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The Dear Leader and the gnome
The Dear Leader and the gnome
Quotes of the Day:
"I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing."
- Katherine Mansfield
"We view arrogance as a set of behaviors that communicates a person’s exaggerated sense of superiority, which is often accomplished by disparaging others."
- R. E. Johnson
"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read."
- James Baldwin
1. N.K. slams Yoon's warning against Pyongyang-Moscow military cooperation as 'hysterical remarks'
2. [EXCLUSIVE] Lawmakers to submit resolution urging China to free N. Korean escapees
3. S. Korea, U.S. stage joint naval drills in East Sea amid N.K. threats
4. Defense minister nominee calls for scrapping inter-Korean military accord
5. Seoul prepares for first major military parade in ten years
6. Five lessons from the Kim-Putin summit
7. Over half of Koreans want continuous strengthening of alliance with US: poll
8. Trilateral talks open on Korea-Japan-China meeting
9. South Korea’s maverick president isn’t the only political threat to Northeast Asian trilateralism
10. North Korea calls Yoon an idiot as S Korea deepens ties with US
11. N. Korea’s national police agency orders intensified surveillance over returnees from abroad
12. The Dear Leader and the gnome
1. N.K. slams Yoon's warning against Pyongyang-Moscow military cooperation as 'hysterical remarks'
President Yoon touched a nerve with Kim Jong Un.
(LEAD) N.K. slams Yoon's warning against Pyongyang-Moscow military cooperation as 'hysterical remarks' | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · September 25, 2023
(ATTN: UPDATES with reaction from Seoul's unification ministry in last 2 paras)
SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Monday lambasted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for making "hysterical" remarks after he warned against possible military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow last week.
Yoon said in a U.N. General Assembly speech that any arms deal between Pyongyang and Moscow would be considered a "direct provocation" against South Korea, amid growing concerns about their military cooperation in the wake of a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Puppet traitor Yoon Suk Yeol ... malignantly slandered the relations between the DPRK and Russia," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English-language dispatch, using the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"It was just the height of irony that the puppet with no elementary political knowledge and common sense of the international relations behaved rudely, voluntarily acting as a servile trumpeter and loudspeaker for the U.S.," it said.
The KCNA said it is natural for neighboring countries to keep close relations with each other and the development of friendship and cooperation among nations is the legitimate right of a sovereign state and the foundation for regional and global peace and stability.
"No one in the world would lend an ear to the hysteric fit of puppet traitor Yoon Suk Yeol who is only wearing disgraceful ill fames of 'political immature,' 'diplomatic idiot' and 'incompetent chief executive,'" it said.
South Korea's unification ministry criticized North Korea for rebuking Yoon with "vulgar" remarks, saying it is not even worth commenting on.
"By mobilizing an unidentified individual (as a writer of the KCNA report), North Korea slammed the head of our state with vulgar remarks, which shows the substandard regime has no basic manners and common sense," Koo Byoung-sam, spokesperson at the ministry, told a press briefing.
This file photo, taken Sept. 20, 2023, shows President Yoon Suk Yeol making a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · September 25, 2023
2. [EXCLUSIVE] Lawmakers to submit resolution urging China to free N. Korean escapees
Good but it should be more than a bipartisan issue in the ROK. The entire international community must pressure China and call out its complicity with north Korean human rights abuses.
Excerpts:
Given that the forcible repatriations of North Korean escapees is a bipartisan issue regarding the basic right to safety, lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party are optimistic that they could win support from their liberal colleagues to pass the resolution, the source said.
[EXCLUSIVE] Lawmakers to submit resolution urging China to free N. Korean escapees
The Korea Times · by 2023-09-21 16:21 | North Korea · September 25, 2023
A North Korean flag is shown behind the national flag of China during the opening ceremony of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, Sunday. A group of lawmakers will propose a resolution urging the Chinese government to follow the principle of non-refoulement in handling North Korean escapees, a source said on Monday. Yonhap
Backers call on top UN leaders to join efforts to safeguard principle of non-refoulement
By Jung Min-ho
A group of South Korean lawmakers will propose a resolution urging the Chinese government to follow the principle of non-refoulement in handling North Korean escapees, while seeking support from top U.N. leaders to pressure Beijing to abide by international laws.
A source at the National Assembly told The Korea Times on Monday that 14 lawmakers so far have signed a proposal demanding Beijing to permanently stop its practice of deporting North Koreans despite considerable human rights concerns.
After collecting more signatures, the backers plan to introduce the bill in the coming weeks ― possibly during the Hangzhou Asian Games being held from Sept. 23 to Oct. 8.
Given that the forcible repatriations of North Korean escapees is a bipartisan issue regarding the basic right to safety, lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party are optimistic that they could win support from their liberal colleagues to pass the resolution, the source said.
Rights experts from 17 countries demand release of North Korean escapees in China
In a draft, obtained by The Korea Times, the lawmakers express concerns over North Koreans who have been detained in China over the last three years of the coronavirus pandemic ― as many as 2,000, according to rights organizations ― and at least four others held in Mongolia.
“The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea calls on China and other countries in which North Korean escapees reside to respect the principle of non-refoulement and grant refugee status or other legal means to let them stay until severe human rights violations disappear in North Korea,” the proposal said.
The statement also calls on Antonio Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, and the chiefs of its human rights and refugee agencies ― Volker Turk and Filippo Grandi, respectively ― to raise their voices on the issue by releasing official statements.
Rights activists in South Korea have complained that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees have not been doing enough to resolve the issue. In a joint statement last month, 12 groups expressed concerns over “the OHCHR’s silence on China’s grave human rights violations against North Korean refugees.”
The lawmakers’ efforts come after rights organizations and high-profile individuals from 17 countries made the same demand in a joint letter sent last week to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
According to the testimonies of numerous North Korean escapees, the fate awaiting those deported by China could be years of incarceration in political prison camps, at the very least. If they were found to have attended religious facilities or contacted South Koreans in China, the escapees could even be tortured or executed.
Beijing has treated North Koreans crossing the border as illegal migrants, claiming it has the right to send them back. Rights experts say such repatriations of escapees ― for whatever excuse Beijing offers ― are clear violations of multiple U.N. treaties, including the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which China promised to respect as a participating party.
In a sign of reopening its borders, North Korea sent athletes to the Asian Games being held in the eastern Chinese coastal city. Activists worry that China would resume the repatriations of North Koreans after the sporting event ends.
The Korea Times · by 2023-09-21 16:21 | North Korea · September 25, 2023
3. S. Korea, U.S. stage joint naval drills in East Sea amid N.K. threats
The new normal: Sustained combined training to maintain a high level or readiness. This is not reactive. It is routine but critically important readiness training that must take place periodically to sustain capabilities and interoperability among combined forces.
Excerpts:
The Navy said the anti-submarine warfare and live-fire drills were designed to strengthen the allies' combined operational capabilities and interoperability amid evolving nuclear and missile threats from the North, including its recent claimed launch of a space launch vehicle and unveiling of a new submarine.
"This exercise will serve as an opportunity to effectively deter and respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and further solidify the combined defense posture," R. Adm. Kim In-ho, who led the South Korean side during the exercise, was quoted as saying.
S. Korea, U.S. stage joint naval drills in East Sea amid N.K. threats | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · September 25, 2023
SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States kicked off a combined naval exercise in the East Sea on Monday to reinforce readiness against growing military threats from North Korea, the Navy said.
The three-day exercise involved nine vessels and two patrol aircraft from the two sides, including two South Korean submarines, the ROKS Yulgok Yi I destroyer, the USS Shoup Aegis-equipped destroyer and the USS Robert Smalls cruiser, the Navy said.
The Navy said the anti-submarine warfare and live-fire drills were designed to strengthen the allies' combined operational capabilities and interoperability amid evolving nuclear and missile threats from the North, including its recent claimed launch of a space launch vehicle and unveiling of a new submarine.
"This exercise will serve as an opportunity to effectively deter and respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and further solidify the combined defense posture," R. Adm. Kim In-ho, who led the South Korean side during the exercise, was quoted as saying.
The North has continued to ratchet up tensions on the Korean Peninsula, vowing to launch a military spy satellite next month after two failed attempts in May and August, respectively. It also held a launching ceremony for a new "tactical nuclear attack" submarine earlier this month.
This file photo, taken Sept. 14, 2014, shows South Korea's ROKS Yulgok Yi I Aegis-equipped destroyer in waters off Incheon, 27 kilometers west of Seoul. (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · September 25, 2023
4. Defense minister nominee calls for scrapping inter-Korean military accord
I have argued from the beginning that the agreement was not good. But now I do not advocate withdrawing from it because it should be used against the regime. It is the regime that is not living up to the agreement. The ROK should suspend those parts of the agreement that hinder ROK military readiness and call out the north for not living up to the agreements.
Defense minister nominee calls for scrapping inter-Korean military accord | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · September 25, 2023
By Lee Minji
SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Yonhap) -- Defense Minister nominee Shin Won-sik said Monday that a landmark inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement should be discarded as it is a "wrong" accord that has weakened the military's combat power amid North Korea's continued military provocations.
The Comprehensive Military Agreement was signed in 2018 when then President Moon Jae-in traveled to Pyongyang for summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The deal is designed to dial down military tensions, prevent accidental clashes and build mutual trust.
The effectiveness of the accord, however, has increasingly been questioned recently, as Pyongyang has repeatedly taken military actions disregarding it, while pressing ahead to advance its nuclear and missile programs.
"The September 19 military agreement is a wrong accord that has increased our military's vulnerability," Rep. Shin of the ruling People Power Party said in a written statement to the parliamentary defense committee ahead of his confirmation hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Defense minister nominee Shin Won-sik enters his office in Seoul on Sept. 19, 2023, ahead of a parliamentary confirmation hearing. (Yonhap)
"As there are many areas of military vulnerability that come from the September 19 military agreement, such as military combat power and operation capabilities, I believe it must be scrapped," Shin said, adding the agreement has near-zero effectiveness amid Pyongyang's "intentional" and "repetitive" violations.
Shin said he will review areas of weakness that comes from the military accord and complement them in the shortest time possible should he take the helm of the defense ministry.
The minister nominee said the North is highly unlikely to give up its nuclear program and vowed to "sternly" respond to any nuclear provocations with maximum capabilities.
"Given North Korea's advancing trend of nuclear and missile capabilities, there is a low possibility that North Korea will give up on its nuclear power at the moment," Shin said. "It will be made clear that should North Korea attempt a provocation involving a nuclear-tipped missile, its regime will come to an end."
Still, he stressed that continued efforts to persuade the North to give up its nuclear program are necessary.
Shin ruled out the possibility of South Korea's own nuclear armament in any form, stating the government's stance on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Shin is a retired three-star Army general known for his expertise in defense policy and military operations, and as a vocal supporter of President Yoon Suk Yeol's drive to bolster security ties with the United States.
He was nominated for defense minister earlier this month.
mlee@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · September 25, 2023
5. Seoul prepares for first major military parade in ten years
I have to admit this is going to be quite an event. The ROK military sure knows how to put on a parade. I wonder if north Korean spies will be observing to bring back best practices to the master of parades in Pyongyang.
Excerpts:
The march will commence at the Seoul Air Base at 1:30 p.m. following a memorial ceremony. From there, a force of approximately 3,700 infantry troops and 170 heavy artillery units, including K2 tanks, will split into two routes before converging for a parade in downtown Seoul.
Infantry units will enter the city center through the city’s eastern outskirts on buses, leading to partial traffic restrictions from approximately 1:40 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. stretching from Dongbu expressway to Gangbyeon expressway.
Meanwhile, tanks and armored vehicles are expected to cut through Seoul's southern outskirts, moving through Bangbae-dong and Dongjak-dong before crossing the Hangang Bridge to reach downtown Seoul. Traffic along this route will be restricted in both directions, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:23 p.m.
Seoul prepares for first major military parade in ten years
koreaherald.com · by Moon Ki Hoon · September 25, 2023
By Moon Ki Hoon
Published : Sept. 25, 2023 - 17:36
South Korean armored vehicles march during a military parade in Seoul on Oct. 1, 2013. (Herald DB)
For the first time in a decade, Seoul citizens will witness a large-scale military parade, with tanks and armed forces marching across the city center Tuesday amid escalating tensions with North Korea.
Major thoroughfares will be closed throughout the day for the event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Korean Armed Forces' founding, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on Sept. 20.
The march will commence at the Seoul Air Base at 1:30 p.m. following a memorial ceremony. From there, a force of approximately 3,700 infantry troops and 170 heavy artillery units, including K2 tanks, will split into two routes before converging for a parade in downtown Seoul.
Infantry units will enter the city center through the city’s eastern outskirts on buses, leading to partial traffic restrictions from approximately 1:40 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. stretching from Dongbu expressway to Gangbyeon expressway.
Meanwhile, tanks and armored vehicles are expected to cut through Seoul's southern outskirts, moving through Bangbae-dong and Dongjak-dong before crossing the Hangang Bridge to reach downtown Seoul. Traffic along this route will be restricted in both directions, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:23 p.m.
A joint march will take place in downtown Seoul from 4 p.m, covering a 1.5-kilometer stretch from Namdaemun to Gwanghwamun. Roads between these two landmarks will remain closed from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m.
While some streets are expected to reopen by 4:40 p.m., others could be closed until the next morning, according to the police.
Given that the parade is taking place in the run-up to the Chuseok holiday period, drivers are advised to detour or use public transport to avoid congestion. The city plans to deploy 1,000 police officers to manage traffic and increase the frequency of subway trains to accommodate commuters.
Historically, Seoul had conducted military parades every five years since 1998. However, in an effort to thaw relations with North Korea, the liberal Moon Jae-in administration scaled down the 2018 parade to an air show.
This year's display, featuring 6,700 service members, will showcase South Korea’s advanced domestic weaponry, including KF-21 fighter jets, Light Armed Helicopters, and long-range surface-to-air missiles, a move widely seen as a show-of-force against North Korea's continued provocations.
koreaherald.com · by Moon Ki Hoon · September 25, 2023
6. Five lessons from the Kim-Putin summit
Excerpts:
First, larger geopolitical trends among the major powers do continue to favor Kim Jong-un. Authoritarian Russia and China are moving to pursue alternate power geometries that weaken institutions dominated by the democracies, as Xi’s snub of the G20 meeting in Delhi and China’s push for expansion of the BRICS summit demonstrate.
...
The second point to emphasize is that while these geopolitical tensions impact the Korean peninsula, they will not be reversed by desperate concessions to Pyongyang or Beijing, by Seoul or Washington.
...
Third, while the emerging China-Russia-Iran-North Korea axis is potentially disruptive for the interests of Korea, the United States, and other democratic allies and partners — it is an authoritarian alignment fraught with distrust
...
Fourth, the fate of Ukraine and the Korean peninsula are inseparable.
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Fifth and finally, it is worth remembering how frail these authoritarian regimes really are. Moscow had a near coup from the Wagner Group and Xi has mysteriously disappeared his foreign and defense ministers in the past few months.
Monday
September 25, 2023
dictionary + A - A
Published: 25 Sep. 2023, 19:46
Five lessons from the Kim-Putin summit
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-09-25/opinion/columns/Five-lessons-from-the-KimPutin-summit/1878057
Michael Green
The author is CEO of the U.S. Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and Henry A. Kissinger Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Kim Jong-un’s red carpet visit to Russia this past week is a disturbing development for peace and stability in Ukraine and Northeast Asia. At the same time, the position of Korea is also strong in diplomatic and security terms and this Russia-North Korea alignment — historic though it may be — is a sign of weakness on the other side that must be put in the proper context. Here are five points to remember while watching Putin’s courtship of Kim.
First, larger geopolitical trends among the major powers do continue to favor Kim Jong-un. Authoritarian Russia and China are moving to pursue alternate power geometries that weaken institutions dominated by the democracies, as Xi’s snub of the G20 meeting in Delhi and China’s push for expansion of the BRICS summit demonstrate. Kim can now count on two permanent UN Security Council members, Russia and China, to oppose moves by the United States, Britain, and France to impose punishments on Pyongyang for violations of previous Security Council resolutions that relate to missiles.
Whether Moscow or even Beijing will now be more tolerant of resumed North Korean nuclear testing, we do not know. If Russia becomes desperate because of setbacks in Ukraine, Putin could resort to what is called “horizontal escalation” against the West in other theaters such as the Korean peninsula (that is already happening in Africa). His saber-rattling sidekick Dmitry Medvedev has publicly threatened to open technology spigots to Pyongyang in ways that would enhance the North’s missile and nuclear weapons development.
Medvedev is clearly authorized to make such extreme threats, including warnings of nuclear war with NATO, and Putin would know how dangerous escalation on the Korean peninsula would be, but he has taken dangerous gambles before. How far it goes we do not know, but geopolitical competition is weakening the restraints on Pyongyang.
The second point to emphasize is that while these geopolitical tensions impact the Korean peninsula, they will not be reversed by desperate concessions to Pyongyang or Beijing, by Seoul or Washington. Commentary that the Xi-Putin summit is the result of insufficient engagement of Pyongyang is camouflage for arguments that Seoul and Washington should have surrendered on denuclearization, an approach that would hardly have made the peninsula safer than it is now.
Fortunately, the Yoon government has moved away from a decade of “strategic ambiguity,” recognizing that this only incentivized Beijing to continue pursuing further wedges between Seoul and Washington, and did exactly nothing to incentivize Beijing to restrain Pyongyang. The premise that China has important leverage over North Korea is correct, but the idea that signaling tolerance of Beijing’s hegemonic ambitions would turn that leverage to Seoul’s advantage was a fantasy.
Third, while the emerging China-Russia-Iran-North Korea axis is potentially disruptive for the interests of Korea, the United States, and other democratic allies and partners — it is an authoritarian alignment fraught with distrust. What marks all four countries is a high tolerance for risk and provocation in pursuit of their separate revisionist and irredentist aims, but that is exactly why each will be cautious about making security commitments to the other.
China does not want to be associated with any Iranian war against Saudi Arabia or Gulf states that provide oil and a possible diplomatic card against the United States. Russia may see some advantage in empowering Kim Jong-un in the pursuit of munitions and diplomatic leverage, but a war on the Korean peninsula would bring chaos to Russia’s Far East and possibly create a new NATO on Moscow’s Eastern flank. Both Beijing and Moscow would fear nuclear proliferation in the event of chaos on the peninsula that could see nuclear weapons materials fall into the hands of radical Muslim separatists who mean them harm.
As a result, the Beijing-Moscow-Tehran-Pyongyang axis will find it much more difficult to mature their security cooperation and mutual commitments the way democratic allies and partners have with the QUAD, Aukus, and the Camp David U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral summit. The bottom line is that democracies value peace and predictability, and that makes it easier to develop mutual security understandings.
Fourth, the fate of Ukraine and the Korean peninsula are inseparable. There are difficult trade-offs between Europe and Asia for the United States in terms of munitions, diplomatic time spent, and balancing near-term defense spending requirements in Europe against longer-term investments needed to deter China as a peer competitor in Asia. In my view the Biden administration and Congress should spend more to achieve that balance, but given the resources available have done a reasonable job managing a two-front challenge. Those who argue that the United States and its allies should force a settlement on Zelensky in order to focus on Taiwan and the Korean peninsula fail to understand that appeasement in Europe begets aggression in Asia.
The fact is that linking Europe and Asian democratic alliances will bring far greater returns than the Beijing-Moscow-Tehran-Pyongyang axis can achieve from their cooperation. Think about it. Putin and Kim may agree on artillery munitions that are a generation old. Moscow and Tehran may be talking about drones that are tactically useful. But in contrast, Korea, the United States, Japan, and Europe are talking about controlling the most advanced semiconductors needed for artificial intelligence while the war in Ukraine has prompted global economic sanctions against Russia — sanctions that would be devastating if European and Asian democracies collaborated in the same way as in a crisis in Asia.
Fifth and finally, it is worth remembering how frail these authoritarian regimes really are. Moscow had a near coup from the Wagner Group and Xi has mysteriously disappeared his foreign and defense ministers in the past few months. Economic growth is slowing for China and disastrous for Moscow. And these are the powerful patrons of Tehran and Pyongyang, which face even more dire economic circumstances.
That weakness is itself dangerous, of course, but all the more reason for patient, vigilant, and firm coordination among democratic allies rather than panic and retreat. Moscow will need to understand that fueling danger on the Korean peninsula will only lead to more isolation and risk for Russia.
7. Over half of Koreans want continuous strengthening of alliance with US: poll
Excerpts:
In the poll of 1,238 people aged 18 and older conducted by Gallup Korea from Sept. 4-8, 91.6 percent said the bilateral alliance is important and the majority, 53.7 percent, responded that it should be continuously strengthened.
...
Over nine in 10 respondents, 90.7 percent, said the alliance with the US has had an influence on the development of South Korea.
Over half of Koreans want continuous strengthening of alliance with US: poll
koreaherald.com · by Yonhap · September 25, 2023
By Yonhap
Published : Sept. 25, 2023 - 11:32
(123rf)
More than half of South Koreans are of the opinion that the nation's alliance with the United States should continue to be strengthened, a poll showed Monday.
In the poll of 1,238 people aged 18 and older conducted by Gallup Korea from Sept. 4-8, 91.6 percent said the bilateral alliance is important and the majority, 53.7 percent, responded that it should be continuously strengthened.
Another 24.9 percent said the alliance should be continuously maintained, whereas only 18.1 percent said it should be steadily reduced.
The opinion in favor of continuous strengthening of the alliance was especially prevalent among those in their 20s (66.1 percent), those in their 30s (65.4 percent) and students (70.3 percent), the survey found.
The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level, was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the occasion of this year's 70th anniversary of the South Korea-US alliance.
Asked why the alliance should be strengthened, 44.2 percent of all respondents said it will be helpful to economic growth and 42.5 percent cited strengthening of national security as the reason. It also found 10.5 percent believing the alliance is necessary for science and technology cooperation and people-to-people exchanges and 2.1 percent attaching importance to various cultural exchanges.
The survey also showed 91.5 percent believing the US would support South Korea in case of emergency and 92.4 percent thinking South Korea should also support the US in case of emergency.
Asked about the areas in which the US influences South Korea, 57.5 percent cited national defense and security, followed by politics and diplomacy (18.9 percent), economy (16.1 percent), science and technology (2.8 percent), society and culture (2.4 percent) and education (0.7 percent).
Over nine in 10 respondents, 90.7 percent, said the alliance with the US has had an influence on the development of South Korea.
Asked to assess the current status of the alliance, 46.5 percent defined it as a military and security alliance, 26.5 percent as a global comprehensive strategic alliance, 15.6 percent as a partnership and 7.7 percent as an economic and technological alliance. (Yonhap)
koreaherald.com · by Yonhap · September 25, 2023
8. Trilateral talks open on Korea-Japan-China meeting
Trilateral talks open on Korea-Japan-China meeting
koreaherald.com · by Choi Si-young · September 25, 2023
By Choi Si-young
Published : Sept. 25, 2023 - 15:57
Foreign Minister Park Jin (second from right) and three senior diplomas each from South Korea, Japan and China pose for a photo ahead of talks at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)
Two-day working- and senior-level talks among South Korea, Japan and China kicked off on Monday, as the three nations prepare to resume their meeting this year, after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chung Byung-won, South Korea’s deputy foreign minister, is set to meet with Takehiro Funakoshi and Nong Rong, his Japanese and Chinese counterparts, respectively, on Tuesday, following separate working-level meetings between Seoul and Tokyo, as well as Seoul and Beijing on Monday.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin briefly met with the three envoys on Monday, asking for their deeper cooperation to reopen the three-nation summit within this year.
As this year’s host, Korea is looking to build on fresh momentum for reviving the three-way exchange. Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his support for holding the event at a meeting Saturday with the Korean prime minister -- the kind of backing Korea and Japan have wanted. Beijing had looked less enthusiastic about reopening the dialogue, which focuses on business ties.
That has to do in part with the fact that Seoul and Tokyo are increasingly getting closer than ever, presenting what Beijing sees as a united front on addressing security concerns in the region. Korea, Japan and the US said they will work together on challenges like North Korea’s nuclear threats at their unprecedented summit at Camp David in August. China says they encourage a “Cold War mentality.”
But hopes for firming up Seoul-Beijing ties are high. At the Saturday meeting, Xi said he will “seriously consider a visit” to South Korea. In response, South Korea’s presidential office has said it will lead efforts for such a trip by Xi, who last visited Korea in 2014.
The presidential office is pushing for the tour, in hopes it would defuse worries over what some see as foreign policies that potentially alienate China. Beijing suspects Seoul is supporting the US on issues like recognizing Taiwan, the self-ruled democratic island Washington supports. Korea says it resists changing the status quo by force on the island, which China calls its own, saying it could take it over if necessary.
koreaherald.com · by Choi Si-young · September 25, 2023
9. South Korea’s maverick president isn’t the only political threat to Northeast Asian trilateralism
One of the most pessimistic assessments of Camp David.
South Korea’s maverick president isn’t the only political threat to Northeast Asian trilateralism | East Asia Forum
eastasiaforum.org · by EAF editors · September 25, 2023
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
In 1956, the then US Senator John F Kennedy published Profiles in Courage, a series of case studies on statesmanship of US politicians. Apart from becoming an instant bestseller, the book served its intended purpose of establishing Kennedy’s reputation as an intellectual, winning him a Pulitzer Prize, and carrying the implicit message that Kennedy’s presidency would be marked by similar feats of putting the national good over political expediency.
Not a bad legacy for a book whose drafting, to put it diplomatically, was a group effort — a fact which itself serves as a reminder that myth-making and leadership tend to go hand in hand in the making of great statesmen.
As the John F Kennedy Presidential Library prepares to award South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with an International Profile in Courage Award, it’s worthwhile to consider whether the long-term payoffs of the two men’s efforts to break through political barriers between their countries will live up to the euphoric tone of some of the commentary that followed the landmark Camp David summit with US President Joe Biden in August.
As the Library says, the two leaders deserve recognition for ‘courageously work[ing] to address sensitive historical issues that have prevented close cooperation’ between their two countries. Their work culminated in a series of bilateral meetings and a summit with Biden at Camp David that ‘affirmed the progress made between two of America’s closest allies and set the stage for increasing trilateral cooperation with the United States’.
The problems that lie behind the euphemism of ‘historical issues’ aren’t trivial. They go to many South Koreans’ deep sense of injustice over the unaddressed legacies of Japan’s colonial and wartime conduct — including war crimes, forced labour and sexual slavery. In Japan, that legacy is contested, to say the least, and the minimisation of the scale of Japan’s past wrongdoings, or at least the downplaying of contemporary Japanese society’s culpability for them, is a first-order cause among conservatives.
It’s a mark of how deep the security concerns about China run in both countries that these history wars can be set aside for closer bilateral ties as well as stronger defence relationships with their common ally, the United States.
Despite that shared sense of the urgency of addressing the China challenge, the political risks in this are far from evenly distributed. As Lee Seong-hyon explains in this week’s lead article, the idiosyncratic politics of South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol have unlocked the possibility for Tokyo and Seoul to put the history wars to one side — while also exposing Yoon as the political weak link in the new trilateral.
Yoon, a former prosecutor with little experience in party politics, ‘has bucked the trend of popular sentiment in his pursuit of trilateral synergy’, an approach ‘which has been long desired by Washington’ but which has been frustrated by the fraught domestic politics of South Korea’s relationships with Japan and the United States.
The August summit at Camp David produced a joint statement that, while ‘stopp[ing] shy of solidifying a formal military alliance’, nevertheless ‘resonated with the spirit embodied in NATO’s Article 5’ by enshrining a commitment for the parties to ‘consult’ in a crisis.
If institutionalised over the long term, the three sides will be better equipped to detect and respond to military and non-conventional security threats and meet annually at top levels of government to further refine their trilateral arrangements. This should allow the United States, South Korea and Japan more transparency about North Korean missile tests, Chinese cyber espionage and their own militaries’ interoperability — not just in Northeast Asia but further afield.
To be sure, many of the Camp David mechanisms and schemes exist in some form at a bilateral level. The hope is that pooling the resources of the United States, South Korea and Japan will improve the security environment for all three while elevating a trilateral framework that does not require Washington’s direct involvement at every step of the way.
Yet it’s hard to escape the sense that the reinvigorated trilateral relationship is hostage to the relationships between domestic political institutions and foreign policy outcomes.
The pathways to power that the South Korean system incentivises, combined with its so-called ‘imperial presidency’, give presidents wide leeway to reorient policy at their whim — unlike Japan’s LDP-dominated parliamentary system, where prime ministers have to climb the greasy pole of party politics and have to work comparatively hard to build party and bureaucratic consensus around major policy shifts.
By the same token, South Korean presidents are vulnerable to seeing their policy agendas disavowed by a successor once their constitutionally-limited single five-year term is up. As Lee warns, ‘[w]hether [Yoon’s] policies endure after his tenure is questionable, especially if a successor from the traditionally more anti-Japanese progressive side of politics emerges victorious’ in the next presidential election in 2027.
In the United States, Donald Trump is favoured to win the Republican Party’s presidential primary in 2024, and with Joe Biden registering the lowest approval ratings of any president seeking re-election since Jimmy Carter, the ‘Spirit of Camp David’ may be fleeting.
For proponents of tighter strategic relations between this Northeast Asian triad, the fraught politics of national security in South Korea might be the least of their worries, given the damage ‘America First’ Trumpism would do to the global credibility that ultimately underpins any efforts to multilateralise the ‘hub and spoke’ US alliance structure.
The EAF Editorial Board is located in the Crawford School of Public Policy, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University.
eastasiaforum.org · by EAF editors · September 25, 2023
10. North Korea calls Yoon an idiot as S Korea deepens ties with US
One of the best lines from the Propaganda and Agitation Department.
Excerpt:
KCNA chastised Yoon for having “no elementary political knowledge and common sense of the international relations,” saying South Korea has become a “servile trumpeter and loudspeaker for the U.S.”
North Korea calls Yoon an idiot as S Korea deepens ties with US
Rebuke comes after Yoon’s UN warning and as ally China considers visit to the South
By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA
2023.09.24
rfa.org
North Korea lambasted South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol, calling him a “diplomatic idiot” on Monday, fueling tensions as Seoul fortifies its alliance with the United States against the North. The outburst also comes at a juncture where several nations are recalibrating their stance to safeguard their national interests revolving around the Korean peninsula.
“No one in the world would lend an ear to the hysteric fit of puppet traitor Yoon Suk Yeol,” North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said, calling the South Korean President a “political immature”, “diplomatic idiot” and “incompetent chief executive”.
KCNA chastised Yoon for having “no elementary political knowledge and common sense of the international relations,” saying South Korea has become a “servile trumpeter and loudspeaker for the U.S.”
The critique came after Yoon issued a fresh warning to North Korea and Russia in an address to the U.N. General Assembly last week, declaring that Seoul and its allies would respond collectively should the two authoritarian states pursue military cooperation.
Yoon said that Seoul, and its allies “would not just stand idly by,” if the two pushed ahead with their “illegal” cooperation. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin offered to aid North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in perfecting his “satellite” technology during their meeting in the Russian far east earlier this month.
Russia’s transfer of relevant technology may pose a threat to the international community as rocket technologies can be used for both launching satellites and missiles. For that reason, the U.N. bans North Korea from launching a ballistic rocket, even if it claims to be a satellite launch.
North Korea on Monday also defended its cooperation with Russia as it berated Yoon. “A trash-like head cannot understand the profound and enormous meaning of the development of the DPRK-Russia friendly relations,” KCNA said, referring to North Korea by its formal name. “Puppet traitor Yoon Suk Yeol is a wrecker and disturber of the regional situation,” it added.
China’s Xi may visit Seoul
North Korea’s emotionally-charged rebuke came as the leader of its traditional ally China, Xi Jinping met South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo in Hangzhou on Saturday. In the meeting, Xi told Han that he would “seriously consider” visiting South Korea, according to the Prime Minister’s office of South Korea.
Beijing is caught between improving relations with its authoritarian neighbors, and the democratic world. A move to strengthen political and military ties with North Korea and Russia could solidify its security in the wake of its rivalry against the U.S. But it could just as well jeopardize efforts to maintain relations with the U.S. and its allies, especially on the economic front, where access to international markets and foreign investment is crucial to arrest a further deterioration of its economy.
Russia, simultaneously, is also aiming to hedge its political risks. Moscow is expected to send its Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrey Rudenko later this week to South Korea, where he is expected to discuss Kim Jong Un’s recent trip to Russia with Seoul.
The Russian official’s visit could be seen as a diplomatic balancing act as Moscow attempts to maintain a stable relationship with South Korea while fostering ties with the North, to mitigate any potential fallout amid shifting dynamics in the Korean Peninsula.
The recent Russia-North Korea summit has sparked a diplomatic skirmish among nations surrounding the Korean Peninsula, said Wang Son-taek, director of the Global Policy Center at the Han Pyeong Peace Institute. With both North Korea and Russia seemingly orchestrating a new cold war, a rigorous diplomatic engagement has ensued among the relevant nations, he noted.
“China, rather than overtly partaking in the Moscow-Pyongyang camaraderie, is likely to maintain discreet cooperation towards the alliance, while exploring avenues of coexistence with the U.S. and its allies. To this end, easing relations with the ROK may help, as a scenario in which the ROK and Japan adopting a staunch anti-China policy stance would be highly unfavorable,” Wang said, referring to South Korea by its formal name.
But Wang pointed out that even though Russia needed North Korea’s ammunition, it is treading cautiously in its relations with the South, as severing ties with Seoul “may constrict its diplomatic leverage.”
“Nonetheless, the forthcoming visit by Deputy Minister Rudenko may present a dichotomy. It could also serve as a diplomatic tactic to pin the blame on the ROK and the U.S., should relations with Russia sour, or potentially to hold the allies accountable for escalating tensions.”
“It appears that a vehement diplomatic contest is in full swing, with every nation striving to optimize its interests amidst the unfolding geopolitical game.”
Yoon, who is a conservative, has been seeking to align Seoul’s foreign policy stance with the U.S. to counter global challenges including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. To that end, Yoon has focused on strengthening its military and economic cooperation with Washington and Tokyo.
South Koreans are largely divided on Yoon’s policy, with its conservatives welcoming the approach, as they see the alignment could effectively foster the denuclearization of North Korea. On the other hand, its progressives argue that such an approach exacerbates tensions on the Korean Peninsula, stressing that diplomatic resolutions can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiations.
Edited by Elaine Chan and Mike Firn.
rfa.org
11. N. Korea’s national police agency orders intensified surveillance over returnees from abroad
Excerpts:
“The orders state that if returnees are reported by other people to be harming healthy socialist lifestyles and manners by aggravating the non-socialist phenomenon or imprudently using foreign currency, these cases are to be thoroughly investigated. If returnees are revealed to be engaging in hostile behavior, they are to be subject to harsh punishment, and the organizations they are affiliated with will be notified with a view to have them undergo ideological indoctrination.”
The ministry also instructed provincial security bureaus to work with inminban (neighborhood watch units) and organizations to strictly monitor the distribution of impure video and audio content and the indiscriminate circulation of foreign currency among returnees.
N. Korea’s national police agency orders intensified surveillance over returnees from abroad
The agency warned that returnees could use goods or foreign currency brought from abroad for illegal activities
By Jong So Yong - 2023.09.25 5:00pm
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-national-police-agency-orders-intensified-surveillance-returnees-abroad/
The Pyongyang Sunan International Airport (Wikipedia Commons)
The Ministry of Social Security recently issued an order to strengthen surveillance and control over people who have returned from long stints abroad, Daily NK has learned.
“The agency said that North Koreans returning from abroad may exhibit anti-socialist and non-socialist behavior that might affect the ideological sentiment and lifestyle of local residents, and ordered each province’s security bureau to strengthen surveillance and control over returnees to restrain such behavior in a timely manner,” a source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Sept. 20, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The ministry issued the instructions in early September, followed by further instructions to monitor and promptly report on the activities of the returnees.
In its orders, the ministry emphasized strict monitoring and control of the speech and behavior of returnees, which may attract the attention of people who have significant interest in international news or who have become economically impoverished and “mentally idle.”
“The ministry urged the security bureaus of each province to never neglect the work of reporting the returnees’ every move to their higher-ups. The bureaus were also ordered to find out everything returnees may have said to their families and acquaintances about various things that happened while they were staying abroad and promptly send the materials to their superiors.”
The ministry also pointed out in its orders that those who return home after their quarantine period could use goods or foreign currency brought from abroad for illegal activities.
It ordered the close monitoring of returnees and, in the case of any illegal activity, the confiscation of all imported goods or currency as well as political and administrative punishments, in addition to criminal punishments for particularly serious offenses.
“The orders state that if returnees are reported by other people to be harming healthy socialist lifestyles and manners by aggravating the non-socialist phenomenon or imprudently using foreign currency, these cases are to be thoroughly investigated. If returnees are revealed to be engaging in hostile behavior, they are to be subject to harsh punishment, and the organizations they are affiliated with will be notified with a view to have them undergo ideological indoctrination.”
The ministry also instructed provincial security bureaus to work with inminban (neighborhood watch units) and organizations to strictly monitor the distribution of impure video and audio content and the indiscriminate circulation of foreign currency among returnees.
Translated by Annie Eun Jung Kim. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
12. The Dear Leader and the gnome
The Dear Leader and the gnome | Peter Caddick–Adams | The Critic Magazine
Friendship between the Kremlin and North Korea is no joke
thecritic.co.uk · by Chris Winter · September 23, 2023
It was pulled by two heavy locomotives. Next an armoured ani-aircraft wagon. After the baggage car came the leader’s steel-plated pullman, followed by a command coach containing a conference room and communications centre. Connected to them, the 22-man security detail travelled in their own rolling stock. Beyond was a dining car, two coaches for guests, and of all things a bathing wagon, then a second dining car. Bringing up the rear were two sleeping cars, a press wagon for the news hounds, another baggage car and finally another anti-aircraft wagon. The coachwork was of the finest materials, hardwoods and high-grade leather, armour-plated, and bristling with guns and radio antennae. Outside in all weathers, day and night, other protective guards swept along the tracks.
There was something charmingly old fashioned about the decision of Kim Jong Un, leader of North Korea, to travel by train to meet his fellow dictator, Vladimir Putin. Over here, even when buffered by a railcard, Network Rail can sometimes fail spectacularly as an ambassador for this effortless mode of transport. Yet, we forget how important journeying by train was and remains. Important figures frequently opt for the smooth clickety-clack over air or road for their expeditions. The method is discreet, away from prying eyes, yet connected to a nationwide network that avoids congestion. Passengers can wine and dine, sleep, relax, study, converse and think. Rail lines are easy to guard, whereas the boulevards are full of threatening traffic and potential ambush points. Franz Ferdinand, Reinhard Heydrich, Charles de Gaulle and John F. Kennedy found this out to their cost between 1914 and 1963. Fatally in three out of four cases.
Some leaders have a phobia about flying. Stalin was one, which was why the only summit meetings he attended, at Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, were ones connected to Moscow by rail. Perhaps President Putin, a known fancier of custom-built rolling stock, will now fear a weird kind of Karma for having arranged the eternal flight of his former chef, Yevgeny Prigozhin. The president has several trains, each containing an identical office to those in his state dacha, the Kremlin and St Petersburg. All look the name, making it impossible for the viewer, and potential assassin, to know where he is. Maybe his long-distance travel plans will be dictated by iron roads from now on?
Rail has dominated history for almost 200 years. From Queen Victoria’s first journey in 1842, British monarchs have travelled in their own rolling stock. A century later, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth let Winston Churchill commandeer the royal trainset for his wartime whistlestop tours. The First World War ended in a former Wagon-Lits dining car, No. 2419D, belonging to Ferdinand Foch, Allied Commander-in-Chief. Hitler cruelly had it dragged out of its museum for the French armistice of June 1940, signed by Foch’s former subordinate, Pétain. Generals Montgomery and Eisenhower in 1944 both used personal trains, codenamed “Rapier” and “Alive”, which sported metal shuttered windows and carried their staff cars, to move swiftly around United Kingdom in the months before D-Day.
The North Korean’s father, Kim Jong Il, hated taking to the air, instead relying on his old green-and-yellow-liveried rolling stock to convey him around his hermit kingdom. Loaded with extravagant foods, fine wines and attended by glamorous staff, the elder Kim used it on the last state visit of a North Korean to Russia in 2002. “It was possible to order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese or French cuisine,” remembered one journalist. “Live lobsters were taken to stations along the route, with cases of Bordeaux and Burgundy”. However, the size, opulence and weight of this upmarket rolling McDonald’s restricted its speed to a graceful 40mph. Kim Senior’s Great Continental Railway Journey took one month. Michael Portillo, eat your heart out.
Paranoid about their personal security, the Kim family have traditionally relied on around 90 special carriages, usually made into three trains. The first handles advance security; the next carries the Kim entourage; whilst the last houses bodyguards and other personnel. The middle train, with its wall-mounted lighting, beds, sofas and armchairs reupholstered in “tasteful” reddish-pink leather (I know), was the one in which the current Kim lounged on his way to summits in Beijing and Hanoi, and travelled south in 2019 to meet President Trump in the Korean Demilitarised Zone.
The recent state visit of Kim aboard the twenty-hour Pyongyang to Vladivostok Express, no stops, should give us pause for thought. With him travelled officials closely connected with his weapons development and military science teams, and his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong. In addition to being the regime’s propagandist-in-chief, she acts as gatekeeper to her overweight, chain-smoking brother, who became leader after the sudden death of their father in 2011. Kim’s North Korean Night Mail carried a significant assembly of his regime’s inner circle.
There is a great temptation to put Kim Jong Un into the “joke dictators” category
There is a great temptation to put Kim Jong Un into the “joke dictators” category of what used to be called the Third World, officially now the Global South. Commentators are prone to see him as a half-witted runt compared with Western leaders, a sort of Mussolini to Hitler or a Chechen Kadyrov to Russia’s Putin. But that is to misunderstand Kim and his nation. This may be only seventh time he has left North Korea since becoming leader, but two of those visits have been to Russia. Yet, the Kim dynasty is the epitome of everything Putin would like to achieve, and how he would like to be seen by posterity.
When compared to his new chum Vladimir, Kim’s grip on his country is as profound as are the credentials of his almost monarchical premiership. He is the third generation of his family to have ruled North Korea with an iron hand. The family came to power in 1948, four years before Putin was born. North Koreans revere their “Dear Leader” as no Russian respects Putin. Kim’s murals, portraits, and photographs are in a very Orwellian sense everywhere, all-seeing. His hold over his subjects is absolute, via control of news and social media. It is an offence to write over Kim’s picture in a newspaper, use it to cover a parcel or print it on paper of poor quality. Fish and chips wrapped in Dear Leader’s image is literally a hanging offence. The population is divided into three political classes: core, wavering or hostile, which determine every aspect of a citizen’s life; even haircuts for men and women are controlled: there are 28 government-approved styles from which to choose. To request a Number 29 risks execution.
Kim’s inherited network of penal and forced labour camps far outnumbers those of Moscow. Until recently, abduction of foreigners for their technical and medical skills was a state policy. Around 200,000 are known to have vanished. Most incarcerated are there for eternity, guards may intervene to alter the length of life. Although Putin may be far wealthier — the entire GDP of North Korea is estimated at only $40 billion, not enough to buy Twitter — the North Korean wields absolute power of which the Russian leader can only dream. The man in the Kremlin genuinely respects and envies that might. He is intrigued by his Korean counterpart. Although Kim’s population of 26 million is on a par with Australia, Cameroon and Niger, those are the only similarities with the world’s 98th smallest and most isolated country.
Kim’s Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, often abbreviated to DPRK, remains far closer to the Marxist-Leninist ideals that inspired the original Soviet Russia. In the mid-1950s Pyongyang and Moscow parted company due to Nikita Khrushchev’s “de-Stalinisation” reforms in the Soviet Union, which Kim believed was betraying the old vision. Instead, North Korea adopted a political philosophy known as Juche. A mixture of policy and ideology, it was devised as a “third way”, to avoid North Korea being seen as a satellite of either China or the Soviet Union.
Described as Communism erased of references to Russia and Stalin, Juche incorporates beliefs of state self-reliance, autonomy and independence from the rest of the world. It is a development of old-school Communism, without the need to export global revolution. The former dogma was the glue that held the Soviet Union together, but post-1991 that adhesive dissolved. All recognise its replacement in Russia with gangster avarice has been a disaster. Most North Koreans, however, because they have nothing else to cling to, are thoroughly imbued with their own leader’s worldview and his Juche.
The DPRK has recast even its calendar. Imitating French Revolutionaries who restarted their records in 1792 with Year I, and twelve newly-named months, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot who labelled 1975 as Year Zero, North Korea’s Juche calendar begins in April 1912, when Kim Il Sung was born. We are now in the 112th Year of Juche. The original patriarch was born Kim Song Ju, but as with other underground terrorists of the era including Stalin and Tito, he adopted a nom de guerre which became his official moniker. The reborn Kim Il Sung directed resistance against Japanese rule over Korea throughout the 1930s, later via exile in Russia. Known in Tokyo at the “Tiger”, and considered their greatest foe, the barely-literate Kim founded the Korean People’s Army, returned to his homeland as a major in the Red Army, and came to power as the head of a pro-Moscow guerilla movement after Japan’s departure.
Each generation created a personality cult around themselves, with Kim Il Sung calling himself “Great Leader”. Not to be outdone, Fidel Castro retaliated with his own appellation of “Greatest Leader”. After the patriarch’s death in 1994, his son Kim Jong Il was dubbed “Eternal Leader”, while Vlad’s buddy, Kim Jong Un styles himself “Dear Leader.” Perhaps the present ruler’s title sounds weak by comparison, but bad luck, Kim. The late Enver Hoxha of Albania (never a fan of North Korea) had already bagged the title of “Supreme Comrade”, whilst “Supreme Leader” was nabbed before the youngest Kim was even born, by the Ayatollahs. I believe “Stable Genius” is already in use elsewhere. There is presumably none of this in the corridors of the Kremlin, where I am informed Putin is known privately as Kim Jong Pu. Others secretly call him “Gnome” on account of Putin’s diminutive 5 feet 7 inches, also Kim’s height. And to think Hitler (5 feet 8 inches) was a Führer, a mere leader.
Each 15 April, the first Kim’s birthday, is a national holiday and known as the Day of the Sun. Crowds bow down before the thousands of Kim family statues scattered across the nation. The sculptures, usually clad in greatcoats with arms outstretched, bear resemblance to those of Stalin. The late Saddam Hussein, too, possessed a similar rapture for the dictator from Georgia, which explains why he was portrayed in bronze and paintings wearing a heavy coat in the heat of Iraq. Biblical graven images spring to mind. Kim’s mate Vladimir must feel deprived at his own lack of statues or that his birthday is not a national holiday, or (so far) otherwise celebrated.
There is much the Kim clan owes to Russia. Amidst a raft of worldwide revolutionary interventions ranging across East and West Europe, in Cuba, Libya and Malaya, it was Stalin’s political and military support for the original Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea that brought Kim Il Sung to power. The Soviet Union then backed his invasion of South Korea in 1950, with tanks, trucks, artillery and smaller weapons. Moscow deployed Soviet pilots in their MiGs to contest Korean airspace with the USAF and trained North Korean aircrew in Russia.
The armistice signed in July 1953 not only kept Kim in power, albeit at a cost of 2.5 million Korean dead, but has fixed in place a well-resourced but costly American force. The 30,000-strong US Eighth Army remain there to this day, with its mission to defend Seoul. Each Kim has understood they can count on Beijing’s reluctant support; the alternative, an American-led occupation of the North, would see US troops along the Chinese border. President Xi Jinping will not be happy about the new Pyongyang-Moscow axis, but he can do little to prevent it.
In a trade with Russia, Kim would like technical know-how to advance his country’s nuclear programme. In return he gets to offload a vast stock of slowly-corroding Soviet-era 152mm artillery ammunition, that may do as much harm to the firer as to the target. Although the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, was dismissive of the threat of these munitions to Ukraine, the West is quietly worried. The meeting of the two leaders at Vostochny Cosmodrome, a new Russian space base 900 miles from Vladivostok, offered several media opportunities. They got to exchange rifles. Then came Kim’s rant about the “sacred fight against the hegemonic forces” that oppose them. It also signalled Kim’s interest elsewhere.
“The leader of North Korea shows great interest in rocketry, and is trying to develop space. We may be able to help,” Putin reportedly said. The prospect of a North Korean presence in orbit or further, following the arrival on the Moon of unmanned lunar landers from China and India, is a matter for great concern. In failing to put military satellites into orbit and uncertainty with his ballistic missile programme, the Korean has reached out to Moscow. Bizarrely the country best able and most motivated to slow down this development is China. It tolerates the Frankenstein neighbour it once helped to create, but does not encourage it. Though both parties are developing a symbiotic relationship, we do not need any more rail journeys to Russia by Kim. He is more dangerous than he appears, and Putin’s friendship will only embolden him.
And the rolling stock I described at the beginning? No, it wasn’t Kim Jong Un’s, but its owner probably inspired him. That was “Amerika”, a train named after a small hamlet in Belgium where its user had fought earlier in his life. Described in memoirs penned by the young commander sometimes in charge of rail-borne security, it was the Führersonderzug, the special trainset used by Adolf Hitler. Running the security detail brought the officer into close proximity with his leader on a daily basis. In a sinister version of travelling on the Orient Express, closeted together they established a rapport, another benefit of rail travel. Eventually the soldier, training on his familiarity, asked for a higher job. And got it. His name? Erwin Rommel.
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thecritic.co.uk · by Chris Winter · September 23, 2023
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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