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Quotes of the Day:
"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived, and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often, we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
- John F. Kennedy
:Wherever the choice has had to be made between the man of reason and the madman, the world has unhesitatingly followed the madman."
- Aldous Huxley
"The fact is you cannot be intel;igent merely by choosing your opinions."
- Bertrand Russell
This Day in History (Incheon Landing):
"The history of war proves that nine out of ten times an army has been destroyed because its supply lines have been cut off.... We shall land at Inch'on, and I shall crush them [the North Koreans]." General Douglas MacArthur, USA
1. S. Korea, U.S. warn Pyongyang, Moscow's military cooperation violates UNSC resolutions
2. N. Korea's Kim inspects factory producing modern fighter jets in Russia's Far East
3. South Korea, U.S. strengthen deterrence against North amid weapons deal concerns
4. Kim Jong-un's 'pariah' tour continues at Russian fighter jet plant
5. Incheon landing was turning point for war, nation and world
6. North Korea’s silence stalls recovery of America’s war dead
7. US, South Korean, Canadian warships train in Yellow Sea ahead of Incheon anniversary
8. Yoon to Address UN General Assembly on N.Korea-Russia Ties
9. Korea signs agreement on post-war reconstruction of Ukraine
10. Yoon calls for 'peace through strength' during Incheon Landing anniversary
11. Defense minister nominee hints at ditching inter-Korean military pact
12. Secretive Kim-Putin summit
13. Amateur Radio Enthusiast Appeared to Accidentally Overhear US Pilots Training for Raid on North Korean 'VIP' in 2017: Report
14. Kim-Putin Summit: A Sign of Growing Global Instability Caused by Joe Biden’s Incompetence9/15/23 National Security News and Commentary
15. The Arduous March and North Korea's Denial of the Right to Food
16. Hypocritical? Christening of new North Korean submarine raises eyebrows
1. S. Korea, U.S. warn Pyongyang, Moscow's military cooperation violates UNSC resolutions
There is some irony that a P5 member of the UNSC is violating resolutions that it voted to approve (or did not veto).
How do you enforce sanctions in such a situation? If only there was a procedure to remove a member of the P5 from the UNSC.
(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S. warn Pyongyang, Moscow's military cooperation violates UNSC resolutions | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · September 15, 2023
(ATTN: RECASTS lead; ADDS more info throughout; CHANGES photos)
By Yi Wonju
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States warned that military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and will come at a cost during a high-level deterrence dialogue Friday, just days after the leaders of Pyongyang and Moscow held a rare summit meeting.
The fourth meeting of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCG), a gathering of the allies' vice-ministerial defense officials and diplomats, took place in Seoul's foreign ministry amid concerns Pyongyang and Moscow may have discussed a potential arms deal at the recent summit.
"The recent reports about the potential sale of arms between North Korea and Russia are concerning and any such transfer of arms would be a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions," Bonnie Jenkins, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said during a press conference after the meeting.
The meeting was led by Seoul's vice foreign and defense ministers, Chang Ho-jin and Shin Beom-chul, respectively, from the South Korean side, while the U.S. side was headed by Jenkins and Sasha Baker, deputy under secretary of defense for policy.
South Korean and U.S. officials hold a joint news conference at the foreign ministry in Seoul on Sept. 15, 2023, right after their fourth Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group meeting to deter North Korean provocations. From left to right are Acting Under Secretary for Policy Sasha Baker and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins of the United States, and Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin and Vice Defense Minister Shin Beon-chul of South Korea. (Yonhap)
The U.S. reaffirms any nuclear attack by the North against Washington or its allies, including South Korea, would be "unacceptable and result in the end of that regime," Jenkins said.
She added that the two sides strongly condemned the escalation of North Korea-Russia defense and political cooperation and discussed how to counter Russia's facilitation of the North's unlawful nuclear and missile programs, as well as its assistance in Russia's illegal war efforts in Ukraine.
On the Taiwan Strait issue, Jenkins expressed appreciation toward the South Korean government for repeatedly underscoring the importance of peace and stability in the region.
Seoul's Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin also said the two sides agreed on the need to make North Korea and Russia "pay their price" for military cooperation, calling on Russia to "act responsibly" as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
Chang said the two sides agreed to operate the EDSCG, along with the South Korea-U.S. Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG), in a "complementary" manner to strengthen the allies' extended deterrence efforts.
Addressing concerns over trilateral cooperation among North Korea, China and Russia, he said Beijing most likely sees "no need to share its overwhelming influence" with Russia.
After the second meeting in 2018, the EDSCG was suspended due to the then liberal Moon Jae-in administration's push for an initiative to promote inter-Korean rapprochement and cooperation.
The reactivation of the EDSCG came after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, agreed on it during their summit in May of last year as part of joint efforts to address Pyongyang's growing nuclear and missile threats.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin (R) explains the outcome of the fourth South Korea-U.S. Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group meeting during a joint news conference at the foreign ministry in Seoul on Sept. 15, 2023. (Yonhap)
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · September 15, 2023
2. N. Korea's Kim inspects factory producing modern fighter jets in Russia's Far East
(2nd LD) N. Korea's Kim inspects factory producing modern fighter jets in Russia's Far East | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · September 15, 2023
(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES with more info throughout)
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday inspected an aircraft plant that produces advanced fighter jets in Russia's Far East, according to Russian news agencies, after a rare summit with President Vladimir Putin earlier this week.
Kim, who arrived in Komsomolsk-on-Amur earlier in the day, visited the factory, where he inspected the production of Su-35 and Su-57 fighter jets and an SSJ passenger plane, Russian news agencies reported.
He also watched a demonstration flight of a Su-35 plane.
Kim arrived at a railway station in the city earlier in the day and was welcomed in accordance with traditions for a special guest, Russian news agencies reported.
The Russian city has two aircraft plants, the Yuri Gagarin Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant, which is named after the first person in space, and the Yakovlev plant, which had been known as Irkut.
Russia's state-run news agency Tass said the Yuri Gagarin plant produces advanced warplanes, including Su-35 and Su-57 fighter jets. The Yakovlev plant builds short-haul passenger airliners.
Kim is expected to visit more cities in Russia after Wednesday's summit at the Vostochny spaceport has raised concerns over the expansion of military cooperation between the increasingly isolated countries, including the prospects of Pyongyang sending more ammunition to Moscow for use in the war in Ukraine.
Putin earlier said Kim will also travel to Vladivostok to view Russia's Pacific Fleet.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (rear) alights from his special train at the Vostochny Cosmodrome space launch center in the Russian Far East on Sept. 13, 2023, to holds talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the next day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Wednesday's summit marked Kim's first meeting with Putin since his visit to Vladivostok in April 2019.
Pyongyang has recently been seeking to bolster military ties with Moscow and doubling down on its weapons development amid growing security cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense warned North Korea that its arms support to Russia would not only prolong the war in Ukraine but also be tantamount to "directly" joining the killing of innocent Ukrainians.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · September 15, 2023
3. South Korea, U.S. strengthen deterrence against North amid weapons deal concerns
We have been "strengthening deterrence" since Biden and Yoon were elected and they began undoing the damage by unilateral cancellation, postponement, and scaling back of exercises as well as the effects fo COVID. of exerc. We have reached a new normal. Rather than statements strengthening deterrence we should be explaining the new normal and creative the narrative that we are at our strongest deterrence capability in the history of the alliance and show how our current deterrence level does not need to be increased with every action by north Korea. We need to sustain the high level of exercises and continue to maintain readiness at the highest state. But we should not overreact to everyaction by north Korea.
Friday
September 15, 2023
dictionary + A - A
Published: 15 Sep. 2023, 17:02
Updated: 15 Sep. 2023, 19:04
South Korea, U.S. strengthen deterrence against North amid weapons deal concerns
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-09-15/national/northKorea/South-Korea-US-strengthen-deterrence-against-North-amid-weapons-deal-concerns/1870540
Foreign Minister Park Jin, center, poses with participants in Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group talks at the ministry’s headquarters in central Seoul on Friday. [MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS]
South Korea and the United States vowed to elevate their deterrence against North Korea, the allies announced in a joint statement after defense talks Friday.
The statement comes amid growing concerns about a possible weapons deal between Pyongyang and Moscow following North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian leader Vladimir Putin's recent meeting.
The announcement was the outcome of the fourth meeting of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (Edscg) in Seoul, a regular gathering of vice-ministerial defense officials and diplomats.
“The United States and the Republic of Korea reviewed their ongoing bilateral cooperation to deter DPRK nuclear and non-nuclear aggression and thus to enhance security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, and discussed various measures to further strengthen the Alliance’s deterrence and defense posture,” the Foreign Ministry said in its statement Friday, referring to the North by the acronym of its full name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
While the two allies reaffirmed their existing commitment to pursue the North's denuclearization, their renewed focus will include a wider range of the North's illicit activities.
“The two sides agreed to further enhance coordination to address DPRK sanctions evasion and illicit cyber activities, using diplomatic, informational, military, and economic tools,” they said.
The statement also warned Pyongyang that “third party” protection will not weaken Washington's security commitment to Seoul.
“In the context of mounting DPRK threats to regional stability, in part facilitated by third parties’ shielding of the DPRK from consequences for its brazen UNSCR [UN Security Council resolutions] violations, the United States underlined its ironclad and unwavering security commitment to the Republic of Korea, using the full range of U.S. defense capabilities, including nuclear, conventional, missile defense, and other advanced non-nuclear capabilities, to provide extended deterrence for the ROK,” it read.
The Edsgc was re-established following a summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden in Seoul in May 2022.
BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]
4. Kim Jong-un's 'pariah' tour continues at Russian fighter jet plant
The "pariah tour." Excellent nickname.
A question: Will or when will north Korea receive these advanced aircraft?
Friday
September 15, 2023
dictionary + A - A
Published: 15 Sep. 2023, 11:21
Updated: 15 Sep. 2023, 11:47
Kim Jong-un's 'pariah' tour continues at Russian fighter jet plant
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-09-15/national/northKorea/Kim-Jonguns-pariah-tour-continues-at-Russian-fighter-jet-plant/1870250
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrives at the Vostochny Cosmodrome space launch center in Russia on Wednesday to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. [KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a fighter jet plant at a far eastern Russian city following his "pariah summit" with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the week, Russian news agencies reported Friday.
Kim arrived at a railway station in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the morning and was welcomed in accordance with protocols for a distinguished guest, the outlets reported.
The city has two aircraft plants, the Yuri Gagarin Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant, which is named after the first person in space, and the Yakovlev plant, which had been known as Irkut.
Related Article
Russia's state-run news agency Tass said the Yuri Gagarin plant produces advanced warplanes, including Su-35 and Su-57 fighter jets. The Yakovlev plant builds short-haul passenger airliners.
Kim is expected to visit more cities in Russia after Wednesday's summit at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia spaceport, raised concerns over the expansion of military cooperation between the increasingly isolated countries, including the prospects of ammunition shipments from for the war in Ukraine.
Putin said earlier that Kim will also travel to Vladivostok to view Russia's Pacific Fleet.
Wednesday's summit marked Kim's first meeting with Putin since his visit to Vladivostok in April 2019.
Pyongyang has been seeking to bolster military ties with Moscow and doubling down on its weapons development amid growing security cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense warned North Korea that its arms support to Russia would not only prolong the war in Ukraine but also be tantamount to "directly" joining the killing of innocent Ukrainians.
BY SOHN DONG-JOO, YONHAP [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]
5. Incheon landing was turning point for war, nation and world
Thursday
September 14, 2023
dictionary + A - A
Published: 14 Sep. 2023, 19:27
Incheon landing was turning point for war, nation and world
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-09-14/national/diplomacy/Incheon-landing-was-turning-point-for-war-nation-and-world/1869467
Military personnel from 22 countries who dispatched troops and medical assistance to South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War hold their respective flags at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of Operation Chromite at the Memorial Hall for the Incheon Landing in Yeonsu District, Incheon, on Sept. 15, 2022. [YONHAP]
Few battles have single-handedly changed the course of a nation’s history as much as the Incheon landing of Sept. 15, 1950.
Code-named Operation Chromite, the landing took place four months after the beginning of the 1950-53 Korean War, which saw 22 countries send a total of 2.16 million military and medical personnel to South Korea’s aid, of whom over 40,000 were killed or went missing in action and 114,900 were wounded.
By successfully landing three amphibious assault groups almost twelve hours apart on the shores of Incheon, located 22 miles from North Korean-occupied Seoul, United Nations forces comprised mostly of U.S. and South Korean troops and 261 ships from seven navies, including Britain, Canada and France, were able to mount a surprise offensive that broke the back of the North Korean military.
“It was a historic incident, almost straight out of a drama, that drew a line through the record of the Korean War,” says Kim Yong-ho, a professor of politics and diplomacy at Yonsei University, who compared it to the Allies’ critical D-Day landings on the beaches of German-occupied Normandy during World War II.
The landing of over 75,000 UN troops at Incheon from Sept. 15 to 19 essentially rewrote the fate of the fledgling South Korean republic, which had been left fighting for survival within the southeastern Pusan Perimeter after losing most of its territory to North Korean leader Kim Il Sung’s invasion.
Today, near the same beachheads where UN forces reversed the tide of the war, modern Incheon stands as a symbol of that success.
Since its designation in 2003, the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) has attracted a total of 428,066 residents, including 7,922 foreigners, and the city as a whole has drawn foreign direct investment of $30.4 billion.
To celebrate the city’s growth and the 73rd anniversary of Operation Chromite, the Incheon Metropolitan Government has spent 2.7 billion won to hold commemorations from Sept. 14 to 19, an almost 13-fold increase from previous events to mark the landing.
Likewise, the South Korean Naval Command plans to exhibit various modern amphibious operations equipment, including a K-1 tank, a Korean assault amphibious vehicle and the ROKS Cheon Wang Bong tank landing ship.
This year’s larger-than-usual commemorations come amid rapidly changing alignments surrounding the Korean Peninsula that recall the importance of international security cooperation in the face of escalating threats.
Treacherous waters
While Incheon today is closely linked to the most famous amphibious offensive since World War II, the landing almost didn’t happen at the eponymous port.
Apart from General Douglas MacArthur, few among the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff supported his choice of Incheon as the landing site, for several reasons.
“The tidal range at Incheon is the second highest in the world, and at the time there were only two days in September when the tide was high enough to allow access for large landing craft,” explained Lee Sang-ho, a research fellow at the South Korean Defense Ministry’s Institute of Military History.
On top of Incheon’s tremendous tides, which have an average range of 30 feet, suitable approaches to the harbor were limited to two restricted passages by expansive mud flats and underwater seamounts.
Then, there were also obstacles placed by man: Soviet-manufactured naval mines strewed across the passages by the North Koreans, as well as 20-foot-tall sea walls extending all the way to Wolmi Island, located to the east of Incheon’s harbor.
As United States Navy Commander Arlie G. Capps put it, Incheon possessed “every natural and geographic handicap.”
“There are some who estimated that the probability of the operation’s success was less than one out of 5,000,” Kim remarked.
Element of surprise
Yet these obstacles were precisely why MacArthur preferred to stage the landing behind North Korean lines at Incheon, rather than at more southern — and predictable — potential landing sites along Gunsan or Pyeongtaek, where he thought an attempt to envelop North Korean forces might fall short.
“MacArthur thought Incheon was where the North Koreans wouldn’t expect UN forces to attempt a landing due to the area’s geographic challenges,” Lee said, adding that the general wanted to sever supply lines for the North Korean forces, who were concentrated south of the capital region.
According to the historian, MacArthur convinced the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff during a 45-minute meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 23, 1950, to approve his choice of Incheon by citing the example of British General James Wolfe, who captured Quebec in 1759 by ordering his army to scale 170-foot cliffs behind the city that the French had only lightly garrisoned.
“Like Wolfe, I could take them by surprise,” MacArthur said in the meeting.
According to Kim, U.S. forces kept up the ruse by bombarding other areas along the Yellow Sea, including Gunsan and Wonsan, thus confusing the North Koreans as to where the amphibious landing might take place.
By all accounts, the diversions worked.
“North Korean forces were dispersed throughout the western coast of the peninsula because they didn’t know where the landing might take place,” Kim said.
Meanwhile, a UN reconnaissance team made up of both South Korean and U.S. intelligence officers landed at nearby Yongheung Island and obtained information about local tide conditions and mud flats, laying the groundwork for the landing.
Forgotten vanguard
But before he could carry out his ambitious plan to storm Incheon, MacArthur had to first rebuild the U.S. Army’s 7th Infantry Division, his last remaining reserve unit in Japan.
The division was tasked with following the marines after the landing to retake Incheon and Seoul but had been depleted from sending men to defend the Pusan Perimeter.
To fill its ranks, South Korean soldiers were crucial.
“While most coverage of the Incheon landing focuses on the role of the U.S. military, we ought to remember the almost equally important part played by the South Korean Marines and the Korean Attachment to the U.S. Army (Katusa),” Lee said, drawing attention to the fact that up to a third of the 7th Division, or almost 9,000 soldiers, were Koreans.
Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez of the Marine Corps scales a seawall after landing on Red Beach Point on Sept. 15, 1950. Lopez was killed covering a live grenade with his body minutes after the photo was taken. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. [U.S. NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND]
Historian Sheila Miyoshi Jager, a professor of East Asian studies at Oberlin College and author of “Brothers at War,” noted that South Korean recruits for the U.S. military “had less than a month to become soldiers and get ready for an amphibious landing, one of the most complex and riskiest military operations.”
According to Jager, the lead-up to the operation entailed “pairing individual Koreans with an American” for “assimilation, training and control.”
The Incheon landing thus also represented a trial-by-fire for cooperation between the two countries’ militaries and Katusa integration into U.S. forces, which has lasted to the present day.
The preinvasion joint reconnaissance operation by South Korean and U.S. intelligence also proved key to the UN forces’ success at Incheon.
At 12:50 a.m. on Sept. 15, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Eugene Clark and his South Korean squad lit the beacon on Palmi Island, signaling conditions were ripe for the beginning of the operation less than six hours later.
South Korean soldiers would soon go on to prove their mettle at Red Beach Point, north of the initial morning landing spot at Green Beach Point on Wolmi Island.
“Troops from not only the U.S. 5th Marine Regiment’s 1st and 2nd Battalions, but also from the 3rd Battalion of the South Korean Marine Corps, scaled the massive sea walls at the beachhead by setting up aluminum ladders that had been hastily manufactured in Japan just weeks before the operation,” Lee explained.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army’s 7th Infantry Division, now comprised of 16,000 Americans and 8,600 South Koreans, landed at Blue Beach Point — which had been stormed in the early evening of Sept. 15 by the U.S. 1st Marine Regiment — and almost immediately entered the fray.
According to Lee, Korean troops “played a key role in guarding the rear of the 7th Division and making sure enemy soldiers could not hide and harass UN forces as they advanced toward Seoul.”
Kim highlighted the fact that “unlike the Normandy landings, where extended supply lines impeded the Allies’ advance toward Paris, UN forces at Incheon made sure to secure facilities like Gimpo airfield on their way to Seoul.”
By Sept. 22, UN forces had unloaded over 6,600 vehicles and 53,800 troops, along with more than 25,500 tons of supplies. Six days later, UN forces recaptured Seoul.
In Kim’s words, the operation “decisively sliced through the waist of the North Korean military,” forcing its retreat from South Korea.
Bittersweet triumph
In her comments, Jager called Operation Chromite a “triumph of operational brilliance” with “few comparables in military history.”
But by bringing about such an “utter reversal of fortunes,” Jager noted that the Incheon landing also “emboldened U.S. President Harry Truman and MacArthur, making them and other senior officials and the United Nations susceptible to ‘mission creep,’” or the gradual expansion of the UN mission in Korea beyond its original scope of restoring peace on the peninsula.
According to Jager, UN forces “could have taken a few more weeks, largely at leisure since the North Korean forces were smashed and in precipitous retreat, to select and establish a desirable defensive line and new border,” but instead decided to invade the North with an “almost giddy sense of optimism that pervaded the UN Command in Tokyo and the leadership in Washington” after the landing succeeded.
The rapidity and scope of the triumph at Incheon, in Jager’s opinion, “led to one of the most significant strategic miscalculations in modern history,” whose consequences reverberate to the present day.
“Ignoring the repeated Chinese warnings against invading and conquering North Korea can perhaps be understood as cultural arrogance and monstrous strategic miscalculation,” Jager argued, adding that MacArthur’s very success at Incheon and decision to press north “may have prolonged the Korean War and turned it into a much larger and unnecessary tragedy.”
By contrast, Lee emphasized that the success of the landing and the subsequent UN offensive beyond the 38th parallel exposed the North Korean military’s tactical mediocrity.
“After the war, Pyongyang’s official state narrative has repeatedly claimed without evidence that its military foresaw the Incheon landing but was betrayed by the officer in charge of the Gyeonggi region,” Lee said, adding that this claim was likely fabricated to cover up the fact that the North Koreans “allowed themselves to be taken by surprise.”
But both Lee and Jager, who have examined wartime communications between Kim Il Sung, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Chinese leader Mao Zedong, also remarked that the subsequent UN offensive into the North led to lasting strain on communist solidarity between Pyongyang, Moscow and Beijing.
“Soviet leader Joseph Stalin didn’t want to intervene militarily to save North Korea. In his letter to Kim Il Sung after the UN offensive began, Stalin said that Pyongyang’s leadership should go into exile in Manchuria,” Lee said, explaining that Kim felt “betrayed and abandoned” by the Soviet leader.
After the war, Kim promulgated his new ideology for the North Korean regime, called juche or self-reliance, purged pro-Moscow and pro-Beijing factions from the ruling Workers’ Party and increased his regime’s isolation from foreigners and foreign influences.
Lee noted that Mao “spent sleepless nights in October arguing alone in favor of intervention in Korea against the rest of Beijing’s leadership” before acceding to Stalin’s request for Chinese military intervention.
But he, too, ended up feeling betrayed by the Soviet leader before the war had ended.
“Stalin reneged on his promise to provide crucial air support at the start of China’s entry into the Korean War, leaving Mao’s forces to face the Americans alone,” Jager said.
Stalin’s inaction was something Mao “never forgot,” imbuing Beijing with self-confidence after it successfully fought UN forces to a stalemate and a belief that it owed Moscow little, sowing the seeds for the Sino-Soviet split of 1960.
Incheon’s legacy
While the Korean War dragged on for almost three years after the Incheon landing, the operation’s impact on South Korea reflects its initial mission: the reclamation of the young republic’s territory and capital and the preservation of its future in the face of aggression.
According to Lee, South Koreans should take pride in the Incheon landing for this legacy.
“There are some who argue that the landing at Incheon wasn’t as significant as claimed, or even that the North chose retreat, but the historical record shows this isn’t the case,” Lee said.
“By any measure, the Incheon landing are a feat of military genius that saved this country and ensured its future prosperity.”
The South Korean government has made its gratitude known in various ways to UN member states that came to its aid in its darkest hour.
In 2014, South Korea donated the ROKS Anyang, a retired Donghae-class corvette, to Colombia, followed by the Pohang-class ROKS Iksan in 2020.
South Korea also gifted a Pohang-class corvette to the Philippines in 2019, which was later christened the BRP Conrado Yap, as well as two retired patrol vessels to Ecuador in 2020.
But perhaps nowhere is the lasting legacy of the operation more evident than in the Incheon itself.
Not far from the same shores where UN forces landed, the city’s high-rise skyline serves as a reminder of the success of the landing.
Little more than a port town of 160,000 people at the time of the war, Incheon’s population surpassed 3 million as of this year and includes 134,000 foreign nationals, making it the most diverse city in the country after the capital.
The city’s modern gross regional domestic product of 98 trillion won ($74.4 billion) is far higher than South Korea’s entire GDP of 47 billion won in 1950.
Today, the city hosts a gleaming international airport and Songdo International Business District, cementing its reputation as the world’s gateway to Korea.
BY MICHAEL LEE,CHO JUNG-WOO [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
6. North Korea’s silence stalls recovery of America’s war dead
Recall that the Singapore Summit in 2018 included a provision for returning remains. A month later the north returned 55 remains even though it had more than 200 sets of remains on hand. Why did they not return them all? Surely for this reason - both to inflict suffering on families and to use those remains as bargaining chips as part of the regime's blackmail diplomacy strategy.
North Korea’s silence stalls recovery of America’s war dead
militarytimes.com · by Jonathan Lehrfeld · September 15, 2023
“Dan was my first love and my first grief,” Brenda Lott said, as she spoke to families who’ve spent decades searching for answers about their missing loved ones.
In a crowded hotel conference room in northern Virginia, Lott, 79, spoke at an annual government briefing in mid-August designed to offer updates on the search for missing American service members from the Korean War.
When she was 6 years old, Lott’s 18-year-old brother, Army Cpl. Daniel Dulin, who served with I Co., 3rd Battalion, 187th Regimental Combat Team, was presumed to be killed in action fighting in North Korea. That’s according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is responsible for recovering missing service members.
But Dulin has not yet returned to his loved ones.
As the nation marks National POW/MIA Recognition Day on Sept. 15, approximately 7,500 American service members like Dulin are still unaccounted for from the Korean War, the vast majority of whom — an estimated 5,300 — are believed to be in North Korea.
But North Korea isn’t cooperating on repatriating American troops, or much at all, leaving Pentagon officials frustrated, and the families of missing loved ones in a suspended state of grief. Pyongyang and Washington hit an impasse back in 2019, mainly over U.S. demands for denuclearization, and the northern regime has refused to reopen talks since.
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Kelly McKeague, director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, told reporters that they haven’t given up.
“You have often heard the Korean War called the forgotten war,” he said at the August gathering. “It is not.”
Cpl. Daniel Dulin (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
Seven decades after armistice, families still wait
The last conversation North Korea had with the Pentagon about search and recovery operations was in March 2019, McKeague said, and the last time the two sides undertook joint excavation work was in 2005.
There were high hopes during various summits between then-President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, before the 2019 impasse over denuclearization. Kim has refused to open talks with the Biden White House, while conducting multiple missile tests near U.S. allies in the Pacific region.
And Kim traveled to Russia just this week to meet leader Vladimir Putin. The trip prompted U.S. officials to warn that Kim may sell weapons to Putin for his war on Ukraine in exchange for nuclear or space technology.
Adding to the mutual acrimony: Army soldier Travis King dashed north across the South Korean border in July, and remains in the regime’s custody. North Korea’s state-controlled media reported King blamed racism in the U.S. military for his flight. The soldier had been arrested and jailed by South Korea for damaging a police car, and had been in transit to face U.S. military justice when he escaped the airport and made for the border crossing.
Frank Aum, a senior expert on Northeast Asia at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told Military Times the U.S. and North Korea need to resolve their “diplomatic stalemate” before they can get back on track with humanitarian efforts, like the repatriation operations.
Aum suggested “conciliatory” actions the U.S. could undertake including an “end-of-war declaration.” That would require coordination between North and South Korea, which in 1953 reached an armistice agreement, but did not achieve a formal peace agreement.
He also suggested dropping the broad U.S. travel ban to North Korea that was first imposed in 2017 after the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who suffered injuries in the North’s custody, and even a suspension of joint military operations that the U.S. conducts with South Korea and other Asian allies to rehearse how they’d repel an attack.
North Korea’s own COVID-19 travel restrictions also present “practical impacts on the effort to restart joint recovery operations in the DPRK,” said Dr. Mike Bosack, deputy secretary of the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission, in an email. “But we are examining the recent relaxation of the DPRK’s COVID restrictions for opportunities to resume engagement.”
Still, the Pentagon’s recovery agency uses both the U.N. Command and U.N. diplomatic channels to try to reopen talks on recovery and repatriation, said Ashley M. Wright, a recovery agency spokesperson.
“For human remains recovery operations that occur along the DMZ (demilitarized zone), United Nations Command utilizes Armistice channels to communicate to the KPA (Korean People’s Army) about the planned activities,” Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Martin Meiners told Military Times via email.
Identifying those who have made it home
The work of identifying remains goes on, despite the impasse, with dozens of remains returned during that brief period of rapprochement during the Trump administration.
Veronica Keyes, a forensic anthropologist and the Korean War identification project leader, was one of four scientists who traveled to North Korea in 2018 to collect 55 boxes of remains, containing an estimated 250 troops. Only 88 have since been identified.
In the 1990s, North Korea turned over an additional 208 cases with approximately 700 individuals, some of which also still await identification.
The recovery agency is also identifying troops who were buried in anonymous graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii. They’d been returned after the 1953 armistice, in what became known as Operation Glory. Keyes said his agency is disinterring the cemetery’s roughly 866 sets of unknown remains. So far, scientists have exhumed 572 and made 204 identifications, via dental remains, chest radiograph comparisons or DNA fragments.
In August, the recovery agency announced that 21-year-old Pvt. Alvin D. Thurman was identified from remains disinterred from the Punchbowl, and 23-year-old Cpl. Francis James Jury was identified from the 55 boxes North Korea turned over in 2018.
RELATED
DNA test helps identify body of Korean War soldier from Georgia
Army Sgt. 1st Class James L. Wilkinson will be buried in September.
Finding ‘Danny Boy’
Those discoveries offer some comfort to family members like Brenda Lott, whose brother Dulin was reported killed during action near the North Korean town of Opar-ri on October 21, 1950.
She told Military Times that he was interred in a U.N. military cemetery near Pyongyang; but his remains were not identified among those initially returned to the U.S. in the years following the armistice. So, there’s a chance he’s already come back to the U.S., in the remains yet to be identified. Or, he might still be out there.
Lott journeyed to South Korea in 2016 with other relatives of service members missing in action, in hopes of finding him.
“I never really realized the true depth of my grief until I was there,” Lott said. She still treasures a tattered photo of her brother that stayed in her billfold until she had children of her own, and she gets sentimental when she hears one of their favorite songs, “Danny Boy.”
“It’s like finishing a sentence,” she said. “We just need the period to put on it when we get their remains.”
About Jonathan Lehrfeld
Jonathan is a staff writer and editor of the Early Bird Brief newsletter for Military Times. Follow him on Twitter @lehrfeld_media
7. US, South Korean, Canadian warships train in Yellow Sea ahead of Incheon anniversary
Watch those tides.
US, South Korean, Canadian warships train in Yellow Sea ahead of Incheon anniversary
Stars and Stripes · by David Choi · September 15, 2023
The amphibious assault ship USS America, center, the South Korean guided-missile frigate ROKS Seoul, left, and the Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver train together in the Yellow Sea, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023. (South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — Warships from the United States, South Korea and Canada drilled Thursday in response to continuing tension with North Korea, and ahead of the reenactment of a pivotal Korean War landing.
The amphibious assault ship USS America, homeported at Sasebo Naval Base, Japan, joined the South Korean guided-missile frigate ROKS Seoul and Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver on Thursday in the Yellow Sea, according to a news release that day from South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.
The warships drilled on tactical maneuvers and helicopter operations, the release said.
“This exercise served as momentum to further improve our reaction posture and ability to deal with North Korea’s threats through the combined multilateral naval exercises by [South Korea], the U.S. and Canadian naval forces,” South Korean navy Cmdr. Kim Hyunseok said in the release.
The U.S. and South Korea have carried out several exercises around the Korean Peninsula with partner forces this summer.
The amphibious assault ship USS America, center, the South Korean guided-missile frigate ROKS Seoul, bottom, and the Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver train together in the Yellow Sea, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023. (South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense)
On Aug. 29, the Japanese guided-missile destroyer JS Haguro joined the USS Benfold and South Korean destroyer Yulgok Yi I for a ballistic missile defense exercise in international waters south of South Korea’s Jeju Island.
Canada is a member of the U.N. Command headquartered at Camp Humphreys in South Korea.
Canada also took part in August’s large-scale Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with U.S. and South Korean forces and in Sea Dragon, a U.S.-led multinational anti-submarine exercise off of Guam’s coast in March.
The country “is committed to maintaining a persistent regional presence to help promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the Indo-Pacific at large,” the Vancouver posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday.
Thursday’s drill occurred one day before the America, Seoul and Vancouver steamed for Incheon to help reenact an amphibious landing during the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the National Defense Ministry.
Roughly 20 South Korean navy ships, 10 aircraft and 3,300 service members commemorated the 73rd anniversary of Operation Chromite — a pivotal U.S.-led amphibious assault that turned the tide of the Korean War — with a reenactment ceremony on Friday.
Starting Sept. 15, 1950, U.S. Marines and U.S. and South Korean soldiers battled their way into the port city of Incheon and another 18 miles east to the capital. Eighteen days later, they liberated Seoul from the North Koreans and lifted their hold on the peninsula.
Three Canadian destroyers took part in Operation Chromite as part of a naval blockade and to provide logistical support for vanguard forces, according to the Canadian Department of National Defense’s website.
Around 600 U.N. Command troops were killed and 2,750 were wounded in the operation. About 14,000 North Korean troops were killed and 7,000 were taken prisoner.
David Choi
David Choi
David Choi is based in South Korea and reports on the U.S. military and foreign policy. He served in the U.S. Army and California Army National Guard. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Stars and Stripes · by David Choi · September 15, 2023
8. Yoon to Address UN General Assembly on N.Korea-Russia Ties
Yoon to Address UN General Assembly on N.Korea-Russia Ties
english.chosun.com
September 15, 2023 12:57
President Yoon Suk-yeol will deliver a keynote speech at the 78th UN General Assembly in New York next week to warn against military cooperation between North Korea and Russia. He will seek to rally the international community on the side of the values of freedom and democracy.
During the visit from Sept. 18 to 22, Yoon will also hold bilateral talks with leaders from at least 30 countries to promote Busan's bid to host the World Expo in 2030, a task made much more difficult for him by the recent debacle of the abortive World Scout Jamboree in southwestern Korea.
President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a ceremony on Friday commemorating the Incheon Landing operation that turned around the fortunes of the Korean War. /Yonhap
"Yoon will outline the Korean government's contributions to addressing global disparities and will explain its plans and determination as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council... during his keynote speech on Sept. 20," deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo told reporters Thursday.
A day earlier Yoon will meet with UN Secretary-General António Guterres to discuss issues such as the war in Ukraine and the North Korean nuclear problem.
Yoon Urges Chinese Premier to Stop N.Korean Nuke Program
- Copyright © Chosunilbo & Chosun.com
english.chosun.com
9. Korea signs agreement on post-war reconstruction of Ukraine
Korea certainly has first hand experience rebuilding from war (though the actual people who contributed to that are unfortunately long passed).
But as a Global Pivotal State, Korea wants to and is prepared to give back and pay forward.
Korea signs agreement on post-war reconstruction of Ukraine
The Korea Times · September 15, 2023
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong in Kyiv, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Land minister, businesspeople visit Kyiv for 1st time
By Ko Dong-hwan
Korea's state-run companies and private firms are ready to play a key role in rebuilding Ukraine once Russia's invasion ends. Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Wednesday and signed an agreement on the eventual reconstruction projects, according to ministry officials, Friday.
The project aims to rebuild the war-torn country's public transport system, implement smart city technologies, modernize its airport, improve sewage systems, restore dams and advance railway services after the war, which began in February 2022, comes to an end. Korea also agreed to loan Ukraine $2.3 billion over the long term.
Minister Won led a Korean delegation to Kyiv, Wednesday, for a two-day trip. It was the first time representatives of the Korean government and the country's state-run and private firms paid a state visit to Ukraine as "One Team Korea," according to the ministry.
The delegation comprised of government officials from the land ministry and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, as well as 18 state-run and private firms specializing in housing, public water supply, airports, environmental technology, construction, vehicles, AI, telecommunication and logistics.
Korean Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong, left, speaks during a summit between a Korean delegation of ministries, state and private firms and Ukraine government officials in Kyiv, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
At the Ukraine-Korea Reconstruction Cooperation Forum 2023, held in Kyiv on Thursday, the Korea Overseas Infrastructure and Urban Development Corporation (KIND) said it will rebuild the destroyed public transit system in the capital city and its surrounding province ― by implementing a new low-carbon public transportation system that runs with AI technology.
K-water, Korea's state-run public water system management company, and KIND said that they will jointly transform Uman in Cherkasy Province into a smart city by introducing new mobility, public disaster response systems and renewable energy-based power generation. K-water also said it will restore Kakhovka Dam and a hydroelectric power station that was seized and destroyed by the Russian military.
The Korea Airports Corp. said it will modernize Boryspil International Airport, Ukraine's largest airport, by improving operating systems, security and tarmac management.
The Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) said it will rebuild wastewater treatment facilities in Bucha.
Korea National Railway said it will advance railway service along the existing tracks servicing the Ukraine-Poland border region in western Ukraine.
Korean Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong speaks during the Ukraine-Korea Reconstruction Cooperation Forum 2023 in Kyiv, Thursday. Courtesy of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
The forum also saw Korea's major private firms proposing support in sectors such as smart cities, digital twins, dams, power plants, modular housing and construction machines. Twelve private firms have joined the project including Samsung C&T, Hyundai E&C, Hyundai Rotem, Naver, Yooshin, Hanwha Solution, KT, CJ Logistics and POSCO International. Hyundai Construction Equipment signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mykolaiv Province to donate $1.5 million worth of construction machines and provide operation training.
Won and Zelenskyy oversaw the signing of an agreement whereby Korea will loan Ukraine economic development cooperation funds (EDCFs). The Korean government said the fund will finance about $2.3 billion over the long term at a low interest rate.
The agreement was signed between Korea's Ambassador to Ukraine Kim Hyung-tae and Ukrainian First Vice Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
The Korean delegation also met Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov and Minister of Energy German Galushchenko to confirm bilateral cooperation.
So far, Korean companies have shown interest in providing on-site support to Ukraine's reconstruction but haven't been given opportunities to do so, according to Won. He said that with urgency from the Ukrainian government, Korean companies will begin planning as soon as possible for the rebuilding process.
The Korea Times · September 15, 2023
10. Yoon calls for 'peace through strength' during Incheon Landing anniversary
Yoon calls for 'peace through strength' during Incheon Landing anniversary
The Korea Times · September 15, 2023
President Yoon Suk Yeol salutes as he inspects naval warships during a ceremony to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Incheon Landing Operation at Incheon Port, Friday. Joint Press Corps
Domestic, foreign Korean War veterans attend event
By Nam Hyun-woo
President Yoon Suk Yeol stressed "peace through strength" and "overwhelming response capability" against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats during a ceremony to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Incheon Landing Operation, also known as Operation Chromite, which single-handedly changed the course of the 1950-53 Korean War.
"North Korea is openly increasing its military threats, by advancing in its nuclear and missile capabilities and explicitly mentioning its strike on South Korea," Yoon said during his speech at the ceremony. "Also, anti-state forces, communists and their sympathizers are threatening our democracy with fabrication and manipulation."
He added, "Based on strong national defense capability, we will build peace through strengths and safeguard liberal democracy. With the ironclad South Korea-U.S. joint defense posture, we will enhance the security cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, and secure overwhelming response capability against the North's threats."
During his speech, Yoon did not mention the talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which took place Wednesday.
However, his attendance at the ceremony, which was the first for a serving South Korean president, is interpreted as an indirect message highlighting the importance of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and solidarity between friendly nations.
Marine Corps amphibious vehicles take part in a 73rd anniversary commemoration ceremony for the Incheon Landing Operation in the sea off Incheon, Friday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
"The president's attendance was arranged as part of his intention to honor the sacrifices and dedication of the South Korean Armed Forces and United Nations forces who participated in the Korean War," an official at the presidential office said.
The event was participated by Korean War veterans, including veterans from the Marine Corps, the Army's 17th Division and the Korea Liaison Office. Foreign veterans also attended the ceremony, including Vincent Sordello, who participated in the landing operation with a U.S. Marine Corps artillery unit; Alfred Kim, who fought in the war while on board the USS Lenawee; and Ronald Foyle, who served on the Canadian destroyer Cayuga and carried out maritime patrol and refugee protection missions.
During the ceremony, Yoon boarded the ROKS Nojeokbong and watched the naval demonstration along with 1,300 serving soldiers and citizens on board the ROKS Dokdo.
"The Incheon Landing Operation is part of the proud history of liberal democracy repelling totalitarian communism and is a valuable asset that the free world should cherish," Yoon said.
"The government will remember this victory which was achieved by the sacrifices of the veterans, and inherit its assets to defeat any threats."
South Korean UH-60 helicopters deploy flares during a 73rd anniversary commemoration ceremony for the Incheon Landing Operation in the sea off Incheon, Friday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
The Incheon Landing Operation took place from Sept. 15 to 16 under the leadership of Douglas MacArthur, then commander in chief of United Nations forces.
Approximately 75,000 U.N. military personnel from countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia took part. The landing came as a surprise offensive that broke the back of the North Korean military, which was pushing its frontline to the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula.
The ROKS Marado participates in a 73rd anniversary commemoration ceremony for the Incheon Landing Operation in the sea off Incheon, Friday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
The Korea Times · September 15, 2023
11. Defense minister nominee hints at ditching inter-Korean military pact
This was a one sided pact that only the South executed in good faith.
I am not sure if I would completely ditch it. I would suspend any parts of the agreement that damage readiness and defense but I think I might keep it in tact to maintain the moral high ground ( because it is useful to be abel to cote the north's violations of it) and two it can be used as a tool to support an information campaign to call out north Korean irresponsibility and for failing to live up to agreements.
Defense minister nominee hints at ditching inter-Korean military pact
The Korea Times · September 15, 2023
Defense Minister nominee Shin Won-sik responds to reporters' questions as he arrives at his temporary office in Seoul, Friday, to prepare for his parliamentary confirmation hearing. Yonhap
By Kim Hyun-bin
Defense Minister nominee Shin Won-sik said, Friday, that it was desirable to scrap the inter-Korean military agreement amid repeated North Korean provocations that violate the pact.
South and North Korea signed the pact on Sept. 19, 2018. It calls for halting all hostile acts between the two nations to reduce tensions along the inter-Korean border.
"I have always thought that it would be desirable to abolish the Sept. 19 military agreement as it would expose our military vulnerability," Shin told reporters upon arrival to the temporary office at the defense ministry's compound in Seoul.
The three-star general-turned-lawmaker has advocated for the abolition of the inter-Korean military agreement on the grounds that South Korea's military's ability to monitor the front lines of North Korea has been damaged.
However, Shin noted that as defense minister he cannot unilaterally make such a decision and would discuss the issue with relevant government agencies.
Earlier this year, President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the National Security Office to review the suspension of the inter-Korean military agreement in the wake of North Korea's saber-rattling episodes.
On Wednesday, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles ― the 16th such occasion this year.
"If I assume the role of defense minister, my primary focus will be on considering the directives and intentions of the top military leadership to build a highly advanced and elite military force," he said.
"I will spare no effort to ensure that our troops adopt the appropriate national and adversarial perspectives, maintain unwavering dedication to their core military duties, and embody the qualities of victorious soldiers in battles against adversaries."
Regarding the relocation of independence fighter Hong Beom-do's bust and the renaming of the Hong Beom-do-class naval vessel, Shin said, "If I am appointed as defense minister, I will diligently gather diverse opinions and conduct a thorough review before communicating the direction to the public."
He expressed significant concern about the growing military alliance between North Korea and Russia after the two held a summit in the Russian Far East.
"Should North Korea and Russia establish a close military cooperation, it will have a substantial impact on North Korea's advancement in weaponry. In response, we are actively working on strengthening our military's strategic orientation," Shin said.
"Through robust military cooperation with our allies and friendly nations, we can deter provocations from various angles. Consequently, I will explore multifaceted improvements."
The Korea Times · September 15, 2023
12. Secretive Kim-Putin summit
The Kim-Putin Summit should reveal to us the true nature, objectives, and strategy of both regimes and we should develop our strategy in accordance with that understanding.
Conclusion:
For the foreseeable future, this means that traditional approaches to North Korea are not viable. Russian support, in combination with North Korean cybertheft, will remove the pressure many had hoped would return Pyongyang to the table. Those same realities, moreover, suggest that North Korea has little need for the benefits of engagement. Kaesong and other projects will be of little appeal to Pyongyang if it can gain similar benefits and keep its economy closed to the world beyond China and Russia. Dealing with North Korea will only become more difficult.
Secretive Kim-Putin summit
The Korea Times · September 13, 2023
Talks have significant implications for South, North Korea
By Troy Stangarone
Russian leader Vladimir Putin held a summit with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un Wednesday at Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia's Far East space launch facility. The two leaders discussed an agreement that could significantly alter the relationship between North Korea and Russia, but that will also have substantial implications for South Korea.
After more than a year and a half of war, Russia is going through artillery at an unsustainable rate. Estimates suggest that Russia has fired more than 10 million artillery shells in the last year alone. Despite investing in new production, Russia lacks the ability to sustain this pace without outside support. Estimates suggest Russia is currently unable to produce even 2 million artillery shells a year―well short of its current firing rate.
To maintain its fight in Ukraine, Russia needs to find outside sources to replenish its stocks. To do this, Moscow has largely turned to countries already under sanctions while other potential suppliers, such as China, have been reluctant to provide weapons. Iran, for example, is known to have provided Russia with drones, but is also believed to be providing Russia with bullets and mortar shells.
This is where North Korea comes into Russian calculations. It is believed to have stockpiles of artillery shells numbering in the tens of millions. Kim Jong-un has also visited weapons factories in North Korea, urging them to increase production.
Because Russia still uses many systems dating back to the Cold War, North Korea's artillery is easily compatible with Russian weapons systems. With Pyongyang already under significant sanctions it has little to lose in providing Russia with weapons and much to gain, potentially.
The outlines of a deal are largely expected to include the provision of North Korean artillery shells in exchange for food, fuel and access to designs for advanced Russian weaponry. Putin recently suggested that satellite and missile technology are on the table stating "That's exactly why we came here (Vostochny Cosmodrome). The leader of North Korea shows great interest in space, in rocketry, and they are trying to develop space. We'll show our new objects," North Korea is expected to also seek to acquire technology for nuclear-powered submarines.
Russia may initially try to hold back on the transfer of some of these technologies, but its need for artillery gives Pyongyang significant leverage in the negotiations. One possibility that is less discussed, is that should the war continue to go against Russia, it may later turn to North Korea to replace weapons systems as well. Becoming Moscow's arms dealer would provide Pyongyang with a significant opportunity to improve its ability to evade sanctions and enhance its weapons technology.
In addition to being a violation of U.N. sanctions for Russia to provide North Korea with technology that would advance its nuclear weapons or ballistic missile programs, it is also a violation of sanctions for Russia to purchase weapons from North Korea ― something it is already believed to have done through the Wagner mercenary group. Russia's desperation in the war explains its actions, but for a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to violate U.N. sanctions and potentially help in the development of systems designed to deliver weapons of mass destruction, undermines both the sanctions regime and international peace and security.
Seoul had long hoped that Russia would refrain from providing North Korea with advanced weapons if South Korea did not directly provide Ukraine with arms, but the Ukraine war was always likely to push Russia to turn to North Korea for support. With that now likely to occur, it raises the question of how South Korea should respond.
If South Korea has not already done so, it should discretely signal to Moscow that if it proceeds with the transfer of sensitive military technology to North Korea, it would have to reconsider its support for Ukraine. This is unlikely to change Russia's course, but it would begin opening the options for South Korea to support Ukraine more directly.
The more significant consideration is what the transfer of advanced weapons technology would mean for security on the Korean Peninsula. A sizable arms deal between Russia and North Korea would fundamentally change the dynamics for North Korea. Not only would the regime gain access to advanced weaponry, but with growing provisions of fuel and food from Moscow, it would significantly remove the pressure from U.N. economic sanctions. Given broader geopolitical trends we should expect China as well to lessen its enforcement of sanctions on North Korea.
For the foreseeable future, this means that traditional approaches to North Korea are not viable. Russian support, in combination with North Korean cybertheft, will remove the pressure many had hoped would return Pyongyang to the table. Those same realities, moreover, suggest that North Korea has little need for the benefits of engagement. Kaesong and other projects will be of little appeal to Pyongyang if it can gain similar benefits and keep its economy closed to the world beyond China and Russia. Dealing with North Korea will only become more difficult.
Troy Stangarone (ts@keia.org) is the senior director of congressional affairs and trade at the Korea Economic Institute. He is a guest editorial writer of The Korea Times.
The Korea Times · September 13, 2023
13. Amateur Radio Enthusiast Appeared to Accidentally Overhear US Pilots Training for Raid on North Korean 'VIP' in 2017: Report
Oh those amauter radio operators. They listen to everything! :-)
This is an interesting report. If these radio transmissions were broadcast in the open deliberately so as to be heard and publicized to send a message to Kim Jong Un, it has surely taken a long time to get them out there!
You can listen to the transmission here: https://soundcloud.com/theaviationist/b-2-simulated-air-strike?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Excerpts:
The amateur radio user lives near Whiteman Air Force Base and broke out his radio when he noticed three bombers flying lower than normal.Getty Images
“When I first turned the scanner on, they were doing tasking for targets,” HamWa07 claimed. “And they were doing them all via audio instead of DataLink and encrypted methods and all the stuff they have access to. This was all out in the open. The very first bit was ‘We have a possible DPRK VIP at,’ and they read off the [latitude] and [longitude] and talked about fuse timing and all the stuff that they do.”
He said the topography of Missouri mirrors the terrain of North Korea, which is an ideal training area for simulated attacks.
He recorded plenty of audio over a two-night span, most of it silence between communications. He posted a 31-minute audio clip online but went back to edit out much of the dead air.
HamWa07 sent his four-minute clip to the Aviationist, in which dialogue can clearly be heard.
Amateur Radio Enthusiast Appeared to Accidentally Overhear US Pilots Training for Raid on North Korean 'VIP' in 2017: Report
themessenger.com · September 14, 2023
In 2017, a HAM radio enthusiast in Missouri apparently recorded radio transmissions from B-2 bombers simulating attacks on North Korea. The designated targets were called “DPRK VIP” and the messages weren’t encrypted, according to a report from Vice.
The amateur radio user lives near Whiteman Air Force Base and broke out his radio when he noticed three bombers flying lower than normal. The radio operator, whose name was withheld in the Vice report, reportedly recorded 31 minutes of the transmissions.
The operator, who goes by HamWa07, told Vice it was unusual, in his opinion, for the bombers to fly that low, and particularly strange that this training mission was able to be heard by ordinary citizens.
“Seeing them below high altitudes, this one was down around 10 or 12 thousand feet, that was unusual,” he alleged. “A few minutes later, another one. Then a few minutes after that, another one flew over and made a large turn, came the other direction and took off back into southern Missouri.”
This apparent training and recording happened in October 2017. The radio operator just released audio.
The amateur radio user lives near Whiteman Air Force Base and broke out his radio when he noticed three bombers flying lower than normal.Getty Images
“When I first turned the scanner on, they were doing tasking for targets,” HamWa07 claimed. “And they were doing them all via audio instead of DataLink and encrypted methods and all the stuff they have access to. This was all out in the open. The very first bit was ‘We have a possible DPRK VIP at,’ and they read off the [latitude] and [longitude] and talked about fuse timing and all the stuff that they do.”
He said the topography of Missouri mirrors the terrain of North Korea, which is an ideal training area for simulated attacks.
He recorded plenty of audio over a two-night span, most of it silence between communications. He posted a 31-minute audio clip online but went back to edit out much of the dead air.
HamWa07 sent his four-minute clip to the Aviationist, in which dialogue can clearly be heard.
Donald Trump was the U.S. president during this time of the apparent training, and it’s when he mocked North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Trump eventually met with Kim twice, including once in the demilitarization zone when Trump walked into North Korea.
themessenger.com · September 14, 2023
14. Kim-Putin Summit: A Sign of Growing Global Instability Caused by Joe Biden’s Incompetence
It is tiring and frustrating to listen to all the pundits who blame Biden or Trump for everything. Why can't they see that the problems are with Kim and Putin (and Xi and whoever is in charge in Iran). All these pudits do is blame. There is nothing in this essay that offers and positive or useful way forward.
So let me make a proposal. We need to get out of the reactive mode and stop reacting to every action or statement by Kim (and Putin and Xi) as if their actions require an immediate response. When are we going to adopt a long term strategy based on sound policy and then discipline ourselves in its execution. This requires a strong narrative to explain why we are not overreacting to every incident. We need to focus on what is important: first maintain the strongest defense capability and then a human rights upfront approach, a strong, aggressive, and comprehensive information campaign and the pursuit of a free and unified Korea. This last goal is key because it is what can drive the necessary change from within. But we need to keep a long term focus on tis and stop the short term overreaction to every action and statement from Kim and the axis of authoritarians.
Conclusion:
There is no way that Joe Biden’s deeply incompetent and poorly regarded foreign policy can solve the mess that it caused. This situation proves once again that U.S. elections can have significant consequences for American and international security.
It is not partisan to say that the problems are caused by Kim and Putin and we need to place the blame squarely where it belongs. Yes we can, should, and must criticize our presidents but we should not be giving the malign actors a pass in the blame game. But it is partisan to only blame the US president (current or former).
Kim-Putin Summit: A Sign of Growing Global Instability Caused by Joe Biden’s Incompetence
19fortyfive.com · by Fred Fleitz · September 14, 2023
On Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s armored train arrived in Vladivostok, Russia, for a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This summit marks a dangerous turn for global and regional security and could have major implications for the Ukraine war.
This meeting also is the latest example of the serious deterioration of global stability since Joe Biden became president in January 2021.
After arriving in Vladivostok, Kim stated his strong support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and for the North Korean-Russian relationship. On the Ukraine war, Kim said “Russia is currently engaged in a just fight against hegemonic forces to defend its sovereign rights, security and interests.” Kim added, “We are confident that the Russian army and people will win a great victory in the just fight to punish evil groups who pursue hegemony, expansion, and ambition.” As talks with Putin began, Kim declared, “”I will always be standing with Russia,”
This is not the first time Kim has defied the international community on the Ukraine war. North Korea was one of only four countries to support the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has blamed U.S. meddling for the Ukraine conflict. Pyongyang followed Moscow’s lead in 2022 by recognizing the separatist Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent nations. On Oct. 4, 2022, North Korea recognized Moscow’s annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine.
On Sept. 5, 2022, Biden administration officials told the press that declassified intelligence indicated Russia was buying millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea to support its invasion of Ukraine. In November 2022, the Biden administration charged North Korea with covertly supplying Russia with a “significant” number of artillery shells. In December 2022, Biden officials claimed North Korea supplied the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary group, with infantry rockets and missiles for the war in Ukraine.
This week’s Putin-Kim Summit may indicate that some or all of the above reported North Korean military aid to Russia did not occur.
The main purpose of the summit reportedly is Putin’s urgent need for ammunition for the Russian army to use in the war in Ukraine, especially artillery shells and anti-tank missiles. His army in Ukraine is in trouble and on the defensive. Russia’s stockpiles of ammunition have run low because of sanctions and its poor management of the war. Meanwhile, Western military aid to Ukraine is increasing, including advanced weapons, and Ukraine’s counteroffensive is making slow progress.
North Korea is believed to want food aid, hard currency, and fuel in exchange for its military support. Kim could also press Putin for advanced technology for its missile, satellite and submarine programs.
Putin might agree to any or all of the above requests by Kim. But there will be a limit to this new relationship. I believe Putin will not agree to provide North Korea with nuclear technology, given that he privately views Kim as an unstable megalomaniac who might use or proliferate nuclear weapons. Putin is not going to strike a deal with North Korea that could give it nuclear weapons with which it might attack South Korea, Japan, or the United States.
The Kim–Putin Summit may have other dangerous consequences for regional and global security.
First, Putin’s decision to embrace Kim could indicate that North Korea will regain with Russia the client-state status it had with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Russia ended this relationship after the breakup of the USSR because it could not afford it and was more interested in improving relations with South Korea and Japan. Although China stepped in as North Korea’s benefactor, and today provides significant energy assistance, its support of North Korea has been far less generous than what it received from the Soviet Union.
Although Russia has its own severe financial problems, North Korea’s economy is small and backward. Putin might have decided that the cost of supporting North Korea as a client and proxy state is in Russia’s interests, given how severely isolated it has become due to the Ukraine war.
Second, the Kim-Putin Summit may be part of a new Russia-China-North Korea axis meant to counter the United States and establish a new world order. The significant deterioration in U.S. relations with Moscow and Beijing over the past 18 months and during the war in Ukraine have driven these two states closer together and led to speculation that they could be forming a formal alliance. A recent joint visit by high-level Russian and Chinese officials to Pyongyang and press reports that there could be a joint Russia–China–North Korea naval exercise may also indicate these states are exploring a three-way alliance or axis.
The Kim-Putin Summit could result in Russia obtaining artillery shells and antitank missiles that will enable it to withstand Ukraine’s current counteroffensive until the fighting season ends in early November. Food assistance, hard currency, and missile and satellite technology from Russia to North Korea could significantly boost the stability of the Kim regime and provide the country with the capability to greatly expand its weapons programs and threaten the security of the Asia-Pacific region. North Korea probably is seeking Russian assistance to launch military reconnaissance satellites, which it needs to enhance the capabilities of its nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. Russian military support to North Korea also could lead to an expansion of Pyongyang’s arms transfers to other nations, especially Iran.
The Kim-Putin Summit and the possibility of a Russia–China–North Korea axis obviously are bad news for American and global security. They are the latest examples of how far global security has deteriorated under the presidency of Joe Biden. It is important to note that Trump’s personal diplomacy with Kim left Biden a stable situation with North Korea when he became president in January 2021. U.S. relations with Russia and China also were far better. The current North Korea situation is a direct consequence of the foreign policy failures of the Biden administration, a global perception of Biden’s weakness, and the Biden administration’s decision to ignore North Korea.
It also is no accident that the surge in North Korean missile tests and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine occurred after the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan ordered by Biden.
After North Korea tested a record 75 ballistic missiles in 2022 and at least 20 missiles in 2023, and began preparations to conduct a seventh underground nuclear test, the Biden administration stated in July that it was prepared to conduct high-level diplomacy with North Korea on its nuclear program with no preconditions.
The Kim-Putin Summit probably indicates that the Biden administration’s change of heart on North Korea was too little and too late. Although Biden’s recent effort to build a stronger U.S.–South Korea–Japan alliance was a good initiative in response to growing provocations from North Korea, it probably is not possible at this point for the Biden administration to halt a possible surge in North Korean influence and power in the development of a dangerous new Russia–China–North Korea alliance.
There is no way that Joe Biden’s deeply incompetent and poorly regarded foreign policy can solve the mess that it caused. This situation proves once again that U.S. elections can have significant consequences for American and international security.
Author Expertise and Biography
Fred Fleitz is vice-chair of the America First Policy Institute Center for American Security. He previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, CIA analyst and a House Intelligence Committee staff member.
19fortyfive.com · by Fred Fleitz · September 14, 2023
15. The Arduous March and North Korea's Denial of the Right to Food
We must pay close attention to how Kim Jong Un is causing the food shortages and what are the effects.
Excerpt:
Today, the situation remains precarious. News coverage of the ongoing food crisis in North Korea is recurrent, as the circumstances have been further aggravated by the closure of the country’s borders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the war in Ukraine has worsened the situation due to the widespread global price increase for food, energy, gas, and fertilizers.[26] Regardless, the government’s continued investment in its security apparatus, nuclear weapons, and missiles while its population continues to starve highlights the regime’s deliberate neglect of its responsibilities and its people’s human rights. The famine of the 1990s, as well as the current food crisis that the North Korean people are enduring, constitute violations of a wide range of basic human rights other than the Right to Food. The North Korean regime’s infringements of its international obligations also include violations of socio-political rights and physical integrity.[27] It therefore remains essential for the international community to continue to urge the North Korean regime to respect its obligations and ensure the fundamental human rights of its population.
The Arduous March and North Korea's Denial of the Right to Food
https://www.nkhiddengulag.org/blog/the-arduous-march-and-north-koreas-denial-of-the-right-to-food?utm
9/14/2023
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By Diletta De Luca, HRNK Research Associate
Edited by Cherise Kim (former HRNK Research Intern) and Raymond Ha (HRNK Director of Operations & Research)
In 2014, the United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) concluded that the North Korean regime was perpetrating crimes against humanity.[1] Among the human rights concerns noted by the COI, the North Korean regime has been accused of systematically violating the Right to Food of its citizens. Food insecurity in the country is not a recent development. The most devastating food emergency the country experienced dates back to 1995, when the regime officially acknowledged the so-called “Arduous March.”[2] Yet, the people of North Korea continue to remain food insecure today.
Food Insecurity in North Korea Today
In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights first enshrined the right to adequate food in Article 25.[3] Subsequently, the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) further defined the Right to Food as “the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger.”[4] As a party to the ICESCR since 1981, North Korea is among the 171 countries[5] that are obligated to respect this right.[6]
Nevertheless, the North Korean population continues to suffer from high levels of malnutrition and food insecurity. The UN’s 2022 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report classifies North Korea as one of the countries with the largest number of malnourished people in the world—41.6 percent of the population is undernourished.[7] Despite ongoing international concern and efforts to mitigate chronic food insufficiency in the country, the most catastrophic food emergency recorded in North Korea dates to the second half of the 1990s. This famine, often referred to as the Arduous March, is estimated to have killed up to 1 million North Koreans—approximately 5 percent of the population.[8]
The 1995 Famine
Scholars and analysts believe that North Korea’s food crisis began to unfold in the 1980s, before the regime publicly acknowledged the emergency.[9] The causes of the famine were formally attributed to a severe economic crisis and natural disasters. During the early 1990s, North Korea experienced economic difficulties following the collapse of the Soviet Union and internal reforms unfolding in China.[10] Its two major trading partners, which had supported the country through favorable pricing and other economic assistance, suddenly cut their exports, provoking economic instability in North Korea.[11] With almost no exports and minimal diplomatic and economic relations with countries outside the Soviet sphere of influence, the country had to rely on domestic agricultural production. Natural disasters in 1995, including floods and droughts, further reduced the country’s agricultural production and ability to provide food its own citizens.[12] As the crisis continued to worsen, the North Korean regime did not take any action to improve the situation. By the end of 1995, international assistance was provided by the World Food Programme, non-governmental organizations, and individual countries through bilateral aid, mainly from South Korea.[13] Although the famine eventually passed, food insecurity has remained a chronic problem ever since.
North Korea’s Obligations on the Right to Food
In 1999, the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights issued General Comment 12 on the Right to Food. The comment outlines three obligations for states in ensuring the right to adequate food: the obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill.[14] The North Korean regime neglected all three during the famine of the 1990s.
The obligation to respect is a negative responsibility that prevents states from adopting measures that could ultimately preclude access to adequate food for all or part of their populations. In the 1990s, the poorest North Korean citizens engaged in market activities to access food. Many sold foodstuffs in local markets, but some also turned to prostitution, theft, or defection.[15] The regime prevented citizens from engaging in such market activities, as these were considered capitalist and therefore disloyal to the regime.[16] The consequences ranged from punishment to imprisonment and even execution.
Moreover, after receiving aid from humanitarian agencies, major constraints were imposed on foreign workers. This prevented foreign aid agencies from assisting the most vulnerable segments of the population, as they could not access specific geographical areas. Information flows within the country were restricted, and it was not possible to properly monitor the distribution of aid. Consequently, most humanitarian organizations withdrew from the country only after a few years.[17] As the regime perceived humanitarian operations as a political threat, the strict restrictions imposed made it impossible for foreign workers to assess the needs of people in remote areas and evaluate the impact of their efforts.[18] The Kim regime ultimately precluded and obstructed the provision of assistance to segments of its population, which constituted a breach of its obligation to respect.
The obligation to protect is the requirement for states to adopt measures that ensure that no individual is deprived of their Right to Food. This was violated by the North Korean regime in multiple ways. First, the regime lacked the political will to effectively assist its population. Scholars characterized the famine as a “priority regime famine,” meaning that the regime prioritized ideological programs over feeding citizens for strengthening its authority.[19] The famine was therefore the result of the regime’s deliberate decision to prioritize its own political and ideological agenda over the welfare of its people, resulting in mass starvation. It could have increased access to food by reallocating resources assigned to the military and the elite, but it decided otherwise.[20]
Second, issues of distribution and entitlement caused the poorest and most vulnerable individuals to suffer the worst consequences. Access to food was and still is determined by one’s songbun, a socio-political classification assigned at birth that is based on one’s family background. It is a means through which the regime determines and controls all aspects of citizens’ lives based on their perceived loyalty to the Kim family. Based on this classification, citizens are assigned to one of three classes—the “core (loyal) class, the “wavering” class, or the “hostile” class. One’s songbun determines decisions about residency, occupation, access to food, health care, education, and other services. In turn, the songbun system allows the regime to maintain and reinforce its political control over the population.[21],[22] Based on one’s songbun, entitlements to food are strictly defined. Access to food has continued to be seriously limited for those who are not considered loyal to the Kim family, decreasing their chances of survival. During the Arduous March, the areas closer to Pyongyang, where most of the elite is located, received significant food assistance while more remote areas of the country remained inaccessible to humanitarian workers.[23] The famine and the failure of the regime to protect its citizens were clear manifestations of widespread violations of human rights, perpetrated by the regime to strengthen its power and reinforce its ideology.
Finally, the obligation to fulfill, which includes the facilitation and promotion of conditions and resources that allow citizens to enjoy their Right to Food, was also neglected. As mentioned above, resources were not equitably distributed among the population. Privileged groups such as the military, the elite, and members of the Korean Workers’ Party never faced food insecurity as they continued to receive food rations and foodstuff. The rest of the population had no possibility to call upon the regime to provide assistance and respect their basic human rights.[24] Nevertheless, the regime could have increased access to food by allocating less resources to the military and the security apparatus.[25] The famine was the result of the Kim regime’s deliberate decision to prioritize its own power and stability over the rights and welfare of its citizens.
Concluding Remarks
Today, the situation remains precarious. News coverage of the ongoing food crisis in North Korea is recurrent, as the circumstances have been further aggravated by the closure of the country’s borders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the war in Ukraine has worsened the situation due to the widespread global price increase for food, energy, gas, and fertilizers.[26] Regardless, the government’s continued investment in its security apparatus, nuclear weapons, and missiles while its population continues to starve highlights the regime’s deliberate neglect of its responsibilities and its people’s human rights. The famine of the 1990s, as well as the current food crisis that the North Korean people are enduring, constitute violations of a wide range of basic human rights other than the Right to Food. The North Korean regime’s infringements of its international obligations also include violations of socio-political rights and physical integrity.[27] It therefore remains essential for the international community to continue to urge the North Korean regime to respect its obligations and ensure the fundamental human rights of its population.
Diletta De Luca has a Master of Science (cum laude) in Political Science from the University of Amsterdam and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in International Security Studies at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies & the School of International Studies at the University of Trento.
[1] United Nations Human Rights Council, “Report of the detailed findings of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” A/HRC/25/CRP.1, February 14, 2014. https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G14/108/71/PDF/G1410871.pdf?OpenElement.
[2] As defined by Heonik Kwon (“Chapter 8: Time Consciousness in North Korea’s State Security Discourse” in Times of Security: Ethnographies of Fear, Protest and the Future, edited by M. Hoolbraad and M. A. Pedersen, Routledge, 2013), the term refers to “the (North Korean) political community's unwavering determination to ‘raise the flag of socialism high’ despite the collapse of the Soviet-let socialist international order, including the readiness to undergo economic difficulties and political isolation entailed by this proud negation of postsocialism” (p. 203).
[3] United Nations, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” 1948. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/03/udhr.pdf.
[4] United Nations General Assembly, “International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,” Art. 11, para 2, 1966. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/cescr.pdf.
[5] As of September 2023.
[6] United Nations Treaty Collection, “Chapter IV: Human Rights. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,” n.d. https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-3&chapter=4&clang=_en.
[7] FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) Report - 2022, July 7, 2022. https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000140990/download/?_ga=2.166537143.822104784.1671276365-431266521.1671276365.
[8] Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Famine in North Korea (Washington, D.C.: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2005). https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Hunger_and_Human_Rights.pdf.
[9] Sandra Fahy, “Chapter 2: Famine and Hunger,” in Dying for Rights: Putting North Korea’s Human Rights Abuses on the Record (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019).
[10] Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, “Chapter 1: Introduction, Famine, Aid, and Markets in North Korea” & “Chapter 2: The Origins of the Great Famine,” in Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).
[11] Daniel Goodkind and Loraine West, “The North Korean famine and its demographic impact,” Population and Development Review 27, no. 2 (2001): 219–38.
[12] In July and August 1995, floods led to a decrease in the grain production of almost 2 million tons. In 1997, droughts affected the breadbasket of the country (North Korea's southern provinces, many of which had been affected in previous years as well), leading to grain losses as high as 1.9 million tons. Goodkind and West (2001) provide a detailed summary of the impact of the natural disasters over different areas of the country.
[13] Fahy, “Chapter 2: Famine and Hunger.”
[14] United Nations Economic and Social Council, Committee on Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights, “General Comment 12,” E/C.12/1999/5, May 12, 1999. https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4538838c11.pdf.
[15] Haggard and Noland, “Chapter 1: Introduction, Famine, Aid, and Markets in North Korea” & “Chapter 2: The Origins of the Great Famine.”
[16] Fahy, “Chapter 2: Famine and Hunger.”
[17] Goodkind and West, “The North Korean famine and its demographic impact.”
[18] Fahy, “Chapter 2: Famine and Hunger.”
[19] Ibid.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Robert Collins, Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea’s Social Classification System (Washington, D.C.: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2012). https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/HRNK_Songbun_Web.pdf.
[22] United Nations Human Rights Council, A/HRC/25/CRP.1, February 14, 2014.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, “North Korea: Case for New International Treaty on the Right to Food,” Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 15 (2014): 31–50.
[25] Fahy, “Chapter 2: Famine and Hunger.”
[26] Kim Tong-Hyung, “North Korea party meeting set to discuss ‘urgent’ food issue,” Associated Press, February 6, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-politics-north-korea-government-china-nuclear-weapons-30f247b53975c410e96c2246de301ad5.
[27] Fahy, “Chapter 2: Famine and Hunger.”
16. Hypocritical? Christening of new North Korean submarine raises eyebrows
Interesting analysis. Could be useful for an information campaign.
Excerpts:
“I couldn’t help but be surprised that a ceremony that the authorities say is a punishable superstitious act was held in front of Kim Jong Un,” the resident said, adding that the small ceremonies fall under Article 256, a different law that forbids fortune telling, divination, and exorcism as superstitious acts.
According to that law, punishments can range from “up to a year” in a disciplinary labor facility to “a minimum of three to seven years” depending on how serious the act is.
“After seeing the reports of the submarine launch ceremony, fishermen and other residents are saying that the authorities are two-faced, and they should no longer have to do their own ceremonies in secret,” the resident said.
It was the first time that a ship christening was reported in state media, a resident of Rason’s surrounding North Hamgyong province told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“It is deeply contradictory for the authorities to tell residents not to believe in superstitions and not engage in superstitious behavior, but then to do something similar [themselves.]” he said. “People are mocking the authorities by asking, ‘Do [the authorities] believe in superstitions, too? Is it okay to do superstitious acts in front of Kim Jong Un?’”
Hypocritical? Christening of new North Korean submarine raises eyebrows
In a country that cracks down on superstitions, the ceremony is seen as ‘two-faced.’
By Ahn Chang Gyu for RFA Korean
2023.09.14
rfa.org
With supreme leader Kim Jong Un looking on, the foreign minister smashed a bottle of champagne against the hull of North Korea’s latest nuclear submarine, prompting the crowd of sailors and factory workers to erupt in thunderous cheers and applause.
But the reaction to the smashed bottle among the general public was less than smashing.
Many North Koreans saw the ceremony, involving Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, as puzzling and even hypocritical in a country that suppresses superstitious activities – which is how the submarine christening appeared to many.
“Everyone was surprised to see the female foreign minister come forward and break a liquor bottle by hitting it against the hull,” a resident from the northeastern city of Rason told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“The authorities have been cracking down on the simple rituals of fishermen performing ancestral rites and pouring alcohol to ensure the safe navigation of boats, defining them as superstitious practices,” he said.
In this North Korea's Korean Central News Agency released photo on Sept. 8, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claps after Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui smashed a bottle of champagne against the hull of a new submarine during a launching ceremony in North Korea. Credit: KCNA via Reuters
North Korean fishermen have traditional ceremonies whenever they take a new boat out to sea or when they repair an old boat, and sometimes they involve elements of superstition that have been passed down over generations.
Those rituals, which can involve a pig’s head and copious amounts of alcohol, are, like the submarine christening, meant only to wish for the safety of ships at sea, the resident said.
Punishing ‘capitalist’ behavior
Though anti-superstition laws have long been on the books they were not strictly enforced all the time, but the recent passing of a new “anti-capitalist” law caused authorities to be less tolerant of superstitious activities.
The 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, is aimed at preserving the purity of North Korean socialist ideals by harshly punishing people for watching foreign media, speaking like a “South Korean,” wearing “capitalist” fashion, or even dancing like a “capitalist.”
The law does not specifically mention superstitions and the fishermen are emulating their own ancestors rather than “capitalist” fishermen in the South, but authorities have interpreted their activity as “reactionary ideology” brought in from the outside.
Fishermen have therefore been secretly holding these ceremonies under cover of night to avoid being punished.
In this North Korea's Korean Central News Agency released photo on Sept. 8, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a launching ceremony for a new tactical nuclear attack submarine in North Korea. Credit: KCNA via Reuters
“I couldn’t help but be surprised that a ceremony that the authorities say is a punishable superstitious act was held in front of Kim Jong Un,” the resident said, adding that the small ceremonies fall under Article 256, a different law that forbids fortune telling, divination, and exorcism as superstitious acts.
According to that law, punishments can range from “up to a year” in a disciplinary labor facility to “a minimum of three to seven years” depending on how serious the act is.
“After seeing the reports of the submarine launch ceremony, fishermen and other residents are saying that the authorities are two-faced, and they should no longer have to do their own ceremonies in secret,” the resident said.
It was the first time that a ship christening was reported in state media, a resident of Rason’s surrounding North Hamgyong province told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“It is deeply contradictory for the authorities to tell residents not to believe in superstitions and not engage in superstitious behavior, but then to do something similar [themselves.]” he said. “People are mocking the authorities by asking, ‘Do [the authorities] believe in superstitions, too? Is it okay to do superstitious acts in front of Kim Jong Un?’”
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
rfa.org
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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