TOKYO — While raising hopes for denuclearization and a peace treaty to finally end the Korean War, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s newly found focus on diplomacy comes with an ironic flipside: It could be a godsend for his generals. Rivaled only by the ruling party itself, with which it is carefully intertwined, the military is the biggest and most formidable organization in North Korea. So they’ve definitely lost out as sanctions have made North Korean coal and mineral exports plunge,” said Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein, an associate scholar with the non-profit Foreign Policy Research Institute. The area, crawling with troops known as “soldier-builders” erecting luxury hotels and paving new roads, was popular with South Korean visitors during a previous period of detente. Its popularity ended abruptly when a North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean woman who strayed into a restricted area.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer June 06, 2018 07:52 UTC