Japanese government official emailed this to make sure I hadn’t missed it. Same guy, self-described liberal, had recently told me that most comfort women were prostitutes. pic.twitter.com/hv2QxQNC19

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) February 11, 2018

South and North Korean taekwondo demonstrators put on a joint performance at Seoul City Hall in the South’s capital on Feb. 12, 2018, in this press pool photo. A team of North Koreans visited the South to celebrate the hosting of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. (Yonhap)

Kim Yong-nam (far L), president of North Korea’s Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, wipes away tears as he attends a concert, staged by the North’s Samjiyon Orchestra, at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul on Feb. 11, 2018. Also attending the concert are North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister and special envoy, Kim Yo-jong (2nd from R), South Korean President Moon Jae-in (3rd from L), Moon’s wife Kim Jung-sook (far R). (Yonhap)

Kim Yo-jong was school in Switzerland so she does know what a free city looks and feels like:

Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, said Seoul felt familiar even though it was her first-ever visit to the South, at an official dinner Saturday, according to a pool report.

“It doesn’t feel unfamiliar,” she replied when Choi Moon-soon, governor of Gangwon Province, asked her how she felt about Seoul.

Wearing a wine-colored jacket and black pants, Kim attended the dinner held at a hotel in Gangneung, the sub-host city of the Olympics. It was hosted by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon for North Korea’s high-level delegation.

North Korea’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam, Choe Hwi, the chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee, and Ri Son-gwon, the head of the North’s state agency in charge of inter-Korean affairs, were also in attendance.

Kim Yong-nam celebrated the South’s hosting of the Winter Games.

“As the Olympics were opened successfully with applause from North and South Korea, we believe that the games will pave the way for the two sides’ reconciliation, and stronger inter-Korean ties, and furthermore for Koreans’ unity and unification,” Kim said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but someone should have asked her if the city would have felt more like home if there were forced labor camps and executions?

Is it just me or Kim Yo-jong has a smug face at just about every event she has attended?:

President Moon Jae-in attended a North Korean art troupe’s concert in Seoul on Sunday, expressing hopes that the reconciliatory mood for inter-Korean dialogue would be maintained going forward.

President Moon and the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un both attended the performance in the evening, marking the fourth time Moon and Kim Yo-jong have met since they greeted each other during the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Friday.

Other members of the North’s high-level delegation were present for the concert, including the North’s ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong-nam.

During talks made just before the performance began, President Moon said the meeting with Yo-jong and the North’s delegation was very important, saying, “the two Koreas should cooperate to make this reconciliatory meeting’s charcoal become a torch.”

The North’s ceremonial head of state, Kim, said in response, “It is very happy and impressive to share such precious times. I would go back with a new note of hope of getting together again, because we created an opportunity to meet frequently.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but as far as the performance goes it was choreographed to push the narrative of unification:

The grand finale of the concert was North Korean song, “Let’s Meet Again,” and a common Korean song titled, “Our Wish Is Unification,” both sung together by Seohyun, a member of South Korean pop group Girls’ Generation, and a North Korean female octet.

Seohyun, wearing a short, white minidress and high-heeled shoes, and the North’s octet ended the concert, performing in perfect harmony the song with a theme reflecting the two Koreas’ desire for reunification.

The performers hugged as the audience gave them a standing ovation.

Another highlight of the concert was the surprise appearance of Hyon Song-wol, head of the Samjiyon Orchestra, on the stage.

“I came here to the South by crossing the border twice. In the process I felt saddened by the reality that Pyongyang and Seoul are located so close but feel so far away from each other,” she said. “I’m in a bad condition because I have a sore throat from Gangneung, but please applaud me a little bit more loudly than other singers so I can save face as the director,” Hyon said, resulting in thunderous applause.

She then sang a North Korean song titled “Paektu and Halla Are My Fatherland.” Her solo performance was later joined by the North’s orchestra and female singers.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the narrative of unification is likely being used to justify holding a near term Inter-Korean Summit, make agreements to reopen Kaesong and the Kumgang Resort Tours, which will ultimately make ineffective the sanctions on North Korea.

This is ruling about prostitution outside US military bases is nothing new and widely known for decades throughout Korea:

A court issued a first-ever ruling acknowledging that the Republic of Korea actively justified or encouraged prostitution with the operation of US “military camp towns” for the sake of the military alliance and foreign currency acquisition.“In regarding the right to sexual self-determination of the women in the camp town and the very character of the plaintiffs as represented through their sexuality as means of achieving state goals, the state violated its obligation to respect human rights,” the court concluded, ordering the payment of compensation to all 117 plaintiffs.

Hon. Judge Lee Beom-gyun of Seoul High Court’s 22nd civil affairs division ruled on Feb. 8 in the case filed by 117 former military camp town prostitutes to demand damages from the state, which was ordered to pay compensation of 7 million won (US$6,370) to 74 of the plaintiffs and 3 million won (US$2,730) to the remaining 43.“According to official Ministry of Health and Welfare documents, [the state] actively encouraged the women in the military camp towns engage in prostitution to allow foreign troops to ‘relax’ and ‘enjoy sexual services’ with them,” the court said.“In the process, [the state] operated and managed the military camp towns with the intention or purpose of contributing to maintenance of a military alliance essential for national security by ‘promoting and boosting morale’ among foreign troops while mobilizing prostitutes for economic goals such as acquisition of foreign currency,” it ruled.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link, but there is some nuance to the ruling in favor of the prostitutes to worked outside of US military base. The court did not find the government liable for forcing them into prostitution, just managing it by forcing them into medical treatment:

But the court did not accept the plaintiffs’ claim that the state had also violated the law by establishing the base village in the first time “to allow prostitution to take place easily.”“It is impossible to conclude that the victims were in a situation where they did not begin engaging in prostitution within the area of their own free will or could not leave,” the court said.  [Hankyoreh]

This is important because if the government was found to have forced these women into prostitution than that would allow the Japanese right to say that the ROK government should stop complaining about World War II era comfort women when they had their own comfort women system going.  This is technically correct because the ROK government was not grabbing women out of their homes and putting them into clubs.

Many of the prostitutes came from poor families who sold their daughters to the club owners to make ends meet or put a son through college for example.  Other became prostitutes in the hope of marrying a GI to escape poverty.  However, they ended up in the club system they were effectively managed by the Korean government to not spread disease.  They were forcibly given STD treatments and those that were found to be diseased were then forcibly interned.  This is where the human rights violations come into play for these women by the state.

Something to keep in mind is that the US military bases were not the only locations with prostitutes.  Can prostitutes stationed outside ROK Army bases or even in urban red light districts now sue for damages as well?  What about the women brought in from the Philippines beginning in the 1990’s that were forced into prostitution?  Can they sue for damages as well?

Whoa. Killer detail in @DavidNakamura’s story: Pence’s team didn’t even know the name of the current South Korean ambassador to Washington, gave the name of the envoy who left 3+ months ago. https://t.co/q2uU47Rzg1

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) February 9, 2018

For being a supposed Asia expert, Joshua Ramo made quite the blunder with his statements about Korea and Japan during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics:

NBC Sports analyst Joshua Cooper Ramo has been relieved from its PyeongChang Olympic coverage after enraging many Koreans with ignorant remarks about their country.

An NBC Sports spokesperson, who refused to be named, told The Korea Times Sunday that Ramo has been removed from the role.

“It was possible for him to do more with us here; now it is no longer possible,” the official said.

Ramo angered Koreans here and overseas by saying during the opening ceremony on Friday, “Every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural and technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation.”

NBC apologized for the comment.

“NBC issued an apology in a written letter to the PyeongChang Organizing Committee, and on air, regarding the comments made by one of our presenters during our coverage of the opening ceremony,” the official said. “NBC has great respect and admiration for South Korea and its people.”

The official explained that NBC hired Ramo “to serve as an Asia expert during the opening ceremony. His role was to give an overview to our viewers of the host country and this region of the world.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but problem number is one is to claim “every Korean will tell you”.  It would be more accurate to say some Koreans may believe Japan was important to the development of South Korea, but many other would disagree which is quite evident by the simmering tensions remaining today.  Problem number two is why even go down this political rabbit hole during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics?  Can’t these commentators just talk about the athletes and their accomplishments?

I would not be surprised at all if this mask was intended by the North Koreans to look a little like Kim Il-sung just to stick it to South Korea’s conservatives who have been critical of the Kim regime’s participation in the Winter Olympics:

The unification ministry on Sunday denied a local news report that the image of North Korea’s late founding leader Kim Il-sung appeared on the mask worn by North Korean cheerleaders during an ice hockey match involving the unified team of the two Koreas.

The female cheerleaders, dressed in red, put the masks on while rooting for the women’s ice hockey team comprising athletes from the South and the North as the team played its first match Saturday against Switzerland during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

The mask bore the image of a man, and a local media outlet reported that it was an image of the North’s revered founder when he was young. That report sparked criticism that the North was using the Olympic event for propaganda purposes.

But the South’s unification ministry said the report was based on an incorrect assumption.

“After checking with a North Korean official at the scene, it has been confirmed that there was no such meaning whatsoever, as assumed in the report,” the ministry said in a release, adding that the North Korean official also confirmed it was impossible to use an image of the North’s founding leader in such a way.

Officials said it was just an image of a good-looking man and the mask was worn when the cheerleaders sang a North Korean song, “Whistle,” whose lyrics are about a man’s unrequited love for a female neighbor.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the left in South Korea is claiming this is all fake news drummed up by South Korea’s conservatives.  Here is a picture of the young Kim Il-sung, I will let readers be the judge if it was a young Kim Il-sung mask or not.  Here is a picture of a young Kim Il-sung (center) with his wife Kim Jong-suk (right), and his son Kim Jong-il (left):