Winter Olympics 2018: Kim Jong-un goes on charm offensive
THEY’RE being billed as the peaceful Olympics, and even North Korea is on the bandwagon. But the rest of the world is being played.
NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un is leading a charm offensive and using the Winter Olympics to his strategic advantage to charm the West.
However, experts warn against falling into the North’s trap and that a desperate Mr Kim is using the games as a way of easing crippling sanctions.
Millions of viewers watched on Friday as the Winter Olympics opened in PyeongChang amid a spectacle of fireworks, pomp and ceremony.
But it was Mr Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, who has captured much of the attention during her meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
US broadcaster CNN said Mr Kim’s sister was stealing the show at the winter games and had struck a chord with the public while other media dubbed her the “Ivanka of North Korea”.
“I hope Pyongyang and Seoul get closer in our people’s hearts and move forward the future of prosperous unification,” she said in her guest book message, referring to the capitals of North and South Korea.
The Ms Kim has since headed home after a whirlwind three days in South Korea, where she sat among world dignitaries at the Olympics and tossed a diplomatic offer to Seoul aimed at ending seven decades of hostility.
The 30-year-old is an increasingly prominent figure in her brother’s government and the first member of the North’s ruling family to visit the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The North Korean delegation also included the country’s 90-year-old head of state, Kim Yong-nam.
Kim Yo-jong verbally delivered her brother’s hope for a summit with Mr Moon in Pyongyang, a meeting that she said would help significantly improve ties after an extended period of animosity.
The arrival of the North’s athletes last week also generated much fanfare with the media tracking their every move.
However, analysts warn this is all part of Mr Kim’s so-called charm offensive and peace isn’t what the leader is necessarily after.
In an interview with news.com.au last week, leading North Korea expert Dr Leonid Petrov said the move to send the younger Kim to the South was a strategic one on her brother’s part.
The visiting fellow at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific told news.com.au the decision to send Kim Yo-jong, who is a senior member of the party, meant Mr Kim was still represented by a key insider and by the person he trusts most.
Dr Petrov said the country was being pressured by sanctions placed on it over its nuclear and weapons program and that relations with allies China and Russia have deteriorated.
Both countries supported recent sanctions against his regime which meant Mr Kim had lost a vital lifeline.
“This visit (to South Korea) will give him some reprieve,” Dr Petrov said.
CHARM OFFENSIVE
John Blaxland, Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies and director of ANU’s Southeast Asia Institute, said Mr Kim’s charm offensive was working by stealing the limelight from South Korea.
However, Professor Blaxland said this merely fed into the hopes and aspirations of the South Korean people.
“The belligerent rhetoric from the Trump administration has left many very uncomfortable in the South, fearing they will bear the cost of his apparent brinkmanship with massive loss of life in the event of a conflagration,” he said.
“So this move by the North that allows the South to regain some of the initiative from the United States, would be seen by many in the South as a good thing.”
However, Professor Blaxland said sceptics had good reason to be concerned about where this might lead.
“Without question, Kim wants to drive a wedge between the US and South Korean administrations but he also wants to weaken Chinese (and other nations’) resolve in pursuing the UN endorsed sanctions,” he said.
“This initiative undermines the pressure applied that has been ratcheted up in recent months under American leadership and with Chinese support so far. And this is all at virtually no cost to North Korea.”
Professor Blaxland said Mr Kim was playing the South, but it wasn’t the only country “being played.”
KIM SPIN
Park Strategies senior vice president Sean King, an expert on Asian politics, told news.com.au that Mr Kim was playing the game and the west needed to watch his moves more closely.
Mr King said seeing Mr Kim’s sister at the opening event sitting with world leaders made him “want to throw up”.
“I’ve generally taken the view that it’s South Korea’s call to do what it wants on the Olympics and that we should respect our ally’s sovereignty to engage the North as it sees fit,” he said.
“But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disgusted seeing Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, and North Korean nominal head of state Kim Yong-nam seated in the same box as South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US Vice President Mike Pence for the opening ceremony. At least, they were in a different row. But still.”
Mr King said the North may be winning over some people on the South’s nationalist left but the US or Japan weren’t buying it.
Mr Pence has repeatedly warned the North was trying to “hijack the message and imagery of the Olympic Games” with its “propaganda”.
When people around him stood up and cheered for the unified Korean entrance, both Mr Pence and his wife Karen remained seated.
“Outreach to Seoul is but a consolation prize for Pyongyang, as Kim has made clear his preference for direct talks with Washington,” Mr King said.
“But since Trump wouldn’t give him that, he had to settle for this.”
Mr King said this move was concerning.
“The danger is we’ll let our guard down, conveniently overlooking/forgetting the North’s true objective (the absorption of the South on its terms), thus letting money find its way to the North which will only further its weapons program and help sustain the regime,” he said.
Many people on social media also accused the West of falling for Mr Kim’s game and said it was disgraceful that the atrocities the regime has been accused of seem to have been forgotten.
The sadistic torture & murder & persecution that goes on in North Korea is as evil as anything on this planet. The idea that we could put that aside for the Olympics is itself evil. Kim Jong Un brilliantly sees this as an opportunity for propaganda. Hitler did the same in 1936.
— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) February 10, 2018
North Korea tortures its citizens and the penalty for owning a cell phone is death. Some hero #Olympics #NorthKorea
— Grady McNeil (@GradyMcNeil6) February 11, 2018
#CharmOffensive https://t.co/e83HqGMfVc
— Euan Graham (@graham_euan) February 12, 2018
Did everybody covering the Olympics forget what North Korea stands for all the sudden? I don't get it.
— TKW406 (@TKW406) February 11, 2018
If...
— Eric Bolling (@ericbolling) February 10, 2018
- Starving your people
- Oppressing your people
- Killing anyone who opposes your dictator brother
...were a "trialthalon" event at the 2018 Olympics... Kim Jong Un's sister would be favored for the gold medal. https://t.co/9GGRTm1kwE
This fawning over #NorthKorea by the press at the #PyeongChang2018 #Olympics is truly sickening! Reminder, NK is a brutal, repressive terror state that starves, tortures and kills its own people. pic.twitter.com/AWhehDJTeY
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 11, 2018
DIPLOMATIC GOLD
According to analysts who spoke with Reuters, the North has emerged to grab the most important medal of all — diplomatic gold.
“North Korea clearly appears to be winning the gold,” said Kim Sung-han, who served as Korea’s vice foreign minister in 2012-2013 and who now teaches at Seoul’s Korea University.
“Its delegation and athletes are getting all the spotlight, and Kim Jong-un’s sister is showing elegant smiles before the South Korean public and the world. Even for a moment, it appears to be a normal state.”
Writing in the BBC, University of Edinburgh sports lecturer Dr Jung Woo Lee said North Korea has got exactly what it wants from the Winter Olympics.
Not only did the Koreas agree to march together, but the two nations also fielded a unified women’s ice hockey team.
“These athletes are key to the North’s propaganda offensive,” Dr Lee wrote. “Time and time again they pour adulation on their Dear Leader when they win at international events. State media relay these emotive moments to the people back home.
“It shows North Korea winning on an international stage and that is channelled directly back.”
— With wires
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