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Quotes of the Day:
"There is something in the human spirit that will survive and prevail - a tiny and brilliant light burning in the heart of man that will not go out no matter how dark the world becomes."
– Leo Tolstoy
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
– Blaine Pascal
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
– Audre Lorde
1. Behind Putin Visit, Unease in Beijing Over His Potential Next Stop: North Korea
2. Putin briefed on tourist exchanges with N. Korea, prep for visit under way: Kremlin
3. N.K. delegation returns home from visit to Russia's Far East
4. U.S. military commander in S. Korea during Gwangju uprising dies
5. East Tennessee linked to North Korean identity theft scheme involving thousands of IT workers
6. Powerful diplomacy trumps nuclear weapons for South Korea
7. Editorial: N. Korea converts inter-Korean business into weapons factory – their answer to our goodwill
8. ‘Kim desperately wanted to denuclearize,’ Moon writes in memoirs
9. Yoon credits closer S. Korea-U.S. ties with helping Buddhist relics return home
10. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping Embrace at Beijing, but Will This Marriage of Convenience Blossom Into a Romance?
1. Behind Putin Visit, Unease in Beijing Over His Potential Next Stop: North Korea
The axis of dictators/totalitarians. It is not a single country that is a threat to the US. Whether they are deliberately colluding or not (and I think they are to some extent) their actions are mutually reinforcing and mutually supporting and create dilemmas for the US and allies in more complicated and complex ways than actions by a single country.
Excerpts:
On Saturday, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s state news agency, TASS, that arrangements for a visit by the Kremlin leader to North Korea are progressing well. “Preparations for the visit are under way,” Peskov said. He didn’t announce a date for the planned trip.
It couldn’t be determined whether Beijing exerted any pressure on Moscow ahead of Putin’s meetings in China, his first foreign trip after starting a new term earlier this month. But the Chinese side has made clear to the Kremlin that Beijing’s preference is to develop bilateral ties, as opposed to more of a three-way alignment that Russia has previously floated.
Behind Putin Visit, Unease in Beijing Over His Potential Next Stop: North Korea
Russian leader skips tacking on Pyongyang to his China visit, but growing ties between Putin, Kim worry Xi
https://www.wsj.com/world/behind-putin-visit-unease-in-beijing-over-his-potential-next-stop-north-korea-28b82cf5?mod=latest_headlines
By Lingling WeiFollow
, Ann M. SimmonsFollow
and Timothy W. MartinFollow
Updated May 19, 2024 12:01 am ET
In the days leading up to Vladimir Putin’s just-finished visit to China, speculation rippled through diplomatic circles that the Russian leader planned to tack on a trip to North Korea—a possibility that irritated Beijing, according to diplomats and other officials with knowledge of the matter.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has felt growing unease as ties between Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un—two of his most important but also most volatile international partners—have grown more intimate, the diplomats and officials said. A combined visit to China and North Korea by Putin could also have reinforced Western fears of a trilateral authoritarian axis, leaving Beijing diplomatically more isolated, they said.
To China’s relief, Putin didn’t head to Pyongyang straight from the northern Chinese city of Harbin, just some 460 miles away from the North Korean capital.
On Saturday, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s state news agency, TASS, that arrangements for a visit by the Kremlin leader to North Korea are progressing well. “Preparations for the visit are under way,” Peskov said. He didn’t announce a date for the planned trip.
It couldn’t be determined whether Beijing exerted any pressure on Moscow ahead of Putin’s meetings in China, his first foreign trip after starting a new term earlier this month. But the Chinese side has made clear to the Kremlin that Beijing’s preference is to develop bilateral ties, as opposed to more of a three-way alignment that Russia has previously floated.
Putin Meets Xi in Beijing as Russian Forces Advance in Ukraine
Putin Meets Xi in Beijing as Russian Forces Advance in Ukraine
Play video: Putin Meets Xi in Beijing as Russian Forces Advance in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping reaffirmed ties between Russia and China. Putin is on his first trip abroad since securing a rubber-stamp election victory in March. Photo: Sergei Bobylyov/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
“China is avoiding the optics of a trilateral cooperation among the three countries,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank. “The goal is to avoid being locked in by two unpredictable partners.”
Putin in September accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea. An analyst from the Russian International Affairs Council think tank in Moscow, which has close ties to the Kremlin, wrote in a recent analysis that after the meeting with Xi, the Russian leader “will consider the possibility of visiting a number of other non-Western capitals,” including Pyongyang.
The diplomatic dance among the three countries, which share an interest in dulling the U.S.’s influence in the world, has grown more complicated as Kim has sought to reduce his country’s reliance on China—most dramatically by wooing Putin with public support and weapons for the Russian war effort.
Since Beijing and Moscow declared a “no-limits friendship” just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China and Russia have built on a trade relationship that has become a lifeline to Putin in the face of Western sanctions. Washington and its European allies say China has helped Russia revive its military production by providing it with drone engines and other dual-use material—products Beijing labels as part of its “normal trade.”
Still, facing pressure from the Biden administration, Xi has refrained from offering weapons to Putin, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified on Capitol Hill earlier this month. PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Kim Jong Un, has denied North Korean munitions and missiles are arming the Russian war in Ukraine. PHOTO: KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY/KOREA NEWS SERVICE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
As the Russian war against Ukraine turns into a drawn-out conflict, Putin has instead turned to North Korea to help restock his depleted armory. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told lawmakers earlier this month that North Korea’s munitions and missiles helped the Russians “get back up on their feet.”
Both countries have denied arms exchanges, including a rebuttal from Kim’s sister issued in state media on Friday.
Russia and North Korea have kept Beijing in the dark about what was discussed when Putin and Kim met for a rare summit in the fall, leading Chinese diplomats to ask their Western counterparts about what was agreed between the duo, according to people familiar with the matter.
Beijing worries that Russia might help China’s erratic neighbor build up its nuclear capabilities, the people said.
Russian analysts who follow Moscow’s relations with Pyongyang said Kim’s visit to Russia last year was a landmark event that allowed North Korea to overcome its foreign policy isolation and Russia to continue its pivot to the East.
“China is very worried about this new entente,” said Dennis Wilder, a former U.S. intelligence officer and now a fellow at Georgetown University.
Wilder noted that Beijing, while not willing to try to slow the Kim regime’s missile or satellite launches, has appeared to weigh in to persuade Pyongyang to hold back from conducting another nuclear test. “China wants a North Korea that presents a latent threat in Northeast Asia while maintaining the status quo,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met last fall in a visit to Russia’s main spaceport. PHOTO: ARTYOM GEODAKYAN/SPUTNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il greeted Russian President Vladimir Putin after Putin arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea, in 2000. Putin was the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit the Stalinist state. PHOTO: REUTERS
Putin last visited Pyongyang in 2000 when he went for discussions with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, in a trip that was telegraphed by Moscow as demonstrating to the West the reluctance of the Kremlin to join the collective ostracizing of North Korea. On that trip, Putin traveled directly to Pyongyang from Beijing.
Analysts who follow Russian-North Korean relations say Kim has to tread carefully because he needs to preserve ammunition stocks for the defense of his own nation should there be an all-out war on the Korean Peninsula. But Kim is eager to have Putin in his corner, as a possible resource for improving his missile and nuclear programs, the analysts said.
“Broadly speaking they have immediate desires of each other,” Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the global policy think tank and research institute Rand, said of Putin and Kim. “So it is, I think, a quid pro quo, if you want to look at it through the lens of the war in Ukraine and the lens of what North Korea wants to do vis-à-vis South Korea and Japan and the U.S.”
One reason why Xi didn’t want Putin to add Pyongyang to his itinerary following his trip to China lies with Beijing’s strategic intention to prevent China from being grouped into an axis that could deepen a demarcation in geopolitics—particularly in Northeast Asia, with China, Russia and North Korea on one side and Japan, South Korea and the U.S. on the other.
It is little secret in either Beijing or Pyongyang that the relationship between Xi and Kim is less trusting than the ties previous Chinese leaders had with Kim’s father, who was more intent on maintaining stability while challenging the West. The younger Kim since coming to power in 2011 has carried out more than triple the number of missile tests than his father and grandfather combined.
Those kinds of activities make China nervous because Beijing is eager to maintain the strategic buffer zone in North Korea in relation to South Korea, which is aligned with the U.S. and Japan. To do this, Beijing needs stability.
But Kim looks like he is more willing “to rock the boat” than his father, which worries Beijing, Rand’s Grossman said.
During Putin’s latest visit to China, he and Xi issued a joint statement with a relatively lengthy section accusing the U.S. of escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The statement urged Washington to “abandon intimidation, sanctions and suppression” of North Korea.
The Chinese and Russian leaders also pledged to intensify their cooperation. Andrew Belousov, the new Russian defense minister, was with Putin on this trip, which analysts say signaled military cooperation likely was at the top of the Russian’s leader’s agenda. In recent months, Moscow has spoken of the benefits of stepping up joint military exercises between the two countries.
For Moscow, what Pyongyang can provide beyond the war in Ukraine is limited, and strengthening the bilateral relationship with Beijing for economic support will be much more valuable to Putin, said John Everard, a former U.K. ambassador to North Korea and Belarus.
“North Korea is not a priority for Putin,” Everard said. “North Korea is just having a wild fling with Russia.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin left a concert last Thursday marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between their two countries. PHOTO: ALEXANDER RYUMIN/PRESS POOL
Dasl Yoon contributed to this article
Write to Lingling Wei at Lingling.Wei@wsj.com, Ann M. Simmons at ann.simmons@wsj.com and Timothy W. Martin at Timothy.Martin@wsj.com
2. Putin briefed on tourist exchanges with N. Korea, prep for visit under way: Kremlin
It will be interesting to see how north Korea, Russia, and China spin a Putin- Kim summit in Pyongyang.
Putin briefed on tourist exchanges with N. Korea, prep for visit under way: Kremlin | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Yoo Jee-ho · May 19, 2024
SEOUL, May 19 (Yonhap) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on tourist exchanges between Moscow and Pyongyang and preparations for his visit to North Korea are underway, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian news agency TASS on Saturday (local time) quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, "Preparations for the visit are proceeding at their own pace."
Putin has not visited North Korea since July 2000.
TASS also reported that Alexander Kozlov, the environment minister for Moscow, who is leading an intergovernmental commission on cooperation with North Korea, touted the growing popularity of tourist exchanges between the two countries during his meeting with Putin earlier Saturday.
In this Kremlin photo published by EPA, Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Minister of Emergency Situations of Russia Alexander Kurenkov and Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov in Moscow on May 18, 2024. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
According to TASS, Kozlov said: "We have big plans with our Korean comrades. We have recently executed some of them. There has been a good exchange of tourist groups."
Kozlov also informed the president that the Moscow Zoo and ballet dancers had recently visited North Korea and the countries were discussing plant breeding.
When Putin asked him about future plans, Kozlov replied, "We have plans to continue this work," according to TASS.
However, Peskov told TASS that Putin's meeting with Kozlov was not related to the preparations for Putin's trip to North Korea.
During his visit to Russia in September, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invited Putin to come to Pyongyang. Then in January, North Korea Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui met Putin in Moscow, and her office later said Putin had expressed his willingness to visit North Korea at an early date.
In February, Alexander Matsegora, the Russian ambassador to North Korea, said in media interviews that preparations were ongoing for joint documents to be signed by the two countries during Putin's visit to North Korea.
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Yoo Jee-ho · May 19, 2024
3. N.K. delegation returns home from visit to Russia's Far East
Did they create more opportunities for Kim Jong Un's slave laborers to work in Russia?
N.K. delegation returns home from visit to Russia's Far East | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by CHANG JAE SUN · May 19, 2024
SEOUL, May 19 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean delegation from the country's border city of Rason has returned home after a weeklong visit to Russia's Far East, state media reported Sunday.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the delegation led by the chief of the Rason Municipal People's Committee arrived back home on Saturday. The delegation had left for the trip on May 12.
The one-sentence dispatch did not provide further details, but the delegation is believed to have discussed resuming passenger train service between the two sides.
Last week, Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Russia's northeastern region of Primorsky Krai, said after a meeting with the North's delegation that passenger trains connecting Vladivostok to the North are set to resume after years of a COVID-19 pandemic-related suspension.
Rason, which borders Russia and China, is a logistics hub designated as a special city by the North. A railway connects the border city to Khasan, Russia, which is then linked to Vladivostok through Russian rail service.
Freight and passenger rail services connecting Rason and Khasan had been suspended since the outbreak of the pandemic, but trains for cargo shipments resumed in November 2022.
Experts voiced concerns that if the passenger rail services reopen, North Korea may start to dispatch its workers to Russia's Far East, which is banned under U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions. Moscow is believed to be suffering from a shortage of labor due to its war with Ukraine.
This Sept. 11, 2023, Kyodo photo shows a railway bridge connecting Khasan, Russia, to North Korea's border area. (Yonhap)
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by CHANG JAE SUN · May 19, 2024
4. U.S. military commander in S. Korea during Gwangju uprising dies
This did not make much of a ripple in the US media.
The General's legacy has an impact on OPCON transition. Many accuse the General of complicity of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command in putting down the uprising in Kwangju. This argument underscores three things; First no nation ever gives up command of its military. Even in October 1950 what then ROK military was supposed to be under the control of MacArthur Syngman Rhee ordered the ROK military to cross the 38th Parallel despite the orders of MacArthur, the US, and the UN. And of course the ROK military complied with President Rhee's order. Inthe case of Kwangju the ROKG was polite in asking for General Wickhams "permission." It coudl still have (and probably would have) deployed the forces without it. Second, the mission of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command is deterrence and defense against north Korea. It has no domestic role or responsibilities. In 1994 this was cleaned up in the new Strategic Directive #2 and the so-called return of "Peacetime OPCON" to the ROK which made the ROK JCS a "force provider" to CFC just as USFK and INDOPACOM are force providers to CFC. Forces are committed to CFC when their national military and command authorities direct. Lastly, if General Wickham had denied the request and ordered ROK forces to remain in place and not deploy to Kwangju what action could have taken to prevent their deployment? How would he have prevented this other than protest to the ROK government? He certainly could not have ordered US forces to prevent the movement of ROK forces. I mention all of this because the truth is the ROK has always maintained its sovereignty and the command of its military. even when forces are OPCON to CFC because the ROKG's national command and military authorities still have authority concerning the employment of the CFC through the Military Committee. All the arguments about OPCON transition being a sovereignty issue are only a result of the lack of knowledge about and understanding of military operations and command relationships.
U.S. military commander in S. Korea during Gwangju uprising dies | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Yoo Jee-ho · May 19, 2024
SEOUL, May 19 (Yonhap) -- Gen. John Adams Wickham Jr., the U.S. military commander in South Korea during the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju, has passed away at age 95.
Legacy.com, a U.S. website providing obituaries and memorials, noted on Friday (local time) that Wickham had died on May 11 in Oro Valley, Arizona.
Wickham was the commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) from 1979 to 1983, a particularly tumultuous period in South Korea.
During Wickham's time here, a military coup led by future President Chun Doo-hwan occurred on Dec. 12, 1979. Then on May 18, 1980, demonstrators in the southwestern city of Gwangju took to the streets to protest against Chun's junta.
This undated file photo provided by CJ Entertainment on June 26, 2007, shows former U.S. Army Gen. John Adams Wickham Jr., also former commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
Amid a bloody crackdown by the South Korean military, Wickham consented to the deployment of the South Korean 20th Army Division in Gwangju in May 1980. In an interview with Yonhap News Agency in 1996, Wickham said his responsibility was to defend South Korea from outside attacks, not to maintain law and order in the country, and added he approved a legitimate request by the South Korean military at the time.
In his 1999 book "Korea on the Brink," detailing his time in South Korea, Wickham wrote that he had told Defense Secretary Harold Brown that the U.S. "must recognize the reality of control by Chun and his associates" and that Washington was "in no position to unhorse Chun and his group."
"While we can work with Chun in shaping political development that is minimally acceptable to the United States, we must recognize the limitations on our leverage and therefore resist adopting actions, which could jeopardize fundamental U.S. security interests in the ROK," Wickham wrote, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.
"We of course know that it is in the U.S. interest to maintain peace and stability in the region, hence we must continue to improve our combined military capability in the face of a North Korean threat, which is growing qualitatively," Wickham continued. "War must be deterred. As a consequence, our leverage with Chun and his group must be largely in areas other than the military."
Wickham walked back some of his comments in 2007, prior to the release of a South Korean film based on the Gwangju uprising, titled "May 18." He sent an email to the film's distributor, CJ Entertainment, claiming that the Chun junta had not informed the U.S. of the use of military force in Gwangju at the time, and that Wickham himself raised issues with high-ranking South Korean officers immediately after he found out.
Wickham, appointed the chief of staff of the U.S. Army in 1983, retired in 1987. He is survived by his wife, Ann Prior Wickham.
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Yoo Jee-ho · May 19, 2024
5. East Tennessee linked to North Korean identity theft scheme involving thousands of IT workers
Two places you do not often see in the same sentence: East Tennessee and north Korea.
East Tennessee linked to North Korean identity theft scheme involving thousands of IT workers
Hannah Moore
wate.com
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (WATE) — A scheme designed to let foreigners do information technology work as if they were actually in the United States has been unraveled by federal investigators. The investigation claimed that Jefferson City was home to one of several “laptop farms” that helped make the scheme possible.
According to court documents, the schemes involved defrauding over 300 U.S. companies using U.S. payment platforms, online job site accounts and proxy computers located in the United States. The Justice Department shared that two people have been arrested and search warrants were executed in Jefferson City, Washington, D.C. and other jurisdictions.
Federal search warrants show a house on King Street and a dorm room inside ‘Burnett Hall’ at Carson-Newman University were searched. Applications for the warrants claim the locations were occupied by Carson-Newman students including a Ukrainian graduate student on a student visa and an undergrad from Colombia who applied for asylum in the U.S.
“Carson-Newman was previously made aware of a federal investigation. Because of the confidential nature of the grand jury process, however, the University was not and has not been permitted to disclose details of the investigation to those outside school administration. Carson-Newman has cooperated with law enforcement officials as the case has moved forward, and, as such, the University defers all other related inquiries to the FBI and the Justice Department.”
Carson-Newman University
In other court documents, the FBI claims a Ukrainian man, Oleksandr Didenko, was creating hundreds of accounts on remote working platforms, complete with stolen identity information to go along with them so that the accounts would seem to be those of IT workers based in the U.S. Didenko was arrested by Polish authorities on May 7 at the request of the United States, which is seeking his extradition from Poland.
As for the laptop farms, investigators said they were places where Didenko set up computers for remote use so the accounts could have U.S. internet addresses. The FBI said Didenko would then rent those computers, accounts and identities through a website called “upworksell.com” which has now been seized. The Justice Department said that the overseas IT workers would then use the false identities to apply for jobs with unsuspecting companies.
Beyond the fraud and identity theft concerns, the Justice Department said some of the users involved were members of a North Korean group that performs contract IT work and funnels the money into weapons programs, evading international sanctions on North Korea in the process.
“The charges in this case should be a wakeup call for American companies and government agencies that employ remote IT workers. These crimes benefitted the North Korean government, giving it a revenue stream and, in some instances, proprietary information stolen by the co-conspirators. The Criminal Division remains firm in its commitment to prosecute complex criminal schemes like this one,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Christina Marie Chapman, 49, of Arizona, was also charged in relation to her alleged participation in a similar scheme. She was arrested on May 15 in Arizona. According to the Justice Department, the overseas IT workers using Didenko’s services were also working with Chapman.
wate.com
6. Powerful diplomacy trumps nuclear weapons for South Korea
Conclusion:
South Korea has the power to diplomatically resolve the security conflicts with North Korea. Rather than pursuing the easiest path for its defense, it should consistently work with its neighboring countries to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons so that the Koreas can construct permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula for future generations.
I would just add my view here:
The only way we are going to see an end to the nuclear program and military threats as well as the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity being committed against the Korean people living in the north by the mafia-like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime is through achievement of unification and the establishment of a free and unified Korea that is secure and stable, non-nuclear, economically vibrant, and unified under a liberal constitutional form of government based on individual liberty, rule of law, and human rights as determined by the Korean people. A free and unified Korea or in short, a United Republic of Korea (UROK).
Although denuclearization of the north remains a worthy goal, it must be viewed as aspirational as long as the Kim family regime remains in power. The conventional wisdom has always been that denuclearization must come first and then unification will follow and that there should be no discussion of human rights out of fear that it would prevent Kim Jong Un from making a denuclearization agreement. Today even a blind man can read the tea leaves and know that Kim Jong Un will not denuclearize despite the fact that his policies have been an abject failure. His political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies completely failed in 2022/2023 because Presidents Yoon and Biden, like their predecessors, refused to make the political and economic concessions he demanded just to come to the negotiating table: namely to remove sanctions. It is time for the U.S and the ROK/U.S. alliance to execute a political warfare strategy that flips the conventional wisdom and seeks unification first and then denuclearization. Everyone must come to the understanding that the only way to end the nuclear program and the human rights abuses is through unification of the Korean peninsula. The ROK and U.S. must continue to maintain the highest state of military readiness to deter war and then adopt a human rights upfront approach, a comprehensive and sophisticated information and influence activities campaign, and focus all efforts on the pursuit of a free and unified Korea- ultimately a United Republic of Korea (UROK).
Powerful diplomacy trumps nuclear weapons for South Korea
The Korea Times · May 19, 2024
By Mitch Shin
Mitch Shin
“Two-thirds of South Korea’s strategic elites do not favor nuclearization of South Korea,” Victor Cha, a senior vice president for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, said in his latest report published by CSIS in April.
The report came out after South Korean domestic polls showed that the majority of South Koreans support the idea of the country developing its own nuclear weapons as a means to deter North Korea’s preemptive nuclear strikes. Possibly, it could be what Washington elites have wanted to see due to the South Korean public’s growing support for the idea, which Washington has opposed for decades since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Since North Korea demonstrated its capabilities to develop advanced nuclear weapons and to conduct nuclear tests, voices consistently boiled over toward the South Korean government to develop its own nuclear weapons. Especially, in the wake of the collapse of U.S.-North Korea nuclear talks and inter-Korean dialogues, South Koreans support the idea of the country having nuclear weapons from a security perspective.
Ironically, unlike the deep-seated objection of Washington elites and policymakers over this idea, one of the figures who could influence former President Donald Trump’s policy on North Korea (if he is re-elected in November) delivered a quite worrisome policy suggestion through his exclusive interview with the South’s Yonhap News Agency.
Elbridge A. Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, said it is unrealistic to expect North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to give up his nuclear weapons, meaning the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is an unrealistic goal.
He also said the U.S. policy on North Korea should be centered on arms control to limit the range of North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missiles — which are believed to be able to target the mainland of the U.S. It is not a welcoming remark for those in Seoul who still believe that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can happen depending on the willingness of the U.S. to resolve the security conflicts on the peninsula.
Delivering a contrasting idea of what the Joe Biden administration officials delivered, he also stressed the necessity of shifting the focus of the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea from North Korea to China.
Although he clearly drew the line that he is not part of Trump’s campaign team so as to prevent readers from misreading his comments as the official stance of Trump on North Korea, his remarks should be noted as the latest poll published by The New York Times on May 13, which shows that Trump is leading in the swing states: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. This means that Trump’s victory in the upcoming U.S. presidential election is not an absurd notion anymore (although he is appearing in trials as the first prosecuted U.S. president in history).
If Trump assumes the presidency again, dramatic changes in the second Trump administration’s policy on North Korea may unfold, considering his latest remarks that South Korea should pay more for the presence of U.S. forces in South Korea.
For those who support the South having nuclear weapons, such views from Trump and his potential aide could be welcoming, as their stance ultimately supports Seoul pursuing nuclear weapons for its own defense. However, South Korea losing its position as a middle-power country whose voice can influence international agendas through its growing soft power by developing nuclear weapons is a nightmare. Such an action will destabilize the Korean Peninsula even further which would be a justifiable excuse for Pyongyang to boost its nuclear and missile development.
South Korea has the power to diplomatically resolve the security conflicts with North Korea. Rather than pursuing the easiest path for its defense, it should consistently work with its neighboring countries to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons so that the Koreas can construct permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula for future generations.
Mitch Shin is an assistant editor at The Diplomat. Shin was a nonresident Korea Foundation fellow at Pacific Forum and a nonresident research fellow at Institute for Security & Development Policy, Stockholm Korea Center.
The Korea Times · May 19, 2024
7. Editorial: N. Korea converts inter-Korean business into weapons factory – their answer to our goodwill
As the kids say today: "Truth."
Editorial: N. Korea converts inter-Korean business into weapons factory – their answer to our goodwill
https://www.chosun.com/english/opinion-en/2024/05/19/V2VL47ENJ5AZ5M5KDP66MSAAOQ/
By The Chosunilbo
Published 2024.05.19. 10:33
Updated 2024.05.19. 11:07
A view of the Peace Car pavilion at the Pyongyang Spring International Product Exhibition
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un’s latest visit to a weapons factory is reported to have been at the Pyeonghwa Motors plant, a once-prominent inter-Korean business. A North Korea expert in the United States made this claim, and evidence has poured in to support it. The South Korean government has reportedly reached the same conclusion.
Pyeonghwa Motors was founded in Nampo, North Korea, by the Unification Church as a joint venture between South and North Korea. Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun visited it during his 2007 visit to North Korea. The Unification Church reportedly pulled out of the venture entirely in 2012. Today, the factory produces new 240-millimeter artillery vehicles. This is the weapon that North Korea is threatening to use to “set Seoul on fire.” It is made in a factory built with South Korean money.
In the past, there have been countless inter-Korean exchange and cooperation projects under various pretenses. Many talks were held, and agreements were adopted. None of them remain now, as the North broke all. They confiscated the entire Nampo Industrial Complex, which Daewoo had invested in during the 1990s. They also expelled South Korean companies from the Kumgangsan and Kaesong Industrial Complex and seized South Korean property. They even blew up the inter-Korean joint liaison office built by the South Korean government in Kaesong. This year, they have declared that South and North Koreans are “not the same people” and stated “no reunification” while burying land mines along the South-North transportation route.
Initially, the ‘Sunshine Policy’—the belief that North Korea would abandon its nuclear weapons and embrace reform if shown goodwill—was naive. It is absurd to rely on Aesop’s fable for a national security strategy. Proponents of this policy were obsessed with the illusion of North Korean cooperation and focused on promoting it. The previous administration deceived the world by touting Kim Jong-un’s willingness to denuclearize when it didn’t exist. The result was the completion of an ICBM capable of striking the U.S. mainland and a tactical nuclear device capable of actually striking South Korea.
In his memoirs, published yesterday, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in wrote that Kim Jong-un told him, “I have no intention of using nuclear weapons. I don’t want my daughter’s generation to have to live with nuclear weapons over their heads.” It seemed as if Moon regretted that he hadn’t been able to solidify Kim Jong-un’s supposed will to denuclearize because he hadn’t shown enough goodwill. However, even as the two leaders were having these conversations, North Korea was accelerating its nuclear and missile programs. Policy toward North Korea must begin with a sober understanding of North Korea’s reality and intentions.
8. ‘Kim desperately wanted to denuclearize,’ Moon writes in memoirs
A memoir or a fantasy? Or was Moon being played by Kim's political warfare strategy?
Or was there a "translation" problem between the north and South Korean dialects?
‘Kim desperately wanted to denuclearize,’ Moon writes in memoirs
koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · May 19, 2024
Ex-president’s assessment of North Korean leader sparks criticism from ruling party
By Kim Arin
Published : May 19, 2024 - 16:15
Former President Moon Jae-in’s memoirs are displayed on a shelf in a bookstore in Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he is keeping nuclear weapons strictly for self-defense and has no intention of actually ever using them, former President Moon Jae-in wrote in his memoir published Saturday.
In his first memoir since his presidential term ended in 2022, Moon recalled Kim in his encounters with him as “expressing, time and time again, that nuclear weapons were only for the purpose of guaranteeing safety and that he has no thoughts of ever using them.”
The former Democratic Party of Korea president, who held bilateral summits with the North Korean leader three times in his first year, said “Kim was desperate in his wish to denuclearize, and he was frustrated by the lack of trust from the US and the international community in his intentions.”
“Kim said he would live without nuclear weapons if he could, and that he wouldn’t want his daughter to live with them either,” he said.
He also described the North Korean leader as “a polite person” and “a leader.”
Moon’s assessment of Kim drew intense criticism from the conservative ruling party.
Na Kyung-won, who won a fifth time as a lawmaker with the People Power Party in the April general election, said in a statement posted on her Facebook that the former president was “acting as a spokesperson for Kim Jong-un.”
She accused Moon of “still having a blind faith in Kim” and “buying into the time-old narrative of the North Korean regime that justifies developing nuclear weapons.”
“Such naivete in a leader is a serious incompetence as well as a grave risk to this country,” she said. “The idea of getting North Korea to give up nuclear weapons by acceding to its needs and wants is mere delusion.”
Ruling party Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo said that based on his memoirs Moon “appears to be oblivious to the failures of his North Korea appeasement policies.”
“Even after the inter-Korean summits, North Korea has been consistently focused on advancing its nuclear capabilities and weakening South Korea and the US’ abilities to deter them,” the lawmaker said in a Facebook statement.
“From his memoirs, we find out why he failed. He did not question Kim when he said he did not intend to use nuclear weapons and took him at his word.”
Another ruling party Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun wrote on his Facebook that Moon “willingly let himself be beguiled by Kim’s lies and ended up aiding his nuclear ambitions.”
“After all, Moon really is to this day Kim Jong-un’s chief spokesman.”
On other world leaders, Moon noted that former US President Donald Trump said the two of them “have ‘great chemistry together.’” He said that Trump told him “several times” that they have “‘the best chemistry.’”
“I know there are negative views of (Trump), but I found him to be a great partner in diplomacy,” he said. “Some find him to be rude and crass, but I appreciated his candor. It’s hard to work with people when you can’t tell what’s on their mind.”
Moon said he found the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to be “not budging in his stance.”
“When you see him, he puts on a nice face and speaks softly, but the moment he turns his back, you realize that you have made no progress at all.”
koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · May 19, 2024
9. Yoon credits closer S. Korea-U.S. ties with helping Buddhist relics return home
Yoon credits closer S. Korea-U.S. ties with helping Buddhist relics return home | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Yoo Jee-ho · May 19, 2024
SEOUL, May 19 (Yonhap) -- With rare 14th-century Buddhist relics having come home from an American museum, President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday credited tighter Seoul-Washington ties with making the return possible.
The celebration of the return of the relics, which are the remains of Buddhist monks from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392), took place in Yangju, some 30 kilometers north of Seoul, with some 4,000 attendees on hand.
President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and first lady Kim Keon Hee pray during a Buddhist ceremony marking the return of the 14th-century Buddhist relics from the United States to South Korea held in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, on May 19, 2024. (Yonhap)
Called "sarira," these remains had been housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for 85 years after apparently being taken out of Korea illegally during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial period. The remains are believed to originate from Hoeam Temple in Yangju, and Sunday's ceremony took place on the lot where the temple once stood.
In February, the Boston museum agreed to return the remains to the Jogye Order, the largest Buddhist sect in South Korea.
Then a delegation of the Jogye Order collected the relics during a Buddhist transfer ceremony held in Boston on April 16. They were unveiled to the media in South Korea three days later.
In his congratulatory address, Yoon said Sunday was a "joyous occasion" for the Korean Buddhist community and the Korean people alike.
"These relics are precious national heritage that represents the legitimacy and doctrines of Korean Buddhism, and it has been a long and arduous process to bring them home," Yoon said. "As South Korea and the United States became closer, it led to the resolution of this issue."
Yoon said the perseverance and hard work by both the Korean people and the government also played a part, with Buddha offering divine protection along the way.
President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and first lady Kim Keon Hee attend a Buddhist ceremony marking the return of 14th-century Buddhist relics from the United States to South Korea held in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, on May 19, 2024. (Yonhap)
"Such protection from Buddha wouldn't have come without prayers and devotion from our people," Yoon added. "Going forward, I will not evade difficult tasks in running the government, no matter how challenging they may be. I will continue to work hard for the people."
First lady Kim Keon Hee accompanied Yoon at the ceremony, her first appearance in a public event since December. Kim did attend an official luncheon with visiting Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and his wife, Pech Chanmony, last week.
Ven. Jinwoo, leader of the Jogye sect, thanked Kim for attending and asked for her continued support for Buddhism in South Korea.
According to Yoon's office, the Jogye Order asked for Kim's presence because she'd played an integral role in bringing the remains home.
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Yoo Jee-ho · May 19, 2024
10. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping Embrace at Beijing, but Will This Marriage of Convenience Blossom Into a Romance?
Interestingly Korea looms large in this article. Donald Kirk sees the connection of north Korea to all of the malign actors even though most of what they do is either under the radar or ignored by most of the press and pundits.
Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping Embrace at Beijing, but Will This Marriage of Convenience Blossom Into a Romance?
They’ve eyed one another with suspicion for centuries, and not so long ago they were exchanging shots across the Amur River in Siberia.
DONALD KIRK
Friday, May 17, 2024
05:58:26 am
nysun.com
Call it a marriage of convenience, but the embrace between the leaders of America’s two Eurasian foes, President Putin and President Xi, raises the question of how long their romance will last.
While the Chinese and Russian dictators, meeting at Beijing, profess the strength of their relationship, they can hardly dispel historic hostilities beneath appearances.
“Russia has every interest in destabilizing NATO,” observed a former Asia director on the National Security Council, Michael Green. “The Chinese are worried that North Korea is not listening to them.”
Those contrasting aims epitomize much deeper differences as outlined by Mr. Green, a key adviser on Asia in the White House for five years during the George W. Bush presidency.
“It’s a tough situation and only benefits North Korea,” Mr. Green, now at the University of Sydney, tells the Sun. “The Russians are firing North Korean shells against the Ukrainians, and the Ukrainians are firing South Korean shells at Russia.”
Presidents Putin and Xi at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, May 16, 2024. Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin pool via AP
So where does that leave China? While Mr. Putin is in Beijing begging Mr. Xi for still more aid, the Chinese president is reluctant to go beyond economic deals – and his own plan for winding down the war.
North Korea, meanwhile, “is not just sending munitions,” said the Rand Corporation’s long-time Asia analyst, Bruce Bennett, at a forum at Seoul sponsored by South Korea’s Asan Institute. “They’re sending their own people to observe the battlefield.”
No matter how deeply Mr. Xi affirms China’s bond to Russia, America and China also “have converging interests,” said a former British diplomat, John Everard, who served as Britain’s ambassador to North Korea from 2006 to 2008.
“China is as concerned as the U.S. about North Korean nuclear tests,” he told the Asan forum. “Pyongyang would like to be able to play China versus” Russia — a reminder of how Pyongyang courted both Beijing and Moscow for aid before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
As long as Russia counts on North Korea for armaments ranging from missiles to artillery shells, Mr. Everard doubts Moscow “is exercising any restraint” over the North’s nuclear ambitions. By contrast, “China has imposed real constraints,” he said, dissuading North Korea’s Kim Jong-un from ordering any nuclear tests since 2017.
China and Russia have grown closer in recent years, as seen in their united opposition in the Security Council to American attempts to impose new sanctions on North Korea, but they’ve eyed one another with suspicion for centuries. In the 1960s and 1970s, they were exchanging shots across the Amur River in Siberia.
“Despite these areas of convergence, Russia and China are also driven apart by historical animosities,” writes a senior fellow of the Asia Society, Philipp Ivanov. “Their partnership is regularly tested by a lack of strategic trust, divergent foreign policy agendas, and power asymmetry.”
The suspicion with which China views Russia is clear from the irony of the Chinese agreeing to top-level meetings with North Korea’s arch enemies before and after the Xi-Putin summit.
South Korea’s foreign minister, Cho Tae-yul, was in Beijing this week to see his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. More incredibly, South Korea’s President Yoon is hosting a “trilateral summit” of the leaders of Japan and China at Seoul on May 26.
No, Mr. Xi won’t be there. He’s sending his premier, Li Qiang, technically his equal in rank, to meet not only Mr. Yoon but also Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida. Mr. Li will be certain to say exactly what Mr. Xi wants as all three affirm their commitment to peace and get down to sorting out sensitive economic issues.
Meanwhile, Mr. Putin is expected again to display his infatuation with Mr. Kim, who agreed to shower him with weapons when they met at the Cosmodrome by the Amur River in September.
Mr. Putin “will be going back to North Korea for another summit,” predicts the senior fellow for North Korea at the Council on Foreign Relations, Sue Mi Terry. “North Korea has complete impunity. For the foreseeable future, there’s a convergence of interests between Russia, China and North Korea.”
nysun.com
11.
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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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