North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has refused any flood aid from South Korea, claiming that the border lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus is more important to his impoverished country.
In a Politburo meeting on Aug. 13, Kim singled out “two crises,” the recent flood damage and the coronavirus epidemic. But he told officials “not to accept any outside aid for flood damage but shut the border tighter and carry out strict epidemic prevention.”
The snub probably targets South Korea, which offered aid for flood victims earlier this month.
Kim is still sulking because he apparently felt betrayed by South Korean promises to persuade the U.S. to lift sanctions even though he has done nothing to dismantle the crackpot country’s nuclear program.
The South Korean government has been making increasingly frantic attempt to engage the North to shore up its core support among voters here, but to no avail.
Earlier North Korea blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, in an explosion of such force that it damaged several nearby buildings.
A former security official here speculated that Kim is unable to forgive his “humiliation” in Hanoi in February last year, when U.S. President Donald Trump walked out on him.
Kim’s father Kim Jong-il had no such scruples, and was always ready to hold out his hand for aid from South Korea even as he reneged on every promise he made to the outside world.
When a typhoon left 46,000 North Koreans homeless in 2000, Kim senior accepted 300,000 tons of rice and 200,000 tons of corn from South Korea.
And when the North was hit by floods in 2010, he took 5,000 tons of rice, 3 million instant noodle cups and 3,000 tons of cement from Seoul.
It is unclear how real Kim junior’s fears are that the aid or those bringing it would somehow be contaminated by coronavirus, or whether he is simply grandstanding.
In the Politburo meeting, Kim also promoted Ri Pyong-chol, who has been in charge of the development of nuclear weapons and missiles, to the body’s presidium. That provides further fodder for the theory that he has retreated into a hardline stance and wants to focus on scaring the world into submission with his weapons rather than engaging in dialogue.
Source: Chosunilbo & Chosun.com
