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Quotes of the Day:
"If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."
- Thomas A. Edison
"Whenever the world throws rose petals at you, which thrill and seduce the ego, beware."
- Anne Lamott\
"There is only one success -- to be able to spend your life in your own way."
- Christopher Morley
1. Dissatisfied With Quality and Quantity of North Korean Artillery Shells, russians Complain
2. HRNK Message on International Human Rights Day
3. Is Kim Jong-un’s ‘respected’ daughter North Korea’s next leader or merely a propaganda vehicle?
4. Mountain view: North Korea urges pilgrimages to peak linked to Kim ‘heroism’
5. N. Korea slams U.S. over veto on UN resolution calling for cease-fire in Gaza
6. N.K. activity increases at Panmunjom after inter-Korean military deal scrapped: NNSC generals
7. Former President Moon Jae-in attacks government's hardline policies on North Korea
8. Top US official for Asia says North Korea has rebuffed all contact since Trump meetings
9. N. Korea's fear of external info grows after Seoul allows sending propaganda leaflets
10. In One of the Least Diverse Nations, an American Outsider Shakes Up Politics
11. Attempt to smuggle Lexus to North Korea spotlights Kim Jong-un's fondness for fine cars
12. Once a venue for historic summits, truce village weighed down with tension amid N.K. threats
13. China is sending escapees back to North Korea
14. USAID official urges boosted development cooperation among S. Korea, U.S., Japan as 'like-minded' countries
15. 'New initiative on NK' lacks balanced strategy: experts
1. Dissatisfied With Quality and Quantity of North Korean Artillery Shells, russians Complain
These are the types of reports I was hoping for.
Evidence of poor (if any) quality control. Corruption at the point of manufacture (perhaps the workers have been exposed to the OSS Simple Sabotage Manual)
But if we had an information campaign one of the themes I would use this information to support is the poor quality of the nKKPA military and that its unreliable ammunition will lead to certain defeat and for nKPA soldiers, certain death as they will not be able to count on their own ammunition. We need to exploit this information to create a loss of confidence in nKPA ammunition and equipment.
You have to wonder about all of the ammunition for the nKPA.
The absence of lead wires in charges exacerbates barrel wear. And the reason for that is so banal and familiar to all countries with a planned economy, namely, North Korean workers, who steal everything they can from the factory for their profit.
But was the quality of the ammo known to officials? Does this provide the regime with information that will lead to crack downs on workers and corrective action at the factories? Will these lead to ammo stocks being replaced (can the regime afford to do so - or afford not to?)
.
Dissatisfied With Quality and Quantity of North Korean Artillery Shells, russians Complain | Defense Express
en.defence-ua.com
The russian invasion forces in Ukraine have recently been complaining a lot about artillery shells arriving from North Korea. Supplied in a hurry, even without firing tables, the ammunition displayed "systematic dispersion in range," reported by russian artillerymen from the frontline.
Determined to find out the reason of poor performance, a russian military-themed Telegram channel shared a photo post detailing the "research" on North Korean propellant charges for 152-mm projectiles marked NDT-3, although this marking actually refers to the contents (nitroglycerin powder with dinitrotoluene), and the actual name of the shell is unknown. The post was noticed by Georgian blogger TheDeadDistrict.
The investigation of five randomly selected charges with the same marking found that they all had different powders, and the powder bundles had different weights. Some charges lacked a de-copper: a lead wire meant to reduce copper buildup inside the barrel due to the repeated use of shells with a copper driving band. Additionally, some of the shells had traces indicating hermetic lids were opened.
And all of that was observed in just five random shells. That is, in such a small sample, which obviously indicates a systematic shortage of ammunition in general. In practice, all these issues lead to a whole avalanche of consequences.
The inconsistent (or "dispersed") artillery shell trajectory distance means a decrease in the accuracy of fire, resulting in spending more ammunition to accomplish a typical task. A larger expenditure means a longer execution time, and staying on the same spot for long exposes the artillery squad to backfire in the Ukrainian conditions of intense counter-battery warfare. The dispersion in projectile landing distance can be addressed by closing the distance between the howitzer and the target before firing but this leads to even greater losses.
Some of the propellant charges contained the lead "de-copper" wire while some others didn't / Photo credit: TheDeadDistrict
Moreover, higher ammunition consumption accelerates gun wear, reducing precision and increasing ammunition usage even further.
The absence of lead wires in charges exacerbates barrel wear. And the reason for that is so banal and familiar to all countries with a planned economy, namely, North Korean workers, who steal everything they can from the factory for their profit.
The use of different powders in ammunition from the DPRK is explained by the country's isolated status, pushing it to scrap components for powder production from wherever possible which reflects in the overall quality of the final product.
And once again, the planned economy in North Korea, prioritizing quantity over quality control, contributes to these "planned defects."
Open source illustrative photo
While every defective North Korean ammunition remains nonetheless dangerous to Ukrainian forces, the sheer quantity involved, reportedly in the millions, highlights the significance of these findings.
The random check of only five propellant charges already revealed a lot of issues, and we haven't yet seen the other deliveries like the projectile and the detonator, all having no less strict requirements for quality. Maybe even more interesting things would come to light if russians tried to check those as well.
en.defence-ua.com
2. HRNK Message on International Human Rights Day
Excerpts:
Almost ten years after the landmark UN Commission of Inquiry report on the situation of human rights in North Korea, human rights violations are still deeply ingrained in North Korean society and affect every aspect of the lives of its people.
The most recent UN General Assembly resolution on North Korean human rights, adopted by consensus in the Third Committee on November 15, calls attention to “All-pervasive and severe restrictions, including an absolute monopoly on information and total control over organized social life, further tightened by…COVID-19 prevention measures.”
HRNK Message on International Human Rights Day
https://mailchi.mp/794bfc28038b/intl-human-rights-day-2023?e=46d109134b
December 10, 2023
Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Seventy-five years ago, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.”
On this historic occasion, HRNK wishes to shed light on the crimes against humanity and other grave human rights violations that persist in one of the world's darkest corners—North Korea.
Almost ten years after the landmark UN Commission of Inquiry report on the situation of human rights in North Korea, human rights violations are still deeply ingrained in North Korean society and affect every aspect of the lives of its people.
The most recent UN General Assembly resolution on North Korean human rights, adopted by consensus in the Third Committee on November 15, calls attention to “All-pervasive and severe restrictions, including an absolute monopoly on information and total control over organized social life, further tightened by…COVID-19 prevention measures.”
The resolution also notes that these measures have “led to food insecurity, severe hunger, malnutrition, widespread health problems and other hardship for the population.”
Furthermore, those detained in North Korea's detention system—including its kwan-li-so political prison camps—endure forced labor in brutal and degrading conditions. It is estimated that over 100,000 people are imprisoned without due process and subjected to torture and inhumane treatment.
The problem extends beyond North Korea's borders.
North Korea has "engaged in a state policy of enforced disappearance of persons since 1950." The relatives of abductees, including those in South Korea and Japan, still do not know the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.
In addition, North Korean women and girls are lured to China by human traffickers under the pretext of finding work. Sexual and gender-based violence prevails as many of these women are sold as “brides” to Chinese men in rural areas or forced into prostitution or online sex work. Rather than protecting North Korean refugees as refugees sur place, China considers them to be “illegal economic migrants.” North Korean refugees in China are highly vulnerable, living under the constant threat of forcible repatriation.
Moreover, North Korean workers continue to be officially dispatched overseas despite UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting this practice. Interviews with former workers and officials indicate that “up to 90 percent of the salary they earn is confiscated by the North Korean authorities.” These funds help sustain the regime, which prioritizes the welfare of the core elite and the development of nuclear and missile capabilities.
HRNK reiterates its solidarity with the people of North Korea and calls upon North Korea to cease its policy of human rights denial. We also urge the international community to hold the North Korean regime accountable for its actions and to redouble efforts to improve the human rights situation of North Koreans, both in North Korea and abroad.
It is imperative to raise awareness of the plight of North Koreans, to advocate for their human rights, and to amplify their voices. As declared in HRNK’s founding document, “the norms of human rights, as defined by the United Nations, apply as much to the people of North Korea as to the people of any other country.”
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3. Is Kim Jong-un’s ‘respected’ daughter North Korea’s next leader or merely a propaganda vehicle?
My guess: Propaganda.
Is Kim Jong-un’s ‘respected’ daughter North Korea’s next leader or merely a propaganda vehicle?
- Kim Ju-ae has been gaining prominence at public events, with South Korean authorities now considering the possibility she may be the heir apparent
- Analysts say it is unlikely Ju-ae could succeed her father as North Korea’s leader, given the country’s male-dominated military structure
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (left) and his daughter observing a demonstration flight as they visit the Korean People’s Army’s 1st Army Division Flight Regiment to commemorate “Aviation Day” on November 30. Photo: KCNA/dpa
Park Chan-kyong
+ FOLLOWPublished: 1:00pm, 10 Dec, 2023
By Park Chan-Kyong South China Morning Post5 min
December 9, 2023
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Observers have noted her quick development, both in physical appearance and demeanour, as she reportedly carries herself with a level of poise and confidence surpassing children her age. Her image has transitioned from childlike to a more mature look after she swapped her initial red flats for high-heels and now sports the same shoulder-length hair as her mother Ri Sol-ju.
On November 30, the elder Kim and his daughter, sporting matching leather trench coats and sunglasses, were shown inspecting combat aircraft at the Sunchon Airbase north of Pyongyang on the country’s “Aviation Day”.
A photo on the front page of state newspaper Rodong Sinmun showed Ju-ae with her father a step behind her – an act which, if carried out by any other, would have amounted to lèse-majesté in the Stalinist country.
Ju-ae occupied a prominent seat beside her father and at one point, a top military leader was observed kneeling down and whispering to her.
She was even featured on a series of commemorative stamps at an earlier age than any previous North Korean leaders.
Kim Jong-un and his daughter applaud a musical performance for “Aviation Day” on November 30. Photo: KCNA/Korea News Service via AP
“The fact that Kim Ju-ae is featured in the entire stamp series is a deliberate plan to highlight her. This is not a coincidence,” said Cho Han-beom, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
Accordingly, there appears to have been a shift in South Korean authorities’ assessment of Ju-ae’s potential ascension to head the Kim dynasty.
According to a 2017 assessment by South Korean intelligence, Kim Jong-un is believed to have a son who was born in 2010; Ju-ae, born in 2013; and another child of unknown sex born in 2017.
Since then, it had generally been assumed by the authorities in Seoul that Kim’s unknown son would be groomed as his potential successor, given that North Korea remains a deeply conservative, patriarchal society.
But Cho Tae-yong, head of South Korea’s National Security Council that reports to the president, said last week authorities were now wondering whether they should seriously consider Ju-ae as a potential successor.
“Not long ago, we were wondering whether Ju-ae could be a successor [because of her gender], but we’re now at the stage of verifying the possibility that she might be the heir apparent,” he said on a KBS television news show.
A report by Radio Free Asia, citing a Pyongyang source, claimed Ju-ae had even been referred to as “Morning Star General” at internal indoctrination lectures following the launch of North Korea’s first, presumably functioning, military reconnaissance satellite on November 21.
Officials at Seoul’s Unification Ministry said they could not confirm such reports.
However, Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute think tank in Seongnam views it as additional evidence supporting his prediction of Ju-ae as heir apparent.
“Judging from the way North Korea has been presenting her as a ‘female general’, it can be interpreted as another sign that they are starting to award her some sort of status as a de facto successor,” the researcher said.
Honorific expressions like General or Morning Star have been reserved for the Kims throughout the country’s 75-year history to justify father-to-son successions. The Kim dynasty has also been referred to as the “Baekdu” bloodline, named after the highest mountain on the Korean peninsula bordering China.
But some analysts expressed doubt that North Korean officials would have openly discussed succession in a speech to commemorate the satellite launch, suggesting the words might have been misinterpreted.
“This report needs to be verified. It’s hard to rule out the possibility that the information itself was significantly tainted or distorted” while being passed on to the outside world, said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
Kim Jong-un, his wife Ri Sol-ju
Yang Moo-jin, a political-science professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said Ju-ae’s growing exposure highlighted the North’s efforts to intensify hero-worshipping of the Kims, so that the family could solidify its grip on power amid a deepening confrontation with the United States and South Korea.
“Kim Ju-ae is being used as a propaganda star to drum up people’s loyalty to the Kim family and justify their fourth generation-to-generation succession,” Yang told This Week in Asia.
“However … this does not necessarily mean Ju-ae is the next successor. Koreans generally believe in the son inheriting the throne. It’s uncertain if North Korea is keeping the son out of public view to protect him or if he has health issues.”
Kim Jong-un’s father Kim Jong-il was designated as the successor to the North’s founding leader Kim Il-sung around 1973, and this was officially endorsed by party members at a party congress in 1980, Yang said. Kim Jong-un was named heir apparent in 2009 and unveiled by state media a year later.
“By contrast, it’s not even known what Ju-ae’s real name is, as North Korea has never addressed her by her name. We don’t know her exact age either,” he said.
“Under these circumstances, it’s way too early to say she will be the successor just because she appears prominently in propaganda pictures and state media call her by some honorific.”
Kim Jong-un with his daughter Ju-ae at a banquet to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army, in Pyongyang, North Korea in this photo released on February 8. Photo: KCNA via Reuters
Hong at the Korea Institute for National Unification said North Korea’s male-centred power structure made it unlikely that a daughter would take over.
Hyun In-ae, a professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University who defected from the North to the South in 2004, agreed.
“I believe North Korea’s high-ranking officials would feel very uncomfortable about a female leader,” she said, noting North Korea is a patriarchal society and far behind in gender equality.
“Many would feel strange about Kim taking his daughter everywhere and showing up with her at major events,” Hyun told the Korea Times. “All I can say now is that if someone is introduced as ‘General Morning Star’ or something similar, this means she is almost certainly a successor or someone with a status akin to that.”
Kim Young-soo, head of the private Institute of North Korean Studies think tank, said Ju-ae was “apparently playing a role like that of pacemaker in a marathon before a so-far unknown real successor, a boy, is ready to take it over”.
“She is also acting like a cute mascot, bolstering an image of the leader keeping a normal, lovely family and softening the atmosphere as Kim’s presence in any place makes others extremely nervous,” he said.
4. Mountain view: North Korea urges pilgrimages to peak linked to Kim ‘heroism’
Climb the mountain and all will be well.
We (or at least me) might laugh at this and make sarcastic comments, but we need to understand how important these images are to the regime and all that it is doing to try to control the population. Again I commed Robert Collins' seminal work at HRNK: "Propaganda and Agitation Department: Kim Jong-un Regime's Sword of Indoctrination," https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/PAD_web.pdf
Mountain view: North Korea urges pilgrimages to peak linked to Kim ‘heroism’
With imagery, propaganda, Kim clan employs Mount Baekdu to preserve regime
washingtontimes.com · by Andrew Salmon
This photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech in the National Mothers’ Meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 3, 2023. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event … This photo provided by the North … more >
By - The Washington Times - Sunday, December 10, 2023
North Korean state media is encouraging citizens to undertake winter climbs of Mount Baekdu, a peak venerated by Koreans ancient and modern, North and South.
The official Rodong Shinmun newspaper noted approvingly late last week that thousands of groups have followed leader Kim Jong-un‘s example and ascended the mountain. It urged others to do so to refresh their “revolutionary spirit.”
The deliberate association of a myth-laden mountain with newer myths of the Kims has emerged as a core element of the powerful personality cult buttressing the family that has ruled North Korea for three generations, Pyongyang watchers say.
A merger of propaganda from the 1970s and 1980s with East Asian traditions of sacred mountains has generated the legend of a “Mount Baekdu bloodline” that supposedly runs through the veins of Mr. Kim, his ancestors and a rising generation coming to prominence.
The current North Korean dictator, having succeeded his father and grandfather in the post, has often been photographed in the area. Most famously, he was shown in 2019, outfitted in bespoke riding gear and mounted upon a white steed on Baekdu’s snow-covered trails.
The images of an obese individual in a nation wracked by malnutrition striking heroic poses generated guffaws across English-language social media, but to North Koreans, it was no joke to North Koreans.
Living in a shuttered state without freedom of movement, information, association or expression, something close to religious fervor surrounds the Kims, and Mount Baekdu is a key pilgrimage site.
Mighty mountain, heroic Kim
The mountain, which straddles North Korea’s border with China – where it is known as Changbai - is actually an extinct volcano. Complete with a scenic lake in its crater that was legendarily inhabited by a water dragon, the 9.003-foot Mt. Baekdu is the Korean peninsula’s highest point.
East Asians have long venerated mountains. Japan has Mount Fuji. Chinese sages and emperors were associated with certain peaks, said academic and tour guide David Mason, and an official system of mountains, complete with shrines and pilgrimage sites, was established.
Ancient Koreans embraced the concept as well.
“Mountains were very much used in the founding myths of various Korean kingdoms and dynasties,” said Mr. Mason, who specializes in sacred Korean peaks. The mythological first Korean, Dangun, was supposedly born on the mountain.
“It has often been remarked how North Korea is un-Communist and anti-Marxist because it turned to a traditional, mountain-based bloodline royalty,” Mr. Mason said.
Though a powerful personality cult surrounded Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong, he did not create a dynasty.
Kim Il Sung – who was installed in Pyongyang under Soviet auspices — was more successful: His son and grandson went on to hold apparently undisputed power in North Korea, a grip that has lasted to this day.
Born in 1912, Kim Il Sung was a Korean communist and guerilla leader who spent three decades in exile before returning home when Soviet Union forces invaded Manchuria and northern Korea in 1945 at the very end of World War II.
His personality cult went into overdrive after the disastrous Korean War that he had initiated.
In the 1970s and 1980s, state propaganda linked Mr. Kim to Mount Baekdu. It claimed he established a secret guerilla headquarters on the forested slopes, siring his son there between battles with the Japanese.
“This a pure, 100% propaganda fantasy: Such a camp never existed,” said Andrei Lankov, a South Korea-based Russian specialist in Korean studies who previously studied in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung University. “But the myth of Mount Baekdu is extremely important for North Korean nation-building and the essential ‘Koreanness’ of the Kim family.”
Working behind the scenes in Pyongyang media in the 1970s and ‘80s, Kim Il Sung’s Russian-born son, named Yuri at birth, took the Korean name Kim Jong-il.
“He was a big influence on his father’s personality cult though he was smart enough not to promote himself,” said Michael Breen, a biographer of Kim Jong-il. “Therein lay his own legitimacy.”
Kim Jong-il took power after his father died in 1994, the first-ever dynastic succession in a supposedly Communist state. He was succeeded by his own son, Kim Jong-un, after his death in 2011.
Further broadening the Kim dynastic footprint is Kim Jong-un‘s sister, Kim Yo Jong. A high-ranking party functionary and state media columnist, some credit her with boosting her brother’s public image by linking it more closely to that of his esteemed grandfather.
Official statues and paintings depict the latter on horseback, while a famous poster of Kim Jong-il shows him standing on Mount Baekdu.
Mountain landscapes, sacred landscapes
A diplomat with experience in Pyongyang said that the average North Korean takes the “Baekdu bloodline” seriously. South of the DMZ, few South Koreans admire the Kims, but Mount Baekdu is famed there, too.
It is mentioned in the first line of South Korea’s national anthem, and its crater lake is a hugely popular image on paintings, posters and calendars. Despite its border location, young South Koreans in Seoul say that they are taught in school that the mountain is Korean, not Chinese.
It was no coincidence that a trip up Mount Baekdu, by cable car, was the highlight of a visit by then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in with Mr. Kim in 2018 when inter-Koreans relations were – briefly – rosy.
Currently, Mr. Kim appears to be expanding his family’s media presence. He has made multiple appearances with his daughter Ju Ae. His wife, Ri Sol Ju, has been pictured with him at a wintry Mount Baekdu.
In an officially agnostic state, the linkages forged between an iconic mountain, a heroicized ruling clan and North Korea itself are no joke, experts said.
“People from different religions take pilgrimages to their holy lands – be it Islam, Christianity or ‘Kimism,’” said Steve Tharp, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who formerly undertook negotiations with North Korean officers.
“Though we live in an age when we are encouraged to respect others’ religions and cultures, I don’t think we should respect North Korea’s, as that state is not admirable,” added Mr. Breen. “But I don’t think we should dismiss it either, as it is sort of a symbol of the sacred — it is a deep place.”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
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5. N. Korea slams U.S. over veto on UN resolution calling for cease-fire in Gaza
N. Korea slams U.S. over veto on UN resolution calling for cease-fire in Gaza | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · December 10, 2023
SEOUL, Dec. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea denounced the United States on Sunday for vetoing a U.N. Security Council Resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, state media reported.
The U.N. Security Council voted on the resolution Friday, but it failed to pass due to the veto by the U.S., one of the five veto-wielding powers of the 15-member council.
Kim Son-kyong, North Korea's vice foreign minister for international organizations, accused Washington of abusing its veto right, calling the country a "stumbling block" to international peace and stability, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"I cannot but deplore the fact that the international community's unanimous desire for peace and stability to settle in the Middle East at an early date was mercilessly trampled down again," Kim said in an English-language statement carried by the KCNA.
This undated file graphic image, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows a meeting at the U.N. headquarters in New York. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · December 10, 2023
6. N.K. activity increases at Panmunjom after inter-Korean military deal scrapped: NNSC generals
(Yonhap Interview) N.K. activity increases at Panmunjom after inter-Korean military deal scrapped: NNSC generals | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · December 10, 2023
By Chae Yun-hwan and Kim Eun-jung
CAMP BONIFAS, South Korea, Dec. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has increased activities in the truce village of Panmunjom after effectively scrapping an inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement last month, Swedish and Swiss military generals overseeing the armistice said.
Maj. Gen. Lena Persson Herlitz and Maj. Gen. Ivo Burgener of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission made the remark in an interview with Yonhap News Agency, expressing concern the scrapping of the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) could increase the risks of military miscalculation.
"The intention of (the CMA) was to advance the Armistice Agreement, and, of course, there will be increased risk if there are no buffer zones," Herlitz of the Swedish delegation said during the interview held Thursday at Camp Bonifas, just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.
"It's always good to have rules, and hopefully both sides follow them...Of course, we prefer to have buffer zones," she said.
Burgener, the Swiss general, said he saw "more soldiers" and "more movement" on the North Korean side of the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom two weeks ago. Asked to elaborate, Herlitz said, "More activities, but no details."
Maj. Gen. Lena Persson Herlitz (L), the head of the Swedish delegation of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), and Maj. Gen. Ivo Burgener, the head of the NNSC's Swiss delegation, pose for photos at the Joint Security Area Visitor Center at Camp Bonifas, just south of the Demilitarized Zone, separating the two Koreas. (Yonhap)
That is when the North said on Nov. 23 that it will restore all military measures halted under the 2018 agreement, after the South suspended part of the deal in protest of the North's successful launch of a military spy satellite on Nov. 21.
Disarming the JSA was one of the points of the agreement, along with withdrawing border guard posts within 1 kilometer of the border, banning military drills and maneuvers near the land and sea borders, and establishing no-fly zones along the border.
Since scrapping the accord, the North has begun reinstalling guard posts and deploying heavy arms within the DMZ, according to the South's defense ministry. North Korean soldiers in the JSA have been seen carrying pistols, according to local reports.
The agreement, also known as the Sept. 19 military agreement, was signed on Sept. 19, 2018, at the height of a reconciliatory mood when then South Korean President Moon Jae-in traveled to Pyongyang for summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Relations between the two sides have soured after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol took office with a harder-line stance on Pyongyang, and the North undertook a series of provocations, including long-range missile launches.
The two generals, however, noted the CMA's suspension would not impact the NNSC's mission.
"Globally speaking, of course it is a pity this evolution, this development. But that has nothing to do with the NNSC, or (does) not directly impact the NNSC," Burgener said.
Herlitz also said the NNSC's task remains the same, and it will continue to observe the compliance of the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War.
The NNSC has served to monitor the implementation of the armistice as an "impartial" observer, Herlitz said, as the Korean War did not end with a peace treaty, technically leaving the two Koreas still at war.
While Swedish and Swiss delegations have been stationed on the southern side, what was previously Czechoslovakia and Poland represented the NNSC on the northern front until North Korea expelled them and declared the monitoring group invalid in light of the fall of communist governments in Eastern Europe in the 1990s.
"At the NNSC, we are a third party that's to be independent and impartial and to observe all the activities that the UNCMAC is conducting when it comes to inspections," Herlitz said, using the acronym for the U.S.-led U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission.
While North Korea has denounced annual military drills between South Korea and the U.S. as a rehearsal for war, she said the NNSC observed the joint exercise as "deterrence" and "defensive in nature."
The two generals also stressed that their countries remain committed to the Armistice Agreement, which they described as still "valid."
"Neither of our countries has the intention to quit," Burgener said. "There's no discussion about leaving this commission or stopping it."
In addressing the challenge posed by the absence of representation on the northern side, Herlitz underscored the importance of communicating with North Korea to maintain stability on the peninsula.
"They are always welcome to T1 -- the NNSC headquarters in the conference room -- we are always open for dialogue."
Maj. Gen. Lena Persson Herlitz (L), the head of the Swedish delegation of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), and Maj. Gen. Ivo Burgener, the head of the NNSC's Swiss delegation, speak during an interview at the Joint Security Area Visitor Center at Camp Bonifas, just south of the Demilitarized Zone, separating the two Koreas. (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · December 10, 2023
7. Former President Moon Jae-in attacks government's hardline policies on North Korea
Appeasement versus the solemn defense of one's nation. Your choice.
Is ensuring the defense of your country hardline?
Sunday
December 10, 2023
dictionary + A - A
Published: 10 Dec. 2023, 14:50
Former President Moon Jae-in attacks government's hardline policies on North Korea
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-12-10/national/politics/Former-President-Moon-Jaein-attacks-governments-hardline-polices-on-North-Korea/1931932
A picture of former President Moon Jae-in at his Pyeongsan Bookstore in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang, posted on his Facebook on Saturday. [FACEBOOK]
Former President Moon Jae-in criticized President Yoon Suk Yeol’s North Korean policies over the weekend, emphasizing on Facebook that terminating inter-Korean agreements and dialogue has allowed North Korea to advance its nuclear program.
Moon recommended the book “Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program” by nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, describing it as essential for understanding the true nature of North Korea's nuclear program and the repeated failures of diplomatic efforts.
In his Saturday Facebook post, Moon highlighted the book's explanation of North Korea's nuclear development process from its early stages to its current level.
He argued that South Korea had missed multiple diplomatic opportunities to deter North Korea's nuclear program due to excessively ideological political decisions rather than rational analysis.
Moon said the book sheds light on the reasons behind the failure of the 2019 North Korea-U. S. summit in Hanoi.
Despite the technical and dense nature of the book, Moon emphasized its value in providing detailed information to the public, which had lacked accurate insights into the North Korean nuclear program, and in offering perspectives on the challenges of denuclearization.
President Moon expressed “regret” over the collapse of dialogue between the two Koreas since he left office during a Sept. 19 ceremony commemorating the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.
At the event, he said the inter-Korean military agreement was the “last safety pin preventing inter-Korean military conflict.”
Moon claimed that the Roh Moo-hyun administration and his own were the only ones during which no military clash with North Korea occurred.
President Yoon, his successor, has frequently criticized Moon's approach, arguing that it provided North Korea with time to advance its nuclear program.
During a convention last month, Yoon said that history has proven that relying on the goodwill of your enemy for peace is a dream and illusion.
He said genuine peace is achieved through overwhelming power and a resolute will.
Following the South Korean military's decision to annul a part of the 2018 agreement that imposed a no-fly zone near the demilitarized zone, North Korea responded by altogether scrapping the agreement and establishing guard posts.
Additionally, both Koreas launched reconnaissance satellites consecutively, indicating heightened tensions and a breakdown in diplomatic and military agreements between the two nations.
BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]
8. Top US official for Asia says North Korea has rebuffed all contact since Trump meetings
I have not seen much on Kurt Campbell's confirmation hearing. I watched some of it on a CSPAN rerun Thursday night. He was very forthcoming in his answers. He was also very engaging with all the Senators. I did not see all of it but he looked like one of the most well prepared nominees I have seen.
Top US official for Asia says North Korea has rebuffed all contact since Trump meetings
americanmilitarynews.com · by Bloomberg News - Iain Marlow · December 9, 2023
North Korea has spurned all outreach from the Biden administration, the top U.S. official for Asia said, in a grim assessment about chances for progress on reining in the isolated country’s nuclear and missile programs.
“The North Koreans have rebuffed every effort that we have utilized to try to reach out to them,” Kurt Campbell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is weighing his nomination for deputy secretary of state. “We’ve had difficulty getting any takers even in addressing our letters or approaches to them.”
Campbell said Pyongyang hasn’t engaged with the U.S. since former President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Vietnam in 2019. He said Pyongyang has taken “very dangerous steps” in deciding to help Russia with munitions to aid its war in Ukraine.
Campbell’s comments on North Korea were spurred by questions from Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, who said that North Korean policy across multiple administrations was “clearly not working.” Just over a week ago, North Korea claimed that its first spy satellite had taken images of the White House and Pentagon. Pyongyang also recently tested new engines for intermediate-range ballistic missiles that could help it deliver quick strikes on U.S. bases in places such as Guam.
The U.S. has tried to enhance regional deterrence by strengthening its ties with Japan and South Korea, Campbell said, noting that China fears a scenario in which Tokyo and Seoul are able to “finally and fundamentally put their animosity behind them.” U.S. efforts to strengthen deterrence are even more important as Pyongyang resists dialog, he said.
The veteran diplomat discussed a wide range of foreign policy challenges in a mostly friendly session with both Republican and Democratic senators:
—Campbell said Russia had “reconstituted militarily” with economic help from China, and Beijing has clearly sided with Russia despite making claims to be neutral in the conflict.
—China is watching the U.S. develop closer relationships with Vietnam and India, countries that are “difficult, undeniably, but critically important.”
—The “blinders have come off” European nations with regard to strategic competition with China, partly thanks to U.S. efforts.
___
© 2023 Bloomberg L.P
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
americanmilitarynews.com · by Bloomberg News - Iain Marlow · December 9, 2023
9. N. Korea's fear of external info grows after Seoul allows sending propaganda leaflets
Information is an existential threat to the regime. We need to use it effectively. Sean King is exactly right. Give me a ROK/US PSYOP task force and I will give you some results.
N. Korea's fear of external info grows after Seoul allows sending propaganda leaflets
The Korea Times · December 10, 2023
Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist and founder of the advocacy group Fighters for a Free North Korea, holds up propaganda material condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for developing nuclear weapons and missiles without feeding the country's hungry residents in this April 2021 photo. Courtesy of Fighters for a Free North Korea
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Pyongyang has belatedly reacted furiously to South Korean Constitutional Court’s decision in September to strike down the ban on sending propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea.
In a statement released in November, North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA) said the court’s decision signals a de facto war against the North as information warfare is part of an operation preceding a ground war.
Calling North Korean defectors who flew the leaflets across the border “garbage,” the KCNA said that North Korea’s firing of anti-aircraft rounds across the border in 2014 and its destroying of the inter-Korean liason office used for talks between the two countries in 2020 are two chilling reminders of what South Korea could face.
In 2014, North Korea used anti-aircraft guns to shoot down balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets flown by South Korean activists near the border town of Yeoncheon.
North Korea’s furious reaction to the court’s lifting of the ban on sending propaganda leaflets into the North reflects the regime fears its people being exposed to outside information.
Sean King, senior vice president at Park Strategies
Sean King, senior vice president of the New York-based consulting firm Park Strategies, said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is afraid of his people learning the truth that they live under the control of a repressive regime.
“From what I know, authoritarian North Korea fears any challenge from within to its own version of events and of the world,” he told The Korea Times in an email message. “It cannot afford to let its own people know what’s actually going on outside lest they begin to question the regime as to the many lies they’re told and the burdens they must endure.”
The Constitutional Court of South Korea ruled on Sept. 26 that a clause in the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act, which prohibited the distribution of anti-North Korea leaflets, limited freedom of speech. The law was nullified immediately in the wake of the ruling.
The law was introduced in 2018 when liberal President Moon Jae-in was in power. A group of lawmakers from the then ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) pushed through the legislation, despite opposition from the conservative People Power Party (PPP). People violating the law faced up to three years in prison or a 30 million won ($22,000) fine.
The law drew a lot of criticism both at home and abroad as it excessively repressed freedom of speech. PPP lawmakers called it a law designed to curry favor with the North Korean leader’s sister Kim Yo-jong because the DPK pushed for the legislation after she lashed out at South Korea for allowing North Korean defectors to send the leaflets.
King said “a wealthier, happier and larger South Korea represents an existential threat to the Kim regime.
“It thus serves Kim Jong-un’s interests that his citizens are left in the dark,” he said.
Information about the outside world, particularly free and democratic nations, is a threat to autocratic states, he said.
According to him, East Germany, before German reunification, was more exposed to West Germany and the outside world and East Germans were “global communists who happened to be Germans.”
“East Germans’ exposure to West German media and travel to other socialist countries at least, led them to doubt and challenge what their own unelected government was telling them,” King said. “For example, for those roughly 70 percent of East Germans who could watch West German television, they knew their leaders weren’t telling them the whole truth about the 1981 Solidarity movement in Poland and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in what was then the Soviet Union (which is today’s Ukraine).”
The Korea Times · December 10, 2023
10. In One of the Least Diverse Nations, an American Outsider Shakes Up Politics
But will this backfire on the ruling party? I fear it may.
In One of the Least Diverse Nations, an American Outsider Shakes Up Politics
John Linton, born and raised in South Korea, tries to rejuvenate that country’s ruling party
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/in-one-of-the-least-diverse-nations-an-american-outsider-shakes-up-politics-089192dd
John Linton speaks fluent English and Korean—and doesn’t try to mask his Southern twang while speaking either. ANTHONY WALLACE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
By Timothy W. Martin
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Updated Dec. 8, 2023 12:04 am ET
SEOUL—John Linton is quick to acknowledge that on the surface he might be an unusual choice as the architect behind a political reboot of South Korea’s ruling party.
For starters, he is a doctor who has never held office. He’s also an American. Then there is his ethnicity. “I’m outwardly, ya know, a white guy, a Caucasian,” Linton said.
South Korea’s political parties often turn to new faces during tough times. But Linton is a rarity in one of the world’s least diverse countries—where politics is decidedly a matter for ethnic Koreans. His appointment by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s struggling People Power Party shows how badly the party wants a makeover ahead of April’s legislative elections.
Polls show about three-fifths of South Koreans disapprove of the job performance of Yoon, as well as the head of the opposition party, as the country deals with economic stagnation and rising inflation. Those dissatisfied with Yoon, who took office last year as a political neophyte, most commonly cite economic concerns as the reason.
Yoon’s party sought a revamp in October, in the aftermath of a defeat in a special election vote seen as a proxy for next year’s race. Yoon, whose five-year term ends in 2027, risks being seen as a lame duck, domestically and abroad, if his ruling party fails to win a majority in the 300-seat National Assembly, where the opposition now has control.
While the 64-year-old Linton said his ancestry includes a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, he has deep roots in South Korea. The son of American missionaries, he was born and raised in rural South Korea. He became South Korea’s first naturalized citizen more than a decade ago.
He speaks fluent English and Korean—and doesn’t try to mask his Southern twang while speaking either language. Referring to the southwestern province in South Korea where he largely grew up, he said, “I’m just a Jeolla-do country boy.”
Still, when the ruling party’s chairman, Kim Gi-hyeon, asked him in a private hotel meeting room to be the chairman of the party’s innovation committee, Linton said he inquired three times if Kim was making a mistake. He insisted he knew nothing about politics, he said.
“That’s exactly what we need,” Linton recalled Kim telling him.
Two days later, Linton accepted.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, center, took office last year as a political neophyte. PHOTO: YONHAP/PRESS POOL/SHUTTERSTOCK
In South Korea, with a foreign population of roughly 4%, only one non-ethnically Korean person has served in the National Assembly. Jasmine Lee, who was born in the Philippines and immigrated to South Korea after marrying her Korean husband in the 1990s, served a single four-year term from 2012 to 2016.
Though a fluent Korean speaker, Lee recalled questions about whether she knew the language, history and legal system well enough to serve as a lawmaker. Some suggested she would need twice as much time as her fellow newly elected lawmakers to adjust to the National Assembly. Some of the compliments struck her as odd, such as well-wishers remarking, “You’re more Korean than a Korean.”
“That just means I’m not Korean,” Lee said. “You being an outsider, people think of you in a biased way.”
Linton said he sees his outsider status, and the fact that he doesn’t owe anything to anyone in the political world, as strengths. “If I were ethnically Korean, a lot of people would be second-guessing my motives,” he said. “But I think being originally from a foreign background gives me some Teflon coating.”
He has suggested a slew of changes aimed at boosting the ruling party’s support among voters. He has proposed slashing lawmakers’ pay, boosting outreach to younger voters and diversifying the conservative party’s candidate pool ahead of April’s national legislative election.
In South Korea, lawmakers don’t need to live in their districts. So, Linton has suggested the party’s most powerful and connected officials run in more contested areas instead of conservative strongholds.
His outspoken views have drawn near round-the-clock media attention and controversy across the political spectrum. He was punched by protesters at a memorial service held for those killed in last year’s fatal Itaewon crowd crush, Linton said. The protesters were angry at the Yoon administration’s response to the tragedy. A former ruling party chairman who had been ousted from the party addressed Linton at a public event in October: “You became one of us, but you don’t look like us as of now.”
Linton and his innovation committee plan to submit a final report on Monday and then wind down their work. Linton said the rest will be up to the party, and he would likely be stepping back from politics for a while. It isn’t clear what, if any, proposals will get implemented.
“I’ve taken a huge beating,” Linton said on Thursday. “I’ve had enough. I’ve had more than enough.”
Jasmine Lee, then a member of South Korea’s National Assembly, in 2014. PHOTO: KIM MIN HUI/KYODO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Linton, whose Korean name is Ihn Yohan, has enjoyed a degree of local celebrity throughout his adulthood, given his unusual biography. He is the longtime pitchman of a popular line of probiotic milk called “Dr. Capsule.” Over the decades, he has been involved with so many of South Korea’s marquee moments and figures that he has been referred to as the country’s Forrest Gump.
In contrast with the heads of South Korea’s two major parties, more South Koreans like Linton than dislike him, recent polling suggests. Linton said he encounters strangers who give him thumbs-up on the street and encourage him to “give those politicians hell.”
In his new political role, Linton can be a double-edged sword to South Korea’s ruling party. While he is pushing for an overhaul, he is also unafraid to express unconventional views, said Rob Rapson, a retired former senior U.S. diplomat in South Korea, who has known Linton for decades. “He says the kinds of things you don’t hear from Korean politicians,” said Rapson, citing Linton’s persistence in proposing that well-connected party members run in competitive districts.
Linton’s attempts to meet people who disagree with Yoon, by attending events in liberal strongholds, are positive moves, though will go only so far toward charming the public, said Jeong Han-wool, a public opinion analyst at polling firm Hankook Research. “At the end of the day, voters won’t be convinced that the party is willing to change unless Yoon himself comes forward to address the people’s discontent,” Jeong said.
Other than a few years in his youth and his medical residency in New York, Linton has spent his entire life in South Korea. On his father’s side, Linton is related to John Witherspoon, one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, who later became the sixth president of Princeton.
His family’s roots in South Korea stretch back more than a century, with his paternal great-grandfather Eugene Bell arriving as a missionary to Korea in 1895. One of his grandfathers helped raise global awareness for Korea’s independence movement against Japan. His father served as a U.S. Navy captain in the Korean War.
Linton himself served as a translator for foreign journalists during the 1980 Gwangju uprising, one of South Korea’s turning points to democracy. He became the first Westerner to pass South Korea’s medical-license exam and has traveled to North Korea more than 20 times to help combat the impoverished regime’s widespread tuberculosis.
In South Korea, Linton’s views have spanned across the political spectrum. The late President Kim Dae-jung, a liberal and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was a mentor to Linton. “I’m very confusing to both sides. And I like that,” Linton said.
Linton said he hasn’t voted in U.S. elections, except for his time in New York, though he follows American politics. But if the choice were between President Biden and Donald Trump?
“I think this time I’ll abstain,” Linton says. “But I’m going to vote in Korea.”
Corrections & Amplifications
Eugene Bell is John Linton’s paternal great-grandfather, and John Witherspoon is related to Linton through his father’s side of the family. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said those ties were maternal. (Corrected on Dec. 8)
Linton says he encounters strangers who give him thumbs-up on the street and encourage him to ‘give those politicians hell.’ PHOTO: ANTHONY WALLACE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Dasl Yoon contributed to this article.
Write to Timothy W. Martin at Timothy.Martin@wsj.com
Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the December 8, 2023, print edition as 'South Korean Leaders Turn to an American'.
11. Attempt to smuggle Lexus to North Korea spotlights Kim Jong-un's fondness for fine cars
I recall Thae Young Ho saying one of the reasons he and his family escaped was because he could no longer rationalize the contradictions of north Korea and the Kim family regime leadership. This is one of the many contradictions. This would be useful for an information campaign.
This also illustrates why we need a global strategic strangulation campaign against the regime.
Sunday
December 10, 2023
dictionary + A - A
Published: 10 Dec. 2023, 16:44
Updated: 10 Dec. 2023, 18:50
Attempt to smuggle Lexus to North Korea spotlights Kim Jong-un's fondness for fine cars
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-12-10/national/northKorea/Attempt-to-smuggle-Lexus-to-North-Korea-spotlights-Kim-Jonguns-fondness-for-fine-cars/1931959
Kim Jong-un stands next to a vehicle with a Lexus logo during his visit to Yangdok Hot Spring Cultural Recreation Center, in images carried by North Korea’s state-run media, Korean Central News Agency, on Dec. 8, 2020. [KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY]
Japanese police cracked down on a used-car dealer in Japan for attempting to illegally smuggle a luxury Lexus vehicle to North Korea, according to the report on Thursday in the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese daily newspaper.
Police raided the Chiba city-based dealer’s headquarters Thursday morning to collect evidence for alleged violations of the Japanese Customs Act.
The company manages the international sale and shipment of vehicles and automobile parts.
The report says that the dealer tried to smuggle a Lexus vehicle, a high-end car made by Toyota Motor, to North Korea via Bangladesh after falsely declaring Singapore as its final destination.
However, the Japanese authorities got wind of the scheme before the vehicle could be shipped to North Korea.
The vehicle reportedly costs 10 million yen ($69,029).
A UN Security Council resolution from 2013 banned the export of high-end cars and other luxury items to North Korea, while another resolution from 2017 banned the export of means of transportation.
Despite international sanctions, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been spotted with luxury vehicles by Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and other manufacturers during public appearances.
NK News, a U.S.-based North Korea-focused media organization, reported that a Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 from 2019 and Lexus LX SUV from 2022 appeared during Kim’s visit to the Ryongsong Machine Complex in Hamheung, South Hamgyong Province last month.
Kim’s late father and former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il enjoyed engaging in so-called gift politics, offering Mercedes-Benzes to loyal high-ranking officials.
Anthony Ruggiero, a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a U.S.-based foreign policy research institute, told Radio Free Asia that Kim Jong-un imports luxury cars for himself, his relatives and military leaders.
Ruggiero said North Korea typically employs circuitous smuggling routes.
He added that sanctions would only be effective when violations are published and North Korea's overseas beneficiaries are sanctioned.
BY BAE JAE-SUNG, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]
12. Once a venue for historic summits, truce village weighed down with tension amid N.K. threats
(Yonhap Feature) Once a venue for historic summits, truce village weighed down with tension amid N.K. threats | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · December 10, 2023
By Kim Eun-jung
CAMP BONIFAS, South Korea, Dec. 10 (Yonhap) -- Standing just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, Camp Bonifas, the base camp for the United Nations Command (UNC) security forces, has witnessed ups and downs through 70 years of inter-Korean relations.
The camp's motto emblazoned on the entrance, "In Front of Them All," is a grim reflection of its commitment to maintain peace in a divided country, which is still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
The entrance of Camp Bonifas, the United Nations Command Security Battalion, located just south of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, is seen in this photo taken Dec. 7, 2023. (Yonhap)
Previously Camp Kitty Hawk, Camp Bonifas was renamed after a JSA officer, Capt. Arthur Bonifas, who was slain by North Korean soldiers in 1976 while trimming a tree blocking the view between outposts in what is commonly known as The Axe Murder Incident.
Personnel in the forward base provide security for the UNC personnel and their guests within the Joint Security Area (JSA), also known as the truce village of Panmunjom.
Among their high-profile guests were former liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who shook hands, sipped tea and took a friendly stroll on a pedestrian bridge within Panmunjom during their 2018 summit.
In June 2019, former U.S. President Donald Trump made history by briefly crossing the Military Demarcation Line into the North side of the JSA in his meeting with Kim, which was aimed at easing tension on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean soldiers stand guard in the truce village of Panmunjom, also known as the Joint Security Area, on March 3, 2023. (Yonhap)
The brief period of reconciliatory mood is gone, for now.
Tensions have flared up in the DMZ after North Korea in late November vowed to scrap an inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement and restore all military measures halted under the deal.
Since then, the North has been reinstalling guard posts and deploying heavy arms within the DMZ, Seoul's defense ministry said. North Korean soldiers in the JSA, the only spot in the DMZ where soldiers stand face-to-face, were also spotted carrying pistols in recent weeks, according to sources.
The latest moves come after the conservative administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol partially suspended the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) that set up buffer zones in the land, sea and air in protest of Pyongyang's Nov. 21 spy satellite launch and resumed aerial surveillance along the border.
Amid the heightened tension, civilian tours to the truce village have been suspended again, just days after the government partially resumed the tour program on Nov. 22. It had been halted since mid-July following U.S. Army private Travis King crossing the border into North Korea.
During a recent visit to the camp, the gateway for Panmunjom tours, several buses with U.S. government license plates were parked in the camp's visitor center, with no passengers.
The tit-for-tat shows of force between the two Koreas has raised concerns among the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), which oversees the armistice implementation at the heavily fortified border.
Maj. Gen. Lena Persson Herlitz (L), the head of the Swedish delegation of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), and Maj. Gen. Ivo Burgener, the head of the NNSC's Swiss delegation, pose for photos at the Joint Security Area Visitor Center at Camp Bonifas, just south of the Demilitarized Zone, separating the two Koreas. (Yonhap)
Maj. Gen. Ivo Burgener, the head of the Swiss component of the NNSC, said he has witnessed "more movement" by North Korean soldiers in the DMZ over the past two weeks, without elaborating.
"The risk exists. It's a reality. The potential is here," Burgener said during an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Thursday at Camp Bonifas.
Burgerner expressed concerns that the nullified military accord could raise the risk of misunderstandings and clashes, which could make observers' mission "more difficult" and "busier."
In the wake of the latest development, the UNC vowed to continue to monitor the situation, saying its mission is unchanged in "managing, implementing and enforcing" the 1953 Armistice Agreement.
"The Joint Security Area remains a neutral ground for dialogue and de-escalation. UNC continues to monitor the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and it is our intent to maintain peace and security," the UNC said in a statement.
Maj. Gen. Lena Persson Herlitz, the head of the Swedish component, said North Korea has emerged as a "global threat" by expanding cooperation with Russia and China, intensifying the polarization of international order against a "democratic state that is following the rules-based international order."
To manage the risk of conflicts and mishaps, Herlitz stressed the importance of mutually agreed-upon rules and efforts to resume dialogue with Pyongyang.
"It is always good to have rules, and hopefully both sides follow them," she said. "Of course, we prefer to have buffer zones."
Herlitz said North Koreans are always welcome at T1, the NNSC's conference room, located just south of the MDL, saying, "We are always open for dialogue."
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · December 10, 2023
13. China is sending escapees back to North Korea
The Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State
China is sending escapees back to North Korea
And probably to their doom
Dec 8th 2023
The Economist
To read more of The Economist’s data journalism visit our Graphic detail page.
WHEN NORTH KOREA said on August 27th that its citizens could return home for the first time since the start of the pandemic, those trapped in Chinese detention centres must have known their luck had run out. A Chinese prison is an unpleasant place, no doubt. But it pales in comparison to the gulag state to which they were about to be forcibly returned. On the night of October 9th as many as 600 of them were reportedly bundled into heavily guarded buses and prison vans, driven to the border and handed into the clutches of the North Korean state.
The South Korean government said the reports were credible, though it could not confirm the number of people involved. Using a combination of video, open-source evidence and information gathered from “reliable sources”, the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a South Korean NGO, says it located five points on the border where Chinese authorities handed detainees over to the North Korean authorities, and estimated how many were moved through each (see map). At one crossing, between Tumen in China and Onsong in North Korea, 300 North Koreans were sent back that night.
The prisoners, often detained just for being in China, are likely to suffer greatly in the hands of their new captors. Typically, says the TJWG, the first stop will be a border facility run by the Ministry of State Security (MSS), North Korea’s secret police. After being strip-searched they will be interrogated, sometimes for days or months, to establish what they were doing in China. Sleep deprivation, being forced to adopt stress positions and beatings with an oseungogakja, a thick wooden club favoured by MSS officers, are common. Cells are overcrowded and flea-ridden. Eventually they are sent to an MSS jail in their home region, sometimes via a regional holding-centre, for further torture, investigations and eventual sentencing. A lucky few may enjoy the “lenience of the supreme leader” and get released. Most will serve time in a labour camp, or even be executed.
TJWG thinks that at least 1,100 North Koreans may still be in Chinese custody. Yet neither the North Korean nor the Chinese government admits that this deportation took place—or that there would have been anything amiss if it had. China has long insisted that North Koreans who secretly enter its territory are economic migrants rather than refugees. So it is more than happy to send them to the gulag.■
The Economist
14. USAID official urges boosted development cooperation among S. Korea, U.S., Japan as 'like-minded' countries
Remember that the ROK is the only OECD nation to go from a major aid recipient to a major donor nation.
Excerpts:
South Korea has become a donor country from being a recipient of U.N. and U.S. aid from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War, a transformation that has inspired many developing nations to follow in the footsteps of the Asian country in advancing their economies.
Sumilas welcomed South Korea's increased allocation of resources in the development assistance area, especially as Seoul is set to serve a two-year term as a nonpermanent member of the U.N. Security Council in 2024-25.
"We are really pleased that South Korea has been able to come forward as a new donor, and they will be a very important donor as a member of the Security Council, as a like-minded donor working on key issues."
(Yonhap Interview) USAID official urges boosted development cooperation among S. Korea, U.S., Japan as 'like-minded' countries | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · December 10, 2023
By Yi Wonju
SEOUL, Dec. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea, the United States and Japan seek to demonstrate to China and others that being democratic and transparent is "the way for greater economic growth" as the three countries work to deepen cooperation in development projects amid rising global competition, a senior official at the U.S. development agency has said.
Michele Sumilas, assistant to the administrator of the bureau for planning, learning and resource management at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), stressed that the key functions of its development efforts are to help "realize that we should be providing assistance that allows countries to create democratic communities, to have economic growth and to move forward in their development."
"What we are doing, as like-minded countries ... is we're demonstrating to our partners around the world, whether China or other countries, that being democratic, working with civil society, being accountable and transparent, is the way to for greater economic growth," she said during an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday, when asked about the importance of trilateral cooperation amid increasing U.S.-Sino rivalry.
"And so that is why we are building alliances with many different people around the world to really help explain how that kind of governance can lead to greater economic sustainable growth," she added.
Michele Sumilas, assistant to the administrator of the bureau for planning, learning and resource management at the U.S. Agency for International Development, speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul on Dec. 6, 2023. (Yonhap)
Sumilas emphasized the U.S. is "very excited" to partner with Korea and Japan on several projects, saying "there is rising authoritarianism around the world and this is a time for us all to come together."
At the historic Camp David summit in August, the leaders of the three countries agreed to cooperate in coordinating development assistance to regions across the globe. In October, the three sides held their first trilateral development and humanitarian policy dialogue.
As follow-up measures to the summit, the three countries have several projects lined up for the coming six to nine months, including on women, peace and security, ocean plastics, and digital technology, according to the official.
"For example, in Ghana, we are working with Korea and Japan on a project to ensure greater access to primary health care for women and children in that country," she said. "There's also a focus on that project on global health security to ensure that we can fight infections and disease before they break out."
The three sides are also set to hold a "humanitarian dialogue" early next year to better address humanitarian disasters, such as climate change, in the Indo-Pacific and other regions.
On tripartite cooperation, she stressed the three countries have "particularly good synergy" on issues like global health security, technology and digital access, as well as women, peace and security.
"One, we have shared values and understandings about the need for accountability and transparency. We also together value innovation, and we value digital transformation and the effects that the digital transformation can have on development," she said. "I think there's also a particular leadership synergy that is happening, personalities, people who really understand the way the world needs to be, and so we're all responding to that together."
Michele Sumilas, assistant to the administrator of the bureau for planning, learning and resource management at the U.S. Agency for International Development, speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul on Dec. 6, 2023. (Yonhap)
Seoul was Washington's first bilateral partner donor on USAID's Agriculture Resilience Initiative, under which the South Korean government donated US$5 million in fertilizer to support Ukrainian farmers.
"It really is very exciting to us to be here to see how far Korea has come and for now, Korea to be a major development partner partnering with us to take those shared values to countries around the world, and to help them move through their development progress," she said.
South Korea has become a donor country from being a recipient of U.N. and U.S. aid from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War, a transformation that has inspired many developing nations to follow in the footsteps of the Asian country in advancing their economies.
Sumilas welcomed South Korea's increased allocation of resources in the development assistance area, especially as Seoul is set to serve a two-year term as a nonpermanent member of the U.N. Security Council in 2024-25.
"We are really pleased that South Korea has been able to come forward as a new donor, and they will be a very important donor as a member of the Security Council, as a like-minded donor working on key issues."
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · December 10, 2023
15. 'New initiative on NK' lacks balanced strategy: experts
I stand by my recommendations here though they may not be balanced enough for these experts.
Revitalizing America's North Korea Policy
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/revitalizing-americas-north-korea-policy-207642
'New initiative on NK' lacks balanced strategy: experts
The Korea Times · December 10, 2023
South Korea's National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong, center, poses with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts Jake Sullivan, left, and Takeo Akiba, during a press briefing at the presidential office in Seoul, Saturday. Yonhap
S. Korea, US, Japan boost joint efforts to counter NK cyber threats
By Lee Hyo-jin
A new initiative that South Korea, the United States and Japan have agreed to jointly launch in order to counter North Korea's escalating threats is likely to have a limited effect, according to analysts, Sunday, who think the initiative lacks a two-track strategy that combines an openness for dialogue with strong deterrence.
During a meeting between South Korean National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts Jake Sullivan and Takeo Akiba in Seoul, Saturday, they announced that the three countries will pursue a "new initiative" to address North Korea's cybercrimes and military activities related to space and ballistic missile tests.
"This will be a new effort with respect to cryptocurrency and money laundering and how we disrupt North Korea’s capacity to gain revenue from the hacking and stealing of cryptocurrency and then laundering it through exchanges," Sullivan said during a briefing held shortly after the meeting.
However, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies, was skeptical about the newly announced initiative, saying that it lacks detail.
"There was nothing new in the 'new initiative.' We would have to see how North Korea responds to it, but for now, I think Saturday's meeting was just a reaffirmation to their leaders' commitments to stick to strong deterrence strategies toward Pyongyang," he said.
"The trilateral cooperation, with its focus only on strong deterrence and pressure, lacks a balanced strategy to resolve North Korea's nuclear threats."
The reclusive regime, which is advancing its nuclear program in defiance of multiple international sanctions, may not be swayed by the three nations' efforts to suppress its weapons development, Yang added.
President Yoon Suk Yeol poses with U.S. President Joe Biden, center, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ahead of a trilateral summit at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, Aug. 18 (local time). Yonhap
"The strengthened trilateral cooperation may enable South Korea to better respond to the North's illicit cyber activities, but it won't be able to exert big pressure on the Kim Jong-un regime, which is already defiant of international sanctions," said Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher at Korea Institute for National Unification.
North Korea has relied significantly on funds obtained through cryptocurrency theft to finance the country's weapons programs. The amount of money stolen through such cybercrimes surged to an unprecedented 2.2 trillion won ($1.7 billion) in 2022, according to U.N. data.
Cho of the unification institute pointed out that a lot of North Korean hackers operate in Chinese cities and are suspected of using Chinese services to launder money, so without China's help, the Seoul-Washington-Tokyo trilateral collaboration would have limited effects in containing the North's illegal cyber activites.
"The harsh sanctions in place have failed to induce North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, as it continues to find new ways to circumvent the sanctions. What we need now is help from China and Russia. But with Putin and Kim engaging in a dangerous bromance, while China is turning a blind eye to Pyongyang, South Korea is in a difficult situation," the researcher added.
South Korea has been urging China to play a "constructive role" in addressing North Korean issues, but strained bilateral relations between Seoul and Beijing have posed challenges to effective collaboration.
Also, China is skeptical of the tighter grouping between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, expressing discomfort about the U.S.' growing influence in Northeast Asia.
The national security advisers' meeting on Saturday also touched on joint efforts to maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific region, underscoring the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and East China Sea.
The three parties also agreed to cooperate to counter disinformation by foreign countries. The agreement, reached in the lead-up to South Korea's general elections and U.S. presidential elections both slated for next year, was apparently aimed at concerns over possible election interference by China and North Korea.
The Korea Times · December 10, 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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