Quotes of the Day:
SECSTATE Dean Atcheson:
"This afternoon I should like to discuss with you the relations between the peoples of the United States and the peoples of Asia....
What is the situation in regard to the military security of the Pacific area, and what is our policy in regard to it?
In the first place, the defeat and the disarmament of Japan has placed upon the United States the necessity of assuming the military defense of Japan so long as that is required, both in the interest of our security and in the interests of the security of the entire Pacific area and, in all honor, in the interest of Japanese security. We have American, and there are Australian troops in Japan. I am not in a position to speak for the Australians, but I can assure you that there is no intention of any sort of abandoning or weakening the defenses of Japan, and that whatever arrangements are to be made, either through permanent settlement or otherwise, that defense must and shall be maintained.
This defensive perimeter runs along the Aleutians to Japan and then goes to the Ryukyus. We hold important defense positions in the Ryukyu Islands, and those we will continue to hold. In the interest of the population of the Ryukyu Islands, we will at an appropriate time offer to hold these islands under trusteeship of the United Nations. But they are essential parts of the defensive perimeter of the Pacific, and they must and will be held.
The defensive perimeter runs from Ryukyus to the Philippine Islands. Our relations, our defensive relations with the Philippines are contained in agreements between us. Those agreements are being loyally carried out and will be loyally carried out. Both peoples have learned by bitter experience the vital connections between our mutual defense requirements.
So far as the military security of other areas in the Pacific is concerned, it must be clear that no person can guarantee these areas against military attack. But it must also be clear that such a guarantee is hardly sensible or necessary within the realm of practical relationship.
Should such an attack occur, one hesitates to say where such an armed attack could come from, the initial reliance must be on the people attacked to resist it and then upon the commitments of the entire civilized world under the Charter of the United Nations, which so far has not proved a weak reed to lean on by any people who are determined to protect their independence against outside aggression. But it is a mistake, I think, in considering Pacific and Far Eastern problems to become obsessed with military considerations. Important as they are, there are other problem that press, and these other problems are not capable of solution through military means. These other problems arise out of the susceptibility of many areas, and many countries in the Pacific area, to subversion and penetration. That cannot be stopped by military means....
. . . What we conclude, I believe, is that there is a new day which has dawned in Asia. It is a day in which the Asian peoples are on their own, and know it, and intend to continue on their own. It is a day in which the old relationships between east and west are gone, relationships which at their worst were exploitation and at their best were paternalism. That relationship is over, and the relationship of east and west must now be in the Far East one of mutual respect and mutual helpfulness. We are their friends. Others are their friends. We and those others are willing to help, but we can help only where we are wanted and only where conditions of help are really sensible and possible. So what we can see is that this new day in Asia, this new day which is dawning, may go on to a glorious noon or it may darken and it may drizzle out. But that decision lies within the countries of Asia and within the power of the Asian people. It is not a decision which a friend or even an enemy from the outside can make for them.
- SECSTATE Dean Atcheson 12 Jan 1950 / National Press Club.
"People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them."
- James Baldwin
"Trust dies but mistrust blossoms"
- Sophocles
1. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: Korea
2. N. Korea says it has succeeded in final test-firing of hypersonic missile
3. N.Korea's Kim calls for more 'military muscle' after watching hypersonic missile test
4. North Korea raises stakes with new Mach-10 hypersonic missile test
5. North Korea’s second missile launch of new year feeds hypersonic fears
6. Moon not considering attending Beijing Olympics: Cheong Wa Dae
7. U.S. allows S. Korea to pay compensation to Iranian investor over ISDS ruling
8. U.N. Command to suspend Panmunjom tours again amid coronavirus concerns
9. WFP says its food aid to N. Korea remains halted since last March
10. U.S. condemns N. Korean missile launch, urges N. Korea to engage in dialogue: Psaki
11. UNSC fails to come up with a response regarding N. Korea’s missile launch
12. N. Korea launches hypersonic missile 6 days after ballistic missile launch
13. North crows about hypersonic 'glide vehicle'
14. Corea Image Communication Institute hosts annual awards
15. Will North Korea sway South Korea's presidential election?
16. South Korea succeeds in developing missile defense system for aircraft
17. Desperate Kim Jong Un Pleads With Citizens to Make More Poop
18. The Price North Korea Must Pay for An End of War Declaration
1. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: Korea
Korea
By David Maxwell
Previous Trend: Neutral
The 53rd Security Consultative Meeting between the ROK Minster of National Defense and the U.S. secretary of defense took place on December 2, 2021. Defense Minister Suh Wook and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin expressed their wish to “reaffirm the vision of the leaders of both nations,” including extended deterrence and a shared commitment to denuclearization and the establishment of a permanent peace through diplomacy. The two leaders issued revised strategic guidance to the alliance’s military commanders to develop a new defense plan for South Korea.
Meanwhile, President Moon Jae-in continued his quest for an end-of-war declaration, and there were unconfirmed reports of an ROK-U.S. agreement “in principle.” China also expressed support for an agreement. However, there has been no confirmation from the Biden administration, except to reiterate that it seeks peace and remains skeptical about the efficacy of such an agreement.
In the North, the Worker’s Party of Korea held the 4th Plenary Meeting of the party’s 8th Central Committee for an unusually long five days at the end of December. The meeting focused on the economy, food shortages, and ideological development, with only a single sentence in the plenary’s 18,400-word statement addressing national security and foreign policy. This is likely an indication of dire internal conditions.
Showing that actions speak louder than words, instead of delivering a New Year’s message, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un conducted a ballistic missile test on January 5th. The ROK and U.S. intelligence communities continue to assess the launch.
The South Korean presidential election in March remains the major focus of politics there.
2. N. Korea says it has succeeded in final test-firing of hypersonic missile
I suppose Kim is enjoying all the press about this launch including the short aviation "ground stop" on the west coast of the US due to a "national security threat."
(3rd LD) N. Korea says it has succeeded in final test-firing of hypersonic missile | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with unification ministry's reaction in paras 15-16, minor edits throughout)
By Choi Soo-hyang
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Wednesday it has successfully conducted the "final" test-firing of a new hypersonic missile a day earlier as its leader Kim Jong-un called for the strengthening of the country's "strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity" during an on-site inspection.
"The superior maneuverability of the hypersonic glide vehicle was more strikingly verified through the final test-fire," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. "The test-fire was aimed at the final verification of overall technical specifications of the developed hypersonic weapon system."
The hypersonic glide vehicle demonstrated "glide jump flight," "corkscrew maneuvering" and hit "the set target in waters 1,000 km off," it added with regard to Tuesday's launch. It marked the third known test-firing of what the secretive North claims to be a hypersonic missile, with the second one conducted last week.
Kim attended the firing in an activity which Pyongyang usually describes as field guidance. He previously oversaw such a major missile test in March 2020.
A photo released by the country's tightly controlled state media showed Kim's influential sister, Kim Yo-jong, accompanying him.
The North's latest saber-rattling came as nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang remain stalled since the no-deal Hanoi summit in February 2019.
Kim urged officials in the missile research sector to "bolster the war deterrent of the country with their continued ultra-modern scientific research achievements" and stressed the need to build up "strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity."
South Korea's military initially downplayed the North's hypersonic missile claims as "exaggeration" but stated later the latest launch demonstrated "improvement" from the previous tests.
The North announced the first test-firing of a "hypersonic" missile Hwasong-8 in September last year. The missile reportedly flew at a top speed of around Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday's projectile flew over 700 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 60 km and a maximum speed of Mach 10.
Experts say the hypersonic missile's speed, coupled with its maneuverability at a low altitude, makes it harder to intercept.
South Korea's military said a detailed analysis was under way in coordination with the U.S. on the specific features of the North's hypersonic missile capability.
Developing a hypersonic weapon was one of the North's "five core tasks" under a five-year plan to strengthen its defense capabilities unveiled at its eighth party congress held a year ago.
"North Korea is likely to continue with testing other strategic weapons it vowed to develop down the road," professor Lim Eul-chul at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies said.
The Ministry of Unification handling inter-Korean affairs was cautious over Kim's intention in overseeing the launch event.
"There have been different cases of Kim attending such missile tests or not," the ministry said in a statement. "We will continue monitoring the situation to make a comprehensive analysis and assessment."
On Tuesday, President Moon Jae-in expressed concern over North Korea's repeated missile launches ahead of South Korea's presidential election slated for March and ordered officials to come up with measures to ensure "no further tension in inter-Korean relations."
The White House also condemned North Korea's latest launch and urged the North to engage in dialogue.
scaaet@yna.co.kr
(END)
3. N.Korea's Kim calls for more 'military muscle' after watching hypersonic missile test
Why boost military forces? For warfighting? Can anyone confirm if Kim Jong-un has abandoned the seven decades old strategy of subversion, coercion-extortion (blackmail diplomacy), and use of force to achieve unification dominated by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State in order to ensure the survival of the mafia like crime family cult known as Kim family regime? In support of that strategy do we believe that Kim Jong-un has abandoned the objective to split the ROK/US Alliance and get US forces off the peninsula? Has KJU given up his divide to conquer strategy - divide the alliance to conquer the ROK?
I recommend as we assess these launches and north Korea's Propaganda and Agitation Department statements we keep these questions in mind.
N.Korea's Kim calls for more 'military muscle' after watching hypersonic missile test
- Summary
- Launch detected on Tuesday by Japan, S.Korea
- Kim officially at test for first time since March 2020
- U.S., EU condemn tests as threat to peace
- Tests follow Kim's vow to boost military forces
SEOUL, Jan 12 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for boosting the country's strategic military forces as he observed the test of a hypersonic missile, state media said on Wednesday, officially attending a missile launch for the first time in nearly two years.
On Tuesday authorities in South Korea and Japan detected the suspected launch, which drew condemnation by authorities around the world and prompted an expression of concern from the U.N. secretary-general. read more
The second test of a "hypersonic missile" in less than a week underscored Kim's New Year's vow to bolster the military with cutting-edge technology at a time when talks with South Korea and the United States have stalled.
After watching the test, Kim urged military scientists to "further accelerate the efforts to steadily build up the country's strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity and further modernize the army," KCNA news agency reported.
It was the first time since March 2020 that Kim had officially attended a missile test.
"His presence here would suggest particular attention on this programme," Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, posted on Twitter.
Unlike some other recent tests, ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun published photos of Kim attending the launch on its front page.
"While Kim probably unofficially attended other tests in the interim, this appearance and its Page One feature on Rodong Sinmun is important," said Chad O'Carroll, chief executive of Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea. "It means Kim is not concerned about being personally associated (with) tests of major new tech. And doesn't care how the U.S. sees this."
U.N. Security Council resolutions ban all North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear tests and have imposed sanctions over the programs.
Talks aimed at persuading North Korea to surrender or limit its arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles have stalled, with Pyongyang saying it is open to diplomacy but only if the United States and its allies stop "hostile policies" such as sanctions or military drills.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the Eighth Conference of Military Educationists of the Korean People's Army at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang, North Korea in this undated photo released on December 7, 2021. KCNA via REUTERS
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland called the launches dangerous and destabilising.
"It obviously takes us in the wrong direction," she said at a regular briefing in Washington on Tuesday. "As you know, the United States has been saying since this administration came in that we are open to dialogue with North Korea, that we are open to talking about COVID and humanitarian support, and instead they're firing off missiles."
The European Union on Tuesday condemned the latest North Korean missile launch as a "threat to international peace and security" and called on Pyongyang to resume diplomacy.
'SUPERIOR MANOEUVERABILITY'
Despite their name, analysts say the main feature of hypersonic weapons is not speed - which can sometimes be matched or exceeded by traditional ballistic missile warheads - but their manoeuvrability, which makes them an acute threat to missile defence systems.
Photos released by state media appeared to show the same type of missile and warhead that was first tested last week, analysts said.
"The test-fire was aimed at the final verification of overall technical specifications of the developed hypersonic weapon system," KCNA reported.
After its release from the rocket booster, a hypersonic glide vehicle made a 600 km (375 mile) "glide jump flight" and then 240 km of "corkscrew manoeuvering" before hitting a target in the sea 1,000 km away, the report said.
South Korean officials had questioned the capabilities of the missile after the first test last week, saying it did not appear to demonstrate the range and manoeuverability claimed in a state media report and featured a manoeuverable warhead rather than an actual glide vehicle.
On Tuesday, however, South Korea said the second test appeared to show improved performance, with the missile reaching top speeds up to 10 times the speed of sound (12,348 km per hour / 7,673 miles per hour), although they did not comment on its manoeuverability.
"The superior manoeuverability of the hypersonic glide vehicle was more strikingly verified through the final test-fire," KCNA said.
Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Richard Pullin
4. North Korea raises stakes with new Mach-10 hypersonic missile test
Comments from a number of us.
North Korea raises stakes with new Mach-10 hypersonic missile test
Launch comes only days after previous test, and appeared to be more advanced.
By Jeong Eun Lee, Jaeduk Seo, and Dukin Han
2022.01.11
North Korea test launched a ballistic missile Tuesday capable of speeds exceeding Mach-10, displaying an apparent technological advance in its second hypersonic test of 2022, South Korea’s military said.
The launch came less than a week after Pyongyang tested another hypersonic missile, but Tuesday’s was likely more advanced. If so, the test would seem to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s Day promise to increase military capabilities through advanced technology as talks with South Korea and the U.S. have stalled.
But analysts said it was too soon to determine how big of a technological advancement Tuesday’s test represented.
Early findings estimate that the missile travelled eastward from the northern province of Chagang into waters east of the peninsula, about 770 km (435 miles) away, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
The missile reached a maximum height of 60 kilometers (37 miles), with a speed of up to 10 times the speed of sound.
"We assess that this is more advanced than the missile North Korea fired on Jan. 5, though South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are conducting detailed analysis," the JCS said.
That missile was also claimed by North Korea to be hypersonic–fast enough to thwart defenses–but the South Korean defense ministry said this exaggerated the capabilities, and the missile was merely a slight upgrade over a ballistic missile. A U.S. weapons expert also said the focus on speed was misplaced.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told RFA’s Korean Service the test was a “violation of multiple U.N. Security Council Resolutions and poses a threat to [North Korea’s] neighbors and the international community.”
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that although the launch did not “pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies, the missile launch highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s illicit weapons program.”
U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, through a spokesperson, expressed concern over the launch, and reiterated that diplomatic engagement was the only way to reach a solution to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Several experts, both in South Korea and the U.S. said they expected that North Korea will continue to test weapons systems.
“The reason why North Korea conducts these tests every few days is to complete the development of strategic weapons and nuclear weapons to an irreversible level,” Hong Min, director of the North Korea Research Division at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification, told RFA.
“It seems to be a series of actions in the beginning of the process to make sure that it is a matter of sovereignty at the level of self-defense as the international community continues to raise issues,” Hong said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches missile launch Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022. Photo: KCNA
The two launches appear to be efforts to perfect a hypersonic vehicle, Robert Manning of the Washington-based Atlantic Council told RFA.
“You have to keep in mind, the only way to know if missiles work as intended is to test them,” he said. “Expect more. One troubling thing is that when you look at the whole set of nuclear and missile capabilities that Kim Jong Un is building, they appear more than what would be needed to deter the U.S.
Manning said the testing could affect South Korea’s ongoing presidential race.
Nam Seong-wook of Korea University told RFA that the launch could be an effort to distract North Koreans from the economic difficulties they face due to the COVID-19 pandemic and continued sanctions over their country’s nuclear program.
But the launch hints at the possibility of a preemptive nuclear strike against the South, Cha Du Hyeogn of the Seoul-based Asan Institute said in a video released Tuesday.
“No matter how much sanctions are imposed, North Korea’s weapons are advancing. In particular, its nuclear capabilities will continue to advance,” he said.
Soo Kim of the RAND Corporation told RFA that Kim Jong Un will likely continue to test missiles without a firm declaration from the U.S. of the consequences of doing so.
“Kim likely assesses that the demonstration of weapons capabilities helps him maintain the upper hand in any future dealings with the U.S. Plus, it perpetuates the regime’s looming presence over its neighbor, South Korea,” Soo Kim said.
Two launches within a week served to bolster North Korea as a potential threat to the international community, she said.
North Korea on Jan. 11, 2022 fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into waters east of the Korean peninsula, its second weapons launch in a week. Photo: KCNA
The timing of the launch was meant to coincide with a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday over North Korea’s launch last week, David Maxwell of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies told RFA.
He also noted that South Korea went from “being skeptical as to whether the 6 January launch was a hypersonic missile to reporting on the 11 January launch being Mach 10."
But Joshua Pollack, senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, said the significance of the most recent test was not clear.
“The problem with the term ‘hypersonic’ is that all ballistic missiles of more than a relatively short range meet the usual definition. So, strictly speaking, both North and South Korea have had hypersonic missiles for years, even for decades,” Pollack said.
The term can be applied both to cruise missiles and ballistic missiles that travel faster than Mach 5. Hypersonic usually refers only to the “boost speed” of a missile — that is the speed that it reaches powered by its fuel. Two identical ballistic missiles that boost at different speeds will glide back to earth at the same speed once the rocket burns out.
“All of this emphasis on speed and Mach numbers can be very confusing and is perhaps pointless. … If speed is what matters, then I simply cannot explain what the big deal about Mach 10 is. The Hwasong-15 ICBM burns out at roughly Mach 20,” he said, referring to a missile North Korea first test launched in 2017.
Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
5. North Korea’s second missile launch of new year feeds hypersonic fears
A number of my comments below.
North Korea’s second missile launch of new year feeds hypersonic fears
Kim Jong Un watches test that briefly shuts down West Coast airports
North Korea conducted its second ballistic missile launch of the new year on Tuesday, testing a suspected “hypersonic” missile that sparked concerns in Washington that the regime in Pyongyang is increasing the pace of its provocations in hopes of pressuring the Biden administration into making concessions.
While the missile flew about 435 miles before crashing into the sea, it traveled at roughly 10 times the speed of sound. U.S. authorities took the unusual step of halting operations and takeoffs and landings at airports along the West Coast during the moments after the launch was detected.
Officials said commercial flights were briefly halted out of an abundance of caution, although they would not specify which airports were affected or say explicitly what triggered the move. The Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific Command said only that the launch did not pose an “immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un personally witnessed the test. It was the first time the dictator officially attended a test firing in nearly a year.
The state-controlled KCNA news agency reported that Mr. Kim congratulated North Korea’s missile program scientists and urged them to “further accelerate the efforts to steadily build up the country’s strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity and further modernize the army.”
David Maxwell, a retired Special Forces colonel focused on North Korea at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the airport grounding order was either a mistake or an overreaction. “It certainly was not necessary, but it likely pleased Kim Jong-un because his actions had some effect,” Mr. Maxwell told The Washington Times.
He said there could be a range of motivations behind the Kim regime’s decision to carry out the launch. “The first reason could simply be to test to advance the missile program. It may not be meant as a message at all. They must test their systems to continue to develop them,” Mr. Maxwell said.
At the same time, he said, Pyongyang could be trying to continue its strategy of “blackmail diplomacy,” under which the regime seeks to pressure South Korea, the U.S. and the international community to “make concessions to halt provocations and to bring the regime to the negotiating table.”
The Biden administration and South Korean officials have appealed to North Korea for months to reengage in diplomatic talks, which have gone nowhere for more than two years. President Trump had high-stakes summits with Mr. Kim in 2018 and 2019.
The launch Tuesday was the second for Pyongyang in a week, both on the heels of public assertions by Mr. Kim that North Korea must expand its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international opposition. The Kim regime has spent decades ignoring U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at halting Pyongyang’s nuclear program and development of ballistic missiles.
The North’s nuclear and ballistic capabilities remain as opaque as ever. The Pentagon has said it was assessing the Kim regime’s claims that it test-fired a hypersonic missile on Wednesday. If true, it would amount to a significant escalation of tensions between Pyongyang and South Korea, a close U.S. ally and home to some 30,000 American military personnel.
“It obviously takes us in the wrong direction,” Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told reporters at the State Department. “As you know, the United States has been saying since this administration came in that we are open to dialogue with North Korea, that we are open to talking about COVID and humanitarian support, and instead they’re firing off missiles.”
Hard to defend
Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, pose a crucial challenge to missile defense systems because of their speed and ability to maneuver on the way to their target. Such weapons were on a wish list of sophisticated military assets Mr. Kim unveiled last year along with multiwarhead missiles, spy satellites, solid-fuel long-range missiles and submarine-launched nuclear missiles.
The North Korean tests “continue to be in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “We certainly call on [North Korea] to abide by those obligations and those responsibilities and look for ways to de-escalate.”
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff office said it detected Tuesday’s launch from an “inland area” into the divided Korean Peninsula’s East Sea. The official said Seoul “strongly demands the North stop its programs immediately.”
South Korea’s presidential office said the launch was discussed at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, whose members have urged North Korea to return to talks. President Moon Jae-in expressed concern that Pyongyang was dialing up its testing activity ahead of the South’s presidential elections in March.
Mr. Maxwell said it is impossible to know for sure why Mr. Kim ordered the latest round of tests.
“There are three things we should keep in mind,” he told The Times in an email exchange. “(1) Kim Jong-un continues to demonstrate his hostile policy toward [South Korea] and the U.S.; (2) [Mr. Kim] continues to develop capabilities that appear to be for war fighting as well as messaging; (3) there has been no change to [Mr. Kim’s] political warfare strategy and blackmail diplomacy which seeks to use increased tension, threats and provocations to gain political and economic concessions.”
Some think Mr. Kim may be accelerating the pace and scope of his provocations as North Korea’s economy faces another difficult year.
While the regime has carried out dozens of short-range missile tests over the past two years, it has not tested a nuclear weapon or a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile since the 2018 summit with Mr. Trump in Singapore. At that meeting, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim discussed the prospect of major U.S. sanctions relief for North Korea if the regime abandoned its nuclear weapons.
Such disagreements over who goes first and how to sequence the concessions on both sides led to a breakdown in direct diplomacy after the failed second summit in Hanoi in 2019.
Mr. Kim “closed out both 2021 and a five-day meeting of the Korean Workers Party with a speech that … offered no hint of diplomatic outreach or moderating North Korea’s ongoing arms buildup,” said former CIA Korea deputy division chief Bruce Klingner, now with The Heritage Foundation.
“In the first year of each of the three previous U.S. administrations, conducted a nuclear or long-range missile test,” Mr. Klingner wrote in an analysis published by the foundation last week. “The lack of such provocation during the first year of the Biden administration was therefore uncharacteristic. However, North Korea continued short- and medium-range missile testing in 2021 and could eventually choose to test the new long-range missile systems it paraded publicly in 2020 and 2021.”
Airport scare
The Associated Press reported that several major U.S. airports received a surprise order to briefly freeze ground operations and delay takeoffs and landings just minutes after the North Korean launch was detected.
Among the sites receiving the “ground stop” order were airports in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged that it halted traffic for less than 15 minutes at “some airports along the West Coast on Monday evening” as a “matter of precaution,” according to a report by Politico, which said the agency did not explicitly tie the decision to North Korea’s missile launch.
Politico cited the agency as saying it “regularly takes precautionary measures.” The news outlet quoted a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation as saying on the condition of anonymity that the FAA may have acted out of precaution before a final determination by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) that the missile launch did not threaten the continental U.S.
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6. Moon not considering attending Beijing Olympics: Cheong Wa Dae
Wise decision on multiple levels.
Moon not considering attending Beijing Olympics: Cheong Wa Dae | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in is not considering attending the Beijing Olympics next month, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Wednesday, despite Seoul's hopes to use the Games to help resume dialogue with Pyongyang.
The North's state media reported last week that the country had told China that it cannot participate in the Games slated for next month due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons though it "fully" supports the event.
"We are not considering the issue of President Moon participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics next month," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity when asked about how internal discussions on the issue had been proceeding.
The official took note of Seoul's ongoing considerations regarding the sending of an "appropriate" delegation to the Olympics "in accordance with the custom."
The official also reiterated Seoul's hopes that the Olympics would contribute to peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia and the rest of the world as well as improvement in inter-Korean relations.
Seoul's efforts to use the Beijing Olympics to revive its stalled peace initiative have faced a series of setbacks, including Washington's diplomatic boycott of the Games and renewed cross-border tensions caused by a recent spate of North Korean missile tests.
(END)
7. U.S. allows S. Korea to pay compensation to Iranian investor over ISDS ruling
(LEAD) U.S. allows S. Korea to pay compensation to Iranian investor over ISDS ruling | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in last two paras)
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- The United States has authorized the South Korean government to send overdue compensation to Iran's Dayyani Group under a 2018 investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a "specific license" on Jan. 6 to allow the Seoul government to pay compensation to the Iranian investor over a failed takeover of Daewoo Electronics dating back to 2010, according to the ministry.
Earlier this week, South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun met with U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley in Vienna on the sidelines of the talks to restore a 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
In June 2018, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ordered the Seoul government to pay the Dayyani family about 73 billion won (US$63 million), but the payment has not been made due to U.S. sanctions on Iran.
The ministry said the specific license, which is issued on a case-by-case basis, will allow the Seoul government to use the U.S. financial system to send money to the Dayyani family. The exact amount of money to be sent will likely be decided via follow-up consultations.
"The license is expected to serve as important grounds to promptly wrap up the ISDS case with the Dayyani family, one of the pending issues between South Korea and Iran, and it is expected to help improve bilateral relations," the ministry said in a press release.
Still, the fate of US$7 billion of Iranian assets frozen in South Korean banks depends primarily on the outcome of negotiations between Iran and the world powers, Seoul officials noted.
Though the license lifted some restrictions on Seoul's money transactions with Tehran, it was seen as an effort by Washington to make progress in the ongoing nuclear talks, with sanctions relief known to be at the heart of the discussions.
In his meetings with top negotiators from the U.S. and other nations involved in the Vienna talks, Choi shared the view that the current round of negotiations has reached "a critical juncture" and vowed to play an active role to make progress, the ministry said earlier.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
8. U.N. Command to suspend Panmunjom tours again amid coronavirus concerns
(2nd LD) U.N. Command to suspend Panmunjom tours again amid coronavirus concerns | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with USFK spokesperson's remarks in paras 7-8)
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- Tours to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom will be suspended starting next week due to spikes in COVID-19 infections, the U.N. Command (UNC) said Wednesday.
The UNC will discontinue the tour program to the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, effective Tuesday, less than two months after it resumed the tours in line with the country's "living with COVID-19" scheme.
"UNC coordinated this suspension closely with the Ministry of Unification, and remains committed to supporting ROK government efforts to preventing the potential spread of COVID19," the command said in a statement, using the acronym for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.
The U.S.-led UNC oversees activities in the DMZ. It enforces the armistice agreement that halted the 1950-53 Korean War.
U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), meanwhile, said it has confirmed 1,599 additional COVID-19 cases among its personnel over the past week, which represents a record high number in its weekly tally.
Only 10 of the cases counted from Jan. 4 to Monday were imported, according to the USFK website. It did not offer more details, including the number of breakthrough infections, or locations of the infected members.
USFK spokesperson Col. Lee Peters said that the confirmed case increases are a result of increased testing and can be linked to pre-travel authorization for leave and redeployments, symptomatic testing, contact tracing and those returning from travel outside the Korean Peninsula.
Brushing aside concerns that the rise in infections could affect the allied defense posture, Peters stressed the USFK remains "at a high level of fight tonight readiness and can fulfill our obligation to protect and defend the Republic of Korea against any threat or adversary."
Amid the growing number of cases among its troops, the USFK started banning all personnel from visiting off-base facilities, such as indoor malls and gyms, on Saturday. It also prohibited its members from traveling to Seoul except for official duties.
The total number of COVID-19 cases reported among the USFK-affiliated population totaled 4,262. The USFK said nearly 90 percent of its affiliated community is vaccinated.
colin@yna.co.kr
(END)
9. WFP says its food aid to N. Korea remains halted since last March
We should be crystal clear here.It is north Korea that is preventing aid from going to the people. In the name of COVID it is preventing the import of food aid.
The Korean people in the north are suffering because of the deliberate policy decisions of Kim Jong-un.
WFP says its food aid to N. Korea remains halted since last March | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- The World Food Programme (WFP) has not provided North Korea with any food assistance for nearly a year, its monthly report showed Wednesday, amid the country's strict border controls against COVID-19.
The U.N. food agency last delivered 891.5 tons of fortified food and 4,970 tons of raw food commodities to North Korea from January to March last year, assisting 566,886 people, according to its December brief on activities for the impoverished nation.
"After the introduction of COVID-19 preventive measures, WFP continued operations using remaining in-country food stocks," it read. "The last distribution took place in March 2021 when all food stocks were exhausted."
It added that "very few relief items" have been allowed to enter the North since August 2021, as they had to undergo quarantine for more than three months and disinfection measures.
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
10. U.S. condemns N. Korean missile launch, urges N. Korea to engage in dialogue: Psaki
The key question that is asked with every North Korean action is how should the ROK/U.S. alliance respond?
Policymakers should keep in mind that the Kim family regime's political warfare strategy relies heavily on its blackmail diplomacy - the use of increased tension, threats, and provocations to gain political and economic concessions. Part of an information and influence strategy should be to counter the criticism that a north Korean provocation is a US and South Korean policy failure.
The ROK and U.S. should make sure the press, pundits, and public understand that this is a fundamental part of north Korean strategy and that it conducts provocations for specific objectives. It does not represent a policy failure; it represents a deliberate policy decision by Kim Jong-un to continue to execute his political warfare strategy. The following is a response framework for consideration:
First, do not overreact. But do not succumb to the criticism of those who recommend ending exercises. Always call out Kim Jong-un's strategy As Sun Tzu would advise- “ …what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy; … next best is to disrupt his alliances.” Make sure the international community, the press, and the public in the ROK and the U.S. and the elite and the Korean people living in in the north know what Kim is doing.
Second, never ever back down in the face of north Korean increased tension, threats, and provocations.
Third, coordinate an alliance response. There may be times when a good cop-bad cop approach is appropriate. Try to mitigate the internal domestic political criticisms that will inevitably occur in Seoul and DC. Do not let those criticisms negatively influence policy and actions.
Fourth, exploit weakness in north Korea - create internal pressure on Kim and the regime from his elite and military. Always work to drive a wedge among the party, elite, and military (which is a challenge since they are all intertwined and inextricably linked).
Fifth, demonstrate strength and resolve. Do not be afraid to show military strength. Never misunderstand the north's propaganda - do not give into demands to reduce exercises or take other measures based on north Korean demands that would in any way reduce the readiness of the combined military forces. The north does not want an end to the exercises because they are a threat, they want to weaken the alliance and force U.S. troops from the peninsula which will be the logical result if they are unable to effectively train.
Sixth, depending on the nature of the provocation, be prepared to initiate a decisive response using the most appropriate tools, e.g., diplomatic, military, economic, information and influence activities, cyber, etc. or a combination.
(2nd LD) U.S. condemns N. Korean missile launch, urges N. Korea to engage in dialogue: Psaki | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with remarks from state department spokesperson Price in paras 11-17, minor edits; ADDS photos)
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- The United States condemns North Korea's latest missile launch, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday, urging the North to engage in dialogue.
"As the state department, INDOPACOM have made clear overnight, we condemn the DPRK's ballistic missile launch," the White House press secretary said in a press briefing on board Air Force One en route to Atlanta where President Joe Biden was later scheduled to deliver a speech on voting rights.
North Korea launched a missile into the East Sea early Tuesday (Seoul time).
Referring to an earlier statement issued by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Psaki noted the latest missile launch did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory or allies, but that it highlighted the "destabilizing impact of the DPRK's illicit weapons program."
"The launch is in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. It poses a threat to the DPRK's neighbors in the international community," she said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"We call on the DPRK to refrain from further provocations and engage in sustained and substantive dialogue," she added.
The North Korean missile launch marked the second of its kind in less than a week with Pyongyang earlier claiming to have successfully test fired a newly developed hypersonic missile on Wednesday.
Seoul officials said the missile fired this week showed improvements from that of last week, noting it flew at a maximum speed of mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound, compared with mach 6 for the missile launched last week.
A state department spokesperson earlier told Yonhap News Agency that the U.S. condemns North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, but that it remains committed to diplomacy and dialogue with the North.
"We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK and call on them to engage in dialogue. Our commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad," the spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency, while speaking on condition of anonymity.
Ned Price, state department press secretary, declined to offer any further assessment of the North Korean missile launch, only reiterating that North Korea's behavior poses a threat to its neighbors and the international community.
"When it comes to North Korea, we continue to call on the DPRK to refrain from further provocations and, importantly, to engage in sustained and substantive dialogue," he told a press briefing.
Price noted the U.S. has repeatedly offered to meet with North Korea without any preconditions.
"The DPRK has not responded to these overtures," he said.
"But we continue to believe that dialogue, we continue to believe that diplomacy is the best path forward, and we're going to continue to plot out that course with our allies," he added.
The latest missile launch was also staged as the U.N. Security Council held a closed-doors meeting in New York to discuss North Korea's missile test from last week.
Price said the U.S. has a "number of tools in our arsenal" and that it will continue to call on those tools "to hold to account the DPRK for its violations, for example of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the threat it poses to international peace and security."
Still, he said the U.S. and its allies will be "ready" to engage with North Korea when and if the North demonstrates its willingness to engage in diplomacy.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
11. UNSC fails to come up with a response regarding N. Korea’s missile launch
No surprise here. Xi and Putin have goot Kim Jong-un's back.
Excerpts:
Experts point out that the UNSC continues to appear powerless in the face of North Korea’s firing of ballistic missiles because permanent members China and Russia, which take side with North Korea, remain passive in adopting a statement.
With the UNSC failing to come up with a UN-level response, the U.S., Japan, U.K., France, Ireland and Albania had to content with announcing a joint statement condemning North Korea’s firing of a missile on Jan. 5 before the start of the meeting. South Korea did not join in issuing the statement.
UNSC fails to come up with a response regarding N. Korea’s missile launch
Posted January. 12, 2022 07:54,
Updated January. 12, 2022 07:54
UNSC fails to come up with a response regarding N. Korea’s missile launch. January. 12, 2022 07:54. abro@donga.com.
Two hours before North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile on Tuesday morning, an urgent, closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was underway at the UN Headquarters in New York. The UNSC members were discussing how to respond to North Korea’s firing of ballistic missile last week, which the country claimed to be a hypersonic missile.
According to diplomatic sources, the UNSC meeting continued for an hour from 3 p.m. on Monday. North Korea launched another missile one and a half hour after the UNSC ended discussions.
However, the UNSC did not present its position on North Korea’s repeated provocations. The UNSC’s response usually ranges from the adoption of a legally binding resolution to a statement from the president and statement to the press. But this time, the UNSC did none of them, showing its incompetency. The UNSC held an emergency meeting when North Korea test-fired a hypersonic missile and a submarine-launched ballistic missile in September and October of last year, respectively, but failed to come to a conclusion of condemning North Korea.
Experts point out that the UNSC continues to appear powerless in the face of North Korea’s firing of ballistic missiles because permanent members China and Russia, which take side with North Korea, remain passive in adopting a statement.
With the UNSC failing to come up with a UN-level response, the U.S., Japan, U.K., France, Ireland and Albania had to content with announcing a joint statement condemning North Korea’s firing of a missile on Jan. 5 before the start of the meeting. South Korea did not join in issuing the statement.
12. N. Korea launches hypersonic missile 6 days after ballistic missile launch
A troubling conclusion questioning US strategic reassurance and strategic resolve.
Conclusion:
As North Korea becomes bolder and the international community becomes weaker in its response against it, South Korea will be at the center of the biggest risk. The new weapons under development by North Korea are short-range weapons that can target all across South Korea. South Korea is in a completely different situation than the U.S. focusing on managing a political landscape on the Korean Peninsula across the Pacific Ocean. However, the South Korean government is desperate to calm North Korea, using cooperation with the U.S. as an excuse. Is there any plan in place to handle the situation in case South Korea’s ally changes its mind?
N. Korea launches hypersonic missile 6 days after ballistic missile launch
Posted January. 12, 2022 07:53,
Updated January. 12, 2022 07:53
N. Korea launches hypersonic missile 6 days after ballistic missile launch. January. 12, 2022 07:53. .
North Korea launched a ballistic missile suspected to be a hypersonic missile on Tuesday. It is the second missile provocation by the country this year, followed by the first one on January 5. The latest missile launch took place right after a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the North’s missile provocations. The South Korean military said that North Korea’s missile has improved in speed and range and that they are analyzing data and characteristics of the missile. The South Korean government expressed ‘strong regret’ but urged the North to return to dialogue.
North Korea’s missile launch immediately following the U.N. Security Council’s discussions is a message to continue provocations according to its weapon development plan regardless of the international community’s sanctions. The country has been demanding the withdrawal of ‘double standard,’ claiming that their new weapon development is legitimate. The recent provocation is the North’s expression of determination to resist external pressure. In addition, it can be seen as an armed refutation against the South Korean military undervaluing North Korea’s claim of a hypersonic missile test, saying that its performance was exaggerated.
North Korea’s bold provocations are not unrelated to the New Cold War international order represented by hegemonic competition between the U.S. and China and the European front competition between the U.S. and Russia. The common front of the international community to put pressure on North Korea is breaking down as the competitive structure of the U.S. vs. China and Russia has become distinctive, reminding of the cold war era. North Korea is trying to capture such an opportunity. Its provocation on Tuesday came right after the U.S. and Russia reconfirmed their previous stances regarding Ukraine during a strategic stability dialogue, and the U.N. Security Council failed to put forward even elementary measures against North Korea.
As North Korea becomes bolder and the international community becomes weaker in its response against it, South Korea will be at the center of the biggest risk. The new weapons under development by North Korea are short-range weapons that can target all across South Korea. South Korea is in a completely different situation than the U.S. focusing on managing a political landscape on the Korean Peninsula across the Pacific Ocean. However, the South Korean government is desperate to calm North Korea, using cooperation with the U.S. as an excuse. Is there any plan in place to handle the situation in case South Korea’s ally changes its mind?
13. North crows about hypersonic 'glide vehicle'
Actions speak louder than words but the Propaganda and Agitation Department will back up actions with its rhetoric.
Wednesday
January 12, 2022
North crows about hypersonic 'glide vehicle'
North Korea successfully tested a hypersonic missile at daybreak Tuesday from Jagang Province, according to its official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Wednesday. [KCNA]
North Korea said it successfully conducted a "final" test of a new hypersonic glide vehicle under the watch of leader Kim Jong-un, his first attendance of a launch in nearly two years.
The test Tuesday morning was "aimed at the final verification of overall technical specifications of the developed hypersonic weapon system," reported the North's official Rodong Sinmun and the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday.
After its release from a missile, the hypersonic vehicle made a "glide jump flight" from 600 kilometers, followed by 240 kilometers of "corkscrew maneuvering" before "hitting the set target" in waters 1,000 kilometers away, according to KCNA, a longer range than estimated by South Korea's military a day earlier.
This was the first time Kim personally supervised a missile launch in 661 days. He last observed the launch of a pair of KN-24 short-range ballistic missiles from Sonchon in North Pyongan Province on March 21, 2020. Kim appeared to have avoided personally supervising weapons tests during denuclearization diplomacy with the United States, despite an impasse in negotiations since 2019.
Kim, wearing a black leather trench coat, watched the launch by the Academy of National Defense Science, involved with the North's missile program, with officials including Jo Yong-won, a member of the presidium of the ruling Worker's Party's Political Bureau. His younger sister Kim Yo-jong also attended, as seen in photographs, although her name was not mentioned in state media reports.
South Korea's Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) said Tuesday that North Korea fired a missile at around 7:27 a.m. from Jagang Province into the East Sea, which flew over 700 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 60 kilometers and a top speed of Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound.
This marked the North's second hypersonic missile launch in less than a week.
KCNA reported that the "maneuverability of the hypersonic glide vehicle was more strikingly verified through the final test-fire."
Hypersonic missiles reach speeds greater than Mach 5, which is five times the speed of sound. These types of missiles were developed to avoid interception, and only a few countries have them, such as the United States, Russia and China.
After the launch, Kim praised missile research scientists, technicians and officials for "a great success in the field of developing hypersonic weapon which is of the most important strategic significance in the five core tasks of the five-year plan."
He stressed the need to "further accelerate the efforts to steadily build up the country's strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity and further modernize the army."
Kim "warmly congratulated" the core members of the hypersonic weapon research and development team at the Central Committee building, taking photographs with them. He said he expected them to "bolster the war deterrent of the country with their continued ultra-modern scientific research achievements" and help "guarantee the sovereignty and security of the state."
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, observes a successful test-fire of a hypersonic glide vehicle on four monitors Tuesday, in a photo released by the state-run KCNA Wednesday. He is accompanied by his younger sister Kim Yo-jong, far left. [KCNA]
Coinciding with the North's latest missile launch, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded airline flights at major airports on the West Coast for 15 minutes. While there were no major delays reported by airlines, there was brief confusion amongst pilots and air traffic controllers.
The White House Tuesday condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, which it said was in "violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions."
"While we've assessed that this event did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory or to our allies, the launch highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK's illicit weapons program," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One en route to Atlanta. "It poses a threat to the DPRK's neighbors in the international community."
She referred to the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Psaki urged the North to "refrain from further provocations and engage in sustained and substantive dialogue."
She noted that the FAA's grounding of flights was "out of an abundance of caution, and they were going to be assessing their approach moving forward."
The FAA said in a statement. "As a matter of precaution, the FAA temporarily paused departures at some airports along the West Coast on Monday evening. Full operations resumed in less than 15 minutes."
It added that the FAA "regularly takes precautionary measures" and will be "reviewing the process around this ground stop."
North Korea's latest launch came as the 15-member United Nations Security Council convened a closed-door session Monday in New York to discuss last week's missile launch.
On Jan. 5, North Korea launched what it claimed was a high-tech hypersonic missile from Jagang Province, bordering China. It was its first weapons test this year.
Last Friday, the South Korean Defense Ministry assessed that North Korea had exaggerated its capabilities and said that the missile, which had a top speed of Mach 6, was not a hypersonic glide weapon.
North Korea previously launched its Hwasong-8 hypersonic missile from Jagang last Sept. 27.
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
14. Corea Image Communication Institute hosts annual awards
Just a reminder of the traditional English spelling of Korea was Corea.
The name “Korea,” used by English speakers today, appears to have derived during the time of the Silk Road when the dynasty in Korea called itself Goryeo. The word was transliterated as “Cauli” in Italian and used by Marco Polo. The English words “Corea” and then “Korea” came from this transliteration.
Wednesday
January 12, 2022
Corea Image Communication Institute hosts annual awards
The Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) held the 18th Korea Image Awards ceremony on Jan. 12 at the InterContinental Seoul COEX in southern Seoul. Award recipients included “Squid Game” director Hwang Dong-hyuk, soprano Sumi Jo and gold medalist archer Kim Je-deok. [COREA IMAGE COMMUNICATION INSTITUTE]
The Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) held the 18th Korea Image Awards ceremony on Wednesday at the InterContinental Seoul COEX in southern Seoul.
Winners of this year were Director Hwang Dong-hyuk of the hit Netflix series "Squid Game" (2021) for the Korea Image Stepping Stone Award; streaming platform Netflix for the Korea Image Stepping Stone Bridge Award; soprano Sumi Jo for the Korea Image Cornerstone Award and Team Korea archer Kim Je-deok, who won two gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, for the Korea Image Budding Youth Award.
Director Hwang was selected for "his original script and directing full of creative plot, which led 'Squid Game' to become an international sensation and become a stepping stone for promoting Korean culture to the world and establishing Korea as a cultural content superpower." He was unable to attend and delivered his acceptance speech via a video message.
"When I first created ‘Squid Game,’ I wanted to create a story that people from all around the world could empathize with, rather than promote Korea and our culture," Hwang said in the video. "I was so surprised that so many people from different cultures have enjoyed Squid Game despite the language barrier, and it has become content that introduces Korean culture [...] In my future works, I will always think of more than just what I want individually and take more care and think about how a piece can become the face of a country. I will continue creating works with the mindset that I am a cultural envoy. Thank you again to everyone who loved 'Squid Game.'"
The award to Netflix was handed to Vice President Kang Dong-han of Netflix Korea. CICI thanked Netflix for "discovering excellent Korean content such as 'Squid Game' and spreading it to the world."
Soprano Jo is one of the most famous Korean opera singers with a career spanning more than three decades. The award was in recognition of her "consistent contributions to enhancing the image of Korea on international opera stages over the past 35 years."
Archer Kim received an award "making history as Korea's youngest male archer to become a gold medalist at the Olympic Games, winning two golds."
Prior to the award ceremony, Jo, Kim, Kang and CICI's president Choi Jung-wha sat down for a press conference.
"We saw incredible results with Korean content last year," said Kang. "It was an inspiring and honorable year. We try to produce something that can satisfy the standards of Korean audiences, and I think that's also the reason we've been able to captivate foreign audiences as well. [Last year] showed proof that Korean content can be loved all around the world."
Kang added that while 2021 saw many popular series such as "Hellbound," "My Name" and "The Silent Sea," this year Netflix Korea will also release more original films and entertainment shows such as "Single's Inferno" (2021-22).
"I am not always confident in my life, but the moment I get up on stage, all my worries and other thoughts disappear," said Jo. "I am so focused on my mission to spread peace as an artist, and it makes me automatically focus solely on music when I'm on stage."
The soprano, who recently gave a performance with an artificial intelligence pianist, added that the Covid-19 pandemic helped her realize the importance of technology to stay connected with audiences.
Kim shared that he is currently preparing for the 2022 Asian Games and aims to make it on Team Korea again.
"It's always been a dream of mine to compete at the Asian Games," said the archer. "My goal as of now is to participate in the Games. After that, I will not miss out on any gold medals, especially for men's team."
CICI has been annually hosting the Korea Image Awards since 2005, acknowledging individuals who have contributed to promoting Korea to the world.
BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]
15. Will North Korea sway South Korea's presidential election?
Probably not. I recommend watching the film "Spy Gone North" to see how the "North Wind" was described in the context of the 1997 election that resulted in the election of Kim Dae Jung.
Excerpt:
"The majority of South Koreans no longer considers North Korea's missile tests as an imminent threat to their lives. Unless there is a direct attack on South Korean soil or the North resumes its nuclear development programs, the public will not consider events in North Korea as a decisive factor in the election." Park said. "The public knows about the past North Wind cases, and whoever seeks to abuse the current situation will face backlashes."
Will North Korea sway South Korea's presidential election?
This photo carried by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, Wednesday, shows what the North says was a test launch of a hypersonic missile a day earlier. Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
North Korea's consecutive missile tests in the new year have shifted attention to how the bellicose actions across the border will influence the March 9 presidential election in South Korea.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed his concern on Tuesday over the North's missile launches taking place "before the presidential election" and debate is raging over the so-called "North Wind," which is a South Korean political term referring to Pyongyang's provocations ending up affecting the sense of security people in the South feel, thus enticing them to choose a conservative candidate.
The North's Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday that the regime successfully tested a hypersonic missile a day earlier, and the test was overseen by its leader Kim Jong-un.
The launch came just six days after Pyongyang tested what it claims was a hypersonic missile, showing that the Kim regime is pursuing its missile program regardless of external pressure from the U.S., South Korea and other countries.
Hours after the North's missile launch, Tuesday, President Moon expressed his concern, noting that the recent missile test launches took place before South Korea's presidential election.
The remark was unusual, because Moon has been striving to refrain from comments or actions that could be interpreted as having an influence on the presidential election. His mention of the election along with the North Korea issue is being interpreted as an attempt to prevent the "North Wind" from swaying voter sentiment ahead of the election and warning the conservative opposition bloc against exploiting a heightened sense of fear to stoke anti-North Korea sentiment.
The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) is now attempting to use North Korea's threats to rally support.
"If the North loads a nuclear warhead on its hypersonic missile, it is impossible to intercept the missile," PPP presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol said during a press conference on Tuesday. "The only way to deter this threat is a pre-emptive strike using the Kill Chain."
Kill Chain refers to a South Korea-U.S. pre-emptive strike system of identifying North Korean launch sites, nuclear facilities and manufacturing capability and destroy them pre-emptively if a conflict seems imminent.
Yoon added that North Korea's escalating missile threat is attributable to the Moon Jae-in administration's negligence.
"The Moon government is obsessed with a favorable evaluation of North Korea's peace show, urging the United Nations to pre-emptively lift nuclear-related sanctions. So is the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) candidate," Yoon said. "In the meantime, the North is upgrading its missiles and poses critical threats to our security."
PPP Rep. Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea, shared a similar view.
"The North's consecutive missile provocations are attributable to the Moon administration, which has been tiptoeing around the provocations and responding negligently," Tae wrote on his Facebook.
This photo carried by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, Wednesday, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, looking at the monitors upon a test launch of what the regime claims to be a hypersonic missile a day earlier. AP-YonhapAlong with the missile launches, the PPP is underscoring the legitimacy of an anti-communism campaign that is going viral among PPP members and supporters.
The anti-communism campaign became a buzzword in South Korean politics in recent weeks after Chung Yong-jin, vice chairman of retail giant Shinsegae, uploaded a number of anti-communist posts on his Instagram, and PPP presidential candidate Yoon joined the move by releasing an Instagram photo of him purchasing anchovy and beans.
Anchovy is called "myeolchi" and beans are called "kong" in Korean. When the first characters of the two words are combined, it becomes "myeolkong" which sounds similar to the word "myeolgong" which means "eradicate commies." In a separate video clip released by Yoon's camp, a computer-generated imagery of the candidate appears and explains this wordplay.
A number of PPP members uploaded similar photos of them purchasing anchovy and beans with the hashtag "myeolgong." PPP Supreme Council member Kim Jae-won said in a radio interview that the campaign is about "North Korea, which is our enemy and hostile country" and "the members of the DPK made a fuss about it."
Historically, North Korea-related events have affected South Korean elections. When North Korean agents bombed Korean Air Flight 858 in 1987, the terror attack helped conservative candidate Roh Tae-woo become the country's president.
In 1997, an allegation was raised that three people, including a former Cheong Wa Dae official, contacted Pyongyang to ask North Korea's military to stage an armed protest in the border area in order to help conservative candidate Lee Hoi-chang's presidential campaign. This, however, did not result in Lee's election victory, and a court ruling found the three people did not conspire with Lee's side.
Pundits showed mixed views on whether the recent developments in North Korea are a plus or minus for the ruling party.
"We may call the current situation 'new North Wind,'" said Eom Gyeong-yeong, director of the Zeitgeist Institute, a private political think tank. "As seen in the increase in Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung's Instagram followers after the controversy, it seems true that young people are now having anti-North Korea and anti-China sentiment, and they are accepting this idea as a play.
"Given the PPP is considering voters in their 20s and 30s as its stronghold, the North's recent missile threats are also becoming an advantage for Yoon, and the candidate appears to be exploiting this as momentum."
On the other hand, Park Sang-byeong, a professor at Inha University Graduate School of Policy Science, said North Korea's influence on the election will depend on the level of provocations.
"The majority of South Koreans no longer considers North Korea's missile tests as an imminent threat to their lives. Unless there is a direct attack on South Korean soil or the North resumes its nuclear development programs, the public will not consider events in North Korea as a decisive factor in the election." Park said. "The public knows about the past North Wind cases, and whoever seeks to abuse the current situation will face backlashes."
16. South Korea succeeds in developing missile defense system for aircraft
South Korea succeeds in developing missile defense system for aircraft
This image, released by the Agency for Defense Development, Jan. 12, shows the concept of the directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) system. Yonhap
South Korea has successfully tested a missile defense system that enables military aircraft to avoid or disable missiles fired from portable surface-to-air equipment, the state-run defense research agency said Wednesday.
The directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) system emits a laser beam that "blinds" incoming missiles that rely on heat to track their target.
The Agency for Defense Development (ADD) said it carried out initial operational tests and evaluations on helicopters in cooperation with Hanwha Systems from 2020 to 2021.
"The system is significant in that it has drastically shortened the response time, enabling aircraft to defend against portable surface-to-air missiles at close range," ADD said in a statement.
The system can also be used by larger aircraft, when enhanced with a stronger laser output, it added. (Yonhap)
17. Desperate Kim Jong Un Pleads With Citizens to Make More Poop
More input is needed to generate the required output.
Desperate Kim Jong Un Pleads With Citizens to Make More Poop
North Korean authorities have embarked on a nationwide manure publicity campaign in light of a dire fertilizer shortage across the country.
Donald Kirk
Updated Jan. 12, 2022 4:11AM ET / Published Jan. 11, 2022 9:00PM ET
SEOUL—North Korea is placing as much emphasis on producing manure as it is on firing missiles, and it doesn’t matter whether it comes from people or animals.
While test-firing two missiles in less than a week, North Korea has been waging “the battle for manure,” which is far more vital for average North Koreans than the splash of another test-shot into the sea off the east coast.
The quest has reached crisis level over the past two years as fertilizer almost stopped coming in from China after North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un closed borders at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. And then, last March, the North refused donations from South Korea while demanding an end to U.S. and UN sanctions.
The urgency of the quest “doesn’t sound like ‘BS’ to me,” Victor Cha, who is in charge of North Korea issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told The Daily Beast. “It’s an interesting commentary that ‘smells’ of how serious the crop situation is without the annual fertilizer shoveled out by South Korea.”
And it’s all happening, said Cha, while “we are constantly digging ourselves out of the crap created by the latest North Korean missile launches,” most recently on Tuesday.
Just to make sure everyone gets the need to produce enough excrement in a hurry, according to Daily NK, which monitors North Korea from inside the country, entry into markets is closed to those who fail to fulfill their quotas.
With manure, not missiles, ranking as “the first struggle” for the new year, said Daily NK, authorities were “essentially pressuring people” to qualify for a “manure pass” just as South Korean citizens need “quarantine passes” certifying they are vaccinated against COVID-19.
Quotas for producing manure range from 200 kilograms for each household t0 500 kilograms for everyone working in state factories, Daily NK reported, but people did get one break. Markets this month began opening an hour later in the afternoon, from 3 to 5 rather than 2 to 5, to give “an extra hour to produce manure.”
“A great life-and-death struggle.”
How people are to contribute so much manure in a country where animals are in short supply is not clear, but the term “homemade” comes up frequently in reports in the North Korean media heaping praise on efforts to spread enough manure ever since sanctions and COVID-19 began seriously cutting off supplies from China and South Korea in 2020.
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“Homemade” by definition covers manure made from excrement of any kind, human or animal, together with weeds, garbage and even ash rich in chemicals. Presumably oxen, on which farms typically rely rather than machinery to till the fields, are also a major source.
In one district in Pyongyang, according to the English-language Pyongyang Times, a cooperative farm spread “hundreds of tons of homemade manure per hectare of vegetables.” Another district produced 1.2 times as much “homemade manure” for potato farming as the year before.
The North Korean propaganda machine does not frame the struggle in terms of incentives or punishment but reports on the manure campaign with an enthusiasm usually reserved for missile launches.
People in Jagang Province, up by the Chinese border, “carried tens of thousands of tons of manure to co-op farms in three days through this year’s first campaign,” said one breathless report carried by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency. “Officials of the provincial institutions took the lead in the campaign, guiding the transport of manure to farm fields.”
Down in South Hwanghae Province, on the Yellow Sea southwest of Pyongyang, North Korea’s Premier Kim Tok Hun, visiting a fertilizer factory earlier this month, called for “carpeting” farmland “with good-quality manure” for “decisively increasing the fertility of the soil.”
Urine is also in demand, according to Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-funded website that often reports from contacts inside North Korea. The rural management commission in one province bordering China “instructed the farmers to donate their urine to be mixed into the compost,” RFA reported in May.
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RFA quoted one source as saying workers were “forced to bring two liters of urine per person per day to mix into the compost pile until the production goal is achieved” and had to “keep track of their donated urine in a record book.”
Such reports seemed intended to increase rivalry among regions as well as officials and individuals for the honor of producing the most manure.
“The authorities are apparently generating an atmosphere of competition,” said Daily NK, reporting that directors and officials were “focused on fulfilling their quotas, afraid that units that fall behind will face ‘thorough review’—a euphemism obviously for severe punishment.” Low-level officials “are protecting themselves,” said the report, by imposing fines on those who failed to meet quotas.
Kim Jong Un in meetings with leaders of the ruling Workers’ Party, of which he is general secretary, has repeatedly placed top emphasis on agriculture. In his final speech to party members at the end of the year, according to KCNA, he said the country faced “a great life-and-death struggle” requiring “radical progress in solving the food, clothing and housing problem”—language that would seem to make clear he’s more interested in feeding his people than firing missiles.
Kim didn’t get into specifics in his speech, but KCNA quoted him in 2014 advising agricultural leaders to “use all sources of manure such as domestic animal excrement, night soil [human excrement], compost and ditch-bed soil.”
18. The Price North Korea Must Pay for An End of War Declaration
north Korea must end its hostile policy.
The Price North Korea Must Pay for An End of War Declaration
If North Korea will Halt Its Provocations, then an End-of-War Declaration is Worth it: 1945 has hosted a vigorous debate on an ‘end of war’ declaration for the formally unresolved Korean War (here, here, here, here). The president of South Korea, Moon Jae-In, has sought this declaration to – at least rhetorically – end the Korean conflict and, ideally, re-start dialogue between the two Koreas and the United States.
The declaration itself is a curiosity. In international law, a war is provisionally halted with an armistice. A treaty then follows in which the political questions which lay at the root of the conflict are hammered out in an agreement binding on all parties. An armistice and a treaty can be separated by months or even years. In the Korean case, the armistice dates to 1953, but a formal treaty never came. Neither side won on the battlefield, so terms were elusive and the war remains formally unresolved.
Anxiety about what a Declaration Might Mean
Although Moon has pushed this declaration, significant opposition has arisen. No one is quite sure what this declaration would mean diplomatic or on the ground, as it is neither an armistice nor a treaty. It would seem to occupy a middle space between those two, but it is not clear what that actually means. Particularly, it is unclear what an ‘end of war’ declaration would oblige of all sides – not just the US, but also the two Koreas, and perhaps even China. So even though Moon said a month ago that all sides had agreed ‘in principle’ to a declaration, no text or signing has occurred. As Moon’s tenure ends in March, it now seems unlikely that this declaration will come into effect.
Cynics would call Moon’s scramble for a declaration either a bid for a legacy or an effort to help the candidate of his party win March’s presidential election. Legacy-building is almost certainly a part of it. Moon bet his presidency on a breakthrough with North Korea. This has not happened. United Nations sanctions strictly limit how much South Korea may interact with North Korea. Moon never acknowledged that, so whenever he proposed a major inter-Korean initiative, he collided with Western oversight of the sanctions. Moon promised a breakthrough he could not deliver, and his frenzied efforts to move Washington and the European Union to support sanctions rollback failed. So did the meetings, much-hyped by Moon, between former US President Donald Trump and North Korean supreme leader.
Worse, Moon did not campaign in 2017 on détente with North Korea. He ran on, and won as, a moderate social democratic voice on domestic issues. Moon’s mandate was to reign in skyrocketing costs for middle class families in areas like education and housing, reduce the power of Korea’s mega-corporate sector, foster greater social equity (‘economic democracy’), improve air and environmental quality, and so on. Moon might have left his mark on these more surmountable domestic issues, but now history’s judgment of his presidency will turn on his (failed) foreign policy venture with North Korea.
Would an End of War Declaration End North Korean Provocations?
There is one last-ditch chance to turn around the failed EoW idea – a North Korean agreement to cease, after many decades, its provocations along the inter-Korean border as part of the declaration. Indeed, an End of War declaration, in its very name, suggests an end to these attacks, which are the most obvious manifestation of the lack of a treaty.
The current discussion of the declaration does not raise this idea. In fact, proponents of the declaration suggest that only US/South Korean concessions, most notably the dissolution of the UN Command on the peninsula, would flow from it. There is, then, no good reason why the US or South Korea would sign the declaration.
Yet North Korea has a long history of provocations and incidents along the border. So many in fact, that the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a searchable database of them. Many of these provocations have resulted in deaths (here are two well-known ones). In 2010, two major North Korean attacks in less than a year nearly pushed the countries to war. Anxiety over North Korea’s low-intensity conflict keeps the border tense and has fueled resistance to Moon’s declaration and any retrenchment or disarmament.
North Korean restraint on the border could undercut that resistance and build a geostrategic, rather than vague diplomatic, case for the declaration. If Moon could actually pull a credible commitment out of Kim to no longer lash out at South Korean people, installations, and platforms, that would be a huge achievement. Many would doubt North Korea would keep such a promise, of course. But it is a shame Moon never even tried. Ending the war implies that North Korea would finally halt its various asymmetric, kinetic-but-not-quite-all-out-war actions against the South. Yet this rather obvious idea has strangely, unfortunately, never entered the End of War Declaration discussion these last few months.
Dr. Robert E. Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly; website) is a professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science at Pusan National University. Dr. Kelly is now a 1945 Contributing Editor as well.
19.
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.
