Quotes of the Day:
"Paymasters come in only two sizes: one sort shows you where the book says that you can't have what you've got coming to you; the second sort digs through the book until he finds a paragraph that lets you have what you need even if you don't rate it."
- Robert Heinlein - The Door into Summer
"You called yourself and everyone else patriots, but that's not patriotism. Patriotism is loyalty to country, loyalty to the Constitution, not loyalty to a head of state. That is the tyranny we rejected on July 4."
- Judge Amy Berman Jackson
"An ignorant mind is precisely not a spotless, empty vessel, but one that’s filled with the clutter of irrelevant or misleading life experiences, theories, facts, intuitions, strategies, algorithms, heuristics, metaphors, and hunches that regrettably have the look and feel of useful and accurate knowledge. . .What’s curious is that, in many cases, incompetence does not leave people disoriented, perplexed, or cautious. Instead, the incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge."
- by Justin Kruger and David Dunning
1. 6 U.S. F-35A fighters land in S. Korea to join combined drills
2. How North Korea could control the South without ever conquering it
3. S. Korea, Malaysia hold virtual cybersecurity session of ASEAN-related defense forum
4. S. Korea begins transporting country's 1st lunar orbiter to U.S. for Aug. launch
5. N. Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases fall below 3,000: state media
6. A good start for Korea-Japan relations
7. Top military officer interrogated in 2019 for seizing North Korean boat
8. Japan-South Korea Tensions on Display at NATO Summit
9. Yoon nullifies nuclear energy phaseout
10. US bill expresses concerns over proposed abolishment of S. Korean ministry of equality
11. Tracing the real birthplace of North Korea's Kim Il Sung
12. North Korea dam water release forces South Koreans near border to evacuate
13. BTS Rekindle Debate about Military Service in South Korea
14. Seoul puts foot back on the nuclear accelerator
15. N. Korea arrests members of a gold smuggling ring in Hyesan
1. 6 U.S. F-35A fighters land in S. Korea to join combined drills
Probably enough to do some serious damage to north Korea. Along with the ROK F-35s that could be a pretty formidable force.
6 U.S. F-35A fighters land in S. Korea to join combined drills | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- Six U.S. F-35A radar-evading fighters arrived in South Korea on Tuesday to conduct allied drills, the two countries' militaries said, in the first public deployment of America's stealth warplanes here since late 2017.
The deployment from the Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska came as Seoul and Washington are cranking up security coordination amid concerns about the possibility of Pyongyang conducting a nuclear test or other provocations.
The U.S. military aircraft will join South Korean warplanes, including F-35As, for the "familiarization and routine training flights" designed to enhance the two Air Forces' interoperability, according to the U.S. Forces Korea. The drills will run through July 14.
"The deployment this time is aimed at demonstrating the South Korea-U.S. alliance's strong deterrence and combined defense posture, as well as improving interoperability between the two Air Forces," Seoul's defense ministry said in a text message sent to reporters.
The last public deployment of the U.S.' fifth-generation fighters to Korea came in December 2017 when the allies staged their then regular Vigilant Ace training.
The latest dispatch followed an agreement from the May summit between President Yoon Suk-yeol and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, on deploying America's strategic military assets "in a timely and coordinated manner as necessary."
colin@yna.co.kr
(END)
2. How North Korea could control the South without ever conquering it
Something provocative from the always provocative Andeeei Lankov.
But wise words here:
Again, this remains a low-probability scenario, as decoupling the U.S. and ROK to enable a North Korean invasion will not be an easy task. But this should still be kept in mind with the world in turmoil and many things previously unthinkable becoming possible. There are ways for North Korea to control the South without fully conquering or absorbing it.
This is why I always ask these two questions, especially for those who might make the ROK vulnerable to this scenario with certain proposals. Note the emphasis on subversion
1. Do we believe that Kim Jong-un has abandoned the seven decades old strategy of subversion, coercion-extortion (blackmail diplomacy), and use of force to achieve unification dominated by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State in order to ensure the survival of the mafia like crime family cult known as Kim family regime?
2. In support of that strategy do we believe that Kim Jong-un has abandoned the objective to split the ROK/US Alliance and get US forces off the peninsula? Has KJU given up his divide to conquer strategy - divide the alliance to conquer the ROK?
How North Korea could control the South without ever conquering it
The much larger ROK is too unwieldy to absorb, but DPRK could still exact monetary tribute and exert political power
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A North Korean soldier stands next to a map of the Korean Peninsula at the Demilitarized Zone | Image: NK News (Jan. 11, 2022)
For reasons that remain unclear, North Korea has yet to conduct its much-anticipated nuclear test. But when it does, most analysts expect a test of a tactical nuclear weapon, a capability that raises anew the question of Pyongyang’s ultimate military goals.
Most likely, the DPRK seeks low-yield tactical nuclear weapons in order to neutralize the serious military advantages the South Korean army has. The nuclear devices that North Korea has tested so far are far too powerful and destructive for use in actual combat, but tactical weapons would bring Pyongyang one step closer to realizing its old dream of subjugating the South and bringing the peninsula under Kim family control.
Realizing this dream will still require decoupling Seoul and Washington. Most likely, North Korean strategists hope that at some point in the future, a U.S. administration will lack the will to get involved in a direct fight with a nuclear-armed enemy and seek to skip its treaty obligations, providing an opening for DPRK military victory.
Such a scenario is not highly likely, and it is not going to be realized in near future, but it’s becoming conceivable. Yet even if the DPRK does conquer the South, there remains the tricky question of what it would do next.
For decades, the answer was that North Korea would seek to communize the entire peninsula, but the political feasibility of this has been increasingly doubtful since around 1990. South Korea has twice as many people as the North and has developed into a very rich and sophisticated society, with a per capita gross domestic product at least 25 times that of the DPRK.
Unification with the North, even after a military defeat, would be destabilizing for a Kim-led unified Korean state. North Korean commoners would likely be influenced by the high living standards and cultural habits of their unbelievably rich South Korean brethren, leading to the quick collapse of the DPRK’s ideological constructs.
In other words, South Korea is too large and unwieldy for the North to successfully absorb. So the country’s leaders will have to find another model to maintain rule, and they might find what they’re looking for in real-world examples — from Finland during the Cold War to Hong Kong and Ukraine now.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced his country’s “special military operation” against Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022l | Image: Kremlin
EXPANDING THE DMZ
For a long time, the official North Korean line on unification implied that the two Korean states would form a confederation at some point in the future, which would pave the road to eventual unification much later. In the case of a military victory, it’s quite possible that the North Koreans will just force an unequal confederation on the South instead of attempting to absorb its rich neighbor.
Some hints at such a solution, strangely enough, can be found in the demands that Vladimir Putin put forward in February when Russia invaded Ukraine. In the first stages of the war, before the initial blitzkrieg went wrong, Moscow expressed its ultimatum in the somewhat strange terms of the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine.
It’s easy to understand what Russia means by demilitarization. Moscow implied that this would mean the Ukrainian army would be fully or largely disbanded and disarmed, with the country only allowed to keep small police forces at best.
The denazification slogan is more complicated. Partially, it’s a function of official Russian propaganda, which claims that the Ukrainian state is under the control or at least the deep influence of some Nazi forces.
What this most likely translates to in terms of policy is Moscow establishing political control over Ukraine’s central government. Russian supervisors would retain the right to control all domestic politics, and all political parties, media outlets and individuals that do not follow their prescribed line would be branded as Nazis and banned from politics (at best).
North Korea could follow the same approach in a scenario in which it wins a second Korean War in say the 2030 or 2040s.
Pyongyang would first disband the ROK military so the country would be helpless in the face of DPRK pressure. Then, North Korea would probably demand the removal of what it would label reactionary forces from South Korean politics, arts, education and culture — a thorough purge of the country’s society.
In practice, this would mean the DPRK would reserve the right to intervene in South Korean politics, easily silencing all political forces, individuals and media outlets hostile to the new system.
Massive anti-government protests in Hong Kong in 2019 in response to Beijing’s efforts to exert greater political control over the city | Image: Studio Incendo (Aug. 18, 2019)
FINLANDIZATION
In other regards, South Korean life would continue in established ways. The country would keep its market economy, and ROK engineers would design new cars and microchips. Life in Seoul will lose some glamor but would not change in many regards.
This seems even more likely when we consider that the victorious North Koreans would need to extract material gain from their hypothetical victory, and to get what they want, they should not disturb the finely tuned mechanism of the South Korean economy. Thus they will seek to find ways to extract their due through some forms of obligatory payments and money transfers, though this could be a difficult task.
In a sense, such an unequal confederation under nearly complete North Korean control would amount to the Finlandization of South Korea. The term Finlandization, coined during the Cold War, refers to the special arrangement that allowed Finland to keep its market economy and remain a political democracy despite being a neighbor of the Soviet Union.
However, Finland had to operate under a great number of explicit and implicit constraints, which Moscow designed to ensure that Helsinki would not become a direct threat to the Soviet Union or a bulwark of the western forces that were ideologically and politically close to Finland. The country’s foreign policy was thus extremely cautious, and its domestic policy proceeded while keeping a close eye on its mighty eastern neighbor.
But the level of intervention and control over South Korean society under such a model would far exceed what one could see in Finland of the 1960s or 1970s. The sorry fate of Hong Kong in the 2010s thus might provide a better example of what the arrangement would look like. While the city still has its system with freedom of press, independent judges and so on, Beijing has increasingly intervened in recent years every time such institutions threaten its control over the city.
Again, this remains a low-probability scenario, as decoupling the U.S. and ROK to enable a North Korean invasion will not be an easy task. But this should still be kept in mind with the world in turmoil and many things previously unthinkable becoming possible. There are ways for North Korea to control the South without fully conquering or absorbing it.
Edited by Bryan Betts
3. S. Korea, Malaysia hold virtual cybersecurity session of ASEAN-related defense forum
Good move. Malaysia has also been suspected of being used as a base for north Korean cyber operations.
S. Korea, Malaysia hold virtual cybersecurity session of ASEAN-related defense forum | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and Malaysia jointly held a virtual subpanel session of a regional defense forum involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Tuesday to discuss cybersecurity cooperation, Seoul's defense ministry said.
The experts' cybersecurity working group of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) kicked off the two-day session as Seoul seeks to deepen cooperation with the regional bloc on multiple fronts, including security.
South Korea and Malaysia are the co-chairs of the working group for a three-year term ending in 2024.
Participants in this week's session plan to discuss joint responses to cybersecurity threats and look into plans for cybersecurity training among member countries slated for October.
ADMM-Plus is a major defense dialogue platform involving the 10 ASEAN members as well as other key regional players, including the United States, China and Japan. Under the platform, there are various working groups handling cybersecurity, maritime security, counter-terrorism and other issues.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
4. S. Korea begins transporting country's 1st lunar orbiter to U.S. for Aug. launch
S. Korea begins transporting country's 1st lunar orbiter to U.S. for Aug. launch | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Tuesday started transporting the country's first lunar orbiter to the United States ahead of next month's launch using a SpaceX rocket, officials said.
South Korea plans to launch the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, also known as Danuri, aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 8:24 a.m. on Aug. 3 (Korean Time).
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Danuri was sent from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, to Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, in a specially designed container.
The orbiter will be flown to Orlando International Airport and arrive at the Floridian space center Thursday. It will later undergo maintenance, assembly and other pre-launch preparations for about a month before launch.
Danuri will begin circling around the moon in December and conduct a yearlong mission to observe it using an array of instruments, including cameras and magnetometers. It will also identify potential landing sites for future lunar missions.
Last month, South Korea successfully launched its first homegrown space rocket, Nuri, also known as KSLV-II, from the country's southern coastal village of Goheung in a major milestone in the nation's space program.
South Korea launched a preliminary feasibility study for the successor to the Nuri rocket, with the goal of sending a lunar landing module to the moon in 2031.
odissy@yna.co.kr
(END)
5. N. Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases fall below 3,000: state media
I am sure the north Korean Propaganda and Agitation Department is planning its future messages to say the Kim family regime is showing how it is done when dealing with COVID.
N. Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases fall below 3,000: state media | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases dropped below 3,000, according to its state media Tuesday.
More than 2,500 people showed symptoms of fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters.
It did not provide information on whether additional deaths have been reported.
The total number of fever cases since late April came to over 4.75 million as of 6 p.m. Monday, of which 99.9 percent have recovered, and at least 4,620 others are being treated, it added.
The country's daily fever tally has been on a downward trend after peaking at over 392,920 on May 15, three days after it announced a coronavirus outbreak.
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
6. A good start for Korea-Japan relations
Tuesday
July 5, 2022
A good start for Korea-Japan relations
Korea has launched a government-private council to seek solutions for pending issues with Japan. Bilateral relations have been stalemated since Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Mitsubishi and other Japanese companies to compensate Koreans for their forced wartime labor and later ordered seizure of their remaining assets in Korea for incompliance.
Foreign Minister Park Jin proposed the public-private council to hear out the voices of the victims, their families and others to seek “a solution package the people can agree on” before the top court issues a final order to liquidate the assets for compensation.
Since the court’s rulings on wartime compensation had been out of sync with the basis for the normalization of bilateral ties and past government stance, it is not easy for the government to deal with Japan which maintained Seoul respect bilateral and international treaties.
Issues with Japan remain sensitive to Koreans. A non-political body of the private-public council is necessary to seek a breakthrough. If the body formed of respectable figures from both the conservatives and liberals comes up with an effective proposal after thorough discussions, Japan may compromise for national interests. It also could help to unite national views on the issue and set the path for a productive bilateral relationship with Japan.
The Korea-Japan Business Council on Monday held an annual conference in Seoul. In their first meeting in three years, the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, led by Chair Masakazu Tokura and the Korean counterpart headed by Huh Chang-soo of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) vowed to open a new partnership for the 21st century through improved bilateral relationship and expanded cooperation.
Under the eight-point agreement, the business representatives of the two countries called for a renewed visa waiver and development of bilateral ties for mutual benefit and contribution to regional peace and stability.
The Japanese delegation paid a visit to President Yoon Suk-yeol who asked for continued communication among business leaders to expand partnership in an era of economic security.
Tokura promised to continue efforts to improve and advance “amicable” economic relationship of the two countries.
The events underscored how desperately the corporate leaders of the two countries wish to enhance bilateral economic ties amid the perilous global climate from inflation and supply bottleneck. The thawed mood in the business sector can help resolve the differences over past issues. The joint communique of former leaders Kim Dae-jung and Keizo Obuchi in 1998 had set the pillar to future-oriented bilateral relationship. If the two governments go back to the spirit of the joint communique, they would be able to come to wisdom to seek a common path to combat global uncertainties for mutual prosperity.
7. Top military officer interrogated in 2019 for seizing North Korean boat
This is why orders are transmitted from the SECDEF through the CJCS in the US system. You do not take orders from national security council staffers.
Excerpts:
Kim You-geun, a former deputy chief of the National Security Office and NSC member, is accused of having issued the instruction. It is unclear whether Moon, then NSC chairman and commander-in-chief, was involved. Park reportedly said during the interrogation that he exercised his legitimate authority and that he was not obligated to follow the NSC's instruction unless it was a direct order from the defense minister or the president.
Following the revelations, the ruling People Power Party (PPP) announced that it will launch a task force dedicated to investigating serious breaches of national security in the previous administration.
PPP floor leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong told reporters he will expand the effort to uncover the facts, accusing the former NSC members of having "shamed" Park for doing what was necessary as a military commander.
"It appears that Park was interrogated for disobeying Kim's instruction, not the minister's or the president's, which disrupted the military hierarchy system," Kweon said.
Asked whether an order from the NSC should be considered a presidential order, he said it would be investigators' job to find out whether Moon made that order.
Top military officer interrogated in 2019 for seizing North Korean boat
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Park Han-ki speaks during a hearing at the National Assembly in Seoul, in this Oct. 8, 2019, file photo. Park, who served as the top military officer during the previous administration, was interrogated in 2019 in an unprecedented case after seizing a suspicious North Korean boat despite an instruction to "drive out" non-military boats instead of capturing them. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Ruling party to launch team to investigate security breaches under Moon
By Jung Min-ho
One of the top military officials under the previous Moon Jae-in administration was quizzed for hours in an unprecedented case three years ago, after seizing a suspicious North Korean boat despite an instruction to "drive out" non-military boats instead of capturing them.
According to military sources and media reports, Tuesday, Park Han-ki, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) from October 2018 to September 2020, was questioned by Moon's aides over the seizure of the boat on July 27, 2019. The boat had crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) ― the de facto maritime boundary between South and North Korea ― despite the National Security Council's (NSC) instruction to return such boats to the North. Whether it was a non-military boat is unclear.
This is the latest disclosure that shows the conciliatory North Korea policy of the former leader, who was extremely cautious of offending the North Korean ruling elite even in the case of border protection.
"Such a thing never happened before. As far as I can tell, there was no JCS chairman who was questioned like that (for doing his job)," a source from the Ministry of National Defense told The Korea Times.
The event occurred at a time when Moon was pondering how to make a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations after the February 2019 Washington-Pyongyang summit in Vietnam made little progress.
The people on the boat, which entered South Korea's territorial waters at 11:21 p.m., were questioned by the military and released on July 29, after an investigation concluded that they did not cross the line deliberately and had no intention of defecting to the South.
Military sources contacted by The Korea Times refused to give details of the incident. But the basic rules in the event of a North Korean boat crossing the NLL is to give a warning and tell the captain to return; if the person refuses to comply, the military should seize the vessel. Judging by these rules, the boat may have not followed the instruction to leave.
Park had a reputation as a defiant officer who often clashed with the previous government's policy line. After North Korea destroyed its Punggye-ri test site for nuclear weapons in 2018 to show its commitment to denuclearization, he commented that it could be restored and reconstructed within weeks or months, contrasting jarringly with the government's position that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was sincere and willing to give up his nuclear arsenal under the right conditions.
Kim You-geun, a former deputy chief of the National Security Office and NSC member, is accused of having issued the instruction. It is unclear whether Moon, then NSC chairman and commander-in-chief, was involved. Park reportedly said during the interrogation that he exercised his legitimate authority and that he was not obligated to follow the NSC's instruction unless it was a direct order from the defense minister or the president.
Following the revelations, the ruling People Power Party (PPP) announced that it will launch a task force dedicated to investigating serious breaches of national security in the previous administration.
PPP floor leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong told reporters he will expand the effort to uncover the facts, accusing the former NSC members of having "shamed" Park for doing what was necessary as a military commander.
"It appears that Park was interrogated for disobeying Kim's instruction, not the minister's or the president's, which disrupted the military hierarchy system," Kweon said.
Asked whether an order from the NSC should be considered a presidential order, he said it would be investigators' job to find out whether Moon made that order.
8. Japan-South Korea Tensions on Display at NATO Summit
Excerpts:
According to the South Korean presidential office: “The three leaders shared the view that North Korea’s continued progress in its nuclear and missile programs poses a serious threat, not only to the Korean Peninsula but also to East Asia and the international community.”
A close look at the diplomatic language reveals a few phrases that were designed to please the South Koreans, rather than the Japanese. The South Korean presidential office said that the leaders would work closely together so that North Korea “can return to the table of dialogue.”
The idea of reopening a dialogue with North Korea usually gets dismissed as a waste of time by the Japanese, who feel that it leads to half-hearted promises to disarm by Kim Jong Un, which are rarely honored.
Kishida made his attitude toward North Korea clear at the G-7 meeting in Germany, when he stressed the importance of “complete, verifiable, and irreversible destruction of all weapons of mass destruction” and called for greater action in order to prevent “North Korea believing that this is an opportunity to advance its nuclear and missile programs.”
He did not imply that dialogue, or a relaxation of the sanctions on North Korea, will help to achieve peace in the region.
Japan-South Korea Tensions on Display at NATO Summit
A meeting between the leaders of Japan and South Korea has shown the issues that divide them, including North Korea.
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A crucial meeting between the leaders of the United States, South Korea, and Japan in Madrid on June 29 was nearly cancelled at the last minute.
Just a day before, the South Korean government said it was “unlikely” its president, Yoon Suk Yeol, would talk face-to-face with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan during the NATO summit, which both countries were attending as observers.
The threat to abandon the meeting was a reminder of the continuing tension between the two East Asian nations, even though Yoon, who took office earlier this year, is a conservative who has promised greater cooperation with Japan.
Sensing trouble, diplomats accompanying U.S. President Joe Biden contacted both sides, imploring them to show their commitment to the trilateral alliance.
There was a minor breakthrough on the evening of June 28, when Yoon met Kishida at a dinner hosted by King Carlos of Spain and promised to “resolve pending issues between Korea and Japan as soon as possible” so that the two countries can “move forward in a future-oriented manner,” according to Seoul officials.
This appeared to break the ice, so at lunch time the next day, the two leaders sat opposite each other at a table, with Biden between them. He had been to South Korea and Japan the previous month, on his first presidential visit to Asia, and made a particular effort to express goodwill toward the newly inaugurated Yoon.
Also in the room in Madrid were U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with their translators.
Pictures shared with the world’s press through Reuters reveal that the event was carefully stage-managed. The leaders did not smile, nor did they shake hands. There was no photograph of Yoon and Kishida in conversation at the dinner, although they did both appear in some formal group shots.
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The Korea Herald described their encounters as “awkward yet cordial” and suggested the lack of a one-on-one meeting indicates that Japan has a lukewarm attitude toward engaging with Seoul.
One reason for the apparent caution could be that Kishida does not want the media to portray him as going soft on South Korea ahead of Japan’s upper house elections on July 10. His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is hoping to maintain the support of nationalists.
Conservative newspapers in Japan often print negative stories about South Korea, especially in relation to recent court rulings that Japanese companies must pay damages for forced labor. These claims relate to the era when Korea was occupied by Japan, more than 70 years ago.
There was no mention of these historical grievances in Madrid. The U.S. and Japanese leaders also chose to keep quiet about China when they were in the company of Yoon, who, despite promising a more unambiguously pro-American stance on the campaign trail, does not want to be seen as hostile toward China.
Nevertheless, Yoon’s attendance at the NATO summit prompted a cross speech by the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations.
Zhang Jun took to the floor of the assembly to complain that NATO’s eastward expansion sowed the seeds of conflict in Europe. He added that “the kind of turmoil and conflict that are affecting parts of the world must not be allowed to happen in the Asia-Pacific.”
Earlier in the week, Kishida had made his feelings about China plain when he spoke at the G-7 meeting in Bavaria, which preceded the NATO event in Spain. He complained about military and maritime expansion in the Indo-Pacific, warning that countries should not draw the “wrong lessons” from the situation in Ukraine.
Kishida also used the G-7 to highlight the issue of Chinese vessels intruding in waters surrounding the contested Senkaku Islands, which Japan administers but China claims as the Diaoyu Islands.
In Madrid, the focus switched to North Korea.
According to the South Korean presidential office: “The three leaders shared the view that North Korea’s continued progress in its nuclear and missile programs poses a serious threat, not only to the Korean Peninsula but also to East Asia and the international community.”
A close look at the diplomatic language reveals a few phrases that were designed to please the South Koreans, rather than the Japanese. The South Korean presidential office said that the leaders would work closely together so that North Korea “can return to the table of dialogue.”
The idea of reopening a dialogue with North Korea usually gets dismissed as a waste of time by the Japanese, who feel that it leads to half-hearted promises to disarm by Kim Jong Un, which are rarely honored.
Kishida made his attitude toward North Korea clear at the G-7 meeting in Germany, when he stressed the importance of “complete, verifiable, and irreversible destruction of all weapons of mass destruction” and called for greater action in order to prevent “North Korea believing that this is an opportunity to advance its nuclear and missile programs.”
He did not imply that dialogue, or a relaxation of the sanctions on North Korea, will help to achieve peace in the region.
In Madrid, Biden said that “our trilateral cooperation, in my view, is essential to achieving our shared objective, including a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The phrase “free and open Indo-Pacific” closely matches the rhetoric of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and does not cause any problems for the South Koreans.
The idea of “a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” has been used by Biden a number of times, including when he met Yoon’s predecessor, Moon Jae-in, at the White House in May 2021. At the time, the two leaders spoke of the need for a calibrated, phased approach toward denuclearization and stressed the importance of using dialogue and diplomacy towards North Korea.
Yoon, however, prefers to emphasize the denuclearization of North Korea specifically, rather than the Korean Peninsula as such.
In Madrid, Kishida said he was “deeply concerned over the possibility of further provocation by North Korea, including nuclear testing. Through this meeting, I hope that trilateral cooperation regarding our response to North Korea will be solidified.”
A subsequent White House statement about the NATO meeting said Biden “underscored the United States’ unshakable commitment to the defense” of both Japan and South Korea.
When Yoon returned to Seoul following the NATO summit, he gave an optimistic reply when asked about relations with Japan: “We should not think that we cannot discuss the current and future affairs when there are historical disputes.”
The president added: “They all can be addressed at the same time, and we hold the belief that both countries would be able to resolve the past issues for the future.”
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Much of the credit for the rapprochement goes to the South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, who studied at Tokyo University, as well as Oxford and Harvard. Park believes that South Korea needs to cooperate more closely with the United States and Japan in response to North Korean weapons tests.
The Korean foreign minister is expected to meet with his Japanese and Chinese counterparts, Hayashi Yoshimasa and Wang Yi, at a G-20 event in Bali, Indonesia on July 6 and 7.
Park is also planning to travel to Japan in mid-July, according to the Foreign Ministry. If all goes smoothly, a bilateral meeting between Yoon and Kishida could then follow later this year.
GUEST AUTHOR
Duncan Bartlett
Duncan Bartlett is the Editor of Asian Affairs magazine.
9. Yoon nullifies nuclear energy phaseout
Yoon nullifies nuclear energy phaseout
Published : Jul 5, 2022 - 15:40 Updated : Jul 5, 2022 - 15:40
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy at Government Complex Sejong (The Korea Herald)
SEJONG -- The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the administration’s energy policy direction, which is aimed at raising the share of nuclear energy out of the nation’s total power generation from the current level of 27.4 percent.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the administration has set the goal of raising the share of nuclear power generation to 30 percent or more by 2030.
The Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s energy policy direction invalidates that of the previous Moon Jae-in administration in October 2017, which supported a decade-long project for nuclear power phaseout, the ministry said in a statement.
It said the target of 30 percent or more of nuclear energy’s share means formalization of the new administration’s policy, which aims to attain both stable energy security and carbon neutrality.
The energy security policy indicates that the government will take countermeasures against the ongoing glitch in global energy supply in the wake of sharply growing demand during the process of normalization from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The protracted war between Ukraine and Russia is another core factor, which has sparked keen competition to secure energy resources between major economies.
The ministry forecasted that “the ratio of dependency upon fossil fuels will decline from 81.8 percent in 2021 to the 60-percent range in 2030, if the administration successfully implements the harmonized operation of nuclear energy, renewable energy and hydrogen energy.”
In regards to the employment sector, the number of innovative, energy-related venture start-ups is projected to reach 5,000 by 2030, which could create about 100,000 jobs, the ministry said.
For overseas business, the administration has a goal of exporting 10 reactors to countries including the Czech Republic and Poland.
Under the previous administration, the nuclear energy industry’s sales dropped from 5.5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) in 2016 to 4.1 trillion won in 2020, with the manpower tally declining from 22,000 to 19,000.
As an initial step to revitalize the sector, the Industry Ministry plans to entrust nuclear power generation businesses with projects worth 1 trillion won by 2025.
In the energy policy direction, the government has also decided to push for legislation of a special law on resource security. The special law will establish a control tower for national resource security, and systems for preemptive alarm bells in case of an energy crisis.
For stable domestic supply, the government will expand strategic stockpiles and diversify import routes for minerals such as manganese and cobalt.
“(Policymakers) also plan to resolve the monopolistic power sales structure, held by the Korea Electric Power Corp. on a gradual basis,” said the Industry Ministry. “Independence of the board that determines electric charges will also be enhanced.”
For renewable energy, the government decided to revise the optimal ratio of resources such as solar and wind power in total power generation in the fourth quarter of the year.
By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)
10. US bill expresses concerns over proposed abolishment of S. Korean ministry of equality
Too much meddling internally in another country's domestic affairs?
US bill expresses concerns over proposed abolishment of S. Korean ministry of equality
Published : Jul 5, 2022 - 09:19 Updated : Jul 5, 2022 - 09:19
President Yoon Suk-yeol (left) and President Joe Biden at the Korean Air and Space Operations Center at the US Air Force Base in Osan on May 22.(Yonhap)
WASHINGTON -- A US bill is seeking to express concerns over the proposed abolishment of South Korea's Ministry of Equality and Family, the bill showed Monday.
The House of Representatives bill on the 2023 budget for the state department will also urge the secretary of state to remain "actively engaged" in promoting gender equality in South Korea if passed.
"The Committee is concerned about the abolishment of the South Korean Ministry of Equality and Family and urges the Secretary of State to remain actively engaged with efforts to advance women's empowerment and gender equality in the country," says the bill, introduced in the House of Representatives appropriations committee on Friday.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, had pledged to abolish the ministry during his election campaign.
Yoon appointed a new minister of equality and family after taking office, but the new minister, Kim Hyun-sook, has noted the ministry may be "reorganized" during Yoon's five-year term.
Meanwhile, the House appropriations bill, if enacted, will also call on the US state department to identify Korean Americans who wish to be reunited with their family in North Korea.
"The Committee urges the Office of North Korean Human Rights, in consultation with Korean American community organizations, to identify Korean Americans who wish to be reunited with their family in North Korea in anticipation of future reunions," it says.
The House unanimously passed a bill, called "Divided Families Reunification Act," last year to require US government efforts to help realize family reunions of Korean Americans and their separated families in North Korea. (Yonhap)
11. Tracing the real birthplace of North Korea's Kim Il Sung
Tracing the real birthplace of North Korea's Kim Il Sung - Daily NK
While no figure in North Korean history is more important than Kim Il Sung, there is very little information about his early years
An image of President Kim Il Sung created by thousands of participants in the Arirang Mass Games. (David Stanley, Flickr, Creative Commons)
An aspect of the life of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung that researchers often find inaccessible is the man’s childhood.
Not only Kim’s behavior after taking power in 1945, but also his activities with anti-Japanese guerillas in Manchuria and his service with the Soviet Red Army can be traced in considerable detail in Chinese, Japanese and Soviet documents.
But very few sources cover the time before Kim joined the Communist Party of China and founded his guerilla unit. That was an issue I encountered recently while writing a biography of Kim. I would like to share with our readers the research method I discovered.
First of all, sources from that time may be very few, but they do exist. Kim Il Sung’s father Kim Hyong Jik took part in the March 1 Movement and later fled to Manchuria with his family. For that reason, he is mentioned in Japanese police records as being an anti-Japanese activist.
Along with Kim Hyong Jik’s participation in the March 1 Movement, those records also shed light on his property. As of 1925, the Kim family’s property was worth around JPY 1,000 — a little more than the average wages for two years of work in Manchuria.
In addition to such contemporaneous records, other sources include the testimonies of people who knew the family of Kim Il Sung. Perhaps the two key witnesses here are Kim Hyeong Seok, professor emeritus at Yonsei University, and Lee Yong Sang, a poet.
In his childhood, Kim Hyeong Seok heard a lot about Kim Hyong Jik’s family, while Lee Yong Sang provided a detailed description of Kim Yong Ju, younger brother of Kim Il Sung, in his memoirs, “Military Uniforms in Three Colors.”
Through that book, we learn that Kim Yong Ju was an interpreter for the Japanese military. Further confirmation of Kim’s outstanding command of Japanese appears in the memoirs of Kazuko Kobayashi, a Japanese woman who worked as a housekeeper for the family of Kim Il Sung in 1945 and 1946.
A final set of sources is North Korean books from the early 1960s. For a student of history, this is a fascinating period. It was a time when the cult of personality around Kim Il Sung had developed but not yet become the official narrative.
That gives us insight into facts that were concealed in the years to come. For example, we learn from a book called “Mangyongdae,” published in Pyongyang in 1960, that Kim Il Sung was born not in the neighborhood of Mangyongdae, as North Korea currently claims, but in the nearby neighborhood of Chilgol.
Furthermore, a book called “Sunset over Mangyong Peak,” published in 1964, says that Kim Hyong Jik had an adopted son named Kim Ryong Ho. We can also infer that Kim Ryong Ho and Kim Il Sung (who was one year younger) were half brothers, born to the same father, but different mothers.
To be sure, North Korean books were later stripped of all mention of Kim Ryong Ho.
While no figure in North Korean history is more important than Kim Il Sung, there is very little information about his early years. My hope is that the points mentioned above will prove useful to future researchers.
Views expressed in this guest column do not necessarily reflect those of Daily NK.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
12. North Korea dam water release forces South Koreans near border to evacuate
The dam can be a weapon. I remember during one training exercise during the Monsoon season when the Imjin River flooded and we could not get back south. We had to thread our way back to Camp Greaves between the DMZ and the Imjin. It was quite a little adventure.
North Korea dam water release forces South Koreans near border to evacuate
Rising water levels on the Imjin River caused by suspected release prompts holidaymakers and residents to leave
North Korea appears to have released water from a dam near its border with South Korea, prompting vacationers in the neighbouring country to evacuate over rising water levels on the Imjin River.
The water level at a bridge across the river in the South’s border county of Yeoncheon surpassed 1 metre on Monday afternoon, requiring visitors on the riverbank to evacuate.
“North Korea appears to have released water from its Hwanggang dam,” an official at South Korea’s unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said.
The Yeoncheon county said it sent alarm messages to nearby residents and issued warnings to move to a safe area.
It was not immediately clear how many people had to leave after the suspected water release.
“The water level is now decreasing after hovering over 1.6 metres,” a Yeoncheon county official said.
North Korea has been stepping up efforts to prevent flood damage from recent heavy rains.
South Korea has repeatedly urged the North to give notice before releasing water from the dam, as the river flows through Yeoncheon, but Pyongyang has remained unresponsive.
Release of water from the dam in 2009 resulted in flooding downstream that killed six South Koreans.
13. BTS Rekindle Debate about Military Service in South Korea
One of the unique cultural problems in Korea.
BTS Rekindle Debate about Military Service in South Korea
A surprise decision by South Korean boy band BTS to take a break from live shows has rekindled debate about mandatory military service in a country setting global pop-culture trends while facing a decades old Cold War threat.
Military service is hugely contentious in South Korea where all able-bodied men aged between 18 and 28 are meant to serve for about two years as part of efforts to defend against a hostile North Korea.
Over the years particular categories of men have won exemptions - either allowed to put off service for a certain time or allowed to do shorter service - including men who win a medal at the Olympics or Asian Games and classical musicians and dancers who win a top prize at certain competitions.
Under a 2019 revision of the law, globally recognized K-pop stars were allowed to put off their service until the age of 30.
Parliament is now debating a new amendment that would allow K-pop stars to do just three weeks of military training.
For BTS and in particular for the band's oldest member, known to fans as Jin, the outcome of the deliberations in parliament will be momentous.
While the band's management company has long presented the seven BTS members as keen to do their duty, the reality of two years of full-time military service is coming sharply into focus as time ticks by.
Jin, 29, has put off his service for as long as he can and is facing the imminent prospect of a full stint - meaning two years out of the public eye - when he turns 30.
For Jin and his band mates, waiting for parliament to decide has been hugely stressful and is the main reason they are taking a break from performing, said Yoon Sang-hyun, the lawmaker who proposed the amendment to include three-week training for K-pop stars.
"The members cited exhaustion and the need for rest as the main reason but the real reason was Jin's military service," Yoon told Reuters.
The extent to which BTS had raised South Korea's profile around the world through "soft power" should be taken into account when considering their military service, Yoon said.
"BTS has done a job that would take more than 1,000 diplomats to do," he said.
'Hard time'
Since their 2013 debut, BTS have became a worldwide sensation with their upbeat hits and social campaigns aimed at empowering youth.
BTS became the first Asian band to win artist of the year at the American Music Awards last year, and they met US President Joe Biden at the White House in May to discuss hate crimes targeting Asians.
Choi Kwang-ho, secretary-general of the Korea Music Content Association, a coalition of K-pop agencies including the band's Big Hit management company, said the wait for a decision was excruciating.
"The young artists have been tortured with hopes that never come true," Choi said.
A Gallup poll in April showed nearly 60% of South Koreans supported the bill exempting globally successful K-pop stars from full military service, with 33% opposed.
The band and their management company have steered clear of the debate but in April Big Hit official Lee Jin-hyung told a news conference in Las Vegas that some band members were having a "hard time" because of "uncertainties" over the parliament debate. He called for a decision.
Jin, asked hours later about Lee's comments, said he was letting Big Hit handle the issue though adding that what Lee said reflected his view.
K-pop is not the only sector hoping for a change in the rules. The new administration of President Yoon Suk-yeol is considering exemptions for some engineers and researchers in the computer chip and other tech fields.
The Ministry of Defense pointed to a constitutional requirement for all citizens to do their duty to defend the country.
"Adding pop culture artists in the scope of art and sports personnel who are eligible for the exemption requires careful consideration in terms of fairness," a ministry official said.
Some young men also wonder about the case for special treatment for BTS.
Seo Chang-jun, 20, said he understood why Olympic winners got an exemption but wasn't sure about BTS.
"The Olympic Games are national events where all Koreans cheer for the same team but not everyone is a BTS fan. Many people aren't interested in them," he told Reuters.
14. Seoul puts foot back on the nuclear accelerator
Seoul puts foot back on the nuclear accelerator
Yoon reverses Moon’s nuclear energy policy with ambitious drive for renewed generation, research and export
SEOUL – The Yoon Suk-yeol government, which took office in May, is acting on a key electoral pledge by significantly boosting nuclear power output to meet carbon emissions goals and upgrade energy security.
South Korea has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 – a stern task for a nation with so much heavy industry. It is also massively reliant upon imported fossil fuels.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy released the new administration’s energy blueprint earlier today (July 5). According to the plan, Seoul will elevate nuclear’s share of the national energy mix to 30% by 2030.
That percentage would put South Korea about on a par with Finland’s 32.8% and Sweden’s 30.8% and well ahead of countries including the UK’s 14.8% and the US’ 19.6% but well behind leaders such as France at 69% and Belgium at 50%, as per data from Statista.
Yoon’s plan necessitates the increase of nuclear reactors from 24 to 28 nationwide, including the completion of two whose construction was halted under the previous government. Under the blueprint, the country will also seek to export 10 nuclear reactors and will invest some $300 billion in small, modular nuclear reactors.
According to the IAEA, this type of reactor can be sited upon locations unsuitable for larger plants. As prefabricated parts can be shipped and installed on site, they are more affordable to build than large power reactors, which are often custom-designed and have shorter construction times.
“If the plans are implemented without a hitch, our dependence on imported fossil fuels is expected to be reduced to around 60% in 2030 from last year’s 81.8%,” the ministry said, according to Yonhap News.
The conservative Yoon has a wholly different stance toward nuclear than did his liberal predecessor. Under Moon Jae-in, Korea sought to slash the ratio of nuclear in the nation’s energy mix to 23.9% by 2030, while cutting the number of working reactors from 24 to 18.
Yoon, touring nuclear facilities on June 22, called Moon’s energy policies “foolish” while saying that during the term of his predecessor’s administration, Korea lost its positioning in the sector.
President Yoon Suk-yeol takes a close look at a small modular reactor (SMR) model at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in the Daedeok Research Complex in Daejeon in November 2021 when he was a presidential candidate for the People Power Party. Image: Twitter
“The competitiveness of our nuclear plant businesses lies in our ability to construct on time and on budget, which no other company in the world can imitate,” Yoon said, adding that if Korea had “further reinforced the nuclear power ecosystem, we probably would not have any competitors now.”
That might be an exaggeration, but Korea’s biggest ever single export order, won in 2009, was for four nuclear generators for the UAE. The contract, won by a consortium led by Korea Electric Power Corporation and including Doosan, Samsung and Hyundai as key engineering parties, was worth US$20 billion.
Currently, two of the reactors are in operation, a third has been completed and a fourth is entering the final stages of construction.
Regardless of Korea’s then-leading edge in atomic power generation, Moon had come into office in 2011 as an anti-nuclear politician whose position was fortified by Japan’s Fukushima disaster, which deeply shocked Korea.
Moon promoted the use of hydrogen energy – a push Yoon has pledged to continue. He also sought to expand the adoption of green energy sources in Korea, which has one of the lowest ratios of renewables in the developed world.
In 2020, according to enerdata, Canada’s energy was generated 67.7% from renewable sources, followed by 43.7% for the UK, 28.4% for China, 22.5% for India, 20.3% for Russia, 20.2% for Japan and 19.8% for the US.
South Korea was a notable laggard with just 7.1%.
But questions had always hung over the Moon nuclear policy, most particularly given that South Korea’s economy is built on the foundation of one of the world’s largest heavy industrial sectors. Heavy industry demands non-oscillating power that cannot be reliably supplied by renewables.
Over the course of the last year, the hole left by nuclear presented South Korean officials tasked with briefing foreign reporters on the nation’s trajectory toward net-zero emissions fielding unanswerable questions.
A wind turbine is seen over the panels of a solar power plant of Korea South East Power Co. (KOSEP) in Incheon. Photo: Jo Yong-Hak
While putting forward ambitious plans on downstream electrification, civil servants speaking off the record at the end of briefings could not answer the question of where the upstream power would come from.
Several punted the ball forward, saying, in essence, “We’ll have to wait for the next government’s policy.” And even Moon, by the tail end of his administration, had come round to the need for nuclear.
Follow this writer on Twitter @ASalmonSeoul
15. N. Korea arrests members of a gold smuggling ring in Hyesan
A buried lede. The Donju are important. But without functioning markets because of the regime's crackdown the Korean people in the north may be or soon will be suffering at a level that may be worse than the Arduous March of the fmaine of 199401996.
Excerpt:
“Because donju at least injected money into the market, ordinary people were able to survive during the border lockdown. If you arrest all these people, ordinary folk will have no practical recourse [to survive],” he said.
N. Korea arrests members of a gold smuggling ring in Hyesan - Daily NK
The provincial Ministry of State Security is rushing to investigate various officials who may have been implicated in the smuggling
FILE PHOTO: A border patrol checkpoint in Pungso County, Yanggang Province, can be seen in this photo, which was taken in February 2019. (Daily NK)
The Yanggang Province branch of the Ministry of State Security recently arrested several members of North Korea’s wealthy entrepreneurial class, or donju, for smuggling gold bars into China.
According to a Daily NK source in Yanggang Province on Friday, the provincial Ministry of State Security arrested a woman in her 40s in Hyesan in mid-June.
The woman used to smuggle precious metals in the past, but unable to continue in that line of work with the closure of the border due to COVID-19, she began a new career facilitating the transfer of money from defectors in South Korea and China to relatives in North Korea. The authorities later caught on to what she was doing, which led to her arrest.
After the authorities discovered a large amount of foreign currency and Chinese-made mobile phones in her home, security officials carried out an investigation of sources and recipients of the overseas remittances she facilitated, as well as the pathways the money took.
During her interrogation, the woman confessed that she and three other people pooled money to buy a large number of gold bars produced at Taebong Gold Mine, Huchang Gold Mine and other gold mining regions. Then, she claimed, they smuggled the gold bars to China on several occasions despite the border still be closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Based on this testimony, provincial security authorities investigated her three accomplices and set about to arrest them. They have arrested two of them, but they have been unable to find the final accomplice.
“It’s likely that the one who disappeared is protected by a high-ranking Ministry of State Security cadre,” said the source, suggesting that the the individual had been tipped off about the investigation.
The provincial Ministry of State Security is now rushing to investigate officials with the province’s security services, border patrol and disease control agencies who may have been implicated in the smuggling.
The source said the authorities are conducting particularly intense investigations of personnel at a Ministry of State Security “No. 10 checkpoint” and a driver with the ministry’s municipal branch who allegedly helped transport the gold bars. They are also investigating an officer with the border patrol who allegedly handed the bars over to Chinese smugglers.
The provincial Ministry of State Security is carrying out its investigation quietly and thoroughly. However, the matter is likely to grow into a major case if the local authorities report it to Pyongyang.
“The Ministry of State Security is working hard to arrest the person who fled. Branches of the Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Social Security in border regions such as Kimjongsuk County, Pochon County and Taehongdan County are in crisis mode, issuing wanted notices and carrying out searches of people’s homes,” the source said.
The source further reported that in a region like Yanggang Province, where “there is nothing but mountains,” putting food on the table is no easy matter in the absence of state rations.
“Because donju at least injected money into the market, ordinary people were able to survive during the border lockdown. If you arrest all these people, ordinary folk will have no practical recourse [to survive],” he said.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
