Q: How did the North Korean authorities assess President Moon's visit?
A: Still, at recent workplace or neighborhood unit political meetings, we hear things like “Moon Jae-in and his cronies from the south are here” and we are instructed to not have “expectations or illusions” about what the visit represents. President Moon and the South are still labelled as the enemy and markets are still prohibited from selling South Korean products.
Q: Kim Jong-un promised President Moon to denuclearize though, didn’t he?
A: Yes. I know. However, at our political meetings, we are still being told that “our country will never give up nuclear capabilities”.
ASIAPRESS interviewed another North Korean from Pyongyang, a man who escaped to Japan, who watched the video of President Moon’s visit and made the following estimation of the feelings of Pyongyang residents.
“I think that the Pyongyang citizens who were mobilized for the welcome ceremony and parade were really suffering. Participating in what was dubbed by Kim Jong-un as a priority “number 1 event”, the thousands of mobilized citizens must have been kept under maximum control and made to wait from dawn at their designated areas on the streets and at the airport. Many people would have been thinking, ‘It’s because of this President Moon that I am suffering’.”
※ A Chinese partner of ASIAPRESS secretly conducted an interview with a Pyongyang businessman in China.
