Quotes of the Day:

"The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it." 

- George Santayana

"Dissents speak to a future age. It's not simply to say, 'My colleagues are wrong, and I would do it this way.' But the greatest dissents do become court opinions, and gradually over time, their views become the dominant view. So that's the dissenter's hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow." 

- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

"A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind." 

- Robert Bolton

1. North Korea amends constitution on nuclear policy, cites US provocations

2. Ninth Session of 14th SPA of DPRK held

3. Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un makes speech at Ninth Session of 14th SPA

4. KCNA Report on Final Findings of Investigation into American Soldier

5. North Korea and China Aren't the Allies You Think They Are

6. North Korea's Chemical and Biological Weapons Are the Stuff of Nightmares

7. North Korea May Have Seen Little Benefit in Keeping U.S. Soldier

8. Nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan condemn N. Korea's stipulation of nuclear policy

9. (Asiad) 1st gold in Hangzhou leaves N. Korean shooters in tears

10. Civic group to celebrate 70th anniversary of S. Korea-U.S. alliance

11. Court finds ban on leafleting into NK unconstitutional, ban on praise for NK constitutional

12. American soldier who crossed into North Korea arrives back in the US, video appears to show

13. Concerns about Korea's national image amid K-pop craze

14. Asia Society Policy Institute Welcomes New Expert on Political-Security Affairs

1. North Korea amends constitution on nuclear policy, cites US provocations

Yes, the focus is on nuclear weapons. But we must understand the regime's political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies.

Note that the media makes no mention of the human rights addressed in the Constitution (rights of disabled persons).

North Korea amends constitution on nuclear policy, cites US provocations

Reuters · by Soo-Hyang Choi

SEOUL, Sept 28 (Reuters) - North Korea has adopted a constitutional amendment to enshrine its policy on nuclear force, state media reported on Thursday, as the country's leader pledged to accelerate production of nuclear weapons to deter what he called U.S. provocations.

The Supreme People's Assembly unanimously adopted the revision that states North Korea "develops highly nuclear weapons to ensure" its "rights to existence" and to "deter war", news agency KCNA reported, after the conclusion on Wednesday of a two day-meeting of the North's rubber-stamp parliament.

"The DPRK's nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything," North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said, addressing the parliament. DPRK are the initials of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Kim went on to stress "the need to push ahead with the work for exponentially boosting the production of nuclear weapons and diversifying the nuclear strike means and deploying them in different services."

And he said U.S. military drills and deployment of strategic assets in the region were extreme provocations.

South Korea's unification ministry said the revised constitution showed Pyongyang's "strong will" not to abandon its nuclear programme.

"We once again stress that North Korea will face an end of its regime if it uses nuclear weapons," it warned in a statement.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said: "North Korea's nuclear and missile development poses threats to peace and safety of our country and the international community, and can never be tolerated."

The amendment comes a year after North Korea officially enshrined in law the right to use preemptive nuclear strikes to protect itself, a move Kim had said would make its nuclear status "irreversible".

Kim urged officials to further promote solidarity with the nations standing against the United States, denouncing trilateral cooperation between the U.S., South Korea and Japan as the "Asian-version NATO."

"This is just the worst actual threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity," he said.

Kim returned home last week from a trip to Russia during which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to boost military and economic cooperation.

U.S. and South Korean officials have expressed concern that Pyongyang could be seeking technological help for its nuclear and missile programs while Moscow tries to acquire ammunition from the North to supplement its dwindling stocks for the war in Ukraine.

Analysts said having the nuclear policy written into the constitution is a symbolic move, declaring the North's intention to have a permanent nuclear force that it would not negotiate over.

"The new Cold War in the Northeast Asia region and military tensions on the Korean peninsula will intensify," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

On Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned Pyongyang of an "overwhelming response" if it uses nuclear weapons, as Seoul put on the first large-scale military parade in a decade in a show of force.

The announcement by parliament also comes after North Korean state media said on Wednesday Pyongyang had decided to expel Private Travis King, the U.S. soldier who ran into North Korea in July. The U.S. said he is now in American custody and heading home after being expelled to China.

In his speech, Kim said ensuring a major revamp of the country's economy was "the most pressing task for the government," and urged the agricultural sector to work harder to promote the people's well-being.

The North has suffered serious food shortages in recent decades, including famine in the 1990s, often as a result of natural disasters, and international experts have warned that border closures during the COVID-19 pandemic worsened food security matters.

Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi and Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Ed Davies, Josie Kao, Lincoln Feast & Simon Cameron-Moore

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Acquire Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Reuters · by Soo-Hyang Choi

2. Ninth Session of 14th SPA of DPRK held

Of course all the focus is on the nuclear change to the constitution.

Excerpta:

The session adopted an ordinance of the SPA of the DPRK "On Amending and Supplementing Some Contents of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK" with unanimous approval.

The unanimous adoption of the crucial agenda item for formulating the DPRK's policy on the nuclear force as the basic law of the state, in the wake of codifying the policy at the Seventh Session of the 14th SPA, is a historic event as it provided a powerful political weapon for markedly strengthening the national defence capabilities including the nuclear force, consolidating the institutional and legal foundation for security guarantee and protection of national interests based on them and accelerating the comprehensive development of Korean-style socialism.

What no one is paying attention to are the "human rights" changes - the rights of disabled persons. These changes date back to the regime response to the UN Commissions of Inquiry. The regime may be refocusing on this due to the ROK focus on its human rights upfront approach. The regime may think it is pre-empting or countering the approach. We need to realize the regime is threatened by human rights and this shows that the focus on human rights is the right thing to do (and of course as Kant said - do the right thing because it is the right thing to do).

Excerpts:

The reporter noted that relevant draft laws reflect the principled issues arising in thoroughly guaranteeing the WPK's policy for ensuring the rights of disabled persons and the fulfillment of the programme for the rural revolution in the new era and further consolidating and developing the state and social system.

He explained chapter by chapter the contents of the relevant draft laws, including the regulations for thoroughly ensuring the socio-political, economic and cultural rights of disabled persons and making sure that they enjoy a worthwhile life as masters of the state and society, the legal requirements for realizing the irrigation of agriculture at a higher level and ensuring the sustained and stable development of agricultural production and the regulations for ensuring the correct implementation of the Party and state's policies and improving the state management by building up the ranks of public servants.

​

Note also the emphasis on central control of the financial system of the economy. Will there be another currency devaluation like 2009 or more crackdowns on the US of foreign currency. 

Excerpts:

The reporter analyzed and reviewed the success, experience, deviation and lesson drawn from the enforcement of the law on financial sector, with regard to the importance of the work to put the state financial system on a scientific basis in keeping with the requirements of the developing reality, and referred to the urgent practical matters arising in substantially propelling the development of the state's economy by reinforcing and perfecting the unified financial control system of the state.

Other speakers expressed their determination to make every sector and unit strictly abide by the requirements of the law on financial sector by redoubling their efforts, aware of the heavy duty before the Party, the state and the people and thus financially guarantee the implementation of the resolutions of the Eighth WPK Congress.

Ninth Session of 14th SPA of DPRK held

https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1695885059-316024027/ninth-session-of-14th-spa-of-dprk-held/

Date: 28/09/2023 | Source: Pyongyang Times | Read original version at source

The Ninth Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the DPRK took place at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on September 26 and 27.

The session was convened at a time when all the people across the country are further accelerating the struggle to glorify this significant year as a year of great turn and change to be remarkably recorded in the development course of the DPRK by further promoting the great national pride and patriotic enthusiasm of having splendidly celebrated the 75th founding anniversary of our powerful and dignified state as a great revolutionary event to be specially etched in national history.

Present there were the deputies to the SPA, and as observers officials concerned in Pyongyang and local areas including those of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the SPA Standing Committee, the Cabinet, armed forces and law enforcement organs and financial sector.

Taking the platform were Kim Tok Hun, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and premier of the Cabinet, Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, first vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and chairman of the SPA Standing Committee, Ri Pyong Chol, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretary of the CC of the WPK, and other senior officials of the Party, the government and the military, the chairman and vice-chairpersons of the SPA, members of the State Affairs Commission and vice-chairmen, the secretary general and members of the SPA Standing Committee.

The session decided its agenda items:

First, on amending and supplementing some contents of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK

Second, on deliberating and adopting the law of the DPRK on ensuring the rights of the disabled

Third, on deliberating and adopting the law of the DPRK on irrigation

Fourth, on deliberating and adopting the law of the DPRK on public servants

Fifth, on reviewing the enforcement of the law of the DPRK on financial sector

Sixth, on naming the National Aerospace Development Administration of the DPRK the National Aerospace Technology General Bureau of the DPRK

Seventh, on the organizational matter

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, attended the discussion of the first agenda item as an observer.

When the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un appeared at the venue of the session, all the participants broke into enthusiastic cheers, looking up to him, the symbol of all victories and glory of our Party, state and people and representative of the great dignity who opened up a new turning point of building an independent and self-defensive state and bolstering up the national defence capabilities and is leading confidently the long-term struggle for the overall development of Korean-style socialism to dynamic success.

Pak In Chol, chairman of the SPA, presided over the session.

As the session was declared open, the national anthem of the DPRK was played.

Deputy Choe Ryong Hae, chairman of the SPA Standing Committee, made a report on the first agenda item.

The reporter said that the SPA is to discuss and adopt the amendment to the Constitution in order to stipulate the position of the nuclear force in the national defence and the principle of state activities on the building of the nuclear force in the Socialist Constitution, the basic law of the Republic and the great political charter for building a powerful socialist country.

The revolutionary development of the nuclear force of the Republic and the signal successes in its economic and cultural fields and remarkable changes in the international arena, which have been witnessed over the past one year since the promulgation of the law on the state's policy on the nuclear force at the historic Seventh Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly, clearly proved the validity and vitality of the codification of the state's policy on the nuclear force, he said.

He referred to the weighty significance of fixing the principle of state activities on the building of modern nuclear force and the mission of the armed forces of the DPRK for the times in the Socialist Constitution on the basis of the successful codification of the state's policy on the nuclear force.

Saying that reflected in the draft amendment and supplement are the contents that the DPRK, a responsible nuclear weapons state, develops highly nuclear weapons to ensure the rights to existence and development of the country, deter war and defend peace and stability in the region and the rest of the world, and that the mission of the armed forces of the Republic is to defend the national sovereignty and territorial integrity and the rights and interests of the people, protect the socialist system and the gains of the revolution from all threats and guarantee peace and prosperity of the country with powerful military capabilities, he brought up the draft amendment and supplement for discussion at the session of the SPA.

The session adopted an ordinance of the SPA of the DPRK "On Amending and Supplementing Some Contents of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK" with unanimous approval.

The unanimous adoption of the crucial agenda item for formulating the DPRK's policy on the nuclear force as the basic law of the state, in the wake of codifying the policy at the Seventh Session of the 14th SPA, is a historic event as it provided a powerful political weapon for markedly strengthening the national defence capabilities including the nuclear force, consolidating the institutional and legal foundation for security guarantee and protection of national interests based on them and accelerating the comprehensive development of Korean-style socialism.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un made a speech.

He expressed his heartfelt thanks to the deputies to the SPA who exercised the most historic right of voting in reflection of the general will of all the Korean people and added a brilliant page to the history of the DPRK's Constitution, and extended a noble tribute to all the people.

He reviewed the proud successes made this year, which is of great significance for the Korean revolution greeting a new period of upsurge and change in the cause of building a powerful socialist country. And he referred to the orientation and policy tasks for the future struggle and called for concluding the year 2023 with a proud victory by waging a stubborn and substantial struggle till the end of the year.

When Kim Jong Un finished his speech, all the participants gave enthusiastic cheers and applause, full of emotion and joy at having received the ever-victorious action programme for dynamic strengthening of the matchless national power of socialist Korea, an immortal programme promoting the building of an ideal society for the people.

His significant speech serves as a militant banner and a great revolutionary document bolstering in every way the invincible might of our Republic, a true independent power and a genuine people's government, and dynamically propelling the fresh victory and great advance of the cause of building a socialist power of Juche.

The session discussed the draft laws of the DPRK on ensuring the rights of the disabled, irrigation and public servants as next agenda items.

Deputy Kang Yun Sok, vice-chairman of the SPA Standing Committee, made a report on the second, third and fourth agenda items.

The reporter noted that relevant draft laws reflect the principled issues arising in thoroughly guaranteeing the WPK's policy for ensuring the rights of disabled persons and the fulfillment of the programme for the rural revolution in the new era and further consolidating and developing the state and social system.

He explained chapter by chapter the contents of the relevant draft laws, including the regulations for thoroughly ensuring the socio-political, economic and cultural rights of disabled persons and making sure that they enjoy a worthwhile life as masters of the state and society, the legal requirements for realizing the irrigation of agriculture at a higher level and ensuring the sustained and stable development of agricultural production and the regulations for ensuring the correct implementation of the Party and state's policies and improving the state management by building up the ranks of public servants.

The SPA Standing Committee brought up the draft law of the DPRK on ensuring the rights of the disabled, the draft law of the DPRK on irrigation and the draft law of the DPRK on public servants for discussion at the session, under Article 95 of the Socialist Constitution.

Speeches on the second, third and fourth agenda items were made by Deputies Kim Sung Du, Ho Song Chol, Pak Myong Son, Sin Kwan Bong, Jon Sung Guk and Ho Song Ho.

Speakers recognized that the law of the DPRK on ensuring the rights of the disabled provides all persons with disabilities with better working and living conditions and develops the trait of helping them throughout the whole society and thus makes it possible to display the advantages of the Korean-style socialist system to the full.

They also expressed their opinion that the law on irrigation is of important significance in propelling the increased grain production and the socialist rural development by accelerating the perfection of the overall irrigation system of the country and the law on public servants serves as an institutional guarantee for ensuring the smoothness of state activities by improving the political consciousness, practical qualifications, strong organizing ability and executive ability of public servants, the direct performers of the state administration.

After examining and supplementing the deputies' constructive opinions, the session adopted the ordinances of the SPA of the DPRK "On Adopting the Law of the DPRK on Ensuring the Rights of the Disabled", "On Adopting the Law of the DPRK on Irrigation" and "On Adopting the Law of the DPRK on Public Servants".

The session discussed "On reviewing the enforcement of the law of the DPRK on financial sector" as its fifth agenda item.

Deputy Pak Jong Gun, vice-premier of the Cabinet and concurrently chairman of the State Planning Commission, made a report.

The reporter analyzed and reviewed the success, experience, deviation and lesson drawn from the enforcement of the law on financial sector, with regard to the importance of the work to put the state financial system on a scientific basis in keeping with the requirements of the developing reality, and referred to the urgent practical matters arising in substantially propelling the development of the state's economy by reinforcing and perfecting the unified financial control system of the state.

Other speakers expressed their determination to make every sector and unit strictly abide by the requirements of the law on financial sector by redoubling their efforts, aware of the heavy duty before the Party, the state and the people and thus financially guarantee the implementation of the resolutions of the Eighth WPK Congress.

At the session, a resolution on the fifth agenda item was adopted with unanimous approval.

The session discussed "On naming the National Aerospace Development Administration of the DPRK the National Aeronautics and Space Technology Administration of the DPRK" as its sixth agenda item and adopted a resolution on it with unanimous approval.

The session discussed the organization matter as its seventh agenda item.

Members of the Cabinet were newly appointed.

An Kyong Gun was appointed as minister of Machine-building Industry, Ri Sun Chol as minister of State Construction Control, Jon Chol Su as minister of Land and Environment Protection, Kim Kwang Jin as minister of Food Procurement and Administration and Paek Min Gwang as president of the Central Bank

Members of sectional committees of the SPA were recalled and by-elected.

Deputies Choe Kun Yong, Pak Chang Ho and Ri Yong Chol were by-elected as members of the Legislation Committee of the SPA.

Pak In Chol, chairman of the SPA, made a closing address.

The Ninth Session of the 14th SPA successfully finished its work amid the revolutionary consciousness and enthusiasm of the participants to fully discharge their important obligations as representatives of the people and masters of administration, single-mindedly upholding the great Party Central Committee that is powerfully demonstrating to the whole world the dignity and mightiness of the DPRK with its extraordinary idea and leadership.

3. Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un makes speech at Ninth Session of 14th SPA

Key points that will be the focus for a long time to come:

It is of very deep and weighty significance that we have adopted the decision with unanimous approval to supplement Article 58 of Chapter 4 of the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with new contents - to ensure the country's right to existence and development, deter war and protect regional and global peace by rapidly developing nuclear weapons to a higher level - just in this assembly hall where the codification of the policy of the state nuclear force solemnly took place in accordance with the general will of all the Korean people just one year ago.

...

Today the strategic strength of our state, the nuclear war deterrent, is being remarkably bolstered and steadily strengthened to the extent incomparably greater than the past decades.

This eye-opening success, which actually shows great military muscle of the Republic fully equipped with strong and overwhelming defensive and offensive capabilities, clearly and definitely proves the courage and decisive action ability of the DPRK not to tolerate any acts of violating its sovereignty and right to existence.

​Note that the word revolution is used 13 times throughout his speech:

Today our revolution has entered an era of new progress and dynamism, in which we dynamically advance towards the eminence of an invincible socialist power independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in national defence, on the basis of the invaluable successes achieved through an arduous and strenuous struggle.

In particular, this year marking the 75th founding anniversary of our Republic and the 70th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War is a year of great significance for our revolution which has entered a period of new upsurge and great change in the accomplishment of the cause of building a powerful socialist country.

​Kim Jong Un is feeling the pressure of the Camp David/JAROKUS Summit.

Worse still, the accelerated establishment of the triangular military alliance with Japan and the "Republic of Korea" finally resulted in the emergence of the "Asian-version NATO", the root cause of war and aggression. This is just the worst actual threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity.

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un makes speech at Ninth Session of 14th SPA

https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1695885059-478115290/respected-comrade-kim-jong-un-makes-speech-at-ninth-session-of-14th-spa/

Date: 28/09/2023 | Source: Pyongyang Times | Read original version at source

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, made an important speech at the Ninth Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the DPRK.

He said:

Dear Comrade Deputies,

Respected Comrade Chairman of the SPA Standing Committee and Comrade Chairman of the SPA,

Observers,

Today our revolution has entered an era of new progress and dynamism, in which we dynamically advance towards the eminence of an invincible socialist power independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in national defence, on the basis of the invaluable successes achieved through an arduous and strenuous struggle.

In particular, this year marking the 75th founding anniversary of our Republic and the 70th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War is a year of great significance for our revolution which has entered a period of new upsurge and great change in the accomplishment of the cause of building a powerful socialist country.

The Party Central Committee called for further boosting the fighting morale of all the people this year, an important occasion in the course of the development of our socialism and the history of our Republic, to make the year 2023 a year of great turn and change to be etched in the history of our Republic's development, and set forth strategic tasks for its implementation.

All the service personnel of the People's Army and people, who have always responded to the call of the Party and the revolution with their full display of patriotism and loyalty, have made proud successes in all fields of socialist construction by boldly waging a devoted struggle to carry out the major Party and state policy tasks set forth at the Eighth Congress of the Party and the plenary meetings of the Party Central Committee.

Through national political and cultural events and on many other occasions, we have fully demonstrated our political and ideological might with the single-minded unity of the Party and the people as its core, and have gone all out in the struggle for ensuring the stable development of the national economy and bringing about a substantial change in the improvement of the people’s living standard, and this results in a sign of marked growth in all sectors of economic construction.

The amazing reality in the development of agriculture, where bumper harvests are being reaped despite severe natural disasters, and the miraculous changes being witnessed in different parts of the country, including new streets and houses that spring up with the appearances beyond recognition every day, promise us a bright prospect for providing our people with affluent and highly civilized living conditions.

The greatest success we have achieved this year is that we definitely ushered in a heyday of leaps forward in strengthening the national defence capabilities and nuclear war deterrent of the country.

The major tasks of the Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Defence Science and Weapons System have been successfully carried out and a radical leap was made in the development and introduction of powerful nuclear attack means and new strategic weapon system of our own style. Thus, we demonstrated the reliability of the nuclear strategic force of our Republic to the whole world, exposing the hostile forces to insurmountable threat and striking terror into their hearts.

Today the strategic strength of our state, the nuclear war deterrent, is being remarkably bolstered and steadily strengthened to the extent incomparably greater than the past decades.

This eye-opening success, which actually shows great military muscle of the Republic fully equipped with strong and overwhelming defensive and offensive capabilities, clearly and definitely proves the courage and decisive action ability of the DPRK not to tolerate any acts of violating its sovereignty and right to existence.

This is just the fruit and brilliant miracle our great people have achieved by their own efforts and with their own hands.

The Supreme People's Assembly, the supreme power organ of the DPRK, achieved another significant and epoch-making political success to be specially recorded in the 75-year-long history of its dignified state-building activities and the glorious history of the development of the DPRK at the 9th session of its 14th term.

The present SPA successfully carried out the work of reflecting the actual state of our national power in the new era in the constitution of the country, along with the adoption of various laws related to state administration, economic development and people-oriented policies. As a result, the current session has been recorded as a historic one which added a remarkable page to the constitutional history of the DPRK.

It is of very deep and weighty significance that we have adopted the decision with unanimous approval to supplement Article 58 of Chapter 4 of the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with new contents - to ensure the country's right to existence and development, deter war and protect regional and global peace by rapidly developing nuclear weapons to a higher level - just in this assembly hall where the codification of the policy of the state nuclear force solemnly took place in accordance with the general will of all the Korean people just one year ago.

This resulted in the successful implementation of the essential historic and political task, whose fulfillment was indispensable to ensuring the successes achieved by our people through their sacred struggle and the nuclear force policy of our state with the supreme law of the Republic, he said, adding:

The DPRK's nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything. This is a historic event that provided a powerful political lever for remarkably strengthening the national defence capabilities, including the nuclear force, for firmly consolidating the institutional and legal foundations for guaranteeing security and protecting national interests by relying on it, and for accelerating the overall development of our-style socialism.

Saying that only the country which is strong with the faith of all its people determined to readily dedicate themselves to preserving their self-respect and dignity they regard dearer than their lives, and only the government and people that accomplished the great cause of building a nuclear-armed nation by waging an unprecedented, long and arduous struggle generation after generation in actuality, regarding it as the most precious absolute strength for independence, justice and development, can perform such an unprecedented ideological political miracle, Kim Jong Un, in his capacity as president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, expressed sincere thanks to the deputies for having most responsibly exercised their voting right in the very important and significant state affair discussion for constitutionally consolidating the gains of the great and sacred struggle of all the Korean people.

He went on:

The Socialist Constitution of the DPRK is a legal foundation guaranteeing the dignity, sovereignty and independent development of our state and people and a political charter indicating the orientation of the victorious advance of the revolution and construction.

The crystal-clear stipulation of the keynote policy of bolstering the nuclear force in the supreme state law, which will permanently exist along with socialist Korea, is the most just and reasonable crucial step which fully meets not only the urgent requirements of the present era but also the lawfulness and the long-term requirements of building a socialist country.

It is the fact recognized by the world that the DPRK inevitably had access to nuclear weapons for self-defence and developed its policy of bolstering up the nuclear force into a law, for it is standing in protracted confrontation with the US, the world's biggest nuclear weapons state and the most dangerous war state, and its vassal forces.

The present situation, in which the structure of the "new Cold War" is being materialized on a global scale and the existence of sovereign states and the right to existence of their people are seriously threatened by the reactionary imperialist forces keen on realizing their ambition for hegemony and expansionist fantasy, proves that our Republic was entirely just when it made a decisive decision to build a nuclear force in the face of all sorts of trials and fix it as an irreversible state law.

Had our Republic merely pinned its hopes on the nuclear umbrella of others, exposed to the ever-increasing nuclear blackmail and threats from the US, and failed to boldly decide on the line of arming itself with nuclear weapons, captivated by gestures of "goodwill" hyped up by the imperialists and spurious temptations, and stopped or retreated from the already started arduous journey, it would have certainly suffered a nuclear holocaust and total destruction long ago, and it would have been impossible to imagine the present proud reality in which it enhances the national prestige and might and steers the world toward justice while resolutely countering the enemy's outrageous challenge and pressure.

The US, which had already set it as its state policy to physically remove our state and even ignited a war to do so in the last century, has maximized its nuclear war threats to our Republic by resuming the large-scale nuclear war joint drills with clear aggressive nature and putting the deployment of its strategic nuclear assets near the Korean peninsula on a permanent basis after starting the operation of the "Nuclear Consultative Group" aimed at using nuclear weapons against the DPRK in collusion with the "Republic of Korea", while frequently revising the aggression war scenario for realizing the "end of regime" in the DPRK.

Worse still, the accelerated establishment of the triangular military alliance with Japan and the "Republic of Korea" finally resulted in the emergence of the "Asian-version NATO", the root cause of war and aggression. This is just the worst actual threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity.

Now that the US, steeped in the Cold War mentality, has gone to extremes in its anti-DPRK military provocations, it is very important for the DPRK to accelerate the modernization of nuclear weapons in order to hold the definite edge of strategic deterrence for more thoroughly deterring and controlling those provocations and fulfill its mission as a responsible nuclear weapons state in the struggle to preserve stability on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity.

But it is not merely based on the analysis and study of the current ever-aggravating situation only that the government of the Republic has brought up for discussion at the SPA such an important agenda item as stipulation of the policy of strengthening the nuclear force in the constitution.

As long as our Republic exists as a socialist state and as long as the tyrannical nuclear weapons of the imperialists trying to stamp out independence and socialism exist on the earth, we must neither change nor concede the present position of our country as a nuclear weapons state, but, on the contrary, continue to further strengthen the nuclear force. This is the serious strategic judgment made by our Party and government.

Looking back on history, mankind has desired the world without nuclear weapons since the emergence of nuclear weapons and the first nuclear holocaust on this planet. And our Republic, a direct victim of nuclear blackmail since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, had made constant peace-loving efforts to make the Korean peninsula and the region nuclear-free.

But the US imperialists have persistently escalated their nuclear threat to our Republic, once a non-nuclear state, for decades in disregard of all our peace-loving proposals, for the mere reason that its idea and system are different. Due to this, our socialist construction has faced and undergone enormous obstacles and grave difficulties, and even the existence of our state has been exposed to critical emergency many times.

This made our Republic keenly realize the immutable truth that it should certainly counter the hostile forces' nuclear threat in kind, and the necessity of preserving and strengthening as eternal state strategic assets the nuclear weapons it is possessed of and preventing anyone from doing harm to them in any case, no matter the lapse of time and the shift in generation.

We must take due pride in having legalized the state nuclear force policy and even squarely stipulated it in the constitution and thus set an example in the building of an independent and self-defensive state and the strengthening of the national defence capabilities and, on the basis of this historic success, wage a more vigorous struggle for the overall development of Korean-style socialism, he said.

Saying that the important task facing the WPK and the DPRK government, the fulfillment of which should be pushed ahead with nonstop in implementing the present-stage fighting programme set forth at the Eighth Congress of the WPK, is to rapidly bolster up both in quality and quantity the nuclear force, he stressed the need to push ahead with the work for exponentially boosting the production of nuclear weapons and diversifying the nuclear strike means and deploying them in different services.

Re-clarifying in detail the foreign policy of the WPK at present, he referred to the principled problems arising in proactively conducting the external activities on the basis of the policy.

He urged the external affairs sector to consistently hold fast to the external strategy of the Party Central Committee and conduct in a broad and prospective way the external activities for creating conditions and environment in favour of the Korean revolution and further promote solidarity with the nations standing against the US and the West's strategy for hegemony while firmly adhering to the revolutionary principle and the stand of independence at the fore of the struggle of the anti-imperialist independent countries.

He went on:

The current Supreme People’s Assembly is also to deliberate and adopt sectional laws for further promoting the people-oriented policies of the government of the Republic and putting the major economic affairs of the country on a stable track.

Of course, it is a precious success that we have provided a legal weapon for propelling the socialist construction more powerfully as required by the times and the developing revolution. What is more important is to ensure that the decisions and instructions of the Party and the state are carried out thoroughly to make a substantial advance and leap forward in all fields and all spheres.

The historic struggle of our Party and people to implement the resolutions of the Eighth Party Congress, which set forth the new five-year plan for the comprehensive development of socialism, has now entered an important period.

Whether or not the miraculous victories and successes achieved in the brave spirit of uninterrupted progress in the face of the unprecedented manifold national crises ever since the founding of the country lead to greater victory and success depends on how to work in the remaining period of a little over two years.

While further consolidating the successes and experience gained in the struggle so far in all aspects of politics, economy and culture, we should put constant spurs to carrying out without fail the plans and immediate tasks set forth by the Party Congress and the plenary meetings of the Party Central Committee and converting them into excellent entities without an inch of deflection.

Today the most pressing task for the government of our Republic is to bring about a substantial change in the economic work of the country and in the solution of problems arising in improving the people’s livelihood by successfully attaining the 12 goals for the development of the national economy and other economic objectives.

The Cabinet and other state economic guidance organs and the provincial, city and county people’s committees should have a clear grasp of the overall economy of the country and the economic work in the relevant areas and conduct economic operations and guidance more closely and vigorously in keeping with the ever-changing actual conditions and circumstances so that the goals and tasks for economic development set by the Party and the state are fully attained in a perfect way.

The economic sectors in charge of implementing the 12 goals for the development of the national economy should bring about a fresh upsurge in production and innovative successes in the fighting spirit and stamina of the preceding generations who ushered in the great Chollima era in the history of the Republic, and give more powerful impetus to the overall socialist economic construction.

In particular, the agricultural sector should turn out more courageously in implementing to the letter the programme for the rural revolution in the new era set forth by our Party and the powerful support of the state should be steadily augmented to make our people’s centuries-old desire a great reality as soon as possible.

The government of the Republic, which regards it as the supreme principle of its activities to prioritize the interests and demands of the people and hold them absolute, should continue to direct primary efforts to promoting the people’s well-being.

To push ahead with the work for building 50 000 flats in Pyongyang Municipality and for regional construction and rural construction in a big way, implement correctly the Party's childcare policy and light industry policies and steadily spruce up the land and improve the ecological environment are the important tasks that should be carried out to bring about fruition without fail in the light of the popular character of our state.

The government of the Republic should bring about a clear and decisive improvement in science, education, public health and other fields of socialist culture in keeping with the rise in our national dignity and prestige.

We should confidently push ahead with the work to successfully implement the state strategy and plans for the development of science and technology decided by the Party Congress and the plenary meetings of the Party Central Committee, improve the country’s educational structure, content and methods in a qualitative way so that advanced education can be given and consolidate the overall public health foundation on a high level so that the advantages of the most popular health system can be displayed.

The literature and art, media and sports sectors should achieve proud innovative successes conducive to demonstrating the development of our Republic and further enhancing its prestige and patriotic enthusiasm and revolutionary spirit of our people.

Stressing the need for the DPRK government to regard it as a task which should not be neglected even for a moment to establish the strong official discipline in the country and a good communist climate throughout society and make all the fields and spheres seethe with the development-oriented mode of creation and revolutionary work style, he said:

Stronger Party, administrative and legal measures for this have been taken with the Eighth Party Congress as an occasion, but a very serious shortcoming was revealed intensively in the recent national disaster prevention work. This fact goes to prove that such wrong practices as disorder, irresponsibility and indifference chronically exist in the work of the state leadership bodies and officials.

The government of the Republic should continue to wage a unified and intensive control and struggle vigorously so that all institutions, enterprises and citizens obey the centralistic discipline of the state, strictly abide by the laws of the country and suppress all sorts of anti-socialist and non-socialist practices with a high degree of political consciousness and sense of responsibility.

The precious tradition of the revolutionary mass movement, an all-people patriotic movement displayed in the stirring annals of our revolution, should be made to show its vitality so that it can be reliably inherited and developed through generations, and all sectors, spheres and units should be actively encouraged to ceaselessly create and develop new things, with priority given to the fundamental and long-term interests of the state.

Saying that it is very important to enhance to the maximum the role of the deputies, representatives of the people, in successfully carrying out the responsible and important tasks facing the DPRK government at present, he earnestly requested the deputies to the SPA to personify exceptionally high patriotism and spirit of love for the people and devote themselves to the development of the state and the interests of the people.

The deputies to the SPA should always and keenly realize what great trust and weight of the state and the people are stored in the sacred call of the supreme representative, whom the people elected with trust, and do their best to remain infinitely faithful to their heavy missions and responsibility, he said, and went on:

You should not forget even for a moment that those who support the state and the people with conscience, faith and heart are genuine representatives and deputies of the people.

As the deputies to the SPA have had the honour and dignity of being the representatives of the people and the supreme power organ under the care of our Workers’ Party, they should get a better understanding of all the policies of the WPK than anyone else and always be full of mind to do more beneficial and admirable things for the Party, the state and the people. And they should proudly bring about practical achievements for the country and the people through their devoted efforts.

All of you should bear in mind once again how honourable and worthwhile it is to become the genuine people's representatives and servants upholding most zealously, resolutely and ardently with loyalty and uprightness our dignified Republic which is now fully demonstrating the national prestige, power and glory all over the world.

Dear Comrade Deputies,

We have only a few months till the end of the year 2023 we saw in with fresh confidence and expectations.

We are faced with heavy duty to proudly conclude this eventful year with more splendid achievements.

The practical success under the present favourable situation, in which the political, material and technical conditions and foundations for building a powerful socialist country have been firmly established and a strong legal guarantee for the building of nuclear force was provided, depends entirely on how the deputies here and all the citizens strive.

I firmly believe that all those present here will faithfully discharge their very responsible and heavy mission and duty they have assumed before the Party, the revolution, the country and the people, for the eternal prosperity of our great state and the well-being of our great people.

On this significant occasion when I feel proud again about the great strength and prestige of our Republic, I ardently appeal to all to turn out in the sacred patriotic struggle for the development of our great country and thus brilliantly adorn this year as a year of proud victory.

For our great people,

For the dignity and honour of our state,

Let us all struggle energetically with one mind and one will.

4. KCNA Report on Final Findings of Investigation into American Soldier

This is the best exploitation the regime could do with this situation:  

he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. army and was disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society.

KCNA Report on Final Findings of Investigation into American Soldier

https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1695814510-607081799/kcna-report-on-final-findings-of-investigation-into-american-solider/

Date: 27/09/2023 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source

Pyongyang, September 27 (KCNA) -- The investigation into Travis King, a soldier of the U.S. Army who was detained after illegally intruding into the territory of the DPRK in the joint security area of Panmunjom on July 18, has been finished.

According to the investigation by a relevant organ of the DPRK, Travis King confessed that he illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. army and was disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society.

The relevant organ of the DPRK decided to expel Travis King, a soldier of the U.S. Army who illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK, under the law of the Republic. -0-

www.kcna.kp (Juche112.9.27.)

5. North Korea and China Aren't the Allies You Think They Are

Very interesting analysis from Dr. Bennett including this excerpt:

North Korea was likely trying to send another message with these launches. Examine the range circle in the other direction from the launch point chosen by North Korea, and we can see that these North Korean missiles could have covered much of China, including Beijing, Shanghai, and roughly half of the biggest Chinese cities, clearly demonstrating the North’s ability to threaten China. Before shrugging off this perspective, consider that North Korea chose the second day of China’s National People’s Congress to launch the missiles. This would also have angered China.

China was not ignorant of this threat. Even in early 2017, China had deployed two over-the-horizon radars, similar to the THAAD radar deployed in South Korea, to detect potential missile launches against China from the Korean peninsula. It also deployed HQ-19 missile defenses on the Shandong peninsula to counter threats. At the time, what country other than North Korea could have fired ballistic missiles for which such a THAAD-like defense was required in Northeastern China?

North Korea and China Aren't the Allies You Think They Are

19fortyfive.com · by Bruce Bennett · September 26, 2023

We have a habit of thinking of China and North Korea as allies. Indeed, China’s Mao Zedong once described the two as being “as close as lips and teeth.”

North Korea is the only country with which China has a mutual defense treaty. China demonstrated its support by committing massive Chinese military formations to assist North Korea during the Korean War, and as a result suffered half a million soldiers killed or wounded, including the death of Mao’s son and potential heir.

All these decades later, the China-North Korea relationship is a key element of the developing the Russia-China-North Korea imperialist partnership.

Despite this history, however, there has been considerable friction between China and North Korea over the years. China did not provide North Korea the assistance Pyongyang wanted in developing nuclear weapons. Beijing feared that North Korean aggressiveness could lead to a war on the peninsula that would affect China. Beijing has restrained but nevertheless supported UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear weapon tests for the same reason — but also because it fears potential North Korean nuclear weapon threats against China itself.

Meanwhile, North Korea has a history of defying Chinese influence. This frustrates China, which wants regional if not global dominance. In 2013, China felt betrayed when Kim Jong Un executed North Korea’s interlocutor with China — Kim’s uncle, Jang Song Thaek. And senior North Korean escapees have told this author that a common refrain in North Korea is “Japan is our enemy of 100 years, China is our enemy of 1,000 years.”

Still, both parties usually avoid open complaints about their differences.

As Russia, China, and North Korea move toward a closer trilateral partnership, the United States and its allies need to recognize there are seams in the relationships that can be used to undermine it.

One of the clearest disruptions of the China-North Korea partnership happened in 2017, and it furnishes a useful example of which issues might be responsive to information operations that challenge the Russia-China-North Korea partnership.

The First Stages: Kim Plans an ICBM Test

Stability appears to be China’s utmost objective in Northeast Asia. North Korea, on the other hand, seeks to disrupt stability, hoping to gain leverage and ultimately dominance over South Korea. North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons, and especially its development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICMBs), is key to its strategy.

The 2017 China-North Korea confrontation started with Kim’s New Year’s Day speech. Kim threatened to test launch an ICBM in 2017 — something the United States would perceive as destabilizing the region.

The United States joined the fray the next day, when Donald Trump, at the time president-elect, tweeted, “It won’t happen!” This was likely the exact response that Kim wanted. If Kim could launch an ICBM in 2017, he would be seen getting the best of North Korea’s arch-enemy, the Americans.

What could Trump do to stop Kim? In 2006, former U.S. Defense officials William Perry and Ash Carter wrote that if the North put an ICBM on a launch pad for a test, the United States should blow it up to prevent North Korean ICBM development.

But Kim was preparing a mobile ICBM that could be launched from anywhere, not just from the few North Korean launch pads that the United States could monitor. About a week after the Trump tweet, North Korea announced it could launch a ballistic missile anywhere in the country and at any time.

On Feb. 12 that year, North Korea launched a new, medium-range solid fuel missile. Several days after the launch, North Korean media reported that the test was a “preliminary shot” toward the development of a North Korean ICBM. Kim appeared to be standing up to Trump. China always worries that irresponsible North Korean actions could push the U.S. into the kind of escalation that might destabilize the region. So China asked the United States to not escalate the situation.

The Killing of Kim Jong Nam

One day after the missile launch, assailants murdered Kim’s older half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, in Malaysia. Kim Jong Nam had been living in Beijing and Macau under the protection of Chinese security services, but for some reason he was in Malaysia without Chinese protection. The assailants were directed by North Koreans, and North Korean security services almost certainly would need Kim Jong Un’s approval to carry out this action.

China was apparently quite upset by the killing, but also by the North Korean missile launch the day before. A week later, China ordered a cutoff of North Korean coal exports to China, a move consistent with a recent UN Security Council resolution. The year before, Chinese imports had amounted to about 40% of North Korean coal exports. The cutoff would thus severely limit the hard currency available to North Korea.

The North Korean Escalation

Pyongyang’s response was strong. A few days later, the North accused China of “dancing to the tune of the U.S.” — a public criticism, something North Korea had previously avoided.

When that accusation did not get China to back off its ban, North Korea escalated. In early March it launched five extended-range Scud missiles with a range of 1,000 km at Japan. One missile failed, but the other four were successful, with three of the four impacting in Japan’s exclusive economic zone. North Korea claimed that the launch was part of an exercise “to strike the bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces in Japan in contingency.”

North Korea launching missiles was no surprise. The United States and South Korea had just started their annual Foal Eagle exercise, and North Korea often executed provocations in response. But if North Korea was angry at the United States and the ROK, why fire missiles at Japan? And why fire them from near the Sohae Satellite Station in Northwestern North Korea, from where these missiles could reach only one of the six major U.S. airbases in Japan? Why didn’t North Korea fire its longer-range NoDong missiles, and do so from its east coast? Alternatively, why didn’t North Korea fire Scud-B or Scud-C missiles in a more southerly direction out to their range of 300 to 500 kilometers, the distance required to hit targets in the ROK, if Foal Eagle was the primary cause of this provocation?

North Korea was likely trying to send another message with these launches. Examine the range circle in the other direction from the launch point chosen by North Korea, and we can see that these North Korean missiles could have covered much of China, including Beijing, Shanghai, and roughly half of the biggest Chinese cities, clearly demonstrating the North’s ability to threaten China. Before shrugging off this perspective, consider that North Korea chose the second day of China’s National People’s Congress to launch the missiles. This would also have angered China.

China was not ignorant of this threat. Even in early 2017, China had deployed two over-the-horizon radars, similar to the THAAD radar deployed in South Korea, to detect potential missile launches against China from the Korean peninsula. It also deployed HQ-19 missile defenses on the Shandong peninsula to counter threats. At the time, what country other than North Korea could have fired ballistic missiles for which such a THAAD-like defense was required in Northeastern China?

Next Steps in the Confrontation

North Korea was not done. From late March through April, North Korea test-launched another four ballistic missiles, all of which failed — a serious embarrassment for Kim Jong-un. Throughout this period, China was telling North Korea to stop the missile launches, but Pyongyang was defiant.

By mid-April, China was apparently “fed up with continued nuclear bluster from long-time ally North Korea.” China threatened that if North Korea crossed China by undermining the “security and stability of Northeast Asia … the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will launch attacks to DPRK nuclear facilities on its own.”

Soon thereafter, an editorial published in China’s Global Times argued that “Beijing has so much power that it could easily just let this one go.” Sooner or later, Global Times reasoned, a “rational attitude” would prevail in Pyongyang, and isolated North Korean leaders would realize that they had to adapt to China’s preferences.

In early May, North Korea criticized China directly. Pyongyang decried China’s “insincerity and betrayal” in a commentary, saying “China should no longer try to test the limits of the DPRK’s patience. … China had better ponder over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK-China relations.”

Meanwhile, Chinese military and diplomatic observers also argued that China is “not obliged to defend Pyongyang as its development of nuclear weapons breaches the mutual defense pact.”

Finally, the confrontation died down. North Korea tested three more ballistic missiles in mid-to-late May. Each test appeared to be at least a partial success, raising the threat that North Korea posed. Neither the United States nor South Korea took any serious action against North Korea in response. In Pyongyang, this was probably interpreted as a further victory for Kim, indicating he could get away with missile launches. Thus in July, North Korea successfully launched two ICBMs, and in November it launched an even more capable ICBM.

Fighting Fire with Fire

The growing North Korean threat, especially now that North Korea is receiving hard currency and at least some direct military assistance from Russia, is truly troublesome for the United States and its allies, South Korea and Japan. North Korean provocations like missile launches allow the North to increase its threats by confirming the viability of its new military capabilities and intimidating the allies. Growing North Korean nuclear capabilities, in particular, may pose an existential threat to the allies.

Against these provocations, the United States, the ROK, and Japan have increased their cooperation, military exercises, and the presence of U.S. strategic assets in the region — things that clearly upset Kim. But North Korea’s leader realizes these are not existential threats, because the United States and the ROK have little to gain and a lot to lose from invading North Korea. Kim exaggerates the threat to justify starving his people. But transitioning his nuclear forces to offensive roles suggests that he thinks he can and will deter the United States and South Korea.

Thus the allies need to do more to rein in Kim. We know that Kim Jong Un is very sensitive to outside information. He has even called K-pop a “vicious cancer” that undermines the morals of younger North Korean generations and could cause his regime to collapse.

The allies could thus threaten the North with increasing broadcasts and other deliveries of outside information to the North if Pyongyang continues missile tests and nuclear weapons production. Because North Korea actually fears such threats, Pyongyang’s initial reaction would likely be to retaliate. China has demonstrated that it fears the escalatory potential of such interactions more than it appears to fear the growing North Korean nuclear weapon threat to China itself. Especially with China’s economy in difficult circumstances, Beijing may well conclude that growing North Korean threats will destabilize Northeast Asia, and that would certainly highlight a major difference between Chinese and North Korean objectives.

About the Author and His Expertise on North Korea

Dr. Bruce W. Bennett is an adjunct international/defense researcher at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He works primarily on research topics such as strategy, force planning, and counterproliferation within the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center.

19fortyfive.com · by Bruce Bennett · September 26, 2023

6. North Korea's Chemical and Biological Weapons Are the Stuff of Nightmares

There are more than nuclear weapons.

North Korea's Chemical and Biological Weapons Are the Stuff of Nightmares

While analysts mostly focus on the threat of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, Pyongyang’s arsenal of chemical and Biological weapons is also a worry. 

19fortyfive.com · by Maya Carlin · September 27, 2023

North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations accused the U.S. this week of making 2023 an “extremely dangerous year.”

Kim Song also asserted that Seoul and Washington’s “continued hysteria” regarding a potential nuclear conflict is reckless and is driving geopolitical strife on the Korean peninsula.

While Pyongyang often makes bombastic claims at UN gatherings, the ambassador’s remarks coincide with a period of escalating provocations carried out by the Hermit Kingdom.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s government has threatened nuclear war and kinetic war with Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. in recent months. Pyongyang has also increased the pace of missile launches in the region, indicating that the nation is willing and capable of provoking its adversaries.

While analysts mostly focus on the threat of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, Pyongyang’s arsenal of chemical and Biological weapons is also a worry.

What We Know About North Korea’s WMD

North Korea turned to the Soviet Union after World War Two to give its nuclear program a start. It paid dividends when the USSR built the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, finishing construction by the mid-1960s.

North Korea did ratify the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1985, but it did not abide by the Treaty for very long, withdrawing officially in 2003. Since that time, Pyongyang has carried out several increasingly sophisticated nuclear tests.

In addition to its nuclear stockpiles, the DPRK is not a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention and is believed to oversee an offensive biological and chemical weapons program.

According to author Robert Collins, a former intelligence analyst with the U.S. Forces Korea Command, Pyongyang started to research biological weapons in the 1960s. Around this time, a germ weapons research organization was developed under the National Defense Science Institute, which led to the DPRK’s acquisition of anthrax, cholera and the bubonic plague. In an interview with The Hill, Collins added that Pyongyang’s hackers endanger South Korean chemical plants: “These hackers have also hacked into South Korea’s Chemical Accident Response Information system for the purpose of understanding where the South’s chemical plants are located and how much damage would result locally if they were subject to explosions.”

Seoul outlined the DPRK’s possession of anthrax, smallpox, and the plague in a 2018 white paper released by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense. Analysts believe that North Korea in a future war could weaponize its stocks of phosgene, sarin, mustard and V-type chemical agents. At least 12 facilities are believed to be responsible for developing these chemical agents, according to industry experts.

According to IHS Jane, a 2017 analysis of Pyongyang’s biological weapons capabilities cites the following evidence:

-“On 17 June (2015), the RoK MND issued a report that stated North Korea possesses an assortment of biological agents – including anthrax and smallpox – and the ability to weaponize them within 10 days. The report also stated that the North did not yet possess warheads to employ bioweapons.”

-“During June 2015 North Korea announced that it has created a vaccine, known as Kumdang-2, that could treat Ebola, HIV, ‘a number of cancers,’ and MERS. Kumdang-2 was reportedly manufactured from ginseng grown in fertilizer made from ‘rare-earth elements’ and ‘micro-quantities of gold and platinum.’ Most serious researchers have significant reservations concerning these claims.”

-“In the aftermath of Kim Jong-nam’s death in February 2017 due to toxic nerve agent VX, South Korea’s MND was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying that North Korea’s military is probably operating a regiment-level biochemical weapons unit.”

As Pyongyang continues to make nuclear threats, a detailed analysis of the country’s true nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities is important. But its stockpiles of chemical weapons should also be considered a grave threat.

Maya Carlin, a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin.

From the Vault

‘Vacuum Bombs Destroyed’: Ukraine Footage Shows Putin’s Thermobaric Rockets Destroyed

BOOM! Ukraine Video Shows Precision Strike on Russian Air-Defense System

19fortyfive.com · by Maya Carlin · September 27, 2023

7. North Korea May Have Seen Little Benefit in Keeping U.S. Soldier

As we have long known, the regime could not figure out a way to exploit the situation and achieve and worthwhile effects. The best it could do was to say this:

... he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. army and was disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society.

North Korea May Have Seen Little Benefit in Keeping U.S. Soldier

The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · September 28, 2023

Why did the North expel Pvt. Travis T. King, rather than use him for its own purposes? Analysts say he was probably considered more of a burden than an asset.

News coverage of North Korea’s deportation of Pvt. Travis King on a TV screen in a Seoul train station on Thursday.Credit...Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press

By

Reporting from Seoul

Sept. 28, 2023, 5:32 a.m. ET

When Pvt. ​Travis T. King fled to North Korea in July, he looked like a potential propaganda bonanza for Kim Jong-un’s government.

He was the first American soldier to cross from South Korea into the North since 1982. The North Korean state media claimed that Private King, who is Black, had complained of racial discrimination in the Army and said he wanted asylum. All the U.S. soldiers who deserted to the North during the Cold War were welcomed and used for anti-American propaganda, a fate that seemed entirely possible for Private King.

But instead, North Korea deported him on Wednesday after weeks of diplomacy mediated by Sweden. American officials took custody of him in China and flew him to the United States.

The North has said little about its reasons for expelling Private King. But several experts on the isolated country said it boiled down to this: Times have changed, and North Korea is now more likely to see an American deserter as a burden than as a benefit, unless the defector is a high-profile person privy to secret information.

“Mr. King, to Pyongyang, is a low-value asset,” said Lee Sung-Yoon, a fellow with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington who has written a book about the North.

During the Cold War, American soldiers who defected to the North were allowed to settle there and start families. They became propaganda assets, domestically as well as internationally. North Korea was producing countless films meant to teach its people to fear and hate the United States, and ​the deserters came in handy for roles as American characters, usually evil ones.

Private King, in black cap and black shirt, can be seen in this image from a tour at the truce village of Panmunjom along the border between the Koreas, shortly before he crossed into the North.Credit...Sarah Leslie, via Reuters

But while the North still makes such movies, its nuclear arsenal has become a vastly more important domestic propaganda tool for Mr. Kim, said Cheong Seong-chang, a longtime North Korea analyst at the Sejong Institute, a South Korean think tank.

“Kim Jong-un’s nuclear weapons have become the most effective means for him to elicit the loyalty of his people, ​as he told them that their country has become a nuclear power that the United States cannot mess with,” Mr. Cheong said.

Some American ​civilians detained by North Korea have been used as bargaining chips with Washington, released only when prominent figures like former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter ​visited Pyongyang, the capital. But Mr. Kim has shown little interest in restarting talks with the United States since his direct diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump​ collapsed in 2019.

And North Korea has learned that detaining Americans can backfire, from a propaganda perspective. It found itself in an ignoble global spotlight after the death of Otto F. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, in 2017. ​Mr. Warmbier, who had visited the North as a tourist, was held there ​for 17 months on charges of stealing a propaganda poster. When released to American officials, he was in a coma, and he died soon afterward.

“Kim Jong-un may have wondered, ‘What’s the use of keeping ​an American soldier?​’​” Mr. Cheong said. “It was not as if ​Private King came over with a​ load of valuable information on the U.S. military with him.”

Nor is there any indication, even from the North’s dubious state media accounts, that Private King had praised the country’s political system. His reasons for crossing into the North, at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Koreas, remain unclear.

Private King had spent time in a South Korean jail on assault charges, and U.S. military personnel had escorted him to Incheon International Airport near Seoul. He was supposed to board a plane to Texas to face further disciplinary action from the military, but instead he left the airport and made his way to Panmunjom.

“North Korea is sensitive about how the rest of the world sees its human rights condition​,” ​said Hong Min, a​n analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. “It may have wanted to prove that it was not an abnormal country by treating Private King’s case in a ‘gentlemanly manner’ and showing that it has its own internationally acceptable protocol of handling cases like his.”

Keeping Private King in the North indefinitely might also have seemed more trouble than it was worth to Mr. Kim, said Mr. Cheong, who described the North Korean leader as more “practical minded” than his grandfather and his father, who led the country before him.

During the Cold War, the North’s totalitarian government took pains to prevent American military deserters from coming in contact with the general public​ because it feared the spread of news from the outside world among its people (as it still does).​ The soldiers were kept in special zones, provided with housing and language and ideological training and kept under constant surveillance.

The fact that Private King is Black may ​also have p​layed a role in the decision to expel him, said Kim Dong-sik, a former North Korean spy who defected to the South and worked in a government-run research institute in Seoul before opening his own consultancy.

A photo of Private King at the home of Carl Gates, his grandfather, in Kenosha, Wis., in July.Credit...Morry Gash/Associated Press

“To the North Korean propagandists, the United States is a country dominated by white people, and a Black person is not a representative American face,” Mr. Kim said. “They may have decided that his usefulness as a propaganda tool was limited.”

Mr. Kim also noted that in North Korea, where the government has long touted a supposed racial “purity,” anti-Black racism is even stronger than anti-white racism.

That might have essentially ruled out the idea of letting Private King settle in the country, said Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector ​who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies​ in Seoul. ​The North arranged marriages for the Cold War defectors — none of whom were Black — but only to North Korean women who were thought to be infertile, or to foreign women whom the government had apparently abducted, according to the memoir of one American defector, Charles Robert Jenkins.

“If they let him stay, they will eventually have to let him have a family,” Mr. Ahn said of Private King. “Given the pure-blood racism of the Kim dynasty, it’s hard to imagine” that being allowed, he added.

North Korea said on Wednesday that it was deporting Private King on charges of “illegal intrusion,” but it did not explain why it was not honoring his purported wish to settle in the North.

“​The North Koreans pick and choose what they want,” Mr. Ahn said. “It was best for the​m to get rid of ​him​.”

Choe Sang-Hun is the Seoul bureau chief for The Times, focusing on news in North and South Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun

The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · September 28, 2023

8. Nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan condemn N. Korea's stipulation of nuclear policy

Nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan condemn N. Korea's stipulation of nuclear policy | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · September 28, 2023

SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- The top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Thursday denounced North Korea's constitutional amendment to enshrine its policy on nuclear force, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Gunn, and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Hiroyuki Namazu, respectively, held a conference call to discuss the outcome of Pyongyang's key parliamentary meeting and their joint responses to its growing nuclear threat.

North Korea has stipulated the policy of strengthening its nuclear force in the constitution at the 14th Supreme People's Assembly held on Tuesday and Wednesday. During the meeting, leader Kim Jong-un said trilateral security cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan poses "the worst actual threat" and vowed to bolster the country's nuclear capability.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks during the ninth session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly held on Sept. 26-27 in Pyongyang, in this captured image from Pyongyang's official Korean Central Television on Sept. 28. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

The nuclear envoys strongly condemned North Korea's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons while ignoring the crumbling livelihoods of its people.

"They strongly condemned that North Korea has more openly revealed its nuclear ambition by adopting the constitutional amendment in the Supreme People's Assembly that stipulated its nuclear force policy," the ministry said in a release.

The trio urged Pyongyang to halt its nuclear threats and other provocations, vowing to closely coordinate with the international community to make progress on its denuclearization.

The envoys also agreed to closely monitor for signs of North Korea's third attempt to launch a military spy satellite and arms trade with Russia following their bilateral summit earlier this month.

They also welcomed the return of U.S. soldier Travis King, who was expelled from North Korea earlier in the day after running across the inter-Korean border in July.

Pvt. King made an unauthorized crossing of the Military Demarcation Line into the North during a tour to the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas on July 18.

ejkim@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · September 28, 2023

9. (Asiad) 1st gold in Hangzhou leaves N. Korean shooters in tears

Excerpt:

They all did a military salute toward their flag, indicating their connection with the North Korean armed forces.

(Asiad) 1st gold in Hangzhou leaves N. Korean shooters in tears | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Yoo Jee-ho · September 28, 2023

By Yoo Jee-ho

HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- After winning their country's first gold medal of the 19th Asian Games in China on Thursday, North Korean shooters Ri Ji-ye, Paek Ok-sim and Pang Myong-hyang were overcome with emotion.

The trio combined to bring North Korea the gold medal in the women's 10-meter running target team event at Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China. Together, they put up 1,655 points on the board, beating Kazakhstan by 13 points.

Ri Ji-ye, Pang Myong-hyang and Paek Ok-sim (L to R) of North Korea celebrate with their gold medals during the medal ceremony for the women's 10-meter running target shooting event at the Asian Games at Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China, on Sept. 28, 2023. (Yonhap)

During the medal ceremony, as the North Korean flag was being raised to the rafters and the anthem was being played, all three shooters began crying on the podium. They all did a military salute toward their flag, indicating their connection with the North Korean armed forces.

The rest of the North Korean shooting team, including coaches and team officials, watched the ceremony from the stands. They let out shouts of joy and waved mini flags when the gold medalists entered the shooting range at the start of the ceremony.

Ri Ji-ye, Pang Myong-hyang and Paek Ok-sim (L to R) of North Korea salute their national flag during the medal ceremony after winning gold in the women's 10-meter running target shooting event at the Asian Games at Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China, on Sept. 28, 2023. (Yonhap)

The shooting team also brought a large North Korean flag, with athletes and officials sitting in the front row holding it for the duration of the ceremony.

All three medalists refused to speak to Yonhap News Agency after their competition and also after the medal ceremony. No member of the shooting team in the stands acknowledged Yonhap. When asked if they were all members of the shooting delegation, a few of them simply nodded without speaking.

Athletes and officials of the North Korean shooting team celebrate the country's gold medal in the women's 10-meter running target event at the Asian Games during the medal ceremony at Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China, on Sept. 28, 2023. (Yonhap)

jeeho@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Yoo Jee-ho · September 28, 2023

10. Civic group to celebrate 70th anniversary of S. Korea-U.S. alliance

Civic group to celebrate 70th anniversary of S. Korea-U.S. alliance | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Choi Kyong-ae · September 28, 2023

SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- The America-Korea United Society (AKUS), a New Jersey-based civic group, said Thursday it will hold an event in the United States to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

AKUS said the ceremony will be held at the Fort Lee Community Center in New Jersey at 5 p.m. on Oct. 1 (U.S. time) under the theme of "We Go Together."

South Korea and the U.S. signed the Mutual Defense Treaty, a bedrock alliance document, in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1, 1953, three months after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

"Participants will look back on the history of the seven decades-long alliance and discuss joint efforts to achieve liberal democracy and market economy," an AKUS official said.

Bernard S. Champoux, formerly a three-star commander of the U.S. Eighth Army in South Korea, will deliver a keynote speech on the alliance between Seoul and Washington, AKUS said.

AKUS is a nonprofit independent organization dedicated to promoting democracy in Korea and the U.S.

This photo provided by the America-Korea United Society shows the notification of a planned event to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the S. Korea-U.S. alliance in New Jersey on Oct. 1, 2023. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Choi Kyong-ae · September 28, 2023

11. Court finds ban on leafleting into NK unconstitutional, ban on praise for NK constitutional

Good news. Finally. Now it is time for a comprehensive information campaign that goes far beyond leaflets and loud speakers.

Court finds ban on leafleting into NK unconstitutional, ban on praise for NK constitutional

koreaherald.com · by Son Ji-hyoung · September 26, 2023

By Son Ji-hyoung

Published : Sept. 26, 2023 - 17:02

Balloons carrying anti-North Korea leaflets are released by North Korean defectors, now living on South Korea, on March 26, 2016 in Paju, South Korea. (GettyImages)

A South Korean court on Tuesday found a law banning private entities from sending leaflets or other items by balloon into North Korea unconstitutional.

In a 7-2 decision, the Constitutional Court found the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act, promulgated in 2020 during the liberal Moon Jae-in administration, unconstitutional. Scores of North Korean human rights groups filed the complaint with the Constitutional Court immediately after the law came into effect.

After the conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol succeeded Moon, his administration's unification minister, Kwon Young-se, submitted an opinion to the court, saying the leafletting ban "infringes on freedom of expression" and “violates the principles of proportionality between responsibility and punishment.”

Under the rule, those who violate the so-called "anti-leaflet law" are subject to at most three years of imprisonment or a fine of 30 million won ($22,160) or less.

Members of a civic group hold placards calling for the annulment of the National Security Act to protest the Constitutional Court's ruling on Tuesday in front of the court in Seoul. (Yonhap)

Meanwhile, the same court on Tuesday found a law to ban the act of praising or propagating the North Korean regime under the National Security Act constitutional. The decision is the latest development in the row over what constitutes as anti-government activities, since the latest revision of the rule in 1991.

Under the current security law, a person who praises, incites or propagates the activities of North Korea or its affiliated organizations, or those who instigate a rebellion against the South Korean government, will be punished for up to seven years in prison. Those making, possessing or distributing documents, drawings or expression materials to praise North Korea are subject to penalties.

The same rule defines North Korea as an "anti-government organization" that fraudulently uses a government title.

Those who founded or joined anti-government organizations intended to praise North Korea could face at least one year of imprisonment.

The suit marks the eighth of its kind. Those who were convicted of the security law violation claimed that specific clauses in the law violates the principle of "no punishment without law," and fails to provide a principle of certainty under which the law must provide a clear framework to regulate people's conduct.

The Human Rights Commission of Korea in 2022 also blasted the same clauses for "breaching the freedom of speech and freedom of conscience with a violation of the principle of certainty and the principle of proportionality" during the court trial.

The Ministry of Justice, however, argued that the government intervention to address what has already become an existential threat due to the anti-government campaign would be rendered useless, so excessive regulation preemptively on such activities are essential.

koreaherald.com · by Son Ji-hyoung · September 26, 2023

12. American soldier who crossed into North Korea arrives back in the US, video appears to show

Video at the link: https://apnews.com/article/pvt-travis-king-released-north-korea-746487710c11a812f33ad25d60861b1b?utm

​Seemed like an awkward arrival in San Antonio. Since I have never seen a video of him it is difficult to assess but the way he walked just seemed unusual. It could be that he feared what would be coming next 

American soldier who crossed into North Korea arrives back in the US, video appears to show

AP · September 28, 2023

Pvt. Travis King, the American soldier who sprinted into North Korea two months ago, arrived back in the U.S. early Thursday, video appeared to show. (Sept. 28)

Share

The American soldier who sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified border between the Koreas more than two months ago arrived back in the U.S. early Thursday, video appeared to show.

North Korea abruptly announced Wednesday that it would expel Pvt. Travis King. His return was organized with the help of ally Sweden and rival China, according to the White House.

While officials have said King, 23, is in good health and the immediate focus will be on caring for him and reintegrating him into U.S. society, his troubles are likely far from over.

King, who had served in South Korea, ran into the North while on a civilian tour of a border village on July 18, becoming the first American confirmed to be detained in the isolated nation in nearly five years. At the time, he was supposed to be heading to Fort Bliss, Texas, following his release from prison in South Korea on an assault conviction.

He has been declared AWOL from the Army. In many cases, someone who is AWOL for more than a month can automatically be considered a deserter.

Punishment for going AWOL or desertion can vary, and it depends in part on whether the service member voluntarily returned or was apprehended. King’s handover by the North Koreans makes that more complicated.

Video aired Thursday by a Texas news station appeared to show King walking off a plane in San Antonio. Dressed in a dark top and pants, he could be seen speaking briefly with people waiting on the tarmac. He shook hands with one before being led into a building.

Officials earlier said he would be taken to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. King is expected to undergo psychological assessments and debriefings. He will also get a chance to meet with family.

He will be in military custody throughout the process since his legal situation is complicated.

On Wednesday, Swedish officials took King to the Chinese border, where he was met by U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, the Swedish ambassador to China, and at least one U.S. Defense Department official.

He was then flown to a U.S. military base in South Korea before being returned to the U.S.

It was not clear why the North — which has tense relations with Washington over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and other issues — agreed to turn him over or why the soldier fled in the first place.

Several recent American detainees had been held for over a year — 17 months in the case of Otto Warmbier, a college student who was arrested during a group tour. Warmbier was in a coma when he was deported, and later died.

North Korea has often been accused of using American detainees as bargaining chips, and there had also been speculation that the North would try to maximize the propaganda value of a U.S. soldier.

But analysts say King’s legal troubles could have limited his propaganda value, and Biden administration officials insisted they provided no concessions to North Korea to secure his release.

AP · September 28, 2023

13. Concerns about Korea's national image amid K-pop craze

Interesting perspective.

Concerns about Korea's national image amid K-pop craze

donga.com

Posted September. 27, 2023 08:04,

Updated September. 27, 2023 08:04

Concerns about Korea's national image amid K-pop craze. September. 27, 2023 08:04. .

In a Sept. 15 interview with the Dong-A Ilbo, Victor Cha, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Asia and Korea Chair, expressed his surprise at the unprecedented level of American interest in Korean culture, something he had never experienced before nor expected to witness in his entire life.

During his speech on security cooperation in the Korean Peninsula and its outlook, he stressed the importance of 'soft power,' noting that he specifically wanted to point out. As a professor teaching international politics and Korean studies at Georgetown University, Cha said that when he first started his class on Korean studies 20 years ago, there were only five to six students, including some Korean Americans. He mentioned that last semester, the same class welcomed up to 50 students, with few being of Asian descent.

When he asked his students why they chose the class, only one cited an interest in security issues such as North Korean nuclear provocations. Two or three mentioned a desire to learn about a country that achieved democracy and high industrialization. The majority, however, enrolled due to their interest in 'K-pop.' He also shared the analysis of foreign language learning in U.S. universities and colleges by the Modern Language Association of America. According to the report, Korean was the only language that saw a more than 60% jump in learners over the past 10 years.

The newspaper inquired about the recent heated debate in Korea regarding the controversial Fukushima nuclear wastewater release. U.S. Representative Ed Case, from Hawaii's first congressional district, mentioned during a Sept. 14 interview that scientific data indicates the risk is now minimized. He noted that while there are some opponents in Hawaii, their numbers are fewer compared to Korea. The congressman attributed the strong opposition in Korea to local politics.

These views suggest that many Koreans might be overlooking objective perspectives on Korea while excessively fixating on the popularity of K-pop. Just last month, the government hastily organized a K-Pop concert to address mounting criticism stemming from the World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum debacle. K-pop and the Korean Wave can no longer serve as a universal remedy for Korea's current challenges. Overindulgence in the craze for Korean pop culture may diminish Korea's national image.

한국어

donga.com

14. Asia Society Policy Institute Welcomes New Expert on Political-Security Affairs

Congratulations to Emma Chanlett-Avery. All Korea watchers know her well from reading her great Korea research. CRS will have a hard time replacing her.

Asia Society Policy Institute Welcomes New Expert on Political-Security Affairs

NEW YORK; September 25, 2023 – The Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) on Tuesday announced the appointment of Emma Chanlett-Avery as its new Director of Political-Security Affairs and Deputy Director of the Washington, D.C. office.

Ms. Chanlett-Avery will add significant expertise to the ASPI team as it analyzes and promotes U.S. relations with the Indo-Pacific region. She served for 20 years as a Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service and was recently a Congressional Fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where she worked with the professional committee staff to draft Asia policy legislation and prepare for hearings.

Ms. Chanlett-Avery has authored dozens of policy papers and reports for Congress and has spoken at many events and conferences. She was a Presidential Management Fellow, with rotations in the State Department on the Korea Desk and at the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group in Bangkok, Thailand. She also worked in the Office of Policy Planning as a Harold Rosenthal Fellow. She is a member of the Mansfield Foundation U.S.-Japan Network for the Future and a Mansfield-Luce Asia Network Scholar, and in 2016, she received the Kato Prize, awarded by Washington think tanks for strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance.

“We are thrilled for Emma to join the ASPI team in our Washington, D.C. office. Her expertise and experience in working with our Indo-Pacific partners will make an important contribution to the impact of our work,” said Wendy Cutler, ASPI’s Vice President and Managing Director of its D.C. office.

 “Emma Chanlett-Avery’s analysis is well-respected in Washington and throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Her expertise on U.S. allies, including her focus on Thailand, will complement our efforts to deepen understanding of Southeast Asia,” said Daniel Russel, ASPI’s Vice President of International Security and Diplomacy.

Members of the press interested in connecting with Ms. Chanlett-Avery should contact pr@asiasociety.org.

With a problem-solving mandate, the Asia Society Policy Institute tackles major policy challenges now confronting the Asia-Pacific in security and diplomacy; trade, investment, and innovation; climate and clean energy; and society, technology, and public health.

With top-level advisors, fellows, and the premier Asia-wide network of experts, the Policy Institute provides a unique platform for policy development. It boasts a truly Asia-wide scope; participation from business and policy leaders on equal footing; and the application of Asia Society’s world-leading convening and research capabilities to the pursuit of prosperity, security, and sustainability across Asia. 

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