Quotes of the Day:
“The Americanization of the war can, from the military point of view, succeed, but the Americanization of the peace, of daily life, can only serve the Viet Cong with terrorist objectives and propagandist arguments against ‘American hegemony in Vietnam.’”
“… the Americans are winning everything—except the war.”
- Moshe Dayan
“Everything we say, everything we do, and everything we fail to say or do will have its impact in other lands.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The very massiveness of our intervention actually reduced our leverage. So long as we were willing to use U.S. resources and manpower as a substitute for Vietnamese, their incentive for doing more was compromised.”
- Komer, Bureaucracy At War.
1. North Korea Launches Short-Range Missile as Country’s Envoy Speaks at U.N.
2. N. Korea fires one short-range missile into East Sea: JCS
3. North Korea missile tests aim to split Seoul and Washington
4. Top nuke envoys of S. Korea, U.S. discuss N.K. missile launch over phone
5. Moon orders comprehensive analysis of N. Korea's missile launch, recent statements on inter-Korean ties
6. N. Korea urges U.S. to give up hostility by permanently stopping joint military exercise
7. S. Korea launches new 3,000-ton-class SLBM submarine
8. U.S. prepared to meet N. Korea without any conditions: State Dept.
9. DPRK says it will ‘respond willingly’ if US abandons ‘hostile policy’
10. Will Kim’s sister’s olive branch to Seoul herald a four-nation summit with US, China at the Beijing Winter Olympics?
11. China appears to be cracking down on "unofficial trade" with North Korea
12. N. Korea is taking its time to put new foreign currency vouchers into full circulation
13. North keeps up pressure with missile launch
14. North’s missile is sixth major weapons test this year
15. How Should South Korea’s Next President Approach Cybersecurity?
16. Moon’s end-of-war plan receives harsh reception
17. Quarantine Patrols Search House to House for Coronavirus Symptoms in North Korea
1. North Korea Launches Short-Range Missile as Country’s Envoy Speaks at U.N.
I will repeat by six part framework for responding to north Korea provocations.
We should keep in mind that the Kim family regime's political warfare strategy relies heavily on its blackmail diplomacy - the use of increased tension, threats and provocations to gain political and economic concessions. Part of our information and influence strategy should be to counter the criticism that a north Korean provocation is a US and South Korean policy failure. We should make sure the press, pundits, and public understand that this is a fundamental part of north Korean strategy and it conducts provocations for specific objectives. It does not represent a policy failure on our part. I would offer the following framework for consideration:
First, do not overreact. But do not succumb to the criticism of those who recommend ending exercises. And always call out Kim Jong-un's strategy - “ …what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy; … next best is to disrupt his alliances.”
Sun Tzu (Sun Tzu, Samuel B; Griffith, Trans. (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), p. 77-78.)
Second, never ever back down in the face of north Korean increased tension, threats, and provocations.
Third, coordinate an alliance response. There may be times when a good cop-bad cop approach is appropriate. Try to mitigate the internal domestic political criticisms that will inevitably occur in Seoul and DC. Do not let those criticisms negatively influence policy and actions.
Fourth, exploit weakness in north Korea - cause internal pressure on Kim and the regime from his elite and military. Always work to drive a wedge among the party, elite, and military (which is a challenge since they are all intertwined and inextricably linked).
Fifth, demonstrate strength and resolve. Do not be afraid to show military strength. Never misunderstand the north's propaganda - do not give into demands to reduce exercises or take other measures based on north Korean demands that would in any way reduce the readiness of the combined military forces. The north does not want an end to the exercises because they are a threat, they want to weaken the alliance and force the US troops off of the peninsula which will be the result if they are unable to effectively train.
Sixth, depending on the nature of the provocation, be prepared to initiate a decisive response using the most appropriate tools, e.g., diplomatic, military, economic, information and influence activities, cyber, etc. or a combination.
Again do not overreact and always, always, always call out the regime's political warfare strategy and blackmail diplomacy.
North Korea Launches Short-Range Missile as Country’s Envoy Speaks at U.N.
The launch came just three days after the sister of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said the country would consider holding a meeting with the South and declaring an official end to the Korean War.
North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, Kim Song, called on Washington to end its “hostile policy” toward his country in a speech Monday evening.Credit...Cia Pak/United Nations, via Associated Press
By
Sept. 27, 2021
SEOUL — North Korea fired a short-range missile off its east coast on Tuesday, the South Korean military said, just as the North’s ambassador to the United Nations called on the United States to end joint military exercises and withdraw its strategic weapons from around the Korean Peninsula.
The North resumed short-range ballistic missile tests after its negotiations with the Trump administration collapsed in 2019. Pyongyang conducted its last missile tests on Sept. 15, when it launched two ballistic missiles in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions banning the country from developing or testing ballistic missiles or nuclear devices.
North Korea’s short-range missiles are not treated with as much alarm as the country’s intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was not clear whether the test on Tuesday involved a ballistic missile, which would violate the U.N. resolutions.
The statement from the sister, Kim Yo-jong, had raised cautious hopes that North Korea might be ready to resume dialogue, two and a half years after Mr. Kim’s diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump fell apart without an agreement on ending the North’s nuclear weapons programs or the lifting of sanctions.
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, the North’s ambassador, Kim Song, reiterated that Washington must end “hostile policy” toward his country if it wants peace on the peninsula. The Korean War was halted in a truce in 1953, leaving the peninsula technically in a state of war.
“If the U.S. wants to see the Korean War, the most prolonged and long-lasting war in the world, come to an end, and if it is really desirous of peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, it should take the first step toward giving up its hostile policy,” Mr. Kim, the ambassador, said.
“Hostile policy” is usually a reference to American joint military drills with South Korea, the American military presence on the peninsula and the U.N. sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development.
The first step in negotiations, Mr. Kim added, includes “stopping permanently the joint military exercises and the deployment of all kinds of strategic weapons” in and around the peninsula.
Washington has repeatedly urged the North to return to nuclear disarmament talks, saying it has no hostile intent against the isolated, impoverished country. But North Korea has yet to respond to the Biden administration’s proposal that talks resume anytime, anywhere “without preconditions.”
North Korea has long said that its nuclear arsenal is for self-defense and has complained about the joint military exercises for decades, countering them with its own military drills, often with weapons tests. Washington and Seoul insist that the joint exercises, a centerpiece of their military alliance, are defensive in nature, and have largely dismissed North Korea’s complaint as propaganda.
As he engaged Kim Jong-un in diplomacy, Mr. Trump canceled or scaled back the exercises to help facilitate the negotiations. He said that the joint “war games” were “provocative” and too “expensive,” but critics accused him of turning the military drills into a bargaining chip.
The cancellation of the joint drills by Mr. Trump also delayed South Korea’s preparations to build up its defense capabilities as part of a long-term effort to regain wartime operational control of its own military. Wartime operational control of the South Korean military has been in the hands of American generals since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Talks between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump collapsed when North Korea demanded that Washington lift all of the most biting U.N. sanctions in return for a partial dismantling of its nuclear weapons program. Mr. Trump rejected Mr. Kim’s offer, insisting on a quicker and more comprehensive rollback of the North’s nuclear program.
On Monday evening at the United Nations, Mr. Kim, the North’s envoy, said that his country would persist on its nuclear program.
“Given that the U.S. and the U.S.-South Korea military alliance increase military threats against the D.P.R.K., nobody can deny the righteous right to self-defense for the D.P.R.K. to develop, test, manufacture and possess the weapon systems equivalent to the ones which are possessed or being developed by them,” said Mr. Kim, using the abbreviation for his country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
2. N. Korea fires one short-range missile into East Sea: JCS
Excerpts:
It did not specify if the projectile is a ballistic missile and has not released such details as its flight range and altitude. Sources raised the possibility that it could be a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) or a new type of weapon given its unique trajectory and other features.
The launch came three days after Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said that Pyongyang could declare a formal end to the Korean War as suggested by the South and even discuss the possibility of a summit on conditions that Seoul drops its double standards and hostile attitudes against it.
The North has long accused South Korea and the United States of double standards, claiming it makes no sense for them to denounce the North's missile launches and other weapons tests as banned "provocations" when they are free to conduct such tests.
Tuesday's launch could be designed to test whether the South would still brand it as a provocation.
(5th LD) N. Korea fires one short-range missile into East Sea: JCS | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: ADDS analysis on missile type, responses in paras 3, 8-10, 15-17; TRIMS)
By Oh Seok-min
SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired one short-range missile into the East Sea on Tuesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, just days after Pyongyang held out the prospect of an inter-Korean summit if the South drops "double standards."
The missile was fired from the North's Mupyong-ri in Jagang Province eastward at around 6:40 a.m., the JCS said, adding the South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are analyzing the launch for additional information.
It did not specify if the projectile is a ballistic missile and has not released such details as its flight range and altitude. Sources raised the possibility that it could be a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) or a new type of weapon given its unique trajectory and other features.
The launch came three days after Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said that Pyongyang could declare a formal end to the Korean War as suggested by the South and even discuss the possibility of a summit on conditions that Seoul drops its double standards and hostile attitudes against it.
The North has long accused South Korea and the United States of double standards, claiming it makes no sense for them to denounce the North's missile launches and other weapons tests as banned "provocations" when they are free to conduct such tests.
Tuesday's launch could be designed to test whether the South would still brand it as a provocation.
In Seoul, top security officials held an emergency security meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) and voiced regret over the launch. President Moon Jae-in ordered a "comprehensive analysis" of the missile launch and recent statements from the North, his office said.
Defense ministry spokesperson Boo Seung-chan also expressed regret and said the government is analyzing the launch and the North's intention. He dismissed the speculation that Seoul stopped short of labeling the launch as a provocation in order not to enrage the North, saying that a further analysis is needed to figure out its exact type.
The U.S. condemned the missile launch, which is in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and poses a threat to the region and the international community.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a separate statement that the firing "highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK's illicit weapons program" though it does not pose an immediate threat to the U.S. and its allies.
North Korea is banned from all ballistic missile activities under the U.N. resolutions, though Pyongyang has claimed they are aimed at beefing up self-defense against threats posed by South Korea and the U.S.
If the projectile is confirmed to be a ballistic missile, it would mark the third such launch so far this year, and the sixth known major weapons test if test-firings of cruise missiles are taken into account.
On Sept. 15, the North test-fired two short-range missiles, believed to be its version of the Iskander, into the East Sea, which came just days after launching a new type of cruise missile.
Sources in Seoul said the missile flew shorter than 200 kilometers at an altitude of around 60 km, adding it shows "different flight features from the missiles the North previously tested."
"The missile could be something new, such as a hypersonic missile," professor Kim Dong-yup of Kyungnam University's Far East Institute said. HGVs follow a much flatter and lower trajectory compared with traditional ballistic missiles, it is hard to detect and intercept them, he added.
During a party congress in January, leader Kim Jong-un instructed the military to further advance its missiles capabilities, noting that his country is preparing for testing and producing such new weapons as a "supersonic gliding flight warhead for new type ballistic rockets."
North Korea has released several new types of missiles in recent years amid stalled denuclearization talks with the U.S. and in response to the introduction of advanced military assets by South Korea.
Earlier this week, South Korea announced the successful test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile from a new submarine, and unveiled the development of a supersonic cruise missile. The Navy also launched a new 3,000-ton-class submarine capable of firing SLBMs on Tuesday.
Kim Song, North Korean Ambassador to the U.N., reiterated his country's stance Tuesday by saying it has "the righteous right" to develop and test weapons due to threats by the U.S. and South Korea, and urging the U.S. to "permanently stop" the combined exercise with South Korea and the deployment of strategic weapons to the South.
The Joe Biden government has said it is ready to hold talks with the North anywhere, at anytime, but the communist country has remained unresponsive to the U.S. overtures.
Pyongyang also remained unresponsive to South Korea's calls via military hotlines despite cautious optimism for their resumption after Kim's statement.
graceoh@yna.co.kr
(END)
3. North Korea missile tests aim to split Seoul and Washington
Again, I have to ask:
Do we believe that Kim Jong-un has abandoned the seven decades old strategy of subversion, coercion-extortion (blackmail diplomacy), and use of force to achieve unification dominated by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State in order to ensure the survival of the mafia like crime family cult known as Kim family regime?
In support of that strategy do we believe that Kim Jong-un has abandoned the objective to split the ROK/US Alliance and get US forces off the peninsula? Has KJU given up his divide to conquer strategy - divide the alliance to conquer the ROK?
North Korea missile tests aim to split Seoul and Washington
Pyongyang plays a good cop, bad cop game to get Biden's attention while probing for cracks between South Korea and the US
SEOUL – Only days after Kim Jong Un’s sister reversed her long-held stance and suggested talks with South Korea, North Korea test-fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan.
The missile was fired eastward from Mupyong-ri, in Jagang Province in north-central North Korea, at about 6:40am, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Japanese authorities identified it as a short-range ballistic missile and said it had splashed in waters outside its exclusive economic zone. South Korea’s military is still analyzing the situation, a spokesman from the Ministry of National Defense told Asia Times.
While North Korea is permitted cruise missiles, UN resolutions ban its possession or testing of ballistic missiles, a stance Pyongyang repeatedly defies. One hour after Tuesday’s launch, the state’s ambassador to the United Nations told the General Assembly in New York “nobody can deny the right to self-defense” of North Korea.
South Korea, which in May saw the lifting of a long-held US ceiling on its own missile development programs, has in recent months released details of long-range missile programs of its own, and tested a domestic submarine-launched ballistic missile. This indicates a brewing missile arms race between the two states.
Tuesday’s launch is the latest in a recent series of missile tests from the North this month.
On September 11-12, the North test-fired long-range cruise missiles, which it claimed were “strategic” – suggesting the projectiles could be armed with nuclear warheads. On September 15, it test-fired a short-range ballistic missile fired from a train, an unusual launch platform.
It is likely that the moves are aimed at generating discussions in Washington as well as Seoul.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games on February 9, 2018. Photo: AFP / Patrick Semansky
Mixed messaging
According to Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean general, North Korea always has domestic military and international political reasons for its missile tests.
Confusingly, the most recent missile test came only three days after Kim Yo Jong, the sister of national leader Kim Jong Un, held out the possibility of talks with South Korea.
After South Korean President Moon Jae-in called, in a widely-reported speech before the UN General Assembly last week, for a peace treaty to bring a formal end to the Korean War, Kim Yo Jong unexpectedly said on Friday that the idea was “admirable” and that it could be possible to sit down “face to face and declare the significant termination of the war.”
That statement sent a frisson of excitement through South Korea as it signaled, perhaps, a return to Korea-Korea talks, the reversal of antagonistic Northern policies and a softening of the influential Kim’s tough stance.
However, as one of her multiple preconditions, Kim said the South should drop its “hostile policies” and cease “faulting our just exercise of the right to self-defense.”
That language was mirrored in the North’s post-launch comments at the United Nations. This could explain Seoul’s reluctance to identify Tuesday’s projectile as a ballistic missile.
Kim is widely believed to be a key player in Pyongyang’s inter-Korean relations team, but her reported statements in state media since 2019 have been almost entirely hawkish, while her brother has taken a step back.
Analysts have suggested that the apparently differing attitudes of the brother and sister offer the North a “good cop, bad cop” dynamic in its messaging and diplomatic outreach, and allows the elder brother to project a more statesmanlike image.
But despite Kim Yo Jong’s Friday statement, South Korea’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that North Korea was not responding to South Korea’s calls on cross-border military hotlines.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un with US President Donald Trump at the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea on June 30, 2019. Photo: AFP
Pyongyang probes for cracks
North Korea-US relations have been largely dormant since the failure of a summit between then-US president Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in Vietnam in February 2019. Inter-Korean relations have, relatedly, been at a virtual standstill.
The Moon administration has made inter-Korean relations a centerpiece of its policies, but has been deeply frustrated. It is politically unable to act independently of its key ally, the United States, which is far less focused on engagement.
With a presidential election due next March, and the incumbent government leaving office in May, Moon may well be looking to his legacy.
Given this, the time may be ripe for North Korea to find what policy cracks it can widen between Seoul and Washington.
“I think North Korea is essentially testing whether South Korea wants to carry out a dialog while [Pyongyang] carries out provocations,” Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at think tank the Asan Institute told Asia Times. “North Korean policy is to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.”
While the Joe Biden administration has not placed as much priority on North Korean diplomacy as did the Trump administration, it has made clear its willingness to sit down and engage.
So why is North Korea raising its head above the parapet and testing missiles?
Possibly because Washington has not suggested the top-level meetings that characterized the Trump years – and also continues to focus the agenda on denuclearization.
This would explain the restrained approach North Korea is taking. It is pinpricking the US rather than unleashing a major provocation, such as an intercontinental ballistic missile or a nuclear test, which could push Washington into confrontation mode.
“This is North Korea saying, ‘We can do something more provocative next, so come up with an offer,’” Go said. “The US is offering dialogue but the dialogue is not guaranteed it to go in the direction the NKs want it to go, so they are shaping the agenda.”
4. Top nuke envoys of S. Korea, U.S. discuss N.K. missile launch over phone
Top nuke envoys of S. Korea, U.S. discuss N.K. missile launch over phone | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Noh Kyu-duk, spoke by phone Tuesday with U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim to discuss the North's latest missile launch, the foreign ministry said.
The phone talks came hours after the North fired a short-range missile into the East Sea, days after Pyongyang expressed a willingness to improve inter-Korean relations and even discuss a summit with Seoul.
The North said improvements can happen only when the South drops its hostile attitude against the regime and the double standards of calling the North's weapons tests "provocations" while conducting its own such tests.
"The two sides shared the assessments on the latest Korean Peninsula situation, including the North's short-range missile launch and recent statements, and discussed ways to respond," the ministry said in a release.
"They agreed on the need for the stable management of the Korean Peninsula situation and watertight coordination between South Korea and the U.S.," it said.
Noh and Kim decided to meet in person in Indonesia on Thursday for further discussions, the ministry said. Kim currently doubles as the U.S. ambassador to Jakarta.
The U.S. State Department condemned Tuesday's missile launch as violating U.N. Security Council resolutions and posing a threat to neighboring countries and the international community.
elly@yna.co.kr
(END)
5. Moon orders comprehensive analysis of N. Korea's missile launch, recent statements on inter-Korean ties
A result of the comprehensive review should be the recognizing, understanding, and exposure of the Kim family regime strategy.
(LEAD) Moon orders comprehensive analysis of N. Korea's missile launch, recent statements on inter-Korean ties | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details; CHANGES headline; ADDS byline)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in ordered his national security team Tuesday to comprehensively analyze North Korea's intentions behind its latest missile launch and statements, issued a few days earlier, on inter-Korean relations.
He issued the call after receiving a briefing on the outcome of an emergency National Security Council (NSC) session from Suh Hoon, director of national security, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee.
Earlier in the day, North Korea test-fired a short-range missile toward the East Sea, the South's military said without specifying whether it was a ballistic one.
The president told Suh, who serves as his national security adviser, to conduct a "comprehensive and close analysis" of the missile firing and its recent statements to map out ways to cope with the security situation, Park said in a brief press release.
Moon was referring to the back-to-back statements of Kim Yo-jong, sister of the North's leader Kim Jon-un, in which she said Pyongyang would consider declaring a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, as proposed by Moon, and holding summit talks with the South, if Seoul restores mutual trust. Kim, who holds a senior position in the North's regime, stopped short of providing details of what Pyongyang wants.
Meanwhile, the NSC expressed "regret" over the missile launch, saying it came at a time when the stabilization of the Korean Peninsula security situation is very important.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)
6. N. Korea urges U.S. to give up hostility by permanently stopping joint military exercise
As I have written, the regime is trying to set the conditions for preventing an end of war declaration and placing the blame on the US for its hostile policy. The best case for the regime would be an end of exercises and the domino effect - no exercises equals no readiness, thus no deterrence, and since the US forces cannot train they will have to be removed, which will change and damage the ROK/US alliance (with the regime's ultimate objective being an end to the alliance and extended deterrence and the nuclear umbrella over the ro and Japan.). But if their objective cannot be attained, the next best is that the failure to conclude an end of war declaration will result in blame on the US rising anti-American sentiment, and friction within the alliance. The regime's political warfare strategy surrounding the end of war declaration will be "win-win" except that both "wins" will be for the regime unless we expose and attack its strategy.
(LEAD) N. Korea urges U.S. to give up hostility by permanently stopping joint military exercise | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with additional info in last 3 paras)
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (Yonhap) -- The United States must permanently stop its joint military exercises with South Korea and the deployment of its strategic weapons to the South if it wishes to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea's U.N. ambassador said Monday.
Kim Song, the chief of North Korea's mission to the United Nations, also said a good relationship may be formed between the North and the U.S. if and when Washington gives up its hostility toward his country.
"If the U.S. wants to see the Korean War, the most prolonged and long-lasting war in the world, come to an end, and if it is really desirous of peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, it should take the first step toward giving up its hostile policy against the DPRK by stopping permanently the joint military exercises and the deployment of all kinds of strategic weapons," Kim said in his address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
"I am convinced that a good prospect will be opened for the U.S.-DPRK relations and inter-Korean relations if the U.S. refrains from threatening the DPRK and gives up its hostility towards it," he added. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
The renewed accusation of U.S. hostility toward the North comes about a week after South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed adopting a declaration to formally end the Korean War, which ended only with an armistice, technically leaving the two Koreas at war to date.
Pyongyang earlier said the U.S. must first give up its hostility toward the North before the countries can consider declaring the war's end.
Washington has denied having any hostile intent against the North.
Kim argued the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises demonstrate the military threat his country faces every day.
"The U.S. hostile policy against the DPRK finds its clearest expression in it's military threats against us," he said. "Not a single foreign troop, not a single foreign military base exists in the territory of the DPRK. But in South Korea, almost 30,000 U.S. troops are stationed at numerous military bases, maintaining a war posture to take military action against the DPRK at any moment."
"The U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK is not at all abstract. It is, in itself, military threats and hostile acts we are facing from the U.S. every day," added the North Korean diplomat.
He argued former U.S. administrations have claimed both verbally and in written documents to have no hostile intent against the North but their claims have only turned out to be "flowery words to cover up the hostile policy."
"The U.S. has now two options. One is to contribute to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the world by withdrawing an anachronistic or hostile policy towards the DPRK in a bold and complete manner," said Kim.
"If the U.S. shows its bold decision to give up its hostile policy, we are also prepared to respond willingly at any time," he added.
The North Korean diplomat also argued the U.S. did not become hostile against the North because of its nuclear weapons but that the North developed nuclear capabilities because of U.S. hostility.
"When it comes to the nuclear issue, it is not the DPRK's position of nukes that the U.S. became hostile towards us. On the contrary, we have traversed an inevitable course of history as the U.S., the biggest nuclear power in the world, has been posing nuclear threats antagonizing the DPRK for more than 70 years."
Inquiries to the U.S. State Department and the National Security Council seeking U.S. reactions to the North Korean diplomat's remarks were not immediately answered.
A State Department spokesperson earlier urged North Korea to come to the dialogue table.
"We are prepared to meet with the DPRK without preconditions, and of course, we certainly hope that the DPRK will respond positively to our outreach," principal deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said in a press briefing.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
7. S. Korea launches new 3,000-ton-class SLBM submarine
Again, a demonstration of the South's military and technological superiority. Good timing.
(LEAD) S. Korea launches new 3,000-ton-class SLBM submarine | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead as ceremony takes place; ADDS more details in paras 2, 10)
By Oh Seok-min
SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Tuesday launched a new 3,000-ton-class homegrown submarine capable of firing ballistic missiles, the third of its kind designed to boost underwater defense capabilities, the Navy said.
A launch ceremony for the new submarine, named after a prominent Korean independence activist, Shin Chae-ho, took place at the shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in the southeastern city of Ulsan, attended by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Boo Suk-jong and several other military and industry officials, according to the military.
It is the third and the final of three Changbogo-III Batch-I submarines South Korea has been building with its own technologies under a 3.09 trillion won (US$2.77 billion) project launched in 2007. All of them are capable of firing submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).
The first Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine was launched in 2018 and was deployed last month, and the second one, the Ahn Mu, was launched in November last year and is expected to be delivered to the Navy around next year, officials said.
The 83.5-meter-long and 9.6-meter-wide latest submarine is capable of carrying 50 crewmembers and can operate underwater for 20 days without surfacing, officials of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said, adding it is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2024 after test operations.
"The submarine has a strong capability of deterring provocations as it can be equipped with SLBMs test-fired earlier this month," the Navy said in a release. "Some 76 percent of its parts are locally produced, which allows for maintenance and other technological support in a timely manner."
Earlier this month, South Korea unveiled its first homegrown SLBM by announcing the successful test-launch from the Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine. Officials say the submarines of the class have six vertical landing tubes capable of firing SLBMs.
North Korea is also pushing to boost its SLBM and submarine capabilities. It unveiled several new types of SLBMs recently, and has been working to build a new submarine believed to be a 3,000-ton one capable of carrying the missiles. But experts say North Korea has yet to be successful in underwater ejection tests of those systems.
In response to the South's SLBM, the North's missile development agency chief said last week the asset is "clumsy" and is in the elementary development stage.
Pyongyang has urged the South to stop securing advanced weapons, calling such moves hostilities against it. Early Tuesday, the North test-launched one short-range missile into the East Sea, just two weeks after firing two ballistic missiles, the South Korean military said.
graceoh@yna.co.kr
(END)
8. U.S. prepared to meet N. Korea without any conditions: State Dept.
The press is trying to push for an answer on will the US lift sanctions? If we do so then Kim wins and we will be destined for more political warfare and blackmail diplomacy for as long as Kim Jong-un remains in power.
U.S. prepared to meet N. Korea without any conditions: State Dept. | Yonhap News Agency
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (Yonhap) -- The United States is prepared to meet with North Korea without any pre-conditions, a State Department spokesperson said Monday.
The U.S. official made the remark when asked if the U.S. will be willing to consider easing sanctions on the impoverished North.
"We are prepared to meet with the DPRK without preconditions, and of course, we certainly hope that the DPRK will respond positively to our outreach," said Jalina Porter, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
During a telephonic press briefing, the deputy spokesperson again emphasized the need for dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea when asked if the U.S. will also be willing to consider declaring a formal end to the Korean War.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier proposed the U.S. and the two Koreas, possibly together with China, declare a formal end to the 1950-53 war as a way of promoting peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
"Again, you've heard us say this from here and I think it's worth underscoring that our goal remains the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," added Porter.
North Korea remains unresponsive to U.S. outreaches despite repeated offers from the Joe Biden administration to meet "anytime, anywhere without preconditions."
Pyongyang has stayed away from denuclearization talks since early 2019.
The U.S. official' remark also comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong, said her country could consider declaring a formal end to the war, as well as holding an inter-Korean summit, if South Korea treated North Korea with impartiality and mutual respect.
Porter said the U.S. supports inter-Korean dialogue.
"What I can see from here is that ... the United States certainly supports inter Korean dialogue, as well as engagement and cooperation," she said.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
9. DPRK says it will ‘respond willingly’ if US abandons ‘hostile policy’
The regime is pretty clear in its demands. We must never forget how it defines the US hostile policy and what it needs to see in terms of action to judge that the hostile policy has ended.
DPRK says it will ‘respond willingly’ if US abandons ‘hostile policy’
“But it is our judgment that there is no prospect, at the present stage, for the US to really withdraw its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” he added.
The Ambassador was speaking on the sixth, and final day of the high-level week of the General Assembly. After being held virtually last year due the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s gathering featured “hybrid” activities that included leaders in person along with virtual participants.
United States involvement
For Mr. Song, it is “the desire of the international community to see peaceful resolution of the issue of the Korean peninsula in the interests of the Korean nation.”
Three decades since the end of the Cold War, he said, the peninsula “is still in a vicious cycle of ever-looming aggravation of tension and confrontation.”
The ambassador argued that the “main root cause lies in the hostile policy towards the DPRK”, mostly from the United States.
“Worse still, they have a misconception that the US has become hostile towards the DPRK due to the nuclear issue,” he said, but the United States has been “antagonizing the DPRK for more than 70 years.”
Sufficient military power
For the Permanent Representative, “the possible outbreak of a new war on the Korean peninsula is contained not because of the US’s mercy on the DPRK.”
“It is because our State is a growing reliable deterrent that can control the hostile forces in their attempts for military invasion,” he said.
“We have stored reliable power to defend ourselves by exerting continuous efforts, with a clear insight into the demand of the times which necessitates us to possess sufficient might for national defense in the face of the geopolitical environment and the balance of power on the Korean peninsula as well as ever-straining international relations.”
He stressed, however, that his country does not wish to use this power against any nation. “In other words, we would never violate nor endanger the security of the US, South Korea and our neighboring countries,” he explained.
United Nations’ reform
Pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic, global warming and conflicts all over the globe, he said “it is no exaggeration to say that the international community is faced with the most serious crisis since the founding of the UN.”
To address these challenges, he proposed changes to the United Nations system, particularly the .
“[It] does not say a single word about the reckless arms buildup and war criminal acts by specific countries, such as the US, and its following forces. It instead finds faults with the just self-defensive measures of the DPRK at every chance,” he said.
To reform the Council, he proposed to Member States that the “representation of developing countries, which make up majority in the UN, should be increased.”
For him, it is also “imperative” that the resolutions adopted at the Security Council could be rejected by a contravening resolution from the General Assembly.
Next, he asked the international community to “revitalize the work of the UN based on the principles of sovereign equality and respect for equal rights and self-determination of the people.”
Mr. Song also pointed to a world marked by “chaos, disorder, bloodshed and violence” that is caused by foreign intervention.
The Ambassador said that, to this day, some countries “try to unilaterally impose the western values and ‘rules based international order’ upon sovereign states behind the signboard of ‘defending democracy’ and ‘protecting human rights’."
For him, “such an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs is a gross violation of the principle of sovereign equality.”
10. Will Kim’s sister’s olive branch to Seoul herald a four-nation summit with US, China at the Beijing Winter Olympics?
The Olympics may be Moon's last best chance for cementing his legacy of peace.
Will Kim’s sister’s olive branch to Seoul herald a four-nation summit with US, China at the Beijing Winter Olympics?
- Analysts say the powerful Kim Yo-jong is floating a trial balloon to see if Pyongyang can resume dialogue with Washington through Seoul
- South Korean leader Moon Jae-in is keen on a summit between the Koreas, the US, and China as part of his reunification goal
They based their assessment on comments made on Saturday by Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, when she made clear her support for a formal end to the Korean war and a fresh inter-Korean summit if Seoul treated Pyongyang with “impartiality” and mutual respect.
She made the statement a day after she praised South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s recent call for a declaration of an end to the 1950-53 conflict – technically ongoing, as fighting ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty – as an “admirable idea”, and said Pyongyang was also willing to discuss mending fences with Seoul.
Moon had earlier suggested the two Koreas – along with the US, which supported the South, and China, which backed the North – get together and declare an end to the conflict, possibly at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will be held from February 4-20 next year.
However, Kim said such a declaration would be conditional upon the South abandoning “hostile policies” and “double-dealing standards” against the North, which analysts saw as ambiguous conditions that could be puzzling to Seoul.
For instance, it remained unclear whether the North was playing for time to build up its nuclear arsenal and wait out economic difficulties worsened by the global pandemic, or if it was preparing the ground to improve relations with the South, said Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies.
Yang said Pyongyang could be “seeking to give a boon to Beijing’s efforts to stage a successful Olympics by giving it a chance for a political stunt there – a summit of leaders of the four countries, including the two Koreas, the US and China”.
North Korea’s test launch of railway-borne missile sparks international alarm
But North Korea has been barred from taking part in the Winter Olympics by the International Olympic Committee, after Pyongyang skipped this year’s Tokyo Games over fears its athletes might contract Covid-19.
Shin Beom-chul of the Research Institute for Economy and Society in Seoul said even if North Korea was unable to participate as a country, North Korean athletes might take part, and there was the possibility of an inter-Korean summit taking place in Beijing during the Games.
China is North Korea’s largest economic partner and one of its few allies. Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian last week said at a regular press conference that China supported declaring a formal end to the Korean war as an “important party to the Korean peninsula issue”.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute, said he believed “China wants the two Koreas to hold a summit on the sidelines of the Beijing Olympics and move toward reconciliation and cooperation”.
On Monday, Moon’s top spokesman Park Soo-hyun welcomed Kim’s statements, but with a note of caution.
“On one track, we have the issue of improving inter-Korean ties, and on the other track, there starkly exists the issue of denuclearisation and US-North Korea relations. But these two tracks are closely linked to each other,” he said on a local radio news programme.
“We are not rushing to realise an inter-Korean summit for the improvement of inter-Korean ties. We are cautiously and thoroughly looking into what would happen to relations between the North and the United States as well.”
Park Soo-hyun’s comments reflect Seoul’s recognition that Washington is likely to have a lukewarm reaction to a four-way meeting on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics, as well as a declaration of an end to the Korean war.
Professor Park Won-gon of Ewha Womans University’s North Korea department said the recent spate of statements from Pyongyang reflected that it was gravitating towards acceptance of Moon’s offer, but Washington would consider the announcement of a formal end to the war “premature”.
“The US believes an end-of-war declaration should be used as a card to push the North to move toward denuclearisation,” he said.
The South Korean president, though, is looking to make progress on reunification before his term ends next year. Last week, he said the Korean war declaration could serve as an opener to negotiations on replacing the armistice with a peace treaty, and that it should proceed alongside diplomatic discussions over the denuclearisation of the North.
Moon added that this would not alter the legal status of the 28,500 US troops stationed in the country, or undermine Seoul’s alliance with Washington.
Kim Yo-jong says a formal declaration of the end of the Korean war is an “admirable idea”. Photo: AP
If Moon’s offer came to fruition and leaders of the four countries sat down together, said Park from Ewha Womans University, it would provide the North with a chance to demand the easing of US-led sanctions imposed on it over its nuclear programmes, as well as the removal of its name from Washington’s list of terror-sponsoring states.
Rubbing shoulders with the leaders of the two superpowers and the South would help Kim Jong-un score political points in the eyes of the world, Park said. “It would also serve as a publicity stunt for local audiences, as Pyongyang would tell its people that the war is over and the North won.”
The North had purposefully made its conditions ambiguous, he pointed out, as this left it with “a lot of room to arbitrarily decide whether the South complies with them” and then “cut ties again at its whim”.
“The first test will be to see whether the North would come to the table with the South for substantive talks,” Park said.
Ultimately, he added, “the North has found this is a game where it has nothing to lose no matter how it ends”.
Choi Kang, vice-president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said the North was engaging in a “charm offensive” as part of its long-standing efforts to drive a wedge between the US and South Korea.
“What the North wants is that future negotiations with the US should be premised on Washington accepting it as a nuclear-armed state,” Choi said.
11. China appears to be cracking down on "unofficial trade" with North Korea
A key lifeline for the Korean people in the north.
China appears to be cracking down on "unofficial trade" with North Korea - Daily NK
"The Chinese government has banned North Korean trading companies from unofficially importing goods through Chinese traders several times," an expert told Daily NK
China’s government recently refused to permit the export of a shipment of rice into North Korea, Daily NK has learned. An expert Daily NK spoke with suggested that China appears to be putting the brakes on “unofficial transactions” with North Korea.
According to a Daily NK source in China on Sept. 17, a North Korean trade organization recently tried to import around 20,000 tons of Chinese rice. However, the import process has been put on hold due to new regulations set by the Chinese government.
The source explained that the North Korean trade organization acquired the rice through a Chinese trader, but Chinese authorities are not proceeding with administrative procedures to permit the export of the shipment.
In short, it appears the Chinese government is taking a careful look at rice exports to North Korea and preventing grain from being exported without its permission.
North Korean trade officials have reportedly anchored a ship at Dalian Port in Liaoning Province, China, and have been ready to load the rice onto the boats.
Chinese traders, for their part, have offered to provide RMB 100,000 (around USD 15,400) to transport rice to the port through local vendors. However, no one has taken up the offer because of Chinese crackdowns on unofficial trade.
The North Korean trade organization uses party funds approved by North Korea’s Central Committee. If any transactions are canceled or delayed, the organization must explain why and face penalties.
View into North Korea from across the Tumen River in China’s Jilin Province. Image: Daily NK
Typically, North Korea pays 30-50% of the price of a shipment from China in advance. The rest of the cost is paid when the goods are received.
Daily NK understands that the North Korean trade organization has already made an advance payment for the rice.
As the payment was made without actually receiving the rice, any delays or cancellations in rice imports is expected to lead to punishments for the trade organization.
“The Chinese government has recently taken measures to ban unofficial transactions with North Korea,” a North Korea expert who requested anonymity told Daily NK. “The Chinese government intends to only permit official transactions based on [agreements made between the two countries].”
The expert further explained that “In addition to rice, the Chinese government has banned North Korean trading companies from unofficially importing goods through Chinese traders several times” and that “China is giving the signal that trade needs to be done through official channels.”
North Korean trade-related officials have reportedly commented on the situation, saying: “China’s power over North Korea has grown a lot after the border closure” and that “China seems to be trying to ‘tame’ North Korea.”
Daily NK was unable to confirm whether these export measures are temporary or not. If China continues to crack down on unofficial trade, however, trade issues between the two countries may continue even if broader trade opens up between the two countries in the future.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
12. N. Korea is taking its time to put new foreign currency vouchers into full circulation
Excerpts:
Daily NK tried to confirm the issuance of the new vouchers through sources located in various places in the country, but found that very few people are aware of them.
Most ordinary Pyongyang residents, who use dollars to purchase clothes and industrial goods like electronics in markets, were unaware the vouchers had been issued.
In fact, Daily NK understands that only a handful of cadre-level individuals know the vouchers have been issued, or have actually seen them.
If the vouchers had begun circulating among the population, the authorities would have had to provide information about how they could be acquired. Moreover, foreign currency shops would have had to ban the use of dollars. None of these measures have been taken by the authorities, however.
According to a Daily NK source in Pyongyang last Thursday, foreign currency shops in Pyongyang such as the Rakwon Department Store and Kumbyol Store are still accepting dollars.
N. Korea is taking its time to put new foreign currency vouchers into full circulation - Daily NK
North Korea has recently issued new foreign currency vouchers, but has yet to make full-fledged efforts to put them into circulation, Daily NK has learned. It appears the country’s leadership is closely managing the release of the vouchers out of concern of both their economic impact and effectiveness.
Foreign currency vouchers, which can be exchanged for foreign currency, were first issued by North Korea’s Central Bank in 1979. North Koreans were able to use them at foreign currency shops in the 1980s and 1990s.
However, inflation set in as North Korean authorities over-issued the vouchers, and foreign exchange shops found themselves unable to exchange the vouchers for cash at banks.
Circulation of the vouchers fell as their value plummeted. Ultimately, they were abolished with economic reforms implemented on Jul. 1, 2002.
As part of desperate measures to fix the country’s shortage of foreign exchange, North Korea is apparently trying to re-issue the vouchers.
An image of the foreign currency voucher issued by North Korea recently. / Image: Daily NK
An internet news website focused on North Korea, “The Freedom And Life,” reported on Sept. 7 that North Korean authorities once again issued foreign currency vouchers.
Daily NK recently acquired a photo of an actual voucher issued by the country’s authorities. Printed on the voucher was the issue date, “Juche 110,” or 2021.
Daily NK tried to confirm the issuance of the new vouchers through sources located in various places in the country, but found that very few people are aware of them.
Most ordinary Pyongyang residents, who use dollars to purchase clothes and industrial goods like electronics in markets, were unaware the vouchers had been issued.
In fact, Daily NK understands that only a handful of cadre-level individuals know the vouchers have been issued, or have actually seen them.
If the vouchers had begun circulating among the population, the authorities would have had to provide information about how they could be acquired. Moreover, foreign currency shops would have had to ban the use of dollars. None of these measures have been taken by the authorities, however.
According to a Daily NK source in Pyongyang last Thursday, foreign currency shops in Pyongyang such as the Rakwon Department Store and Kumbyol Store are still accepting dollars.
Moreover, written directives publicizing the issuance of the vouchers and instructing locals how to acquire them are nowhere to be found in downtown Pyongyang, including in foreign exchange shops.
People in South Pyongan Province and even in provinces near the Chinese border such as North Pyongan Province and Yanggang Province were unaware the vouchers had been issued. Daily NK also found that some shops have been accepting dollars and Chinese yuan.
Foreign currency vouchers issued by North Korea in the past. / Image: Yonhap
“Even if [the authorities] issue and circulate the vouchers, there won’t be many people using them,” said the source. “All North Koreans believe they should hold on to dollars or yuan, even if the nation falls to ruin.”
That is to say, North Koreans believe foreign currency is more durable than North Korea’s own currency.
In fact, when North Korean authorities over-issued the vouchers in the 1990s, their value plummeted and many businesses and people who had the vouchers were financially ruined or suffered monetary losses.
North Koreans have learned from experience to distrust the vouchers, while their faith in foreign cash has grown.
This being the case, if the authorities were to force people to use the vouchers instead of foreign currency, circulation of foreign currency in markets could fall as locals try to avoid using the vouchers. The North Korean state would then have to induce people to “voluntarily” use the vouchers.
North Korean officials may feel that they need to limit the circulation of the vouchers to prevent a repeat of the “negative side effects” witnessed during the 1990s.
“When they drag out failed policies from the past, it means things are pretty desperate,” another source in North Korea told Daily NK. “Given that they’ve issued the vouchers but are not putting them into [full] circulation, the party seems to be worrying a lot about this, too.”
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
13. North keeps up pressure with missile launch
Blackmail diplomacy.
North keeps up pressure with missile launch
Officials of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, its rubber-stamp legislature which convened Tuesday, visit Mansudae Hill in Pyongyang Monday in an image released by the official Korean Central News Agency. Pyongyang launched a short-range missile Tuesday morning. [YONHAP]
North Korea fired a short-range missile into the East Sea Tuesday morning, said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), a move immediately condemned by Washington.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said a projectile believed to be a short-range missile was fired eastward from Mupyong-ri in northern Chagang Province, near the border with China, at around 6:40 a.m.
"The military is maintaining a readiness posture while closely monitoring related trends," said the JCS, adding that South Korean and the U.S. intelligence authorities are conducting further analysis "taking into consideration characteristics of the currently detected data."
This launch came days after Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's influential sister, said in a statement Saturday that Pyongyang could take steps to improve relations with Seoul, including an inter-Korean summit and the reestablishment of the joint liaison office, if the South abandons its "hostility" and "double standards." She also called on Seoul to use "prudence" on the use of the terminology "provocation" if it wants to improve inter-Korean relations, warning it may "trigger a war of words."
The previous day, Friday, she called a formal declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War, as proposed by President Moon Jae-in in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly last week, an "admirable idea."
The launch came 13 days after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from a train-borne launcher into the East Sea on Sept. 15.
This marks North Korea's sixth major weapons test this year. North Korea launched cruise missiles on Jan. 22 and March 21 and short-range ballistic missiles on March. 25. It also tested long-range cruise missiles Sept. 11 and 12. Under UN Security Council resolutions, the North is prohibited from testing ballistic missiles but not cruise missiles.
South Korea convened an emergency meeting of its National Security Council (NSC) later Tuesday morning to review the North's "intentions" and discuss a response, said the Blue House.
The NSC "expressed regret over the launch which came at a time when stabilization of the Korean Peninsula situation is very important," it added.
The NSC "decided to closely consult with the United States and other relevant countries while closely monitoring North Korea's future trends."
The 75-minute NSC meeting was convened by Suh Hoon, director of the Blue House National Security Office, and attended by Defense Minister Suh Wook, Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, Unification Minister Lee In-young and other senior security and Blue House officials. The members received a report from JSC Chairman Gen. Won In-choul and discussed countermeasures.
Suh later briefed President Moon.
Moon ordered "to prepare countermeasures through a thorough and comprehensive analysis of North Korea's recent statements and missile launch situation," said Park Kyung-mee, the Blue House spokesperson.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson took a step further and said in a statement Tuesday, "The United States condemns the DPRK's missile launch," adding that it is "in violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and poses a threat to the DPRK's neighbors and the international community."
DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People' Republic of Korea.
However, the spokesperson added, "We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK and call on them to engage in dialogue." Neither South Korean nor U.S. officials in their immediate responses used the term "provocation."
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement, "While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies, the missile launch highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK's illicit weapons program."
The largest and oldest American combatant command added, "The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad."
Japanese government officials said that the projectile "appeared to be a ballistic missile" and was believed to have landed in waters outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone, reported Japan's Kyodo News.
South Korean and U.S. military authorities did not clarify if Tuesday's launch was a ballistic missile. Military authorities are conducting detailed analyses of the flight range, speed, and altitude as it reportedly showed a different flight trajectory than previous North Korean missile tests.
The projectile flew less than 200 kilometers at an altitude of about 30 kilometers, said Seoul sources.
Some defense experts said that it could be a new type of weapon, such as a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), taking into consideration that its flight trajectory seems to differ from that of known North Korean short-range ballistic missiles. HGVs boast increased maneuverability and fly at least five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5, making them harder to track and intercept.
In a report to the eighth congress of the ruling Workers' Party at the beginning of the year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said that Pyongyang is developing new weapons systems including "hypersonic gliding-flight warheads for new-type ballistic rockets."
China revealed a new vehicle-mounted Dongfeng-17, or DF-17, medium-range missile system equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle in a military parade in October 2019.
Analysts say that Pyongyang may be trying to leverage itself through the back-to-back statements and latest missiles launches ahead of a possible return to talks with Seoul and Washington.
Kim Song, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, speaks during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York Monday. [UNITED NATIONS]
Just 20 minutes after news broke on the missile launch, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations told the UN General Assembly in New York that the United States must permanently suspend its joint military exercises with South Korea and its deployment of strategic weapons to the peninsula.
"If the U.S. wants to see the Korean War, the most prolonged and long-lasting war in the world, come to an end and if it is really desirous of peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula," said Kim Song, North Korea's permanent representative to the United Nations, "it should take the first step towards giving up its hostile policy against the DPRK by stopping permanently the joint military exercises and the deployment of all kinds of strategic weapons [...] in and around the Korean Peninsula."
He continued in his address to the 76th session of the General Assembly Monday evening, "I am convinced that a good prospect would be opened for the U.S.-DPRK relations and inter-Korean relations if the U.S. refrains from threatening the DPRK and gives up its hostility towards it."
Kim also warned that "if the U.S. continues to commit acts to threaten us" and depends on the legacy of the Cold War while trying to solve the Korean Peninsula situation, "it would really turn out to be unfavorable for them."
Referring the United States' recent withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Kim noted that the Korean War has not ended for 70 years.
"The DPRK-U.S. relations are not merely the relations between unfriendly countries without diplomatic relations, but between belligerent countries which are legally in a state of war," Kim said.
Kim argued that North Korea has a right to "self-defense" as a "war deterrent" and to maintain a "balance of power on the Korean Peninsula."
He stressed, "We would never violate or endanger the security of the U.S., South Korea and our neighboring countries."
Referring to leader Kim's report to the eighth congress in January, the ambassador said that the "key to establishing a new DPRK-U.S. relationship lies in the withdrawal of its hostile policy," and an approach to Washington "on the principle of power for power and goodwill for goodwill."
He said, "The U.S. has now two options: One is to contribute to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the world by withdrawing an anachronistic, hostile policy towards the DPRK in a bold and complete manner."
Ambassador Kim called on the Joe Biden administration to "translate its state policy standard of no hostility towards the DPRK into practical actions" and "remove the double standards."
The Biden administration said it plans to take a "calibrated, practical" approach toward North Korea policy. While it has offered talks anytime and "without preconditions," it also indicated it does not plan to ease sanctions on Pyongyang.
Kim continued, "If the U.S. shows its bold decision to give up its hostile policy, we are also prepared to respond willingly at any time. But it is our judgment that there is no prospect at the present stage for the U.S. to really withdraw its hostile policy towards the DPRK."
North Korea convened its Supreme People's Assembly, its rubber-stamp legislature, Tuesday, which decides domestic affairs but could also reaffirm its strategy toward the United States.
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
14. North’s missile is sixth major weapons test this year
And we should expect more. The red line established by Trump and Moon is ICBM and nuclear tests. Anything below that is "acceptable" or so Kim must think.
North’s missile is sixth major weapons test this year
South Koreans watch news on North Korea’s latest short-range missile launch at Seoul Station, central Seoul, Tuesday morning. [NEWS1]
North Korea fired a short-range missile into the East Sea Tuesday morning, said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The JCS said that a projectile believed to be a short-range missile was fired eastward from Mupyong-ri in northern Jagang Province toward the east at around 6:40 a.m.
“The military is maintaining a readiness posture while closely monitoring related trends,” it added, with South Korean and the U.S. intelligence authorities, who are conducting further analysis.
This launch came days after Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s influential sister, said in a statement Saturday that Pyongyang could take steps to improve relations with Seoul, including an inter-Korean summit, if South Korea abandons its "hostility" and "double standards.”
The previous day, Friday, she called a formal declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War, as proposed by President Moon Jae-in in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly last week, an "admirable idea."
The launch came 13 days after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Sept. 15. It also tested long-range cruise missiles earlier this month. Under United Nations Security Council resolutions, North Korea is not explicitly banned from developing cruise missiles.
This marks North Korea’s sixth major weapons test this year.
South Korea convened an emergency meeting of its National Security Council (NSC) later Tuesday morning on how to respond, said the Blue House.
The NSC reviewed the North’s “situation and intentions” and “expressed regret at the launch at a time when stabilization of the Korean Peninsula situation is very important.”
The NSC “decided to closely consult with the United States and other relevant countries while closely monitoring North Korea's future trends,” according to the Blue House.
The 75-minute NSC meeting was convened by Suh Hoon, director of the Blue House National Security Office, and attended by Defense Minister Suh Wook, Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, Unification Minister Lee In-young, and other senior security and Blue House officials. The members received a report from JSC Chairman Gen. Won In-choul and discussed countermeasures. Suh later briefed President Moon.
Moon ordered “a comprehensive analysis of North Korea’s recent statements and missile launch situation” and a corresponding response.
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
15. How Should South Korea’s Next President Approach Cybersecurity?
While we focus on the treasured sword the regime is perfecting the employment of the all purpose sword.
Conclusion:
North Korean cyberattacks are not a future threat, but already a fact of life. The disparate cyberwarfare capabilities of the ROK armed forces and USFK need to be bridged, and urgently. Cyberwarfare interoperability between South Korea and the United States requires high quality data, good documentation and traceability, clear transparency, reliable human oversight, and robust accuracy. Cyberwarfare depends on technical skills by operators in the theater, but also on informed leadership at the command post level. Unfortunately, South Korea is deficient in the latter.
Some progress is underway. In accordance with Biden-Moon summit agenda, the ROK and U.S. militaries recently conducted their first working-level seminar on deterring and countering ransomware and similar cyberattacks, from North Korea and others.
How Should South Korea’s Next President Approach Cybersecurity?
North Korean cyberattacks are not a future threat, but already a fact of life.
Advertisement
The candidates for the upcoming presidential election in South Korea have not presented any clear vision of military and security issues facing the country. In my view, the new president, and the Combined Force Command (CFC) between the Republic of Korea and the United States, will face two major issues: OPCON transfer to the South Korean military, and how ROK forces can best cooperate with USFK to deter North Korean cyberattacks.
This two-part series examines each of those issues, and the questions they pose for the next South Korean president. Part one looked at OPCON transfer. In part two, I turn to the issue of how to deter North Korean cyberattacks. Whole-of-government solutions are required, for which three questions arise.
What are the main cyberthreats and cyberattacks against which South Korea and the alliance need to defend?
Insofar as North Korea is economically capable of deploying advanced technologies, the most obvious threat is from cyberwarfare, for which the main targets are not military, but civil facilities and organizations. South Korean domestic media have reported an increase in the number of cyberattacks on defense-related South Korean institutes, companies, and governmental organizations, from 3,986 in 2017 to 12,696 in 2020. Power stations, energy facilities, traffic control centers, and major governmental offices are all targeted.
How can South Korea and the alliance best deter North Korean cyberattacks?
Looking at the CFC, military cybersecurity appears to be strong enough to repel North Korean cyberattacks. But it is a different story for civilian organizations, where financial considerations, or just a dearth of cyber awareness, mean that cybersecurity is often not taken seriously enough. All civilian organizations in South Korea should make use of standardized best-practice methodology, as informed by those with long experience in cybersecurity. This needs to be strictly regulated, because North Korean cyberattacks and state-sponsored disinformation directly threaten democratic governance.
The South Korean military and U.S. Forces Korean (USFK) are also targeted, but USFK is now starting to apply basic standards of cybersecurity to its command and control (C2) system. These defenses need to be tightened and extended to the ROK armed forces. The South Korean government should set policy priorities modeled on USFK’s regulatory guidance for cybersecurity. A cooperative approach between South Korea and the United States is important if damaging leaks are to be prevented. To that end, the newly established ROK-U.S. Information, Communications and Technology cooperation committee recently held its first meeting to identify cyberweaknesses.
The worst-case scenario would be a successful cyberattack upon military facilities and/or the CFC, and it is important that friendly cyberattack capabilities are developed to forestall this possibility. This kind of proactive approach is often used by the most vulnerable civilian organizations, such as financial institutions.
It is my observation that South Korean military leaders have little understanding of cyberwarfare, whether defensive or offensive, so establishing a combined capability between the ROK and USFK will take time and considerable determination. At present the South Korean military is simply paying lip service to the idea of cyberthreats as an integral component of the combined force defense posture. In formulating combined cyberoperations between the South Korea military and USFK, however, it is essential that Seoul does not simply rely upon USFK. South Korea needs to be fully capable of mounting its own cyberdefenses.
Cybersecurity cooperation between South Korea and the United States should include inviting civilians and government officers to join cooperative exercises to counter North Korean cyberwarfare during annual combined exercises and recruiting professional cyberwarfare leadership for the South Korea military. In addition, the South Korea military should adopt the U.S.-based C2 system, abandoning the incompatible indigenous C2 systems being developed.
What are the security implications of North Korea’s cyberattacks?
Cyberwarfare is a peacetime, not a wartime, operation. Degradation of C2 facilities during wartime would very likely render cyberwarfare less effective. Cyberwarfare is not just a technical issue, but also often depends upon the exploitation of human errors and weaknesses. The human factor is therefore crucial to cybersecurity, and spies and collaborators in South Korea may seek to prevent or limit the effectiveness of combined cybersecurity between the ROK and USFK. Detailed information about ROK military bases and USFK facilities could be leaked by such infiltrators, furnishing major cyberattack targets for North Korea.
However, North Korean cyberattacks would likely escalate in advance of a more conventional attack, whether a provocation or an all-out war. The ROK armed forces and USFK therefore need to establish a shared awareness of the cyberdomain, to identify indications that North Korea is planning military action. For this purpose, it would be useful to compile a database to analyze patterns of North Korean cyberattacks against military, governmental, and other civilian organizations, and also to correlate these data with other salient indicators.
Similarly, information collected and collated by U.S. Cyber Command is also crucial for South Korean cyberdefense efforts, especially for the alternative perspective it offers with respect to politically motivated interventions, for example during election campaigns.
South Korea and the United States should work better and more closely together to enhance cybersecurity through cooperation on innovation and critical technologies. Both countries need to counter cyberattacks, to build infrastructure to combat disinformation intended to undermine popular support for the South Korea-U.S. alliance, and to extend more effective cybersecurity across all fields of civil society, including governmental, industrial, and academic institutions.
Conclusion
North Korean cyberattacks are not a future threat, but already a fact of life. The disparate cyberwarfare capabilities of the ROK armed forces and USFK need to be bridged, and urgently. Cyberwarfare interoperability between South Korea and the United States requires high quality data, good documentation and traceability, clear transparency, reliable human oversight, and robust accuracy. Cyberwarfare depends on technical skills by operators in the theater, but also on informed leadership at the command post level. Unfortunately, South Korea is deficient in the latter.
Some progress is underway. In accordance with Biden-Moon summit agenda, the ROK and U.S. militaries recently conducted their first working-level seminar on deterring and countering ransomware and similar cyberattacks, from North Korea and others.
16. Moon’s end-of-war plan receives harsh reception
Excerpts:
Chung also defended President Moon’s plan to end the Korean War. “It is not common to keep a state of war status for 68 years and has never occurred in history,” he said. “A declaration to end the war is just a first step toward the peace treaty. It does not have any legally binding power and it is just a declaration to show our willingness to move toward peace. Is [America] unable to do even this?” He added that it is “unfair” to South Koreans that the international community has not accepted this manner of a proposal so far.
One of the biggest problems with the latest comments made by President Moon and Foreign Minister Chung is that they did not acknowledge the fact that North Korea has continuously been developing its nuclear and missile technologies and conducting missile tests that threatens other countries in the region. They apparently believe that peace can come when they declare that peace has come or are possibly trying to deceive people to achieve their grand goal of ending the alliance with the United States through a step-by-step approach starting with an end-of-war declaration.
Many South Korean observers believe it is not a coincidence that North Korea laid out further conditions for an end-of-war declaration shortly after Moon’s visit to New York City. One thing is clear – the events in New York this week showed that the Moon administration is placing its own hopes ahead of South Korea’s national security.
Moon’s end-of-war plan receives harsh reception - OKN
photo: Newsis
President Moon Jae-in’s demand for a formal end to the Korean War was met with huge backlash from voices in both South and North Korea, including from senior officials in Pyongyang who called it “premature.” His comments and those of his top officials at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly look tailor-made to irritate Washington amid increasing tension in Northeast Asia.
As expected, Moon blamed the media and lawmakers from the opposition party for the “lack of understanding about the declaration to end the war,” while he held a press meeting with reporters in the Air Force One plane on Thursday. When asked whether he contacted and shared ideas with the United States, China, and North Korea before proposing the idea at the United Nations, Moon said he felt that the domestic news media and opposition lawmakers do not understand this idea, despite having pushed it for years now.
“In the 2007 North-South Summit Declaration, we announced that we agreed on working toward the declaration to end the war through three parties, which include the two Koreas and the United States, and or four parties, the two Koreas, the United States, and China,” he said. “Since then, the United States and China have agreed upon this idea and what Seoul and Washington have been discussing since then was how to connect this with denuclearization negotiations as the situation develops. I proposed it once again at this point, since this is the time that we need to talk again.”
Moon was factually wrong on much of the historical background he described. The 2007 joint declaration occurred on October 4 when former President Roh Moo-hyun met with then-North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il just two months before the South Korean presidential election. It was controversial for an outgoing president to sign such an agreement, and there were many problems with the declaration. It created a maritime peace zone around the Northern Limit Line, and conservatives argued that Roh surrendered South Korea’s territory in the West Sea. This criticism, in fact, was proven right after a series of North Korean military provocations in the region, including the sinking of the warship Cheonan and bombing of Yeonpyeong Island a few years after the declaration. This is another example that shows declaring peace does not automatically bring peace.
Moon also argued that the United States and China have supported the idea of declaring the end of war since 2007. However, this is also incorrect. There was an awkward moment between President George W. Bush and President Roh at the APEC summit held in 2007. The following is an excerpt of that moment, which many South Koreans believe is one of the worst moments in the U.S.-Korea alliance’s history.
< ROH: (Through translator) I think I might be wrong. I think I did not hear President Bush mention the – a declaration to end the Korean War just now. Did you…President Bush?
BUSH: I said that it’s up to Kim Jong-il as to whether or not we’re able to sign a peace treaty to end the Korean War. We’ve got to get rid of his weapons in a verifiable fashion.
ROH: (Through translator) If you could be a little bit clearer in your message, I think that would be very much appreciated.
BUSH: I can’t make it any more clearer, Mr. President. We look forward to the day when we can end the Korean War. But that won’t end – that will happen when Kim Jong-il verifiably gets rid of his weapons programs and his weapons. >
Moon served as Chief of Staff to President Roh. The ongoing situation show how desperate leftists are in making peace with North Korea without any sensible preconditions, such as the ones the United States proposes.
As if this plot was arranged well ahead of the UNGA session, the South Korean government and the North Korean regime released statements one after the other that appear to show their true intent behind the end-of-war declaration.
Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, stated earlier on Friday that Moon’s proposal to declare a formal end to the war is an “admirable idea” and Pyongyang is willing to discuss improving inter-Korean relations if Seoul ceases hostility toward it.
“The declaration of the termination of the war is an interesting and an admirable idea in that it itself is meant to put a physical end to the instable state of ceasefire that has remained on the Korean peninsula for a long time and to withdraw hostility toward the opposite party,” she said. “For the termination of the war to be declared, respect for each other should be maintained and prejudiced viewpoint, inveterate hostile policy and unequal double standards must be removed first. Only when such a precondition is met, would it be possible to sit face to face and declare the significant termination of war and discuss the issue of the north-south relations and the future of the Korean peninsula.”
North Korean watchers have long suggested that the word “hostility” that North Korea uses means that they want the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the peninsula and an eventual end to the U.S.-ROK alliance. North Korea has publicly said that the security of its regime has to be guaranteed, sanctions have to be eased and joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States have to stop. However, the United States has been clear that genuine measures toward denuclearization should come before any of this.
Kim Yo-jong’s statement came just hours after a vice foreign minister of the North dismissed Moon’s end-of-war declaration proposal as “something premature,” saying such a declaration would end up as nothing more than a scrap of paper as long as the American hostile policy remains unchanged.
Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential Blue House secretary for public communication, said in a radio interview that Seoul interprets the response from the North as “very significant and weighty.” However, it also stated that authorities were still analyzing the statements from Pyongyang and it was too early to make an official response.
On the possibility of signing an end-of-war declaration by the end of Moon’s term, Park saw the chances as “sufficiently possible” if the conditions are met and opportunities capitalized on. “[Talks on a declaration] could speed up if the U.S. responds to the North’s demand to remove the policy of hostility and dialogues are initiated through the North’s acceptance,” Park said.
Meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, who faced controversy for his latest comments arguing that “it is quite natural for China to pursue ‘assertive’ moves,” said he feels upset that South Koreans believe he is acting like a spokesman for China.
“I do not think the media reports that describe the South Korean Foreign Minister acting like the spokesperson from China are fair,” he told reporters on Thursday. “What I was saying was that developing a block of countries against a certain country is the mentality of the Cold War.” Chung dismissed the idea of developing a “non-Chinese block” led by the United States alongside its key allies in Asia and the Pacific, including South Korea, Japan, and Australia, at a conference held the previous day.
“Am I not able to say such a thing just because I am here in the United States?” he asked. “International relations are becoming democratized these days.”
He continued to argue that there was nothing wrong with his comment that “it is quite natural for China to pursue ‘assertive’ moves.” “Every country can practice assertive diplomacy that strongly suggests their point of view,” he said. “Many countries are concerned that China is becoming more coercive, but I do not think they are doing that to us yet.”
It appears that Chung does not think China’s economic retaliation against South Korea for deploying the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system and its continued distortion of history in the region are worth mentioning.
Chung also defended President Moon’s plan to end the Korean War. “It is not common to keep a state of war status for 68 years and has never occurred in history,” he said. “A declaration to end the war is just a first step toward the peace treaty. It does not have any legally binding power and it is just a declaration to show our willingness to move toward peace. Is [America] unable to do even this?” He added that it is “unfair” to South Koreans that the international community has not accepted this manner of a proposal so far.
One of the biggest problems with the latest comments made by President Moon and Foreign Minister Chung is that they did not acknowledge the fact that North Korea has continuously been developing its nuclear and missile technologies and conducting missile tests that threatens other countries in the region. They apparently believe that peace can come when they declare that peace has come or are possibly trying to deceive people to achieve their grand goal of ending the alliance with the United States through a step-by-step approach starting with an end-of-war declaration.
Many South Korean observers believe it is not a coincidence that North Korea laid out further conditions for an end-of-war declaration shortly after Moon’s visit to New York City. One thing is clear – the events in New York this week showed that the Moon administration is placing its own hopes ahead of South Korea’s national security.
17. Quarantine Patrols Search House to House for Coronavirus Symptoms in North Korea
Is the north reaching a potential moment of truth when the effects of COVID finally become known and the regime can no longer contain the outbreaks?
Quarantine Patrols Search House to House for Coronavirus Symptoms in North Korea
Authorities fear holiday travel for Chuseok harvest gatherings may have spread the virus.
Authorities in North Korea are going house to house looking for suspected coronavirus cases after widespread travel last week for Chuseok, the fall harvest holiday, sources in the country told RFA.
During Chuseok – the Korean version of a holiday also celebrated at the autumn equinox in China and Vietnam and often likened to Thanksgiving in the U.S. -- Koreans travel to their hometowns to honor their ancestors with their extended families.
Authorities fear that extensive travel during the holiday may have spread the coronavirus.
“After Chuseok, neighborhood watch units were organized with members of the neighborhood watch unit in Songchon county to check for residents with fevers by the order of the county’s quarantine authority,” a resident of South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang told RFA’s Korean Service Sept. 23.
“As residents moved around the county to visit their ancestors’ graves during Chuseok, the authorities are concerned that the coronavirus could have been spread,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.
Prior to Chuseok, the county’s quarantine authorities would walk the streets to crack down on citizens for violations like not wearing masks, but now that the neighborhood watch units are involved, the scope of their mission has changed.
“Early in the morning, the patrols knock on the door of each house, saying they are looking for coronavirus patients, and the residents are getting angry about it.”
Another source, a resident of South Pyongan’s Eunsan county, confirmed to RFA the same day that neighborhood watch units there were searching for suspected coronavirus patients there as well.
“The central government is introducing these quarantine measures, saying that success or failure of the after-Chuseok quarantine depends on local officials taking proactive measures. If suspected cases of COVID-19 occur in their region, local officials will be held responsible,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
“But quarantine officials in the provincial cities are also complaining about orders from the central government for pestering local officials. They say, ‘Is it even possible to completely prevent coronavirus when we don’t’ even have sufficient masks?’”
Inconsistent policy
Though North Korea still maintains outwardly that it has not confirmed a single case of coronavirus, for most of the pandemic it has been operating under state-mandated “emergency quarantine measures,” and the border with China, a vital economic lifeline, has been closed since January, 2020.
So-called “suspected cases” of COVID-19 are isolated, and in cases of death, the bodies are hastily cremated before coronavirus can be listed as the cause of death.
Citizens are becoming resentful of the authorities for continuing to emphasize emergency quarantine measures while also holding large-scale public events like military parades and other mass gatherings.
“It is complete nonsense to emphasize the quarantine project while holding a crowded event where people aren’t even wearing masks. It’s making residents strongly criticize the emergency quarantine guidelines,” a resident of Chongjin in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA.
“Recently the authorities have been giving out quarantine guidelines to companies and neighborhood watch units every day to continue to aggressively push the emergency quarantine project until the global health crisis ends,” the Chongjin source said.
The guidelines are sent nationwide and call upon local governments to implement a quarantine plan laid out by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to the Chongjin source.
Another North Hamgyong resident, from the city of Hoeryong, told RFA the same day, “If you look at how they held a huge military parade for the anniversary of North Korea’s founding on Sept. 9, and how a large number of Pyongyang citizens participated, you can see that their emergency quarantine policy is not realistic.”
“They keep saying that their quarantine measures are infallible, and the moment we loosen control, the country and the people will face severe consequences. But that’s confusing,” said the Hoeryong source.
The residents complain about the seeming contradiction.
“They sarcastically ask if the country is holding parades and mass games in the interest of protecting life and keeping the people safe.”
Reported by Hyemin Son and Jeong Yon Park for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Jinha Shin. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
18.
V/R
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Phone: 202-573-8647
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
