This week, North Korea will be making its highest level state visit to South Korea since 2014, as Kim Yong-nam, the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, is to lead a delegation of top officials to South Korea ahead of the Winter Olympics.
Kim’s visit further underscores a dramatic improvement in relations on the Korean Peninsula over the past month, with very tentative meetings in the DMZ having already netted major participation for the Olympics, and now this major delegation.
That relations have improved that much that quickly is raising questions about whether it’s even possible this happened with no US involvement, or if it could be inferred that the US is engaged in its own behind-the-scenes talks with North Korea as well.
Publicly, the US isn’t admitting any such talks are ongoing, and indeed, they’ve made much of Vice President Mike Pence heading to South Korea for the Winter Olympics specifically to undercut North Korea. Whether that’s what he’s actually doing or not remains to be seen.
If I were a betting man I’d wager that we’ll see huge steps towards reunification this year- and the deed itself within five years. Big changes coming to the Koreas.
Perhaps wishful thinking. But it could also help explain the sense of desperation coming out of Washington and Tokyo.
I don’t think there will be reunification as such but maybe much more contact as I think the US attempt to strong arm the North is more of a way to get at China (either being forced to invade N Korea or being forced to accept millions of Korean refugees escaping the bombing.) I wonder if Beijing is playing the family reconciliation card which would sideline DC.
If I was a betting man, I would bet that these meetings and the Olympics are the quiet before the storm.
They are a frivolous attempt by the North to buy time. Well ok, they bought themselves the end of February to an extent. They will not unify unless there is the unlikely event of the South agreeing to Unite under Kim. It will never happen.
In fact, I’ll bet there is bombing in late 2018, or some time in 2019 at the latest. And since I’m close, I’m not excited about that reality~
no one who seriously considers it thinks unification will happen over night, one of the objectives of a unification plan would be to prevent the north korean regime from collapsing in the process, an orderly unification that has minimal disruptions could take decades of piecemeal moves.
No, if the U.S. really isn’t involved and does not want this reunification (as it would almost certainly require their military withdrawal), the Koreas would have to move quickly to ensure the process is not sabotaged.
I suspect these talks are occurring precisely because there’s no US involvement.
Perhaps the two Ks want to avoid mutual destruction. Trade normalization and cultural missions could be a first step, as decades of adversarial behavior must be overcome. Re-unification is a side issue compared to avoiding a war, especially a nuke war.
Both may be scared sh##less about a US preemptive attack.
Assuming the worst of US intentions has always proven right by history.
South Koreans do not want a war with North Korea.
They know that it would be the genocide of the Korean people.
But the US has shown that it will aid and abet mass murder in the Middle East.
South Korea should break with the US and join the SCO/BRI.
Many naïve comments here. The blame-America-for-everything crowd.
Seems that a lot of people trust North Korea and think that its threatening nuclear war for no good reason is some sort of joke.
That the US makes lots of mistakes does not mean that the North Korea leadership is wise, rational, humane, or has peaceful intentions.
The only country in that region that is doing the threatening is North Korea. They’re a menace. I know this is difficult for some people to see because they have shut their eyes.
No, you’re naive. You can only say what you say because you don’t know the history and context of Korea. And you get your news from MSM. Shouldn’t you know better by now?
North Korea has threatened “nuclear war” if it is attacked.
North Korea a menace? They have waited 65 years for a peace treaty after the US completely destroyed their country, and the USA has threatened them and had regular “exercises with the ally South Korea”. The USA always interfered with South Korea whenever it dared to have peaceful contacts with the North. The shut-eye is you.
Of course there is no way any country could act without Big Brother USA.