Category: Inter-Korean Issues

All I can think about when I read about this plan is a train full of potential hostages whenever the Kim regime needs to use them:

The Park Geun-hye administration unveiled Monday a series of new proposals for inter-Korean projects, including an ambitious plan to operate trains from Seoul to cities in the North this summer by linking severed railway lines.

Four government offices including the unification, foreign and defense ministries briefed Park on their proposals for unification preparation and projects they would like to push this year. The briefing was arranged after the government stated that this year should be a turning point in the unification of the two Koreas.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule and the subsequent national division.

“President Park declared her intention to prepare for unification at the New Year’s press conference on Jan. 12, and the ministries also agreed that the time has come to look back on seven decades of national division and prepare for unification,” a senior government official said.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Remember when everyone in the media was highlighting Kim Jong-un’s offer of high level talks as some great thing?  Like I said then he was just playing the media to frame the US and the ROK as the bad guys when the North Koreans like they always do make demands to stop US-ROK military exercises:

North Korea called on South Korea Sunday to stop all military exercises, including joint drills with the United States, if it really wants to improve inter-Korean ties.

“If the South is truly determined to improve inter-Korean relations through dialogue and negotiations … it should stop all kinds of war schemes, including reckless military exercises carried out jointly with foreign forces,” Minju Joson, North Korea’s cabinet newspaper, said. “War rehearsals and dialogues cannot coexist.”

The North Korean newspaper also warned that if Seoul sticks to the joint war rehearsals against the North, inter-Korean relations will get much worse and the South Korean government will have to take all the responsibility for it.

The Sunday warning is the latest in the North’s recent desperate efforts to stop rounds of military exercises conducted annually between South Korea and the U.S.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

U.S. reiterates support for improved inter-Korean relations http://t.co/Sh58UWa43i

— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) January 1, 2015

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