Category: Inter-Korean Issues

Here is the latest bad idea from the Moon administration:

North and South Korea should unify their economies while maintaining separate political systems, South Korean unification minister Lee In-young said on Thursday.

“Our approach now should aim more at the ‘one people, two countries, two systems, and one market’ model,” Lee told South Korea’s Seoul Shinmun newspaper, pointing to the European Union as an example of a similar system.

NK News

You can read more at the link, but any economic assistance given to the North Koreans history has shown they have used to expand their military, nuclear weapons, and missile programs at the expense of their people. This is irrefutable and what is different now to think this isn’t going to happen again?

How come this governor isn’t advocating for the Russian vaccine to be given to South Koreans and instead wants to ship it to North Korea first?:

Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon’s proposal of manufacturing Russian COVID-19 vaccines in South Korea and providing them to North Korea is a feasible way to help normalize inter-Korean ties, according to Pyongyang watchers, Tuesday. 

However, they added that Seoul needs to come up with a creative and bold strategy to make such “vaccine diplomacy” happen, as the North is seeking to reduce dependence on its southern neighbor for humanitarian support and economic cooperation, as evidenced by its snubbing of the government’s repeated calls for inter-Korean economic and public health cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty amazing that the Moon administration wants to build a nuclear power plant in North Korea while trying to close down nuclear power plants in South Korea:

 A political controversy appears to be brewing over the Seoul government’s possible attempt years ago to help North Korea build a nuclear power plant, after a local broadcaster on Thursday disclosed the existence of relevant government documents.

SBS TV, citing prosecutors investigating the destruction of government documents related to the closure of an aging nuclear reactor by some officials of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in 2019, reported that a number of files on inter-Korean energy cooperation, including the planned construction of a nuclear plant in the North, were among the deleted documents.

Last month, prosecutors in the central city of Daejeon indicted three energy ministry officials on charges of destroying 530 kinds of computer documents linked to the closure of Wolsong-1, the country’s second-oldest nuclear reactor, right before the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) requested the submission of the documents in December 2019.

The BAI had opened an audit into the closure of Wolsong-1, in southeastern South Korea, as it emerged as a hot-button issue after President Moon Jae-in decided in 2017 to phase out nuclear power generation in line with his energy policy.

According to the bill of their indictments, disclosed by the broadcaster, the deleted computer documents, recovered later by BAI officials, contained numerous files on plans to build a nuclear power plant in North Korea and other inter-Korean energy cooperation projects.

Notably, the deleted documents included reports titled “North Korean nuclear power plant construction implementation plan” and “Inter-Korean economic cooperation experts in energy field,” which were produced from May 2-15, 2018, and stored under the folder title of “pohjois,” a Finnish word meaning north.

Moon’s first and second summit meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un were held in late April and late May, respectively, of the same year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The Moon administration has kept this very quiet for two years until it has now been leaked to the media:

A North Korean diplomat has defected to South Korea while serving as the acting chief of mission at the country’s embassy in Kuwait, a source said Monday.

Ryu Hyun-woo, who had served as the embassy’s charge d’affaires since Ambassador So Chang-sik was expelled from Kuwait after a U.N. resolution was adopted in 2017, entered South Korea, along with his family, according to the source. 

Further details were not available, including the timing of the defection.

But a media report earlier said that Ryu appears to have defected to the South in September 2019, about two months after Jo Song-gil, the acting ambassador to the North’s embassy in Italy, entered the country after disappearing in late 2018.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Ryu apparently defected to give his family a better life.

Pyongyang has mobilized their useful idiots in South Korea to condemn groups in the U.S. critical of South Korea’s decision to criminalize the human rights activists sending leaflets to North Korea. What is ironic is that many of these so called civic groups claim to be human rights organizations as well.

A group of 17 civic organizations on Friday issued a joint statement decrying criticism from some quarters of the United States of a recently legislated ban on sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea as “interference in internal affairs.”

The group, including the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, stressed that flying propaganda leaflets has nothing to do with freedom of expression but is an “act that foments conflict.”

“The interference in internal affairs by related U.S. organizations and politicians, which financially and politically sponsored the sending of leaflets to the North, is going too far, as they joined hands and criticized the passage of the bill,” the joint statement read.

“They should stop the interference that undermines the vision for peace on the Korean Peninsula and inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation,” it added.

On Monday, the National Assembly, controlled by the ruling Democratic Party, passed the bill penalizing the sending of propaganda leaflets despite strong objections by conservative opposition lawmakers.

The ruling party has defended the legislation as necessary to enhance the security of residents in border regions and prevent needless political tensions with the North.

U.S. politicians and others have rebuked the legislation, claiming it could erode freedom of expression and block one crucial avenue for sending free-world information into the reclusive country.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.