Unfiltered images of tragedy risk adding to victims' pain

Quotes of the Day:

"If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall galdy change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance." 

- Marcus Aurelius

"Knowledge increases in proportion to its use; that is, the more we teach the more we learn." 

- Helena Blavatsky

Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.

- Aristotle

1. What Might Be the Consequences If North Korea Tests a Nuclear Weapon?

2. As North Korea escalates weapons activity, Biden does little to pressure regime: experts

3. Gov't tries to figure out how Itaewon tragedy happened

4. Seoul crowd crush shows gaps in Korean safety rules, experts say

5. How Itaewon Alley Turned into a Death Trap

6. U.S. and South Korean militaries launch biggest-ever air drills

7. S. Korea's military chief calls for 'thorough readiness' against N. Korean threats

8. Joining Japanese fleet review causes controversy

9. Analysis-U.S. and Allies Turn to Deterring War With North Korea as Options for Preventing Nuclear Tests Dwindle

10. Whatever Path US Diplomacy Takes, Sanctions on North Korea Are Here to Stay

11. [Editorial] Abrupt warning (Russia to ROK)

12. South Korea confronts the trauma of the Halloween crowd crush

13. Unfiltered images of tragedy risk adding to victims' pain

1. What Might Be the Consequences If North Korea Tests a Nuclear Weapon?

My comments, among others, below.

What Might Be the Consequences If North Korea Tests a Nuclear Weapon?

https://www.nysun.com/article/what-might-be-the-consequences-if-north-korea-tests-a-nuclear-weapon

Kim Jong-un has failed to test an A-Bomb in more than five years.

South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyundong, from left, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman at a joint news conference after a trilateral meeting last week. AP/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool

DONALD KIRK

Sunday, October 30, 2022

10:16:09 am

Tough talk about the punishment that awaits North Korea if Kim Jong-un orders another nuclear test provokes a tough question: What do leaders in Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul have in mind beyond more sanctions and more war games involving American and South Korean troops?

The Pentagon’s “national defense strategy” says “any nuclear attack” by the North would “result in the end of that regime” and “there is no scenario in which the Kim regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive.”

That rhetoric, however, avoids the question of how Washington and its Northeast Asia allies would respond to what would be North Korea’s seventh nuclear test, its first in more than five years. American, Korean, and Japanese policy-makers, meeting in Tokyo, warn of the dangers but offer no clue of what to do.

All our deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, in Tokyo with her counterparts from Japan and Korea, could think of to say is that another North Korean nuclear test would be “reckless and deeply destabilizing.” South Korea’s vice foreign minister, Cho Hyun-dong, said “an unparalleled scale of response would be necessary.”

All agreed on that, he said, while offering no details. Back at the State Department in Washington, spokesman Vedant Patel spoke of “tools at our disposal” to “hold” the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea “accountable.” Great, but what tools?

“That language suggests something important, substantial, painful, and new is in the cards,” says a former senior American diplomat in Seoul, Evans Revere. “The diplomatic, political, and economic toolkit, including the use of covert measures, that we could use to turn up the heat on North Korea is by no means exhausted.”

Short of ordering strikes on North Korea’s nuclear and missile complexes, however, the inventory of possible responses does not appear to go much beyond whatever Washington and its allies have been doing for years.

Among other things, Mr. Revere cited “new military deployments,” “new sanctions,” “new and/or larger-scale military exercises” and “other measures against third-country firms, including banks and other entities that directly or indirectly support North Korea.” 

He also suggested encouraging other countries to “consider closing North Korean diplomatic missions and trading firms,” further isolating a regime that is already isolated from most of the rest of the world.

A retired army colonel, David Maxwell, who served five tours in Korea, is no less compromising but takes a somewhat different approach. “The key is to make Kim Jong Un understand his strategy is failing,” said Colonel Maxwell, now a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

That advice may not be as soft-line as it sounds. In the process, said Mr. Maxwell, you show Mr. Kim that American and South Korean forces are ready for anything. “You do that by continuous training and deployment of strategic assets.” Above all, he added, “There can be no concessions whatsoever” lest Mr. Kim “assesses his strategy a success.”

A former CIA analyst and long-time Korea expert at the Heritage Foundation, Bruce Klingner, noted one significant change that could make a difference. The conservative South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, “has already demonstrated a greater willingness to respond to North Korean provocations, to impose sanctions, and to criticize North Korean human rights violations” than did his predecessor, the leftist Moon Jae-in.

“The change in administration in both Washington and Seoul allowed for a resumption of combined military exercises after a four year hiatus,” he said. 

“Another North Korean nuclear test will lead to US rotational deployment of strategic assets, including bombers, dual-capable aircraft, and carrier strike groups; extensive allied military exercises; issuing of new sanctions against North Korean entities; and greater trilateral security cooperation amongst Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington,” he said.

Mr. Klingner was “less certain,” however, as to whether Seoul would “integrate its missile defense system into the more comprehensive allied system, or whether Washington will finally impose significant sanctions on Chinese banks and businesses facilitating North Korean violations of UN resolutions.”

Mr. Maxwell adds one more recommendation – that of emphasis on “human rights atrocities.”

As a matter of policy, he said, both Washington and Seoul when they “mention north Korea nuclear, missile, and military threats” should also “remind the Korean people in the north and the international community that their human rights are being denied because Kim deliberately prioritizes nuclear and missile development over the welfare of the people.”

DONALD KIRK

Mr. Kirk, based in Seoul and Washington, has been covering Asia for decades for newspapers and magazines and is the author of books on Korea, the Vietnam War and the Philippines.

Commenting is available to Sun Readers , Sun Members and Sun Founders only. Comments are reviewed and, in some cases, edited before posting. Chances of a comment being posted are increased if the comment is polite, accurate, grammatical, and substantive or newsworthy.

2. As North Korea escalates weapons activity, Biden does little to pressure regime: experts

My comments, among others, below.

As North Korea escalates weapons activity, Biden does little to pressure regime: experts

justthenews.com · by Aaron Kliegman

With North Korea testing a record number of missiles this year and U.S. officials warning of a potentially imminent nuclear test, the Biden administration is doing little to pressure the regime of Kim Jong-un, according to experts who spoke to Just the News.

"Despite pledges to resume pressure on North Korea and highlight regime human rights violations, the Biden administration has done little on either issue," said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. "As was the case with its predecessors, the Biden administration has been reluctant to impose sanctions on North Korea as well as Chinese banks and businesses facilitating regime violations of United Nations resolutions."

The administration didn't impose its first sanctions on North Korea until December 2021, when the U.S. sanctioned North Korean entities and individuals for human rights abuses. Experts said at the time that the sanctions were largely symbolic and would have minimal impact on the regime's human rights abuses or its nuclear and missile programs.

The first weapons-related sanctions against North Korea didn't come until January in response to a missile test.

The U.S. subsequently imposed sanctions for North Korean missile tests in March, May, and earlier this month. The most recent economic penalties came after North Korea conducted six ballistic missile tests over 12 days, including one launched over Japan.

North Korean state media said the flurry of tests — which Secretary of State Antony Blinken called "unprecedented in their pace, scale, and scope" — were designed to simulate showering neighboring South Korea with tactical nuclear weapons following military drills between U.S. and South Korean forces.

"The United States is sending a clear message that we will continue to take actions against those who support the development and sustainment of [North Korea's] military and weapons arsenal," Blinken said while announcing the sanctions.

According to a recent report from the America First Policy Institute, however, imposing costs on North Korea has hardly been a focus of the administration.

"President Biden's approach to North Korea is a policy of neglect, disregard, and

incompetence," wrote Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst and senior National Security Council official. "It is very clear that Biden administration officials regard North Korea as a low-

priority security threat. Given its interaction with President Trump and Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo during the Trump administration, Pyongyang probably considered the Biden administration's efforts to engage it with a lower-level part-time official as a significant slight."

The part-time official to whom Fleitz referred was Sung Kim, whom Biden kept on as the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, a position he held in the Trump administration. However, Kim also retained his post as ambassador to Indonesia, making his North Korea role part-time.

The Biden administration has also yet to appoint an envoy for North Korean human rights issues, a position which has remained vacant for six years.

Meanwhile, North Korea has tested a record number of missiles this year — up to 51, according to some estimates, including the most recent launches on Friday and launches earlier this year both immediately before and after Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Korean peninsula.

Last year, Pyongyang conducted only eight missile tests.

U.S. and South Korean officials are also sounding the alarm that North Korea is preparing for its seventh ever test of a nuclear weapon and first since 2017, warning of a "decisive" response should North Korean leader Kim Jong-un follow through. South Korean intelligence has assessed the nuclear test could come any day, perhaps on the eve of the midterm elections in the U.S.

"The next nuclear test is likely to be much smaller than the massive 250 kiloton test of a hydrogen bomb in 2017," said Klingner. "During the past two years, the regime has highlighted its development of tactical nuclear warheads to be deployed to frontline units. It has developed a dozen or more improved short- and medium-range missiles in recent years, most of which will be capable of delivering nuclear warheads. The testing of a small tactical warhead for battlefield use will exponentially increase the threat to South Korea and Japan as well as U.S. forces stationed there."

Experts explained that North Korea's wave of provocations are part of both Kim's longstanding strategy of developing the capabilities to become a potent nuclear power as well as short-term circumstances such as the U.S. and South Korea resuming joint military exercises, the world being distracted by Russia's war in Ukraine, and North Korea believing China and Russia will protect it from consequences at the U.N.

Another factor is President Biden's foreign policy, according to Fleitz.

"The current administration's neglect of North Korea and record of foreign policy failures in 2021 appears to have precipitated a resurgence of North Korean belligerence and provocations in 2022, including a large number of missile tests, threats to attack South Korea with nuclear weapons, apparent preparations to conduct an underground nuclear test, and Pyongyang's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine," Fleitz wrote in his report. "There are several possible reasons why North Korea may have delayed staging provocations until nine months into the Biden administration ... The most likely reason was President Biden's poor foreign policy record — well known by September 2021 — and a growing perception of American weakness and indecisiveness."

There was a noticeable uptick in North Korean missile tests in the fall of 2021.

On the John Solomon Reports podcast last week, Fleitz pointed specifically to Biden's August 2021 withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan as a key reason for increased North Korean aggression.

"This all happened after Afghanistan," he said. "The North Koreans saw they were being ignored by the Biden administration. They saw Biden's weakness, and they ramped up their WMD programs."

The month of the Afghanistan withdrawal, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), released a report revealing North Korea ended what had appeared to be a slowdown in its nuclear weapons program, finding the regime had resumed illicit activity at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor earlier in the year.

The Biden administration has yet to seek U.N. Security Council action or otherwise punish North Korea for restarting the Yongbyon reactor.

One month after the IAEA report came out, Biden made only two brief references to North Korea during his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly. In this year's U.N. speech, Biden devoted just one sentence to Pyongyang.

The administration's official National Security Strategy, which was published earlier this month, similarly only referenced North Korea by name in a single sentence.

Pyongyang's most recent missile tests on Friday came one day after a senior State Department official told a Washington nuclear conference that the administration would be willing to engage in arms-control talks with North Korea.

"If they would have a conversation with us ... arms control can always be an option if you have two willing countries willing to sit down at the table and talk," said Bonnie Jenkins, undersecretary of state for arms control. "And not just arms control, but risk reduction — everything that leads up to a traditional arms-control treaty and all the different aspects of arms control that we can have with them. We've made it very clear to [North Korea] ... that we're ready to talk to them — we have no preconditions."

According to some experts, however, arms control negotiations should be a no-go.

"What [the U.S.-South Korea alliance] must not do is give in to the North Korean apologists who are calling for arms control negotiations," said David Maxwell, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "Giving the concession of arms control negotiations will confirm to Kim that his strategy of political warfare and blackmail diplomacy works."

When asked about Jenkins' comments, State Department spokesman Ned Price said: "I want to be very clear about this. There has been no change to U.S. policy."

Price explained to reporters that U.S. policy remained "the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," adding: "We continue to be open to diplomacy with [North Korea], we continue to reach out to the DPRK, we're committed to pursuing a diplomatic approach. We're prepared to meet without preconditions and we call on the DPRK to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy."

Experts explained that talks with North Korea are unlikely because Kim is refusing to engage in dialogue, wanting to set favorable conditions first in hopes of securing sanctions relief.

But for many observers, the solution to North Korean nuclear weapons is a unified, nuclear-free Korean peninsula — an outcome they say is impossible with Kim in power.

"The bottom line is if the Kim family regime remains in power, there will be major strategic threats — nuclear weapons use and war as well as the worst crimes against humanity in the modern era," said Maxwell. "It is time to finally acknowledge what has long been known but officials have been reluctant to state: The root of all problems in Korea is the continued existence of the mafia-like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime that has the objective of dominating the Korean peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State."

The regime's "threefold strategy of political warfare and blackmail diplomacy while simultaneously developing advanced war-fighting capabilities that creates dilemmas for the [U.S.-South Korea] alliance," he added, "will likely be the cause of any future conflict in Northeast Asia."

justthenews.com · by Aaron Kliegman

3. Gov't tries to figure out how Itaewon tragedy happened

Note the photo at the link. That seems to explain the crush.

Monday

October 31, 2022

 dictionary + A - A 

Gov't tries to figure out how Itaewon tragedy happened

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/10/31/national/socialAffairs/Korea-Itaewon-disaster-crowd-crush/20221031190538893.html

A picture taken of people in a narrow alleyway near the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon, Yongsan District, central Seoul, Saturday night before a deadly crush occurred. [YONHAP]

Police and government authorities are focusing on understanding the circumstances that led to the horrific Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon Saturday that killed at least 154 people, including a middle school student.  

As the country reels from its worst disaster since the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking, questions are being asked about how such an avoidable tragedy came to pass and who should be held accountable.

On Monday, police launched a joint investigation into the case but admitted they had failed to foresee the danger of the deadly overcrowding in the narrow alleyway behind and next to the Hamilton Hotel in Yongsan District, central Seoul.

"While it was foreseen that a large number of people would gather," said Hong Ki-hyun, chief of the National Police Agency's Public Order Management Bureau, in a press briefing Monday, "we weren't able to predict that such large-scale casualties would occur due to the large crowd of people."

Hong admitted there were no crowd control measures in place in or around the small alley in which most of the deaths occurred. 

An estimated 100,000 people went to Itaewon for the first Halloween celebrations since major Covid-19 restrictions were lifted Saturday night. The area is a nightlife hotspot and was known to draw such large crowds on Halloween before the pandemic. The crush of people in the alleys behind the Hamilton Hotel led to tragedy shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday. 

As of Monday morning, the death toll was 154, including 26 foreigners, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, while 33 people remain in serious condition. Another 116 people had minor injuries. 

All the identities of the dead had been confirmed and their family members contacted as of Monday, said the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. 

Around two-thirds of the dead victims, or 103 people, were in their 20s. There were 98 women and 56 men killed.

There were 11 teenage deaths. This included one middle school and five high school students, all from Seoul, confirmed the Education Ministry.  

Five other middle or high school students were injured, said the ministry. There were also three teachers killed from Seoul, Gyeonggi and Ulsan. 

Police launched a 475-member special investigative team to analyze the accident Monday and are collecting and reviewing evidence, including eyewitness statements and CCTV footage of the area.  

Police said that this year's Halloween crowd was similar, or just slightly larger than previous years. 

Hong said police on the scene didn't detect any sudden surge in the crowd.

According to Hong, 137 police officers were dispatched to Itaewon on Saturday. 

This was up from somewhere between 37 to 90 officers assigned from 2017 to 2019, before the pandemic, he said. Most of the officers were assigned to cracking down on crimes and managing traffic.

The Yongsan Police Precinct initially said that 200 officers were being assigned to patrol the area to prevent crimes such as illegal filming and drug use. Hong clarified that this number was the manpower dispatched over three days. 

Hong also admitted there was no police protocol to handle situations where large crowds gather and when there isn't a clear organizer, as in this case. 

Critics point out that in such a situation, the district office or local government, in this case the Yongsan District and Seoul Metropolitan Government, and police could have implemented better safety precautions, especially since large crowds were expected. 

There were reports of people raising concerns about overcrowding in the alleys the previous day. Itaewon has been a magnet for local and foreign crowds on special occasions for years and Halloween was already being celebrated on Friday. 

Nam Gu-jun, chief of the National Office of Investigation under the National Police Agency, said that the special investigation team is working with the National Forensic Service to reenact the disaster and spoke with 44 witnesses and secured footage from 52 CCTVs. They are also reviewing clips of the incident uploaded on social media. 

He said no acts subject to criminal charges had been detected thus far. 

Nam also addressed various rumors circulating online. 

Some witnesses online claimed that there were rumors of a celebrity spotting, which triggered some kind of stampede, while others alleged that some clubs and bars refused to let people in trying to escape the crush. Several others said that they heard someone call "push" from near the top of the alley where the deaths occurred.

Nam said that none of the allegations have been confirmed yet but that they are keeping open all possibilities, noting that witness testimonies vary.  

"The exact cause of the crowd surge has not been confirmed yet," he said.

On Sunday, Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min caused controversy with a remark downplaying the foreseeable nature of the situation, drawing criticism from some Democratic Party and People Power Party lawmakers. 

"Compared to previous years, there was not a large enough crowd of people to be particularly concerned about, despite the Covid-19 [social distancing measures] being lifted," Lee told reporters. "It was not a problem that could be solved by dispatching police or emergency response personnel in advance."

The Halloween events held in Itaewon over the weekend are not defined as a "local festival" as stipulated by the Management of Disaster and Safety Act. 

In March last year, the Interior Ministry published a guide for safe management for local governments in accordance with the law. Events with more than 1,000 spectators at any given moment were included, along with safety management guidelines for police and firefighters. 

However, the guide didn't apply to Halloween events in Itaewon because of the lack of an event organizer. 

According to data submitted to the Seoul Metropolitan Government by the Seoul Metro Monday, a total of 161,598 people got on and off the subway at Itaewon Station and adjacent Noksapyeong Station Saturday. 

This is more than double the average of 77,278 people boarding the subways daily in the past three years during Covid-19 restrictions, which were mostly lifted in April. 

As this was the first Halloween since, a surge of visitors could easily have been anticipated, even according to the officials. 

The Yongsan District Office posted on its website on Friday that it had held an emergency response meeting presided over by the deputy office chief regarding prioritizing Halloween safety. However, it is unclear what safety precaution measures came of it. 

Yongsan District Office chief Park Hee-young closed his social media accounts Monday due to public backlash. 

"Currently, police don't have the legal or institutional authority to control the public in situations other than rallies or demonstrations," a presidential official said Monday on Minister Lee's remarks. "If there is a request from the organizer to supplement the safety management, the police can take a preemptive action."

In a meeting on the Itaewon disaster on Monday, President Yoon Suk-yeol called for better crowd control measures, according to Lee Jae-myoung, deputy spokesman of the presidential office, in a briefing Monday afternoon.

"When I think of the people who died in the accident, and their families, I feel an indescribable sadness and a sense of responsibility as the president in charge of the life and safety of the people," Yoon was quoted as saying by Lee, especially noting the young age of the victims. 

"Above all, it is important to thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident, disclose it transparently, and based on this, come up with fundamental measures to prevent a similar accident from reoccurring," added Yoon. "We need to prepare a safety management system to prevent crowd accidents."

Yoon also expressed gratitude to the unsung heroes of the disaster, including ordinary people, medical workers, firefighters and police officers. 

"It's not easy to preemptively implement safety measures in the absence of an organizer," said spokesman Lee. 

However, he said that central government discussions are expected to focus on how local governments, even in the absence of an event organizer, can request cooperation with the police. 

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]

4. Seoul crowd crush shows gaps in Korean safety rules, experts say

Seoul crowd crush shows gaps in Korean safety rules, experts say

The Washington Post · by Michelle Ye Hee Lee · October 30, 2022

SEOUL — Two days before tens of thousands of partygoers gathered for the wildly popular Halloween celebrations in Itaewon, the surrounding Yongsan district unveiled its safety countermeasures for the expected celebrations. They addressed coronavirus prevention, street cleanliness, restaurant safety inspections and crackdowns on potential use of drugs.

Missing from the district’s plans were preparations to manage the anticipated daily crowd of about 100,000 — or the potential for such crowds on narrow streets and alleys to lead to a suffocating crush. But that’s what happened Saturday, killing more than 150 and injuring at least 82, one of the nation’s deadliest incidents in recent years.

The oversight highlighted limitations in the nation’s policies governing mass gatherings in public places, experts say. Although detailed safety protocols are required for official events, such as festivals, the same disaster prevention methods do not apply to public spaces where large crowds are expected to gather informally, making safety protocols ambiguous with no clear agency in charge, they said.

The exact cause of the crowd surge in a narrow alley — where so many people were jammed together that some could not move their limbs — is under investigation. The tragedy has prompted debate over the role of national and local agencies and who should be held accountable.

“Even if there is no event organizer, if a large number of people are expected to participate as they were for this event, it seems necessary for relevant institutions to take preemptive measures to strengthen their prevention efforts based on” the potential risk for disaster, said Kim Dae-jin, professor in safety engineering and disaster mitigation studies at Woosuk University in North Jeolla province.

The Halloween festivities in Itaewon, Seoul’s foreigner-friendly district popular among expats and younger Koreans, have grown increasingly popular over the past decade. This year was the first Halloween since the start of the coronavirus pandemic that didn’t include social distancing or outdoor masking restrictions, drawing even more enthusiastic crowds.

It was not clear Sunday how many people turned out on Saturday night. Police did not expect Halloween crowds to be significantly larger than in previous years and did not deploy additional personnel ahead of the celebrations, South Korea’s minister of interior and safety, Lee Sang-min, said at a briefing Sunday.

More than 200 police officers were dispatched to the area throughout the weekend — about one officer for every 500 people estimated to have been there Saturday night — with a focus on targeting sexual and physical abuse and potential drug use.

On Saturday, police forces were focused on monitoring and controlling crowds at large-scale protests in other areas of Seoul, Lee said. A heavy police presence is common at mass protests where violence may break out.

Korea’s national police force has jurisdiction over Itaewon. The U.S. military provides “courtesy patrols” for the area, which is near a U.S. military base, said Wes Hayes, spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea. U.S. military police responded alongside Korean officers and assisted with first aid and crowd control, Hayes said.

Seoul and national police officials have set up an investigative team to look into whether proper safety protocols were followed. Political leaders from both parties called on police to promptly identify the cause of the accident, including potential issues with crowd control, according to Yonhap News.

In 2021, the South Korean Ministry of Interior and Safety released a disaster and safety management manual to help oversee protocols at large events after a review of previous tragedies in Korea and other countries. A 2017 government study, for instance, found insufficient safety measures led to crowd crushing or stampedes at more than a dozen concerts, festivals and sporting events. The report recommended strict requirements for events with more than 1,000 held at “multiuse facilities.”

“Massive public gatherings by ordinary citizens may have been in the government’s blind spot because we have not had experiences with such accidents in the past,” said Jeong Ho-jo, disaster management expert and chief executive of Safe School, a Seoul-based firm that provides safety trainings throughout the country.

“If responsibility and authority are ambiguous, there is a high probability that no one will do it,” Jeong said.

Jeong said South Korea’s disaster response needs to leverage support from businesses in the area, community leaders and media outlets to raise awareness. In addition, Koreans in their 20s have not been exposed regularly to safety trainings on how to conduct themselves in potentially dangerous situations, he said.

Although current students undergo safety training in school after the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking that killed over 300, people in their 20s and 30s — like so many of the victims in Itaewon — have been left to fend for themselves.

The crowds during the first night of Halloween celebrations on Friday provided an ominous preview of the disaster the next night. Video footage from the alley Friday night showed that people had packed tightly, though not as much as on Saturday. Earlier on Saturday evening, some people who realized how crowded the area was becoming left early, according to witness accounts.

Many people tried to escape the crowd surge in the alley by trying to enter clubs or other businesses along the street. But some turned them away, according to witness accounts in South Korean media.

The alley, on a hill, filled up with people Saturday night, according to news reports — though it’s unclear exactly how long it took. It was so packed that when people at the top of the hill fell, it created a cascade. Many people toward the bottom of the hill chanted, “Stop pushing, stop pushing,” according to witnesses interviewed in South Korean media.

“Accidents are not caused by a single cause, but should be divided into policy causes, administrative causes, indirect causes, and direct causes,” Jeong said. “If even one part had worked properly, it would not have led to this disaster.”

Julia Mio Inuma in Tokyo; Grace Moon, Kelly Kasulis Cho and Julie Yoon in Seoul; and Samuel Oakford in New York contributed to this report.

The Washington Post · by Michelle Ye Hee Lee · October 30, 2022

5. How Itaewon Alley Turned into a Death Trap

How Itaewon Alley Turned into a Death Trap

english.chosun.com

October 31, 2022 13:28

The alley in Seoul's Itaewon where at least 154 people died and dozens of others were injured in a stampede this Halloween weekend was in some ways an accident waiting to happen.

The steep alley is just 40 m long and narrows to 3.2 m. It is always busy in the evening as a passage from the subway station to a street of popular bars and restaurants.

At the time of tragedy, a huge crowd kept pouring into the alley even after many people had already fallen at the lower end and toppled over one another "like dominoes," as witnesses put it.

The alley has a steep gradient from a street in front of Itaewon subway station on the main road and leads to a trendy backstreet behind Hamilton Hotel.

Police block the scene of Saturday's deadly Halloween stampede in Itaewon, Seoul on Sunday.

In Saturday's crush, thousands of people were pressing in on the bottleneck, pinning down those who had already fallen under accelerating pressure.

Owners of nearby shops had pointed out the danger for some time. An 80-year-old shop owner who witnessed the tragedy said, "We always thought that an accident might happen here someday as the slippery slope is always busy with huge crowds. An accident might have been inevitable as many drunk people crammed into the alley, but nobody imagined the scale."

There was no way to diffuse the pressure on either side. From the subway station, the right side of the alley is blocked by the wall of Hamilton Hotel while the left side is lined with shops and bars that were either closed or had shut their doors because they were full.

Reporters gather in front of an alley in Itaewon, Seoul on Sunday after Saturday's deadly Halloween stampede there.

Video clips show that people who had climbed over the balustrades of shops or bars or clung to the walls were able to move a little, but those who were stuck in the middle had no wiggle room at all.

Many of the victims were crushed to death while others suffered heart attacks and died of terror under the unrelenting pressure of the crowd.

How Did Halloween Become Korean Youngsters' Biggest Celebration?

Korea Mourns Victims of Halloween Stampede in Itaewon

Huge Crowds Gather for Halloween

Nightclubs Reopen for Belated Halloween Parties

Police to Crack down on Nightclubs This Halloween Weekend

Yoon Declares National Mourning

• Copyright © Chosunilbo & Chosun.com

english.chosun.com

6. U.S. and South Korean militaries launch biggest-ever air drills

Kim Jong Un and the regime are deathly afraid of air power. This is a major theme in north Korean indoctrination of the population - they emphasize the extreme damage done by US and allied airpower in the Korean War. 

U.S. and South Korean militaries launch biggest-ever air drills

Axios · by Rebecca Falconer · October 31, 2022

The U.S. and South Korean militaries began a massive joint drill on Monday that'll run for five days and feature hundreds of warplanes taking part in attack preparation scenarios 24 hours a day, per Reuters.

The big picture: Operation Vigilant Storm builds on the countries' largest joint military exercises since 2017 in August, launched in the face of threats from North Korea's military. The air forces will this week conduct about 1,600 sorties — "the largest number ever for this annual event," according to a U.S. Air Force statement.

• Pyongyang has slammed the joint exercises as a "rehearsal for invasion and proof of hostile policies by Washington and Seoul," but the allies say the drills are required due to the North Korean military launching a record number of missiles this year, Reuters notes.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has also strengthened the country's nuclear policy and said earlier this month that his military's spate of recent missile launches were "tactical nuclear" drills that represented a "warning" to the U.S. and South Korea.

State of play: The South Korean and U.S. Air Forces "will work together with the joint services to perform major air missions such as close air support, defensive counter air, and emergency air operations 24 hours a day during the training period" through Friday, according to the U.S. Air Force statement.

• "Support forces on the ground will also train their base defense procedures and survivability in case of attack."

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details on the latest exercises and further context.

Axios · by Rebecca Falconer · October 31, 2022

7. S. Korea's military chief calls for 'thorough readiness' against N. Korean threats

​This requires sustained readiness exercises and so far this late summer and fall, the ROK/US alliance has been doing this well. The current ROK and US administrations are no longer laboring under the fantasy assumption that cancelling, postponing, or scaling back exercises would provide a "security guarantee" that would influence Kim Jong Un to embrace diplomacy toward denuclearization.

​

S. Korea's military chief calls for 'thorough readiness' against N. Korean threats | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · October 31, 2022

SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top military officer called Monday for a "thorough readiness" posture against possible North Korean threats as he inspected a key command post for air operations amid ongoing major air drills between the South and the United States.

Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum made the remarks as he visited the Air Force Operations Command's Korea Air and Space Operations Center and other air defense units, citing recent provocations from Pyongyang, including continued ballistic missile launches.

"Maintain a thorough readiness posture against various threats," Kim instructed officials at the command in Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, according to his office. "In case of an enemy provocation, maintain an operational posture that will allow a stern response in terms of self-defense to thoroughly punish the enemy."

Kim then visited the armed service's Air and Missile Defense Command at the same base and ordered officials to maintain a "24-hour" monitoring and response posture, citing possible missile launches by Pyongyang that can be carried out at "any time."

He also made a visit to the 19th Fighter Wing in Chungju, 147 km south of Seoul, to check its combined wartime operational capabilities as the unit takes part in drills with the U.S. this week.

Kim said the training will serve as an opportunity to boost the allies' combined defense posture by strengthening their air forces' inter-operability, according to the JCS.

The five-day Vigilant Storm exercise, which kicked off earlier in the day, mobilizes some 240 aircraft, including South Korean F-35A and U.S. F-35B stealth fighters.

The drills come after a series of provocations by Pyongyang in recent weeks, including its firing of two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Friday.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · October 31, 2022

8. Joining Japanese fleet review causes controversy

Monday

October 31, 2022

 dictionary + A - A 

Joining Japanese fleet review causes controversy

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/10/31/national/diplomacy/Korea-fleet-review-Navy/20221031180907979.html

Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, left, takes questions from lawmakers at a session of the National Assembly's defense committee on Monday. [YONHAP]

South Korea's foreign and defense ministers on Monday defended the country's decision to send a navy ship to participate in Japan's international fleet review next month, saying Korea need to cooperate with neighbors to bolster its security.

It will be its first participation in the event in seven years.

The South Korean Navy plans to send the 10,000-ton logistics support ship ROKS Soyang to the fleet review, which is due to be held in Sagami Bay near Tokyo on Nov. 6. 

Fleet reviews, where ships from a particular navy or different naval forces are paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and other official civilian and military dignitaries, are a longstanding type of defense exchange.

Korea's decision to participate in the fleet review by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has ignited a domestic controversy, especially since crewmembers of a Korean navy ship are expected to salute the host country's naval ensign.

That flag is a modified version of the Rising Sun flag, which served as the flag of the military of the Empire of Japan and is widely viewed in Korea as a painful symbol of Japanese colonial rule.

South Korea has not participated in Japanese fleet reviews in recent years amid a downturn in relations over other disputes tied to Japanese colonialism, including lawsuits by Koreans forced to work for Japanese companies, as well as wider Korean antagonism to the flag.

"The decision was made after a comprehensive review of past cases and customary international practices," Foreign Minister Park Jin told lawmakers during a session of the National Assembly's foreign affairs committee.

Park emphasized that Korea has participated in past Japanese fleet reviews, including one held during the previous liberal administration of President Kim Dae-jung, in an effort to head off criticism from the liberal Democratic Party.

He also said that the growing military threat from North Korea had played a role.

"It is my understanding that such a decision was made in consideration of North Korea's back-to-back provocations and the grave security situation around the Korean Peninsula," he added.

During a session of the National Assembly's defense committee, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said the Korean government made the decision to participate in the fleet review because of the need for international cooperation on national security.

"Security was the most important priority [in making the decision], as was the pursuit of realizing values held in common with the international community," he told lawmakers, in apparent reference to efforts by Seoul, Washington and Tokyo to boost their trilateral security cooperation to counter the North's nuclear and missile threats.

In early October, the three countries' militaries held a ballistic missile defense exercise in waters between South Korea and Japan, a few weeks after they conducted their first trilateral anti-submarine drills in five years.

The South Korean Navy participated in Japan's fleet review in 2002 and 2015, while the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force joined a South Korean fleet review in 1998 and 2008.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]

9. Analysis-U.S. and Allies Turn to Deterring War With North Korea as Options for Preventing Nuclear Tests Dwindle

Analysis-U.S. and Allies Turn to Deterring War With North Korea as Options for Preventing Nuclear Tests Dwindle

By U.S. News Staff U.S. News & World Report3 min

View Original

By Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) - The prospect of a new North Korean nuclear test underscores the limited options for Washington and its allies, who have embraced "deterring" Pyongyang through major military drills that some current and former officials say may exacerbate tensions.

South Korea said in October that a new nuclear test would face an “unparalleled” response from the allies - but it’s unclear what measures would not retread old ground.

Years of sanctions, diplomatic pressure, and shows of military force have not prevented North Korea from developing and expanding an arsenal of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles that could reach the United States.

Now that the North's nuclear weapons are mature and deployed, the United States and its allies are looking to simply dissuade the North from military action.

South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said last week the focus of efforts to deal with North Korea should be shifted from curbing nuclear weapons development to deterring their use.

“We plan to expand the scope of our involvement in intelligence sharing, planning, exercises and drills,” he told a panel of lawmakers.

A ministry official told Reuters that Lee was not throwing his support behind the idea of acknowledging North Korea as a nuclear state, but rather was emphasizing the immediate need to prevent North Korea from using the weapons.

“Lee is saying out loud what policy makers in Seoul and Washington are thinking — namely that while denuclearization is the ultimate goal, deterring North Korea is the here-and-now priority,” said Daniel Russel, a former senior U.S. diplomat.

FOCUS ON DETERRENCE

The United States and South Korea are in "lockstep" in their efforts to seek the "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council said when asked about Lee's comments.

“We continue to prioritize diplomacy, but simultaneously continue to jointly strengthen deterrence and work to limit the advancement of (North Korea's) unlawful weapons programmes,” the spokesperson said.

Some analysts saw Lee's comments as the latest sign that Washington and Seoul are facing the reality that North Korea is a nuclear state. But they noted the focus so far has remained on deterrence rather than risk reduction, such as negotiating to cap the number of North Korean weapons and prevent them from proliferating.

U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel declined to specify what measures Washington would take if North Korea tested a nuclear bomb for the first time since 2017, but cited sanctions and military drills as examples of tools it can use to “hold North Korea accountable."

Observers expect China and Russia would condemn a new nuclear test, but are unlikely to back new sanctions, which they say have failed and only harm ordinary North Koreans.

The newly released U.S. Nuclear Posture Review says Kim Jong Un's regime would be annihilated if it ever attacked with nuclear weapons.

'TURN THE VOLUME DOWN'

In early October, the commander of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said the rare deployment of an aircraft carrier to South Korea “probably precipitated” part of a “tantrum” from Kim Jong Un.

Another major drill began on Monday with hundreds of South Korean and U.S. warplanes, including a rare deployment of American F-35B fighters.

The drills, a centrepiece of the allied response, have been met with new rounds of missile tests or military exercises by North Korea.

Patel has called suggestions that the drills are exacerbating tensions "baloney." Duyeon Kim, with the U.S.-based Center for a New American Security, noted that rising tensions are not always correlated with drills.

"Normalizing combined drills strengthens readiness and publicizing them again is intended to deter North Korea and reassure the South Korean people," Kim said.

One senior former U.S. defence official told Reuters that although the stepped up drills ensure readiness, the publicity and chest-beating surrounding them can be counterproductive.

"They're doing it because they want to send a message to North Korea, hey, we mean business," he said. "But it's not helping."

When political leaders said drills had been scaled back in previous years to enable diplomacy, that often meant that the exercises were just not being publicized, the former official said, adding that current rhetoric seems to have gone too far in the other direction.

"A way to reduce tension is to sort of turn the volume down a little bit, and see if that helps."

(Reporting by Josh Smith; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.

Tags: South Korea, North Korea, United States

10. Whatever Path US Diplomacy Takes, Sanctions on North Korea Are Here to Stay

As I have said over and over again, any sanctions relief will be interpreted by Kim Jong Un as success for his political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies.

Nothing that can be done beyond the current approach? How about a human rights upfront approach, a massive information and influence campaign, and the pursuit of a free and unified Korea as the only way to end the nuclear and military threats and the crimes against humanity>

Excerpts:

What does this all add up to? Even if Washington were capable of admitting to a failed policy against North Korea, the reality is that there is very little that can be done beyond the current approach. The practicalities of turning the sanctions boat around in any appreciable way that would lend itself to successful negotiations with North Korea would require a tremendous level of not only domestic political support but also multilateral coordination. Both are unlikely.

For now, both U.S. and international sanctions will likely continue with a “business as usual” scenario, with all sides digging in their heels – the United States continuing ad-hoc designations against North Korean proliferators and sanctions-evaders and Russia and China chipping away at the international sanctions regime.

Whatever Path US Diplomacy Takes, Sanctions on North Korea Are Here to Stay

Washington might be looking for a course correction on engagement with North Korea, but don’t expect any change to sanctions policy.

thediplomat.com · by Aaron Arnold · October 29, 2022

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North Korea’s recent ballistic missile tests are just the latest in a string of provocations that some fear will end with the country conducting its seventh nuclear test. Meanwhile, some experts believe that Washington’s appetite for its “lather-rinse-repeat” approach to North Korea may be waning, arguing that the 30-year effort to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions has failed. For North Korea, however, this is unlikely to yield any practical change in U.S. or international sanctions policy.

At a U.S. State Department briefing in early October, spokesperson Ned Price stated that “even as we focus on our defense and deterrence, we are making very clear that we want to make this transition back from an area of provocation to an era … of pragmatic engagement.” Price further noted, however, that while the United States will continue to seek engagement and diplomacy, it will also continue to enforce “costs” (i.e., sanctions), as well as uphold its defense commitments to South Korea.

Although it is not entirely clear yet what a “less provocative” U.S. policy toward North Korea might entail, sanctions will likely be part of, if not central to, the discussion. The problem, however, is that U.S. sanctions policy will not — and possibly cannot — change in any practical way that North Korea would see as acceptable. The failed talks in 2019, for example, showed that Pyongyang is not interested in accepting measured economic concessions in exchange for reciprocal steps toward denuclearization. Instead, North Korea is demanding a maximalist approach of all-or-none when it comes to lifting sanctions.

Easing International Sanctions: Easier Said Than Done

The United Nations sanctions regime against North Korea is now entering its 17th year. Since 2006, the U.N. Security Council has imposed increasingly comprehensive financial and economic sanctions against North Korea, usually after significant escalations, like nuclear tests. Except for certain humanitarian activities, the resolutions prohibit nearly all trade with North Korea.

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The most recent round of international sanctions came in 2017 amid heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea – with Pyongyang conducting its sixth nuclear test. Since then, however, the U.N. Security Council has been unable to find a response to subsequent provocations, including several ballistic missile tests.

In recent years, Moscow and Beijing have become increasingly critical of the sanctions regime and have sought to push the Security Council to lift certain prohibitions. In 2021, for example, the two countries put forward a proposal to lift the ban on overseas labor from North Korea. The draft resolution ultimately went nowhere.

Earlier this year, Russia and China vetoed a proposal that would have imposed additional sanctions in the wake of North Korea’s ballistic missile launches. And, in what may be the coup de grace for the sanctions regime, Russia recently sought to purchase conventional arms from North Korea for its aggression against Ukraine – a clear and willful violation of its commitments and sanctions obligations.

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Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council is missing in action, unable to agree on even the most modest of responses to North Korea’s provocations. All the while the UN Panel of Experts – the eight-member body responsible for monitoring sanctions implementation – found that North Korea continued to successfully evade international sanctions, according to its most recent report.

Is Washington Hand-cuffed to Its Own Policy?

While the U.N. sanctions regime is floundering, Washington would be hard-pressed to make any meaningful changes to its own sanctions policy. Many of the designations are imposed through executive orders under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, which gives the president broad authority to regulate international trade and commerce to address national security crises. While these sanctions have some flexibility in terms of lifting or suspending, others are enshrined in Congressional legislation. The combination of the two makes for an exceedingly difficult legal and regulatory landscape to navigate.

The 2017 Korean Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act, for example, set out to consolidate much of the prior legislation and executive orders about sanctions against North Korea. Specifically, the legislation includes, among other requirements, mandatory designations, asset blockings and asset blockings – to include prohibitions on servicing, either directly or indirectly, correspondent bank accounts that could be used by designated persons.

Apart from the sanctions imposed to curb North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons ambitions, the United States has also aimed at the country’s human rights abuses, designating several senior figures of the Kim regime. In 2017, the Trump administration declared North Korea a state-sponsor of terrorism, imposing additional financial and economic sanctions. North Korea had the moniker previously removed in 2008, as part of an effort by the Bush administration to jump-start failing nuclear negotiations.

Furthermore, North Korea has posed a significant threat to the integrity of the international system and remains a subject of both U.S. and international banking restrictions. In December 2016, for example, the United States imposed a “Section 311” designation against North Korea, labeling the country as a “jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern.” The rule ultimately prohibits U.S. banks from servicing correspondent accounts of a foreign bank in the United States, if such a transaction “involves a North Korean financial institution.” This sanctions-like designation has the effect of freezing North Korea out of the international financial system altogether.

Finally, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is the international body responsible for setting global anti-money laundering standards, has labeled North Korea as a “high-risk jurisdiction” for its “significant deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime and the serious threats they pose to the integrity of the international financial system.” The designation requires countries to take special precautions and apply “effective countermeasures” to all business relationships and transactions with North Korean companies and individuals. Again, the practical effect is a near prohibition on conducting business with North Korea.

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What does this all add up to? Even if Washington were capable of admitting to a failed policy against North Korea, the reality is that there is very little that can be done beyond the current approach. The practicalities of turning the sanctions boat around in any appreciable way that would lend itself to successful negotiations with North Korea would require a tremendous level of not only domestic political support but also multilateral coordination. Both are unlikely.

For now, both U.S. and international sanctions will likely continue with a “business as usual” scenario, with all sides digging in their heels – the United States continuing ad-hoc designations against North Korean proliferators and sanctions-evaders and Russia and China chipping away at the international sanctions regime.

GUEST AUTHOR

Aaron Arnold

Aaron Arnold is a senior associate fellow with the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at RUSI, where his work focuses on sanctions and proliferation financing. Prior to joining RUSI, Aaron served as the finance and economics expert on the U.N. Panel of Experts for DPRK sanctions.

thediplomat.com · by Aaron Arnold · October 29, 2022

11. [Editorial] Abrupt warning (Russia to ROK)

Excerpts:

In the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, the US reiterated its firm stance in the case of North Korea using its nuclear weapons against Washington or its allies. "Any nuclear attack by North Korea against the US or its allies and partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of that regime, the report said. "There is no scenario in which the Kim regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive."

However, as if it laughed at the warning, the North fired two ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Oct. 28, the last day of Seoul's Hoguk military exercise. It was the North's 14th ballistic missile provocation since the Yoon administration was launched on May 10.

China's external strategy has turned tougher since Chinese President Xi Jinping secured his precedent-busting third term as the leader of the country at its recently concluded 20th Communist Party Congress.

Putin singled out South Korea and made threatening remarks out of the blue.

North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively and continues to test-fire ballistic missiles. It is hard to erase concerns that the Korean Peninsula may be turning into a flash point. South Korea must have its eyes wide open to threats and secure effective measures of deterrence.

[Editorial] Abrupt warning

koreaherald.com · by Korea Herald · October 30, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an abrupt warning to South Korea on Thursday.

Putin reportedly said that South Korea has decided to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine and that this will destroy South Korea-Russia relations. His words came at the 19th annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow.

But this is not true.

South Korea's support for Ukraine has been limited to such materials as helmets and blankets as well as medical supplies and medicines.

The South Korean government has maintained a position not to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine. It has turned down Kyiv's requests for such weapons.

"We've provided humanitarian and peaceful assistance to Ukraine in solidarity with the international community," President Yoon Suk-yeol told reporters as he arrived for work Friday. "But in any case, it's a matter of our sovereignty. I'd like you to know that we are trying to maintain peaceful and good relations with all countries around the world, including Russia."

Putin’s words seem to have something to do with the Ukraine war situation. The Russian leader might have said so with an intention of warning against providing weapons to Ukraine. Even so, his threatening remarks to South Korea were baseless and inappropriate.

In the meeting, Putin emphasized cooperation with China, India and North Korea. He criticized the US for changing its position on North Korea at the last minute and imposing additional sanctions. He took the side of North Korea. Then he suddenly raised issue with South Korea's support for Ukraine.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted changes in the international situation. Putin's remarks might be part of an attempt to turn changing circumstances to his advantage. However, his words suggest that security issues regarding the Korean Peninsula may be dragged into the Ukraine war situation anytime. Seoul should pay attention and watch changes in the situation closely.

South Korea should join the international community’s efforts to stop the tragedy of the invasion of Ukraine, but it should keep in mind that if confrontation deepens between South Korea, the US and Japan on one side and North Korea, China and Russia on the other, peace on the Korean Peninsula will be further threatened.

Elaborate diplomatic responses are needed to prevent a confrontation with Russia and China.

The US Department of Defense released its 2022 National Defense Strategy, Nuclear Posture Review and Missile Defense Review on Thursday. In the documents, the US viewed China, Russia and North Korea as threats to its security. North Korea continues to expand its nuclear and missile capability to threaten the US, deployed US forces and South Korea and Japan.

In the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, the US reiterated its firm stance in the case of North Korea using its nuclear weapons against Washington or its allies. "Any nuclear attack by North Korea against the US or its allies and partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of that regime, the report said. "There is no scenario in which the Kim regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive."

However, as if it laughed at the warning, the North fired two ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Oct. 28, the last day of Seoul's Hoguk military exercise. It was the North's 14th ballistic missile provocation since the Yoon administration was launched on May 10.

China's external strategy has turned tougher since Chinese President Xi Jinping secured his precedent-busting third term as the leader of the country at its recently concluded 20th Communist Party Congress.

Putin singled out South Korea and made threatening remarks out of the blue.

North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively and continues to test-fire ballistic missiles. It is hard to erase concerns that the Korean Peninsula may be turning into a flash point. South Korea must have its eyes wide open to threats and secure effective measures of deterrence.

By Korea Herald (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

koreaherald.com · by Korea Herald · October 30, 2022

12. South Korea confronts the trauma of the Halloween crowd crush

South Korea confronts the trauma of the Halloween crowd crush

By Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Bryan Pietsch and Kelly Kasulis Cho 

Updated October 31, 2022 at 5:25 a.m. EDT|Published October 31, 2022 at 1:06 a.m. EDT

The Washington Post · by Michelle Ye Hee Lee · October 31, 2022

SEOUL — As the names of those killed in Saturday’s crowd crush in Itaewon trickle out and residents pay their respects at mourning altars dedicated to the victims, South Korea’s collective trauma is only just beginning.

The soaring death tolls. Social media images and videos of the chaos and suffering. Endless news coverage. Thousands of witnesses and emergency personnel, and countless more people who have heard their accounts and grieved with them. South Korean residents are reeling from the horror that unfolded Saturday night, which killed at least 154 and injured 149 more.

In online forums, Korean users have begun anonymously posting about the physical manifestations of their trauma: tremors, nausea, nightmares, fatigue and uncontrollable crying. Korean government and medical officials are warning about the impact, urging people to take care in consuming information and to seek mental health care and support. But mental illness and psychiatry still carry taboos in this country, which probably will pose barriers for the healing process.

Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have been in Itaewon on Saturday, the night that partygoers were trapped in a crowd crush in a narrow alleyway. The effects of that tragedy will reach far beyond the people who were there that night and their loved ones, experts warn.

“This tragedy unfolded in an area where people feel safe, expect to have fun and otherwise don’t expect to experience anything dangerous. It can be very shocking to so many people,” said Hye-sun Joo, director of the Korea Trauma Research and Education Institute.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has declared a national mourning period in remembrance of the victims. Businesses near the site where the crowd crush occurred have shut down for the week, after the surrounding area was declared a disaster zone.

In Korea, the deaths of so many victims in their teens and 20s are reminders of the 2014 capsizing of the Sewol ferry, which killed more than 300 people — mostly high school students on a school trip on the boat.

After that tragedy, there was a general feeling in South Korea that the country’s institutions and leaders failed its most vulnerable: the youth. The Itaewon tragedy may bring up similar feelings of failure and helplessness for many living in Korea, Joo said.

Social media has become more prominent since the Sewol disaster. On Saturday, it was nearly impossible to avoid images and videos being shared in near-real time from the crowd crush. While South Korean media has strict standards on blurring sensitive images, many images from the crush were unblurred.

“As people consume information about what happened that night, their own hearts may race wondering how those people felt that night, what they heard, what they were thinking,” Joo said. “As people experience the empathy and fear on behalf of those victims, even if they weren’t there on-site, the exposure to that night’s events can affect them in a traumatic way.”

The Korean Neuropsychiatric Association on Sunday released a statement warning people about the lasting damages of the tragedy for bereaved families and friends; those who were injured and their loved ones; the witnesses; and the medical and emergency staff who responded. The association said the incident has triggered the need for large-scale mental health support.

The government has begun offering some resources. The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare set up a support group for a limited number of people affected by the disaster, offering psychological support for about 1,000 family members, witnesses and survivors.

But the need for healing will be far greater. In the days immediately following the tragedy, friends and family members were sharing their memories privately, checking in with one another and offering support. Their expressions of grief and trauma poured out publicly, as well.

On Monday, people lined up at an altar outside City Hall to pay their respects, laying flowers and bowing. A Buddhist monk prayed at the altar, beating a wooden instrument in the shape of a fish used in chants, as groups shuffled through.

In a tent next to the altar outside Seoul City Hall, counselors were ready to speak with mourners. Two plastic folding tables, with a small folding shutter to shield the grieving people from view, stood just feet from the entrance to the altar, where gloved workers were handing out flowers.

A mother visiting the site with her daughter, in her 20s, said she wanted to pray that the victims would have “a better life in heaven,” and expressed sorrow that so many of those killed were around her daughter’s age.

At a community center in Hannam — a neighboring area to the site of the crush — concerned families and friends had gathered in search of information on those missing. As they registered the names of the ones they were searching for, they waited and milled about the center with somber expressions. Around lunchtime Sunday, family after family received the news that the people they were looking for were among the dead.

Most people burst out of the center in tears and screaming, dashing to cars or the subway station, or simply running away as they processed the news. One elderly man stopped to speak, as his wife and a young woman ran ahead of him, speechless and trembling with emotion.

“We called and then came all the way from a village far from here with the hopes that we’d find them as just injured in a hospital,” he said of his missing family member. “But they were found as a body.”

Another woman sprinted out of the center and into a car. She paused before getting in, facing reporters with tears in her eyes, but was unable to utter any words. At the center, her colleague, an official with the presidential office, explained that she was an employee of the presidential office who had worked overnight helping families search for loved ones. While working, she had learned that a family member was one of the missing. Then she received the news that the family member, a high school student, was one of the dead.

In the immediate aftermath of the crush on Saturday night, a young man sat on a stoop in a Spider-Man costume. He was among scores of people that night sitting around the area in Itaewon with blank stares, as the screams and wailing of witnesses and survivors rang out around them.

As music continued to blare and deflated partygoers stumbled down the sidewalk nearby, he told a reporter that he was part of the crowd. When asked to describe what happened, he froze and his gaze went blank as he trembled. Separated by police tape, the reporter was unable to continue the conversation or console the young man.

Yoon-sung Park, a 24-year-old tech worker from Texas, was one of the people helping victims on Saturday. He carried people to clearer ground, where they could be sprawled out for medical treatment.

“People were laid across here all the way down, about a half-mile,” he said, gesturing toward Itaewon’s main drag. “There were so many bodies on the floor.”

Earlier Saturday night, Park and his friend had attended the Atelier club at the top of the alley as part of their month-long vacation to South Korea.

Sitting with a bottle of water at a cafe near the scene, Park appeared to be in a state of shock.

“If we stayed there, we could have died,” he said.

Standing outside a makeshift memorial of flowers and empty liquor bottles nestled against Itaewon Station on Monday, Lila Lee, a 50-year-old artist from Canada, said she had walked through the alleys hours before the crowd crush. “All I could think was, ‘Oh, my kids would love it here,’ ” she said, her wiping away tears. “These victims were just kids. When you use the word ‘adult’ — they’re not. They were just kids.”

Maryam Kaneko, a 25-year-old hospitality worker living in Japan, said that she needed to see the memorial to calm herself after spending the weekend scrolling through gruesome photos and videos of the crowd crush online. She and her friends had planned to visit Itaewon on Saturday night, but canceled after she got sick. “It could have been me. It could have been anyone,” she said. “I had goose bumps all over my body, and I just couldn’t sleep since then.”

Although she didn’t witness the incident in person, she believes some people may be experiencing a collective trauma. “When I ride the trains and there are so many people, I can’t breathe. It scares me,” she said. “I saw every picture, every video. I just couldn’t breathe, so I had to get off.”

The Washington Post · by Michelle Ye Hee Lee · October 31, 2022

13. Unfiltered images of tragedy risk adding to victims' pain

There are a lot of graphic images out there.

Unfiltered images of tragedy risk adding to victims' pain

koreaherald.com · by Im Eun-byel · October 31, 2022

Photographs and video footage of the Itaewon disaster have circulated online via social media, fanning concerns of further damage to the victims as well as possible trauma for the public.

Soon after the crowd surge at Itaewon began claiming the lives of people late Saturday, photographs and video footage of the incident went viral on social media, especially as a large number of victims and observers at the scene were in the target demographics for heavy social media users.

The online circulation of such images and videos, however, could lead to further damage to the victims and leave traumatic effects for the larger public, authorities and experts warned.

“Please refrain from sharing comments of hate against the victims and spreading false information (or) provocative scenes of the incident online,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said at a disaster response meeting held Monday. Han is in charge of running the state-led response for the Itaewon incident.

Following the incident, video footage portraying the devastating scene of the crush without blurring or proper screening went viral online. Some even show the faces of victims and dead bodies lying in the street.

"This is a devastating event where so many people have lost their lives. It like we are consuming this as if watching a movie," an online user commented.

Social media platforms are asking users to cooperate in respecting the victims of the incident and to prevent causing further damage.

Twitter Korea issued a statement reading: "Please refer to the policies (on sensitive media) when tweeting images and videos of the Itaewon incident and refrain from retweeting provocative content."

The social media platform warned it can take action against such content and users.

Kakao, the Korean tech giant with a heavily dominant messaging service, also called for users to refrain from sharing uncertain details of the incident or photos and clips that reveal the identity of the victims.

Some on social media could be seen putting the blame on the victims for visiting the crowded Itaewon district for the Halloween celebrations.

The Korean Neuropsychiatric Association issued a statement Sunday calling for the nation to refrain from creating further confusion amid the crisis.

The association said the public should refrain from spreading photographs and video footage of the incident that could lead to further damage and perhaps traumatize members of the larger public.

"Hateful language observed in disaster situations deepen the trauma of the bereaved and those who were at the scene," the statement read. "Such hatred and branding cause social conflict and are not of any help in resolving a crisis.”

Police said they will take strict measures against those who spread misleading information on the incident and invade the privacy of the victims. The National Police Agency is running a response center dedicated to the cyberbullying.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)

koreaherald.com · by Im Eun-byel · October 31, 2022

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

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com