"Grand Theater": Has N. Korea's Kim won a propaganda coup?

If North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was searching for the perfect propaganda set piece, something designed to show his people that he's a strong leader pushing inexorably for the long-delayed, long-promised prosperity they deserve, then visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in might be providing him with a unique opportunity during their summit this week.

Moon believes that his deep engagement with North Korea is crucial after last year's fears of war, when Washington reacted with fury to a torrent of ever-more-powerful North Korean weapons tests. He argues that better ties with North Korea will help South Koreans, and the region, by settling the decades-long standoff over the North's pursuit of a nuclear arsenal designed to target the U.S. mainland.

But his engagement push, which includes bringing some of South Korea's most powerful business tycoons to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, strikes some observers as also boosting Kim as he tries to show his citizens that he's pivoting to economic improvement and — crucial yet unspoken — raising his impoverished nation up to South Korea's level, after his claim last year to have completed his nuclear arsenal.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gesture as they attend a welcoming ceremony at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang in North Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

Throughout the first day of Moon's three-day trip to North Korea, the South Korean leader could be seen grinning broadly as he and Kim enjoyed the ecstatic reception of a Pyongyang that seemed to have been painted, polished and framed until it was the best possible version of itself — on the video that South Korean media traveling with Moon captured and beamed back to Seoul, at least.

Consider one telling scene, not long after Moon's arrival Tuesday, when cameras caught Kim and his sister, Kim Yo Jong, who acts as her brother's chief propagandist, both maneuvering Moon so that he had the perfect view — and could be perfectly seen on a reviewing stand, Kim by his side — as an honor guard of goose-stepping troops armed with bayonet-tipped rifles marched by.

A little later, Moon waded into the crowd of elite North Korean citizens who'd been brought out to welcome him, shaking hands with some and then deeply bowing amid wild cheers. Even the venue for one of the leaders' meetings — the ruling Workers' Party headquarters, where Moon signed a guestbook near a map depicting a single, undivided Korea — will play well with a delighted North Korean public.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, second from right, is greeted by North Koreans as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, watches during a welcome ceremony at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

The optics of Moon's visit to Pyongyang are "reminiscent of the Chinese emperor receiving tributary missions — with a pan-Korean ethnic nationalistic twist — the Son of Heaven graciously receiving the barbarian envoy, dazzling the visitor with opulence, grace, and power," according to Sung-Yoon Lee, a Korea expert at Tufts University's Fletcher School.

North Korea, Lee said, portrays all visits by foreign heads of state as reflecting on the "manifold virtues of the Great Leader," and that's especially true of "a Pyongyang pilgrimage by the leader of the illegitimate Korean state" to the south.

Moon's office downplayed worries that North Korea could use his visit as propaganda, saying the enthusiastic welcome for Moon should be "seen just as it is."

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, is greeted by North Koreans during a welcome ceremony at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

The images of Moon being led through Pyongyang by Kim will likely be picked over, edited and shown repeatedly on North Korean state TV.

Moon's trip will also become a centerpiece of North Korea's propaganda specialists as they promote an ideology of race-based nationalism that describes North and South Korean people as one nation, temporarily divided, according to Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Korea University. The North has repeatedly used this ideology to back its demand that the South split from its alliance with the United States.

"The lavish welcome for Moon will be used to push an image of the Koreas as belonging to a single nation and create detachment between Washington and Seoul," said Nam, a former official in South Korea's spy agency.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ride in a car parade through Pyongyang in North Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

Moon's office said Seoul and Washington are at all times maintaining close communication over North Korea.

Nam also said that the visit will help restore the pride of North Koreans, who have been promised economic prosperity after a devastating famine in the 1990s and a steady focus on building the military.

Vipin Narang, a North Korea expert at MIT, said Kim's efforts this week fit into his new strategic line. "Nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles are quietly being mass-produced but Kim won't flaunt them. All attention and focus is on economic development," Narang said.

Women wearing traditional dress line the streets of Pyongyang, North Korea, to welcome South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un passing by during a car parade, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

There's speculation that the scale of the political theater could grow even grander on Wednesday, the second day of the summit, with North Korea possibly engineering one of its huge mass games spectacles for Moon. The North is being treated to a veritable who's who from the world of high-powered South Korean business leaders, many of whom could be seen lining up to get on Moon's plane for Pyongyang on Tuesday, some looking a little taken aback at having their IDs scanned by a security person.

Moon, meanwhile, during his welcome in Pyongyang, looked "like a child in a candy store — wide-eyed, all smiles, bowing to the North Korean people gathered at the airport, and with a retinue of (business leaders) eager to make gifts in the billions of dollars," Lee, the Korea expert at Tufts, said. "It's all grand theater, North Korean style."

AP writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, shakes hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in before their summit at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

Foster Klug, AP's bureau chief in South Korea, has covered the Koreas since 2005. Follow him at www.twitter.com/apklug

With Kim Yo Jong, left, sister of North Korean Leader, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Koran leader Kim Jong Un, right, arrive at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right center, talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left center, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong, right, sits during their summit at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, center, and SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, right, sit onboard a plane before leaving for Pyongyang, North Korea, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Seoul military airport in Seongnam, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

DETROIT (AP) — The Oakland Athletics no longer have to wonder where they'll play the next few seasons. That won't make the long goodbye any easier.

The A's reacted to the announcement that this will be their last year in Oakland with a mixture of sadness and relief.

“At least as a player, you know where you’re headed,” outfielder Seth Brown said Friday before a game against the Tigers in Detroit. “There’s obviously a lot of moving parts, a lot of stuff we’re not privy to, so it’s just been kind of a waiting game on our end. Where are we going to go? Where are we going to be? So I think just having that knowledge -- at least we know where we’re going to be playing next year.”

Vivek Ranadivé, who owns the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, and Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher announced Thursday that the A’s will temporarily relocate to West Sacramento's Sutter Health Park for at least three seasons. The A's are moving to Las Vegas after a new ballpark is constructed.

The River Cats, who are affiliated with the San Francisco Giants, will continue to play at the same facility.

Fisher was unable to reach an agreement with Oakland city officials on extending the lease at Oakland Coliseum, which expires at the end of this season. The A's have played in the city since 1968.

“There's direction now, which we've talked a lot about,” Oakland A's manager Mark Kotsay said. “We've got time to kind of reflect on what this really means from an organizational standpoint, the history that we've had in Oakland, with this being now the final season. There's a lot of emotion that goes behind this.”

It will not only cause some upheaval for the players and staff but also members of the organization that work behind the scenes.

“At the end of the day, we know where we're going to be for the next three seasons after the finish this year and that in itself gives a little bit of stability,” Kotsay said. “At the same time, in the present, it's challenging in certain ways to think about the finality of this organization in Oakland.”

Sacramento will be a much smaller environment to house a major league team. Ranadivé said the River Cats venue currently seats 16,000 when counting the stands, the lawn behind center field and standing room only.

First baseman Ryan Noda is concerned with the facilities. He's hopeful that significant upgrades will be made, much like the Toronto Blue Jays did at Buffalo's Triple-A facility. The Blue Jays played at Buffalo's Sahlen Field in 2020 in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“New walls, new dugouts, new locker rooms — everything they needed to become a big league stadium,” said Noda, who played some games in Sacramento as a minor leaguer. “As long as we can do something like that, then it'll be all right. But it's definitely going to be different than playing in stadiums that hold 40,000 people.”

Kotsay is confident the upgrades will occur.

“I know it will be of major league baseball quality,” he said. “It's has to be of major league baseball quality. I know the Players Association will make sure that takes place, as they did in Buffalo.”

For the rest of this season, the A's will have to deal with small home crowds and disappointed fans.

“We’re sad for the fans, the diehard fans, who always come to our games, always support us, always support the boys wearing the jersey,” Noda said.

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Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, center, shakes hands John Fisher, owner of the Oakland Athletics, before the start of a news conference where Fisher announced his team will leave Oakland after this season and play temporarily at a minor league park, during a news conference in West Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, April 4 2024.The A's announced the decision to play at the home of the Sacramento River Cats from 2025-27 with an option for 2028 on Thursday after being unable to reach an agreement to extend their lease in Oakland during that time. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

John Fisher, owner of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, announces that his team will leave Oakland after this season and play temporarily at a minor league park, during a news conference in West Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2024. The A's announced the decision to play at the home of the Sacramento River Cats from 2025-27 with an option for 2028 on Thursday after being unable to reach an agreement to extend their lease in Oakland during that time. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Sutter Health Park, home of the Triple A team Sacramento River Cats, is shown in West Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Oakland Athletics announced the decision to play at the home of the Sacramento River Cats from 2025-27 with an option for 2028 on Thursday after being unable to reach an agreement to extend their lease in Oakland during that time. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Oakland Athletics manager Mark Kotsay walks to the dugout after making a pitching change during the eighth inning of the team's baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, March 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)