[Inside Chodong] Kim Yo-jong's Blue House Guestbook, 855 Days Later

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] "I hope that Pyongyang and Seoul grow closer in the hearts of our people and that the future of unified prosperity comes sooner." This is what Kim Yo-jong, First Deputy Director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, wrote in the Blue House guestbook on February 10, 2018.

At that time, Deputy Director Kim visited the Blue House as a special envoy of Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea. She delivered a letter from Chairman Kim expressing his will to improve inter-Korean relations to President Moon Jae-in and verbally conveyed an invitation to visit North Korea.

Deputy Director Kim said, "I hope President Moon will become the protagonist who opens a new chapter of unification and leave a lasting legacy for future generations." Her visit to the Blue House was a symbolic scene marking a turning point, signaling that the "spring of the Korean Peninsula" was approaching. As Deputy Director Kim's kind words suggested, President Moon stood at a historic site that would change the fate of the Korean Peninsula.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On April 27, 2018, the scene of President Moon sharing a conversation with Chairman Kim at the 'Panmunjom Dohobari' was broadcast worldwide. Panmunjom, once a symbol of division, transformed into a historic meeting place symbolizing peace, and the two protagonists on the Dohobari instantly became frontrunners for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On September 18 of the same year, President Moon delivered a message of peace at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang's Mangyongdae District, in front of 150,000 North Korean citizens. Considering the state of inter-Korean relations before President Moon's inauguration in May 2017, this was an unimaginable scene. It seemed as if the message Deputy Director Kim left in the Blue House guestbook was being realized in reality.

The warm breeze on the Korean Peninsula moved much faster than the actual changes. It came with hopes that unification was near and that the military standoff between the two Koreas might end. However, division remains a reality. The reason past inter-Korean relations were a continuous ice rink was due to instability.

Expecting everything to be resolved with one or two agreements is a pipe dream. In fact, when North Korea-U.S. relations fell into a deadlock, the warm breeze on the Korean Peninsula quickly showed its limits. The more the voices of the 'hawks' gained strength, the more the cold reality of the armistice situation on the peninsula was imprinted.

The person who made the 'chaotic Korean Peninsula' even more complicated was Deputy Director Kim. She made her debut announcing her rise as the second most powerful figure in North Korea. The ironic point is that her role was a catalyst for the deterioration of inter-Korean relations.

In a statement released on the 13th, she said, "It seems the time has come to decisively break away from the South Koreans," and added, "The authority to carry out the next hostile action will be handed over to our military's General Staff."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The person who came as a messenger of peace in February 2018 has become a factor amplifying the Korea risk by June 2020. As a result, Deputy Director Kim showed a 'leopard change' (sudden transformation). This happened 855 days after she delivered a message wishing for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

She revealed that she influences the actions of the North Korean military, demonstrating her practical status as the 'number two.' How will Deputy Director Kim's noisy debut be evaluated on the international diplomatic stage?

The claim that the issue of 'anti-North Korea leaflets' is leading inter-Korean relations to the brink of collapse is not very convincing. The leaflet controversy is not a newly emerged issue. The shift to a hardline stance against the South likely hides another political strategy.

This recent action, which has increased instability on the Korean Peninsula, will inevitably remain a political burden for Deputy Director Kim. Even if painstaking efforts advance inter-Korean relations by one step, a single discordant note can cause a setback of more than ten steps in the reality of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea may gain temporary reflexive benefits from escalating tensions, but history will likely record this action as pouring cold water on the 20th anniversary of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration.