North Korea "Mobilizes All Internal Resources for Flood Recovery"... Silent on Moon's Speech Celebrating Inter-Korean Cooperation

President Moon Jae-in's congratulatory speech met silence for two days
"Life is a small mind..." faced harsh criticism within a day last year
Emphasized "Restoration and internal unity by October party founding day"

President Moon Jae-in is delivering a congratulatory speech at the 75th Liberation Day celebration held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul on the morning of the 15th.

President Moon Jae-in emphasized inter-Korean cooperation in his Liberation Day address, while North Korea repeatedly stresses the need to mobilize all internal capabilities and resources to recover from flood damage. Rather than responding to inter-Korean cooperation, North Korea appears to be drawing a line against all external support.

On the 17th, North Korean state media and external propaganda outlets continued their silence regarding President Moon's Liberation Day address delivered on the 15th.

Last year, North Korea issued a statement the day after President Moon's Liberation Day address, harshly criticizing its content by saying, "Even a boiled cabbage head would burst into loud laughter (Yangcheon Daeso: looking up at the sky and laughing heartily)."

At that time, North Korea's spokesperson for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said, "There is a saying, 'A mountain trembles but a single hair does not move,'" referring to the South Korean authorities (meaning President Moon Jae-in) and their 'Liberation Day address.' The spokesperson added, "We will see, but we have nothing more to say to the South Korean authorities and have no intention of sitting down with them again."

This year, there has been no direct message targeting the address, nor any criticism toward the South through external propaganda media. Instead, North Korea is emphasizing 'self-reliance' amid the triple hardships of floods, COVID-19, and economic difficulties.

In North Korea, this year's monsoon destroyed 39,296 jeongbo (approximately 390 km²) of farmland, equivalent to one-fifteenth of Seoul's area, and damaged or flooded about 16,680 households and 630 public buildings.

Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, held a Workers' Party Political Bureau meeting on the 13th to discuss flood recovery measures, stating, "Do not accept any external assistance."

The North Korean authorities established a Central Command for Major Flood Damage Recovery, and Chairman Kim Jong-un has been directly involved in related responses, starting with his visit to Daecheong-ri, Eunpa County, North Hwanghae Province, on the 6th and 7th.

On the 17th, senior North Korean officials simultaneously submitted articles to the Workers' Party organ, Rodong Sinmun, which is read by all residents, calling for unity in one voice. Ri Il-hwan, Vice Chairman of the Party Central Committee, wrote an article titled "Maximizing the Ideological and Spiritual Power of the Masses," stating, "Our Party's firm determination and will is to basically complete flood damage recovery by October 10 and provide stable living conditions for the affected residents."

Park Jeong-nam, Party Committee Chairman of Gangwon Province, which suffered significant damage, also introduced the recovery status in an article titled "Matching the Heartbeat to the Steps of Devoted Service to the People."

In an editorial on the 16th, Rodong Sinmun emphasized, "All capabilities and resources must be fully mobilized and concentrated for flood damage recovery," and stressed, "A general assault must be launched to basically complete flood damage recovery by the Party Foundation Day through the great unity and cooperative operations of the military and civilians."

Earlier, on the 15th, President Moon emphasized inter-Korean cooperation in the health and medical fields in his address, but the likelihood of North Korea responding positively is considered low. In his 75th Liberation Day address, President Moon said, "We have faced unprecedented heavy rains caused by abnormal weather while responding to livestock epidemics and COVID-19, realizing that individual health and safety are closely connected to each other, and reaffirming that the South and North are a community of life and safety."

He also said, "I hope that through quarantine cooperation and joint management of shared rivers, the people of the South and North will tangibly feel the benefits of peace," and added, "Through joint research on health care, forestry cooperation, agricultural technology, and breed development, I hope that the new security situation in the COVID era will foster closer cooperation, opening the way for coexistence and peace to form a community of life alongside a peace community and an economic community."

President Moon emphasized, "Inter-Korean cooperation is the best security policy for both South and North to break free from dependence on nuclear weapons or military power."

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said, "North Korea may agree on the necessity of inter-Korean cooperation, but given the current focus on domestic affairs such as overcoming COVID-19 and floods, the possibility of immediate positive response to inter-Korean cooperation is low."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.