Quotes of the Day:
“The blizzard doesn’t last forever; it just seems so.”
- Ray Bradbury
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.”
- Mark Twain
“Freedom lies in being bold.”
- Robert Frost
1. 2019 repatriation of N.K. fishermen not unusual: DP lawmaker
2. Three questions remain over repatriation of North Korean fishermen
3. South Korea Is Turbocharging Its Arms Sales Business
4. North Korea reclassifies escapees to South Korea as ‘traitorous puppets’
5. North Korea’s guidance department works to ensure loyalty of citizenry
6. Letter to Korean’s President Yoon Seok-Youl, following the release of photographs of the repatriation of two North Korean fishermen to North Korea on 7 November 2019. – David Alton
7. South Korea seeks to kickstart talks to resolve historical feuds with Japan
8. North stands by decision to recognize two pro-Russian separatist states in Ukraine
9. Ex-NIS chief banned from travelling abroad over probe into handling of North's killing of fisheries official
10. N. Korea holds key Cabinet meeting on this year's national economic goals
11. N. Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases under 600 for 2nd day: state media
12. S. Korea's new COVID-19 infections continue doubling on-week to near 40,000
13. S. Korea's Navy creates aviation unit tasked with bolstering maritime security
14. S. Korean FM to make 3-day trip to Japan next week
15. S. Korea to deploy around 20 more F-35A fighters by 2028
16. Yoon and the Future of Korea-Europe Relations
17. U.S. Lawmaker Condemns Forcible Repatriation of N.Koreans
18. N. Korea could conduct one or two more weapons tests during military's summer training period
19. Hoeryong factory officials face trial for inflating performance
20. Propaganda Takes a Worrying Turn on the Korean Peninsula
1. 2019 repatriation of N.K. fishermen not unusual: DP lawmaker
Stop the "whataboutism." These two fishermen were forcibly repatriated.
But the Yoon administration needs to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident as well as past actions as democracies should do, but it cannot embark on a witch hunt against members ofthe previous administration. People need to be held accountable for their actions if they were found to be incontravention to the ROK constitution, rule of law, and due process. But an investigation and its results must not be used for political purposes. (Easier said than done I know).
2019 repatriation of N.K. fishermen not unusual: DP lawmaker | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- A lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) claimed Friday the previous administration's repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in 2019 is not an unusual case, citing a unification ministry report that shows there were dozens of similar cases since 2010.
Rep. Yoon Kun-young made the case amid growing criticism that the previous administration of President Moon Jae-in sent the fishermen back to the North in what critics said was an effort to curry favor with Pyongyang, even though they expressed a desire to defect to South Korea.
The Moon administration said they were sent back as they confessed to killing 16 fellow crew members.
The DP lawmaker claimed the only difference of the 2019 case from other defections is that the fishermen attempted to defect with an ulterior motive to flee from North Korea after committing a vicious crime.
According to the lawmaker, a total of 276 North Koreans crossed the Northern Limit Line on 67 occasions between 2010 and May of this year, and 194 of them were sent back to the North on 47 occasions.
By administration, there were 11 repatriation cases between 2010 and 2012 under the then Lee Myung-bak government, 21 cases between 2013 and April 2017 under the then Park Geun-hye government and 15 cases between May 2017 and May 2022 under the then Moon Jae-in government, according to Yoon.
The lawmaker also claimed the then government did not rush to deport the fishermen, citing the average period before repatriation is 5.6 days in all cases since 2010.
The ruling People Power Party, however, slammed the DP, accusing the former administration of trading two people's lives to curry favor with North Korea.
"The fishermen are clearly South Korean citizens under the Constitution as they had expressed their wish to defect even if they are brutal criminals," PPP's acting chief Kweon Seong-dong said in a party discussion session on the matter.
(END)
2. Three questions remain over repatriation of North Korean fishermen
Thisisi why a thorough investigation must be conducted.
Three questions remain over repatriation of North Korean fishermen
A North Korean fisherman waits to be deported at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom, in this Nov. 7, 2019, file photo. Courtesy of Ministry of Unification
By Jung Min-ho
Pictures of North Korean fishermen fiercely resisting deportation provide an answer to one important question: They seemed sincere about defecting to South Korea, contrary to the claims of the previous Moon Jae-in administration.
The revelation by the Ministry of Unification has left many people shocked here and abroad. Now, calls are mounting to uncover the whole truth behind the 2019 decision to send the fishermen back to the brutal North Korean regime. There are three big questions that remain unanswered.
In this Nov. 8, 2019, file photo, South Korea's Navy tows a boat used by two North Korean fishermen before it was handed over to North Korean authorities. Courtesy of Unification Ministry
Did they really kill 16 people on boat?
According to authorities under the Moon government, the fishermen conspired with a third man to kill their captain and 15 others on the boat before their escape to the South. But the boat's size ― 16 meters long, 3.7 meters wide and 17 tons in weight ― has raised serious doubts about the allegations.
Their alleged murder plot was also unconvincing. The authorities claimed that the fishermen killed two of their fellow crewmembers working on the night shift with an ax and hammers before killing the "abusive" captain who was asleep. Then they went on to wake up two people "every 40 minutes" to kill them. All of the bodies were believed to have been thrown overboard. All this was supposedly done quietly in the open sea, without causing any of the others on the boat to notice unusual sounds.
The credibility of the murder accusation was damaged further by what was done to the boat following their "confessions." The boat, where the authorities claimed bore bloodstains, as well as the fishermen's clothes and shoes were disinfected on Nov. 2, 2019, the day they arrived in the South's waters, at the request of the National Intelligence Service (NIS). In the days that followed, they were all sent back to North Korea.
An official at the Ministry of Unification told The Korea Times that it cannot confirm whether the fishermen made the confessions without being forced, because it did not participate in the NIS-led investigation into the case.
The Constitutional Court in Seoul / Korea Times file
What justified exception this time?
Rep. Woo Sang-ho, the interim leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, told reporters Friday that South Korean citizens would not accept "the brutal criminals" as their neighbors.
According to ministry data, there are 23 convicted felons from North Korea who defected to South Korea, including murderers and terrorists. But none of them have ever been repatriated against their will, unlike the fishermen who suffered a different fate based solely on allegations without a trial.
The Constitution requires the government to treat North Korean defectors as citizens who have the right to have fair and prompt trial by legitimate legal procedures. Just last month in Seoul, a former North Korean spy received a 30-month prison sentence suspended for four years for playing a role in kidnapping a North Korean defector in China and sending him back to the North in 2010. The former agent defected to South Korea in 2016 and made the confession during the NIS' investigation, which eventually led to the conviction.
Also under the Constitution that states South Korea's territory as "the Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands," President Yoon Suk-yeol appointed the governors of North Hamgyong Province and South and North Pyongan Provinces, Thursday, in a ceremonial move. The provinces are located in North Korea.
Experts say the deportation was a clear violation of the Constitution and South Korea's international treaty obligations for human rights.
Former President Moon Jae-in / Korea Times file
Was Moon involved in decision?
The Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea (also known as Hanbyun), a group of conservative lawyers, said it will file complaints with the prosecution on July 18 against top decision makers of the previous administration, including former President Moon.
Soon after the deportation, former Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said during an event in Los Angeles, Moon was briefed on the matter and made the final decision. His comments contradict the claim of Chung Eui-yong, who was the National Security Office's chief at the time (May 2017-July 2020), that he made the final call without reporting it to the commander-in-chief.
Investigators raided the NIS' offices Wednesday over allegations that the agency's former director Suh Hoon (June 2017-July 2020), abused his authority to stop the investigation into the fishermen after just three days.
3. South Korea Is Turbocharging Its Arms Sales Business
South Korea has actually been "stepping up" in the defense industry for a number of years. It is becoming an important player on the global stage.
Excerpts:
The numbers telling the story. In 2000, South Korea ranked 31st on the list of global arms exporters. By 2021, it rocketed up to eighth place, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Arms Transfers Database. Its volume of major arms exports shot up 177 percent in the 2017-2021 period, compared with the period between 2012 and 2016, according to SIPRI—vastly outpacing the growth of other major arms exporters such as the United States, Russia, China, and France.
South Korea expects its defense exports to top $10 billion in 2022, more than triple the amount it sold annually between 2010 and 2020. (In 2021, defense exports exceeded defense imports for the first time there.)
South Korea Is Turbocharging Its Arms Sales Business
Seoul aims to become one of the world’s top arms exporters.
By Robbie Gramer, a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy, and Jack Detsch, Foreign Policy’s Pentagon and national security reporter. FP subscribers can now receive alerts when new stories written by these authors are published. Subscribe now | Sign in
Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s SitRep! Before we get to our regularly scheduled programming, if you haven’t done so already, take a few minutes to marvel at the new high-definition imagery coming out of deep space, courtesy of the James Webb telescope.
Alright, back to more earthly matters, here’s what’s on tap for the day: How South Korea is becoming a top global arms exporter, a new report warns of laggard U.S. missile defense capabilities, and Congress sours on F-16 sales to Turkey.
If you would like to receive Situation Report in your inbox every Thursday, please sign up here.
Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s SitRep! Before we get to our regularly scheduled programming, if you haven’t done so already, take a few minutes to marvel at the new high-definition imagery coming out of deep space, courtesy of the James Webb telescope.
Alright, back to more earthly matters, here’s what’s on tap for the day: How South Korea is becoming a top global arms exporter, a new report warns of laggard U.S. missile defense capabilities, and Congress sours on F-16 sales to Turkey.
If you would like to receive Situation Report in your inbox every Thursday, please sign up here.
The Business of Booms Is Booming in South Korea
There’s been a not-so-quiet revolution taking place in South Korea in recent years, and it’s all about the defense industry.
Since former President Moon Jae-in first took power in 2017, South Korea has turbocharged its arms sales abroad, positioning the country to become one of the world’s leading arms exporters and vastly outpacing the rest of the world in increasing the volume of its arms exports. Under the new conservative government, led by Yoon Suk-yeol, that trend shows no signs of slowing down.
The numbers telling the story. In 2000, South Korea ranked 31st on the list of global arms exporters. By 2021, it rocketed up to eighth place, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Arms Transfers Database. Its volume of major arms exports shot up 177 percent in the 2017-2021 period, compared with the period between 2012 and 2016, according to SIPRI—vastly outpacing the growth of other major arms exporters such as the United States, Russia, China, and France.
South Korea expects its defense exports to top $10 billion in 2022, more than triple the amount it sold annually between 2010 and 2020. (In 2021, defense exports exceeded defense imports for the first time there.)
Deals on deals on deals. Among the recent blitz in multimillion- and multibillion-dollar arms sale deals that South Korea has clinched so far: K9 self-propelled howitzers to Australia, India, and Egypt; medium-range surface-to-air missile systems to the United Arab Emirates; and anti-air defense systems to Saudi Arabia.
South Korea has also angled to sell its high-end fighter jet, the KF-21, to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Iraq, Qatar, Senegal, and Peru.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has presented Yoon’s government with more opportunities, as European governments scramble to backfill their own military supplies after frantically shipping their excess equipment to Ukraine to fend off the Russian invasion. Poland, for example, is expected to greenlight some major arms deals with South Korean arms manufacturers for tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled artillery.
Watch out, Pyongyang. Seoul’s pivot to becoming a major global arms exporter is aimed at expanding the country’s domestic economic strength and flexing its military muscles for rivals such as North Korea and potential competitors such as China, particularly as global competition between Beijing and Washington heats up.
It also comes as South Korea’s defense establishment, wary of how the country’s declining population will affect its conscription-fed army, is looking to rely on new military technology to make up for its waning manpower.
Looking global. Yoon also appears to be using defense sales to showcase a more globally focused South Korean foreign policy, something that was on display at the recent NATO summit in Madrid. During the summit, Yoon sought to burnish South Korea’s credentials as a leader on international security matters while at the same time taking meetings with Central European leaders to hash out new arms sale deals.
Because it shares technology with the United States, South Korea’s homegrown defense industry offers a cheaper alternative for foreign buyers of U.S. defense equipment, from wealthy Gulf states to developing countries in Southeast Asia.
The blowback. The deluge of arms sales is already coming with costs beyond the dollar signs, however. South Korea has caught heat from human rights groups for business dealings with Myanmar’s military, accused of widespread atrocities and war crimes—though it suspended military exchanges with Myanmar after a military coup in 2021.
Its arms exports to Saudi Arabia and Egypt could draw further scrutiny; some European countries have suspended arms exports to Middle Eastern countries over human rights concerns and in particular Saudi Arabia’s role in the deadly war in Yemen.
4. North Korea reclassifies escapees to South Korea as ‘traitorous puppets’
While South KOrea investigates the forced repatriation issuem we must never forget what continued evil exists in the north and the crimes against humanity that the Kim family regime has been perpetrating on the Korean people in the north for 7 decades.
Note also the regime is trying to shut down another conduit for information from the outside world. But there will be other effects as well. Escapees use information channels (e.g., cell phones) to transfer money to their families remaining in the north. Party and security officials extort money from these families to allow money to get to them.
But the bottom line is escapees sending back information and money is a threat to the regime. The regime must be getting very worried about this as it seems to be taking even more aggressive action to try to prevent outside influence.
North Korea reclassifies escapees to South Korea as ‘traitorous puppets’
The new designation is part of a campaign to punish their families for maintaining contact.
By Jieun Kim for RFA Korean
2022.07.13
North Korea has reclassified citizens who escape the country and resettle in South Korea as “traitorous puppets” in order to more harshly punish family members who remain in contact with them, sources in the country told RFA.
The shift could have major consequences for the families left behind that rely on the money their relatives living in the South send home.
More than 33,000 North Koreans have escaped their repressive country and moved to South Korea. Likely hundreds of thousands more live in China, the first destination for escapees who sneak across North Korea’s northern border. Pyongyang has classified these people as “illegal border crossers.”
“These days, at residents’ meetings, authorities are referring to the refugees who fled to South Korea as ‘puppets,’” a resident of the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“They are terrifying the families of these refugees by declaring that anyone in contact with a South Korean puppet will be punished for treason, even if it is their family members,” she said.
“Puppet” is a term often used to describe the South Korean government to imply its illegitimacy. The shift signals that authorities will emphasize punishing escapees’ families as if they themselves have committed treason, according to the source.
North Korean refugee Choi Bok-hwa speaks during an interview in Ansan, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. For the first time in years, Choi didn’t get her annual birthday call from her mother in North Korea. Choi believes the silence is linked to the pandemic, which led North Korea to shut its borders tighter than ever and impose some of the world’s toughest restrictions on movement. Photo: AP
“This month alone, there have been three cases in the city of Hyesan, where families were caught talking to their relatives in South Korea over an illegal phone that had been wiretapped. [They] are currently being investigated by the city police,” she said.
“Previously, these kinds of families were able to avoid crackdowns by bribing state security agents and police officers with some of the money they received from their relatives in South Korea. But the residents are paying special attention to what the punishment will be this time,” the source said.
For residents in and around Hyesan, making a living by farming has always been difficult due to the area’s mountainous terrain and rough climate, so they have had to find other sources of income. Many families had gotten by by importing and selling Chinese goods. But the border has been closed and trade suspended since January 2020 due to the coronavirus.
“There are many families of North Korean refugees in the area. They can manage to make ends meet with the support from their refugee family members,” the source said.
“The residents of Hyesan are literally on the verge of losing their livelihoods after the North Korea-China border became blocked,” she said. “Now that they can’t really make ends meet [on their own], they cannot survive without the help of their families [in South Korea]. The residents are therefore criticizing the authorities for regarding those who receive help from escapees as treasonous.
“They ask, ‘What have the authorities done for the people?’”
North Korean refugee Chu Young-bok pays his respects to relatives in North Korea, as he sits before a fence near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, at the Imjingak 'peace park' in Paju on September 24, 2018. - South Koreans are observing the annual 'Chuseok' thanksgiving holiday, which runs from Sept 24 to 26. Photo: AFP
Residents in nearby North Hamgyong province were angered that the authorities stepped up the smear campaign against escapees, a source there told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“[They] are outraged by the authorities who are socially burying people who only escaped for survival,” he said.
“The people are very resentful toward the authorities, who are now imposing all sorts of control measures but are failing to guarantee the living conditions of the people. If someone who escaped starvation is a puppet, isn't the government’s disregard for the residents’ livelihoods also the act of a traitor?” the source said.
The source doubted the new designation would stop people from contacting their family members in the South.
“Even if the authorities call them a puppet and don’t allow people to talk on the phone, who is going to obey? No matter how much they call them puppets and threaten to charge their families with treason, people are still going to talk to their family in South Korea,” he said.
“The refugees’ families here are protesting, saying that cutting off contact would mean their own starvation because they are able to live only with the help of their escaped family members. The people have a high degree of antipathy toward the authorities, who reinforce all these control measures to keep us from escaping, even if it means we will starve to death.”
According to statistics from the South Korean Ministry of Unification, at least 1,000 refugees from the North have arrived in South Korea every year since 2002, peaking at more than 2,900 in 2009.
Under Kim Jong Un’s rule, though, refugee arrivals in the South decreased to slightly more than 1,000 in 2019, then dropped off sharply in 2020, likely due to increased border security during the coronavirus pandemic.
Only 229 North Korean refugees made it to South Korea in 2020, 63 in 2021, and 11 through March 2022.
Translated by Leejin J. Chung for RFA’s Korean Service. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
5. North Korea’s guidance department works to ensure loyalty of citizenry
Yes. The subtitle says it all. It is all about ensuring loyalty rather than the welfare of the Korean people in the north. I think the regime is very worried about resistance potential. We may not see it but the regime's actions are an indication that it fears the rise of any resistance.
Note the important role of the key organization in support of the regime - the Organization and Guidance Department.
North Korea’s guidance department works to ensure loyalty of citizenry
But residents say they want the government instead to focusing on easing ongoing economic hardships.
By Hyemin Son for RFA Korean
2022.07.11
North Korea’s Organization and Guidance Department, which spreads the directives and teachings of Kim Jong Un, is working to reaffirm loyalty to the dictator at a time of growing hardship for many citizens.
Residents who heard news reports about a special lecture held by the department told RFA that the message came across as tone-deaf, given that the government has done little to improve the economic conditions in the country, which have worsened in the coronavirus pandemic.
“Party members and residents were outraged when the content of a special lecture held … in Pyongyang from June 2nd to 6th was reported by the Korean Central Broadcasting Committee,” a resident of Musan County in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“The lecture was for the officials of the Organization and Guidance Department … and was presided over directly by the highest dignity,” said the source, using an honorific term for Kim. “It focused on how they must establish a discipline in which all party members are absolutely obedient to the party’s sole leadership.”
At a time when the economy is in shambles due to the closure of the border and suspension of trade with China, along with international nuclear sanctions, many North Koreans are focused on finding their next meal rather than proving their loyalty to Kim.
“They criticize the authorities for their ignorance of the lives of the people,” the source said. “The
authorities are not seeking measures to improve people’s lives but merely forcing the party members and residents to obey the party unconditionally.
“The officials of the Organization and Guidance Department already hold great power and were given even more authority to strengthen control over the thoughts and lives of party members. The intent is to suppress any divergence in public sentiment which has been aggravated by COVID-19. They will strengthen the autocratic powers of the party organization,” the source said.
A resident of the South Pyongan province, north of Pyongyang, told RFA that people there are frustrated that the government is taking time for the special lectures when the rainy season is approaching, threatening crops.
“That proves that the Central Committee [and Kim Jong Un] are not prioritizing the stability of our livelihoods and instead try to enhance and maintain his dictatorship,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
“More and more members of the lowest organizations in the party, which support the Central Committee, are leaving the party. And a growing number of party members are absent from the weekly self-criticism sessions which are a required duty of a party member,” he said.
Known as saenghwal chonghwa, the sessions are public meetings in which every citizen must individually confess their shortcomings to the party each week.
“If you miss the party’s self-criticism session more than three times, you receive a warning. Failure to attend for more than six months will result in removal from the party,” the second source said.
“The current situation in North Korea is similar to the situation in which residents openly criticized the authorities during the Arduous March,” the second source said, using the Korean term for the 1994-1998 North Korean famine that killed millions of people, possibly as much as 10 percent of the population.
During the famine, the authorities were focused on controlling public opinion by dispatching officials to report on citizens, but now even the secretaries of local party cells are themselves experiencing hardships and are increasingly disillusioned with authorities, the second source said.
“In the end, the special lecture held in Pyongyang showed the government’s intent to forcibly suppress and block the voices of dissatisfaction among party members and residents who defy them,” he said.
“This is why they are strengthening the autocratic powers of the Central Committee. The people are outraged.”
Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
6. Letter to Korean’s President Yoon Seok-Youl, following the release of photographs of the repatriation of two North Korean fishermen to North Korea on 7 November 2019. – David Alton
I think the Yoon administration should heed this advice for Lord Alton, et. al.. It is what strong democracies must do.
Excerpt:
We are now writing to you to urge your new government to investigate this case, to assess who ordered the repatriation of these two men and why, and to hold those responsible accountable for undermining South Korea’s values of the rule of law, democracy and its international obligations to uphold human rights norms and principles.
Letter to Korean’s President Yoon Seok-Youl, following the release of photographs of the repatriation of two North Korean fishermen to North Korea on 7 November 2019. – David Alton
Yoon Seok-Youl
President of the Republic of Korea Cheong Wa Dae
22 Itaewon-ro
Yongsan-gu
Seoul
Republic of Korea 04383
15 July, 2022
Dear President Yoon Seok-Youl,
May we firstly congratulate you on your election and inauguration as President of the Republic of Korea.
We are writing to express our deep sadness and concern about the recently published photographs, released by the Ministry of Unification, regarding the repatriation of two North Korean fishermen to North Korea on 7 November 2019.
Over many years we have all heard the testimonies of many North Korean escapees who have been forcibly repatriated by the Chinese regime. We have each heard first-hand their terrifying accounts of imprisonment, torture, beatings, sexual violence, slavery and forced labour, and eye-witness accounts of some prisoners dying in prison cells. Those who endure or witness such horrors carry the deep trauma resulting from grave human rights violations for their rest of lives.
The photographs revealed the terrified and traumatised faces of these two fishermen who arrived at the Military Demarcation Line at the village of Panmunjom. They had been repatriated against their will, and were forcibly handed over to the North Korean regime. These two men knew what consequences would await them in North Korea, including potentially public execution or certain imprisonment.
Even if these two fishermen were “heinous criminals” as stated by Ministry of Unification spokesman Lee Sang-min in 2019, after only three days of investigation, they were still entitled to due process, legal representation and justice under the South Korean Constitution, which recognises all North Koreans as citizens of South Korea. Indeed, having arrived in South Korea, they were entitled to be granted the right to live in South Korea and be protected by its legal system.
Furthermore, there is no legal agreement or extradition treaty between Pyongyang and Soul. So the question arises, on what basis were they repatriated?
It was only three years ago, that we, representing groups in the United Kingdom working for North Korean people’s freedom and democracy, wrote to our then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and President Moon Jae-In to express our concerns about the first deportation of two fishermen to a country that has been condemned by the United Nations as having committed systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights and crimes against humanity.
It was only three years ago, that we, representing groups in the United Kingdom working for North Korean people’s freedom and democracy, wrote to our then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and President Moon Jae-in to express our concerns about the first deportation of two fishermen to a country that has been condemned by the United Nations as having committed systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights and crimes against humanity.
We are now writing to you to urge your new government to investigate this case, to assess who ordered the repatriation of these two men and why, and to hold those responsible accountable for undermining South Korea’s values of the rule of law, democracy and its international obligations to uphold human rights norms and principles.
Yours sincerely,
Lord Alton of Liverpool, Co-chair All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea Timothy Cho, Inquiry Clerk, All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea
Benedict Rogers, Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission & Senior Analyst, East Asia, at CSW
David Campanale, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Ji-Hyun Park, North Korean Human Rights Activist
7. South Korea seeks to kickstart talks to resolve historical feuds with Japan
The historical issues cannot be resolved. They must be managed to prevent impact on national security and national prosperity in both countries. And this "management" must be led by the President nad the Prime Minister.
South Korea seeks to kickstart talks to resolve historical feuds with Japan
SEOUL, July 15 (Reuters) - South Korea hopes a high-level visit to Tokyo next week will kickstart talks aimed at a breakthrough in historical disputes despite concerns the death of former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe could change Japan's policy priorities, Seoul officials said.
Relations between the two North Asian U.S. allies have been strained over disputes dating to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea. Washington has been pressing Tokyo and Seoul to mend fences in the face of the North Korean nuclear threat and the rising influence of China.
Officials in the administration of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May vowing to improve ties with Japan, told Reuters they feel emboldened by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's election victory which could give him more scope to advance his policy agenda for another three years.
Foreign Minister Park Jin will visit Japan on July 18-20, the ministry said, a trip which a senior official handling Japan policy said is aimed at "turning on the tap" for serious negotiations on issues relating to forced labour, which stalled under Yoon's predecessor.
Park will meet his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi and discuss relations between the two countries and issues on the Korean Peninsula, the South Korean ministry said. Park will also pay respects to Abe.
Another South Korean official said Yoon would send a high-level delegation led by the prime minister when Japan holds a public memorial service for Abe, who was shot and killed last week while on the campaign trail.
Yoon would also likely use his Aug. 15 Liberation Day speech marking Korea's independence from Japan as a chance to send a reconciliatory message to Tokyo, the official added.
"What we're trying to do is to open the door for real talks," the senior official said.
The assassination of Abe, who was a defining leader in Japanese politics and a divisive figure in Korea, has raised new doubts about the outlook for relations with South Korea, where bitter wartime memories run deep.
Some analysts say Korea might be put on the back burner while Kishida presses to achieve Abe's unrealised dreams, including constitutional reform aimed at allowing Japanese troops to fight overseas.
But some Korean officials see Japan as more willing to talk now, with pressure by U.S. President Joe Biden's administration also playing a potential role.
"We see great potential in stronger trilateral relationships," Derek Chollet, Counsellor of the U.S. State Department, told Reuters this week.
COOPERATION 'INEVITABLE'
Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, said on Friday that cooperation with Seoul and Washington was "inevitable" for responding to North Korea's threat and other regional issues.
"Although relations between Japan and South Korea are in a very severe state ... we don't think it can be left as it is," he told a news conference, adding Tokyo would work together to resolve history issues and restore ties.
Yoon and Kishida met Biden on the sidelines of last month's NATO summit for their first trilateral talks, and Chollet said Washington stands ready to facilitate strong ties between its two allies. read more
At home, the Yoon government is gathering opinions from victims of forced labour, lawyers and experts via a newly launched public-private panel, which held its second hearing on Thursday.
At stake are South Korean court orders for a seizure of assets of Japanese companies accused of not compensating some of their colonial-era labourers. Tokyo has warned of serious repercussions if the orders are enforced. read more
The first official said the Yoon administration was seeking a "realistic, feasible proposal" that can win consent from both victims and the Japanese government.
A third official was more cautious, saying the compensation issue should be resolved alongside trade and other rows, which could make a compromise more difficult.
Yuko Nakano, a fellow at the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said any compromise would require patience and commitment from both Yoon and Kishida.
"High-level visits and meetings often attract attention, but equally important is to continue building on efforts that are happening below the surface," she said.
Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Josh Smith, Lincoln Feast and Alison Williams
8. North stands by decision to recognize two pro-Russian separatist states in Ukraine
Go ahead and double down, Kim Jong Un
Friday
July 15, 2022
North stands by decision to recognize two pro-Russian separatist states in Ukraine
[NEWS1, YONHAP]
North Korea said that Ukraine should not take issue with its recognition of two pro-Russian separatist states in Ukraine, stating that the recognition was a “legitimate exercise of sovereignty” on Friday.
North Korea had formally recognized the independence of Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic on Wednesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Ukraine, which had committed acts quite contrary to impartiality and justice in the state-to-state relations while aligning itself with the U.S.’s unreasonable and illegal hostile policy toward DPRK in the past, has no right or qualification to take issue with the DPRK over its legitimate exercise of sovereignty,” a spokesperson for Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said in a statement released by the KCNA. DPRK stands for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
After North Korea’s recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk Wednesday, Ukraine immediately severed ties with North Korea.
BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]
9. Ex-NIS chief banned from travelling abroad over probe into handling of North's killing of fisheries official
One of the issues in all of this is the possible ties of Park and Suh to north Korea. See my assessment from 2020.
New South Korean National Security Team Has Close Ties to Pyongyang
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2020/07/08/new-sk-natsec-team-has-ties-to-pyongyang/
Ex-NIS chief banned from travelling abroad over probe into handling of North's killing of fisheries official | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- Prosecutors banned former National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won from traveling overseas while putting Park's predecessor, Suh Hoon, on an entry alert list as part of investigations into the previous administration's handling of two incidents involving North Korea, officials said Friday.
Prosecutors have been looking into allegations that Park and Suh mishandled the killing of a South Korean fisheries official by North Korea in September 2020 and the repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in November 2019, respectively.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office said it banned Park from leaving the country for one month. Suh, who has been staying in the United States, was put on a list of people whose entry into the country is automatically notified to prosecutors immediately, officials said.
Prosecutors are trying to question them on their roles in the two incidents.
pbr@yna.co.kr
(END)
10. N. Korea holds key Cabinet meeting on this year's national economic goals
What can the Party do about the economy? Simply set more "goals?" Unless Kim allows the priority to change frmo nuclear weapons and missile development to ensuring the welfare of the Korean people through economic development, there will be no changes, no successful economy, and the Korean people in the north will continue to suffer.
N. Korea holds key Cabinet meeting on this year's national economic goals | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- North Korea held a Cabinet meeting earlier this week to assess its economic performance for the first half of the year and urged utmost efforts to attain its goals in the remaining months, state media reported Friday.
The enlarged plenary meeting of the Cabinet took place via video links the previous day, chaired by Premier Kim Tok-hun, as Vice Premier Pak Jong-gun delivered a report, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Pak analyzed the "flaws" and "lessons" found in carrying out the economic projects in the first half of this year and urged officials to push ahead with the tasks at all costs with the "spirit of unconditional implementation."
The KCNA did not provide details on the economic performance for the first half.
During the North's eighth party congress in January last year, leader Kim Jong-un admitted his five-year economic plan failed to meet its target and unveiled a new scheme focusing on self-reliance amid crippling global sanctions and a protracted border closure due to COVID-19.
Pyongyang has held key meetings virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic since the format was introduced in June 2020.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
11. N. Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases under 600 for 2nd day: state media
north Korea reports COVID in seeming decline while the South reports an increase. Remember the operative word is "reports." No one can really discern what is actually happening inside north Korea.
(LEAD) N. Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases under 600 for 2nd day: state media | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details)
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases remained below 600 for the second consecutive day, according to its state media Friday.
More than 500 people showed symptoms of fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters.
It did not provide information on whether additional deaths have been reported. As of July 5, the death toll had stood at 74, with the fatality rate at 0.002 percent.
The total number of fever cases since late April came to over 4.77 million as of 6 p.m. Thursday, of which over 4.76 million had recovered and at least 1,120 others are being treated, it added.
The North's daily fever tally has been on a downward trend after peaking at over 392,920 on May 15.
The KCNA reported that the North is strengthening its anti-epidemic measures by devising a nationwide medical checkup system.
"In order to detect cases of various kinds of infectious diseases in their early stages, establish quarantine and treatment measures and stop the spread of the epidemic, the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters organized a nationwide intensive medical checkup," it said.
It added that polymerase chain reaction tests are being conducted every day on water collected from major rivers and reservoirs in border areas, dust from "epidemic danger zones," and seafood from coastal areas.
Earlier this month, the North claimed its coronavirus outbreak originated from "alien things" found near the inter-Korean border, alluding to balloon-carried materials sent at times by North Korean defector groups in South Korea, such as anti-Pyongyang leaflets.
Pyongyang disclosed its first COVID-19 case on May 12 after claiming to be coronavirus-free for over two years and implemented nationwide lockdowns.
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
12. S. Korea's new COVID-19 infections continue doubling on-week to near 40,000
COVID increases in the South while the north reports declines.
S. Korea's new COVID-19 infections continue doubling on-week to near 40,000 | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's new coronavirus cases more than doubled in a week again on Friday to near 40,000 amid the fast spread of a highly contagious new omicron subvariant.
The country added 38,882 new COVID-19 infections, including 261 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,680,142, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
Friday's figure more than doubled from 19,308 new cases logged a week earlier, as the country has seen a marked growth in infections from end-June due to the highly contagious omicron subvariant BA.5.
The daily count hit over 10,000 on June 29 for the first time in about three weeks and rose to over 20,000 on Saturday and further to 40,000 on Wednesday.
The KDCA reported 16 deaths from the virus Friday, putting the death toll at 24,712. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.
The number of critically ill patients came to 65, down from the previous day's 69.
The KDCA has said the country has entered a new virus wave, ending a downward trend from the peak of more than 620,000 in mid-March, and that the daily infections could surge to over 200,000 next month.
The BA.5 subvariant had accounted for 35 percent of the country's total COVID-19 cases last week, up from 28.2 percent a week earlier, according to the KDCA.
It is known to be more contagious and better able to escape immunity compared with earlier versions.
Concerns about the fast spread have grown further as South Korea confirmed its first case of a new highly-mutated omicron variant, BA.2.75, Thursday.
Some scientists say BA.2.75, nicknamed "Centaurus," could be the most contagious variant seen yet and better evade any immunity from previous infections and vaccines.
graceoh@yna.co.kr
(END)
13. S. Korea's Navy creates aviation unit tasked with bolstering maritime security
Seems like a wise investment. What will be the command relationship with the ROK/US CFC?
(LEAD) S. Korea's Navy creates aviation unit tasked with bolstering maritime security | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: RECASTS paras 2, 4)
By Song Sang-ho
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Navy on Friday launched a new aviation command to be armed with high-end surveillance aircraft, choppers and drones, as part of efforts for stronger, longer-range maritime security capabilities, officials said.
Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Lee Jong-ho hosted a ceremony launching the Naval Air Command at an airport in Pohang, 370 kilometers south of Seoul, pledging efforts for "perfect" maritime aviation operations.
The newly minted command has grown out of the now-defunct Air Wing Six, the Navy's erstwhile centerpiece of aviation operations. Rear Adm. Lee Sang-sik, former chief of Air Wing Six, has been appointed the first chief of the command.
"We have achieved a new milestone -- the creation of the Naval Air Command," CNO Adm. Lee said. "As the Navy's aviation forces are central to combined, joint operations, I call for strengthening the Navy's air operations by further developing an operational concept and continuing to secure high-tech aviation assets."
The command will run the Maritime Air Operation Coordination Council, a South Korea-U.S. dialogue platform designed to reinforce peacetime security cooperation with the U.S. Seventh Fleet and lead combined wartime operations, according to the Navy.
The unit will operate a series of assets that the Navy plans to deploy in the coming years. The assets include the P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, minesweeping choppers and unmanned surveillance aerial vehicles.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
14. S. Korean FM to make 3-day trip to Japan next week
A priority effort.
(LEAD) S. Korean FM to make 3-day trip to Japan next week | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: ADDS info, background throughout)
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin will embark on a three-day trip to Japan next week to discuss areas of bilateral relations and North Korea, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.
Park's trip from Monday to Wednesday will be the first by a foreign minister to the neighboring country under the new South Korean administration led by President Yoon Suk-yeol.
The ministry said Park will "hold a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and discuss issues of mutual interest, such as Korea-Japan relations and the Korean Peninsula issue."
Park will also express condolences over the recent death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the ministry added.
The last time a South Korean foreign minister traveled to Japan for bilateral ministerial talks was in December of 2017.
On Monday, the foreign minister paid his respects to the late Abe in Seoul at the Japanese embassy's public information and cultural center. Park mourned Abe's death and offered his condolences, three days after he was fatally shot during an election campaign speech.
The minister said earlier this week that the Yoon administration will keep striving for a "reasonable resolution" to pending issues between Seoul and Tokyo through various related efforts, including his visit to Japan "at a mutually convenient time."
The topic of settling the row over compensating Korean victims of Japan's forced labor during World War II, when Korea was under colonial rule, could also be discussed during the trip.
South Korea's Supreme Court is expected to issue a final verdict in August or September on whether to allow the liquidation of assets held by two Japanese companies. If realized, it would deal a serious blow to already-fragile efforts to resolve the problem and warm Seoul-Tokyo ties.
The foreign ministers could also exchange views on the Japanese ruling bloc's push for a controversial revision to the nation's pacifist constitution, a highly sensitive subject matter for South Koreans, which has apparently gained political momentum after Abe's death.
jwc@yna.co.kr
(END)
15. S. Korea to deploy around 20 more F-35A fighters by 2028
F-35s, Kill Chain, and CH-47Ds.
(LEAD) S. Korea to deploy around 20 more F-35A fighters by 2028 | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with DAPA statement)
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's defense authorities approved a 3.94 trillion-won (US$2.97 billion) plan Friday to deploy some 20 additional F-35A radar-evading fighters by 2028 as part of efforts to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, according to the state arms procurement agency.
The Defense Project Promotion Committee endorsed the "basic" procurement plan, which is subject to adjustments following a feasibility study and other procedures, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
The plan came after South Korea completed the deployment of 40 F-35As in January under the country's first project to procure the stealth fighter manufactured by the U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin.
DAPA said it expects the project to minimize the "defense vacuum" that could emerge as aging fighters are decommissioned. The agency also said a "core asset" to the Kill Chain program will be added to deter possible nuclear and ballistic missile threats from North Korea.
Kill Chain refers to the country's preemptive strike program to be mobilized in a contingency.
The committee also approved a 1.4 trillion-won project to deploy 18 CH-47F Chinook helicopters manufactured by the U.S. firm Boeing by 2028. The project is designed to replace the aging fleet of CH-47D helicopters.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
16. Yoon and the Future of Korea-Europe Relations
I support South Korea- Europe engagement and relationship building:
Based on his Foreign Affairs article, President Yoon certainly has the vision of a more proactive Korea. In a time of global disruptions, it is critical that Korea build relationships near and far that it can use to position itself to address new and emerging threats across policy spheres. “The establishment of long term relationships…increases the chance of cooperation in a time of crisis,” said Col. Maxwell. “It is much better to invest in those relationships now, than to try to build them after a crisis occurs.” Only time will tell if President Yoon will be successful in using this year’s NATO summit to lay the foundation of his “global pivotal state.”
Yoon and the Future of Korea-Europe Relations - Korea Economic Institute of America
The Peninsula
Yoon and the Future of Korea-Europe Relations
Published July 12, 2022
Newly inaugurated president Yoon Suk Yeol made his international debut at the NATO summit held in Madrid, Spain. South Korea and three other Indo-Pacific states were invited to summit ahead of publication of the alliance’s new “strategic concept,” that mentions China for the first time. Experts say South Korea can expand its longstanding relations with the region by contributing more to regional security, while Europe may increase its engagement with the Korean Peninsula.
The inclusion of four Indo-Pacific states demonstrates the NATO alliance’s adaptation to a new security environment three decades since the end of the Cold War. Back in February, Beijing and Moscow announced that their relationship had “no limits,” and China has continued to engage with Russia despite western condemnation of the latter’s invasion of Ukraine. Jacob Stokes, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security says closer Sino-Russian cooperation across a variety of policy areas lowers geography’s barrier to international cooperation. “I think there is a growing recognition that security issues in East Asia and the Indo-Pacific more broadly, are increasingly linked with security in Europe, and indeed across Eurasia,” he said.
A Korea that plays a more active role in international affairs is a goal set by the Yoon administration. In an article published by Foreign Affairs, the then candidate said Korea should become a “global pivotal state” that actively promotes “freedom, peace, and prosperity through liberal democratic values and substantial cooperation.” News coming out of Madrid suggests the Yoon administration is making progress in realizing this vision. A presidential official told the Yonhap News Agency this week that President Yoon is looking to sign a “new cooperation program” with NATO later this year. Previously, Reuters reported that Seoul was talking with NATO about opening up a liaison center in Brussels, according to Korean National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han. The opening of such an office demonstrates that “South Korea wants to embed itself in a broader network of liberal democratic powers,” said Mr. Stokes.
But Korea’s contribution to European security is not limited to diplomatic and military engagement. Col. David Maxwell, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, says Korea’s arms industry can also play an important role. “South Korean weapons are actually, in many cases, cost effective and practical for the smaller European countries that can’t afford advanced U.S. weaponry,” he said. And because they were developed by a close American ally, Korean arms are interoperable with the U.S. and its friends in Europe. “That really creates some synergy with potential relationships between South Korea and NATO, and can really enhance the South Korean defense industry,” said Col. Maxwell. Poland, already a buyer of Korean weaponry, is one example of states deepening their cooperation with Korea. President Yoon elevated that relationship to a “strategic partnership” after meeting with President Andrzej Duda, according to a Yonhap report.
However, it remains to be seen if Korea will involve itself more in Ukraine, the most pressing issue for European security today. Shipping in the Black Sea has been disrupted with the conflict, with Kiev accusing Moscow of a naval blockade, while Moscow says Kiev has fielded mines. NATO member Turkey is negotiating with them and the UN to create safe shipping corridors to facilitate the transport of agricultural products. If a deal could be struck, the Korean navy could be a participant in an international coalition to protect commercial shipping. Col. Maxwell says the Korean navy has a strong record of conducting anti-piracy operations with other navies off the Horn of Africa. Although the Yoon administration has stepped up its engagement over the conflict in Ukraine, Soo Kim, a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and professor at American University, is skeptical Korea will contribute more than the humanitarian aid it has already sent to Ukraine. “After four months into the war, there have been few changes in the ROK position,” she said. “The likelihood of Seoul assuming a more responsible role to support Ukraine seems fairly low.”
On the other hand, there remain physical obstacles for Europe to address North Korea, a principal challenge for South Korea. “I think that’s been the domain of the United States, China, Russia, and Japan, to a lesser degree,” said Dr. Darcie Draudt, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Korean Studies at George Washington University. European states do pay attention to North Korea, such as the United Kingdom, which is a member of Five Eyes and has diplomatic relations with Pyongyang. There is also Sweden, the American’s protecting power and host for track 2 and 1.5 dialogues. Dr. Draudt says these connections may be helpful if and when North Korea chooses to reengage the outside world. “Given the country’s closure amid COVID, these pathways have been difficult for European countries,” she said.
Korea-Europe cooperation on China is a point of contention for critics of President Yoon. Ahead of the summit, Park Min-hee of the Hankyoreh newspaper lambasted his administration for not having “any sort of custom strategy or approach that takes into South Korea’s unique abilities and geopolitical position.” But Mr. Stokes points out that even Finland, the poster child of a smaller power acquiescing to its larger neighbor, is breaking with its past behavior in the face of changing threats to its national security. “I think that’s a very good example of a point where external factors are forcing countries to take sides,” he said. Although building relations with the west will necessarily ruffle feathers in China, experts say it is precisely the middle powers of Europe that Korea can use to gain flexibility in its foreign policy. “If Korea continues to balance or hedge between the United States and China, I think it’s going to find his hands tied in a lot of ways,” said Dr. Draudt. “It’s when it gets further afield…that South Korea might have some more control in its foreign policy.”
One possible obstacle to growing Korea-Europe relations is the relative inexperience of President Yoon, who does not have a long career in foreign affairs. Experts say that he can address those shortcomings by relying on capable people around him. Dr. Draudt points out that President Yoon has surrounded himself with capable people like Foreign Minister Park Jin and NSA Kim, both of whom have had long careers in foreign policy. “I think that with those kinds of advisors, he’ll be able to counteract his own inexperience if he leans on them,” she said. Col. Maxwell adds that we should also not discount the institutional knowledge possessed by members of the Korean Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Defense, who serve dutifully across administrations. “There’s a lot of expertise depth in the Korean government that will be useful,” he said.
Based on his Foreign Affairs article, President Yoon certainly has the vision of a more proactive Korea. In a time of global disruptions, it is critical that Korea build relationships near and far that it can use to position itself to address new and emerging threats across policy spheres. “The establishment of long term relationships…increases the chance of cooperation in a time of crisis,” said Col. Maxwell. “It is much better to invest in those relationships now, than to try to build them after a crisis occurs.” Only time will tell if President Yoon will be successful in using this year’s NATO summit to lay the foundation of his “global pivotal state.”
Terrence Matsuo is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Korea Economic Institute of America. The views expressed here are the author’s alone.
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17. U.S. Lawmaker Condemns Forcible Repatriation of N.Koreans
Let's focus on South Korea following democractic prinicnples that call for admitting mistakes, holding people accountable, and ensuring the same mistakes are not made in the future. But the COngressman closes with the lost important point and we must keepthis in te forefront of our minds. Yes, we can criticize the South's actions but the South's actions are made so much worse because of the evil nature of the Kim family regime and what they do with Koreans from the north who are forcibly repatirated.
Excerpts:
Smith said the "tragic episode also underscores the barbarity of North Korea's communist regime, and the callous complicity of the previous Moon administration."
"North Korea should disclose what happened to these two fishermen, and whether they are still alive," he added. "I fear the worst, however."
U.S. Lawmaker Condemns Forcible Repatriation of N.Koreans
A prominent U.S. lawmaker on Tuesday condemned South Korea's forcible repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in November 2019 who were later reportedly executed by the regime.
Representative Christopher Smith, who co-chairs the House's Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, made the statement after South Korea's Unification Ministry released a dozen photos of the two men desperately resisting being handed over to North Korean border guards.
"Photos of fishermen who were seeking asylum being physically forced to return to communist North Korea against their will and without due process of law are painful to view," Smith said. "I was shocked and dismayed by what happened, and I believe a thorough investigation is still needed to determine who issued the order and why."
In a hearing of the commission late last month, Smith already raised the issue of the North Korean fishermen. "I don't think this should have happened, certainly not in a country that has aspirations to leadership in the field of human rights, which is one of the reasons I was so critical of former President Moon [Jae-in], because he was previously a human rights activist and lawyer," he said.
In his statement Tuesday, he added, "These pictures clearly show the two fishermen being forced to cross the Military Demarcation Line at the truce village of Panmunjom and their resistance to being handed over to a brutal regime."
He said the justification the Moon government gave at the time -- that the fishermen were murderers -- "sounded very pretextual, and insufficient time was given to investigate the allegations. Regardless of wrongdoing, these escapees should not have been refouled to North Korea against their will, and the government should have respected due process."
Smith said the "tragic episode also underscores the barbarity of North Korea's communist regime, and the callous complicity of the previous Moon administration."
"North Korea should disclose what happened to these two fishermen, and whether they are still alive," he added. "I fear the worst, however."
18. N. Korea could conduct one or two more weapons tests during military's summer training period
Few in the press and among pundits think about the north's Summer Training Cycle.
N. Korea could conduct one or two more weapons tests during military's summer training period - Daily NK
A high-ranking source in North Korea told Daily NK that it is “standard procedure” to conduct launch tests at the end of military exercises
The August 26, 2020, edition of the Rodong Sinmun announced that North Korea had successfully launched a new kind of rocket. (Rodong Sinmun)
North Korea could conduct one or two more weapon launch tests toward the end of the military’s training period in September, a high-ranking source in the country told Daily NK on Wednesday.
The source disclosed this information after North Korea’s recent test of multiple rocket launcher (MRL) rounds into the Yellow Sea.
On July 10, North Korea fired two MRL rounds into the Yellow Sea from South Pyongan Province. Though the tested rockets were shorter in range than those of the KN-25 “super-large caliber” MRL system, they are still dangerous conventional weapons that can threaten Seoul and the greater Seoul area.
North Korean military authorities have reportedly stressed that the test is a follow-up measure to decisions made at the recently convened Third Enlarged Meeting of the Eighth Central Military Commission.
The Rodong Sinmun and other North Korean media reported that the June 24 meeting supplemented the operation duties of frontline military units, examined and approved “an important issue of providing a military guarantee for further strengthening the country’s war deterrent,” and ratified a “plan for reorganization of military organizational formations.”
A Daily NK investigation found that North Korean military authorities discussed during the meeting a plan to incorporate short range ballistic missiles and some Strategic Force personnel into First Corps, Second Corps, Fourth Corps and Fifth Corps, all frontline units.
This suggests the authorities intend to boost the offensive power of frontline units to hit major facilities in South Korea and US military bases in the country by deploying short range ballistic missiles ahead of the development of small-scale nuclear warheads.
North Korean military authorities also decided during the meeting to reorganize existing conventional weapon formations to allow ground force corps to operate short range ballistic missiles.
Daily NK’s source said the latest MRL test took place during this reorganization, which includes battlefield deployments of weapons to attack South Korea with frontline units.
At its heart, North Korea’s decision to reorganize its weapon deployments aims to neutralize South Korean and US defenses through the simultaneous use of strategic weapons and conventional weapons while bolstering Pyongyang’s ability to attack the South at any time.
In particular, North Korea reportedly took into consideration the imminent start of joint US-South Korean military drills in deciding the timing of the latest test launch.
North Korean military authorities usually test weapons just as winter or summer drills conclude. This time, however, the order came down just 10 days into the summer exercises, something even North Korean military personnel found odd.
Inside the North Korean military, soldiers say political considerations were at work during the multiple rocket launcher test.
The source told Daily NK that it is “standard procedure” to conduct launch tests at the end of exercises.
“This time, however, there was also consideration of the political situation,” he said, adding, “As the weaponry formations have changed, there could be more launch tests before the summer exercises end.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
19. Hoeryong factory officials face trial for inflating performance -
Of course the focus is on finding problems with the reporting and not on actually fixing economic problems.
Hoeryong factory officials face trial for inflating performance - Daily NK
In the wake of the trial, the provincial party committee conducted a 10-day review of economic performance reports from the first half of the year within all the province's economic sectors
Officials at Hoeryong Coal-mining Machine Factory in North Hamgyong Province were recently subject to a public trial for greatly inflating their performance.
A Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province said Tuesday that there was a public trial at the cultural hall of Hoeryong Coal-mining Machine Factory in mid-June. When the trial ended, factory officials accused of filing false reports that inflated their fulfillment of state plans were arrested on the spot.
According to the source, Hoeryong Coal-mining Machine Factory reported to the city people’s committee that it had exceeded the industrial production goals for the first half of the year. When the authorities came to check, however, they found the factory had falsely reported three months of scheduled production as “already complete.”
The officials took issue with this, responding by convening a public trial led by the city prosecutor’s office and the city police’s economic crimes division.
The trial slammed the officials, saying that their false report caused problems not only at the factory itself, but in mining production: “Filing reports that inflate your achievements with no consideration of all the [repercussions] is a very serious problem, an attempt to fool the party and state.”
Three factory officials stood in the docket: the head technician from the technological development department, the head of planning and the head of production. They listened to speeches about why they should face criminal punishments and criticism from ordinary workers.
When the managers of the trial ended the proceedings by telling the trio they were being “handed over to the law,” police guards, who had been waiting handcuffed the defendants, dragged them off and put them in a car.
The source said the whole incident began when a discharged soldier newly dispatched to the factory and a member of the planning team — in the course of filing their performance reports — told the factory’s party organization that it was strange that the factory falsely reported that it had exceeded plans when it was still far from fulfilling its targets.
The factory’s party committee judged the matter a serious one it could not overlook and reported the case to the city party committee, knowing full well this would result in the factory officials facing criminal punishments.
Ultimately, the municipal party committee issued a warning to the factory’s party committee and mobilized the city’s prosecutors and police to impute responsibility onto the officials in question and bring the matter to a conclusion.
However, the provincial party committee — after getting wind of what happened — decided to conduct a 10-day review of economic performance reports from the first half of the year within all the province’s economic sectors to ensure their veracity, the source said.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
20. Propaganda Takes a Worrying Turn on the Korean Peninsula
Some say we must conduct a superior form of political warfare and an agressive infromation and influenca ctivities campaign.
But it is an iideological war between north and Sout, And it is about right and worong and good and evil.
Conclusion:
These recent events signal that both North and South Korean leaders are embarking on a return to the status quo of intractability, and dichotomies of right and wrong, good and evil. These dichotomies leave little room for alternative narratives. Rather than being a symptom of the security dilemma that recent rounds of military escalation on the peninsula have demonstrated, these dichotomies justify it. With an about-turn unlikely, Yoon’s presidential term looks to be one beset by continued inter-Korean hostility.
My assessment:
- Subversion: The undermining of the power and authority of an established system or institution.
-
As in: "the ruthless subversion of democracy"
- Ideological War – a choice between:
- Shared ROK/US Values
- Freedom and individual liberty, liberal democracy, free market economy, rule of law, and human rights
- Kim family regime (KFR) “values”
- Juche/Kimilsungism/now "KIMJONGUNISM," Socialist Workers Paradise, Songun, Songbun, Byungjin, and denial of human rights to sustain KFR power
- nK engages in political warfare and active subversion of the ROK
Propaganda Takes a Worrying Turn on the Korean Peninsula
An upswing in negative government messaging may represent the greater threat to building peace between North and South Korea.
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While this is concerning, two other less reported recent events may represent a greater threat to building peace on the Korean Peninsula.
On June 25, North Korea held mass anti-U.S. rallies in Pyongyang and around the country for the first time since 2017. It also referred to the South Korean government as the “puppet junta” for the first time since 2018. In South Korea, after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to the Korean War Memorial in June, the Ministry of Defense confirmed plans to create a new 248-square-meter permanent exhibition space there detailing North Korea’s post-Korean War military provocations.
In understanding why these events are so important, it is necessary to understand how the Korean conflict is perpetuated to become entrenched in society’s institutions and in the thought processes of citizens. This perpetuation has transformed the conflict and distanced it from the original incompatibility – which ideology should govern the entire Korean Peninsula – that caused it. Israeli academic Daniel Bar-Tal’s work on intractable conflict can shed new light onto understanding the Korean conflict beyond existing hard-power-based security analyses.
The Korean conflict satisfies the conditions of being regarded as an intractable conflict. It has persisted for over 25 years, involved extreme violence, is perceived as unsolvable to an existential degree, and demands great material and psychological investments from involved parties. The “psychological investment” refers to constructing and repeatedly imparting the justification for the conflict and the will to maintain it among society’s members.
The longevity of the Korean conflict has led to the development of collective memory and societal beliefs in the North and South that provide a clear picture and justification of the conflict, and an identity construction for one’s own group and of the rival. As in other conflicts, these mechanisms first developed during the Korean War, a time of existential danger and extreme emotional stress, as mechanisms to make sense of tragedy, to mobilize society to avoid defeat and to maintain a positive self-image while blaming the immoral “other” for the colossal destruction of war. These beliefs were then institutionalized through monuments, events, education, and cultural products in a narrative passed down and adjusted to fit the goals of each generation and its leaders.
Both Koreas have adjusted their histories to increase legitimacy in the context of the conflict with the other. North Korean history was rewritten during the Sino-Soviet split to first exclude the Soviet role in liberation and then belittle the Chinese contribution to the Korean War. Many prominent South Koreans’ collaboration with Japan was whitewashed, and Rhee Syngman’s pre- (and post-)Korean War military adventurism has been erased from South Korea’s standard narrative of the Korean conflict.
For North Koreans, the narrative is that they have been waging a 100-year struggle on behalf of the Korean people against imperialism ever since the Japanese colonial period. This now plays out against the United States and their South Korean “puppets,” as has been the case for the past 70 years. The South Korean message is that they have had to defend against repeated communist aggression and now, despite assuming regime competition victory, have to deal with a nuclear-armed, unpredictable other half. These narratives are reflected in the Korean War’s respective names, the “Homeland Liberation War” in the North, and “625” (the date North Korea invaded) in the South.
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This process and phenomenon is not unique to the Korean Peninsula. In Israel-Palestine, Northern Ireland, and Cyprus, the same social mechanisms are at play. In such conflicts, truth is subjective and remembering selective. Facts lose relevance in a binary struggle where only one side’s crimes are highlighted, one side’s heroes celebrated and victims mourned, and one side’s perspective propagated to citizens and allies alike.
As intractable conflicts are zero-sum, it is difficult for leaders to acknowledge or cede to the other’s demands, as this implies losing ground in pursuit of one’s own goal. As the group is defined in large part by its pursuit of a certain goal in the conflict – in this case, being the legitimate state of the Korean people – this zero-sum nature contributes to the continuation of the conflict.
Furthermore, societal beliefs about the conflict provide a meaningful understanding for the context in which lives are lived, small and large sacrifices made, and about the righteousness of the group’s actions and goals vis-à-vis the other and on the international stage. South Korea’s “Taegukgi corps,” a group of senior citizen protesters that came of age striving for economic development under military dictators and who oppose rapprochement with North Korea, can be seen as the embodiment of how these beliefs shape worldviews.
In intractable conflicts, new experiences and information regarding the conflict and the “other” are interpreted in light of existing beliefs. This validates courses of action in the conflict that trigger its reproduction. Possible approaches to and identity constructions of the other are determined by these social beliefs within a limited framework of what is regarded as legally or socially acceptable. This is reinforced by emotions such as fear or hatred born of the very real atrocities that fermented the conflict in its infancy. Mobilizations of the public also entrench attitudes against the other and have been utilized numerous times on the Korean Peninsula, particularly in the North.
To break this culture of conflict it is necessary for different ideas about the conflict, and a different relationship for the adversaries, to be propagated in society with the goal of changing societal beliefs that maintain the conflict. Once such ideas begin to be absorbed into society the possibility of transforming the conflict emerges. New formulations then enter into a state of tension with the existing formulation, before gaining acceptance or being rejected. In many cases, despite rejection different ideas about the conflict remain in society in a weakened form, accepted by some, but unable to change the dominant beliefs about the conflict espoused via government institutions.
From the late 1980s into the 1990s, South Korea’s democratization and the collapse of the USSR and socialism in eastern European led to new formulations of an inter-Korean relationship being espoused in both South and North Korea. Spurred initially from third countries, academics in South Korea began to challenge the official memory of the Korean War. Activists and NGOs challenged beliefs about North Korea and suggested a new inter-Korean relationship. Concurrently, North Korea began to increasingly emphasize Korean ethnicity and advocated inter-Korean cooperation under the pretext of it being a natural continuation of Kim Il Sung’s unification policies.
These new “mediating” worldviews of the conflict have repeatedly gained and lost traction over the last 30 years. They are influenced heavily by the domestic political situation in South and North Korea and the geopolitical climate in Northeast Asia. Since 2018 both South and North Korea made efforts to reduce propaganda about the other, and thereby created space for mediating narratives conducive to peace to emerge.
However, recent comments about the war museum plans in Seoul and the rallies in Pyongyang are unashamedly stark in demonstrating support for the continuation of societal beliefs based on enmity. They signal a (temporary) death knell for efforts at reframing the conflict.
According to the War Memorial of Korea the purpose of exhibiting North Korean provocations is for visitors to “recognize how precious peace is, and realize the need for national security.” It is also aimed at “exhibiting North Korean provocations in a realistic way to remind people that the war is not over, that it is relevant today, and could be repeated at any time.”
In response to the news, the South Korean NGO Civilian Military Watch, pointed out how Seoul’s War Memorial was planned in the late 1980s by the then-military government with the goal of establishing anti-communist values of security in the post-war generation. This was in a context when hopes for peace and unification were flourishing. The NGO emphasized their concern that the museum is one-sided and that the latest plans will reinforce and guarantee the continuation of inter-Korean hostility and confrontation.
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North Korea’s recent “Day of Anti-U.S. Struggle,” meanwhile included an art exhibition showing U.S. atrocities with the caption “Never forget the U.S. imperialist savages!” In rallies, participants vowed revenge against the U.S. and are reportedly rallying around their leader Kim Jong Un.
Daniel Aum’s research, covering 1998-2018, found that North Korea’s Korea News Central Agency highlighted the Korean War 1.8 more times during the studied period of Kim Jong Un’s leadership, when inter-Korean relations were poor, than in the studied period of Kim Jong Il’s leadership, where these relations were, for the most part, much better. This demonstrates how war is highlighted, and therefore remembered, more often when inter-Korean relation are poor. The Korean War is used to advocate confrontational policy positions.
These recent events signal that both North and South Korean leaders are embarking on a return to the status quo of intractability, and dichotomies of right and wrong, good and evil. These dichotomies leave little room for alternative narratives. Rather than being a symptom of the security dilemma that recent rounds of military escalation on the peninsula have demonstrated, these dichotomies justify it. With an about-turn unlikely, Yoon’s presidential term looks to be one beset by continued inter-Korean hostility.
Dan Gudgeon
Dan Gudgeon is a Ph.D. student at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, South Korea, researching narratives of conflict and the role of civil society in peacebuilding. He has worked for the Korean Sharing Movement, a South Korean NGO, for the last four years on international cooperation projects and operating peace education programs.
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
