Dan Coats Visit Aftermath

(Source JTBC News 3.22) Number 2 story today. North Korea withdraws from Kaesong Liaison Office. (No. 1 story on Channel A News Top Ten.) It appears as if North Korea withdrew from the joint North South Liaison office as a response to increasing sanctions from the US.


After three weeks, US comes up with new explanation for failure of Hanoi talks. Andrew Kim, former CIA Korean Center Chief, says, North Korea requested withdrawal of US strategic forces from Hawaii and Guam. Dan Coats cancelled his visit to Panmunjum for unknown reasons. Some Americans say North Korean withdrawal of its Kaesong Liaison delegation doesn't matter because...they're not Koreans? Because they don't like the Moon government anyway? It's just another "edge of cliff" maneuver by the North? Maybe they withdrew because the US completely disregarded advice from their South Korean ally at Hanoi and are currently blocking virtually all joint South Korean economic initiatives with the North. The office had been open for 190 days and was the first such joint office operated by the two Korean states since the Korean conflict.

(Source Channel A News Top Ten 3.22) Request for withdrawal of Swan of Death (B-1 bombers) from Guam. The US strategic resources that make Kim afraid.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few other measures that North Korea can take to damage relations with South Korea, and increase tensions, short of launching a missile. They could start disregarding or deconstructing the extensive measures agreed to in military agreements with South Korea to defuse tensions in the DMZ and the Joint Security Area, and the buffer zones restricting military air and ship activities north and south of the DMZ and Northern Limit Lines in the West and East Seas. Such actions would have the effect of discrediting and destabilizing the Moon government, something about which conservatives in South Korea, and opponents to negotiations in the US could care less.