In my last post on North Korea, I theorized that China had compelled North Korea to denuclearize after the mountain covering the rogue regime’s test area has collapsed and the border area between the two nations was threatened will fallout.
However, evidence continues to mount that North Korea’s promises may be good this time around and that the peace proposal is not a stall for weapon development time.
My report on the worm-infested, defecting soldier mentioned the South Korean loudspeaker system blaring pop music to its neighbor. The equipment is now being taken down.
Along the fortified border that divides the Korean Peninsula, soldiers in both North and South Korea began dismantling loudspeakers that for decades helped wage a war of words — blaring propaganda over the armistice line.South Korean soldiers in helmets and gloves took down their country’s loudspeakers in front of journalists and snapping cameras on Tuesday. North Korea started to remove its speakers earlier in the day, a South Korean military officer told The Associated Press.Both Koreas switched off their broadcasts in anticipation of last week’s historic summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. After the meeting last Friday, the two leaders announced that they had agreed to a peace treaty and the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea is also shifting its time 30 minutes to align with its southern neighbor.
North Korea will shift its time zone 30 minutes earlier to align with South Korea starting May 5 “as a first practical step for national reconciliation and unity,” the North’s state media said Monday.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said it was “a painful wrench” to see two clocks showing different Pyongyang and Seoul times on a wall at the summit venue during the historic meeting Friday with President Moon Jae-in, KCNA said.
Finally, and the data point I think confirms the move to bond with South Korea and make peace with the United States is real: The North Koreans want McDonald’s to open a franchise in the capital.
As Kim Jong-un lifts the veil on his secretive regime and vows to shut down his nuclear test site, it has now emerged his regime is eager for former enemy the US to invest in North Korea and expand its economy.Chung In Moon, special adviser to President Moon Jae-in, suggested American fast food giant McDonalds could even set up outlets in Pyongyang as tensions between North Korea and the West thaw.He said: “They want American investment.””They want American investment coming to North Korea.
The North Koreans have even expressed a desire to have a Trump Tower in their country. While such investment is a long way off, it is far closer to being reality than it was before Nov. 2016. Among the many issues to be addressed in the upcoming weeks is the matter of the 3 Americans who are now being held in North Korea and offering restitution to the parents of Otto Warmbier, the young man who died after being tortured in a North Korean prison.
However, the speed of the changes reminds me of how swiftly Eastern Europe changed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I will pray that North and South Korea stay on the fast track to peace.
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