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Quotes of the Day:
"The educated man, particularly the educated leader, copes with the fact that life is not fair. The problem for education is not to teach people how to deal with success but how to deal with failure. And the way to deal with failure is not to invent scapegoats or to lash out at your followers. Moreover, a properly educated leader, especially when harassed and under pressure, will know from his study of history and the classics that circumstances very much like those he is encountering have occurred from time to time on this earth since the beginning of history. He will avoid the self-indulgent error of seeing himself in a predicament so unprecedented, so unique, as to justify his making an exception to law, custom, or morality in favor of himself. The making of such exceptions has been the theme of public life throughout much of our lifetimes. For 20 years, we’ve been surrounded by gamesmen unable to cope with the wisdom of the ages. They make exceptions to law and custom in favor of themselves because they chose to view ordinary dilemmas as unprecedented crises."
-from Moral Leadership
By Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale, U. S. Navy (Retired)
September 1980 Proceedings Vol. 106/9/931
“Every moment I shape my destiny with a chisel. I am the carpenter of my own soul.”
- Marcus Aurelius
“A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.”
- Gian Carlo Menotti
1. Delegations from 22 countries to take part in Korean War armistice ceremony this week
2. Tourist who saw US soldier sprint to North Korea initially thought it was a stunt
3. An American Prisoner Gives North Korea A Bargaining Chip
4. A new security order may rise with ‘Northeast Asia Trio’
5. UNC makes contact with North over U.S. soldier: Report
6. The Unintended Consequences of NATO's Drift Toward Asia
7. Unification Ministry to Be Trimmed down
8. N.Korean Economy Now Totally Dependent on China
9. North Korea arrests soldier guarding Chinese border for meth use
10. US Signals Possible Action If China Fails To Rein In North Korea's Military Moves
11. Taiwan VP’s US Transit to Test Already Tense China-US Ties
12. North Korea Launches Cruise Missiles Into Yellow Sea
13. Kim Jong-un 'ready to test nuke' but experts fear site can't contain radiation
14. President Yoon reviews special pardon for Liberation Day
15. Unification Ministry to downsize inter-Korean dialogue units
16. She’s a Smash Hit in Latin America, Even if Her Korean Mom Disapproves
1. Delegations from 22 countries to take part in Korean War armistice ceremony this week
This is an important week. Not many veterans remain from the Korean War. We must honor them and all of the fallen.
I urge everyone to reflect on the 1953 Armistice and its call for a political solution to the unnatural division of the Korean peninsula.
We should commit to a new strategy based on the strategic clarity that President Yoon and President Biden gave us on April 26, 2023:
"The two presidents are committed to build a better future for all Korean people and support a unified Korean Peninsula that is free and at peace."
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/26/leaders-joint-statement-in-commemoration-of-the-70th-anniversary-of-the-alliance-between-the-united-states-of-america-and-the-republic-of-korea/
We should commit to a new strategy based on an understanding of the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime and its intent to dominate he peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State.
Now is the time to commit to a new strategy, a political warfare strategy, that consists of a human rights upfront approach, a comprehensive information campaign, and the pursuit of a free and unified Korea: A united Republic of Korea (UROK).
As a reminder there will be an Armistice ceremony at the Korean War Memorial on the Mall on July 27th. Details are below.
Delegations from 22 countries to take part in Korean War armistice ceremony this week | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · July 23, 2023
SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Government delegations from 22 countries that supported South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War will take part in a ceremony this week to mark the 70th anniversary of the signing of the conflict's armistice, the veterans ministry said Sunday.
The delegations will attend the event in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Thursday to commemorate the anniversary of the armistice that ended fighting in the war, according to the ministry.
The countries sent troops or other forms of support to help South Korea during the war against North Korean and Chinese troops. They are the United States, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand and Turkey.
Delegates from 14 countries, including New Zealand Governor-General Cindy Kiro and Xavier Bettel, prime minister of Luxembourg, will arrive in the country this week for the ceremony, while those from eight others will send their ambassadors, according to the ministry.
The government delegations will first visit the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone on Tuesday before heading to Busan the next day, where various events, including a meeting of veterans ministers, will take place.
"We will deliver our heartfelt thanks to the 22 countries and veterans that took part in the war and offered a helping hand in difficult times," Minister Park Min-shik was quoted as saying.
An image of South Korea's flag is displayed across Lotte World Tower in southern Seoul to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War in this photo provided by the veterans ministry on July 21, 2023. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · July 23, 2023
70th Commemoration Ceremony of the Korean Armistice Agreement
https://koreanwarvetsmemorial.org/event/70th-anniversary-the-korean-war-remembrance-ceremony/#:
On July 27, 2023, the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement which was intended to bring a complete cessation of hostilities of the Korean War.
This milestone 70th Commemorative Ceremony will honor all Korean War Veterans and their families from the 22 UNC Member States who participated in the Korean War – and 18 of them are still represented in South Korea.
This historic event will take place at the Korean War Veterans Memorial located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, July 27, 2023 at 5:00 P.M.
The ceremony offers an opportunity to express gratitude for those who served in the Korean War to defend democracy and the people of South Korea.
We hope you’ll join us on July 27th at the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
Please let us know if you plan to attend by clicking on the below RSVP button.
RSVP
Can’t attend in person? Watch our live stream of the ceremony on our YouTube Channel.
Media Advisory: MEDIA ADVISORY – 70th Commemorative Ceremony Korean War
2. Tourist who saw US soldier sprint to North Korea initially thought it was a stunt
View from an actual eyewitness.
AP · July 19, 2023
Tourist who saw US soldier sprint to North Korea initially thought it was a stunt
AP · July 19, 2023
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Sarah Leslie thought she was witnessing a stunt when she saw an American soldier start sprinting toward North Korea.
Leslie and her father, tourists from New Zealand, were part of a group that left Tuesday morning from Seoul to visit the Demilitarized Zone that divides South and North Korea.
Pvt. Travis King was among the group of 43 tourists, Leslie told The Associated Press, although he was casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and she had no idea at the time that he was a soldier, or in legal trouble.
King, 23, was a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division who had served nearly two months in a South Korean prison for assault. He was released on July 10 and was supposed to travel home Monday to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced additional military discipline and discharge from the service.
Leslie said her tour group went a step further than many by visiting the Joint Security Area in the village of Panmunjom, allowing tourists to effectively step on North Korean soil inside one of the buildings, which are jointly held. To get on such a tour, she said, required submitting their passports and getting permits in advance.
The group left Seoul by bus in the early morning, and Leslie noticed that King was traveling alone and didn’t seem to talk to others on the tour. At one point, she said, he bought a DMZ hat from a gift shop.
The tour was nearing its end Tuesday afternoon — the group had just walked out of the building and were milling about taking photos — when she saw King running “really fast.”
“I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like a TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do,” Leslie said. “But then I heard one of the soldiers shout, ‘Get that guy.’”
Leslie said the command was shouted by an American soldier, one of a group that patrols the area along with South Korean troops.
But the soldiers didn’t have time to respond. She said that after running about 10 meters (30 feet) down a narrow passageway between the distinctive blue buildings, King was over the border and then disappeared from sight. It was all over in a few seconds.
Leslie said she didn’t see any people on the North Korean side. The tour group had been told earlier the North Koreans there had been lying low since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After King ran, she said, the soldiers hustled all the tourists into a building and then took them to an information center to give statements. She said many of the tourists, including her father, hadn’t seen King run but a soldier explained the events to them.
Here’s the latest for Wednesday July 19th: Defense Sec. Austin says U.S. soldier likely in North Korean custody; Trump says he received Justice Department target letter; Phoenix sets new heat record; Tropical storm closes in on Hawaii.
“People couldn’t really quite believe what had happened,” Leslie said. “Quite a few were really shocked. Once we got on the bus and got out of there we were all kind of staring at each other.”
Leslie, a lawyer from New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, said she’d long had an interest in the Koreas after studying politics at university and seeing South Korean movies.
She said she found it hard to understand why King would head to North Korea.
“I just didn’t think anyone would ever want to do that,” she said.
AP · July 19, 2023
3. An American Prisoner Gives North Korea A Bargaining Chip
It may take awhile for the regime to decide how best to exploit PV2 King.
Conclusion:
Today there are renewed tensions with North Korea. Its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) blast occurred on July 12. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister, issued a threat on July 17 that the ICBM was “just a beginning of the [North]’s already-launched military offensive.” So, the odds are that North Korea will continue its provocations and release King in return for concessions — political and monetary. Pyongyang will not let a U.S. hostage situation go to waste.
An American Prisoner Gives North Korea A Bargaining Chip
Published 07/22/23 10:00 AM ET
Sung-Yoon Lee
themessenger.com · July 22, 2023
An unexpected advantage has befallen North Korea in its standoff against the United States: a U.S. Army soldier in its custody. On July 18, Pvt. Travis King, during a group tour of Panmunjom, the heavily fortified inter-Korean border village, broke away from the group and bolted into the North.
King was in trouble with the law. In recent months, he had served time in South Korean detention facilities, accused of assault and destruction of property. Facing additional disciplinary action in the United States, King instead chose North Korea. He is not the first troubled U.S. soldier to seek haven in North Korea, but this is the first defection by an active-duty serviceman in more than 40 years. And it comes at an inopportune time for the United States and South Korea. While the two nations seek to bolster their alliance to cope with the North’s growing missile and nuclear threats, Pyongyang has been given a free hand to wage hostage diplomacy.
As in the past, North Korean authorities will try to get the defector to denounce the United States and trumpet the virtues of his captors. They will assume that even though King is an intentional deserter, Washington will still seek to win his release — even at a cost.
In previous cases of U.S. nationals entering North Korea without authorization, Pyongyang has accused the person of espionage or anti-state “hostile acts,” such as slandering North Korea’s leadership or preaching Christianity. Pyongyang typically releases such hostages after several months or, at times, years of detainment — with the notable exception of Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia student who was tortured and detained for 14 months before being released brain-dead.
At the time of Warmbier’s detainment on Jan. 2, 2016, North Korea was gearing up for a series of provocations, including a nuclear test conducted just days later and a long-range missile test the next month. Pyongyang must have regarded a U.S. hostage as an extra level of security as it was preparing for a rapid expansion of its weapons of mass destruction programs throughout the year. Similarly, the North this time may regard the potential for King’s release as a security blanket against a forceful U.S. response to its next big provocation — perhaps a nuclear test above the Pacific, as it has intimated in the past.
South Korean soldiers stand guard in the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea on March 03, 2023.Jeon Heon-Kyun-Pool/Getty Images
A U.S. hostage has often burnished Pyongyang’s political agenda.
In August 1996, Evan Hunziker of Tacoma, Wash., swam across the Yalu River from China into North Korea and was promptly detained. That November, then-Rep. Bill Richardson visited North Korea and was able to win Hunziker’s release. Pyongyang demanded $100,000 in fees but settled for $5,000, paid by the detainee’s family. During Hunziker’s detainment, North Korea dispatched 26 commandos to South Korea by submarine and tensions ran high in the face of a large-scale manhunt and gunfire for 49 days.
Then, on Dec. 25, 2009, Robert Park, a Korean American missionary, crossed the frozen Tumen River into North Korea to try to win the release of political prisoners. He was reportedly tortured before his release the next February. Earlier in 2009, North Korea had conducted its second nuclear test, after its first long-range missile test — while President Obama, on his first visit to Europe as president, was about to give his first major foreign policy speech about a world without nuclear weapons.
In March 2009, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two U.S. journalists, had been captured by North Korean border guards along the Tumen River. They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. Then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il demanded that former President Bill Clinton — and no one else — come to Pyongyang in return for their release. Doug Band, Clinton’s top aide, arranged the trip, borrowing a personal plane and bringing $100,000 in cash, just in case. Clinton’s delegation made the trip in early August that year and spent one night in Pyongyang. They declined Kim Jong Il’s invitation to watch a stadium performance with him, involving 100,000 performers — perhaps the biggest spectacle in the world. Still, the hostages were released the next day and Band ended up paying almost all of the cash for an “airport use fee.”
In January 2010, while Robert Park was still imprisoned, Aijalon Gomes, a Boston man and fellow missionary, crossed into North Korea to plead for Park’s release. Gomes was sentenced to eight years of hard labor. Former President Jimmy Carter flew to Pyongyang in late August that year and was able to win Gomes’ release.
In March 2010, North Korea torpedoed a South Korean navy ship, the Cheonan. That November, North Korea bombed Yeonpyeong-do, an inhabited island, killing four South Korean nationals. Also that fall, North Korea mentioned current leader Kim Jong Un for the first time by name — as a four-star general — before rolling him out on the reviewing stand next to his father at a military parade on the Communist Party’s Foundation Day. Pyongyang’s release of the four U.S. hostages over the course of 14 months was likely calculated to soften the blow of its armed attacks and provocations.
Today there are renewed tensions with North Korea. Its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) blast occurred on July 12. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister, issued a threat on July 17 that the ICBM was “just a beginning of the [North]’s already-launched military offensive.” So, the odds are that North Korea will continue its provocations and release King in return for concessions — political and monetary. Pyongyang will not let a U.S. hostage situation go to waste.
Sung-Yoon Lee, Ph.D., is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is the author of “The Sister: The Extraordinary Story of Kim Yo Jong, the Most Powerful Woman in North Korea.” Follow him on Twitter @sungyoonlee1.
themessenger.com · July 22, 2023
4. A new security order may rise with ‘Northeast Asia Trio’
"Northeast Asia Trio." I had not heard that one before, but perhaps if President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida have any musical abilities President Yoon could lead them in song and they can be a political "Kinsgston Trio" playing Korean, Japanese, and American folk music like the original trio.
A new security order may rise with ‘Northeast Asia Trio’
donga.com
Posted July. 22, 2023 07:55,
Updated July. 22, 2023 07:55
A new security order may rise with ‘Northeast Asia Trio’. July. 22, 2023 07:55. .
The ROK-the US-Japan trilateral summit is scheduled on Aug. 18 to convene at Camp David, the presidential retreat nestled in the vicinity of Washington, DC. For the first time, the leaders of South Korea, the United States, and Japan will convene a standalone tripartite meeting, diverging from the traditional rendezvous at international conferences. According to the Presidential Office, these leaders will "engage in comprehensive discussions regarding the crucial agendas of forming a unified front against North Korean nuclear threats and enhancing cooperation within global supply chains." Concurrently, the North has threatened that the docking of a U.S.’s ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) in Busan could potentially "trigger the application of our nuclear force laws."
Ordinarily, the leaders of South Korea, the U.S., and Japan encounter each other during international forums. However, this unique gathering signifies the inception of an enhanced phase of trilateral cooperation. President Joe Biden's gesture of inviting the South Korean and Japanese leaders to Camp David, a site rich with diplomatic history, is interpreted as a deliberate strategy to amplify the significance of this trilateral dialogue. Rumors also swirl around the potential emergence of a new trilateral consultative mechanism - the "Northeast Asia Trio," indicating an ambition to transcend the boundaries of conventional summit meetings for the three nations.
Historically, the trilateral collaboration among these countries has endured, albeit primarily in the form of two parallel, U.S.-centered bilateral alliances, due to ongoing rivalry and discord between South Korea and Japan. However, with North Korea's nuclear threats reaching alarming heights, the urgency for trilateral security cooperation has correspondingly escalated. A robust foundation has been laid by the significant recent progress in South Korea-Japan bilateral relations, underscoring the dire need for the "South Korea-U.S.-Japan Trio" alliance primarily triggered by North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.
Recently, North Korea brazenly demonstrated its missile prowess around the time of the inaugural US-ROK Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) meeting. Two years ago, North Korea commenced deploying tactical nuclear weapons, legalized pre-emptive nuclear strikes last year, and is now threatening to execute a pre-emptive nuclear attack in retaliation to the docking of the U.S.’s SSBN in Busan. As the severity of these threats escalates, the alliances invariably strengthen. North Korea's intensifying provocations and threats only serve to invite more US strategic assets into the arena, including strategic bombers, aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines.
The Biden administration may aspire to evolve the "ROK-US-Japan Trio" into a security consultative mechanism to counterbalance China, following the model of the "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad)" between the U.S., Japan, India, and Australia, and the nuclear submarine alliance 'AUKUS' between the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. China is likely to react sensitively to this development, potentially stirring tensions within South Korea-China relations. In this strategic realignment, some friction is inevitable, and the test of diplomatic competence lies in its mitigation. South Korea faces a formidable challenge: constructively engaging in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, whilst maintaining harmony with its largest trading partner.
한국어
donga.com
5. UNC makes contact with North over U.S. soldier: Report
The Sunday Times (UK) article that this report references is behind a firewall so I can only access and post the first couple paragraphs (See below). I think the Sunday Times may be overstating and misstating things perhaps first sentence:
The United Nations has begun negotiations with North Korea about the return of an American soldier who fled across the border last week, according to a British general serving with the UN in South Korea.
I think the Joongang Ilbo's reporting below is a little more measured, saying that contact has been made. I think it is way premature to say that the "United Nations" is conducting negotiations.
Sunday
July 23, 2023
dictionary + A - A
Published: 23 Jul. 2023, 18:15
Updated: 23 Jul. 2023, 18:19
UNC makes contact with North over U.S. soldier: Report
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/07/23/national/northKorea/Korea-United-Nations-Command-UNC/20230723181546389.html
British Lt. General Andrew Harrison, right, who serves as the deputy commander of the United Nations Command, guides South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup through the Joint Security Area (JSA) on April 25. [DEFENSE MINISTRY]
The United Nations Command (UNC) has made contact with the North Korean military regarding the U.S. Army private who dashed into the North at the Joint Security Area (JSA) last week, according to the London-based Sunday Times on Saturday.
The UNC is responsible for maintaining the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean Peninsula, including the JSA, where U.S. Private Second Class Travis King bolted into North Korea.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, British Lt. General Andrew Harrison, who serves as the UNC's deputy commander, said the command made contact with the Korean People’s Army (KPA), the North’s military, via the “pink phone” hotline, so called after a pink phone on the South Korean side of the JSA that links the UNC with the KPA.
“We don’t know the location of Private King at the moment, but we are in communication with the Korean People’s Army, and we are maintaining, through the joint security area, constant dialogue with the KPA. That link is open and is alive,” Harrison told the Sunday Times in an interview in Seoul.
But Harrison also declined to offer further details, saying, “I don’t really want to go into the detail of that discussion because, in the end, the primary concern is the welfare of that individual.”
Harrison’s interview with the Sunday Times marks the first confirmation that talks are ongoing with the North over King.
A U.S. military report leaked to the online outlet The Messenger on Wednesday included details suggesting King was a flight risk months before he crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) on Tuesday.
The U.S. Army document, known as a “serious incident report” in the U.S. Defense Department, said King was originally held in a South Korean facility for three incidents that occurred in September and October and scheduled to be returned to the United States on Monday to face disciplinary action.
But before his two-month detention, he booked two tours to the DMZ. He missed the first tour, but he was able to confirm his reservation for the second one through Hana Tours ITC shortly after he was released from confinement, the report said.
Although King was taken to Incheon International Airport on July 17 by South Korean and U.S. military escorts, who were only able to accompany him up to the entrance of the customs area, he did not board his flight and checked into his DMZ tour the following day.
His apparently premeditated dash into the North at the JSA comes at a time of high tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
On Saturday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the North fired several cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea at around 4:00 a.m.
The cruise missile launches came three days after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, the same day that the U.S. nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine USS Kentucky arrived in Busan.
North Korea warned on Thursday that the submarine’s deployment to South Korea may fulfill the regime’s self-proclaimed legal conditions for using nuclear weapons, which stipulate Pyongyang will “automatically and immediately” launch a nuclear strike if the “command and control system” of its nuclear forces is in danger of an attack.
The cruise missile launches also took place a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that the North’s “repeated provocations” has only served to draw Seoul, Washington and Tokyo closer together in security cooperation.
The U.S. state secretary also said he warned his Chinese counterparts during his recent trip to Beijing that the United States would continue to “take steps that aren’t directed at China, but that China probably won’t like” if Beijing doesn’t help Washington bring Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.
BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
Travis King: the laughing US soldier who vanished into North Korea
The Times · by Richard Lloyd Parry, Seoul | Philip Sherwell, Asia Correspondent · July 23, 2023
The United Nations has begun negotiations with North Korea about the return of an American soldier who fled across the border last week, according to a British general serving with the UN in South Korea.
In a rare defection to the totalitarian dictatorship, Travis King broke away from an organised tour and bolted across a narrow open section of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean peninsula.
The 23-year-old US private had been supposed to fly back to the US on Monday to face a likely military discharge after he was released from prison, where he had been locked up for assaulting South Koreans. Instead, a day later, he vaulted into the centre of a deepening geopolitical crisis over the North’s nuclear ambitions.
Lieutenant
The Times · by Richard Lloyd Parry, Seoul | Philip Sherwell, Asia Correspondent · July 23, 2023
6. The Unintended Consequences of NATO's Drift Toward Asia
ROK and Japan hedging?
Conclusion:
This dynamic, in which the US, NATO and its East Asian allies cement deeper military and political links, is unlikely to change anytime soon. In fact, if NATO’s policy documents are any indication, the strategy will accelerate in the near term. NATO invitations to South Korean and Japanese ministers on the heels of major Alliance summits, once a novelty, will become increasingly pro-forma. South Korea and Japan will embrace these invitations with open arms and work to deepen their respective coordination with NATO (and individual NATO member states), in part to hedge against a potential second Trump administration. South Korean and Japanese forces will engage in joint exercises with individual NATO countries with greater frequency, both to send a message to regional adversaries about the strength of their deterrent and as a practical way to improve their respective military capabilities in the event of a conflict. The notion that security is interconnected, and that Asia is no more immune from European security crises than Europe is from Asian ones, is fast becoming a core principle.
Closer relations between West and East, however, is not a cost-free proposition to the US, NATO, South Korea and Japan. This strategic alignment has already produced its share of complaints from China, Russia and North Korea, three states that have their own distinct disputes with Washington but share a similar threat perception on NATO’s activity in Asia. While Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang may be powerless to eliminate this development in its entirety—China’s complaints don’t receive much weight in Washington these days—the three powers have shown a shared desire to at least plan for it by conducting joint military drills amongst their forces, better coordinating their diplomatic positions in multilateral forums and demonstrating to the US and its NATO and Asian allies that the status-quo will be met with increased collaboration at the strategic level. In short, the more NATO works to get into the Asia security business, the more likely it will inadvertently enable the regional power-bloc confrontation it supposedly wants to discourage.
The Unintended Consequences of NATO's Drift Toward Asia - 38 North: Informed Analysis of North Korea
38north.org · by Daniel R. DePetris · July 21, 2023
As one might expect, the July 11-12 National Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) leaders summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, concentrated predominately on the ongoing war in Ukraine, NATO’s continued military support to the Ukrainian army and how best to deepen the alliance’s strategic relationship with Kyiv. But as has become increasingly common over the last several years, NATO also spent time discussing ongoing security issues in Asia, a part of the world traditionally beyond the alliance’s Europe-focused remit. NATO, it seems, has made a concerted decision to, if not expand the alliance’s responsibilities to the Asia-Pacific theater, then at least transition itself into a regional player.
This years-long drift toward Asia, however, not only has the potential to distract the alliance at a time when Europe is still hosting its biggest war in nearly 80 years—it could also have destabilizing effects in Asia, a region that was already hardening into a collection of competing power blocs between China, Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) on the one hand and Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and the United States on the other. The notion that security in Europe is inextricably linked to security in Asia, and that what happens in Asia will ultimately have economic, political and perhaps even military ramifications for the European continent, is now conventional wisdom within NATO policy circles. The Biden administration has reinforced this paradigm as it continues to emphasize “the battle between democracy and autocracies” as a central plank of its foreign policy.
Washington’s allies inside and outside of NATO are taking notice. So are its competitors and adversaries. China, Russia and North Korea have all watched NATO’s slow but steady movement in Asia’s direction with alarm. The development is serving as adhesive for a deeper strategic relationship between the three powers. In essence, NATO is a driving force behind the very alignment it so often complains about in policy speeches and documents.
NATO Greets South Korea and Japan With Open Arms
Last week’s NATO summit produced an extraordinarily long and dense communique touching upon issues as varied as the alliance’s defense posture on the eastern flank, defense spending contributions, cybersecurity and nuclear nonproliferation. But some of the communique’s strongest words were reserved for China, an Asian superpower that the US Defense Department views as a “pacing challenge” undermining the rules-based international system that Washington and its allies constructed after World War II.” “The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values,” the communique states, before outlining a series of actions, including Beijing’s lack of transparency with respect to its military modernization drive, the alliance takes issue with. Russia, NATO suggests, is a valuable partner for China, and the partnership itself is posing a risk to the rules of the road: “The deepening strategic partnership between the PRC and Russia and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests.”
This isn’t the first time NATO has mentioned China or the Asia-Pacific writ large. After considerable debate between member states, the alliance agreed to add a single sentence into its December 2019 London communique noting “China’s growing influence and international policies present both opportunities and challenges” NATO has to work through. That generalized, mundane statement has since become more pointed; NATO mentioned China in its Strategic Concept last year, with special attention paid to Beijing’s “malicious” cyber operations negatively impacting the operational security of the alliance’s members. While nobody should expect NATO to authorize deployments to the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea anytime soon, some of NATO’s more militarily strong members have engaged in occasional freedom of navigation operations in these areas. The German navy is scheduled to send a two-ship task force to the South China Sea in 2024, and British officials are debating the stationing of a Type-31 frigate in Indo-Pacific waters on a permanent basis.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has spoken about the globalization of security, or the idea that security crises in one region of the world can quickly reverberate in another. The fact that Japan and South Korea were invited to the NATO summit for the second year in a row reflects this construct. Japanese and South Korean officials have apparently bought into the construct as well, using language that is nearly identical to Stoltenberg’s in their public comments. “Something happening in East Europe is not only confined to the issue in East Europe, and that affects directly the situation here in the Pacific,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi remarked in May. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol had a similar assessment days before NATO’s July summit: “Just as incidents in Europe can have a substantial and consequential impact on the Indo-Pacific region, Indo-Pacific events can have immense ramifications for countries in Europe.”
NATO, South Korea and Japan have all implemented these words to varying degrees. Japan’s National Security Strategy document, published in December, stated that Tokyo “will enhance security cooperation” with like-minded partners, including NATO, to strengthen deterrence. South Korea’s own National Security Strategy referenced President Yoon’s summit with NATO members in 2022 as an example of Seoul’s efforts to “strengthen solidarity with nations sharing universal values” and its attempt to form a global security network. After NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg’s January trip to Japan, the alliance and Tokyo both expressed an urgency to upgrade their partnership to a new level and promote cooperation on areas of mutual interest—cyber defense, maritime security and joint military exercises, to name just a few. Although French President Emmanuel Macron blocked the opening of a NATO liaison office on Japanese soil, NATO and Japan are nevertheless on the path toward more serious deliberation on sixteen priority issues. One of those issues is interoperability, ensuring NATO and Japanese forces can calibrate effectively with one another in the field.
These efforts are in addition to improvements in bilateral ROK-Japan relations as well as more durable trilateral military coordination among Washington, Seoul and Tokyo. US, South Korean and Japanese defense officials agreed to regularize trilateral missile defense and anti-submarine exercises back in April. Part of this involves sharing real-time data on North Korean ballistic and cruise missile launches, which would serve a useful and practical function in the event of a war scenario on the Korean Peninsula.
China, Russia and North Korea Respond
NATO, South Korea and Japan have categorized their deepening relationship as an appropriate response to what they collectively describe as challenges to the rules-based international order. China’s expansionist sovereignty claims over disputed waterways, Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and North Korea’s incessant ballistic missile launches have no doubt helped make the case (Pyongyang conducted a second test of its Hawsong-18 variant, a solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile that marginally strengthens the North’s ability to target the US homeland). Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang, however, interpret the burgeoning ties between NATO and Asian powers as a direct national security threat and clear evidence that the US, the driving force behind the alliance, is intent on bringing NATO to its doorstep. China, Russia and North Korea are cementing their own relations with each other in response to balance the so-called NATO-ization of Asia.
The North Koreans have been particularly incensed about NATO’s budding talks with adversarial neighbors like South Korea and Japan. In June 2022, shortly before President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida traveled to Madrid for the NATO summit, Pyongyang accused the US of trying to establish an Asian NATO as part of a plan to execute its long-term objective of overthrowing the Kim dynasty by force. Pyongyang slammed Kishida’s visit with NATO member countries seven months later, alleging that Tokyo was “introducing NATO…into the Asia-Pacific region” and heightening insecurity. A June 2 KCNA report used even harsher language: “The ‘war chariot’ NATO is dashing toward the Asia-Pacific region, not content with bringing a war calamity to Ukraine at the end of its ceaseless eastward advance.”
China and Russia have taken a similar tone, albeit with less rhetorical flourish. Last November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that NATO wanted to “absorb” Southeast Asia, militarize the region and contain Russian and Chinese interests in the countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) community. Commenting on NATO’s’ concern about a strategic partnership between Beijing and Moscow on July 12, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin condemned the alliance’s communique and urged it not to “sow chaos” in the Asia-Pacific. Beijing and Moscow have operationalized those words by increasing the pace of joint military air and naval exercises between their militaries. Chinese and Russian forces are exercising this week in the Sea of Japan in what looks curiously similar to the joint drills US, South Korean and Japanese forces conduct regularly. This exercise occurs about one month after South Korean and Japanese fighter jets scrambled to respond to joint Russian-Chinese air patrols over the Sea of Japan and East China Sea.
Beijing and Moscow are going beyond the military realm as well, coordinating more effectively at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to prevent US-led initiatives from succeeding. Courtesy of Beijing and Moscow’s veto power, the Security Council is unable to do anything on the North Korea nuclear and missile file with the exception of a few meaningless statements of condemnation from the US, UK and France. While the Chinese and Russian delegations have argued since at least 2019 that US military drills with South Korea are responsible for Pyongyang’s missile testing spree—the Security Council hasn’t passed a North Korea sanctions resolution in about six years—it’s also true that Beijing and Moscow don’t have an incentive to change their position so long as both view the US as the architect of NATO’s creep toward Asia.
China, Russia and North Korea are also aiding each other in other discreet ways. The Chinese continue to shield its eyes from heavy oil deliveries bound for the North, effectively shredding the very UN sanctions regime it originally signed up to. If US intelligence is accurate, the North Koreans are at least flirting with the prospect of delivering munitions to Russia for use in Ukraine in exchange for Russian food aid. The Russians, meanwhile, have reportedly resumed oil exports to the North; according to commercial satellite imagery, the small DPRK-Russian border is also open to cargo rail after three years of COVID-related restrictions, a development first reported by Martyn Williams and Peter Makowsy in November. All of this is undoubtedly frustrating to the US and its allies in East Asia. But it’s also indicative of balancing behavior from a set of countries with similar complaints about US foreign policy and a mutual interest in counteracting US pressure.
North Korean alignment toward the Russia-China bloc is also notable. In the past, the North Koreans have attempted to minimize their dependence on any one major power in the region, if only to maintain maximum flexibility for themselves. Decent relations with Beijing aside, the Kim dynasty could never be certain that China would be an effective or willing ally in the event of a confrontation with Washington. Pyongyang’s long-established policy, first articulated by Kim Il Sung, to keep normalization with the US on the table is now being replaced with a policy of re-alignment toward the Chinese and Russians. How long this policy shift will last is difficult to say. But for the moment, it appears Kim Jong Un has concluded that throwing in its lot with Beijing and Moscow is currently the most effective tactic to counteract what it sees as a cold war-like order forming.
This isn’t to suggest that China, Russia and North Korea are perfectly aligned on every subject. They most certainly are not. While Beijing has protected Pyongyang from further sanctions at the Security Council, it remains sensitive to North Korean missile tests, particularly those of longer ranges, that could upset stability in its immediate environment and push the US into deploying even more military assets in Northeast Asia. In November 2022, China reportedly agreed to reiterate its prior position on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, voting for a draft resolution issued at the First Committee on Disarmament and International Security that condemned the North’s six prior nuclear tests and demanded Pyongyang denuclearize. Despite the so-called “no limits” partnership hashed out between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in February 2022, the Chinese don’t see eye-to-eye with Russia on the war and have repeatedly stressed their opposition to the use of a Russian tactical nuclear weapon under any circumstances. Yet given what it perceives as the threat of US encirclement in Asia, any differences Beijing has with Moscow and Pyongyang are not nearly as important as working with both to balance US power.
Conclusion
This dynamic, in which the US, NATO and its East Asian allies cement deeper military and political links, is unlikely to change anytime soon. In fact, if NATO’s policy documents are any indication, the strategy will accelerate in the near term. NATO invitations to South Korean and Japanese ministers on the heels of major Alliance summits, once a novelty, will become increasingly pro-forma. South Korea and Japan will embrace these invitations with open arms and work to deepen their respective coordination with NATO (and individual NATO member states), in part to hedge against a potential second Trump administration. South Korean and Japanese forces will engage in joint exercises with individual NATO countries with greater frequency, both to send a message to regional adversaries about the strength of their deterrent and as a practical way to improve their respective military capabilities in the event of a conflict. The notion that security is interconnected, and that Asia is no more immune from European security crises than Europe is from Asian ones, is fast becoming a core principle.
Closer relations between West and East, however, is not a cost-free proposition to the US, NATO, South Korea and Japan. This strategic alignment has already produced its share of complaints from China, Russia and North Korea, three states that have their own distinct disputes with Washington but share a similar threat perception on NATO’s activity in Asia. While Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang may be powerless to eliminate this development in its entirety—China’s complaints don’t receive much weight in Washington these days—the three powers have shown a shared desire to at least plan for it by conducting joint military drills amongst their forces, better coordinating their diplomatic positions in multilateral forums and demonstrating to the US and its NATO and Asian allies that the status-quo will be met with increased collaboration at the strategic level. In short, the more NATO works to get into the Asia security business, the more likely it will inadvertently enable the regional power-bloc confrontation it supposedly wants to discourage.
38north.org · by Daniel R. DePetris · July 21, 2023
7. Unification Ministry to Be Trimmed down
It should have a number of critical planning functions:
1. Long term unification planning as the primary focus.
2. In conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense it should focus on crisis action unification planning - hastily converting the long term planning efforts into crisis action implementation if there is war or regime collapse.
3. The interagency focal point for coordinating unification planning among all Korean government agencies as well as with the international community.
4. Support for a human rights upfront approach to north Korea
5. Design,development, and implementation of an information campaign to inform and educate multiple target audiences (north, South and international community) on the importance of unification and how it will happen).
It if focuses on the major tasks it can be streamlined and made efficient. The problem as I have heard is that there are many in the ministry who have been appointed by the previous administration who do not really support the pursuit of a free and unified Korea but instead a form of coexistence.
Unification Ministry to Be Trimmed down
english.chosun.com
July 21, 2023 13:10
The government wants to trim down the bloated Unification Ministry, which has had no interaction with North Korea for years, by at least 100 staff.
The move comes after President Yoon Suk-yeol said the ministry operated "like a support agency for North Korea."
A senior government official said the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety recently came up with a plan to overhaul the Unification Ministry and bring it in line with the current state of inter-Korean relations and global diplomacy.
At the moment the ministry has 616 staff including those working in agencies it oversees, and most have nothing to do. At least 200 work in departments that used to handle cross-border meetings and exchanges and support for the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, which shut down in 2016.
Most of the staff will be moved to other government agencies, but the departments handling North Korean human rights and denuclearization efforts will apparently be bolstered.
/Yonhap
"There is a need to correct the inefficiency of the ministry's organization, which has been run as if its main duty was still cross-border exchanges and inter-Korean dialogue," a government official said. "We will redistribute personnel so that the ministry can focus on its original function."
One ruling party official said, "Cross-border exchanges and inter-Korean dialogue are unlikely to resume any time soon, and we can't leave an organization with no work to do."
When he appointed conservative academic Kim Young-ho as the new unification minister, Yoon said, "From now on, the reunification we aim for must be based on the basic order of freedom and democracy, and the Unification Ministry must play its given role according to the Constitution."
But critics say establishing a new purpose for the ministry must come first.
A former high-ranking ministry official said, "Rather than pursuing excessive staff cuts, the reorganization should focus on strengthening its role of devising policies and creating the environment for reunification."
Yoon Says Unification Ministry 'Not There to Support N.Korea'
- Copyright © Chosunilbo & Chosun.com
english.chosun.com
8. N.Korean Economy Now Totally Dependent on China
Hardly a surprise.
N.Korean Economy Now Totally Dependent on China
english.chosun.com
July 21, 2023 13:02
North Korea's economy is now almost wholly dependent on China. The North's trade increased an estimated 122.3 percent to US$1.59 billion in 2022 as borders were timidly reopened at the end of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency on Thursday that North Korea's exports rose 94 percent last year to $159 million, while imports rose 126 percent to $1.43 billion.
In other words, imports accounted for 89.97 percent of North Korea's total trade.
As a result its trade deficit widened from an estimated $549.41 million in 2021 to $1.27 billion last year.
Bilateral trade with China increased 124.8 percent to $1.53 billion, so China's proportion of North Korean trade rose from 95.6 percent in 2021 to 96.7 percent.
Other small trading partners include Vietnam, Argentina and Nigeria. The North's top exports were minerals ($44.58 million), while its biggest import was petroleum ($520 million).
N.Korea Reopens Remote Border with China
N.Korea-China Trade Grinds to Halt
Seoul Says N.Korea, China Reopen Freight Train Traffic
N.Korean Train Spotted in China
N.Korea's Borders Still Tightly Closed
- Copyright © Chosunilbo & Chosun.com
english.chosun.com
9. North Korea arrests soldier guarding Chinese border for meth use
Beware a breakdown within the military. remember the three chains of control (versus command - because control is more important than command): the traditional general to private, the political officer chain, and the security chain. When there is a loss of coherency within the military it can lead to internal instability and ultimate regime collapse.
North Korea arrests soldier guarding Chinese border for meth use
Border guards can get into more trouble than other soldiers because they can get easy money from smuggler bribes.
By Ahn Chang Gyu for RFA Korean
2023.07.21
rfa.org
North Korean authorities have arrested a soldier guarding the Chinese border for using methamphetamine, part of a larger trend of illegal activities and poor discipline among soldiers in the border region, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.
The guard had used his position to earn money by accepting bribes from smugglers who make a living by illegally importing goods from China. The lucrative arrangement allowed him to afford his drug habit, sources said.
The police received a tip from someone in the neighborhood where he was caught, a resident of the border city of Hyesan, Ryanggang province, told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“He was a senior soldier and was caught … doing drugs at the home of his 23-year-old girlfriend,” the resident said.
North Korean soldiers patrol the bank of the Yalu River in the North Korean town of Sinuiju across from the Chinese city of Dandong. Credit: AFP file photo
During the police investigation, the soldier confessed that he had collected bribes from smugglers since he was stationed there in 2019, and he used the money he earned to buy methamphetamine.
There are five brigades of the armed Border Security Command stationed at North Korea's northern border with China and Russia, along the Yalu and Tumen rivers. Unlike ordinary army units, border guard soldiers have more opportunities to earn money through bribery related to cracking down on smuggling and cross-border activities.
This soldier also robbed people to fund his drug habit.
“When the soldier ran out of money, he robbed residents’ houses several times to buy meth,” the first source said. “He also robbed a woman on the road at night, stole her cell phone and ran away.”
Sources said that such misbehavior among troops is on the increase, but there was no hard evidence to support this. It is almost entirely anecdotal.
Stolen documents
In another case, a border soldier in Pochon county, in the same province, fled his unit with stolen documents.
This incident stemmed from the soldier feeling upset that he was being questioned by a senior officer in front of the entire company, another Ryanggang resident said, without providing further details.
“The missing documents are known to be insignificant, but the brigade issued an order to capture the runaway soldier along with the documents,” he said.
Agents were dispatched to search for the runaway soldier and authorities issued an alert telling residents to immediately report if any stranger visits their home, the second resident said.
“The border security command soldiers struggled for several days without a good night’s sleep as they searched for the escaped soldier,” he said. “The commanders of the soldier’s company and battalion will be held responsible for his actions.”
The soldier remains at large.
Stories like these have caused the public to hold border guards in low regard, the first source said.
“Residents think of the border security command as a ragtag group with no fighting ability and poor discipline, unlike ordinary army units,” he said. “Border security soldiers are only interested in making money by colluding with smugglers and other people crossing the border.”
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.
rfa.org
10. US Signals Possible Action If China Fails To Rein In North Korea's Military Moves
US signals possible action if China fails to rein in North Korea's military moves
republicworld.com
Last Updated: 22nd July, 2023 17:50 IST
At the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Blinken emphasised Washington's desire for China's cooperation in handling North Korea's nuclear program.
Rest of the World News
| Written By
Digital Desk
Antony Blinken | Image: AP
In a firm message directed at China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that the United States would take action if Beijing declined to intervene in North Korea's military deployments. The hermit state, a longtime ally of China, has been accused by the US of playing a destabilizing role in East Asia due to its nuclear program.
During a fireside chat at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Blinken emphasiwed Washington's desire for China's cooperation in handling North Korea's nuclear program and denucleariwing the Korean peninsula. According to a report from South China Morning Post, he urged Beijing to use its unique influence to encourage better cooperation from North Korea on these matters.
Blinken stated that China has unique influence on North Korea
"We believe that you have unique influence, and we hope that you'll use it to get better cooperation from North Korea," Blinken stated. However, he also issued a warning, stating that if China failed to intervene or declined to do so, the U.S. would take actions to strengthen its defense alliances with Japan and South Korea.
These actions, Blinken clarified, are not directed at China but are aimed at reinforcing the defenses of the U.S. and its Asian allies. The US Secretary of State expressed a commitment to deepening the work among the three nations to address regional security concerns.
Beijing has often criticized the US defense alliances in East Asia, viewing them as efforts to monitor or contain China's military capabilities. Meanwhile, South Korea and Japan have expressed concerns over North Korea's frequent military tests, which sometimes occur near their airspace.
North Korea has been engaging in a series of missile launches, including a second flight test of its Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile on July 12. As tensions escalate, the US is hoping China will utilize its influence to foster greater cooperation from North Korea on matters of security.
The situation has been further complicated by the recent disappearance of Private Travis King, an American soldier who crossed into North Korea during a civilian tour near the border with South Korea. While there are no updates on King's whereabouts, Secretary Blinken expressed concerns over his potential treatment and the possibility of torture by North Korean authorities.
First Published: 22nd July, 2023 17:50 IST
republicworld.com
11. Taiwan VP’s US Transit to Test Already Tense China-US Ties
Excerpts:
"Beijing will try to link the stopover to the high-level engagement between Taiwan and the U.S. over the last year and they will look for opportunities to frame this as the U.S. being provocative," Brian Hart, a fellow with the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA.
Details have yet to be released of where Lai might stop in August and what he might do in the U.S. Taiwan’s Presidential Office has said Lai will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Paraguay’s newly elected president, Santiago Pena, on Aug. 14.
...
Lai’s scheduled stopover in the U.S. comes at a tricky time for Washington. Over the past few weeks, it has tried to restart diplomatic engagement with China. Analysts think efforts to reduce tension between the world’s two largest economies may cause the U.S. to make its engagements with Taiwan less public in the coming months.
"Taiwan and the U.S. will maintain the same level of exchanges, but Washington’s public rhetoric about Taiwan may be milder," said Charles Wu, a professor in international relations at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.
Rather than reducing interaction with Taiwan, Wu said he thinks the U.S. will likely put "guardrails around interaction" to make sure it doesn’t affect progress made in restoring dialogue with China.
Taiwan VP’s US Transit to Test Already Tense China-US Ties
July 22, 2023 5:43 AM
voanews.com · July 22, 2023
TAIPEI - Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai, a front-runner in the island’s planned January presidential elections, announced this week that he plans to make transit stops in the U.S. next month on his way to Paraguay, sparking swift protest from China. Beijing objects to any action that could raise Taiwan’s international profile and has pledged to keep the transit stops from happening.
Analysts say that while it is unlikely that China will succeed, the transit stopovers are likely to test already tense ties between Beijing and Washington.
"Beijing will try to link the stopover to the high-level engagement between Taiwan and the U.S. over the last year and they will look for opportunities to frame this as the U.S. being provocative," Brian Hart, a fellow with the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA.
Details have yet to be released of where Lai might stop in August and what he might do in the U.S. Taiwan’s Presidential Office has said Lai will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Paraguay’s newly elected president, Santiago Pena, on Aug. 14.
Deep distrust
The planned stopovers are not a first for Lai, but this time he is traveling while he is the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate in the January vote. Beijing is highly skeptical of him because he is a member of the DPP and also because of his stance on Taiwan’s sovereignty. A former doctor turned politician, Lai has previously described himself as a "pragmatic Taiwan independence worker."
Despite Beijing's claim that the island is a part of its territory, both Lai and Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen argue that the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name, is already an independent state.
Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations. Beijing took over its seat in 1971. Currently, only 13 countries, including Paraguay, have formal diplomatic relations with the island.
"Beijing distrusts Lai even more than they distrust Tsai Ing-wen," said Bonnie Glaser, the managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She said Beijing believes U.S. support may embolden current or future leaders in Taiwan to pursue independence.
Like many other countries, the United States does not have formal ties with Taiwan, but it is the island’s biggest international backer.
'Priority' to stop visit
Speaking at the Aspen Security Conference on Wednesday, Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the U.S., said it was Beijing’s priority to stop Lai from visiting the U.S. and emphasized that the provocative moves by "Taiwan separatists" should be contained.
In addition, China’s foreign ministry said that Beijing opposes any official interaction between Taiwan and the U.S. and that the Taiwan issue is the insurmountable red line that cannot be crossed in U.S.-China relations.
"The Chinese are very alarmed about what could happen and they are warning that their red lines should be taken seriously," Glaser said.
Despite warnings from Beijing, Taipei, and Washington both emphasized that Lai’s transit stops in the U.S. are planned based on the principle of "comfort and safety" and that China should not use the stopover to "start a fight."
During a press conference Wednesday, Sandra Oudkirk, the director of Washington’s de facto embassy in Taiwan, said transits by Taiwanese officials in the U.S. have happened many times before and are part of the routine.
In January of last year, Lai transited through the U.S. during a trip to Honduras. During those stopovers, he conducted online meetings with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Tammy Duckworth, and met with members of the Taiwanese community. In April of this year, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen also made two stopovers in the U.S. as part of a trip to Central America.
Another military blockade drill?
China views Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory and has long voiced opposition to high-level interaction between officials from Taipei and those in other countries. That has not stopped a growing number of officials, legislators and leaders from visiting Taiwan, and officials from Taipei traveling to other countries.
In response, China has stepped up its military activities around the island. Over the past year, Beijing launched two multiday, blockade-style military exercises around Taiwan to protest high-profile meetings. One drill followed a meeting between President Tsai and former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when she visited Taiwan last August and another after she met with current U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California in April.
Glaser said that while Beijing’s response will likely be determined by the agenda during Lai’s stopovers in the U.S., the outside world should not rule out any possible scenarios.
"[Even though] I don’t think Lai will do any public events, if he did give a speech or said something that is viewed as provocative by the Chinese leadership, that would give them a reason to do something in the military realm," she said.
Still, she said she thinks Beijing would have to be "very alarmed" by things that Lai did in order to execute a military response that matches what they did when Pelosi visited Taiwan.
Other analysts added that based on past experience, China has learned that high-profile demonstrations of displeasure toward the Taiwanese government through military maneuvers or military drills often backfire, especially during the island’s election season.
"Since this is a presidential campaign year, if Beijing follows this reasoning, they will likely resort to condemnation and perhaps some form of symbolic suspension of dialogue or economic sanctions on selected commodities," Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australian National University’s Taiwan Studies Program, told VOA.
In his view, past experience may convince China that heightening military pressure on Taiwan will only backfire when Taiwanese voters are about cast their ballots to elect their next president.
Washington’s balancing act
Lai’s scheduled stopover in the U.S. comes at a tricky time for Washington. Over the past few weeks, it has tried to restart diplomatic engagement with China. Analysts think efforts to reduce tension between the world’s two largest economies may cause the U.S. to make its engagements with Taiwan less public in the coming months.
"Taiwan and the U.S. will maintain the same level of exchanges, but Washington’s public rhetoric about Taiwan may be milder," said Charles Wu, a professor in international relations at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.
Rather than reducing interaction with Taiwan, Wu said he thinks the U.S. will likely put "guardrails around interaction" to make sure it doesn’t affect progress made in restoring dialogue with China.
voanews.com · July 22, 2023
12. North Korea Launches Cruise Missiles Into Yellow Sea
North Korea Launches Cruise Missiles Into Yellow Sea
Pyongyang’s missile test came shortly after a U.S. nuclear submarine left the Korean Peninsula
By Dasl Yoon
July 22, 2023 2:33 am ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-launches-cruise-missiles-into-yellow-sea-405226a8?
A South Korean news report on North Korea’s latest missile launch Saturday, which came as nuclear-armed submarine USS Kentucky left the Korean Peninsula. PHOTO: JUNG YEON-JE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
SEOUL—North Korea fired several cruise missiles shortly after a U.S. nuclear submarine deployed as a show of strength against Pyongyang’s threats left the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea fired several cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea around 4 a.m. local time on Saturday morning, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Seoul’s military didn’t reveal where the missiles were fired from or how far they traveled.
“Our military has bolstered surveillance and vigilance while closely cooperating with the U.S. and maintaining a firm readiness posture,” JCS said.
The missile launches came as the USS Kentucky, an Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine, departed from South Korea on Friday. The American warship can stay submerged indefinitely and can fire nuclear warheads at targets thousands of miles away. Its port visit to the Korean Peninsula was part of the Washington Declaration, an agreement struck in late April between President Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Amid North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats, the U.S. promised to dispatch strategic assets to the region to reaffirm its commitment to protecting its allies. On Thursday, North Korea warned that such deployments of nuclear assets could meet the conditions for North Korea to use its nuclear weapons.
“The U.S. military must realize it has brought its strategic assets into far too dangerous waters,” North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam said in a statement. Kang said the USS Kentucky’s visit was a “direct nuclear threat” to North Korea. South Korea’s defense ministry denied Pyongyang’s accusation, saying the submarine visit and other deterrence measures are a “fair defensive response to North Korea’s continuous nuclear and missile threat.”
North Korea last fired cruise missiles from a submarine in March. Pyongyang’s state media said the underwater launch demonstrated the country’s diverse methods of conducting a nuclear strike.
Earlier this week North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles following a series of statements criticizing Washington’s dispatch of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has repeatedly refused to engage in dialogue with the U.S. On Monday, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Pyongyang would seek to restrain the U.S. with “sufficient exercise of force,” ridiculing the Biden administration’s calls for dialogue.
U.S. officials have attempted to establish contact with North Korea through several channels, after a U.S. soldier crossed into North Korea on Tuesday during a tour of the Joint Security Area on the South Korean side. North Korea hasn’t responded.
Pyongyang has shown no interest in returning to disarmament talks, despite the Biden administration’s repeated offers to do so without preconditions. North Korea is preparing to celebrate a major holiday it calls Victory Day on July 27. Pyongyang will likely hold a military parade featuring military hardware to celebrate the holiday.
Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com
13. Kim Jong-un 'ready to test nuke' but experts fear site can't contain radiation
Excerpts:
Experts on the North agree that satellite photos suggest the nuclear test site at Punggye-ri – purportedly destroyed in 2018 – has been restored with a view to renewing practice runs.
Jacob Bogle, who has created a comprehensive map of the country from satellite photos, said the site was ready ‘as soon as Kim Jong-un gives the orders’.
He said: ‘US and South Korean officials have assessed that Punggye-ri has been prepared to carry out another underground nuclear test since last year.
‘Based on a review of recent satellite imagery of the site, there are no indications that a test is imminent.
‘But the area is being maintained and remains ready as soon as Kim Jong Un gives the orders.
‘A seventh nuclear test is likely necessary for North Korea to validate new warhead designs, so one is expected, but the timeframe for it is currently unknown.’
Kim Jong-un 'ready to test nuke' but experts fear site can't contain radiation
Sam Corbishley and Michael Havis
Saturday 22 Jul 2023 3:40 pm
MetroUK · by Sam Corbishley · July 22, 2023
Experts on the North agree that satellite photos suggest the nuclear test site at Punggye-ri – purportedly destroyed in 2018 – has been restored (Picture: Pen News/AP)
Kim Jong-un is ready to test another nuclear bomb – but his underground practise chamber may no longer be able to contain the radiation, experts fear.
North Korea warned this week that the deployment of US aircraft carriers, bombers or armed submarines in South Korea could meet criteria for its use of nukes, state media KCNA reported.
It raises the stakes even further as each side continues to ramp up military drills in the long-running stand-off over the secretive state’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
Experts on the North agree that satellite photos suggest the nuclear test site at Punggye-ri – purportedly destroyed in 2018 – has been restored with a view to renewing practice runs.
Jacob Bogle, who has created a comprehensive map of the country from satellite photos, said the site was ready ‘as soon as Kim Jong-un gives the orders’.
He said: ‘US and South Korean officials have assessed that Punggye-ri has been prepared to carry out another underground nuclear test since last year.
‘Based on a review of recent satellite imagery of the site, there are no indications that a test is imminent.
‘But the area is being maintained and remains ready as soon as Kim Jong Un gives the orders.
‘A seventh nuclear test is likely necessary for North Korea to validate new warhead designs, so one is expected, but the timeframe for it is currently unknown.’
Map showing the location of the Punggye-ri site (Picture: Pen News)
It was purportedly demolished in 2018 (Picture: Pen News)
North Korea warned this week that the deployment of US aircraft carriers, bombers or armed submarines in South Korea could meet criteria for its use of nukes (Picture: AP)
Olli Heinonen, former deputy director general of nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), agreed that tunnel three had been restored and was ‘likely’ test-ready.
‘There is no simple way to predict when a test could place,’ he added.
Dr Heinonen, who is now a distinguished fellow of the Stimson Center, added that there was a risk of radiation from the blast getting into the water supply.
He said: ‘Water from melting snow and rain can enter in through cracks and wash out fission products and plutonium.
‘It can transport it with the groundwater, into a small river passing the site, and on to agricultural sites and towns downstream.
‘Such contamination could enter to food chains and accumulate in agricultural products, fish, meat and eventually in people.
‘Cs-137, Sr-90, and Pu-239, which have long radioactive half-lives, are of concern.’
And there can be little doubt that there are cracks for water to seep into.
Dr Heinonen went on: ‘The detonation in September 2017 was massive, more than 140 megatons, which has certainly caused cracking of the rock.
‘Since the first test, there have been approximately 20 small earthquakes at Punggye-ri, which could have caused additional cracking.’
The test firing of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) ‘Hwasong-18’ at an undisclosed location in North Korea (Picture: STR/KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Images)
Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol Ju applauding the test firing (Picture: STR/KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Images)
Last year, North Korea codified a new, expansive nuclear law declaring its status as a nuclear-armed state ‘irreversible’.
That nuclear law outlined a ‘capacious’ set of circumstances under which they might resort to nuclear use.
Ankit Panda, of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, suggested Pyongyang considered last week’s visit to the South by a nuclear-armed US ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) as meting those conditions.
The USS Kentucky Ohio-class SSBN arrived in South Korea’s southern port of Busan on Tuesday and wrapped up its visit on Friday, said a source with direct knowledge of its movements.
MetroUK · by Sam Corbishley · July 22, 2023
14. President Yoon reviews special pardon for Liberation Day
President Yoon reviews special pardon for Liberation Day
donga.com
Posted July. 22, 2023 07:57,
Updated July. 22, 2023 07:57
President Yoon reviews special pardon for Liberation Day. July. 22, 2023 07:57. dapaper@donga.com.
On Friday, news surfaced that President Yoon Suk Yeol is reviewing a special pardon proposal for Liberation Day. The proposed pardon encompasses politicians and businessmen. Notably, if President Yoon proceeds with granting a special pardon for Liberation Day this year, it will mark the third occasion he has done so.
During a recent phone call with The Dong-A Ilbo, a prominent official from the presidential office said, “We have initiated a working-level review concerning the special pardon for Liberation Day. It will require the President's final decision, but the possibility of a special pardon for Liberation Day is high.” Another high-ranking official said, “We are currently gathering input on the criteria and scope of the potential pardon. But at this stage, we are not yet delving into the specific individuals who may be considered for the special pardon.”
In the realm of politics, there have been discussions regarding the potential candidates for a pardon, including former Senior Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs Ahn Jong-beom and former Vice Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Kim Jong. Many individuals implicated in corruption during the Park Geun-hye government's tenure have already received pardons. Ahn's case has drawn attention, especially since he was unexpectedly excluded from the New Year's special pardon list. The presidential office is also actively considering public opinion regarding the pardon of Kim Tae-woo, the former head of Gangseo-gu, Seoul, who faced conviction after exposing corruption allegations within the former government's special inspection team, leading to his removal from the district chief position.
Within the business community, proposals are being considered for granting a pardon to former Samsung Electronics future strategy office chief, Choi Ji-seong, and former future strategy office deputy chief, Jang Chung-ki. Moreover, there are plans to review the possibility of providing it to other civil offenders. An official from the presidential office said, “We will embark on a thorough review of the special pardon after receiving recommendations from various segments of society.”
한국어
donga.com
15. Unification Ministry to downsize inter-Korean dialogue units
Excerpts:
The Yoon government aims to restructure the Unification Ministry with a focus on analyzing the Kim Jong-un regime, addressing human rights issues in North Korea and facilitating the resettlement of North Korean defectors.
As part of this restructuring effort, the Unification Ministry announced in March its plan to abolish a secretariat that was established to support the inter-Korean liaison office. Instead, its functions have been integrated into the Office of Inter-Korean Dialogue. Additionally, the bureau in charge of human rights and humanitarian affairs has been elevated to the status of an office, while the office responsible for inter-Korean exchange and cooperation has been downsized and reorganized as a bureau.
Unification Ministry to downsize inter-Korean dialogue units
koreaherald.com · by Ji Da-gyum · July 23, 2023
South Korea's Unification Ministry will undergo significant restructuring and downsizing, after President Yoon Suk Yeol urged for a structural shake-up amid the prolonged deadlock in inter-Korean relations.
Under the guidance of the presidential office, Vice Unification Minister Moon Seoung-hyun, who assumed office early this month, has been at the forefront of reorganizing internal divisions as well as affiliated agencies responsible for inter-Korean dialogue and exchanges, The Korea Herald learned Sunday.
The Kaesong Industrial District Foundation and the South-North Korea Exchanges and Cooperation Support Association under the auspices of the Unification Ministry are the primary targets of the reshuffle. In June, the Unification Ministry directed these two affiliated agencies to devise measures to reduce their budgets for the next year and undergo a rigorous restructuring, a senior official confirmed this month during a closed-door briefing.
The Yoon government is also considering abolishing the Kaesong Industrial District Foundation, The Korea Herald has learned. The foundation is responsible for overseeing South Korean companies that were previously operating in the Kaesong Industrial Complex, which has been closed by North Korea since February 2016.
The other targets of the reshuffle include the Inter-Korean Cooperation District Policy Planning Directorate within the Unification Ministry and other affiliated agencies, such as the Office of the Inter-Korean Dialogue and the Inter-Korean Transit Office.
A more defined reform plan is anticipated to be revealed once Kim Yung-ho, the nominee for the unification minister position, is officially appointed.
Earlier this month, Yoon criticized the Unification Ministry, saying, "Until now, the Ministry of Unification has played a role of a support department for North Korea," and calling for a major restructuring. His denunciation came following the unconventional and simultaneous appointments of a hard-liner on Pyongyang as the minister and a seasoned diplomat as the vice minister.
The liberal Hankyoreh newspaper on Friday reported that the presidential office ordered the Unification Ministry to reduce its staff by 150 personnel, which accounts for around 25 percent of the current workforce of approximately 610 to 620 people.
The downsizing would bring the size of the ministry to a similar scale as it was during the early days of the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration, which initially attempted to abolish the Unification Ministry but retracted the plan due to domestic opposition.
But during a parliamentary hearing on Friday, Unification Minister nominee Kim -- who served as the presidential secretary of unification affairs during Lee's term -- refuted the media report and reiterated that he "did not believe the report is true."
The Unification Ministry on Friday said it is "conducting an internal review to operate its organizations more efficiently, considering the prolonged stalemate in inter-Korean relations." But the ministry also clarified that "there are no specific details" and decisions have not yet been finalized.
The Yoon government aims to restructure the Unification Ministry with a focus on analyzing the Kim Jong-un regime, addressing human rights issues in North Korea and facilitating the resettlement of North Korean defectors.
As part of this restructuring effort, the Unification Ministry announced in March its plan to abolish a secretariat that was established to support the inter-Korean liaison office. Instead, its functions have been integrated into the Office of Inter-Korean Dialogue. Additionally, the bureau in charge of human rights and humanitarian affairs has been elevated to the status of an office, while the office responsible for inter-Korean exchange and cooperation has been downsized and reorganized as a bureau.
By Ji Da-gyum (dagyumji@heraldcorp.com)
koreaherald.com · by Ji Da-gyum · July 23, 2023
16. She’s a Smash Hit in Latin America, Even if Her Korean Mom Disapproves
Some interesting Korean and Mexican/Latin American cultural perspectives.
She’s a Smash Hit in Latin America, Even if Her Korean Mom Disapproves
The New York Times · by Elda Cantú · July 21, 2023
The Saturday Profile
Fleeing the strictures of modern life in a hypercompetitive South Korea, a young woman found a calmer way of life in Mexico — and millions of social media followers.
In Mexico, the growing interest in all things Korean has made SuJin Kim a social-media sensation with more than 24 million followers on TikTok.Credit...Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times
By
Photographs by Marian Carrasquero
Reporting from Mexico City
July 21, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET
Leer en español
To her mother in South Korea, SuJin Kim is a failure: She’s over 30, single and not working for a big Korean corporation.
But to her millions of followers in Latin America, she has become a relatable friend and a teacher of all things Korean. In Mexico, where she lives, they know her, in fact, as “Chinguamiga,” her online nickname, a mash-up of the words for friend in Korean and Spanish.
Her success has been propelled not just by her ingenuity and charisma, but also by a wave of South Korean popular culture that has swept the world, driven in part by a government effort to position the country as a cultural giant and to exert a soft power.
In her homeland, Ms. Kim, 32, struggled with the grind of a hypercompetitive society where success is defined narrowly and young women face diminishing labor prospects, grueling work schedules, sexism and restrictive beauty standards.
In Mexico, the growing interest in all things Korean has made her a social-media sensation with more than 24 million followers on TikTok and over eight million subscribers to her YouTube channel, allowing her to gain popularity, financial stability and a romantic partner — all on her own terms.
“There was a packaging that she came with,” said Dr. Renato Balderrama, who leads the Center for Asian Studies at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León in Monterrey, an industrial hub with an expanding Korean presence. “She had all this training in Korea, in this new Korea that allows her to land in a place like Mexico and be successful.”
Ms. Kim welcoming students to a virtual Korean class on Zoom. She charges $35 to $45 for each four-week session.Credit...Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times
A sort of a teacher of comparative pop culture, Ms. Kim offers lessons on popular Korean soap operas, lyrics, fashion standards, traditions and social norms. She once worked as a waitress in Mexico for a day and posted about her confusion with tips. (South Korea is a no-tip country.) She showed followers how Korean students crammed for exams. She started traveling across Mexico tasting regional delicacies.
Her social media success has attracted invitations to events, award nominations, magazine spreads and sponsorship deals, and yielded a popular business teaching Korean language classes online. She moved from Monterrey to Mexico City to gain more exposure and grow her brand.
Ms. Kim’s budding empire now includes an online store of Korean beauty products. She will be featured as a contestant in the second season of HBO’s “Bake Off Celebrity” show.
Ms. Kim’s success tracks the growth of Korean influence in Mexico and the region.More than 2,000 Korean companies have a presence in Mexico, part of a so-called near-shoring strategy that has driven larger corporations — Kia, LG, Samsung, Hyundai, among others — to take advantage of a free-trade agreement with Canada and the United States.
South Korea has not only arrived in Mexico with jobs, cars and cellphones, but also with something more intangible: its own idea of modern culture. K-pop, K-beauty and K-dramas have shown Latin Americans a new, different way to be cool.
K-pop bands have been performing to increasingly bigger and sold-out venues since 2012. This year, a summer festival will bring 16 Korean groups to Mexico City, with ticket prices starting at around $170.
In Mexico, Ms. Kim hoped to find a more joyous life.Credit...Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times
Some newsstands specialize in magazines, posters and merchandise about South Korean celebrities. Netflix offers dubbing in “Latin Spanish” for Korean shows. Movie theaters stream live K-pop concerts performed abroad.
Ms. Kim grew up in Seoul but after a work-study stint in Canada and traveling through South America, she returned home and found life in South Korea stifling.
“I don’t want to go back to my old life,” she remembered thinking.
She moved to Mexico in 2018, driven by a desire to experience life in Latin America and trying to escape severe burnout. She worked for a Korean multinational corporation and found the work rhythm all too familiar so she started teaching Korean.
Then the pandemic upended the world.
“It’s my moment, I have nothing to do,” she recalled thinking before she started to post her Korean classes on YouTube. “I had zero views, nobody saw me.”
Her videos were straightforward language lessons “Easy Words in Korean — 3 Minutes!” But then she pivoted to TikTok and uploaded a short clip, this time explaining Korean culture.
“That same day it had like 5,000 views and I was like, what?!” she said, her pointy nails adorned with jeweled stars, bows and moons.
Very quickly, her TikTok following exploded.
One afternoon this year, Ms. Kim welcomed her students to a virtual Korean class on Zoom; she charges $35 to $45 for each four-week session, with one 90-minute class per week.
Ms. Kim preparing for a photo shoot of her skin-care brand in Mexico City.Credit...Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times
When the class started, 76 students had logged on. There were young girls and bespectacled moms and at least one longhaired businessman, spread across Central and South America.
Ms. Kim’s bright blue curls bounced on the screen as she moved her head approvingly.
When a student trying to figure out how to pluralize singular nouns asked, “No plural?” she chirped: “No! How neat, right?”
After finishing college in South Korea, Ms. Kim said she experienced severe stress. “I wanted to die and I wished to rest,” she said in one of her most popular videos. She has spoken openly about being hospitalized to take care of her mental health.
She attributes her exhaustion to Korea’s culture of sacrifice and grind that helped the country become an economic powerhouse after the Korean War.
“Everything is quick, quick, now, right this second,” Dr. Balderrama said. “This created a culture where there’s no place for mediocrity, there’s no place for those unwilling to compete.”
In Mexico, Ms. Kim hoped to find a more joyous life: “I saw how Latin culture is, how Latin people live and they’re living happily,” she said. “I don’t want to waste a single moment I’m in Latin America because it’s so precious to me.”
But if Ms. Kim has found a passion and a business, she has not completely found the peace of mind she was seeking. She’s in therapy to deal with what she described as some depression and anxiety.
Ms. Kim worries about having to come up with creative content to remain relevant.Credit...Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times
Her large following and popularity has bred fear: “I feel people will forget me, that nobody will like me,” she said, worried about the toll of having to come up with creative content to remain relevant.
“I also have this problem with haters, with people’s comments, which affect me,” she added.
She does get criticized online by users who say she should go back to Korea, who ask whether she pays taxes in Mexico (she says she does) and who consider her another foreigner lured by life on the cheap and who contribute to the gentrification of parts of the country at the expense of Mexican residents.
In a recent video,as she prepared to go home for a visit she showed an ID card that she said was proof of her status as a legal resident. She wanted to dispel any rumors she had to leave the country because she was on a tourist visa.
Ms. Kim declined to discuss her citizenship status with The New York Times, but months ago she posted a video in which she said she’d taken the exam to become a citizen of Mexico.
By many standards, Ms. Kim has made it. But what about her mother’s standards?
“I don’t think she’ll change her mind about success — that I’m not a success, that’s a fact for her,’’ she said following her visit home. “She’s still more worried than happy for me.”
Still, after meeting Ms. Kim’s boyfriend and his family in South Korea, her parents promised to visit her in Mexico.
Gifts from her fans.Credit...Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times
Elda Cantú, an editor in the Mexico City bureau, writes El Times, a newsletter in Spanish. Before joining The Times in 2018 she lived in Peru, where she edited magazines. She hails from the border town of Reynosa, Mexico. More about Elda Cantú
The New York Times · by Elda Cantú · July 21, 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
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