Kim Jong-un is supposedly feeling the pressure of sanctions and the pandemic which if true only increases the odds of him starting a provocation cycle out once the new U.S. Presidential administration takes power:
Anchor: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is reported to have had at least two people executed in an irrational response to the combined pressure of sanctions, COVID-19 and flood damage. That’s according to lawmakers who attended the National Intelligence Service’s briefing to the parliamentary intelligence committee on Friday.
Kim Bum-soo has more.Report:
[Sound bite: Rep. Ha Tae-keung – People Power Party (Korean-English translation)]
“Kim Jong-un is displaying an excessive anger and taking irrational measures [over the pandemic and its economic impact].”South Korea’s intelligence agency says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is responding “irrationally” to the economic difficulties the regime is facing, such as inflation and a decline in industrial activity.
According to Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the parliamentary intelligence committee, the National Intelligence Service(NIS) reported the situation to lawmakers on Friday, including details of the recent execution of a foreign currency changer in Pyongyang.
[Sound bite: Rep. Ha Tae-keung – People Power Party (Korean-English translation)]
“For example, North Korea executed a high-profile money changer in Pyongyang in late October after holding the person responsible for falling exchange rates… Other irrational measures include North Korea banning fishing and salt production at sea to prevent sea water from being infected with the virus.”Sources explained the North Korean won-dollar exchange rate has fallen as Pyongyang banned the use of the U.S. dollar at home in a bid to curtail inflation.
North Korean people can no longer spend U.S. dollars to purchase smuggled goods either due to the strict Sino-North Korea border closure amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Rep. Ha quoted the intelligence agency as saying that another key official was also executed in August for violating a ban on imports amid toughened quarantine control measures caused by the pandemic.
KBS World Radio
You can read more at the link.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
Like many reports from North Korea who knows how true this report this:
North Korea appears to be enforcing home classes for elementary school students as a way to avoid classroom gatherings amid nationwide anti-coronavirus efforts, according to state media reports.
Uriminzokkiri, one of the North’s propaganda websites, said that elementary school teachers in Pyongyang are visiting homes of their students every three days for education as vacation continues.
“With the vacation for kids in place, such a new schedule has been started,” the website said. “As long as there are kids, this holds true for any district, ward and unit.”
The North had extended winter vacation for students until early June amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The report suggests that the North has extended summer vacation again by delaying the start of autumn semesters.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Over at the Lowy Institute which is an Australian think tank, they have article published speculating that South Korea could in the near future become a neutral nation:
Around five years ago, I submitted an article to a leading strategic studies journal detailing how options previously considered extreme – such as abandoning the US alliance, acceding to China’s dominance, declaring a position of neutrality and/or securing a nuclear weapons capacity – were entering strategic debate in South Korea. Their assessment was that such views were unrealistic and fanciful. One Trump administration later, and these views have entered mainstream political debate in South Korea. It’s time to realise that strategic change on the Korean peninsula will not come from North Korea – strategic change will come from South Korea.
Lowy Institute
You can read the rest at the link, but the author Jeffrey Robinson seems to be putting blame on the Trump administration for South Korea pursuing these different options. I would argue Trump has little to do with South Korea’s current political trajectory. I believe that current President Moon Jae-in is far more the reason for South Korea’s current political trajectory than Trump.
President Moon has long had a policy of appeasement with North Korea. His policy of appeasement stretches back to when he was former President Roh Moo-hyun’s Chief of Staff. Back in those days the ROK government was funding the North Korea regime more than they were contributing to the US-ROK alliance. The Kim regime of course used all that funding to further modernize their military, expand their nuclear weapons program, and build an ICBM capability instead of investing in the welfare of their people.
It has been effectively argued that the Moon administration’s ultimate goal if they are able to get sanctions eased is to pursue a confederacy with North Korea. To get to a confederacy a Korean War peace treaty is needed which would then pave the way for the end of the US-ROK alliance. That is why the South Korean left and the Kim regime has been relentlessly pushing for a Korean War peace treaty; if there is peace why is USFK needed? With sanctions eased and no USFK there is little reason to think the Korean left cannot push forward with their confederacy agenda.
A confederacy would leave the ROK at the mercy of the Kim regime’s nuclear weapons and China’s good will to keep North Korea in check. To keep North Korea in check the ROK would likely need to become a neutral nation in the strategic power competition in the region between China and the U.S. This would effectively Findlandize the ROK under China’s orbit. The anti-U.S. Korean left seems to prefer this inevitably instead of the current status quo that has brought unprecedented wealth and prosperity to South Korea.
The only thing that has stopped the confederacy agenda has been the Trump administration’s hardline stance on sanctions and denuclearization before any peace treaty. This clearly shows that Trump is not the cause, but instead the impediment to the Moon administration moving forward with their post-US-ROK alliance confederacy agenda.
The Moon administration wants everyone to believe that the President did not know anything about the Justice Ministers attempt to oust the Prosecutor General for daring to investigate Blue House corruption:
Moon’s silence is widely seen as supporting Choo’s handling of the conflict with the top prosecutor, who, according to the minister, has not only committed various misdeeds but also violated the political neutrality required of a senior civil servant. Yoon, who has recently emerged as a favorite in polls for potential presidential candidates, has expressed, albeit tacitly, that he would consider a life in politics after his term ends in July next year.
Korea Times
The opposition parties are expressing their anger at the move by Choo, accusing Moon of trying to oust Yoon because he had initiated investigations into corruption allegations involving presidential aides. “The President himself should speak about the lawlessness of the justice minister,” Rep. Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), said in a statement.
Joo criticized the President for being a coward. “If the President is discontent with the prosecutor general, he should take on the political responsibility and dismiss Yoon. The suspension of the prosecutor is a very regrettable moment in our legal history. The entire administration has been mobilized to oust the prosecutor general for baseless reasons.”
You can read more at the link.
