Tag: Kim Jong-un

Tweet of the Day: So Called Experts Don’t Understand Korean Names

| January 18, 2019

Speculation Grows that Moon Administration Trying to Get Kim Jong-un to Visit Seoul for March 1st, Independence Day

| January 18, 2019

If Kim Jong-un was going to visit on any day, I am sure the Moon administration would love for it to be March 1st. The hope will be that conservative protesters against Kim’s visit will be muted because of a large dislike of the Japanese in South Korea that tends to reach a crescendo on the March 1st Independence Day which celebrates an uprising against Japanese colonial occupation back in 1919.

Is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting Seoul on March 1? 

Reports of this began circulating Wednesday, citing unidentified government sources. Some had plausible details: for the leaders of the two Koreas to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement Day ― on the date and at the same location. 

The uprising on March 1, 1919 ― celebrated by both Koreas ― is recorded as one of the marquee grassroots independence movements during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. 

Presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday denied reports that Kim would visit Seoul on the historically symbolic day. Nevertheless, the speculation continues.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but if this visit does in fact happen I would expect there to be a large anti-Japanese buildup to try and unite most South Koreans before the Kim Jong-un visit.

Second Trump-Kim Summit to Reportedly Be Held in Mid-February

| January 14, 2019

Here is the latest on a second Trump-Kim summit:

United States President Donald Trump has reportedly proposed holding the second summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in mid-February in Vietnam.

Quoting a source familiar with the matter, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported on Sunday that North Korea is reviewing the U.S. proposal and has yet to give a formal response.

The report said that Indonesia and Mongolia are also being mentioned as possible candidates, but Vietnam is actually being considered as a venue.

Yomiuri said the focus of the second summit, if held, would be how the two sides will reach agreement on the North’s steps for denuclearization and the corresponding measures by the United States.

KBS World Radio

It seems to me that Kim Jong-un would only show up to this summit if he felt that he is going to get something he wants like dropping sanctions for little to nothing in return. I guess we will see what happens.

Kim Jong-un in China for Talks with President Xi

| January 8, 2019

It looks like a second Trump-Kim summit must be close to becoming a reality because Kim Jong-un is off to China to get his marching orders from Emperor President Xi:

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un (R) and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, leave for China in this photo from the North’s Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 8, 2019. The report said Kim will visit China from Jan. 7-10 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping apparently aiming to coordinate strategies ahead of his possible second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
A special train carrying Kim and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, arrived at a highly secure station in Beijing at around 10:55 a.m. Escorted by Chinese police, he and his entourage headed in prearranged limousines to Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.
Kim was accompanied by party, government and military officials, including Kim Yong-chol, a key nuclear negotiator with the United States, and Ri Yong-ho and No Kwang-chol, the country’s foreign and defense ministers, respectively, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency earlier reported.
In footage later unveiled by North Korea’s state TV, Kim Yo-jong, the leader’s younger sister, was also seen among the people leaving for China. She accompanied her brother on his second trip to China in May last year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Kim Jong-un Has Reportedly Not Decided Whether to Visit Seoul This Year

| December 8, 2018

I am sure that this is something that enough cash sent up North can make happen.  His dad needed $500 million to host a summit in Pyongyang, so I am sure Kim Jong-un’s price to go to Seoul will be much higher:

Anchor:  North Korea continues to remain silent about a prospective visit to South Korea by leader Kim Jong-un.  If the visit is to take place before the end of the year, as the South Korean government hopes, there may only be a matter of days left to confirm a date and make arrangements.  Kim Bum-soo has more.

Report: It was at September’s inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang about three months ago when leaders of the two Koreas first held out the possibility of meeting again in Seoul.

[Sound bite: N. Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Korean)]
“I promised to President Moon Jae-in that I will visit Seoul in the near future. We will put an end to the tragedy of division as soon as possible and hold our hands together to embark on a sacred journey to peace and prosperity.”

[Sound bite: President Moon Jae-in (Korean)]
“I requested Chairman Kim Jong-un to visit Seoul and he decided to come to Seoul in the near future. ‘Near future’ means ‘within this year’ unless there is a special circumstances. Chairman Kim’s visit to Seoul would be the first by a North Korean leader and it will provide a breakthrough to the inter-Korean relations.”

Now, in December, with just a few weeks remaining in the year, the South still hasn’t heard any confirmation date from the North.  That’s according to Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, who told lawmakers Friday the South and North have been in talks to try to make the visit happen.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link, but it is not surprising at all to me the hypocrisy of how the Moon administration wants to champion someone with a visit to Seoul who has killed many Koreans in recent years, launched a nerve agent attack in an international airport just two years ago, has active gulags, still has kidnapped South Koreans, among a host of other provocations while at the same time regularly bashing the Japanese for things that happened 75-100 years ago.

Is anyone in the Moon administration going to demand apologies from Kim Jong-un for his regime’s transgressions against South Korea like they regularly demand from Japan?  Better yet what about demands for compensation for the victims of the Kim regime’s attacks?

President Moon Says Trump Will Make Kim Jong-un’s Wishes Come True If He Gives Up Nukes

| December 3, 2018

The only problem with this is that Kim Jong-un’s wish is to keep his nukes and have sanctions dropped:

US President Donald Trump will grant North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un his wishes if he delivers on denuclearisation, the South Korean president said Sunday, following talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

As officials work to arrange a second meeting between Trump and Kim, South Korea’s Moon Jae-in relayed a message to reporters given to him by the US president to pass on to the North’s leader.

“And the message was that President Trump has a very friendly view of Chairman Kim and that he likes him, and so he wishes Chairman Kim would implement the rest of their agreement and that he would make what Chairman Kim wants come true,” Moon told the Yonhap news agency while en route to New Zealand.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link.