North Korea Suddenly Starts Covering the Political Crisis in South Korea, Offering North Koreans Lessons in Democracy in Action

It seems that the North Koreans are getting lessons in democracy in action via the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. After saying nothing for several days about the South Korean president’s disastrous martial law decree, KCNA has issued two reports on the drama below the Demilitarized Zone.“Protest actions for impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol intensified in ROK,” reads the headline on one of the communist regime’s reports. It reported more or less accurately for communist correspondents on “another candlelight rally” in front of the national assembly at Seoul, the free Korean capital.Sure, the report insists on attaching the word “puppet” to references to President Yoon and South Korea’s regime, but otherwise it’s more or less a rewrite of news reports on the South’s explosive display of democracy in action. One has to ask whether North Koreans might be wondering about chances for demonstrating against their own leader, Kim Jong-un.Earlier, KCNA reported on the “convocation of the Eleventh Plenary meeting of the Eighth Central Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea,” but obviously no one in the North is daring to oppose whatever Mr. Kim might have in mind. Still, the North’s reporting is detailed enough to raise the question, to which so far there’s no answer: Might secret malcontents up there be getting some ideas?“Labour, civic and public organizations formed the ‘Emergency Action for Immediate Resignation of Yoon Suk Yeol and Great Social Reforms,’ a solidarity organization to sponsor the campaign for ousting puppet Yoon Suk Yeol,” KCNA reported. “The ‘People Power Party’ is bitterly condemned after the vote for the motion of Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment and the political chaos and antagonism between the ruling and opposition parties are getting worse.”All of which may be true, but so far North Korea, besides letting its people know about the exercise in democracy and freedom of speech in the South, is showing no signs of attempting to exploit the South’s unrest militarily. Mr. Kim has brandished nuclear weapons and missiles and declared South Korea “the enemy,” but officially is remaining silent.That’s a relief to South Korea, whose armed forces have forgotten about staging exercises more complicated than routine small-unit walkabouts. No one is talking about playing war games with American troops, as sanctioned by Mr. Yoon a number of times during his presidency, but behind the scenes senior American and South Korean officers are worried.“South Korea’s military is facing an unprecedented crisis, raising national security and public safety concerns,” South Korea’s best-selling newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, said, reporting that 16 “senior military leaders have been dismissed or are under investigation” for their roles in the vain attempt to keep the opposition Minju, or Democratic Party, from rejecting Mr. Yoon’s martial law decree.“The military is uncertain about whose orders to follow in the event of an emergency,” the paper quoted a military official as saying. “The confusion extends to frontline military units directly linked to national security.” Deepening the confusion, the defense ministry is now under the aegis of an acting minister, as the former defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, is now under arrest.“Many leaders from key units crucial to countering North Korean threats, including the Capital Defense Command, Special Warfare Command, Counterintelligence Command, and Intelligence Command, have been unable to carry out their roles,” Chosun Ilbo said. A former army deputy chief of staff, Yeo Un-tae, was quoted as warning, “Military readiness is at its weakest since the Korean War.” It is “highly questionable whether the chain of command will function properly during an emergency,” he said, while military control is “unstable.” The North Korean press reported not a word about the military implications of South Korea’s political crisis but referred to South Korea as “the ROK” — a reference to the Republic of Korea and quite different from its previous references to the ROK as “south Korea” with a lower-case “s.” That’s because Mr. Kim sees the ROK as not only the “enemy” but as a separate country, not part of his own Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korea Suddenly Starts Covering the Political Crisis in South Korea, Offering North Koreans Lessons in Democracy in Action

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