North and South Korea agree to restore communication channels, improve ties

[soryang]

North and South Korea agree to restore communication channels, improve ties
PUBLISHED MON, JUL 26 202110:16 PM EDTUPDATED 38 MIN AGO

AP

POINTS
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reached the agreement during several exchanges of letters since April, the presidential office in Seoul said.

The two leaders agreed to “restore mutual confidence and develop their relationships again as soon as possible,” Blue House spokesman Park Soo Hyun said in a televised briefing.

Park said the two Koreas subsequently reopened communication channels on Tuesday morning.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/27/north-and-south-korea-agree-to-restore-communication-channels.html

[elleng]

1. 'restore mutual confidence'

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

2. Reopening communication channels

The two Koreas have been at this point before. North Korea must want something.

Either N. Korea will provoke the South with an incident or the they will throw a tantrum over S. Korea's alliance with the U.S.

[soryang]

3. Any signs of improved relations between the North and South

...are viewed with hostility by the far right government in Japan and the military industrial complex in the US.

VOA Korea increasingly spends its time criticizing the democratic Moon Jae-in administration which they loathe for this very reason. Harry Harris the former US Ambassador to Seoul and the worst US ambassador there in some time, was criticizing the South Korean National Assembly on VOA Korea's "Washington Weekend" program over the weekend. His presence and VOAs attempt to rehabilitate him as some kind of "expert" on Korean affairs just shows how tone deaf US conservatives are.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

4. I served a tour in South Korea

back when Roh Tae-Woo was president.

I remember during our Team Spirit exercise when the North put out a statement decrying the "Yankee aggression".

I enjoyed my 13 months in South Korea; I took a Korean course on base where I learned to read Hangul. I was surprised at how easy it was to learn the sounds and sentence structure. Also, the Olympics were going on in Seoul and I got a few days to go up and see a few events. South Korea did a wonderful job as hosts.

I would like to see true peace between the two countries but I fear as long as the Kim dynasty stays in power it won't happen. I don't know if change will come from within or not but I think in today's internet age it will get harder and harder for the N. Korean government to keep its citizens in the dark about the true reason their country is poor and the government needs to be so repressive.

[soryang]

5. appreciate your response

i lived in Korea for a few years at about the same time you were there. I studied Korean while I was there. I traveled widely in South Korea while there in the armed forces. One thing that I learned from my experience in South Korea is that whatever Americans think they know about Korea is mostly wrong. I've been studying Korean culture, language and history for several years since I retired. I'm virtually immersed in Korean culture here in the US, with my Korean American family and the wonders of digital communications.

The American relationship with South Korea is similar to the Japanese protectorate under the so called Treaty of Eulsa before the complete annexation by Japan. ( I won't go into that experience, I've lived with someone who was raised under the Japanese imperial rule. ) Any attempt by South Korea to make initiatives with North Korea is viewed with hostility by the UNC and the Indo-Pacific command. South Korea isn't allowed any independence in foreign policy. Japan also expects South Korea to operate domestically to suit its tastes.

When I see Americans on VOA, or other US broadcasts telling South Koreans what they should and shouldn't be doing with North Korea, I think they are just trying to protect their cozy little empire over there.

The real secret to this is to allow whatever openings in commerce, communications, cultural and personal exchanges that the North and South agree to take place. Let things take their own course. Nationalism being what it is, the necessary changes in attitudes and the recognition of a common heritage and identity will take place. This is what the US and Japan seek to prevent at all costs. The movement toward unification. China probably isn't too keen on it either, which is the reason that South Korean needs to have an independent relationship with China rather than one lead by the US and Japan.

Do you remember the song at the 1988 Olympics? I was there too. Hand in Hand (we will go over the wall). The song presaged the fall of the iron curtain. It's a song really about the Korean national aspiration.

I think that Americans are in the dark about what the reasons are for the tragedies of the Korean national experience.