Quotes of the Day:
“Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism, and the effort to destroy them would be futile unless accomplished in ways that would work the utmost mischief to the entire body politic. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
"Even the smallest thing should be done with reference to an end."
- Marcus Aurelius
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
1. Senate Passes Otto Warmbier North Korea Censorship and Surveillance Act
2. N. Korea remains unresponsive to US overtures: State Dept.
3. ‘The Lazarus Heist’ Is the Gripping Story of North Korean Cybercrime (book review)
4. N. Korea's trade with China sharply drops on-month in May: data
5. S. Korea to actively use nuclear energy to reach carbon neutrality: PM
6. S. Korea verifying Russia's data on deaths of 4 volunteer fighters in Ukraine
7. North Korean COVID-19/Fever Data Tracker
8. Gov't Pushes Environmental Study of THAAD Base
1. Senate Passes Otto Warmbier North Korea Censorship and Surveillance Act
Good news for human rights.
We need to harness and empower all the strategic influence capabilities of the government and military and civil society.
Also good news for my good friends and the Korean Service of VOA and RFA who are doing great work in north Korea.
Excerpts:
- The United States Agency for Global Media receive $10 million for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 to provide increased broadcasting and grants for the following purposes:
- To promote the development of internet freedom tools, technologies, and new approaches, including both digital and non-digital means of information sharing related to North Korea.
- To explore public-private partnerships to counter North Korea’s repressive censorship and surveillance state.
- To develop new means to protect the privacy and identity of individuals receiving media from the United States Agency for Global Media and other outside media outlets from within North Korea.
- To bolster existing programming from the United States Agency for Global Media by restoring the broadcasting capacity of damaged antennas caused by Typhoon Yutu in 2018.
Senate Passes Otto Warmbier North Korea Censorship and Surveillance Act
Newsroom
Senate Passes Otto Warmbier North Korea Censorship and Surveillance Act
Legislation Authored by Portman, Brown and Coons Designed to Hold North Korea Accountable for Human Rights Abuses
June 16, 2022 | Press Releases
WASHINGTON, DC – Less than a week before the five-year anniversary of his death, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Chris Coons (D-DE) announced that their bipartisan legislation named in honor of Otto Warmbier, the Otto Warmbier North Korea Censorship and Surveillance Act, passed the Senate by unanimous consent. This legislation, introduced last June and reported favorably out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in October, provides $10 million annually for the next five years to counter North Korea’s repressive censorship and surveillance state, while also encouraging sanctions on those who enable this repressive information environment both in and outside of North Korea.
The bill is named after Otto Warmbier, a Cincinnati, Ohio, native who was wrongfully imprisoned by the brutal North Korean regime and died as a result of the injuries he sustained while in custody. This June 19th will mark the five-year anniversary of Otto’s passing. Senator Portman honored Otto’s memory on the Senate Floor earlier today.
“I am pleased that the Otto Warmbier North Korea Censorship and Surveillance Act has finally passed the Senate today,” said Portman. “Otto Warmbier was the best of America, the Midwest, and Cincinnati. This legislation will help ensure that his memory lives on and that the brutal regime responsible for his unjust death is held accountable for this and its myriad of other human rights abuses. I urge my colleagues in the House to consider this legislation right away so that we can get it to the president’s desk.”
“Otto Warmbier’s treatment by North Korean authorities that ended in his death remains a powerful reminder of the brutality of Kim Jong Un’s regime,” said Brown. “This legislation reaffirms our commitment to combating North Korea’s human rights violations against its own people and others who have been held captive, and to countering North Korean surveillance, censorship and repression.”
“We remember and celebrate the life of Otto Warmbier, who was just twenty-two years old when his life was taken,” said Coons. “Otto lived those years to the fullest, and I am pleased to work with Senators Portman and Brown in commemorating his life through this legislation, which will serve to honor his memory.”
The Otto Warmbier North Korea Censorship and Surveillance Act directs:
- No later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the president must develop and submit to Congress a strategy on combating North Korea’s repressive information environment;
- That the president may impose sanctions with respect to each person identified in the Act, via the blocking of their property in the U.S. or subject to U.S. jurisdiction and via ineligibility for visas, admission, or parole; and
- The United States Agency for Global Media receive $10 million for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 to provide increased broadcasting and grants for the following purposes:
- To promote the development of internet freedom tools, technologies, and new approaches, including both digital and non-digital means of information sharing related to North Korea.
- To explore public-private partnerships to counter North Korea’s repressive censorship and surveillance state.
- To develop new means to protect the privacy and identity of individuals receiving media from the United States Agency for Global Media and other outside media outlets from within North Korea.
- To bolster existing programming from the United States Agency for Global Media by restoring the broadcasting capacity of damaged antennas caused by Typhoon Yutu in 2018.
2. N. Korea remains unresponsive to US overtures: State Dept.
Permanent radio silence?
N. Korea remains unresponsive to US overtures: State Dept.
North Korea continues to remain unresponsive to US overtures for dialogue, a state department spokesperson said Thursday.
Ned Price also reaffirmed US commitment to diplomatically engage with North Korea without any preconditions.
"You heard from Secretary (Antony) Blinken when he was standing next to his South Korean counterpart earlier this week that our approach is to make clear to the DPRK that we harbor no hostile intent. We seek diplomacy and dialogue in order to advance the prospects for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," the department press secretary said in a daily press briefing.
"You also heard him (Blinken) saying we have not heard a response from the DPRK. That was a few days ago. There has been no changes to that," he added.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
In a joint press conference with South Korean Foreign Minster Park Jin after their meeting here on Monday, the top US diplomat urged Pyongyang to engage in dialogue, saying the US has "absolutely no hostile intent" toward the North.
North Korea has avoided denuclearization negotiations since late 2019.
The call for Pyongyang to engage in diplomacy comes amid growing concerns that the recalcitrant state may soon conduct a nuclear test, which, if conducted, will mark its seventh test.
North Korea last conducted a nuclear test in September 2017.
The country has launched at least 31 ballistic missiles this year in 18 rounds of missile tests, already marking the largest number of ballistic missiles fired by North Korea in a single year, according to US officials.
The South Korean foreign minister has said the North appears to have completed "all preparations" for a nuclear test and that only thing left before an actual test may be a political decision.
Blinken said the US and its allies are preparing for all contingencies that he said could include "short and longer-term adjustments to our military posture" if necessary. (Yonhap)
3. ‘The Lazarus Heist’ Is the Gripping Story of North Korean Cybercrime (book review)
Conclusion:
In sum, the book’s chronicle of events shows how North Korea’s cyberattacks have evolved into a wide range of activities, from terrorizing Americans to circumventing the sanctions regime. Worryingly, Washington’s concern does not rise to the level of the danger these activities represent. As the United States might have learned from its failed efforts to address North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, the only chance to halt Kim’s misconduct will be when a U.S. president seriously prioritizes stopping him and devoting the necessary resources.
The lesson for me from the failed efforts to address the nuclear and ballistic missile programs as well as the failure to counter the north's "all purpose sword," is not to blame the Clinton, Bush2, Obama, Trump, or Biden administrations. The common reason for "failure" is the Kim family regime. The root of all problems in Korea is the existence of the most evil mafia- like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime that has the objective of dominating the Korean Peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State. Until we understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the regime we will not effectively deal with the security challenges of the Korean peninsula. But instead we will likely continue to point fingers and blame whatever administration is in office (which of course fully supports the regime's political warfare strategy and blackmail diplomacy).
‘The Lazarus Heist’ Is the Gripping Story of North Korean Cybercrime
Worryingly, Washington’s concern does not rise to the level of the danger.
By Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Workers remove a banner
Workers remove a billboard for the movie The Interview in Hollywood, California, on Dec. 18, 2014, a day after Sony announced it was canceling the movie’s release. ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
“Remember the 11th of September 2001.” That chilling threat was posted on the internet after North Korea’s cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014, which aimed to prevent the release of a movie that ends with the death of a fictitious version of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In his new book, The Lazarus Heist, investigative journalist Geoff White digs into the fascinating evolution of Pyongyang’s cyberactivities, from terrorism to sanctions evasion to other criminal activities. While the book reads like a typical Hollywood crime drama, in the end the good guys do not win.
White’s engaging prose takes us around the world—Ireland, Macao, South Korea, Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, Slovenia, Malta, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States—to document Pyongyang’s cyber-intrusions and other illicit activities. In particular, White comprehensively reviews the record of the North Korean hacking team code-named Lazarus Group by U.S. government investigators.
Much of White’s book draws from information already in the public domain, but his compelling narrative highlights the trail of accomplices and victims that North Korea leaves behind. U.S. law enforcement continues efforts to prosecute North Korean hackers—an admirable goal but extremely unlikely to happen—including the three North Koreans listed on the FBI’s Cyber’s Most Wanted list. The upshot is that “North Korea’s alleged computer hackers get away scot-free, while their accomplices (or some of them, at least) get caught in the net,” as White notes.
“Remember the 11th of September 2001.” That chilling threat was posted on the internet after North Korea’s cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014, which aimed to prevent the release of a movie that ends with the death of a fictitious version of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In his new book, The Lazarus Heist, investigative journalist Geoff White digs into the fascinating evolution of Pyongyang’s cyberactivities, from terrorism to sanctions evasion to other criminal activities. While the book reads like a typical Hollywood crime drama, in the end the good guys do not win.
The Lazarus Heist: From Hollywood to High Finance: Inside North Korea’s Global Cyber War, Geoff White, Penguin Business, 304 pp., $29.95, June 2022
White’s engaging prose takes us around the world—Ireland, Macao, South Korea, Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, Slovenia, Malta, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States—to document Pyongyang’s cyber-intrusions and other illicit activities. In particular, White comprehensively reviews the record of the North Korean hacking team code-named Lazarus Group by U.S. government investigators.
Much of White’s book draws from information already in the public domain, but his compelling narrative highlights the trail of accomplices and victims that North Korea leaves behind. U.S. law enforcement continues efforts to prosecute North Korean hackers—an admirable goal but extremely unlikely to happen—including the three North Koreans listed on the FBI’s Cyber’s Most Wanted list. The upshot is that “North Korea’s alleged computer hackers get away scot-free, while their accomplices (or some of them, at least) get caught in the net,” as White notes.
White devotes an entire chapter early in the book to Pyongyang’s counterfeiting of U.S. $100 bills, also known as superdollars or Supernotes. The connection between North Korea’s cyberactivities and fake $100 bills may not be obvious. But White ties them together by explaining that currency counterfeiting was long a focus of Pyongyang’s illicit activities—and when the financial revolution moved transactions from physical currency to online banking, it set off a slew of North Korean cyberactivities. An alternative explanation is that the Kim regime will always try to exploit the weakest point of the U.S. sanctions regime. The U.S. Secret Service told a Senate subcommittee in 2006 that the Supernotes were first detected in 1989 and that it had seized approximately $50 million of the notes globally. The George W. Bush administration’s efforts to stop the Kim regime’s illicit activities—counterfeit cigarettes, drugs, and U.S. currency—increased the costs for North Korea and could explain its shift to cyberactivities.
“Computer hacks have become a key weapon in North Korea’s arsenal, and they now pose a significant threat to global security and stability,” White writes. Priscilla Moriuchi, a former analyst at the U.S. National Security Agency, tells White that Pyongyang’s “strategy is about utilizing its asymmetric strengths, being able to find tools of national power that they can use to level the playing field against their much stronger adversaries in the West.”
Early in the book, White also emphasizes that the main goal of North Korea’s hackers—like the counterfeiters before them—is to make cash for the regime, which has few legitimate opportunities to earn hard currency given the international sanctions due to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The illicit funds are used to fund everything from Kim Jong Un’s lifestyle to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. But in the book’s conclusion, White includes a warning from Thae Yong-ho, a former North Korean deputy ambassador in Britain, who defected to South Korea and is currently a legislator there. “During peaceful times,” Thae says, “they can use their hacking ability to create income.” However, Thae also asserts that in wartime, they can “easily” conduct a cyberattack to harm South Korea.
Occasionally, White observes, Pyongyang does use cyberattacks to terrorize targets for pettier reasons. In the case of the Sony attack, one of the regime’s earliest major hacking operations, Kim sought to avenge a personal slight. Sony’s The Interview is a middling comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco as a producer and journalist, respectively, who land an interview with the faux Kim Jong Un, played by Randall Park. The CIA then recruits Rogen’s and Franco’s characters to assassinate the North Korean leader by poisoning him. As in most comedies, hijinks ensue, and eventually they complete their mission. Unsurprisingly, the real-life Kim was not pleased with his Hollywood treatment—though it’s unclear whether he was more incensed by his fictitious death or the buffoonish treatment.
In September 2014, three months before the movie’s scheduled December release, a Sony employee opened an email with a virus embedded in video files. White explains that this allowed the attackers to access Sony’s computer system, where they “carefully [moved] from computer to computer to avoid detection, stealing data and planting more viruses as they geared up for their big finale.” On Thanksgiving, North Korean cyberattackers triggered the viruses to devastate the company’s computer systems. Sony executives received emails demanding a ransom payment. When the company did not comply by the specified deadline, the hackers released films that were still in production and sent reporters incriminating proprietary information, including executives’ salaries and contracts for actors and actresses. Then they leaked 5,000 emails from the account of Sony co-chair Amy Pascal. White observes that some contained embarrassing details.
Following the movie’s premiere, the hackers issued a terrorist threat invoking 9/11, urging Americans to keep themselves away from theaters showing the movie. “If your house is nearby, you’d better leave,” the threat stated. White explains that Sony had a dilemma: It could continue with the film’s release or pull the movie. “In the end,” White writes, “the studio’s hand was forced, when the major cinema chains refused to screen the film.”
Then-U.S. President Barack Obama said Sony and the theaters had made a “mistake.” He also expressed outrage at Pyongyang’s scheme, saying, “We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States.” But he did not retaliate in any meaningful way.
To be sure, Obama issued an executive order in January 2015 authorizing additional sanctions against the North Korean government, which the U.S. Treasury Department used to sanction three entities and 10 individuals serving as entities, agents, or officials on behalf of Pyongyang. However, the impact of these sanctions on hacking operations was negligible at best, since the three entities, including the organization that oversees the Lazarus Group, were already under sanctions and the 10 individuals on the list were actually involved in the regime’s proliferation activities, not cyberattacks. It was not until September 2019 that the Treasury Department sanctioned the Lazarus Group.
Moriuchi tells White that the Sony attack failed to cultivate any significant U.S. appreciation for the North Korean cyberthreat. Instead, the U.S. intelligence community downplayed or ignored the danger. The Sony hack, Moriuchi says, showed that “North Korean cyber-operators are much more technically adept and aware and plugged into contemporary Internet society and media culture than they ever really get credit for.”
In 2016, North Korea further escalated its cyberaggression when it set its sights on stealing almost $1 billion from Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank. The attackers sent the New York Federal Reserve fraudulent messages purporting to originate from Bangladesh Bank requesting the transfer of nearly $1 billion to bank accounts opened by the hackers’ accomplices at a Philippines-based commercial bank, the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. The New York Fed stopped most of the requested transfers—but only after $81 million had already been sent to the Philippines-based bank.
Bangladesh Bank tried to recover the money, but the attackers were always one step ahead of it. White explains that the hackers moved the balances from four accounts to a single account and then transferred the funds to a money-changing business, which converted them into Philippine pesos. The attackers then laundered $51 million in casinos using accomplices and, for reasons that remain unclear, transferred the remaining $30 million to a mysterious Chinese man who promptly left the country.
White writes that the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California were still investigating the Sony hack when they discovered similarities to the Bangladesh Bank heist. For example, the FBI found three IP addresses shared by the viruses used for the hacks.
In sum, the book’s chronicle of events shows how North Korea’s cyberattacks have evolved into a wide range of activities, from terrorizing Americans to circumventing the sanctions regime. Worryingly, Washington’s concern does not rise to the level of the danger these activities represent. As the United States might have learned from its failed efforts to address North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, the only chance to halt Kim’s misconduct will be when a U.S. president seriously prioritizes stopping him and devoting the necessary resources.
Anthony Ruggiero is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the U.S. National Security Council during the Trump administration. Twitter: @NatSecAnthony
4. N. Korea's trade with China sharply drops on-month in May: data
The cause of continued suffering among the Korean people. Without this trade the people have almost no "safety valve" because of the impact on markets which has been the source of resilience among the population until COVID hit.
N. Korea's trade with China sharply drops on-month in May: data | Yonhap News Agency
SHENYANG, China, June 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's trade with China plunged month-on-month in May after the railroad freight traffic between the two nations was suspended due to the COVID-19 spread in the Chinese border city of Dandong, Beijing's customs data showed Saturday.
North Korea's trade volume with China stood at US$20.31 million in May, sharply down from $102.34 million in April, according to the data from China's General Administration of Customs.
North Korea's exports to China totaled $5.8 million in May, up 36.5 percent from $4.25 million in April, but its imports dropped 85.2 percent month-on-month to $14.51 million, according to the data.
Railroad freight traffic between North Korea and China halted in August 2020 due to outbreaks of COVID-19 in China and resumed in January this year. With the resumption, North Korea's trade volume with China in the first quarter increased 10-fold from a year earlier.
However, railroad freight traffic was suspended again on April 29 due to tightened border controls put in place to stop an outbreak of COVID-19 in China's border city of Dandong.
kdon@yna.co.kr
(END)
5. S. Korea to actively use nuclear energy to reach carbon neutrality: PM
Undoing Moon's actions.
S. Korea to actively use nuclear energy to reach carbon neutrality: PM | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, June 18 (Yonhap) -- Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has said South Korea will actively use nuclear energy to meet its target of carbon neutrality and as a tool for the nation's energy security.
Han made the remarks in a video address to a global climate meeting hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.
South Korea "will actively utilize nuclear power plants as a means of energy security and carbon neutrality," Han told the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, according to a statement provided by Han's office.
South Korea has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from the 2018 levels by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
Han said South Korea will draw up a plan for the right mix of nuclear power and renewable energy to achieve carbon neutrality.
In addition, South Korea will expand its investment in small nuclear power projects called small modular reactors (SMR) and renewable energy, Han said.
By 2030, South Korea will supply more than 4.5 million zero-emission vehicles, Han said.
Last year, South Korea signed a global pact to cut releases of methane by 30 percent by 2030.
kdh@yna.co.kr
(END)
6. S. Korea verifying Russia's data on deaths of 4 volunteer fighters in Ukraine
S. Korea verifying Russia's data on deaths of 4 volunteer fighters in Ukraine | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, June 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's foreign ministry said Saturday it is ascertaining the veracity of the Russian defense ministry's data that showed four of its nationals were killed while fighting for Ukraine.
"We are aware of Russia's defense ministry's data," an official with the foreign ministry said. "We have ordered the South Korean embassy in Russia to identify the facts."
Earlier, Russia's defense ministry revealed data on foreign military volunteers. According to the data, 13 South Koreans entered Ukraine to help Ukrainians in their war against Russia. Among them, four died during the fighting, while eight have left Ukraine and one is still in the country.
kdon@yna.co.kr
(END)
7. North Korean COVID-19/Fever Data Tracker
North Korean COVID-19/Fever Data Tracker
Article last updated on June 16, 2022.
After two years of claiming no confirmed COVID-19 cases, North Korea disclosed a nationwide outbreak on May 13 and launched emergency epidemic prevention measures. The epidemic began in late April.
Officially, only a handful of cases have been confirmed as COVID-19, with the rest attributed to an unidentified “fever.” This is likely due to insufficient testing capabilities, and many are assumed to be COVID-19 related, however, that might not be the entire picture. North Korean state media has been publishing daily data on the outbreak, which is featured below. 38 North will update these numbers daily as new information becomes available.
Current Situation
The total number of cases fever cases continued to drop in North Korea on Wednesday, but the country reported its first death in four days and an increase in the number of newly diagnosed cases in two regions.
As of 6pm on Wednesday, 46,230 people were being treated in relation to the epidemic in North Korea, down 12 percent on the day. An additional 26,010 cases were identified on Wednesday, down 13 percent on the day before.
A single death was reported in Pyongyang to bring the total number of fatalities to 73 people. In total, 4.5 million people have been sickened and recovered, according to state media.
8. Gov't Pushes Environmental Study of THAAD Base
Deep state like actions?
But South Korea (and the US) must never give into Chinese threats.
A cursory six-month environmental study was planned during the Park Geun-hye administration, but the Moon Jae-in administration changed it to one year but dragged its heels for fear of agitating China, which responded to the stationing of the battery here with an unofficial boycott of Korean goods and services.
Gov't Pushes Environmental Study of THAAD Base
June 17, 2022 11:55
The government will push ahead with the long-delayed environmental assessment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense base in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province so that it is finally run like any ordinary military installation.
The Defense Ministry on Thursday told the provincial government to recommend members for a committee to carry out the environmental impact study.
Previous governments had delayed the assessment for the past five years, which means the status of the battery remains provisional and the base on a former golf course little better than a camp.
The committee "will consist of representatives from provincial governments, regional environment agency staff, civilian environmental experts, residents and Defense Ministry officials as stipulated by law," the ministry said.
/News1
A cursory six-month environmental study was planned during the Park Geun-hye administration, but the Moon Jae-in administration changed it to one year but dragged its heels for fear of agitating China, which responded to the stationing of the battery here with an unofficial boycott of Korean goods and services.
Drawn-out protests by local residents also provided a pretext for making no progress. Consultations with the residents are planned, but protesters are not impossible to disperse by force.
Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup earlier said, "The normalization of the THAAD battery should have been completed by now and we will accomplish it in the near future."
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