Category: Inter-Korean Issues

There is a difference between open to talks and actually talking.  If the Kim regime feels they can get something for little to nothing in return then they will talk.  Kim Jong-il for the first Inter-Korean summit received $500 million for little to nothing in return.  In the mean time they can claim they are open to talks and look like the reasonable ones in the media and for their leftist supporters.  However, if the South Koreans do not give them what they want they can blame US-ROK military exercises or some other excuse to call their proposal.  In other words don’t get too excited by this announcement this is just business as usual for the North Koreans:

Could an inter-Korean summit happen soon? That’s what the South Korean government is hoping, in light of the North Korean leader’s latest speech.

“We see North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s speech as sincere and significant. Our government is looking forward to any form of inter-Korean talks in the near future.”

In Kim Jong-un’s [ ] nationally televised New Year’s speech, he said he’s open to talks with Seoul, even possibly with President Park Geun-hye.

“If the atmosphere and environment are right, there is no reason not to hold a high-level summit. We will make every effort to advance dialogue and cooperation.”

As North Koreans rang in the new year, Kim used his third annual address to speak on different issues, but spent the most time talking about improving ties with South Korea. Seoul is now urging Pyongyang to take steps to normalize relations, such as responding to its earlier proposal to hold talks this month.  The North Korean leader, however, also criticized South Korea’s military exercises with the U.S., calling them a source of tension.  [Arirang News]

It makes it much harder for the United States to criticize China for violating UN sanctions in support of North Korea when the ROK is so easily able to set up projects like this with North Korea that makes the Kim regime money:

As the two Koreas and Russia speed up a groundbreaking joint logistics project, a government official here said Friday that a key question is whether it can be operated with stability.

Inter-Korean economic cooperation has often been hamstrung by military tensions on the peninsula, noted the unification ministry official.

He confirmed the government’s view that the Rajin-Khasan project is not in breach of bilateral and U.N. sanctions on the North.

Under the envisioned program, South Korea’s top steelmaker POSCO will bring in Russian coal via the North Korean port of Rajin. Two other South Korean firms — Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. and Korail Corp. — are joining the project.

“Since it is a normal international commercial trade, it’s my understanding that there is no problem with the U.N. sanctions,” the official told reporters on background.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The balloon activists have appeared to have given into not North Korean threats, but rather South Korean governmental pressure for the vague hope that North Korea will agree to Inter-Korean talks:

South Korean activists pledged Monday to continue their anti-North Korea leaflet campaign in a low-key manner for the time being, despite a growing inter-Korean feud over the sensitive issue.

A number of activist groups, including the key player Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK), have often launched balloons carrying propaganda leaflets across the border to spread anti-Pyongyang messages targeting the North Korean leader and the country’s dictatorship.

The propaganda campaign, often preannounced and widely covered by local and overseas media, has recently been at the center of the inter-Korean row, with North Korea threatening not to hold dialogue with the South unless it is stopped.

“In the future, the spreading of anti-North leaflets by defector groups will be conducted behind the scenes, taking into consideration more effective methods (of campaigns) as well as the safety of residents (at the border area) and direction of the wind,” the activist groups said in a statement.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Same old same old from the North Koreans:

The two Koreas on Wednesday held closed-door high-level military talks in the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom only to find the wide gaps in their views over a set of pending defense issues, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said.

During the talks at the South-controlled Peace House, the two sides failed to bridge the gaps over the issues of heightened tensions surrounding the Northern Limit Line, a de facto sea border, anti-Pyongyang leaflets and other sensitive issues.

After the unfruitful meeting, Seoul’s Unification Ministry announced that it had proposed holding the second round of high-level inter-Korean talks at Tongilgak, a building on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom, on Oct. 30.

The proposal was sent to the North two days earlier, but the North had yet to respond to it. During a surprise visit by the high-level North Korean delegation to the Incheon Asian Games on Oct. 4, the two sides agreed to resume high-level talks, which were last held in February.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans basically want the ROK to stop Park Sang-hak and his crew from launching their propaganda balloons and to give up the NLL for nothing in return.

The North Koreans are making an attempt to try and draw a wedge between USFK and the South Korean public by making the claim that peace in our time would come if only the US military would withdraw from South Korea:

North Korea said Sunday that its relations with South Korea won’t improve unless the United States withdraws its troops from South Korea.

It is not unusual for Pyongyang to make such a demand, but the latest one came a day after North Korea fired three short-range missiles into the sea off the country’s east coast in what could be the latest show of force against Seoul.

Saturday’s firing marked the 19th time that North Korea has launched missiles or rockets this year, with the number of projectiles fired totaling 111, according to data of South Korea’s military.

“It is not possible to improve the North-South relations nor is it possible to achieve peace, reunification … as long as the U.S. military presence in South Korea is left intact,” the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in an English-language statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

At least not everyone was clapping, but look who was:

Finance Minister Kwon O-kyu on Wednesday admitted he was embarrassed watching North Korea’s mass gymnastic propaganda performance “Arirang,” which features a cast of thousands performing in strict unison. Speaking at a forum at the Korea Press Foundation, Kwon said he “felt uncomfortable twice” during his visit to North Korea as a member of President Roh Moo-hyun’s entourage to the recent inter-Korean summit. One was when the North brought up the issue of national self-reliance, and the other when he was watching the “Arirang” show.

Kwon said he was embarrassed when only Roh and Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung gave a standing ovation to a performance by young children during the mass gymnastic program while no one else clapped. It seems he was concerned that their standing ovation could cause controversy in South Korea while North Korea could be offended that no one else applauded. [Chosun Ilbo]

Anyone suprised Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Jae-joung are clapping for child abuse?  Minister Kwon is correct that it is an embarrassment that the South Korean government would be willing to watch a propaganda show put on by abused children.  It is only fitting Lee Jae-joung would be giving a standing ovation considering he believes there is "no concrete evidence of human rights violations in the North ". 

Here is a good run down of links with information and opinions about the Second Inter-Korean Summit:

Answering the "Tabloid Questions"
As Always, Optimistic and Skeptical about the Koreas
Ass Kissing and Stunt Doubles
Intra-Korean Summit Postmortem
More Summit Notes
South Korea’s Generosity Encourages N.K’s Bad Behavior
Little Expected from Inter-Korean Summit
$11 Billion Cost to Implement Summit Projects
Roh was Rebuffed by Kim on DMZ Pullout Plan
No Peace Treaty Without Six Party Success: US
Roh Gets Third World Treatment in Pyongyang
Taking the Roh Moo-hyun Show to Pyongyang
Mini-Marshal Plan Burdensome to Tax Payers

Here is the photo op that President Roh has poured billions of South Korean tax payers money into securing:

Is it just me or is Roh the only enthused about this moment?

Now that the summit is over we can now begin to take stock of the damage done. A joint declaration has been issued from the summit and here is the preamble to this declaration:

(more…)

If you are wondering why the Koreans have been trying so hard to have the United States normalize relations with North Korea well now you have your answer:

The Korea Land Corporation has drawn up a plan to develop several North Korean cities as special economic zones and industrial, trade and tourism bases, it emerged Thursday. […]

The new report lists detailed strategies to develop Nampo, Haeju, Hamheung, Wonsan, Shinuiju, Najin and Sunbong as key industrial, logistics and tourism bases. The report identifies the six cities are those that can be first designated as special economic zones when North Korea opens up. [Chosun Ilbo]

This is really no surprise and relates back to South Korea’s claims of wanting to implement a "North Korean Marshall Plan".  Such a plan is not possible unless the economic sanctions implemented by the United States for a variety of reasons to include North Korea being a state sponsor of terrorism are dropped.  Here is what anti-Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung had to say about this:

“Without the normalization of the U.S.-North Korea ties, such as the abolishment of a U.S. law banning trade with North Korea and the North’s removal from a U.S. list naming states who sponsor terrorism, inter-Korean economic cooperation programs will face difficulties,” he said.

Pyongyang was put on the list in 1988 after its agents blew up a South Korean passenger plane, killing all 115 people aboard. [Korea Times]

It is amazing how easily Lee can just blow off the fact that North Korea has bombed a civilian airliner not to mention kidnapped South Korean citizens that are still imprisoned in North Korea, and killed members of the South Korean government in a past bombing attack in Burma.  Truthfully I’m not surprised considering this is the same guy that believes there is "no concrete evidence of human rights violations in the North".

Libya was only removed from the US state sponsored terrorism list when they accounted for and paid compensation to the victims’ families of the Pan Am bombing over Scotland.  What has North Korea ever done to account for their past terrorist attacks?  Nothing except more aggression and belligerence to get people to appease them, which is what all of this is.  Personally I find it repugnant that the South Korean government will do nothing to demand the return of their kidnapped citizens from North Korea and leaving this up to 66 year old grandmas to launch rescue missions.

Such a plan will do nothing to solve the fundamental problem of poverty in North Korea, which is the regime.  Notice the last sentence in the above quote, "when North Korea opens up".  You can give them fertilizer and food, you can pave all the roads in North Korea, and build them factories, but poverty will remain because it is in the regime’s interest to keep the people poor.  Opening up of the country would ultimately lead to the end of the regime. 

So expect North Korea to play nice in their attempt to influence the upcoming South Korean presidential election, but when the time comes for them to make real change the belligerence will return and the South Korean leftists will blame it all on the United States anyway.

This is the only thing I have seen yet that may be a positive outcome of the inter-Korean summit:

During the Oct. 2 to 4 inter-Korean summit, President Roh Moo-hyun will propose the complete withdrawal of armed forces from inside the demilitarized zone that has separated the two Koreas for more than a half century, a high-ranking administration official told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday.
“President Roh will propose to Kim Jong-il, the North Korean National Defense Commission chairman, to completely pull out 100 South Korean GPs [guard posts] and 280 North Korean GPs from the DMZ,” the source said, referring to the military posts located inside the 4 kilometer-wide strip of land along the 243-kilometer long border. “Removing the GPs means the withdrawal of soldiers and arms located inside the zone.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo HT: DPRK Studies]

What is interesting about this is that the guard points and heavey weapons aren’t supposed to be there to begin with:

The 1953 Korean War armistice established the demilitarized zone, and only light infantry is supposed to patrol inside the DMZ. Building guard posts and deploying heavy weaponry is in violation of the truce, but the North Korean military constructed guard posts inside the zone a few years after the war and brought in heavy weapons, including machine guns. The South countered by doing the same.

So basically President Roh and company want to reward Kim Jong-il by having him withdraw troops and heavy weapons from the DMZ that are in vioation of the armistice agreement to begin with. 

I have no faith in a South Korean administration that claims there is no human rights violations in North Korea thus I am feeling quite cynical about this latest announcement.  This is probably a ploy by Cheongwadae to get the ROK military agree to give up the current Northern Limit Line in the West Sea. President Roh and his cronies will do this by having North Korea agree to withdraw the guard points and heavy weapons during the upcoming summit in return for giving up territory along the NLL.  Of course South Korea implements there side of the agreement first and pulls out all the patrol boats from the West Sea area and then the North Koreans move all their patrol boats in.

Once North Korea has consolidated their control of the West Sea territory they then will find some kind of excuse for not upholding their side of the bargain.  Thus North Korea keeps the guard posts and heavy weapons in place and keeps the West Sea territory.  For the South Korean government to get the West Sea territory back they would have to attack the North Korean patrol boats which we all know is not going to happen.  Thus North Korea gains the West Sea territory without giving anything up in return.

Like I said I can’t help but feel cynical about the Roh government cutting deals with the North Koreans.