A lookalike of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves in the stands at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. REUTERS/Staff

A man dressed to impersonate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walked through Pyongyang's cheer squad at the Winter Olympics — and its members looked unimpressed, to say the least.

Though it's unclear whether this is the same impersonator who crashed the games' opening ceremony, the man was rushed away from the squad, much as the impersonator was on Friday.

The cheerleaders looked less than thrilled to see a likeness of Kim before them.

The squad's members are hand-picked and unpaid, train for months at a time, and must meet strict physical requirements. Some have reportedly been imprisoned in the past for talking about the world they see outside of North Korea.

To see more pictures, check out Ohmy Star, which first reported the incident. Anna Fifield, The Washington Post's Tokyo bureau chief, also tweeted an image:</s>A lookalike of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves in the stands. REUTERS/Staff

A man dressed to impersonate North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un walked through Pyongyang's cheer squad at the Olympics — and they looked unimpressed to say the least.

Though it's unclear if this is the same impersonator who crashed the games' opening ceremony, the man was rushed away from the squad, much as the earlier impersonators were shoed away on Friday.

The cheerleaders looked less than thrilled to see a likeness of Kim before them. The squad is hand-picked for meeting stringent physical requirements, they are unpaid and train for months at a time, and have been imprisoned in the past for talking about the world they see outside of North Korea.

To get a feel for the pictures, check out Star.OhMyNews.com, which first reported the incident. Anna Fifield, Tokyo bureau chief for The Washington Post, also tweeted an image of the incident:</s>I’m not the only one who’s noticed that American animus towards the world’s most repressive and tyrannical country—North Korea—has waned during the Winter Olympics. To represent his country, dictator Kim Jong-un sent his 30 year old sister Kim Yo-jong, who is now being seen as more appealing than Mike Pence. Well, she may be more attractive, but remember that Trump and his regime, though odious, is infinitely preferable to the DPRK. Further the North Korean cheerleaders are getting favorable attention, and everyone seems to think that the North Korean presence is some kind of harbinger of peace. It’s all beer and skittles over there.

Well, I do favor us trying to talk to North Korea, but as I’ve said before, I think it’s futile. If we know anything, it’s that Kim Jong-un will give up neither his nuclear program nor his relentless propaganda campaign against the U.S.—much less the shameful and disgusting way he treats his people—and I see little to be gained from talks. Well, let us still talk to them if it will make us feel better, but let us not think that North Korea is now serious about any settlement that doesn’t let it have nuclear weapons or dominate a unified Korea. South Korea, I maintain, was duped, and what we see is a “charm offensive” by the DPRK that’s actually working. It’s almost as if people hate Trump (and his emissary Pence) so much that they’re willing, in their anger, to smile on a representative of the world’s worst country.

BuzzFeed recounts some of the “normalization” of the DPRK in an article called (apparently to appeal to the kids) “PSA: Kim Jong Un’s sister is not your fave shade queen. She’s a garbage monster.” (Subtitle: “What the hell is wrong with you people?”)

And here’s some of that normalization:

Look at this bullshit!:

Here’s the headline of the NYT story (click on screenshot), which spends a lot of time criticizing Pence, adding just a bit at the end to tell us that the DPRK has “repression and human rights abuses”.

And this from a credulous Tweeter:

For a riposte to the following WaPo tweet (don’t they know better?), read Frank Bruni’s column in today’s New York Times: “The Ivanka Trump of North Korea? Oh, please.” It ends with these two sentences: “But there can be no mistake: America is in a rotten moment. North Korea is rotten to the core.”

And USA Today called the North Korean cheerleaders, who creep me out, “amazing” and “a huge hit”, adding this tweet:

Do we really need to be reminded of the perfidies of North Korea: how the government starves its people, prevents them from having any outside contact with the world, imprisons them in horrible camps (along with their families) for imagined crimes, and executes them in public, forcing people to watch? Has Donald Trump got us so deranged us that we’ll ignore all these human rights abuses in admiration of Kim Yo-Jong’s “style”?

The Hill also reproves the media for their unseemly fawning in a piece called “At the Olympics, North Korea’s appalling media boosters.” An excerpt:

Kim Yo-Jong, sister to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, received not merely respectful, but even complimentary coverage. Most egregious among the media outlets was a CNN piece titled “Kim Jong Un’s sister is stealing the show at the Winter Olympics.” It’s opening line stated “If diplomatic dance were an event at the Winter Olympics, Kim Jong Un’s younger sister would be favored to win gold.” This is bizarre and disgraceful. For one, Kim Yo-Jong is not a powerless dignitary or mere figurehead family member in North Korea. She is the director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Worker’s Party of Korea, where she helps oversee the brainwashing and psychological terror apparatus of the North Korean state. The rush to praise the “diplomacy” of a woman whose country currently holds around 100,000 political prisoners in multi-generational concentration camps is malicious stupidity. Kim is also a member of the Politburo, and is considered one of the most senior and trusted advisors to Kim Jong Un. She is specifically sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for her role in North Korea’s crimes against humanity. By all accounts, Kim is not just complicit in the atrocities of the North Korean state: she is an enthusiastic participant. While the South Korean government has to treat Kim according to protocol, there is absolutely no excuse for journalists to fawn over her.

This is from Think Progress (click on screenshot). Historic? We’ll see about that. And again, it’s mostly critical of Pence:

Now I’ll grant that Pence could have been civil to Kim Yo-jong, and shook her hand, but to say that this is some kind of contest that North Korea is winning is to neglect the whole historical background of the conflict. It is to be duped—just as many on the American Left were duped by Stalin’s Soviet Union.</s>In an extremely rare display of effusive praise, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted dictator Kim Jong-un on Tuesday lauding South Korea’s treatment of a Pyongyang delegation to the Winter Olympics as “very impressive” and expressing gratitude that Seoul “specially prioritized the visit of the members of the DPRK.”

The KCNA is controlled by the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, run by Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong. Kim Yo-jong debuted on the international stage as a special envoy to her brother this weekend in South Korea, meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and inviting Moon to visit Pyongyang.

Kim Yo-jong appears to have been pleased by her treatment in the rival nation, as the news outlet she controls reported praise for Seoul from the nation’s Supreme Leader.

Dictator Kim reportedly met his sister, ornamental head of government Kim Yong Nam, and other members of the high-level delegation to the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang on Monday.

“Kim Yo Jong who activated at the special instruction of Kim Jong Un made the detailed report on her contacts with the south side’s high-level figures such as President Moon Jae In and the south side’s intention and movement of the U.S. side and others which she grasped through her activities,” KCNA notes.

“After receiving the delegation’s report, Kim Jong Un expressed satisfaction over it and said that very impressive were the features of the south side which specially prioritized the visit of the members of the DPRK side who took part in the Winter Olympics,” the report continues.

Kim’s regime appears pleased with the work of Kim Yo-jong, who garnered applause from many on the American left seeking to find anything positive about North Korea for their coverage. South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported on Tuesday that Kim Yo-jong, who returned to Pyongyang on Sunday, “returned to a hero’s welcome” according to photos carried by Rodong Sinmun, another North Korean state outlet. Kim Yo-jong controls all North Korean state outlets.

“The North Korean delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics was welcomed back by honor guards at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport on Sunday night,” Chosun reports, citing Rodong reportedly publishing “pictures on the front page every day of Kim Yo-jong talking or standing with President Moon Jae-in. It was the first time the Workers Party organ has ever published a picture of Moon.”

While North Korea’s print media has covered the Olympics, its broadcast media – which Kim Yo-jong also controls – has yet to show any footage of the Winter Olympics. Instead, KCNA and Rodong have written about the Olympics only in the context of Kim’s delegation, such as a report about Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo-jong watching a women’s hockey match together on Sunday.

“The appearance of the players and the impressive picture of the cheering groups once again made the spectators feel keenly that the Korean nation is a homogeneous nation which can’t live separated from each other,” the report stated. It did not note that the Swiss team they were playing won the match.

Moon’s efforts to involve North Korea in the Olympics resulted in hundreds of athletes, cheerleaders, political figures, and assorted North Korean delegates invading PyeongChang in anticipation of the Games. Moon’s leftist government is also now considering a delegation to Pyongyang to build upon the alleged progress made after Kim Yo-jong invited him to Pyongyang.

South Korea’s Joongang Ilbo cites sources within Moon’s administration to report that Chongwadae officials are working on a proper response to the invitation. At the time, Moon responded that he hoped the two sides could create the “environment” for such a visit to happen. The newspaper claims that, “before Kim Yo-jong arrived in South Korea with a high-level delegation, that the Blue House was considering sending a special envoy to the North if Kim Yo-jong were to deliver a personal message from Kim Jong-un, depending on the content of the message.” South Korea is reportedly not only seeking diplomatic talks, but military talks. Moon did not bring up North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program while meeting with officials from that country, nor did he condemn the long list of human rights abuses attributable to the Kim family. South Korean newswire service Yonhap reported that North Korea had previously agreed in the abstract to military talks, but no time, place, or roster of officials has yet to be chosen.</s>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has praised the welcome the South gave his sister and said it was important to build on the Olympics-driven momentum for dialogue on the divided peninsula.

Kim’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong — one of his closest confidantes — was part of the nuclear-armed North’s diplomatic delegation to the Games that made worldwide headlines.

She delivered his invitation for the South’s President Moon Jae-in to come to a summit in Pyongyang — which he did not immediately accept, saying the “right conditions” were needed.

The North is subject to multiple sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, and conducted dozens of weapons tests last year.

But the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang have triggered extraordinary scenes, with Moon and Kim cheering a unified Korean women’s ice hockey team together — along with the North’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam — and attending a concert by Pyongyang’s artistes.

Even so analysts warn that the positive mood could evaporate quickly after the Games, when the US and South are due to hold major joint military exercises that always infuriate the North.

Kim Jong Un met the delegation on Monday after it returned to Pyongyang, the official KCNA news agency reported.

It indirectly cited Kim as saying it was important to enhance “the warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue” created by the Winter Olympics — which for months the North refused to say whether it would attend.

He gave instructions for “practical measures” to do so, it added, without giving details.

The South’s appreciation of the North’s presence and the welcome it gave its representatives were “impressive”, he said, thanking Seoul for its “sincere efforts”.

The KCNA report is the first official reaction from Kim — the third generation of the dynasty to rule the isolated and impoverished North — since his sister’s charm offensive in the South.

Kim Yo Jong’s visit made her the first member of the family to set foot in the country since the end of the Korean War.

Every detail of her trip was scrutinised, from the clothes she wore and her facial expressions to the bag she was carrying and even her handwriting.

But it left South Koreans divided, with some hoping it might usher in a real opportunity for reconciliation while others angrily burned the North Korean flag and criticised Moon for being too soft on Pyongyang.

How deep the rapprochement runs, how far it will go and how long it will last once the Games are over remain very open to question, analysts say.

Pyongyang’s Olympic diplomacy has also highlighted differences between Seoul and its key protector the United States over how to handle the reclusive regime and its nuclear weapons programme.

Washington insists that Pyongyang must take concrete steps towards denuclearisation before any talks can begin, while Moon — whose parents escaped from the North in a US evacuation during the war — has long argued for closer involvement to bring it to the negotiating table.</s>“It’s an odd situation where you have a country, North Korea, that’s been developing nuke weapons in contravention of UN sanctions appearing quite well,” Bristow said, “and a country like America, which has been the staunch ally of South Korea, coming across as quite badly.” Vice President Mike Pence, who attended the Games, was not noted for his “smile diplomacy;” he did not greet the North Korean emissary, nor stand for the arrival of the joint Korean women’s hockey team. Smiles aside, North Korea remains an international pariah that oppresses its citizens, assassinates its critics, brutally treats its foreign prisoners, and relies on crime to finance its activities. Vice President Mike Pence might have, in the words of Reuters, “cast one of the loneliest figures at the opening event” or, as the Times quoted analysts as saying, “missed an opportunity” for diplomacy, but the Trump administration, even when sending mixed signals on North Korea, has been consistent about one thing: Kim Jong Un’s is a rogue regime. The friendly image of Kim Yo Jong, and the handshakes she shared with South Korean President Moon Jae In, belie a few realities: The two Koreas are technically still at war. The nature of the North Korean regime hasn’t changed. Kim Jong Un still wants to fit a nuclear warhead onto an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the contiguous United States. And he already has conventional weapons that threaten much of South Korea.

As recently as last month, Kim warned “the entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, a nuclear button is always on my desk.” (President Trump responded saying his button was “much bigger and more powerful.”) There were even concerns North Korea might act to disrupt the Winter Olympics, but then, suddenly, the two Koreas began talking, and the North agreed to send athletes, cheerleaders, and taekwondo-demonstration teams. North Korea suspended its missile and nuclear tests, and the U.S. and South Korea suspended their joint military exercises until April, well after the Olympics end. Pyongyang’s attempted rapprochement with Seoul might be genuine, or it could be a ploy to get relief from the sustained U.S.-led pressure that has resulted in the strongest sanctions regime at the UN against North Korea. But it’s premature to say that the diplomacy between the Koreas is working (or not working). There have been past attempts at sporting diplomacy between the two countries—and after several photo-ops they have ultimately collapsed. Pence, who represented the U.S. at the Opening Ceremony, was in an awkward position in Pyeongchang. Had he engaged with Kim Yo Jong, he would have faced criticism of a different sort—like the kind Madeleine Albright, the Clinton-era secretary of state, got for meeting Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. That visit followed years of quiet diplomacy yielding a deal under which the North agreed to ultimately end its nuclear program. (The deal eventually collapsed.) But the circumstances now are decidedly different.

There has been little direct contact between the U.S. and North Korea for years. The Obama administration engaged in what it called “strategic patience” with North Korea, essentially ignoring it diplomatically while tightening sanctions. The Trump administration’s policy is somewhat similar—even if it is known as “maximum pressure and engagement.” There have been few signs of actual engagement so far, though Pence expressed willingness to talk to the North Koreans. The North might have succeeded for the moment in driving at least a symbolic wedge between the U.S. and South Korea, but there’s little indication that this can be sustained in the long term. Pence maintains there is “no daylight” between the U.S. and its regional allies on North Korea. The North Koreans invited Moon to Pyongyang, putting the South Korean president, who has yet to respond to the offer, in a position where he must choose between offending his closest ally, the United States, and forgoing the possibility, however slim, of peace with North Korea. Ultimately, South Korea and the United States, as well as Japan, want North Korea to renounce its nuclear-weapons program. Pyongyang says it views that program as a deterrent against U.S. aggression. The Trump administration’s critics may be awarding the North Koreans a gold medal for its diplomacy at the Olympics, but it’s the period after the games that will matter. North Korea’s past actions suggest that it will revert to the policies that it’s best known for—at least until the next time sanctions begin to bite the regime. That’s when it’ll likely again trot out its “Army of Beauties” or the “Ivanka Trump of North Korea.”</s>Kim Jong-un has been pictured linking arms with his beaming sister as they posed with members of an Olympic delegation following its 'successful' trip to South Korea.

The North Korean dictator is shown in a relaxed photo flanked by younger sister Kim Yo-jong and one of his closest aides, head of state Kim Yong-nam.

Yo-jong and Yong-nam have returned from Pyoenchang where they were part of a delegation from the secretive state visiting the South for the Winter Olympics.

Today, Kim said he wanted to boost the 'warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue' with South Korea following their return - as his foes reiterated the need to keep up maximum pressure and sanctions.

Kim Jong Un gave instructions for measures aimed at more inter-Korean engagement after his younger sister Kim Yo Jong led a three-day visit to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, North Korea's state media reported on Tuesday.

It did not specify what those instructions were.

The United States has appeared to endorse deeper post-Olympics engagement between the two Koreas that could lead to talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

South's President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday the United States is open to talking with North Korea, Moon's spokesman told a briefing.

'The United States sees inter-Korean dialogue in a positive light and has expressed its openness for talks with the North,' Moon told Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, according to the spokesman.

U.S. officials also want tough international sanctions to be ramped up to push North Korea to give up its nuclear programme.

That sentiment was repeated by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday, who said Moon had agreed it was necessary to keep up maximum pressure on North Korea.

Last year, North Korea conducted dozens of missile launches and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of U.N. resolutions as it pursues its goal of developing a nuclear-armed missile capable of reaching the United States.

Japanese officials took pains to stress there was no daylight between Japan, the United States and South Korea on their approach to dealing with North Korea.

The United States' 'fundamental policy' aimed at denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula has not changed, said a senior Japanese diplomat in a briefing to lawmakers.

'The goal is denuclearisation and the process is dialogue for dialogue, action for action, so if North Korea does not show actions, the United States and Japan will not change their policies,' he said.

A senior military official stationed at the border between North and South Korea told Reuters North Korea has lowered the volume of its border propaganda broadcasts since the Olympics' opening ceremony on Feb. 9.

'I still hear it, but it is much less than before,' said the official who is stationed on the southern side of the border and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Moon, who was offered a meeting with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang via his sister, has been pushing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

Seoul is planning to push ahead with its plans for reunions of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War in order to sustain the dialogue prompted by the North Korean delegation's visit.

Meanwhile, Trump urged Russia to do more in urging North Korea to scrap its nuclear programme, the White House said on Monday, aimed at intensifying the pressure campaign on Pyongyang.

Talk of an inter-Korean summit, which would be the first since 2007 if it happened, come after months of tension between Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington.

As with North Korean media over the weekend, the KCNA report again made no mention of the summit offer made to Moon.

Rather, Kim Jong Un gave his gratitude to Seoul for their 'sincere efforts' to prioritise the delegation's visit, which were 'very impressive', KCNA said.

Moon and his administration hosted several meetings and meals for the delegation during their stay at the presidential Blue House and luxury five-star hotels while Moon personally accompanied Kim Yo Jong for events at the Olympics as well as an orchestra concert.

In addition to the high-level delegation, hundreds of North Koreans including an orchestra and cheer squad have visited South Korea for the Winter Olympics.

The cheerleading team will be attendance at the united women's ice hockey team's final game in the Olympics on Wednesday, facing old rival Japan to conclude preliminary round play.</s>North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un invited South Korea's President Moon Jae-in for a summit to be held in Pyongyang. Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong extended his brother's invitation to Moon personally at the Blue House in Seoul last Saturday.

Kim Yo Jong along with other North Korean officials arrived in South Korea last week for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Moon and Kim Yo Jong who were sitting near each other during the ceremony shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

On Saturday, Moon, Kim Yo Jong and other delegates had lunch together and held a historic meeting at Seoul's presidential palace. One of the highlights during the meeting was Kim Yo Jong's blue folder that sparked speculations among the media that it might have contained a document bearing a message from Kim Jong-Un to Moon.

There are still no further updates on the invitation presented by North Korea to Moon. However, the president of the South is open as long as the meeting was finalized with mutual conditions between the rival countries. The rogue country has not provided any new information after completing its visit to South Korea.

If the summit was ever agreed upon by both countries, it will be the first meeting between South and North leaders since 2007. The South side is hoping to spark a productive communication with the North for further discussions. South Korea are also in the midst of encouraging the North to allow more family reunions in the coming days to unite divided families by the Korean War. South Korea's Ministry of Unification on Monday said North Korea's three-day visit is a good sign that the latter is in favor of improving inter-Korean ties. "The visit shows North Korea's will to improve inter-Korean ties is very strong and if needed it will take unprecedented and aggressive measures," the Ministry said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.</s>What the North Korean dictatorship Kim Yo-jong is representing at the Pyeongchang Winter Games is really like

Faster, fitter, stronger— but little equality for women.

The Pyeongchang Winter Games have been a soft power coup for Kim Jong-un, thanks to his dictatorial regime’s savvy use of women to spruce up North Korea’s image. Rocket Man, as President Donald Trump famously dubbed Kim, sent his photogenic 30-year-old sister Kim Yo-jong and an all-female cheerleading squad as emissaries to the South— a move that won the hearts of social media users and some Western commentators.

Take for instance a CNN article about the younger Kim “stealing the show” at the Olympics, or a Washington Post report comparing her to Ivanka Trump. The excitement was no doubt compounded by Kim Yo-jong’s extension of an invitation from her brother for South Korea president Moon Jae-in to visit Pyeongyang, the first time in recent years the North has initiated such talks.

“She’s a novelty item. The princess of North Korea came to town and unveiled herself for the first time, so it’s natural to be both curious and impressed,” says Katharine Moon, a political science professor at Wellesley College, noting that her father Kim Jong-Il had long groomed her for power. “But she is part of that regime, part of that family.”

Indeed, a pushback against the mini-lovefest around Kim Yo-jong is gathering force. “Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist, who is in Pyeongchang covering the games, noted that South Koreans were more subdued than suggested. “Something about N.K. killing, starving, & imprisoning its people while threatening South Korea with nuclear annihilation,” he wrote in a tweet that went viral. Indeed, Kim Yo-jong herself is sanctioned by the United States for human rights abuses.

When it comes to women’s rights specifically, the situation in North Korea is nothing to envy either. Take for instance, access to the political power. Throughout its 70-year history, only two women— one of them Kim Yo-jong, the other her aunt— have served in its ruling Politburo. Women hold about a fifth of seats in the North Korea’s legislature, a figure similar to the U.S. Congress, but it’s largely a toothless, rubber stamp body.

Due to limitations on free movement and a free press, it can be difficult to ascertain what exactly happens in North Korea. But multiple accounts suggest that for females outside the elite, life is even worse. One defector who survived the totalitarian regime’s gulags told the UN Security Council last year of being forced to have an abortion for carrying a child suspected to be of mixed race. “Sexual and gender-based violence against women is prevalent throughout all areas of society,” wrote a UN human rights commission of North Korea in 2014. “Victims are not afforded protection from the State, support services or recourse to justice.”

North Korean diplomatic representatives didn’t return a request for comment. The government officially takes the position that female citizens have the same rights as men.

While North Korea has enacted progressive laws on gender equality as far back as 1946, it is ultimately a “highly militarized society, always on guard for a potential war with the U.S.,” says Suzy Kim, an Asian history professor at Rutgers University. “Whenever a society is militarized, traditional masculinity is valued over femininity, placing men in greater positions of power, which works against greater gender equality.”

Also read: Once a spy who fought WMD proliferation, this transgender woman is running for Congress

North Korea has maintained a “traditional view of women as lower and obedient. South Korean women have been pushing and fighting their way out of it, while North Korean women never had that way out,” says Moon, who had a recent conversation with a defector who told her the biggest surprise living in the South was the women. “The word he used meant tough, almost obnoxious. He said it was radically different from women of the North, who are so traditional.”

And for all the juxtaposition of Kim Yo-jong with Ivanka Trump, who ran her eponymous fashion line before joining her father’s administration, the latter has thrived in a market economy. That doesn’t really exist in North Korea, despite some nascent small businesses, many female-led. “Women have managed to get more power within their family by bringing in the income,” says Kim, the professor.

But even then, that’s largely due to the failings of the state. “Their husband’s income is just not enough,” says Moon. Among the elite, “expectations of a good life are rising and for the lower middle class, they work because their husband have lost their factory jobs. The production system is so antiquated [that] many women come and participate” in other jobs.</s>In the aftermath of the joint parade of Korean athletes from the two Koreas at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, and there has been much discussion about how Kim Jong-un’s brilliant Olympic diplomacy has supposedly outmanoeuvred the US.

A classic expression of this was recently provided by an editorial in The Times of London, a newspaper which can usually be expected to take a strongly pro-US position on any international questions

When the whole world is watching, images carry more weight than a thousand diplomatic cables. The pictures of a beaming President Moon of South Korea standing beside the sister of Kim Jong-un, the dictator of North Korea, to applaud the triumphant entry of the joint team of athletes from the Korean peninsula have already changed the dynamics of the stand-off over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. Suddenly, across the divide, a touch of warmth and diplomatic courtesy has produced a temporary rapprochement unimaginable only three weeks ago. Could this global festival in the snow halt the drift to military confrontation and even nuclear war in northeast Asia?….. …….Kim has a keen sense of diplomatic theatre. First, he agreed to a joint team for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to represent two countries technically still at war. Then he sent Kim Yo-jong, a sister with an engaging smile, to represent him at the ceremonies and give his own family imprimatur on this volte-face — an important symbol in a dynastic regime. The result has probably exceeded his expectations. The talk and the pictures have focused on little else except this coup de théâtre. President Moon has been invited for face-to-face talks in Pyongyang, and despite his commendable caution, it is clear he intends to make only the third such visit north since the end of the Korean war. South Koreans, who have been living on their nerves for the past year as the North escalated its threats and missile launches, have suddenly felt a moment of relaxation. A renewal of the “sunshine policy” towards the North, pursued with much publicity and few results by the former president Roh Moo-hyun, may now win the liberal Mr Moon some much needed domestic support. Mike Pence, the US vice-president, has tried to dampen the euphoria. But both his gestures and his words have appeared churlishly out of place. He remained seated, stony-faced, when the Koreans stood to applaud their joint team. He left the leaders’ reception after only five minutes. He repeatedly made clear that the United States would not support any relaxation of the pressure on North Korea unless it was prepared to discuss a reduction in its nuclear arsenal. The Trump administration is right to take a tough line. But, it has to be admitted, this has run into the brick wall of North Korean pride and the sands of Chinese evasion. Washington should keep up its pressure. But if the nation it is meant to be safeguarding itself wants to try another tack, it would be foolish to shut off that avenue.

All of this is true, save for the claim that it “unimaginable only three weeks ago”. On the contrary the real mystery is why any of it should have come as a surprise when the tell-tale signs that it was about to happen were there for all to see for months.

Back on 22nd October 2017 I wrote a lengthy article for The Duran in which I discussed the diplomatic moves the Russians were taking to get the two Koreas talking to each other and the growing risk this created that US intransigence might leave the US cut out of talks to achieve a Korean settlement

If the US persists in its present posture – saying it is ready to talk to North Korea but refusing to do so, saying it has no plans for regime change in North Korea but refusing to give North Korea any security guarantees, saying North Korea must disarm but ruling out any withdrawal of US troops from the Korean Peninsula, criticising Kim Jong-un for imposing hardships on North Korea’s people and then searching for ways to increase the hardship which is inflicted on them, and demanding that China solve the Korean crisis for the US without the US giving anything in return – then sooner or later the point will come when the Russians will tell the South Koreans that the biggest obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the crisis in the Korean Peninsula is not North Korea but the US. At that point the Russians will no doubt point out to the South Koreans that they have a far greater interest in a peaceful settlement of the crisis than the US does, since a failure to resolve the crisis is putting the future survival not just of North Korea but also of South Korea and of the whole Korean nation at risk. At that point the Russians will no doubt also point out to the South Koreans that it is in their hands to end the Korean crisis by coming to terms directly with North Korea, and that they do not actually need the US to achieve this. It is not after all as if the contours of a possible Korean settlement are difficult to see: a non-aggression pact between the two Koreas, a withdrawal of US troops from the Korean Peninsula, and an agreement by North Korea that it give up its weapons in return for formal security guarantees from the Great Powers (in this case this means the two Eurasian Great Powers, Russia and China). There is no logical reason why any of this should require the agreement of the US, and if the two Koreas were to agree to this the US would not be in a position to prevent it….. That after all is how the big breakthrough came in the Syrian crisis, with Russia and Turkey agreeing a deal with each other after the fall of the Jihadi stronghold in Aleppo, which did not involve the US. ……..given the strong interests all three parties have in a settlement, if the US is not careful it may not be so long before it comes to that…… Whilst this outcome objectively speaking would not be contrary to US interests, for the “indispensable nation” which “can see further” than all the others such an outcome would qualify as a total humiliation. That however is the most likely outcome to which US intransigence on the Korean issue is leading. The US still has time to avoid this outcome, and there are some people in Washington – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson probably being one – who are prepared to take the necessary action to do so. However there is little sign of their opinions prevailing at the moment, if only because few people in Washington seem to recognise the danger.

It subsequently became clear that what looked in October to be essentially a Russian diplomatic initiative, was actually a joint Russian-Chinese diplomatic initiative, with the Russians working with the North Koreans and the Chinese working with the South Koreans in order to get the two Koreas talking to each other.

Here is what I wrote about that in an article The Duran published on 10th November 2017

…….The Chinese and Russian objectives are in all respects identical, conclusively confirming that the two Eurasian Great Powers are acting in concert towards the same objective,. Clearly there is an agreed division of labour between them, with the Chinese talking to the South Koreans over whom they have substantial economic leverage (see this article by Reuters), and with the Russians talking to the North Koreans, with whom – unlike the Chinese – they have traditionally always had good relations….. ………the possibility of an eventual South Korean realignment with South Korea agreeing to become part of some sort of regional structure bringing together however loosely the two Koreas and China and Russia does not seem to me altogether farfetched. Whether Kim Jong-un and his officials would be interested in such an arrangement is another matter. Doubtless the Russians are working hard to try to find out, and in time they will no doubt point out to Kim Jong-un its very obvious advantages to him Such an arrangement would obviously distance South Korea from the US. However it would not mean that South Korea would have to become an enemy of the US. The Chinese and the Russians know that that is something to which the South Koreans would not agree, and from their point of view it would not be desirable anyway. However South Korea – unlike say Germany or Turkey – is not a member of a tightly structured US-led alliance like NATO in Europe. A shift by South Korea away from its current close security relationship with the US would not therefore require a formal break with the US. That makes a realignment easier to achieve. As the article in Global Times shows, the Chinese and the Russians – being the highly practical and realistic people that they are – are not proposing such a realignment to Seoul at the moment. Rather they are pressing Seoul and Pyongyang to begin direct talks with each other. At the back of their minds they will hope that when such talks begin the idea of a realignment will emerge naturally out of them. The prospects are in fact better now than they have ever been. A rapprochement bringing together the two Koreas and China and Russia would have been inconceivable during the Cold War when Kim Il-sung first proposed it because of the bitter ideological divisions of that period. In the early 2000s, when it was again mooted, the US was still very much the hyper-power with an effective veto over any move by South Korea and with the Chinese and the Russians having little to offer. By contrast today the huge growth of Chinese power and the strong recovery of Russia mean that for the first time a rapprochement between the two Koreas, China and Russia looks both attractive and viable. Whether the negotiations currently underway between the Chinese and the South Koreans and the North Koreans and the Russians eventually lead to that outcome remains to be seen. However already Chinese diplomacy has achieved a dramatic success, with South Korea’s agreement to limit THAAD deployments on the Korean Peninsula, the South Koreans ruling out the idea of a tripartite alliance between themselves the US and Japan, and with the South Koreans also agreeing to re-start defence talks with China. My guess is that a rapprochement bringing together the two Koreas and realigning them closer to China and Russia is both fully viable and much closer than many realise. Indeed its logic is so strong that if or rather when the two Koreas finally begin to talk to each other I expect it to come to the forefront quickly. The challenge is to get those talks started. The Russians have made a strong pitch to the North Koreans, whilst the Chinese breakthrough with the South Koreans suggests that the start of direct talks between Seoul and Pyongyang may not be as far off as most people think.

Just two months after those last words were written the start of direct talks between North Korea and South Korea has begun, with Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong meeting South Korean President Moon in PyeongChang, and extending to him an invitation – which President Moon has accepted – to visit North Korea and to meet there with Kim Jong-un.

Assuming this visit takes place, it would be the first occasion that a world leader – specifically President Moon of South Korea – will have set foot in North Korea and will have met with Kim Jong-un since Kim Jong-un came to power in December 2011.

What is truly remarkable about all this is that even as it is happening the US remains in denial.

The surly behaviour of US Vice-President Mike Pence in PyeongChang mentioned in The Times of London editorial obviously reflects US anger – and bafflement – that the South Koreans are acting independently of the US, and that the US has been sidelined in a diplomatic process in which it has played no role, and which it does not welcome.

I came across the same attitude of denial during a debate on Press TV on 2nd January 2018 with Michael Lane, the founder of the American Institute for Foreign Policy

When I explained to Michael Lane the diplomatic moves between the two Koreas which were by then already underway, and when I explained to him that if the US maintained its intransigence it risked finding itself faced with agreements reached between North Korea and South Korea and backed by China and Russia to which it was not a party, he simply dismissed all this as a play by Kim Jong-un to “drive a wedge” between South Korea and the US, which he confidently said would have a “much less than 50-50 possibility of success”.

He then went on to talk of financial sanctions against China, and of an economic blockade of North Korea intended to bring North Korea to its knees.

In reality it is US intransigence – not Kim Jong-un’s brilliance or Russian or Chinese diplomacy – which is driving this process.

It is exasperation with US intransigence which has driven the Russians and the Chinese to push the two Koreas to talk to each other – cutting out the US – and it is US intransigence which has alarmed the South Koreans, creating a diplomatic opportunity which Kim Jong-un has exploited.

No agreement the two Koreas agree with each other presents any conceivable danger to the US. On the contrary a detente between the two Koreas which stabilises the situation in the Korean Peninsula benefits the US, even if it comes at the price of a stronger Korean alignment with China and Russia, and even if it leaves North Korea in possession of all or some of its nuclear weapons.

Even The Times of London is able to understand this, as these words in its editorial show

The US urgently needs to rethink its approach to North Korea and try another tack.

The way to do that is to do what the Chinese and the Russians have been urging the US to do for months: freeze its military deployments and its military exercises in and around the Korean Peninsula, and talk to Pyongyang. An offer of a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un is an obvious and necessary step.

The alternative the US risks – if it insists on maintaining its present belligerent and intransigent course – is that North and South Korea will come to agreements with each other and realign with China and Russia in a way that leaves the US out in the cold.

It is impossible to see how that makes sense for the US.
A man is caught impersonating Kim Jong-un after walking through North Korea's cheerleading squad.