Month: May 2019

I guessed that the North Koreans would next fire short range missiles and sure enough they did:

North Korea fired two apparent short-range missiles on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, less than a week after the communist state launched a missile into the sea off its east coast.
The move threatened to raise tensions as the main U.S. envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, was visiting Seoul in an effort to get stalled nuclear talks with the North back on track.
South Korea’s presidential office expressed concern about the launches, saying they were “not helpful at all to to efforts to try to improve inter-Korean relations and ease military tension” on the divided peninsula.
“Noth Korea fired two unidentified projectiles estimated to be short-range missiles” in an eastern direction from the northwestern area of Kusong, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but at least the ROK government is now calling these “missiles” instead of “projectiles”:

North Korea fired what were believed to be two short-range missiles on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, just five days after the communist nation launched a barrage of projectiles into the East Sea.
The projectiles were fired from the northwestern area of Kusong in an easterly direction, one of them at 4:29 p.m. and the other at 4:39 p.m., and flew about 420 kilometers and 270 km, respectively, with their altitude reaching around 50 km, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, adding they splashed into the East Sea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link. I don’t expect the Kim regime to move up and fire an Intermediate Range Missile and especially and Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile until talks with the U.S. have basically collapsed. Testing those two weapons is clearly directed at the United States since IRBMs are used to target Guam and ICBMs the US mainland, Alaska, and Hawaii.

If the North Koreans want to increase tensions further look for them to start firing missiles closer to Japan’s territorial waters or even eventually into them.

Here is a good article about the history of L.A.’s Koreatown:

The 2.7 square miles known as Koreatown is a happy mix of flashing neon lights, nondescript office buildings that house innovative restaurants and dark nightclubs, and eclectic shops in old Art Deco buildings papered with signs written in hangul. The densely packed neighborhood is home to more than 120,000 residents, around 20 percent of Korean heritage. And even though the majority of its population is Latino, Koreatown—the first and most famous Koreatown in the U.S.—retains a distinctly Korean air. As Helen Lee, daughter of Koreatown’s late founder Hi Duk Lee, says: “It’s the best Koreatown outside of Korea.”

The story of Koreans in America starts in the late 19th century. A slow trickle of exiled social reformers had arrived in San Francisco in the 1880s. According to Los Angeles’s Koreatown, in 1902, philosopher, activist and political dissident Chang Ho Ahn and his wife, Hye Ryeon (Helen), became the first married Korean couple to come to America. In January 1903, the SS Gaelic arrived in Hawaii, bringing around 100 Korean immigrants fleeing famine and political turmoil. After the Japanese formally annexed Korea in 1910, more Koreans, including students, picture brides, and political refugees, immigrated to America, settling in San Francisco, before migrating down to Southern California to work in farming communities such as Riverside and Claremont.
Chang Ho Ahn, now the leader of the Korean independence movement and founder of the Korean National Association, eventually settled with his young family in a large, rambling Victorian house at 106 North Figueroa Avenue on Bunker Hill in Downtown LA. According to Katherine Yungmee Kim, historian and author of Los Angeles’s Koreatown and senior communication editor at the Koreatown Youth and Community Center, a small Korean enclave of around 300 people grew up around the house. 
“The first community was in Bunker Hill,” Kim says. “That’s where the Methodist Mission was, and that’s where Chang Ho Ahn’s family house was. That family house was hugely important. It was sort of a rooming house, a consulate, job training—everything all in one place for the community.”

Curbed

You can read more at the link.

… and — this cannot be stressed enough — prevents people from growing & selling their own food. https://t.co/2vZ0H2vA8I

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 8, 2019

It looks like the Moon administration has gotten President Trump to agree to allow South Korea to send tribute to Kim Jong-un:

South Korea made it official that it wants to offer food aid to North Korea despite the Kim Jong-un regime’s weekend military test, following a phone conversation between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump. 

The Ministry of Unification said Wednesday that the government will cooperate closely with the international community to push humanitarian food assistance to the North. The announcement by ministry spokesman Lee Sang-min followed an earlier Blue House briefing about Moon and Trump’s discussion of the issue in a phone conversation Tuesday night Seoul time. 

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Wednesday he will call a meeting with ministry officials to follow through on the discussion between Moon and Trump. “We will review the issue comprehensively and make an announcement,” Kim said at the inter-Korean border as he returned from a visit to Kaesong. “When a specific plan is created, we will tell the press.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I have said repeatedly that North Korea does not need food aid. There are hungry people in North Korea because the Kim regime keep them undernourished. If they can afford ICBMs and nuclear weapons, the Kim regime can definitely afford to buy food if they wanted to. Better yet North Korea recently purchased $640 million in luxury goods from China.

The regime is using their typical provocation playbook to extract concessions from South Korea and the international community. If history is any indication the food aid will be considered tribute from the imperialists to the Kim regime and then mostly given to the military and regime elite. The regime elite will then blackmarket what they don’t use to the people in North Korea to further drain them of what little money they may have.

Who knows what happened at this location?:

2019 Korea Finder Leaders Board

1. Comfortable Chairs – 3
2. Smokes – 1, BMW – 1

….of additional goods sent to us by China remain untaxed, but will be shortly, at a rate of 25%. The Tariffs paid to the USA have had little impact on product cost, mostly borne by China. The Trade Deal with China continues, but too slowly, as they attempt to renegotiate. No!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2019

Does anyone think that the Kim regime takes anything from the ROK government seriously right now?

The South Korean Defense Ministry has urged North Korea to stop heightening military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

In the wake of North Korea’s short-range missile test and artillery exercises this past Saturday, ministry spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo addressed the situation without specifically describing the military move as a missile launch.

[Sound bite: Defense Ministry Spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo (Korean)] 
“North Korea’s launch of multiple projectiles partially goes against the purpose of the (inter-Korean) military agreement and we are very concerned. We urge North Korea to cease actions that heighten military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the bullying tactics from Beijing is having results against Canada:

 Canada is leaning on the United States to help settle a dispute with China, which has started to block imports of vital Canadian commodities amid a dispute over a detained Huawei executive.
In a sign of increasing frustration at what it sees as a lackluster U.S. response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is signaling it could withhold cooperation on major issues.
China has upped the pressure on Canada in recent weeks over the arrest of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, arrested last December on a U.S. warrant. It halted Canadian canola imports and last week suspended the permits of two major pork producers.
After Meng’s Vancouver arrest, Chinese police also detained two Canadian citizens.
Beijing is refusing to allow a Canadian trade delegation to visit, forcing officials to use video conference calls as they try to negate a major threat to commodity exports.
With no cards to play against China without risking significant economic damage, Canada has launched a full-court press in Washington, which is negotiating its own trade deal with Beijing.
The results have been meager. 
“It’s a very challenging situation. When we raise it with the Americans they just say, ‘Dealing with the Chinese is tough’,” said a Canadian government source.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.