Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

This is the story as printed in the Chosun Ilbo:

[Ya-ta Boy]

This could be totally irrelevant and unconnected to the events at the east end of the DMZ but it is worth a look at what has been happening at the west end:

Flash of temper livens Korea talksBy Donald Kirk

SEOUL - North Korea has livened up the current round of six-party talks in Beijing with a sideshow at the truce village of Panmunjom in which North Korean guards have been kicking over tables in the one-room, one-story hootch on the line between the two Koreas, all this in the presence of South Korean tourists.

While envoys from the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and China were yakking in Beijing about "verification" of whatever the North is doing to disable its nuclear facilities, US and North Korean colonels traded rhetorical blasts at the critical flashpoint 64 kilometers north of the South Korean capital Seoul where the Korean War armistice was signed in July 1953.

First the United Nations Military Armistice Commission - the nomenclature reflects the role of the UN command structure dating from the Korean War - demanded an end to "intimidating acts" by the North Koreans. The North in turn demanded the meeting in which the senior North Korean colonel denounced the "provocative actions" of the southern side.

The North Koreans accompanied that claim with a warning that "even the slightest provocation against the other side" anywhere near the conference room "may lead to an armed conflict at any moment".

The question was whether or not the increased tensions at the Panmunjom crossing had anything to do with Friday's tragic shooting on the eastern side of the peninsula in which a North Korean soldier shot and killed a 53-year-old South Korean woman who had walked into an off-limits area during a visit to the Mount Kumkang tourist zone. The woman was said to be on an early-morning stroll near a beach when the shooting occurred.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/JG12Dg01.html

The plot possibly just thickened. To the innocently clueless ajumma possibility and the espionage possibility we can add the possibility of a Nork 'warning shot across the bow' to influence the 6 party talks.

[Bondrock]

I think it may have been connected to 2MB's speech, in that the Norks wanted to cut him off at the knees and see if he would still give the speech. I also agree that the 6 party talks are involved.

The Norks are mainly behind the recent protests here in SK too. Amazing how they can manipulate things with their brinkmanship tactics. I admit I don't like it, but also admit that part of me shakes my head in wonder at what they are able to get away with.

[On the other hand]

[Bondrock]

Those ajummas probably wander over the line every day. But this day was the day of warning because of so many reasons such as 2mb and the 6 party talks.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Adventurer]

Look, the ajumma was supposed to be with her group not taking a stroll by herself in North Korea. She wasn't somewhere that others were going to, so she was taking a risk. She was alone i.e. she chose to be away from the group. She didn't realize the seriousness of doing so. Is that the fault of the North Koreans? No. However, they shouldn't have shot her to death.

[On the other hand]

[Adventurer]