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Quotes of the Day:
“Korea is a divided nation, and the Korean War never truly ended.”
– Ban Ki-moon
“A courageous spirit and a polite manner will lead you to great achievements in the wilderness, dear human.”
- Rudyard Kipling.
“Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.”
- Wole Soyinka.
1. Opinion | Why the U.S. should offer concessions to North Korea
2. A Proclamation on National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, 2023 | The White House
3. Secretary-General's message on the 70th Anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement | United Nations Secretary-General
4. 70 years have passed since Korean cease-fire. It's time to end America's longest war.
5. A bill to help Kim Jong-un, backed by extremists
6. It’s Time to Recalibrate the U.S. Alliance with South Korea
7. On 70th Anniversary of Korean Truce, Congress Weighs Declaring the Conflict Over
8. Russia Stands With North Korea, Communist China as New Cold War Takes Shape
9. Kim Jong Un Flexes Banned Ballistic Missiles Before Russia's Defense Minister
10. North Korea Celebrates Major Holiday with Special Guests From China and Russia
11. North Korea’s Leader Shows Off Weapons to Russia’s Defense Minister
12. [Planning for the 70th Anniversary of the Armistice Agreement] 2. A stark contrast between North and South Korea “Victory of democracy and market economy… The gap will widen.”
13. The Korean War veterans who never came home
14. Hanwha defeats Rheinmetall for $5-7 billion Aussie infantry fighting vehicle deal
15. South Korea Unveils Truman Statue on Armistice Anniversary
1. Opinion | Why the U.S. should offer concessions to North Korea
My good friend Frank and I have different assumptions about the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime. I believe concessions will only harden Kim's resolve to continue to execute his political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies while he continues to pursue advanced warfighting capabilities to be able to eventually use force to achieve his strategic aim which is to complete the revolution. But neither Frank nor I can know what is in Kim Jong Un's mind for sure.. I am obviously a worst case planner and Frank is the consummate seeker of peace. I also want peace but I fear that weakening our military capabilities or reinforcing Kim's strategies will more likely lead to conflict. Frank and I will always agree to disagree.
Excerpts:
The war itself did not end in 1953. A state of hostilities still exists on the Korean Peninsula, and the security situation right now looks increasingly dire. Both sides distrust one another and have not talked in almost four years, one of the longest periods of estrangement in the past three decades.
Instead, they are ramping up their military capabilities and defensive postures under the banner of deterrence. North Korea continues to expand its nuclear arsenal. This year, Pyongyang successfully tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.
At the same time, the U.S.-South Korea alliance has expanded joint military exercises, sent more U.S. nuclear submarines, bombers and carrier strike groups to the peninsula, and established a nuclear consultation group as part of an enhanced deterrence campaign. With the growth in South Korea’s own ballistic missile program, Japan’s pursuit of preemptive strike capabilities and China’s rapid military modernization, Northeast Asia is consumed by an arms race.
All this emphasis on saber-rattling and militarism is worrisome not only because it could accidentally push the Korean Peninsula to the brink of nuclear war, but also because there is a more effective approach to ameliorating North Korea’s conduct.
While our actions can be interpreted as saber rattling and militarism, I choose to interpret them that we are setting a new normal for combined ROK/US military readiness to ensure the capability to successfully defend the ROK and thus sustain deterrence in the face of north Korean aggressive actions.
But Frank and I do agree on the absolute necessity for deterrence. The problem is Kim Jong Un and his decision not to engage and negotiate. I understand Frank's argument that we are the stronger party and therefore can take the moral high ground and make concessions to jump start diplomacy. It is just that I believe in doing so Kim Jong Un will assess his political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies a success and continue to execute them even as he comes to the negotiating table. Our fundamental difference is our assumptions about the nature, objectives, and strategy of Kim Jong Un and the regime.
Excerpt:
The lopsided emphasis on deterring rather than engaging North Korea might be understandable given the fear-based perspective common in Washington. Many who espouse the “peace through strength” approach correctly argue that deterrence is necessary against a recalcitrant Pyongyang and other bad actors.
They might be missing an important point. What deterrence offers above all is time — time that can be used diplomatically to resolve the conflict so that deterrence is no longer necessary. That was the whole point of the 1953 armistice, which was intended to create the conditions in which political leaders could reach an enduring peace. This is the principle that warrants greater attention and urgency today.
Opinion | Why the U.S. should offer concessions to North Korea
The Washington Post · by Frank Aum · July 26, 2023
Frank Aum, the senior expert on Northeast Asia at the U.S. Institute of Peace, was a senior adviser on the Korean Peninsula at the Defense Department from 2011 to 2017.
Seventy years ago, on July 27, 1953, military commanders from the United States and North Korea signed an armistice agreement that ended the hostilities of the Korean War. The two sides used diplomacy to end a bloody conflict that cost 3 million lives.
A renewed commitment to diplomacy is urgently needed to keep that peace today — even if it requires a unilateral concession of some kind by the United States to get it started.
The war itself did not end in 1953. A state of hostilities still exists on the Korean Peninsula, and the security situation right now looks increasingly dire. Both sides distrust one another and have not talked in almost four years, one of the longest periods of estrangement in the past three decades.
Instead, they are ramping up their military capabilities and defensive postures under the banner of deterrence. North Korea continues to expand its nuclear arsenal. This year, Pyongyang successfully tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.
At the same time, the U.S.-South Korea alliance has expanded joint military exercises, sent more U.S. nuclear submarines, bombers and carrier strike groups to the peninsula, and established a nuclear consultation group as part of an enhanced deterrence campaign. With the growth in South Korea’s own ballistic missile program, Japan’s pursuit of preemptive strike capabilities and China’s rapid military modernization, Northeast Asia is consumed by an arms race.
All this emphasis on saber-rattling and militarism is worrisome not only because it could accidentally push the Korean Peninsula to the brink of nuclear war, but also because there is a more effective approach to ameliorating North Korea’s conduct.
The empirical evidence is compelling. When the United States engages North Korea, it behaves significantly better.
A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that, between 1990 and 2017, there was a strong correlation between periods when Washington was negotiating with Pyongyang and a decrease in North Korean provocations. If the study included data from 2017 to today, it would have also shown that North Korea conducted zero nuclear or ballistic missile tests in 2018 when bilateral summitry occurred, and more than 100 missile tests between 2019 and 2023 after diplomacy collapsed.
The problem is that neither side seems particularly interested in talking. The Biden administration has outwardly sought working-level talks with Kim Jong Un’s regime multiple times, to no avail. To North Korea, however, U.S. overtures seem insincere and halfhearted when accompanied by aggressive military muscle-flexing and terse messages from President Biden to Kim.
Instead of perfunctory attempts at talks, the United States should unilaterally offer concessions to North Korea to demonstrate greater sincerity for negotiations. Academic literature suggests that conciliatory gestures, typically made first by the stronger country, can help induce reciprocal positive behavior from the other side.
This approach worked in the early 1990s. Washington unilaterally withdrew its nuclear weapons from South Korea, canceled major military exercises and agreed to high-level talks for the first time in decades. In response, North Korea signed denuclearization and reconciliation agreements with South Korea as well as a nuclear safeguards agreement.
Critics often dismiss diplomacy, saying the United States has tried everything but nothing has worked. This is a myopic view. Between 1994 and 2002, when the two countries complied with the Agreed Framework deal and engaged intensively across diplomatic, military and people-to-people channels, North Korea conducted one missile test and zero nuclear tests, and did not reprocess any plutonium. This is nothing to sneeze at.
It’s true that North Korea did begin a uranium enrichment program during that period which violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the deal. However, the productive U.S. response should have been to use the existing dialogue to stop the program rather than to use the program to shatter dialogue altogether.
The lopsided emphasis on deterring rather than engaging North Korea might be understandable given the fear-based perspective common in Washington. Many who espouse the “peace through strength” approach correctly argue that deterrence is necessary against a recalcitrant Pyongyang and other bad actors.
They might be missing an important point. What deterrence offers above all is time — time that can be used diplomatically to resolve the conflict so that deterrence is no longer necessary. That was the whole point of the 1953 armistice, which was intended to create the conditions in which political leaders could reach an enduring peace. This is the principle that warrants greater attention and urgency today.
As we mark the 70th anniversary of the cease-fire on the Korean Peninsula, we should take the occasion to reflect on the potential power of diplomacy. The Biden administration and the governments in North and South Korea need to elevate diplomacy over deterrence to restart negotiations over the fate of the peninsula — and sooner rather than later.
The Washington Post · by Frank Aum · July 26, 2023
2. A Proclamation on National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, 2023 | The White House
A Proclamation on National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, 2023 | The White House
whitehouse.gov · by The White House · July 26, 2023
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea — an unbreakable bond forged by American and Korean service members who fought side-by-side from 1950 to 1953. These patriots braved dangers and deprivations, facing down war and death in defense of democracy. Today, we remember their service. Together, we honor their sacrifice — including more than 36,000 Americans and more than 7,000 Korean Augmentation to the United States Army soldiers who laid down their lives for a world of greater liberty and freedom.
During President Yoon’s recent trip to the United States, we visited the Korean War Veterans Memorial — laying wreaths in honor of the brave Korean and American women and men who served and sacrificed. It was a solemn reminder that our Alliance was not born out of shared borders but shared beliefs — including democracy, security, and freedom. Today, those beliefs are upheld by the thousands of Korean and American troops who continue to stand together on the Korean Peninsula. And they remain the source of our shared strength — keeping the Alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States the linchpin of peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and, increasingly, around the world.
Today, we also pause to remember the thousands of United States troops who went missing in action during the Korean War. That includes Army Corporal Luther H. Story, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary heroism during a battle on the Pusan Perimeter in 1950. Our Nation was able to bring Corporal Story home this year when his remains were finally identified and returned to his family. And we will never stop working to bring home every one of our missing heroes.
Today — 70 years after the armistice was signed by representatives of the United States as head of the United Nations Command, the People’s Republic of China, and North Korea — let us honor the Korean War Veterans who fought to defend the security and stability we enjoy today. Let us renew our commitment to the democratic values for which they served and sacrificed. And together, let us continue to ensure that our Alliance with the Republic of Korea continues to contribute to global peace and prosperity.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim July 27, 2023, as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day. On this day, I encourage all Americans to reflect on the strength, sacrifices, and sense of duty of our Korean War Veterans and bestow upon them the high honor they deserve. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities that honor and give thanks to our distinguished Korean War Veterans.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
whitehouse.gov · by The White House · July 26, 2023
3. Secretary-General's message on the 70th Anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement | United Nations Secretary-General
Secretary-General's message on the 70th Anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement | United Nations Secretary-General
un.org · July 27, 2023
The Korean War devastated the Korean Peninsula. The Armistice Agreement halted the bloodshed. For seven decades, it has served as a legal foundation for the preservation of peace and stability on the Peninsula.
Today, we honour the memory of all those who perished, and we share in the grief of countless families who have been separated for so long.
The Korean Peninsula remains divided.
Amidst rising geopolitical tensions, increased nuclear risk, and eroding respect for international norms, the threat of escalation is growing.
We need a surge in diplomacy for peace. I urge the parties to resume regular diplomatic contacts and nurture an environment conducive to dialogue.
Our goals remain clear: sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
I look forward to our personnel and the wider international community to be allowed to return to Pyongyang following the COVID-19 pandemic. This collective return will critically contribute to better supporting the people, strengthen relations, and fortify communication channels.
The United Nations is your steadfast partner as we strive to realize the vision of a Korean Peninsula in which all can enjoy peace, prosperity, and human rights.
un.org · July 27, 2023
4. 70 years have passed since Korean cease-fire. It's time to end America's longest war.
Dangerous ideas that support Kim JongUn and his political warfare strategy. This is exactly what he wants people like this to do.
Ms. Ahn's Georgetwon education was apparently not complete. The US did not sign the Armistice. The military commanders of the United Nations signed the Armistice as did the military commander of the Chinese People's Army and the military commander of the north Korean People's Army.. More importantly, the US is not in a state of war with north Korea because the US did not declare war on north Korea. If there is going to be a peace treaty it must be between the two belligerents that the UN idesige in 1950 - UN Security Council resolutions 82-85 recognize the north as the aggressor and called on member nations to come to the aid of the South to defend its freedom. If we are going to talk about peace and a peace treaty we must begin there.
Any way forward must include a recognition and understanding of the nature, objectives, and strategy of Kim Jong Un and the Kim family regime. Apparently Ms, Ahn does not know about these things.
Please see the next article from Lawrence Peck.
70 years have passed since Korean cease-fire. It's time to end America's longest war.
USA Today · by Christine Ahn | Opinion contributor
Replacing the armistice signed on July 27, 1953, with a peace agreement would reduce the risk of renewed conflict and build trust in order to better negotiate on North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Show Caption
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South Korean leader urges stronger US alliance
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has used a joint address to Congress to urge still-more strengthening of the U.S. security alliance. Yoon honored the “great American heroes” who helped preserve his country’s democracy in the Korean War. (April 27)
AP
As a daughter of South Korean immigrants, I was raised to be apolitical.
My parents, like many of their generation who lived through Japanese occupation and the devastating Korean War, came to the conclusion that in order to survive, it was best to stay silent. As a result, I knew almost nothing about my birth country or the forces that shaped it.
It wasn’t until graduate school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.,that I started learning about the Korean Peninsula and the U.S. legacy in the region. I was stunned to learn that the United States proposed (and the Soviet Union agreed) to divide the peninsula at the end of World War II – circumstances that led to war between North Korea (backed by China) and South Korea (supported by the United States and the United Nations), leading to the Korean War.
Though an armistice halted active fighting in 1953, a peace agreement was never signed. This state of unended war – which marks 70 years on Thursday – has irrevocably shaped not only the lives of those living on the Korean Peninsula but all of us in the United States.
It's time to sign a peace agreement with North Korea
After decades of failed U.S. policy, the only pathway to resolve the impasse is for the United States to sign a peace agreement with North Korea. An accord would reduce the risk of renewed conflict between North Korea and the United States and build trust in order to better negotiate on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Establishing improved relations with North Korea would enable the State Department to quickly resolve sensitive political matters, such as what happened last week when Army Pvt. Travis King, 23, left a tour group to the Demilitarized Zone and crossed into North Korea.
The threat is real: Our nuclear weapons are much more powerful than Oppenheimer's atomic bomb
Women, in particular, have a crucial role to play in building lasting peace. Not only is there a rich history of women organizing for peace in Korea, but research shows that the involvement of women in peace processes leads to better outcomes.
Yet thus far, few women have been involved in the Korea peace process.
That’s why in 2015 I organized a women’s peace walk from North Korea to South Korea – across the Demilitarized Zone – with American feminist icon Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace laureates Leymah Gbowee and Mairead Maguire. We walked with thousands of Korean women on both sides of the DMZ to show that women are united in their desire for peace in Korea. We continue to advocate for ending the Korean War, reuniting Korean families and including women in the peace process.
Our journey is documented in the film "Crossings," which is now airing on public television.
The 'Forgotten War' is America's longest-running war
While much public attention is paid to North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, we rarely consider how the continued U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula helps fuel tensions: 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, and the United States and South Korea routinely hold joint military exercises to rehearse war with North Korea.
The United States also maintains operational control of South Korea’s military during wartime.
North Korea routinely cites this context as justification for its nuclear weapons program – key to self-defense against a potential attack from the United States.
Ukraine shouldn't use cluster bombs: Biden is wrong to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. 50 years later, they're still killing in Laos.
Because the United States and North Korea have never replaced the armistice with a peace agreement, any accidental or intentional escalation could rapidly devolve into renewed fighting. Such a war could involve nuclear weapons, which would likely result in the deaths of millions.
Yet pointing out these facts has led me to be labeled naive at best and, at worst, a North Korean apologist.
Thankfully, more and more people are now speaking out in favor of peace with North Korea. Many of them are Korean Americans who come from divided families and long to return to their hometowns. Some, like me, have considered the human costs of this war and can remain silent no longer.
Other supporters include Harvard neurosurgeon Dr. Kee Park, who has witnessed the impact of sanctions on health care in North Korea; Dan Leaf, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general who believes that the risk of nuclear war is highest in Korea; and Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear scientist who emphasizes the need for peace as a foundation for denuclearization.
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The risks and costs of the Korean War might be hidden from view, but Americans and Koreans alike can only gain from finally resolving America’s longest standing war.
There is a path forward, should our lawmakers be brave enough to take it. Passing the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act, which calls for diplomacy in pursuit of a binding peace agreement to formally end the war, would go a long way toward resuscitating this issue from the murky depths of history.
While the Korean War is often referred to as America’s “Forgotten War,” Koreans and Korean Americans have not forgotten. Americans of every background must come together to demand an end to our nation’s longest-running war.
Christine Ahn is the founder and executive director of Women Cross DMZ, an organization of women mobilizing for peace in Korea.
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.
USA Today · by Christine Ahn | Opinion contributor
5. A bill to help Kim Jong-un, backed by extremists
Lawrence Peck describes the bill and the people backing it (e.g., Christine Ahn).
One Korea Network (OKN) held a Press Conference on H.R. 1369 on 26 July. I was asked to provide a statement to be read since I could not attend. Below Lwarence's article is my statement.
A bill to help Kim Jong-un, backed by extremists - JNS.org
jns.org · by Carin M. Smilk · July 27, 2023
(July 26, 2023 / JNS)
California Democrat Congressman Brad Sherman, like California Democrat Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Judy Chu, is a highly partisan politician. Unlike Lee and Chu, however, Sherman does not have a reputation as someone with a soft spot for radical groups and Communist tyrants, past and present. Sherman, although certainly a hypocrite when it comes to which Israeli politicians he criticizes and which he gives a pass, is generally known as a supporter of Israel, despite his distaste for Israeli conservatives.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vladivostok, Russia, on April 25, 2019. Credit: Alexei Nikolsky/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office via Wikimedia Commons.
Nevertheless, one would like to think that Lee and Chu, and certainly Sherman, would shun any involvement whatsoever with anti-American extremists, defenders of North Korea and haters of Israel. Unfortunately, these lawmakers, in their enthusiasm to support an unwise bill that would appease North Korea by yielding to Kim Jong-un’s wishes while seeking nothing in return, have made common cause with extremist groups and activists, and in some cases are participating in their events and openly supporting them. Sherman’s H.R. 1369, which is backed not only by Lee and Chu but also by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), is opposed by South Korea’s conservative, pro-U.S. government and runs counter to Biden-administration policy in its call for the United States to sign a peace treaty with North Korea, exchange diplomats and lift travel restrictions on the North. There has been dissembling from the bill’s supporters, with Sherman and New York Democrat Congressman Andy Kim not admitting to constituents that the bill is being backed, for the most part, by lobbyists who oppose U.S.-South Korean military drills, and in some cases support the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea. Sherman and other supporters of the bill are “gaslighting” in insisting, against logic and common sense, that the bill is not a concession to North Korea. The bill does not contain anything about actions that the United States has been requesting from the North. It is a six-month late birthday present to Kim Jong-un, who gets his wish for a peace treaty without having to offer anything in return.
The Marxist-Leninist and openly pro-North Korean Workers World Party and Party for Socialism and Liberation naturally back the peace treaty idea. However, the key supporters of the bill, those who have been most devotedly lobbying Congress for years in support of the North’s position, include other pro-North Korean, anti-American, and anti-Israel groups and activists—the very people whom one would expect Sherman or most members of Congress to keep at arm’s length, denounce and openly reject as part of the coalition backing and lobbying for the bill. On July 27 and July 28, in Washington, D.C., a coalition of pro-North Korean, extremist and anti-Israel groups and activists, as well as some left-leaning pawns and attention-seekers, will hold a few events in support of the bill and the idea of a peace treaty with the North.
Consider, for example, the leader of Women Cross DMZ/Korea Peace Now, Christine Ahn, one of the most vocal and active supporters of the bill, who has stated that she backs the bill because she sees it leading to a withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea, which is her goal. Although Ahn denies being pro-North Korea, she has said “the U.S., so-called leader of human rights, freedom and democracy is showing its racist, colonial, genicidal [sic] history to the world. North Koreans have learned that history, most Americans haven’t.” Ahn has even opposed North Korea human-rights legislation. Ahn’s group libels Israel as an “apartheid” and “settler-colonial state,” and demands an end to U.S. support for Israel. She praises what she terms “Palestinian people fighting for freedom and liberation from brutal apartheid.”
Sherman has refused to disavow the support of Ahn and her group for his bill, or disassociate himself from them, or reject them as an essential part of the coalition backing the bill. He is well aware of their major role in lobbying for his bill, has held up their support as an example to others, and an official of Ahn’s group participated in Sherman’s Capitol Hill event announcing his re-introduction of the bill. Why would Congressman Sherman be in any way associated with or refuse to reject the support of extremists like this?
Another example of the extremists supporting the bill is Ann Wright, an official of Women Cross DMZ and Code Pink, who will speak at one of Ahn’s events in D.C. this week to promote the bill. Although she denies being anti-American, Wright has rhetorically asked “Why is [sic] Bin Laden and Al Qaeda intent on doing harm to [the] people of America? Is there a reason why they are after us? And if there are some reasons, should we consider perhaps evaluating whether or not they may have a point on a few things?” One co-founder of Wright’s group Code Pink spoke at a Holocaust-denial conference in Iran, and another co-founder protested outside Walter Reed Military Medical Center, calling our wounded troops being treated there “terrorists.” Code Pink is one of the sponsors and participants in Ahn’s events this week. Another sponsor and participant is the group Nodutdol, whose members are enthusiastic fans of North Korea and endorse terrorism against Israel. Why would Congresswomen Lee and Chu participate in an event with extremists like this?
This is not a case of a few isolated extremists coincidentally backing Sherman’s bill. Rather, it is a case of the idea behind the bill having been promoted by extremists for years. The question now, in light of the events which these extremists are organizing this week in D.C., is whether Sherman, Lee and Chu will have the courage and basic decency to condemn them.
The Only Way to a REAL Peace on the Korean Peninsula
By David Maxwell
Greetings from Korea. I wish that I could attend this important event in person.
Let me state the following upfront:
- I support peace on the Korean peninsula.
- I support a diplomatic solution to the north Korean nuclear threat.
- I support ROK and U.S. engagement with the north.
- I do not support a weakening of the ROK and ROK/U.S. military capabilities.
- I believe there can only be success for the U.S., ROK, and Japan through strong ROK/U.S. and Japan/U.S. alliances and trilateral cooperation.
- Despite the above I think we must accept that north Korea may have a continued hostile strategy and therefore while we prioritize diplomacy, we have to remain prepared for the worst cases. I hope I am wrong here and that Kim Jong Un will dismantle his nuclear weapons and seek peaceful unification that leads to a free and unified Korea. But I do not think that is likely, so we need a superior political warfare and military strategy to achieve peace by settling the "Korea question" as per paragraph 60 of the 1953 Armistice Agreement – the unnatural division of the Peninsula – once and for all.
The question is: will an end of war declaration contribute to peace if there is no change to the conventional and nuclear and missile forces in the north? How will the security of the ROK be maintained by an end of war declaration? Paper and rhetoric do not trump steel and the amount of north Korean steel north of the DMZ is an existential threat to the South.
Before we can even discuss the efficacy of an end of war declaration, we need to make sure we understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime. To that end we must be able to provide a positive answer to the following questions:
1. Do we believe that Kim Jong Un has abandoned the seven decades old strategy of subversion, coercion-extortion (blackmail diplomacy), and use of force to achieve unification dominated by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State in order to ensure the survival of the mafia like crime family cult known as Kim family regime?
2. 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? In other words, has Kim Jong Un given up his divide to conquer strategy - divide the alliance to conquer the ROK?
If the answer to those questions is negative, then an end of war declaration and even a peace treaty will not ensure the security of the ROK or prevent a resumption of hostilities. We must understand that Kim Jong Un is conducting political warfare to subvert the ROK government and ROK society and drive a wedge in the ROK/US alliance. He is conducting blackmail diplomacy by using increased tensions, threats, and provocations to gain political and economic concessions. He is pursuing advanced warfighting capabilities, in particular nuclear weapons and missiles, to support his political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies while preparing for eventual unification by force to ensure regime survival.
If not an end of war declaration, then what? The ROK/U.S. alliance must heed the strategic clarity that President Biden and President Yoon provided on April 26, 2023, in 26 words: "The two presidents are committed to build a better future for all Korean people and support a unified Korean Peninsula that is free and at peace."
The requires a new strategy based on a human rights upfront approach, a sophisticated and comprehensive information campaign, and the pursuit of a free and unified Korea.
The sad truth is the only way there will be an end to the nuclear program and military threats as well as the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity being committed against the Korean people living in the north, is through achievement of unification and the establishment of a United Republic of Korea. It must be secure and stable, non-nuclear, economically vibrant, and unified under a liberal constitutional form of government based on freedom and individual liberty, free market principles, rule of law, and human rights as determined by the Korean people. In short, a United Republic of Korea (UROK).
David S. Maxwell
Colonel, (Retired) U.S. Army Special Forces
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
6. It’s Time to Recalibrate the U.S. Alliance with South Korea
Here she is again. Ms Ahn really wants a war on the Korean peninsula. She is making dangerous proposals. And she gets a lot wrong. It was an attack submarine that docked in Jeju Do not an Aegis destroyer(s). THAAD is not ostensibly aimed at China, that is a Chinese Communist party talking point. THAAD is to defend South Korea from a north Korean missile attack. It cannot "attack" China, it can only attack missiles that are aimed at South Korea.
It’s Time to Recalibrate the U.S. Alliance with South Korea
inthesetimes.com
Most people could be forgiven for thinking the 73-year-old Korean War — a conflict in which millions of people were killed — is completely over. But it’s not—at least not in the way you would think a war would be completely over — and the current conditions surrounding the U.S. armistice with North Korea are having the opposite effect of what they’re intended to do. They’re not creating the conditions for sustained peace, they’re creating the conditions for what could be truly devastating violence.
For the most part, Americans have no idea how dangerous the situation is on the Korean Peninsula. In just the last 12 months alone, North Korea has tested multiple long-range missiles and displayed enough intercontinental ballistic missiles to potentially overwhelm the U.S.’s long-range missile defense system. The U.S. and South Korea have also conducted massive joint military exercises, which provoked another cycle of North Korean missile launches in March. In November 2022, South Korea scrambled fighter jets in response to North Korean warplanes, and the U.S. sent an aircraft carrier in September 2022 to South Korea for the first time in years “to join other military vessels in a show of force intended to send a message to North Korea.” More recently, the U.S. sent two nuclear submarines to South Korean waters for the first time in 42 years, causing North Korea to threaten possible nuclear retaliation.
These military maneuvers among the U.S., North Korea and South Korea heighten the risk of an actual war breaking out. As former deputy commander of the U.S.-Indo Pacific Command Lt. General Dan Leaf pointed out this spring, “In this hair-trigger environment, one bad decision or misunderstanding could kill millions.”
“In this hair-trigger environment, one bad decision or misunderstanding could kill millions.”
Furthermore, due to the mutual defense treaties between the U.S. and South Korea, and between North Korea and China, a resurgence of conflict on the Korean Peninsula could impact millions of people — and potentially trigger a nuclear war.
Thursday, July 27, marks the 70th anniversary of military leaders from the United States, China and North Korea signing the armistice that halted the Korean War (1950 – 1953). The day, July 27, is a significant one for the relationship between the United States and South Korea. While politicians will likely use the anniversary as an opportunity to strengthen and double down on the alliance, it could instead be an occasion to reflect on the underlying circumstances the relationship is based on — a war that never saw a peace treaty and its ultimate conclusion — and recalibrate to advance peace, rather than foster an environment for war.
While politicians will likely use the anniversary as an opportunity to strengthen and double down on the alliance, it could instead be an occasion to reflect on the underlying circumstances the relationship is based on—a war that never saw a peace treaty and its ultimate conclusion—and recalibrate to advance peace, rather than foster an environment for war.
The armistice that will be celebrated on July 27 was only a ceasefire. It did not settle the Korean conflict and ongoing division of the peninsula, which remains ongoing to this day. It’s why the United States still maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea, why the largest U.S. overseas military base can be found in South Korea, and why the United States has operational control of South Korea’s military during any potential wartime.
As we mark this 70th anniversary, we can likely expect to see an increased show of force and heightened rhetoric on all sides of this complicated equation — and we already have. About a month ago, the United States flew nuclear-capable bombers above the Korean Peninsula and sent a nuclear-capable submarine to South Korean shores. At about the same time, North Korea held massive anti-United States rallies in Pyongyang. And at the end of May, the United States and South Korea held large live-fire military drills simulating a “full-scale attack” from North Korea, just 16 miles from the highly militarized border separating North and South Korea.
The backdrop to this increasingly volatile situation is the great power competition between the United States and China, with the Korean Peninsula caught in the crosshairs. The rivalry has led the United States to bolster its trilateral military alliance with South Korea and Japan and realign its military in South Korea to project power against China. This has included installing terminal high altitude area defense (THAAD) missile systems in Seongju and docking Aegis destroyers on the naval base in Jeju Island. These efforts come at tremendous costs to the Korean people, such as villages being razed, fragile ecosystems being destroyed and toxic chemicals leaching into groundwater.
Although the trilateral alliance between the United States, South Korea and Japan purports to advance democracy, Washington’s forced reconciliation between South Korea and Japan is also undermining movements for justice and women’s rights, especially with regards to historic grievances held by Korean workers who were forced into slave labor by the Japanese during World War II. Instead of Japanese corporations compensating the victims for these past crimes, as ruled by the South Korean supreme court, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government volunteered payment from South Korean companies — an unpopular and unsatisfying decision. Japan has never sincerely and comprehensively apologized for its World War II crimes, and has instead sometimes denied forcing women to work as sex slaves, rewritten its textbooks to erase its shameful history, and waged a global campaign to take down “comfort women” statues.
The unresolved Korean War carries with it other costs. According to a 2021 Government Accounting Office (GAO) report, the Department of Defense spent $13.4 billion in South Korea from 2016 to 2019 on salaries, construction and maintenance, money that, like the rest of the U.S.’s defense budget, could be spent elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is increasingly drawing Seoul into a new Cold War against Russia, China and North Korea by, for example, integrating South Korea into a trilateral alliance with the United States and Japan. The deployment of THAAD systems in South Korea — ostensibly aimed at China — has also heightened tensions between Seoul and Beijing. Washington is also enlisting Seoul in arming Ukraine, which is raising the ire of Russia. Ahead of Yoon’s summit with Biden in April, U.S. intelligence leaks revealed that Washington has likely been strong-arming Seoul to export weapons to Ukraine. The leaked documents showed that South Korea, troubled by U.S. pressure to provide Ukraine with artillery shells, proposed instead to send them to Poland and to loan shells to the United States. South Korean foreign ministry officials were “mired in concerns that the U.S. would not be the end user” of the weapons. Now Yoon is considering sending weapons directly to Ukraine, which would appear to mark the country’s first full-scale military intervention in foreign soil since the 1960s when South Korea, bankrolled by the U.S., sent some 320,000 troops to battle in Vietnam. Instead of drawing Seoul into a new Cold War against Russia, China and North Korea, Washington should transform the U.S.-R.O.K. relationship into an alliance that benefits both Americans and Koreans.
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Central to transforming the relationship would be replacing the 1953 armistice with a formal peace agreement. A peace agreement would officially end the 73-year-old Korean War, and it may give North Korea the security assurances it says it needs to denuclearize, and begin the process of normalizing relations with Pyongyang. That could vastly improve the humanitarian conditions for millions of North Koreans. There is already a bill in Congress to advance this goal, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act (H.R. 1369, sponsored by Rep. Brad Sherman D-CA), which calls for replacing the ceasefire with a permanent peace settlement.
“The continued state of war on the Korean Peninsula does not serve the interests of the United States nor our constituents with relations in North and South Korea,” Sherman said in a news release about the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act. “Serious, urgent diplomatic engagement is needed to achieve peace between North and South Korea.”
“The continued state of war on the Korean Peninsula does not serve the interests of the United States nor our constituents with relations in North and South Korea,” Sherman said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people from around the country are gathering in Washington, D.C. this week to call on President Joe Biden and Congress to support such a peace agreement that would bring a formal end to the Korean War. Multiple generations of Korean Americans, including many from families still separated by the unresolved war, are traveling from as far as Hawai’i to join a broad and diverse movement to collectively say “70 years is enough!”
Women Cross DMZ is bringing 30 young leaders under 30 to sustain this movement and reinvigorate our goal to end the war. Among them is Hannah Lee, a student at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, who says she’s traveling to Washington because of “America’s key involvement in the conflict and its role in ending the Korean War.” Hannah says she’s also participating “to connect with those with more experience organizing and to feel the energy of being together for a unifying goal.”
In addition to anti-war activists, veterans and members of faith-based communities, humanitarian aid workers are scheduled to speak on the dire consequences of U.S. policies, like sanctions on North Korea, that deeply and adversely impact people’s lives. There are now increasing numbers of voices calling for peace with North Korea, including former “nuclear warrior” Dan Leaf and Siegfried Hecker, the former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory who has had among the most access to North Korea’s nuclear facilities. We invite all Americans to join us and demand an ultimate end to the Korean war by becoming part of our movement and contacting your member of Congress to support peace.
So far, the U.S.-South Korea alliance has been predicated on preventing war. But today, the way the alliance exists is only raising the risk of renewed fighting. It’s time to rethink and reshape the U.S.-South Korea relationship to bolster peace.
inthesetimes.com
7. On 70th Anniversary of Korean Truce, Congress Weighs Declaring the Conflict Over
If Kim Jong Un celebrates "Victory Day" on July 27th why would he want to enter into a peace treaty since he believes he has already won?
Excerpts:
There was no reason, said Mr. Cha, on the NSC during the presidency of George W. Bush, to adopt a measure that would only “create a false peace for the peninsula” while opening “a pandora’s box of issues” about whether America should keep its bases and troops in South Korea.
Mr. Cha, now a professor at Georgetown and adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, doubted if North Korea would enter into serious talks on giving up its nuclear and missile programs or reducing the size of its armed forces, including 1.2 million troops in all services. It would, he said, be “hard to contemplate any benefit” from declaring a formal end to the war.
At Pyongyang, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, left no doubt of the North Korean claim that its forces had won the war that began more than three years earlier with the invasion of South Korea on orders of his grandfather, regime founder Kim Il-sung, on June 25, 1950.
On 70th Anniversary of Korean Truce, Congress Weighs Declaring the Conflict Over
Donald Kirk, July 26, 2023
nysun.com
WASHINGTON — The 70th anniversary Thursday of the signing of the truce that ended the Korean War raises a puzzling question: is the war really over?
On a day of memorials in the capitals of North and South Korea and the foreign countries that fought to guarantee their survival, debate rages over not just who won but whether the war had ended.
At the crux of the debate is whether Congress should pass a bill providing for an end-of-war declaration leading to a formal peace treaty in place of the armistice signed at what’s now known as the “truce village” of Panmunjom astride the North-South line about 35 miles north of Seoul.
A one-time director of Asia policy for the National Security Council, Victor Cha, had a ready answer when asked what he thought a peace declaration or treaty would accomplish.
There was no reason, said Mr. Cha, on the NSC during the presidency of George W. Bush, to adopt a measure that would only “create a false peace for the peninsula” while opening “a pandora’s box of issues” about whether America should keep its bases and troops in South Korea.
Mr. Cha, now a professor at Georgetown and adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, doubted if North Korea would enter into serious talks on giving up its nuclear and missile programs or reducing the size of its armed forces, including 1.2 million troops in all services. It would, he said, be “hard to contemplate any benefit” from declaring a formal end to the war.
At Pyongyang, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, left no doubt of the North Korean claim that its forces had won the war that began more than three years earlier with the invasion of South Korea on orders of his grandfather, regime founder Kim Il-sung, on June 25, 1950.
It was, Mr. Kim said on a visit to Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs’ Cemetery, “a great victory of human history which gave an indelible disgrace and defeat to the U.S. imperialists.”
On Thursday, when Mr. Kim is expected to review a parade of North Korean military might, he’ll be joined by top officials of the two countries that rose to North Korea’s defense after American and South Korean troops had turned back the invasion and driven to the Yalu River border with China.
The Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, took time off from directing beleaguered Russian forces in Ukraine to go to Pyongyang and talk about Russian aid for North Korea.
A member of the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Hongzhong, led a Chinese delegation as a reminder that China’s “volunteers” had been largely responsible for rescuing North Korea from defeat and oblivion.
But the war is far from over, in the view of activists planning demonstrations, a rally, press conferences, and discussions Thursday and Friday.
The prime force behind demands for legislation proclaiming an end to the war is “Women Cross DMZ,” named for a group of 30 women that visited North Korea eight years ago, held talks with North Koreans and returned to South Korea across the North-South line.
On Thursday the women are meeting with members of congress, pressing for passage of a bill that would proclaim an end to the Korean War.
Recriminations over the bill have almost swept aside publicity over memorial services as reminders of the personal tragedy of the war.
The president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, Frank Gaffney, denounced the bill as “inane.” The effect, he said, would be to undermine the role of American troops in Korea, leading to demands for their withdrawal while gaining nothing in return.
“The ‘Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act’ provides a strategic advantage for the North Korean dictatorship,” said a conservative grouping, the One Korea Network.
The aim, One Korea said, is “to dismantle the United Nations Command,” set up in the opening days of the Korean War as a bulwark against North Korean and Chinese forces. The treaty, added One Korea, would “serve China’s interests.”
The California congressman responsible for introducing the bill, Brad Sherman, will be talking about it in public events Thursday along with others who have joined in supporting it. The bill is not given much chance of passage by the present Congress but is sure to remain a topic of discussion.
South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, leading memorial services at a cemetery in Busan, the southeastern Korean port city to which the government retreated after the North Korean invasion, opposes the bill as strenuously as its American critics.
Mr. Yoon blames “anti-state forces” for having “undermined South Korea’s security by begging for lifting U.N. sanctions on North Korea and pushing for an end-of-war declaration with Pyongyang.”
nysun.com
8. Russia Stands With North Korea, Communist China as New Cold War Takes Shape
Russia Stands With North Korea, Communist China as New Cold War Takes Shape
nysun.com4 min
July 26, 2023
BENNY AVNI
New York, New York
View Original
Sergei Shoigu’s trip to Pyongyang comes as the defense chief struggles to maintain control over the Russian army’s generals in the aftermath of an internal insurrection. He is there to display Russian solidarity, but he also arrives with a shopping list.
As battle lines are drawn for the 21st century’s version of a cold war, Russia has dispatched its defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, to Pyongyang, where the North Korean regime is celebrating an anniversary of what it and Communist China consider the most important victory of the Cold War.
The Kim regime is marking the 70th anniversary since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. In a military parade on Thursday, new arms are expected to be displayed to show off the impoverished country’s emphasis on weapons development. A Chinese delegation is at hand to boast of what the two communist regimes deem a “glorious victory” over the Free World.
Meanwhile a hot battle is raging in Ukraine between an American-led alliance and an axis of authoritarian regimes. The axis, including the communist regimes of China and North Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Moscow, is increasingly all-in on that war, arming Russian troops and pitching in with financial, diplomatic, and other aid.
Mr. Shoigu’s trip to Pyongyang comes as the defense chief struggles to maintain control over the Russian army’s generals in the aftermath of an internal insurrection. He is there to display Russian solidarity, but he also arrives with a shopping list. Most prominently, Russia needs artillery munitions, which are emerging as a crucial commodity craved by both sides of the Ukraine war.
“In the bloody battles of 1950-1953, the Korean People’s Army, under the command of Comrade Kim Il-sung, achieved a historic victory over a strong and cruel enemy,” Mr. Shoigu said Wednesday at Pyongyang. “I am convinced that our talks today will help strengthen cooperation between our defense ministries.”
Officials at Moscow and Pyongyang have denied Washington’s assertions that Russia is purchasing arms from North Korea. Yet, “you don’t send your defense minister just for symbolism,” a Russia watcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, John Hardie, tells the Sun.
Mr. Hardie notes that the Russian delegation at Pyongyang includes the deputy defense minister for armaments, Alexei Krivoruchko, who is responsible for managing procurement and development of weapons and military equipment. “His attendance is an indication that Moscow is looking for materiel from North Korea, such as artillery shells,” he says.
In prominent military parades like Thursday’s, North Korea habitually displays new war tools. One such weapon could be a new drone, spotted by satellite image last month. It boasts a larger wingspan, 115 feet, than has been seen before on Korean drones. Yet, Russia now appears to be building Iranian drones on its own soil, as it tightens its arms deals with Tehran.
While drones and other futuristic weapons gain prominence on the European battlefield, the Ukrainian war seemingly is being fought predominantly by means that have won military clashes since World War I, such as artillery. As the Russian military struggles to defend its occupation lines during the current Ukrainian counter-offensive, exchanges of artillery fire could well determine victory or defeat.
Explaining his reasons for arming Kyiv with cluster munitions, President Biden let slip recently that America is “running out” of 155mm Howitzer munitions to send to Ukraine. As the Pentagon amps up production, America will furnish Kyiv with cluster munitions so as to “allow for this transition period while we get more 155 weapons, these shells, for the Ukrainians,” Mr. Biden told CNN.
America now produces 20,000 155mm shells a month, compared with 14,000 a month before the war, according to the secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth. Yet, Ukraine now reportedly uses some 70,000 Howitzer rounds a month, and America isn’t expected to produce that amount until 2025. In the meantime, Washlngton is hoping that other NATO allies will be able to pitch in.
Although no similarly reliable data is available on the Russian side, it is clear that Moscow too is lagging in its artillery battlefield needs. Hence Mr. Shoigu’s appearance at Pyongyang, where goose-stepping North Korean soldiers greeted the Russian guest Tuesday night.
Pyongyang also feted a delegation from its most important benefactor, Communist China, which was headed by a politburo member, Li Hongzhong. In Beijing’s mythology, the Korean War has been elevated to symbolize the heroics of Chinese soldiers and the victory of a small army over the American Goliath.
“In the light of China’s aggressions today, the United States must understand how China is using the Korean War’s legacy as a form of political preparation for wars to come,” the chairman of the House select committee on China, Mike Gallagher, writes this week.
Communist China is now the top player in the anti-American axis. Yet, as can be gleaned from the Thursday parade at Pyongyang, the new cold war is shaping up to be as globe-girding as its predecessor. America can hardly afford to ignore battles against axis members in Ukraine, the Mideast, or Taiwan. They are all part of the same war.
9. Kim Jong Un Flexes Banned Ballistic Missiles Before Russia's Defense Minister
Kim Jong Un Flexes Banned Ballistic Missiles Before Russia's Defense Minister
benzinga.com · by Navdeep Yadav
Kim Jong Un met with Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, at a defense exhibition showcasing North Korea’s banned ballistic missiles on Wednesday.
What Happened: During the meeting, Kim and Shoigu toured the exhibition of new weapons and military equipment, including some of North Korea’s ballistic missiles, Reuters reported.
This meeting, the first visit by a Russian defense minister to North Korea since the fall of the Soviet Union, comes amidst North Korea’s first major opening up to the world since the coronavirus pandemic.
Kim also received a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin, deepening the “strategic and traditional” relations between North Korea and Russia.
Why It Matters: This meeting follows a series of recent events that have heightened tensions in the region. North Korea recently launched multiple ballistic missiles after a U.S. ballistic missile submarine arrived in a South Korean port for the first time in four decades.
Both Russia and China have defended North Korea’s missile launches at the United Nations repeatedly, blaming U.S. and South Korea for provoking Pyongyang with their joint military drills.
Meanwhile, North Korea has backed Russia’s war with Ukraine and has provided military aid, including infantry rockets and missiles.
Photo by Alexander Khitrov on Shutterstock
benzinga.com · by Navdeep Yadav
10. North Korea Celebrates Major Holiday with Special Guests From China and Russia
North Korea Celebrates Major Holiday with Special Guests From China and Russia
Pyongyang expected to hold large military parade, with first foreign delegations allowed in the country since the pandemic
By Dasl Yoon
July 27, 2023 6:13 am ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-celebrates-major-holiday-with-special-guests-from-china-and-russia-fc3386fc?
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Politburo member Li Hongzhong at a performance in Pyongyang. PHOTO: KCNA/VIA REUTERS
SEOUL—North Korea welcomed senior officials from China and Russia to celebrate the anniversary of the end of armed conflict in the Korean War, the latest expression of the three countries’ tightening bonds in the face of increasing U.S. military presence in the region.
Thursday marks the 70th anniversary of the truce that ended three years of fighting in the Korean War. North Korea is expected to hold a military parade, where it will likely flaunt the country’s largest nuclear missiles and latest weapons.
As part of the celebrations, Kim, North Korea’s 39-year-old dictator, welcomed groups this week led by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and a Chinese Politburo member, Li Hongzhong.
North Korea had sealed off its borders since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The only outsider formally allowed into the country since then was the new Chinese ambassador to Pyongyang, who came earlier this year. Even North Korean nationals, such as laborers in Russia and China, have been prevented from entering their home country over pandemic fears.
Facing an increasing U.S. military presence in the region, Pyongyang has found an opportunity to deepen its alignment with Beijing and Moscow for a much-needed economic lifeline and a shield against international punishment for its illegal weapons tests.
By inviting Russian and Chinese officials to Thursday’s military parade, North Korea could send a message that the two countries have given tacit approval for Pyongyang’s self-declared nuclear status and offer a sense that the regime has powerful backers, said Anthony Rinna, a specialist on Russia-North Korea relations at the Sino-NK research group, a website focused on China and North Korea.
“Pyongyang may be looking to reinforce the narrative that the three countries are all standing up against the West,” Rinna said.
China, Russia and North Korea have increasingly stuck up for one another, as they each ramp up confrontations with the U.S. and its allies. Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to travel to China in October to discuss economic cooperation, according to state news agency Tass, following Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow in March. The U.S. has accused North Korea of providing military aid to Russia for the war in Ukraine, which Moscow and Pyongyang have denied. Chinese cross-border trade with North Korea is again approaching prepandemic levels. In a letter sent last month, Kim praised Xi for strengthening China’s national power and international standing.
North Korea’s leader hosted Russia’s Shoigu at a weapons exhibition. PHOTO: KCNA/VIA REUTERS
Despite North Korea launching more than 100 ballistic missiles since last year, China and Russia have blocked U.S.-led efforts at the United Nations Security Council for additional sanctions. At U.N. Security Council meetings, Beijing and Moscow have blamed Washington’s “hostile” policy toward Pyongyang and the U.S.’s growing military alliance with Tokyo and Seoul for North Korea’s military buildup.
Beijing and Moscow can use their influence to encourage Pyongyang to refrain from threatening, unlawful behavior, a U.S. State Department spokesman said earlier this week.
On July 27, 1953, the U.S.-led United Nations Command, North Korea and China signed the armistice that brought an end to military hostilities in the Korean War. A peace treaty wasn’t signed, meaning the North and South remain technically at war.
In Pyongyang’s historical account, the country fended off an invasion by U.S. forces, with July 27 celebrated as “Victory Day.” But U.S. and South Korean historical records show North Korean leader Kim Il Sung initiated an attack on the South. The Chinese army, aided by the Soviet air force, backed North Korea during the war.
South Korea doesn’t consider July 27 to be a holiday, referring to it as the anniversary of the armistice. On Thursday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol invited dozens of foreign war veterans to honor soldiers killed during the 1950-1953 conflict.
Over the past year, the Yoon administration has sought stronger U.S. assurances that it would use its nuclear weapons to protect Seoul in the event of a Kim regime nuclear attack. Yoon, a conservative who backs a more confrontational stance with Pyongyang, has also normalized South Korea’s relations with Japan, bolstering trilateral deterrence against North Korea’s escalating nuclear advances.
On Wednesday, Kim hosted Russia’s Shoigu at a weapons exhibition, showing off new military drones and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The two walked along a row of missiles mounted on missile-launcher trucks, as Kim briefed Shoigu on plans to expand military capabilities, according to Pyongyang’s state media. Kim also paid respects to fallen Chinese soldiers who fought in the “anti-U.S. struggle.”
The Russian defense minister’s presence “showcases the idea of Russian-North Korean defense cooperation amid the war in Ukraine and the need to fend off the U.S. and its allies,” said Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington.
Kim also paid respects to fallen Chinese soldiers who fought in the war. PHOTO: KCNA/VIA REUTERS
Kim also met with the Chinese delegation on Wednesday, where Li delivered a letter from Xi, according to North Korea’s state media, which didn’t elaborate on the message’s contents. Kim said the visit represents Xi’s will to attach “great importance” to the two countries’ relations.
The trade volume between Beijing and Pyongyang in the first half of 2023 has rebounded close to prepandemic levels, tripling compared with the same period last year. Last week, the Group of Seven nations and some European countries, in a letter to China, expressed concern over the presence of multiple oil tankers facilitating trade of sanctioned petroleum products to North Korea.
In recent years, Pyongyang has sensed an opportunity in the divide between Beijing and Washington to garner more support for its economy and weapons program, said Patricia M. Kim, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.
“China and North Korea today share the common view that the U.S. presence in the region and its alliance network with South Korea and Japan are undercutting their strategic interests,” Kim said.
Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com
11. North Korea’s Leader Shows Off Weapons to Russia’s Defense Minister
A one minute video at the link. Kim looks very pleased with himself as he shows the defense minister around his arms expo that actually looks very slick. I wonder if his spies in the US have been bringing him back information on how to set up a slick arms expe.
https://www.wsj.com/video/north-koreas-leader-shows-off-weapons-to-russias-defense-minister/901F4C0B-AEB7-4EE0-90AB-3AAD0B945CAA.html?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
7/27/2023 7:15AM
North Korea’s Leader Shows Off Weapons to Russia’s Defense Minister
North Korean media showed Leader Kim Jong Un taking Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu around a hall full of weapons, including missiles and drones. The event comes as delegations from Russia and China visit the country for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Photo: AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS
12. [Planning for the 70th Anniversary of the Armistice Agreement] 2. A stark contrast between North and South Korea “Victory of democracy and market economy… The gap will widen.”
A special report from VOA's Eunjung Cho. This is a Google translation with input from a number of us Korea watchers.
[Planning for the 70th Anniversary of the Armistice Agreement] 2. A stark contrast between North and South Korea “Victory of democracy and market economy… The gap will widen.”
2023.7.25
https://www.voakorea.com/a/7194414.html
The 27th will mark the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War Armistice Agreement. The two Koreas, which stopped the war with the armistice, walked different paths, and now, 70 years later, there is a huge gap in all aspects. VOA prepared a planning report to look back on the Korean Peninsula after the Armistice Agreement and examine the future situation. Today, in the second order, let's take a look at the factors that made the stark difference between the two Koreas. This is reporter Jo Eun-jung on the sidewalk.
US President Joe Biden said at a dinner at the White House commemorating the state visit of South Korean President Seok-yeol Yoon in April that Korea has become the most prosperous and respected country in the world since the Korean War.
[Record: President Biden] “The way the Korean people have transformed your country, Mr. President, through courage and hard work it's one of the most prosperous and respected nations in the world. It is testament to the boundless possibilities our people can achieve when we do it together. And we know that our work is not yet done.”
President Biden said, “Through courage and effort, the Korean people have transformed Korea into one of the most prosperous and respected countries in the world.”
In fact, since the armistice agreement was signed on July 27, 1953, South Korea has emerged as a democratic and global economic powerhouse that protects the international order, while North Korea has fallen into the world's poorest country and a rogue state that threatens the peace and stability of the international community.
A sports goods factory in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Capitalist market economy vs socialist closed economy
Andrew Yeo, professor of political science at the Catholic University of America, who holds the Korean chair at the Brookings Institution, told VOA on the 20th that the cases of South Korea and North Korea were “one of the greatest events in history in which the same people adopted two different political systems after the division and produced radically different results.” It is a social experiment”.
Professor Yeo cited the role of the US and the Soviet Union immediately after the war as a key factor in determining the difference between North and South Korea today.
[Recording: Professor Yeo] “The Soviet Union took the North and the United States they had control over the South at the end of World War Two. So that wasn't anything the Koreans could choose themselves. But that made a huge difference in the trajectory, in part because South Korea then began adopting market principles whereas North Korea, was a socialist command economy.”
Professor Yeo said, “At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union took control of North Korea and the United States took control of South Korea.”
Influenced by the United States and the Soviet Union, respectively, “South Korea adopted market principles, while North Korea introduced a socialist controlled economy.”
Professor Yeo said that Korea's economy took a huge leap in the 1960s when President Park Chung-hee pushed for export-led industrialization, which was "one of the decisive choices" that led to Korea's prosperity.
On the other hand, in the case of North Korea, it was pointed out that while pursuing a closed policy, economic development was put on the back burner and only focused on maintaining the Kim regime.
[Recording: Female Professor] “So everything was being done with the idea that it's going to support the regime that there will be no more opposition. And I think that started making the economy less and less efficient that there were these economic plans, but they weren't being met. That in terms of ideas for economic growth, there was really no discussion. They relied heavily on Soviet aid so when the Soviet Union was beginning to decline that became much more problematic for North Korea.”
Professor Yeo said, “All decisions were made in a direction conducive to the maintenance of the government, and dissenting opinions could not be expressed.” There was none at all,” he pointed out.
In addition, the high dependence on the Soviet Union, along with the decline of the Soviet Union, caused great problems for North Korea, Yeo said.
In August 2017, a large-scale rally was held in Pyongyang to oppose the UN Security Council resolution against North Korea in response to North Korea's nuclear development.
“Nuclear and missile development hinders North Korea’s economic development”
Bradley Babson, former World Bank advisor, also told VOA on the 24th that the difference in economic power between the two Koreas is the result of South Korea promoting an export-oriented economy and North Korea pursuing a Stalin-style planned economy.
He said that since the collapse of its main sponsor, the Soviet Union, North Korea has suffered from chronic energy shortages in industry and agriculture.
In particular, Vietnam and other communist countries have already moved away from the Soviet-style planned economy, but North Korea is still failing to pursue economic reform, he added.
In addition, former adviser Babson pointed out that North Korea's nuclear and missile development is greatly impeding its economic prosperity.
[Record: Former Advisor Babson] “Nuclear program has distorted the internal policymaking, and it's distorted the willingness of the international community to engage in economic trade and development and investment with North Korea. And the choice to continue to go down the nuclear road has really inhibited their ability to pursue a different kind of economic development strategy.”
"The nuclear program has distorted North Korea's internal policy decisions and adversely affected the international community's willingness to engage in economic, trade, development, and investment with North Korea," Babson said.
"North Korea's choice to continue developing nuclear weapons has hampered its ability to pursue a different kind of economic development strategy," he said.
David Maxwell, vice president of the Asia-Pacific Strategy Center, also pointed out that North Korea is a "totally failed state" and that its nuclear development policy is putting its people in greater pain.
“People are suffering because of Kim Jong-un’s willful policy decisions that prioritize the development of nuclear weapons and missiles over the welfare of the people,” Maxwell said.
US President Joe Biden, who visited Korea in May of last year, visited the Samsung Electronics Pyeongtaek factory with Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol.
“The US-ROK Alliance is a Key Factor in Korea’s Prosperity”
Professor Lee Seong-yoon, an expert on the Korean Peninsula at Tufts University in the US, told VOA on the 24th that the difference between South Korea and North Korea today was created by the people and leaders.
In the case of South Korea, where the people won democracy at great cost and gradually led the country down the path of prosperity and freedom, the North Korean regime plunged the country into starvation and misery through misguided policy priorities.
Professor Lee Seong-yoon added, "The ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty is also important when looking for answers to Korea's success."
[Soundbite: Professor Lee] “The US Defense commitment in the form of the Alliance Treaty and the actual physical presence of US troops standing in harm's way, thus sending a powerful message to Kim Jung don't even think about starting another war. We might then just not only fight but march right into Pyongyang and end your regime, that implicit message made credible by the physical presence of US soldiers stationed in South Korea. I would say that is a major factor in South Korea's freedom, peace and prosperity.”
Professor Lee said, “The US defense commitment and the physical presence of US troops send a strong message to Kim Jong-un, 'don't even think about starting another war'.”
"The US-ROK alliance not only counters North Korea's aggression, but also sends an implicit signal that it can end the North Korean regime."
Professor Lee emphasized that these US defense commitments are “a major factor in Korea’s freedom, peace and prosperity.”
It explains that without the US security commitments, South Korea would have had to spend much more on defense.
Christopher Johnston, chair of the Japan Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said, “Korea is a shining example of success after World War II and the Korean War.”
[Soundbite: Johnstone Seat] “Yes, of course, the primary credit goes to the people of South Korea for building the country that South Korea is today. But I do think it's true that being part of the US alliance structure was helpful to South Korea's development as part of a free trade architecture built after World War Two that supported Korean industry, part of a military alliance that helped protect Korea, keep it secure . And I think also ultimately, over time, the created a context for democracy, that has also I think, been sort of vital to Korea success.”
Johnstone, who served as East Asia Director of the White House National Security Council, said, "The primary credit for building today's Korea lies with the Korean people," but added, "It is true that Korea's being a member of the US alliance structure has helped Korea develop." said.
The free trade system established after World War II supported Korea's industry, and the US-ROK military alliance helped maintain Korea's security.
“Ultimately, over time, the creation of an environment for democracy also played an important role in South Korea’s success,” he said. said.
South Korea, leading knowledge-based economy vs. North Korea, on the brink of survival
Experts predict that the gap between South Korea and North Korea will widen further in the future.
Former advisor Babson noted that Korea has achieved economic development centered on heavy industry from low-wage manufacturing to light industry, and is now leading future-oriented knowledge-based technology.
He said that the main driving force behind the change in Korea's industrial structure is education.
[Soundbite: Advisor Babson] “I think the big reason is the education system. Both because in South Korean culture, families value education very highly and are willing to do things to support children in acquiring knowledge and expertise of various kinds. And secondly, the willingness of the government to transform the education system itself as it rose.”
“In Korea, families take education very seriously and are willing to support their children in acquiring various kinds of specialized knowledge,” said Babson.
He also said, "The government's willingness to change the education system is high" and that the Korean government has "successfully upgraded universities and research institutes to the level of OECD."
In addition, it was evaluated that Korea “applied and expanded the principles of the knowledge economy to the digital and cultural fields.”
North Korea, on the other hand, is currently “on the brink of survival,” said Maxwell.
[Soundbite: Vice President Maxwell] “Because of the draconian population resources control measures, the people no longer have a safety valve, a relief mechanism that they once had and developed in response to the Arduous March of 1994 to 1996.”
Vice President Maxwell pointed out the authorities' control of the market, saying, "Due to the government's harsh control measures, residents no longer have their own safety measures developed in response to the Arduous March of 1994-1996."
He said that the international community should pay attention to this, saying that if the regime fails to provide resources to the military in the future, it could lead to internal instability and regime collapse.
This is Cho Eun-jung from VOA News.
A special report looking back on the 70 years since the signing of the armistice agreement and looking at the future direction.
13. The Korean War veterans who never came home
The Korean War veterans who never came home
An intractable impasse between the United States and North Korea has stymied once-promising efforts to recover the remains of 5,200 Americans
By Dan Lamothe
July 26, 2023 at 6:25 p.m. EDT
The Washington Post · by Dan Lamothe · July 26, 2023
The mission came with hope and uncertainty. Kim Jong Un, the volatile leader of North Korea, had agreed to turn over the remains of U.S. troops killed decades earlier in the Korean War, and a lone Air Force C-17 was dispatched to recover them.
When the giant cargo plane touched down at a coastal airstrip in Wonson, hours east of Pyongyang, Maj. Gen. Michael A. Minihan, the ranking U.S. military officer on board, directed his team to follow their North Korean counterparts inside a terminal. There, set out in neat rows, lay 55 boxes. A careful cataloguing was performed, and a formal transfer of control was made.
The two sides discussed “the possibility of future operations,” Minihan recalled in a recent interview. After a polite goodbye, he said, the Americans “took off as quick as we could.”
“We felt,” the general added, “as though we really had a big win.”
That was five years ago Thursday — the same date, now 70 years in the past, when an armistice agreement paused the savage fighting that left 5 million people dead, but left an icy détente that endures to this day. There have been no U.S. recovery operations in North Korea since, and those most familiar with the U.S. government’s continued outreach to Pyongyang say there is “no discernible opening ahead.”
Minihan, now a four-star general, became emotional discussing how he and the repatriation team sent to Wonson handled the remains with care and reverence. They draped each of the cases in the flag of the United Nations Command, the international military force established to safeguard South Korea after the armistice, in the event some of the remains inside were not American.
On the flight back to Osan Air Base in South Korea, the C-17 was met at the border and accompanied by a ceremonial escort of F-16 fighter jets. Once on the ground, the crew was greeted by cheers.
The historic moment was a remarkable political victory for the president then, Donald Trump, and it signaled hope that the two nations could work together again on repatriating America’s war dead despite their litany of disagreements and long history of distrust.
The recovery flight followed a pact between Kim and Trump, brokered the previous month at a high-stakes summit in Singapore, to establish “new” relations. Trump agreed to suspend joint military exercises with America’s longtime ally South Korea and left open the possibility of additional negotiations.
Any sense of excitement was short-lived, however.
North Korea has not responded to U.S. outreach about the recovery of additional remains since March 2019, as negotiations between the Trump administration and Kim’s regime faltered, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. Old tensions quickly festered, and North Korea pressed on with the development of its nuclear weapons program, leveling threats against South Korea and other U.S. partners in the region.
“What’s disappointing to the families, as you can imagine, is what starts off with high hopes for answers that they’ve longed for, for decades, came across as a quick thud and another punch to the stomach,” said Kelly McKeague, director of the Defense Department agency leading U.S. efforts to recover those deemed prisoners of war or missing in action. “You know, dangle the carrot — and then pull the carrot away.”
More than 36,000 American troops were killed during the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 until 1953. More than 7,700 U.S. personnel are listed as missing in action from the conflict, including an estimated 5,200 believed to be in North Korea, McKeague said. Some were buried by U.S. troops in makeshift cemeteries that were abandoned after China’s entry into the war forced U.S. forces south. Others are believed to be at the sites of aircraft crashes or possibly in warehouses that the North Korean military maintains.
Daniel Russel, who handled North Korea issues during the Obama administration, said there is “no discernible opening ahead” for their recovery. In the past, he said, Pyongyang was receptive to having U.S. teams enter North Korea with approval, seeking cash in exchange for the remains. U.S. officials resisted paying directly but sometimes compensated North Korea for its efforts in other ways until 2005, when the United States ended the missions out of concern for the safety of participating Americans.
“My own prediction,” Russel said, “would be that if and when North Korea shifts gears and wants to negotiate with the United States, it’s not going to want to negotiate denuclearization, and it’s not going to want to negotiate remains return. It’s going to want to negotiate the exit of U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula. I wouldn’t expect those talks to go very far.”
A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations, said that the Biden administration has attempted “on numerous occasions” to have dialogue with North Korean officials on the issue and that “time and again” they decline. The United States, the official said, stands ready to open lines of communication with North Korea “at any time and without preconditions.”
The stalemate continues as North Korea carries out menacing ballistic missile tests and issues doomsday proclamations in response to displays of unity by the U.S. and South Korean militaries.
This month, two U.S. submarines have visited South Korean ports, and the United States has wrangled with the disappearance of Pvt. Travis King, an American soldier who willfully crossed into North Korea on July 18, Pentagon officials said. Allied military personnel have acknowledged broaching the subject with North Korea, but there is no sense for whether or how King may be recovered.
Robert B. Abrams, who commanded U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula before retiring in 2021, said that as he took the assignment in November 2018, discussions were ongoing between U.S. and North Korean officials about more repatriation. Pyongyang pulled back after a follow-up summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi in February 2019, after the United States declined to meet North Korean demands for sanctions relief.
“That’s kind of the end of the story — which is regrettable,” Abrams said. “In my opinion, repatriation was one of the casualties of the Hanoi summit.”
The legacy of the last recovery, now known as the “K-55 remains,” is still revealing itself.
The 55 boxes transferred at Wonson contained 501 individual bones now associated with 250 people, 88 of whom have been identified so far through DNA and other scientific means, McKeague said. Among the remains were those of a South Korean, which will be returned to Seoul this week to coincide with the armistice anniversary.
The Defense Department continues to work through other U.S. remains associated with the Korean War, including some recovered in earlier encounters with North Korea and others belonging to unknown soldiers who were disinterred after being buried in Honolulu at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Among those subsequently identified in Hawaii were two Medal of Honor recipients killed in North Korea: Emil Kapaun, an Army chaplain under consideration by the Catholic Church for sainthood, and Luther Story, who was identified this year and laid to rest on Memorial Day in his home state of Georgia.
In western Maryland, the family of Sgt. Roy C. DeLauter learned last year that his remains were among those recovered in the batch turned over five years ago. DeLauter was 21 when his unit was ambushed on the eastern side of the Chosin Reservoir in late 1950, after Chinese forces had intervened.
Marjorie Sharlene DeLauter, of Smithsburg, Md., was 3 years old when her father went missing. Now in her 70s, she said that, as a child, she often wondered where her father was and sometimes watched clips of the Korean War in hopes she might see him. It was especially difficult, she said, hearing childhood friends talk about their own fathers.
“I really missed not having a dad, although my mom remarried,” DeLauter said. “I felt left out.”
DeLauter, a retired nurse, said her family had submitted DNA samples to the Army years ago in hopes that they might someday help identify him. She has encouraged other families in similar circumstances to have family DNA on file to help the military identify remains they receive.
Other families are still hoping for a miracle.
Rick Downes, whose father, Hal, went missing during an air mission over North Korea in January 1952, said the prospect five years ago of more repatriation was exciting. Recent silence in Washington has been “deafening,” he said, and he urges both the Biden administration and members of Congress to raise the issue publicly more frequently.
“It was heartbreaking to go from so much hope,” Downes said. He called the uncertainty about his own father, a “wound that won’t heal.”
The Washington Post · by Dan Lamothe · July 26, 2023
14. Hanwha defeats Rheinmetall for $5-7 billion Aussie infantry fighting vehicle deal
Korea, a partner in the Arsenal of Democracy, is now competing with NATO nations.
Hanwha defeats Rheinmetall for $5-7 billion Aussie infantry fighting vehicle deal - Breaking Defense
breakingdefense.com · by Colin Clark · July 27, 2023
Redback and Lynx vehicles. (Australian Defense Force)
SYDNEY — Australia moved to further cement its increasingly close ties with South Korea, awarding artillery giant Hanwha a $5-7 billion AUD ($3.38 billion US) contract for infantry fighting vehicles meant to replace the country’s ancient M113 fleet.
“The LAND 400 Phase 3 project will have a value of between $5 billion and $7 billion, making it one of the largest capability acquisition projects in the history of the Army,” Pat Conroy, minister for defense industry said in a statement this morning.
“The Government is accelerating this acquisition so that the first vehicle will be delivered in early 2027, two years earlier than the former Government had planned,” Conroy added. “The final vehicle will be delivered by late 2028.”
The contract award is a major win for Hanwha — but is also much smaller than originally envisioned. Anthony Albanese’s Labor Government greatly scaled back the planned purchase from 450 to 129 in its Defence Strategic Review, released in April. The estimate for the 450 vehicle contract was $27 billion, obviously a significantly larger figure.
Conroy also noted the Redbacks will be delivered at around the same time as new HIMARS missile systems and Army Landing Craft — reflecting the Defence Strategic Review’s call for Army “to be transformed for littoral manoeuvre operations from Australia.”
Hanwha designed the Redback (named for a highly venomous spider) for Australia, and it is not a one-for-one fit for South Korea’s future needs. For instance, most Australian operations will not involve the freezing cold and snow that can hit the Korean peninsula in winter.
However, South Korean Maj. Gen. Cho Hyun-ki, deputy minister of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), two days ago told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that Korea, “may consider acquiring the Australian Army’s Redback armoured personnel carrier as an emergency force in the event of an emergency on the Korean peninsula.” Since the Redback will be built in Australia that would provide both jobs and revenue to the Lucky Country.
The two countries began knitting their defense industrial bases together when in December 2021 Hanwha was awarded a $1 billion AUD ($700 million US) contract to build 30 self-propelled howitzers and 15 armored ammunition resupply vehicles. The company built a plant in Geelong, the home district of the now defense minister, Richard Marles. (The minister has recused himself from all decisions involving the M113 replacement). However, Australia did cancel a planned second regiment of self-propelled Huntsman howitzers built by Hanwha in its Defence Strategic Review.
In the days leading up to the final Infantry Fighting Vehicle decision, Germany pulled out all the stops to encourage Australia to buy from the NATO country. A few weeks before Talisman Sabre, Australia’s top international exercise, Australia announced that 150 German troops would participate for the first time.
Then last week Germany’s Army chief of staff flew to Australia and met with reporters in Canberra, where Lt. Gen. Alfons Mais told them he is “totally convinced, and I hope that our parliament will decide in the fourth quarter of 2023 that the contract (for the Boxers) can be signed.” The German general also toured the plant in Queensland where the Lynx IFV would be built.
However, it was not enough to overcome what were clearly Australian concerns about performance, supply lines and the diplomatic ties between the two Indo-Pacific countries. The South Korean’s Redback was designed for use by Australia and supply lines for any South Korean kit are much shorter.
breakingdefense.com · by Colin Clark · July 27, 2023
15. South Korea Unveils Truman Statue on Armistice Anniversary
South Korea Unveils Truman Statue on Armistice Anniversary
The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · July 27, 2023
Conservatives appreciate Truman’s decision to send U.S. troops to fight for their country in the Korean War.
The 13.8-foot statue, unveiled in Dabu-dong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea, honors former President Truman on the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
By
July 27, 2023, 3:17 a.m. ET
On the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted the Korean War, one American received a special honor in South Korea: former President Harry S. Truman, in whose memory a new, nearly 14-foot-tall statue was unveiled on Thursday.
Although not all South Koreans were happy to see another monument for the war or a new edifice to an American leader built on their soil, conservatives wanted to celebrate Truman, who perhaps affected the fate of South Korea more than any other U.S. president. When North Korea invaded the South in 1950, Truman sent American troops and engineered a United Nations resolution to support the South with Allied forces.
South Korea celebrates the armistice anniversary as a victory for the free world that helped the nation become one of Asia’s richest economies, while North Korea remains a hunger-stricken, nuclear-armed international pariah.
“The Americans’ choice to have such a decisive leader as President Truman in the White House when North Korea invaded saved South Korea and the free world,” said Cho Gab-je, a prominent conservative journalist and publisher who led the campaign to build a Truman statue.
The statue was dedicated at a government-run memorial park at Dabu-dong, a famous Korean War battle site near Daegu in southeast South Korea. It was made by the sculptor Kim Young-won, best known for making the statue of King Sejong in central Seoul.
The Truman statue was installed as part of conservative activists’ broader effort to celebrate Washington’s decision to intervene in the Korean War as well as the resulting alliance between the United States and South Korea, which still underpins the South’s defense against North Korea even today.
When North Korea launched a surprise attack on South Korea on June 25, 1950, Truman was spending the weekend at home with his family in Independence, Mo.
“Korea is a small country, thousands of miles away, but what is happening there is important to every American,” he said in a radio and television address. “We know that it will take a hard, tough fight to halt the invasion and to drive the Communists back.”
He would later say that his hardest decision as president was opting to enter the Korean War. The invaders he initially called “a bunch of bandits” swept down the Korean Peninsula, pinning American and South Korean forces into its southeastern corner, known as the “Pusan Perimeter.” At Dabu-dong, the Allied forces repelled the North Koreans trying to break through the perimeter.
Then, General Douglas MacArthur’s troops outflanked them by storming Incheon, a port city west of Seoul, in an amphibious landing in September 1950 that turned the tide of the war.
Protesters rallying against the unveiling of the Truman statue on Thursday, the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The three-year war, which cost the lives of 36,500 American soldiers and millions of Koreans, ended in a truce.
Addressing the U.S. Congress in 1954, President Syngman Rhee of South Korea thanked Truman for saving South Koreans “from being driven into the sea.” When he spoke to Congress this April, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea shared similar remarks: “Sons and daughters of America sacrificed their lives to ‘defend a country they never knew and a people they never met,’” he said, referencing a line from the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
While South Koreans have commemorated Gen. MacArthur with a statue that overlooks the shore where his troops landed 73 years ago, there was no comparable statue for Truman, who dismissed the flamboyant five-star general for insubordination during the war. (There is a much smaller and obscure Truman statue at a park near the western border with North Korea.)
A group of prominent conservative figures in South Korea wanted to fill the void by introducing a new, bigger statue for Truman. But in South Korea’s deeply polarized society, building a statue of a foreign president proved controversial, especially when the conservatives installed it alongside a statue of Mr. Rhee, calling the leaders “two heroes of the Korean War who protected the free world.”
Conservative South Koreans worship Mr. Rhee as a nation-builder who led South Korea through the war against Communists and persuaded Washington to form an alliance that they say made South Korea’s industrialization possible. But progressives detest Mr. Rhee as a dictator who was responsible for the mass killing of civilians before and during the war and who fled the country after what the South’s Constitution called a popular uprising “against injustice.”
In South Korea, conservatives and progressives have long waged “a war of history” over how to appraise the country’s past leaders, including Mr. Rhee, its founding president, and the late General Paik Sun-yup, who was listed by a government commission as a “pro-Japanese and anti-nation figure” for his role during Japanese colonial rule, but whose statue was unveiled in Dabu-dong early this month for his achievements in the war.
Although the Truman and Rhee statues were completed in 2017 with donations, they could not find a home until Gyeongsangbuk-do, a conservative province that oversees the Dabu-dong memorial, agreed to host them.
The statues of former President Syngman Rhee of South Korea, right, and President Harry S. Truman, unveiled at a government-run memorial park on Thursday.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Pairing the Truman and Rhee statues looks “uninspiring and forced,” said Bang Hak-jin, an official at the Seoul-based Center for Historical Truth and Justice. On Thursday, a small group of activists rallied in Dabu-dong to protest the statues, especially that of Mr. Rhee.
“Most South Koreans consider MacArthur an American figure more symbolic of the war than President Truman, but that doesn’t mean that they are all positive about the general,” he said. Most South Koreans seem indifferent to the controversy over the statues and generally support the presence of 28,500 American troops in their country. But progressive activists have protested the MacArthur statue in recent years, calling it an unwanted symbol of military tensions in Korea and an unfinished war.
Before he died, Truman himself discouraged the building of a monument to him.
In 1967, an American Catholic priest in South Korea asked Truman for his permission to use his name in an effort to raise funds for a Truman Memorial Hospital. Truman said he preferred “not to encourage the building of any memorials or monuments to me.”
“I consider that whatever useful acts may have been performed during my administration were, in fact, the acts of the American people,” he said.
Choe Sang-Hun is the Seoul bureau chief for The Times, focusing on news in North and South Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun
The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · July 27, 2023
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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