President Moon Jae-in said Sunday that he could give North Korea’s Kim Jong-un a tour of Mount Halla, South Korea’s tallest mountain, on the southern island of Jeju, if the leader comes for a visit.
Moon made the remarks in response to a reporter’s question about what he would show Kim should the communist leader reciprocate his own visit to Pyongyang last month for the third inter-Korean summit aimed at fostering inter-Korean rapprochement and cooperation.
“As we have an expression like ‘from Mount Paekdu to Mount Halla,’ I could give him a tour of Mount Halla if (he) wants,” Moon said during talks with reporters after climbing up to a peak of Mount Bukak just behind the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul. [Yonhap]
Here is another indication that the Moon administration is getting played by the Kim regime over the NLL issue:
The current NLL is depicted with the Blue line and North Korea’s claimed NLL is depicted with the Red line.
Touching on the controversy over the North’s position on the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de-facto sea border with the South, Jeong said that working-level North Korean officials have yet to accept the NLL as the maritime border, despite leader Kim Jong-un’s apparent recognition of it.
In April, the leaders of the two sides agreed to turn the tense area into a “maritime peace zone.” They used the term “NLL” in their joint statement.
President Moon Jae-in said it indicates that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has virtually recognized the NLL.
The North’s navy, however, had continued to claim its own security line until recently, sending repeated warning messages to South Korean ships crossing it.
That appears to be because North Korea’s front-line troops have not received any new related instructions from Kim, Jeong said.
He added that the North’s working-level officials have not yet agreed to accept the NLL.
Gen. Park Han-ki, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the South urged the North not to take issue with the NLL during the bilateral general-grade talks last week.
“(We) clearly told (the North) to stop sending such inappropriate radio messages,” he said. [Yonhap]
It’s one thing for polisci experts to discuss unification and denuclearization. But another pressing assignment, for sociologists esp, is to rly start thinking about what the post-unification national discourse should look like. And it shouldn’t be like this: misogyny and racism https://t.co/UYTMmpgYBW
This map shows the West Sea peace-cooperation special zones proposed by South Korea at the 2007 inter-Korean summit. (Yonhap)
Pyongyang’s version of a military pact signed by both Koreas last month mentions the northern limit line (NLL) in angle quotes, which may mean it doesn’t acknowledge the maritime border between the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea.
Seoul’s version doesn’t place any punctuation marks around the same words.
A lawmaker from the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) exclusively revealed the North’s version of the agreement to the JoongAng Ilbo on Thursday. Former South Korean National Defense Minister Song Young-moo signed the military pact with his North Korean counterpart, No Kwang-chol, on Sept. 19 during the third inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.
If the North had indeed refused to acknowledge the NLL in September, it would contradict remarks made by South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier this month.
The Blue House chief said on Oct. 11 that the North acknowledged the NLL in the latest summit. Both Koreas agreed to create a so-called peace zone around the area to prevent possible military clashes and establish a joint fishing zone, he said. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but Moon’s maritime peace zone that the Kim regime is so happy to sign an agreement on will surrender sovereignty of the NLL to the North Koreans by allowing joint fishing along the maritime border. This plan actually dates back an entire decade to the Roh Moo-hyun administration when Moon Jae-in was President Roh’s Chief of Staff. This map shows why the North Koreans are happy with the is arrangement:
The current NLL is depicted with the Blue line and North Korea’s claimed NLL is depicted with the Red line.
Moon’s peace zone would allow the North Korean boats to pass the current NLL to nearly the red line the North Koreans claim. The giving up of sovereignty of this maritime territory will make it harder to defend the South Korean islands along the NLL. Such an agreement would also set a precedent that the Kim regime’s claim against the legitimacy of the NLL is valid. The last time a South Korean leftist government tried to give away the NLL the ROK Defense Ministry was furious. That is likely why the Moon administration cleaned house at the Ministry of Defense before moving forward with this plan.
South Korea has made all these concessions to weaken their defenses against a North Korean attack and the Kim regime has yet to move one artillery battery away from the DMZ in return.
States (here #SouthKorea) shall prevent (banks) from opening branches in North Korea–that's pretty clearly stated. Secondary #sanctions affect not only the banks, but their client firms as well. Moon Jae-in should not gamble with #SouthKorea's economy. https://t.co/daaRczIXUL
It appears the UNC is on board with letting this happen:
This photo, provided by South Korea’s unification ministry on July 24, 2018, shows officials from the two Koreas checking the North Korean side of the western Gyeongui railway. (Yonhap)
South and North Korea are likely to start their joint on-site inspection as early as this week for a project to modernize and re-link railways across their border, government officials said Sunday.
At high-level talks last week, the two Koreas agreed to begin field surveys of the western Gyeongui railway in late October and the Donghae railway along their east coast in November.
“The Koreas are known to be discussing ways to conduct the inspection (on the North section) of the Gyeongui line starting late this week,” a government official said.
“The schedule is flexible, depending on consultations between the government and the United Nations Command (UNC) over the passage of the Military Demarcation Line,” he added.
In August, the Koreas failed to carry out a joint railway field survey as the U.S.-led UNC did not approve the plan, citing “procedural” problems, a move widely seen as U.S. objection to the inter-Korean railway project on the basis that it might hamper sanctions. “As far as I’m concerned, Seoul’s consultations with Pyongyang as well as the UNC are smoothly under way,” the official said. [Yonhap]
It seems it will be hard to get the international community to take sanctions on North Korea seriously when South Korea has announced it is connecting a railroad with North Korea:
The United States on Monday called for the full enforcement of United Nations sanctions on North Korea as the two Koreas moved to establish rail and road links across their border.
The two Koreas will hold a ground-breaking ceremony in late November or early December to start the modernization and connection of railways and roads along the eastern and western regions, the sides announced after high-level talks earlier in the day.
The agreement is a follow-up to last month’s third summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“As President Moon has stated: ‘The improvement of relations between North and South Korea cannot advance separately from resolving North Korea’s nuclear program,'” a spokesperson for the State Department said in response to a Yonhap query. [Yonhap]
According to President Moon the Kim regime is supposed to be trusted so why the cyber attacks?:
South Korea is considering drawing up rules of engagement in cyberspace to effectively deal with growing threats from North Korea and other unidentified players, military authorities said Sunday.
“Since 2004, discussions have been under way at the U.N. meetings to enact international laws related to cyber war,” a source told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity. “We will closely watch the relevant situations and cautiously review and push for drawing up the rules of engagement.”
The envisioned rules of engagement are expected to provide a detailed guideline on how to respond to cyberattacks as soon as threats are detected. The military is also said to be developing its own cyber countermeasures, though details about what kinds of tools that can be employed have not been known.
The move comes as the number of cyberattacks against the country’s military has been on a steady rise in recent years.
According to the data, there were 3,587 hacking attempts against the defense ministry and the military from January to August this year. This compares with 1,434 cases detected during all of 2013. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but it is just the North Koreans and other bad actors up to their normal tricks with little fear of repercussions.
Think tanks' influence has ebbed b/c policymakers think they're *already* too beholden to foreign (& specifically, S. Korean) influence. No amount of money can sell tired ideas that don't work or obscure that fact that Moon's policies prioritize Pyongyang's interests over ours. https://t.co/9Jd1kXIAsW
The Moon admin's typical MO. 1 Say we're considering X. 2 If opposition too strong, say not considering. 3 Find other ways to implement/wait til it quiets & do it quietly. 4 Don't tell/explain details to public. 5 Just say "peace" or "equality" or "justice" 6. Next! 7. Repeat. https://t.co/pIJiMPpz5t
