Published on April 18, 2019.
Based on Yoshiko Sakurai’s column in Shukan Shincho, this article examines the Moon Jae-in administration’s pro–North Korea and anti-American course, the extraordinary cold treatment at the U.S.–ROK summit, Washington’s strong warning over support for North Korea, and the realities of South Korea’s economic stagnation and falling approval ratings.
It is an important piece for considering the true nature of the Korean Peninsula situation that established media such as NHK have not fully conveyed.

2019-04-18
If NHK’s news department does not know these facts, that alone disqualifies it as journalism, and if it knows them and still does not report them, it is no exaggeration to say that this is a clear violation of the Broadcast Act.
The following is from Yoshiko Sakurai’s serialized column published in the issue of Shukan Shincho released today.
As I have already written, I subscribe to Shukan Shincho every week in order to read the serialized columns of her, a treasure of Japan, and of Masayuki Takayama, the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
Ms. Sakurai tells us facts that NHK’s news programs never convey.
If NHK’s news department does not know them, that alone disqualifies it as journalism, and if it knows them and still does not report them, it is no exaggeration to say that this is a clear violation of the Broadcast Act.
I do not know because I stopped subscribing to the Asahi Shimbun in August five years ago, but it is probably exactly the same as NHK.
Moon Jae-in, a deliberate offender on a pro–North Korea, anti-American course.
Both North and South Korea are being cornered by the United States.
In particular, U.S. pressure on South Korean President Moon Jae-in is subtle and skillful.
On April 11, Mr. Moon had planned to celebrate the “founding of the nation,” but because of the U.S.–ROK summit, he gave up that important commemorative ceremony and visited the United States.
Nevertheless, his meeting with President Trump at the White House ended in an unprecedentedly pitiful result.
Mr. Moon left Seoul on the 10th and arrived in Washington that evening, but no schedule whatsoever had been arranged with the U.S. side.
On the morning of the 11th, he met separately with Secretary of State Pompeo, National Security Advisor Bolton, and Vice President Pence, but it appears that all three criticized Mr. Moon’s pro–North Korea stance.
It is reasonable to think that they emphasized such points as the fact that no intention of denuclearization could be discerned in North Korea, that sanctions relief was out of the question, and that the United States was instead considering strengthening sanctions.
After that, Presidents Trump and Moon held a summit meeting accompanied by their wives.
A summit meeting accompanied by the spouses is ordinarily unthinkable.
Mr. Trump did not see any need to speak one-on-one with Mr. Moon.
Indeed, at the beginning of the meeting, when the media asked who he thought would win the Masters golf tournament, Mr. Trump spoke at length with Mr. Moon sitting beside him.
In the end, Mr. Trump spoke for as long as 27 minutes, while the meeting time with Mr. Moon was an astonishing 2 minutes, and even that through interpreters.
After that came lunch joined by other cabinet members.
On April 12, Hong Young, a former minister at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Japan, spoke on the internet program Genron TV.
“After the U.S.–North Korea summit in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, broke down at the end of February, Mr. Moon sent Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo to the United States to request the holding of a third U.S.–North Korea summit and the lifting of sanctions against North Korea. He also had them say things such as this: that economic aid to North Korea would not burden the United States, that South Korea would bear the burden, and therefore that the Kaesong Industrial Complex and tours to Mount Kumgang should be resumed. The United States rejected everything and notified them that if those were the topics, there would be no U.S.–ROK summit.”
A meal alone.
Nishioka Tsutomu, an expert on Korean affairs and a researcher at the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, also spoke on Genron TV.
“In Korean, eating alone is called honbap. Among young people in South Korea, eating alone has become more common, and the word honbap has become popular. Mr. Moon had honbap on the night of the 10th after arriving in the United States, honbap again on the morning of the 11th, and only at lunch on the 11th did he finally get to eat with the U.S. side. He truly was not being treated as a counterpart.”
Hong states flatly that the harsh U.S. attitude is a cold response to the betrayal of the Moon administration.
What Mr. Moon betrayed was that, in order to make the U.S.–North Korea summit happen, he told the United States that Kim Jong-un had resolved to denuclearize North Korea.
What Kim Jong-un had expressed was not the denuclearization of North Korea, but the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
That means eliminating even the very idea of using U.S. nuclear force to defend South Korea, in other words aiming at the destruction of the U.S.–ROK alliance, and it is entirely different from the total elimination of all the nuclear weapons and related facilities possessed by North Korea.
The Trump administration, which at first had hopes for North Korea’s denuclearization, appears eventually to have become convinced that Kim Jong-un had no intention of denuclearizing and that Mr. Moon had lied.
To restrain Mr. Moon, who was trying to move toward aid for North Korea even in violation of U.N. sanctions, the U.S. government began working directly with South Korean business circles over the head of the Moon administration.
Last September, the U.S. Treasury Department directly telephoned the New York branches of seven South Korean banks and warned them by asking whether they understood that the United States had imposed sanctions on North Korea.
Nishioka said this.
“It is said that South Korean banks have now stopped remittance operations. If funds related to North Korea were included in those remittances, they could be subjected to U.S. secondary sanctions, and all dollar settlements might be suspended. If that happened, the banks would collapse.”
At both the inter-Korean summit at Panmunjom on April 27 last year and the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang on September 18, Mr. Moon brought along many representatives of South Korean companies and leaders of the Kaesong Industrial Complex association.
Mr. Moon climbed Mount Paektu with Kim Jong-un, and at that time he introduced the head of the Kaesong Industrial Complex association to Kim Jong-un and had him make a direct appeal.
“Chairman, please, by all means, reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex.”
In his New Year’s address this year, Kim Jong-un declared, “In response to the wishes of the people of South Korea, we will unconditionally reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” and in response Mr. Moon publicly stated that he would persuade the United States regarding reopening Kaesong.
However, as noted above, the United States maintained a posture of complete refusal toward reopening an industrial complex that would only benefit North Korea.
Approval ratings continue to fall.
Meanwhile, specialists at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul launched a direct phone campaign to the conglomerates and companies that had accompanied Mr. Moon.
They warned them by asking whether they understood that the U.S. government had imposed sanctions on North Korea.
Hong emphasized the following.
“The United States has gained many lessons over 70 years on the Korean Peninsula. And now it is separating Moon Jae-in from South Korean companies. Moon will not listen to U.S. warnings. Then the idea is to appeal directly to companies and to the South Korean people. The United States is pressing them to choose whether they will continue remitting money to a North Korea that refuses to give up nuclear weapons, or whether they will choose trade with the United States and ties with the free world.”
The South Korean people, too, must surely be sensing how dangerous Mr. Moon is.
His approval ratings keep falling.
The economy is stagnating, and the unemployment rate continues to rise.
Nevertheless, over these past two years, Mr. Moon raised the minimum wage by about 30 percent.
He restricted overtime and drastically shortened working hours.
Labor costs have soared, bankruptcies have increased sharply, and unemployment has shot up further, producing a vicious cycle.
Nishioka introduced a reality that sounds almost like a joke.
“Because it would be troublesome if the number of unemployed increased statistically, Mr. Moon created jobs for unemployed people aged 60 and over, such as going to a university once a week to turn off the lights or picking up trash, and had the government pay them wages. He is putting makeup on unemployment statistics with tax money.”
Despite falling approval ratings and U.S. warnings, Mr. Moon’s personnel appointments reveal a strong anti-American will that does not alter his pro–North Korea course.
One example is Kim Yeon-chul, who was nominated as Minister of Unification.
He is an anti-American who opposed the deployment of THAAD, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system, which the United States requested South Korea to deploy, and who advocates the early reopening of the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
Despite opposition in the South Korean parliament, Mr. Moon did not change his mind about this appointment.
Mr. Moon was virtually showing an openly confrontational posture toward the United States, and he may well begin moving toward aid for North Korea, starting with the reopening of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, by means of deceiving the United States.
As Mr. Moon shows signs of recklessness, the United States is strengthening its confrontational stance, while within South Korea opposing forces are gradually gaining strength.
On February 27, Hwang Kyo-ahn was chosen as leader of the Liberty Korea Party.
The 62-year-old former public-security prosecutor, who served as Minister of Justice and Prime Minister under the Park Geun-hye administration, criticizes the Moon administration’s security and economic policies as “policies that ruin the nation.”
The opposition forces are still weak, but even so, Mr. Moon’s footing is by no means secure.
South Korea stands in a state of tension in which anything could happen at any time.