Category: Inter-Korean Issues

It looks like the balloon launches that bring propaganda leaflets over the border in North Korea will soon be stopped by the Moon administration:

The government is working on a plan to legislate a ban on sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the communist nation, the unification ministry said Thursday, hours after North Korea railed against such leaflets and threatened to scrap a no-hostility military pact with the South.

The envisioned legislation is aimed at preventing chilly inter-Korean relations from deteriorating further, but enacting a law banning leaflet-sending could spark an outcry over the possible infringement of the right to freedom of expression.

The announcement came hours after Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, issued a statement denouncing the flying-in of such propaganda leaflets as a hostile act that runs counter to peace agreements the two sides signed during summit talks of their leaders in 2018.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Kim Yo-jong claims the leaflets are causing environmental pollution. I wonder if she will send the activists that send these balloons tickets for littering?

It has been long predicted that after the April elections that the Moon administration at some point would try and undermine international sanctions on North Korea. Well the President’s trial balloon specialist, Moon Chung-in is out now stating this very thing:

As an adviser to the former Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, he attended the first, second and third inter-Korean summits in Pyongyang as a special delegate. With regard to President Moon Jae-in’s North Korea policy, the professor stressed that the President will continue to find niches for cooperation and exchanges with North Korea and be able to persuade the U.S. to allow inter-Korean economic projects. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The only problem with the proposed Inter-Korean Railway project is that the North Koreans have not agreed to it yet. However, I suspect that this will be part of an effort to restart tourism to the Kumgang Resort in North Korea that the Moon administration will eventually try to circumvent sanctions to do if they are not dropped by the time this railway extension is completed:

The South Korean government on Monday held a ceremony to reconnect its railroad system to the North’s, marking the second anniversary of the inter-Korean summit at Panmunjom in 2018. 

South Korea’s railway on its eastern coast, called the Northern East Sea Line, will be extended by a total of 110.9 kilometers (69 miles) from its current northernmost point in Gangneung all the way to Jaejin Station in Goseong County, Gangwon, the last stop on South Korean territory below the military demarcation line with the North.

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, who led the ceremony, in an opening address called the construction of the railway a “Korean Peninsula New Deal” project meant to “inaugurate a new age in which the continent meets the ocean.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Ambassador Harris continues to upset the Moon administration, but what did he say was inaccurate?:

The office of President Moon Jae-in openly reproached U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris for his remark on Moon’s stated plans to resume inter-Korean cooperation, calling it “very inappropriate.”

“It’s very inappropriate for the ambassador to make such a mention for media over remarks by the president of the hosting nation,” a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters.

The official stressed that inter-Korean cooperation is a matter to be decided by the South Korean government, although Seoul is “always” in close consultation with Washington in making constant efforts for substantive progress in inter-Korean ties and the early resumption of dialogue between the United States and North Korea.

A spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy declined to comment directly on the presidential aide’s remarks.

“We are aware of the comment,” he told Yonhap News Agency. “We have nothing to offer at this time, and would refer you to Ambassador Harris’ recent public comments.”

Harris reportedly urged Seoul to hold prior consultations with Washington in its pursuit of allowing its nationals to make “individual” tours of Mount Kumgang on North Korea’s east coast.

It’s “better” to run such an issue “through the working group” to avoid “misunderstandings” that might trigger sanctions, he reportedly told a group of foreign reporters here, referring to a working-level consultation channel between the allies on North Korea affairs.

His remarks were viewed by many as a thinly veiled warning and an attempt to put pressure on the Moon administration as it seeks to jump-start inter-Korean projects that are unaffected by U.N. sanctions on the communist neighbor in a bid to help facilitate Pyongyang-Washington nuclear talks.

Yonhap

Essentially all Ambassador Harris is telling them is that before they attempt to do any projects with North Korea they better work it through the U.S. or face violating sanctions. It is pretty clear what the Moon administration is trying to do is find a way to get around the North Korean sanctions and Ambassador Harris is calling them out on it publicly.

It will be interesting to see if the Trump administration responds to President Moon’s advocacy for South Korea to break international sanctions on the North:

President Moon Jae-in stressed the need Tuesday to expand inter-Korean cooperation, saying it could be conducive to drumming up international support for sanctions relief for the communist neighbor.

Speaking at his New Year’s press conference, he made it clear that South Korea will not sit idle waiting for Pyongyang-Washington dialogue to bear fruit.

“If (we) broaden cooperative ties between South and North to the maximum, it would not only facilitate North Korea-U.S. dialogue but also help win international support in connection with some exemptions or exceptions to sanctions on North Korea,” the president said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the term “inter-Korean cooperation” is code for restarting the Kaesong Industrial Park and Gumgang Resort tours which were both cash cows for the Kim regime. Essentially what President Moon is advocating for is continuing to fund the North Korean military machine with no reciprocal denuclearization agreement in place. Agreements like this is what allowed North Korea to become a nuclear menace in the first place and Moon wants double down on this policy.