Category: Inter-Korean Issues

This is really a continuation of long standing ROK policy of maintaining the status quo which has allowed South Korea to continue to be a prosperous country. Seeking regime change that would lead to a massive war with a possible nuclear exchange and humanitarian crisis is clearly not in the ROK’s national interest:

President Yoon Suk-yeol said, Wednesday, that South Korea will not pursue any efforts for regime change or any other intervention that can alter the current political system of North Korea, adding that Seoul is not in a position to guarantee Pyongyang’s security. 

The president also ruled out the possibility of South Korea acquiring its own nuclear weapons against evolving North Korean nuclear threats, saying the country is committed to the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

He made the remarks during a press conference held to mark the 100th day of his presidency. 

“Guaranteeing the security of the North Korean regime is not something that South Korea can provide,” Yoon told reporters. “But neither I nor the government wants the status quo changed unreasonably or by force in North Korea.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon has to know the Kim regime is not going to denuclearize for any amount of economic aid. However, they would happily pretend to denuclearize for economic aid like they have done in the past:

President Yoon Suk-yeol pledged Monday to swiftly improve relations with Japan based on a 1998 joint declaration between the two countries while offering to significantly rebuild North Korea’s economy if Pyongyang takes steps toward substantial denuclearization.

Yoon made the remarks in a Liberation Day speech marking 77 years since Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. (…….)

Yoon also laid out the details of his “audacious plan” to improve North Korea’s economy in the event it takes steps to denuclearize, an offer he first made during his inauguration speech in May.

He said North Korea’s denuclearization is “essential” for sustainable peace on the peninsula, in Northeast Asia and around the world.

“The audacious initiative that I envision will significantly improve North Korea’s economy and its people’s livelihoods in stages if the North ceases the development of its nuclear program and embarks on a genuine and substantive process for denuclearization,” Yoon said.

“We will implement a large-scale food program; provide assistance for power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure; and carry out projects to modernize ports and airports for international trade.”

Yoon also offered to help enhance North Korea’s agricultural productivity, modernize its hospitals and medical infrastructure, and implement international investment and financial support initiatives.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This hopefully does not come as a surprise to anyone that North Korea has no intention of giving up their nukes:

 North Korea accused U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday of lacking impartiality as head of the global agency, taking issue with his denuclearization-related remarks during a visit to Seoul last week.

In a press statement, Kim Son-gyong, vice foreign minister for international organizations, denounced the U.N. chief for his reported expression of “full support for the complete, verifiable and irretrievable denuclearization (CVID)” of North Korea.

Guterres met with President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday.

According to an English-language report of the Korean Central News Agency, Kim said, 

“I cannot but express deep regret over the said remarks of the UN secretary-general that grossly lack impartiality and fairness and go against the obligations of his duty, specified in the UN Charter, as regards the issue of the Korean peninsula.” 

“The so-called CVID, touted by the U.S. and its vassal forces, is just an infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK as it demands the unilateral disarmament, and Secretary-General Guterres perhaps knows well that the DPRK has totally rejected it without any toleration,” the vice foreign minister added. The DPRK is the acronym for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

From the Joong Ang Ilbo:

Four bodies suspected of originating in North Korea have washed up in rivers in Gyeonggi this past month, raising questions about how and why they ended up dead in the South.  
   
The most recent body — of an adult woman — was discovered by a camper in a bush along the Imjin River, downstream from the Gunnam Dam, around 8:25 a.m. on Saturday, according to Yeoncheon Police Precinct.  
   
The source of the Imjin River is north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the two Koreas and flows through northern Gyeonggi in South Korea before emptying into the Yellow Sea at Ganghwa Island, north of Incheon. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The deportation of two North Korean defectors by the Moon administration is getting really interesting. Now it is being alleged that they did not murder 16 people and instead it was an accusation made by North Korea that the Moon administration accepted in order to repatriate them:

The Ministry of Unification has raised doubts over murder accusations brought up against two North Korean fishermen who were deported against their will three years ago based on that claim.

A high-ranking official told reporters Thursday that no one other than the judiciary “has the authority to decide whether they are brutal criminals.” The latest move by the ministry is a de facto retraction of the claims it made over the fishermen during the previous Moon Jae-in administration.

Authorities under the Moon administration accused the fishermen of conspiring with a third man to kill their captain and 15 others on a boat before their escape to the South on Nov. 2, 2019. After a three-day investigation, South Korean authorities sent the fishermen back to the North on Nov. 7, claiming that they confessed to the murders.

The high-ranking official said the truth will be uncovered through the prosecution’s ongoing investigation. But he refused to comment further on questions including whether the ministry can disclose information about the 2019 investigation.

The same day, a government official familiar with the matter also questioned the credibility of the murder allegation, claiming that their confessions were factually inconsistent on simple points such as how many people were on the boat and how they killed them. Munhwa Ilbo, a daily newspaper, reported that they were forced to make those confessions through “cruel treatment.”

Citing intelligence reports, the official said the fishermen were executed within several days after being sent back to North Korea.

Rep. Han Ki-ho, head of the ruling People Power Party’s team investigating misconduct involving North Korea during the Moon administration, claimed Wednesday that the murder allegations were an outright lie.

Citing a source living in North Korea’s northeastern city of Kimchaek, Han said the fishermen were brokers who had tried to help 16 people from five households escape to South Korea.

“The two were set to guide the 16 people to South Korea on a fishing vessel, but fled when they realized they were being arrested,” Han said during a meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul.

Han claimed that the North Korean regime fabricated the story and lied to the Moon administration in an attempt to have the fishermen repatriated. He believes South Korean authorities probably knew what really happened, but went ahead with the deportation.

This is not the first time that North has made false accusations of crime against someone to gain what it wants. Rep. Tae Yong-ho, former deputy ambassador of North Korea to Britain, was also falsely accused as a child rapist by the North after defecting to the South in 2016, said Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the party’s interim head.

“North Korea’s unilateral claims were accepted as fact without verification,” Kweon said during a speech at the Assembly. “The Park Geun-hye administration did not trust such claims by the North. As a result, we have the lawmaker, Tae Yong-ho, at the National Assembly.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it seems totally foolish to accept the word of the North Koreans on anything relating to defectors. If this allegation is in fact true, I am not sure if anything legally can be done about it, but the people involved in this decision need to be at least publicly brought to light.

I kind of agree with the Moon administration on this one, these two defectors admitted to murdering 16 people and this is not the type of people South Koreans should want in their country:

The office of President Yoon Suk-yeol immediately struck back at former Foreign Minister and National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong on Sunday after he defended the previous administration’s 2019 repatriation of two North Korean fishermen against their will.

Chung said earlier Sunday the then government of President Moon Jae-in determined the North Koreans’ expression of a desire to defect as insincere and decided to deport them, as they had confessed to killing 16 fellow crew members.

Chung also said the North Koreans “were rare, grotesque killers.”

“Some claim that we had to accept them into our society as defectors in accordance with our Constitution,” he said in a statement. “However, our domestic law stipulates that nonpolitical criminals, like them, should be deported without being allowed into the country. Nonpolitical serious criminals are also not considered refugees under international law.”

Just hours later, Choi Young-bum, senior presidential secretary for press affairs, hit back at Chung.

“What officials of the previous administration and the opposition party should do is not to engage in a political offensive, but to cooperate faithfully with the investigation,” Choi said.

Choi also criticized Chung for portraying the North Koreans as “grotesque killers,” accusing him of making such a characterization without a proper investigation of them.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I think the ROK needs to pay attention to this threat because the balloon activists are giving the Kim regime the rationale to launch a provocation:

A North Korean propaganda outlet on Saturday lashed out at defector groups for sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets, warning of a reaction that could go beyond the explosion of an inter-Korean liaison office two years ago. 

The Tongil Shinbo, a weekly North Korean publication, also criticized the Yoon Suk-yeol government for speaking out about human rights in North Korea and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. 

There could be an action that would exceed the blowup of the liaison office in its border town of Kaesong on June 16, 2020, if North Korean defector groups continue to send goods and leaflets to the North, the newspaper said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I find the anger over the balloon activists ironic considering for decades North Korea used to be the ones sending propaganda balloons into South Korea. I am old enough to remember when they used to do this and when the leaflets were found we had to turn them in and could not keep them.