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Quotes of the Day:
"I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think."
- Socrates
"In foreign policy you have to wait twenty-five years to see how it comes out."
- James Reston
“The only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion. When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper…is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity, he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind"-
-Alexander Hamilton, 1790
1. Kim Jong Un fires top general, orders North Korean military to 'gird for war'
2. N. Korea's Kim calls for bolstering war preparations in 'offensive' way: KCNA
3. 7th Enlarged Meeting of 8th Central Military Commission of WPK Held (War Prep, General's dismissal)
4. Peerlessly Great Man's Exploits for Korea's Liberation
5. Kim Yo Jong: What We Know About Kim Jong Un’s Sister and Her Role in North Korea
6. N. Korea spreads malware during fake video job interviews
7. North Korea cracks down on use of propaganda publication as scrap paper
8. ＜Inside N. Korea＞Even military face increasing malnutrition; A soldier said “We don’t get even half a bowl of food…half of my comrades are in a weakened state”
9. Free economic zone in Tumen River Basin for permanent peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia
10. Korea Is a Model for Middle East Peace
11. Yoon says U.N. Command key force in maintaining peace on Korean Peninsula
12. Who is Kim Yo Jong, North Korea’s propagandist-in-chief?
13. Ignoring red flags, South Korea went ahead with Scout jamboree anyway
14. PacNet #59 - South Korea's role in Indo-Pacific maritime domain awareness
1. Kim Jong Un fires top general, orders North Korean military to 'gird for war'
I have not seen any other reporting as of 6am EDT.
Normal personnel turnover? Promotions and reassignments?
We must always take these reports with a large grain of salt. And in some cases those apparently "fired" are "rehabilitated" after getting their minds right doing some hard labor.
Kim Jong Un fires top general, orders North Korean military to 'gird for war' | CNN
CNN · by Brad Lendon,Yoonjung Seo · August 10, 2023
Seoul, South Korea CNN —
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fired his top general amid a shakeup of the country’s military leadership and wants his army to “gird for a war,” state media reported Thursday.
Gen. Pak Su Il was dismissed as chief of the General Staff and Vice Marshal Ri Yong Gil was appointed in his place, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Other “leading commanding officers” were dismissed, transferred or appointed during a meeting of the Central Military Commission on Wednesday, KCNA reported, without going into details.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un leads a meeting of the Central Military Commission in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday.
KCNA/Handout/Reuters
North Korea regularly revamps its military leadership. Some military leaders later reemerge in different positions, while others disappear from public view.
And the career of the new top general Ri – who assumed the No. 2 job in the North Korean military hierarchy as recently as December 31 – reflected that, analysts said.
“Ri Yong Gil is a longstanding member of North Korea’s military elite, who before making it to the top, experienced ups and downs during his career. Seven years ago, he was even rumored to have been executed after a personnel reshuffle,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the Sejong Institute private think tank near Seoul, said there may be a range of reasons behind Kim’s military reshuffle and it was not necessarily punitive.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives field guidance at a major weapon factory in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on August 6, 2023.
KCNA/Reuters
video
Kim Jong Un showcases arms production
“Since Kim Jong Un has frequently promoted, demoted, and dismissed executives according to their ability to perform duties, dismissal of executives may be holding them accountable, but it is inappropriate to consider them as punishment,” Cheong said.
Easley said the North Korean leader may simply be trying to ensure that no one below him becomes too powerful.
“Kim Jong Un frequently rotates leadership posts below him to prevent the emergence in North Korea of anyone like [Wagner Group founder] Yevgeny Prigozhin, who challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority after amassing personal control of financial assets and loyalty among armed forces,” Easley said.
‘Grave military situation’
The shake-up of the military leadership was mentioned only near the end of the KCNA report, which focused more on what it said was the “important issue of making the army more thoroughly gird for a war given the grave political and military situation prevailing in the Korean Peninsula.”
South Korea and its chief ally, the United States, were not mentioned by name in the report. However, it appeared to refer to them obliquely, saying the meeting “analyzed the military moves of the chief culprits of deteriorated situation” on the peninsula.
“Making full war preparations” was the top agenda item for the meeting, the KCNA report said.
“The present situation, in which the hostile forces are getting ever more undisguised in their reckless military confrontation with the DPRK, [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] requires the latter’s army to have more positive, proactive and overwhelming will and thoroughgoing and perfect military readiness for a war,” it said.
North Korea says it launched a new type of Hwasong-18 Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) using solid fuel in April.
Courtesy Rodong Sinmun
North Korea says it tested an advanced solid-fueled ballistic missile. Here's why adversaries are alarmed
North Korea has ramped up its military rhetoric this summer, threatening to shoot down US reconnaissance planes and retaliate for the port call of a US nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarine to South Korea for the first time in four decades.
Pyongyang has also showcased its advances in ballistic missile technology, last month testing what it said was a Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a flight time that suggests it has the ability to strike the US mainland.
That weapon was among a slew of others shown off at what North Korea called its “Victory Day” parade last month, a commemoration of the armistice that ended the fighting in the Korean War 70 years ago. Technically, the two Koreas remain at war as no formal peace treaty was ever signed.
At Wednesday’s meeting in Pyongyang, Kim signed orders for war drills involving the country’s newest weapons.
Kim late last week toured arms and munitions factories and gave “important directions” regarding “capacity-building for the serial production of new ammunition,” a KCNA report said.
Amid the tension on the peninsula, South Korea announced this month it would hold a nationwide civil defense drill on August 23.
Most of the country’s 51 million residents are expected to practice evacuating to shelters or underground safe spaces during the 20-minute exercise, which Seoul says is in response to “provocations” from Pyongyang.
CNN · by Brad Lendon,Yoonjung Seo · August 10, 2023
2. N. Korea's Kim calls for bolstering war preparations in 'offensive' way: KCNA
Of course the timing is in advance of Ulchi Freedom Shield. This is not unusual.
Most importantly, the regime is exploiting allied exercises in order to create the threat for domestic propaganda to justify the sacrifice and suffering of the Korean people in the north as Kim deliberately prioritizes nuclear and missile development over the welfare of the people.
(2nd LD) N. Korea's Kim calls for bolstering war preparations in 'offensive' way: KCNA | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · August 10, 2023
(ATTN: ADDS assessment by unification ministry official, details)
By Lee Minji
SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for preparing for a possible war in an "offensive" manner, the North's state media said Thursday, as South Korea and the United States plan to stage joint military drills later this month.
Kim made the remarks while presiding over an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) the previous day, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Such meetings were previously held consecutively in February, March and April.
"He deeply summarized and analyzed the present situation of the Korean peninsula and its vicinity and made an important conclusion on further stepping up the war preparations of the KPA in an offensive way," the KCNA said. The KPA is an acronym for the North's Korean People's Army.
This photo, carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency on Aug. 10, 2023, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presiding over an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
The meeting came as Seoul and Washington plan to hold their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise later this month, which Pyongyang has denounced as a rehearsal for an invasion of the North.
It also came as the North appears to be focused on flexing its military muscle. Following a rare visit by a Russian military delegation led by its Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu last month, Kim recently conducted a three-day "field guidance" of major munitions factories in the North.
The North Korean leader again highlighted the role of munitions factories, saying they have a "very important duty" to strengthen the KPA and called on them to push ahead with the modernization and mass production of weapons.
Kim also stressed the importance of a "strong army" in carrying out the party central committee's military strategy and called for "securing more powerful strike means for carrying out the mission of war deterrence" and "intensifying the work for deploying them in the units for action in a mobile way," it said.
Noting that "hostile forces are getting ever more undisguised in their reckless military confrontation," forcing the North to be equipped with "perfect military readiness for war," the North said Kim signed a written order discussed by the party military commission.
State media photos showed Kim speaking to officials in front of a blurred map of South Korea with his finger pointing to areas that appeared to be Seoul and the Gyeryongdae military headquarters, 160 kilometers south of the capital.
This photo, carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency on Aug. 10, 2023, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) presiding over an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
An official at South Korea's unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, assessed that the recalcitrant regime may have wanted to convey a "message of threat" to the South.
The official denounced North Korea for discussing war preparation in the party meeting, saying it is "deplorable" for the North to threaten peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
"North Korea should realize the more it prepares for war and seeks to bolster its military force, the more vulnerable its security will be in the face of a powerful South Korea-U.S. extended deterrence and overwhelming response," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
During the meeting, North Korea dismissed Pak Su-gil, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA), and replaced him with Ri Yong-gil, without elaborating.
Ri, who previously served as the North's defense minister, holds the position of vice marshal of the KPA and also serves as a vice chairman of the WPK's Central Military Commission.
Other "important tasks" discussed during the meeting included preparations for a militia parade to mark the 75th anniversary of its founding on Sept. 9, according to KCNA.
If held, it would mark the North's third military parade this year, after those held in February and July. The country has not held military parades three times in a single year.
North Korea held a massive military parade, joined by delegations from China and Russia, to mark the 70th armistice anniversary of the 1950-53 Korean War on July 27.
Noting that it is "rare" for the reclusive regime to give prior notice on a military parade, the ministry official said the militia parade is likely to be smaller in size and feature conventional weapons as seen in a 2021 military parade held by civilian defense forces to mark the regime's founding anniversary.
mlee@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · August 10, 2023
3. 7th Enlarged Meeting of 8th Central Military Commission of WPK Held (War Prep, General's dismissal)
This report provides the statements for the reporting on "war preparations" but also for the dismissal of General Pak Su Il
We should take seriously the statement that the nKPA is postured for offensive operations.
Excerpts:
He deeply summarized and analyzed the present situation of the Korean peninsula and its vicinity and made an important conclusion on further stepping up the war preparations of the KPA in an offensive way.
...
The enlarged meeting dealt with the organizational matter of dismissing General Pak Su Il from the post of the chief of the General Staff and appointing Vice Marshal Ri Yong Gil as new chief of the General Staff, and of dismissing, transferring to other posts or newly appointing some leading commanding officers.
7th Enlarged Meeting of 8th Central Military Commission of WPK Held
https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1691619007-254590972/7th-enlarged-meeting-of-8th-central-military-commission-of-wpk-held/
Date: 10/08/2023 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source
Pyongyang, August 10 (KCNA) -- The Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) convened an enlarged meeting to discuss an important issue of making the army more thoroughly gird for a war given the grave political and military situation prevailing in the Korean peninsula.
The 7th Enlarged Meeting of the 8th Central Military Commission of the WPK took place at the office building of the Central Committee of the WPK on August 9.
Kim Jong Un , general secretary of the WPK, chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), guided the enlarged meeting.
Attending it were members of the Central Military Commission of the WPK. And present there as observers were commanders of the Korean People's Army (KPA) services, commanding officers of the frontline corps and units in charge of important duties, and cadres of the relevant departments of the WPK Central Committee.
The enlarged meeting analyzed the military moves of the chief culprits of deteriorated situation that disturb peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and its vicinity, and decided on the plans for offensive military countermeasures to thoroughly deter them. It also discussed as its major agenda item the issues of making full war preparations to neutralize at a blow the enemy attack with overwhelming strategic deterrence and launch simultaneous offensive military actions in contingency.
The present situation, in which the hostile forces are getting ever more undisguised in their reckless military confrontation with the DPRK, requires the latter's army to have more positive, proactive and overwhelming will and thoroughgoing and perfect military readiness for a war.
The meeting examined a plan of forming frontline operation groups reinforced to overwhelmingly contain and destroy the enemy with absolutely superior military strategy, tactics and muscle in contingency, and the operational tasks to be fulfilled to carrying it out. It also deeply studied and discussed the military measures for diversifying the operational executive capabilities of frontline units and mapping out more detailed operational plans.
On the basis of the results of the discussion, the Central Military Commission of the WPK issued important military action guidelines applicable to the enlarged and changed operational sphere and plans of the frontline units of the KPA. It also unanimously decided on the military and practical issues arising in proactively conducting actual war drills for fulfilling the new strategic mission and making full preparations for carrying out the operation plans any time.
The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un signed the written order on the important military measures discussed and decided by the Central Military Commission of the WPK.
He deeply summarized and analyzed the present situation of the Korean peninsula and its vicinity and made an important conclusion on further stepping up the war preparations of the KPA in an offensive way.
Saying that to prepare a strong army is the key to implementing the military strategic plan of the Party Central Committee for containing the enemy's use of military muscle in advance and neutralize all forms of its attack at once in case of the outbreak of a war, he called for securing more powerful strike means for carrying out the mission of war deterrence and continuously intensifying the work for deploying them in the units for action in a mobile way.
He also called for actively conducting actual war drills to efficiently operate newly deployed latest weapons and equipment to ensure that they would display the maximum effect in combat, and radically increasing the KPA's capabilities for fighting a war by making it keep its mobilized posture for combat all the time.
Saying that the munitions factories have a very important duty to strengthen the KPA in terms of military technology, he underlined the need for all the munitions industrial establishments to push ahead with the mass-production of various weapons and equipment in real earnest to satisfy the operational demand of the KPA undergoing modernization, and set forth the goal for the expansion of the weaponry production capacity and the weaponry production plan.
The enlarged meeting dealt with the organizational matter of dismissing General Pak Su Il from the post of the chief of the General Staff and appointing Vice Marshal Ri Yong Gil as new chief of the General Staff, and of dismissing, transferring to other posts or newly appointing some leading commanding officers.
It also discussed a series of important tasks facing the armed forces of the DPRK, including the issue of making preparations for the successful militia parade marking the 75th founding anniversary of the DPRK.
The 7th Enlarged Meeting of the 8th Central Military Commission of the WPK serves as a significant occasion in providing a firm military guarantee for victory in war by setting forth the substantive programs for the KPA to overpower the enemy by taking firm strategic and tactical initiative in modern warfare. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche112.8.10.)
4. Peerlessly Great Man's Exploits for Korea's Liberation
Pure propaganda and myth building (or sustaining). I provide this as a reminder that the legitimacy of the Kim family regime rests on the foundation of the myth of anti-Japanese partisan warfare and Kim Il Sung as a great guerrilla leader who liberated the Korean peninsula in 1945.
This is why we must be concerned with future Korean resistance in a post conflict or post regime collapse sceanior. There is a "Guerrilla ethos" that we must be concerned with.
From Adrian Buzo:
“In the course of this struggle against factional opponents, for the first time Kim began to emphasize nationalism as a means of rallying the population to the enormous sacrifices needed for post-war recovery. This was a nationalism that first took shape in the environment of the anti-Japanese guerrilla movement and developed into a creed through the destruction of both the non-Communist nationalist forces and much of the leftist intellectual tradition of the domestic Communists. Kim’s nationalism did not draw inspiration from Korean history, nor did it dwell on past cultural achievements, for the serious study of history and traditional culture soon effectively ceased in the DPRK. Rather, DPRK nationalism drew inspiration from the Spartan outlook of the former Manchurian guerrillas. It was a harsh nationalism that dwelt on past wrongs and promises of retribution for “national traitors” and their foreign backers. DPRK nationalism stressed the “purity” of all things Korean against the “contamination” of foreign ideas, and inculcated in the population a sense of fear and animosity toward the outside world. Above all, DPRK nationalism stressed that the guerrilla ethos was not only the supreme, but also the only legitimate basis on which to reconstitute a reunified Korea.” (p. 27) (Guerrilla Dynasty, by Adrian Buzo)
Peerlessly Great Man's Exploits for Korea's Liberation
Date: 09/08/2023 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source
Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) -- President Kim Il Sung wisely led the 20-year-long arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle to accomplish the historic cause of national liberation.
When he convened a meeting of commanding officers of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army (KPRA) in May Juche 34 (1945), he discussed the operational issue related to the liberation of the country. He stressed the need for all the Korean revolutionaries to firmly maintain the firm Juche-oriented stand that they should liberate the country by their own efforts, strengthen the political and military might of the KPRA in every way and prepare the resistance organizations in the homeland well so that they would launch all-people resistance in support of the KPRA's liberation operation.
At a meeting of the KPRA military and political cadres held after the meeting, he set forth the revolutionary slogan "Every Effort for the Final Victory of the Great Anti-Japanese War!" to arouse all the KPRA commanding officers and members and all the anti-Japanese patriotic forces of the country to the final sacred war for national liberation.
The President finally completed the plan for the final offensive operation for national liberation, which he had prepared with much care, and made it public at a meeting of KPRA military and political cadres on July 30, 1945.
The strategic intention of the plan was to defeat the Japanese imperialist aggressors and liberate the country through an active offensive operation of the KPRA combined with all-people resistance.
As the Juche-oriented revolutionary forces of the Korean people were fully prepared for the final decisive battle against the Japanese imperialists, the President ordered all the units of the KPRA to launch a general offensive for national liberation on August 9, 1945.
The Japanese imperialists, who were defeated by the fierce attack of the KPRA and the positive all-people resistance, declared unconditional surrender on August 15, one week after the start of the final offensive operation.
The cause of national liberation, which the Korean people had desired so ardently, was successfully accomplished under the leadership of the President who defeated the Japanese imperialists through all-people resistance and led the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle to victory under the uplifted banner of independent national liberation. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche112.8.9.)
5. Kim Yo Jong: What We Know About Kim Jong Un’s Sister and Her Role in North Korea
No one wants to be the number two in north Korea. Even Kim Yo Jong. This could be a threat to her. If Kim Jong Un feels threatened by this or if he feels that his reputation is in any way beginning to be overshadowed by his sister then he may take some action. At the very least we might not see or hear from Kim Yo Jong in the coming months while she is "rehabilitated." She has had long absences in the past.
Not mentioned is Professor Sung Yoon Lee's forthcoming book (September 12). This will be the definite and seminal work on Kim Yo Jong. And as I reflect on that, I think that book could be a turning point for Kim Yo Jong because it may put her in jeopardy with her brother. Professor Lee's book could be a real threat to her and the regime. And as I reflect on that if we were to create an information campaign to create dissent and discord in the regime it might be useful to periodically designate a new "number two" in the regime and watch Kim take action against such person for "competing" with him and becoming an emerging threat to his rule.
I have pre-ordered my copy here:
https://www.amazon.com/Sister-North-Koreas-Dangerous-Woman/dp/1541704126/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Kim Yo Jong: What We Know About Kim Jong Un’s Sister and Her Role in North Korea
The dictator’s sister has star power, a rising political profile and is called the country’s de facto No. 2
By Timothy W. Martin
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Updated Aug. 10, 2023 3:27 am ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/kim-jong-un-sister-kim-yo-jong-11607524273?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
Kim Yo Jong, pictured in 2018, has risen in prominence as confidante and adviser to her brother Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader. PHOTO: RYU SEUNG-IL/ZUMA PRESS
Kim Yo Jong, believed to be at least 34 years old, is a senior North Korean official helping oversee the country’s policies toward the U.S. and South Korea, according to Seoul’s intelligence agency, which has referred to her as the country’s de facto No. 2.
Among her various titles, Kim is the nominal head of the North’s propaganda and agitation department. She rose to prominence in just the past several years, attending all three face-to-face meetings between then-President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as the latter’s confidante and adviser. In September 2021, she was promoted to the State Affairs Commission, the North’s top decision-making body. More recently, she issues state-media attacks against the U.S., South Korea and others who doubt the Kim regime.
Who is Kim Yo Jong and what do we know about her?
Kim Yo Jong’s precise date of birth is unknown, though South Korea’s Unification Ministry database of North Korean officials lists her as being born in 1988 in Pyongyang. She is the younger sister of Kim Jong Un and the youngest-known daughter of their father Kim Jong Il, who ruled North Korea from 1994 to 2011 and had children with several women. During her earliest years, Ms. Kim was an obscure figure. That changed in 2009, when Kim Jong Un was rumored to have been named heir to the North Korean leadership, after their father suffered a series of strokes. That year, a side-by-side photograph was shown on state media, showing a presumed image of her, alongside Kim Jong Un and their eldest full brother, Kim Jong Chol. News cameras also spotted her in early 2011, when she attended an Eric Clapton concert in Singapore with Jong Chol.
Her marital status is unknown, though some South Korean news outlets have mentioned she may have married the son of a prominent North Korean official, Choe Ryong Hae, Kim Jong Un’s deputy in the state affairs commission—the government’s most-powerful decision-making apparatus. She hasn’t been publicly seen with a husband in North Korean state media. Kim steadily gained international prominence as Kim Jong Un accelerated North Korea’s nuclear weapons development over the past decade, participating in nuclear negotiations involving the U.S. and South Korea since 2018. In 2020, when her brother was rumored to be seriously ill, North Korea experts mentioned her as a possible emergency backup, if her brother abruptly died, or was incapacitated.
She boasts a key requirement to become the North’s Supreme Leader: she hails from the “Mount Paektu bloodline,” or those with a direct lineage to the country’s founder Kim Il Sung.
The two siblings met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in 2018. PHOTO: KOREA SUMMIT PRESS POOL
What is her political role in North Korea?
Ms. Kim has held an official post in the North Korean government since at least 2014, according to the Seoul government, serving in the country’s rubber-stamp parliament. She also serves in the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, the party’s executive body. In 2018, she received international attention when she traveled to South Korea as her brother’s emissary, to discuss how North Korea could participate in that year’s Winter Olympics, which was hosted in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She later appeared at the Games’ opening ceremony seated near then Vice President Mike Pence. She became the first known member of North Korea’s ruling Kim family to visit the South.
Ms. Kim then traveled to Singapore, Vietnam and the inter-Korean border to attend unprecedentedface-to-face meetings between her brother and Mr. Trump, as a confidante and adviser to her brother.
In March 2020, a North Korean government statement under her name was released for the first time. That statement rebuked South Korea for criticizing a recent military exercise conducted by the Kim regime days before. She has since become the North’s go-to figure to talk publicly about U.S. and South Korean affairs.
Since then, Kim Yo Jong has warned the Biden administration of “causing a stink,” protested combined Washington-Seoul military exercises and ridiculed South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempts at rapprochement.
Is she next in line to succeed Kim Jong Un?
There are no publicly known rules that precisely outline North Korea’s leadership succession. But in the two successions that have occurred in the country since its founding in 1948, the incumbent leader has handpicked and groomed an adult son to succeed him upon his death.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Kim could be a temporary regent who would inherit North Korea’s leadership, should the incumbent Kim Jong Un abruptly die, or fall seriously ill, according to longtime North Korea watchers. In April 2020, amid widespread speculation that her brother could be incapacitated or dead, Kim Yo Jong was seen as a potential backup. That was due to her blood ties to the ruling Kim family, the fact that all of Kim Jong Un’s children were under 18, and because other male members of the Kim family were seen as politically sidelined. In August that year, Seoul’s intelligence agency said Ms. Kim was Pyongyang’s de facto No. 2, though she may not be an officially designated heir.
What is her relationship with Kim Jong Un?
Kim Yo Jong is likely the only adviser that Kim Jong Un trusts, North Korea experts say, due to their shared blood and her unimposing presence.
Kim has often appeared to help her brother stand out, instead of competing for power or public attention. She is portrayed in North Korean state media as accompanying her brother during official visits to the country’s factories, farmlands, and government offices in a deputy role, quietly offering advice and assistance, and with a notebook in hand. Her younger age is also seen as an asset in winning the North Korean leader’s confidence, North Korea experts say, as age is a determining factor in seniority in Korean culture.
Kim was rumored to have been demoted after the Hanoi summit in February 2019 failed to produce a denuclearization deal. But she was reinstated to the country’s Politburo and attended many of her brother’s showcase events—including in May 2020 when Kim Jong Un reappeared at a factory opening after the world speculated he might be dead.
In November 2022, Kim was shown crying in celebration of the country’s Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile launch, a marquee North Korean event. Kim Jong Un was photographed holding hands with his daughter—and Kim’s niece—in what was the first public appearance from one of the North Korean leader’s children.
Her relationship with her elder brother is compared with that between their father Kim Jong Il, and his younger sister, Kim Kyong Hui, who was the North Korean ruler’s sole surviving full sibling. Those two shared a tragic past: their mother died during childbirth when both were children, while another brother died in a drowning accident a year earlier. Kim Kyong Hui had helped her brother’s rule by overseeing parts of the country’s communist economy and serving as an adviser. But as aunt to Kim Jong Un after he rose to power, her public life had remained sidelined, while her husband, Jang Song Thaek, was purged and believed executed in 2013. Kim Kyong Hui was photographed as recently as January 2020, attending a concert in Pyongyang with Kim Jong Un.
Kim serves in the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party. PHOTO: PRESS POOL
How is Kim Yo Jong perceived by North Koreans?
It is impossible to accurately gauge her standing among the overall North Korean public, due to the authoritarian government’s ability to execute citizens who even slightly criticize the Kim regime. But the public is likely to be unaccustomed to having a young woman in a senior government position, as the great majority of those in such roles in North Korea have been older males. Her relationship with her brother Kim Jong Un, though, means she can demand respect—real or feigned—from the North Korean elite, who mostly live in the capital city of Pyongyang. In 2018, an 89-year-old Kim Yong Nam—North Korea’s then-nominal head of state, as the chief of the country’s rubber-stamp legislature—bowed in deference to Kim when the two led a North Korean delegation to South Korea, in front of South Korean news cameras.
How is she perceived abroad?
She has been seen as an influential North Korean aide to the country’s leader due to her relationship with Kim Jong Un and participation in major diplomatic meetings with the U.S., China and South Korea. Her harsh rhetoric directed toward senior South Korean officials in 2020—including President Moon Jae-in—was seen as unusual by Seoul officials, as they had shared private conversations and drinks with Kim in recent inter-Korean meetings. Most remembered her as soft-spoken and polite.
In the U.S., she was sometimes perceived to be an unofficial counterpart to Ivanka Trump, who had served as an adviser to her father and accompanied him on diplomatic engagements with North Korea. The two also crossed paths in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Kim attended the opening ceremony as the unofficial head of the North Korean delegation, while Trump attended the closing ceremony as the leader of the U.S. delegation.
Kim has also been seen as a complicit violator of human rights by human rights organizations and the U.S. government. Her senior role in North Korea makes her partly responsible for the Kim regime’s continued executions, incarcerations and oppression of political prisoners, they say. Her role in a government propaganda department also links her to the Kim regime’s censorship activities, the Treasury Department said in January 2017, when it added her to its sanctions list.
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Just days before Joe Biden’s inauguration, North Korea unveiled a new submarine-launched ballistic missile and labeled the U.S. as its biggest enemy. WSJ’s Timothy Martin explains why Pyongyang wants to be at the top of Washington’s agenda. Photo: KCNA/EPA/Shutterstock
Write to Timothy W. Martin at timothy.martin@wsj.com
6. N. Korea spreads malware during fake video job interviews
We have met the enemy and he is us. We have to defend against north Korea's socially engineered malware attacks.
N. Korea spreads malware during fake video job interviews
https://www.donga.com/en/home/article/all/20230810/4347637/1
Posted August. 10, 2023 08:23,
Updated August. 10, 2023 08:23
North Korea reportedly offered a fake career job interview to an employee of a cryptocurrency company with the promise of a high salary while trying to hack the employee’s personal computer by spreading malware during the interview. North Korea's hacking methods are becoming bolder and more sophisticated as it funds much of its nuclear and missile development with cryptocurrency stolen through cybercrime. While the U.S. and South Korea have intensified their collaborative efforts to tackle North Korea's cyber threats, there are growing concerns about hacking damage to South Korean companies.
On its website, Estonian cryptocurrency exchange CoinsPaid announced Monday the results of an investigation into the theft of $37.3 million in cryptocurrency by North Korean hackers on July 22.
According to the announcement, in June and July, employees of the company received a job offer from a company through LinkedIn, a social media channel for jobs and recruitment, that promised a high salary of 16,000 to 24,000 dollars per month. Unaware that the job was fake, an employee accepted the offer and was asked to install a specific application (app) during the video interview. The app contained malware, and the hackers obtained the employee's personal information that enables access to the company's internal network and stole cryptocurrency.
Prior to this, the hackers had conducted more than a dozen spearphishing (a phishing method that extracts information via email) attempts since March to attack vulnerabilities in the company's systems but failed. This time, the hackers changed their tactics by utilizing social media. “The system is designed in a way that makes it impossible to hack without gaining access to employee computers,” CoinsPaid said. "The hackers spent six months learning details about the organization's structure and team members before launching the attack."
The company also called the hack "the same hacking pattern as Lazarus." Lazarus, founded in 2007 under North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau, is known for high-profile hacks against Sony Pictures in 2014 and the central bank of Bangladesh in 2016. In February, the South Korean government designated Lazarus as a target of its cyber sanctions against North Korea.
Kyu-Jin Shin newjin@donga.com
7. North Korea cracks down on use of propaganda publication as scrap paper
It is a higher priority for the regime to protect the words of the party on paper rather than allow the people to use all potential "resources" for their own benefit. Imagine how we have used newspapers in the US and the rest of the world: from starting fires in the fireplace to wrapping fish to housebreaking pets. Imagine using newspapers for any of those tasks in north Korea.
North Korea cracks down on use of propaganda publication as scrap paper
Wrapping snacks in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper is disrespectful to the party and the country’s leader.
By Son Hyemin for RFA Korean
2023.08.08
rfa.org
North Korea is cracking down on its citizens using propaganda newspapers as scrap paper, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.
Merchants in the marketplace need paper to wrap the goods they sell, wallpaper installers use it to plaster a layer of filler, and tobacco vendors even use it to roll cigarettes.
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which features news about the activities of leader Kim Jong Un, propaganda essays on the merits of socialism, and the government’s spin on world events, is printed on relatively high quality paper, and is therefore the best source for scrap.
The government, however, says it is disrespectful to use images of Kim Jong Un in scrap paper and mandates that old issues of the Rodong Sinmun get recycled. That hasn’t stopped the people from selling yesterday’s edition in the marketplace, though.
“It costs a little more than regular scrap paper,” a resident of South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA’s Korean Service, adding that it is a better alternative to the used notebooks and other sources of rough paper made from rice straw or corn stalks.
“The Rodong Sinmun is high-quality, so it can be bought for 5,000 won (US$0.60) per kilogram (2.2 lbs),” she said. “Regular scrap paper is sold at 2,000 won ($0.24) per kilo, and low grade paper at 1,000 won ($0.12).”
But the authorities are now cracking down on sales of the newspaper in the marketplace this month, the resident said.
“The Rodong Sinmun advertises the activities of the Highest Dignity,” she said, using an honorific term for Kim Jong Un. “On the 5th, two traders secretly sold old copies of the Rodong Sinmun to a rice cake vendor and a cigarette vendor in the marketplace. They were caught by a police officer in civilian clothes and sent to a detention center.”
The two will likely face harsh sentences for their alleged disrespect of the country’s leadership, the resident said.
“A police officer I know very well told me that [they] will be sent to a disciplinary labor center for one or two years because the authorities charged them with the crime of reselling the party’s newspaper, an anti-socialist act.”
‘In high demand’
The six-page Rodong Sinmun newspaper is published in Pyongyang every day and distributed throughout the country via local publication centers in each city and county. RFA was not able to confirm the current daily circulation of the newspaper, but in 2015 reported that Kim Jong Un ordered production and distribution of 600,000 copies per day.
Readers are urged to recycle the newspaper when they are finished reading it. The employees who deliver it collect old papers once per month, and send them to the factory to be pulped and remade into paper that will be printed with the latest edition of the Rodong Sinmun.
It is during the recycling step that entrepreneurial newspaper deliverers can take a few old copies and sell them for scrap in the marketplace, a resident of North Hwanghae province, south of Pyongyang, told RFA.
“The Rodong Sinmun is in high demand for wallpaper installation, and for individually wrapping bread, rice cakes, and candy,” he said. “Many men buy it for tobacco paper, but recently it has disappeared due to a crackdown by the authorities.”
Authorities are trying to discover who originally sold old copies of the paper to the vendors in the Sariwon marketplace, so they are investigating the workers who distribute it when it is published, the North Hwanghae resident said.
“There are about 10 people who distribute and collect the Rodong Sinmun at the publication center in Sariwon, but it is not yet known which, if any of them, will be caught in the investigation,” he said. “Nobody reads the Rodong Sinmun because it is full of lies and propaganda.”
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong.
rfa.org
8. ＜Inside N. Korea＞Even military face increasing malnutrition; A soldier said “We don’t get even half a bowl of food…half of my comrades are in a weakened state”
This bears watching. If the regime must begin to prioritize military units receiving resources we could see those "deprioritized" units use their military capabilities to "compete" for resources.
We should keep in mind the definition of regime collapse. The loss of food and other resources combined with a "competition for resources" among military units could lead to one of the two conditions for internal instability and regime collapse.
Regime Collapse: loss of central governing effectiveness by the party combined with loss of coherency and support of the military
＜Inside N. Korea＞Even military face increasing malnutrition; A soldier said “We don’t get even half a bowl of food…half of my comrades are in a weakened state”
asiapress.org
FILE PHOTO) Young soldiers taking baths and doing their washing along the edges of the Yalu River. Some of the soldiers are so thin you can see their ribs. The photograph shows a part of Sakju County, North Pyongan Province, and was taken by ISHIMARU Jiro on the Chinese side of border in July 2017.
Late last month, the Kim Jong-un regime held a massive military parade, but food shortages at military bases in the country’s northern region have led to chronic malnutrition among ordinary soldiers. Several ASIAPRESS reporting partners met with soldiers to hear about their circumstances. (KANG Ji-won / ISHIMARU Jiro)
◆ “There’s no side dishes except for fermented soybean paste”
From late July to early August, ASIAPRESS reporting partners met and talked with soldiers in North Hamgyung and Yanggang provinces.
One soldier in his late 20s told one of the reporting partners that “There’s a dish they hand out that’s mixed with corn powder and Annam (medium grain) rice, but we get less than half a bowl. There’s no side dishes except for fermented soybean paste. Half of the soldiers at the base are weak (from malnutrition).”
A soldier stationed in an agricultural area and tasked with farming and farm security duties told another reporting partner that “they give us wheat and barley, but it’s far from enough. It’s better than being sent back to our home base, though.” He also said that hungry soldiers head to rivers to catch fish or pick mountain greens to survive, and that farmers share their side dishes with them.
◆ An increase in robberies as soldiers steal money and valuables
Military bases began facing food shortages from around April. That’s about the same time there was an increase in starvation deaths among North Korea’s vulnerable classes.
In July, North Korea loosened its quarantine measures aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. Up until then, soldiers were strictly restricted from making contact with ordinary people, but this restriction was eased. That sparked an increase in crime among soldiers, who had been under difficult circumstances during the pandemic.
In urban areas, soldiers frequently start fights with ordinary people to demand money or steal valuables. The authorities, concerned over worsening relations between the military and people, now implement various measures against soldiers such as evening curfews or handing down collective punishment, which involves punishing not just the soldier who committed a crime but also his fellow soldiers.
“In July, a soldier in Yanggang Province ate a chicken he had stolen, which led to a week’s probation for the company commander. Soldiers say that it’s become a common thing to say at the bases that ‘just make sure you’re not caught stealing.’”
The soldiers interviewed by ASIAPRESS reporting partners make up only a minority of soldiers in the North Korean military, and there may be differences in circumstances faced by soldiers depending on where they are stationed and which unit they are in.
※ ASIAPRESS communicates with its reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.
asiapress.org
9. Free economic zone in Tumen River Basin for permanent peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia
The UN Tumen River Area Development Project illustrates the potential for the region.
I wrote this in 1996:
In order to determine what the US should do as well as what it can do, the strategic interests, objectives, and concerns of China, Russia, Japan, the ROK, and the US are analyzed. The common theme among all is the desire to benefit economically from a stable peninsula and the Tumen River region could become the economic center of gravity for Northeast Asia and become the carrot that could attract cooperation among all the powers of the region and the US.
...
Among these four nations there is one common thread and that has to do with economic development. Specifically all four nations view the Tumen River region as an untapped resource with significant future economic potential, and is considered by many analysts to be one of the last resource frontiers.49 Not only does it contain vast resource potential, with development of port facilities and expansion of rail lines, it will provide a more economical and faster route to the markets of Europe.50 The Tumen River Area Development Project (TRADP) concept was developed in 1989 and was favorably received by Russia, China, and North Korea, which are contiguous to the river, as well as Japan, South Korea, and Mongolia and in 1991 the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) became interested. The TRADP envisions converting the area from Yanji in China to the Sea of Japan, from Chongjin in North Korea to Valdivostok in Russia into a major trade and transportation complex consisting of eleven harbors, three international airports, and an inland port rail hub.51 Development has not progressed as fast as hoped due to the regional tensions and the fact that the three principal countries do not have the fiscal resources required.52 With regional stability established due to Korean reunification and contributions from the regional powers commensurate with their abilities, the Tumen River region can be transformed into a Northeast Asian economic center of gravity and provide the foundation for regional cooperation stemming from the nations' common economic interests. It should figure prominently in any long term regional plans.
Catastrophic Collapse of North Korea: Implications for the United States Military. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA314274
Free economic zone in Tumen River Basin for permanent peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia
The Korea Times · August 10, 2023
By Park Chong-soo
The war in Ukraine is a war of attrition in which, since World War II, the largest military force has been mobilized. Far from an end to the war, there is no possibility of a ceasefire. The West sticks to its position that Russia cannot win the war. On the contrary, Russia holds on to its position that it will not lose the war.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has escalated into a small world war.
In the early days of this war, the West avoided providing offensive weapons to Ukraine. However, as the war prolonged, the West has strengthened its level of support with offensive weapons. The Biden administration eventually decided to provide controversial cluster bombs. Provision of a fighter F-16 is also under consideration. The F-16 is considered the game changer in the war in Ukraine.
As the war escalates, Russia could resort to nuclear weapons. Because Russian political leaders have stated the possibility of using nuclear weapons on several occasions. President Putin reminds us that "the United States is the only country in the world that ever used nuclear weapons," boasting that Russia can also use nuclear weapons. Dmitry Medvedev, vice chairman of the National Security Council and former president, also threatens, saying, "Just as the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities in 1945, we can end the war once we use nuclear weapons."
The U.S. was the only nuclear power then, but today nine countries possess nuclear weapons, including North Korea. In particular, Russia has the largest number of nuclear powers. Presidential elections in Russia, Ukraine and the United States are scheduled to be held next year. It remains to be seen what steps the leaders of the three countries will take depending on domestic politics.
Hitler in Germany did not have nuclear weapons. It was Truman of the United States that gave the order to drop the nuclear bomb. The international community avoids condemning Truman as a devil. It is because the history of war is written by winners. But this past could be taken as a precedent by Putin, as a justification for his possible use of nuclear weapons. President Biden said, "There is absolutely no chance that Putin will win the war in Ukraine." Paradoxically, this statement corroborates that Putin could be tempted to use nuclear weapons to win the war, given he has no chance of winning at all otherwise.
Now is the time for world leaders to exercise their negotiation skills to deter the war in Ukraine from escalating into a nuclear war. First, diplomatic tactics should take priority over military countermeasures. The strong versus strong confrontation is prone to escalate into an out-of-control crisis. If the Ukrainian war escalates into a nuclear war, the consequence will be the end of mankind. North Korea, which remains steadfast in partnership with Russia, is making an unusual move. In an attempt to keep the U.S. in check, North Korea may launch an IBCM into the Pacific Ocean near the U.S. mainland. In return, Russia may provide sensitive technology for nuclear weapons and missiles to North Korea. If this becomes a reality, it will be a matter of time before the war could expand from Europe to Asia.
Second, the international community should not return to the Cold War era of ideological dichotomy. In the wake of the war in Ukraine, confrontation has been intensifying between the G7 and the BRICs, as well as between NATO and the SCO. Since resources and technology are being weaponized and thus security and economy are inseparably related, the symbiotic economic relationship should not be threatened by security factors. International supply chains are too tightly connected to return to the Cold War system.
Third, careful measures should be taken to prevent conflicts in Europe from expanding to Northeast Asia. China and Russia recently regularized their joint military drills in the North Pacific and this could lead to a heated battle for hegemony among neighboring countries. In the case of a 'strong vs. strong' confrontation between the South Korea-U.S-Japan and the North Korea-China-Russia grows acutely, tensions will rise in the region. The Korean peninsula issue is not just one of the Korean people; it also is a matter of diplomacy among neighboring countries.
The mouth of the Tumen River is evaluated as a "blessed economic zone." What is desirable is to create a trans-border free economic zone to help establish a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia. Since 1991, the U.N. Tumen River Development Plan (UNDP―GTI) has been underway, but it has been stalled. A declaration ceremony of the International Tourism Cluster there was promoted on March 1, 2022, as part of the New Northern Policy, but has been put on hold due to the war in Ukraine. But resuming the process is open to possibility.
Especially a free economic zone is expected to lead North Korea to reform itself and open its border. In this regard, the "Mongol Forum-2023" was held in Ulaanbaatar on June 20-24. Scholars from around the world gathered their wisdom for peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia and Korean reunification. Above all, the keyword is peace. And peace represents the essence of "Hongik Ingan," the founding ideology of the Republic of Korea.
This ideal has been inherited through 5,000 years of Korean history and is still going on. A unified Korea goes beyond physically integrating the two Koreas; it builds a new country that embodies the ideal of Hongik Ingan. This is what the K-Dream is all about. No doubt the realization of the K-Dream will mean geopolitical stability in Northeast Asia, particularly on the Korean Peninsula, and ensure lasting world peace and prosperity. I hope that the war crisis in Europe can be transformed into an opportunity for peace in Northeast Asia.
Dr. Park Chong-soo served as chairman of South Korea's Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation.
The Korea Times · August 10, 2023
10. Korea Is a Model for Middle East Peace
A view from Israel. I find it interesting how much Korea is involved from Ukraine to the Middle East. I guess there is more than one description of Korea as a Global Pivotal State.
Korea Is a Model for Middle East Peace
A U.S. defense commitment could shield Arab states from Iran, as it protects Seoul from Pyongyang.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-korea-is-amodel-formiddle-east-peace-defense-umbrella-iran-nuclear-weapons-388646ba?mod=Searchresults_pos5&page=1
By Eli Cohen
Aug. 8, 2023 5:19 pm ET
Listen
(3 min)
The signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington, Sept. 15, 2020. PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Jerusalem
Next month marks the third anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords, a groundbreaking peace agreement that reshaped ties between Israel and several Arab nations and offered a beacon of hope for lasting stability in the Middle East.
Since the signing of the peace and normalization accords by Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco—and especially after the establishment of Israel’s new government—Jerusalem has sought to build bridges with additional Arab and Muslim countries. A significant focus has been on forging ties with Saudi Arabia, the powerhouse of the Arab world.
Securing an alliance with Saudi Arabia wouldn’t be merely another diplomatic achievement; it would form the foundation upon which true regional harmony can be built. Such a partnership might inspire other nations to pursue enduring peace.
The U.S. has done a great deal to help facilitate dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Israel in recent months. As part of these efforts, the Saudis made several demands of the U.S., which, in their view, are key to advancing the normalization process with Israel. Most of these requests concern Iranian aggression and the kingdom’s ability to defend itself against this threat.
This underscores Saudi Arabia’s perspective: The primary challenge isn’t Israel but Iran, which is intent on spreading its Shiite Islamic revolution throughout the region by means of violence, terrorism and nuclear-weapons development.
A nuclear-armed Iran is no mere hypothetical threat. If the regime builds a nuclear weapon, it would almost certainly ignite a regional nuclear arms race. Nations such as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Egypt and Turkey might feel pressured to bolster their defenses. While a regional arms race might seem an inevitable response to Iran’s growing might, it would severely destabilize the area, potentially plunging the entire Middle East into conflict.
A potential blueprint for de-escalation exists in East Asia. My recent trip to South Korea and the demilitarized zone was revealing. South Korea, despite living under the shadow of a nuclear-armed neighbor and having the means to develop its own nuclear weapons, has abstained from nuclear-weapons development. The U.S.’s defense commitment acts as South Korea’s deterrent against Northern aggression.
A comparable American defense pledge could reassure Middle Eastern nations, primarily Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. This approach would make individual nuclear ambitions unnecessary, bolster regional stability, and promote the peace and normalization agenda.
A united front, bringing together moderate Sunni nations and Israel, would be an effective check on Iran’s growing ambitions.
This solution is no substitute for the ceaseless efforts of the international community, and of Israel, to prevent the Iranian ayatollah regime from attaining nuclear military capabilities. The way to achieve this is through international economic and diplomatic pressure and a credible military threat that will force the Iranian regime to recalculate its path and stop the race for a nuclear weapon once and for all.
Mr. Cohen is Israel’s foreign minister.
11. Yoon says U.N. Command key force in maintaining peace on Korean Peninsula
It is good to see the President make this statement. While too many people think the UNC is a Cold War anachronism, it will still provide important contributions to the defense of freedom in Korea and support the future of Korea.
I am happy to report that there is a new organization in Korea that is focused on the UNC: Korea UNC Friendship Association. http://kufa.kr/
Yoon says U.N. Command key force in maintaining peace on Korean Peninsula | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Na-young · August 10, 2023
SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol met with key officials of the United Nations Command (UNC) on Thursday and vowed South Korea will not be fooled by pro-North Korean forces calling for the disbandment of the UNC to achieve "false peace."
"The U.N. Command protected the free Republic of Korea when the country was in crisis, hanging by a thread, and is continuing to play a pivotal role in maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula even after 70 years," Yoon said in a meeting with UNC officials at his office in Seoul, referring to South Korea by its official name.
The meeting was attended by U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera, Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison, the deputy commander of the UNC, and other UNC officials, as well as National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong and Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo.
President Yoon Suk Yeol (R) shakes hands with U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera (4th from L), who also serves as the commander of the United Nations Command (UNC), at a meeting with UNC officials held at the presidential office in central Seoul on Aug. 10, 2023. (Yonhap)
"North Korea still thinks the UNC is the biggest barrier to unifying the Korean Peninsula under communism," Yoon said, citing the UNC's power as the reason pro-North forces call for the UNC's dismantlement in exchange for the end-of-war declaration.
The UNC was established after the Korean War broke out in July 1950 and has been working to secure peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Yoon has slammed the previous Moon Jae-in administration's push for a joint declaration of the end of the Korean War with Pyongyang as an effort to break up the UNC.
"But the wise South Korean people will not be deceived by their claims for 'false peace,'" he said.
Yoon said the country should "achieve peace through overwhelming and strong power" so North Korea can voluntarily give up its nuclear power.
"The power of force is the only way to guarantee true peace, not the false peace that relies on another's good will," Yoon said.
In the meeting, Yoon also reaffirmed Seoul's commitment to the alliance among UNC members and the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
nyway@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Na-young · August 10, 2023
12. Who is Kim Yo Jong, North Korea’s propagandist-in-chief?
I guess everyone is writing about Kim Yo Jong in preparation for Professor Sung Yoon Lee's forthcoming book on her.
Excerpts:
Who is Ms Kim, and how has she gained such prominence in a regime where all power stems from its head, Kim Jong Un?
The answer may seem simple: she is the Supreme Leader’s younger sister. Their father, Kim Jong Il, was North Korea’s previous dictator; Ms Kim is therefore part of the “Paektu bloodline” that originated with Kim Il Sung, her grandfather and the founding father of North Korea. Yet blood alone cannot explain why Ms Kim is in a position to call a South Korean president an “impudent, flunky beggar” or compare America to a “scared barking dog”. Ms Kim has another elder brother, Kim Jong Chol. Reportedly deemed too soft for leadership by their father, his greatest achievement to date seems to be moderate competence on the guitar. A half-brother once thought to be in line to inherit the kingdom, Kim Jong Nam, was assassinated with VX, a nerve gas, in Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017.
Kim Yo Jong’s position at her brother’s side, figuratively and literally, is the result of a life preparing for such responsibilities. She is thought to have been born in 1987 and schooled, like her brothers, in Switzerland as a young child. She first appeared in state media in the background of a photo of her father in 2009; her name was first printed in 2014. Around that time she became deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, which is responsible not just for the blistering put-downs that North Korea directs at its enemies but also for the ideological purity of the country itself.
Who is Kim Yo Jong, North Korea’s propagandist-in-chief?
Kim Jong Un’s sister is often the voice of his displeasure
Aug 9th 2023
The Economist
NORTH KOREA’S enemies have a busy August planned. First the leaders of America, Japan and South Korea will gather at Camp David in Maryland on August 18th to discuss, among other things, the North’s aggression. Days later the Americans and South Koreans will kick off military drills designed to show they are ready to counter it. Rarely willing to miss a chance to play up their indignation, North Korea will probably protest against both. The woman behind these condemnations will be Kim Yo Jong, who controls North Korea’s propaganda apparatus. Who is Ms Kim, and how has she gained such prominence in a regime where all power stems from its head, Kim Jong Un?
The answer may seem simple: she is the Supreme Leader’s younger sister. Their father, Kim Jong Il, was North Korea’s previous dictator; Ms Kim is therefore part of the “Paektu bloodline” that originated with Kim Il Sung, her grandfather and the founding father of North Korea. Yet blood alone cannot explain why Ms Kim is in a position to call a South Korean president an “impudent, flunky beggar” or compare America to a “scared barking dog”. Ms Kim has another elder brother, Kim Jong Chol. Reportedly deemed too soft for leadership by their father, his greatest achievement to date seems to be moderate competence on the guitar. A half-brother once thought to be in line to inherit the kingdom, Kim Jong Nam, was assassinated with VX, a nerve gas, in Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017.
Kim Yo Jong’s position at her brother’s side, figuratively and literally, is the result of a life preparing for such responsibilities. She is thought to have been born in 1987 and schooled, like her brothers, in Switzerland as a young child. She first appeared in state media in the background of a photo of her father in 2009; her name was first printed in 2014. Around that time she became deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, which is responsible not just for the blistering put-downs that North Korea directs at its enemies but also for the ideological purity of the country itself.
Lest the title of “deputy” director deceive, it should be said that Kims take orders from no one. Almost as soon as she joined the department, which her father once ran, reports emerged that Ms Kim was its de facto head. A stream of especially foul invective followed. State media called Michael Kirby, who had led the UN’s inquiry into North Korean human-rights violations, “a disgusting old lecher” (and much worse besides). Park Geun-hye, then president of South Korea, was dubbed “a capricious whore” who “earnestly begs a gangster to beat someone”. That gangster was, of course, America. Its president, Barack Obama, was subject to vile racist abuse.
In recent years Ms Kim has emerged from behind the scenes. A visit to the South in 2018 for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang confirmed her status as a trusted emissary of the kingdom. When Kim Jong Un met both Moon Jae-in, then South Korea’s president, and Donald Trump, then America’s president, several times between 2018 and 2019, Ms Kim usually accompanied him. In 2020 she issued a statement in her own name for the first time.
What is next for Ms Kim remains unclear. Every rumour of Kim Jong Un’s poor health sparks rabid speculation that she will succeed him. But being the Supreme Leader’s sibling is tricky, especially since he has children to inherit the throne. Some siblings of North Korea’s leaders have had decorated careers. Others have fallen victim to purges. Despite her unique position, Ms Kim has one thing in common with all North Koreans: so long as Kim Jong Un lives, her life and fortunes are in his hands. ■
The Economist
13. Ignoring red flags, South Korea went ahead with Scout jamboree anyway
This has just been a terrible situation.
Ignoring red flags, South Korea went ahead with Scout jamboree anyway
By Min Joo Kim and Michelle Ye Hee Lee
August 9, 2023 at 3:38 a.m. EDT
The Washington Post · by Min Joo Kim · August 9, 2023
SEOUL — Years before the epic breakdown of this month’s 25th World Scout Jamboree in South Korea, event organizers warned of extreme heat as a major red flag.
“There is a high possibility that the [jamboree] event in August can be hit by an extreme heat of 36C [96.8 degrees Fahrenheit] and a typhoon,” the South Korean organizers wrote in a 2018 internal report. But they had a plan: “By 2023, we will grow a lush green forest at the jamboree site,” to cool down the camping grounds with shade, they claimed.
After all, the Scout motto is “be prepared.”
But when tens of thousands of teenage campers arrived last week in the sweltering August sun, no such forest existed. In fact, the preparations for the jamboree, which began Aug. 1, were so inadequate that hundreds of Scouts fell ill. More than 138 were hospitalized with heat-related symptoms and hundreds more were treated on-site.
The lack of shade and multiple other problems at the campsite, at Saemangeum on the southwest coast, led several countries to pull thousands of teens out of the event within days and relocate them to safer ground.
South Korean officials failed to prepare for extreme weather they had foreseen from the early days in 2016 of planning for the quadrennial international event, according to a Washington Post review of internal planning reports.
The country’s top minister in charge of the event — who claimed last year that the organizers had “set up thorough measures” for all potential weather concerns — admitted this week to a “lack of preparation at the beginning.”
But “the situation has improved a lot since then,” Gender Equality and Family Minister Kim Hyun-sook said Monday.
The condition of the event site, on land reclaimed from tidelands, was a far cry from the initial plan to prepare for natural disasters. Organizers’ plans to plant trees fell through because the soil’s high concentration of salt was not suited for planting. And following July’s downpour, it had turned into a swamp with a mosquito infestation.
South Korea’s summers can be temperamental, ricocheting between downpours and sweltering humidity. Heat wave warnings had been issued across the country for several weeks, as the rainy season was expected to end and the sticky season to begin.
There were reports of heatstroke patients around the area by July 30. By the time the jamboree opened two days later, some 400 people on-site fell ill with heat-related symptoms.
Organizers set up extra outdoor shade structures and sent in medical support, but it wasn’t enough. Parents from around the world began complaining about their children falling ill from the heat, the lack of shower and toilet facilities, unsanitary conditions and insufficient catering for dietary requirements.
It wasn’t until Friday that South Korean officials took action to significantly cool the site. President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered an “unlimited supply” of air-conditioned buses and water trucks to be sent to the site. He also approved millions of dollars in emergency funds for additional equipment and support.
The country’s military was mobilized to build shade canopies, showers and other facilities. But it was too late. Despite last-minute efforts to salvage the jamboree, the world Scouting body announced on Monday an early withdrawal from the coastal campsite because of an incoming typhoon, since downgraded to a tropical storm.
By then, the British contingent — the largest, with 4,500 participants — had decamped to hotels in Seoul. The 1,500 Americans were moved to the Pyeongtaek military base near the capital.
“A 100 percent nightmare,” Kristin Sayers, the mother of an American Scout at the event, told Al Jazeera. “The living conditions and the disorganization has just crushed him, and he’s crushed about having to spend the next week on an army base.”
The jamboree, with 45,000 Scouts and instructors on-site, amounted to a small town popping up for a 12-day period, said Kim Dong-hun, a crisis management expert. “The organizers should have set up safety and hygiene measures appropriate for the scale of the event.”
About $30 million, or one-third of the total project cost, went toward infrastructure projects, including water supply, sewage treatment, showers and water fountains, budget records show. The event is set to incur at least $5.2 million more in emergency costs spent this month.
“In reports and various other ways, we were warned about the need for measures against the heat, and we had plans to install shades and plant trees, but our efforts were insufficient,” said an official with the event, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The official said there were also several delays in the preparations ahead of the event, including getting necessary budget approvals.
While the South Korean government in 2018 officially designated heat waves as a type of natural disaster, many officials still view them as a typical summertime event, and authorities failed to set up “disaster prevention-level” measures, said Kim, the crisis management expert. “The authorities still do not take heat as a serious enough threat.”
Song Chang-young, an expert in disaster-resilient architecture at Gwangju University, not far from the jamboree site, said many issues at the campsite were predictable given the characteristics of the Saemangeum reclaimed-land project. For example, the fact that the soil is inhospitable to tree-planting is well-established, according to Song.
“Given the low water permeability of the reclaimed coastal land, the campsite should have been designed with a much better drainage system to prevent flooding,” Song said.
In fact, organizers predicted many of the challenges from the very start.
Three planning reports prepared between 2016 and 2018 for the World Scout Jamboree warned of extreme heat as one of the biggest threats to a successful event, alongside typhoons and military aggression from North Korea.
Event planners pointed to lessons learned from the 2015 World Scout Jamboree in Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan, held in 104-degree Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) temperatures with about 80 percent humidity, leading to thousands of participants experiencing heat exhaustion.
The reports emphasized the need for organizers to take proactive steps for weather of 96 degrees Fahrenheit (36 Celsius) or higher, and a typhoon. Two of the reports were prepared by the host government agencies and one was a feasibility study by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, the national government-funded economic policy think tank.
“Most importantly, the heat wave is the most severe on the Korean Peninsula and natural disasters such as typhoons and heavy rains are likely to occur during the period from Aug. 1 to 12, 2023, when the 2023 World Jamboree will be held,” read the 2016 feasibility study, commissioned by the host, North Jeolla province. “Thorough preparations for disaster prevention and response are in preparation for this.”
They also pointed to their progress in overcoming structural challenges posed by the Saemangeum site, located on former coastlands of North Jeolla province, South Korea’s agricultural breadbasket along the west coast of the country.
As part of the bid package, planners vowed to show that “Saemangeum is no longer submerged in water, and is instead a vast land with mountains, fields, grasslands and a disaster management information system … that is equipped to handle more than 50,000 jamboree participants to evacuate in case of emergency,” according to a 2018 report.
On Aug. 1, the first day of the jamboree, the South Korean government issued a “serious” heat warning, the highest designation, for the first time in four years. Across the country, temperatures were topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), accompanied by high humidity levels that felt suffocating.
Yet organizers did not issue similar designations, even though their internal natural disaster response manual guided them to do so under extreme heat. Such designations would have prompted emergency support and resources, or led them to evacuate people, according to the manual obtained by The Post.
A jamboree official told the broadcaster Jeonju MBC, which first reported on the manual in detail, that officials retained authority to designate warning levels as they saw fit, and that they did not find it necessary at the time.
“If you go by the manual, all activities would be stopped,” the official was quoted as telling Jeonju MBC. “If all these students’ activities are stopped, where are they supposed to go?”
Lee reported from Tokyo.
The Washington Post · by Min Joo Kim · August 9, 2023
14. PacNet #59 - South Korea's role in Indo-Pacific maritime domain awareness
PacNet #59 - South Korea's role in Indo-Pacific maritime domain awareness - Pacific Forum
pacforum.org
August 8, 2023
This PacNet was developed as a part of the United States-Japan-Republic of Korea Trilateral Next-Generation Leaders Dialogue to encourage creative thinking about this vital partnership can be fostered.
In December 2022, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration released its “Strategy for a Free, Peaceful, and Prosperous Indo-Pacific Region” in which ROK will take a leading role as a “Global Pivotal State” to promote the freedom, peace, and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific. To implement the strategy, the next step for the Republic of Korea would be joining the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IP MDA), an initiative that was announced in Quad Leaders’ Tokyo Summit in May 2022.
As an Indo-Pacific nation, South Korea is at a critical juncture where Seoul is required have a delicate balance between addressing the increasing multifaceted challenges in the Indo-Pacific region while also countering threats from DPRK on the Korean peninsula. Fortunately, since South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in May 2022, South Korea, the United States and Japan have conducted trilateral Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) and anti-submarine exercises in the East Sea to strengthen deterrence against North Korea’s increased missile threats and agreed to regularize the trilateral exercises during the Defense Trilateral Talks in June 2023.
Nevertheless, Seoul should pay more attention to increasing traditional and transnational security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. Tensions have been rising in the South China Sea as well as the Taiwan Strait which threaten the free and open sea lanes of communication (SLOC) while non-traditional and transnational security challenges at sea including the piracy and armed robbery at sea, trafficking of humans and illicit goods, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and climate change are also on rise.
The United States has been leading in promoting the free and open Indo-Pacific through its annual Freedom of Navigation (FON) operations in the South China Sea to demonstrate that no coastal state can unlawfully restrict navigation and overflight rights and freedoms guaranteed in international law. Japan, on the other hand, has advanced maritime surveillance system that is being synchronized and integrated between the coast guard and self-defense force. Whether it is greater naval presence in the Indo-Pacific region or improved maritime surveillance, Seoul has lessons what it means to be a real maritime nation.
While maritime issues were not the main focus of ROK’s Indo-Pacific strategy, it included that Seoul would deepen maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region while adhering to the maritime order based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), as well as participation in the establishment of a maritime domain awareness (MDA) system. Against this backdrop, Seoul should join the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IP MDA) to implement its Indo-Pacific strategy.
Joining IP MDA would help South Korea to enhance its maritime security capabilities by sharing information and collaborating on maritime domain awareness, including monitoring, identifying, and responding to maritime security threats. By joining the IP MDA, Seoul would have access to valuable information and resources to better monitor its maritime domain and protect its interests without having to shift all of its assets originally missioned to countering DPRK threats.
Furthermore, joining IP MDA would also help ROK Navy and Coast Guard to strengthen its regional partnerships and cooperation. By working closely with other countries in the Indo-Pacific region such as Southeast Asian nations, Seoul would be better positioned to address such issues. This could help ROK to build stronger ties with its neighbors and establish its role as a responsible stakeholder demonstrating its commitment to maintaining a rules-based international order and promoting regional stability.
Nevertheless, there are also challenges. One would be the potential impact on South Korea’s relationship with China. China is a major power in the region, and its territorial claims in the South China Sea have been a source of tension with other countries in the region. By joining IP MDA, Seoul may be seen as aligning itself with the US-led efforts to contain China’s influence, which could negatively impact its relationship with Beijing.
To address concerns about its relationship with China, South Korea should emphasize that its partnership with the IP MDA is based on the three principles of cooperation—inclusiveness, trust, and reciprocity. Seoul neither targets nor excludes any specific nation, but rather has made it clear that the Republic of Korea is committed to partnering with like-minded countries that share the universal values of freedom, rule of law, and human rights. To avoid the economic coercion from China as shown by the THAAD deployment in 2017, South Korea can contribute toward “collective resilience” against China’s economic statecraft, by partnering with like-minded countries, and leverage its position as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of advanced semiconductors to complicate China’s calculus.
Another challenge would be the costs of integration of technology. As countries have their own information platforms, as shown by India’s own information center IFC-IOR, standardizing a common operating information with often classified information is not an easy task. However, it is important to note that the MDA is an information sharing platform which deals primarily with maritime surveillance to ensure that maritime activities abide by international law such as UNCLOS, as opposed to the sharing classified military intelligence. Once the information sharing process is standardized, which Seoul should participate in, different agencies will be able to utilize information in a more cost-effective way.
In return, South Korea should also make more investments into commercially available data and existing technologies such as satellites to contribute to make the IP MDA more useful by providing real-time data. Seoul certainly has the capacity to do so, as South Korea ranked eighth among 63 countries in the 2022 IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking. The good news is that the Korean Coast Guard has recently announced its plans to allocate its budget to establish the Korean MDA system which would increase the area of surveillance of its territorial sea area by more than four times through introduction of medium-altitude UAVs, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and AI maritime security support system.
In conclusion, it is time for the Republic of Korea to step up as a “Global Pivotal State” to implement its “Strategy for a Free, Peaceful, and Prosperous Indo-Pacific Region” by joining the IP MDA. Joining IP MDA would enable ROK to enhance its maritime security capabilities, strengthen regional partnerships and cooperation, and promote a rules-based international order and ultimately, become the Global Pivotal State it aspires to be.
Jeung Seung Lee ([email protected]) is a research associate at the Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy (KIMS) in Seoul, South Korea.
PacNet commentaries and responses represent the views of the respective authors. Alternative viewpoints are always welcomed and encouraged.
Photo credit: Zhang Long/For China Daily
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De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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