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Quotes of the Day:
“Stupid is knowing the truth, seeing the truth, but still believing the lies”
- Morgan Freeman
"The judges of normality are present everywhere. We are in the society of the teacher-judge, the doctor-judge, the educator-judge, the social worker-judge."
- Michel Foucault
“The liberal international order has realistically been under pressure for some time. Post–Cold War optimism that undemocratic countries would liberalize economically and politically, as global trade flourished, was misplaced. Instead, authoritarians have exploited perceived weaknesses in the international system to invade neighbours, co-opt international bodies to legitimize their own regimes and challenge democracies’ resolve to enforce rules.
- Akshay Singh”
1. South Korea's spy agency says North Korea shipped more than a million artillery shells to Russia
2. North Korean Refugees: Uptick in Number Reaching South Korea but China Is Forcibly Returning Refugees
3. N. Korea in final stage of preparations for 3rd satellite launch: NIS
4. What we know about Hamas' huge rocket arsenal
5. Beware of North Korea's Commandoes: Kim Jong Un's 200,000 Special Forces Are Fierce
6. US presses China on North Korea’s weapons supplies to Russia
7. Impact of N. Korea-Russia cooperation likely to be limited but should not be overlooked: experts
8. Military to award units, soldiers over N.K. boat detection despite lingering criticism
9. Rubella eradicated in N. Korea with mass vaccinations: WHO
10. 'Beyond Utopia' Review: A Searing Look at Escaping North Korea
11. Former S. Korean POW who won damages suit against Pyongyang dies at 91
12. Blinken to visit S. Korea next week for 1st time since Yoon came into office
13. 8th Fighter Wing commander is stepping down after 5 months in South Korea
1. South Korea's spy agency says North Korea shipped more than a million artillery shells to Russia
South Korea's spy agency says North Korea shipped more than a million artillery shells to Russia
The Washington Post · by Kim Tong-Hyung | AP · November 1, 2023
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s top spy agency believes North Korea sent more than a million artillery shells to Russia since August to help fuel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, according to a lawmaker who attended a closed-door briefing Wednesday with intelligence officials.
North Korea and Russia have been actively boosting the visibility of their partnership in the face of separate, deepening confrontations with the United States. Their diplomacy — highlighted by a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Putin in September — has triggered concerns about an arms arrangement in which North Korea supplies Russia with badly needed munitions in exchange for advanced Russian technologies that would strengthen Kim’s nuclear-armed military.
Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied U.S. and South Korean claims that the North has been transferring arms supplies to Russia.
According to lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, the South Korean National Intelligence Service believes the North shipped more than a million artillery shells to Russia through ships and other transport means since early August to help boost Russia’s warfighting capabilities in Ukraine. Those shells would roughly amount to two months’ worth of supplies for the Russians, Yoo said.
The agency believes North Korea has been operating its munitions factories at full capacity to meet Russian munition demands and has also been mobilizing residents to increase production, Yoo said. There are also signs that North Korea dispatched weapons experts to Russia in October to counsel Russian officials on how to use the exported North Korean weapons.
NIS officials didn’t immediately respond to a request to confirm Yoo’s account of the meeting. The agency has a mixed record on tracking developments in North Korea, which is made difficult by Pyongyang’s stringent control of information.
There are concerns in South Korea that North Korea could receive sensitive Russian technologies that would enhance the threat of Kim’s nuclear weapons and missiles program. But the NIS believes it’s more likely that the Russian assistance would be limited to conventional capabilities, possibly including efforts to improve North Korea’s aging fighter aircraft fleets, Yoo said.
It’s also likely that North Korea is receiving Russian technological assistance as it pushes ahead with plans to launch its first military reconnaissance satellite, Yoo quoted the NIS as saying. Following consecutive launch failures in recent months, the North failed to follow through on its vow to attempt a third launch in October. The NIS believes that the North is in the final phase of preparations for the third launch, which is more likely to be successful, Yoo said.
Kim has repeatedly described space-based reconnaissance capabilities as crucial for monitoring U.S. and South Korean military activities and enhancing the threat posed by his nuclear-capable missiles. Experts say the decision to meet Putin at Vostochny Cosmodrome, a major satellite launch facility in the Russian Far East, hinted at Kim’s desire to seek Russian technology assistance over spy satellites.
United Nations Security Council resolutions ban North Korean satellite launches because it views them as cover for testing long-range ballistic missile technologies.
The United States, South Korea and Japan issued a joint statement on Oct. 26 that strongly condemned what they described as North Korea’s supply of munitions and military equipment to Russia, saying that such weapons shipments sharply increase the human toll of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
The statement issued by the countries’ top diplomats came days after Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied U.S. claims that his country received munitions from North Korea as he returned from a two-day trip to Pyongyang.
The White House had earlier said that North Korea had delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia. The White House released images that it said showed the containers were loaded onto a Russian-flagged ship before being moved via train to southwestern Russia.
The Washington Post · by Kim Tong-Hyung | AP · November 1, 2023
2. North Korean Refugees: Uptick in Number Reaching South Korea but China Is Forcibly Returning Refugees
Excerpts:
Former UN officials and other human rights experts also publicly criticized the repatriation of North Korean refugees in an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Their letter was released publicly, calling upon the Chinese government to cease the forcible repatriation of North Koreans detained in China. The letter noted the UN Commission of Inquiry’s 2014 report on human rights violations in North Korea. Two of the three members of the commission signed the letter, Sonja Biserko and Marzuki Darusman, and in addition it was signed by Thomas Ojea-Quintana, Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of human rights in the DPRK (2016-2022). Marzuki Darusman was also previously the UN Special Rapporteur on DPRK human rights (2010-2016). Other prominent advocates for human rights in North Korea were also signers of the letter, and a number of prominent human rights organizations endorsed the letter.
The United Nations continues to play a positive role in pressing North Korea and People’s Republic of China with regard to human rights conditions in North Korea. Conditions in the North are grim, but South Korea and the United States continue to work together closely on human rights issues involving North Korea.
North Korean Refugees: Uptick in Number Reaching South Korea but China Is Forcibly Returning Refugees - Korea Economic Institute of America
keia.org · by intern · October 31, 2023
North Korean Refugees: Uptick in Number Reaching South Korea but China Is Forcibly Returning Refugees
Published October 31, 2023
Author: Robert King
Category: North Korea
The number of North Korean refugees fleeing their homeland and reaching South Korea for resettlement has increased during the first nine months of 2023, though the numbers are still far below the number of refugees that reached South Korea in the previous decade. At the same time, disturbing reports indicate that China is forcibly returning a large number of North Korean refugees who are seeking to escape from North Korea and settle in South Korea or elsewhere. Many of the North Koreans who are being repatriated were detained by Chinese officials as they sought to escape from North Korea. Many of those now being returned to North Korea are refugees who fled as long ago as early 2020 when the COVID pandemic led to considerably tighter border controls.
Uptick in North Korean Refugee Arrivals in South Korea
During the first nine months of 2023, a total of 136 North Koreans (26 males and 110 females) were resettled in South Korea. That number is significantly higher than in the recent past. In 2022, the total for the entire year was only 67, and for the entire year of 2021, the total was only 63. Before the COVID pandemic, however, much larger numbers of refugees successfully fled from North Korea. Official South Korean statistics from the Ministry of Unification indicate that some 34,021 refugees arrived in the South From the late 1990s through the end of the third quarter of 2023, but the annual numbers were much smaller recently.
Most refugees have escaped North Korea by crossing the land border with China. Then, with the help of South Koreans and others working covertly inside China, they have been able to travel through China from the northeast near China’s border with North Korea where they have escaped across the Chinese border and then onward to neighboring Southeast Asian countries. There they have been processed by South Korean government officials, and they are then flown to South Korea. The peak annual number of refugees reaching South Korea was in 2009 when 2,914 refugees were resettled. In 2010 some 2,402 reached South Korea, and the following year, 2011, the number arriving was 2,706. After Kim Jong-un became supreme leader of North Korea in December 2011, refugee numbers began to decline as the North Korean government tightened border controls. The number gradually dropped to just over one thousand per year from 2012 to 2019. In 2019, the number of refugees resettled in South Korea was 1,047.
When the COVID pandemic struck in early 2020, stringent public health measures were adopted and rigidly enforced by Pyongyang to prevent spread of the disease in North Korea. The public health care system in North Korea is fragile and woefully underfunded. Illegal border crossing either entering or leaving the country illegally was aggressively prevented. Stringent Chinese government border controls and much tighter restrictions on travel inside China also because of COVID made it very difficult for North Koreans seeking to escape their homeland to travel into or through China. With the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the number of refugees from North to South Korea has declined sharply.
Another event adds an additional dimension to the refugee issue, and it may portend a possible increase in the number of North Korean refugees escaping their homeland. News reports recently noted that four apparent North Korean defectors in a small wooden boat were found by the South Korean coast guard off the northeast coast in coastal waters. The four, one male and three females, were members of the same family. They are being questioned by the South Korean military and other government officials and a final report on the recent arrivals has not yet been made public. But refugees arriving by boat could indicate a shift in how North Koreans may now reach the South.
In the past refugees have seldom arrived by boat. North Korean coastguard and military forces closely guard the coast of North Korea, and vessels that might be used for escape to the South are particularly closely watched. Occasionally fishing boats are blown off course in a storm, or they inadvertently drift across the maritime boundary between North and South. Most fishermen have families living in North Korea, and in the past, most have sought to return to the North when they inadvertently end up in South Korean coastal waters. The fact that the vessel which recently arrived carried three women and one man is a clear indication that the group was not a fishing vessel off course, but more probably an intentional effort to seek refuge in South Korea.
Leaving North Korea by boat in the past has been riskier than crossing the North Korean land border with China, but because of COVID concerns, land borders are much more closely guarded by both countries. Crossing the land border has become more difficult. China has also tightened its internal travel restrictions to deal with the pandemic. These changes have made it much more difficult for North Korean defectors to leave overland by the traditional routes out and water routes may be relatively less dangerous than in the past.
An incident in 2019 that continues reverberate, indicates how North Korean migration to South Korea is politically sensitive and carefully monitored. In 2019, the South Korean government returned two North Korean fishermen to North Korea who successfully reached South Korea. They were suspected of murdering other crew members on the fishing vessel and then seeking refuge in South Korea. The two fishermen were returned to North Korea against their will by the previous government of then-President Moon Jae-in, in order to improve North-South relations. An effort to coverup the decision to return the would-be refugees failed, and the issue became public and was highly controversial. The forced return was discovered by the South Korean news media at the time the two individuals were returned against their will to North Korea. After the change in governments with the election of President Yoon Suk-yeol in 2022, the case has been investigated by law enforcement officials and some former officials involved in the forced repatriation decision have been arrested.
The title of one article published in South Korea on the uptick of refugee arrivals from North Korea sounded positively glowing: “Number of NK defectors entering S. Korea more than triples in January-September Period.” The number of refugees arriving increased from 67 for all of 2022 to 136 for the first nine months of 2023. While the headline is correct that this is triple the number who arrived in the January-September period in 2022, it is a far more modest increase in comparison with pre-pandemic numbers of refugees before 2020. The increase is encouraging, but if there were freedom of movement from North Korea, far more refugees would be leaving the North.
China Forcibly Repatriating North Korean Refugees
The second noteworthy issue involving refugees from North Korea is the Chinese decision now to repatriate refugees from North Korea. Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in late 2019/early 2020, North Korea closed its borders, and China detained North Korean refugees who were captured in China as they sought to go to South Korea or elsewhere.
China and North Korea share an 880-mile border. North Koreans illegally cross the border to find employment in more prosperous areas in China, and others cross that border to escape North Korea and seek to reach South Korea or other countries. A significant number of North Koreans work in China under agreement between Beijing and Pyongyang to permit North Koreans to work in China. Significant fees go to the North Korean government and to North Korean middlemen who set up these labor arrangements. Other North Koreans illegally go to China and work “off the books,” allowing to earn without involvement of North Korean officials.
In addition to those who go to work in China (either legally or “off the books”), a significant number of North Koreans go through China in an effort to reach South Korea or other countries where they may have family or where they can enjoy freedoms not available in North Korea. These refugees are illegally leaving North Korea and illegally entering and crossing through China. If they are returned by Chinese border guards to North Korean officials, they will be severely punished and many will be executed. Unfortunately, despite international concerns about these North Korean refugees, China simply returns the refugees to North Korean border officials, and they suffer severe punishment.
Recent reports from South Korean human rights organizations indicate that some 600 North Koreans in China have been forcibly repatriated to North Korea against their will in mid-October. Other reports suggest that as many as two-thousand-five-hundred North Koreans have been detained by the Chinese government since early 2020 and all of them are being held for deportation back to North Korea. Harsh procedures were imposed in North Korea to prevent the spread of COVID when the pandemic first emerged. These North Korean would-be refugees are apparently individuals who have been detained in China since the beginning of the COVID outbreak because North Korea closed its borders to prevent spread of the COVID—and that even included prohibiting the return of North Korean diplomats and other citizens who were legally abroad and were seeking to return home.
The reports of forced repatriation were of sufficient concern that the South Korean Government officially protested to the government of China. At a news media briefing in Seoul, the spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Unification said, “It appears to be true that a large number of North Koreans in China’s three northeast provinces have been repatriated to the North. . . The South Korean government regrets the situation and raised the matter with the Chinese side in a serious manner, emphasizing our position.” He emphasized international practice and the strong position of the South Korean government: “The [South Korean] government’s position is that under no circumstances should North Koreans living abroad be forcibly repatriated against their will. Forced repatriation against one’s will is a violation of the international norm of non-refoulement.”
The South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yung Ho warned the Chinese government in August, before the forced returns began, that “North Korean defectors in China should be granted humane treatment in accordance with international standards, and be also able to enter countries that they are hoping to go to, including South Korea.”
The United States government also expressed grave concern about the Chinese government’s repatriation of North Korean refugees. Ambassador Julie Turner, recently sworn-in as the U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, speaking at a forum in Washington, D.C., on October 20, 2023, said, “I am gravely concerned by the recent and credible reports that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] repatriated large numbers of North Koreans, including as recently as last week.” Turner was sworn-in as U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues on October 13, 2023. The conference at which she spoke took place one week after she was sworn-in and a day after returning from her first trip as Special Envoy to Seoul for meetings with South Korean officials on North Korean human rights.
The United Nations Human Rights Council issued strongly worded statement sharply critical of China and North Korea and condemning the repatriation of North Koreans by China. The statement said, “there are long-standing and credible reports to believe that North Korean escapees forcibly returned to the DPRK would be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment . . . and other serious human rights violations.” The statement said the senior UN human rights officials “urge China to abide by its international legal obligations and not forcibly repatriate remaining North Korean escapees.” UN Experts who signed the statement included Elizabeth Salmón, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and a number of other UN human rights experts.
Former UN officials and other human rights experts also publicly criticized the repatriation of North Korean refugees in an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Their letter was released publicly, calling upon the Chinese government to cease the forcible repatriation of North Koreans detained in China. The letter noted the UN Commission of Inquiry’s 2014 report on human rights violations in North Korea. Two of the three members of the commission signed the letter, Sonja Biserko and Marzuki Darusman, and in addition it was signed by Thomas Ojea-Quintana, Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of human rights in the DPRK (2016-2022). Marzuki Darusman was also previously the UN Special Rapporteur on DPRK human rights (2010-2016). Other prominent advocates for human rights in North Korea were also signers of the letter, and a number of prominent human rights organizations endorsed the letter.
The United Nations continues to play a positive role in pressing North Korea and People’s Republic of China with regard to human rights conditions in North Korea. Conditions in the North are grim, but South Korea and the United States continue to work together closely on human rights issues involving North Korea.
Robert R. King is a Non-Resident Distinguished Fellow at the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI). He is former U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Human Rights (2009-2017). The views expressed here are the author’s alone.
Photo from Ceosad on Wikimedia Commons
keia.org · by intern · October 31, 2023
3. N. Korea in final stage of preparations for 3rd satellite launch: NIS
Have we seen any evidence of assistance from Russia?
N. Korea in final stage of preparations for 3rd satellite launch: NIS | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Jae-eun · November 1, 2023
By Kang Jae-eun
SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is believed to be in the final stage of preparations to carry out what would be its third satellite launch after two failed attempts earlier this year, South Korea's spy agency was quoted as reporting to lawmakers.
After its second attempt failed in August, the North said it would try again in October. But no such launch has happened, and the North has given no word as to why the launch has been postponed and when it will take place.
"North Korea is believed to be in the middle of the final stages of preparations, such as carrying out checks on its engines and launch systems," the National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported to the parliamentary intelligence committee during a closed-door audit session, according to Rep. Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People Power Party.
The North appears to have received technological assistance from Russia and the possibility of success could be higher, the NIS also reported. Space technology assistance was widely believed to be one of the outcomes of a summit in September between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Still, the North lacks funds and technology and has not yet mastered the atmospheric re-entry and multi-warhead technologies necessary for an intercontinental ballistic missile, the agency reported.
The agency also shared intelligence of possible arms and technology trade between North Korea and Russia.
The NIS said that the North is believed to have provided Russia with more than 1 million artillery rounds and other weapons in about 10 shipments since early August in order to help Moscow with the war in Ukraine.
The amount of artillery rounds is enough for Russia to use for two months, it said.
The NIS also obtained intelligence that North Korea sent a delegate of multiple rocket launcher experts to Russia around mid-October, Yoo added.
Additionally, Yoo said that the agency was able to freeze US$3.45 million worth of virtual assets stolen by the North, in cooperation with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in February and June.
With regard to the war between Israel and the Hamas militant group, the NIS reported that there have been signs that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered officials to come up with measures to provide comprehensive assistance to Palestine, according to Yoo.
"North Korea appears to be trying to take advantage of the Israel-Hamas war in multiple ways," Yoo said.
Last week, the Voice of America (VOA) cited Israeli Ambassador to South Korea Akiva Tor as saying that Israeli authorities know that North Korean-made weapons are in use by Hamas.
The North's ambassador to the United Nations, Kim Song, has dismissed the report as "groundless rumors," accusing Washington of seeking to shift the blame for the war in the Middle East to a third country.
People watch news on North Korea's satelite launch aired on television, in this file photo taken Aug. 24, 2023. (Yonhap)
fairydust@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Jae-eun · November 1, 2023
4. What we know about Hamas' huge rocket arsenal
I asked Dr. Bruce Bechtol about this article. I mentioned there was no reference to north Korea even though we know north Korea is proliferating weapons to conflict zones around the world to include Hezbollah and Hamas. He provided these insightful comments.
The article does mention this: "In addition to these weapons, Hamas is also believed to possess a number of rockets acquired from abroad. These include 107mm rockets acquired with an 8-kilometer range acquired from Iran, 122mm rockets with 12-40-kilometer ranges acquired from various countries..."
We (as you know) have actually seen spent North Korean 122MM rocket shells. I guess the authors consider this part of "abroad."
The lack of references to North Korea is probably just poor research. Everyone seems focused on Iran. Iran Iran Iran.
Also, this just focuses on the rockets, not the ATGM (Bulsae) from North Korea, and not the tunnels, which most now acknowledge came from technical expertise gained from the North Koreans, provided to them through Hezbollah.
One last thing, the article says Hamas is largely not using guided munitions. Okay, read this, and read why the Israelis killed this guy in 2018. He was working with the North Koreans to acquire guidance systems:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/world/asia/hamas-mossad-malaysia.html
"Western and Middle Eastern intelligence officials said that Mr. Batsh may have been involved in negotiating North Korean arms deals through Malaysia. Egypt recently seized a shipment of North Korean communications components used for guided munitions destined for Gaza, they said. One intelligence official said that Mr. Batsh had helped mediate the deal."
If one is to be good at this type of analysis, one has to be able to connect the dots. That is a skill most in the press do not have
What we know about Hamas' huge rocket arsenal
By Tom O'Connor
Senior Writer, Foreign Policy & Deputy Editor, National Security and Foreign Policy
Newsweek · by Tom O'Connor · October 31, 2023
The military wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement has debuted a new torpedo, said to have been used for the first time in combat against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as war continues to consume the Gaza Strip.
It's only the latest addition, however, in a large, diverse and expanding arsenal of weapons that the group has used against Israel throughout a decades-long conflict.
Since being formed amid the First Intifada uprising against Israel in the 1980s and later taking control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has managed to amass these weapons in spite of the IDF's longstanding attempts to institute a blockade of the coastal Palestinian territory. Israel and the United States have long accused Iran of helping Hamas' military force, the Al-Qassam Brigades, acquire such weapons, and Hamas officials have openly praised the Islamic Republic for its assistance, though the group has first and foremost credited indigenous ingenuity for acquiring such a stockpile.
The new torpedo, which first emerged in reports back in 2021, was previewed Monday by Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obaida during a 10-minute address in which he lauded his force's ongoing resistance against an escalating IDF campaign following Hamas' unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.
Called "Al-Asef" or "the Storm" in Arabic, the torpedo was later showcased in a short promotional video that appeared to show Al-Qassam Brigades divers dragging the projectile across the shore into the sea before cutting to the weapon firing through the water.
A follow-up clip claimed to show the actual combat use of the Al-Asef, which was adorned with the words "Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood" after the ongoing operation launched earlier this month, along with the date October 30, 2023. The partially censored footage showed men in plain clothes configuring the torpedo in an undisclosed room and later dragging it into the ocean.
A still from an undated video released by Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, purports to show four divers, some armed with Kalashnikov-style assault rifles, demonstrating the new "Al-Asef" torpedo at an undisclosed seaside location. Izz ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades
While Hamas has previously demonstrated limited naval capabilities, including at least one naval landing at the southern Israel kibbutz of Zikim during the October 7 surprise attack, rockets have long been the signature weapon of the group.
Fabian Hinz, a research fellow specializing in defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, shared with Newsweek a list of known rockets in Hamas' possession, including those domestically produced with foreign assistance and others acquired from abroad.
On the shorter-range side in the domestically produced category is a weapon that takes its name after the same man that inspired the Al-Qassam Brigades' title. Also called Qassam as an ode to Syrian Muslim preacher Izz ad-Din al-Qassam whose clashes with British colonial authorities in Mandatory Palestine helped inspire a late 1930s Arab revolt, the Q-12 and Q-20 rockets have an estimated range of 12 kilometers and 20 kilometers, respectively.
The Qassam line of rockets, which first emerged in the early 2000s with particularly limited ranges, have been a mainstay of Hamas' attacks against Israel.
As with most of Hamas' ostensibly domestically assembled arsenal, the S-40 rocket is also designated after its range, which is estimated to be 40 kilometers, and was used in 2019 to target Jewish settlements near the Gaza Strip as well as the Israeli cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod and Beersheba, according to a Sky News Arabic report published earlier this month. The Sajjeel-55, with a range of 55 kilometers, was reportedly seen even earlier during the third major Gaza war in 2014.
A graphic based on the research of International Institute for Strategic Studies research fellow Fabian Hinz shows rockets known to be in Hamas' possession as of its last major clash with Israel in May 2021. International Institute for Strategic Studies
That conflict, called "Operation Protective Edge" by Israel, was previously the deadliest of several conflicts fought between Hamas and the IDF since the latter's disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and the group's takeover of the territory two years later. It was sparked by clashes that erupted in the wake of Hamas' abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, which is under the control of the rival Fatah-led Palestinian National Authority.
The war came just two years after Israel launched the eight-day "Operation Pillar of Defense" in Gaza in 2012 after Hamas retaliated with rocket fire to the IDF's killing of Al-Qassam Brigades second-in-command Ahmed al-Jabari. During this flare-up, Hamas used the M-75 rocket, putting Tel Aviv in range. Jabari was also commemorated as the namesake of the J-80 and J-90 rockets.
With a range of 85 kilometers, the SH-85, is also believed to be named after another Al-Qassam Brigades subcommander, Mohammed Abu Shamala, who was killed during the 2014 Gaza war. Also slain during that conflict was senior Hamas official, Ra'ed al-Attar, whose name would be lent to the A-120 rocket first used to strike Jerusalem during 2021 clashes between Hamas and the IDF.
The A-120 bears a resemblance to the even further-range R-160, which debuted during the 2014 war and takes its name from Hamas official Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike a decade earlier. The Al-Qassam Brigades has more recently used the R-160 to strike Israel's northern city of Haifa during the current conflict.
The longest-range weapon known to exist in Hamas' stockpile, however, is the Ayyash-250, named after Yahya Ayyash, also known as "the Engineer," pioneered the Al-Qassam Brigades' bombmaking efforts until his assassination by Israeli Shin Bet agents using an exploding cell phone in 1996. The Al-Qassam Brigades has shown footage of the Ayyash-250 conducting long-range strikes amid the ongoing war.
In addition to these weapons, Hamas is also believed to possess a number of rockets acquired from abroad. These include 107mm rockets acquired with an 8-kilometer range acquired from Iran, 122mm rockets with 12-40-kilometer ranges acquired from various countries, the Fajr-5 rocket with a 75-kilometer range acquired from Iran and the M302 rocket acquired with a 180-kilometer range acquired from Syria.
While these weapons remain a threat to the IDF, Hinz told Newsweek that, "if you look at what's being fired now, it almost all seems to be locally made." That's because foreign assets tend to be larger, less wieldy and more difficult to smuggle into the tightly controlled borders of Gaza, he said.
A picture taken Monday from Israel's southern city of Sderot shows rockets fired from northern Gaza toward Israel. JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Hinz said the full degree of Hamas' smuggling networks are still not entirely known, but that they extend all the way to Iran, Iraq and Syria and across the waters of the Mediterranean into Libya, Sudan and Egypt, which borders Gaza and its intricate network of underground tunnels. Documentaries over the years have shown the group purporting to assemble parts from water pipes, old grenades from World War I shipwrecks and even ammonium chloride smuggled through Israel itself.
Further highlighting Iran's role, Hinz pointed to apparent intelligence leaks that appear to show the work of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Unit 340, including Persian-language blueprints and motor tests of relatively unsophisticated rocket technology that would be far more suited for Hamas' efforts than those of the Islamic Republic's armed forces. Iranian officials have also frequently acknowledged that they provided Hamas with more than just rhetorical support, though they have said Tehran played no role in planning the October 7 assault.
Such rockets have been primarily used to target Israeli cities and military positions outside of Gaza, but Hinz said Hamas' stockpile could also prove beneficial in confronting a deepening IDF incursion into the Palestinian territory itself, especially by targeting "large staging areas" of Israeli troops. One particularly devastating weapon could be the use of improvised rocket assisted munitions (IRAMs) that utilize small rockets with large warheads, trading accuracy for impact.
Through both foreign assistance and homegrown skills, Hamas has managed to develop "a pretty diverse arsenal," according to Hinz.
"It's still very simple technologically," Hinz said. "We haven't seen anything with guidance, so they're technically rockets and not missiles, which is a bit surprising. Perhaps they're keeping some stuff in the background, which will only be revealed later. We'll see."
Responding to Newsweek's question during a press briefing Tuesday, IDF Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said that "we understand that Hamas continues its efforts to acquire new and to enhance additional capabilities."
"We understand that they will try to deliver surprises on the battlefield," he added. "We know that they have had access to advanced weaponry, and we are taking active countermeasures against it in all dimensions, air, land, sea, cyber, all of the domains."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek · by Tom O'Connor · October 31, 2023
5. Beware of North Korea's Commandoes: Kim Jong Un's 200,000 Special Forces Are Fierce
No they are not 10 feet tall. (minimum is height 4'7")
Beware of North Korea's Commandoes: Kim Jong Un's 200,000 Special Forces Are Fierce
19fortyfive.com · by Eli Fuhrman · October 31, 2023
North Korea’s Special Forces Should Be Feared: North Korea maintains one of the largest standing militaries in the world, with the Korean People’s Army (KPA) boasting an active-duty strength of nearly 1.3 million personnel.
North Korea’s Military Is More than Nukes
Much of the KPA’s combat power, however, is based on outdated Soviet-era equipment.
As a result, the KPA maintains a noticeable quantitative advantage over its principal rivals in the United States and South Korea, while at the same time suffering from a significant qualitative disadvantage in comparison to both the U.S. and ROK militaries.
In order to compensate for this qualitative disadvantage, North Korea has developed a wide array of asymmetric military capabilities, with the Department of Defense assessing that the DPRK invests its resources into those areas that it believes it may enjoy a relative advantage over its adversaries.
Such a tactic has long been a staple of North Korea’s defense modernization and development efforts; in the early 1960s, North Korea promulgated a defense policy known as the Four Point Military Guidelines, which included an instruction on defense modernization that emphasized those areas that North Korea believed offered it the greatest strategic benefit at the lowest possible cost in keeping with the country’s financial and resource constraints.
Special Forces
One of the most significant elements of North Korea’s set of asymmetric capabilities is its large special operations force.
The North Korean special operations force is estimated to include 200,000 highly trained soldiers capable of undertaking reconnaissance, infiltration, sabotage, and assassination missions.
North Korea’s special operations forces are organized into a variety of light infantry and sniper brigades, and include elements that operate under both the KPA Navy and the KPA Air Force. Some of North Korea’s special operators are also subordinated to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s military intelligence organization.
In the event of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea would likely utilize the full array of its asymmetric military capabilities in the hopes of achieving a decisive early advantage that would bring about a quick end to the conflict on terms favorable to the DPRK.
North Korean special forces would likely be used to infiltrate rear areas to engage in acts of sabotage and to inflict both physical and psychological damage against the South Korean populace, and could be called upon to deploy weapons of mass destruction including chemical weapons.
North Korea has also used its special forces to engage in acts of low-level aggression and coercion outside of wartime scenarios, including an attempted raid on the South Korean Blue House in the 1960s.
North Korean special forces soldiers are capable of infiltrating into South Korea via land using tunnels, by sea, and by helicopter.
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6. US presses China on North Korea’s weapons supplies to Russia
But it is convenient for north Korea to provide lethal aid to Russia so China does not have to. The only area where we might have some alignment is about Russia providing advanced military technology to north Korea. Would CHina cooperate with the US on that? Doubtful.
On the positive side, we are not afraid to raise the human rights issues.
US presses China on North Korea’s weapons supplies to Russia
- In their first talks in nearly a year, special envoys from Beijing and Washington address Pyongyang’s military support for Moscow
- America’s Sung Kim also raises reports that China is repatriating fleeing North Koreans
Orange Wang
+ FOLLOWPublished: 9:00pm, 30 Oct, 2023
US presses China on North Korea’s weapons supplies to Russia
By Orange Wang South China Morning Post2 min
October 30, 2023
View Original
“[Sung Kim] noted that [North Korea’s] recent arms transfers to Russia threaten to undermine global non-proliferation and violate numerous UN Security Council resolutions that Russia, itself, supported,” the State Department said.
Kim emphasised to his Chinese counterpart the US commitment to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and to diplomacy with North Korea, and looked forward to continuing communication on the North Korea issues at all levels, it said.
The US envoy also stressed “the need for all UN member states to fulfil their obligations and fully implement the UN sanctions regime”, according to the US statement.
Asked about the meeting, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the source of the “deadlock” on the peninsula was in the “lingering remnants of the Cold War and the absence of a peace mechanism”.
“All parties should face up the root of the issue, commit to address each other’s reasonable concerns in a balanced manner and create conditions for restarting dialogue,” Wang said.
The US statement said Blinken and Wang talked about North Korea’s missile launches “in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, and other provocative actions”.
The Biden administration has signalled growing concern about closer military links between Pyongyang and Moscow, particularly since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made a rare trip abroad to Russia in September.
The White House said earlier this month that Kim’s regime supplied Moscow with 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions for use in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Japan and South Korea joined the US in condemning the shipments, saying they were also monitoring closely what Russia provides to North Korea in return.
Earlier this month on a visit to Pyongyang, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov backed regular security talks with North Korea and China in light of stronger defence ties between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul.
Reports earlier this month said China sent back around 600 North Korean defectors. Beijing does not recognise fleeing North Koreans as “defectors”, referring to them instead as “economic migrants”.
When asked whether more fleeing North Koreans would be repatriated, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday that “for North Koreans who have entered China illegally for economic reasons, the Chinese side has always maintained a responsible attitude, insisting on handling the issue properly”.
7. Impact of N. Korea-Russia cooperation likely to be limited but should not be overlooked: experts
Do not overplay the threat but still we must be wary.
Impact of N. Korea-Russia cooperation likely to be limited but should not be overlooked: experts | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · November 1, 2023
By Lee Minji
SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea and Russia's move to strengthen their military ties following the rare summit between their leaders may benefit the two isolated countries in the short term but is unlikely to have a lasting or fundamental impact on the economic and political front, experts said Wednesday.
The assessment followed Washington's revelation that Pyongyang had sent more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Moscow for its use in the war against Ukraine. Britain's defense ministry later said it is "almost certain" that North Korean munitions have arrived in western Russia.
In return, North Korea apparently wants Russia to transfer high-tech weapons technology, such as a military spy satellite and a nuclear-powered submarine, as it is pushing to advance its nuclear and missile programs.
"Russia is unlikely to provide something major in exchange for the artillery shells. It may supply some energy and food assistance, or dated weapons technology, but providing high-tech weapons technology would be too big of a loss for Russia," Kim Byeong-yeon, an economics professor at Seoul National University, said in a forum hosted by the unification ministry and the state-run Korean Institute for National Unification.
Kim said even if ties between North Korea and Russia normalize, it would have a very low "synergy" in terms of economic benefit.
"Russia may turn a blind eye on North Korean workers in the country or conduct energy trade, but there is not enough demand for trade that would substitute that with China," Kim said, forecasting that even if the North's economic growth turns around on the back of improved ties with Russia, it would not be sustained.
This illustration depicts a suspected arms agreement between North Korea and Russia. (Yonhap)
Junya Nishino, a political science professor at Japan's Keio University, echoed the view.
"The current Russia-North Korea cooperation is the result of Russia's predicament following its attack on Ukraine," Nishino said, stressing such ties are "temporary and expedient" rather than "solid."
"In the long-term perspective, the North's relationship with China is still much more important than that with Russia."
Still, some experts warned that the impact of changes on the geopolitical front should not be overlooked.
Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute, said Pyongyang's strengthening ties with Russia, alongside its recovering trade with China, provide some "breathing space" for the recalcitrant regime.
Stangarone forecast the North's supply of munitions to rake in around US$300 million to $600 million per million artillery shells, given that Russia, which is in need of 8 million shells on an annual basis, is unlikely to pay top value for the artillery shells that would cost $600 or less per shell.
"So when you fold that in with increased trade with China, when you fold in their cryptocurrency thefts, there is a very strong revenue stream coming in for North Korea that allows them to take and purchase the things they need to purchase," he said.
"You know we are in a changing geographic and geopolitical situation and North Korea is taking advantage of that. It's in a better position than it was three years ago ... I think that's the real challenge that we face," Stangarone said.
Andrei Lankov, a political science professor at Kookmin University, agreed that the slew of changes has consequently eased the burden on the North.
"A new era has begun and we don't know when it will end. The most important factor that has emerged is the Sino-U.S. rivalry," Lankov said. "North Korea had to engage in very complicated diplomacy over the past 20-30 years to resolve its economic difficulties, now it doesn't."
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (2nd from L) talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) at the Vostochny Cosmodrome space launch center in the Russian Far East on Sept. 13, 2023, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the next day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
mlee@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · November 1, 2023
8. Military to award units, soldiers over N.K. boat detection despite lingering criticism
Military to award units, soldiers over N.K. boat detection despite lingering criticism | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · November 1, 2023
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean military said Wednesday it will grant awards to units and soldiers behind an operation to detect and track a North Korean boat near the eastern maritime border last week, despite lingering criticism over the military's security lapses.
A 7.5-meter-long wooden boat carrying four North Koreans crossed the de facto maritime border in the East Sea on Oct. 24 in an apparent attempt to defect to South Korea.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) earlier said coastal units first identified the small boat with thermal observation devices and radars in the predawn hours, but the incident raised questions over potential lapses in maritime surveillance as the military towed away the boat after a local fisherman reported spotting it in the morning.
The JCS said it has selected four units in charge of front-line coastal areas and 15 service members who initially identified and tracked the small boat to praise the fulfillment of their missions under a "difficult operation environment."
"We have selected units and service members who contributed to the operation of identifying, tracking and monitoring the small North Korean wooden boat," the JCS said in a release.
It marked the first time since November 2019 that a group of North Koreans has made an attempt to defect to South Korea on a vessel in the East Sea.
In May, the South Korean military intercepted a North Korean fishing boat carrying a group of defectors that crossed the western NLL in the Yellow Sea.
A wooden boat is towed by a South Korean military vessel toward a port in Yangyang, Gangwon Province, northeastern South Korea, in this file photo taken Oct. 24, 2023, after a group of four unidentified individuals from North Korea crossed the eastern maritime inter-Korean border on the boat and were spotted in waters off the nearby city of Sokcho. (Yonhap)
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · November 1, 2023
9. Rubella eradicated in N. Korea with mass vaccinations: WHO
Some good news for the Korean people in the north.
Rubella eradicated in N. Korea with mass vaccinations: WHO | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · November 1, 2023
SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the rubella virus has been wiped out in North Korea on the back of large-scale vaccinations for children and young women.
The WHO said it has "concluded that endemic rubella virus has been eliminated from the country," citing evidence provided by the North's National Verification Committee.
The U.N. health body said North Korea introduced measles-rubella vaccines in its childhood immunization program in 2019 after successfully carrying out a wide age range immunization campaign targeting 9-month to 15-year-old children and 16-to 18-year-old women with measles and rubella vaccines.
"Through this mass immunization activity, achieving more than 99.8 percent coverage in almost 6 million target population, the country rapidly built substantial population immunity for rubella," the WHO said in a statement released Tuesday on its website.
Rubella virus infection usually causes a mild fever and rash in children and adults, but infection during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, can result in miscarriage, fetal death, stillbirth, or infants with congenital malformations.
This undated EPA file photo shows vaccine shots for rubella and measles. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
mlee@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · November 1, 2023
10. 'Beyond Utopia' Review: A Searing Look at Escaping North Korea
'Beyond Utopia' Review: A Searing Look at Escaping North Korea
Its images of gulags, public executions, and private beatings will not be easily forgotten.
slantmagazine.com · by Derek Smith · October 30, 2023
Harrowing stories have been told by those who’ve survived their escape from North Korea, but that struggle emerges with a startling urgency in director Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia with footage unlike any we’ve seen before. The film uses interviews with defectors and archival footage to provide historical context about the stringent control that North Korea’s security apparatus has over its citizens and how they’re bombarded and controlled by propaganda. But it’s the hidden camera and cellphone footage taken by defectors themselves that most terrifyingly attests to the horrors committed by the kleptocratic dynastic regime.
The on-the-grounds footage focuses primarily on Hyukchang Wu and his family, who at the start of the film are hiding along the border between China and North Korea. We witness their first contact with Seungeun Kim, a well-known pastor who, with minimal resources, has managed to help numerous people escape from North Korea. At the same time, Seungeun is also helping Soyeon Lee, a refugee who escaped a decade ago, to extract her now-teenage son.
Seungeun’s insights are particularly invaluable as he explains to the Wu family that he must secretly lead them through China, and then through Vietnam and Laos, to get to Thailand. It’s only there where they’ll be safe from governments that would extradite them to North Korea, as well as from ordinary citizens who might sell them to local traffickers. In one particularly heart-wrenching scene, the Wus have been hiking for miles through mountainous terrain in the middle of the night when Hyukchang and Seungeun realize that the very brokers who’ve been enlisted by the trustworthy Seungeun to guide them to freedom have been leading them in circles and only agree to continue in the right direction after the Wus agree to pay more money.
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Alongside the excruciating journeys of the Wus and Soyeon, Gavin intersperses archival and hidden camera footage that draws a stark contrast between the outward-facing North Korean state media and the everyday social reality that it writes over. Especially unsettling is a piece of propaganda in which children cheerfully engage in a classroom lecture about how evil the rest of the world is, particularly South Koreans and Americans. And the searing images of various gulags, public executions, and private beatings will not be easily forgotten.
While some of this footage, given its clearly contextualizing function, feels awkwardly placed at times, and the music cues can be too on the nose, the immediacy of Beyond Utopia makes those quibbles easy to get past. The Wu family’s 2,000-plus mile odyssey is nerve-wracking, and nowhere more eye-opening than when Hyukchang’s mother says that “nothing was bad” in North Korea, while her two grandchildren gleefully proclaim that Kim Jung Un is “the greatest person in the world.” It’s a bracing moment for how it speaks so succinctly to the chilling pull that the regime’s brainwashing tactics can have even on those trying to escape its clutches.
Score:
Director: Madeleine Gavin Distributor: Roadside Attractions Running Time: 115 min Rating: PG-13 Year: 2023
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Derek Smith's writing has appeared in Tiny Mix Tapes, Apollo Guide, and Cinematic Reflections.
slantmagazine.com · by Derek Smith · October 30, 2023
11. Former S. Korean POW who won damages suit against Pyongyang dies at 91
Not mentioned in this article are the reports that there were some 78,000 South Korean soldiers who were not returned when the Armistice was signed. They were integrated into north Korean society in the lowest class of Songbun and were worked to their eventual deaths in the mines. they were allowed to marry but their wives and children were given the lowest Songbun and therefore the children could only work in the mines. The regime developed a perpetual supply of slaves.
Former S. Korean POW who won damages suit against Pyongyang dies at 91 | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · November 1, 2023
SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- Kim Seong-tae, a former prisoner of war (POW) who won a compensation suit against North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un, has died at the age of 91, a human rights organization said Wednesday.
Dream makers for NK said Kim died Tuesday, just six months after he won the damages suit alongside two other former POWs, who escaped from the North in the early 2000s after being taken prisoner during the 1950-53 Korean War.
In May, the Seoul Central District Court ordered North Korea and its leader Kim to pay 50 million won (US$36,818) each to the three former POWs who filed their litigation in September 2020.
Kim became a POW while assisting an injured company commander. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for attempts to flee and worked at a coal mine after his release in 1966. Kim escaped to the South in 2001.
After winning the suit in May, Kim said he will "fight for the Republic of Korea" until the day he dies while expressing mixed emotions at being able to return to his home country but being unable to reunite with deceased family members.
Kim will be laid to rest at Seoul National Cemetery in central Seoul.
Since the Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953, 80 South Korean POWs in North Korea have returned to their home country. With Kim's death, the number of surviving former POWs in South Korea stands at 10.
South Korea estimates that more than 500 POWs are still alive in the North as of late 2016. Still, North Korea denies holding any POWs.
This May 8, 2023, file photo shows former South Korean prisoners of war Kim Seong-tae during a press conference in Seoul after winning a compensation suit against North Korea. (Yonhap)
mlee@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · November 1, 2023
12. Blinken to visit S. Korea next week for 1st time since Yoon came into office
Blinken to visit S. Korea next week for 1st time since Yoon came into office
The Korea Times · November 1, 2023
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) 2023 Republic of Korea-U.S. Strategic Forum in Washington, Sept. 25. AFP-Yonhap
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit South Korea next week to discuss the alliance, North Korea and other issues, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, his first trip to Seoul since the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol came into office.
Blinken will begin a two-day trip to Seoul on Wednesday after attending a Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers' meeting in Tokyo. The trip comes ahead of a highly anticipated summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Blinken will hold bilateral talks with his South Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Park Jin, for "broad discussions on the bilateral alliance, North Korean issues, economic security and advanced technologies, as well as regional and global issues," the ministry said in a press release.
It will mark his first trip to South Korea since the launch of the Yoon government in May 2022.
Blinken's visit comes at a time when the possibility is growing of a summit between Biden and Xi on the fringes of a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, set to take place in San Francisco later this month.
Blinken could use his trip to Seoul to coordinate with South Korean officials on pressing issues such as the growing military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russia's war in Ukraine.
Concerns have mounted after the U.S. revealed in October that the North had provided a large amount of military equipment and munitions to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, left, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department in Washington, in this June 13, 2022 file photo. AP-Yonhap
South Korea, the U.S. and Japan condemned the arms transfers in a joint statement last week, confirming some of the weapon deliveries.
China-related issues are expected to be addressed, with regard to the reported forced repatriation of North Korean defectors last month.
The escalating war between Israel and the Hamas militant group is also expected to be high on the agenda, amid reports alleging that North Korean weapons have been used by Hamas, a claim rejected by Pyongyang as groundless.
Concerns are growing that the Middle East conflict and the Russia-Ukraine war could affect Washington's efforts to focus on security in the Indo-Pacific region.
Blinken's visit could serve as an occasion to reaffirm the bilateral alliance, in light of the U.S. commitment to providing "extended deterrence" to South Korea against the North's evolving nuclear and missile threats.
Extended deterrence refers to the U.S.' commitment to mobilizing the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its allies.
North Korea had said it plans to test-launch a military spy satellite in October after two unsuccessful attempts in May and August, although such a launch has not taken place yet.
Blinken last visited Seoul in March 2021 for the "two plus two" meeting of the two countries' foreign and defense ministers. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · November 1, 2023
13. 8th Fighter Wing commander is stepping down after 5 months in South Korea
Must be a very serious family situation. I wish him and his family well.
8th Fighter Wing commander is stepping down after 5 months in South Korea
Stars and Stripes · by David Choi · October 31, 2023
Col. Timothy Murphy, 8th Fighter Wing commander, speaks during a ceremony at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, June 2, 2023. (Sadie Colbert/U.S. Air Force)
SEOUL, South Korea — The head of the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base will relinquish command due to personal reasons after less than half a year on the job.
Col. Timothy Murphy will retire “earlier than planned” on Feb. 1 “solely due to family reasons,” said a news release from 7th Air Force at Osan Air Base, roughly 75 miles north of Kunsan.
Murphy took charge of the wing on May 25. He previously served as vice commander of the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa Air Base, Japan.
“I did not make this decision lightly, but know it is the best choice for the well-being of my family and the 8th Fighter Wing,” he said in the release. “I want to thank the Wolf Pack community for respecting our privacy and being so understanding as we transition to retirement.”
The Wolf Pack is the 8th Fighter Wing icon: the initials WP are painted on the wing’s aircraft tails. The wing is composed of about 3,200 U.S. service members and Defense Department civilian employees, as well as around 30 F-16s.
Reached by phone Tuesday, 7th Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Rachel Buitrago declined to elaborate on the matter and said Murphy’s decision was based solely on his family’s well-being.
Col. Matthew Gaetke, commander of the 607th Air Operations Center at Osan, will take charge of the wing on Nov. 8 during a change-of-command ceremony at Kunsan, according to the release.
Seventh Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Scott Pleus thanked Murphy for his 22 years of service.
“We are thankful for Colonel Murphy’s service and leadership, not only here in [South Korea], but throughout his entire distinguished career,” Pleus said in the release. “Tim has done an incredible job leading the 8th Fighter Wing’s Wolf Pack, and they are postured, ready and responsive today because of that leadership.”
During Murphy’s tenure as wing commander, Kunsan F-16s have participated in numerous aerial exercises in and around the Korean Peninsula, including the first trilateral air drill between Japanese and South Korean fighter jets on Oct. 22.
Murphy was commissioned with a history degree from the Air Force Academy in 2001, according to his biography. He has clocked over 2,000 flight hours, 409 of them in combat, on F-16 Fighting Falcons and training aircraft. His awards include the Bronze Star, Inherent Resolve Campaign and Afghanistan Campaign medals.
David Choi
David Choi
David Choi is based in South Korea and reports on the U.S. military and foreign policy. He served in the U.S. Army and California Army National Guard. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Stars and Stripes · by David Choi · October 31, 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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