Category: Inter-Korean Issues

The Prime Minister may want to ask the people enslaved in the gulags how much Kim Jong-un cares about his people:

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said Thursday that a series of changes has happened in North Korea and the most important of them is that the country finally has a leader caring for the livelihoods of his people.

Lee made the remark in Nairobi during a meeting with Korean residents in Kenya, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s policy to put a greater emphasis on economic development, and vowing to seize the chance to bring permanent peace to the divided Korean Peninsula.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but do these people actually think that talking nice about Kim Jong-un will make him decide to denuclearize?

It didn’t take long for the North Koreans to use the proposed family unions as leverage against the South Korean government:

North Korea’s state-run media released a string of articles on Friday that criticized the South Korean government, hinting that planned reunions for families split between the two nations could be canceled. An editorial in the official state newspaper of the North Korean ruling party, Rodong Sinmun, argued that South Korea had been exaggerating its role in denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington. South Korea’s role in the talks does “not even amount to that of an assistant,” the editorial stated. The same article described comments made by South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Singapore last week as “presumptuous” and “flippant.”  [Washington Post]

You can read more at the link, but it appears the North Koreans are trying to put the ROK government back in its place as being subservient to the Kim regime with the denuclearization talks solely between the US and North Korea.

Here is the main reason they are threatening the cancelation of the family reunions:

In another attack against the Moon administration, Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean propaganda website, urged it to repatriate a dozen North Korean restaurant workers who came to the South in 2016.

The 12 had worked at a North Korean restaurant in China. Pyongyang claims they were abducted by South Korean authorities. The South has said the workers defected of their own free will.

Uriminzokkiri said there could be an “obstacle” in the planned reunion of families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War next month if the workers are not returned.

It lashed out at Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon by name, accusing him of “siding with” the former government which it said plotted the workers’ defection. [Reuters]

I think even for a left wing administration like President Moon’s, this will be politically very difficult to do.  Could you imagine the backlash of forcibly removing these defectors from South Korea and handing them over to the Kim regime?

It is bad enough that Russia and China actively undermine United Nations sanctions against the Kim regime, but now even South Korea is reportedly helping North Korea evade sanctions as well:

North Korea reportedly transported its coal to a third country via South Korea last year in violation of UN sanctions.

The Voice of America(VOA) issued the report on Tuesday, citing information released by an expert panel under the UN committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea.

The panel said that North Korea shipped its coal from Kholmsk Port in Russia to a third country two times via South Korean ports in Incheon and Pohang on October second and 11th last year.

Earlier this year, the panel said in its previous report that the South Korean ports were the final destinations of the North Korean coal. However, in the latest report, it said the shipments were likely headed to a third country, although it is unconfirmed.

Meanwhile, an official at the South Korean Foreign Ministry said that there is a need to confirm the findings of the report.

The UN Security Council Resolution 2371 adopted in August last year imposed a total ban on all exports of North Korean coal.  [KBS World Radio]

It looks like the Kim regime has made good progress on getting the restaurant workers returned to North Korea:

A former North Korean restaurant manager who defected to South Korea in 2016 together with a dozen female workers claimed Sunday that Seoul’s spy agency had lured and blackmailed him into defecting.

Ho Kang-il’s claim, made in a phone interview with Yonhap News Agency, corroborates suspicions that the high-profile defection was not voluntary and the then-government of President Park Geun-hye orchestrated it behind the scenes.

During the interview, Ho claimed that the South’s National Intelligence Service had tried to persuade him to defect, saying it would help him open a restaurant in a Southeast Asian nation, but the spy agency didn’t make good on the promise.

“Originally, I was a cooperator of the NIS and brought information to them,” Ho said. “But they lured me, saying that if I come (to the South) with my employees, they would get us to obtain South Korean citizenship and then they would open a restaurant in Southeast Asia that could also be used as an NIS hideout. They told me to run the restaurant there with the employees.”

Ho claimed NIS agents blackmailed him when he hesitated.

“They threatened that unless I come to the South with the employees, they would divulge to the North Korean Embassy that I had cooperated with the NIS until then,” Ho said. “I had no choice but to do what they told me to.”

He also said that the restaurant employees had thought they would be going to a restaurant in Southeast Asia, and it was only after they got on board the flight that they learned they were headed to the South.

Questions about their defection first arose in May after a local cable broadcaster aired an interview with the restaurant manager. Pyongyang has demanded their return, saying they were abducted by South Korean intelligence, but the South Korean government has claimed that all of the North Koreans defected voluntarily.

Last week, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, called for a “thorough” and “independent” investigation after he met with some of the defectors.

“It is clear that there were some shortcomings in regards to how they were brought to South Korea,” Quintana told reporters. “From the information I received from some of them, they were taken to the Republic of Korea without knowing they were coming here.”  [Yonhap]

First of all the ROK intelligence service should be asking North Koreans if they want to defect, however I don’t believe they should not be blackmailing them.  With that said we don’t know if the blackmail claims from the restaurant manager are true.  Remember these allegations from the restaurant manager only came up after the Moon administration came to power.  Is the Moon administration putting him under intense pressure and allowing the North Koreans to contact him with threats against his family back in North Korea?

Remember these restaurant workers could have easily have made statements to the media that they were kidnapped before Moon became President or even over the first year of the Moon administration.  It was only this past May when JTBC, Pyongyang’s favorite South Korean news channel, was allowed to interview the restaurant manager did these claims come up.  It is going to be interesting to see if the Moon administration ups the pressure on the restaurant workers to voluntarily return to North Korea to keep the current peace process moving forward.

The Kim regime’s favorite South Korean broadcaster JTBC, that used fake news to help bring down former ROK President Park Geun-hye, is now looking to open a Pyongyang bureau office:

Eight officials of South Korean TV station JTBC will visit North Korea’s capital Pyongyang next week to discuss inter-Korean exchange in the field of media and the opening of the broadcaster’s bureau there.

It will become the first case of inter-Korean cooperation in media since inter-Korean military tension subsided early this year.

Seoul’s unification ministry approved their visit to the North late Friday. The ministry’s approval is a must for South Korean citizens to visit the North since the two Koreas are technically still at war with each other because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The ministry said the JTBC delegation, headed by its newsroom managing director Kwon Suk-chun, will visit the North from July 9 to 12, during which time they will meet with North Korean broadcasters and officials from the National Reconciliation Council, which invited the delegation to the North.

The purpose of the visit is to discuss “inter-Korean exchange in the field of media and JTBC’s opening of a Pyongyang bureau,” said the ministry in a message sent to reporters. It didn’t give further details.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Kim Jong-un should have invited Dennis Rodman to attend this:

South and North Korean men’s and women’s basket ball teams will play goodwill matches today and Thursday in Pyongyang, possibly with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un attending.

The “Unification Basketball Competition” is the fourth of its kind and is being held for the first time in 15 years since the last games were played in 2003. The Koreas agreed to schedule the event at a meeting on sports cooperation last month.

A 101 member delegation departed for Pyongyang Tuesday, led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon. The delegation includes 50 basketball players, government officials, reporters and a broadcasting team.

“The PyeongChang Winter Olympics became the foundation of peace on the Korean Peninsula, so I hope that the Pyongyang unification basketball competition serves as an occasion to further develop peace on the peninsula,” Cho told reporters before departure.

The delegation headed to Pyongyang Sunan International Airport from Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, via an air force transport aircraft, given international sanctions on North Korea.

This is the first time for the unification minister to visit Pyongyang in 11 years. His last visit was in 2007 as a presidential secretary.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder what the cost of the “hotel bills” are that South Korea will have to pay to North Korea to play these games?

How long have we been hearing that North Korea is going to open up just like China?:

Legendary investor Jim Rogers said Monday that the world will face serious economic problems over the next few years, but North Korea’s opening will create a huge economic opportunity for South Korea.

The global guru made the remarks during a press briefing in Seoul hosted by major local brokerage Samsung Securities.

“Many of your trading partners are going to suffer. But you have this opening up, and if you remember what happened in China as it opened and changed, that is going to happen here and you will be the major beneficiary,” the American businessman said.

Pointing out that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un spent his early days in Switzerland and has ample knowledge about the outside world, Rogers projected that Kim will surely open up his economy.

“North Korea has lots of disciplined, educated, very cheap labor and a lot of natural resources. And [South Korea] has lots of capital, management ability and expertise,” he said, adding that the marriage of those factors will create synergy effects to make South Korea “the most exciting country in the world over the next 10 to 20 years.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but what Mr. Rogers seems to forget is that China opened up after the death of Mao Zedong which ended the cult of personality in China.  The cult of personality is still alive and well in North Korea with the Kim regime.  A Chinese style opening of the economy would threaten the stability of the Kim regime.

It looks like this is turning into yet another event where the North Koreans milk money out of the South Koreans:

North Korean facilities to host the planned August reunions of separated families during the 1950-1953 Korean War are in need of major repairs, a South Korean inspection team said upon returning home on Friday after a three-day visit there.

The 20-strong inspection team involving South Korean government officials and civilian workers crossed the eastern border on Wednesday afternoon to visit Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast, the venue for the reunions slated for Aug. 20-26.

“South and North technicians did the inspection together, which went smoothly with active support from North Korean officials,” said team leader Kim Byung-dae, a senior official in charge of humanitarian cooperation at the Unification Ministry.

“It’s been quite a while since the last reunion happened in October 2015 there. So there are many places that need fixing,” Kim said, adding the government will do its best to make sure the reunion runs smoothly and to minimize any inconvenience for senior family members.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder what the bill for these “major repairs” is going to be?

This is an example of why the South Koreans need the US to agree to drop sanctions before they can begin any projects with North Korea:

After the two Koreas agreed on Tuesday to connect their railroads and work together on modernizing the North’s infrastructure, one question looms: Is the project even possible?

If South Korea were to provide North Korea with vehicles, machinery and other equipment for track construction, it would violate United Nations Security Council Resolution 2397, which prohibits the export of industrial equipment to the North. The sanctions, passed unanimously on Dec. 22, 2017, came after the North tested an intercontinental ballistic missile on Nov. 29 of last year.

During the meeting between officials from the two Koreas on Tuesday, both sides agreed to boost cooperation in modernizing North Korea’s rails, stating the end goal was “balanced development of the national economy and co-prosperity.”

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has espoused a grand vision of creating a single market with the two Koreas to lay the foundation for unification, job creation and economic growth in both countries.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read much more at the link, but I expect that the Kim regime will continue to play nice in order to convince President Trump to drop sanctions for little to nothing in return.  I would not be surprised if the Kim regime decides to continue to play nice until after the mid-term elections in the US.  This will give them an assessment of the landscape in the US moving forward in 2019.

South Korean President Considering Joint 2030 World Cup Bid With North Korea via @forbes https://t.co/UiTHrJKvsy

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) June 24, 2018