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Quotes of the Day:
"Live simply that others might simply live."
– Elizabeth Seaton
“Yet the greatest tragedy of the twenty-first century may be that we have learned so little from the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century. Apparently catastrophe lessons need to be experienced firsthand by each generation. So, here are some refreshers: Nuclear conflict may mean the end of life on this planet. Mass dehumanization can lead to genocide. The death of an independent press can lead to tyranny and render a population helpless to protect itself against a government that disdains law and conscience.”
– Lesley M.M. Blume, Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World
“[Writers] are feared by every tyrant--who shows his fear by burning the books and destroying the individuals.”
– E.B. White, On Democracy
1. N.K. leader calls for defining S. Korea as 'No. 1 hostile country' in constitution
2. Putin to meet N. Korean foreign minister later Tuesday: Kremlin
3. Top nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan to hold talks this week
4. S. Korea to provide additional US$8 mln worth of humanitarian aid to civilians in Israel-Hamas war
5. N. Korea continues to operate nine re-education camps throughout the country
6. Editorial : Former President Moon believed in N. Korea’s ‘GP disablement’ without proper verification
7. Yoon presents letters of appointment to FM, spy chief
8. Korea, US agree on early launch of negotiations for defense cost sharing: sources
9. North Korea: Short On Food But Arms Aplenty – OpEd
10. Planning: 6 relay interviews with representatives of the Asian community in the Washington area
11. Hamas fights with a patchwork of weapons built by Iran, China, Russia and North Korea
12. U.S. forces recovered Iranian warheads in Navy SEAL mission gone awry
13. Samsung to build all-AI, no-human chip factories
14. North Korea Says It Is No Longer Interested in Reunifying With the South
15. Kim Jong Un Has a New Enemy No. 1—and It Isn’t the U.S.
1. N.K. leader calls for defining S. Korea as 'No. 1 hostile country' in constitution
Again, this is likely responding to the South Korean description of the north. But more importantly the regime needs to create this threat to justify the sacrifice and suffering of the Korean people in the north. And I will beat this horse - we must look for indicators of internal instability and threats to the regime. Kim needs to externalize the threat to protect himself.
(3rd LD) N.K. leader calls for defining S. Korea as 'invariable principal enemy' in constitution | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · January 16, 2024
(ATTN: UPDATES with KCNA's English-language dispatch throughout)
By Kim Soo-yeon
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for revising the country's constitution to define South Korea as its "invariable principal enemy" and to codify the commitment to "completely occupying" the South Korean territory in the event of war, state media reported Tuesday.
In a speech delivered at a key parliamentary meeting Monday, Kim called for drawing up legal measures to define South Korea not as a counterpart for reconciliation and unification, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"In my opinion, we can specify in our constitution the issue of completely occupying, subjugating and reclaiming the ROK and annex it as a part of the territory of our Republic in case of a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula," Kim said, using the acronym of South Korea's full name, the Republic of Korea.
He called for stipulating in the constitution that education programs should be strengthened to get North Koreans to be instilled with "the firm idea that the ROK is their primary foe and invariable principal enemy."
This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 16, 2024, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un delivering a speech at the 10th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly held in Pyongyang the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Kim addressed the nation at the 10th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), about two weeks after he defined relations with South Korea as those between "two states hostile to each other" at a year-end party meeting.
The SPA is the highest organ of state power under the North's constitution, but it actually only rubber-stamps decisions by the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
Stressing that it is a "serious anachronistic mistake" to regard Seoul as a partner for reconciliation and unification, North Korea also decided to abolish three agencies meant to promote inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation.
The bodies in question are the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, the National Economic Cooperation Bureau and the Kumgangsan International Tourism Administration.
The North's cabinet and related organizations will take "practical" measures to implement the SPA decision, it added.
At Monday's meeting, Kim also ordered steps to "get rid of the remnants of the past era" that can be regarded as symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation.
"For the present, we should take strict stepwise measures to thoroughly block all the channels of north-south communication along the border, including the one of physically and completely cutting off the railway tracks in our side ... to an irretrievable level," Kim said.
The North's leader also ordered the dismantling of "the eye-sore" Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification, a monument built in 2001 in Pyongyang to mark late founder Kim Il-sung's blueprint for federation system-based unification.
Touching on the North's nuclear weapons, Kim reiterated his country will not avoid war though it has no intention to unilaterally start an armed conflict unless provoked.
"As the southern border of our country has been clearly drawn, the illegal 'Northern Limit Line' (NLL) and any other boundary can never be tolerated, and if the ROK violates even 0.001 millimeters of our territorial land, air and waters, it will be considered a war provocation," he said.
North Korea has not recognized the NLL, long demanding that the line be moved farther south as it was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command after the 1950-53 Korean War.
The North fired hundreds of rounds of artillery shells near the tense sea border in the Yellow Sea earlier this month, prompting the South Korean military to carry out live-fire drills in response.
"The war will terribly destroy the entity called the Republic of Korea and put an end to its existence. And it will inflict an unimaginably crushing defeat upon the U.S.," Kim warned.
At the year-end party meeting, Kim urged stepped-up war readiness to deter what he called "unprecedented" acts of U.S.-led confrontation against his country and preparations for a "great event to suppress South Korea's whole territory in the event of a contingency.
South Korea's unification ministry said that behind Kim's bombardment of antagonistic messages against the South apparently lies North Korea's anxiety about the stability of the regime and fears of unification by absorption.
"Amid difficulties aggravated by U.N. sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea may intend to boost its hostility against South Korea to deflect internal complaints to outside," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The official added that North Korea also appears to be staging psychological warfare to drive a wedge in South Korean society by shifting the responsibility of heightened security tensions onto the South.
This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 16, 2024, shows the North holding the 10th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly held in Pyongyang the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · January 16, 2024
2. Putin to meet N. Korean foreign minister later Tuesday: Kremlin
Putin needs north Korea.
Putin to meet N. Korean foreign minister later Tuesday: Kremlin | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · January 16, 2024
MOSCOW, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui on Tuesday evening, the Kremlin said, amid the two nation's deepening military cooperation.
Choe is currently visiting Russia for a three-day visit at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Choe and Lavrov are to meet at noon Tuesday before briefing Putin on the results of their bilateral talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
They will also update Putin on the progress of the agreements reached at his summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in September last year, Peskov said.
Choe's visit came amid concerns the North has been providing weapons to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine in return for Moscow's technical assistance in advanced arms development.
This undated composite photo shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. (Yonhap)
julesyi@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · January 16, 2024
3. Top nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan to hold talks this week
I missed any official announcement (if there was one) but as expected Dr. Jung Pak is now the special representative for north Korea now that Ambassador KSung Kim has retired.
Top nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan to hold talks this week | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · January 16, 2024
By Kim Seung-yeon
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- The chief nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold talks in Seoul this week on North Korea's latest military provocations amid its growing ties with Russia, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
Kim Gunn, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will meet with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Jung Pak and Hiroyuki Namazu, respectively, for three-way talks Thursday.
Kim will also hold separate bilateral talks with Pak earlier that day and with Namazu on Wednesday.
The three "plan to share their assessments of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, including North Korea's recent provocations and escalating tensions, its military cooperation and exchanges with Russia, and discuss measures to respond," ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a press briefing.
Trilateral talks on N. Korea's nuclear weapons
Kim Gunn (R), South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, poses for a photo with Sung Kim (L), U.S. special envoy for North Korea, and Takehiro Funakoshi, head of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, during their talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons in the Japanese town of Karuizawa, Nagano, on July 20, 2023, in this file photo provided by Seoul's foreign ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
The planned talks come as North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui was set to hold talks with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow on Tuesday. Kremlin said it intends to further develop its partnership with Pyongyang "in all areas."
Choe's visit came amid concerns the North has been providing weapons to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine in return for Moscow's technical assistance in advanced arms development.
On Sunday, the North test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile into the East Sea, in its first ballistic missile launch this year, after the firings of artillery shells near the western sea border on Jan. 5 and 7.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called in a key parliamentary meeting Monday for stipulating in its constitution that South Korea is an "invariable principal enemy," warning he will not avoid war if he has to.
The upcoming talks among the nuclear envoys will also mark the first of its kind since Pak, previously the deputy U.S. nuclear envoy, took over the post from Sung Kim, with the new title of "senior official for the DPRK." The DPRK is the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Symposium on N.K. exploitation of cryptocurrency exchanges
In this file photo, Jung Pak, U.S. deputy special representative for North Korea, speaks during a South Korea-U.S. symposium at a Seoul hotel on Nov. 17, 2022, on how to respond to North Korea's alleged cyber exploitation of cryptocurrency exchanges. (Yonhap)
elly@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · January 16, 2024
4. S. Korea to provide additional US$8 mln worth of humanitarian aid to civilians in Israel-Hamas war
Global Pivotal State
| Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · January 16, 2024
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will provide an additional US$8 million worth of humanitarian aid to help civilian victims in the war between Israel and the Hamas militant group, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
The provision follows the $2 million worth of aid South Korea had pledged to provide in October last year in the wake of the conflict.
The aid will be delivered through international organizations, and the government will ensure the resources properly and transparently reach those in need for humanitarian purposes, the ministry said.
Since the outbreak of the conflict, about 25,300 people from both sides have been killed, with more than 69,000 wounded.
elly@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · January 16, 2024
5. N. Korea continues to operate nine re-education camps throughout the country
The prisons of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State continue to thrive.
N. Korea continues to operate nine re-education camps throughout the country
All re-education camp prisoners perform forced labor with the work groups to which they belong, a source told Daily NK
By Mun Dong Hui - 2024.01.15 2:11pm
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-continues-operate-nine-re-education-camps-country/
Image: pixabay
North Korea continues to operate nine re-education camps, where the number of inmates detained for violating the country’s law to “eradicate reactionary thought and culture” has recently increased, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a Daily NK source in North Korea said last Wednesday that the Corrections Bureau of the Ministry of Social Security “is still operating nine re-education camps, including the Chongo-ri Re-education Camp in North Hamgyong Province and the Songgan Re-education Camp in Chagang Province.”
No new camps were opened or closed, he added.
This means that the number of camps run by the Ministry of Social Security’s Corrections Bureau and their activities have remained essentially unchanged since a Daily NK survey of the camps in 2020. This stagnation contrasts with the political prison camps, where several closed or downsized camps have been reopened or expanded.
“The re-education camps house criminals who have violated every law of the republic’s criminal code,” the source said. “In terms of crimes, violators of the law to eradicate reactionary thought and culture account for the most, followed by people who have committed non-socialist and anti-socialist acts, murder, theft, smuggling, drugs, and kidnapping.
“There are also many people in prison for embezzling state property and damaging the image of the republic abroad,” he continued, adding: “The difference is that because of COVID-19, the number of illegal border crossers, who used to make up the largest number of inmates, has decreased.”
Camp inmates perform forced labor
North Korea sealed its border during the COVID-19 pandemic, ostensibly to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, and severely restricted its people from entering or leaving the country. Under these circumstances, few people attempted to cross the border, resulting in a decrease in the number of reeducation camp inmates detained for illegal border crossings.
The source said that all reeducation camp prisoners perform forced labor with the work groups to which they belong. The work groups include coal mining, mineral mining, forestry, general agricultural work, vegetable farming, rice farming, animal husbandry, cement production, corpse disposal, office work, indoor work (knitting, artificial eyelash production, wig making), and cooking.
Recently, the re-education system in the camps has also changed slightly, the source told Daily NK.
“The re-education camps had been following the teachings of North Korea’s late founder Kim Il Sung, who instructed [the camps] to halve the sentences of recommended prisoners who worked well and led exemplary reform lives, but this changed with an order in July 2023 that called for the selection of candidates for reduced sentences based on the crimes they committed.
“Accordingly, among the candidates for amnesty or reduced sentences, people will be selected or receive reduced sentences based on the crimes they committed. People who stole state or personal property, illegal border crossers, thieves, and smugglers are the most favored candidates, while drug criminals, human traffickers, and robbers are the least favored.”
This means that candidates are chosen based on several factors, such as their crimes, not just on how they live in the camps. The exact standards used, however, remain unknown. North Korea’s penal code provides for short-term labor (one to six months), reform through labor (one to three years), re-education through labor (one to 15 years, including life imprisonment), and the death penalty.
North Korea imposes sentences of forced labor and reeducation through labor through the same process: suspects are first investigated by prosecutors and then undergo a preliminary examination – which weighs the facts and evidence to determine whether punishment is warranted – before going to trial.
People sentenced to re-education are deprived of their civil rights and banned from party and other social organization activities. Those sentenced to forced labor, on the other hand, retain their civil rights and participate in state-mandated activities, including criticism sessions, while performing forced labor in prison.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons. For more information about Daily NK’s network of reporting partners and information-gathering activities, please visit our FAQ page here.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
6. Editorial : Former President Moon believed in N. Korea’s ‘GP disablement’ without proper verification
The north is masterful at employing underground facilities. This is why they can provide support to Hamas and Hezbollah.
And then there is the issue of the previous administration giving the north a pass on the dismantlement. It did not want anything to get in the way of its appeasement agenda.
Editorial : Former President Moon believed in N. Korea’s ‘GP disablement’ without proper verification
https://www.chosun.com/english/opinion-en/2024/01/16/KCBET6BF3BFUPAWURZV7DVIS6I/
By The Chosunilbo
Pubilshed 2024.01.16. 09:07
The Ministry of National Defense announced that North Korea destroyed 10 Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) guard posts (GPs) as part of Comprehensive Military Agreement. /Ministry of National Defense
It is reported that the former Moon government failed to check whether the underground nuclear facilities were destroyed when they conducted on-site verification of North Korea’s frontline guard posts(GPs) in 2018, as a part of implementing Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA), the inter-Korean military agreement on Sep. 19 of the same year.
In December of that year, the Moon administration announced that they had confirmed the destruction of the underground facilities of the North GPs, rendering them unable to perform their duties as guard posts. However, it has been alleged that this statement was false due to inadequate verification. The Ministry of National Defense has recently initiated an investigation into these suspicions.
As per the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA), signed by both North and South Korea, they agreed to withdraw from all guard posts (GPs) located in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Initially, both sides withdrew from 11 GPs, situated within a distance of 1km of each other.
However, when the South Korean verification team arrived at the site almost 20 days after the North had claimed to have destroyed their GPs, they faced opposition from the N. Korean military, which prevented them from carrying underground observation equipment like Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). There was no use of any other equipment either, which could search underground.
It is said that the verification was conducted only by visual inspection, without using any scientific equipment. The inspection went on for an hour and a half.
Unlike South Korea, which mainly uses above-ground fortresses, N. Korea operates its guard posts as underground fortresses, which makes it necessary to verify the destruction of underground facilities. If aforementioned claim holds true, then the past inspection was merely superficial.
After visiting North Korea, the verification team reported that their doubts about the disablement were not completely resolved. However, this was ignored. At that time, President Moon claimed, “The mutual withdrawal and verification of guard posts by South and N. Korea marked a new chapter in the 65-year history of division on the Korean Peninsula.” The Moon administration even promoted Kim Jong-un’s non-existent ‘commitment to denuclearization.’
In 2023, it was discovered that North Korea was using underground facilities that they had claimed to have disabled. This kind of deception is not limited to North Korea, as communist regimes around the world often employ deception as a basic strategy of statecraft.
North Korea has been deceiving the international community since the U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework of 1994, by pretending to denuclearize. In June 2008, a cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear facility was exploded in front of officials from the U.S. State Department, but it was later revealed to be a deception.
Despite this, N. Korea is still operating the Yongbyon nuclear facility. The issue here is not only North Korea’s deception, but also the more serious problem of having people within our country who willingly believe such deceit.
7. Yoon presents letters of appointment to FM, spy chief
Yoon presents letters of appointment to FM, spy chief
koreaherald.com · by Yonhap · January 16, 2024
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Start your day with a roundup of key stories from The Korea Herald with news and comment on all that’s happening in Korea.
By Yonhap
Published : Jan. 16, 2024 - 19:26
Cho Tae-yong (left), chief of the National Intelligence Service; Cho Tae-yul (second from left), minister of foreign affairs; and Chang Ho-jin, director of the presidential National Security Office, exchange words at their appointment ceremony held at the presidential office in Seoul, Tuesday. Both Chos, as well as Chang's new deputy director, Wang Yun-jong, were appointed by President Yoon Suk Yeol. (Pool photo via Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday presented letters of appointment to Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Cho Tae-yong, South Korea's new spy chief.
Yoon also awarded certificates of appointment to Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun and Ryu Chul-whan, the new chief of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, as well as Wang Yun-jong, who was designated as the third deputy national security adviser to oversee economic security issues.
Cho Tae-yul, a former South Korean ambassador to the United Nations, assumed office last week to succeed Park Jin. Cho Tae-yong, then the national security adviser, was also named to lead the National Intelligence Service. (Yonhap)
koreaherald.com · by Yonhap · January 16, 2024
8. Korea, US agree on early launch of negotiations for defense cost sharing: sources
The institution is getting this out of the way to remove friction with the next administration (whomever that might be).
It pains me to read these comments about the alliance and cost sharing. Our alliance is not a transactional one but if you want to count benefits look at what the ROK is doing that aligns with US interests beyond the peninsula (and Japan as well)..
The early launch of the defense cost-sharing talks appear to have taken into account the possibility of Trump returning to the White House if he wins the November presidential vote.
During his term in office, Trump accused the allies of relying on the U.S. for their defense and called them "free riders" who "rip off" America. Some media had reported that Trump demanded Seoul pay $5 billion for its share, more than a fivefold increase from 2019.
Trump's possible reelection gives rise to concerns he will drive the hard bargain again for the next defense cost-sharing deal.
Even if the negotiations start this year, there is no guarantee an agreement for the new SMA will be reached before the year end, one source said.
Korea, US agree on early launch of negotiations for defense cost sharing: sources
The Korea Times · January 16, 2024
Korea and the United States have agreed to begin talks on their next deal on defense cost sharing earlier than planned, sources said, Jan. 16. Yonhap
Korea and the United States have agreed to begin talks on their next deal on defense cost sharing earlier than planned, sources said Tuesday, a move that appears to consider the possible reelection of former U.S. President Donald Trump, known for his tough bargaining on such deals.
The allies have reached an understanding to start the negotiations on sharing the costs for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), this year, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the matter.
The early talks, if launched, will come nearly two years ahead of the original schedule for the deal, known as the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), currently in effect until the end of 2025 under a six-year term.
Seoul and Washington signed the SMA for 2020-26 in April 2021 after 1 1/2 years of tough haggling over how much Seoul should pay for the stationing of the USFK on its soil, as the then Trump administration had called for a sharp increase in Seoul's share.
The early launch of the defense cost-sharing talks appear to have taken into account the possibility of Trump returning to the White House if he wins the November presidential vote.
During his term in office, Trump accused the allies of relying on the U.S. for their defense and called them "free riders" who "rip off" America. Some media had reported that Trump demanded Seoul pay $5 billion for its share, more than a fivefold increase from 2019.
Trump's possible reelection gives rise to concerns he will drive the hard bargain again for the next defense cost-sharing deal.
Even if the negotiations start this year, there is no guarantee an agreement for the new SMA will be reached before the year end, one source said.
Under the latest and 11th SMA, Korea agreed to raise the payment by 13.9 percent from 2019 to $1.03 billion for 2021.
Korea's foreign ministry said "no decision has been made on the specifics" regarding the SMA negotiations.
"We plan to closely work with the United States as we prepare for the next negotiations in a systematic and strategic manner," ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a regular press briefing.
Since 1991, Seoul has partially shouldered costs under the SMA for Korean USFK workers; the construction of military installations, such as barracks, and training, educational, operational and communications facilities; and other logistical support. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · January 16, 2024
9. North Korea: Short On Food But Arms Aplenty – OpEd
We need to be cognizant of the internal conditions:
Excerpts:
However, in recent years United Nations agencies responsible for assessing global food security and planning food assistance have been unable to include North Korea in their monitoring processes. This is largely due to almost no access of the outsider to the country, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The country seems to be experiencing a ‘hidden food crisis’ where internal food conditions are rapidly worsening under tightened government controls but with little room for external actors to intervene”.
On another note, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service recently reported significant surges in starvation deaths, suicides, and violent crimes within the north. These disturbing numbers serve as a rough but non-negligible indication of a severe food problem in North Korea.
Above all, it underscores the crucial need for the outside world to recognize the country’s unique-type food crisis which has been characterized by multiple disconnections from international sanctions, border closures, and information blockades.
Thus, it is paramount for the global community to resume interest and devise methods to possibly monitor the ongoing situation in order to mitigate the likelihood of famine or famine-like conditions in North Korea, says the study.
North Korea: Short On Food But Arms Aplenty – OpEd
January 16, 2024 0 Comments
By Thalif Deen and IDN
eurasiareview.com · January 15, 2024
North Korea, which has long suffered a shortage of food and medicine, has made relatively fast progress in cranking out ballistic missiles and emerging as an arms supplier to one of the world’s major nuclear powers: Russia.
A joint statement issued on January 10 by eight countries—France, Japan, Malta, Slovenia, South Korea, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States—accuses Russia of launching “several waves of devastating aerial attacks against Ukraine, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds more.”
“These heinous attacks were conducted, in part, using ballistic missiles and ballistic missile launchers procured from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (DPRK or North Korea).
The export of these weapons from the DPRK to Russia, says the statement, “blatantly violates multiple UN Security Council resolutions that prohibit UN Member States from procuring arms or related materiel from the DPRK and prohibit the DPRK from exporting arms or related materiel”.
Additionally, Security Council resolutions also prohibit DPRK’s development of ballistic missile programs. These violations lead to further suffering of the Ukrainian people, support Russia’s brutal war of aggression, and undermine the global nonproliferation regime, the statement adds.
“Each violation makes the world a much more dangerous place. And a permanent Security Council member, (namely the Russian Federation), that willingly engages in these violations demonstrates a clear exploitation of its position”, the eight countries warn.
But despite multiple warnings, North Korea has openly violated UN resolutions, backed by two permanent members of the Security Council, namely China and Russia, while the US, UK and France, have thrown their protective arms around Israel facing charges of genocide in Gaza.
The new Cold War has brought the Security Council to a near-standstill
According to a September 13 report on Cable News Network (CNN), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, following intense speculation, met on September 13, to discuss a potential arms deal—one that could see Pyongyang provide weapons for Moscow to use against Ukraine.
Putin signaled a potential willingness to assist North Korea in developing its space and satellite program as he gave Kim a tour of Russia’s Vostochny space launch site ahead of the arms talks.
At the end of his visit, Kim was quoted as saying he would “always be standing with Russia”.
In its latest report of North Korea, the State Department says the U.S., in the past, has provided food and other emergency aid to North Korea during times of famine and natural disasters, upon request by North Korea.
The U.S. does not provide any direct aid to North Korea. Currently, there are a number of U.S. NGOs that travel to DPRK through private and faith-based donor support, providing aid to fight infectious diseases such as multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis and to improve farming practices and agricultural output in rural area.
In its 2023 Yearbook, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said North Koreacontinues to prioritize its military nuclear programme as a central element of its national security strategy.
“While North Korea conducted no nuclear test explosions in 2022, it conducted more than 90 tests of missiles”. Some of these missiles, which include new ICBMs, SIPRI said, may be capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
SIPRI estimates that the country has now assembled around 30 warheads and possesses enough fissile material for a total of 50–70 warheads, both significant increases over the estimates for January 2022.
Meanwhile, in its World Report 2023, released on January 11 at a UN press briefing, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says North Korea remains one of the most repressive countries in the world.
“Ruled by third-generation authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un, the government responded to the Covid-19 pandemic with deepened isolation and repression, increased ideological control, and by maintaining fearful obedience of the population by using threats of torture, extrajudicial executions, wrongful imprisonment, enforced disappearances, and forced hard labor”.
HRW also points out that the North Korean government does not tolerate pluralism, bans independent media, civil society organizations, and trade unions, and systematically denies all basic liberties, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and freedom of religion and belief.
“North Korean authorities routinely send perceived opponents of the government to secretive political prison camps (kwanliso) in remote regions where they face torture and other ill-treatment, starvation rations, and forced labor. Collective punishment is also used to silence dissent”.
The North Korean government, says the HRW report, failed to protect economic rights, resulting in violations of the right to health, food, and access to an adequate standard of living in 2022.
The impact of the nearly three-year-long Covid-19 nationwide country lockdown intensified as the country was hit by major droughts in May, and flooding in July and August.
Meanwhile, in May, North Korea imposed more severe lockdowns across the country after it announced North Korea’s first official Covid-19 case. The government continued to prioritize weapons’ development and conducted a record number of over 30 missile tests between January and October, said HRW.
In an academic analysis last November of the situation in North Korea, Jisun Yi, a Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), said the global community has been actively monitoring food situations around the world and developing contingency plans for regions at risk of deteriorating food conditions.
However, in recent years United Nations agencies responsible for assessing global food security and planning food assistance have been unable to include North Korea in their monitoring processes. This is largely due to almost no access of the outsider to the country, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The country seems to be experiencing a ‘hidden food crisis’ where internal food conditions are rapidly worsening under tightened government controls but with little room for external actors to intervene”.
On another note, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service recently reported significant surges in starvation deaths, suicides, and violent crimes within the north. These disturbing numbers serve as a rough but non-negligible indication of a severe food problem in North Korea.
Above all, it underscores the crucial need for the outside world to recognize the country’s unique-type food crisis which has been characterized by multiple disconnections from international sanctions, border closures, and information blockades.
Thus, it is paramount for the global community to resume interest and devise methods to possibly monitor the ongoing situation in order to mitigate the likelihood of famine or famine-like conditions in North Korea, says the study.
eurasiareview.com · January 15, 2024
10. Planning: 6 relay interviews with representatives of the Asian community in the Washington area
An interview with my friend and colleague Kenji Sawai.
Planning: 6 relay interviews with representatives of the Asian community in the Washington area
https://dc.koreatimes.com/article/20240114/1497721?utm
“About 22,000 people live… “Many expatriates”
Kenji Sawai, Northeast Asia Cooperation Director, Global Peace Foundation
Kenji Sawai, director of Northeast Asia cooperation at the Global Peace Foundation (age 57, living in Germantown, Maryland, pictured) said, “Many Japanese people living in the Washington area are expatriates dispatched to embassies, companies, or media outlets.” Director Sawai said, “They usually stay in Washington for about 3 to 5 years and then have to return to Japan, so they send their children to a weekend Japanese school. There used to be two Japanese schools, but now they have been merged into one.” said.
Washington Japanese Language School is currently located in Bethesda, Maryland. Currently, about 650 people are registered.
Director Sawai said, “There are Japanese people who run Japanese restaurants, but I know there aren’t that many. As far as I know, Koreans and Chinese run a lot of Japanese restaurants.”
According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2019, the Japanese population in the United States was 1.498 million, a slight increase from 1.16 million in 2000. As of 2019, the number of Japanese people living in the Washington area is about 22,000, making it the 10th largest Japanese region in the United States. The area where the largest number of Japanese reside is Honolulu in Hawaii, followed by LA, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento, and Chicago. According to the 2020 census, the number of Japanese people in the United States is 1,550,875.
Japanese people began immigrating after the United States signed a treaty with Japan through the Perry Fleet in 1854, and when Japan attacked the United States during World War II, 120,000 Japanese living in California were imprisoned in internment camps. Currently, Japanese people living in the United States are said to be living comfortably thanks to the strong U.S.-Japan alliance.
Director Sawai said, “I came here from Osaka, Japan in 2003, and in the Washington area, I feel that the number of immigrants and international students from Japan is decreasing. Just as Koreans do not come to the U.S. in large numbers these days, just 20 years ago, there were a lot of people coming from Japan to the U.S. “They wanted to come, but since 20 years ago, there has been no particular reason for Japanese people to come to the United States,” he said.
Japanese people are usually connected through work, economic organizations, or hobbies. However, it is said that there is no organization like the Korean Association in the Korean community. In Washington, the Japan Business Federation, Tokyo Women's Club, and business groups are active.
Also, although there is no daily newspaper like the Korean community, the Japanese community in the Washington area communicates through weekly magazines. There are also Japanese TV broadcasts and radio channels for Japanese people living in the United States.
Director Sawai said, “Korea-Japan relations are not good for historical reasons, but I think the relationship between Koreans and Japanese living in the U.S. is good. Japanese and Korean students who come to American universities as international students easily become friends with each other.”
An important holiday for the Japanese is 'Obon', similar to Korea's Chuseok, which honors the spirits of ancestors, and runs from August 13th to 15th. In addition, there are New Year's Day, Hinamitsuri (girls' day) on March 3, Dragon Boat Festival (boys' day) on May 5, and Tanabata on July 7. In April, a cherry blossom festival is held around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
Director Sawai said, “Many Japanese people living in Washington want to communicate with Koreans and become friends,” adding, “I hope that Korean organizations and Japanese organizations can interact with each other.”
< Reporter Lee Chang-yeol >
11. Hamas fights with a patchwork of weapons built by Iran, China, Russia and North Korea
The revisionist and rogue powers of the Axis of Authoritarians in support of one of the worst violent extremist organizations.
Hamas fights with a patchwork of weapons built by Iran, China, Russia and North Korea
ABCNews.com · by ABC News
Iranian sniper rifles. AK-47 assault rifles from China and Russia. North Korean- and Bulgarian-built rocket-propelled grenades. Anti-tank rockets secretly cobbled together in Gaza.
An Associated Press analysis of more than 150 videos and photos taken in the three months of combat since Hamas launched its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel shows the militant group has amassed a diverse patchwork arsenal of weapons from around the world – much of it smuggled past a 17-year blockade that was aimed at stopping just such a military buildup.
Those weapons have proved deadly during weeks of intense urban warfare in Gaza, where Hamas fighters are typically armed only with what they can carry and employ hit-and-run tactics against lopsided Israeli advantages in arms and technology. Hamas propaganda videos posted over the past few weeks appear to show the shootings of Israeli soldiers recorded through the scopes of sniper rifles.
“We are searching everywhere for weapons, for political support, for money,” Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad recently said in an interview with the AP, declining to discuss specifically who has been providing its weapons or how they were snuck into Gaza.
Experts who reviewed the images for AP were able to identify distinguishing features and markings that show where many of the weapons wielded by Hamas fighters were manufactured. But such an analysis does not provide evidence of whether they were provided by the governments of those countries or purchased in a thriving Middle East black market, with weapons and components listed for sale on social media in such war-torn countries as Iraq, Libya and Syria.
What is clear, however, is that many of the images show Hamas militants toting weapons that appear to be relatively new, evidence the group has found ways of getting arms past the air-and-sea blockade of the Gaza Strip — possibly by boat, through tunnels or concealed in shipments of food and other goods.
“The majority of their arms are of Russian, Chinese or Iranian origin, but North Korean weapons and those produced in former Warsaw Pact countries are also present in the arsenal,” said N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an expert in military arms who is director of the Australian-based Armament Research Services.
Despite the buildup, Israel maintains a massive advantage, with a powerful array of modern tanks, artillery, helicopter gunships and an air force of U.S.-made fighter jets. Israel’s military says it has killed more than 7,000 Hamas militants, compared to the deaths of at least 510 of its own soldiers, more than 330 of whom were killed in Hamas’ initial attack. The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 23,000 Palestinians have died in the fighting, though it does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Imagery reviewed by the AP showed a Hamas arsenal featuring weapons ranging from small arms and machine guns to shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and craft-produced anti-tank projectiles.
Among the most distinctive is the oversized AM-50 Sayyad (Arabic for “hunter”), an Iranian-made a sniper rifle that fires a .50- caliber round powerful enough to punch through up to an inch of steel. It has previously been spotted on battlefields in Yemen, Syria, and in the hands of Shia militias in Iraq.
Hamas fighters have also been seen carrying an array of Soviet-era weapons that have been copied and manufactured in Iran and China. They include variants of the Russian-designed 9M32 Strela, a portable heat-seeking anti-aircraft missile system.
Jenzen-Jones said a grip stock on one of the missile launchers a fighter was seen holding is distinctive to a variant manufactured in China and used by the Iranian military and its allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, a group closely aligned with Hamas.
Weapons recovered from Hamas fighters by the Israel Defense Forces include what appear to be Italian-designed TC/6 anti-tank mines. However, Seán Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert, said it too had been copied by Iran’s arms industry.
The Israel Defense Forces and U.S. officials have long accused Iran of supplying money, training and weapons to Hamas and allied militants in Gaza, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Iranian representatives at the United Nations did not respond to emails from the AP about whether their government supplied weapons to Hamas, including AM-50 Sayyad sniper rifles. However, a week after AP sought comment, Hamas posted a video purporting to show militants in Gaza using machining equipment to make their own copies of the rifle.
Master gunsmith Don Fraley reviewed that Dec. 20 video and said it would be nearly impossible for Hamas to manufacture a safe and accurate .50-caliber sniper rifle with the rudimentary equipment shown.
“You’re going to have to be a rock star at machine shop work. And I didn’t see any of that," said Fraley, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier and sniper for the Kentucky State Police. "These folks are just trying to cover their tracks.”
An Israeli military official familiar with Hamas’ arsenal said the group uses a combination of smuggled “off-the-shelf” weaponry, including AK-47s, RPGs and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as a large collection of home-grown weapons often made with easily accessible civilian materials.
For instance, the official said, the group uses lathes to shape metal into rockets and mortars, and fits them with explosives manufactured from fertilizers. Other home-made weapons include a launcher capable of firing 14 rockets simultaneously and the “Zuwari” drone, an explosives-laden aircraft that was used to strike Israeli observation towers and knock out cameras on Oct. 7.
“There is a huge military/defense industry inside the Gaza Strip,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules.
The official said most of the smuggled weapons are believed to have been brought in through Egypt and are generally easy to purchase and did not need to be supplied by the country of origin.
One such weapon seen in the hands of Hamas fighters is a version of Chinese machine guns known as the Type 80, a model that has also been copied by the Iranians and renamed as the PKM-T80.
Jonathan Ferguson, the curator of firearms at the Royal Armouries Museum in England, said from what he could see from the photos and videos, versions of the gun made in China and Iran were so similar as to be indistinguishable.
Ferguson was also able to identify a rocket-propelled grenade with marks showing it was made in Bulgaria. AP previously reported Hamas used RPGs with a distinctive red stripe indicating they were made in North Korea.
Among the more sophisticated Hamas home-grown weapons is a copy of a Russian anti-tank rocket called the PG-7VR, which is specifically designed to defeat reactive-armor systems like those used on Israel’s Merkava Mark VI main battle tanks. Such tanks are covered with explosive-filed plates that explode outwards to disrupt incoming projectiles.
In propaganda videos posted in October, masked militants are seen assembling a version of the Russian rocket that Hamas has renamed the Al-Yasin 105, in honor of the group’s founder killed in an Israeli air strike in 2004. While the original Russian version can melt through up to two feet of steel armor, experts say it’s not clear whether the home-brewed explosives in the Hamas knock-off are as potent.
Hamas has posted multiple videos of fighters firing the rockets at Israeli tanks and armored personal carriers. Those videos are typically cut off after the warhead explodes, making it impossible to independently verify whether the target was destroyed.
Also, in a tactic borrowed from the battlefields of Ukraine, Hamas appears to have obtained or copied Iranian-designed drones that pack warheads that explode when crashed into their targets. Off- the-shelf, Chinese-made quadcopter drones have also been adapted to drop explosives on tanks and troops.
“The availability of commercial off-the-shelf unmanned aerial vehicles, these light consumer drones, has radically changed warfare in recent years,” Jenzen-Jones said. “We’ve seen them, obviously, in Syria, in Yemen, in Iraq, in Ukraine, and now in Gaza.”
___
Biesecker reported from Washington. AP writer Josef Federman contributed from Jerusalem.
___
Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/
ABCNews.com · by ABC News
12. U.S. forces recovered Iranian warheads in Navy SEAL mission gone awry
I hope our SEALs can still be recovered.
This operation begs the question of why are we going after Iranian shipping and not north Korean shipping? (That we know of)
U.S. forces recovered Iranian warheads in Navy SEAL mission gone awry
The U.S. military said the arms shipment, intercepted off the coast of Somalia, was destined for militants in Yemen blamed for attacks in the Red Sea
By Alex Horton
Updated January 16, 2024 at 5:30 a.m. EST|Published January 15, 2024 at 7:57 p.m. EST
The Washington Post · by Alex Horton · January 16, 2024
American military personnel recovered Iranian-made missile warheads and related components during a ship-boarding mission near Somalia last week that disrupted the weapons resupply of militants in Yemen but left two elite Navy SEALs lost at sea, U.S. defense officials said.
A massive search-and-rescue operation is ongoing in the Arabian Sea, where the incident occurred Thursday. The SEALs moved to board the vessel, described by officials as a dhow lacking proper identification, amid suspicions that there were arms on board.
As The Washington Post and other media previously reported, Thursday’s nighttime operation, backed by helicopters and drones, took place in rough seas. When one of the SEALs slipped from a ladder while attempting to climb aboard the dhow, the second, having witnessed their comrade fall into the water, dove in to help, officials have said. Both were swept away by the powerful swells. Neither has been publicly identified.
As rescue operations began, other troops carried out a search of the boat, which had a crew of 14, according to a Tuesday statement by U.S. Central Command. They were taken into custody. The dhow was deemed “unsafe” and was sunk, according to the statement.
The seized items included Iranian-made ballistic and cruise missile warheads, propulsion and guidance systems, and air defense components. An “initial analysis” indicates the weapons match those the Houthis have used to target ships on the Red Sea, according to the statement, which accuses Iran and others involved of violating international law and a related U.N. resolution.
It is unclear where the vessel originated and who was on board. “Disposition of the 14 dhow crew members is being determined in accordance with international law,” the statement said. The operation marked the first U.S. Navy seizure of advanced Iranian-made ballistic components since 2019, the statement added. The Associated Press first reported some details of the seizure.
The episode has underscored a persistent challenge facing the Biden administration and its international partners as they vow to hold Yemen’s Houthis — and the militant group’s chief backer, Iran — accountable for a steep rise in attacks that have significantly disrupted commercial shipping in the region. U.S. and British forces struck dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen last week, hoping to discourage additional attacks, but the Pentagon acknowledged afterward that the group will probably remain a threat.
The Houthis have said that their actions are in protest at Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The Biden administration has not ruled out future military action in Yemen but has sought to tread carefully, fearful that an overreaction could engulf the Middle East in violence.
U.S. forces in the region reported separately Monday that an American-owned container ship was hit with a ballistic missile in the Houthis’ latest alleged provocation. The ship sustained no “significant damage” and its crew was uninjured, officials said in a statement. A missile launched from Yemen earlier in the day came down before it reached the coast.
Senior U.S. officials blame Tehran for having “aided and abetted” the crisis, which has principally affected commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea. The Houthis, officials contend, would be incapable of threatening these shipping routes without Iran’s technological and intelligence support.
The SEALs launched their mission from the USS Lewis B. Puller, which acts as a floating base, and headed toward the dhow in a smaller craft, according to a U.S. official. The dhow’s crew lacked official documentation, which allowed the U.S. boarding team to search the vessel, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military mission.
Interdicting suspicious or adversarial vessels, known as visit, board, search and seizure, or VBSS, is among the most difficult and dangerous missions undertaken by highly trained troops. Such operations typically involve approaching the suspect vessel in smaller boats and using ladders and climbing tools to get aboard, which can be complicated by violent waves and hostile crew members. U.S. forces routinely partner with other nations’ militaries to blunt piracy and weapons smuggling in the region.
Though it has been days since the two SEALs went missing, the Pentagon remains hopeful that they will be found alive. The gulf’s waters are warm, officials have said, noting that powerful swells and exhaustion are more of a concern than hypothermia.
“We are conducting an exhaustive search for our missing teammates,” Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, head of Central Command, said in the statement.
The Washington Post · by Alex Horton · January 16, 2024
13. Samsung to build all-AI, no-human chip factories
Samsung to build all-AI, no-human chip factories
South Korean chip maker angling to apply smart sensors and remove human workers from the entire chip manufacturing process
asiatimes.com · by Scott Foster · January 16, 2024
Samsung Electronics is planning to fully automate its semiconductor factories by 2030, with “smart sensors” set to control the manufacturing process, according to South Korean media reports.
The world’s largest maker of memory chips aims to create an “artificial intelligence fab” that operates without human labor, the reports said. The ground-breaking project is reportedly already underway, the same reports said.
Samsung has signaled since last summer it aims to AI to optimize integrated circuit (IC) design, materials development, production, yield improvement and packaging. Identifying the cause of defects in the production process is reportedly a top priority of the AI plan.
Samsung is developing its own sensors and switching procurement from foreign to domestic suppliers to gain control of the technology and develop relevant South Korean expertise. Measuring plasma uniformity in deposition, etching and cleaning is one key application; real-time monitoring of production processes is another.
The technology will be applied both to Samsung’s DRAM and NAND flash memory operations and its contract manufacturing operations. Catching up with Taiwan’s TSMC and staying ahead of America’s Intel are of vital importance to Samsung as die-shrinks progress from 3nm now to 2nm by 2025 and 1nm late in the decade.
The finer the circuit line widths, the greater the risk of microscopic defects dragging down chip production yields. Deploying AI to keep the problem to a minimum is increasingly critical to maintaining competitiveness. A completely automated factory would also eliminate the risk and cost of human contamination.
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Top-end chips are expected to come down to 1nm by the end of the decade. Image: Facebook Screengrab
Samsung’s new sensors are reportedly small enough to fit on existing production lines, enabling the upgrade of current facilities while saving space.
This is important because Samsung currently has the largest wafer processing capacity in the semiconductor industry with more than a dozen production lines in South Korea, China and the US. All of the facilities are reportedly candidates for smart sensor upgrades.
Samsung is preparing to build a new chip factory in Texas and plans to add five new “state-of-the-art” production lines in South Korea by 2042 at a total cost of about 300 trillion won (US$230 billion).
The five domestic lines will be built at a new industrial complex in Yongin, south of Seoul, where Samsung will work with about 150 suppliers, IC design companies and research institutions. Those facilities are likely to be completely automated.
Last March, the South Korean government issued a statement saying, “The mega cluster [in Yongin] will be the key base of our semiconductor ecosystem… [to] leap forward as a leading country in the middle of fierce global competition over advanced industries.”
“Timing is everything in the semiconductor industry,” Samsung Semiconductor CEO Kyung Kye Hyun said according to reports. “It is most important to start the construction of the Yongin National Industrial Complex early to maintain dominance amid intensifying global semiconductor competition.”
Samsung is also building a new semiconductor R&D center in Yongin. When he visited the site last October, Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae Yong said, “We need a turning point for innovation that leads us to take another leap in the semiconductor business amid ongoing internal and external risks.”
Samsung Electronics expects to report operating profits for the fourth quarter of 2023 of between 2.7-2.9 trillion won, which would be an increase of 11% to 19% over third-quarter profits. Sales are expected to remain more or less unchanged, but memory prices have started to recover while costs come down.
Despite global macroeconomic uncertainty, Samsung’s management expects continued improvement in chip market conditions in 2024. Higher sales and profits, in turn, will make it easier to fund the automation of existing production lines and the construction of new AI-powered factories.
Samsung kept semiconductor capital spending roughly flat in 2023 amid a cyclical downturn. In 2024, the company should resume its long-term upward investment trend, with a focus on increasing the production of high-bandwidth memory used with AI accelerators.
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South Korea’s SK Hynix is also deploying more AI in its chip-making mix. Photo: Asia Times Files / AFP / Jung Yeon-Je
AI is both a productivity-enhancing tool and a new growth market for memory chip makers like Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. SK Hynix is working with Gauss Labs, an industrial AI solutions developer with offices in Palo Alto, California, and in Seoul.
The AI start-up’s “Panoptes virtual metrology” solution is already being used to optimize thin film deposition in SK Hynix factories and more applications are reportedly in the pipeline.
Micron, meanwhile, has its own internally developed AI to optimize production. “We have built something here that is completely differentiated. We’re seeing much, much higher levels of accuracy,” said Koen de Backer, Micron’s vice president of smart manufacturing and AI.
“We can now launch products twice as fast while improving productivity by 10%. It’s truly been transformative. You could say it’s a killer app,” the Micron executive claimed.
With that competition, Samsung’s completely automated AI fab is a strategic imperative, not an option, in a chip-making landscape fastly being reshaped by AI.
Follow this writer on X: @ScottFo83517667
asiatimes.com · by Scott Foster · January 16, 2024
14. North Korea Says It Is No Longer Interested in Reunifying With the South
I think we have to be very careful about over reacting to and misreading these developments. We must understand the regime's political warfare strategy.
North Korea Says It Is No Longer Interested in Reunifying With the South
Abandoning the longtime goal, however unlikely, Kim Jong-un, the North’s leader, instead threatened to subjugate South Korea in war.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/16/world/asia/north-korea-reunification-policy.html
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, center, addressing the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on Tuesday in an image provided by North Korean state media.Credit...Korean Central News Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Choe Sang-Hun
Reporting from Seoul
Jan. 16, 2024, 4:22 a.m. ET
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North Korea’s approach toward South Korea has swayed widely over the past decades. While it has often called the South its “sworn” and “principal enemy” and threatened to “annihilate” it with nuclear weapons, at times it has also engaged in dialogue and discussed a possible reunification.
But, according to state media reports on Tuesday, North Korea has formally abandoned peaceful reunification as a key policy goal. In announcing the drastic shift, the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said the North no longer saw the South as “the partner of reconciliation and reunification” but instead as an enemy that must be subjugated, if necessary, through a nuclear war.
In recent decades, the reunification of the two Koreas has become increasingly unlikely as the economic gap between them widened and mutual enmity deepened.
Mr. Kim unveiled his new stance on South Korea in a party meeting at the end of last month and in a speech he gave to the North’s rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, on Monday.
He also ordered the revision of the North’s constitution, as well as its propaganda guidelines, to remove references to “peaceful reunification,” “great national unity” or to South Koreans as “fellow countrymen” and to instill in his people the view that the South was “a foreign country” and “the most hostile state.”
“We can specify in our constitution the issue of completely occupying, subjugating and reclaiming the ROK and annexing it as a part of the territory of our republic in case a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula,” Mr. Kim said, using the abbreviation of the South’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
He has been building toward his new policy in recent months, criticizing South Korea’s deepening military alliance with Washington under its conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol. Mr. Kim called the expansion of joint military drills between the allies a dangerous provocation and cited it as a justification for producing more nuclear weapons and threatening to use them against the South.
“We do not want war, but we also have no intention of avoiding it,” he said. “If the enemies ignite a war, our republic will resolutely punish the enemies by mobilizing all its military forces, including nuclear weapons.”
Endorsing Mr. Kim’s new policy, the North Korean parliament dismantled all government agencies charged with promoting exchanges with the South, state media said. In the past week, the North has also shut down radio broadcasts and propaganda websites promoting Korean reunification, according to South Korean officials. Mr. Kim also ordered the removal of propaganda monuments dedicated to the same cause.
On Tuesday, Mr. Yoon, the South Korean leader, criticized Mr. Kim’s new policy “as anti-nation” and “anti-history.”
The Korean Peninsula was divided into the pro-Soviet North and the pro-U.S. South at the end of World War II. The two Koreas fought the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, which ended in a truce, leaving the two nations technically in an ongoing state of war. Although they have since frequently accused each other of plotting an invasion, both sides called for peaceful reunification — until Mr. Kim’s policy shift.
“If the North provokes, we will exact manifold retaliation,” Mr. Yoon said on Tuesday in response to Mr. Kim’s speech. “Its threat to us to ‘choose between war and peace’ will no longer work.”
Mr. Kim has signaled a major shift in policy since his direct diplomacy with former President Donald J. Trump collapsed in 2019 without an agreement on rolling back the North’s nuclear weapons program or lifting international sanctions imposed against the North. He has since shunned dialogue with Washington and also expressed a deep mistrust of both the South’s liberals, who had brokered talks between him and Mr. Trump, and its current conservative government, which has called Pyongyang “an enemy” and warned of an “end of the regime” there if it uses nuclear weapons.
Instead, Mr. Kim has doubled down on expanding his country’s nuclear capabilities.
The shift from the North’s policy of peaceful reunification was an extension of the new diplomatic strategy, analysts said.
“The North has faced self-contradiction when it threatened to level and use its nuclear weapons against fellow countrymen,” said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. “That contradiction is removed when the North gives up on the idea of South-North reunification and defines the South as an enemy state with which it had no diplomatic ties and was in a state of war.”
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun
15. Kim Jong Un Has a New Enemy No. 1—and It Isn’t the U.S.
Again, do not over react. north Korea never sought peaceful unification unless it was capitulated by the South after a successful political warfare and subversion campaign that resulted in the absorption of the South by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State in the north. We must understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime.
Kim Jong Un Has a New Enemy No. 1—and It Isn’t the U.S.
North Korea says it will rewrite its constitution casting South Korea as a hostile nation, breaking its policy of seeking peaceful reunification
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/kim-jong-un-has-a-new-enemy-no-1and-it-isnt-the-u-s-942eaa10?mod=hp_listb_pos2
By Timothy W. Martin
Follow
Jan. 16, 2024 8:00 am ET
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he had concluded that peaceful reunification was no longer possible. PHOTO: AHN YOUNG-JOON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country would rewrite its constitution to label South Korea as its principal enemy, opening a new and perilous chapter as tensions rise between the two countries.
The change would break with decades of North Korean doctrine, under Kim’s father and grandfather, that sought to unify with the South through peaceful means, even while signaling a readiness for war.
Pyongyang’s policy pivot thrusts inter-Korean ties into unfamiliar territory as militarization accelerates across the region. North Korea has drawn closer to Russia, supplying its war effort in Ukraine, and revived trade with China. South Korea has expanded its military cooperation with the U.S. and Japan.
In a Monday speech, Kim said he had concluded that peaceful reunification was no longer possible and accused South Korea of seeking the collapse of the North Korean regime. The 40-year-old dictator ordered the abolishment of three government agencies working on inter-Korean affairs and vowed to tear down a reunification arch that had been built by his father, Kim Jong Il.
Kim, the third-generation leader, said the country would scrub any reference to South Koreans as fellow countrymen or partners for reconciliation. Instead, North Korean law would reclassify its southern neighbor as a foreign country, a hostile state and one that constitutionally should be occupied, subjugated and reclaimed in the event of war.
North Korean rhetoric is often menacing but some Kim regime observers have concluded that the latest shift in tone goes beyond Pyongyang’s typical bluster, signaling a change after formal engagement with the U.S. broke down years ago.
“If, as we suspect, Kim has convinced himself that after decades of trying, there is no way to engage the United States, his recent words and actions point toward the prospects of a military solution,” wrote Robert L. Carlin, a former U.S. negotiator with the North, and Siegfried S. Hecker, who has visited the North Korean nuclear facilities, in 38 North, a website dedicated to North Korea news.
Others caution that the latest shift is likely part of a familiar playbook for North Korea. “Given the political landscape, North Korea is looking for new and novel ways to ramp up tensions,” said Jean H. Lee, a visiting fellow at the East-West Center, a Honolulu-based think tank. “Calling South Korea Enemy No. 1 is a tactic Kim Jong Un may hope will spark some anxiety in the region and unease among South Koreans.”
Over the decades, the North has generally vacillated between engagement with left-leaning South Korean administrations and confrontation with conservative ones. The current tensions fit that pattern, with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative, saying he believes peace can only be achieved through strength.
“Should North Korea provoke us, we will punish them multiple times as hard,” Yoon said at a Tuesday cabinet meeting, in response to Kim’s remarks.
Nonetheless, Kim’s new shift in rhetoric and policy would codify the regime’s threatening stance toward Seoul regardless of who is in office.
“We do not want war, but we also have no intention of avoiding it,” Kim said at a Monday address to the country’s Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s top lawmaking body. “Explicitly speaking, we will never unilaterally unleash a war if the enemies do not provoke us.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has said he believes peace can only be achieved through strength. PHOTO: YONHAP NEWS/ZUMA PRESS
Taking such an aggressive approach with South Korea may have seemed unimaginable to North Korea not long ago, though tighter bonds with Russia and China seem to have given the Kim regime greater latitude to behave provocatively, said Gordon Flake, a Korea specialist at the Perth USAsia Centre in Australia.
But Kim’s stated desire to avoid conflict suggests the South Korean policy shift is largely focused on defensive posturing, Flake added. “This is Bullying 101,” he said. “This is North Korea from a position of insecurity making sure that they do not allow the perception of weakness, so they’re hollering.”
The possibility that the sharp shift in North Korean rhetoric and doctrine could translate into action remains a top concern among U.S. and South Korean officials. Inter-Korean clashes have occurred between the two Koreas in the past, notably with the shelling of a border island and the sinking of a South Korean naval ship in 2010.
Washington and Seoul, with superior conventional forces, would overwhelm Pyongyang’s outdated military hardware in a war, security officials say. In addition, President Biden and other South Korean officials have warned that any North Korean nuclear attack on the U.S. or its allies would result in the end of the Kim regime.
Pyongyang’s aggression toward Seoul has been building. In June 2020, the Kim regime blew up an inter-Korean liaison office operating in the border town of Kaesong. Ties worsened further after Yoon took office in May 2022, replacing a left-leaning predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who gave priority to engagement. Within months, North Korea slammed Yoon’s proposal to revive inter-Korean ties as an “absurd dream.”
Last November, the two Koreas backed away from an inter-Korean accord meant to tone down hostilities, leading to both countries rearming soldiers along the Demilitarized Zone. At an end-of-year plenary speech, Kim admitted he had abandoned hope in the South as a partner for peace.
The Yoon administration, for its part, has sought to take a tough stance against North Korea. A defense white paper released last year cast North Korea as the enemy for the first time in six years.
Yoon has admonished North Korea over its spree of weapons tests and accelerated the rollout of the country’s new missile defenses. Based on a pact made between Yoon and Biden last year, U.S. nuclear assets in recent months have made port visits to South Korea. The U.S., Japan and South Korea recently knitted together their missile-radar systems for the first time to counter the North Korean threat.
Earlier this month, Pyongyang fired artillery shells at western border islands of South Korea. North Korea carried out its first missile test of the year on Sunday, launching what state media called a medium-range hypersonic missile.
Ahead of November’s U.S. presidential election, North Korea is likely to continue trying to heap maximum pressure on whoever takes the White House next year, and possibly gain bigger concessions to achieve peace, said Sung-Yoon Lee, a specialist on North Korea at the Wilson Center.
“Whereas a professional athlete enhances their net value by elite performance on the field, the hyper-militarized-rogue-pariah state that is North Korea enhances its leverage by exporting threats and insecurity,” Lee said.
Write to Timothy W. Martin at Timothy.Martin@wsj.com
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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