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Quotes of the Day:
“You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.”
- Abraham Lincoln
"The free exploring mind of the individual is the most valuable thing in the world."
- John Steinbeck
Characteristics of the American Way of War (13 of 13)
13. Highly Sensitive to Casualties. In common with the Roman Empire, the American guardian of world order is much averse to suffering a high rate of military casualties, and for at least one of the same reasons. Both superstates had and have armies that are small, too small in the opinion of many, relative to their responsibilities. Moreover, well-trained professional soldiers, volunteers all, are expensive to raise, train, and retain, and are difficult to replace. Beyond the issue of cost-effectiveness, however, lies the claim that American society has become so sensitive to casualties that it is no longer tolerant of potentially bloody ventures in muscular foreign governance. The most careful recent sociological research suggests that this popular notion about the American way of war, that it must seek to avoid American casualties at almost any price, has been exaggerated. Nonetheless, exaggerated or not, it is a fact that the United States has been perfecting a way in warfare that is expected, even required, to result in very few casualties for the home team. U.S. commanders certainly have operated since the Cold War under strict orders to avoid losses. The familiar emphasis upon force protection as "job one," virtually regardless of the consequences for the success of the mission, is a telling expression of this cultural norm. September 11, 2001, went some way towards reversing the apparent trend favoring, even demanding, friendly casualty avoidance. Culture, after all, does change with context. As quoted earlier, the National Defense Strategy document of March 2005 opens with the uncompromising declaration, "America is a nation at war." For so long as Americans believe this to be true, the social context for military behavior should be far more permissive of casualties than was the case in the 1990s. Both history and common sense tell us that Americans will tolerate casualties, even high casualties, if they are convinced both that the political stakes are vital, and that the government is trying hard to win. It must be noted, though, that Americans have come to expect an exceedingly low casualty rate because that has been their recent experience. That expectation has been fed by events, by the evolution of a high-technology way in warfare that exposes relatively few American soldiers to mortal danger, and by the low quality of recent enemies. When the context allows, it is U.S. military style to employ machines rather than people and to rely heavily on firepower to substitute for a more dangerous mode of combat for individuals. A network-centric Army, if able to afford the equipment, carries the promise of being supported by even more real-time on-call firepower than is available today.
If the United States is serious about combating irregular enemies in a way that stands a reasonable prospect of success, it will have to send its soldiers into harm's way to a degree that could promote acute political discomfort. The all-service defense transformation mandated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense is very much a high-technology voyage into the future. The focus is on machines, and the further exploitation of the computer in particular. Overall, it is not unfair to observe that this transformation, with its promise of even better performance in Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Information/Intelligence, Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance (QISTAR), should strengthen the American ability to wage its traditional style of war. Enemies, once detected, will be tracked and then obliterated by standoff firepower, much of it delivered from altitude. American soldiers will see little of the foe in the flesh, and civilians will be protected from suffering as victims of collateral damage, to some degree at least, by the precision with which America's forces will be able to direct their fire. A major attraction of this style of war is that few Americans will be at risk. The problem is that such a technology-dependent, stand-off style is not appropriate for the conduct of war against irregulars, except in special cases. Certainly it is not suitable as the principal mode of operation. Irregular warfare is different, as we must keep insisting. For American soldiers to be useful in COIN, they have to be deployed "up close and personal" visa-vis the people who are the stake in the struggle. The more determinedly the Army strives to avoid casualties by hiding behind fortifications and deploying with armored protection, the less likely is it to be effective in achieving the necessary relationship of trust with the people. Of course, there will be circumstances when insurgents escalate violence in urban terrain in an endeavor to tempt Americans to fight back in their preferred style with profligate resort to firepower. In stressful circumstances, it may be hard to remember that in COIN dead insurgents are not proof of success, any more than home-side casualty avoidance by us is such proof.
- Colin Gray, 2006
1. KDVA and KUSAF Joint Message Supporting GSOMIA
2. LINK 'north Korea: the Neglected Security Challenge' with COL Dave Maxwell, USA retired hosted by Dr. Cynthia Watson
3. North Korean Defectors Put Spotlight on Rights Abuses
4. North Korea launches missile into sea amid US-SKorea drills
5. North Korean defectors honor Otto Warmbier, Kim Jong Un’s victims
6. To Combat Food Shortages, North Korea Deploys the Military
7. Schoolchildren in DPRK Start Journey for Learning Revolutionary History
8. March 18 Revolution
9. Press Statement of Director General for Int'l Organizations of DPRK Foreign Ministry Issued
10. North Korea Fires Off a Short-Range Ballistic Missile
11. U.S. B-1B strategic bomber returns to S. Korea as N.K. fires missile
12. Denuclearization - Quo Vadis?
13. President Yoon's bold diplomacy for the future
1. KDVA and KUSAF Joint Message Supporting GSOMIA
(Korea-US Alliance Foundation (KUSAF) and Korea Defense Veterans Association (KDVA))
KDVA and KUSAF Joint Message Supporting GSOMIA
https://kdva.vet/2023/03/18/kdva-and-kusaf-joint-message-supporting-gsomia/
MARCH 18, 2023 ANNOUNCEMENT
2023년 3월 18일
March 18, 2023
한미동맹재단과 주한미군전우회는 한일 군사정보보호협정의 정상화를 환영한다.
KDVA and KUSAF Joint Message Supporting GSOMIA
한미동맹재단과 주한미군전우회는 대한민국 윤석열 대통령과 일본 후미오 기시다 총리가 발표한 한일 군사정보 보호협정인 GSOMIA 의 정상화 결정을 환영하고 지지한다. 윤석열 대통령과 기시다 총리는 북한의 핵·미사일 개발이 한반도와 동북아, 전 세계의 평화를 위협한다는 데 의견을 같이하고 지속적으로 고도화되고 있는 북한의 핵·미사일 위협에 대응하기 위한 한미일 3 국 및 한일 양국의 적극적인 협력의 중요성을 강조하였다.
The Korea-US Alliance Foundation (KUSAF) and Korea Defense Veterans Association (KDVA) are very supportive of the recent announcement that ROK President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to normalize their mutual military intelligence-sharing pact called the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). ROK President Yoon stated, “Prime Minister Kishida and I agreed that North Korea’s nuclear and missile development threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula, in Northeast Asia and in the world. We also agreed that in order to respond to the North’s nuclear and missile threats that are getting more sophisticated by the day, cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan, and between South Korea and Japan, is extremely important, and that we should continue to actively cooperate.”
한미동맹재단과 주한미군전우회는 GSOMIA 정상화가 한일 양국의 민감한 군사정보 교환을 촉진시킴으로써, 지역 안보를 보장하는 중요하고 긍정적인 조치가 될 것임을 확신한다. 우리는 참전용사들과 복무장병들이 싸우고 지켜온 한미동맹과 지역의 안정을 염려하는 단체로서 한일 양국 지도자의 결정을 환영하며 지지한다.
KDVA and KUSAF believe this is an important and positive step toward supporting regional security by facilitating the exchange of sensitive military information for both countries. As organizations that care deeply about the ROK-U.S. Alliance and the stability of the region that our Veterans have fought for and continue to defend, we applaud and support actions like this one taken by the leaders of South Korea and Japan.
한미동맹재단과 주한미군전우회는 지난 70 년간 수백만명의 한국군과 미군들의 헌신을 바탕으로 동북아의 안정적인 안보환경 조성을 위한 노력을 계속할 것이다.
Millions of Americans and Koreans have served in Korea for seven decades, so KUSAF and KDVA continue to pledge our support for a stable security environment in the northeast Asian region.
함께해요 한미동맹!
“Together for the ROK-U.S. Alliance”
커티스 스카파로티
예비역 육군 대장
주한미군전우회 회장
Curtis M. Scaparrotti General, U.S. Army (Retired) President, KDVA
정승조
예비역 육군 대장
한미동맹재단 회장
Jung, Seung Jo
General, ROK Army (Retired) President, KUSAF
Download Statement: KDVA and KUSAF Joint Message for GSOMIA_18 March 2023
2. LINK 'north Korea: the Neglected Security Challenge' with COL Dave Maxwell, USA retired hosted by Dr. Cynthia Watson
I will be speaking with my former professor (Dr. Cynthia Watson, Professor Emeritus of the National War College) on Monday evening (20 March) at 7pm.
LINK 'north Korea: the Neglected Security Challenge' with COL Dave Maxwell, USA retired and the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83149948497?pwd=YndXQUdJV1RSUmlWa282RlZKSUVEQT09
Meeting ID: 831 4994 8497
Passcode: 937398
https://cynthiawatson.substack.com/p/link-north-korea-the-neglected-security/comments?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1175808&post_id=108628573&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
3. North Korean Defectors Put Spotlight on Rights Abuses
Escapees.
Excerpts:
SeoHyun Lee defected with her family in 2013. Until then, she said, she led a life of relative privilege as her father was a high-ranking government member.
“Being a part of the elite, ironically, meant you are heavily scrutinized, monitored or punished,” she said.
Lee said the regime monitored her family’s telephones around the clock. She said she learned at a young age to control her curiosity and thoughts for the sake of her and her family’s safety.
...
Thomas-Greenfield said the connection between the regime’s rights abuses and its threat to global collective security could not be clearer.
“In the DPRK, the pursuit of weapons always, always trumps human rights and humanitarian needs of its people,” she said, using the abbreviation for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
"The regime’s use of forced labor drives their unlawful weapons program forward,” she said. “Food distribution policies favor the military at the expense of more than 10 million North Koreans who are food insecure.”
North Korean Defectors Put Spotlight on Rights Abuses
March 17, 2023 6:40 PM
voanews.com
united nations —
By the time he was 12 years old, North Korean defector Joseph Kim had seen his father starve to death, his sister sold to a man in China, and his mother imprisoned. Left alone, he begged, stole and worked in coal mines to survive.
“Even though North Korea is a dark place, it is still my home and home to 25 million North Korean people today,” Kim said. “North Korea is a land with darkness, not a land made of darkness.”
This was his message to an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday, intended to show the link between North Korea’s human rights abuses and its illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
SeoHyun Lee defected with her family in 2013. Until then, she said, she led a life of relative privilege as her father was a high-ranking government member.
“Being a part of the elite, ironically, meant you are heavily scrutinized, monitored or punished,” she said.
Lee said the regime monitored her family’s telephones around the clock. She said she learned at a young age to control her curiosity and thoughts for the sake of her and her family’s safety.
FILE - North Korean men walk past portraits of their late leaders Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea, Dec. 18, 2018.
In 2010, living as a student in China, she began to gain awareness of the situation in her country. She told the meeting that most North Koreans do not fully comprehend the extent of the oppression they live under.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his family were “able to build nuclear weaponry with no resistance from the North Korean public, while thousands of the people starved to death, because they have never learned about the concept of human rights, so they didn’t understand their human rights were violated,” Lee said. “Even if some do understand, they are held hostage by guilt by association and systematic oppression.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who co-hosted the meeting with her counterparts from Japan, South Korea and Albania, said for every defector’s story, there are “countless” others that are never heard.
“This, of course, is by design. The regime in Pyongyang does everything in its power to hide its atrocities from the outside world. But time and time again, they have failed,” she said.
China, Pyongyang’s closest ally, blocked the broadcast of Friday’s meeting on the U.N. website, but it could be seen on some internal building feeds, and the Albanian delegation streamed it live on its Facebook page. The Chinese also objected to the holding of the session, saying it was not constructive in any way.
“Instead of easing tension, it may rather intensify the conflict and therefore is an irresponsible move,” said counsellor Xing Jisheng.
Crimes against humanity
North Korea’s human rights abuses are well known. The U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) and other independent human rights experts have documented testimony from hundreds of defectors.
In 2014, the COI found that North Korea’s violations had risen to the level of crimes against humanity. Among them the report found: “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”
FILE - An employee stands inside a bedroom at a dormitory provided for textile factory workers as portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il hang above the beds in Pyongyang, North Korea, Jan. 30, 2019.
Thomas-Greenfield said the connection between the regime’s rights abuses and its threat to global collective security could not be clearer.
“In the DPRK, the pursuit of weapons always, always trumps human rights and humanitarian needs of its people,” she said, using the abbreviation for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
"The regime’s use of forced labor drives their unlawful weapons program forward,” she said. “Food distribution policies favor the military at the expense of more than 10 million North Koreans who are food insecure.”
FILE - People watch a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea firing a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, March 16, 2023.
North Korea’s obsession with its WMD program was underscored by its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch on Thursday.
In a statement Friday, North Korea blamed the tense situation on the Korean Peninsula on joint military exercises that the United States and South Korea carry out. It said Pyongyang launched the ICBM under the guidance of leader Kim Jong Un to confirm the operation and reliability of its “nuclear war deterrent” and to “strike fear into the enemies.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the latest launch and reiterated his calls for North Korea to immediately stop taking destabilizing actions, comply with its international obligations, and resume dialogue that could lead to sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
voanews.com
4. North Korea launches missile into sea amid US-SKorea drills
We should start a betting pool. Will Kim keep this up throughout the exercise period?
North Korea launches missile into sea amid US-SKorea drills
AP · by HYUNG-JIN KIM · March 19, 2023
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile toward the sea on Sunday, its neighbors said, ramping up testing activities in response to ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal.
The North’s continuation of missile tests showed its determination not to back down despite the U.S.-South Korea exercises, which are the biggest of their kind in years. But many experts say the tests are also part of North Korea’s bigger objective to expand its weapons arsenal, win global recognition as a nuclear state and get international sanctions lifted.
The missile launched from the North’s northwestern Tongchangri area flew across the country before it landed in the waters off its east coast, according to South Korean and Japanese assessments. They said the missile traveled a distance of about 800 kilometers (500 miles), a range that suggests the weapon could target South Korea.
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The chief nuclear envoys from South Korea, Japan and the U.S. discussed the launch on the phone and strongly condemned it as a provocation that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the region. They agreed to strengthen their coordination to issue a firm international response to the North’s action, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry.
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South Korea’s military said it will thoroughly proceed with the rest of the joint drills with the U.S. and maintain a readiness to “overwhelmingly” respond to any provocation by North Korea. As part of the drills, the U.S. on Sunday flew long-range B-1B bombers for joint training with South Korean warplanes, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.
North Korea is highly sensitive to the deployment of B-1Bs, which are capable of carrying a huge conventional weapons payload. It responded to the February flights of B-1Bs by test-launching missiles that demonstrated potential ranges to strike some air bases in South Korea.
Japanese Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino said the missile landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone and there were no reports of damage to vessels or aircraft. He said the missile likely showed an irregular trajectory, a possible reference to North Korea’s highly maneuverable, nuclear-capable KN-23 missile that was modeled on Russia’s Iskander missile.
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The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the latest launch doesn’t pose an immediate threat to the U.S. territory or its allies. But it said the North’s recent launches highlight “the destabilizing impact of its unlawful” weapons programs and that the U.S. security commitment to South Korea and Japan remains “ironclad.”
The launch was the North’s third round of weapons tests since the U.S. and South Korean militaries began their joint military drills last Monday. The drills, which include computer simulations and field exercises, are to continue until Thursday. The field exercises are the biggest of their kind since 2018.
The weapons North Korea recently tested include its longest-range Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the U.S. mainland. The North’s state media quoted leader Kim Jong Un as saying the ICBM launch was meant to “strike fear into the enemies.”
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Thursday’s launch, the North’s first ICBM firing in a month, drew strong protests from Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. It was carried out just hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol flew to Tokyo for a closely watched summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
During the summit, Yoon and Kishida agreed to resume their defense dialogue and further strengthen security cooperation with the United States to counter North Korea and address other challenges.
Ties between Seoul and Tokyo suffered a major setback in recent years due to issues stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
But North Korea’s record run of missile tests last year — it launched more than 70 missiles in 2022 alone — pushed Seoul and Tokyo to seek stronger trilateral security partnerships involving Washington, which also wants to reinforce its alliances in Asia to better deal with China’s rise and North Korean nuclear threats.
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North Korea has missiles that place Japan within striking distance. Last October, North Korea fired an intermediate-range missile over northern Japan, forcing communities there to issue evacuation alerts and halt trains.
After Sunday’s launch, Kishida ordered a prompt response, including working closely with South Korea and the U.S., according to Ino, the Japanese vice defense minister.
A day before the start of the drills, North Korea also fired cruise missiles from a submarine. The North’s state media said the submarine-launched missile was a demonstration of its resolve to respond with “overwhelming powerful” force to the intensifying military maneuvers by “the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces.”
According to South Korean media reports, the U.S. and South Korea plan more training involving a U.S. aircraft carrier later this month after their current exercises end. This suggests animosities on the Korean Peninsula could last a few more weeks as North Korea would also likely respond to those drills with weapons tests.
__
Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
AP · by HYUNG-JIN KIM · March 19, 2023
5. North Korean defectors honor Otto Warmbier, Kim Jong Un’s victims
8 minute video with our good friend Suzanne Scoulte.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6322871846112
North Korean defectors honor Otto Warmbier, Kim Jong Un’s victims
‘The North Korean Freedom Foundation’ chair Suzanne Scholte joins ‘Fox News Live’ to discuss the protests in front of North Korea’s mission to the United Nations.
6. To Combat Food Shortages, North Korea Deploys the Military
I believe this is one of the strongest indications of the potential threat to the regime. This is not going to be a sufficient relief valve or safety valve to ensure the welfare of the Korean people in the north. We need to be ready with our full spectrum of contingency planning from war to internal instability and regime collapse.
But this comment about the Biden admiration showing no urgency to negotiate seems to say that the only way the administration could show its urgency to negotiate would be to appease the regime and lift sanctions. Nothing could be more wrong. The administration has continued to reach out to the regime through multiple channels and it is willing to negotiate anywhere, anytime and without preconditions. Appeasement of north Korea is dangerous second only to removing US troops - appeasement will signal to Kim that his political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies are working and Kim will double down on them while he continues to pursue advanced warfighting capabilities.
Excerpts:
The directives have come straight from North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, who has called for his military to become “a driving force” in increasing food production.
It is both an economic imperative and a geopolitical calculation for an isolated nation facing food shortages. Sanctions imposed since 2016 over the North’s nuclear program have devastated its exports and ability to earn hard currency. Then the pandemic and the resulting border closures squeezed what little trade remained with China.
There is little potential relief, unless China concludes that its fellow Communist neighbor cannot handle its food problem on its own, and decides to send large aid shipments. North Korea now appears to be hunkering down for a prolonged confrontation with the United States, as the Biden administration, focused on the war in Ukraine, shows no urgency to negotiate.
To Combat Food Shortages, North Korea Deploys the Military
The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · March 19, 2023
Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, has called for soldiers to be “a driving force” in increasing food production, a reflection of the North’s economic and geopolitical challenges.
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In a photograph provided by North Korean state media, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is said to visit a greenhouse farm in the eastern part of the country.Credit...Korean Central News Agency, via Associated Press
By
Reported from Seoul.
March 19, 2023Updated 6:14 a.m. ET
Hundreds of thousands of North Korean troops are mobilizing to help plant and harvest crops. The country’s military is rejiggering some of its munitions factories to produce tractors and threshing machines, while also converting some airfields into greenhouses. Soldiers are reportedly being asked to extend their service by three years and spend them on farms.
The directives have come straight from North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, who has called for his military to become “a driving force” in increasing food production.
It is both an economic imperative and a geopolitical calculation for an isolated nation facing food shortages. Sanctions imposed since 2016 over the North’s nuclear program have devastated its exports and ability to earn hard currency. Then the pandemic and the resulting border closures squeezed what little trade remained with China.
There is little potential relief, unless China concludes that its fellow Communist neighbor cannot handle its food problem on its own, and decides to send large aid shipments. North Korea now appears to be hunkering down for a prolonged confrontation with the United States, as the Biden administration, focused on the war in Ukraine, shows no urgency to negotiate.
Greenhouses are shown in a photograph provided by North Korean state media. The country is converting some airfields to greenhouses to increase food production.Credit...Korean Central News Agency, via Associated Press
“The situation is the worst since Kim took power,” said Kwon Tae-jin, an expert on the North Korean food situation at the Seoul-based GS&J Institute. “If I were him, I wouldn’t know where to begin to fix the problem.”
The shortages in the North loom large in the political backdrop. When Mr. Kim convened his Workers’ Party last month, its predominant agenda was the food problem. When he presided over his Central Military Commission last weekend, state media only briefly mentioned the threat posed by the joint military drills between South Korea and the United States, focusing instead on Mr. Kim’s campaign around food.
South Korea is trying to use the issue as leverage to coax Mr. Kim back to dialogue.
When Mr. Kim’s regime launched an intercontinental ballistic missile last month, South Korea blamed the North for hosting large military parades and developing nuclear missiles while its people were “dying of starvation one after another amid a serious food crisis.” Seoul tends to emphasize the North’s food shortages as a criticism of Pyongyang for devoting resources to its nuclear program.
When Mr. Kim convened his Workers’ Party last month, its predominant agenda was the food problem.
South Korean officials later said they did not expect the shortages to lead to mass starvation or to endanger Mr. Kim’s grip on power. During background briefings in recent days, they said they didn’t have enough data to estimate how many North Koreans have starved. But they insisted they had reports of people starving to death in smaller towns, but not in Pyongyang, home to the well-fed elites.
Hit by droughts and floods, hamstrung by socialist mismanagement and hurt by international sanctions, North Koreans have long suffered from food shortages. Millions died during a famine in the 1990s. Even in the best of years, many North Koreans go hungry.
But the pandemic made it worse. For three years, North Korea was forced to close its border with China, its only major trading partner. Only a bare minimum of trade was allowed. The closures also made it harder for smugglers to supply goods to the North’s unofficial markets, where ordinary people get extra food when its moribund rations system can no longer provide.
Hardly a day goes by without the North’s state news media exhorting its people to help produce more grains.
It’s impossible to get a comprehensive picture of the food situation in the isolated nation. Some analysts say Mr. Kim is not as much concerned about a potential famine as about the prolonged confrontation with Washington over his nuclear program. With no sanctions relief in sight, Mr. Kim knows the shortages are major vulnerability.
“Food is the key to how long he can hold out,” said Choi Eunju, an analyst at Sejong Institute in South Korea. “Kim Jong-un must strengthen his country’s survivability as it faces the extended challenges from sanctions and the pandemic.”
Planting rice near Pyongyang, the capital, in 2021. North Korea is trying to rejigger some of its munitions factories to instead produce more tractors and threshing machines.Credit...Jon Chol Jin/Associated Press
Mr. Kim is waging a campaign for more food while vowing to take “persistent and strong” countermeasures, meaning more weapons tests. North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday and a short-range ballistic missile on Sunday, its second and third such tests in just over a month.
“North Korea is the kind of country that needs to show military strength through provocations when it faces domestic problems like a food crisis,” said Yi Jisun, an analyst at the Institute for National Security Strategy, a research institute affiliated with the South’s National Intelligence Service. “It raises military tension to consolidate domestic unity.”
Under Mr. Kim, North Korea has rapidly expanded its nuclear program, conducting a record number of missile tests last year. But he has yet to deliver on the promise he made in taking power more than a decade ago: that his people would “no longer have to tighten their belt.”
In reality, he brought his people more punishing measures by accelerating his nuclear program. His diplomacy with former President Donald J. Trump failed to lift sanctions. When the pandemic hit, so did the bad weather, devastating crops.
By June 2021, Mr. Kim warned about a “tense” food situation during a Workers’ Party meeting. During the meeting, he issued a “special order” to his military to release some of its rice stocks reserved for war to help ease the food shortage, a rare move in the country where the military has always been given a priority in resources, according to South Korean officials.
It was not enough.
“North Korea could not provide its farmers with enough farming equipment or fertilizers because of the pandemic and the border closure,” said Kim Dawool, an analyst at the South’s Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.
The North’s fertilizer imports from China plunged to $5.4 million last year, from $85 million in 2018, according to the South’s Korea International Trade Association. In 2021, Mr. Kim ordered his farmers to plant twice as much wheat, which doesn’t need as much fertilizer as corn.
In 2021, Mr. Kim ordered his farmers to plant twice as much wheat, which needs less fertilizer than corn does. Credit...Korean Central News Agency, via Associated Press
North Korea’s grain production plummeted to 3.4 million tons in 2020, from the previous year’s 4.6 million tons. While production recovered in the past two years, the country still fell short of what it needed by 1 million tons, according to the estimates of the South’s Rural Development Administration.
Mr. Kim’s own policy hasn’t helped.
The money North Korea spent on its missile tests last year was more than enough to import 1 million tons of grain, South Korean officials said. Adding to the shortages, North Korea rejected foreign aid and scared off food smugglers by adding more fences and issuing a shoot-to-kill order along its border with China. It also tightened control on people’s movement between towns, making it more difficult for traders to ship goods.
Mr. Kim reasserted socialist control as well, ordering state-run stores to buy grains from collective farms and sell them at below-market prices while cracking down on grains trade in the unofficial markets, according to Asia Press International, a website in Japan that monitors the North Korean economy through clandestine correspondents there. But the stores could not meet the food needs.
The hardest hit in North Korea have been the poor, who consume more corn in lean years. The price of corn has risen more sharply than that of rice, according to some reports.
The hardest hit were the poor. In lean years, they consume more corn, while the elites prefer rice. In a sign of deepening distress for the more vulnerable, the price of corn has risen more sharply than that of rice, according to indexes compiled by Asia Press International.
But in state media, Mr. Kim was not blamed.
This month, the party newspaper Rodong Sinmun interviewed an agricultural research center chief named Jang Hyon-chol.
“I can’t raise my head because of a guilty feeling,” Mr. Jang said, because he could not match Mr. Kim’s devotion to improving food supplies.
The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · March 19, 2023
7. Schoolchildren in DPRK Start Journey for Learning Revolutionary History
This is just a reminder of why I call north Korea a rogue and REVOLUTIONARY power. We must understand how important the revolution is to the legitimacy of the regime. And this is an illustration of some of he indoctrination Korean children in the north experience.
Despite the food shortages and multiple problems facing north Korea the priority must remain the revolution.
Schoolchildren in DPRK Start Journey for Learning Revolutionary History
Date: 18/03/2023 | Source: Rodong Sinmun (En) | Read original version at source
https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1679128474-987476885/schoolchildren-in-dprk-start-journey-for-learning-revolutionary-history
Schoolchildren from across the country started their 250-mile study tour on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the 250-mile journey for learning made by President Kim Il Sung.
The study tour group composed of exemplary schoolchildren across the country will leave Phophyong for Mangyongdae, the sacred place of the revolution, covering the course of the 250-mile journey made by the President.
Before beginning the tour, the schoolchildren’s group had a meeting at the plaza before the statue of President Kim Il Sung at the Phophyong Revolutionary Site on Thursday.
Present there were Ri Tu Song, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Ri Thae Il, chief secretary of the Ryanggang Provincial Committee of the WPK, officials concerned, officials of the youth league and members of the study tour group.
The participants laid a floral basket and made a bow before the statue of Kim Il Sung.
Mun Chol, chairman of the Central Committee of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, made a report.
He said that the 250-mile journey for learning made by Kim Il Sung was a significant one in which he perfected his ideological and moral traits and qualifications as a great revolutionary and peerless patriot, and an immortal course in which he started the sacred struggle for achieving the independence of the country and building a prosperous country.
He called upon all the members of the study tour group to cherish the warm love for the country and people and burning hatred against the enemy, as done by the President, during their journey.
Then followed speeches.
The speakers expressed their determination to cultivate strong will and collectivist spirit of helping and leading each other forward and to train themselves physically and mentally.
The group left Phophyong, flying the flag of the group.
Officials, working people and schoolchildren in Kim Hyong Jik County saw off the members of the study tour group.
Rodong Sinmun
8. March 18 Revolution
March 18 Revolution
Date: 19/03/2023 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source
https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1679188049-342352520/march-18-revolution
Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) -- The untiring efforts and devotion of the respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un , who energetically led the development of Juche-oriented strategic weapons under the uplifted banner of the great line of simultaneously developing the two fronts, brought about the "March 18 revolution" - the accomplishment of the historic great cause of completing the state nuclear forces. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche112.3.19.)
9. Press Statement of Director General for Int'l Organizations of DPRK Foreign Ministry Issued
This is why we must take a human rights upfront approach. The focus on human rights is a threat to Kim Jong Un's legitimacy.
Human rights are not only a moral imperative, they are a national security issue. Kim Jong Un must deny the human rights of the Korean people in the north in order to remain in power and survive.
The regime responds to human rights criticism. Again we must keep the pressure on with a human rights upfront approach.
Press Statement of Director General for Int'l Organizations of DPRK Foreign Ministry Issued
https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1679227629-201792704/press-statement-of-director-general-for-intl-organizations-of-dprk-foreign-ministry-issued
Date: 19/03/2023 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source
Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) -- Jo Chol Su, director general of the Department of International Organizations of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, made public the following press statement on Sunday:
The U.S. representative to the UN dared find fault with the DPRK at the meeting of the UN Security Council held illegally on March 17.
This time Thomas Greenfield, unaware of genuine human rights and elementary human ethics, revealed her shameful nature utterly devoid of logic and sound thinking.
The U.S. has brought the non-existent "human rights issue" of the DPRK for the discussion of the UN Security Council despite the opposition and concern of the righteous international community. This is a defamation of the UN Charter and a mockery of genuine human rights.
If the U.S. is so worried about the "human rights situation" in the DPRK, it should explain why it is so obsessed with the implementation of the most unethical sanctions against the DPRK in the world.
As for human rights, the U.S. should strictly judged by the international community for its human rights abuses as it leaves tens of millions of the colored people under the police suppression.
It is the customary act of the U.S. to move to the "human rights" arena and try to shake the socialist system chosen by the Korean people once there is nothing to do.
The U.S. held a vile anti-DPRK human rights confab despite the repeated warnings of the DPRK, selecting high-handed practices instead of human rights, and war instead of peace.
The U.S. moves to shake the DPRK by means of "human rights" will only boost the resentment of the Korean people, and the U.S. will only get irreversible security instability from it.
Though it is not sure when this boring action will end, the U.S. is surly making a wrong attempt.
Thomas Greenfield will deplore her position as a stooge and servant of the U.S. which is engrossed in interference in the internal affairs of independent sovereign state under the veil of "defence of human rights". -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche112.3.19.)
10. North Korea Fires Off a Short-Range Ballistic Missile
North Korea Fires Off a Short-Range Ballistic Missile
It traveled about 500 miles before landing in the waters between Korea and Japan
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-fires-off-a-short-range-ballistic-missile-bdeaefa3?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
By Dasl YoonFollow
March 19, 2023 1:30 am ET
SEOUL—North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile on Sunday, as the ruling Kim regime continues to protest ongoing joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea.
The short-range ballistic missile was fired off at around 11:05 a.m. local time from the North’s Tongchang-ri area and traveled about 500 miles before landing in the waters between Korea and Japan, the military in Seoul said. The missile reached an altitude of about 30 miles and landed outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, according to Japan’s Defense Ministry.
South Korea condemned the launch as a grave provocation that violates United Nations Security Council resolutions and vowed to carry out joint military exercises with the U.S. Japan’s vice defense minister called the launch “absolutely unacceptable” and vowed to closely cooperate with the U.S. and South Korea.
The Sunday launch came three days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the launch of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile to “strike fear into the enemies,” Pyongyang’s state media reported Friday. Mr. Kim, alongside his daughter, watched the ICBM launch that was meant to send a warning to Washington and Seoul to halt their joint exercises, state media said.
The U.S. and South Korea are conducting large-scale joint military exercises until March 23. The drills are meant to deter Pyongyang’s threat, officials in Seoul and Washington said. North Korean state media has blamed the exercises for escalating tensions in the region and posing a threat to the regime.
The Hwasong-17 launch on Thursday came hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met and vowed close military cooperation to counter the North’s threat. At the summit, the leaders of Japan and South Korea agreed to strengthen deterrence and security cooperation with the U.S.
North Korea has long used the allied drills as a pretext to launch missiles and expand its nuclear arsenal. Recently, North Korea also test-fired cruise missiles from a submarine. Pyongyang’s ballistic missile launches violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, but the Security Council hasn’t passed a new resolution condemning a North Korean missile launch since 2017. Permanent members Russia and China have blocked additional sanctions, blaming the U.S. for escalating tensions by deploying strategic assets to the region and conducting joint drills with South Korea and Japan.
As the Kim regime vowed to strengthen its military and expand its nuclear arsenal, about 800,000 young North Koreans signed up for military service to “completely wipe out” enemies, Pyongyang’s state media reported on Saturday. Men in North Korea serve in the military for at least 10 years and state media claimed that enlistment numbers are rising around the country.
Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com
11. U.S. B-1B strategic bomber returns to S. Korea as N.K. fires missile
U.S. B-1B strategic bomber returns to S. Korea as N.K. fires missile | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 김은정 · March 19, 2023
SEOUL, March 19 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. B-1B strategic bomber returned to South Korea for joint exercises Sunday, just 16 days after its previous deployment, as Pyongyang fired yet another ballistic missile into the East Sea, according to the defense ministry.
The drills took place in skies over the Korean Peninsula as part of the Freedom Shield exercise that has been under way since March 13, and also involved F-35A stealth fighter jets of South Korea and U.S. F-16 fighters, the ministry said.
A B-1B bomber was previously deployed to the peninsula on March 3.
The deployment, seen as a show of force against North Korea, came as the North fired a short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea earlier Sunday, three days after Pyongyang test-fired a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The defense ministry said the joint air drills demonstrated the robust combined defense posture of the South Korean and U.S. air forces and commitment to extended deterrence, while enhancing the allies' interoperability and wartime capabilities.
"The South Korea-U.S. alliance is maintaining the highest level of combined defense posture against North Korea's consistent threats to regional stability and will achieve 'peace through strength' based on the allies' robust capabilities and posture, while enhancing trust in the U.S. extended deterrence," the ministry said in a statement.
The air forces of South Korea and the United States carry out a joint drill over the West Sea and the central inland region on March 3, 2023, in this file photo provided by Seoul's defense ministry. The exercise involved F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets from South Korea and a B-1B strategic bomber from the U.S. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 김은정 · March 19, 2023
12. Denuclearization - Quo Vadis?
Excerpts:
The two primary constraints preventing South Korea from going nuclear are the 1992 Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The fact that only South Korea is tied to the principle of the 1992 agreement, while North Korea blatantly disregards it, makes it increasingly difficult to justify to the South Korean people why we should continue to stand by the agreement.
The NPT has been the main international agreement constraining South Korea's nuclear armament. But now, nuclear advocates argue, the sophistication and offensive nature of North Korea's nuclear weapons are a clear and present danger to the survival of South Korea. And this meets the conditions outlined by Article 10 of the NPT that allows the withdrawing country to avoid international sanctions.
While the Yoon Suk Yeol administration has so far maintained the country's commitment to the NPT principles, it is likely that supporters of a nuclear South Korea will continue to call for the government to invoke Article 10 and formally withdraw from the NPT ― Quo Vadis?
Denuclearization - Quo Vadis?
The Korea Times · March 19, 2023
By Kim Sang-woo
After a year of war in Ukraine, transatlantic and Indo-Pacific security can no longer be discussed separately. The reality of a predatory authoritarian power in Europe launching a war of conquest against a weaker neighbor has shaken the United States and its Indo-Pacific friends and allies out of complacency.
Vladimir Putin, a revanchist, who dreams of restoring the Tzarist Russian Empire, started the Ukraine war, so could Xi Jinping, who has revanchist ambitions and dreams of reviving a neo-Tianxia order in Asia, resort to force to put a democratic self-governing Taiwan under the Chinese Communist Party's rule.
At the Munich Security Conference in February, the Ukraine war dominated most of the conversation. As expected, Western nations expressed continued support for Ukraine despite the mounting costs and risks. But the most important issue was the deepening divide between the United States and China on the Ukraine war.
Surprise and irritation was expressed by many transatlantic leaders that members of the Global South were not more aligned against Russia. The Global South countries view the Ukraine-Russia conflict more as a "proxy war" between Russia and U.S.-led NATO. And many think that NATO's expansion is one of the main causes of the war.
As victims of centuries-long Western colonization and decades-long Cold War politics, the Global South is acutely sensitive about being entrapped by great power conflicts. While expressing sympathy for Ukraine, some question why Western powers did not provide the same degree of support and assistance in other conflicts and refugee crises elsewhere.
Speaking in Munich, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg argued that the conflict in Ukraine was a global fight, not a regional one, and that the very fate of the international order depends upon what happens in Ukraine.
Indeed, acquiescence to Russia's aggression could have a real impact on international norms, emboldening not only Putin, but potentially China, North Korea and others that may aspire to alter the territorial status quo.
On Feb. 23, 141 U.N. member states voted in favor of a General Assembly resolution calling for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine, with just 7 member states voting against it. In this sense, overall global solidarity against Russia's war of aggression remains strong.
However, if the transatlantic leadership is to maintain this broad coalition against Russia's invasion over time, it will need to do a better job of understanding how the conflict is seen outside of Europe and the United States.
Today's global order is not the same as that of the Cold War, and framing alignment as an "us versus them" proposition fails to take into account the dynamics of the current system.
The Munich security report 2023 calls for a "Re:Vision" of the global order. To be successful, it must be more than preserving the past, but rather a vision for the future and a more inclusive and equitable world order for all.
The really scary prospect is that there is a real chance that Putin's nuclear saber-rattling might turn to the actual use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine: He cannot afford to lose this war, but has few options to win, and has shown no compunctions about slaughtering the innocent. Moreover, Putin has suspended Russian participation in the New START treaty further jeopardizing efforts to reduce nuclear dangers.
The war in Ukraine has led South Koreans to think that only the possession and presence of nuclear weapons can deter an invasion, observing that a nuclear-armed Ukraine would not have been invaded in the first place.
The perceived similarities between South Korea and Ukraine both facing a nuclear neighbor that relies on nuclear threats to prevent U.S. involvement ― despite the fact that South Korea is a U.S. treaty ally and Ukraine is not ― have lent credence to South Korean arguments that it must develop a self-reliant defense strategy consisting of nuclear weapons.
The prospect of the denuclearization of North Korea and hopes for a successful dialogue are at their lowest point in decades. While the U.S. alliance provides both conventional and nuclear deterrence, South Korea's public opinion calls for a defense posture where South Korea does not have to depend entirely on outside help for its survival.
In an age of unpredictable nuclear usage and weakening of nuclear taboos, a growing number of South Koreans believe only the possession of nuclear weapons can properly prepare the country for the unpredictability and instability that will follow North Korea's actual deployment of both tactical and ICBM nuclear weapons.
Moreover, South Korea is closely watching Taiwan where there have been parallels drawn between the two. Both countries are being targeted by nuclear-armed countries with historical and revisionist aims toward reunification.
The two primary constraints preventing South Korea from going nuclear are the 1992 Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The fact that only South Korea is tied to the principle of the 1992 agreement, while North Korea blatantly disregards it, makes it increasingly difficult to justify to the South Korean people why we should continue to stand by the agreement.
The NPT has been the main international agreement constraining South Korea's nuclear armament. But now, nuclear advocates argue, the sophistication and offensive nature of North Korea's nuclear weapons are a clear and present danger to the survival of South Korea. And this meets the conditions outlined by Article 10 of the NPT that allows the withdrawing country to avoid international sanctions.
While the Yoon Suk Yeol administration has so far maintained the country's commitment to the NPT principles, it is likely that supporters of a nuclear South Korea will continue to call for the government to invoke Article 10 and formally withdraw from the NPT ― Quo Vadis?
Kim Sang-woo (swkim54@hotmail.com), a former lawmaker, is chairman of the East Asia Cultural Project. He is also a member of the board of directors at the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation.
The Korea Times · March 19, 2023
13. President Yoon's bold diplomacy for the future
Excerpts:
In that regard, Ambassador Hisashi Owada, former vice foreign minister and father of the current Japanese empress struck the chord of many people in both countries. He is reported to have told the annual Korea-Japan Forum last year that we need to understand human aspects of Korea-Japan relations in dealing with past historical issues, going beyond legalistic ones.
For his part, President Yoon also told the domestic and international audience on several recent occasions that Japan is our close partner for the future. As the saying goes, "Those who adhere to the past won't be able to cope with the future." Likewise, "Those who forget the past, cannot see the future." It is incumbent upon both of us in Korea and Japan to set out on a new and long journey at this historical inflection point, learning lessons from history. It takes two to tango.
President Yoon's bold diplomacy for the future
The Korea Times · March 19, 2023
By Yun Byung-se
President Yoon Suk Yeol has just completed his milestone visit to Japan. Fierce debates are underway about the resulting balance sheet. Each has its own yardstick. I asked my imaginary ChatGPT about the key themes: 12 years, normalization, future cooperation, new era/chapter, past history and mutual trust were some words that popped up on my screen.
Believe it or not, it is the first time in 12 years that a South Korean President crossed the Korea Strait to have a summit with his Japanese counterpart. Some pundits used to call this period, particularly the last five years "a lost era" in Seoul-Tokyo relations to highlight the abnormal absence of summitry between the closest neighbors.
December 2011 marked the beginning of the breakdown. In Kyoto, then President Lee Myung-bak and then Japanese Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko had an intensive yet fruitless exchange on the comfort women issue. It was only four months after the Korean Constitutional Court's landmark decision on that issue.
This decision was followed the next year in 2012 by another tectonic Korean Supreme Court ruling on the forced work issue during the Japanese colonial era. The ruling was finally endorsed by the Supreme Court's full panel in 2018 but triggered a diplomatic earthquake in post-1965 Korea-Japan relations.
To make matters worse, in the course of 2017 and 2018 the preceding Korean government virtually killed the agreement between Seoul and Tokyo on comfort women issues formally announced in 2015 after four years of tough negotiations to follow up on the above 2011 court decision.
More than anything else, the follow-up process of the 2018 Supreme Court decision for monetization to compensate wartime forced labor victims turned into a nuclear time bomb that could explode the backbone of bilateral relations anytime. The Korea-Japan relations plummeted to the worst ever since the historic normalization in 1965.
What has happened since 2018 is too familiar to us. It was a de facto Cold War of "eye for eye, and tooth for tooth," routinized on several fronts ― political, diplomatic, economic and military, etc. Strategic and personal trust between the two sides was totally lost, with anti-Japanese and anti-Korean sentiment rising to critical levels but left unattended by both governments. It quickly turned into a five-year-long unprecedented frozen relationship or retrogression.
Even by the standards of progressive governments in Korea, such a situation was unusual. Particularly, it was a far cry from the approach of President Kim Dae-jung who in 1998 boldly offered an olive branch to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. Their leadership and statesmanship produced a historic joint declaration on the future-oriented ties in late 1998 titled "A New ROK-Japan Partnership towards the 21st Century." Prime Minister Obuchi expressed his "deep remorse and heartfelt apology" for the pains caused by Japan's colonial rule and President Kim reciprocated by stating that "the present calls upon both countries to overcome their unfortunate history and to build a future-oriented relationship based on reconciliation."
It was a bilateral initiative to roll back deteriorating relations by institutionalizing a framework for cooperation between the two countries on past history, North Korea, regional cooperation, and human security in a post-Cold War world.
As for President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida, both took office in an extremely adverse policy environment ― worst-ever bilateral relationship inherited from their predecessors, existential nuclear threat from North Korea, ever-growing U.S.-China strategic competition, the Ukraine war and global energy crisis as well as rising protectionism, not to mention divisive political landscape at home, to name just a few.
Against this background, it is no wonder that since the days of his candidacy, President Yoon chose to benchmark the 1998 Joint Declaration. Once in office, President Yoon made consistent efforts to tackle the deadlock head-on.
The Yoon government's March 6 formula to compensate Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor through a government-run fund was the product of eight months-long intense efforts to cut the Gordian knot. Also, President Yoon's visit to Tokyo last week seems to be an expression of his strong resolve to translate his commitment into action. On both fronts, he had to bear the brunt of the opposition's criticism.
He probably knew a Tokyo visit at this stage could risk his approval ratings. Like Nixon going to China in 1972, with the Cold War at full boil, it was an act of extraordinary daring by a Korean President.
Last week, President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida made a crucial breakthrough in the deadlocked relationship and laid good ground for future-oriented cooperation in this year of the 25th anniversary of Kim-Obuchi Joint Declaration. They removed several stumbling blocks either simultaneously or by Korea's bold first move, showing their "potential of resilience." It is an important first step not only for normalizing the bilateral relationship but also for strengthening trilateral cooperation involving the U.S. which is keen to closer coordination of the linchpin (Korea-U.S. alliance) and the cornerstone (U.S.-Japan alliance).
The task ahead is to carry this positive momentum forward and build more trust between the two sides through specific follow-up actions. Resuscitated shuttle diplomacy between the leaders and diverse channels of strategic, economic, military and cultural cooperation should fill up the vacuum left by the prolonged confrontation and further serve to expand new windows of opportunities in bilateral, regional and global agendas. Prime Minister Kishida's reciprocal visit to Seoul will be another landmark in the reconciliation process.
Nevertheless, caution is in order, because the current state of affairs is not solid yet and the road ahead is expected to be bumpy, particularly due to Korea's domestic division on compensation formula and several intractable issues between Seoul and Tokyo that always require wisdom and finesse. If either side is tempted to score domestic political points, the barely regained momentum could be weakened. Neither side should be "penny-wise, but pound-foolish."
We already have several lessons from recent history. The historic 1998 Joint Declaration did not last long, due to the Japanese textbook dispute and other problems. In July 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's special envoy solemnly told the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) that "a large number of Koreans (and others) were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions (in Japan's Hashima Island)." This irreversible statement is contained in relevant official decisions of the WHC. While those decisions still remain to be fully implemented, another heritage issue is emerging as a new source of tension.
Thus, bold diplomacy should be reciprocated in good faith in the coming weeks and months in government, business and political sectors.
In that regard, Ambassador Hisashi Owada, former vice foreign minister and father of the current Japanese empress struck the chord of many people in both countries. He is reported to have told the annual Korea-Japan Forum last year that we need to understand human aspects of Korea-Japan relations in dealing with past historical issues, going beyond legalistic ones.
For his part, President Yoon also told the domestic and international audience on several recent occasions that Japan is our close partner for the future. As the saying goes, "Those who adhere to the past won't be able to cope with the future." Likewise, "Those who forget the past, cannot see the future." It is incumbent upon both of us in Korea and Japan to set out on a new and long journey at this historical inflection point, learning lessons from history. It takes two to tango.
Yun Byung-se, a former foreign minister of South Korea (2013-2017), is now a board member of the Korea Peace Foundation and a member of several ex-global leaders' forums and task forces, including the Astana Forum and its Consultative Council as well as the Task Force on U.S. Allies and Nuclear Weapons Proliferation sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. This column does not necessarily reflect the views of The Korea Times.
The Korea Times · March 19, 2023
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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