I think it is safe to say that investigation this will go nowhere:
South Korean prosecutors have begun an investigation into North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister and the North’s military chief on charges of blowing up an inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong last month, officials said Thursday.
The unprecedented and symbolic probe into Kim Yo-jong, the sister now serving as the first vice department director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, and Army Gen. Pak Jong-chon, chief of the General Staff of the North Korean army, came after a South Korean lawyer filed a criminal complaint against them over the Kaesong office demolition in mid-June.
Seoul-based lawyer Lee Kyung-jae filed the complaint against the North Korean figures with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office on July 8, and the case was assigned to the office’s public investigation division on Monday, according to the officials informed of the case.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
South Korea’s Unification Minister nominee has essentially said that he plans to find ways to work around sanctions to pay off North Korea:
The government has hinted that it will seek to revamp the beleaguered South Korea-U.S. working group, a forum to coordinate North Korea-related issues, as part of its plan to push for more inter-Korean cooperation.
Korea Times
The organization, set up in November 2018, has taken flak for allegedly hindering progress in inter-Korean ties due to its excessively harsh standards adopted on Pyongyang, and there have been growing calls here for restructuring its operation or even dismantling it.
Lee In-young, the unification minister nominee, said Monday that he plans to distinguish what the government can do on its own with the North from what it can do under the format of the working group.
“If I take office, I will review what the working group has done so far and take additional measures (to promote inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation), based on my ideas regarding inter-Korean affairs,” Lee told reporters upon arriving at the Office of Inter-Korean Dialogue to prepare for his National Assembly confirmation hearing.
You can read more at the link, but as I have been saying this is why the Kim regime blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office; to force North Korea to separate from the U.S.’s North Korea policy and violate sanctions. If South Korea finds ways to violate sanctions that will be a green light to other nations to do so as well.
Via a reader tip comes news that the United Nations’ World Food Program plans to restart food aid to North Korea:
The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) will resume humanitarian food aid to 771,000 North Koreans, the Voice of America said Saturday, citing a WFP report.
Korea Times
In the report, the WFP said it needs an estimated US$27.5 million from July to December to help the North handle the COVID-19 pandemic, and it lacks $3 million.
The WFP said there was a need to find out what impact a two-month delay in North Korea reopening its schools had on the health of children in the reclusive state, given North Korean children usually receive 85 percent of their necessary nutrients from food provided by schools and public organizations.
You can read more at the link, but this food aid is just another sanctions busting scheme. The Kim regime can afford to feed their own people, but they choose not to. They would rather divert their resources to nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles and let the international community pick up the bill of feeding their malnourished people.
North Korea claims they have zero coronavirus cases, but Kim Jong-un is out calling for strict countermeasures to combat the virus:
North Korea’s main newspaper called Sunday for carrying out leader Kim Jong-un’s order that the country exercise “maximum alert” against the coronavirus pandemic.
Kim issued the order during a politburo meeting Thursday, warning that premature easing of anti-virus measures will lead to an “unimaginable and irretrievable crisis.”
The appeal was seen as a sign that the North’s COVID-19 situation could be serious, though Pyongyang claims there has not been a single case. It was the second time in three months that the North has convened a politburo meeting to discuss the coronavirus pandemic.
On Sunday, the Rodong Sinmun said all people should rise up to carry out the leader’s order.
“In a situation where the prospect of resolving the risk is uncertain, we should be on maximum alert without becoming complacent or slackening,” the paper said in an editorial, calling for “absolute” obedience to anti-virus regulations and orders.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Dr. Tara O has another nugget on the appeasement of North Korea by the Moon administration:
At the 70th Anniversary of the Korean War commemoration event in South Korea, the North Korean anthem was played prior to the South Korean national anthem. The annual event, which is usually held during the day, was held late at night for the first time on June 25, 2020, with Korean War veterans and foreign guests. The U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accountability Agency (DPAA) sent the remains of 147 Republic of Korea (ROK) soldiers who died during the Korean War; the remains were initially returned from North Korea. South Korean president Moon Jae-in, after skipping the event for the first three years of his presidency, attended the commemoration event for the first time.
East Asia Research Center
You can read much more at the link, but this is like playing verses from Horst-Wessel-Lied as part of the Star Spangled Banner during a Normandy Commemoration.
It seems the South Korean public understands the reality of the Kim regime better than many elites in South Korea and the U.S.:
Nine out of 10 South Koreans think North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons, but nearly half think the South should still seek dialogue with the North, according to a recent poll.
In an annual face-to-face survey of 1,003 adults conducted from May 20 through June 10 by the Korea Institute for National Unification, 89.5 percent said Pyongyang will not denuclearize, the highest since 2016.
Only 15.6 percent said they think dialogue and compromise are possible with the North’s Kim Jong-un administration.
Nevertheless, 45.7 percent think Seoul should keep trying — up from the previous survey in November 2019, when 38.1 percent thought so, but down from April 2019, when 51.4 percent did.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
