North Korea’s motives murky in attack on South’s president
The chances for peace on the Korean Peninsula have suffered another, although not necessarily fatal, setback.
In a harshly worded statement Friday, Kim Jong Un’s North Korean regime formally announced that it is breaking off all talks with South Korea.
The talks, which were announced with much fanfare after an April 2018 meeting between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, have effectively been on hold since March. But technically, the so-called Panmunjom Declaration agreed to by the two Koreas was still in play. Now that no longer seems to be the case.
“Implementation of the Panmunjom Declaration is now at a deadlock,” the North said in a statement attributed to its Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country.
“We have nothing to talk about any more with the South Korean authorities, nor have we any idea to sit down with them again.”
The North said it couldn’t take Moon’s peace overtures seriously while South Korea continued to hold joint military exercises with the U.S. In particular, it mocked a conciliatory speech that Moon gave Thursday in which he called for another round of talks between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula by 2045.
These remarks, the North said, were so hypocritical that they would make “the boiled head of a cow provoke sidesplitting laughter.” Moon, the statement went on to say, “is indeed an impudent guy, rare to be found.”
North Korea is famous for its invective. It is also famous for making rhetorical U-turns — as it has done with Trump, whom it once called a “dotard” but now praises.
But the savage personal attack on the South Korean president came out of the blue. And as the North must surely know, it promises to damage Moon politically at home.
Moon has made peaceful rapprochement with the North his personal crusade. As long as this crusade gets results, he remains relatively popular. But many South Koreans are deeply suspicious of the North, arguing that Moon’s attempt at reconciliation is dangerously naive.
Whomever South Koreans choose to replace Moon when his single term of office ends in 2022 could well be more hostile to the North.
What then are the North’s motives? As always, they remain murky. The attack on Moon may be simply aimed at the joint exercises. Or it could be a roundabout attempt to pressure Trump into easing economic sanctions against the North.
In the past few weeks, Kim has tried to get Trump’s attention by launching missiles into the sea between Japan and Korea. Two more projectiles were fired Friday. But so far, the U.S. president has been remarkably blasé, noting that the missiles were small and insisting that their launch has not dimmed his affection for Kim.
Breaking off talks with the South allows the North Korean dictator to articulate his displeasure in another fashion.
Conversely, the attack on Moon may be designed to reassure hard-line factions in the North Korean regime that Kim has not lost his bite.
Whatever the motive, North Korea has made a dangerous move. Peace can come to the Korean Peninsula only if all parties agree. And one of those parties is South Korea. The days when Washington could speak for Seoul are long gone.
There is, however, one saving grace to all of this. The decision to break off talks with the South was not attributed directly to Kim. That should make it easier for the North to reverse course — if it wants to.
The savage personal attack on the South Korean president came out of the blue. And as the North must surely know, it promises to damage Moon politically at home