‘NK leveraging inter-Korean resort to pull concession’ |
Inter-Korean resort town near Kumgangsan in North Korea. (KCNA-Yonhap)
North Korea is exploiting the inter-Korean resort town on the east coast near Kumgangsan to pull more concessions from South Korea, and will step up pressure to gain more compromises in the weeks to come, experts told The Korea Herald.
The North said Sunday it will expand the South Korean-built tourism facilities in its own way. A year ago in December, Pyongyang insisted Seoul tear down the resort, only to suspend the decision in January over coronavirus concerns.
The tourism zone, which attracted visitors from 1998 to 2008, is the culmination of Seoul’s pro-engagement policies with Pyongyang. The South has repeatedly tried dialogue to keep the key inter-Korean project in place, but could not engage the North recently.
South Korean officials defend controversial propaganda law Follow Us
Question of the Day In this Feb. 16, 2013, file photo, North Korean defectors and South Korean activists prepare to launch helium balloons carrying leaflets against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attached to them, during an anti-North Korea rally denouncing North Korea’s third nuclear . more > By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times - Monday, December 21, 2020
Top South Korean officials on Monday defended a controversial new law banning the flying of leaflets and other propaganda into North Korea by balloon, arguing that the measure will protect citizens living along the militarized border between the two nations.
Washington Free Beacon
List of 100 personnel recommendations including prominent anti-Semites and a former registered foreign agent Quincy Institute / YouTube Screenshot
December 18, 2020 5:39 PM
A host of progressive foreign policy groups has delivered 100 résumés to the Biden transition team in a move intended to pressure the incoming administration to include voices outside the mainstream of American foreign policy.
The list, obtained by the
Washington Free Beacon, includes a dozen scholars from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, the think tank bankrolled by Charles Koch and George Soros.
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It also includes a onetime Human Rights Watch and Quincy Institute official, Sarah Leah Whitson, who solicited donations from Saudi Arabia by promising to attack pro-Israel groups. Whitson left the Quincy Institute shortly after amplifying an anti-Semitic tweet celebrating Israeli suffering from the coronavirus and lamenting that
Among the most notable selections by this coalition which includes the Progressive Change Institute, Common Defense, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) is Trita Parsi, whom the list endorsed to oversee Middle East affairs on the White House National Security Council.
Parsi, NIAC s cofounder, now serves as vice president of the Quincy Institute, an isolationist think tank bankrolled by billionaires George Soros and Charles Koch. Parsi has been one of the most visible champions of diplomacy with Iran and played a critical role in promoting the Obama administration s 2015 nuclear deal. His potential selection for a top national-security post in the Biden administration has raised eyebrows among regional experts and former U.S. officials, who told the