Quotes of the Day:
“London calling with Frenchmen speaking to their countrymen… London calling with messages for our friends…”
“Molasses tomorrow will bring forth cognac.”
“Long sobs of autumn violins”
“Wound my heart with a monotonous languor”
“John has a long mustache.”
“Dun Dun Dun Dunnnn.”
-BBC, June 5, 1945
1. N. Korea fires 8 short-range ballistic missiles toward East Sea: S. Korean military
2. Yoon orders strengthening of S. Korea-U.S. extended deterrence
3. N. Korea's total fever cases surpass 4 mln amid antivirus fight
4. S. Korean, U.S. nuclear envoys discuss N. Korea's missile firing
5. With Backing of Washington and Tokyo, Seoul Presses North Korea More Aggressively
6. Activists Demand South Korea Press North on ‘Enforced Disappearance Convention’
7. HRNK Event: Never Forgotten: South Korean POWs Held in North Korea
8. National Security Council convenes over N.K. missile launch
9. Ruling party chief says Ukraine seeks large amount of assistance from S. Korea
10. Question of nuclear test looms after North launches eight missiles
11. IPEF, Korea and the China factor
12. Yoon-Kishida summit likely in Spain
13. Tensions mount on Korean Peninsula
14. Four B-1B Bombers Appear At Andersen AFB In Guam
15. No further provocations
16. [Washington Talk] "North Korea's 'economic hardship' deepens... What is the intention of the ‘Nuclear Test Card’?”
1. N. Korea fires 8 short-range ballistic missiles toward East Sea: S. Korean military
No one should be surprised. Kim is likely saying, "I will give them one more chance to lift sanctions before I test a nuclear weapon." Or "I will sacrifice tens of thousands of Koreans in the north to COVID to coerce the US to lift sanctions."
(4th LD) N. Korea fires 8 short-range ballistic missiles toward East Sea: S. Korean military | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES details in 5th para)
By Kang Yoon-seung
SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired eight short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) toward the East Sea on Sunday, a day after South Korea and the United States wrapped up their joint drills near the peninsula involving a U.S. aircraft carrier, according to the South's military.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the launches were detected between 9:08 a.m. and 9:43 a.m. from areas around Sunan in Pyongyang; Kaechon, north of the capital city; the northwestern region of Tongchang-ri; and the eastern city of Hamhung.
The missiles flew around 110-670 kilometers at altitudes of 25-90 km with speeds of Mach 3 to 6, it added.
The intelligence authorities of South Korea and the U.S. are conducting an analysis for more details, it said.
An informed source said two missiles were shot from each site "sporadically," presumably from transporter erector launchers (TELs), the largest number of ballistic missiles the North has recently launched "on a single day and occasion."
"The North's continued launch of ballistic missiles are provocations which poses a significant threat to peace and security not only on the Korean Peninsula but also in the world," the JCS said in a statement.
Soon after the launch, JCS Chairman Gen. Won In-choul and Gen. Paul LaCamera, top commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, held video talks and reaffirmed the allies' capabilities and defense posture to immediately track and intercept North Korean missiles, according to the JCS.
It was the North's 18th show of force this year and the third since President Yoon Suk-yeol took office May 10 with a pledge to get tough on the recalcitrant regime.
The North test-fired a suspected new-type intercontinental ballistic missile and two apparent SRBMs into the East Sea on May 25 right after U.S. President Joe Biden's trip to Seoul and Tokyo.
South Korean and U.S. government officials said Pyongyang seems to have completed preparations for another nuclear test.
The previous day, South Korea and the United States finished a three-day combined exercise in international waters off Okinawa mobilizing the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, apparently in order to send a stern message against North Korea's continued missile provocations.
It marked the first time for the allies to have mobilized a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier during a combined exercise since November 2017. North Korea has been highly sensitive to such a joint military exercise by the allies, describing it as a rehearsal for invasion.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Sunday's missile launches highlight the "destabilizing impact of the DPRK's illicit weapons program." DPRK stands for the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"We are aware of the DPRK's multiple ballistic missile launches and are consulting closely with our allies and partners," it said in a press release. "The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad."
The South's presidential office convened an emergency National Security Council in response to the North's latest missile testing. It strongly condemned the North in a statement issued after the session presided over by National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han.
colin@yna.co.kr
(END)
2.Yoon orders strengthening of S. Korea-U.S. extended deterrence
(2nd LD) Yoon orders strengthening of S. Korea-U.S. extended deterrence | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with Yoon's instructions, NSC meeting results; CHANGES headline; ADDS photo)
SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol instructed officials Sunday to strengthen the extended deterrence and combined defense posture of South Korea and the United States in response to North Korea's latest demonstration of its firepower.
Yoon gave the order as members of the National Security Council briefed him on the results of a meeting they held shortly after North Korea fired eight short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea, according to his office.
"President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the readiness posture be firmly maintained at all times, and the continued strengthening of the South Korea-U.S. extended deterrence and combined defense posture, including missile defense exercises between South Korea and the United States," it said in a statement.
Yoon noted that North Korea has conducted missile provocations once every nine days on average this year alone.
The previous day, South Korea and the United States ended combined military exercises near the Korean Peninsula involving a U.S. aircraft carrier.
During the NSC meeting, which was presided over by National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han, the participants shared the assessment that North Korea's various forms of ballistic missile launches are a test of the new government's security posture at the start of its term.
"They also strongly condemned them as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and actions raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula," the statement said, adding that the participants "urged the North Korean regime to quickly realize that it has nothing to gain through nuclear and missile threats, and to come forward for dialogue and cooperation."
The meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Park Jin, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, National Intelligence Service Director Kim Kyou-hyun, First Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo and Second Deputy National Security Adviser Shin In-ho.
Yoon had initially planned to take part in volunteer work picking up trash along the Han River together with first lady Kim Keon-hee, but he canceled the plan following the missile launches and went to work at the presidential office.
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
3. N. Korea's total fever cases surpass 4 mln amid antivirus fight
Is the regime using these numbers to try to coerce into lifting sanctions for humanitarian reasons? Does it undermine its argument when the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) spins the tale that the regime is doing great things to manage the outbreak and minimize deaths and rapidly bring people back to good health? Is the PAD trying to subtly make the argument that the regime is far superior to the rest of the world in dealing with COVID while at the same time the regime is trying to use the outbreak as one of the levers of blackmail diplomacy?
(LEAD) N. Korea's total fever cases surpass 4 mln amid antivirus fight | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details; ADDS photo)
SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea reported 73,780 more suspected COVID-19 cases Sunday, bringing the total number of fever cases to over 4 million.
More than 73,780 people showed symptoms of a fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters.
It marked the sixth consecutive day that the daily count stayed below 100,000.
The KCNA gave no information on whether additional deaths have been confirmed.
The total number of fever cases since late April came to more than 4.07 million as of 6 p.m. Saturday, of which more than 3.93 million have recovered and at least 138,480 are being treated, it added.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang claimed the country is taking "optimal epidemic prevention measures based on deep scientific analysis of the epidemic prevention situation."
"By bringing together information from nationwide surveillance, reports, epidemic examinations, experimental tests and the state of analysis, the capability to safely control and manage the epidemic spread is reassessed and practical measures are taken to carry out the epidemic prevention more purposefully," the KCNA said in a separate English-language report.
The country with a population of 25 million announced a COVID-19 outbreak on May 12.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)
4. S. Korean, U.S. nuclear envoys discuss N. Korea's missile firing
"That which does not kill me makes me (our trilateral cooperation) stronger." - Nietzsche
S. Korean, U.S. nuclear envoys discuss N. Korea's missile firing | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- Top South Korean and U.S. nuclear envoys held an emergency meeting in Seoul on Sunday, hours after North Korea test-fired another salvo of ballistic missiles into the East Sea, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.
Kim Gunn, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, had discussions with his American counterpart, Sung Kim, on the issue in their second face-to-face meeting in two days.
Kim was already in Seoul for trilateral consultations held Friday, which involved Takehiro Funakoshi of Japan, on ways to persuade Pyongyang to discontinue provocations and bring it back to the negotiating table.
The three officials had phone talks in response to the North's latest missile launches, in which they strongly condemned the tension-escalating provocation, a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions, the ministry added.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)
5. With Backing of Washington and Tokyo, Seoul Presses North Korea More Aggressively
The unintended effect of north Korean (and possibly Chinese) action is strengthened trilateral cooperation.
The subtitle gets things slightly wrong. If there is a war the US will commit the troops it has already apportioned to fight as part of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command. We are not going to "wait and see" what happens and if the US needs to send reinforcements. We have detailed defense plans with the right forces apportioned and if north Korea attacks we will execute that plan which starts with immediate deployment of forces that are trained and ready to contribute to the defense of South Korea alongside the main effort of South Korean troops defending the ROK. We will not wait and see if we need to send reinforcements. This kind of thinking undermines deterrence (as well as strategic reassurance) because it implies we might not deploy the troops and fully implement the COMBINED defense plan.
The headline editor needs to get a redo for the subtitle. There is nothing in the text that implies that if north Korea attacks and invades South Korea the US will send reinforcements only if necessary.
With Backing of Washington and Tokyo, Seoul Presses North Korea More Aggressively
The message is unmistakable: Although the United States only has 28,500 troops in South Korea, Washington is ready to send in reinforcements if needed.
The U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, during a meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts at Seoul June 3, 2022. Kim Hong-Ji/pool via AP
Friday, June 3, 2022
02:32:39 pm
SEOUL — Buttressed by the success of South Korea’s ruling conservative party in local elections, Seoul and Washington are warning North Korea about its missile and nuclear weapons program and threats against the South.
The veteran American envoy on North Korea, Sung Kim, strongly suggested Washington would increase its military role in the region in direct response to North Korean “provocations.”
At the opening of talks with his opposite numbers from South Korea and Japan, Mr. Kim said bluntly, “We are preparing … to make both short- and long-term adjustments to our military posture” in response to any “provocation and as necessary to strengthen both defense and deterrence and to protect our allies.”
The message was unmistakable: Although the United States only has 28,500 troops in South Korea, Washington is ready to send in reinforcements if needed and also to send warplanes on intimidation missions as messages to North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
South Korea’s nuclear envoy, Kim Gunn, opening the session, was just as emphatic. “North Korea’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons can only strengthen our deterrence,” he said. Korea along with Japan and the United States, he added, “would come up with a united response.”
In a not-so-subtle reminder of the possibility of a military response, he warned that “prolonged isolation can only worsen the dire situation.”
The remarks of the two envoys marked a fresh determination to stand firm against the threats of North Korea, a sharp departure from the attempts at reconciliation and appeasement by South Korea’s previous president, Moon Jae-in.
They reflected a measure of confidence that was buoyed by local elections on Wednesday in which candidates of the ruling People Power Party won12 of the 17 positions as governors of the country’s eight provinces or mayors of nine cities, including the capital and Korea’s second-biggest city, Busan.
There was no doubt also that the recent summits between President Biden and the leaders of both South Korea and Japan had strengthened “trilateral cooperation” despite the deep reluctance of both countries to form an alliance.
Now the three countries are engaged in discussions “on all levels,” Korea’s Kim Gunn said.
Facing him from his side of three tables formed to make a triangle in South Korea’s foreign ministry, Japan’s Takehiro Funakoshi said “trilateral cooperation is all the more important” considering that “further provocations including a nuclear test are possible.” Mr. Biden’s visits, he said, “highlighted our mutual deterrence in the region.”
The trilateral talks on Friday were just the beginning of a campaign to impress on North Korea the determination of the United States, Korea, and Japan to forestall whatever incendiary plans the North Korean strongman may have in mind to distract attention from the Covid-19 pandemic that’s raging throughout his country.
Washington, which has long held separate alliances with South Korea and Japan, is attempting to get Seoul and Tokyo to join in military exercises and other displays of goodwill even though the legacy of the Japanese colonial era in Korea presents obstacles — enough to keep the two from forming a formal alliance.
The pressure for trilateral cooperation reaches a new level next week when a deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, arrives here for talks with her vice-ministerial counterparts from Seoul and Tokyo. In effect, Sung Kim, a highly experienced negotiator who’s previously served as ambassador to South Korea and the Philippines and is now concurrently ambassador to Indonesia, was laying the groundwork for Ms. Sherman’s visit.
Washington appears anxious to capitalize expeditiously on the wave of support for the new conservative president. The sense of relief after problems engendered by the former president’s soft-line toward Pyongyang is almost palpable.
“Our bottom line has not changed,” Sung Kim said. That is “to make clear” that North Korea’s “unlawful activities have consequences.”
DONALD KIRK
Mr. Kirk, based in Seoul and Washington, has been covering Asia for decades for newspapers and magazines and is the author of books on Korea, the Vietnam War and the Philippines.
6. Activists Demand South Korea Press North on ‘Enforced Disappearance Convention’
Excerpts:
The number of South Koreans forced to spend the rest of their lives in North Korea is staggering – of 87,000 South Koreans captured in the Korean War, only 8,343 were returned under terms of the armistice reached in July 1953. Another 90,000 South Koreans living in Japan were lured into going to North Korea with promises of a great life there, only to discover conditions were awful and they could never leave. Hundreds more were kidnapped off beaches in Korea and Japan and shipped to the North, trapped in a land that only a few have been able to escape.
Activists Demand South Korea Press North on ‘Enforced Disappearance Convention’
North Korea is accused of engaging in ‘systematic abduction’ and ‘denial of repatriation’ as a matter of state policy.
The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, at the presidential office, Seoul, May 25, 2022. South Korea Presidential Office /Yonhap via AP
Friday, June 3, 2022
07:10:47 am
SEOUL – A coalition of activists here is crusading on behalf of tens of thousands of victims of North Korean abuses who fall into a special category: citizens of South Korea and Japan who are living in North Korea against their will.
The Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, spearheading the campaign, accuses North Korea “of engaging in systematic abduction, denial of repatriation and subsequent enforced disappearance from other countries as a matter of state policy.”
The coalition of NGOs is particularly upset by South Korea’s failure so far to sign and ratify the “enforced disappearance convention” adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2010 calling “for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance.”
As a signatory to the convention, South Korea would have to “guarantee that the punishment for the crime of enforced disappearance is proportionate to the gravity of the crime,” according to the coalition’s declaration.
The number of South Koreans forced to spend the rest of their lives in North Korea is staggering – of 87,000 South Koreans captured in the Korean War, only 8,343 were returned under terms of the armistice reached in July 1953. Another 90,000 South Koreans living in Japan were lured into going to North Korea with promises of a great life there, only to discover conditions were awful and they could never leave. Hundreds more were kidnapped off beaches in Korea and Japan and shipped to the North, trapped in a land that only a few have been able to escape.
The declaration strikes sensitive chords in South Korea’s dealings with the North. While holding fast against North Korean threats, South Korean authorities over the years have been reluctant to offend the North with demands that they know will be automatically rejected, often in quite insulting language.
Brushing aside that obstacle, the declaration wants the South Korean government to call on North Korea “to acknowledge the truth in abductions of citizens” from South Korea, and “request truth-telling investigations for harms arising from enforced disappearances” of South Koreans. One way to accomplish this goal, the declaration says, is to establish a “North-South special investigation committee.”
South Korean officials have generally shrugged off such appeals simply because there’s no chance they will get anywhere with the North Koreans.
They say there’s no point in angering the North Korean regime while looking for ways to resume negotiations. The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has not responded to calls for talks since the breakdown of his second summit with President Trump in February 2019. It’s assumed that Pyongyang will either not respond to pleas for compliance with the UN convention or answer with a torrent of rhetoric denying any violations of human rights.
For those looking for long-lost loved ones, the search has been filled with frustration, disappointment, and sadness. For Hwang In-cheol, the quest never ends. During the years the North Koreans have held his father, he’s never stopped waiting and hoping. “I’ve shed tears over five decades,” Mr. Hwang said. He was 2 years old when his father, Hwang Won, had the misfortune to have been on a Korean Air flight over South Korea when North Korean agents hijacked it to North Korea in December 1969. Eventually 39 of the 50 passengers were released, but not Hwang Won. A producer for a South Korean television network at the time of the hijacking, he’s not been heard from since.
Mr. Hwang directs his anger at the North Koreans, of course, but also at South Korean authorities.
He’s incensed at them for not pressing demands for the release of his father and thousands of other South Koreans held in North Korea, including nearly 90,000 from the Korean War, most of whom are presumed to be no longer alive after years working in coal mines.
“Our government takes the attitude, ‘There is no responsibility,’” Mr. Hwang said. He has joined in urging South Korea’s new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, to bring real pressure on the North.
“I appeal to your conscience,” he said. “We cannot wait any longer.”
Waiting is the only option while bureaucrats typically express sympathy but then basically throw up their hands and say there’s nothing they can do.
In the case of Koreans who went to North Korea of their own volition, the experience was harsh and disillusioning. North Korean sympathizers “visited the houses of Koreans living in Japan,” said Lee Tae-kyung, who was 17 when she left Japan for North Korea in 1960.
“I was curious about the country,” she said. “I wanted to go.” She’d been told medical care and housing would be free and life was so good, “there were no taxes.”
Yet “it was a huge shock” seeing North Korea for the first time after getting off a boat from Japan. “I thought I was on a different planet,” she said. “It was beyond imagination. There was severe discrimination. We could not do anything on our own.”
Ms. Lee thought the death in 1994 of the founder of the North Korean regime, Kim Il-sung, might lead to opening of the system, but she was again disillusioned.
Mr. Kim’s son and heir, Kim Jong-il, “did not care about his people,” she said. “He developed nuclear weapons while people were starving. I saw corpses on the street.”
Finally, in 2003, she escaped, got back to Japan, wrote a book about her 43 years in North Korea and has been pursuing legal action against the pro-North Korean groups in Japan that induced her and thousands of others to go there.
Why aren’t foreign governments doing more to protest what the North Koreans have been doing to those who, one way or another, have wound up basically living in captivity in that country?
Kang Choi-hwan, who with Pierre Rigoulot is author of “Aquariums of Pyongyang,” about the 10 years he spent in a North Korean prison camp after his family had moved to the North from Japan, would rather address that question than talk about his experiences, which he recounted in his book.
The Japanese and the South Korean governments are “not interested at all,” he said. “Nobody’s interested.”
Won Jae-chun, a law professor who advises on human rights, is hoping that South Korea’s new president, a conservative who has vowed not to appease North Korea, will be more interested in the cause than his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, a liberal who never raised the human rights issue while looking for rapprochement with the North.
The North’s policy of forcing tens of thousands to live in North Korea against their will “is not something that just happened in the past,” said Mr. Won. “This is an ongoing crime.”
It’s a crime that’s all the more reprehensible considering that North Korea this week began chairing the UN Conference on Disarmament gathering in Geneva. North Korea is to lead the conference for four weeks, to the consternation of 60 NGOs and the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, which are boycotting the sessions as long as North Korea is in charge.
The executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, said for North Korea “to preside over global nuclear weapons disarmament” would be “like putting a serial rapist in charge of a woman’s shelter.”
DONALD KIRK
Mr. Kirk, based in Seoul and Washington, has been covering Asia for decades for newspapers and magazines and is the author of books on Korea, the Vietnam War and the Philippines.
7. HRNK Event: Never Forgotten: South Korean POWs Held in North Korea
The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
cordially invites you to:
Never Forgotten: South Korean POWs Held in North Korea
Thursday, June 9, 2022
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
DACOR Bacon House
1801 F Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
This event will be held in person. It will be open to the press and on-the-record.
This event will begin with a screening of the documentary Abandoned Heroes No. 43 from 2:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion, featuring:
Mr. Seon-Woo Lee
POW in North Korea from 1953 to 2006, when he escaped to South Korea
Lt. Gen. Wallace "Chip" Gregson, Jr. (USMC, Retired)
President, WC Gregson & Associates
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs
Ms. Hee-Eun Kim
Founder, President & CEO, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy (CAPS)
Col. David Maxwell (U.S. Army, Retired)
Board Member, HRNK
Senior Fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD)
Dr. Bruce E. Bechtol Jr. (USMC, Retired)
Professor, Department of Security Studies and Criminal Justice, Angelo State University
Remarks by the speakers will be followed by a Q&A session. The panel discussion will be moderated by HRNK Executive Director Greg Scarlatoiu.
Please contact Raymond Ha, HRNK Director of Operations and Research, at raymond.ha@hrnk.org if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you.
8. National Security Council convenes over N.K. missile launch
To the ROK NSC: please recognize KJU's strategy, understand it, expose it, and attack it (with information). It is the right thing to do to strengthen our combined defense but we must execute a superior form of political warfare to be able to cope, contin, and manage the north Korean problem until we can solve the" Korea question."
These were my recommendations for the Yoon- Biden summit. But it is not too late to begin implementing them:
To that end, Biden and Yoon should take four steps.
First, the two sides should establish a presidential-level strategic unification task force that can provide guidance and oversight of the agencies that will plan and execute a South Korea-led, U.S.-supported unification of the peninsula. A small but committed team in Seoul and Washington can solve big challenges.
Second, the U.S. and the ROK should develop a combined strategic influence campaign to prepare for unification. This requires a successful outcome of the essential ideological war on the peninsula. The Korean people have a choice between the shared ROK/U.S. value of freedom, and the authoritarian rule of Pyongyang’s Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State. It is time to give the Koreans a chance to choose. Testimony from North Korean escapees indicates that all Koreans long for freedom when they understand that the regime has denied them their human rights.
Third, the two allies should establish a Korean Defectors Information Institute. This will allow escapees to provide their valuable expertise to the strategic influence campaign and the unification process.
Lastly, Washington and Seoul should embrace and empower the work of civil society organizations that aim to end suffering and achieve unification. These organizations could include the Global Peace Foundation, Action for Korea United, AKU USA, and the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Synergistic government and civil society efforts would bring positive change to the Korean people.
Biden and Yoon have an opportunity to develop a new, long-term strategy that supports an ROK-led effort to achieve a free and unified Korea. It’s long past time for Washington and Seoul to seize it and seek to create a United Republic of Korea.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/05/yoon-biden-summit/
(LEAD) National Security Council convenes over N.K. missile launch | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details; CHANGES headline)
SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- The National Security Council met Sunday to discuss North Korea's missile launches a day after South Korea and the United States held military exercises involving a U.S. aircraft carrier.
The meeting was presided over by National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han. A plenary session presided over by President Yoon Suk-yeol could be held later "if necessary," the presidential office said in a notice to reporters.
North Korea fired eight short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea earlier Sunday in its 18th show of force this year, according to South Korea's military.
The last time North Korea launched a missile was on May 25, when it tested one intercontinental ballistic missile and two short-range ballistic missiles as U.S. President Joe Biden was en route to Washington after visiting South Korea and Japan.
"A decision will be made on whether President Yoon will preside over a meeting following an internal assessment on how grave the situation is," a presidential official told Yonhap News Agency.
Yoon had initially planned to take part in volunteer work picking up trash along the Han River together with first lady Kim Keon-hee. After the missile tests, he canceled the plan and went to work at the presidential office.
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
9. Ruling party chief says Ukraine seeks large amount of assistance from S. Korea
An opportunity for President Yoon to lead South Korea in stepping up.
Ruling party chief says Ukraine seeks large amount of assistance from S. Korea | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- The ruling party chief, who is visiting Ukraine, has said the war-torn country is hoping for a large amount of medical and other assistance from South Korea in its ongoing war with Russia, according to his party Sunday.
Lee Jun-seok, head of the People Power Party, met with officials from local nongovernmental organizations in Ukraine's western city of Lviv on Saturday and discussed ways to support refugees fleeing the war.
"They are hoping for a lot of assistance from South Korean society," Lee was quoted as saying. "In particular, they are asking for medical supplies and food that can be stored for a long period of time."
Lee is leading the party's delegation, which also includes Reps. Kim Hyung-dong, Park Seong-min, Jeong Dong-man, Tae Young-ho and Her Euna.
Before leaving for Ukraine on Friday, Lee met with Ukrainian Ambassador to South Korea Dmytro Ponomarenko in Seoul, and delivered the delegation's intent to learn the situation on the ground and report its findings to President Yoon Suk-yeol.
The delegation is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during its stay, but relevant details remain unannounced for safety concerns.
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
10. Question of nuclear test looms after North launches eight missiles
I wonder if Kim is trying to NOT conduct a nuclear test just yet. Is he trying to build suspense and raise tension to make us be afraid, be really afraid? Will he continue to conduct missile tests and allow us to speculate that the next provocation will be a nuclear test in the hopes that we will become so afraid of a nuclear test that we can be coerced into lifting sanctions to prevent it?
I would caution all those who think we should lift sanctions that if we do so Kim will assess his political warfare strategy and blackmail diplomacy a success and then we can say, "You ain't seen nothing yet," as Kim will double down on his strategy because we will have proven to him that it works.
Recognize, understand, expose, attack.
Sunday
June 5, 2022
Question of nuclear test looms after North launches eight missiles
South Korean and U.S. aircraft and naval vessels move in formation during a combined military exercise in international waters off the Japanese island of Okinawa on Saturday. [YONHAP]
South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) strongly condemned the North’s latest missile launches Sunday, saying Pyongyang will “gain nothing” from its continued saber-rattling.
The remarks came shortly after the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North fired eight short-range ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast.
The missiles were said to have been fired between 9:08 a.m. and 9:43 a.m. from the Sunan area of North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, as well as three other locations.
The missiles flew 110 to 670 kilometers (68 to 416 miles) at maximum altitudes of 25 to 90 kilometers while reaching speeds of Mach 3 to 6.
Sunday’s weapons test marked North Korea’s 18th this year, the third since conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was sworn into office on May 10.
The last time Pyongyang carried out a missile test was 11 days earlier, as U.S. President Joe Biden was on his way back home following a trip to South Korea and Japan. One of the three missiles that the North tested that day was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
In regards to relations with Pyongyang, Yoon promised a tougher stance than his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, though he said he was open to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The latest missiles also came a day after Seoul and Washington completed a three-day combined naval exercise involving the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. The exercise was held in international waters off the Japanese island of Okinawa.
Sung Kim, Washington’s special envoy for North Korea, was in South Korea for trilateral denuclearization talks with Seoul and Tokyo when Pyongyang conducted the eight missile launches.
Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. envoy, who was planning to leave the country on Sunday afternoon, held an unscheduled meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Gunn, to discuss the provocation. Their Japanese counterpart Takehiro Funakoshi, who had already left Seoul, joined via telephone.
The ministry said the three nuclear envoys pointed out that the missile test was a flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, and expressed “deep regret” for Pyongyang developing missiles even as its people were battling the coronavirus.
President Yoon, who was planning to join a volunteer program on Sunday picking up trash along the Han River with his wife, first lady Kim Keon-hee, canceled the schedule and instead attended a meeting with the NSC Standing Committee at his office in Yongsan District, central Seoul.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, center, speaks during a meeting with members of the National Security Council Standing Committee at the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Sunday morning, shortly after North Korea fired eight ballistic missiles into the East Sea. [YONHAP]
The meeting was presided over by his national security adviser, Kim Sung-han, for an hour and 20 minutes from 10:40 a.m.
The presidential office later quoted Yoon as urging the military to be firmly prepared to take counteractions, if necessary.
Participants in the meeting urged that North Korea choose the path of dialogue and cooperation, and quickly realize it would gain nothing from carrying out nuclear and missile threats, the presidential office said in a press release.
Those who joined the NSC meeting included Foreign Minister Park Jin, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se, National Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, National Intelligence Service chief Kim Kyou-hyun, NSC First Deputy Director Kim Tae-hyo and NSC Second Deputy Director Shin In-ho.
The looming question among military experts is when the regime will carry out a nuclear test.
South Korean officials have for weeks floated the possibility of an imminent nuclear experiment, which would be the seventh of its kind if North Korea follows through. Officials in Seoul and Washington have mentioned recent satellite images of ongoing tunnel excavation and construction work at Punggye-ri as signs that the regime is preparing for another test.
The Punggye-ri test site, located in a mountainous region in the country’s remote North Hamgyong Province, is the North’s only known nuclear test site and the location of six nuclear weapons tests between October 2006 and September 2017.
North Korea promised to shut down the Punggye-ri test site in early 2018 and even invited a group of foreign journalists to watch the destruction of some tunnels, but analysts have noted continued activity there.
Some experts predict the North could carry out more missile tests, if not a nuclear experiment, in the coming days as Seoul, Washington and Tokyo hold military talks.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is scheduled to visit Seoul on Monday for a three-day visit as part of a tour around Asia.
A defense ministerial meeting between the three countries is expected to be held later this week at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a security conference held annually in Singapore.
“North Korea is trying to show off its tactical diversity and repeatedly state that no matter how much South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strengthen their extended deterrence, nothing will stop them,” said Park Won-gon, a North Korean studies professor at Ewha Womans University.
At a time when the North is battling a Covid-19 outbreak, Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, warned that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could face serious backlash from his people if he ignores Covid containment measures.
Pyongyang has repeatedly ignored calls from Seoul, Washington and international health organizations to provide Covid vaccines to its citizens, claiming that the situation was improving.
To date, the regime has reported more than 4 million Covid cases since late April, though pundits disbelieve the figure because the North counts its patients by the number of people with fever symptoms, not by positive test results.
Citing unidentified sources in North Korea, Radio Free Asia recently reported that the North has begun administering Chinese vaccines to soldiers working on a major construction project in Pyongyang.
“North Korea’s crisis management system is currently being tested on two different fronts — Covid control and nuclear weapons,” said Prof. Lim. If North Korean leader Kim “fails to solve the Covid situation and livelihood problems, he won’t be able to appease his people with nuclear weapons alone.”
BY LEE SUNG-EUN, PARK HYUN-JU [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]
11. IPEF, Korea and the China factor
Sunday
June 5, 2022
IPEF, Korea and the China factor
Kim Doo-sik
The author is the managing partner of Shin & Kim and chair of the law firm’s international dispute resolution practice group.
The South Korea-U.S. relationship is evolving to a comprehensive strategic alliance to include economy and technology in addition to security. U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to the Samsung Electronics chip complex in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, highlighted technology cooperation as the U.S. strengthens the supply chain with “value-sharing” countries.
While pointing out how the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of just-in-time supply chains, Biden stressed “the need to secure our critical supply chains so that our economy — our economic and our national security — are not dependent on countries that don’t share our values.” His tour of a chip complex in Korea has sent a message to China that America will enhance chip-supply resilience among allies.
President Yoon Suk-yeol accompanying Biden expressed similar sentiments.
“I hope that Korea-U.S. relations can be born again as an economic-security alliance based on the cutting-edge technology and supply-chain partnerships with the visit today,” he said, but with a subtly different focus. Instead of checking China, Yoon emphasized technology cooperation between Korea and the U.S. for future chip competitiveness. His comment reflects the reality that Korea relies on America for 45 percent of its equipment for chip production and needs U.S. chip-design capabilities for its own foundry work.
The political meaning behind the Korea-U.S. technology alliance is complex. If it means excluding China from the supply chain for high-tech products, Seoul risks ruining ties with Beijing. Korea also relies on raw materials, rare minerals and other inputs from China. Above all, it is Korea’s biggest market and accounts for one fourth of its exports. Chinese media warn that if Korea joins the U.S.-led containment campaign against China, it could pay a dear price in terms of its economic and trade relationship with China and on issues related to the Korean Peninsula.
As long as South Korea supplies chips to China, ties will not likely be affected greatly. But the U.S. could be more hesitant in full-fledged chip cooperation with Korea. The U.S. has been negotiating chip-technology cooperation bordering on a technology alliance with the European Union (EU). After two rounds of talks under the Trade and Technology Council (TTC), the U.S. and EU agreed to conduct joint research and development on next-generation chip technology through colossal spending. A technology alliance between Seoul and Washington has given South Korea tricky homework in technology cooperation with America without irking Beijing.
China-led RCEP and reciprocity
Under these circumstances, South Korea has joined the U.S-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which was established on May 23. Its joining could suggest Seoul backing the U.S. design to isolate China in a new supply order led by America. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a videoconference with his Korean and Japanese counterparts to oppose their joining the IPEF, claiming that the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy is aimed at encircling China.
You cannot deny that the U.S. proposed the IPEF as part of its strategy to contain China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific. But it goes too far if you think the pact aims to exclude China from the supply chain. The IPEF’s agenda briefly covers four areas — fair trade, supply chains, clean energy and decarbonization, and tax and anticorruption. Supply chain is just one of the themes to be addressed through the economic framework. It remains to be seen what details will be included in the IPEF.
The IPEF will likely complement the China-led RCEP rather than rivaling it. Members also overlap. IPEF took off with 13 member countries, and was recently joined by Fiji, an island state in South Pacific. Among the members, seven are from Asean — Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei — and South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are also members of RCEP. All 10 Asean states have joined the RCEP.
Time to show negotiating ability
Many of the IPEF members worry about the possibility of the new pact turning into an anti-China alliance. According to a report by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, some Asean members oppose Taiwan’s participation in IPEF as it can anger China. As a result, the U.S. goal to exclude China through the IPEF won’t likely work out as it hopes.
For Korea’s part, it has no reason to go along with IPEF procedures to isolate China. The technology alliance with the U.S. can be pursued unrelated to the IPEF. That’s why our government emphasized that IPEF should not exclude a certain country and instead respect openness, transparency and comprehensiveness in the new pact. Although tariff cuts for advantages in market access are excluded in the IPEF, other agenda items — on economy, environment, clean energy and decarbonization — are essential to Korea’s future competitiveness. The IPEF offers a good opportunity for Korea to demonstrate its independent and flexible negotiating capabilities befitting its goal to become a core state in global commerce. Korea must use the IPEF to pursue universal values and maximize national interest.
Employing IPEF for national interest
To achieve such goals, we need to pay attention to several preconditions. First, IPEF should be useful in securing raw materials and other necessities for Korea. The country is a powerhouse in high tech, like chips and batteries, but relies heavily on imports for raw materials. It must be able to establish a network with resource-rich IPEF members to effectively address supply crises.
Second, IPEF should not develop into a multilateral containment system for high tech exports. Export curbs can influence security. Each nation must act on export barriers according to its own circumstance and international relationships. For instance, in the case of sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, countries representing half the global population have not joined the sanctions. India — a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) with the U.S., Japan and Australia — refused to join the U.S.-led sanctions on Russia. Saudi Arabia, which is close to the U.S. and other Middle East nations, and most African states have not complied with the sanctions. Even Mexico and Brazil declined. Each nation decides on sanctions according to its national interests.
Avoid anti-globalization pact
Third, IPEF could toughen or set new rules on digital commerce, labor, environment, clean energy, decarbonization, tax and anticorruption. Korea must exercise leadership in the process of making new rules on new trade.
Some could be burdensome on Korean industries. For instance, labor guidelines could be strengthened with tougher liability for companies violating labor laws, decarbonization road maps could be established or environmental protection clauses in trade could be toughened. Steel, cement and power generating sectors also could come under greater pressure to buy low-carbon and clean energy. The U.S. could demand the highest-level rules in digital commerce. Seoul must take care that new rules do not hurt Korean industries while complying with reasonable demands.
Lastly, the IPEF agenda should be in compliance with the existing international trade order led by the World Trade Organization (WTO). It must not drive deglobalization. The U.S. and the EU are competing with subsidies for the chip sector to fortify supply chains within their territories. In the second TTC meeting in May, the U.S. and the EU set guidelines for subsidies in the chip sector by restricting them to next-generation technology development and the public policy purpose of enhancing supply-chain security. But it is questionable whether the measures can address the incongruousness to WTO rules. Labor, environmental protection and decarbonization support could also conflict with the WTO rules. Such concerns should be addressed during IPEF negotiations.
Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
12. Yoon-Kishida summit likely in Spain
Good news.
Yoon-Kishida summit likely in Spain
President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida / AFP-Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
Speculation is rising of a long-awaited Korea-Japan summit on the sidelines of the NATO leaders' meeting scheduled to take place in Spain later this month as both President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are considering attending the June 29-30 meeting.
The presidential office is said to have sent an advance team, comprised of officials from the foreign ministry as well as its own staff, to the host country, while Japan's Kyodo News reported, Saturday, that Japanese officials were planning to travel to the Spanish capital.
Since before his inauguration, May 10, Yoon has called for a future-oriented approach to restoring bilateral ties between Seoul and Tokyo, overshadowed for years by historical and territorial disputes, believing that an improved relationship would help trilateral cooperation that also includes the United States to effectively deal with North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats.
In that respect, Yoon dispatched a policy consultation delegation to Japan, the second of its kind following the U.S., before taking office and also tried to invite Kishida to his inauguration ceremony for a South Korea-Japan summit that last took place in December 2019. But Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi attended instead.
In addition, Yoon held a phone conversation with Kishida two days after his election, saying he hopes the two sides will work together to promote friendly cooperation between their countries.
According to the Kyodo report, based on government sources, the Yoon administration had sounded out the Japanese side about the first summit between the two leaders, but the presidential office has yet to confirm Yoon's participation in the upcoming NATO summit.
If Yoon travels to Spain, it would be his first overseas trip as South Korean president.
The NATO summit could also set the stage for a summit trilaterally with U.S. President Joe Biden, with whom Yoon sat down in Seoul, May 21.
13. Tensions mount on Korean Peninsula
Tensions.
Blackmail diplomacy - the use of threats, increased tensions, and provocations to gain political and economic concessions.
And now tensions are increasing not just by north Korea.
Tensions mount on Korean Peninsula
People watch file footage on a TV news program reporting North Korea's latest missile launch, at Seoul Station, Sunday. North Korea test-fired eight ballistic missiles off to the East Sea, marking the 18th round of missile provocations this year alone. AP-Yonhap
North Korea fires 8 ballistic missiles after South Korea-U.S. naval drill
By Nam Hyun-woo
North Korea fired eight short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) into the East Sea, Sunday, in an apparent reaction to a joint naval drill between South Korea and the U.S. carried out in the Philippine Sea from Thursday until Saturday.
President Yoon Suk-yeol enters the presidential office to attend a National Security Council meeting after North Korea fired eight ballistic missiles into the East Sea, Sunday. Joint Press CorpsThe launches mark the 18th missile provocation by North Korea this year and this is virtually the first time that the regime has fired eight ballistic missiles in a salvo. With officials saying that Pyongyang's nuclear test is imminent, Sunday's launches are ratcheting up tensions further on the Korean Peninsula, as the North showcases its capability to strike multiple targets at the same time.
According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the missiles were fired consecutively from 9:08 a.m. to 9:43 a.m. from four sites in the area of Sunan near the North's capital Pyongyang, South and North Pyongan Provinces and South Hamhung Province.
The JCS said the SRBMs flew a distance of 110 kilometers to 670 kilometers at altitudes ranging between 25 kilometers and 90 kilometers and at speeds of Mach 3 to 6. Although the JCS did not reveal more details of the missiles, sources said the launches are assumed to have involved the KN-23, KN-24 and KN-25.
Recently, the North has been concentrating on launching multiple missiles consecutively. On May 25, the regime fired one intercontinental ballistic missile and two SRBMs at the same time. Along with Sunday's launches, the North appears to be showing off its capability to avoid South Korean and U.S. missile defense systems.
Following the launch, President Yoon Suk-yeol convened a meeting of South Korea's National Security Council and concluded that the launches were "a serious challenge and test to the (South Korean) government's national security posture."
During the meeting, Yoon noted that the North has "staged provocations approximately every nine days this year alone" and ordered the military to "strengthen the Seoul-Washington extended deterrence, including missile defense exercises."
Extended deterrence refers to Washington's commitment to providing its nuclear capabilities to defend its allies.
South Korean Navy's Maritime Task Flotilla commander, Rear Adm. An Sang-min, right, shakes hands with U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group 5 commander, Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, on the USS Ronald Reagan during a joint Carrier Strike Group Exercise in the Philippine Sea on June 2. Courtesy of Joint Chiefs of
Staff
Regional tensions mounting
Sunday's launch came a day after the JCS announced that South Korea and the U.S. had wrapped up a three-day Carrier Strike Group Exercise in the Philippine Sea, which involved the U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan.
It was their first joint naval drill involving a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier since November 2017 and came just 12 days after Yoon and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden agreed on the extended deterrence needed to deter North Korea's escalating missile and nuclear threats.
Officials from Seoul and Washington are now assessing the possibility of the North conducting a nuclear test, which appears to be imminent.
During a trilateral meeting between the nuclear envoys from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan in Seoul, Friday, Sung Kim, Biden's special envoy for North Korea, said the U.S. assesses that the North is "preparing its Punggye-ri test site for what would be its seventh nuclear test" and Washington is "preparing for all contingencies."
Seoul's representative, Kim Gunn, responded by stating that North Korea's nuclear programs will "only end up strengthening our deterrence" and this will "ultimately run counter to Pyongyang's own interests."
Japan's Takehiro Funakoshi also called for stronger action at the United Nations, expressing regret over a recent veto by China and Russia of a draft resolution on sanctions against North Korea.
Funakoshi said that China and Russia were not joining efforts by South Korea, the U.S. and Japan to contain North Korea with stronger sanctions. Rather, they each launched naval drills to apparently counter the Seoul-Washington naval drill and the upcoming Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), which will start later this month.
According to the Russian news agency Tass, Russia's Pacific Fleet has started a week of naval drills which will last until June 10 and will involve more than 40 warships and 20 aircraft.
The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and other warships from the South Korean and U.S. navies train in formation during Carrier Strike Group Exercise 2022 in the Philippine Sea, June 4. Courtesy of Joint Chiefs of Staff
14. Four B-1B Bombers Appear At Andersen AFB In Guam
Strategic reassurance, strategic resolve. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Note how many times we have deployed strategic and other assets to the region this year.: to Guam. to Okianwa, and the East Sea of the Korean peninusla.
Four B-1B Bombers Appear At Andersen AFB In Guam
B-1B bombers are back in Guam as tensions with China and Russia grow and as North Korea may be on the verge of a provocative weapons test.
A quartet of B-1B Bone bombers just arrived at Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam today. It isn't clear if the bombers will be staying as part of the now sporadic bomber presence deployments to the Indo-Pacific region or if they are there to take part in a major exercise, or both. Valiant Shield, a series of large multi-domain wargames is getting underway in the region. There have also been some rumors that a B-1 deployment was imminent as a deterrent and hedge against North Korean actions, including a potential nuclear test.
B-1Bs on deck at Andersen AFB as photographed on June 4th, 2022. PHOTO © 2022 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION
The swing-wing B-1 still has a major place in the U.S. bomber force although it lacks nuclear weapons delivery capability. It is slated to be replaced by the dual-role B-21 in the coming decade. U.S. Air Force photo courtesy Sagar Pathak
It also comes as the B-1 fleet has experienced a much-needed reset of sorts after many years of supporting combat operations in the Middle East, as well as commitments elsewhere, like the Continuous Bomber Presence missions. 17 of the aging bombers — the worst of the lot — were retired in hopes of freeing up time, money, and spares to better support the remaining 45 B-1 fleet. These jets are also getting upgrades that will hopefully keep them relevant and capable until they are replaced by the B-21 Raider in the coming decade.
With a quartet of Bones — nearly 10 percent of the fleet — now at the highly strategic island outpost, it will be interesting to see where they show up throughout the region. While patrols around Russia's borders and the South China Sea are likely, as is participation in Valiant Shield, a resumption of patrols near North Korea would be a very important development to watch out for.
Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com
15. No further provocations
I am afraid the only way to end provocations is to take the gene splicer CRISPR to the Kim family regime. That is because provocations, blackmail diplomacy, and political warfare are in the regime's DNA.
No further provocations
North Korea condemned for weapons program
North Korea has continued to escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula by conducting another missile test. On Sunday, the North fired eight short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) toward the East Sea. The launch was the North's 18th military provocation this year and the third since President Yoon Suk-yeol took office May 10.
We cannot but express grave concerns about the North's repeated show of force which was in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions which ban Pyongyang from nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The saber-rattling came a day after South Korea and the U.S. wrapped a three-day joint exercise in international waters off Okinawa as part of their stepped-up efforts to better respond to the North's continued provocations.
During the naval exercise, the two allies mobilized the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, to send a strong warning against the recalcitrant North. It followed the North's May 25 launch of a suspected new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and two short-range ballistic missiles right after U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to South Korea and Japan.
During their summit on May 21, Yoon and Biden agreed to strengthen extended deterrence, deploy strategic assets and expand combined military exercises to cope with the North's ceaseless provocative acts and weapons development. Regrettably, however, the Kim Jong-un regime has continued to defy repeated calls from the allies and the international community to stop further provocations and return to dialogue. More worrisome is that the North is reportedly ready to conduct a seventh nuclear test at any time.
North Korea invited severe condemnation Thursday for continuing its nuclear and missile development program when it assumed the rotating presidency of the Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Disarmament. Australian Ambassador Amanda Gorely read a joint statement by 48 countries and the European Union that called the North's nuclear and missile program a violation of the UNSC resolutions.
However, North Korean Ambassador Han Tae-song ignored the call, arguing that his country remains committed to contributing to global peace and disarmament. It is nonsense for the North to take over as head of the U.N. conference although the role rotates alphabetically among the 65 member countries. The North should realize that its chairmanship will only undermine the credibility of the U.N.
The Kim regime should not try to take advantage of a new Cold War confrontation between the U.S.-led Western democracies and the grouping of China and Russia following Putin's war in Ukraine. The U.N. Security Council failed to push for additional sanctions against the North due to a veto by China and Russia. Yet the failure cannot and should not be seen as carte blanche for the North to build up its nuclear arsenal.
We urge Pyongyang to focus on keeping in check the spread of COVID-19 to ensure North Koreans' health and improve their living standard by reviving the state's moribund economy. Nuclear weapons cannot guarantee its survival. The leadership there will only deepen its international isolation and may cause its self-destruction. The Kim regime should return to dialogue immediately to find a peaceful solution to the nuclear showdown.
16. [Washington Talk] "North Korea's 'economic hardship' deepens... What is the intention of the ‘Nuclear Test Card’?”
Kim Young Gyo hosts Professor William Brown and me to discuss north Korea. We cover a lot of ground. Professor Brown, a renowned expert economist on China and north Korea provides some very unique and important insights on the north Korean economy that are just not discussed in the mainstream media.
Note this show is for broadcast into Pyongyang with the primary target audience of the regime elite and the secondary target audience. I am told that there are reports that Kim Jong-un watches this show to get a sense of what people in Washington are thinking. That is why I tailor my remarks based on that assumption.
In English with Korean subtitles.
[Washington Talk] "North Korea's 'economic hardship' deepens... What is the intention of the ‘Nuclear Test Card’?”
2,828 views Premiered Jun 4, 2022 The economic situation of North Korea, which is under international sanctions, is worsening as the novel coronavirus outbreak and spring drought overlap. However, the North Korean regime continues to launch ballistic missiles and prepares for a nuclear test despite the economic hardship, and the US warns of 'additional sanctions against North Korea' in case of a nuclear test. We diagnose the situation in North Korea, where armed provocations continue amid economic difficulties, together with experts. Moderator: Kim Young-kyo / Conversation: William Brown (Professor, University of Maryland), David Maxwell (Senior Researcher, Foundation for the Defense of Democracy)
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
