The South Korean government is so keen on the supposed peace initiative represented by North Korea's attendance at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that they've been making concession after concession to placate their awkward compatriots. This, remember, is an Olympics that South Korea won in a hard-fought contest against Germany's Munich and France's Annecy. They should reasonably expect considerable positive coverage for their country after all this effort. They've certainly spent enough money: the Winter Olympics Stadium was built at a cost of over $100 million, and is scheduled to be demolished after the games.
Yet all the pre-games publicity has focused almost entirely on the North. Politics has intervened. The North and South teams will march out under a united banner. North Korean women ice hockey players are to be drafted in to the South Korean team although they don't reach the same standards. Other athletes are being allowed to compete despite not qualifying in the usual way. North Korean musicians, whose only style is regime propaganda, are scheduled to give shows to what will most likely be a world-wide audience.
So how are the North Koreans responding to all this largesse from their Southern neighbours? From the Daily NK:
An order for a new round of ideological training and combat preparation for the entire military was handed down by Kim Jong Un on January 19. It appears that the regime is taking action to prevent a lapse in discipline in the midst of warming inter-Korean relations due to cooperation for the Winter Olympics.
Speaking with Daily NK on January 22, a source in North Hamgyong Province said that the order stated that "regardless of whether there has been (North-South) dialogue, the military must remain unchanged and ready at any moment to use our weapons to unify the fatherland."
"In an effort to spur the military, they are emphasizing that the situation could change at any moment, and that ‘the armed forces must, through the second session of winter training and Kyobang training simulating actual war, be able to hit the enemy with a devastating blow and fiercely and violently crush the enemy stronghold,'" he added.
This peace initiative would seem to be something of a one-way street.
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