Word: pyongyang
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Seoul there will be another thorny consideration: North Korea. The $ Communist government in Pyongyang has insisted that it should be host to fully half the 1988 Olympic events on its soil -- and keep 50% of any profits from the Games. Its failure to get anywhere with such demands has caused Pyongyang to hint frequently that it will boycott the Games, perhaps pulling the Soviet Union and other East bloc countries along in sympathy. The I.O.C. position is that the Olympics are awarded to a city, not a nation, and that the athletic events cannot therefore be shared. When Munich...
That position is not fixed, however. I.O.C. President Juan Antonio Samaranch, with a nod from Seoul organizers, has tendered Pyongyang a small piece of the Olympics action with an offer to have North Korea act as host to table-tennis and soccer competitions (both popular sports in Asia), as well as archery events and the 50-km bicycle race. In return Samaranch has demanded that North Korea open its heavily militarized border to the "Olympic family," including some 7,000 members of the press who are expected to attend the Games. So far, the North has refused the offer...
That leaves a single plausible theory of what happened, in the opinion of U.S. observers: the possibility that a real power struggle was going on in Pyongyang. U.S. officials have picked up rumors in recent months of internal discord centered on the question of Kim's succession. In particular, Defense Minister O has been conspicuous lately by his lack of public appearances. Some observers have wondered if the 76-year-old defense minister was having trouble adjusting to the increased day-to-day powers of First Son Jong Il, 45, and the younger cadres around him. Says the Heritage Foundation...
There were other issues that could also have led to a showdown in North Korea. Over the past two years Kim has engineered a pronounced tilt in Pyongyang's Sino-Soviet policies toward Moscow. Just two months ago the North Korean President made a hastily arranged visit to the Soviet capital, his second in 29 months, for talks with Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviets provide North Korea with MiG-23 fighter aircraft and Scud surface-to-surface missiles. In return, they have acquired calling rights at the North Korean ports of Nampo and Najin and clearance for military reconnaissance flights from...
...debt of some $2 billion. The country achieved only about half of the growth called for in its last long-term economic plan (1978-84), and has yet to produce a new one. Both of the last two grain harvests have been substandard, and the daily grain ration in Pyongyang was recently reduced by 14%. Although the exact cause of last week's events remains murky, the forced cutback in such a staple certainly carried the potential for creating trouble...