to see how the Moon administration tries to clamp down on protesters during the Winter Olympics.
I wonder if the North Korean delegation was even able to see this protest? I am willing to bet the ROK authorities kept the North Koreans out of view of this protest:
A conservative activist sets fire to a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the North’s flag in front of Seoul Station Monday in protest against the North’s participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Conservative protesters on Monday burned a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the North’s national flag, in a rally against its participation in next month’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The activists, led by the far-right Korean Patriots Party, held a press conference in front of Seoul Station at around 11 a.m., when a group of North Korean officials arrived at the train station from the eastern city of Gangneung, on the second day of their two-day trip for inspection of performance venues.
“The PyeongChang Winter Olympics is turning into ‘Kim Jong-un’s Pyongyang Olympics’ that effectively recognizes its nuclear armaments and propagates the North Korean regime,” they said. [Korea Times]
It looks like Seoul will likely be hosting the Moranbong Band next month according to the article:
Surrounded by South Korean officials and guards, Hyon Song-wol enters Jangchung Arena in central Seoul on the second day of her delegation’s two-day stay in South Korea on Jan. 22, 2018. (Yonhap)
A North Korean delegation led by the powerful female head of a national orchestra returned home late Monday after touring concert halls in Seoul to inspect candidate venues for planned art performances during next month’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Wrapping up a two-day stay, the North Korean inspection team led by Hyon Song-wol, the head of the Samjiyon Orchestra, passed through the customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) office at Dorasan Station, just south of the border, at around 9:53 p.m. Their last engagement in Seoul was to have dinner at a hotel.
Hyon didn’t say anything in response to reporters asking for comments when she and the other North Korean officials left for the North.
Earlier in the day, a nonscheduled train took the seven-member team to Seoul from Gangneung, where they visited two candidate auditoriums on Sunday. Gangneung is a sub-host city of the games, 260 kilometers east of the capital.
In Seoul, the team inspected three facilities — the National Theater of Korea, Jangchung Arena and Jamsil Students’ Gymnasium — on a mission to locate venues for North Korean art performances celebrating the upcoming Olympics.
Touring the national theater as the final leg of the concert hall visit in Seoul, Hyon checked speakers and stage lights. She asked the operation staff to play orchestral music, and the theater officials played “Arirang,” a traditional Korean song, to test the audio systems.
The delegation spent far more time inspecting the national theater than the two other venues, spawning speculation that it may be chosen for the North’s musical performance in Seoul. [Yonhap]
The North Korean delegation is visiting the ROK to view locations where the Moranbong Band will perform and hopefully not sing about the greatness of the Kim regime:
Hyon Song-wol, head of a North Korean delegation, arrives at Seoul Station on Jan. 21, 2018. (Yonhap)
A North Korean delegation arrived in Gangnueng, an eastern South Korean city, Sunday to check the venues for its proposed art performances at next month’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The trip came amid brisk inter-Korean contact on the North’s participation in the Olympic Games to open in three weeks.
The seven-member team is led by Hyon Song-wol, head of the North’s Samjiyon Orchestra, and known as one of the most influential women in the secretive communist nation.
She also serves as director of the Moranbong Band, the country’s well-known all-female musical group, reportedly created at the order of leader Kim Jong-un. There’s a rumor that she is an ex-girlfriend of Kim. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but a ROK delegation is supposed to go to North Korea and view the Mt. Geumgang Resort and ROK skiers are supposed to go train at the Masik Ski Resort. This is all clearly intended to be an opening effort to get the tours restarted at Mt. Geumgang which was once a cash cow for the regime until it was closed after a grandma was shot in the back and killed by a North Korean soldier.
Opening the tours again would also circumvent the United Nations sanctions on North Korea and encourage other governments to circumvent them as well. We will see what happens after the Winter Olympics is completed, but it seems to me it is pretty clear what the North Koreans hope to get out of their most recent charm offensive.
I think the critics are definitely right that the Kim regime has once again stolen the spotlight from South Korea:
An agreement between South and North Korea to march under a unity flag and field a joint ice hockey team at next month’s Olympics was met sharp criticism by many in the South on Thursday, highlighting changing attitudes toward the country’s northern neighbor. (…..)
“North Korea was all about firing missiles last year, but suddenly they want to come to the South for the Olympics? Who gets to decide that?” Kim Joo-hee, a translator, told Reuters during a coffee break on a chilly Seoul afternoon. “Does North Korea have so much privilege to do whatever they want?”
Moon’s office declined to comment beyond saying the two countries would be coordinating logistics for the Olympics, which begin on Feb. 9.
Opinion polls released since the plans became public have shown limited support for some of Seoul’s proposals.
Only 4 out of 10 respondents said they favor the plan to march together under a flag symbolizing a unified Korea, according to a survey released on Thursday by the South Korean pollster Realmeter.
Tens of thousands of people took to social media to vent their disgust after plans for the joint activities were announced on Wednesday, with one commenter saying the Korean peninsula flag is “not my [expletive] flag.”
Others complained that “the Pyeongchang Olympics have already become the Pyongyang Olympics.” [Christian Science Monitor]
This quote from a ROK Drop favorite Michael Breen is very true because once these Olympics are over and the Key Resolve exercise comes up we all know what will happen next:
“South Koreans feel sorry for the athletes who have trained so hard for the Olympics and are now being kicked out of the team to make way for North Koreans,” he said.
“They think there must be a better way, especially as a few months from now we all know we will be back to where we were with North Korea.”
It looks like the Moon administration has found another way to evade UN sanctions on North Korea, paying to use North Korea’s ski resort and restarting Mt. Geumgang Tours:
While the Koreas will discuss further details through document exchanges at Panmunjeom, there are several aspects of the plans that may clash with the sanctions placed on Pyongyang.
U.N. Security Council sanctions ban the direct provision of cash to North Korea, but South Korean skiers may have to pay to use the ski resort for training.
Meanwhile, tours to Mount Geumgang, which began in 1998, have been suspended since 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot dead by the North Korean military there due to a violation of tourist zone regulations.
Hosting a joint-cultural event may signal that the Koreas are open to the idea of resuming tours to the North’s scenic mountain, despite the sanctions.
Furthering the dispute is the fact that the South first proposed these plans to the North, which could send a message that Seoul is not complying with the international community’s hard-line stance toward Pyongyang over its nuclear program.
“We proposed these plans to the North in the high-level talks on Jan. 9,” Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung said in a briefing Wednesday. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but this was all very predictable considering President Moon is a big believer in the failed Sunshine Policy. The original Sunshine Policy was bought and paid for initially with a huge $500 million bribe to the Kim regime. Follow on bribes described as humanitarian and economic aid continued under the Sunshine Policy. The aid would total to about a $1 billion a year. To put this into context the South Koreans were paying more money to the Kim regime annually then what they were contributing to the US-ROK alliance. The election of the conservative President Lee Myung-Bak changed this dynamic.
The current liberal Moon administration wants to go back to the days of paying off the Kim regime under the Sunshine Policy and the current talks over Winter Olympic participation is just the start.
