Quotes of the Day:
"Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal."
- Aristotle
"In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman."
- Margaret Thatcher
"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right."
- H.L. Mencken
1. N. Korea fires unspecified ballistic missile toward East Sea: S. Korean military
2. N. Korea confirms first case of omicron variant of COVID-19: state media
3. North Korea admits to coronavirus outbreak for the first time
4. Presidential office says humanitarian aid possible in theory after N.K. reports COVID-19 case
5. Minister nominee says he's open to visiting N. Korea as special envoy
6. U.S., other UNSC members condemn N. Korean missile launch but Russia, China
7. 8th Political Bureau Meeting of 8th Central Committee of WPK Held (COVID admission)
8. North Korean Cyber Warriors Are Fueling Kim Jong-un’s Nuclear Weapons
9. Seoul brings back CVID terminology at the UN
10. China-South Korea Relations Under South Korea’s New Yoon Administration: The Challenge Of Defining ‘Mutual Respect’
11. S. Korean military to revive 'provocation' reference to N.K. missile tests: sources
12. S Korea’s ‘Mr Clean’ faces tough presidency. Is he up to the job?
13. Farewell Moon, howdy Yoon in South Korea
14. Hwasong political prison inmates may be working to restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site
15. US Marine's life in the hands of Biden, Blinken in North Korea extradition fight
16. U.S. prepared for any kind of engagement with N. Korea: Campbell
17. S. Korea seeks to resume construction of two nuclear reactors in 2025: sources
1. N. Korea fires unspecified ballistic missile toward East Sea: S. Korean military
Kim offers President Yoon a welcome gift. I wonder what he will do on the 21st when the Yoon-Biden summit takes place.
N. Korea fires unspecified ballistic missile toward East Sea: S. Korean military | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired an unspecified ballistic missile toward the East Sea Thursday, the South Korean military said, in its latest saber-rattling just two days after the inauguration of President Yoon Suk-yeol.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced the launch, the North's 16th show of force this year. Other details were not immediately available.
The latest launch came after the North fired an apparent submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on Saturday and what was thought to be an intercontinental ballistic missile on May 4.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
2. N. Korea confirms first case of omicron variant of COVID-19: state media
Just think of how many vaccine doses could have been purchased with the funds for the 16 missile tests this year.And the irony is the international community is willing to provide vaccinations for free. But Kim refuses to accept them.
This does give the regime even more justification to further its massive crackdown on the population. Kim has been exploiting the opportunity COVID has provided to implement draconian population and resources control measures to oppress the population. This is necessary in Kim's mind to ensure he remains in power.
.
(4th LD) N. Korea confirms first case of omicron variant of COVID-19: state media | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with S. Korean government's response in paras 12-13)
By Yi Wonju and Chae Yun-hwan
SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday announced its first case of the omicron variant of COVID-19 and declared the implementation of the "maximum emergency" virus control system, putting an end to its coronavirus-free claim.
The North held a politburo meeting in Pyongyang, with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, to discuss the country's "most serious emergency" in its antivirus system that had been "firmly defended" for over two years, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
North Korean authorities conducted an analysis of samples collected from fever-ridden patients on Sunday in Pyongyang and concluded that they were identical to the omicron BA.2 variant, it reported.
The KCNA did not mention the number of cases, but multiple patients appear to have been confirmed.
During the session, Kim vowed to overcome the unexpected crisis and ordered officials to carry out the strict lockdown of all cities and counties across the country to completely block out all possibility of the spread of the virus.
Kim then called for tighter vigilance on all fronts along the borders, the sea and air to prevent a security vacuum in the country's national defense.
"More dangerous enemy of us than the malicious virus are unscientific fear, lack of faith and weak will," he was quoted as saying.
He added the North will "surely overcome the current sudden situation" of the COVID-19 outbreak at all costs as his people have developed awareness and unity through the prolonged struggle against the virus.
Kim also urged officials to carry out the country's economic development plan and construction projects as scheduled despite switching to the maximum prevention system, in an apparent effort to prevent further worsening of its economy.
The North aims to stably manage and prevent the spread of the virus, as well as treat confirmed patients to "block and terminate the source of the malicious epidemics spread," he added.
The political bureau decided to convene the fifth Plenary Meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's eighth Central Committee early next month to review state policies for this year and discuss a "series of important issues," the KCNA said, without further elaboration.
The South Korean government expressed hope the North's virus crisis will be brought under control at an early date.
The unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, stated a position to push for the provision of support for North Korean people and related inter-Korean cooperation anytime from a humanitarian perspective.
Keen attention is being paid to the potential impact of the formally acknowledged virus outbreak in the impoverished nation with dilapidated health care infrastructure on the regime's reported preparations for another nuclear test.
Some observers here raise the possibility that it will stay away from nuclear testing and other provocations for the time being in order to focus on ramping up antivirus efforts while reaching out to the international community for relevant medical supplies and vaccine assistance.
Asked if the COVID-19 outbreak would affect the North's apparent preparations for a nuclear test, a military official here said, "That's what we will have to pay close attention to."
The infection in the North is presumed to be attributable to the movement of massive crowds during national events, like last month's military parade marking the 90th anniversary of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, a source said.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
colin@yna.co.kr
(END)
3. North Korea admits to coronavirus outbreak for the first time
Credit to NKNews for observing and reporting on the lockdown in Pyongyang.
North Korea admits to coronavirus outbreak for the first time
TOKYO — North Korea on Thursday reported its first coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began almost two years ago, with state media declaring a “most serious national emergency.”
The detection of the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus in the capital, Pyongyang, is a concerning development for a country that has a fragile health care system, brewing humanitarian crisis and remains one of two nations in the world that have not administered any coronavirus vaccines.
Experts warn that North Korea risks becoming the epicenter of new variants due to the population’s low immunity to the virus.
North Korea until today maintained it has had no positive cases, though many experts doubted the veracity of that claim. The announcement, however, suggests that the circumstances of this outbreak warranted a public admission.
North Korean state media said tests were conducted Sunday on a group of people from an unknown organization in Pyongyang who showed symptoms of fever. Results subsequently indicated that they were infected with the BA.2 subvariant.
North Korea had already been in a strict pandemic lockdown, banning tourists, diplomats, aid workers and most trade by land with China. On Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un heightened border controls, ordering a lockdown of all cities and counties. State media called the outbreak “the most serious national emergency.”
NKNews, a Seoul-based website focused on monitoring North Korea, had reported this week that people in Pyongyang were ordered into lockdown, after warnings of a “national problem.” Individuals told the outlet there was panic buying and supply shortages as residents feared a prolonged lockdown in the capital.
In recent weeks, North Korean state media repeatedly warned about taking greater covid precautions because of outbreaks along its border with China, urging the public to “strengthen the anti-epidemic work in preparation for the prolonged emergency.”
The Politburo blamed the “carelessness, laxity, irresponsibility and incompetence” of epidemic sector for the outbreak, according to state media. Although Kim has occasionally been open about his regime’s failures and problems, such as admitting the country’s “food crisis,” it is notable for North Korea to admit lapses in its anti-virus measures.
On Thursday, Kim warned against any further lapses and called for greater vigilance along its border with China. He said the North Korean public had already endured a “prolonged emergency anti-virus fight” and would overcome the crisis.
“What is more dangerous to us than the virus is unscientific fear, lack of trust and willpower,” Kim said, according to state media.
Go Myong-hyun, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies in Seoul, said while this is probably not the first coronavirus case in North Korea, it may have presented an opportunity for Kim to emphasize his efforts to control the virus — especially given the reports already swirling about Pyongyang’s lockdown.
“I think the main reason why the regime is officially acknowledging the existence of covid in the country is because it happened in Pyongyang and the regime knows that the world would find out about this sooner or later,” Go said. “It’s probably more about demonstrating control rather than crying for help.”
Kee Park, a global health expert at Harvard Medical School who has worked on health-care projects in North Korea, called on the international community to help North Korea respond to the breach, including with offers of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics.
“They would need to reconsider additional measures to protect their population including nationwide vaccination programs,” Park said. “It is in everyone’s interest to help North Korea in responding to the breach. No one wants another variant.”
Kim reported from Seoul.
4. Presidential office says humanitarian aid possible in theory after N.K. reports COVID-19 case
Under the theory that Kim Jong-un will not (again) reject the offer.
Presidential office says humanitarian aid possible in theory after N.K. reports COVID-19 case | Yonhap News Agency
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- The office of President Yoon Suk-yeol said Thursday that humanitarian assistance to North Korea is possible in theory after Pyongyang reported its first COVID-19 case.
"I understand that he thinks of humanitarian assistance as an exception," a presidential official told reporters when asked if Yoon is considering sending medical or antivirus aid to North Korea,
The official did not elaborate, but the remark is believed to mean that humanitarian assistance should be an exception to sanctions.
Yoon's office later cautioned against reading too much into it, saying the remark should not be interpreted as meaning that the government is looking into sending humanitarian aid to the North.
"We reiterate that it was clearly a theoretical response," it said.
The new administration has vowed to bolster capabilities to deter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.
At the same time, it has promised to provide "unconditional" humanitarian support, including emergency assistance against COVID-19, should the North accept it.
In his inauguration speech Tuesday, Yoon said he would leave the door open for dialogue with North Korea and offered to revive its economy with an "audacious plan" if it took steps to denuclearize.
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
5. Minister nominee says he's open to visiting N. Korea as special envoy
Testing the waters.
Excerpt:
His message adds to speculation that Yoon of the conservative People Power Party, who has signaled a "principles-based" tough approach toward the nuclear-armed North, may seek to send a special delegate there in a bid for a breakthrough in the frosty inter-Korean relations. Even if the Yoon government delivers such an offer of sending a special envoy to Pyongyang, it is uncertain whether the reclusive Kim regime will accept it, given its yearslong refusal to resume dialogue.
(LEAD) Minister nominee says he's open to visiting N. Korea as special envoy | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with more remarks in paras 5-6)
SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- The nominee to serve as South Korea's new point man on North Korea said Thursday he will "positively consider" a push for visiting Pyongyang as a presidential envoy to meet leader Kim Jong-un.
Speaking to lawmakers during his confirmation hearing, Kwon Young-se, a veteran politician tapped as unification minister, said he will discuss the issue with the other members of the national security team of President Yoon Suk-yeol, after assuming the post, in consideration of the security situation on the peninsula.
"Whether it's in the form of a special envoy or anything else, I personally hope to have an opportunity for candid talks on improving inter-Korean relations, including denuclearization, considering relations between the Koreas," he said.
His message adds to speculation that Yoon of the conservative People Power Party, who has signaled a "principles-based" tough approach toward the nuclear-armed North, may seek to send a special delegate there in a bid for a breakthrough in the frosty inter-Korean relations. Even if the Yoon government delivers such an offer of sending a special envoy to Pyongyang, it is uncertain whether the reclusive Kim regime will accept it, given its yearslong refusal to resume dialogue.
Kwon stressed the need for the "normalization" of inter-Korean ties and said the government will strive to create conditions for dialogue with the North via a "practical" approach.
Noting that the North is accelerating its development of nuclear weapons and continuing provocations, he said now is "the time for sanctions" and inter-Korean economic cooperation can be discussed later after talks are resumed for denuclearization.
Regarding Yoon's talk during his campaign trail of a possible need for a preemptive strike against the North, Kwon made clear it is not an option to be sought hastily due to several realistic constraints.
"We will first (try to) bring them to dialogue before talking about regime stability or economic assistance," he said.
Taking office earlier this week, Yoon stated he will offer an "audacious plan" to help improve the North's economy if the communist country takes steps to abandon its nuclear weapons.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
6. U.S., other UNSC members condemn N. Korean missile launch but Russia, China
Another example of China and Russia seeking to undermine the rules based international order. They make the UNSC nearly dysfunctional. And of course they blame the US for north Korea's actions.
U.S., other UNSC members condemn N. Korean missile launch but Russia, China | Yonhap News Agency
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, May 11 (Yonhap) -- The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) convened an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss North Korea's recent missile provocations but failed to produce a tangible outcome due to opposition from China and Russia.
The special session of the 15-member council came at the request of the U.S., which condemned North Korea's recent missile tests as "a blatant violation of multiple Security Council resolutions."
"Let's be clear. The DPRK is not undertaking its activities defensively in response to threatening behavior. This is self-initiated, unprovoked campaign of ballistic missile launches that threatens its neighbors and attempts to undermine this council," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in the session, also attended by the representatives of South Korea and Japan.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
The top U.S. representative to the U.N. said her country remains committed to engagement with North Korea, but insisted the UNSC needs to take action to prevent further provocations by Pyongyang.
"It's time to stop providing tacit permission and to start taking action," said Thomas-Greenfield, noting Pyongyang has launched 17 missiles, including at least three intercontinental ballistic missiles, this year.
"We hope the DPRK will accept our repeated offers of dialogue. We have also asked those who regularly speak with the DPRK encourage them to engage in diplomacy. In the meantime, we have a responsibility to respond to the DPRK's unlawful behavior," she added.
Many others joined the U.S. in urging North Korea to end its provocations and return to dialogue.
"There can only be a diplomatic and peaceful resolution to the issues on the Korean Peninsula. The DPRK must understand that and take up, in good faith, offers of dialogue by the United States and the Republic of Korea without preconditions," the U.N. representative from Ireland said, referring to South Korea by its official name.
Britain's representative to the U.N. called on the North to refrain from further provocations and "engage meaningfully in dialogue with the United States and to take concrete steps towards denuclearization in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner."
Representatives from China and Russia, on the other hand, blamed the U.S. for not reciprocating what they called denuclearization steps the North has taken, referring to North Korea's dismantlement of its Punggye-ri nuclear site in 2018.
"Regrettably, the U.S. side later (changed) its position and did not reciprocate the DPRK's positive initiatives in accordance with the action for action principle. leading to an intractable impasse in DPRK-U.S. dialogue, adding to the mutual distrust between the two countries and stalling the denuclearization process on the peninsula," the Chinese envoy to the U.N. said through an interpreter.
Russia's envoy agreed, saying, "Unfortunately, so far, the council has only tightened restrictions, ignoring the positive signals from North Korea," also through an interpreter.
Earlier reports have suggested that there is ongoing work to repair dismantled underground tunnels at the Punggye-ri site. The U.S. says the North may be preparing to conduct a nuclear test at the Punggye-ri site as early as this month.
Thomas-Greenfield said two UNSC members, apparently China and Russia, have blocked every attempt to enforce or update sanctions on North Korea over the past four years, "enabling the DPRK's unlawful action."
"The DPRK sees that this council used to respond with meaningful consequences, but it no longer does. So it interprets council silence to mean that it won't face future consequences and it sees our silence as permission to continue on its stated trajectory," she said.
The U.S. representative earlier said the U.S. will seek to put a U.S.-drafted resolution on North Korea to a vote before the U.S.' monthlong presidency of the UNSC ends on May 31.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
7. 8th Political Bureau Meeting of 8th Central Committee of WPK Held (COVID admission)
This is the statement that indicates the north admitting they have a COVID case.
Excerpts:
A most serious emergency case of the state occurred: A break was made on our emergency epidemic prevention front where has firmly defended for two years and three months from February, 2020.
The state emergency epidemic prevention command and relevant units made deliberation of the result of strict gene arrangement analysis on the specimen from persons with fever of an organization in the capital city on May 8, and concluded that it coincided with Omicron BA.2 variant which is recently spreading worldwide rapidly.
Informed at the meeting was the spread state in the whole country. Urgent measures were presented and deliberated to take the strategic initiative in the epidemic prevention campaign for the future.
8th Political Bureau Meeting of 8th Central Committee of WPK Held
Pyongyang, May 12 (KCNA) -- The 8th Political Bureau meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) was convened at the office building of the Party Central Committee on May 12.
Kim Jong Un , general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, was present at the meeting.
Attending the meeting were members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, and members and alternate members of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee.
Present there as observers were officials in the state emergency epidemic prevention sector and some commanding officers of the Ministry of National Defence.
The respected General Secretary presided over the meeting.
First, the Political Bureau discussed an issue of convening the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee.
Adopted at the meeting with unanimous approval was a decision of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee on convening the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Party in the first third of June to make interim summing-up of the execution of the Party and state policies in 2022 and discuss and decide a series of important issues.
Next, the Political Bureau discussed the issue of coping with the epidemic prevention crisis state prevailing in the country.
It recognized as follows:
A most serious emergency case of the state occurred: A break was made on our emergency epidemic prevention front where has firmly defended for two years and three months from February, 2020.
The state emergency epidemic prevention command and relevant units made deliberation of the result of strict gene arrangement analysis on the specimen from persons with fever of an organization in the capital city on May 8, and concluded that it coincided with Omicron BA.2 variant which is recently spreading worldwide rapidly.
Informed at the meeting was the spread state in the whole country. Urgent measures were presented and deliberated to take the strategic initiative in the epidemic prevention campaign for the future.
The Political Bureau censured the epidemic prevention sectors for their carelessness, relaxation, irresponsibility and inefficiency as they did not sensitively cope with the public health state which infectors of all kinds of variants are increasing worldwide including surrounding regions of our country.
The Political Bureau recognized that it is necessary to switch over from the state epidemic prevention system to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system to cope with the present circumstance.
All measures were taken for the Party, administrative and economic organs at all levels, sectors of public and state security and national defence and all organs and sectors of the country to establish the proper work system to make the state work be done smoothly in line with the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system coming into force.
Adopted at the meeting was a resolution of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK on switch over from the state emergency epidemic prevention work to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system to cope with the prevailing epidemic prevention crisis.
Concluding the meeting, Kim Jong Un raised principles to be maintained thoroughly in the emergency epidemic prevention work and tasks to do so.
He outlined and analyzed the current epidemic prevention crisis of the country and noted that the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system is mainly aimed to stably contain and control the spread of COVID-19 that made inroads into the country and to quickly cure the infections in order to eradicate the source of the virus spread at an early date.
Pointing out that more dangerous enemy of us than the malicious virus are unscientific fear, lack of faith and weak will, he affirmed that we will surely overcome the current sudden situation and win victory in the emergency epidemic prevention work as we have strong organizing ability with which the Party, government and people are united as one and there are high political awareness and self-consciousness of all the people that have been fostered and cemented during the prolonged emergency epidemic prevention campaign.
He called on all the cities and counties of the whole country to thoroughly lock down their areas and organize work and production after closing each working unit, production unit and living unit from each other so as to flawlessly and perfectly block the spread vacuum of the malicious virus.
Stressing the necessity of quickly organizing scientific and intensive examination and treatment campaign, he said that the Party and the government decided to take a measure to mobilize reserve medical supplies that have been stored up for the emergency until now.
He underscored the need for the public health sector and the emergency epidemic prevention sectors to strictly conduct intensive examination of all the people, take proactive measures for medical observation and treatment, intensify disinfection of all areas ranging from workplaces to living space and thus block and terminate the source of the malicious epidemics spread.
Though the epidemic prevention situation is harsh at present, it cannot block our advance toward the overall development of socialist construction, and there should be nothing missed in the planned economic work, the General Secretary said, stressing that the Cabinet and other state economic guidance organs and relevant units should conduct fuller organization, guidance and command over the economic work in conformity with switching over from state epidemic prevention system to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system so as to speed up the immediate farming work and the production at major industrial sectors and industrial establishments to the maximum and flawlessly compete within the appointed date the cherished works of our Party for the people such as the construction of 10 000 flats in the Hwasong area and the Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm.
The Party and power organs should minimize inconveniences and agonies the people would suffer under the strong blockade situation, stabilize their lives and take thoroughgoing measures so that slightest negative phenomena are not be revealed, he noted.
Stressing the need to more firmly cementing the outposts of the state defence and guarantee the victory of the great epidemic prevention campaign with arms, he specially emphasized that guard duty should be further strengthened on the fronts, borders, seas and air and the best measures be taken to make security vacuum not be revealed in the national defence.
The people-first politics by our Party and state that have displayed the great vitality, overcoming all troubles of history, and the strength of our people who are united single-mindedly are the most powerful guarantee to win victory in the current great epidemic prevention campaign, he said, adding that all the Party organizations and power organs should prove in practice their loyalty to the Party and revolution, devotion to the people and responsibility for their duty at the present great epidemic prevention campaign to defend the lives and security of the people.
He warmly appealed to all the people and officers and men of the People's Army to triumphantly conclude the great epidemic prevention campaign with firm confidence and great redoubled efforts and thus defend to the end our precious lives and future with our faith, will and unity.
The Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK examined and approved the written emergency instructions of the Central Military Commission of the Party and the Cabinet and made sure that they are issued. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche111.5.12.)
8. North Korean Cyber Warriors Are Fueling Kim Jong-un’s Nuclear Weapons
This is why we need to take action against north Korea's all purpose sword.
North Korean Cyber Warriors Are Fueling Kim Jong-un’s Nuclear Weapons
Cyber operations are being used to not just fund the beleaguered Kim regime, but also to upgrade its strategic weapons such as nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles
North Korea has thus far conducted six nuclear tests (October 2006, May 2009, February 2013, January 2016, September 2016, and September 2017) and a number of ballistic missile tests. Since its first nuclear test, international sanctions against Pyongyang have been imposed and have strengthened over time. Even China, North Korea’s only military ally and primary benefactor in the post-Cold War world, has joined them. Certainly, the North Korean economy has severely suffered from the sanctions because they have been quite strictly implemented. Kim Jong-un, supreme leader of North Korea, acknowledged in 2018 that the harsh international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang were life-threatening. Tightened sanctions appeared to be effective during the Trump administration as many people argued that they drove the two historic US-North Korea Summits (in Singapore in June 2018 and Hanoi in February 2019).
In retrospect, however, it seems more accurate to say that Kim came to the negotiating table in accordance with his own schedule and strategic plans. That is, he initiated nuclear talks with the United States only after he concluded that North Korea completed its nuclear capabilities. With no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons, North Korea has not ceased enhancing its nuclear capabilities. Unsurprisingly, North Korea’s provocations have persisted in the Biden administration as well, which took office in January 2021. By early May of this year, North Korea launched twelve short- and medium-range missiles as well as two intercontinental ballistic missiles and a submarine-launched ballistic missile in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, breaking its self-imposed four-year moratorium on strategic weapons tests. Moreover, there are various signs that it is now preparing for another nuclear test.
What is puzzling here is the following: how could North Korea finance those tests? Making and testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles demand enormous capital. No sanctions relief have been given so far since no real progress has been made on North Korea’s denuclearization. Despite the isolated nature of the North Korean economy (i.e., China currently accounts for over 90 percent of the world’s merchandise trade with North Korea), the pandemic has reportedly had a serious impact on it. Kim actually admitted last year that North Korea’s situation was the “worst-ever.”
Thus, what has made it possible for North Korea to continue its expensive testing under the tightened international sanctions regime and the pandemic environment? The answer is North Korea’s asymmetrical weapon: its offensive cyber capabilities. North Korea’s various cyber capabilities, including espionage, sabotage, online bank heists and hacking, reconnaissance, and malware attacks, offer a very efficient means to circumvent international sanctions imposed against it. North Korea has persistently invested in strengthening its cyber warfare capabilities in the post-Cold War world. In particular, since Kim’s 2013 remark that North Korea’s cyberwarfare capabilities were its “all-purpose sword” and offered significant strategic value, Pyongyang has made great efforts in advancing them. Pyongyang’s cyber capabilities, along with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, constitute its “asymmetric warfare capabilities” and serve its strategic aims such as causing social disruptions in antagonistic countries, counterbalancing inferior conventional military capabilities, financing its impoverished regime, and so on.
What is worth paying special attention to is North Korea’s cyberattacks on financial institutions, which have dramatically increased in the last decade. Among others, North Korea’s cyberattack against Bangladesh central bank in 2016 was shockingly alarming because the hackers used the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) banking networks, which are the backbone of the global financial system, for an illicit money transfer of $81 million. It illustrated that even a global financial system such as SWIFT that carries billions of dollars daily can also be vulnerable to North Korea’s sophisticated cyberattacks.
Prior to this attack, North Korea already demonstrated its capacity to launch paralyzing cyberattacks against foreign banks. Pyongyang’s 2013 cyberattacks on South Korean banks are a good example. North Korea is believed to be currently involved in cyber heists in more than twenty countries. In addition, cryptocurrency exchanges have increasingly been a major target of North Korea’s cyberattacks. The UN Panel of Experts monitoring sanctions on Pyongyang reported in 2018 that North Korea explained 65 percent of stolen cryptocurrencies in the world during 2017-2018. According to the same panel, North Korea from 2019 to November 2020 stole about $316.4 million in cryptocurrencies through cyberattacks. In February of this year, the panel reported, citing cybersecurity firm Chainalysis, that North Korea had earned about $400 million in digital assets in 2021 alone as a result of the launches of more than seven cyberattacks on cryptocurrency platforms. Furthermore, in April the U.S. Treasury Department linked North Korea to the theft of almost $615 million in cryptocurrency from blockchain project Ronin, which is tied to the popular online game Axie Infinity. The Ronin hack, which occurred on March 23, was the second-largest cryptocurrency theft on record. Lazarus, a North Korea’s state-sponsored hacking group controlled by the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), Pyongyang’s primary intelligence bureau that oversees North Korea’s cyber operations, was behind almost all of these cyberattacks.
What is problematic is that the money extracted from these cyber operations is being used to not just fund the beleaguered Kim regime, which is under robust UN and U.S. sanctions, but also to upgrade its strategic weapons such as nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. In fact, the reason that North Korea could continue to provoke its adversaries with numerous nuclear and ballistic missile tests under a harsh international sanctions regime was because of Pyongyang’s proficient cyberattack capabilities, which often provide high yields with relatively little costs and risks. Unlike other strategic weapons development that demands huge costs and long investments, cyberattacks only need talented cyber warriors (North Korea is believed to have about 6,800 cyberwarfare professionals). Moreover, they usually do not trigger major armed conflicts due to a high degree of deniability and the deficit of accountability. Nevertheless, as seen from North Korea’s past cyberattacks, such as the 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment hack which forced the company to rebuild its computer network and the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack which compromised more than 300,000 computers in about 150 countries, they have a potential to become a major source of interstate conflicts.
Hence, North Korea’s evolving cyber capabilities pose a new type of threat to international security. Particularly worrisome in this regard is strengthened ties in the cyber field among traditional northern (and now all nuclear-armed) allies—Russia, China, and North Korea—in recent years. For instance, the 2020 UN Panel of Experts reported that quite a few North Korean information technology workers had entered Vladivostok and were illegally stationed there, violating UN Resolution 2397 that stopped North Korean employees from reentering Russia later than the mandatory deadline of December 2019 repatriation. Furthermore, Moscow, in addition to training North Korean hackers, reportedly sold North Korea GPS jamming apparatus that can disrupt adversaries’ navigation systems. Meanwhile, Beijing is believed to have long provided Pyongyang with hardware support for North Korea’s illicit cyber activities. In October 2020, however, the U.S. Justice Department accused China of assisting North Korea launder virtual assets from massive cyber thefts. China’s assistance here goes beyond a usual way of supporting Pyongyang through Chinese cyber infrastructure such as servers and routers. Simply put, both Moscow and Beijing continue to supply Pyongyang with training, technology, and materials support for its cyber operations. This kind of cooperation in the axis of the northern cyber powers is likely to continue as the three authoritarian allies who support cyber sovereignty as opposed to cyber freedom have a common goal of weakening U.S. hegemony, in general, and U.S. cyber supremacy, in particular, and the world moves towards a new Cold War era.
Min-hyung Kim is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea. He can be reached at [email protected]
Image: Reuters.
9. Seoul brings back CVID terminology at the UN
If they are going to pursue CVID they should pursue a free and unified Korea because that is the only way to achieve it.
Thursday
May 12, 2022
Seoul brings back CVID terminology at the UN
South Korea's Ambassador to the United Nations Cho Hyun speaks at an open meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York on March 25 shortly after the North conducted an intercontinental ballistic missile test. [YONHAP]
Seoul's ambassador to the United Nations condemned Pyongyang's recent missile tests in an open meeting of the Security Council in New York on Wednesday and urged North Korea to commit to "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization," marking the phrase's comeback to South Korean diplomacy.
“We urge North Korea to respond to our efforts to build sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula through complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,” Ambassador Cho Hyun said in his remarks to the Security Council. “North Korea should realize that it has nothing to gain from committing provocations.”
The use of the phrase “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,” abbreviated as CVID, marks a shift of tone for South Korean policy towards the North’s nuclear program. The administration of former President Moon Jae-in called for trust-building measures to induce the North to incrementally dismantle its nuclear weapons arsenal and fissile material processing facilities.
Under Moon, the South Korean government used the term “complete denuclearization” to describe its objective regarding the North’s nuclear program. CVID was considered too harsh.
Similarly, “verifiable” and “irreversible” were omitted from the Panmunjom Declaration signed by Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the inter-Korean summit of April 2018.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry also stuck to the phrase “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” in press releases and documents related to talks that took place at the time.
Ambassador Cho Hyun’s remarks signaled a stiffening of South Korea’s stance regarding the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula after the inauguration of the President Yoon Sun-yeol, who also mentioned CVID in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) on Saturday.
In that interview, Yoon said South Korea would offer economic aid to the North if it accepts nuclear inspections and undertakes irreversible measures to dismantle its decades-long nuclear weapons research program.
Cho also called for a joint Security Council response, stressing that peace on the Korean Peninsula faces a real threat due to North Korea's nuclear capabilities. “North Korea should pay for its actions,” Cho said.
The meeting was convened at the request of South Korea, the United States and Japan to discuss North Korea’s two ballistic missile tests earlier this month and explore additional sanctions against the regime in response to its test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in March.
Under successive Security Council resolutions, the North is barred from any tests involving ballistic missile technology.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield stressed the need for additional sanctions against North Korea, saying at the meeting, “We cannot wait until the DPRK conducts additional provocative, illegal, dangerous acts — like a nuclear test.”
While the U.S. proposed a draft resolution on additional sanctions against North Korea to halve the North’s permission to import crude and refined oil at a public meeting of the Security Council the day after North Korea launched an ICBM in March, that resolution has idled for over 50 days as China and Russia, also permanent members of the Security Council, exercised their veto power the adoption of the resolution has been idling for about 50 days.
BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
10. China-South Korea Relations Under South Korea’s New Yoon Administration: The Challenge Of Defining ‘Mutual Respect’
Excerpts:
The next steps in shaping the balance between Yoon’s strategic alignment with the United States and Sino-South Korean efforts to define in practical terms the meaning of “mutual respect” will likely come after Beijing has had the opportunity to digest the results of Yoon’s first summit meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, scheduled only eleven days following his inauguration.
The critical question likely to draw Beijing’s attention is on whether the Yoon administration subordinates the China-South Korea relationship to the U.S.-South Korea “comprehensive strategic alliance” framework or whether the phrase “mutual respect” can be defined in such a way that both South Korea and China are satisfied that each side truly respects the other independent of Chinese perceptions of U.S. influence on South Korea.
China-South Korea Relations Under South Korea’s New Yoon Administration: The Challenge Of Defining ‘Mutual Respect’
Forbes · by Scott Snyder · May 11, 2022
South Korea's new President Yoon Suk-yeol shakes hands with former President Moon Jae-in upon his arrival to his inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly on May 10, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea.
Kim Hong-Ji - Pool/Getty Images
One of the biggest challenges facing the fledgling Yoon Suk-yeol administration is how to define a China-South Korea relationship based on “mutual respect.” Chinese opinions following Yoon’s electoral victory suggest that the Yoon and Xi Jinping administrations’ definitions of “mutual respect” are not the same.
The Yoon administration views “mutual respect” with China against the backdrop of perceptions that China has prioritized its own imperatives over South Korea’s national security needs, while Chinese commentators suggest that any challenge by the Yoon administration to the “three noes” framework (no new Terminal High Altitude Air Defense missile batteries in South Korea, no trilateral U.S.-Japan-South Korea missile defense system, and no trilateral U.S.-Japan-South Korea security alliance) established with the Moon Jae-in administration would constitute South Korean disrespect for China.
The establishment of a stable framework for managing China-South Korea relations will require the two sides to close the gap in understanding while also adjusting to a transition from the Moon administration’s approach of “choice avoidance” in the context of Sino-U.S. rivalry to the “comprehensive strategic alliance” with the United States as the centerpiece of the Yoon administration’s foreign policy.
The Moon administration had been developing a “strategic cooperative partnership” with China while quietly strengthening across-the-board institutional cooperation with the Joe Biden administration. In contrast, the Yoon administration has abandoned the pretense of choice avoidance by opting for overt alignment with the United States. Moreover, the Yoon campaign publicly touched on a number of topics sensitive to Beijing during the presidential campaign, including the possibility of a closer relationship with Quad and Yoon’s pledge to purchase from the United States a new Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) battery, which directly conflicts with Moon’s “three noes” pledge.
In meetings with China’s Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming, candidate Yoon stated the goal of developing relations based on “mutual respect” and affirmed the need for close communication and cooperation with Beijing on nontraditional security issues such as climate change, public health, and cultural exchanges. Yoon’s underlying premise was that “just as South Korea does not oppose China’s Belt and Road Initiative and works with Beijing in trade and commerce, China for its part should accept, rather than oppose, South Korea’s cooperative system with its allies.”
Initial Chinese media reaction to Yoon’s election suggested a mixture of anxiety and veiled warnings, arguing that South Korea’s national interests and rejection of “external influence” (from the United States) would lay the foundations for a positive relationship. The Global Times noted on the eve of the election that extensive trade and educational exchanges and China’s support for peninsular peace and stability serve as favorable foundations for the relationship. But it cited the politically contested consensus with the Moon administration over THAAD as “a classic case of the two countries overcoming external influence” (i.e., perceived interference by the U.S.), arguing that stable relations with China is a prerequisite for South Korea’s national security.
A South Korean soldier stands under a display of North and South Korea's missiles December 12, 2002 at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea.
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
Two days after the election, the Global Times addressed the Yoon campaign’s pursuit of “mutual respect”-based relations, arguing that mutual respect is a basic Chinese diplomatic principle and rebutting South Korean views that China has not respected South Korea. The editorial then argued that the Moon administration’s 2017 “three noes” statement with China was not only a product of mutual respect, but a prerequisite for maintaining normal China-South Korea relations. While asserting that “the THAAD system has exceeded the defense needs of South Korea,” it also argued that “real security must be common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable” and that “China’s strategic security interests must also be respected by Seoul.” On the same day, Ambassador Xing Haiming met President-Elect Yoon Suk-yeol to convey Xi Jinping’s formal letter of congratulations and to exchange views on the development of bilateral relations.
On March 25, Yoon received a congratulatory call from Xi, marking the first time that a Chinese leader had called a South Korean president-elect. The call emphasized the thirtieth anniversary of diplomatic normalization, timely communication to “maintain continuity and stability” in bilateral relations, and regional stability.
Ambassador Xing followed up Xi’s call with an April 6 visit to Yoon transition committee chairman Ahn Cheol-soo, discussing China-South Korea relations and conveying North Korea’s concerns about U.S.-North Korea relations. The following day, Xing gave a notable public presentation expressing his desire that “THAAD” not become a “sensitive word” between the two countries, and arguing that China-South Korea relations should be mutually beneficial.
These messages were no doubt reinforced in private meetings between Yoon and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, who headed China’s official delegation to attend Yoon’s inauguration and issued Xi’s invitation for Yoon to visit China. But Yoon’s willingness to act on the invitation may also founder due to differing definitions of “mutual respect,” as some South Koreans feel it is Xi’s turn to visit to Seoul following Moon Jae-in’s visits to Beijing.
Alongside these official exchanges, unofficial efforts to signal boundaries on the Yoon administration’s handling of China-related issues continued. Renmin University scholar Cheng Xiaohe wrote in the Global Times on the Moon administration’s Quad policy and its evolution, arguing that “China respects South Korea’s cooperation with other countries and organizations, but such cooperation should not be achieved at the expense of China’s national interest.” Tsinghua University’s Liu Jiangyong asserted that although Yoon seeks to strengthen cooperation with the United States and Japan and to take a tougher response to North Korea, Yoon would not want to sacrifice the China-South Korea relationship for an alliance with the United States and Japan.
The next steps in shaping the balance between Yoon’s strategic alignment with the United States and Sino-South Korean efforts to define in practical terms the meaning of “mutual respect” will likely come after Beijing has had the opportunity to digest the results of Yoon’s first summit meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, scheduled only eleven days following his inauguration.
The critical question likely to draw Beijing’s attention is on whether the Yoon administration subordinates the China-South Korea relationship to the U.S.-South Korea “comprehensive strategic alliance” framework or whether the phrase “mutual respect” can be defined in such a way that both South Korea and China are satisfied that each side truly respects the other independent of Chinese perceptions of U.S. influence on South Korea.
Forbes · by Scott Snyder · May 11, 2022
11. S. Korean military to revive 'provocation' reference to N.K. missile tests: sources
Need to be careful on this. Not every test (or any test) may be a provocation.
S. Korean military to revive 'provocation' reference to N.K. missile tests: sources | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's military plans to revive the reference to North Korean ballistic missile tests as "provocations," informed sources said Thursday in an apparent reflection of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's hard-line stance on the recalcitrant regime's military threats.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff has decided to use the expression in its public announcements of future North Korean missile launches in line with new Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup's directive, according to the sources.
The preceding Moon Jae-in administration had refrained from describing North Korean missile launches as provocations, as it pushed for inter-Korean rapprochement, with Pyongyang having balked at the expression.
The South Korean military also plans to stop using the expression, "unidentified projectiles," in its initial reference to North Korean missile launches. Instead, it will use the expression "unidentified ballistic missiles."
In recent years, the North has accused the South and the United States of using "double-dealing" standards -- a reference to the allies having cast its missile activities as "provocations" while justifying their own as "deterrence."
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
12. S Korea’s ‘Mr Clean’ faces tough presidency. Is he up to the job?
A lot of criticism. But I want to call out the problem with some comments from pundits:
Other analysts say Yoon – who has never held elected office – is also yet to outline a clear vision for how he plans to tackle South Korea’s various challenges, including North Korean provocations and relations with China and the US.
This focus on north Korean "provocations" is short sighted and a distraction and a lack of strategic vision and understanding. We must not limit ourselves to trying to prevent the unpreventable. We are not going to stop north Korean provocations and trying to do so is like using bandaids and Motrin to treat cancer. We need to devise a strategy that focuses on the underlying conditions and seeks to achieve an acceptable durable political arrangement that will serve, protect, and advance ROK/US alliance interests.
S Korea’s ‘Mr Clean’ faces tough presidency. Is he up to the job?
South Korea’s new president faces range of ‘complex crises’, from North Korean nuclear threat to US-China rivalry and growing income inequality at home.
South Korea’s new president knows he has his hands full.
Yoon Suk-yeol, 61, took office on Tuesday warning of a world in turmoil amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea’s growing nuclear threat, and the intensifying competition between China and the United States – one, South Korea’s biggest trading partner and the other, its main security ally.
War, disease, climate change, food and energy crises, he said, were wreaking havoc across the globe, “casting a long and dark shadow over us”.
At home in South Korea, he spoke of a brewing “crisis of democracy”, with unemployment and an ever-widening gap between the rich and poor stoking discord and leaving many without a sense of belonging or community.
But with characteristic bravado, Yoon told the crowd of 40,000 gathered for his inauguration on the lawn of Seoul’s National Assembly that “nothing was impossible”. He promised to tackle the “complex and multi-faced challenges” by championing “freedom”, “liberal democracy” and rapid economic growth.
Obstacles abound for the new leader, however, chiefly because of his low popularity and his lack of political experience.
A former top prosecutor, Yoon ran on the ticket of the conservative People Power Party and won the March election by a margin of 0.7 percent – the narrowest in South Korea’s democratic history. Analysts described him as more of an “accidental president”, for whom many South Koreans voted in protest against his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, after the Democratic Party politician failed to deliver on key promises to tackle inequality, rein in sky-high housing prices and broker peace with North Korea.
Moon had, in fact, appointed Yoon as chief prosecutor after he gained fame for successfully prosecuting the former conservative President Park Geun-hye on charges of corruption. But the pair fell out after Yoon began targeting the then-president’s inner circle, including filing fraud charges against his Justice Minister Cho Kuk.
‘Mr Clean’
Korea expert Kyung Hyun Kim says Yoon was “regarded as Mr Clean” for prosecuting prominent businessmen and politicians across the spectrum.
“It didn’t matter which administration was in power, whether it was the left or whether it was the right. Yoon went after corruption in the system. He has a track record of pursuing justice, no matter what the political cost may be,” said the professor of East Asian Studies at the University of California Irvine in the United States. “And in a society that is seen to be largely unfair, where there’s deep divisions between the rich and the poor, and where many ordinary people feel as if equal opportunity is not guaranteed, there’s hope that he will bring justice to South Korea.”
But despite the respect for Yoon’s tenacity as a prosecutor, the new president begins his single five-year term with historically low approval ratings. Only 55 percent of respondents surveyed for a recent Gallup Korea poll believe he will do well in office. By comparison, his predecessors had received about 80-90 percent before they started their presidencies.
Yoon’s low popularity, according to analysts, partly reflects South Korea’s fractious politics, which is marked by deep divisions between conservatives and liberals, but also several of his own contentious policies, including a campaign promise to abolish the country’s gender equality ministry. Critics had condemned the pledge as a misogynistic ploy from Yoon – an avowed “anti-feminist” – to exploit South Korea’s poisonous gender politics and attract votes from young men anxious about losing ground to women.
The new president’s cabinet picks have also caused consternation.
His nominee for education minister, Kim In-chul, resigned last week amid misconduct allegations, including claims he used his influence as president of the Korea Fulbright Alumni Association to help his son and daughter obtain the prestigious Fulbright scholarships for study in the US.
Yoon’s pick for health minister also faces similar allegations, while his nominee for justice minister is under fire over media reports that his teenage daughter exaggerated her extracurricular activities to secure a place at university.
Controversy has also swirled around Yoon’s decision to move his office and residence from Seoul’s Blue House compound to the defence ministry complex. The move could cost about 50 billion won ($41.14m) and some Democratic Party officials say Yoon is being influenced by masters of feng shui, who believe the Blue House is inauspicious. The new president denies that.
Jaechun Kim, professor of international relations at South Korea’s Sogang University, says Yoon’s choice of ministers, as well as his insistence on pushing ahead with the relocation of his residence – despite widespread criticism – has eroded his support.
“I really don’t have high hopes for Yoon’s presidency”, he said. “He’s not a politician. He pretty much goes his own way. And he has no qualms about that. So I just hope he doesn’t make any serious mistakes. If he can bring back normalcy to South Korean society, politics and economy – after a disastrous Moon Jae-in presidency – I’ll be happy.”
‘Lacks direction’
Other analysts say Yoon – who has never held elected office – is also yet to outline a clear vision for how he plans to tackle South Korea’s various challenges, including North Korean provocations and relations with China and the US.
On the campaign trail, he signalled a hard line on Pyongyang by threatening a preemptive strike in case of signs of an imminent attack. He also said he would ditch Moon’s “strategic ambiguity” between the US and China, in favour of Washington, and join the Quad grouping of the US, Australia, Japan and India.
He also pledged to buy an additional THAAD missile system from the US, something China has previously opposed, claiming the system’s powerful radar could penetrate its territory. The last time South Korea deployed the THAAD five years ago, Beijing responded with unofficial sanctions, including ending Chinese tour group visits to South Korea and boycotts and bans of Korean-owned businesses in China.
Since winning the election, Yoon has backpedalled on some of his earlier statements, and in his inauguration speech offered North Korea an “audacious” economic plan if it committed to denuclearisation. His cabinet picks have also said “further study” is required before an additional THAAD battery is deployed.
Some experts say Yoon must show consistency and clarify his policies.
“He lacks a direction where exactly he wants to take South Korea and its people,” said Hyung-A Kim, associate professor of Korean Politics and History at the Australian National University. “Previous presidents all had a clear set of directions, but with Yoon, we don’t know exactly.”
Others, however, say the nature of the challenges the new president faces will help refine his policy priorities.
“Although the Yoon Suk-yeol presidency is beginning with a lot of obstacles, I think the future is bright,” said Youngshik Bong, research fellow at the Yonsei University’s Institute for North Korean Studies.
“North Korea’s provocations and strategic competition between China and Russia on the one hand, and the US and other countries on the other hand, is going to help clarify the policy priorities for the new South Korean government … Challenges and crisis can turn out to be strange friends for the new president in South Korea.”
13. Farewell Moon, howdy Yoon in South Korea
The headline sounds like the title of a children's book.
We must consider that economic development as we conceive it is actually a threat to the Kim family regime.
Excerpts:
“If North Korea genuinely embarks on a process to complete denuclearization, we are prepared to work with the international community to present an audacious plan that will vastly strengthen North Korea’s economy and improve the quality of life for its people,” he said.
That kind of incentive is nothing new. It has been offered by previous conservative administrations in Seoul and found no takers in Pyongyang.
But it is well-calibrated for the present, given that North Korea’s economy is being clobbered not only by crippling global sanctions since 2016, but by a border lockdown it instituted when Covid struck the region.
“North Korea has achieved its nuclear arms, systems, materials and warheads, so in that sense, if North Korea is seeking security then it should be safe by now,” said a Seoul-based North Korea watcher, who requested anonymity as he does not want to irritate Yoon’s team in the sensitive, early stages of the administration.
“Yoon is putting his finger on what North Korea is missing right now – economic growth,” said the source. “If North Korea is to give up some of its nuclear arms, there has to be some kind of economic incentive scheme.”
The question is whether Kim will feel it is in his interests to trade away some parts of his “sacred sword” for economic incentives. The question looms doubly large, given the fragility of security guarantees given to other states that abandoned WMD programs, such as Iraq, Libya and Ukraine, and were then assailed by external enemies.
And that is the crux of a problem that remains one of the world’s most intractable foreign policy issues, admitted the source.
“If you take a realistic point of view, there is a reason why North Korea has invested so much in nuclear weapons,” he said. “They believe that, in absence of a collective security architecture, they are the best security guarantee you can buy for money.”
Farewell Moon, howdy Yoon in South Korea
New president expected to shift South Korea closer to the US and Japan at the expense of China and North Korea
SEOUL – The South Korean presidential baton changed hands on Tuesday, passing from the liberal Moon Jae-in to the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol, who will helm the strategically located, US-allied export powerhouse for the next five years.
Yoon assumed power at midnight on Monday when he was briefed in a bunker under the Ministry of Defense in Seoul. However, his first act in office – a bold one – was a refusal to enter office.
At least, not the official office of the presidency, the Blue House presidential compound, which sits on prestigious ground just behind the city’s biggest medieval palace. Considering the Blue House emblematic of past “imperial” presidencies, Yoon has opted for more workmanlike quarters in the Ministry of Defense, adjacent to a vast and largely abandoned US Army compound.
Yoon can bank on a customary honeymoon among voters, but his margin of electoral victory was the slimmest in South Korea’s democratic history, and the National Assembly is controlled by the opposition.
Yoon, a political neophyte before running for the highest office in the land, has shown himself to be a man who sticks to principle – and damn the torpedoes.
Principle dominated his inaugural speech, during which he deployed the word “freedom” 35 times. His widely anticipated alignment of democratic values with policymaking suggests he will get on famously with the first foreign leader he is scheduled to meet: US President Joe Biden will visit Seoul from May 20-22.
More broadly, he has prioritized building bridges with South Korea’s favorite whipping boy, Japan, and has sounded a more defiant note toward China. Pundits expect him to shackle South Korea more closely to fellow democracies and alliances, including NATO and the Quad.
On Tuesday, although he proffered an “audacious” plan to assist Pyongyang if it denuclearizes, he shared none of Moon’s passion for engaging the other Korea.
Yoon has refused to stay in the presidential Blue House, which was opened to the public on Tuesday. Photo: The Blue House
The man, the nation
Yoon gained fame under Moon as the chief prosecutor who led investigations into disgraced conservative ex-president Park Geun-hye, who was booted from office after massive demonstrations led to her impeachment in 2017.
She and most of her cabinet and aides ended up in jail on corruption charges.
However, when Moon subsequently turned his attention to reforming the powerful prosecution, Yoon unexpectedly fought in his organization’s corner. His resistance led to the resignation of two successive justice ministers and humiliated Moon.
Yoon’s victory in that bruising fight led to conservatives wooing him over to the right side of the aisle, and eventual victory in the presidential election in March. Though anti-Yoons consider him a fool due to his political inexperience and the gaffes he made during the campaign, he also has a more positive reputation.
“When I speak to various people in Korea, they see Yoon as a man of principle – when he gets something in his mind, he follows through,” said David Tizzard, a professor of Korean Studies at Seoul Women’s University. “Koreans say he is not ideological, but he is principled.”
That adherence to principle is visible both in his defense of the prosecution and his ditching of the Blue House – the latter was a campaign promise.
In a country whose citizens are enthusiastic demonstrators, Moon was always sensitive to the mercurial public opinion that led to Park’s downfall and his own accession. However, Yoon suggested in his inauguration speech that he would operate above volatile emotion and dogmatic partisanship.
“The political process … has failed due to a crisis in democracy and one of the main reasons for such failure is the troubling spread of anti-intellectualism,” he said.
“When we choose to see only what we want to see and hear only what we want to hear, when the masses bludgeon and silence those who do not agree with them and do this through brute force, this is how anti-intellectualism gravely weakens our democracy and puts us in peril,” he added.
Certainly, South Korea has rifts. Socially, it suffers from a society that is divided on left-right, gender, generational and income-inequality lines. Economically, it is hammered by high interest rates, exchange rates and inflation.
From Moon, Yoon inherits soaring metropolitan property prices and a fast-silvering populace. Yet in many ways, it is a nation whose day has dawned.
A newly-minted G10 economy, it has one of the world’s top 10 militaries and is a top-10 arms exporter. Its position as a key supplier of self-propelled heavy artillery to NATO members grants it a profile amid the Ukraine war.
Focused on defense against North Korea, Seoul has sought to evade kinetic entanglements overseas since its harsh experience fighting in Vietnam. However, its close familiarity with US military protocols, systems and technologies that Seoul’s alliance with Washington demands, means its forces are in sync with those in countries such as Japan and Australia.
A heavy manufacturing and trade powerhouse built on glittering, high-tech infrastructure, South Korea hosts global brands including Samsung, Hyundai and LG. A world-class player in ships, autos, displays, petrochemicals and consumer electronics, its flagship product is semiconductors.
Chips are arguably the most critical industrial component in a world whose advance into digitization has only been accelerated by Covid, making semiconductors into strategic assets in trade and hybrid wars.
While the over-arching power of big-business families remains a national cause of concern, South Korea has also been home, over the last two administrations, to a buzzing startup scene birthing an expanding flock of unicorns in multiple tech sectors.
Its popular culture – K-film, K-pop, K-drama, K-film and K-gaming – has, in recent years, surged beyond Asian barriers and stormed into the living rooms of the West, burnishing the national brand.
But this conglomeration of national power, prosperity, innovation and sophistication means it long passed the point where all-powerful presidencies could significantly change the nation’s course.
And Yoon is trammeled not only by his constitutionally mandated single five-year term. He won a slim electoral victory margin of less than 1% and faces an opposition parliament and a bureaucracy that voted against him.
By multiple metrics, South Korea is one of the most successful nations of the modern era. Photo: Asia Times / Andrew Salmon
New foreign policy stance
Yoon appears set to differ from Moon’s policy in two key areas. He insists that South Korea must take a stand on liberal, democratic values on the global stage and seeks to align Seoul with Tokyo.
In a long series of lines that could have been written by a Biden scriptwriter, Yoon noted on Tuesday that “freedom is a universal value.”
“Liberal democracy creates lasting peace and peace is what safeguards our freedom,” he said. “Peace is guaranteed when the international community that respects freedom and human rights come together as one.”
Unusually for a president of South Korea, who have customarily focused on economic pragmatism while keeping a low diplomatic profile in values-based debates in international fora, Yoon said South Korea would now take a stance.
“Korea is the 10-largest economy in the world … it is incumbent upon us to take on a greater role befitting our stature as a global leader,” he said. “We must actively protect and promote universal values and international norms that are based on freedom and respect for human rights … the international community expects us to do so. We must answer that call.”
South Korea is, like Japan, torn between strategic ally the US and leading trade partner China. Moon sought to shrink that widening gap – even offering Chinese President Xi Jinping his assurance that South Korea would not join any multilateral alliance against China.
Yoon looks set to lean more closely to Washington, analysts say.
“I think President Yoon’s foreign policy strategy is about a congress between liberal democratic principles and policies – being clearly aligned with the West, or rather, the global democratic bloc,” said Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at Seoul think tank the Asan Institute.
“I think there has been a growing perception and understanding that Korea can no longer sit on the fence between Beijing and Washington.”
That shift is already underway. Last week, for example, Seoul announced it was joining NATO’s cyber security grouping, drawing some strong responses from Chinese netizens.
Yoon has also shown an interest in the US-led Quad Indo-Pacific alliance. He has met Australia’s ambassador to South Korea and made clear his interest in joining Quad working groups, a precondition for membership.
In another departure from customary South Korean practice, Yoon made clear during the campaign that he wants to improve relations with Japan, a nation widely demonized for its colonial occupation of the peninsula between 1910-1945, and for real or perceived failures to act contritely since.
Japan has a key voice when it comes to membership in both the Quad and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a trade bloc Seoul is interested in.
Moon, conversely, took an aggressive stance toward Japan – one reciprocated by then-Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe. The result was bilateral ties plunging to what has been called their worst state since diplomatic relations were established in 1965.
Yet despite public furies, Yoon may be pushing on an open door.
Two public opinion polls taken in the last 12 months have shown that South Koreans now have a harsher view of China than Japan.
Even though the political or trade disputes of 2017 have died down, people-to-people contacts have been poisoned by online wars between netizens from both sides over historical matters, Sino-Korean antagonisms on South Korean campuses and rising concern in South Korea about Chinese policies in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
These developments suggest anti-Japanese sentiment may possibly evaporate the same way anti-American sentiment has largely evaporated among the body politic, leaving China the demonized nation of choice.
“If you look at some of his actions, Yoon was definitely playing on anti-Chinese rhetoric and anti-communist messaging in his social media posts and campaigning,” said Tizzard. “Because of the historical antagonisms, the South Korean public lapped it up, whereas Moon had gone more for anti-Japanese rhetoric.”
The long-cooled bromance between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is unlikely to be repeated by Moon’s successor. Photo: The Blue House
No thanks, North Korea
At the epicenter of South Korea’s foreign policy is its alliance with the US. Despite endless lip service paid to the equality of that relationship, cynics and realists know who the lead partner is.
Due to this dynamic, the failure of a 2019 North Korea-US summit meant inter-Korean ties, too, turned frigid, dooming Moon’s engagement efforts.
Matters have not improved. At a 2021 Party Congress, Pyongyang announced the development of a vast arsenal of new weapons systems. This year, it has conducted 15 missile tests, including ballistic, inter-continental ballistic and submarine-launched versions.
None of those change the strategic landscape. However, Pyongyang also claims to have tested hypersonic and tactical nuclear-capable missiles, new arms that are, for South Korean generals, worrisome, as they are seen as close-range, offensive weapons.
Against this backdrop, Yoon shares none of Moon’s enthusiasm for meeting the North’s leadership and has sounded generally more hawkish. In his inauguration speech, he said little about North Korea, but did offer an olive branch.
“If North Korea genuinely embarks on a process to complete denuclearization, we are prepared to work with the international community to present an audacious plan that will vastly strengthen North Korea’s economy and improve the quality of life for its people,” he said.
That kind of incentive is nothing new. It has been offered by previous conservative administrations in Seoul and found no takers in Pyongyang.
But it is well-calibrated for the present, given that North Korea’s economy is being clobbered not only by crippling global sanctions since 2016, but by a border lockdown it instituted when Covid struck the region.
“North Korea has achieved its nuclear arms, systems, materials and warheads, so in that sense, if North Korea is seeking security then it should be safe by now,” said a Seoul-based North Korea watcher, who requested anonymity as he does not want to irritate Yoon’s team in the sensitive, early stages of the administration.
“Yoon is putting his finger on what North Korea is missing right now – economic growth,” said the source. “If North Korea is to give up some of its nuclear arms, there has to be some kind of economic incentive scheme.”
The question is whether Kim will feel it is in his interests to trade away some parts of his “sacred sword” for economic incentives. The question looms doubly large, given the fragility of security guarantees given to other states that abandoned WMD programs, such as Iraq, Libya and Ukraine, and were then assailed by external enemies.
And that is the crux of a problem that remains one of the world’s most intractable foreign policy issues, admitted the source.
“If you take a realistic point of view, there is a reason why North Korea has invested so much in nuclear weapons,” he said. “They believe that, in absence of a collective security architecture, they are the best security guarantee you can buy for money.”
14. Hwasong political prison inmates may be working to restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site
The evil nature of the Kim family regime.
Hwasong political prison inmates may be working to restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site - Daily NK
The Hwasong prison camp is located a little over 20km from Punggye-ri
A satellite photo of No. 16 prisoner camp in Hwasong, North Hamgyong Province (Google Earth)
North Korean authorities recently divided political prisoners at North Hamgyong Province’s Hwasong political prison camp into two separate groups, Daily NK has learned.
“Political prisoners at the Hwasong camp have been split between two areas, with the really hard cases being transferred [to the new area]. Prisoners in the new area outnumber prisoners in the old one by a ratio of about eight to two,” a source in North Korea told Daily NK on May 6.
The source explained that North Korea has placed the new section of the camp, where the serious criminals have been relocated, under the authority of the Ministry of State Security, while the old section is being overseen by the Ministry of Social Security.
However, Daily NK has been unable to ascertain when exactly the division of the prisoners and the changes in jurisdiction took place.
“While jurisdiction over the old section was changed [to the Ministry of Social Security], it is under the same level of security and control. The wardens and guards from the Ministry of State Security were withdrawn from the old section and were replaced by people from the Ministry of Social Security,” the source said.
“The wardens from the Ministry of State Security who were in the old section were sent to manage the new section. Officials who wanted to work somewhere else were transferred with no changes to their rank,” he added.
The majority of political prison camps under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of State Security — as the Hwasong camp had been — are completely cordoned off from the outside world. Once inmates enter one of these camps, they are never allowed to return to society.
In December 2021, Daily NK quoted a source in North Korea as saying that the North Korean government was building a new system for detaining political prisoners and that it had sent the worst political prisoners in North Hamgyong Province, Yanggang Province, Chagang Province and North Pyongan Province (amounting to 60% of the total of this kind of prisoner) to the Hwasong camp. Daily NK also reported that some of the camp facilities had been expanded to accommodate the larger number of detainees.
In regards to the more recent changes, Daily NK’s source in the country explained that the Hwasong camp was divided into two areas and the prisoners split between them so that prisoners could be mobilized for the construction of sensitive facilities that require a high level of security.
“These measures were taken so that the prisoners who are under the charge of the Ministry of Social Security can be taken by armed guards to work on the construction of tunnels and special bases that are off-limits to the public. The political prisoners who are under the charge of the Ministry of State Security can’t leave the camp unless there are changes in laws or regulations,” the source said.
After recently revoking its moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), North Korea has reportedly been restoring its nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province. Since the Hwasong camp is a little over 20km from Punggye-ri, there is speculation that prisoners are being put to work on restoring the nuclear test site.
“While the number of management staff largely remains unchanged, the number of sentries, guards and armed transport staff have been tripled. These are the kind of workers who would be needed to put [prisoners] on secret work projects outside [the camp walls],” the source said.
The camp seems to have expanded the surveillance and guard staff needed to send prisoners to construction sites at high-security external facilities.
The source also said that the human rights situation inside the Hwasong camp is expected to get even worse for the prisoners.
“Prisoners in the section managed by the Ministry of Social Security are being worked to death in secret tunnels and in places that are too dangerous for ordinary people to be sent. They aren’t given any food beyond the minimum or allowed any food from outside with chili pepper flakes or other seasoning. Many of them are dying on the job,” the source said.
“According to the camp management’s operational rules, people working under hardship conditions in mines and tunnels are supposed to receive 100g more food than ordinary workers even inside the camp, but they stopped giving out extra rations a long time ago,” he added.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
15. US Marine's life in the hands of Biden, Blinken in North Korea extradition fight
Yes, he will be at risk if he goes to Spain. north Korea has proven its capability to reach out and touch someone anywhere in the world.
US Marine's life in the hands of Biden, Blinken in North Korea extradition fight
FBI warned Christopher Ahn's safety is at risk if he leaves US
The U.S. Marine talks to Eric Shawn about his prosecution and hopes for North Koreans
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A federal magistrate in Los Angeles has turned down U.S. Marine Christopher Ahn’s request to block extradition to face charges that he broke into the North Korean embassy in Madrid, Spain, as part of a plan to help Kim’s ambassador defect. The ruling means the Biden administration could kick Ahn out of the country, sending him to Spain, where his supporters – and even the judge in his case – warned that Kim's thugs could kill him.
"The same Department of Justice that has told me that if I leave the country that I could be assassinated, is the same Department of Justice that’s trying to extradite me," Ahn told Fox News in an interview last year.
Ahn served as a Marine in Iraq. (Provisional Government of Free Joseon)
And, in a stunning rebuke of her own ruling, the judge who sided against Ahn said he should not be extradited because of North Korea’s threats to his life.
"I do not think it’s the right result, and I hope that a higher court will either tell me I’m wrong or itself block the extradition," U.S. Magistrate Jean Rosenbluth wrote. "The FBI has conceded that North Korean wants to kill Ahn and that that threat is easier to carry out in Spain than here in the United States."
Ahn was arrested in 2019 as a member of the group Free Joseon. The group, whose name means "Free North Korea," opposes the Kim regime and has helped several high-level North Koreans defect. He was allegedly part of a small group in the plan to help North Korea's ambassador in Madrid flee, but the diplomat had a last-minute change of heart. For his role, Ahn has been told Kim Jong Un has put a target on his back. His supporters have feared he could be taken out by a North Korean hit squad or even kidnapped if extradited, taken to Pyongyang for a show trial, and executed in public for his anti-regime activities.
The U.S. Justice Department acceded to a request by Spanish officials that Ahn be extradited to face criminal charges.
Ahn’s supporters said the activists were invited into the building as part of an agreed-upon plan with the North Korean diplomats inside. Videos showed them simply walking in and spending hours inside the embassy talking to North Korean officials before a woman apparently became alarmed, jumped off of a balcony and contacted police. She later told investigators that "individuals had entered the Embassy and they were killing people, were eating people and there were children there."
Cindy Warmbier said that Ahn needed a "strong woman" to "stand up to North Korea." I regret that I am too weak, in power if not in will, to save him from the threat of torture and assassination by an outcast nation.
— U.S. Magistrate Jean P. Rosenbluth
"The whole reason why we went in there, and the whole reason why I participated, is because I wanted to help people," Ahn said.
In her ruling, Rosenbluth noted that Blinken could block Ahn’s extradition for humanitarian reasons. While the extradition process started under the Trump administration, the judge noted, "it is the Secretary of State, representing the executive branch, who determines whether to surrender the fugitive."
Ahn told Fox News the Justice Department that warned him his life could be in danger was the same Justice Department moving to extradite him. (Provisional Government of Free Joseon)
Among Ahn’s high-profile supporters: Cindy and Fred Warmbier, the parents of Otto Warmbier, the young American who, like Ahn, attended the University of Virginia and was falsely arrested, tortured and sent home to die by Kim's regime in 2017. Since then, the Warmbiers have been outspoken critics of Kim Jong Un's human rights record, and Cindy Warmbier brought the court to tears when she spoke at a hearing last May in support of stopping Ahn’s extradition.
"No one ever stands up to North Korea," she told the court. "Well, I am standing up to North Korea. I am standing up for Chris Ahn, a good man. North Korea will kill Chris if he is extradited. Please stop this injustice."
In another extraordinary admission, Rosenbluth expressed remorse at her decision.
"I hold out some hope that this court will not become an ‘accomplice’ to Ahn’s otherwise inevitable extradition," she wrote. "Cindy Warmbier said that Ahn needed a ‘strong woman’ to ‘stand up to North Korea.’ I regret that I am too weak, in power if not in will, to save him from the threat of torture and assassination by an outcast nation."
Rosenbluth "appears to make an impassioned plea to a higher court and the secretary of state to block her certification of Chris Ahn to Spain," noted Sung-Yoon Lee, a Kim Koo-Korea Foundation professor in Korean studies and assistant professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Ahn's fate is now up to the Biden administration. (Provisional Government of Free Joseon)
"She emphasizes that Chris Ahn is by all accounts a good and honest man who wished to help the North Korean would-be defectors with a staged kidnapping," Lee told Fox News. He noted that Rosentbluth wrote, "Shipping Ahn off to Spain, where his life will be in grave danger from a force our government recognizes as evil, to await a trial that will likely never happen is inhumane and may well violate due process. I – or some judge or judges – should be able to stop it."
"The court has recognized that there is a danger to my life and to those around me if I leave this country. Quite frankly, they've told me that that danger is here, in the United States and that that danger exponentially increases if I leave the country," Ahn told Fox News.
The judge also noted, "North Korea has abducted its enemies from numerous European countries, including the Netherlands, Austria and Italy, and it has killed on foreign soil… the FBI advised his counsel that he ‘should not leave the United States as a matter of safety.'"
Now Ahn’s fate is up to the White House. His supporters, and the very judge who ruled, have agreed that Ahn’s life is in the balance unless Blinken, or a higher court, blocks Spain’s extradition request.
Fox News’ Ben Evansky contributed to this report.
16. U.S. prepared for any kind of engagement with N. Korea: Campbell
I have heard a lot of criticism from pundits recently on this position. They are saying we are backsliding into strategic patience and that in order to restart negotiations we have to listen to north Korea and address their concerns before we talk. It is our fault that Kim will not talk. Which in my "translation" of their recommendations means we have to allow Kim Jong un's political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategy to be successful. And of course that will simply result in continued execution of the strategy and not negotiation in good faith.
U.S. prepared for any kind of engagement with N. Korea: Campbell | Yonhap News Agency
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, May 11 (Yonhap) -- The United States stands prepared to engage in any kind of diplomacy or dialogue with North Korea, White House policy coordinator for Asia Kurt Campbell said Wednesday.
He also said the new South Korean government of Yoon Suk-yeol is determined to work closely with the U.S.
"I will also just note that we have a new partner, a new president in South Korea that is determined, working with the United States, to be very clearly engaged in deterring and sending a strong message of partnership between Seoul and Washington," Campbell said in a seminar hosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace, a state-run think tank based in Washington.
"And on that basis, I think we are prepared for any kind of diplomacy or engagement with North Korea," he added.
The remarks come as U.S. President Joe Biden is set to embark on a three-day trip to Seoul next Friday for a bilateral summit with Yoon, who took office on Tuesday (Seoul time). Biden is also scheduled to visit Tokyo following his trip to South Korea.
Campbell noted the U.S. has tried to reach out to North Korea on "numerous occasions."
Pyongyang remains unresponsive to U.S. overtures, multiple U.S. officials have noted.
North Korea, instead, staged more than a dozen rounds of missile tests this year.
"We have also sent clear messages of steps that we view as provocative and antithetical to the maintenance of peace and stability. Recently, we've seen a number of steps, military steps and tests that we view as provocative," said Campbell.
The U.S. Department of State has said the North may be preparing to conduct a nuclear test as early as this month.
The U.N. Security Council was set to hold an emergency meeting later in the day in New York at a request from the U.S. to discuss North Korea's recent missile launches that the U.S. says included at least three intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
Campbell said trade will also be a major topic for discussion between Seoul and Washington during Biden's visit to South Korea.
"I believe that one of the things that is increasingly clear to at least our leadership in the United States is that when you talk about what are topics that countries will raise with us, economic and commercial issues are on the table, and we have to have good answers for that," he said when asked about possible topics of discussion between South Korea and the U.S.
"They are important. They're critical for us to lay out what some of our political constraints are, but also what our ambitions for how we want to continue a strong engagement around standard-setting, technology, innovative commercial ties between us and the region (are)," he added.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
17. S. Korea seeks to resume construction of two nuclear reactors in 2025: sources
Good news. If you want sustainable green energy you need to use nuclear power. And this is one of South Korea's comparative advantages.
S. Korea seeks to resume construction of two nuclear reactors in 2025: sources | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, May 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's new administration will seek to resume currently suspended construction of two nuclear reactors in the coastal county of Uljin in 2025, government and industry sources said Wednesday.
In its key policy implementation plan, apparently written last month, President Yoon Suk-yeol's transition team proposed restarting the construction of Shin-Hanul reactors No. 3 and No. 4 in the first half of 2025, according to the sources.
Yoon said multiple times during his election campaign that he would scrap the Moon Jae-in administration's nuclear phase-out drive.
The project to build the two 1,400-megawatt reactors has been on hold since 2017. They had been scheduled to be completed by next year.
(END)
V/R
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Phone: 202-573-8647
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
