Beware! North Korean invasion under way

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, speaks to Do Jong-hwan, minister of culture, tourism and sports, during South Korean musicians' recent gig in Pyongyang. Do led the delegation. / Yonhap

By Oh Young-jin

An attack by North Korea is under way but not in the way we have feared most.

Instead of employing guns and rockets, this one involves an elaborate set of public relations (PR) moves, which, when lumped together, proves a major charm offensive that can disarm the South and stymie other stakeholder countries. And its effect can be as devastating as conventional war.

A glimpse into this North Korean campaign was made after South Korean musicians performed in Pyongyang, Monday. The North's leader Kim Jong-un made a surprise visit.

In one scene, Kim was surrounded by members of K-pop girl group Red Velvet, who were clapping in a show of respect to the North Korean leader. He was seen casually bantering with them.

If it were not for the butcher-dictator at the center, nothing would be amiss.

When girl bands and boy groups have an immense effect on South Korean youth, it can be comparable to telling them that they don't have to fear the North and its leader.

Its member Joy was criticized for not joining the Pyongyang gig. Showing a sign of ambivalence among Koreans were criticisms against another Yeri for calling her handshake with Kim an "honor."

In another, Kim suggested that there should be more concerts in autumn. This suggestion adds to the North's narrative that its leader is normal and for inter-Korean reconciliation, and seeks peace.

Then, Kim went to a veteran singer and thanked her for changing her repertoire to sing his father's favorite song, stressing the point that he is a pious son who misses his deceased father. .

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with members of Red Velvet, K-Pop girl band, after its performance in Pyongyang. / Yonhap

These benevolent scenes play a trick on our reality-based concept about Kim, who ordered his elder brother killed, executed his uncle and has conducted cold-blooded purges in a seven-year reign of terror.

Additionally, he has brought the world to the brink of nuclear war by conducting a series of nuclear and long-range missile tests. He engaged in a war of words with U.S. President Donald Trump, threatening to turn Washington, D.C. into a bowl of ashes. Pyongyang has a habit of belittling the South for serving the U.S. as its master and threatening to vaporize it with its unconventional weapons.

So, the South has been the North's biggest hostage with its nuclear weapons and missiles being a stone's throw from Seoul and the rest of the country.

Let's check whether the South somehow has relented from the notion of Kim being a ruthless megalomaniac who wants nothing less than to communize the entire Korean Peninsula.

If its guard were down, it would be little surprise.

After all, the South has been under threat from the North for nearly seven decades following the 1950-53 Korean War. The lasting peace is an elusive dream that the South would be willing to pursue even at the slight sign of it, believing that this time it was for real.

This time, there is more than what the North employed during the previous two summits in 2000 and 2007. It has a credible plot to make one more eager to believe it.

Just before the Pyongyang performances, Kim made his first official visit to China, its only benefactor irritated by the North's uncontrolled pursuit of nuclear-armed intercontinental missiles that can hit the entire U.S.

China received Kim with red carpet protocols comparable to those given to Donald Trump and treated him better than President Moon Jae-in.

On his China trip, Kim was accompanied by his wife, a former singer with Chanel fashion, and they appeared together, departing far from the North's normal practice of hiding the first lady from public view.

Some Chinese saw Ri Sol-ju as pretty as a top K-drama star and favorably compared her with their first lady. Analysts say that Ri gave her "madman" husband an aura of normalcy.

Kim behaved toe to toe, head to head with his host Xi Jinping, the leader of the world's second largest power that threatens to topple the U.S. as No. 1.

In other words, Kim is now looked at with "respect" that doesn't fit his pariah state, one of the world's poorest countries and a rogue nation.

Of course, it all started with a trip to the South in February by Kim's younger sister, Yo-jong, as his envoy in the lead-up to the PyeongChang Olympics.

Her vivacious behavior and comely looks ― light makeup and Spartan outfit ― made even North Korea skeptics turn their heads and wonder whether the North was serious in reaching out to the outside world.

Kim was favorably compared with Ivanka, Trump's daughter who also visited Korea for the Olympics, although obviously out of patriotism, some U.S. media declared Ivanka to be a winner.

Kim's two-month charm offensive will peak with the April 27 inter-Korean summit and a meeting with Trump in May.

Will those two meetings put him to an acid test and reveal his true self ― a madman on the throne ― taking us out of his spell? To be fair, there can be a slim chance that Kim has changed and wants peace.

An understandable irony is that there are many who don't wish to wake up from this sweet dream, thinking this time, we may get the lasting peace we want.

For those daydreamers, it is strongly recommended to recall the North's intelligence chief Kim Yong-chul's bragging to the South Korean press that covered the Pyongyang performances that he was known to be the mastermind of the fatal torpedo attack of its naval frigate Cheonan.