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Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah
Quotes of the Day:
"Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions."
– Albert Einstein
"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."
–Ernest Hemingway
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
– Albert Camus
1. A Korean War Christmas miracle: How a 59-person ship saved 14,000 refugees
2. Biden signs annual defense policy bill, including maintaining USFK troop level
3. Yoon defies joint investigation team's summons for 2nd time over martial law probe
4. Memes, Jokes and Cats: South Koreans Use Parody for Political Protest
5. YouTube populists driving South Korea’s political instability
6. South Korea entangled in a sticky and politicized legal web
7. Division and purge: South Korea's conservatives in deep trouble
8. Have North Korean fighters died in the Russia-Ukraine war?
9. South Korea's population faces point of no return
10. Abraham Lincoln Could Teach China, Russia and North Korea How to Take on America
11. U.S. intelligence agencies believe troop dispatch to Russia was N. Korea's idea: NYT
12. What we know about North Korean troops fighting Russia's war
13. N. Korea claims major advances in anti-drone defense after joint military exercises
14. N. Korea arrests water park manager for alleged 'secret leaks' to foreigners
15. Editorial: Yoon must clarify ex-millitary commander's martial law plot
1. A Korean War Christmas miracle: How a 59-person ship saved 14,000 refugees
We should never forget the Christmas miracle. Below is last year's Washington Post article about it. Here is a 22 minute video that describes the Captain, his ship, and the miracle.
The Story of Captain Leonard LaRue and the Ship of Miracles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S35oNnhPqOI
I would also urge everyone to watch the film Ode to My Father which tells the story of what happened to one family aboard that ship after arriving in Pusa. The film tells the story of Korean history from 1950 to the 1980s and how South Korea evolved after the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_to_My_Father
A Korean War Christmas miracle: How a 59-person ship saved 14,000 refugees
December 24, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/12/24/meredith-victory-korean-christmas-miracle/
About 14,000 Korean refugees crowded onboard the SS Meredith Victory in December 1950, as it transported them from Hungnam, North Korea, to South Korea during the Korean War. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
By George Bass
The Korean War took a terrible human toll, claiming the lives of 5 million military personnel and civilians. It also caused 1.5 million North Korean citizens to flee their homeland.
About 14,000 of them made their escape at Christmastime in 1950 — on a single ship with a 59-person capacity.
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The conflict, which had broken out six months earlier, was the culmination of tensions that had begun in August 1945, when Korea was occupied by opposing Soviet and U.S. forces and split into two zones. Five years later, following the outbreak of war, a United Nations Command force led by the United States was sent to assist the Republic of Korea in the south.
The UNC troops were soon driven to the port of Busan, at the southern tip of the peninsula. By October, the Chinese Communist Forces had joined the war, supporting the North Koreans to surround UNC forces at the Chosin Reservoir on Nov. 27.
Enter Capt. Leonard LaRue. LaRue was a U.S. Merchant Marine officer who as a child had been entranced by tales of service on the high seas. Enlisting at age 20, he served in the six-year Battle of the Atlantic between Allied and German navies from 1939 to 1945.
Following History
Following
Having sailed into Soviet ports and across perilous Arctic waters and survived brushes with Hitler’s U-boats, LaRue was well placed when Merchant Marine cargo vessels were called upon to supply besieged U.S. forces in Korea.
Korean War hero priest’s remains identified
His ship, the SS Meredith Victory, was an unarmed freighter with five cargo holds, each comprising three decks. Built by the California Shipbuilding Corp. and first deployed in 1945, it had formed part of the government’s Pacific and Atlantic cargo service.
In June 1950, the Meredith Victory was consigned to the James River Reserve Fleet, where it was due to be deactivated. A month later, with the Korean War underway, the U.S. Military Sea Transportation Service requested that all reserve ships be reactivated.
The Meredith Victory was redeployed as one of a network of military vessels that, alongside resources sent by the U.S. Army and Air Force, would deliver military materiel — fuel, trucks, ammunition — across the Pacific.
A long stream of Korean refugees board a vessel in North Korea's Hungnam harbor on Dec. 21, 1950, as they flee the advancing Chinese Communist and North Korean forces. (AP)
As its captain, LaRue found himself at anchor off North Korea when the Hungnam evacuation began. The attack by the North Koreans and the Chinese Communist Forces — who together numbered 250,000 — had driven 100,000 troops and 90,000 refugees from the mountains of North Korea onto the beaches. On Dec. 9, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the American commander in chief of the UNC, ordered an evacuation by sea.
“I trained my binoculars on the shore and saw a pitiable scene,” LaRue was later quoted as saying in Bill Gilbert’s 2000 book “Ship of Miracles.” The docks were teeming with North Korean refugees who had been threatened with beheading by Chinese Communist Forces personnel, who were accusing them of desertion and aiding the Americans.
Using booms and improvised hand-built elevators, LaRue filled the Meredith Victory — which was 450 feet long, 50 feet wide and designed to carry 35 crew members, 12 officers and a maximum of 12 passengers — with 14,000 fleeing civilians. Refugees stood chest to chest or lay on top of deck machinery and jet fuel drums.
In a 1960 interview with This Week magazine, LaRue described his ensuing 28-hour voyage to Busan. “We were facing waters mined by the enemy with a vessel that had no means of detecting them or destroying them,” he said. “We knew that Communist submarines, operating in the vicinity, could easily spot us and sink us with a torpedo.” Of the jet fuel against which refugees were resting, he observed, “A spark could turn the ship into a funeral pyre.”
Korean War vets gather in Arlington for first time since pandemic
After a journey of almost 450 nautical miles, the Meredith Victory arrived at Busan on Christmas Eve 1950.
The authorities turned the ship away because the city was overrun with retreating military personnel and evacuees who had arrived earlier. After requesting some blankets, food, water and interpreters — which took more than seven hours to arrive, according to the ship’s log — LaRue and his quarry were directed onward to Geoje Island, 50 miles to the southwest.
North Korean civilians, loaded down with possessions, line up to enter a landing ship tank for evacuation from Hungnam on Dec. 20, 1950. (Max Desfor/AP)
They reached its shores on Christmas Day, with not one life lost. Tank landing ships were attached to the hull of the Meredith Victory, and the 14,000 refugees were winched down into them, 16 at a time, in swelling, near-freezing seas.
Accounts describe the Koreans giving half-bows as they left the freighter that had carried them from certain death. Bob Lunney, a staff officer on board, stated, “There was no overwhelming joy on their faces because they had only begun their journey to freedom.”
Unaware of the trek ahead of them were five new additions to the 14,000 refugees: the so-called “Kimchi babies” who had been born to expectant mothers during the voyage. Their nickname came from one of the few Korean words that the U.S. crewmen recognized.
One of the Kimchi children, Lee Gyeong Pil, would remain on Geoje with his parents and go on to become a goodwill ambassador, as well as a veterinarian tending the island’s 3,500 cattle. Another, Sohn Yang Young, would grow up watching his parents lament the loss of his siblings, who had been left behind in North Korea with family members. They were never seen again.
LaRue remained in command of the Meredith Victory until its decommissioning in 1952. Two years later, he entered St. Paul Benedictine Abbey in New Jersey and became a Benedictine monk, taking the name Brother Marinus.
He stayed there until his death in October 2001, serving as a gift-shop worker, dishwasher and bell ringer. After a canonization cause was opened on his behalf in 2019, 99 percent of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to confer sainthood upon him.
Their gratitude was shared by the son of two of the refugees he rescued: Moon Jae-in, who following his birth on Geoje in 1953 would go on to become president of South Korea from 2017 until 2022. During his first year in office, he attended a ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Va., and imparted a memory on behalf of his then-90-year-old mother.
“On the 24th of December [1950], halfway through the voyage, American soldiers handed out a candy droplet to each refugee on board as Christmas presents,” the president recounted. “Although it was but one droplet, I will always be grateful to the U.S. service members with such caring hearts for giving Christmas presents to so many refugees in the middle of a devastating war.”
2. Biden signs annual defense policy bill, including maintaining USFK troop level
A "sense of Congress" is not binding.
Biden signs annual defense policy bill, including maintaining USFK troop level | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · December 25, 2024
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (Yonhap) -- President Joe Biden has signed into law an annual defense policy bill that calls for maintaining some 28,500 American troops in South Korea and reaffirming the United States' deterrence commitment to the Asian ally, according to the White House.
Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2025, which authorizes US$895 billion for national defense programs.
Both the House of Representatives and the Sente endorsed the legislation in recent weeks. Congress passes it each year to set defense policy and funding priorities and give guidance on a range of key security matters.
The legislation highlighted the "sense of Congress" that the U.S. secretary of defense should reinforce the alliance with South Korea by maintaining the presence of some 28,500 U.S. Forces Korea personnel and affirming the U.S.' commitment to extended deterrence.
Extended deterrence refers to the U.S.' pledge to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend its ally.
Biden's signing came amid lingering concerns that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump might try to reduce U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, as well as their military exercises, given his America First credo that experts say might see Washington curtail its costly military engagement overseas.
This file photo, taken May 21, 2024, shows AH-64 Apache helicopters at Camp Humphreys, a sprawling U.S. base in Pyeongtaek, about 65 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
sshluck@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · December 25, 2024
3. Yoon defies joint investigation team's summons for 2nd time over martial law probe
(LEAD) Yoon defies joint investigation team's summons for 2nd time over martial law probe | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · December 25, 2024
(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES throughout with details)
SEOUL, Dec. 25 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday defied a joint investigation team's summons for questioning over his short-lived declaration of martial law, marking the second time he has refused to comply with its request.
Yoon did not appear before the office of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, as requested by 10:00 a.m. as part of a joint investigation into his botched declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.
Yoon faces charges of being a ringleader of an insurrection and abuse of power through his martial law declaration in the joint investigation among the CIO, the police and the defense ministry's investigation unit.
He did not comply with the CIO's first summons last Wednesday.
The CIO currently plans to wait for Yoon's possible appearance later in the day.
On Tuesday, Seok Dong-hyeon, Yoon's lawyer, said Yoon places a priority on the Constitutional Court proceedings on his impeachment and that he plans to issue a statement on his position on the trial after Christmas Day.
This file photo, provided by the presidential office on Dec. 3, 2024, shows President Yoon Suk Yeol. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · December 25, 2024
4. Memes, Jokes and Cats: South Koreans Use Parody for Political Protest
Please go to the link to view all the photos and read the article in the proper format.
Memes, Jokes and Cats: South Koreans Use Parody for Political Protest
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/22/world/asia/south-korea-protest-memes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.kE4.g9qT.kytl8SfQTTaY&smid=url-share
By John Yoon, Jin Yu Young and Chang W. Lee Dec. 22, 2024
As South Koreans took to the streets this month demanding the ousting of their president, some found an unexpected outlet to express their fury: jokes and satire.
They hoisted banners and flags with whimsical messages about cats, sea otters and food. They waved signs joking that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law had forced them to leave the comfort of their beds. Pictures of the flags spread widely on social media.
The idea was to use humor to build solidarity against Mr. Yoon, who has vowed to fight his impeachment over his ill-fated martial law decree on Dec. 3. Some waved flags for nonexistent groups like the so-called Dumpling Association, a parody of real groups like labor unions, churches or student clubs.
“Dumpling Federation
Fried Dumpling Union”
Video by Yu Young Jin/The New York Times
“Pizza Toppings
Research Group”
“National Potato
Association”
Photos by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
“I just wanted to show that we were here as part of the people even if we aren’t actually a part of a civic group,” said Kim Sae-rim, 28, who waved the flag of the dumpling group at a recent protest she went to with friends. Some groups referred to other local favorites like pizza and red bean pastries.
Kwon Oh-hyouck, a veteran protester, said that he had first seen such flags emerge during demonstrations in 2016 and 2017 that ultimately resulted in the removal of President Park Geun-hye. Mr. Kwon said that satire was part of the Korean spirit of protest.
“People satirize serious situations, even when those in power come out with guns and knives,” he said. “They are not intimidated.”
In the past month, protesters have come up with a wide range of unorthodox groupings. Some were self-proclaimed homebodies. Still others came together as people who suffered from motion sickness.
“National Motion Sickness Association”
“I came up here after taking two motion
sickness pills and chewing gum.”
Video by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
“Society for the Study
of the Creation of Life”
“Movement Headquarters
for Creating a Shiny World”
“Indian Movies Promotion Board”
“Seoul Branch”
“Imaginary Flower Planting
Movement Headquarters”
Photos by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
“A group of people who claim that Dirac delta is a function”
Video by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
“National Princess Association”
“Freezer Excavation Team”
Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Lee Kihoon, a professor of modern Korean history at Yonsei University in Seoul, said that he believed the flags at this month’s protests were an expression of the diversity of people galvanized by the president’s attempt to impose military rule.
“They’re trying to say: ‘Even for those of us who have nothing to do with political groups, this situation is unacceptable,’” he said. “‘I’m not a member of a party or anything, but this is outrageous.’”
Some held signs ridiculing Mr. Yoon, saying that he had separated them from their pets at home and disrupted their routine of watching Korean dramas. One group called itself a union of people running behind schedule, referring to the idea that the need to protest over martial law had forced them to reschedule their appointments.
“Union of People Behind Schedule”
Photo by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
“Someone who was lying down with
her babies before running out here.”
Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
And of course, there were animals, both real and fake.
“Angry Cat Owners League”
“National Sea Otter Is
Not an Otter Association”
“National Association
of Bald Chicks”
Photos by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
South Koreans have shown that protests for serious causes — like the ousting of a president — can still have an inviting, optimistic and carnival-like atmosphere.
“I don’t know if the protesters realize it, but even though they’re angry, they haven’t gotten solemn, heavy or moralistic,” Mr. Lee said. “The flags have had an effect of softening and relaxing the tension.”
On the day that lawmakers voted to impeach Mr. Yoon, protesters who were K-pop fans brought lightsticks to rallies and danced to pop songs blasting from speakers. “Even though this is a serious day,” said Lee Jung-min, a 31-year-old fan of the band Big Bang, “we might as well enjoy it and keep spirits up.”
Video by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Additional reporting by Brolley Genster. Additional production by Pablo Robles.
5. YouTube populists driving South Korea’s political instability
What many of these reports and analyses overlook is both the Chinese and north Korean influence in the South and how they are manipulating the government opposition, social media, and protest groups.
Democracies are vulnerable to external media (and social media) influence and South Korea may be a useful illustration if people observe what is happening.
See the research by Dr. Tara O at this link: https://eastasiaresearch.org/
YouTube populists driving South Korea’s political instability - Asia Times
YouTube-based agitators, activists and influencers fueling Korea’s political fire in new age warning to other world democracies
asiatimes.com · by Timothy Koskie, Christopher James Hall · December 24, 2024
In the space of three weeks, South Korea has seen a brief declaration of martial law, its sudden repeal and the impeachment of its president, Yoon Suk Yeol.
One underappreciated driver of the recent drama is the rise of YouTube-based agitators, activists and influencers, who both benefit from and fuel a new brand of populism. The effects in South Korea are stark – but the trend is global.
An extremely online constituency
In South Korea’s 2022 election, Yoon trailed his opponent for much of the campaign. His aggressive populist politics drew some support, but he looked set to fail.
Then he found a new constituency – a group of active and partisan young men focused on abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. These agitators used YouTube and other platforms to broadcast their message.
Along with traditional conservative voters, this crowd enabled Yoon to achieve a narrow win and control of South Korea’s most powerful political position. He then duly abolished the gender ministry, saying structural sexism was “a thing of the past.”
After gaining power, Yoon issued arrest orders for several of his perceived political opponents. Among these was Kim Eo-Jun, a critical and inflammatory YouTube journalist, and a polarizing populist figure tied to liberal politics. Kim’s weekly videos broadcast news, guest interviews and caustic commentary to millions of active followers.
We have grown used to the idea that social media platforms influence democratic processes by spreading news and analysis and directing users’ attention by recommending particular content. However, the increasing political visibility of platform actors such as Kim suggests the influence is becoming more direct.
Populist platforms
Social media platforms provide access to a wide range of news and media producers, from legacy outlets to independent commentators at the furthest edges of the political spectrum. However, not all of the news gets equal attention.
Research shows, at least in South Korea, false news gets more likes and interactions than verifiable news. “Real news” tends to receive dislikes and derision.
More South Korean research shows citizens may use platforms to seek out conspiracy theories and pour scorn on disliked political groups or decisions. Users also notoriously direct hate towards issues such as women’s rights.
These problems are not limited to South Korea. Polarizing and populist news and analysis is a global phenomenon.
Trust in traditional news media is declining, in part due to fears it is aligned with elite and powerful figures. These fears are often confirmed by social media influencers who are seeking to become the new opinion leaders.
Online influencers are great vehicles for populist politics. They have intimate connections with their viewers, tend to suggest simplistic solutions, and usually resist accountability and fact-checking.
Platforms are often more likely to recommend polarizing and even radicalizing content to viewers, crowding out more balanced content.
However, these polarising figures are not alone in these spaces. Veteran journalists and newcomers are adjusting to platforms while still providing reliable information.
On YouTube, former mainstream journalists, such as Australia’s Michael West and the American Phil Edwards, have amassed followings while blending personal and casual content with more traditional journalism.
Non-journalists, such as Money & Macro and the English Tom Nicholas, have expanded their influence through adopting some core journalistic practices. They produce content that investigates, explores and explains current affairs news and analysis with the support of their many viewers.
These YouTube news influencers show journalistic content can contribute to the new news media ecosystem and attract large audiences without relying on populist and polarising content.
“Newsfluencers” producing journalism on platforms, such as YouTube, tailor their content to the conventions of the platforms.
Newsfluencers and the future
Newsfluencers often film in informal settings rather than traditional sets, and build a casual rapport with their audience. They leverage “authenticity”, going out of their way to “avoid looking like polished corporate media.”
Their multiple revenue streams include ads, sponsors, merchandise and, most importantly, direct audience contributions. These contributions may come via memberships or via third-party platforms such as Patreon and Substack.
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Even major news organizations such as Australia’s ABC have begun adopting YouTuber norms. While produced under the aegis of the national broadcaster, the current affairs podcast If You’re Listening, for example, significantly out-performs traditionally formatted content with its casual style and focus on giving the audience what it wants.
In South Korea, YouTube channels such as VoiceOfSeoul make similar moves, combining street coverage with informal talk-show panels and investigative journalism. OhMyTV weaves together YouTuber and breaking news styles, and carries hyperlinks for personal contributions and sponsorships.
At the same time, legacy media such as KBS maintains a strong following through TV and portal sites like Naver. However, KBS’s conventional format struggles to achieve comparable viewership on these increasingly dominant platforms where these unconventional journalists have managed to thrive.
There is a clear space for journalism on YouTube and similar platforms. However, it will need to adapt. As the South Korean experience shows, the time may be coming when platform journalism is vital for democracy.
Timothy Koskie is postdoctoral researcher, School of Media and Communications, University of Sydney and Christopher James Hall is PhD Researcher, Centre for Media Transition, University of Technology Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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asiatimes.com · by Timothy Koskie, Christopher James Hall · December 24, 2024
6. South Korea entangled in a sticky and politicized legal web
Excerpts:
To be fair, the opposition leader is not the only one tactically slowing his trial. Yoon and his legal team have also employed what critics see as an arsenal of judicial “delay tactics.”
Despite the president’s insistence on his innocence and public confidence in confronting his legal battles head-on, he has reportedly refused to accept documents and orders from the Constitutional Court.
But on Monday, the court’s spokesperson announced that the trial would proceed regardless, with the first hearing against the former public prosecutor general now set for December 27.
From Yoon’s short-lived martial law decree to his subsequent impeachment by parliament to Lee’s own colorful legal troubles, South Korea has been jolted by a series of dramatic events in recent weeks with likely more political shock and awe on the horizon.
South Korea entangled in a sticky and politicized legal web - Asia Times
President Yoon’s fate to be decided by understaffed Constitutional Court while opposition’s presidential aspirant Lee has legal troubles of his own
asiatimes.com · by Kenji Yoshida · December 23, 2024
SEOUL – With impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s fate hinging on a pending Constitutional Court decision, speculation is rising about possible new presidential elections in South Korea.
If the court upholds parliament’s impeachment motion earlier this month and formally unseats Yoon in the weeks ahead, South Koreans would head to the polls within 60 days to vote in a new national leader.
In that scenario, opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung would be the apparent front-runner at 37%, according to a Gallup Korea poll conducted between December 17-19 on “future political leader” preferences.
He’s trailed widely by Han Dong-hoon, the recently displaced ruling People Power Party leader, and Hong Joon-pyo, the flamboyant conservative mayor of Daegu, both of whom notched just 5% on the same Gallup Korea poll.
While South Korean politics are notoriously unpredictable, Yoon’s increasingly likely ouster would seemingly pave the way to a new leftist leader’s election.
Recent history points in that direction. In May 2017, leftist Moon Jae-in secured a decisive victory in an early presidential election following the sudden downfall of rightist President Park Geun-hye.
But this time around, Yoon’s right-wing fall is no guarantee of Lee’s left-wing rise. That’s because opposition leader Lee is grappling with legal woes of his own that would present significant hurdles to a potential presidential bid.
In November, Lee was convicted of violating election laws, a decision that, if upheld by the Supreme Court before the next presidential election, would bar him from running.
Under the Public Official Election Act, rulings in the second and third trials of election violation cases must be issued within three months of the previous court sentence.
This means the appeals court hearing Lee’s case must rule within three months of the trial court’s decision on November 15. If Lee chooses to appeal that decision, the Supreme Court will have another three months to decide his final fate.
Although this timeline has been loosely observed in the past, it is expected to be enforced more rigorously following the Chief Supreme Court Justice’s directive in September.
Should Yoon fall, the timing of the Constitutional Court’s ruling could set the stage for a presidential election as early as April or May next year. As such, Lee is working to delay his trial proceedings while maneuvering for Yoon’s court-ordered ouster.
On December 18, after two failed attempts, the appeals court finally delivered a notice of receipt of the litigation records to Lee. He now has 20 days to submit a statement of appeal for his election law violation conviction.
The first delivery attempt failed when Lee moved homes, leaving his new address unclear. A second attempt was unsuccessful due to the recipient’s absence.
The latest attempt succeeded only after the court dispatched an execution officer to hand-deliver the documents to Lee’s office in Yeouido. Without the notice, the appeal process could not proceed.
Lee is also facing a third-party bribery trial where the presidential aspirant is accused of requesting Ssangbangwool Group, a South Korean underwear company, to illicitly funnel US$8 million to North Korea to facilitate his planned visit to Pyongyang while serving as Gyeonggi Province’s governor.
In June, a former deputy governor of Gyeonggi Province was sentenced to nine and a half years in connection with the case. That same month, Lee was indicted and has since been rebuked for allegedly deliberately delaying court proceedings.
Earlier this month, Lee’s legal team filed a motion to recuse judges presiding over his case. Prosecutors have criticized the motion, warning it will cause “unprecedented delays” to the trial. An appeals court recently affirmed the ex-deputy governor’s guilty verdict.
If Lee is convicted of third-party bribery, it would deliver a major blow to his political reputation and further undermine his chances of winning the presidency, especially as he remains entangled in three other criminal trials.
While strategically prolonging his own legal fights, Lee is bidding to expedite Yoon’s impeachment trial—and for good reason. With his leftist rival, Cho Kuk, now imprisoned and the ruling People Power Party in utter disarray, Yoon’s ouster would create an unobstructed path for him to take power.
Previously hesitant, Lee and his camp are now desperately moving to fill three vacant seats on the Constitutional Court. Currently, the court is operating with a six-member panel after three of the justices’ tenure expired in October.
It has decided to hear the president’s impeachment case with its present composition but a unanimous vote will be required to remove Yoon. If the court were fully staffed, then at least six of nine votes would be needed for his ouster.
Complicating matters for Lee is that Yoon’s appointee, Justice Cheong Hyungsik, is the presiding and commissioned justice to handle his impeachment case.
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Two justices are considered liberal, three lean center-right and Cheong is firmly right-wing. If even one justice rejects parliament’s impeachment motion, Yoon, now suspended from his presidential duties, will be reinstated.
The three vacant seats up for nomination by parliament have thus become hot political bargaining chips. By sending two more liberal-leaning justices to the bench, the opposition hopes to boost the chances of Yoon’s removal from office.
The process, however, could take weeks and will require an acting president’s appointment.
To be fair, the opposition leader is not the only one tactically slowing his trial. Yoon and his legal team have also employed what critics see as an arsenal of judicial “delay tactics.”
Despite the president’s insistence on his innocence and public confidence in confronting his legal battles head-on, he has reportedly refused to accept documents and orders from the Constitutional Court.
But on Monday, the court’s spokesperson announced that the trial would proceed regardless, with the first hearing against the former public prosecutor general now set for December 27.
From Yoon’s short-lived martial law decree to his subsequent impeachment by parliament to Lee’s own colorful legal troubles, South Korea has been jolted by a series of dramatic events in recent weeks with likely more political shock and awe on the horizon.
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asiatimes.com · by Kenji Yoshida · December 23, 2024
7. Division and purge: South Korea's conservatives in deep trouble
Division and purge: South Korea's conservatives in deep trouble - Asia Times
Impeached president’s followers go to great lengths to shield him, fueling profound division within the broader conservative wing
asiatimes.com · by Kenji Yoshida, Jason Morgan · December 21, 2024
There’s an old saying in South Korean politics: rightists fall from corruption, while leftists crumble from division. Lately, however, these roles appear to have reversed.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung of the left-wing Democratic Party is entangled in five separate trials on charges ranging from bribery to breach of trust. In November, he was convicted of violating election laws – a decision that, if upheld by the Supreme Court, would disqualify him from running in the next presidential election. Cho Kuk, another prominent leftist politician, recently lost his parliamentary seat after the nation’s top court upheld his two-year prison sentence for corruption. Lee’s and Cho’s wives have been convicted, respectively of misusing a corporate credit card and academic fraud.
Contrastingly, the ongoing saga of President Yoon Sok Yeol’s impeachment highlights the lengths the pro-Yoon conservatives will go to shield their man, even at the cost of profound division within the broader conservative wing.
The anonymous vote on December 14 to impeach Yoon has sparked widespread speculation that 12 lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) broke ranks to support the motion. Three members abstained, and eight votes were invalidated. Assuming all opposition members endorsed the impeachment, 23 ruling party lawmakers diverged from their party’s official stance of non-impeachment.
PPP Chairman Han Dong-hoon, who reversed his initial stance to advocate for Yoon’s impeachment, has since resigned amid the fallout from the latest crisis – or, more precisely, Han was deposed by senior members of his party.
As if this chaos weren’t enough, the ruling party is now using such terms as “traitors” to attack the dozen who defied party directives.
Pro-Yoon conservatives’ aversion to Han has deep roots. The now-resigned party leader, once Yoon’s closest confidant, frequently adopted a critical stance toward the president’s growing list of scandals, urging the chief executive to put his house in order. This rankled Yoon’s staunchest praetorians.
In July, when Han rose to leadership with overwhelming support after serving months as interim head, the ruling party’s establishment quickly mounted an offensive. The party’s “aristocratic clique,” as one journalist described the faction, refused to let an outsider like Han lead without resistance. Persistent uncooperativeness and internal tensions created an environment that made forging a cohesive coalition nearly impossible for the novice party chair.
Meanwhile, outside the political arena, pro-Yoon Youtubers and supporters unleashed a barrage of unverified and malicious rumors to undermine Han’s standing. Frustrated by the relentless smear campaign, Han, at one point, consulted the president about defamatory attacks against him – to no avail.
Of course, Han is partly to blame for his frequent flip-flopping positions, including his handling of the latest turmoil. However, no matter what Han did, the pro-Yoon faction was determined to oppose him. As if waiting for the opportune moment, the party’s senior parliamentarians swiftly moved to dispose of their chief after Yoon’s impeachment motion passed last week.
Efforts to uproot and shame those who voted for Yoon’s impeachment are also intensifying. One PPP lawmaker went so far as to call them “weasels who stabbed [the president] in the back.” Hong Jun-pyo, Mayor of Daegu and a prominent PPP member, has openly demanded their expulsion from the party.
In the wake of Yoon’s widely criticized martial law gambit, there has been neither introspection nor meaningful effort to unite the ruling party. Amid the ongoing infighting, the party’s approval ratings have plunged to 25.7%, a record low since Yoon assumed office in May 2022. According to the newspaper Kyunghyang, nearly 8,000 individuals withdrew their PPP memberships between December 4 and 15.
But despite the waning public support and the looming uncertainty over Yoon’s survival, the Pro-Yoon faction is conducting business as usual. The ruling party’s establishment looks relieved to have finally toppled Han, replacing him with a familiar face, Kweon Seong-dong. Other crusaders for Yoon appear equally pleased, now shifting their focus to eliminating the disloyal members within the party.
Such political purges mirror the events during former conservative President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment, as though they’d been lifted from the same playbook.
In December 2016, Park was impeached by parliament with the backing of a swath of lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party (predecessor to PPP). What ensued was a bitter clash between pro-Park and anti-Park factions, ultimately leading to numerous party defections.
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The following March, the Constitutional Court formally removed Park from office. An early presidential election was held in May, which gave way to the leftist takeover of the presidency with Moon Jae-in’s decisive victory. Those who were “selectively” labeled anti-Park were ruthlessly attacked and marginalized from mainstream politics.
After weeks of discord and self-inflicted wounds, the ruling PPP is expected to elect a new interim leader and enter into emergency committee mode. Someone from the establishment or an individual easily controlled by it will most likely be chosen. With some senior members reportedly maneuvering behind the scenes, the party may seek to eject the 12 or 23 “betrayers,” hoping to consolidate power behind Yoon as he faces a constitutional court ruling.
Glaringly absent from the mainstream right-wing discourse is a deeper reflection on the party’s faltering state and a commitment to bridging its internal divides. It appears conservatives in South Korea have learned little since the last impeachment crisis that nearly obliterated their political existence.
The next president, regardless of who that may be, will inherit a nation weighed down by deep political rifts. The cycle of blame and short-term turf war will persist. But for the pro-Yoon conservatives, without meaningful introspection and readiness to prioritize unity over factionalism, the same destructive patterns will continue to shape their future.
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asiatimes.com · by Kenji Yoshida, Jason Morgan · December 21, 2024
8. Have North Korean fighters died in the Russia-Ukraine war?
Al Jazeera is asking the right question. Reporting is still not definitive and I continue to have more questions than I can find answers for.
Have North Korean fighters died in the Russia-Ukraine war?
Thousands of North Korean soldiers have died or been wounded according to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
Al Jazeera English · by Sarah Shamim,Al Jazeera Staff
Reports are emerging that thousands of North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded while fighting in the Ukraine war on Russia’s side.
Authorities in Ukraine, South Korea and the United States have all reported deaths among North Korean soldiers near Ukraine’s border in Russia’s Kursk.
Here is what we know so far about the reported deaths and why North Koreans could be fighting the war in Ukraine:
Have North Korean soldiers been sent to fight with Russian troops?
North Korea has denied sending either troops or weapons to assist Russia.
However, in February this year, former South Korean Defence Minister Shin Won-sik told reporters that Pyongyang had sent Moscow about 6,700 containers carrying millions of munitions starting September 2023 in exchange for raw materials to manufacture weapons, alongside food.
On October 9, Ukraine’s army announced it hit a Russian weapons arsenal, which included weapons sent to Russia by North Korea.
Then, on October 16 this year, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told parliament that North Korea had become a “de facto participant” in the war between Ukraine and Russia. He added that Ukrainian intelligence had found that North Korea was not only transferring weapons, but also soldiers to Moscow.
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United Kingdom-based Conflict Armament Research, which observed weapons used in conflict, told the UN Security Council (UNSC) on December 18 that Pyongyang is capable of producing ballistic missiles and supplying them to Moscow within months.
How many North Koreans are believed to have died in Ukraine?
Figures vary depending on who they come from.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X on Monday that Ukrainian forces had killed or wounded more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region.
I held a meeting of the Staff.
We thoroughly analyzed our work with Syria after the fall of Assad and his escape.
Today, the intelligence services presented their reports—the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine—as well as the Ministers of…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 23, 2024
Zelenskyy’s estimate is higher, however, than that of South Korea’s military officials, who said on Monday that at least 1,100 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded.
Seoul’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, reported on Thursday that of those, approximately 100 had been killed and 1,000 had been injured since they entered combat against Ukraine.
South Korean parliament member Lee Sung-kwon updated reporters on these figures last week, according to the BBC. He said that the casualties included high-ranking officials, and suggested that the soldiers died because they were unfamiliar with Russian terrain and drone warfare.
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Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify any of these casualty figures.
A road sign to Kursk on the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Sumy region of Ukraine on Tuesday, August 13, 2024 [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP]
Why is North Korea sending troops to fight for Russia?
The US, Ukraine and South Korea allege that North Korean soldiers started arriving in Moscow in October this year, more than 2.5 years after the Ukraine war started in February 2022.
The Ukraine war is the first time the military of the isolated North Korea has intervened in a foreign conflict.
Commentary published in November by Washington-headquartered think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace suggested there are likely to be some short-term benefits for Pyongyang, including receiving much-needed supplies from Russia, including food, oil and money.
The BBC also reported that Seoul intelligence estimates Russia is paying North Korea $2,000 per soldier every month.
Edward Howell, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera that Russia, for its part, is likely to be open to having North Korean soldiers join its war in Ukraine because “we know that Russia needs manpower.”
Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean soldiers at the war front.
While Pyongyang initially dismissed the claims made by the US, South Korea and Ukraine, a North Korean official has since stated that a deployment of such nature would be lawful.
How many fighters have been sent and are more likely to go?
In late October, the Pentagon asserted that North Korea had sent some 10,000 soldiers to fight in the Ukraine war.
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Zelenskyy said Ukraine believes more North Korean troops will join the Ukraine war.
“There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army,” he posted on his X account on Monday after he received a report about this from his top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii.
Have North Korea and Russia supported each other militarily in the past?
In June this year, Moscow and Pyongyang signed a mutual defence pact during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first state visit to North Korea in 24 years. That was ratified in November.
While the text of this agreement has not been released in full, it contains a clause that calls for Russia and North Korea to provide military assistance should one of them be attacked.
This has alarmed the US and its regional allies, South Korea and Japan. In June, the three countries released a joint statement expressing “grave concern” over the pact.
The US, Ukraine and South Korea have also alleged that North Korea has provided Russia with weapons, allegations denied by Moscow and Pyongyang.
Al Jazeera English · by Sarah Shamim,Al Jazeera Staff
9. South Korea's population faces point of no return
South Korea's population faces point of no return
Newsweek · by Micah McCartney · December 25, 2024
Published Dec 25, 2024 at 5:41 AM ESTByChina News Reporter
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What's New
One in five South Koreans is now aged 65 or older, the government said Tuesday.
Newsweek contacted the South Korean embassy in Washington D.C. via email for comment outside of office hours.
Why It Matters
The long-expected milestone officially makes the East Asian nation a "super-aged society," according to the United Nations benchmark, joining neighboring Japan, which passed the 20-percent threshold in 2006 and is likewise grappling with falling birth and marriage rates.
The long-term economic impact, coupled with a plummeting birth rate, have policymakers worried, and an increasingly desperate Seoul has this year announced a wave of regulations, and announced a new ministry to spearhead efforts to address the demographic crisis.
Pastor Choi Il-do (right) greeting an elderly woman at the "Babfor" free-meal service center in Seoul, South Korea. One in five South Koreans is now aged 65 or older, the government said Tuesday. Pastor Choi Il-do (right) greeting an elderly woman at the "Babfor" free-meal service center in Seoul, South Korea. One in five South Koreans is now aged 65 or older, the government said Tuesday. Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images
What To Know
The proportion of South Koreans who are 65 or older stands at 10.24 million, local media cited the country's interior ministry as saying, making up 20 percent of the 51.22 million population and twice as many as in 2008. Among this age grouping, 5.69 million are women and 4.54 million men.
South Jeolla Province, the country's southernmost region, bears the distinction of the oldest major area, with 27 percent of its population being classified as elderly. Meanwhile, the de facto administrative capital of Sejong in central South Korea is the youngest with just 11.57 percent being elderly.
South Korea's plummeting birth rate, the world's lowest with just 0.72 births expected per woman lifetime last year, is likely to accelerate the population imbalance.
South Korean authorities have said some $200 billion was spent between 2006 and 2022 on initiatives to boost births, but these have failed to overcome obstacles such as rising housing prices and changing social attitudes among young people.
Measures recently introduced by the government include making parental leave more flexible for those with a young child, improving access to postpartum care centers, and offering tax breaks for small- and medium-sized enterprises deemed to have "excellent" work-family balance policies.
What People Are Saying
Cho Young-tae, a professor at Seoul National University's Graduate School of Public Health, told newspaper Chosun Ilbo: "We need to urgently redesign our labor, welfare, and medical systems, such as extending the retirement age, which is currently 60 years old."
What Happens Next
Unless the trend is slowed, South Korea will have the highest proportion of elderly people of any country, with a projected 37.3 percent by 2045, warned Joo Hyung-hwan, vice chairman of the National Committee on Aging and Low Birthrate, earlier this month at a forum on population strategy, according to Chosun Ilbo.
However, South Korea may be able to offset some workforce losses through its advanced high-tech and manufacturing prowess. The country, for instance, leads the world in industrial robot density, with one robot for every 10 workers, according to this year's annual review by the International Federation of Robotics.
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About the writer
Micah McCartney
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian security issues, and cross-strait ties between China and Taiwan. You can get in touch with Micah by emailing m.mccartney@newsweek.com.
10. Abraham Lincoln Could Teach China, Russia and North Korea How to Take on America
Interior lines.
A sound conclusion.
Excerpt:
In short, we cannot do it all. Let’s rediscover the habit of setting and enforcing priorities, tending to what matters most ourselves while trusting to allies, partners, and friends to handle the rest.
Abraham Lincoln Could Teach China, Russia and North Korea How to Take on America
19fortyfive.com · by James Holmes · December 17, 2024
Lurkers in the wretched hive of scum and villainy—the Chinas, Russias, and North Koreas of the world—are channeling Abraham Lincoln.
During the American Civil War, President Lincoln divined that it verges on impossible for an outnumbered force to make itself strong enough everywhere along a distended defense perimeter to hold off a superior antagonist. Accordingly, he instructed Union generals to choreograph multiple, concurrent offensives around the Confederate perimeter, on the logic that one or more such probes would smash through the frontier. Southern armies would be too weak to defend everywhere. But where Lincoln wanted to break into hostile territory, red teams in Beijing, Moscow, and Pyongyang long to break out. They are mounting coordinated offensives around the Eurasian rim, reckoning that they can breach a line thinly defended by overstretched U.S. forces.
Strategic logic favored the Union cause back then. It could come to favor Eurasian malefactors today. To rebuff them, U.S. leaders need to discipline themselves. They need to husband finite resources, setting and enforcing priorities rather than demand that the U.S. military tamp down every crisis that comes along. No armed force is omnipotent. A force that tries to do it all, everywhere, at all times, ends up accomplishing little, anywhere, at any time. In other words, U.S. commanders and their political masters need to school themselves on strategy.
Fortunately, the strategic plight before Washington today is less dire than the one that confronted Confederate magnates. Leaders decked in gray faced an unenviable task. Their breakaway slave republic bestrode death ground. The Confederacy could fight to its utmost or die. Field commanders had little alternative other than to guard all along the Southern periphery, lest they cede home ground to a hostile army and hasten the defeat and downfall of their cause. And for some time they made a spirited struggle of it. Generals such as supreme commander Robert E. Lee mastered the art of maneuvering around the defense perimeter to meet imposing but sporadic Union thrusts.
In other words, Lee & Co. exploited the advantages of the interior position. Interior lines are like the radii of a circle. The combatant on interior lines enjoys short, direct routes from the center to battlegrounds around the circle’s circumference, which is equivalent to the interior contestant’s outer defense line. By contrast, the combatant ranging along exterior lines must move around the circle’s circumference to reach the same points of impact. Just to get to the battle, it must overcome all the geospatial and logistical headaches that go with moving lumbering forces across long distances.
Enter Lincoln. Old Abe was a self-educated strategist. At the outset of the Civil War, he basically had the Library of Congress send its collection on military affairs and history over to the White House. Then he read it. Among the strategic concepts Lincoln imbibed from his studies was “concentration in time.” Generally speaking, operational art involves mustering enough combat power at the time and place of battle to prevail. It’s the art of “concentration in space.” Force, space, time is the litany for practitioners of joint military operations. Now, employing the singular—“the” force, “the” place, “the” time—implies that a fighting force undertakes one battle or engagement at a time. Its commanders wage tactical encounters, one after the other, until the army reaches its final objective, whether that means vanquishing an enemy host or wresting away a piece of ground. This sequence of endeavors comprises a campaign.
And that way of looking at things makes perfect sense—in theory.
In the practical world, though, campaigns seldom if ever unspool so neatly. In part that’s because, no matter how desirable it might be, it’s hard to group all forces on one field of battle at the same time to overpower the foe. Military sage Carl von Clausewitz catalogs some reasons why. Terrain may inhibit movement to the battlefield. Command-and-control of large formations poses problems, making it hard to act in unison. A force must guard fragile supply lines, so it leaves behind soldiery to protect them. The firepower from soldiers overseeing supply lines is not present for the main show. Allies have their own political processes to abide by, and may not do the leading ally’s bidding instantly or to the full. Etc.
Concentration in space is an elusive ideal. So, out of expediency, forces commonly operate in units fragmented from one another.
But that need not mean they operate in random, uncoordinated fashion. From ransacking military history, Lincoln shrewdly observed that armies maneuvering independently in geographic space could still concentrate their efforts in time. And they should: it imposes dilemmas on the foe. Southern armies were adept at shifting from side to side along interior lines to meet offensives by the materially superior Union Army. They could handle Union advances one by one. But Lincoln reasoned that they would be hard pressed to meet multiple thrusts at different places at the same time. And the Union could afford to equip forces to stage multiple assaults. The North outclassed the South by most any index of physical strength, from economic productivity to military-related industry to manpower. It could scatter armies around on the map yet—given skillful commanders—orchestrate them to strike nearly simultaneously. Eventually a Northern army would break through a weak segment of the line into the backfield, seizing Southern ground and carrying the North toward victory.
U.S. Navy Assault Ship. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
And the scattershot approach worked—albeit not without four long years of bloodletting. Lincoln’s presidency is a case study on managing concentration and dispersal of armed might.
Today, U.S. forces are once again operating along exterior lines, this time in the marginal seas and skies adjoining the Eurasian supercontinent. By commanding offshore waters, U.S. forces can mold events in the rimlands to the advantage of America and its regional allies, partners, and friends. But this is a case of role reversal. The United States is now playing defense. It wants to uphold a longstanding, largely beneficial status quo. Preserving what is constitutes a strategically defensive aim by any standard. Meanwhile rimlands contenders are essaying a breakout from Eurasia. They aspire to drive U.S. maritime forces from the marginal seas. If successful they will deny the United States and its allies the maritime access they must possess to radiate power ashore, while at the same time guaranteeing their own access to the wider world.
If hostile capitals coordinate their efforts smoothly, they can concentrate in time along interior lines in pursuit of a breakout. They can rally Lincoln’s logic behind strategically offensive aims.
And it seems such an effort is afoot. I’m not one to affix cutesy labels like “axis” of this or that to describe the red teams, as many commentators have taken to doing. No solemn covenant unites them. Nevertheless, it is hard to construe the concurrent crises now convulsing the Eurasian rim except as a mutual effort by the supercontinent’s malefactors to puncture the U.S. cordon. These crises may be fragmented in geographic space, but they are suspiciously concentrated in time. And they come at a juncture when the red teams work together openly in the military realm. North Korea has sent troops to fight Ukraine. Iran has supplied Russia with aerial ordnance while sponsoring the Houthi assault on mercantile shipping. China furnishes Russia invaluable support for its aggression against Ukraine, touting the “no-limits” partnership Beijing and Moscow announced shortly before the invasion.
We are witnessing opportunism at a bare minimum. And signs of outright collusion are becoming too glaring to ignore.
Yet U.S. leaders have options. Unlike Confederate commanders in the Civil War, they don’t have to defend the line to the utmost everywhere around the Eurasian perimeter. They can be choosy, applying resources to the most critical flashpoints—chiefly East Asian flashpoints—while delegating lesser priorities to local allies, partners, or friends. Indeed, strategy demands they do so. If the Indo-Pacific is the prime theater for American endeavor, as successive administrations have agreed it is, then that’s where the bulk of U.S. resources must go.
Or the leadership can keep trying to do everything, everywhere, all the time—defining every commitment as commanding the same surpassing value and warranting the same burdensome, open-ended levy of martial resources. That would be strategic malpractice. Indiscipline among the leadership attenuates the resources available for genuinely compelling priorities such as the Taiwan Strait or South China Sea. It hobbles efforts to counter the gravest threats looming in world affairs.
In short, we cannot do it all. Let’s rediscover the habit of setting and enforcing priorities, tending to what matters most ourselves while trusting to allies, partners, and friends to handle the rest.
About the Author: Dr. James Holmes
Dr. James Holmes is J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and a Distinguished Fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation & Future Warfare, Marine Corps University. The views voiced here are his alone.
19fortyfive.com · by James Holmes · December 17, 2024
11. U.S. intelligence agencies believe troop dispatch to Russia was N. Korea's idea: NYT
To Mr. Putin from Mr. Kim: "Have I got a deal for you."
U.S. intelligence agencies believe troop dispatch to Russia was N. Korea's idea: NYT | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · December 24, 2024
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea's troop deployment to Russia was Pyongyang's idea, The New York Times (NYT) reported Monday, although some Western officials thought Moscow had turned to the reclusive regime in a desperate need for military manpower amid its war in Ukraine.
Citing U.S. officials, the newspaper reported on the agencies' assessment that Pyongyang proposed the idea though Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly embraced it.
Pyongyang has sent some 12,000 troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine, officials in Seoul and Washington have said. They confirmed the North has suffered casualties, including fatalities, during combat alongside Russian forces.
The NYT said that U.S. officials do not believe North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has received anything immediate in return, but they said that Kim appears to be hoping Russia will repay the favor in the future by offering diplomatic support, assisting if a crisis breaks out, and providing technology.
During a U.N. Security Council session last week, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield revealed U.S. information that Moscow has sent air defense systems to the North, while underscoring Washington's concerns over Moscow's "intent" to share satellite and space technologies with Pyongyang.
She also said that Pyongyang has shipped more than 20,000 shipping containers of munitions to Russia to date, including at least 6 million heavy artillery rounds, along with well over 100 ballistic missiles.
Meanwhile, South Korea's military said Monday that Pyongyang appears to be preparing to deploy additional troops and military equipment to Russia, possibly including suicide drones.
This undated image captured from the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security of Ukraine shows soldiers suspected to be North Koreans receiving apparent Russian military gear. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · December 24, 2024
12. What we know about North Korean troops fighting Russia's war
What we know about North Korean troops fighting Russia's war
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2796pdm1lo
15 hours ago
Kelly Ng
BBC News
Getty Images
Some observers now say we should not be too quick to dismiss North Korea's military capabilities
North Korea's deployment of troops to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine has attracted global attention - as well as speculation as to how they would be deployed on the battlefield.
Pyongyang has sent at least 10,000 troops to Russia, according to Kyiv and Seoul, who have also said North Korean casualties have been rising since entering combat in early December.
The tolls cited vary. South Korea said this week that more than 1,000 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put the number at 3,000.
Pentagon officials had confirmed there had been casualties but did not provide a figure.
The Pentagon said that it appeared the soldiers were being used in infantry roles around the Kursk border region, which Moscow has been trying to recapture from Ukraine - meaning it's possible that North Korean troops have not been deployed across the border in Ukraine.
This news comes nearly two months after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and South Korean officials accused Pyongyang of deploying troops to support Russia’s invasion.
But little information has emerged since then, and Moscow and Pyongyang have not responded directly to these reports.
Estimates of troop numbers have ranged from about 11,000 - a Pentagon calculation - to as many as 100,000, according to unnamed sources quoted in Bloomberg news.
At first, their lack of battlefield experience was given as a key reason why they might be assigned non-combat roles. But that assumption was re-evaluated after the US and Ukraine said that North Korean troops had engaged in combat with Ukrainian soldiers.
So what do we know about the role of North Korean troops in Russia's war?
How effective are these troops?
In short, it is hard to say.
Secretive North Korea has one of the world’s largest militaries, with 1.28 million active soldiers, but unlike in Russia, the Korean People's Army (KPA) has no recent experience of combat.
Pyongyang’s army is “thoroughly indoctrinated but with low readiness,” says Mark Cancian, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
But he does not see them as cannon fodder, adding that such a characterisation is “Ukrainian bravado”.
Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence services have said that many of the troops deployed to Russia are some of Pyongyang’s best, drawn from the 11th Corps, also known as the Storm Corps. The unit is trained in infiltration, infrastructure sabotage and assassinations.
These soldiers are “trained to withstand a high degree of physical pain and psychological torture”, says Michael Madden, a North Korea expert from the Stimson Center in Washington.
“What they lack in combat they make up for with what they can tolerate physically and mentally,” he adds.
Mr Cancian agrees that “if these are special operations forces, they will be much better prepared than the average North Korean unit".
He adds: "The Russians appear to be giving them additional training, likely on the special circumstances of the war in Ukraine."
This is supported by videos on social media, which show men believed to be North Koreans in Russian uniform, at what appear to be military training facilities in Russia.
As the war in Ukraine creeps towards its third year, the North Korean troops may be "the best capable" among the troops available to Russia, says Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean army lieutenant-general.
North Korean soldiers who had defected over the last decade or so told the BBC that it would be a mistake to underestimate Pyongyang's troops. These interviews shed light on the condition of these troops on the Ukrainian frontline.
Moscow has been recruiting at least 20,000 new soldiers a month to help bolster its war effort, with more than 1,000 Russian soldiers killed or wounded on average daily, according to Nato.
“[Russia] has been sending troops to the front without proper training. Compared to such recruits, North Koreans are trained and motivated. They are not combat-tested currently, but that soon will not be the case,” Lt-Gen (retd) Chun said.
Still, some experts believe the language barrier and unfamiliarity with Russian systems would complicate any fighting roles. They suggest instead that Pyongyang’s troops are being tapped for their engineering and construction capabilities.
Why is N Korea supporting Russia's war?
"For North Korea, [such deployments are] a good way to earn money,” says Andrei Lankov, director of the Korea Risk Group.
South Korean intelligence estimates that Moscow is paying Pyongyang $2,000 (£1,585) per soldier every month - and most of this money ends up in the state’s coffers.
Pyongyang could also gain access to Russian military technology, which Moscow would otherwise have been reluctant to transfer, Mr Lankov adds.
Getty Images
Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin signed a pact in June pledging mutual support against "aggression"
For Moscow, North Korean troops would help solve its widely-reported manpower problem.
The US estimates that some 600,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since the invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
Moscow has tried to “minimise domestic political impact” by offering bonuses to recruits who volunteer and enlisting foreigners with the promise of citizenship, says Mr Cancian from CSIS.
In September this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an order - for the third time since the war started - to expand his army.
"With Russia reportedly suffering over 1,000 casualties on the battlefield, reducing its own losses could alleviate some pressure on the Putin regime," agrees Lami Kim, a professor of Security Studies at the Daniel K Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.
What does South Korea think?
These developments worry Seoul, especially as tensions spiral on the Korean peninsula.
In October, the North blew up sections of two roads that connected it to South Korea, days after accusing Seoul of flying drones into Pyongyang.
This was after the two countries engaged in a tit-for-tat campaign, flying thousands of trash and propaganda balloons into each other’s territories.
The Koreas have also suspended a pact aimed at lowering military tensions, shortly after the North declared the South was "enemy number one”.
So South Korea is uneasy about the North acquiring new military prowess.
Troops in South Korea have also not fought in a major conflict since the Vietnam war, which ended in 1975. And Seoul fears that “its adversary could boast more hostile capabilities” as a result of the experience its soldiers would get on the battlefield, Lt-Gen (retd) Chun says.
While South Korea has accused the North of also supplying weapons to Russia, it says sending troops goes well beyond that.
It has also expressed “grave concern” over a pact between Pyongyang and Moscow, which pledges that the two counties will help each other in the event of “aggression” against either country.
And it has reiterated that it would consider aiding Ukraine “for defensive purposes”.
If that happens, it would mark a shift in South Korea's longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries engaged in active conflict.
13. N. Korea claims major advances in anti-drone defense after joint military exercises
N. Korea claims major advances in anti-drone defense after joint military exercises - Daily NK English
North Korea now plans to conduct such exercises regularly to maintain and improve its technical capabilities
By Jeong Tae Joo - December 24, 2024
dailynk.com · by Jeong Tae Joo · December 24, 2024
North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported on Nov. 15 that “Comrade Kim Jong Un guided on the spot the performance test of suicide attack drones of various types produced by an affiliated institute of the Unmanned Aerial Technology Complex and enterprises on Nov. 14” and ordered “full-scale mass production.”
North Korean military and intelligence agencies have declared their recent joint electronic warfare exercises a success, strengthening their radar detection and jamming capabilities along the Chinese and South Korean borders.
According to a source recently, North Korea’s Ministry of State Security presented these findings to radar bureau department heads on Dec. 9 in an analytical summary of the exercises. The report highlighted enhanced cooperation between the ministry’s radar bureau and electronic warfare specialists from the Korean People’s Army’s (KPA) General Staff Department, particularly in countering potential drone incursions.
Analysts noted that data collected during the exercises helped optimize radar jamming equipment and improved command-and-control efficiency for real-time information sharing between the ministry and military. The ministry emphasized that this first-ever joint exercise involving the radar bureau marked significant progress in real-time frequency detection and jamming using new equipment, claiming a 30% average improvement in response time to enemy drone incursions.
The exercises, which appear to be a direct response to an alleged South Korean drone incursion of Pyongyang, signal the regime’s intent to strengthen coordination between its military and intelligence agencies while upgrading electronic warfare countermeasures. North Korea now plans to conduct such exercises regularly to maintain and improve its technical capabilities.
“The ministry is reviewing options to acquire additional electronic warfare equipment and expand the radar bureau’s role,” the source said. “These proposals will be presented at the party’s year-end plenary session.” The ministry is already developing plans to enhance electronic warfare and information warfare countermeasures for the coming year, citing potential future drone incursions by South Korea and other adversaries.
“The ministry likely aims to centralize electronic warfare countermeasures under state control while upgrading military capabilities and technological advantages,” the source added.
The joint exercises, held from Nov. 6 to 18, involved technical specialists from both the ministry’s radar bureau and the KPA General Staff Department’s radar and electronic warfare bureau. Operations were conducted across six strategic locations: Hoeryong in North Hamgyong province, Pochon in Ryanggang province, Wiwon county in Jagang province, Sinuiju in North Pyongan province, Chorwon county in Kangwon province, and Pyongsan county in North Hwanghae province.
Read in Korean
dailynk.com · by Jeong Tae Joo · December 24, 2024
14. N. Korea arrests water park manager for alleged 'secret leaks' to foreigners
"waterpark" and "leak". What does a waterpark manager "leak?"
I did not know there was an Onion in north Korea.
N. Korea arrests water park manager for alleged 'secret leaks' to foreigners - Daily NK English
"Whether you work at the florist or the water park, bureau staff have to constantly watch their backs. Everyone's terrified of encountering foreigners," a source said
By Eun Seol - December 23, 2024
dailynk.com · by Eun Seol · December 23, 2024
Munsu Water Park in Pyongyang, known as North Korea's largest water park. (Rodong Sinmun, News1)
A manager of a foreigners’ water park in Pyongyang was recently arrested by North Korea’s Ministry of State Security.
According to a source in North Korea, state security agents detained a man in his thirties during a weekly study session on Dec. 4. The manager worked at a water park in embassy row, located in the Munhung neighborhood of Pyongyang’s Taedonggang district.
The agents burst into the study session and dragged the manager away, accusing him of anti-state activities – specifically, leaking national security secrets during interactions with foreigners. However, they neither specified what secrets were allegedly revealed nor identified the foreigners involved.
The agents searched his workplace and seized his mobile phone and personal belongings. The manager worked for the Bureau for Affairs with Diplomatic Corps, a foreign ministry department that operates various facilities for foreign embassy staff in Pyongyang, including saunas, water parks, restaurants, and grocery stores.
Due to their regular contact with foreign ambassadors, their families, and embassy workers, bureau employees are kept under close surveillance by state security. Staff are acutely aware of this monitoring and typically avoid direct interaction with foreigners or keep any necessary communication minimal.
The manager’s sudden arrest has left his colleagues bewildered and questioning what conversations he could have had with foreigners to warrant such action. A tense atmosphere has descended over the bureau’s headquarters.
“Whether you work at the florist or the water park, bureau staff have to constantly watch their backs. Everyone’s terrified of encountering foreigners,” the source said.
“It doesn’t make sense – as a water park manager, he wouldn’t have had access to state secrets, and probably had limited contact with foreigners. Even if he did speak with them, it would have been about mundane matters. Nobody can figure out why he was really arrested.”
The incident has led bureau staff to avoid all contact with foreigners, fearing similar consequences.
“It’s ridiculous that staff at an organization meant to serve foreigners are now avoiding them,” the source said. “But everyone’s scared they might be arrested on some trivial pretext if they don’t keep their distance.”
Read in Korean
dailynk.com · by Eun Seol · December 23, 2024
15. Editorial: Yoon must clarify ex-millitary commander's martial law plot
It is conspiracies like this, if the reporting is accurate, that undermine all the credibility of those in the ruling and conservative party who argue about malign Chinese and north Korean influence.
Excerpts:
The notebook also reportedly includes a list of politicians, journalists, union leaders, and judges labeled as “targets for detainment,” with some entries marked for “execution.” During earlier martial law discussions, a list of 14 individuals designated for arrest surfaced, accompanied by rumors of plans to assassinate specific politicians. Whether these proposals align with Noh’s notes warrants further scrutiny. Authorities have additionally revealed that Noh attempted to form an unofficial investigative unit under the martial law command, intending to lead it himself. The idea of a civilian overseeing a team of more than 60 military personnel is shocking.
The former defense minister is alleged to have involved Noh, dishonorably discharged for sexual misconduct, in martial law discussions while Noh was running a fortune-telling business. Prosecutors must investigate whether Kim endorsed or acted upon suggestions such as Noh’s proposal to provoke a North Korean attack at the NLL. Before this, President Yoon, who held ultimate authority during the martial law discussions, must offer a clear and transparent explanation to the public regarding these serious allegations.
Editorial: Yoon must clarify ex-millitary commander's martial law plot
By The Chosunilbo
Published 2024.12.25. 08:36
https://www.chosun.com/english/opinion-en/2024/12/25/ZO4CDQC6G5DLLIVNXQPE5G4MHM/
Noh Sang-won, former Defense Intelligence Command chief accused of premeditating the Dec. 3 martial law, is transferred to prosecutors on the 24th. Noh is suspected of aiding former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun in drafting the martial law proclamations. /News1
Police have seized a notebook from a fortune-telling parlor associated with Noh Sang-won, the former commander of the Defense Intelligence Command (DIC), who is in custody on sedition charges tied to a proposed martial law declaration. The notebook reportedly contains memos with alarming entries, such as “induce an attack from the North at the Northern Limit Line (NLL)” and “trash balloons.” These notes have been interpreted as an attempt to provoke North Korean aggression to justify enacting martial law by fabricating a national emergency resembling wartime or armed conflict, as stipulated in the Constitution. The idea that a former high-ranking military officer could devise such plans raises serious concerns.
The key question is whether these memos reflect Noh’s personal delusions or were meant for those with the authority to act on them. Noh maintained a 35-year friendship with Kim Yong-hyun, the former defense minister, who has also been implicated in this martial law conspiracy. This connection raises the possibility that Noh’s ideas were communicated to individuals such as Kim or even President Yoon Suk-yeol.
If substantiated, these allegations carry severe implications. Treason, a crime that threatens national security, is punishable by death, while undermining military operations may lead to life imprisonment. The NLL holds both symbolic and strategic importance, having been fiercely defended during events such as the Yeonpyeong naval skirmishes and the sinking of the Cheonan warship. Adding to the controversy, the Democratic Party has alleged that former Defense Minister Kim sought to provoke a North Korean attack by targeting the origins of “trash balloons” sent across the border. Given the overtly political motivations behind this alleged “martial law” plot, questions about the lengths those involved might have gone to are unsurprising.
The notebook also reportedly includes a list of politicians, journalists, union leaders, and judges labeled as “targets for detainment,” with some entries marked for “execution.” During earlier martial law discussions, a list of 14 individuals designated for arrest surfaced, accompanied by rumors of plans to assassinate specific politicians. Whether these proposals align with Noh’s notes warrants further scrutiny. Authorities have additionally revealed that Noh attempted to form an unofficial investigative unit under the martial law command, intending to lead it himself. The idea of a civilian overseeing a team of more than 60 military personnel is shocking.
The former defense minister is alleged to have involved Noh, dishonorably discharged for sexual misconduct, in martial law discussions while Noh was running a fortune-telling business. Prosecutors must investigate whether Kim endorsed or acted upon suggestions such as Noh’s proposal to provoke a North Korean attack at the NLL. Before this, President Yoon, who held ultimate authority during the martial law discussions, must offer a clear and transparent explanation to the public regarding these serious allegations.
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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