North Korea Discards Souvenirs Attacking US After Summit With Trump

Western tour operators said North Korea has scrapped anti-American souvenirs once sold on the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone following Kim Jong Un’s summit with U.S. President Donald Trump last week, Reuters reported.

A North Korean shop, on the border between the two Koreas, usually sold souvenirs like postcards and stamps attacking the United States.

Simon Cockerell, general manager at Koryo Tours said these not so subtle anti-American souvenirs were very popular but has been completely removed now.

He added that the shopkeeper and staff were unlikely to remove the items unless instructed by the government.

“The anti-American things have been replaced by more positive and aspirational things,” he said.

Rowan Beard, a tour manager at Young Pioneer Tours said, “We had a group go down to the DMZ from Pyongyang three days after the summit held in Singapore where we noticed the change in what was being sold to tourists at the gift shop.”

“They’ve shifted the focus from anti-Americanism to improving agriculture, sports and boosting the local economy,” he said, adding all the anti-American posters he usually saw around Kim Il Sung Square and at shops in Pyongyang have been removed.

“In five years working in North Korea, I’ve never seen them completely disappear before,” he added.

Kim Jong Un met Trump in Singapore on June 12 and agreed to work to establish “new” ties with each other.

"President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," a joint statement signed at the end of the summit said.

Kim said he would focus on the nation’s economy and declared an end to testing of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

"The discontinuation of nuclear tests is an important process for global disarmament, and the DPRK will join the international desire and efforts for a total halt of nuclear tests," Han Tae Song, the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations had said.

Hostile relations between the U.S. and North Korea began after the Korean War in the early 1950’s that devastated the Korean peninsula.

During the Vietnam War, North Korean forces captured a U.S. Navy intelligence vessel and imprisoned 83 crew members who were released 11 months later.

During his tenure as president, George W. Bush had described North Korea as part of an “axis of evil.”

Former president Barack Obama supported South Korea’s rejection of a nuclearized North Korea and said threats from North Korea would result in its isolation from the global community.

"We can't waver in our intention. We have to make sure that, in strong concert with our allies, that we are continuing to press North Korea to change its approach," Obama said in 2014, USA Today reported.

"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump had initially said in response to reports that a warhead was developed by North Korea that could be mounted on a ballistic missile.