North Korea suspends military exercises aimed at the South

(June 24) North Korea's Kim Jong Un has ordered a suspension of planned military exercises designed to intimidate South Korea in a move that should ease tensions that had been growing between the two neighboring countries.

North Korean state media said that the decision was made in light of the prevailing situation. The prevailing situation has been growing tensions that the North appeared to be fostering.

North angered by the South allowing balloons with propaganda to cross the border

Anti-North groups have been allowed to launch balloons with propaganda against the North from across the southern border. Kim's sister who appears to be gaining authority in the North had spoken of the North's military acting decisively against the South. This probably indicated a show of force but not a direct attack against the South. The North has been reported to building up its military at the border, and reoccupied abandoned border posts. The North is reported to be preparing its own propaganda leafleting campaign directed at the south.. According to the North's official Korean Central News Agency, it will be the largest ever distribution of leaflets against the enemy.

North appears to want to dial down tensions

In spite of the fact that there are no signs of talks or further easing of tensions, the North's move appears to be a sign that it perhaps has gone too far in escalating tensions and wishes to go back to at least the former status quo or near to it. The North also began to dismantle loudspeakers it had erected only last week, traditionally used to blast anti-South Korean messages over the border, Yonhap reported. We will need to wait and see if the Kim goes even further and agrees to begin talks again as South Korea wishes.

The North may be realizing that its policies have not furthered a peaceful solution to the continuing conflict between North and South and that it may be in its own interest to pursue some form of peaceful solution to some of the differences between the two countries rather than simply military posturing which does nothing to solve the differences between the two. As of now the situation has returned to a continuing standoff between the North and South that advances the interests of neither country.

The move is quite a change from the truculent rhetoric recently employed by the North as illustrated in the appended video report.

Previously published in the Digital Journal