Koreas’ unified Olympic presence represents ‘good first step’: expert

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Now that the Olympics have come to a close, progress is being made between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and South Korea.

That’s according to one expert, who says both sides marching together under a unified flag at the Games proved to be a “good first step”.

“I think that the North Koreans want to separate South Korea from the United States, as much as they can,” explains André Gerolymatos, co-director of the Risk, Terrorism, and Security Studies program at Simon Fraser University. “I mean they won’t succeed because South Korea needs America’s military protection. However, by focusing on the South, there are certain benefits for North Korea.”

A main benefit for Pyongyang and the DPRK is food. “They’re chronically short on food, and of course there is an embargo against them. If they can convince the South Koreans to sign some kind of an agreement, some type of an accord whereby South Korea would lend North Korea money with which to buy food or just simply transfer food directly.”

As the South faces the constant threat of attack or invasion by Kim Jong-un and his troops, Gerolymatos says a good relationship between the pair bodes well for Seoul as well. “Remember, North Korea has South Korea, Seoul ringed with a circle of artillery, so they don’t even need to use nuclear weapons. They can inflict a great deal of damage and kill a lot of people through conventional means.”

He admits South Korea possibly has the most to gain, but adds they also have something else to consider. “How much can they trust this American president to support them militarily, should the North do something like open an artillery barrage –which they’ve done in the past, generally in empty places. But what if they hit a city? What if the North launches an invasion? Will this blustering president actually commit American ground forces to defend South Korea?”

As the US imposes new sanctions on the DPRK, Gerolymatos says he thinks the North is trying to “do an end run” on the Americans by going directly to the South Koreans. “And the North knows what we know, that Donald Trump is not a very consistent man. He’s very erratic, he’s a lot of boasting, and you know ‘we’ll drop bombs and kill and destroy.’ But in actual reality, he is not one to do anything important.” He points to the Middle East as an example of this.

Gerolymatos says by getting the South Koreans on board, it could help try to convince the US toward lifting sanctions on the DPRK. “And if they can get around them with South Korea, meaning that South Korea could tell the United States ‘well we have reached an accord with the North, we are satisfied please end the sanctions,’ that would be a very big coup for the Koreans.”

In a sense, he believes Trump is indirectly push the two sides closer together. “In a perverse way, Donald Trump has helped indirectly. Being erratic, being unstable, I think it’s frightened the North Koreans to the degree that it’s making them think outside the box that maybe the best way is to reach an accommodation with the south, rather than do a toe-to-toe step of nuclear weapons with the United States.”

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