Summary
North Korea's head of state, Kim Yong-nam's, will go to Pyeongchang this week for the Winter Olympics. He is the most senior official to ever visit South Korea. Kim Yong-nam's attendance to the opening ceremony was confirmed by North Korea. Both will march under the same flag at the ceremony. Although this shows the two countries relationship improving, its said that it is not likely this will change the nuclear ambitions of North Korea. But it does show that Kim Yong-nam is maybe willing to improve their relationship a little. Kim Yong-nam is the ceremonial head of state,because of this he is usually held responsible for sending messages of condolences or congratulations to other foreign leaders.
Opinion
I think this is a good sign, although I don't think it will bring any drastic changes to the relationship of the two nations i think it’s a good gesture for North Korea to make, even if it apparently has little to no significance.
Questions
What do you think this means for the future of North and South Korea’s relationship?
What significance do you think this trip has?
7 comments:
One person on one trip for one event, even though it is the Winter Olympics, is not going to change the underlying problems that cause the Korean Peninsula to be divided. Like we talked about in class, there are practical challenges to reunification. It would take a large amount of money to help improve North Korea and elevate them to South Korea's standards. At the end of the day, it is the leadership in North Korea that will not allow themselves to be absorbed by South Korea. It's a good start, but the world community has to convince Kim Jong Un that it is better for him personally to step down which would take more prestige and money than he currently has.
Despite North Korea's head of state visiting South Korea, North Korea is an oppressive regime and they haven't changed. Like Natalie said, I don't think that this gesture is going to change the relationship between North and South Korea. There are still many existing problems with North Korea, and it's going to take a lot more than Kim Yong-nam's attendance at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony to fix them. While efforts to open more dialogue between the two countries is good, it's important that we don't ignore North Korea as a threat and that we continue enforcements of sanctions on them.
I think it is fantastic that the North Korean head of state will be attending the Winter Games in South Korea, and while I completely understand the cautious sentiments presented in the earlier comments by Natalie and Christina, I also think that this action by North Korea in addition to their consent to march under the same flag as South Korea could be an indication that relations between the two countries are thawing. As Natalie notes it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which North Korea absorbs South Korea considering the relative strengths of their economies, North Korea is much more likely to be absorbed by South Korea (at a great monetary expense). If the Korean peninsula is to be unified peacefully it will need to be done with North Korea's consent, and with South Korea willing to take on the challenge. The only way those conditions will ever be met is if the two countries are willing to negotiate, and this Winter Olympics is going to be a great way to build relationships ( to break the ice...... get it? cuz it's the Winter Olympics and there is a lot of ice and stuff, and I used the word thawing earlier). Now to abandon my position of optimism for complete cynicism, with North Korean high officials and athletes present at the Games the odds of Kim Jong Un nuking the whole thing has to go way down.
I think this is definite improvement in the relations between North and South Korea: even though it may have little official significance, it does have symbolic significance to the people of South Korea. In addition, I think that since Mike Pence will be at the Olympics at the same time as North Korea's head of state, it is possible that some real dialogue might occur between North Korea and the United States (rather than just arguing over Twitter!).
I definitely think this is great news but like Natalie stated, I doubt it will change anything. It is definitely an improvement and something to applaud that North Korea is beginning to interact more with other countries, especially South Korea and the US, but I really don't think that South Koreans are going to be very welcoming to the North Korean head of state. While North and South Korea heavily depend on each other for trade, they are two very different countries, and I know that most South Koreans are definitely against the idea of getting cozy with North Korea or any thought of reunification. With that being said, I'm pretty curious as to how his interactions with other country's officials will go, especially Mike Pence.
I think this is an improvement between the relations between North and South Korea from a PR standpoint, but I don't think this will change anything of substance. There are much more political issues and economic issues that need to be reconciled before anything of importance can happen.
I feel as if change in relations between North and South Korea are not going to change. As long as something super drastic happens, nothing will be different. Solving this problems involves more than sending a guy there.
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