Neither Seoul nor Pyongyang will pass up this opportunity to reinforce "Uri minjok kkiri" (By the Korean People Exclusively) kinship vs foreign imperialists of the past & imagined present. Pyongyang's narrative will be more restrained, as Kim Il Sung was all of 7 yrs-old in 1919. https://t.co/5XaMfniT7F
— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) January 11, 2019
Here is the latest on a second Trump-Kim summit:
United States President Donald Trump has reportedly proposed holding the second summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in mid-February in Vietnam.
KBS World Radio
Quoting a source familiar with the matter, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported on Sunday that North Korea is reviewing the U.S. proposal and has yet to give a formal response.
The report said that Indonesia and Mongolia are also being mentioned as possible candidates, but Vietnam is actually being considered as a venue.
Yomiuri said the focus of the second summit, if held, would be how the two sides will reach agreement on the North’s steps for denuclearization and the corresponding measures by the United States.
It seems to me that Kim Jong-un would only show up to this summit if he felt that he is going to get something he wants like dropping sanctions for little to nothing in return. I guess we will see what happens.
I wonder how long it will be before these F-35’s are in a photo op flying over Dokdo?:
South Korea will acquire two stealth fighters from the United States in late March, allowing the country to fly the latest fifth-generation aircraft in the world, sources said Sunday.
Korea Times via a reader tip
The two F-35A jets will arrive in Seoul, and they will likely be assigned to combat units that defend the country starting in April or May, several insiders familiar with the matter said.
South Korea has agreed to purchase 40 F-35As in a 2014 contract. The jets are designed to evade detection and have the latest electronics suite that can allow them to be effective even in well defended airspace. A single plane is reportedly priced at around 120 billion won (US$107.5 million). Korea may buy 20 additional F-35s as the Air Force has requested more assets.
You can read more at the link.
I have maintained that the USFK cost sharing talks will likely only be resolved as part of a North Korea denuclearization deal. If President Trump signs a peace treaty to end the Korean War and drops sanctions on North Korea, the Moon administration will likely give him what he wants on the cost sharing deal:
As Seoul and Washington are currently deadlocked in negotiations to renew their bilateral defense cost-sharing agreement, the next level of talks will likely happen at a higher level.
Joong Ang Ilbo
“An 11th round of [the current] talks likely won’t be scheduled,” a high-level Korean government official told reporters Thursday. “Instead, it may be negotiated at a higher level.”
On the possibility of the deal on sharing the cost of stationing of U.S. troops in Korea then being negotiated between Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump, the official said, “all possibilities are open.”
Since last March, Seoul and Washington have been negotiating the renewal of the bilateral Special Measures Agreement (SMA), a multiyear cost-sharing deal under the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, to maintain the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).
Chang Won-sam has led the Korean delegation for the 10th SMA, while the U.S. delegation has been led by Timothy Betts, acting deputy assistant secretary for plans, programs and operations at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
The tenth round of talks took place mid-December, but the two sides failed to narrow their differences before the current deal expired on Dec. 31. As the two sides have been unable to resolve their differences, diplomatic sources have indicated that the issue now needs to be solved by the two leaders.
The government official, however, said that “various channels of negotiations for the cost-sharing deal are being considered,” including between ambassadors, the Blue House National Security Office and White House National Security Council, as well as between South Korea’s foreign minister and U.S. secretary of state.
You can read more at the link.
This is so anti-Black and imperialist, I can't even. In fact, I'd argue that K-pop, esp the inclusion of rap, is in many ways Koreans adapting Black musical forms as a reaction to their own experiences with racist colonial oppression by Japan. https://t.co/RL1b3ffpxS
— Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🙅🏽♀️ 🇧🇧🌈 (@IBJIYONGI) January 9, 2019
This is all an attempt by the Moon administration to deflect criticism from conservative critics in South Korea and the US:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is well aware that the United States Forces Korea (USFK) will continue to be stationed in the South despite his ongoing efforts for the regime’s denuclearization, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a televised New Year’s press conference, Thursday.
Korea Times
“Kim Jong-un clearly understands the North’s denuclearization has nothing to do with the presence of the USFK in the South, viewing its existence as part of the security alliance between Seoul and Washington,” Moon said.
The remark came amid lingering concerns that North Korea may demand the withdrawal of the USFK in the future, as it will be difficult for the South to justify U.S. troops’ continuing presence here after the possible declaration of the end to the 1950-53 Korean War.
You can read more at the link, but the rhetoric of ending the Korean War has been going on for months because the Kim regime wants the peace treaty in order to challenge the legitimacy of the military presence in South Korea. If there is peace why is USFK needed?
President Moon is saying all the right things that USFK will remain after any peace treaty is signed, to include claiming Kim Jong-un understands this as well. However, this is likely just rhetoric to prevent energizing South Korean conservatives against a peace treaty.
Remember Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down. If he openly advocated for a USFK withdrawal, that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces. That is why I think the Moon administration will publicly say they support USFK staying, but will then have surrogates do things to make life difficult for USFK.
Possibly the future of USFK after a peace treaty could look a lot like the current THAAD site in Seongju. President Moon will say all the right things that he supports USFK, just like he supposedly supports the THAAD site, but will set conditions to make it difficult for its continued existence and cause the US to withdraw troops on its own accord.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
