politics

N Korea using Olympics to drive wedge between U.S., Japan, S Korea

45 Comments
By Soyoung Kim and James Pearson

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If this is all it takes to drive a "wedge" between the US, Japan, and South Korea, the "alliance" is not that strong in the first place.

The media, articles like this, and others as well, are in a large part to blame for creating this image. NK is a rogue state, everyone knows it.

It's nice that there is some peaceful diplomacy going on, but that won't last much after the games are completed!

12 ( +17 / -5 )

Oh noes two countries who speak the SAME language getting along at an Olympic event inspite of their long and tumultuous history!!

No way, this cannot be allowed!!!

We need tougher sanctions, maybe we even need to attack them and claim it was because they had weapons of mass destruction and were a threat to the free world!!!! :-/

9 ( +17 / -8 )

Again the USA and Abe are beating the war drums. Scare tactics are the only thing they know. Without the evil DPRK the entire American war position would disappear.

12 ( +20 / -8 )

How disrespectful and petty minded of Pence to associate politics with sport-maybe he shouldn't be attending!

And Abe telling Moon what to do?

Does Abe still think South Korea is a colony?

13 ( +22 / -9 )

It appears by the comments that North's efforts are having an impact, how easily some people can be misled and influenced. Don't forget to keep the big picture in sight, the North is a a menace to world peace and is led by a dictator who cares nothing about his people are any other, he has ulterior motives and is not extending a true olive branch to the South or any other country, don't be fooled.

-6 ( +8 / -14 )

Does Abe still think South Korea is a colony?

There seem to be plenty here that sure think this way!

10 ( +14 / -4 )

Peace is good and has to be the goal, but lets not forget that only very recently NK was threatening everyone who even looked at them funny with nuclear obliteration.

A lessening of tension is great, but anyone that doesn't think approaching NK with care and a healthy amount of scepticism is prudent and sensible is as misguided as anyone in the situation.

Again we aren't talking about two happy neighbors with some slight issues, we are talking about, despite their current PR efforts, a rouge human rights abusing dictatorship with the goal of expanding their control over the free and democratic people of South Korea, and on a larger scale allowing a change in the balance of power in the Pacific that could see the freedoms, peace and standard of living enjoyed in many other countries severely effected.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

The U.S. should just announce that it stands firm it its stance regarding N. Korea but S. Korea and Japan can do as they please without repercussion. The U.S. then should just back off of any further commentary for the time being.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said more important would be how Pyongyang behaved after the Olympics. It had shown no interest so far in negotiating over demands to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

During the Olympics, NK with its "smile diplomacy" duped Moon into thinking the Kim has softened his position and invited Moon to have "friendly talks".

After the "honeymoon" is over, reality will set in and Kim will continue its nuclear tests and missle launches and take a more harder stance toward SK: Agree to unification under DPRK regime or else.

Again the USA and Abe are beating the war drums. Scare tactics are the only thing they know. Without the evil DPRK the entire American war position would disappear.

You're forgetting about China.

With a unified Korea under DPRK and fully aligned with China and Russia, the entire China Seas region will be more than a problem for Japan and U.S. Then there's the potential future crisis with China invading and annexing Taiwan. Just wait and see.

Or maybe you don't view China as an adversary and destabilizing element in the China Seas region?

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Does Abe still think South Korea is a colony?

Whatever he thinks, it's important to make sure to credit Japan for all of Korea's development! (NBC) /s

With a unified Korea under DPRK and fully aligned with China and Russia,

How do you know they'll be fully aligned? And what's wrong with neighbors getting along anyway? Why is the US so scared of this? They already have bases everywhere.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

With a unified Korea under DPRK 

Like that's going to happen.

The only way there can be reunification is if both countries take the middle path. NK opens up more, allows its people to see what life is like on the outside; SK gives Kim and his immediate buddies firm assurances of their personal safety after reunification.

I admit it's a very tall order and personally I very much doubt that they can bring it off. But at least let them try.

12 ( +14 / -2 )

The media fawning all over Kim’s sister simply for cracking a smile would be the same as calling Eva Braun the “It” girl of the ‘36 olympics.

Never mind the millions of forced deaths from starvation in the 90s, the firing squads, the gulags, the worst human rights in the world...

1 ( +9 / -8 )

Moon is just as afraid of bigger-button Trump as the North Koreans. South Korea does not want a war Trump starts to distract from his problems. What is missing is any discussion of the symbolism why Moon put Pence in the same box as the North Koreans, especially just in front of Rocket Man's sister. Every photo of Pence will include her. What is Moon trying to tell Trump?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

LMAO; this is more “Fake News”.

If, as a result of this situation with the Olympics anyone thinks NKorea is “Good” now, you’re easily fooled.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Off course they are, and it's working for trump.trump wants some other country to fire the first shot, trump will then say, I did not start this war.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

So when did smiling and being polite equate to DRIVING A WEDGE between countries?

11 ( +15 / -4 )

That is the assessment of a former South Korean government minister and political experts who say the North has used the Games to drive a wedge between South Korea and its U.S. ally and to potentially ease pressure on its sanctions-crippled state.

Exactly what I said yesterday!

The entire world knows it is simply the same strategy NK always uses to distract its detractors when tensions are high in an attempt to currie favours and put a wedge between current alliances.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

So far, Kim Yo Jong is winning on diplomacy stakes. Pence just looks and sounds way out of his depth.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

The silliest thing of all is that NK has been doing the exact same thing for the past 3 decades. They escalate and then de-escalate to buy time for their nuke program and everyone laps the garbage up and claims NK has changed and is now a moral authority in geopolitics and diplomacy.

Now we see the astonishing number of useful idiots around the world and on JT coming out of the dark claiming NK is actually a peaceful paradise and Kim Jong Un is a master diplomat and his sister "smiling" and beautiful, and stating NK never wanted to be hostile but was forced to by America and they are being "disrespectful" for not cheering on the North Koreans at the Olympics like slavering schoolgirls.

The useful idiot will never admit to being fooled so pathetically so they will continue the farce to save face. There is no hope for this ilk and it will be unpleasant for them once conflict breaks out.

-11 ( +4 / -15 )

and Kim Jong Un's sister is showing elegant smiles before the South Korean public 

I wouldn’t exactly call it an elegant smile. She looked like an arrogant, entitled lunatic the way she was carrying herself and acing. But , in her mind she probably thinks she’s Jacky Kennedy! Pathetic. She represents a country where a third of the population secretly informs on the rest, gulags, famine, no electricity, pretend shops for the tourists and they spend their time and resources building missiles and threatening their neighbors. The sooner this puppet regime falls and this Orwellian nightmare ends the better for everyone, especially the Noth Korean population themselves. The outside world , and information about it is getting harder to keep out, so it’s just a matter of time anyway. Abe should be doing everything he can to get this message across.

https://youtu.be/WOzY3U9xIoM

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Don't be fooled into thinking SK (or anyone for that matter) is being fooled by NK's tactics, SK has lived with this escalation-descalation cycle longer than most of us have been alive.

While it is true that NK is trying to buy time and is attempting to ease some of the pressure of the sanctions and so on, SK has avoided the Olympics turning into an unprecedented disaster with key nations pulling out due to imminent threat of war on the Korean peninsula.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

As long as NK plays nice I have no problem. Now the people living under the Un's thumb might disagree. I'm not sure that any of this is going to help them. But maybe there won't be so much money wasted on missiles. Then again, in six months we could be right back to problems....

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Of course a wedge is being driven between South Korea and the warmongering America/Japan alliance. South Korea has long been scorned by these 2 and the North offers a chance of redeemed dignity. North Korea has proven this Olympics that it is a moral authority in the world, far more so than Trump's America, and reunification will now proceed and ties with the West cut off permanently.

With the North's military might and the South's technological know-how, they will be unstoppable and never again submissive to America. Life is definitely not even that bad in the North, it's all American and Japanese propaganda. Well done to Moon for seeing through this.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Now we see the astonishing number of useful idiots around the world and on JT coming out of the dark claiming NK is actually a peaceful paradise and Kim Jong Un is a master diplomat and his sister "smiling" and beautiful, and stating NK never wanted to be hostile but was forced to by America and they are being "disrespectful" for not cheering on the North Koreans at the Olympics like slavering schoolgirls.

Dcog,

WTH are you going on about?? I don't know about the rest of the world but I am NOT reading ANYONE on jt being fooled by the NK charm offensive here......

Unless we start hearing foolish talk about lightening sanctions or something, NOTHING has changed yet. Stop jumping the gun for crying out loud!

2 ( +7 / -5 )

The useful idiot will never admit to being fooled so pathetically so they will continue the farce to save face. There is no hope for this ilk and it will be unpleasant for them once conflict breaks out.

Such is their unexplainable anger towards President Trump and not getting their way in the last election.

These useful idiots are excusing the worst human rights abusers in the world in another childlike tantrum

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

With the North's military might and the South's technological know-how, they will be unstoppable and never again submissive to America. Life is definitely not even that bad in the North, it's all American and Japanese propaganda. Well done to Moon for seeing through this.

Tell that to the DPRK soldier with the 10 inch tape worm in his stomach and the bullets that were put in his body when he fled to the south. Or the thousands of defectors who talk about eating dirt and rocks because they had nothing else to eat... I'm sure they'll be really accepting to your BS cries of propaganda, keyboard warrior.

I bet the talks never happen, after the Olympics/Paralympics end the ROK and US will conduct their annual defense drills and the DPRK will continue to test their weapons. The US Japan and ROK are certainly not beating war drums and the DPRK is certainly not earnest in providing anything substantial for easement of their sanctions.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

To all the bloggers who think this is a Chinese conspiracy and pushing the NKoreans into wedging a break in the alliance. err. WRONG, try again, it was not China who trained and coerced the NKoreans to attack those who lived in the South after WWII. It was Russia. It was Russian guns, bombs, trainers and KGB agents and have been heavily involved in the mastery of deception. China has pretty much said it does not want to be the world police again and again. The only reason they are involved so as to stop the masses from coming in to take their limited resources. The world leaders are trying to push China hard to take the World Police leader something they dont' want to do but will take Asia and happy with that.  However who stands in their way yep Russia. Russia does not want a unified Asia managed by China.  Communism comes from Russia and if you study the ideology of the dictator state of NK it follows all the principles as a puppet state of Russia not China. This is all Russian aggression. The US has been used like  wet mop wiped back and forth for years all over S Korea and it took the MOON to prove it.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

actually this is good news. NK sees how their friendship with SK puts USA/Japan into fits, something a strike wouldn't have been able to do more than once. This however is the gift that keeps on giving, so maybe they'll be diverted to a different tactic to annoy the USA. Unification

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Kim has learned something from Trump. He sent his photogenic sister to the Olympics. She is North Korea's Ivanka.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Tell that to the DPRK soldier with the 10 inch tape worm in his stomach and the bullets that were put in his body when he fled to the south.

I would have used a different example to make your point as the guy who fled and got shot up, evidently admitted to murdering someone before he fled!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

All of the cynics and non-believers.... have been down this road many times before. Those that truly want peace and are hoping for the best... sure their heart is in the right place, but, not gonna happen. Over the last 30 or 40 years we've seen N. Korea, on multiple occasions, put forth a kindly stance or agreement... only to disregard all agreed upon quickly thereafter. Fool me once, shame on you.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Peace or War is two choices

0 ( +0 / -0 )

With the North's military might and the South's technological know-how, they will be unstoppable and never again submissive to America. Life is definitely not even that bad in the North, it's all American and Japanese propaganda. Well done to Moon for seeing through this.

I want whatever this guy is smoking!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Peace or war is two choices

Well... They’re two options.

So they constitute one choice : )

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The news reports  say that North Korean Kim Jong Un’s  sister visiting  Pyongyang  in connection with Olympic games there in February , 2018 , has delivered invitation from Kim Jong Un to  South Korean President Moon for a summit. The invitation  has not been accepted  so far . But one view  in the reports is that the prospect could sow division between the dovish leader , who had argued for engagement with nuclear-armed North to bring it to the negotiating table , and  US President  Donald Trump. Closely relevant to this   slender or imaginatively    look-like developing  perception , readers may  read   this Vedic astrology writer’s alert  of 11 October , 2017  for more care and appropriate strategy in  article - “ Astrological probable alerts for the United States in 2018” - published  from the US  last year in monthly Webzine of  Wisdom Magazine at wisdom-magazine.com/Article.aspx/4647/  on 1 December , 2017.  The related text of the alert  in 2018 , more so in May-June ,  reads as follows :- 

“ May-June 2018.  These months look to be presenting some necessities of increased maneuvering of  strategic nature in national and international scene. Some friendly countries could show tendencies of less cooperative nature or present demand for increased protection or help. Obviously , such circumstances call for a well-considered strategy and more skill for taking decision so as to avoid risk of any probable wastage or something which ought to have not been undertaken”.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

a little reality for 2 or 3 posters here fawning over North Korea and their Olympic delegation

After a 2005 performance, 21 members of North Korea's cheer squad were sent to a prison camp for speaking about what they saw in South Korea

you know the reality of life inside North Korea.

Shame on you.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Not watching the winter olympics this time. The real show will be after the games.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

a little reality for 2 or 3 posters here fawning over North Korea and their Olympic delegation

It is mostly the usual anti-Japan crowd. They are so bitterly and blindly anti-Japan/America, that they would prefer North Korea and are now creating a deluded narrative that everything negative said about the North is a lie and are now swooning over their cheerleaders and KJU's sister as if she were Princess Diana. The narrative includes a heroic NK standing up to America/Japan and trying to reunify SK peacefully, as well as the complete dismissal of NK's horrific human rights record and crimes against humanity.

The cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy of the anti-Japan and anti-America crowd is so astonishing and complete that I'd say these useful idiots should be considered enemy combatants.

The media's treatment of the NK Olympic delegation as if they were saints and they should win the "diplomatic goal" is one of the disgraces of our age, and we will look back at this time in shame and despair once NK is destroyed and we discover the true horror of what was happening within their borders while we sat around fawning over their cheerleaders

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

The cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy of the anti-Japan and anti-America crowd is so astonishing and complete

So astonishing and complete that they've achieved invisibility. There's no anti-Japan or anti-America folks commenting here. Rather people who have studied the ongoing situation in the region and come to the conclusion that there are vested interests at work here. If the DPRK had boycotted the Games, there would still be the usual discord.

that I'd say these useful idiots should be considered enemy combatants.

Lol. Come at me bro ;-)

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Come at me bro ;-)

@Toasted Heretic: Why? Are you saying you are consciously aware that you fit the description of the useful idiot? It generally doesn't apply to people who are consciously aware of this unfortunate role. Those who play this part deliberately however are called something else, which would be just as worrying.

Also, why not address my point about how this is all a farce meant to cover up NK's crimes. Why not comment on them? Do you not think that normalizing and even feting the NK delegation like diplomatic heroes is an unforgivable insult to all its victims as well as legitimizing the most brutal and hideous regime of the past half century and which the UN itself calls "a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world?" Because of a few smiling cheerleaders, should we forgive these crimes? Would you forgive Trump if he smiled for the cameras?

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Also, why not address my point about how this is all a farce meant to cover up NK's crimes. Why not comment on them?

I have, on numerous occasions. I've made it abundantly clear that the regime in the DPRK is despicable. I've also voiced my opposition to the hawks who repeatedly advocate nuclear war and or pre-emptive strikes on the country. Most of whom are calling for destruction, whilst sitting comfortably in their armchairs several thousand miles away.

and we will look back at this time in shame and despair once NK is destroyed

Who is going to destroy North Korea? If you mean the people rising up against the tyrant - I'm all for that. Always have been.

But a resounding NO to the warmongers, otherwise.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I've posted dozens, if not over a hundred times here on the DPRK. I've been fascinated with the place for decades.

I've always been for the people. The dictators can take a running jump. That said; dialogue is the way forward. And little steps, rather than none at all, are preferable.

Nobody is glamorising the regime or the effect it has had on its citizens. But as I've always maintained, a nuclear strike on the country will not help one bit...

Aug. 9, 2017 11:57 am JST Posted in: Trump warns N Korea of 'fire and fury' if it threatens U.S.; North threatens Guam See in context

It's status quo for the country. Has been since its inception. The Kim's demand international recognition and this is how they go about it. I recommend The Two Koreas by the late Don Oberdorfer. An accessible account of the modern history of the DPKR and ROK and how this has all happened before and will happen again.

I'd like to see Kim Wrong Un deposed and jailed by his people. And an end to the regime. In Pyongyang and Washington.

Aug. 3, 2017 09:08 am JST Posted in: U.S. bans travel to N Korea by Americans from Sept 1 See in context

I look forward to the day where citizens from the DPRK can travel freely and widen their horizons. Horizons so limited because of the Kim dynasty.

July 18, 2017 03:39 pm JST Posted in: Japan says time for pressure, not dialogue with N.Korea See in context

Whatever that system is (juche included) it's not communism. It is designed to keep the citizens down, rather than benefit from the fruits of the collective. Under the Kim dynasty; the citizens will remain oppressed and living in fear.

Military action will result in countless lives lost. And not just the citizens of the DPRK but further afield.

It must not be allowed to happen.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Is this a joke? You mean all it takes is a joint participation in the Olympics and the attendance of Kim Jong Un's sister to drive a wedge? This is absurd!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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