Quotes of the Day:
"We'll start the war from right here."
--Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of the former president, who landed with his troops in the wrong place on Utah Beach
"If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone."
--General Dwight Eisenhower, future president, in a draft of remarks he'd made in case the invasion was a failure
"They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate."
-- President Franklin D. Roosevelt's official address announcing the invasion
Recommended video for reflection on this D-Day anniversary:
Operation Overlord: OSS and the Battle for France https://vimeo.com/485603696
1. U.S. and South Korea respond to North Korean launch with 8 missiles of their own
2. N.K. media outlets remain silent about missile launches
3. Yoon vows firm and stern response to any N.K. provocation
4. Allies fire 8 missiles in show of firepower against N. Korea's latest provocation: JCS
5. Yoon Suk-yeol talks tough to North at Memorial Day ceremony
6. A dramatically different response (by ROK.US alliance)
7. Yoon's plan to attend NATO summit causes stir
8. ‘IPEF not about choosing between US, China’
9. Gov't in talks with USFK about return of Dragon Hill Lodge site in Yongsan
10. Deputy Secretary of State Sherman arrives in S. Korea for discussions on N.K.
11. Yoon invites Cheonan survivors, relatives of the dead
12. N. Korea warns that a major crisis point in the COVID-19 outbreak could come in June or July
13. South Korea has nuclear subs firmly in its sights
14. China warns Canada over air patrols on lookout for North Korea sanctions busting
15. A view from the demilitarized zone dividing the Koreas
16. The dramatic moment a brave mother fled her North Korean hell
1. U.S. and South Korea respond to North Korean launch with 8 missiles of their own
A fairly expensive exercise as the cost of an ATACMS in 2017 was between $750,000-$820,000.
This is excerpt may be misleading. Perhaps there have been no joint (or more correctly, combined) naval drills in in more than four years, though I think that is doubtful but we are reading more and more reports of late that seem to imply no training has been conducted of any kind for the last four years and that suddenly we are now training again. Training has taken place continuously while the scale. scope, and timing of exercises has been adjusted. What has changed is that both governments are committed to returning to robust training and will not scale it back again so that a high level of readiness can be sustained.
Excerpts:
Last week, the U.S. and South Korean militaries held a three-day naval exercise in international waters off Okinawa aimed at reinforcing the allies’ response to North Korea’s mounting weapons ambitions, the South Korean military said.
The joint drill was the first in more than four years, underscoring efforts by the Yoon government to align closely with the United States on matters related to North Korea. Pyongyang views the exercises as “hostile” acts toward the country and cites them as reasons to continue developing its weapons capabilities.
U.S. and South Korea respond to North Korean launch with 8 missiles of their own
TOKYO — The U.S. and South Korean militaries test-fired eight ballistic missiles on Monday, matching North Korea’s weapons tests the day before, in a stern show of force marking the hardening line toward Pyongyang.
U.S. Forces Korea and the South Korean military fired one U.S. missile and seven South Korean missiles eastward into the sea to demonstrate the countries’ ability to “respond quickly to crisis events,” the U.S. military said Monday.
On Sunday, North Korea fired off a battery of eight short-range missiles, as it continues to build and test new weapons to evade existing missile defense systems.
It was the 18th round of missile launches in 2022 alone. Pyongyang has conducted an unprecedented number of tests, in line with leader Kim Jong Un’s five-year plan for the program.
“The South Korea-U.S. combined firing of the ground-to-ground missiles demonstrated the capability and posture to launch immediate precision strikes on the origins of provocations, even if North Korea launches missiles from various locations,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.
Monday’s response by the United States and South Korea underscores the countries’ intent to act in lockstep to North Korea’s missile tests — a shift since the inauguration of South Korea’s new conservative president, Yoon Suk-yeol, who has vowed to take a firmer approach to the North than his pro-engagement predecessor.
“Even at this moment, North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats are getting sophisticated,” Yoon said Monday. “North Korea’s nuclear and missile [programs] are reaching the level of threatening not only peace on the Korean Peninsula but also in Northeast Asia and the world.”
The U.S. and South Korean militaries launched ground-to-ground Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles from South Korea’s northeastern Gangwon province, firing eight missiles within a 10-minute period starting at 4:45 a.m., South Korea’s military said.
North Korea on Sunday fired eight suspected ballistic missiles east into the ocean within a 35-minute period from 9:08 a.m. from four locations, the South Korean military said.
In response, Japan’s Self Defense Forces on Sunday held a joint military drill with the United States. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said North Korea’s actions “cannot be tolerated.”
North Korea has not yet released information about its latest launch. The reclusive country has halted the regular release of information about its missile tests in recent weeks.
Last week, the U.S. and South Korean militaries held a three-day naval exercise in international waters off Okinawa aimed at reinforcing the allies’ response to North Korea’s mounting weapons ambitions, the South Korean military said.
The joint drill was the first in more than four years, underscoring efforts by the Yoon government to align closely with the United States on matters related to North Korea. Pyongyang views the exercises as “hostile” acts toward the country and cites them as reasons to continue developing its weapons capabilities.
Intelligence officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan have said that North Korea appears to have completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test, which would be the first since 2017.
Officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan met in Seoul on Friday to reinforce ties amid signs of the upcoming nuclear test. The United States has proposed greater sanctions on North Korea for its violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning ballistic missile tests.
Relations between the United States and North Korea have remained deadlocked since 2019, when nuclear negotiations fell apart.
The Biden administration so far has not shown a willingness to give North Korea the sanctions relief it seeks. Yoon has said the “ball is in Chairman Kim’s court” to jump-start negotiations again. Kim has not indicated any desire to engage with either country in the absence of sanctions relief.
Min Joo Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
2. N.K. media outlets remain silent about missile launches
Again, this is curious. As we know the Propaganda and Agitation department will not release statements, reports, and commentary until approved by Kim Jong-un. Did they not prepare their statements ahead of time? Were they caught off guard by a sudden order to conduct the tests? Or were these actually tests and not intended as "messages" to support blackmail diplomacy? (Sometimes it is not all about us!). Did the launches not achieve their objectives? Are they waiting for US and ROK intelligence to provide their assessments to see if they detected any anomalies before they claim "success?" This has happened with a number of recent launches. Curious.
N.K. media outlets remain silent about missile launches | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, June 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's official news agency and other state media outlets remained silent Monday about a barrage of missile tests that the country carried out a day earlier in its third show of force since South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took office last month.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang's official mouthpiece, usually begins its morning news cycle with reports on major events that happened the previous day, such as leader Kim Jong-un's activities or major weapons testing.
But on Monday, the KCNA made no mention of the eight short-range ballistic missile launches, which, according to South Korea's military, were carried out Sunday morning from areas around Sunan in Pyongyang and elsewhere.
The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, and other media outlets also remained mum on the launches.
The latest launches marked the North's 18th show of force this year and the third since President Yoon took office on May 10 with a pledge to get tough on Pyongyang.
In a tit-for-tat response, South Korea and the United States fired eight ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Monday. The ground-to-ground Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles were fired for about 10 minutes starting at 4:45 a.m., the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Earlier, the North had test-fired a suspected new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and two apparent short-range missiles into the East Sea on May 25 right after U.S. President Joe Biden ended a trip to Seoul and Tokyo.
(END)
3. Yoon vows firm and stern response to any N.K. provocation
A recognition of the north Korean threat:
"Even at this moment, North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are getting sophisticated," he said, referring to Sunday's tests. "North Korea's nuclear and missile (programs) are reaching the level of threatening not only peace on the Korean Peninsula but also in Northeast Asia and the world."
Yoon said his administration will deter the nuclear and missile threats while also building a "more fundamental and practical security capability."
But it is not just the nuclear and missile programs that are a threat. to the ROK, the region, and the world. It is alo the other WMD, chemical and biological weapons. It is the huge conventional threat to the ROK. It is also the potential instability and regime collapse that can lead to civil war and anarchy , humanitarian suffering on a scale we have not yet seen, and refugee flows, to name a few contingencies. And then there is proliferation around the world, global illicit activities, to include cyber attacks, and finally the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the Kim family regime against the Korean people living in the north. But the bottom line is 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.
(LEAD) Yoon vows firm and stern response to any N.K. provocation | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with details of ceremony from 6th para; ADDS photo)
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, June 6 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol vowed Monday to respond firmly and sternly to any North Korean provocation as South Korea and the United States fired missiles in response to the North's missile launches the previous day.
Yoon made the remark during a Memorial Day ceremony held at Seoul National Cemetery, a day after North Korea fired eight short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea in its third show of force since Yook took office last month.
"Even at this moment, North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are getting sophisticated," he said, referring to Sunday's tests. "North Korea's nuclear and missile (programs) are reaching the level of threatening not only peace on the Korean Peninsula but also in Northeast Asia and the world."
Yoon said his administration will deter the nuclear and missile threats while also building a "more fundamental and practical security capability."
"Our government will respond firmly and sternly to any North Korean provocation," he said. "We will make sure there isn't a single crack in protecting the lives and property of our people."
Yoon has taken a tougher stance on North Korea than his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, whose attempts to build peace through talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un failed to stop the regime from advancing its weapons programs.
During a summit in Seoul last month, Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to begin discussions to expand combined military exercises. The summit also led to a reaffirmation of the U.S. extended deterrence commitment to South Korea, including through the use of U.S. nuclear capabilities.
As the ceremony proceeded in the rain, Yoon paid tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the nation. He said he believes that building a country in which freedom, democracy and human rights flourish even more will honor that sacrifice.
He also vowed to take better care of the families of those killed in the line of duty.
"I will create a country where heroes in uniform are respected," Yoon said, listing the names of an Air Force pilot, three firefighters and three Coast Guard officers who were all killed on duty in recent months.
"Thanks to them, our people are able to pursue their dreams and happiness safely and comfortably."
Before giving his speech, Yoon awarded certificates of meritorious persons to five people, including a Vietnam War veteran and the 17-year-old son of a Coast Guard officer killed in a helicopter crash in April.
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
4. Allies fire 8 missiles in show of firepower against N. Korea's latest provocation: JCS
(LEAD) Allies fire 8 missiles in show of firepower against N. Korea's latest provocation: JCS | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in paras 2, 6)
By Song Sang-ho
SEOUL, June 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States fired eight ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Monday in response to North Korea's missile launches the previous day, according to the South's military.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the allies launched the ground-to-ground Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles from an eastern coastal region in Gangwon Province starting at 4:45 a.m. for around 10 minutes.
On Sunday, the North shot eight short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) from four different locations into the East Sea following a South Korea-U.S. naval exercise last week involving an American aircraft carrier.
"The South Korea-U.S. combined firing of the ground-to-ground missiles demonstrated the capability and posture to launch immediate precision strikes on the origins of provocations and their command and support forces," the JCS said in a press release.
"Our military strongly condemns the North's series of ballistic missile provocations and seriously urges it to immediately stop acts that raise military tensions on the peninsula and add to security concerns," it added.
The North's weekend salvo is presumed to have involved a variety of SRBMs, including the KN-23 missile modeled after Russia's Iskander ballistic missile. The KN-23 is known for its "pull-up maneuver," designed to avoid interception.
Seoul officials have warned that Pyongyang's military provocations will be met with "corresponding" reactions.
Shortly after the North's launch of three ballistic missiles, including an apparent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), on May 25, the South and the U.S. conducted combined missile launches in their first such joint move since 2017.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
5. Yoon Suk-yeol talks tough to North at Memorial Day ceremony
We must deter war on the Korean peninsula. That requires combined strength, readiness, and resolve.
Excerpts:
In a joint May 21 press conference after his first summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Seoul, Yoon stressed that a "strong deterrence against North Korea is paramount" and said there is "no compromise for security."
In a joint statement, the two leaders agreed to expand the scope and scale of combined military exercises and training on the Korean Peninsula. Biden reaffirmed U.S. commitment to "substantive" extended deterrence including a nuclear umbrella and the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets.
Deterrence, defense, and resolving the "Korea question" (unification), using a superior form of political warfare based on a rock-solid ROK/US alliance and realistic assumptions about the nature of the Kim family regime and its strategy and objectives.
Coping, Containment, and Management. Coping with the threat, continuing the threat, and managing the threat and exploiting opportunities created by regime actions.
Guiding Principles:
1. Defense of ROK is paramount – all decisions must support defense of ROK against the full range of threats from the north.
2. Must provide options to national policy makers – early decisions required to overcome the law of physics: time, distance, and space. Must have the right capabilities in the right place for employment at the right time. (e.g., the ATACMS show of force today)
3. "Transparency" is critical when dealing with the 5 Parties and international community. Must have decisive and consistent themes and messages. Only through clear articulation of alliance priorities and intent can we have a chance of reducing the chance of conflict due to misunderstanding of intentions. Examples for consideration (and these should be consistently expressed by the ROK/US Alliance):
A. Defense and Security of ROK is the number one priority. (Note: President Yoon has fully embraced this)
B. UNC and ROK/US CFC have the following priorities:
(1) Security of nuclear weapons, followed by chemical weapons and then the biological program.
(2) Security, health, and welfare of the Korean people living in the north.
(3) UNC and ROK/US CFC desire to work with all interested nations to bring security, stability and long term peace to the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia.
(4) UNC and ROK/US CFC will support the establishment of a free and unified Korea – a United Republic of Korea.
4. Lastly, and most importantly, it is time for the alliance to embark on a comprehensive and aggressive strategic influence campaign. This must no longer be shunned by those who do not understand its power and potential effects or who fear a response from the regime (e.g., Kim Yo Jong threats).
Monday
June 6, 2022
Yoon Suk-yeol talks tough to North at Memorial Day ceremony
President Yoon Suk-yeol, center right, and first lady Kim Keon-hee, center left, salute the flag in a ceremony marking the 67th Memorial Day at the Seoul National Cemetery in Dongjak District, southern Seoul, Monday. [YONHAP]
President Yoon Suk-yeol vowed to respond "firmly and sternly" to North Korean provocations Monday, a day after Pyongyang fired eight short-range missiles.
"Even at this moment, North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are advancing," said Yoon at a ceremony marking the 67th Memorial Day at the Seoul National Cemetery in Dongjak District, southern Seoul. "North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile [programs] are reaching a level that threatens not only peace on the Korean Peninsula but also in Northeast Asia and the world."
Yoon referred to North Korea's firing of eight short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) into the East Sea Sunday morning, the third missiles test since he took office on May 10.
"Our government will respond firmly and sternly to any provocations from North Korea," said Yoon. "We will continue to develop our fundamental and practical security capabilities while deterring nuclear and missile threats. We will make sure that there is no gap in protecting the lives and property of our people."
The ceremony was attended by more than 5,000 people, including Yoon's wife Kim Keon-hee and conservative and liberal lawmakers. People Power Party (PPP) Chairman Lee Jun-seok didn't attend because he was visiting Ukraine.
Paying tribute to people who died fighting for the independence of the Republic of Korea and defended the country "from the invasion of Communists," Yoon stressed that the "pursuit of the values of freedom, democracy and human rights will make the sacrifices of those who dedicated themselves to the country worthwhile."
Yoon promised to take better care of the families of people killed on the front lines of national security and public safety, recalling service members who died in the line of duty in recent months.
On Sunday, Yoon ordered officials to strengthen the extended deterrence and combined defense posture between Seoul and Washington after members of the National Security Council (NSC) briefed him on Pyongyang's latest missile launches.
The NSC held a meeting presided over by National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han to assess the North's recent actions. Its members described the missile launches as a "test and provocation" of the Yoon administration and condemned them as violating UN Security Council resolutions, according to the presidential office.
North Korea's latest missile test came a day after South Korea and the United States completed a three-day combined naval exercise involving nuclear-powered aircraft in international waters near Japan's Okinawa.
In a joint May 21 press conference after his first summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Seoul, Yoon stressed that a "strong deterrence against North Korea is paramount" and said there is "no compromise for security."
In a joint statement, the two leaders agreed to expand the scope and scale of combined military exercises and training on the Korean Peninsula. Biden reaffirmed U.S. commitment to "substantive" extended deterrence including a nuclear umbrella and the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets.
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
6. A dramatically different response (by ROK.US alliance)
Excerpts:
"the three-axis system based on a Kill Chain pre-emptive strike system, the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) system and the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan."
The United States also prepared to thwart the North’s nuclear and missile offensive by sending four B1-B strategic bombers to Guam and dispatching more than 10 F-35B stealth fighter jets to Japan. The two allies also conducted large-scale maritime drills, including a U.S. aircraft carrier, on the waters southeast of Okinawa from June 2 to 4. The U.S. reportedly plans to deploy an aircraft carrier and strategic bombers to pressure North Korea if it dares to conduct its seventh nuke test.
Monday
June 6, 2022
A dramatically different response
South Korea and the United States took joint military action Monday by firing eight ground-to-ground missiles to the East Seat in reaction to North Korea firing eight short-range ballistic missiles into the same sea the previous day. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missile launch demonstrated their “capability and posture to launch a precision strike on the very source of provocation at times of crisis.” The JCS urged North Korea to stop any acts aimed at ratcheting up tension on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea has fired missiles 18 times so far this year, and it has fired eight missiles of various types. That sounds alarms as it is intended to show off missile capabilities instead of testing them. North Korea has finished preparations for its seventh nuclear test designed to develop tactical nuclear weapons. If the country is equipped with tactical weapons, it is not easy to defend against them. North Korea has nearly completed the development of ICBMs too.
In the face of such imminent danger, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took a dramatically different approach to the North’s provocation from the dovish Moon Jae-in administration. In a speech on Memorial Day on June 6, President Yoon warned about the level of North Korean nuclear and missile threats to the peninsula and world peace, pledging to “build strong defense against them in a more fundamental and substantial way than before.” His statement reflects his determination to deter the nuclear and missile threat through the extended deterrence, as well as the three-axis system based on a Kill Chain pre-emptive strike system, the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) system and the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan.
The United States also prepared to thwart the North’s nuclear and missile offensive by sending four B1-B strategic bombers to Guam and dispatching more than 10 F-35B stealth fighter jets to Japan. The two allies also conducted large-scale maritime drills, including a U.S. aircraft carrier, on the waters southeast of Okinawa from June 2 to 4. The U.S. reportedly plans to deploy an aircraft carrier and strategic bombers to pressure North Korea if it dares to conduct its seventh nuke test.
If North Korea misuses its nuclear card, it could lead to its demise. The time has come for Pyongyang to take care of its impoverished people as a result of the international sanctions and the pandemic. In his inaugural speech last month, Yoon promised to “help North Korea improve the lives of its people if it gives up its nuclear ambition.” We urge Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible.
7. Yoon's plan to attend NATO summit causes stir
Will there be blowback from China? Russia?
This is Korea "stepping up."
Excerpts:
"The main agenda of the NATO summit will be how participating countries will respond to the threats of Russia and China," Kim said. "And regarding the responses to Russia, these will include military options as well. If the president attends the meeting, that could send a different signal, so the government should consider the ramifications of such a visit very cautiously."
During the summit, NATO will invite key U.S. allies in Asia ― namely Korea and Japan ― and adopt its new Strategic Concept, which the organization says "will define the security challenges facing the alliance and outline the political and military tasks that NATO will carry out to address them."
In an op-ed in media outlet Pressian, Park Byeong-hwan, director of Institute of Eurasian Strategic Studies and a former Korean minister-counsellor to Russia, wrote that Yoon's attendance at the NATO summit will "clearly show Korea's hostility to Russia, which will strengthen NATO's pressure on Korea to assist Ukraine."
"The Yoon government's strategy will have the effect of bringing Russia and North Korea closer to each other, which will increase Seoul's national security burdens," Park wrote. "If Korea shows hostility towards Russia, will Moscow see the necessity of contributing to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula?"
Russia and China have traded barbs with NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's siding with Russia.
Yoon's plan to attend NATO summit causes stir
President Yoon Suk-yeol gives a speech at a Memorial Day ceremony held at Seoul National Cemetery in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap
Ruling party leader's Ukraine visit raises concerns about Seoul's ties with Russia, China
By Nam Hyun-woo
The presidential office is reportedly reviewing President Yoon Suk-yeol's proposed attendance at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit to be held on June 29 and 30 in Madrid, Spain.
If confirmed, it will be Yoon's first overseas trip as Korea's head of state.
An official said in a media interview that the presidential office is reviewing various issues related to Yoon's possible trip to Spain for the NATO summit. "A president's first foreign visit itself has a symbolic meaning, so we're looking into whether the NATO summit is suitable or not and whether his attendance there can benefit or hurt our national interest or not," the official said, noting that Yoon's participation in the summit has yet to be confirmed.
News about Yoon's possible participation in the NATO summit came amid ruling People Power Party Chairman Lee Jun-seok's visit to Ukraine. Departing Korea on Friday, Lee and the ruling party delegation arrived in Ukraine, where they met with activists from a local NGO on Saturday. Kyiv Governor Oleksiy Kuleba uploaded a photo of the PPP's delegation to social media on Sunday.
During his weeklong trip to Ukraine, Lee is scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The timing of the news about President Yoon's possible visit to Spain for the NATO summit and the ruling party leader's arrival in war-torn Ukraine have raised concerns from liberal politicians in Korea as those two events could stir up tensions with Russia and China.
"For Lee to go visit the battlefield in Ukraine and view the current situation there is equivalent to the ruling party and government doing the same thing, so that could give the wrong signal to the international community and Ukraine," Rep. Kim Byung-joo of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea said during a symposium co-hosted by Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the U.S. Embassy in Korea, Friday.
Kim continued that the government must also give prudent consideration to President Yoon Suk-yeol attending the NATO summit, saying that such a high-level visit could also send the wrong signal.
In this photo uploaded on the Facebook page of Governor Oleksiy Kuleba of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, People Power Party Chairman Lee Jun-seok, second from right, and the governor, second from left, look at a bombed building at an unidentified location in Kyiv. Screenshot from Governor Kuleba's Facebook page
According to sources, the presidential office sent an advance team, comprised of officials from the office, the Presidential Security Service and the foreign ministry, to Spain, to prepare for Yoon's possible attendance at the NATO leaders' meeting.
"The main agenda of the NATO summit will be how participating countries will respond to the threats of Russia and China," Kim said. "And regarding the responses to Russia, these will include military options as well. If the president attends the meeting, that could send a different signal, so the government should consider the ramifications of such a visit very cautiously."
During the summit, NATO will invite key U.S. allies in Asia ― namely Korea and Japan ― and adopt its new Strategic Concept, which the organization says "will define the security challenges facing the alliance and outline the political and military tasks that NATO will carry out to address them."
In an op-ed in media outlet Pressian, Park Byeong-hwan, director of Institute of Eurasian Strategic Studies and a former Korean minister-counsellor to Russia, wrote that Yoon's attendance at the NATO summit will "clearly show Korea's hostility to Russia, which will strengthen NATO's pressure on Korea to assist Ukraine."
"The Yoon government's strategy will have the effect of bringing Russia and North Korea closer to each other, which will increase Seoul's national security burdens," Park wrote. "If Korea shows hostility towards Russia, will Moscow see the necessity of contributing to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula?"
Russia and China have traded barbs with NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's siding with Russia.
It is relatively recently that NATO has been wary of the rise of China. In a policy brief, titled "The Rise of China and NATO's New Strategic Concept," released in April, NATO made it clear that it was watching for possible threats from China's rise. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was quoted as saying that "China does not share our values," and "uses modern technology, social media and facial recognition to monitor, to do surveillance of their own population in a way we have never seen before."
China, recently, has accused NATO of "messing up Europe."
In response to the British foreign minister's comments at the end of April, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry, said that NATO "wantonly waged wars and dropped bombs in sovereign states, killing and displacing innocent civilians."
8. ‘IPEF not about choosing between US, China’
‘IPEF not about choosing between US, China’
Former USTR negotiator says countries should reduce dependence on China amid concerns on economic coercion
Published : Jun 6, 2022 - 17:26 Updated : Jun 6, 2022 - 17:26
Wendy Cutler, former acting deputy US trade representative and currently vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, speaks in a joint media interview during the Asan Symposium, co-hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the US Embassy in Seoul on Friday. (Asan Institute for Policy Studies)
The United States’ latest Indo-Pacific Economic Framework is not pushing participants to choose between the United States and China, former US Trade Representative negotiator Wendy Cutler said on Friday at a symposium in Seoul.
Cutler, however, said that the countries should “reduce dependence on any one source or inputs for their supply chains” in case of economic coercion.
Speaking at the Asan Symposium, co-hosted by Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the US Embassy in Seoul, Cutler rejected concerns that the US-led economic initiative IPEF is a tool for the US to expand its presence in the Indo-Pacific region to keep its strategic rival China in check.
“If you look at the IPEF launch document, you don’t see the word ‘China’ in there at all. Again, it’s an affirmative, positive vision of the types of the initiatives the US likes to pursue with other like-minded countries in the region,” said Cutler, who is now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
In fact, many IPEF participants have welcomed stepping up US engagement in the region, as some countries, including South Korea, are concerned about becoming too dependent on China, Cutler said.
There is an interest in diversifying sourcing and diversifying investment destinations and making supply chains more resilient and less susceptible to climate change, the pandemic and geopolitical developments, she added.
Last month, South Korea joined the economic initiative as a founding member, along with 12 other countries, including Japan and Singapore.
The initiative, unlike traditional economic pacts, is largely aimed at setting common regional standards for sectors including supply-chain resilience, clean energy, infrastructure, digital trade and cybersecurity.
According to Cutler, the IPEF would provide the opportunity for the US to be engaged in the region, as the country has been seen to lack a major trade and economic grouping since former US President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the proposed 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017.
Over concerns in South Korea that China may take retaliatory actions against it for joining the US-led initiative, Cutler said the US would work closely to come up with responses to handle economic coercions.
China, South Korea’s biggest trading partner, has been hostile against the IPEF, saying it is “doomed to fail,” and warned Seoul of possible “decoupling.”
“The issue of economic coercion would be of great concern to the Biden administration, and they are working with allies and partners that are either targeted for coercion or those already experiencing it, to develop responses,” Cutler said.
“Part of that is to make countries less dependent on any one source or inputs for their supply chains. So I think over time, you are going to hear more about collective efforts to address economic coercions.”
Cutler explained that the participating members are now working together in a “scoping exercise,” where they would define the details in the topics that will be discussed under the four pillars of the IPEF, and said it is still premature to make a judgment on the initiative.
“All participants including Korea will express their priorities, their concerns and work with the US and others to shape this initiative (in the scoping exercise),” Cutler said.
The US-led initiative is aimed at reorganizing the global supply chain and set regional standards in four pillars: trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonization and infrastructure; and effective taxation and anti-corruption measures.
While questions remain as to the benefits of joining the IPEF focused on “rule-making,” Culter said it would be able to offer “concrete benefits” to trading partners.
“I believe the administration will offer capacity-building efforts, they will be providing some financing in public and private partnerships particularly when it comes to clean energy issues. I also expect that in some areas for trade facilitation, there will be concrete benefits that will be offered to our trading partners,” Cutler said, urging participants and potential partners to “keep an open mind.”
“Traditionally in economic agreements and trade agreements, the US has used market access as a carrot for other countries to agree to things that they may not be so enthusiastic about doing,” Cutler said.
“But I think we are getting into a new world now and we need to think more broadly than just tariff cuts as being the benefits of initiatives like IPEF.”
9. Gov't in talks with USFK about return of Dragon Hill Lodge site in Yongsan
Oh no, not the Dragon Hill! )-: But I wonder if the declining usage would make it unsustainable over time. I understand it is not being used by US military members on the scale that was expected and hoped for (but that is anecdotal and hearsay evidence - the last time I visited just before COVID there were very few American guests there).
Gov't in talks with USFK about return of Dragon Hill Lodge site in Yongsan
The U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in central Seoul / Korea Times file The government is in talks with U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) about having the site of Yongsan Garrison's Dragon Hill Lodge returned to Korea in exchange for an alternative plot of land, sources said Monday.
According to foreign and defense ministry officials, the two sides have been in negotiations to return a 105,000 square-meter site hosting the Dragon Hill Lodge, situated next to the presidential office in central Seoul, to the Korean government.
In return, Seoul will provide a plot of land at a different site.
The sources said the two sides are expected to reach an agreement in the near future.
Seoul and Washington had previously planned to retain a U.S. military base at the Dragon Hill Lodge site to host a liaison office for USFK and the United Nations Command as well as a front office for the Republic of Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command in the wake of the U.S. forces' relocation to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.
The plan, however, is expected to be revised, the presidential official said. (Yonhap)
10. Deputy Secretary of State Sherman arrives in S. Korea for discussions on N.K.
High level trilateral cooperation continues.
This is one line of effort in the White House's INDOPACIFIC Strategy that is really being executed to the fullest.
Deputy Secretary of State Sherman arrives in S. Korea for discussions on N.K.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman / Korea Times file
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman arrived in South Korea on Monday to discuss the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, according to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.
The embassy announced Sherman's arrival in South Korea via Twitter, saying she will meet with her South Korean and Japanese counterparts "to discuss current issues, including DPRK," referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Sherman, according to the embassy, also plans to meet with women entrepreneurs and leaders of the LGBTQ community in South Korea.
According to the Seoul foreign ministry, Sherman will meet her South Korean counterpart, Cho Hyun-dong, on Tuesday, and they will be joined by Japan's Takeo Mori for a tripartite session Wednesday.
The three are expected to discuss ways to expand trilateral cooperation for stronger deterrence against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, and other regional and global issues amid China's rising assertiveness and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The trilateral meeting at the vice-ministerial level was last held in Washington D.C. in November, and it will be the first under the new Yoon Suk-yeol administration that was launched last month.
Sherman's visit to Seoul follows U.S. President Joe Biden's trip there last month for a summit with Yoon, which was held less than two weeks after the new South Korean leader took office.
Her visit to Seoul is part of a four-nation trip that will also take her to the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos from June 5-14, according to the U.S. State Department. (Yonhap)
11. Yoon invites Cheonan survivors, relatives of the dead
Quite a difference between the Moon and Yoon administrations.
Monday
June 6, 2022
Yoon invites Cheonan survivors, relatives of the dead
Navy officials pay their respects to the 46 soldiers who died in the sinking of the Cheonan at a memorial wall in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi on March 26. [YONHAP]
President Yoon Suk Yeol will invite survivors of the sinking of the Navy ship Cheonan, as well as relatives of sailors who died, to a memorial luncheon on Thursday, according to a People Power Party source on Sunday.
The Cheonan was a naval corvette that sank in the Yellow Sea near Baengnyeong Island on March 26, 2010, following an explosion that caused the ship to break in half. Forty six sailors died and 58 were rescued.
A Joint Civilian-Military Investigation Group (JIG), a South Korean-led multinational investigative group, concluded that the Cheonan sank due to a non-contact underwater explosion caused by a North Korean torpedo that detonated close enough to the stern section of the hull to cause severe damage.
Choi Won-il, the Cheonan’s captain, is expected at the luncheon. Also invited are Lee Sung-woo, chairman of an association for fallen soldiers’ families, and relatives of emergency responder Han Joo-ho, who died during the post-sinking rescue operation.
Other invitees include the mother of fallen master sergeant Min Pyeong-ki, Yoon Cheong-ja, who donated the 108.98 million won ($87,178) she received in compensation for the Navy to buy 16 machine guns for another ship.
“President Yoon took a special interest in veterans and relatives of those who fell during the Cheonan sinking during his presidential campaign,” said the PPP source, who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity. “He wanted to express his condolences to the families of those who fell, and whose memory was tarnished by government indifference and rumormongers.”
Yoon met with Choi and Lee on Nov. 17 during his presidential campaign and criticized the administration of former President Moon Jae-in for not formally placing blame on North Korea for the sinking of the ship.
During a 2020 ceremony commemorating those who fell in defense of the Yellow Sea over the decades, President Moon was confronted by Yoon Cheong-ja, who demanded he tell her who was responsible for the Cheonan's sinking.
Moon responded that North Korea was responsible.
The Presidential Truth Commission on Deaths in the Military under Moon controversially approved a reinvestigation of the Cheonan sinking to examine a claim that the ship sank after running aground.
The commission’s chairman, Lee In-lam, resigned in April last year after the decision to reopen the probe sparked outrage from survivors and their families.
BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
12. N. Korea warns that a major crisis point in the COVID-19 outbreak could come in June or July
Alliance contingency planning is a must right now.
N. Korea warns that a major crisis point in the COVID-19 outbreak could come in June or July - Daily NK
“The government called on people to remember that if they neglect to wear masks because it’s hot in summer, the virus could spread sharply and infections could accelerate,” a source told Daily NK
A photo published in state media on May 31 of North Korean officials wearing protective suits. (Rodong Sinmun-News1)
North Korea’s State Emergency Anti-epidemic Command (SEAC) recently issued an order to disease control agencies throughout the country warning that a “major crisis point” in the COVID-19 crisis could come in June or July.
A Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province said Wednesday that SEAC issued the order to provinces, cities and counties nationwide on May 26. Predicting a major crisis point in June or July, the order called on people to stay sharp, warning that “work in all sectors must not fall behind.”
According to the source, the order primarily emphasized that since party and state agencies, enterprises, farms, universities and all other sectors were experiencing crises due to the “infectious disease,” people must push forward with quarantine measures and keep doing their work “without retreating.”
Above all, the order called on people to finish up work on the farms during the “optimal period,” calling farming a “task that cannot be delayed.” It also called for construction projects, plans to develop the civilian economy, and school classes to continue without interruption.
“The government called on people to remember that if they neglect to wear masks because it’s hot in summer, the virus could spread sharply and infections could accelerate,” said the source. “It also called for the balanced redeployment of medical professionals from big hospitals to clinics and quarantine stations so that they will be able to respond quickly to outbreaks during the summer.”
The order demanded that health workers treat other infectious diseases going around each province “as the state would take responsibility for drugs and disinfectants,” he added.
The order also called for everyone to coalesce under unitary government command to “stabilize the social atmosphere” by September through strong efforts to bring down the fever infection rate.
In particular, the order called on quarantine authorities to closely watch people who have been in quarantine and to categorize them as “people with immunity.” Quarantine authorities were also ordered to ensure that people who again come down with fevers remain in quarantine for just three days instead of the standard ten.
Additionally, the order called on the authorities to establish a clear system separating the quarantined and the re-quarantined, and to keep track of the ratio of quarantine cases that have fully recovered so that life can return to a less restrictive “normal quarantine system” in each province by September.
“The government predicts infections to be widespread primarily in June and July and secondarily until September, and called on each province to simultaneously prepare for a prolonged medical battle and quickly transition to a normal quarantine system,” the source said.
SEAC also called for swift measures to combat seasonal diseases so that they do not make matters worse.
The source said the order concluded by telling provincial quarantine agencies and officials to think of present times as a “test platform,” warning that “if a stronger strain enters the country, they will need to wage a new struggle once again.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
13. South Korea has nuclear subs firmly in its sights
To what end for this vanity project? Is the juice worth the squeeze?
Excerpts:
As there is little military or political rationale for South Korea to acquire nuclear-powered subs, its desire for such sophisticated platforms may be driven by more than anything else.
Despite the arguments against acquring such an asset, President Yoon Suk-yeol has made clear his ambition to strengthen South Korea’s alliance with the US and join Quad working groups, suggesting a more ambitious foreign policy agenda than under recent previous administrations. In that direction, it would make good strategic sense to have a more wide-ranging, blue-water navy.
If South Korea acquires nuclear-powered subs, it will join the elite club of countries that operate these high-tech weapons, such as the US, France, UK, Russia, China and India. The prestige factor of operating nuclear-powered subs would potentially give South Korea a leg up against Japan, its traditional competitor and historical rival, in a flourish of techno-nationalism.As there is little military or political rationale for South Korea to acquire nuclear-powered subs, its desire for such sophisticated platforms may be driven by more than anything else.
Despite the arguments against acquring such an asset, President Yoon Suk-yeol has made clear his ambition to strengthen South Korea’s alliance with the US and join Quad working groups, suggesting a more ambitious foreign policy agenda than under recent previous administrations. In that direction, it would make good strategic sense to have a more wide-ranging, blue-water navy.
If South Korea acquires nuclear-powered subs, it will join the elite club of countries that operate these high-tech weapons, such as the US, France, UK, Russia, China and India. The prestige factor of operating nuclear-powered subs would potentially give South Korea a leg up against Japan, its traditional competitor and historical rival, in a flourish of techno-nationalism.
South Korea has nuclear subs firmly in its sights
New nuclear reactor deal with US could give Seoul the fuel it needs to indigenously develop long-coveted nuclear submarines
In a potential crucial strategic development, the United States and South Korea agreed last month to share small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) technology, a move that could pave the way for Seoul’s indigenous development of nuclear-powered submarines.
The publicly announced agreement marked a change in longstanding US policy toward South Korea, dating back to 1972, that restricts the sharing of sensitive nuclear technology.
During the recent Joint US-South Korea Summit held in Seoul, South Korea formally joined the US-led Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) program.
While SMRs have been used in nuclear submarines for decades, most studies on the technology have focused on civilian purposes due to their maximum power-generating capacity of less than 300 megawatts.
South Korea’s longrunning nuclear submarine ambitions are more than hype, and there are signs it may be inching to a conclusive decision on its acquisition plans.
According to an anonymous source cited in media reports, a technical meeting attended by representatives from South Korea’s Defines Acquisition Program Administration, the Republic of Korea Navy, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and an unidentified foreign company with expertise in building nuclear-powered subs was recently held.
“The military will come to a decision after taking into account a multitude of factors, including South Korea’s security environment, technology and budgetary constraints,” said the country’s Ministry of National Defense in a statement carried in the Naval News publication last week.
Despite that controversy and setback, South Korea never abandoned its efforts to acquire nuclear-powered subs. Former South Korean president Moon Jae-in declared “it’s time for us to acquire nuclear-powered submarines” when he ran for and eventually won the presidency in 2017.
Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in saw the need for nuclear submarines. Photo: AFP / Roslan Rahman
Shortly after his inauguration that same year, he approached the US for assistance in building South Korea’s nuclear industry, ostensibly to negotiate restrictions on uranium enrichment technology to produce nuclear fuel for subs.
More recently, South Korea’s nuclear sub drive may have gained new impetus by rival North Korea’s efforts to build similar boats as part of an undersea-based nuclear arsenal.
Last January, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced the completion of research for developing nuclear-powered subs and that their design had entered a final review process.
North Korea has been actively testing submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), including a blast launch in May, as a possible warning to new South Korean President Yoon Sok-yeol, who has taken a hawkish stand against Pyongyang.
Nuclear-powered subs are much more capable than conventionally powered ones as they can support more advanced and energy-intensive subsystems and have a virtually unlimited range and submerged endurance, capped only by the human limitations of their crews.
Nuclear-powered subs would also lessen South Korea’s dependence on US security guarantees, as Washington may be reluctant to take an even firmer stance against North Korea in sight of its nuclear arsenal and often unpredictable hostile behavior and pronouncements.
Indeed, South Korea’s push to acquire nuclear-powered subs may be driven in part by lingering perceptions that the US may not fully have its back in a conflict scenario. Some South Koreans recall that the US did not retaliate on its behalf after the 2010 North Korean bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island and the sinking of the ROKNS Cheonan that same year.
South Korea’s military and political rationale for acquiring nuclear-powered subs is thus not altogether clear given its already formidable anti-submarine capabilities vis-a-vis North Korea, capable conventional submarine fleet and complicated relationship with China.
Image: Twitter / NavalNews
Despite Pyongyang’s bombastic pronouncments, it’s still altogether unclear if it can build a nuclear-powered sub, particularly in its current dire economic situation. If North Korea’s claims are more bombast than reality, South Korea’s acquisition of nuclear subs may be superfluous.
If developed, South Korea’s nuclear-powered subs would likely be armed with conventional ballistic or cruise missiles for striking targets deep in North Korea. But using nuclear-powered subs for such an operation would be overkill given South Korea already has a huge fleet of conventional subs that can conduct the same mission at lower operational costs.
At the same time, the near-unlimited range of nuclear subs wouldn’t add much to South Korea’s military capabilities considering it is mainly focused on the Korean Peninsula and its surrounding waters.
South Korea could use nuclear-powered subs to assist US forces in any potential conflict in the East or South China Sea, though Seoul’s strategic interests are not fully compatible with US-led attempts to contain China, which it needs at the negotiating table with North Korea.
South Korea has thus taken an evasive position on the rumbling South China Sea disputes, to which Seoul has no competing claims. South Korea has also taken a low-profile approach in dealing with China’s incursions into its own territorial waters and airspace.
Apart from questions about South Korea’s military and political rationales, it will also face various practical, logistical and technical challenges in indigenously developing nuclear subs.
For one, South Korea does not currently have the dedicated workforce and facilities needed to design and build nuclear-powered subs. In addition, a South Korean SMR would need to be compact, powerful, reliable and safe enough to be used aboard a nuclear sub that passes basic design standards for reliability, ruggedness, maneuverability, endurance and sound.
Nor is it clear how South Korea would handle radioactive material, nuclear fuel enrichment and the training of highly specialized crews and technicians.
The disposal of nuclear subs is a significant issue requiring designated scrapping facilities that South Korea does not have at present.
To date, the US has been reluctant to provide nuclear fuel to South Korea – or allow it to enrich its own uranium – due to nuclear proliferation concerns. All other alternative suppliers of uranium enrichment services, namely Russia, France, China and the British-Dutch company URENCO, all restrict the low-enriched uranium they provide for peaceful use.
A billet of highly enriched uranium. Photo: WikiCommons
This means South Korea must enrich its own uranium if it pushes through with its nuclear-powered sub plans, which would necessarily be counterproductive to Korean Peninsula denuclearization efforts. Such a move could embolden North Korea to accelerate its nuclear weapons program and efforts to build more survivable launch systems.
As there is little military or political rationale for South Korea to acquire nuclear-powered subs, its desire for such sophisticated platforms may be driven by more than anything else.
Despite the arguments against acquring such an asset, President Yoon Suk-yeol has made clear his ambition to strengthen South Korea’s alliance with the US and join Quad working groups, suggesting a more ambitious foreign policy agenda than under recent previous administrations. In that direction, it would make good strategic sense to have a more wide-ranging, blue-water navy.
If South Korea acquires nuclear-powered subs, it will join the elite club of countries that operate these high-tech weapons, such as the US, France, UK, Russia, China and India. The prestige factor of operating nuclear-powered subs would potentially give South Korea a leg up against Japan, its traditional competitor and historical rival, in a flourish of techno-nationalism.
14. China warns Canada over air patrols on lookout for North Korea sanctions busting
China is overtly working to help north Korea evade sanctions.
China warns Canada over air patrols on lookout for North Korea sanctions busting
BEIJING, June 6 (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry warned Canada on Monday of potential "severe consequences" of any "risky provocation", after Canada's military last week accused Chinese warplanes of harassing its patrol aircraft monitoring North Korea sanctions busting.
"The U.N. Security Council has never authorised any country to carry out military surveillance in the seas and airspace of other countries in the name of enforcing sanctions," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a media briefing.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that Canada was an active member of "an important mission" in the North Pacific to ensure that sanctions on North Korea are properly enforced.
Chinese aircraft had sometimes forced Canadian planes to divert from their flight paths, Canada's military said last week. read more
Wu Qian, a defence ministry spokesman, said the Chinese military took reasonable measures to deal with Canada's actions and have made "solemn representations" via diplomatic channels.
China's defence ministry said in a statement that Canadian military jets have stepped up reconnaissance and "provocations" against China "under the pretext" of implementing U.N. Security Council resolutions, endangering China's national security.
Reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Yew Lun Tian, writing by Liz Lee Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore
15. A view from the demilitarized zone dividing the Koreas
Memories. Looking at that flag and village and listening to the propaganda and music blaring from the loudspeakers on both sides for three years is indelibly imprinted in my brain.
A very useful threat summary from LTG Chun In Bum.
A view from the demilitarized zone dividing the Koreas
BY DONALD KIRK, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 06/05/22 11:00 AM ET
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
Activists looking for reconciliation with North Korea persist in believing that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might settle for confederation between the North and South.
Foes of South Korea’s new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, fantasize about confederation after the North Koreans invade the South and then open talks with South Koreans. The conservative Yoon intends to reverse the appeasement campaign of his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, and agree to joint military exercises between South Korean and U.S. forces in the face of rising North Korean threats, but leftists want a withdrawal of the Americans and abrogation of the historic U.S.-South Korean alliance as bait to lure Kim into a deal.
The dream of confederation dates to the presidency of the late President Kim Dae-jung, who proposed “confederation” while promoting his failed “Sunshine policy” of reconciliation, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize after meeting Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang in June 2000.
A visit to the northeastern corner of South Korea — inside the southern side of the four-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone that stretches across the peninsula — should dispel the fantasy of North Korean forces uniting under one banner as central to confederation. South Korea’s 22nd Infantry Division remains on guard against a North Korean attack, as it was in my previous visits when elderly South Koreans waited for buses to carry them across the line into North Korea for reunions lasting three or four days with long lost relatives at a resort at the foot of the peaks and crags of Mount Kumgang, or Diamond Mountain. South Koreans have not gone on these reunion visits for nearly two years, and ordinary tours from the South were canceled nearly 14 years ago after a North Korean guard shot and killed a South Korean woman who had strayed outside the tourist zone to gaze at the sunrise.
At the northernmost observation post of the 22nd Division, a young South Korean officer points across the military demarcation line running down the middle of the DMZ to mark the North-South border. Gashes in the forested slopes indicate guard posts where North Korean troops face the South Koreans, as they have ever since the Korean War ended in a highly armed truce in July 1953. While the world worries about North Korean missile and nuclear tests, the South Korean officer believes the North Koreans are more likely to stage incidents along and across the DMZ than to fire a missile into the South — much less to explode a nuclear device for any purpose other than the North’s long-awaited seventh underground test.
After a briefing, retired South Korean Lt. Gen. Chun In-bum warns that the North Korean threat has only increased during the years since we first met when he was a battalion commander atop Hill 919 a few ridgelines to the west. The soldiers on the crest of 919 — named for its altitude in meters above the shimmering sea to the east — were primed for attack then as now. The porous nature of the rough frontier was glaringly obvious when a young North Korean defected to the South by scaling the barbed-wire fencing. Then, in January, the same man re-defected the way he came after failing to find more than janitorial work in the South.
As Kim escalates his rhetoric while COVID-19 spreads among his impoverished people, Chun dismisses notions of accommodation with the North as “wishful thinking.” More likely, he believes, the North Koreans — if they came south in a second Korean war — would liquidate millions of South Koreans deemed “untrustworthy.”
Chun doubts whether the North has given up the goal of a unified Korean Peninsula under communist rule. The sense is that Kim Jong Un, far from looking for confederation, has abandoned none of his programs for intimidating and threatening the South — despite all the hardships North Korea has endured, culminating in the pandemic that’s engulfing his kingdom.
Right now, Kim’s propaganda machine is boasting that authorities are conquering COVID after having denied for more than two years that a single citizen was suffering from the disease. In North Korea, the image of the battle against COVID turning into a victory for the regime is the party line. North Korea is releasing extremely low figures for the number who have died from the virus. Far more likely, tens of thousands have succumbed.
Under the circumstances, one would think that Kim would suspend his nuclear and missile program while battling the disease. But, overlooking the border between North and South Korea, Chun and others with whom I spoke seriously doubt if the disease is deterring Kim at all from his dream of conquest of the entire Korean peninsula.
With at least 40 percent of the North’s 26 million people estimated to be suffering from hunger, Kim Jong Un is not worried about losing many thousands whom his regime never has been able to feed. He has test-fired missiles since acknowledging the existence of the pandemic within the North’s borders, and he reportedly is preparing for the next nuclear test — the first since he ordered the North’s sixth nuclear test in September 2017.
Some observers believe that Kim may have abandoned hope of taking over the South, much less considering confederation of North and South into one unified country with different systems. No way, says Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul. Lankov, who was also looking over the border from the 22nd Division’s observation post, believes that Kim is resurrecting the dream. Lankov, a Russian scholar who studied at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang in the mid-1980s, sees aggression against the South as a distraction from the North’s current troubles.
Chun believes Kim would be capable of liquidating up to half of the South’s population as a means for establishing solid control. It’s difficult to believe Kim Jong Un could wreak so much death and destruction, but on the line between North and South, South Korean troops cannot afford to let down their guard.
Donald Kirk has been a journalist for more than 60 years, focusing much of his career on conflict in Asia and the Middle East, including as a correspondent for the Washington Star and Chicago Tribune. He currently is a freelance correspondent covering North and South Korea. He is the author of several books about Asian affairs.
16. The dramatic moment a brave mother fled her North Korean hell
Although it will be troubling, sad, and depressing, I look forward to reading this book to gain new insights into the evil regime in the north.
Jihyun Park should be an inspiration to us all.
The dramatic moment a brave mother fled her North Korean hell
Escape from the 'workers' paradise': Public executions, hunger so severe that boiled eggs were a once-in-a-lifetime (illegal) treat, sold into a brutal marriage. Then – finally – the dramatic moment a brave mother fled her North Korean hell
PUBLISHED: 19:43 EDT, 4 June 2022 | UPDATED: 19:44 EDT, 4 June 2022
Daily Mail · by Jihyun Park For The Mail On Sunday · June 5, 2022
It was just after midnight on February 21, 1998, and the banks of the frozen Tumen River separating North Korea from China were engulfed in darkness. We would have to cross the icy river on foot. As I walked, I focused on each step so as not to slip. This also helped me forget my fear.
But I couldn’t help wondering how many innocent souls had been swallowed up by this river and how many had managed to cross the 20-something yards of frozen water and reach China.
And how many others, like me, had abandoned their father on his deathbed, a bowl of cold rice beside him?
It took us 15 minutes to cross from one world into another. We were already well into Chinese soil when we heard the Korean guards behind us shouting: ‘Fugitives!’ We also heard gunshots, but it was too late. We were out of range.
We ran towards the first house we saw, knocked on the door and a Chinese woman opened it. Despite our muddy rags, our hair stiff with cold and our wan faces, she invited us in. She served us soup and eggs with white rice on the side.
In Korea, we had lived with death for years, yet just across the border another world existed. A world barely 100 yards away, where you could bask in abundance.
Today, I am a mother-of-three who twice escaped from North Korea and survived forced marriage, acute poverty, famine and illness before I was finally granted asylum in the UK in 2008.
I will never go back to Chongjin on the east coast of North Korea, a city nestling between the base of a mountain range and the sea that separates Korea from Japan. It had once been a small fishing village, but by the 1970s it was the third-largest city in the country. I can still see myself as a little girl of four in a tiny apartment, just 50ft square.
The buildings were named according to where the residents worked. Ours was called ‘Mechanical Department No2’ after the factory where my father serviced cars. Everyone worked at the same place, everyone lived in the same lodging, everyone earned the same amount of money. It was ‘the Workers’ Paradise’.
Our family of five, including my younger brother Jeong-ho and my older sister Myeong-sil, slept on the floor and in the evening the room was lit by a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling.
Light bulbs were rationed, a gift of Kim Il Sung, and not available to everyone. If any lights were left on too late, the authorities would cut the electricity to the building as a collective punishment, and you would be cursed by your neighbours.
So we lived in the dark most of the time and spoke little, since the apartment walls were paper-thin.
Our building manager, Mrs Choi, gathered information on residents and passed it directly to the Department of National Security.
Propaganda painting In North Korea
I was born on July 30, 1968, but in North Korea we don’t celebrate children’s birthdays. Only the birthday of our beloved father, founder of the nation Kim Il Sung, on April 15, is celebrated.
Of course he was the most important person in the world. Of course we must love him. His portrait was everywhere – on the red badges on our parents’ jackets, on the streets, in the trains, in the railway stations, in the newspapers.
There was a giant statue of him in the park, at the foot of which we placed flowers on his birthday, and his portrait in our house, which my mother and father cleaned every day with a special cloth. In spite of our hardships, I was a noble, proud and patriotic child, happy to live under Kim Il Sung’s protection. On the way to school, we would sing the words to a hymn called Pi Bada (Sea Of Blood) which talked about fighting the barbaric Japanese imperialist puppets with courage – a procession of small children, screaming until blue in the face.
Our teachers told us that Our Leader worked his entire life to bring happiness to the people of North Korea. It was thanks to him that we were alive, that we had food to eat and a roof over our heads.
We owed him everything.
Nonetheless, we were always hungry. Most of the meagre rations we received consisted of food made from maize. Mum displayed feats of imagination in order to put food in our bowls every day, but it wasn’t enough, and hunger often kept me from sleeping. The next day, it was the same thing all over again.
That feeling of eating my fill… I think that in the 30 years I lived in North Korea, I only experienced it twice. Once, when I was eight years old and my father brought bread home. The second time was the day I ate ten eggs in a row.
My father had come back that day cradling a backpack made of black cloth and motioned to us to remain silent. Placing the backpack on the table, he withdrew 50 white eggs one by one and placed them carefully beside the backpack. He had got them in return for some work he had done for a farm, but in a country where all food belonged to the state, he was breaking the law by accepting them.
‘If any of our neighbours see or hear about this, they’ll denounce us to the police and we’ll be arrested immediately,’ he said.
‘Boil them, all of them. Now! We’re going to eat them all at once. Do not speak of this beyond these walls. Tell no one that you’ve been eating eggs.’
And so my mother boiled them and we ate them, ten each.
More than once, my father placed a finger over his lips to remind us not to make a sound. Then my mother ground up the shells to a fine powder and threw them in the fire. No one would ever know.
Jihyun Park, a North Korean defector, who escaped fleeing first to China and then settling in the UK
At school, all students were required to submit to self-criticism every week. We had to say who had got a bad grade and denounce those who had behaved badly.
‘She scribbled in her workbook during the history lesson on Kim Il Sung!’ one pupil would declare. The accused pupil would confess their crime and promise never to do it again, and then might be sentenced to write out their self-criticism ten times by the following day.
Some children cried when they were criticised. My friends and I made deals, agreeing on what each of us would critique in the other.
But every child’s true fate in life ultimately depended on their ‘songbun’, a classification system that divides Korean citizens into political, social and economic groups, reflecting what their family was doing on September 9, 1948, the day the state had been created.
I knew we belonged to the superior class, the ‘loyal’ class made up of descendants of those who fought the Japanese during the occupation, thanks to our paternal grandfather who had fought in the 1930s.
We did know, however, that your songbun can change over the course of your lifetime. You can attain a higher class by serving your country with a heroic act – but you might also drop into a lower category if you commit an undesirable act, and your family will be affected for three generations.
In the Corps of Young Pioneers, the training organisation for future revolutionary fighters aged seven to 13, we were taught to hate.
I knew that my mother’s songbun was not as good as my father’s, but I didn’t know why. Then, when my sister was not awarded the research position in the army she’d applied for, despite having won first place in a computer programming contest, I learned the truth.
Her father, she told us, had defected to the South during the Korean War. He, too, had been a landowner and there was no place in the party for a former landowner corrupted by capitalism. Now my sister understood why she hadn’t been given the army job: it was because tainted blood of a deserter ran through her veins.
The party was ditching us. We were cursed.
Jihyun Park poses for a photograph after deciding to stand for election as a Conservative party candidate in the upcoming local elections in the Moorside Ward in Bury
One afternoon in 1984, the year I turned 16, my brother, my sister and I had just come home from school when the building manager knocked on our door and told us to head back.
A traitor had just been arrested and was about to be punished.
We hurried back to school, where Teacher lined us up and led us to the Rabook River, where a large crowd had gathered. I could see they’d erected a post on a stretch of sand below the bridge.
Suddenly, an army Jeep drove up, and policemen pulled out a hooded man. Clearly weak, he could barely walk. They tied the man to the post. Three soldiers lined up in front of him, each with a rifle on his shoulder.
‘What did he do?’ shouted the people standing around us.
‘I think he killed a cow!’
‘A cow? Who would dare do such a thing? Let him die!’
Shots rang out. Each of the three soldiers shot him in the head, the chest and the knees. With each shot, the man slumped a little more. After untying him from the post, they rolled him up in some sacking, then loaded him into a car.
As we watched them drive away, it occurred to me that anyone could be executed. That it could be me.
My gut seized with fear, but I stood there silent and stoic, just like the 5,000 people around me.
The walk home was hell. It felt like the ground was collapsing under the weight of our guilty consciences.
Back at home, our parents didn’t speak, even though they had just returned from the same spectacle.
Nor did we speak when, in a latenight raid a few years later, police handcuffed and led away the Nams, the family in Flat One.
The next morning, I heard Mrs Choi, the building manager, talking in the corridor. I cracked open the door of our flat and listened.
‘It’s about her husband,’ Mrs Choi was saying to the group of women gathered around her.
‘A few days ago, he drank too much and criticised the party, blaming it for how poor he is. Criticising the state, that’s a serious crime. That’s why they arrested the whole family. Guilty by association.’
Hiding under my blankets that night, I cried. I’d grown up with the Nams. They were a happy family. One beer, a few misplaced words and five lives were ruined.
North Korean Red Cross workers monitoring the distribution of rice and vegetable oil provided by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Unpa County, some 150 km south of Pyongyang
In September 1991, when I was 23, I started teaching maths at a high school. The 1990s would be one of the worst decades North Korea had ever known.
The Soviet Union, on which we were heavily dependent, collapsed. Diesel for cooking stoves ran out. Oil lamps replaced electric light bulbs. We had to count on the black market for food and were forced to draw our water from the river.
This was the beginning of a famine the state dubbed The March of Suffering, and it would last for ten years. My pupils came to school hungry. They no longer smiled. My class numbers fell dramatically. Some of them died.
People were forced to trade their homes for a kilo or two of rice or corn. Entire families found themselves on the street.
The stench of deadbodies, people publicly executed for stealing food – these things became part of our daily life.
My father had a heart attack and was forced to stop working.
My mother ran a stall in the market and would be gone for weeks at a time, trying to buy goods to sell – many of them, like Chinese cigarettes, on the black market.
But we fell deeper and deeper into debt and creditors came to empty our flat of our few remaining possessions.
One day, my mother left, talking about a distant cousin in China who could help. She didn’t return. I searched for food on the mountainsides to feed my father, gathering anything – roots, plants, mushrooms, bark – that could be ground up to serve as a base for broth. But by June 1997, even the hills had nothing left to offer: the villagers had stripped them bare.
Yet, no matter how hard I’d tried to resist it, I’d been brainwashed.
Like a machine that’s been programmed at the factory and won’t stop, I heard myself say: ‘This is the West’s fault! They are the ones who imposed sanctions on us! We live in a socialist country, where no one should die of hunger!’
My father had another heart attack, and the food I managed to scavenge was not enough to restore his strength. When my brother deserted from the army and became a fugitive from the authorities, we knew we too had to go.
I wrote my father a long note, placed a bowl of rice beside him, along with a pair of clean pyjamas, and we paid a people-smuggler to take us – my brother, sister, brother-in-law and niece – across the Tumen River into China.
We located our mother, but our reunion was not exactly what I had prepared myself for: she was living in a small house in the country – with a new husband.
But that wasn’t even the worst surprise. I soon discovered that the only reason we could afford our escape was because I was to be sold in marriage to a Chinese man.
My mother and sister had cooked up the plan. The broker to whom they delivered me first raped me, then took me to a market where people bought wives and workers.
I was sold for the modest sum of 5,000 yuan, the equivalent of about £1,000 today – of which, I later discovered, my family only received 1,000 yuan, or £200.
Taken by my husband, Seong-ho, to his family’s squalid house in a village at the foot of a mountain range near the Russian border, I was put to work as a farmhand and regularly beaten. Before long, I was pregnant.
I resisted the suggestion of an illegal abortion and, little by little, an idea began to take shape. This child would save me by creating a space for happiness in me, even in the midst of misery. We would go on this journey together. On April 20, 1999, I gave birth to a boy, and I named him Chul. The name means iron: strong as iron to face this pitiless world. Seeing his little face filled me with happiness.
From then on, he was my only reason for living. In the ensuing years I would live in secret, hiding with my child and my drunken husband before, finally, I was arrested as an illegal immigrant – and, to my horror, deported to the city of my birth. I was held in a prison camp for three months, released only when gravely ill and expected to die from sickness and starvation. As for my son, I’d been forced to leave him in China with my husband’s family. But I didn’t die; somehow I recovered.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivering a closing address at the Sixth Conference of Cell Secretaries of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang in 2021
After a year, I once again sold myself to a middleman and took the risk of crossing back into China across the Tumen River.
The plan was to sell me on to a Chinese trafficker and take the commission. But when we got across and I told him about my desire to find Chul, something incredible happened.
'I can’t sell you if you have a child,’ he said calmly, lighting a cigarette. ‘Go and find him yourself.’
And so I did. I succeeded in kidnapping Chul on March 18, 2005 – and then set out for a third escape, this time from China itself. We headed for Beijing and joined a group of North Koreans who wanted to cross the Gobi Desert to get to Ulan Bator, the Mongolian capital, to seek asylum at the South Korean Embassy
At the Mongolian border with a group of fellow North Korean escapees, five-year-old Chul and I staggered towards a barbed wire fence as a police siren wailed. My mind flashed back to prison camp, to North Korea, to hell. I told myself that it was out of the question that my son should see me in handcuffs a second time.
Suddenly, someone grabbed Chul, threw him over his shoulder and started running for the fence. I ran, too, grabbing this stranger’s arm.
This man was called Kwang-hyun Joo, and by risking his life, he had saved ours. He could hardly have known that the 200 metres he had just run were not the end but the beginning – and that he would eventually become my husband.
It was another three years of hardship and uncertainty before we landed at Heathrow, now with a second young son. We were granted political refugee status and settled in Bury. We had a third child, a daughter, I took English night classes, and in 2017 became a Conservative Party activist, standing in last year’s council elections.
I am profoundly grateful for the welcome I have been given. But as I look back now, the distant past is like a murky dream, a lost world collapsing before my eyes, swallowing up the people and places that had been most dear to me. To this day, I have no news of my family.
©Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, 2022
The Hard Road Out, by Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, is published by HarperNorth at £16.99. To order a copy for £15.29, go to mailshop. co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937 before June 19. Free UK delivery on orders over £20.
Daily Mail · by Jihyun Park For The Mail On Sunday · June 5, 2022
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
