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Anti-South Korea sentiment prevalent under Kim Jong Un

Tensions with Seoul will not be resolved easily, a South Korean analyst said.

By Elizabeth Shim
A North Korean woman and hostess stands outside a North Korean restaurant waiting for customers in Dandong, China's largest border city with North Korea. Restaurants like these are turning away South Korean customers, according to a report. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI
A North Korean woman and hostess stands outside a North Korean restaurant waiting for customers in Dandong, China's largest border city with North Korea. Restaurants like these are turning away South Korean customers, according to a report. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

SEOUL, June 13 (UPI) -- Kim Jong Un has ordered state-run restaurants overseas to turn away South Korean customers.

A source based in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang who spoke to Free North Korea Radio on the condition of anonymity said Kim provided direct orders to all "North Korean restaurants in China to prevent 'South Korean bastards' from getting a foot in the door."

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South Korean visitors to North Korean restaurants in Shenyang have all been turned away since June 9, the source said.

The measure is a response to the group defection of 13 North Korea restaurant workers from Ningbo, China, and a smaller group who fled a location close to the historical city of Xi'an, the source added.

Those defections took place in April and May.

A second source told FNKR two North Korean restaurants in the Chinese border city of Dandong are banning South Korean visitors.

There are other signs Pyongyang has not stopped encouraging anti-South Korea sentiment, alongside anti-American and anti-Japanese feelings.

A Yonhap analysis of about 1,000 photographs taken in the capital city and in Sinuiju near the border last month indicated the state has hung posters that denounce the United States, Japan and South Korea inside the buildings of nursery schools.

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The posters called the United States a "mountain wolf," Japan an opportunistic "fox," and South Korea "vicious landlord."

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at South Korea's Sejong Institute, said anti-U.S. education is nothing new, but the fact that it has continued under Kim could mean issues of relations between Pyongyang and Washington, or Seoul and Tokyo, aren't likely to be resolved easily.

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