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:
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.
A recent article from McClatchy Newspapers in regards to the upcoming Inter-Korean summit offered little of any real new analysis of the meeting, but it did have a few good quotes in it worth sharing:
"That was his campaign promise. He’s a one-term president. Why should he transfer (the summit) to the next president? If he can have a summit, why not do it?" said Moon Chung -in, a political scientist at Yonsei University who advises Roh and will be attending the summit with him.
Judging by this statement it appears this summit is more about what good it will do for Roh than what good it will do for the country. I can’t say I’m surprised by that.
"A peace treaty for Roh Moo-hyun is very important," said Park Syung Je , a military analyst with the Asia Strategy Institute in Seoul . He added that the 61-year-old president wants to return from Pyongyang telling his countrymen: "We don’t need such a large army anymore, and we can spend that money on social issues."
That money will not be spent on social issues, it will spent on giving it right back to Kim Jong-il as well as raising taxes to give him yet even more money:
In a memo, the ministry detailed several possible ways to raise funds, saying that the government may need to come up with more financial resources if the summit brings about a number of large-scale economic cooperation projects between the two Koreas.
It also said the government may consider diverting part of the defense budget to finance inter-Korean projects.
About 26.7 trillion won was allocated for the defense budget next year, up 9 percent from this year, despite eased geopolitical risks associated with North Korea. […]Also, the memo indicated that the government may contemplate creating new taxes, which could be dubbed as either a “peace tax” or “unification tax,” as well as issuing lotteries and bonds to raise funds for inter-Korean economic cooperation.
What is so unbelievable about this is that South Korea has to increase their defense spending to buy the new technology that USFK once provided for them when they take over operational control on the peninsula and US forces continue to withdraw from Korea.
Anyway here is the final quote from the McClatchy article I found of interest:
"The summit is going to turn out to be a stage where they can create a false image of peace that they can take to younger voters," said Lee Dong -bok, a Korea specialist in Seoul with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a veteran negotiator with North Korea . "They may not prevail."
I cannot see the South Korean public being duped yet again with the "image of peace" tactic by the Korean left. What has the "image of peace" gained the average Korean? Absolutely nothing. Kim Jong-il has more forces deployed on the DMZ than ever, shootings on the DMZ still occur, six South Korean sailors were murdered in 2002 by the North Koreans, ballistic missile testing has increased, and they even have a nuclear bomb. Than to top it off Kim Jong-il may have been caught proliferating nuclear technology to Syria, human rights violations in North Korea are as bad as ever, and he has not returned the thousands of kidnapped South Koreans and Korean War POWs to South Korea.
What exactly has the Korean taxpayer’s won actually gained South Korea? A few reunions, an overpriced tour trip to Kumgangsan, and a tax payer funded slave labor operation at Kaesong. But hey it is all in the "image of peace".
It appears the Roh administration is trying find every way possible to send every last Korean tax payer won to North Korea before they leave office:
While the Ministry of Unification plans to incorporate the power supply cost for North Korea’s Gaesong Industrial Complex into South Korea’s electricity fee system, the Ministry of Justice reportedly released its official opinion on the plan yesterday, saying, “There are no legal grounds for it.”
The Unification Ministry has been seeking ways to subsidize KEPCO, South Korea’s only electricity distributor, in the amount of two billion won, which corresponds to the annual losses incurred by supplying power to Gaesong. The losses have been compensated by government funds for inter-Korean cooperation, but the Unification Ministry was seeking to offset future costs by incorporating the power bill into South Korea’s fee system. [Donga]
So the Ministry of Justice says it is illegal, who cares we are going to do it any way appears to be the attitude of the Roh administration.
These words were uttered by none other than anti-Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung:
According to the testimony of North Korean defectors, one side of the May Day Stadium where the performance takes place often smells of urine. That’s because students are not allowed to leave their positions while practicing the flash card performance. So they simply urinate while sitting down in their seats. Many children are said to end up getting bladder infections. One wrong move and children are clubbed and punished in groups. Kim Hyun-sik, former professor at Kim Hyung Jik College of Education, said the Arirang performance was “soaked with the blood and tears of the North Korean people.”
Regarding questions as to whether the South Korean president should attend such a performance marred by allegations of child abuse, South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung retorted whether the lengthy training of South Korean children for a play or sports event could be viewed as abuse was uncertain. Regarding North Korea’s human rights violations, Lee pretended not to know, saying human rights issues should be interpreted according to the unique circumstances of a particular society. He added that there was no concrete evidence of human rights violations in the North. [Chosun Ilbo]
Absolutely and utterly unbelievable. This is on par with denying the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, but he is denying the North Korean Holocaust instead. If letting hundreds of thousands to millions of your population to starve to death while you expand your military is not a human rights violation than I don’t know what is. Has Lee ever read anything from Kang Chol-hwan or any of the other North Korean defectors?
How does Lee explain the gulags?:
I would love to see Lee Jae-joung tell this woman there are no human rights violations in North Korea:
Few things have pissed me off more than what this morally corrupt North Korean apologist has stated. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the South Korean government believes no human rights violations are occurring inside North Korea when these are the same people who could care less about the current mass sexual slavery of North Korean women in China and has allowed the North Koreans to kidnap and keep hundreds to thousands of South Koreans. The rescue of these South Korean citizens are left to average people such as this 66 year old grandma to undertake while the Korean government obstructs her.
I’m willing to bet if you ask Lee Jae-joung he would be willing to condemn Japan for human rights violations committed on the Korean peninsula by the Imperial Japanese 60 years ago, but he is not willing to condemn far worse human rights violations being committed against Korean people now. These comments are the greatest indication yet of the Moral Bankruptcy of the Korean government. I guess it is only fitting these people will be watching a bunch of abused children perform for them next month in Pyongyang. I hope they enjoy the smell of urine.
So this is what the six South Korean sailors murdered by North Korea in 2002 died for, so their government could surrender the sovereign South Korean territory they defended to the people that murdered them:
But United New Democratic Party lawmaker Choi Sung raised the question again. "What is the government’s official stance on the NLL issue?" he asked. Moon said there could be "some points on the agenda that we want to discuss and others that Pyongyang is expected to bring up, whether we want it or not." He added, "We expect that Pyongyang will likely bring the NLL issue up, whether we want it or not. In case it does, we are planning to deal with it just as lawmakers Lee Hwa-young and Chang Young-dal said a few minutes ago."
Earlier, Lee Hwa-young had proposed resolving the question by creating a “marine peace park” in the West Sea, [Chosun Ilbo]
The Defense Ministry was furious about this, but it seems like the Roh Moo-hyun administration is committed to giving Kim Jong-il as much as possible before the government leaves office in December.
President Roh has made plenty of headlines in Korea in the last 24 hours. First of all North Korea released an official message thanking various world leaders for providing flood relief in the aftermath of the floods that hit North Korea this summer. Guess who they failed mention?:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has extended thanks to the leaders of 11 countries for their help in flood relief efforts, the North’s state media reported Tuesday, but the name of President Roh Moo-hyun was not included.
"He expressed deep appreciation for their sincere sympathy and warm-hearted comfort," the Korean Central Broadcasting Station said. [Yonhap]
Yes that is right, Roh Moo-hyun who is the world’s largest North Korea apologizer and aid provider couldn’t even get a message of thanks from Kim Jong-il.
Next Roh was making headlines because he says he won’t raise the nuclear issue with Kim Jong-il during the upcoming inter-Korean summit:
President Roh Moo-hyun said Tuesday that a Korean Peninsula peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War will be the most important agenda item at his summit summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il slated for Oct. 2-4 in Pyongyang. […]
In a hastily arranged news conference at Cheong Wa Dae, Roh, meanwhile, said he won’t raise the issue of the North’s denuclearization seriously at the upcoming inter-Korean summit, noting the nuclear issue has already been in the process of rapid settlement at the six-party talks which also involve the U.S., China, Japan and Russia. [Yonhap]
It is pretty clear now why Roh was so pissed off at President Bush during the APEC meeting because he wanted to center his legacy around being the Korean leader that officially ended the Korean War. This may be why the inter-Korean summit was delayed so Roh could try and pressure Bush during the APEC meeting to sign a peace treaty with North Korea before they denuclearize. There is no way Bush or any American president is going to sign a peace treaty with North Korea before denuclearization. It would be political suicide. The end of Roh Moo-hyun can not come any sooner for Korea because he needs to go before he causes irrepairable damage to the US-ROK relationship.
In further inter-Korean summit news, Roh Moo-hyun will not bring up human rights for North Koreans either:
The National Human Rights Commission held a meeting on Monday of all 11 members and vetoed the idea of recommending that President Roh Moo-hyun includes North Korea’s human rights violations on the agenda of the summit with the communist country set for next month. [Chosun Ilbo]
But get this, the NHRC was against the Zaytun deployment to Iraq because they felt it would violate the human rights of Iraqis. I guess building toilets for Kurds is more of a human right violation than holding hundreds of thousands of people in slave labor gulags.
Finally Roh made headlines with the removal of his policy planning secretary Byeon Yang-kyoon due to a "close relationship" between him and the disgraced Dongguk University assistant professor Shin Jeong-ah who was exposed as using fraudulent degrees to earn her position:
The prosecution said they have found e-mails that showed Byeon and Shin were personally close, but refused to disclose the content. “We do not disclose private matters which are not directly related to a crime,” they added. Cheong Wa Dae, which accepted Byeon’s resignation, said Byeon had “close ties” with Shin. A prosecutor said the two exchanged about “100 love letters,” some of which contained “explicit lines.” [Kim Rahn, Korea Times]
It has not been a good week Roh Moo-hyun, but his upcoming World’s Most Expensive Photo Op should make him feel better as "peace and prosperity" is just around the corner according to Roh.
Well it looks like the military has been able to prevent President Roh from at least giving up Korean territory during the summit:
The government has decided to leave discussion of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border with North Korea in the West Sea, off the agenda when President Roh Moo-hyun meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in October. If North Korea, which wants the NLL redrawn, raises the issue as expected, the government will propose that the two sides’ defense ministers discuss it as part of talks on easing tensions in other border areas like the Demilitarized Zone. [Chosun Ilbo]
Just the fact that the Roh Administration was willing to give up sovereign Korean territory before the military stepped in just goes to show how desperate this government is to appease Kim Jong-il at this up coming summit. The prize of this summit for the South Korean tax payer is going to be huge.
The Korean Defense Ministry is obviously furious at the anti-Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung’s comments about redrawing the Northern Limit Line with North Korea:
“In light of the upcoming inter-Korean summit, it is not desirable that the Defense Ministry and Unification Ministry should show signs of friction,” said Kim Hyung-gi, the Defense Ministry’s spokesman, yesterday. “The debate [on the sea border] should stop.”
There has been tension between the two ministries ever since Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung’s recent comment that the Northern Limit Line, the border drawn at the end of the Korean War to separate the two countries in the Yellow Sea, is not considered “territory.”
Lee also said the South needed to “reconsider” the reason that a 2002 sea battle was fought after a North Korean patrol boat crossed the line into South Korean waters.
Sources said that Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo on Tuesday told the National Assembly’s Defense Committee that the military would “not give up the Northern Limit Line.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This is what the Unification Ministry said in response:
Hong Ik-pyo, a policy adviser to the unification minister, said yesterday that he “could not agree that even a slight change in the Northern Limit Line would cause a serious threat to national security.”
He posted his comments on a message board of the Government Information Agency, arguing that there was nothing wrong with discussing the matter with the North. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This is how the Defense Ministry responded after this statement:
A senior Defense Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military is outraged. “Granted, he [the unification minister] is a civilian and may not know the significance of what he said from a military standpoint. Still, it’s something he should not have said. It was unacceptable.”
Kim Dong-jin, a defense minister in the late 90s and a member of the Korean Retired Generals and Admirals Association, didn’t hide his disgust. “I am speechless. What he said is not even worth commenting on,” said Kim. “It’s just not worth it.”
The issue is growing into a major talking point in political circles. GNP lawmaker Chung Hyung-kun argued yesterday that the summit “was delayed because they failed to agree on the NLL issue as an agenda in the talks, not because of severe flood damage.” The party’s spokeswoman Na Kyung-won said yesterday, “Concession to North Korea over the NLL is tantamount to an act of treachery, like giving away Dokdo to Japan.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
I would love to hear if the Unification Ministry would be willing to give Dokdo to North Korea if they demanded it. That would solve the whole stupid Dokdo controversy at least.
It is unbelievable that the Unification Ministry is willing to give up sovereign Korean territory that ROK military personnel have lost their lives defending and the Unification Ministry didn’t even bother consulting the military about what the national security consequences of such actions would be. Than again these are the same people who treat these dead ROK military personnel as if they are criminals for defending their home land. If the Unification Ministry pushes on with changing the NLL, USFK may need to get involved because the DMZ and the NLL were established by the UN at the conclusion of the Korean War. It will be interesting to see if USFK will be willing to approve of such a change that would have national security consequences on the peninsula, especially when the ROK military does not agree with it.
