Quotes of the Day:
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."
- John Quincy Adams
“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote...that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”
- Samuel Adams
“Those who are willing to die will live, those who to try to spare their own lives will die.”
- Yi Sun-sin
1. A Free and Open Indo-Pacific - United States Department of State
2. Kim Jong-un regime ‘strategically’ continuing public executions in isolated areas: NGO
3. More than 80% of expected university graduates to be dispatched as members of “Three Revolution teams”
4. Kim Yong Ju, Brother of North Korea’s Founder, Dies Aged 101
5. Korean War end-of-war declaration agreed in principle: Moon
6. Under Scrutiny, North Korea Tries to Restrict News About Executions - Group
7. North Korea Executes People for Watching K-Pop, Rights Group Says
8. N.Korea Puffs up Kim Jong-un Ahead of Anniversary
9. Forum discusses U.S-China rivalry, North in an election year
10. S. Korea aims to submit application to join CPTPP during Moon presidency: finance minister
11. British 3-star general named deputy chief of U.N. Command
12. Has North Korea changed?
13. [Editorial] US signal on NK
14. Korea, Australia Warn Beijing off South China Sea
15. Seoul named world's best MICE city for 7th consecutive year
16. A Peace Declaration to End the Korean War: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
17. ‘End of war announcement without denuke will bring catastrophic results,’ Young Kim says
18. N. Korea to convene parliamentary meeting in February
1. A Free and Open Indo-Pacific - United States Department of State
Key excerpts (showing my Korea bias):
We’ve welcomed leaders from the region in our country, including the first two foreign leaders President Biden hosted after taking office from Japan and South Korea, and all the foreign ministers whom I’ve had the privilege of hosting at the State Department, including Foreign Minister Retno. And we’ve come to your region – Vice President Harris, Secretary of Defense Austin, Secretary of Commerce Raimondo, and so many other Cabinet members, not to mention many senior State Department officials from my team.
...
Another way we will promote freedom and openness is by defending an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable internet against those who are actively working to make the internet more closed, more fractured, and less secure. We’ll work with our partners to defend these principles, and help build the secure, trusted systems that lay the foundation for it. At the Moon-Biden Leaders’ Summit earlier this year, the Republic of Korea and the United States announced more than $3.5 billion in investments in emerging technologies, including research and development on secure 5G and 6G networks.
...
Second, we will forge stronger connections within and beyond the region. We’ll deepen our treaty alliances with Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Those bonds have long provided the foundation for peace, security, and prosperity in the region. We’ll foster greater cooperation among these allies, as well. That’s one of the things we’ve done by deepening U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral cooperation, and launching an historic new security cooperation agreement with Australia and the United Kingdom. We’ll find ways to knit our allies together with our partners, as we’ve done by reinvigorating the Quad. And we’ll strengthen our partnership with a strong and independent ASEAN.
...
And U.S. Trade Representative Tai launched the interagency Supply Chain Trade Task Force, and raised the issue in her travel to Japan, the Republic of Korea, and India.
...
At the same time, we’re working together with our partners to end the pandemic. The Quad vaccine partnership is playing a key part in that. We’re working together to finance, to manufacture, to distribute, and to put as many shots in arms as quickly as possible. Individual countries are stepping up. India recently committed to produce an additional 5 billion doses by the end of 2022. The Republic of Korea and Thailand are ramping up their production as well.
...
And it’s about reinforcing our strengths so that we can keep the peace, as we’ve done in the region for decades. We don’t want conflict in the Indo-Pacific. That’s why we seek serious and sustained diplomacy with the DPRK, with the ultimate goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. We’ll work with allies and partners to address the threat posed by the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs through a calibrated, practical approach, while also strengthening our extended deterrence.
UNIVERSITAS INDONESIA
JAKARTA, INDONESIA
DECEMBER 14, 2021
A Free and Open Indo-Pacific - United States Department of State
state.gov · by Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
MS KUSUMAYATI: Excellency, ambassadors, ASEAN Secretary General, Honorable Rector of Universitas Indonesia, and the chairperson of the U.S.-Indonesia Board of Trustees, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
First of all, let’s praise our God Almighty for the blessings that we receive, so today we can gather here in healthy and wealthy condition. I am honored to extend our warmest welcome to the campus of Universitas Indonesia here in Depok City.
Universitas Indonesia are humbled and delighted to be the host of the honorary speech will be delivered by the Honorable U.S. Secretary of the State, Mr. Antony Blinken. Universitas Indonesia, as the name suggests, take the pride to carrying the name of the nation. We equally recognize this as the privilege as well as also our responsibility.
Our visions underscores the importance of science, technology, and culture, and how we take them forward to benefit the people in Indonesia as we are asked in the world.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, as we all experience, far-reaching and complex problems are unfolding around us. The COVID-19 pandemic, natural disaster, global warming, climate change, are some among others. There are no instant solutions of those matters, but we believe in investing our time to meet our minds together our ideas and acquire inspirations, and then transform it to collaborations, policies, and actions.
Today marks a unique moment for us. We are privileged to have His Excellency the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken present among us to share his view. Many key figures from different backgrounds and expertise are here already with us, and we really believe that the diversity of knowledge will align into one goal: to safeguarding our future generations while at the same time to solve the challenges that we have faced at the present days.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Honorable U.S. Secretary of State, Mr. Antony Blinken. (Applause.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good morning, everyone. It is wonderful to be with all of you. And Dr. Kusumayati, thank you so much for the generous introduction. But more than that, thank you for decades of service working to improve public health, to educate the next generation of doctors and nurses – including as the first woman to serve as the University’s Dean of the School of Public Health. From your research on reproductive health to your leadership on Indonesia’s COVID task force, your dedication to your community is truly inspirational, and I thank you. (Applause.)
And good morning to everyone here. Selamat pagi. It is wonderful to be back in Jakarta. I was here on a couple of occasions when I was last in government as deputy secretary of state, and I was looking forward to this opportunity to return to Southeast Asia’s largest democracy.
And for the students who are in this room, I expect it feels good to be back on campus. I understand many of you have been studying remotely for some time and are looking forward to actually getting back in the classroom, and I’m glad we’ve had a little bit of an excuse to bring you back together today. I know, Doctor, you and the task force want the students back, and I know how much everyone is looking forward to that.
I’m here, we’re here, because what happens in the Indo-Pacific will, more than any other region, shape the trajectory of the world in the 21st century.
The Indo-Pacific is the fastest growing region on the planet. It accounts for 60 percent of the world economy, two-thirds of all economic growth over the last five years. It’s home to more than half the world’s people, seven of the 15 biggest economies.
And it’s magnificently diverse, more than 3,000 languages, numerous faiths stretching across two oceans and three continents.
Even a single country like Indonesia is home to a rich patchwork that is hard to distill, except for its variety. And this nation’s motto holds – Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, unity in diversity – which sounds pretty familiar to an American. In the United States we say E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one. It’s the same idea.
The United States has long been, is, and always will be an Indo-Pacific nation. This is a geographic fact, from our Pacific coast states to Guam, our territories across the Pacific. And it’s a historical reality, demonstrated by our two centuries of trade and other ties with the region.
Today, half of the United States’ top trading partners are in the Indo-Pacific. It’s the destination for nearly one-third of our exports, the source of $900 billion in foreign direct investment in the United States, and that’s creating millions of jobs spread across all 50 of our states. And more members of our military are stationed in the region than anywhere outside the continental U.S., ensuring peace and security that have been vital to prosperity in the region, benefiting us all.
And of course, we’re tied together by our people, whose connections go back generations. There are more than 24 million Asian Americans living in the United States, including Ambassador Sung Kim, when he’s not serving his country in one part of the world or another, as he has been for the last three decades.
Before the pandemic, there were more than 775,000 students from the Indo-Pacific studying at U.S. colleges and universities. And your American classmates here at Universitas Indonesia are among the millions of Americans who have come to the region to study, to work, to live, including one who went onto become our president.
There’s an Indonesian proverb – one that I’m told kids are taught from a young age: “We have two ears, but only one mouth.” That means that before we speak or act, we have to listen. And we’ve done a lot of listening to people in the Indo-Pacific in the first year of this administration to understand your vision for the region and its future.
We’ve welcomed leaders from the region in our country, including the first two foreign leaders President Biden hosted after taking office from Japan and South Korea, and all the foreign ministers whom I’ve had the privilege of hosting at the State Department, including Foreign Minister Retno. And we’ve come to your region – Vice President Harris, Secretary of Defense Austin, Secretary of Commerce Raimondo, and so many other Cabinet members, not to mention many senior State Department officials from my team.
The President has participated in multi leader-level summits held by key regional bodies: APEC; the U.S.-ASEAN and East Asia Summits; and the Quad, made up of India, Japan, and Australia. I’ve done the same with fellow foreign ministers, including hosting the Mekong-U.S. Partnership Ministerial. And President Biden has met with Indo-Pacific leaders overseas as well, including a very productive meeting with President Jokowi in Glasgow during the COP26.
But we’re not just listening to leaders. At our embassies and consulates across the region, our diplomats are using two ears to take in the views of people from all walks of life – students, activists, academics, entrepreneurs.
And while it’s an extraordinarily diverse region with distinct interests, distinct views, we see a great deal of alignment between the vision we’re hearing from the Indo-Pacific and our own.
People and governments of the region want more, better opportunities for all of their people. They want more chances to connect – within their nations, between their nations, around the world. They want to be better prepared for crises like the pandemic that we’re living through. They want peace and stability. They want the United States to be more present and more engaged. And above all, they want a region that is more free and more open.
So what I’d like to do today is to try to set out that shared vision, and how together we’re going to work to make it a reality. And there are five core elements that I’d like to focus on.
First, we will advance a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Now, we talk a lot about a free and open Indo-Pacific, but we don’t often define what we actually mean by that. Freedom is about the ability to write your future and have a say in what happens in your community and your country, no matter who you are or who you know. And openness naturally flows from freedom. Free places are open to new information and points of view. They’re open to different cultures, religions, ways of life. They’re open to criticism, to self-reflection, as well as to renewal.
When we say that we want a free and open Indo-Pacific, we mean that on an individual level, that people will be free in their daily lives and live in open societies. We mean that on a state level, that individual countries will be able to choose their own path and their own partners. And we mean that on a regional level, that in this part of the world problems will be dealt with openly, rules will be reached transparently and applied fairly, goods and ideas and people will flow freely across land, cyberspace, and the open seas.
We all have a stake in ensuring that the world’s most dynamic region is free from coercion and accessible to all. This is good for people across the region. It’s good for Americans because history shows that when this vast region is free and open, America is more secure and more prosperous. So we will work with our partners across the region to try to realize this vision.
We will continue to support anti-corruption and transparency groups, investigative journalists, think tanks across the region like the Advocata Institute in Sri Lanka. With our support, that institute created a public registry of state-owned enterprises like banks and airlines that operate with big losses, and proposed ways to reform them.
We’re finding partners in government, too, like Victor Sotto. He’s the mayor of the city of Pasig in the Philippines. Victor set up a 24/7 hotline for constituents to report cases of corruption. It has made the awarding in public contracts more transparent, has given community-based organizations a say in the way the city spends its resources. He’s part of the State Department’s first group of global anti-corruption champions that we announced earlier this year.
And we’ll continue to learn best practices from our fellow democracies. That’s the idea behind the Summit for Democracy that President Biden convened last week, where President Jokowi spoke – indeed, he was the first speaker – and the Bali Democracy Forum that Indonesia just held for the fourteenth time, and where I had an opportunity to speak.
We’ll also stand up against leaders who don’t respect their people’s rights, as we are seeing now in Burma. We will continue to work with our allies and partners to press the regime to cease its indiscriminate violence, release all of those unjustly detained, allow unhindered access, and restore Burma’s path to inclusive democracy.
ASEAN has developed a Five-Point Consensus, and it calls on the regime to engage in constructive dialogue with all parties to seek a peaceful resolution that respects the will of the Burmese people, a goal we will not give up on.
Another way we will promote freedom and openness is by defending an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable internet against those who are actively working to make the internet more closed, more fractured, and less secure. We’ll work with our partners to defend these principles, and help build the secure, trusted systems that lay the foundation for it. At the Moon-Biden Leaders’ Summit earlier this year, the Republic of Korea and the United States announced more than $3.5 billion in investments in emerging technologies, including research and development on secure 5G and 6G networks.
Finally, we’ll work with our allies and partners to defend the rules-based order that we’ve built together over decades to ensure the region remains open and accessible.
And let me be clear about one thing: the goal of defending the rules-based order is not to keep any country down. Rather, it’s to protect the right of all countries to choose their own path, free from coercion, free from intimidation. It’s not about a contest between a U.S.-centric region or a China-centric region. The Indo-Pacific is its own region. Rather, it’s about upholding the rights and agreements that are responsible for the most peaceful and prosperous period that this region and the world has ever experienced.
That’s why there is so much concern, from northeast Asia to southeast Asia, and from the Mekong River to the Pacific Islands, about Beijing’s aggressive actions, claiming open seas as their own, distorting open markets through subsidies to its state-run companies, denying the exports or revoking deals for countries whose policies it does not agree with, engaging in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities. Countries across the region want this behavior to change.
We do, too, and that’s why we’re determined to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s aggressive actions there threaten the movement of more than $3 trillion worth of commerce every year.
It’s worth remembering that, tied up in that colossal number, $3 trillion, are the actual livelihoods and well-being of millions of people across the world. When commerce can’t traverse open seas, that means that farmers are blocked from shipping their produce; factories can’t ship their microchips; hospitals are blocked from getting lifesaving medicines.
Five years ago, an international tribunal delivered a unanimous and legally binding decision firmly rejecting unlawful, expansive South China Sea maritime claims as being inconsistent with international law. We and other countries, including South China Sea claimants, will continue to push back on such behavior. It’s also why we have an abiding interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, consistent with our longstanding commitments.
Second, we will forge stronger connections within and beyond the region. We’ll deepen our treaty alliances with Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Those bonds have long provided the foundation for peace, security, and prosperity in the region. We’ll foster greater cooperation among these allies, as well. That’s one of the things we’ve done by deepening U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral cooperation, and launching an historic new security cooperation agreement with Australia and the United Kingdom. We’ll find ways to knit our allies together with our partners, as we’ve done by reinvigorating the Quad. And we’ll strengthen our partnership with a strong and independent ASEAN.
ASEAN centrality means we will keep working with and through ASEAN to deepen our engagement with the region all the more, given the alignment between our vision and ASEAN’s outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
In October, President Biden announced more than $100 million to bolster our cooperation with ASEAN across key areas, to include public health, women’s empowerment. And the President will be inviting ASEAN’s leaders to a summit in the United States in the coming months to discuss how we can deepen our strategic partnership.
We’re strengthening strategic partnerships with other countries in the region: Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and, of course, Indonesia. And that’s the reason I’ve made this trip.
We’re also deepening ties between our people. YSEALI, the signature program to empower the rising generation of leaders in Southeast Asia, has more than 150,000 members and counting.
Finally, we’ll work to connect our relationships in the Indo-Pacific with an unmatched system of alliances and partnerships beyond the region, particularly in Europe. The European Union recently released an Indo-Pacific strategy that aligns closely with our own vision. At NATO, we’re updating our Strategic Concept to reflect the Indo-Pacific’s growing significance, and address new threats, like the security implications of the climate crisis. And we’re putting ASEAN’s centrality at the heart of our work with partners. We did that just a few days ago, when the G7 ministers were meeting in the UK, and met with their ASEAN counterparts for the first time.
We’re doing all this for a simple reason: it allows us to assemble the broadest, most effective coalitions to tackle any challenge, to seize any opportunity, to work toward any goal. The more countries that we can rally around common interests, the stronger we all are.
Third, we will promote broad-based prosperity. The United States has already provided more than $1 trillion in foreign direct investment in the Indo-Pacific. The region has told us loud and clear that it wants us to do more. We intend to meet that call. At President Biden’s direction, we’re developing a comprehensive Indo-Pacific economic framework to pursue our shared objectives, including around trade and the digital economy, technology, resilient supply chains, decarbonization and clean energy, infrastructure, worker standards, and other areas of shared interest.
Our diplomacy will play a key part. We’ll identify opportunities that American firms aren’t finding on their own, and make it easier for them to bring their expertise and their capital to new places and new sectors. Our diplomatic posts, our embassies across the Indo-Pacific are already leading on this, and we’re going to surge capacity so that they can do more. More than 2,300 business and government leaders from the region joined me for this year’s Indo-Pacific Business Forum, which we co-hosted with India, and where we announced nearly $7 billion in new private-sector projects.
We’ll work with our partners to shape the rules of the growing digital economy on key issues like data privacy and security, but in a way that reflects our values, and unlocks opportunities for our people. Because if we don’t shape them, others will. And there’s a good chance they’ll do it in a way that doesn’t advance our shared interests or our shared values.
At APEC in November, President Biden set out a clear vision for how we can build a common way forward in the region. On digital technologies, he talked about the need for an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet, and our strong interest in investing in cybersecurity and developing digital economy standards that will position all of our economies to compete in the future. And when U.S. Trade Representative Tai and I co-led our delegation to the APEC ministerial in November, we focused on the need to ensure that technology serves a free and open Indo-Pacific.
We’ll also promote fair and resilient trade. That’s the story of the ASEAN Single Window, a project the United States supported to create a single automated system for clearing customs across the region. It helped streamline trade by making it more transparent and secure, lowering costs for business and prices for consumers. And the move from paper to digital customs has made is possible to keep cross-border trade moving, even during the lockdowns.
During the first year of the pandemic, the countries that were most active on the platform saw their trade activity rise by 20 percent, when most other cross-border trade was actually falling. And at the U.S.-ASEAN Summit in October, President Biden committed additional U.S. support to the Single Window. We’ll work with partners to make our supply chains more secure and more resilient. I think we have all seen, through the pandemic, just how vulnerable they are, how damaging disruptions can be, including shortages of masks and microchips and pileups at ports.
We’ve been leading efforts to bring the international community together to try to resolve bottlenecks and build greater resiliency against future shocks. President Biden convened a Leaders Summit on supply chain resilience. Vice President Harris made it a core focus of her meetings during her visit to the region. Commerce Secretary Raimondo has tackled the issue with Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia on her recent travel. And U.S. Trade Representative Tai launched the interagency Supply Chain Trade Task Force, and raised the issue in her travel to Japan, the Republic of Korea, and India. In the new year, the Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, and I will team up to convene government and private-sector leaders from around the world to tackle these issues at a Global Supply Chain Forum. As the hub of so much of the globe’s production and commerce, this region, the Indo-Pacific, will be core to these efforts.
Finally, we’ll help close the gap on infrastructure. There is, in this region as well as around the world, a large gap when it comes to infrastructure needs and what’s currently being provided. Ports, roads, power grids, broadband – all are building blocks for global trade, for commerce, for connectivity, for opportunity, for prosperity. And they’re essential to the Indo-Pacific’s inclusive growth. But we’re hearing increasing concerns from government officials, industry, labor, and communities in the Indo-Pacific about what happens when infrastructure isn’t done right, like when it’s awarded through opaque, corrupt processes, or built by overseas companies that import their own labor, extract resources, pollute the environment, and drive communities into debt.
Countries in the Indo-Pacific want a better kind of infrastructure. But many feel it’s too expensive, or they feel pressured to take bad deals on terms set by others rather than no deals at all. So we will work with countries in the region to deliver the high-quality, high-standards infrastructure that people deserve. In fact, we’re already doing that.
Just this week, together with Australia and Japan, we announced a partnership with the Federated States of Micronesia, with Kiribati, and Nauru to build a new undersea cable to improve internet connectivity to these Pacific nations. And since 2015, the members of the Quad have provided more than $48 billion in government-backed financing for infrastructure for the region. This represents thousands of projects across more than 30 countries, from rural development to renewable energy. It benefits millions of people.
The Quad recently launched an infrastructure coordination group to catalyze even more investment, and it is looking to partner with Southeast Asia on infrastructure and many other shared priorities. The United States will do more than that. Build Back Better World, which we launched with our G7 partners in June, is committed to mobilizing hundreds of billions of dollars in transparent, sustainable financing over the coming years. And together with Australia and Japan, we launched the Blue Dot Network to start certifying high-quality infrastructure projects that meet the benchmarks developed by the G20, the OECD, and others, and to attract additional investors.
Fourth, we will help build a more resilient Indo-Pacific. The COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis have underscored the urgency of that task. The pandemic has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across the region, including more than 143,000 men, women, and children here in Indonesia. It has also inflicted a massive economic toll, from shuttered factories to the halt of tourism.
The United States has been there with the people of this region at every step, even as we battle the pandemic at home. Of the 300 million doses of safe, effective vaccines that the United States has already distributed worldwide, we’ve sent more than 100 million doses to the Indo-Pacific. And over 25 million of those have come here, to Indonesia. By the end of next year, we will have donated more than 1.2 billion doses to the world. And we’ve provided over $2.8 billion in additional assistance to the region to save lives, including $77 million here in Indonesia for everything from personal protective equipment to medical oxygen for hospitals. And we’ve been providing this aid free of charge, with no strings attached. By making most of these donations through COVAX, we have ensured they are distributed equitably, based on need, not on politics.
At the same time, we’re working together with our partners to end the pandemic. The Quad vaccine partnership is playing a key part in that. We’re working together to finance, to manufacture, to distribute, and to put as many shots in arms as quickly as possible. Individual countries are stepping up. India recently committed to produce an additional 5 billion doses by the end of 2022. The Republic of Korea and Thailand are ramping up their production as well.
We are rallying the private sector to our side. At a ministerial that I convened last month, we launched something called the Global COVID Corps. It is a coalition of leading companies that will provide expertise, tools, and capabilities to support logistics and vaccine efforts in developing countries, including the last mile, and that is critical for actually getting shots into arms. This is what we’re seeing increasingly around the world, where the production of vaccines has increased, they are getting out there, but then they are not getting into arms because of the last-mile difficulties, the logistics that need to be solved, and that is exactly what we are focusing on.
At the same time, as we fight the virus, we’re building the health systems back better in the Indo-Pacific, around the world, to prevent, detect, and respond to the next pandemic. And the thing is, we actually know how to do this. The United States has been working with partners to strengthen health systems in the region for decades. In ASEAN alone, we’ve invested more than $3.5 billion in public health over the past 20 years. And we have a lot to show for it, both in significant improvements to public health, and also in deep relationships that we’ve built on the ground.
As part of our support for ASEAN, President Biden recently announced that we’ll provide $40 million for the U.S.-ASEAN Health Futures Initiative, and that’s going to accelerate joint research, strengthen health systems, train a rising generation of health professionals.
We’re also supporting the development of an ASEAN Public Health Emergency Coordination System. That’s going to help countries in the region coordinate their response to future health emergencies. And the first Southeast Asian regional office of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which we opened in Hanoi this summer, is already supporting these efforts on the ground.
The climate crisis, of course, is another global challenge that we have to tackle together. People across the Indo-Pacific are already feeling its catastrophic impact: 70 percent of the world’s natural disasters strike in this region, and over 90 million people in the region were affected by climate-related disasters in 2019. The following year, on our own Pacific coast, California endured five of the six biggest wildfires in its history.
Now, many of the biggest emitters in the region have recognized the need to act urgently, as we saw in the ambitious pledges that they set out at COP26. In Glasgow, 15 Indo-Pacific countries, including Indonesia, signed the Global Methane Pledge to cut emissions by 30 percent over the next decade. If all the biggest emitters join us, that would do more to reduce warming than taking every ship out of the seas and every plane out of the skies.
But it would be a mistake to think about climate only through the prism of threats. Here is why: every country on the planet has to reduce emissions and prepare for the unavoidable impacts of climate change. And that necessary transformation to new technologies and new industries also offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create new, good-paying jobs.
We believe that opportunity runs through the Indo-Pacific, and we’re already working with our partners to seize it. In the last five years alone, the United States has mobilized more than $7 billion in renewable energy investments in the region. As we step up our efforts, we’re bringing to bear the unique constellation of partnerships that we’ve built up: multilateral organizations and advocacy groups, businesses and philanthropies, researchers and technical experts.
Consider the Clean EDGE Initiative that we’re launching this month, which will bring together the expertise and innovation of the U.S. Government and private sector to help advance clean energy solutions across the region. Consider the more than $20 million that President Biden recently committed to a U.S.-ASEAN Climate Futures initiative, or the $500 million in financing announced just last week by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to help build a solar manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, India.
The factory, being built by the American company First Solar, will have an annual capacity of 3.3 gigawatts. That’s enough to power more than two million homes. Building and operating this facility will create thousands of jobs in India, the majority for women, and hundreds more jobs in the United States. And that’s just one of the ways in which the United States will help India reach its ambitious goal of 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030, and, in turn, help the world avoid a climate catastrophe.
Now, we recognize that, even if the transition to a green economy produces a big increase in jobs, which we’re confident it will, not all of those positions will be filled by workers who lost jobs in old industries and old sectors during this transition. So we have an obligation that we are committed to, to bring everyone along.
Fifth, and finally, we will bolster Indo-Pacific security. Threats are evolving. Our security approach has to evolve with them. We’ll seek closer civilian security cooperation to tackle challenges ranging from violate extremism, to illegal fishing, to human trafficking. And we’ll adopt a strategy that more closely weaves together all our instruments of national power – diplomacy, military, intelligence – with those of our allies and our partners. Our Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, calls this “integrated deterrence.”
And it’s about reinforcing our strengths so that we can keep the peace, as we’ve done in the region for decades. We don’t want conflict in the Indo-Pacific. That’s why we seek serious and sustained diplomacy with the DPRK, with the ultimate goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. We’ll work with allies and partners to address the threat posed by the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs through a calibrated, practical approach, while also strengthening our extended deterrence.
And that’s why President Biden told President Xi last month that we share a profound responsibility to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict. We take that responsibility with the greatest of seriousness, because the failure to do so would be catastrophic for all of us.
On February 14th, 1962, the United States Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, came to speak at this university. He talked about the enduring struggles that our people shared, which, he said, had to be carried forward by young people like the students here today. And he quoted something that his brother, John F. Kennedy, then President of the United States, said about our vision for the world. President Kennedy said, “Our basic goal remains the same: a peaceful world, a community of free and independent states, free to choose their own future and their own system, so long as it does not threaten the freedom of others.”
For all that’s changed in the nearly 70 years since President Kennedy spoke those words, it’s remarkable how much that vision aligns with the one we share. And the reason I am so grateful to be able to speak about this here at this university, with students and alumni of so many of our youth leadership programs present, is because you are the ones still today who will carry forward that vision. As you do, know that you have people across the Indo-Pacific, including in the United States, whose hopes and fates are tied up with yours, and who will be your steadfast partners in making the Indo-Pacific, this region that we share, more open and more free.
Thanks so much for listening. (Applause.)
state.gov · by Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
2. Kim Jong-un regime ‘strategically’ continuing public executions in isolated areas: NGO
Kim Jong-un regime ‘strategically’ continuing public executions in isolated areas: NGO
Kim Jong-un regime ‘strategically’ continuing public executions in isolated areas: NGO
N. Korea’s pursuit to avoid international scrutiny raises necessity to focus on secret executions
Published : Dec 15, 2021 - 20:01
Updated : Dec 15, 2021 - 20:02
The circles in the map show clusters of locations reportedly used for public executions in Hyesan, North Korea. The Kim Jong-un regime conducts public executions mainly at two places (pink circles) , both far from the border with China and the central area of the Hyesan city in Ryanggang Province. (Transitional Justice Working Group)
North Korea has continued public executions in isolated areas under the Kim Jong-un regime, in an apparent strategic move to prevent the leakage of inside information and avoid international monitoring, a human rights nongovernmental organization said in a report.
The Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group on Wednesday released the report “Mapping Killings Under Kim Jong-un: North Korea’s Response to International Pressure” based on interviews with hundreds of North Korean escapees and satellite imagery analyses conducted since 2015.
The TJWG has identified differences in the patterns of public executions during the Kim Jong-un era by focusing on examining the city of Hyesan on the border with China, which is relatively more exposed to the outside world due to its geographical location.
The key dissimilarity is the Kim Jong-un regime carried out most public executions in isolated and inconspicuous places a long way off from the border and central area of the city. The sites for public executions include Hyesan Airfield and nearby hills, mountains, open terrain and fields.
The testimonies of North Korean defectors also suggested that public executions have not been staged in the center of Hyesan or places near the border with China during the Kim Jong-un era, unlike the previous period.
Also noteworthy, the number of locations mainly used for public executions in Hyesan decreased under Kim Jong-un’s rule.
The TJWG said the change in patterns could be Pyongyang’s response to the international community’s criticism and a strategic move. The Kim Jong-un regime chose public execution sites where it could easily control people in attendance and block leaks of information, including video footage.
“One explanation could be that North Korea is strategically selecting execution sites where it is easier to prevent potential information leaks,” the human rights advocacy group said.
“This change in location may provide an explanation of how the state’s action is being influenced by the scrutiny of the international community.”
The Kim Jong-un regime also tightened monitoring and control over the North Korean people forced to watch public executions with various measures, including advanced metal detectors.
The TJWG assessed that the North Korean leadership has systematically continued state-sanctioned killings involving the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Social Security and the Defense Security Command.
Pay attention to secret executions
But the Kim Jong-un regime conspicuously appears to be more sensitive about North Korean human rights issues as the international community has stepped up monitoring and investigation and voiced concerns about the country’s violations, including inhumane treatment and punishment.
“Our findings suggest that the Kim Jong-un regime is paying more attention to human rights issues as a response to increased international scrutiny over the gravity of the situation in North Korea,” said Park Ah-yeong, the report’s lead author.
“This does not mean the human rights situation in North Korea is improving; state-led killings continue to take place in ways that may not be as visible to the public as they did in the past.”
The TJWG reiterated that the Kim Jong-un regime’s pursuit to avoid the international community’s monitoring and scrutiny raised the necessity to pay more attention to secret executions taking place behind closed doors.
The testimonies of North Korean defectors also suggested that the number of public executions decreased while Pyongyang has continued to secretly kill people at indoor places.
“Documenting secret or ‘indoor’ killings is our next step. There are an increasing number of news reports quoting clandestine information sources inside North Korea about this type of killing in the last five to six years,“ TJWG Executive Director Lee Young-hwan said.
The TJWG interviewed 683 North Korean defectors for six years, and 200 of the total participants lived in North Korea after Kim Jong-un took power in December 2011.
The report, funded by the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy, included 442 “credible testimonies” for state-sanctioned killings from 1956 to 2018.
In general, the Kim Jong-un regime conducted public executions at locales including open spaces, fields, airfields, riverbanks, hills and mountains with the attendance of hundreds of North Korean people, including families of the persons executed.
The most commonly cited charges for public execution were watching or distributing South Korea-produced video, drug-related crimes, prostitution, human trafficking and murder or attempted murder, as well as “obscene acts.” However, North Korean authorities can freely fabricate charges considering the lack of due process in the judicial system.
The report also said the Kim Jong-un regime has continued its reign of terror with inhumane treatment of the accused before the public execution, and pointed out that Pyongyang’s frequent inhumane violence had numbed the people to public executions.
“North Korea has normalized theatrical and gratuitous violence to the extent that many interviewees have reported becoming desensitized to public killings,” the TJWG said in the report.
The TJWG underscored that the Kim Jong-un regime’s “continued practice of systematic and widespread human rights violations” shows the urgency of raising public awareness of human rights within North Korean society.
3. More than 80% of expected university graduates to be dispatched as members of “Three Revolution teams”
Think of this: graduate from college only to go work conducting hard labor for the regime. This kills two birds with one stone: It provides cheap labor and increased control over a key demographic that could eventually develop resistance to te regime.
More than 80% of expected university graduates to be dispatched as members of “Three Revolution teams”
Daily NK has learned that North Korean authorities have recently ordered that more than 80% of expected university graduates be dispatched as members of so-called “Three Revolution teams.”
North Korean authorities appear to have taken the measure with a growing number of factories and enterprises suspending operations due to the closure of the nation’s borders in the face of COVID-19.
According to a Daily NK source in Pyongyang on Nov. 14, North Korea’s education authorities allotted 80% of university students set to graduate in February to the Three Revolution teams.
This apparently applies to students at provincial universities, too. Daily NK’s own investigation confirmed that North Korea’s educational authorities have allotted 90% of scheduled graduates of universities in North Hamgyong Province to the Three Revolution teams.
The state is essentially making scheduled graduates serve with the Three Revolution teams, with the exception of the 10-20% composed of specialized elite talent and the children of the wealthy and powerful.
University graduates serving with the Three Revolution teams will spend the next three years deployed to factories and enterprises, doing temporary labor and getting workers to “achieve the party’s ideology of revolution.”
In previous years, some 30-40% of graduates were sent to the teams, but never have so many people been allotted to them, said the source in North Hamgyong Province.
Multiple sources say the move to send most graduates to the Three Revolution teams is directly connected to the economic difficulties North Korean authorities currently face.
North Korean industries and factories have been unable to properly operate since the closure of the border. Existing employees are not receiving proper wages, either.
The main entrance of Kim Il Sung University. / Image: Kim Il Sung University website
In these circumstances, there are no proper workplaces for newly graduated intelligentsia.
By sending university graduates to the Three Revolution teams, enterprises can make use of low-cost labor with team members making a third less than existing workers, while the authorities can use the teams to ideologically rally workers.
To North Korean authorities who wish to maximize production amid economic difficulties while maintaining strict ideological controls, expanding the use of the Three Revolution teams using university graduates essentially amounts to killing two birds with one stone.
The “Three Revolutions” refers to the revolutionary movement to bring about ideal transformations in ideology, which renews humanity; technology, which renews nature; and culture, which renews society. North Korea has been tightening the ideological reins, hosting on Nov. 18 the Fifth Conference of Frontrunners of the Three Revolutions.
The Conference of Frontrunners of the Three Revolutions was an event to promote practical examples by giving respect to model units or cadres in the ideological, technological and cultural spheres.
In a personal letter sent to the conference, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for active use of the Three Revolution teams, stressing that authorities should expand their deployment beyond production units to provincial units so that they can play an active role in strengthening party policy at the city and county level.
Seulkee Jang is one of Daily NK’s full-time journalists. Please direct any questions about her articles to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
4. Kim Yong Ju, Brother of North Korea’s Founder, Dies Aged 101
A key point is Kim Jong-il was tapped for future leadership over his uncle when he was made head of the Organization and Guidance Department which is arguably the most powerful organization within the Party and all of north Korea.
Excerpts:
Kim Yong Ju was born in 1920, in an area west of Pyongyang, during Japan’s colonization of Korea, according to South Korea’s unification ministry. He moved to the Soviet Union in 1941, where he studied politics and economics in Moscow. He returned to North Korea in the 1950s after Kim Il Sung had risen to power.
Kim Yong Ju isn’t believed to have married or fathered children, according to Seoul’s unification ministry. His political rise was halted by September 1973, when Kim Jong Il replaced him as the head of the Workers’ Party’s organization and guidance department, according to the unification records. Kim Yong Ju didn’t hold a formal title again for nearly two decades.
Kim Yong Ju, Brother of North Korea’s Founder, Dies Aged 101
He was the oldest surviving member of the ruling family and once considered a potential candidate to lead the country
WSJ · by Timothy W. Martin
Kim Jong Un, the North’s leader and grandson of Kim Il Sung, sent a funeral wreath and expressed his deepest condolences, state media reported.
Kim Yong Ju was part of North Korea’s government in the country’s early years. In 1967, he proposed the original version of a document—called “Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System”—that still governs the lives of North Koreans. Kim Yong Ju, who rose to deputy prime minister, participated in the first inter-Korean talks in the 1970s.
He was seen as a potential successor to Kim Il Sung at one point in the 1970s, although testimonies from former high-ranking North Korean officials have split on whether Kim Yong Ju was viewed as a viable candidate for permanent leader or seen as a stopgap.
Ultimately, Kim Jong Il, the eldest son of Kim Il Sung, was groomed for North Korea’s top position—and Kim Yong Ju faded from power.
Kim Yong Ju was born in 1920, in an area west of Pyongyang, during Japan’s colonization of Korea, according to South Korea’s unification ministry. He moved to the Soviet Union in 1941, where he studied politics and economics in Moscow. He returned to North Korea in the 1950s after Kim Il Sung had risen to power.
Kim Yong Ju isn’t believed to have married or fathered children, according to Seoul’s unification ministry. His political rise was halted by September 1973, when Kim Jong Il replaced him as the head of the Workers’ Party’s organization and guidance department, according to the unification records. Kim Yong Ju didn’t hold a formal title again for nearly two decades.
In 1993, Kim Yong Ju was appointed vice chair and a member of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee. The following year he served on his older brother’s funeral committee. He held a seat in Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament until a few years into Kim Jong Un’s rule, which began almost a decade ago. He was last photographed in North Korean state media in 2015, after having cast a vote at a local election.
Kim Yong Ju, on the far right, in July 1994, isn’t believed to have married or had children.
Photo: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP
In Wednesday’s state media report, Kim Yong Ju was referenced as having won some of North Korea’s highest awards for service to state and communism, including the Order of Kim Il Sung and the Order of Kim Jong Il.
Kim Jong Un’s extended family now includes an elderly half-uncle, Kim Pyong Il, who spent decades living in Eastern Europe as a foreign diplomat until returning permanently to North Korea in 2019, according to Seoul’s spy agency. The oldest surviving second-generation Kim is Kim Kyong Hui, aunt of the current leader and a full sister of Kim Jong Il. She held senior government positions early in Kim Jong Un’s reign, though was sidelined after her husband, Jang Song Thaek, was executed in 2013.
Kim Jong Un has an older brother, who is believed to be uninterested in politics, while his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, has seen her role elevated in recent years as a regime mouthpiece for U.S. and South Korean relations.
WSJ · by Timothy W. Martin
5. Korean War end-of-war declaration agreed in principle: Moon
Better than the article below is Professor Lee's tweet when he flagged this article:
Sung-Yoon Lee
@SungYoonLee1
ML King: "True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."
Moon: "End-of-war incantation with #KimJongUn, the antithesis of justice, is true peace! Peace w. Pyongyang's characteristics let's embrace!"
Beyond delusional.
Korean War end-of-war declaration agreed in principle: Moon
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea says the United States, China, and North Korea agreed on “fundamental and principle levels” to declare a formal end to the Korean War that ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in also told reporters that his government is “not considering” a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. “We have not been offered to participate [in the boycott] by any country, including the United States,” he said at a joint press conference on Monday after bilateral summit talks with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Canberra, Australia.
“If North Korea shows strong intention to discuss the end-of-war declaration further, that’s at least a message that they are willing to come to the [nuclear] negotiations table,” Philo Kim, professor at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies in Seoul, told ABC News.
Talks for denuclearization have been at a standstill since the U.S.-North Korea Hanoi summit in February 2019 ended without an agreement.
But many experts in Seoul say the end-of-war declaration is only symbolic and could only benefit President Moon nearing the end of his five-year term as a personal achievement. “The administration may think it will be a breakthrough to resume dialogue but I don’t think it's a realistic alternative,” Du Hyeogn Cha, an analyst at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told ABC News.
KCNA via KNS/AFP Photo via Getty Images
This undated photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Dec. 7, 2021, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending the Eighth Conference of Military Educationists of the Korean People's Army at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang.
Moon is also hoping to keep communications with North Korea ongoing by sending diplomatic envoys to the Beijing Olympics, experts say. It is highly likely that North Korea’s top leaders, including North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, will attend the Beijing Olympics given North Korea’s close ties with China.
“Through the Beijing Olympics, Moon may be hoping to talk to North Korea on a summit level,” Shin Beom-chul, director of the Center for Diplomacy and Security at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, told ABC news.
Stuck in the middle of the balance-of-power struggle between the United States and China, Moon told reporters he is “trying to maintain a harmonious relationship with China while building on a solid alliance with the United States.”
Lukas Coch/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
South Korean President Moon Jae-in views the "Roll of Honour" during a visit to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Dec. 13, 2021, on the second day of his three-day official visit to Australia.
“South Korea is in a very difficult position. It just can’t go all-in on its alliance with the US because there is much at stake when it comes to China. Beijing has strong influence in the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula as it is a powerful backup to Pyongyang,” South Korea’s former ambassador to Japan Shin Kak-soo told ABC news.
Moon on a 4-days state visit to Australia also struck a $720 million defense deal in which South Korean defense company Hanwha would sell artillery weapons, supply vehicles and radars to the Australian army. Morrison said the new defense contract would create about 300 jobs in Australia, where a division of Hanwha operates. Australia recently announced a deal to build nuclear-powered submarines in a partnership with the U.S. and Britain–a move that China has strongly condemned.
Abc News’ Hakyung Kate Lee, Chae Young Oh and AP contributed to this report.
6. Under Scrutiny, North Korea Tries to Restrict News About Executions - Group
Excerpts:
But North Korea had not given up public executions - 23 of the 26 documented in the report were public - but it was more determined to ensure it could control who attended, the group said.
"Assembled audiences at public killing events are strictly monitored and controlled by state officials to prevent information on public executions from leaking," it said.
"Inhumane treatment of the accused before execution - used as a warning to the public - has persisted."
Under Scrutiny, North Korea Tries to Restrict News About Executions - Group
By U.S. News Staff U.S. News & World Report3 min
FILE PHOTO: A North Korea flag flutters next to concertina wire at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar SuReuters
By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has changed the way it carries out capital punishment in response to greater international scrutiny of its human rights, holding executions away from prying eyes to stop information filtering out, a rights group said on Wednesday.
The Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group analysed satellite imagery and conducted interviews with 683 North Korean defectors over six years to determine how its execution practices have changed since leader Kim Jong Un took power in 2011.
"Our findings suggest that the Kim Jong Un regime is paying more attention to human rights issues due to increased international scrutiny," said Park Ah-yeong, the lead author of a report the group issued on Wednesday.
"This does not mean the human rights situation there is improving - state-led killings continue to take place in ways that may not be as publicly visible as before."
North Korea does not answer questions from foreign reporters or publish reports or data on its judicial system.
Its state media rarely reports on crime and the punishment of those convicted. North Korea has denied the existence of prison camps and accused the United States and its allies of using criticism of human rights as part of a hostile policy towards it.
In its report titled "Mapping Killings under Kim Jong Un: North Korea's Response to International Pressure", the rights group documented 27 executions, most by firing squad, on charges that included of watching or distributing South Korean videos, drugs, prostitution and human trafficking.
In the past, North Korea held executions in villages and prison camps where crowds could gather, as a public warning, the group said.
But it had increasingly avoided executions in heavily populated residential areas, where authorities had difficulty keeping track of those attending.
It had also stopped holding executions near its borders and at facilities that can be easily monitored by satellites, the group said.
"This change in location may provide an explanation of how the state's action is being influenced by the scrutiny of the international community," the group said.
But North Korea had not given up public executions - 23 of the 26 documented in the report were public - but it was more determined to ensure it could control who attended, the group said.
"Assembled audiences at public killing events are strictly monitored and controlled by state officials to prevent information on public executions from leaking," it said.
"Inhumane treatment of the accused before execution - used as a warning to the public - has persisted."
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Copyright 2021 Thomson Reuters.
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7. North Korea Executes People for Watching K-Pop, Rights Group Says
I am surprised that all the NGOs touting such things as an end of war declaration and a lifting of sanctions do not address these reports. More importantly they do not address the crimes against humanity being committed by Kim Jong-un and his regime and instead give him a pass while blaming the US for the security situation on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea Executes People for Watching K-Pop, Rights Group Says
At least seven people have been put to death in the past decade for watching or distributing K-pop videos, as the North cracks down on what its leader calls a “vicious cancer.”
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North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has at times tried to appear more flexible toward outside culture. In 2018, he invited South Korean musicians to a rare concert in Pyongyang.
By
Dec. 15, 2021, 6:05 a.m. ET
SEOUL — North Korea has publicly executed at least seven people in the past decade for watching or distributing K-pop videos from South Korea, as it cracks down on what its leader, Kim Jong-un, calls a “vicious cancer,” according to a human rights report released on Wednesday.
The group, Transitional Justice Working Group, which is based in Seoul, interviewed 683 North Korean defectors since 2015 to help map places in the North where people were killed and buried in state-sanctioned public executions. In its latest report, the group said it had documented 23 such executions under Mr. Kim’s government.
Since taking power a decade ago, Mr. Kim has attacked South Korean entertainment — songs, movies and TV dramas — which, he says, corrupts North Koreans’ minds. Under a law adopted last December, those who distribute South Korean entertainment can face the death penalty. One tactic of Mr. Kim’s clampdown has been to create an atmosphere of terror by publicly executing people found guilty of watching or circulating the banned content.
It remains impossible to find out the true scale of public executions in the isolated totalitarian state. But Transitional Justice Working Group focused on executions that have taken place since Mr. Kim ascended and on those that have occurred in Hyesan, a North Korean city and a major trading hub on the border with China.
The North Korean town of Hyesan, near the border with China, is a gateway to smuggle in South Korean entertainment stored on USB sticks.Credit...Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Thousands of North Korean defectors to South Korea have lived in or have passed through Hyesan. The city of 200,000 people is the main gateway for outside information, including South Korean entertainment stored on computer memory sticks and bootlegged across the border from China. As such, Hyesan has become a focus in Mr. Kim’s efforts to stop the infiltration of K-pop.
Of the seven executions for watching or distributing South Korean videos, all but one took place in Hyesan, the report says. The six in Hyesan occurred between 2012 and 2014. Citizens were mobilized to watch the grisly scenes, where officials called the condemned social evil before they each were put to death by a total of nine shots fired by three soldiers.
“The families of those being executed were often forced to watch the execution,” the report said.
Mr. Kim rules North Korea with the help of a personality cult and a state propaganda machine that controls nearly every aspect of life in the North. All radios and television sets are set to receive government broadcasts only. People are blocked from using the global internet. But some North Koreans still manage to secretly watch South Korea’s movies and TV dramas. As the North’s economy has floundered amid the pandemic and international sanctions, defections to the South have continued.
North Korean defectors filling bottles with rice and USB sticks to toss into the sea toward their former homeland.
The number of defectors arriving in South Korea has dropped sharply in recent years, however, so gathering fresh information on the North has become harder. Mr. Kim’s government has also further tightened border restrictions amid the pandemic.
But Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that gathers news from clandestine sources in the North, reported that a villager and an army officer were publicly executed this year in towns deeper inland for distributing or possessing South Korean entertainment.
And a few secretly filmed video clippings of public trials and executions have been smuggled out of North Korea. In footage shown on the South Korean TV station Channel A last year, a North Korean student was brought before a huge throng of people, including fellow students, and was condemned for possessing a USB stick that held “a movie and 75 songs from South Korea.”
Shin Eun-ha told Channel A of a public execution she and her classmates had been made to watch from the front row when she was in second grade in North Korea. “The prisoner could hardly walk and had to be dragged out,” she said, adding, “I was so terrified that I could not dare look at a soldier in uniform for six months afterward.”
Though Mr. Kim has described South Korean entertainment as a “vicious cancer,” North Koreans were able to watch the popular girl band Red Velvet and other South Korean stars who flew to Pyongyang in 2018 for two performances.Credit...Korea Pool via AP
Mr. Kim has at times tried to appear more flexible toward outside culture, allowing state television to play the theme song from “Rocky” and to show Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters onstage. He even invited South Korean K-pop stars to the capital, Pyongyang, in 2018, when he was engaged in summit diplomacy with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea. But at home, he has also escalated his crackdown on K-pop, especially after his talks with President Donald J. Trump collapsed in 2019 and the North’s economy has deteriorated in recent years.
Amid growing international scrutiny of North Korea’s human rights abuses, the government appears to have taken steps to prevent information about its public executions from being leaked to the outside world.
It no longer appears to execute prisoners at market places, moving the sites farther away from the border with China or town centers, and inspecting spectators more closely to prevent them from filming the executions, Transitional Justice Working Group said.
Mr. Kim has also tried to create a public image as a benevolent leader by occasionally pardoning people condemned to death, especially when the size of an assembled crowd at a public trial is large, the group said.
But K-pop seems to be an enemy that Mr. Kim cannot ignore.
North Korea repeatedly lashes out against what it describes as an invasion of “anti-socialist and nonsocialist” influences from the South. It cracks down on South Korean slang spreading among its youths, including “oppa,” which became internationally known through Psy’s “Gangnam Style” song and video.
The North’s state media has also warned that if left unchecked, K-pop’s influence would make North Korea “crumble like a damp wall.”
8. N.Korea Puffs up Kim Jong-un Ahead of Anniversary
And the South Korea and western media are publishing 10 year anniversary retrospectives of him though I don't think they venerate him on the level of north Korea's Propaganda and Agitation Department.
Excerpt:
The entire front page of the official Rodong Sinmun daily on Tuesday was taken up by an article titled "The revolutionary cause of juche will be ever-victorious forever." It called Kim Jong-un an "outstanding great man" and a "matchless patriot."
N.Korea Puffs up Kim Jong-un Ahead of Anniversary
December 15, 2021 12:37
The North Korean regime is glorifying leader Kim Jong-un as he marks his 10th anniversary in office on Friday.
Kim has been given the honorific "great leader," which was previously reserved for his grandfather Kim Il-sung. The propaganda machine has also coined the term "Kimjongunism," in an attempt to shift away from communism and boost his political aura.
It has made special watches with Kim's name inscribed on them to hand out to senior officials to ensure their loyalty.
Friday also marks the 10th anniversary of the death of the leader's father Kim Jong-il.
Officials wear special watches with Kim Jon-un's name at a Workers Party meeting in Pyongyang in September, in this grab from [North] Korean Central Television.
The entire front page of the official Rodong Sinmun daily on Tuesday was taken up by an article titled "The revolutionary cause of juche will be ever-victorious forever." It called Kim Jong-un an "outstanding great man" and a "matchless patriot."
State media are hailing the regime's achievements in the dismal first year of the new five-year economic plan amid a total border lockdown as "victory." They carried photos of a shiny brand-new city in Samjiyon at the foot of Mt. Baekdu, the Kim dynasty's alleged birthplace.
- Copyright © Chosunilbo & Chosun.com
9. Forum discusses U.S-China rivalry, North in an election year
Important criticism from Mike Green. I am sure Korean diplomats will take exception to this. But perception is reality and actions speak louder than words. The big question is South Korea "self-isolating?"
Michael Green, CSIS senior vice president for Asia and Japan chair, said it is "very conspicuous" to the United States, Australia, Japan and India, that "Korea is not part of that team."
He added, "Korea is doing as much as any of these countries bilaterally with foreign aid, with capacity building, with diplomacy, to invest in Asia but it's doing it alone, not as a part of this grouping of middle and major powers committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific."
Green said one of the most important questions for the next Korean presidential candidate is: "Is it in Korea's interest to continue self-isolating within Asia in this way, or is it better for Korea to join this team and be part of a plurilateral effort of likeminded countries who share common interests and values with the people of Korea?"
He also asked, "Is Korea's current strategic ambiguity policy giving Seoul more leverage with Beijing or less? I would argue less leverage, and that puts Korea in a weaker diplomatic position vis-à-vis North Korea."
Tuesday
December 14, 2021
Forum discusses U.S-China rivalry, North in an election year
Panelists speak at the JoongAng Ilbo-CSIS Forum 2021 Tuesday, with Korean participants gathered at the JTBC Studio in Ilsan, Gyeonggi, and U.S. participants joining in virtually to discuss this year’s theme of “The Biden Era and Korea's Global Strategy.” Victor Cha, left, CSIS senior vice president and Korea chair, and Katrin Fraser Katz, join by video conference a session with Korean experts including Wi Sung-lac, foreign policy adviser for the Democratic Party’s presidential campaign, and Kim Sung-han, foreign policy adviser for the People Power Party’s presidential campaign. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]
Foreign policy advisers to the main presidential candidates stressed the importance of the Korea-U.S. alliance and the trickiness of navigating the intensifying rivalry between China and the United States in the JoongAng Ilbo-CSIS Forum Tuesday.
Wi Sung-lac, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) presidential campaign's Pragmatic Foreign Affairs Committee, said that liberal presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung is focused on a foreign policy based on "national interests, pragmatism, social unity and promoting advanced diplomacy.
"Simply put, the United States is our ally, and China is not our ally, it's a partner," said Wi. "From the values perspective, the U.S. and Korea share a lot of values, and as candidate Lee mentioned many times, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has maintained an alliance with the United States for the past seven decades and we have promoted the same values. By doing so, Korea was able to overcome the colonial past and become an industrialized and democratic country."
The JoongAng Ilbo held the annual international forum with Washington-based foreign policy think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Korea Peace Foundation and JTBC. Korean and U.S. scholars and experts joined the virtual forum held at the JTBC Studio in Ilsan, Gyeonggi, to address the theme of "The Biden Era and Korea's Global Strategy," and to discuss Seoul's survival strategies in the era of Sino-U.S. confrontation, and the road to denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula ahead of the presidential election on March 9.
Kim Sung-han, foreign policy adviser for the opposition People Power Party's (PPP) presidential campaign, said that conservative presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol will prioritize "national interests" for Korea's firm security.
"The U.S.-Korea alliance is no longer simply a military alliance," said Kim. "It is a comprehensive strategic alliance for all areas including new frontier areas. We go beyond just a military alliance— we have a strong partnership on all fronts." This includes strengthening cooperation in military and new technologies such as semiconductors.
"We need to make sure that our foreign policies are more predicable in terms of our relations with China and also for North Korea," said Kim, who is a professor at Korea University's Graduate School of International Studies. "In our relations with China, we need to make clear what we can do for China and what we cannot do for China."
However, Kim noted, "U.S.-China relations are not only based on competition, but there is also cooperation in the mixture. I believe that is a window of opportunity for Korea."
Describing the core of Yoon's foreign policy, he said, "Of course we will be rooted in our U.S.-Korea alliance, but we will need to cooperate with China based on mutual respect."
He said, "Being predictable means we can prevent the dropping of confidence in each other that comes from excessive ambiguity, and that would be the foundation for candidate Yoon's foreign policy."
Kim added, "We need to have an internal system that becomes the basis for economic security, and at the center of that should be the comprehensive strategic alliance with the United States."
The panelists said the next Korean government may need to take a clearer stand in the Sino-U.S. rivalry and also examine Seoul's difficult choices in joining or supporting American strategic alliances such as Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, which involves the United States, Australia, India and Japan.
"As Korea has to navigate through the G2 competition, it is almost as if we are walking on the brink of a cliff, and if we make one small mistake, it may lead to a disastrous outcome," said Wi.
He noted that South Korea so far has been taking a "case-by-case stance" on China, but warned that such an approach may "not necessarily be effective" as the stakes intensify.
The DP's Lee "has a strong belief in the importance of the ROK-U.S. alliance," said Wi, adding it goes beyond security.
Wi said Lee seeks a "pragmatic approach" and "believes that U.S-China competition is as important and as urgent as the North Korea nuclear issue." He said Korea foreign policy needs to be "more aligned" with the United States.
"However, China is geographically closer to Korea, has a lot of economic ties, and may have important influence in the process of unification of the Korean Peninsula, so we need to maintain friendly relations with China," continued Wi. "Lee will like to base his position on the ROK-U.S. alliance while promoting better relations with China."
Wi said Lee believes relations with Japan needs to improve "as quickly as possible," and will prioritize this if he were elected. He likewise "understands the importance of trilateral cooperation" with Washington and Tokyo as it "serves as a deterrence to any military confrontations." Lee also "believes in the values and approaches of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy," and believes that Korea, as a U.S. ally, "needs to collaborate and cooperate more actively with Quad," referring to the U.S.-led regional security dialogue.
Michael Green, CSIS senior vice president for Asia and Japan chair, said it is "very conspicuous" to the United States, Australia, Japan and India, that "Korea is not part of that team."
He added, "Korea is doing as much as any of these countries bilaterally with foreign aid, with capacity building, with diplomacy, to invest in Asia but it's doing it alone, not as a part of this grouping of middle and major powers committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific."
Green said one of the most important questions for the next Korean presidential candidate is: "Is it in Korea's interest to continue self-isolating within Asia in this way, or is it better for Korea to join this team and be part of a plurilateral effort of likeminded countries who share common interests and values with the people of Korea?"
He also asked, "Is Korea's current strategic ambiguity policy giving Seoul more leverage with Beijing or less? I would argue less leverage, and that puts Korea in a weaker diplomatic position vis-à-vis North Korea."
Bonny Lin, CSIS senior fellow for Asian security and director of the China Power Project, said, "A critical question for South Korea is what position will Seoul take in a regional flashpoint involving China and one of its neighbors," such as Taiwan, Japan or in the South China Sea.
She warned, "Assuming U.S.-China relations have worsened, it's possible that inaction on the part of South Korea, could be viewed as the ROK siding with China," which could lead to "serious questioning of the U.S.-ROK alliance" within the United States.
"If Seoul walks on eggshells and keeps switching position by turning to the advantageous side, it could be targeted by both countries and fall to a shatter zone state," said Hong Seok-hyun, chairman of JoongAng Holdings and the Korea Peace Foundation, in his opening remarks. "That would make it impossible to safeguard security and the economy. In this regard, the next president's five-year term is a significant turning point which could determine the fortunes of Korea for the next 100 years."
Pointing to the low level of domestic consensus regarding foreign and security policies due to constant political feuding, Hong proposed to create a permanent consultative body within the Korean National Assembly when the new administration takes office next year to "promote consistent foreign and security policies regardless of a change in government based on national consensus that transcends political factions."
Michael Green, left, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) senior vice president for Asia and Japan chair, and Bonny Lin, CSIS senior fellow for Asian security and director of the China Power Project, join in virtually for the first session of the JoongAng Ilbo-CSIS Forum 2021 at the JTBC Studio in Ilsan, Gyeonggi, Tuesday. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]
John Hamre, president and CEO of CSIS, pointed to a strong call within America to "broaden and to refresh" the Korea-U.S. alliance.
"We need to move past the perception that the Korea-U.S. alliance is an anti-China alliance," said Hamre. "We need to widen the aperture of the alliance so that the alliance is fit for the next 30 years, not just a reflection of last 50 years."
Noting that "Korea is a global power" — despite it not seeing itself that way — he said there is room for cooperation in global public health, environment and diversifying supply chains. He said, "America's going to become a country that drives electric vehicles. But all of the car batteries are going to be Korean batteries."
Hamre added, "Korea has a huge opportunity to be a leader in the world. We need to think about how we can broaden and diversity and make more resilient the supply chains for both of our economies so that we are not dependent on choke points."
On North Korea policy, Wi said that Lee's campaign believes in a "complex solution to a complex issue" and that it will be "flexible in negotiations."
He added, "But if there is a breaking of promises, or North Korea misbehaves, we need to clearly point that out and respond to the wrongdoings."
Kim said that Yoon's campaign will not go out its way to make any sort of "big deal" and favors a "middle deal" with North Korea.
"We will engage North Korea in dialogue, and if they show us that they are willing to move in the direction of denuclearization, we can provide humanitarian aid or economic cooperation," said Kim, also signaling "flexibility." He differentiated between humanitarian support and strategic aid.
Referring to a declaration to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice agreement, Wi said, "We need the peace track, in synergy with the denuclearization track, and so, I don't think we should view an end-of-war declaration negatively. What is important is the methodology."
One way is through the wording and expressions, he said, adding there is a need for the "appropriate caveats so that we have the synergy effect between the two tracks."
In turn, Kim expressed doubts as to whether an end-of-war declaration will help North Korea's actual denuclearization in the current circumstances.
Other participants included Victor Cha, CSIS senior vice president and Korea chair; Katrin Fraser Katz, adjunct fellow at CSIS Korea Chair; Park Myung-lim, Yonsei University professor; Koh Yu-hwan, president of the Korea Institute for National Unification; former Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo; former Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se; and former Foreign Minister Song Min-soon.
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
10. S. Korea aims to submit application to join CPTPP during Moon presidency: finance minister
Check out the visual at the link.That map is telling. It shows one of the greatest strategic mistakes the US has made in the 21st Century - withdrawing from the TPP.
(LEAD) S. Korea aims to submit application to join CPTPP during Moon presidency: finance minister | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: ADDS more details from para 14, photo)
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Yonhap) -- Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Wednesday South Korea aims to submit an application to accede to a mega Asia-Pacific free trade agreement before President Moon Jae-in's five-year term ends in May next year.
Hong said Monday the country began the process to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) involving 11 nations.
"The government has an aim to submit the application to join the CPTPP before its five-year term ends," Hong told foreign correspondents. South Korea will hold the presidential election in March next year.
The minister said the government will draw up measures to support vulnerable sectors if the market opening incurs economic damage.
The CPTPP is the renegotiated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) led by the former U.S. President Barack Obama administration.
In 2017, then U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the TPP, widely seen as a key counterweight to China's growing economic clout.
The CPTPP, launched in December 2018, has been signed by 11 countries, including Japan, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico.
Seoul's push came three months after China submitted an application to accede to the CPTPP in a surprising move, and Taiwan followed suit.
Trade volume by the 11 nations participating in the CPTPP had reached US$5.7 trillion as of 2019, accounting for 15.2 percent of the total global trade amount, according to a report by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.
South Korea's potential accession to the CPTPP could be a major boost for its move to expand its trade portfolio in addition to its planned implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECEP).
The RECEP, which was inked in November 2020, will go into effect in February next year, as South Korea's National Assembly ratified the trade deal early this month.
The RECEP covers the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The trade pact is known as the world's biggest FTA, as its 15 member countries combine to account for around 30 percent of the global gross domestic product.
As the CPTPP calls for high levels of market openness, South Korean farmers have opposed the government's bid, citing its potential damage to the agricultural sector.
Meanwhile, Hong raised the need to "proactively" consider offshore market transactions of the Korean won as the country seeks to win developed market status from Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI).
In November, Hong said the government plans to again push for the status, as the global index provider will have its annual review in June next year.
In June, the MSCI again classified the Korean stock market as an emerging market.
The MSCI cited the absence of an offshore currency market for the Korean won as one of the main reasons for its decision to retain South Korea in the emerging market category.
"The government will be in talks with foreign financial institutes by end-December to study (what it needs to improve for the FX market system) and explore its stance by the end of January," Hong said.
In response to the MSCI's demand for the offshore currency market, the government has said the Korean currency's convertibility into other currencies has been sharply enhanced compared with the past, as the won has become one of the most highly traded currencies.
Trading in the offshore non-deliverable forward market remains high, which enables foreign investors to effectively engage in foreign exchange trading for 24 hours, it said.
For the upgrade to the developed market status, a country should be first placed on the watch list for at least one year. In 2008, Korea was placed on such a list but failed to be granted the status later. It has been even excluded from the watch list since 2014.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
(END)
11. British 3-star general named deputy chief of U.N. Command
Although the action probably does not require it( except perhaps for VISA approval), I hope at least out of courtesy this was coordinated with the ROK government. This is a very sensitive issue with the ROK side.
The worst thing I hear about is US action officers telling their ROK counterparts that the ROK government has no say in UNC decisions and operations. While that argument can technically be made based on hidtory, the ROK is a sovereign country and it can ask (or demand) the UN Command to leave at any time.
British 3-star general named deputy chief of U.N. Command | Yonhap News Agency
By Song Sang-ho
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Yonhap) -- A British three-star Army general has been named the new deputy commander of the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) headquartered in South Korea, its official said Wednesday.
Lt. Gen. Andrew Harrison will succeed Australian Vice Adm. Stuart C. Mayer who concluded his UNC mission Wednesday after nearly 2 1/2 years of service at the command headquartered in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul.
When Harrison will officially take office has yet to be announced.
Earlier in the day, the command bid farewell to Mayer at a ceremony attended by Gen. Paul LaCamera, who leads the UNC, the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command and the U.S. Forces Korea.
LaCamera applauded Mayer's efforts to reinforce the UNC.
"Vice Adm. Mayer brought with him 35 years of military experience. His strategic vision and his mastery of diplomatic inter-agency skills made lasting positive impacts," the commander was quoted by his office as saying.
Mayer pledged to continue to advocate for the command.
"When we look to the future and consider UNC, we can look ahead with the same mixture of pride and confidence, pride that 70 years after we first committed to the endeavor of restoring peace and security to the peninsula," Mayer said.
The UNC serves as a key enforcer of the armistice agreement that halted the 1950-53 Korean War.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
12. Has North Korea changed?
Short answer: NO.
I am somewhat surprised to read this from a researcher at KINU.
Excerpts:
Kim’s ten-year rule has a very poor scorecard. His regime is being sustained by nuclear weapons, the Baekdu blood-line, and a bunch of Kim’s untested aides. His reign is firmly rooted in oversight and regulation.
In the meantime, the Moon administration keeps making diplomatic blunders by pushing for an end-of-war declaration with concerned parties to help the recalcitrant regime buy more time to ratchet up its nuclear capabilities.
South Korea must put the North Korean people before the Kim family in its North Korea policy, no matter what.
This is why I include human rights when I describe the security issues on the Korean peninsula:
The “Big 5” for the Korean Peninsula
1. War - must deter, and if attacked defend, fight, and defeat the nKPA.
2. Regime Collapse - must prepare for the real possibility and understand it could lead to war and both war and regime collapse could result in resistance within the north.
3. Human Rights and Crimes Against Humanity - (gulags, external forced labor, etc) must focus on as it is a threat to the Kim Family Regime and undermines domestic legitimacy - it is a moral imperative and a national security issue. KJU denies human rights to remain in power.
4. Asymmetric threats (provocations, proliferation, nuclear program, missile, cyber, and SOF) subversion of ROK, and global illicit activities.
5. Unification - the biggest challenge and the solution.
We should never forget that north Korea is master of denial and deception in all that it does from military operations to strategy to diplomatic negotiations
My questions that require answering in response to the headline question:
1. Who does Kim fear more: The US or the Korean people in the north? (Note it is the Korean people armed with information knowledge of life in South Korea)
2. 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?
3. 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?
The answers to these questions should guide us to the strategy to solve the "Korea question" (para 60 of the Armistice) and lead to the only acceptable durable political arrangement: A secure, stable, economically vibrant, non-nuclear Korean peninsula unified under a liberal constitutional form of government with respect for individual liberty, the rule of law, and human rights, determined by the Korean people. In short, a United Republic of Korea (UROK)
And I will say the quiet part out loud:
The root of all problems in Korea is the existence of the most evil mafia- like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime that has the objective of dominating the Korean Peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State.
Wednesday
December 15, 2021
Has North Korea changed?
Lee Byung-soon
The author is a senior researcher at the Institute for Korea Security and Unification.
North Korea’s mouthpieces are engrossed with glorifying the 10-year reign of its leader Kim Jong-un. They are championing the “entry of the construction of our-style socialism into an unprecedented development phase.” The media outlets portray Kim’s decade as an “era of triumph, miracle and glory.”
Since inheriting power from his father Kim Jong-il after his death in December 2011, Kim Jong-un promised to “allow the people to enjoy the wealth and prosperity of socialism without tightening their belts and build a powerful state.” To achieve the goal, he has flamboyantly pressed on with measures to improve the country’s economic management systems, simultaneous pursuit of economic and nuclear development, reinforced self-reliance and a “frontal breakthrough.” But Kim is seen as a failed leader except in the field of nuclear weapons development.
In a despotic dynasty like North Korea, ideology is monopolized by the supreme leader. As a result, North Korean media organizations portray Kim Il Sung-ism, Kim Jong-il-ism and their first focus on people’s happiness as the key to Kim Jong-un’s success story.
But North Korea’s propaganda machine stopped short of presenting in detail the differences between such images of its leaders and its existing juche (self-reliance) and Military First ideology. The regime’s move to reemphasize the “Ideology First” principle shows that its claimed focus on happiness is nothing but a North Korean version of populism.
In politics, North Korea tries to show off its alleged status as a “normal state” based on “normal leadership” by frequently staging the full-member Convention and Congress of the Workers’ Party, as well as Politburo meetings. Nevertheless, Kim Jong-un — the chairman of both the State Affairs Commission and the Defense Commission — ruthlessly purged a number of high-ranking officials connected to his father in the early stage of his rule even though they were the very foundation of his reign.
This politics of horror helped the Kim Dynasty shrink to a regime where power is split between brother Kim Jong-un and sister Kim Yo-jong. The regime has recently showed signs of political regression after establishing a sole leadership system, embarking on an aggressive pursuit of five “cultural projects” to educate the people, and placing the Suryong (Great Leader) system above Workers’ Party.
Economically, Kim Jong-un has adopted a limited opening and reform after upholding “our own economic management system.” But that was botched due to deepening economic hardships. To help stabilize the people’s livelihoods, Kim is forcing them to tighten their belts and start a second “Arduous March.” But due to the intrinsic limitations of its self-reliance-based economy, even the five-year economic plan is being shaken.
In military perspectives, North Korea has carried out four nuclear tests and more than 130 missile provocations since Kim Jong-un came to power. After declaring North Korea as a nuclear weapons state, Kim boasts of its position as a “global strategic state.” But the country faces its worst-ever security crisis since the belligerent move encouraged the United States to reinforce its nuclear umbrella while stimulating the North’s neighbors countries to develop nuclear weapons of their own. If Pyongyang provokes Seoul to go nuclear, Kim’s only achievement during his reign over the past decade would be rendered useless.
Externally, Kim Jong-un faces a crisis of war after abandoning the Feb. 29, 2012 agreement with the U.S. to suspend nuclear development in return for economic and humanitarian aid. To find a breakthrough, North Korea used the Moon Jae-in administration as a “sidekick” to have a summit with America. After the North’s hand was revealed, the Hanoi summit ended in failure. Since the image of a “leader with no fallacy” was shattered, North Korea made its relations with the U.S. and South Korea hostile again. It has been walking a tightrope ever since.
Kim’s ten-year rule has a very poor scorecard. His regime is being sustained by nuclear weapons, the Baekdu blood-line, and a bunch of Kim’s untested aides. His reign is firmly rooted in oversight and regulation.
In the meantime, the Moon administration keeps making diplomatic blunders by pushing for an end-of-war declaration with concerned parties to help the recalcitrant regime buy more time to ratchet up its nuclear capabilities.
South Korea must put the North Korean people before the Kim family in its North Korea policy, no matter what.
13. [Editorial] US signal on NK
A powerful conclusion I hope the Moon administration will heed.
If South Korea pursues the declaration of the end of the war while ignoring the values of democracy and human rights, it will likely invite diplomatic isolation. The US sanction sets a clear guideline on what the South Korean government must pay attention to. If the Moon administration keeps turning a blind eye to North Korea’s human rights problem, it would be difficult to expect full support and cooperation from the Biden administration down the road over Korean Peninsula issues, including declaring the war to be over.
[Editorial] US signal on NK
Biden‘s first sanction on N. Korea implies Seoul should pay attention to human rights
Published : Dec 15, 2021 - 05:30 Updated : Dec 15, 2021 - 05:30
The US blacklisted on Monday North Korea’s new Defense Minister Ri Yong-gil, a former head of the Ministry of Social Security which is in charge of the prison system, and the Central Public Prosecutors Office on the grounds of forced labor and human rights violation.
The sanction is significant in that it was one first imposed by the Joe Biden administration since it was launched in January.
The main reason for sanctions so far by the US and the international community against North Korea was its violation of UN resolutions banning nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
Though it did not target only North Korea -- it was part of extensive sanctions against officials and entities in eight countries including China and Myanmar -- it gives a signal that North Korea is no exception to the Biden administration’s foreign policy that prioritizes human rights and also that South Korea must not ignore North Korea’s rights issues.
For North Korea, the question of human rights is like dirty linen.
The administration under President Moon Jae-in seems to have persistently tried to block the weak point of the North from being exposed.
It declined to co-sponsor a UN resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights violations for three consecutive years from 2019.
The presidential office appealed against a court ruling that they disclose information to the bereaved family of a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official shot dead by North Korean soldiers in September last year. The government announced the official went to the North voluntarily, but his family sued for information disclosure, saying the announcement is unbelievable.
Despite criticism from human rights groups, the National Assembly passed a legislation to criminalize leafleting into North Korea in a partisan vote supported overwhelmingly by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea. The party pushed the legislation soon after Kim Yo-jung, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, demanded South Korea ban the activity.
The party inserted a new item for the monitoring of “fake news” on North Korea in the Ministry of Unification budget for next year. Critics of the Moon administration’s North Korea policy raise concerns that the ministry seems intent on monitoring news reports that may offend the North by mentioning its human rights situation.
The latest US sanction is seen as a warning to the South Korean administration for pushing signatories to the truce of the Korean War to declare the war over, while turning a blind eye to the question of North Korean human rights.
Diplomacy and security experts have long been critical of the push for the declaration of the end of war. They say South Korea’s obstinate drive to have the war declared over will do more harm than good.
The government has diplomatically strived to utilize the Beijing Winter Games as an occasion to declare a formal end to the war. It argues that the declaration of the end of war will give momentum to inter-Korean relations.
But there are concerns that declaring the end of war with the North’s nuclear and missile threats left intact is a risky gamble. The declaration can offer a justification for North Korea and its ally, China, to be able to demand that the US withdraw its forces from South Korea and that the UN Command be disbanded. The US alliance and South Korea’s security will likely be weakened. It is questionable whom the declaration is good for if the human rights of North Korean residents continue to be trampled over.
If South Korea pursues the declaration of the end of the war while ignoring the values of democracy and human rights, it will likely invite diplomatic isolation. The US sanction sets a clear guideline on what the South Korean government must pay attention to. If the Moon administration keeps turning a blind eye to North Korea’s human rights problem, it would be difficult to expect full support and cooperation from the Biden administration down the road over Korean Peninsula issues, including declaring the war to be over.
14. Korea, Australia Warn Beijing off South China Sea
Seems like strong statements from two of our most important allies. The question is will the ROK Navy contribute to freedom of navigation operations?
The two leaders stressed that "disputes must be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law" and "reaffirmed the importance of upholding freedom of navigation and overflight" and "agreed to strengthen coordination to uphold these principles, which must not be undermined in the context of increasing risks of instability in the maritime domain."
Korea, Australia Warn Beijing off South China Sea
President Moon Jae-in and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday warned China off further military adventures in the South China Sea.
In a joint statement concluding Moon's visit to the sixth continent, the two said they "recognize that the stability of the Indo-Pacific depends on adherence to international law in the maritime domain, including in the South China Sea." They committed themselves as "natural partners" to an "open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific."
China is embroiled in various territorial disputes in the South China Sea to further its increasingly aggressive military expansion. The U.S.' strategic pivot to Asia, in which Australia is a staunch ally, aims to contain China's military expansion.
The two leaders stressed that "disputes must be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law" and "reaffirmed the importance of upholding freedom of navigation and overflight" and "agreed to strengthen coordination to uphold these principles, which must not be undermined in the context of increasing risks of instability in the maritime domain."
Korea depends economically on China, and Moon has been careful to distance itself from the U.S.' more aggressive sabre-rattling in the region. A day earlier he said that Seoul will not be joining a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.
Moon and Morrison also agreed to form a comprehensive strategic partnership and expand cooperation in regional security, defense, core technology, health and border protection.
15. Seoul named world's best MICE city for 7th consecutive year
It is always enjoyable to attend conferences in Seoul. Koreans are great hosts. I look forward to returning to normal conference schedules after the pandemic subsides.
Seoul named world's best MICE city for 7th consecutive year | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Yonhap) -- Seoul has been selected as the Best MICE City for the seventh consecutive year by a prestigious international travel magazine, the metropolitan government said Wednesday.
MICE is an acronym that stands for meetings, incentive tours, conventions and exhibitions.
The city government said Global Traveler, the world-renowned business travel magazine, has chosen Seoul as the world's best city in the MICE category for seven years in a row since 2015.
Every year, the magazine surveys its 300,000 readers to conduct the Global Traveler Tested Reader Survey Awards and selects the best in various categories, including MICE city, airline and hotel.
The city government said it has achieved the best MICE city title after making persistent efforts to develop its MICE sector despite the spread of COVID-19. In April, the Seoul government announced comprehensive measures to switch to a hybrid MICE strategy, which calls for hosting online and offline events through the use of cutting-edge ICT technology.
The government has so far succeeded in attracting 18 international conferences to Seoul, including the "2025 World Congress of Neurology" and the "2024 International Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition." Next year, the "15th World Forestry Congress" will be held offline.
ycm@yna.co.kr
(END)
16. A Peace Declaration to End the Korean War: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
Let me be blunt. Our first concern must be with the security of the ROK and the protection of US interests. A study of the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family reveals how Kim will exploit this effort and increase the risk of conflict. The advocates of the effort are basing their recommendations on erroneous assumptions about the regime.
We all agree to this in principle but it must include a sufficient reduction of north Korean forces to protect the security of the ROK. Paper and words do not trump steel and there is a lot of steel, particularly all the steel of artillery in the Kaesong Heights north of Seoul.
A Peace Declaration to End the Korean War: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced that the North has agreed “in principle” to a peace declaration. The US and Republic of Korea reportedly have been working on a draft agreement. China apparently indicated its support. What could possibly go wrong?
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, aka North Korea, of course.
According to Moon, the North won’t join any talks until Washington drops its “hostile policy,” which is usually thought to mean the presence of US troops on the Korean peninsula and other military activities.
The ever-hopeful Moon admitted: “because of that, we are not able to sit down for a negotiation on the declarations between South and North Korea, and those between North Korea and United States.” This would seem to present a significant barrier to success. Responded Moon: “we hope that talks will be initiated. We are making efforts towards that.”
Alas, “hope” is not something one normally associates with anything involving North Korea.
The peace declaration is an issue because the Koreas, as well as US and China, are still technically at war. Hostilities in July 1950 were ended by an armistice but no peace treaty was subsequently agreed to. This is not unusual. Often armies stop shooting at one another and people get on with their lives. Then statesmen eventually cobble a formal treaty together. As between America and Germany after World War I.
In 1919 the US Senate refused to ratify the Versailles Treaty, Woodrow Wilson’s tragically misguided and vainglorious attempt to transform the world. American and German troops did not return to the trenches. Rather, in July 1921, during the presidency of Wilson’s successor, Warren Harding, Congress approved the Knox-Porter Resolution, which ended the state of war. A formal peace treaty was negotiated and ratified later that year.
No such amity was displayed by the Koreas or their patrons, the US and People’s Republic of China, when the fighting stopped. Relations were frigid, even by the standards of the Cold War. Hostilities frequently flared on the Korean peninsula. Washington and Beijing did not talk seriously until the Nixon opening in 1971. And despite intermittent North-South contacts over the years, the end of the Cold War worldwide did little to thaw relations on the peninsula.
The 2018 Trump opening to the DPRK raised the possibility of some form of peace affirmation. A formal treaty would make the most sense but would have to be negotiated. And would require the parties to talk, raise inconvenient issues, and ratify a potentially complicated and controversial text.
In contrast, a peace declaration would be merely that: a pronouncement that the peninsula is at peace and the parties have warm affection in their hearts for one other. Moon’s hope is that this would lead to more and more substantive talks. He argued: “This is going to be help us start negotiations for denuclearization and peace.” He even termed it “very important on that front as well.” Lee In-young, the South’s Minister of Unification—a frustrating position if ever one existed!—insisted that the declaration could be a “turning point for a new phase for peace.”
In theory the next step would be to negotiate a treaty, but that, of course, would trigger all the difficulties already mentioned. Nevertheless, a declaration could act as an unofficial termination of the state of war and might prompt movement toward a treaty. At least, if the North didn’t insist on the end of America’s “hostile policy” is a precondition rather than objective of the talks.
It should be evident that the declaration is almost entirely symbolic. It simply recognizes the fact that the Koreas, US, and China are no longer at war. Maybe that condition won’t last. Indeed, in the past peace has been disrupted by episodic violence. And the North has spent decades making more than a few blood-curdling threats, backed by threatening weapons development and deployment. Still, these days, given the squabble over Taiwan, the greater likelihood might be a Sino-American conflict.
Even so, the peninsula currently is in a state of peace and a declaration offers Washington one way to affirm that it is eager to put past “unpleasantries” behind the parties and move forward to forge a better relationship, including but not limited to denuclearization. And the other parties could, despite recent perturbations to their relationships, affirm peaceful intent toward each other.
Realistically, the declaration is a desperate attempt to get North Korea back to a negotiating table, even if not immediately the nuclear one. As such, the proposal also is an important vehicle to promote amity between Seoul and Washington. Moon’s time in office is fast running out, with the election of his successor scheduled for March—and the ruling party candidate is trailing in current polls, though the race remains volatile. The latest flurry of activity is a diplomatic Hail Mary, akin to a last second maneuver to win a championship game.
The chief objection to a declaration should be that it isn’t likely to achieve anything practical. Getting the four nations’ government heads, foreign and defense ministers, and national security advisers to hold hands, circle a fire, and sing Kumbaya would have roughly the same effect.
However, that isn’t what worries opponents. Which includes South Korean hawks, the American security establishment, and, it seems, most US Korea analysts. By declaring peace to exist, they fear, crazed peaceniks will appear out of the netherworld, dismantle the US-ROK alliance, send the American forces packing, and offer Kim Jong-un the keys to Seoul. Without firing a shot the Kims will have reestablished the Korean kingdom to the detriment of all.
For instance, a group of congressional members recently wrote to oppose the effort:“[T]here is no historical precedent to support the theory that the Kim regime would abide by the terms of a peace agreement.”
Yet a peace declaration would require little action. And if North Korean violations are a foregone conclusion, then why bother attempting diplomacy at all?Alas, the other options aren’t good. War would be disastrous, with potential casualty counts in the millions, depending on the extent and reach of the North’s nuclear arsenal. And this option will only get worse if North Korea continues to expand and improve its nukes and missiles, as seems likely.
Sanctions so far have failed to compel the North to disarm. If the DPRK can survive almost two years of essentially self-sanctions, it likely can withstand anything more imposed by Washington. Nor is there any reason to expect China to risk destabilizing the North, creating chaos and chancing reunification on American terms, to please a US administration with which it appears to be heading into its own cold war. If negotiation remains an, and, in practice, the only, option, then a peace declaration could play a positive role.
Moreover, the congressional critics contended: “An end of war declaration also poses serious risks for U.S. forces on the peninsula and the stability for the region. A premature peace treaty would provide a predicate for the DPRK to demand the dismantlement of the U.S. Forces South Korea and the U.S. withdraw its 28,500 troops from South Korea, given that their purpose is to deter aggression from the North, and call for the permanent termination of annual U.S.-ROK joint military exercises.”
However, this presumes that South Koreans and Americans would rush to grant Pyongyang’s demands. Really? ROK public opinion favors the alliance and US presence and has turned increasingly skeptical toward North Korea. Even progressive South Korean presidents have consistently sought American support, and why not? Rhapsodizing about self-sufficiency and independence promotes good feelings while implementing self-sufficiency and independence costs real money. So almost everyone wants to clamber aboard Washington’s defense dole.
The US foreign policy establishment also is horrified at the mere mention of proposals to withdraw even one service member from Korea. The inevitable result, the public is warned, would be the communist conquest of South Korea and probably all Northeast Asia, if not America as well. Yet who really expects a popular groundswell to suddenly transform defense relationships with Washington? The US has maintained forces in multiple countries where domestic peace unquestionably reigns.
If legislators really fear this outcome, then they must subconsciously doubt the case for America’s continued presence. After all, the South has surpassed the DPRK on virtually every measure of national power and should be able to protect itself. (Why, one wonders, is every one of America’s prosperous and populous allies in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East a helpless dependent, supposedly at risk of immediate defeat without a US presence, after decades of subsidies, training, armaments, and support?) America’s solons protesteth too much, goes the old saying.
Interestingly, this group of Asian hawks reveal an agenda they may not have expressed to South Koreans: “Our military presence in South Korea includes Camp Humphreys, the largest overseas U.S. military base in the world, and plays an essential role in promoting regional security and deterrence against the DPRK, Russia, and the People’s Republic of China.” US officials apparently imagine that Washington is authorized to use the ROK as a launching pad for wars against China and Russia over issues not directly concerning the South. Which would turn South Korea into a belligerent and open its territory to attack.
It might be worth consulting the people living there.
America’s base use is ultimately controlled by Seoul. And there is little reason to believe that South Koreans, whether conservatives or liberals, are ready to turn their country into a target in a war for US interests. Especially since they know Washington will go home some day, for domestic economic and political reasons. And then the ROK will be left to alone face the wrath of old neighbors made new enemies.
Indeed, as Moon promoted the peace declaration, he announced that his government would not join the US in a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Olympics in China. He was blunt: the ROK was “trying to maintain a harmonious relationship with China while building on a solid alliance with the United States.” That is: thanks for defending us, but please don’t ask us to commit ourselves! Imagine how likely he would be to join a shooting war with the PRC.
The Biden administration appears to have shared some of the objections voice by the congressional contingent, though perhaps not so fiercely. However, the administration also has sought to accommodate its ally. After all, the president promised to restore alliances and all that. So Washington apparently will at least humor Seoul, despite wishing Moon’s idea would go away.
However, it appears that Kim is planning to overplay his hand and aid both ROK and American hawks. It is evident that Washington views a declaration as being of little importance; By now even Pyongyang should realize that the US government is not going to offer serious, in some ways the most serious, concessions for nothing.
Refusing to sit down to discuss such a peace declaration would deny the North an opportunity to press for other objectives, such as sanctions relief. Pyongyang would be seen as the obdurate party, refusing to discuss an action it long was thought to favor. And the DPRK would inflict another humiliation upon Moon, who has done so much to advance a softer inter-Korean policy. Politically that would likely damage his party, which would reduce the likelihood that the next Korean government would be open to any variant of “the Sunshine Policy.” However, this would not be the first time that the North proved to be its own worst enemy.
The US should pursue a peace declaration, with a sweetener—lifting the travel ban while offering to establish liaison offices, with the expectation of soon upgrading them to embassies. Part of that process would be regular conversations about all issues, from denuclearization to “hostile policies” to human rights. History gives little reason for optimism, but critics have nothing better to offer. Sanctions offer no hope and war would be far worse. If diplomacy is hopeless, then buckle up and prepare to deal with North Korea as a middling nuclear power able to devastate the American homeland.
Backing Moon’s gambit doesn’t look so bad under those circumstances.
Now a 1945 Contributing Editor, Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of several books, including Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World and co-author of The Korean Conundrum: America’s Troubled Relations with North and South Korea.
17. ‘End of war announcement without denuke will bring catastrophic results,’ Young Kim says
The Congresswoman is leading the charge to do the right thing for US interests and to ensure the security of the ROK.
My concern is this is shaping up as a partisan issue. We have long enjoyed strong bipartisan support for security on the Korean peninsula. I fear that those who are pushing the EOW declaration effort are being influenced on two levels - one that they do not grasp the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime, and there are those that use the issue to advance the "blame American and get US forces off the Korean peninsula" agenda which supports the objectives of certain political factions in the ROK andUS and unfortunately, Kim Jong-un as well.
We must retain the strong bipartisan support for Korean security and help our lawmakers not to be duped by those with hostile agendas.
‘End of war announcement without denuke will bring catastrophic results,’ Young Kim says
Posted December. 15, 2021 07:42,
Updated December. 15, 2021 07:42
‘End of war announcement without denuke will bring catastrophic results,’ Young Kim says. December. 15, 2021 07:42. by Jin-Woo Shin niceshin@donga.com.
“A one-sided announcement of the end of the Korean War (without North Korea’s commitment to denuclearization) will bring catastrophic results to the security of the Indo-Pacific region,” Korean-American Republican representative Young Kim said in an interview with The Dong-A Ilbo on Tuesday regarding the South Korean government’s efforts for the announcement of the end of the Korean War, adding that it will be a serious obstacle to the U.S.’s capabilities to achieve important security goals in the region. “(A one-sided announcement) will weaken the war deterrence power of the Korea-U.S. alliance and put the lives of tens of millions of Americans, South Koreans, and Japanese at risk,” she said.
Thirty-five Republican representatives, including Kim, sent a joint letter in opposition to a one-sided announcement of the end of the war to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, etc. on December 7 (local time). This is the first time multiple U.S. Congress members took collective action to oppose the announcement. Kim led the writing o the joint letter. She was voted as a Republican candidate at the federal House of Representatives election in the 39th district of California, which was held along with the U.S. presidential election last year. “We took action as we have heard serious concerns from not only my constituency but also the Korean-American community and fellow representatives,” she said on the background of delivering the letter.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is trying to use the end of the war announcement as an incentive to resume talks with the North, regardless of the country’s commitment to denuclearization, as the announcement is a political one that is not legally bounding. Kim sees it differently. “Even if the announcement is practically political in nature, it will give North Korea and China justification to ask for the withdrawal of the U.S. Forces in Korea and the permanent suspension of ROK-U.S. joint drills,” she said, adding that it will also affect the standing of the United Nations Command in South Korea.
“We should deal with North Korea that we are facing, not the one we are hoping for,” she also said. “The announcement of the end of hostilities will come through dialogues after the North removes its nuclear weapons and shows verifiable progress on the compliance of sanctions and human rights improvement.”
While the draft for the announcement of the end of the war is in the final stage in coordination between South Korea and the U.S., Kim said the Congress is highly concerned about the quick progress of discussions on the announcement without consultation with the Congress or communities. According to Kim, a reply to the joint letter sent to the White House hasn’t been received yet.
18. N. Korea to convene parliamentary meeting in February
(LEAD) N. Korea to convene parliamentary meeting in February | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: ADDS photo, more info throughout)
By Choi Soo-hyang
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will hold a session of its rubber-stamp legislature in February to discuss the state budget and issues of adopting laws on childcare and overseas compatriots, Pyongyang's state media reported Wednesday.
The standing committee of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) held a plenary session the previous day and made the decision to open the parliamentary meeting on Feb. 6, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The plenary meeting was presided over by Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the standing committee, without leader Kim Jong-un's attendance.
"The 6th Session of the 14th SPA will have discussions of the issue of the work of the Cabinet," the state budget and "the issue of adopting the law on childcare and the law on the protection of the rights and interests of overseas compatriots," the report said.
The SPA is the highest organ of power under the North's constitution, but it rubber-stamps decisions by the ruling party. It usually holds a plenary session in March or April to deal mainly with budget and cabinet reshuffles.
This year, however, the North held two SPA sessions in January and September in a rare move.
At the September meeting, Kim delivered a speech and announced that cross-border communication lines with South Korea will be restored as part of efforts to improve chilled inter-Korean relations.
scaaet@yna.co.kr
(END)
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.
