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Quotes of the Day:
“It was indicative of the US Army's basic misunderstanding of what special forces really are, that the official lineage of special forces traced back to the first special service force. The OSS was a much more legitimate ancestor of today's Green Berets, but the problem with the US Army recognition of that fact is a syndrome that has wider implications. OSS was a hybrid with strong, political and intelligence flavors.”
- LTG (RET) William P Yarbrough, Southern Pines, North Carolina, December 1982
“You see, we are here, as far as I can tell, to help each other. – our brothers, our sisters, our friends, our enemies. That's to help each other, not hurt each other.” - Stevie Ray Vaughan
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
- Dr. Seuss
Just back from Korea but still travelling for the next week but just in the eastern time zone.
1. Former US Forces Korea commander: “There is a need to review the ‘Far East Command’, which integrates US forces stationed in Korea and Japan.”
2. Senators lament US failure on North Korea denuclearization, look to next steps
3. 38 North Director Jenny Town Testifies Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Regarding Security on the Korean Peninsula
4. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: October (Korea)
5. Iranian and North Korean Hackers Have Gotten Dangerously Good
6. North Korean journalists use status and travel freedom to cash-in
7. Like-minded nations should team up for sanctions against North Korea, experts say
8. North Korea May Launch Military Spy Satellite Between October 10 to 26, Says South Korean Think Tank
9. Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea Is Not Yet Exhausted
10. Opinion: The strange story of how I became a character in a North Korean novel
11. US military changes naming of waters between Korea, Japan in recent naval exercise photo captions
12. NK suspected in Sept. hack of decentralized finance project: report
13. N. Korea slams France for its planned surveillance of illicit maritime activities
14. Satellite imagery highlights 'dramatic' increase in N. Korea-Russia border rail traffic: U.S. monitor
15. New defense minister vows to sternly respond to N.K. threats, bolster alliance with U.S.
1. Former US Forces Korea commander: “There is a need to review the ‘Far East Command’, which integrates US forces stationed in Korea and Japan.”
I missed this article last week. I recommend a Northeast Asia Command in Korea.
I made this recommendation in 2020 in Patrick Cronin's Hudson Report titled "Pathways to Peace: Achieving the Stable Transformation of the Korean Peninsula" https://www.hudson.org/foreign-policy/pathways-to-peace-achieving-the-stable-transformation-of-the-korean-peninsula
Excerpts (pages 70-71):
One of the ways for the United States to look at its future in Northeast Asia is to revise its military, diplomatic, and economic structures in the region. In recent years, Washington has undertaken a pivot or rebalance to Asia, and under the current administration transformed the US Pacific Command into the US Indo-Pacific Command. The latter highlights the importance of the entire region, which has been codified in the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy. However, the Asia-Pacific theater is large and complex. Perhaps it is time to reexamine the Unified Command Plan and consider reorganizing the structure and responsibilities in the theater. The United States should examine the feasibility of establishing a Northeast Asia Command as a new and separate combatant command. This is not a new idea, but it has never been sufficiently examined. Given the importance of the entire region and Northeast Asia within it, a separate combatant command with responsibility for Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, China, and the Russian Far East would enhance US strategic capabilities. However, one argument against this idea will always come to the fore. Whenever a new set of boundaries is established, it will always create gaps and seams. This is especially true when competition with China is considered. But such a recommendation should not be discounted solely for that reason. The analysis may reveal other opportunities and, even if the proposal is not accepted, may reveal other ways to better support US strategic objectives.
While new ideas tend to focus on how to organize the military, the other instruments of power should also be considered. Perhaps it is time to think about creating a diplomatic organization in the region to coordinate all diplomatic activities and all information and influence activities to support US strategic objectives. A US Northeast Asia ambassador with the requisite supporting staff organization would provide the diplomatic and information effort necessary to synchronize the elements of national power. A third organization to support the economic instrument of power could be a Northeast Asia Economic Engagement Center. These three organizations would not only bring the strength of the US instruments of power to the region in a new and dynamic way; they would also send a powerful message of commitment, especially if they were located in the right places. The Northeast Asia Command could be located in Korea, the Northeast Asia ambassador in Japan, and the Northeast Asia Economic Engagement Center in Taiwan. Of course, this would create political challenges. However, such a proposal could also enhance the strength and power of the US alliance structure in the region and provide allies with effective tools to compete with the revisionist powers and defend against the rogue powers as outlined in the National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy. These are merely proposals and may not be at all feasible. However, it is time to creatively reexamine employment of the instruments of power to see if the United States can be more effective in achieving its strategic objectives and maintaining and strengthening its alliances in Northeast Asia.
Former US Forces Korea commander: “There is a need to review the ‘Far East Command’, which integrates US forces stationed in Korea and Japan.”
korea.postsen.com
In line with the strengthening of military cooperation between Korea, the United States, and Japan, the former commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea argued that there was a need to consider a plan to create a tentatively named ‘Far East Command’ by integrating the U.S. Forces in Korea and the U.S. Forces in Japan.
Vincent Brooks, former commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said this while attending the Korea-U.S. Strategy Forum held in Washington on the 25th (local time) hosted by the Korea Foundation (KF) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). It is argued that it is worth discussing the reorganization of the command system related to US forces stationed in Korea and Japan in order to keep pace with the rapidly expanded trilateral military cooperation following the Camp David Summit last month.
In particular, he said that involvement in the military sector between Korea and Japan is increasing, and whether the United Nations Command will serve as a ‘link’ between the US Forces in Korea and Japan as it is now, or “is it time to recreate something like the (tentatively named (US) Far East Command)?” suggested that it be reviewed.
He went one step further, saying that if the Far East Command, which integrates U.S. forces in Korea and Japan, is created, it will be necessary to review whether to place it under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command or to become independent. “In particular, we will be able to focus on China,” he said. The Far East Command is the name of an organization created by the United States immediately after World War II to oversee U.S. forces stationed in Korea and Japan, and was later merged into the Pacific Command (predecessor of the Pacific Command).
Although former Commander Brooks’ comment on this day was made at the level of a personal idea, it reflects the expectations of some in the United States regarding the recent trend of significantly strengthening military cooperation between Korea, the United States, and Japan through regular joint exercises and pledges to consult in times of crisis. It appears to have been reflected. The discussion itself about the possibility of integrating U.S. forces stationed in Korea and Japan may further increase the level of military cooperation between Korea and Japan. He said, “The first mission of the ROK-US alliance is to defend Korea (from threats from North Korea),” but also said, “It is no longer appropriate for the ROK-US alliance to focus only on the Korean Peninsula.”
Vincent Brooks, former commander of U.S. Forces Korea, is speaking at the Korea-U.S. Strategy Forum hosted by the Korea Foundation (KF) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on the 26th (local time). Washington/Correspondent Yujin Kim
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who gave a keynote speech at the forum on the 70th anniversary of the ROK-US alliance, said, “Over the past 70 years, the ROK-US alliance has grown from a core security alliance to an essential global partnership.” Regarding the recent trend of strengthening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, Secretary Blinken said, “It is a dangerous relationship in both directions.” “Russia is desperately trying to obtain materials for the war in Ukraine, and North Korea expects support to advance its missile program.” said. At the same time, he said, “North Korea-Russia military cooperation threatens world peace and security.”
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yoon Byeong-se, who attended as a discussant, also cited the military closeness between North Korea and Russia and the ‘unlimited cooperation’ between China and Russia, saying, “A completely new strategic environment in the Northeast Asia region, a ‘new northern triangle’ (of North Korea, China, and Russia).” “There are signs that this will appear,” he said, adding, “If a Korea-China-Japan summit is held in the near future, it could act as a kind of guardrail to ease tensions in the region.”
The article is in Korean
korea.postsen.com
2. Senators lament US failure on North Korea denuclearization, look to next steps
Why can't we get any testimony on a human rights upfront approach, an information campaign, and the pursuit of a free and unified Korea?
The Senate and House should ask someone like former Ambassador Robert Joseph to testify and provide an alternative perspective on a north Korean strategy
National Strategy for Countering North Korea
https://nipp.org/information_series/robert-joseph-robert-collins-joseph-detrani-nicholas-eberstadt-olivia-enos-david-maxwell-and-greg-scarlatoiu-national-strategy-for-countering-north-korea-no-545-january-23-2023/
Senators lament US failure on North Korea denuclearization, look to next steps
BY FILIP TIMOTIJA - 10/05/23 11:56 AM ET
Senators said Wednesday that the United States had failed in its policy to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and now needed to focus on short-term “risk reduction” as the pariah state ramps up its testing programs and threats.
Last week, North Korea adopted a constitutional amendment effectively doubling down on its commitment to become a nuclear power, which followed leader Kim Jong Un’s moves to accelerate nuclear weapon production.
North Korea has test-fired more than 100 missiles since early 2022, ratcheting up tensions with neighbors South Korea and Japan.
During a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia, Chairman Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said it was time for the U.S. to develop a North Korea strategy that accounts for these developments.
“What we’ve been doing is clearly not successful, at least in achieving the goal as we’ve stated it, which is denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Van Hollen said. “That’s a very worthy goal, but in practice, clearly, we’ve not been able to achieve it.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) shared similar frustration, characterizing it as “whistling past this graveyard” and asking the witnesses to provide some short-term steps for “good outcomes.”
“They keep getting better and better and seem to be totally undeterred, and we just need a new pathway,” Schatz said. “Forget denuclearizing the peninsula, let’s talk about risk reduction in the short-term.”
Victor Sha, a Koreas expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, recommended deploying inspectors in tandem with addressing the sanctions that most frustrated North Korea.
“But if we ever to get back into a negotiation, as a former negotiator, the first steps would be threat reduction, risk reduction, freezing Pyongyang, getting inspectors back in, trying to get into the experimental light water reactor,” Sha said.
“In exchange for things like reducing sanctions, the 2016/2017 sanctions, the general sector sanctions, which were the ones that North Koreans were most concerned about when President Trump met them in Vietnam.”
Trump aggressively pursued diplomacy with Kim during his time in the White House but failed to secure commitments from North Korea to curtail its nuclear ambitions. President Biden has made little public effort to restart negotiations.
During a state visit from South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Biden said that any nuclear attack from Pyongyang “will result in the end of whatever regime were to take such an action.”
Jenny Town, senior fellow at the Stimson Center, told senators that the U.S. should still work towards denuclearizing the entire Korean Peninsula but also consider ways to encourage broader change in North Korean society.
“North Korea’s thinking of denuclearization, on its nuclear program, has fundamentally changed. So whatever hope we had before is even less now. But that does not mean we give up,” she said.
“But in the meantime, I think we really need to define what our other goals with North Korea are. There were trends, for instance, that were promising in North Korea prior to 2017/2018 when negotiations started, and those were the rise of markets, growing socioeconomic space and social change that was happening inside the country.”
She said America’s punitive approach to North Korea was proving counterproductive to U.S. aims of scaling down the nuclear threat, and suggested that sanctions should focus on “dual-use” goods that could be used for building weapons.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) also expressed concern that the U.S. does not have a consistent strategy or policy when it comes to dealing with North Korea.
“What we’ve done so far, from what I can tell, has not worked,” Romney said. He invited the witnesses to share the lessons they had learned from the past diplomatic efforts with North Korea that started in the 1990s.
Sha said the deal the U.S. is pushing — conditional upon North Korea freezing or disbanding its nuclear program — does not align with what Pyongyang is willing to do.
“One of the main lessons I’ve learned from this, it’s not really the modalities of the negotiation or what’s on offer, the problem right now is that the deal that makes the most sense from a U.S. and ally perspective is not the one that the North Koreans want,” Sha said.
Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, suggested that the U.S. should try to focus more on stimulating social and economic change within North Korea, which could open the space for engagement.
“Our perspective on trying to counter their action has kind of inhibited us and, even in policy terms, inhibits us from trying to reach into North Korea and generate the level of debate and even dissent that would actually be necessary for North Korea to change direction,” Snyder said.
Town suggested that any eventual progress on the nuclear issue will require smaller steps that aren’t directly linked to North Korea’s weapons program.
“We need to start building this in steps,” Town added. “We need to start providing the kind of incentives and early wins that would help create some momentum in any negotiation process. We need to be open to talking about issues other than just denuclearization, especially just to rebuild the relationship itself.”
3. 38 North Director Jenny Town Testifies Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Regarding Security on the Korean Peninsula
These experts are of course responding to the Senate request for information so their responses are focused on. However, while their statements are substantive responses to the senator's interests, in their written statements each only makes one reference to human rights and no references to an information campaign or unification.
Hopefully they do cover these issues in their oral testimony but I have not had time to watch the entire hearing. The video is at the link below.
Vicor Cha's written statement: https://www.38north.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Cha_SCFR-Testimony.pdf
Scott Snyder's written statement: https://www.38north.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Snyder_SCFR-Testimony.pdf
Jenny Town's written statement: https://www.38north.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Town_SCFR-Testimony.pdf
38 North Director Jenny Town Testifies Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Regarding Security on the Korean Peninsula
https://www.38north.org/2023/10/38-north-director-jenny-town-testifies-before-the-senate-foreign-relations-committee-regarding-security-on-the-korean-peninsula/
On October 4, 2023, Victor Cha (Senior Vice President for Asia and Korea Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies), Scott Snyder (Senior Fellow for Korea Studies, Council on Foreign Relations) and Jenny Town (Senior Fellow, Stimson Center and Director, 38 North) testified on security challenges on the Korean Peninsula and the importance of the US-ROK alliance before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy. Several topics were addressed, including the impact of the recent meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, denuclearization efforts and China’s role in the region. The discussion also touched on the war in Ukraine and the importance of the Camp David meeting between the US, South Korea and Japan.
4. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: October (Korea)
I have a different, slightly more positive assessment when you factor in the strength of the alliance and the improving trilateral cooperation. But it is easy to only highlight negatives and overlook the failing strategy of Kim Jong Un and the threesome of convenience.
KOREA
https://www.fdd.org/policy-tracker/2023/10/04/biden-administration-foreign-policy-tracker-october/?utm
Anthony Ruggiero
Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program Senior Director and Senior Fellow
Trending Negative
Previous Trend:
Neutral
Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia’s Far East to meet Vladimir Putin to discuss increasing military cooperation to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine. This was Kim’s first trip abroad since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ahead of the visit, U.S. and allied officials told The New York Times that the two leaders planned to discuss a potential deal for supplies of North Korean artillery ammunition and other arms to Russia. Pyongyang allegedly provided a relatively small amount of munitions to Russia earlier in the war, but Moscow seeks larger-scale deliveries to sustain its forces.
The Kim-Putin summit further solidified their relationship. Moscow has routinely violated UN and U.S. sanctions on North Korea. Putin highlighted that Kim showed “great interest in rocket technology,” and that Russia could aid North Korea’s development and launch of satellites. Pyongyang’s second satellite launch this year failed in August.
Kim traveled to Vladivostok after the summit and met Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Shoigu had visited North Korea in July, likely to discuss the potential arms deal. Kim toured Russian military and defense-industrial facilities and received briefings on various Russian weapon systems. Russia and North Korea’s expanding military cooperation could allow Russian scientists and engineers to aid Pyongyang in developing its military.
On September 14, the American, South Korean, and Japanese national security advisors held a call and noted that the Russia-North Korea cooperation violates UN sanctions. The administration should sanction additional individuals, companies, and banks focused on Kim’s revenue generation to force him to decide between his strategic priorities and helping Putin.
5. Iranian and North Korean Hackers Have Gotten Dangerously Good
And I am sure China, Russia, Iran, and north Korea are all learning from each other (as well as the responses of the like minded demo racies).
Iranian and North Korean Hackers Have Gotten Dangerously Good
The countries' improved skills vault them up the list of America's cyber adversaries
Published 10/05/23 09:00 AM ET|Updated 10/05/23 09:39 AM ET
Eric Geller
themessenger.com · October 5, 2023
Iranian and North Korea hackers, once dismissed as unrefined and insignificant, have begun to catch up to their more talented and dangerous counterparts in other authoritarian nations, Microsoft warned on Thursday.
“Iranian and North Korean state actors are demonstrating increased sophistication in their cyber operations, in some cases starting to close the gap with nation-state cyber actors such as Russia and China,” the tech giant’s researchers said in their annual digital defense report.
Iran has recently conducted operations that involve jumping from its targets’ own servers to the cloud platforms that they use, “representing a tangible increase in the maturity of their capabilities,” Microsoft said. The company cited a March incident in which Tehran’s operatives stole digital authentication keys (the virtual equivalent of an office-building entry badge) from a locally hosted server and used them to access the same organization’s cloud environment.
Iranian hackers have also gotten better at quickly exploiting software vulnerabilities after they are announced and demonstrated. One team, which Microsoft calls “Mint Sandstorm” and has linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, would often take several weeks to develop attacks using this information, but beginning this year, Microsoft “observed a notable decrease” in this lag time.
As for North Korea, Microsoft said it observed two groups linked to Pyongyang pulling off unusually advanced attacks. One involved planting malware in software delivered to victims through an IT vendor that the group had compromised — what is known as a supply-chain attack. The other operation involved what Microsoft said was the first known example of two linked supply-chain compromises: The hackers breached one vendor, breached a second vendor that was a customer of the first vendor and then breached customers of that second vendor.
Microsoft’s findings underscore the challenges facing the Biden administration and its allies as they try to develop new strategies for outwitting hackers tied to authoritarian regimes. U.S. officials have long recognized and sought to address Russia and China’s digital prowess, but now they will have to devote more resources to Iran and North Korea, too.
The data in Microsoft’s report, collected between July 2022 and June 2023 from the roughly 1.4 billion Windows computers worldwide and the company’s alerts to hacking targets, paints a clear picture of the intentions of U.S. adversaries and their use of cyberattacks to accomplish those goals.
One of the report’s most unexpected findings is that while the Ukraine war has pushed Russia and North Korea closer together, Pyongyang is still hacking Moscow in an attempt to collect intelligence. In fact, Russia was North Korea’s top target during the reporting period, representing 14% of observed North Korean attacks. (The U.S. and Israel tied for second with 10% each.) These attacks included breaches of a nuclear energy organization, an aerospace research institute and a university, all by different North Korean groups.
Less surprising was Russia’s continued focus on its war in Ukraine. During the reporting period, nearly half of the Russian government’s cyber operations targeted Ukraine, with another 36% aimed at NATO member states. Russia primarily targeted government organizations (which made up 27% of the targets that Microsoft notified), followed by think tanks and nongovernmental organizations (21%).
Microsoft said that three of Moscow’s hacking teams “launched phishing campaigns posing as Western diplomats and Ukrainian officials to gain access to accounts that might contain insights into Western foreign policy on Ukraine, defense plans and intentions, or war crimes investigations.” In addition, one of the groups broke into Microsoft email servers “to steal data from email accounts at energy, defense, and air transportation organizations based in countries that provide logistics or tactical support to Ukraine.”
The report also describes potentially telling overlaps between Russian government hacking operations and splashy propaganda efforts by pro-Kremlin hacktivists. Between Feb. 2 and Feb. 22, a Russian hacking team stole data from one of its targets; on Feb. 23, the pro-Russian “Free Civilian Army” collective posted that data online.
Russia’s cyber strategy in Ukraine has shifted from destructive attacks to espionage, while pro-Russian propagandists are increasingly “trying to take advantage of … Ukraine fatigue among NATO countries and other allies of Ukraine as the war goes on,” Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, told reporters during a briefing.
As for China, it remains focused on the U.S. defense industry, which made up the majority of its American targets (22%), followed by the IT sector (16%) and the communications sector (13%). Microsoft is seeing a “significant increase in activity by Chinese actors gathering intelligence,” Burt said. The uptick comes amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China, with U.S. officials fearing that China may be preparing to invade Taiwan.
Microsoft disclosed in May that Chinese hackers had breached communications infrastructure in Guam, the site of a massive U.S. military base, setting off a frenzied effort by the Biden administration to root out other Chinese malware embedded in America’s vital infrastructure. U.S. officials are worried that Beijing could activate this code to sow chaos and distract the American military during a conflict over Taiwan.
Another notable finding from the report: K-12 schools and universities remain top targets for hackers—including those working for governments. The education sector accounted for 16% of nation-state hacks during the reporting period, more than any other collection of victims, including government agencies. At the regional level, education was also the most targeted sector in the Middle East and North Africa and in Asia and the Pacific. (Think tanks and NGOs were the top target in Europe.)
Microsoft also warned that internet of things (IoT) devices like smart refrigerators and operational technology devices like factory equipment are dangerously insecure. Seventy-eight percent of IoT devices have known vulnerabilities, and 46% of those cannot be patched because they are no longer supported by their manufacturers. Meanwhile, 25% percent of operational-technology devices use old operating systems like Windows 2000 that no longer receive security updates. Both of these trends create bountiful opportunities for hackers seeking easy ways into their victims’ networks.
themessenger.com · October 5, 2023
6. North Korean journalists use status and travel freedom to cash-in
This is something new to me. Can this be exploited? What does this say about information control? We need to explore this more. Thanks to RFA for reporting on this.
North Korean journalists use status and travel freedom to cash-in
Some accept favors for good stories, others trade gold and other commodities.
By Son Hyemin for RFA Korean
2023.10.05
rfa.org
Reporters for North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper are increasingly using their status and freedom to travel for economic gain, obtaining rice and other food in exchange for favorable stories, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.
Some journalists have even gotten involved in buying and selling gold, letting their newsgathering take a back seat, the sources said.
The Rodong Sinmun is an organ of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party and the most widely-read publication in the country. Its reporters are accorded prestige and freedom that most of their fellow citizens are not, and some exploit that to make money that will offset their low salaries.
“Reporters of the Rodong Sinmun, who enjoy high status as the party’s trumpeters, are now looking for subjects that they can do business with … rather than just writing good articles,” a resident of Pyongyang told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
While travel for ordinary citizens is restricted, reporters can go practically anywhere thanks to a government-issued travel pass.
“If you show this travel pass, the authorities will not be able to control you,” a South Pyongan resident said. “Some reporters buy gold in Hoechang County, a gold mining area, under the pretext of reporting. They then make money illegally by selling the gold to China through the border area of Sinuiju.”
Supplementing one’s income
In the past, some Rodong Sinmun reporters were able to offer writing a favorable story to factory or farm managers in exchange for food or goods, sources said.
But ever since the North Korean economy collapsed in the mid-1990s, salaries from government-assigned jobs are nowhere near enough to live on. The 3,500 won (42 US cents) reporters receive per month is enough to buy only 600 grams of rice at the marketplace.
It is now a matter of survival for the reporters to think about how they stand to gain money from a story, rather than whether the story actually serves the public. Some reporters even leave the writing out of it, and use their travel privileges to trade commodities, the sources said.
The path to becoming a Rodong Sinmun reporter is very narrow.
Candidates must be chosen from the best and brightest at top universities, with impeccable academic records, and they must even come from families that have demonstrated unwavering loyalty to the state for several generations.
Two years after they are sent to work at the paper, they must take an exam to become a “level five,” or entry level, reporter. From there they can hope for promotion to level four within a few years. Then for the most skilled reporters, subsequent promotions to levels three, two, and one may follow.
But the life of a reporter at North Korea’s biggest newspaper is anything but glamorous, the resident said.
“The reporter I know is a level four reporter who has been working at the industry department of the Rodong Sinmun for 7 years. But his family is so poor that they don’t even have enough rice and meat soup on holidays,” she said. “Rodong Sinmun reporters receive food rations, but food for their families is not normally distributed.”
She explained that the reporter normally supports his family by traveling through the country to visit factories and receive favors or goods from each factory’s management.
“But these days the factories are not operating properly due to the lack of materials and fuel,” the resident said. “So even if the reporter writes a good article about the factory, like reporting that the factory was self-reliant, it would do nothing to help the reporter’s bottom line.”
The lucrative farming beat
Due to the downturn in the economy, reporters in the factory beat want to switch to the collective farming beat, the resident said.
“They all hope to become agricultural reporters,” she said. “When a reporter from the agriculture department goes out to cover a cooperative farm, the management committee chairperson and work team leaders usually give the reporter about 20 kilograms (44 lbs.) of rice, red pepper powder, and other ingredients in a backpack.”
Reporters also want to be assigned to cover the moneyed elites, because it has become customary for the rich to bribe journalists with US$100 bills in exchange for reports that can cast them in a good image and help expand their business networks, she said.
Those who get involved in trading gold often get consumed by that endeavor, while journalism becomes less important.
“Until a few years ago, reporters tried to gain honor … raising their status by publishing more good articles to promote the party’s policies.” she said. “These days, some reporters worry more about making money than reporting, saying that as their status increases, they only have to write more propaganda articles.”
Reporters who have been recognized for their outstanding contributions as deemed by the party are given the title of People's Reporter and Meritorious Reporter, and in the past, this was seen as the highest honor. But sources said that these days the number of reporters who deviate from the party's ideology is increasing.
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong.
rfa.org
7. Like-minded nations should team up for sanctions against North Korea, experts say
Sanctions are us.
Actually like minded democracies need to team up on a human rights upfront approach, an information campaign, and the pursuit of a free and unified Korea as our three leaders said at the Camp David Summit.
Like-minded nations should team up for sanctions against North Korea, experts say
Stars and Stripes · by David Choi · October 5, 2023
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un departs Pyongyang for Russia in this image issued by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Sept. 12, 2023. (KCNA)
North Korea continues to evade U.N. Security Council sanctions and the United States ought to seek assistance from other governmental organizations to impose additional penalties for the communist regime’s weapons program, experts testified at Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
Sanctions enforcement against Pyongyang “is in desperate need of a revamp,” Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in written testimony to a Senate subcommittee.
Russia and China engage in “back door” trade with North Korea, which benefits from the two countries’ geopolitical rivalry, according to Snyder’s testimony submitted Wednesday to the subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy.
“The United States should pursue the establishment of a broad multilateral sanctions regime among like-minded actors … to interdict illicit North Korean commercial transfers,” Snyder wrote. “By building a coalition of the willing, the United States can sustain some pressure on North Korea while attempting to bypass Chinese and Russian non-cooperation through the pursuit of secondary sanctions …”
Several individual countries target North Korea with sanctions. These include the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia, as well as multinational organizations like the U.N. Security Council and the European Union.
The wide-ranging sanctions restrict those countries and organization members from dealing with North Korean assets, business entities and individuals. The sanctions also seek to curtail the regime’s ballistic missile testing program.
North Korea has defied the ban and so far this year has fired 21 ballistic missiles in 14 separate days of testing. The Supreme People’s Assembly also amended the national constitution last month to “exponentially” boost nuclear weapons production.
Further defying sanctions, North Korea in 2022 also traded commodities such as coal and refined petroleum with China-flagged ships in its exclusive economic zone, according to a Security Council report in March.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, citing U.S. intelligence, accused North Korea of secretly supplying Russia with artillery shells in November for its invasion of Ukraine.
The Security Council in May for the first time since 2006 failed to approve fresh sanctions against North Korea when Russia and China’s ambassadors vetoed the measures.
Victor Cha, a government professor at Georgetown University and a former National Security Council director for Asian Affairs, also testified before the Senate subcommittee Wednesday and recommended the U.S. “seek coordinated responses in the form of sanctions” through the Group of Seven Plus and the Asia-Pacific 4.
The Group of Seven Plus is an intergovernmental organization of 20 countries undergoing extreme hardship or conflict, such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Asia-Pacific 4 consists of four non-NATO countries: Australia, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand.
“It is no longer possible to seek action on North Korea through the U.N. Security Council given Russia and China’s opposition,” Cha told lawmakers in his introductory remarks.
David Choi
David Choi
David Choi is based in South Korea and reports on the U.S. military and foreign policy. He served in the U.S. Army and California Army National Guard. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Stars and Stripes · by David Choi · October 5, 2023
8. North Korea May Launch Military Spy Satellite Between October 10 to 26, Says South Korean Think Tank
Have they received sufficient technical information and assistance from Russia in this short time to overcome their previous failures?
North Korea May Launch Military Spy Satellite Between October 10 to 26, Says South Korean Think Tank | LatestLY
latestly.com · October 6, 2023
Seoul, October 6: North Korea may launch its military spy satellite between October 10-26 following its previous two failed launches, as it will likely take into account key political and diplomatic events, a South Korean state-run think tank said on Friday. The potential launch window, projected by the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) in Seoul, appears to reflect North Korea's key anniversary and China's hosting of an international forum on its Belt and Road initiative later this month, reports Yonhap News Agency.
North Korea will celebrate October 10 as the 78th founding anniversary of its ruling Workers' Party. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also expected to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the margins of the Belt and Road summit. North Korea Again Fails To Launch Spy Satellite Malligyong-1 Into Orbit Due to Error in Emergency Blasting System.
North Korea launched a military spy satellite, named the Malligyong-1, mounted on the Chollima-1 rocket in May and August, but both ended in failure. North Korea has announced it will make a third attempt in October. "Pyongyang is likely to try to launch its spy satellite ahead of South Korea's attempt. The North appears to prioritize delivering a political message with the satellite launch, rather than perfecting technical aspects," the think tank said.
South Korea plans to launch its first military surveillance satellite in November under a project to deploy a total of five such satellites by the mid-2020s. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Russia's Far East last month for talks with Putin, raising concerns about a possible arms deal between the two nations. North Korea Leader Kim Jong Un Dismisses His Military Chief, Calls for War Preparations Ahead of US-South Korea Military Drills.
Experts said North Korea may have agreed to supply ammunition for Russia's war in Ukraine in exchange for Moscow's transfer of weapons technology. A military spy satellite is among the high-tech weapons that the North has vowed to develop, which also include solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles and a nuclear-powered submarine.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 06, 2023 12:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
latestly.com · October 6, 2023
9. Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea Is Not Yet Exhausted
We must conduct nuclear diplomacy in the context of a human rights upfront approach, an information campaign, and the pursuit of a free and unified Korea. And we especially need to conduct nuclear diplomacy as a part of a superior political warfare campaign.
Lastly (or perhaps firstly), we must conduct nuclear diplomacy based on sound assumptions about the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime.
Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea Is Not Yet Exhausted
North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons as of 2023, but this does not spell the dead end of nuclear diplomacy.
The National Interest · by Minseon Ku · October 5, 2023
With the world slowly gathering speed again to the pre-COVID pace, 2023 is proving to be a year of fast-paced changes in world politics as leaders regain the momentum for face-to-face meetings, including Kim Jong-un. Leaders met and produced joint statements, marking the beginning of a possible epochal shift in the regional security order that could lock in North Korea’s current security outlook. South Korea and Japan agreed to move on from historical issues in March. Subsequently, Japan, South Korea, and the US proclaimed the beginning of a new chapter of trilateral relations as they performed their friendship at the Camp David Summit in August, marking the beginning of new (or renewed) tensions as China accused the trio of starting a “new” Cold War. The other “camp” of the new Cold War—China, Russia, and North Korea—has also put on their performance of comradeship, beginning with North Korea’s hosting of a Chinese delegation in commemoration of the end of the Korean War in July to the recent summit between Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin.
North Korea also “normalized” its missile launches and tests but at a quicker pace—its missile test frequency in 2022 hit more than 70, making 2022 the year of greatest frequency. The DPRK strives to perfect its missile delivery capabilities in 2023 by conducting strategic cruise missile tests and launching a solid-fueled ICBM in July. Some of these tests and launches are purportedly in response to US-South Korea’s military exercises, which have been conducted in response to North Korea’s missile tests and launches, resulting in a tit-for-tat, action-reaction. However, this tit-for-tat pattern alone does not indicate North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons.
A more pertinent indicator of North Korea’s unwillingness to relinquish its nuclear weapons is the domestic institutionalization of its nuclear power status, as reflected in two recent moves.
First, Kim Jong Un formally introduced his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, to the world in November 2022 as they visited a missile test launch site. Whether she is his successor is uncertain, given that the North Korean leader allegedly has an older child. What matters is that her public appearance is not only propaganda but is part of Chairman Kim’s effort to pass down the “family-institutional” memory of the Kim regime and the centrality of nuclear weapons and missiles to its longevity. By educating his daughter on North Korea’s achievements, Kim may hope his efforts and those of his ancestors to achieve nuclear power status live on with his children.
Second, in September, North Korea enshrined its nuclear power status in its constitution, further institutionalizing its nuclear state status proclaimed in 2013. Kim justified the institutionalization by securitizing the trilateral military cooperation between Japan, South Korea, and the United States, calling it the “worst actual threat.” This comes after institutionalizing the use of nuclear weapons for preemptive purposes last year. With the enshrinement and gradual elevation of its self-recognition would come North Korea’s demands for international recognition of its nuclear power, not its nuclear weapons.
All these recent movements do not negate the efforts to re-engage North Korea. The nuclear anxiety of 2017 dissipated with efforts to thaw in 2018–2019. During this period of liminality, North Korea flirted with the idea of denuclearization and diplomatic normalization with the United States, leaving the world holding its breath at the crossroads between peace and a nuclear war. The world was close to a relatively more peaceful era. A return to this liminal period remains possible, as 2017 has proven. But as the clock ticks, the bar for getting North Korea to start a dialogue will only rise.
Minseon Ku is a Rosenwald postdoctoral fellow at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College.
Image: Reuters.
The National Interest · by Minseon Ku · October 5, 2023
10. Opinion: The strange story of how I became a character in a North Korean novel
Opinion: The strange story of how I became a character in a North Korean novel | CNN
Opinion by Mike Chinoy
Updated 5:15 AM EDT, Thu October 5, 2023
CNN · October 5, 2023
Editor’s Note: Mike Chinoy is a non-resident senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute and a former Beijing bureau chief and senior Asia correspondent for CNN. His new book is “Assignment China: An Oral History of American Journalists in the People’s Republic.” The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion on CNN.
CNN —
The novel, published in 2018 by a member of the North Korean Writers’ Union named Kim Ryong Yon, is called “Thunderclap.” The heroine is a fictional Korean American CNN correspondent, Byun Sa-hwang. She is preparing to make a reporting trip to North Korea in 2009 and is wrestling with conflicting emotions.
Mike Chinoy
Mike Chinoy
On the one hand, she is desperate to make the trip, as it was “the dying wish left by my father for me to visit the homeland where my ancestors were buried.”
And yet, she worries, “Why would [North] Korea, the most formidable enemy of the US, let in someone like me, an American citizen and reporter?”
For encouragement, she turns to a fellow CNN correspondent. But the character from whom she draws inspiration is not made up. In fact, this character named “Michael Chinoy” is me — making me one of a very small number of real-life Americans who appear with a speaking part in any North Korean novels.
But the fictional me — and the fictional CNN I work for – are depicted in “Thunderclap” in a way designed to show that the network was sympathetic to the North Korean regime — something that was never the case.
I discovered this when I recently received an email from Korea scholar Meredith Shaw, an associate professor affiliated with the University of Tokyo Institute of Social Science, who is writing a book on the treatment of foreigners in North Korean literature.
The novel Shaw pointed me to, for which she did the translation, quotes me as saying, “The greatest strength of Korea is its unique political system, in which the leader and people act as one.”
The fictional me — and the fictional CNN I work for — are depicted in ‘Thunderclap’ in a way designed to show that the network was sympathetic to the North Korean regime — something that was never the case.
Mike Chinoy
To the fictional Byun Sa-hyang, CNN was “a little different” from other Western media, not least because, “Michael Chinoy had been on the reporting team [to cover celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK in 1998] and said that the reality of the country had left a good impression.”
For Sa-hyang, “Michael Chinoy’s impression added fuel to my already burning fire, so much so that my heart felt intolerably heavy. I have to go. I must go!”
As a CNN correspondent, I did indeed make 14 trips to North Korea, and three more after I left the network. I also met the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, grandfather of current dictator Kim Jong Un, three times. Moreover, my CNN camera crew and I were the only Western journalists allowed to visit North Korea to cover the 1998 celebrations.
But the language attributed to me in “Thunderclap” is entirely made up.
North Korea 50th Anniversary: CNN Coverage ‒ 9/9/98
In my live report, which can be seen here, I described North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as being “worshipped like a virtual God” in “a nation where unquestioning loyalty to the supreme leader is drummed in almost literally from birth, where the individual pales into insignificance against the all-pervasive influence of the state.” Moreover, although 1998 was the height of the famine that devastated North Korea, I noted that “we were not able to visit the areas of the country worst hit by the food shortages.”
So what explains this remarkably positive depiction of me and CNN, which stands in sharp contrast to the way other authoritarian systems, such as those of Russia and China, have often demonized the international media? Shaw observes that, somewhat surprisingly, Western media are treated with “something akin to reverence, and foreign journalists are depicted as indefatigable servants of truth.”
This is especially true in relation to CNN, which has had a long and complicated relationship with North Korea. I first visited Pyongyang in 1989. Three years later, cameraman Mitch Farkas and I were the only foreign journalists allowed to accompany the Rev. Billy Graham, who had long been lobbying to visit and whose wife Ruth had attended a missionary-run school in Pyongyang in the 1930s. Graham, who had asked the North Koreans to give CNN visas, was granted a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, and as the reporter with him, I met the Great Leader as well.
In the spring of 1994, with tensions over the North’s nuclear program rising, I was able to visit again, accompanied by a camera crew and CNN International Editor Eason Jordan. This time it was representatives of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church (the “Moonies”) who got us in. Moon himself had visited Pyongyang in 1991, and, in yet another example of Kim Il Sung’s apparent soft spot for religious leaders, had established a cordial understanding with Kim.
In April 1994, the North Koreans asked the Moonies to organize a goodwill delegation of “international VIPs” to Pyongyang to mark Kim’s 82nd birthday. After considerable lobbying, my colleagues and I were given permission to cover the delegation. We were told the decision had been taken personally by the Great Leader’s son, Kim Jong Il.
That visit included a memorable lunch with Kim Il Sung, in which Eason and I, along with about a dozen other guests, were able to ask him about the nuclear program and other issues, as well as my doing the first ever live TV shot from Pyongyang.
Former CNN International Editor Eason Jordan stands behind North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and US President Jimmy Carter in Pyongyang in 1994.
Eason Jordan
Two months later, Jordan and I, along with a camera crew, were the only foreign journalists allowed to cover former President Jimmy Carter’s historic trip. During the trip, Carter used a CNN interview conducted at his Pyongyang guest house to successfully pressure the Clinton administration to resume negotiations and abandon consideration of a military strike on the North’s nuclear facilities.
This kept the door open to talks that produced the October 1994 Agreed Framework deal, under which Pyongyang agreed to freeze production of its plutonium-based nuclear program, in return for an American promise of better relations and agreement to supply the North with proliferation-resistant light water nuclear reactors.
Interestingly, a 1997 North Korean novel called “Eternal Life,” written by North Korean Writers’ Union members Song Sang Won and Baek Bo Heum, recounts the heroic achievements of Kim Il Sung and has a chapter on the Carter visit, which mentions my colleague Eason Jordan by name. Like me, Jordan is depicted sympathetically, including this highly embroidered account of a chat with Kim while waiting for Carter to arrive:
“How are you, Mr. Jordan?” At the sound of his name called by such a booming, hearty voice, Jordan looked up from his equipment and froze, his eyes instantly bulging out.
“Ah, Premier!”
“Bingo!” Comrade Kim Il Sung stuck out his hand. Jordan rushed over to shake it.
“I’ve been looking forward to this,” Comrade Kim Il Sung added cheerfully. “Have you been well, old friend?”
“Fine. And you?”
“As you can see, I am the picture of health.” Laughing heartily, he continued, “Mr. Jordan, you can’t keep coming here only for formal events. You must come again as my personal guest. Bring your wife and kids this fall.”
Jordan noted in an email that this account “appears based on official records and eavesdropping, while other bits are enlightened speculation and wishful thinking.”
In fact, less than a month later, Kim Il Sung died of a heart attack. But when we saw him, he certainly looked healthy, and we did have several cordial exchanges.
To Korea scholar Shaw, “the repeated mention of Eason Jordan by name and his warm personal interactions with the Leader indicate that he, like Mike Chinoy, is someone whose reporting did not offend the regime enough to override their gratification at the prestige afforded by CNN’s presence.”
One of the most fascinating points in analysing these books is that it appears the authors were given access to some official records — perhaps even transcripts of monitored phone calls — on which to base at least part of their narrative. Indeed, in “Eternal Life,” there is a purported verbatim transcript, presumably from a tapped phone line, of a call from Carter to Clinton administration officials. The former president did in fact make several calls on an open line from the presidential guest house in Pyongyang, although whether Carter actually used the language attributed to him or whether the North Koreans made it up remains unknown.
There is little information about the writers or how these two novels were vetted or written. Although published more than a quarter century ago, “Eternal Life” only became available on North Korea websites in the past decade. And a digital version of “Thunderclap” only appeared last year. “Thunderclap” author Kim Ryong Yon is credited for other novels featuring North Korea’s leaders, and is believed to be a member of an elite organization called the 4.15 Writer’s Group (the date refers to Kim Il Sung’s birthday). Paek Bo Hum and Song Sang Won are now both in their 80s and have a long literary history, including stories featuring Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Within North Korea, according to Shaw, “Eternal Life” is considered one of the country’s most important novels.
However they were assembled, the references to me, Jordan, and CNN indicate how eager the North Korean regime has been to show its own people that it is respected and admired around the world. Moreover — and somewhat surprisingly — at least the scenes dealing with us do so in a way that is unusually non-polemical in a system known for its extreme, often comically overblown rhetoric.
Since everything North Koreans are allowed to read is tightly controlled, people there, apart from a few officials, would almost certainly be unaware of the more critical reports which I also filed on my various trips. This is equally true for reports that other CNN correspondents who have visited the country in more recent years, like Will Ripley, also did.
Moreover, having portrayed the network sympathetically and as having some kind of special relationship with Kim Il Sung, CNN would be in what one former US North Korea intelligence analyst described as a “sacred spot.” That may help explain CNN’s unusual access over the years, and the more recent positive literary portrayal.
As Shaw notes, what is fascinating is how the North Korean regime, in literature created for domestic readers, “intentionally maintains the fiction that CNN, a major international news organization, is impressed with North Korea,” presumably to boost its own public image.
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Thus, as soon as the character Byun Sa-hyang arrives in Pyongyang, she rushes to file, worrying that otherwise, “American media might start spreading ridiculous slander like a CNN reporter had been detained in North Korea.” Her first report shows “the streets of Pyongyang with kindergarten children laughing and playing happily.” She also includes an almost poetic description: “The sky in Pyongyang is exceptionally clear and blue. In this sky are flying not fierce hawks, but peaceful doves.”
The novel then describes me, having watched her report, sending her a message: “Sa-hyang, do not waver, do not give in. Pyongyang is an impressive city. Let’s meet in Beijing when you return. Michael Chinoy.”
But while “Thunderclap” describes Sa-hyang walking around Pyongyang on her own, without a government guide, as she decides to “see and feel with her own eyes and skin, and tell the reality of North Korea,” the actual reality for correspondents, is, of course, almost precisely the opposite.
Indeed, on my many trips to North Korea, I was regularly prevented by government minders from leaving my hotel, even for a jog, and there were more than a few occasions when our requests to stop and film were denied.
So, as Meredith Shaw observed, “Thunderclap” “takes every single thing people have said about covering North Korea and basically says — it’s not true. The scenes of Byun Sa-hyang exploring Pyongyang read like a masterclass in gaslighting against real journalists’ recurrent complaints.”
CNN · October 5, 2023
11. US military changes naming of waters between Korea, Japan in recent naval exercise photo captions
I remember when we had to distribute all the new paper maps in WGS 84 in the 1990s and Korean generals chastised me for the use of the Sea of Japan and the Yalu River (Korean name Amnok Gang)
US military changes naming of waters between Korea, Japan in recent naval exercise photo captions
The Korea Times · October 5, 2023
The USS Robert Smalls cruiser, left, South Korean Navy's Yulgok Yi I destroyer, right, South Korean Navy's Dae Jo Yeong destroyer, rear left, combat support ship Cheonji and the USS Shoup destroyer, rear right, sail during a joint naval exercise in Korea'sEast Sea, Sept. 25. Courtesy of the Ministry of Defense
The U.S. military has changed the naming of the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan in photo captions describing the venue for last week's bilateral naval drills with South Korea, its website showed Thursday.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command had initially used the Japanese name for the body of waters, the "Sea of Japan," in the captions on the three-day exercise that ended last Wednesday although South Korea calls it the "East Sea."
The unit's website showed the captions have since been changed to read "At Sea."
Seoul's defense ministry said it has made requests to the U.S. military to change the naming of the waters in its published material whenever it is marked as the Sea of Japan.
"A change was requested again this time, and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command made the change," a ministry official said. "There are cases in the past where the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command changed the Sea of Japan naming due to our request."
Many photo captions previously published by the U.S. unit referencing the East Sea notate it as the Sea of Japan, while some describe it as "waters to the east of the Korean Peninsula." (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · October 5, 2023
12. NK suspected in Sept. hack of decentralized finance project: report
NK suspected in Sept. hack of decentralized finance project: report
The Korea Times · October 7, 2023
Gettyimagesbank
North Korea is suspected of being behind a massive breach of a decentralized finance project last month, which led to a loss of up to $150 million, a senior White House official was quoted as saying Friday.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, made the remarks, saying the hack into Mixin Network has "some of the same attributes of past North Korean attacks."
"The tradecraft appears to be the same kind of tradecraft we've seen from the DPRK previously," the official was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
She hinted that the United States would seek to intervene to recover the stolen funds if possible, according to the news outlet.
The suspicion against the North comes amid growing concerns that Pyongyang has been engaging in cryptocurrency thefts to extract funds to help bankroll its weapons programs amid deepening economic hardships under international sanctions. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · October 7, 2023
13. N. Korea slams France for its planned surveillance of illicit maritime activities
This is important pressure. It is a threat to the regime. We need more of this especially if we desire to conduct a strategic strangulation campaign.
N. Korea slams France for its planned surveillance of illicit maritime activities
The Korea Times · October 6, 2023
A330 multi-role tanker transport of France takes off at an air base in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, July 25, in this photo released by the South Korean Air Force. Newsis
A North Korean official denounced France on Friday over its plan to monitor North Korea's possible illicit maritime activities, calling it an "extremely foolish act of plunging itself into a bottomless pit."
Ryu Kyong-chol, a researcher at Pyongyang's Korea-Europe Association, made the criticism in response to Japan's announcement that France will engage in monitoring and surveillance of illicit maritime activities this month, including ship-to-ship transfers by North Korean-flagged vessels, by using an aircraft from a U.S. airbase on Okinawa.
"Such irresponsible behavior of France to interfere in the situation of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia, where interests of regional powers are inextricably intertwined, is no more than an extremely foolish act of plunging itself into a bottomless pit," Ryu said in the English-language article carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
France, one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, has engaged in the monitoring and surveillance activities in waters near the Korean Peninsula every year since 2019 to help implement the Security Council sanctions resolutions on North Korea.
North Korea is banned from transporting fuel and other commodities via ships under the sanctions imposed in response to its nuclear and missile programs. Pyongyang is believed to have engaged in constant illicit ship-to-ship transfers to evade sanctions.
Mu Bong 1, a North Korean oil tanker with a record of sanction violations, was briefly spotted in waters east of the Chinese Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan on Monday, the Voice of America (VOA) reported, spawning suspicion of illicit maritime activities by Pyongyang.
The researcher warned that France should immediately refrain from what he called "anachronistic gunboat diplomacy," saying the situation on the Korean Peninsula is "inching close to the brink of a thermo-nuclear war" that will be made "more complicated and dangerous."
In August, Pyongyang denounced France for holding its first combined air exercise with South Korea, decrying it as an "undisguised military provocation" threatening the North's security. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · October 6, 2023
14. Satellite imagery highlights 'dramatic' increase in N. Korea-Russia border rail traffic: U.S. monitor
Should be a surprise to no one.
Satellite imagery highlights 'dramatic' increase in N. Korea-Russia border rail traffic: U.S. monitor | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · October 7, 2023
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- This week's satellite imagery showed a "dramatic" surge in rail traffic along the border between North Korea and Russia, a U.S. monitor said Friday, amid concerns about possible arms transfers following last month's summit between the two countries.
Citing imagery captured on Thursday, Beyond Parallel, a project of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, reported an "unprecedented" number of freight railcars totaling roughly 73 in number at Tumangang Rail Station in Rason, a North Korean border city with Russia.
The level of traffic is far greater than what the project has observed at the facility during the past five years, even compared to pre-pandemic levels, it said.
The development comes in the wake of a rare summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin last month. The summit raised speculation that it might have led to a deal feared to help advance North Korea's weapons development and in return prop up Russia's war in Ukraine.
"Given that Kim and Putin discussed some military exchanges and cooperation at their recent summit, the dramatic increase in rail traffic likely indicates North Korea's supply of arms and munitions to Russia," the project said in a report.
"However, the extensive use of tarps to cover the shipping crates/containers and equipment makes it impossible to conclusively identify what is seen at the Tumangang Rail Facility," it added.
On Thursday, broadcaster CBS reported that the North began transferring artillery to Russia as Moscow continues its war in Ukraine.
Seoul and Washington have criticized any possible transfer of arms between Pyongyang and Moscow, warning they would flout multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, which Russia itself voted for.
This image, captured from footage of North Korea's state-run Korean Central Television on Sept. 14, 2023, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin holding a summit at Russia's Vostochny spaceport the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · October 7, 2023
15.
Excerpts:
Shin said his ministry will work to combine the nuclear capacity of the U.S. and the advanced conventional armed forces of South Korea to beef up deterrence against North Korea.
"I will beef up ROK-U.S. joint drills and exercises and improve the two countries' cooperation in military science technology," he added.
Shin, a ruling People Power Party lawmaker who retired as a three-star Army general, is known for his expertise in defense policy and military operations.
He served as the head of the defense ministry's Policy Planning Bureau from 2011 to 2012 before leading the Joint Chiefs of Staff's (JCS) Chief Directorate of Operations from October 2013 to April 2015.
Shin capped off his military career as the JCS vice chairman before his discharge in January 2016.
New defense minister vows to sternly respond to N.K. threats, bolster alliance with U.S. | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Na-young · October 7, 2023
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's new defense minister Shin Won-sik said Saturday he will sternly respond to North Korea's provocations and strengthen security cooperation with the United States.
Shin made the pledge in his inaugural speech as he took office upon President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval of his appointment earlier in the day.
"In case of North Korean provocation, I will take action immediately, strongly and until the end to shred the enemy's will and capacity to make further threats," Shin said.
"I will create a defense posture that overwhelms the enemy. Punishment is containment, and containment is peace."
Defense Minister nominee Shin Won-sik attends a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly in Seoul in this file photo taken Sept. 27, 2023. (Yonhap)
Shin also stressed the importance of the Seoul-Washington alliance and the joint defense system.
"The Yoon Suk Yeol government opened a new page of the 70-year long ROK-U.S. alliance through the Washington Declaration and the launch of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) this year," Shin said. ROK stands for Republic of Korea, the official name of South Korea.
South Korea and the U.S established the NCG under the Washington Declaration issued by Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden during their summit in Washington in April to strengthen the credibility of U.S. extended deterrence.
Extended deterrence refers to the U.S. commitment to defending an ally using all of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons.
Shin said his ministry will work to combine the nuclear capacity of the U.S. and the advanced conventional armed forces of South Korea to beef up deterrence against North Korea.
"I will beef up ROK-U.S. joint drills and exercises and improve the two countries' cooperation in military science technology," he added.
Shin, a ruling People Power Party lawmaker who retired as a three-star Army general, is known for his expertise in defense policy and military operations.
He served as the head of the defense ministry's Policy Planning Bureau from 2011 to 2012 before leading the Joint Chiefs of Staff's (JCS) Chief Directorate of Operations from October 2013 to April 2015.
Shin capped off his military career as the JCS vice chairman before his discharge in January 2016.
nyway@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Na-young · October 7, 2023
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
| 
