Moon says #SouthKorea can trade rice for #NorthKorea's coal, raw material, rare earths. But coal, titanium, iron, gold, nickel, etc are all banned. But he already violated sanctions by importing #NK coal, providing oil to #NK, etc, w no consequences. So he'll press on. https://t.co/dCL5dzgK6x
This report makes me wonder if there is a arms for petroleum agreement going on between North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China?:
North Korea has reportedly sold arms and military equipment to Middle East countries in violation of the United Nations sanctions.
The Wall Street Journal issued the report on Saturday citing a secret report by experts monitoring UN sanctions against the regime.
The UN experts said in the report that they found new evidence of the North’s arms smuggling and illegal financial transactions.
The panel said that the evidence showed North Korea sold tanks, ballistic missiles and rocket-propelled grenades to Yemen’s Houthi insurgents and other entities via a Syrian arms smuggler.
The UN report said that North Korean arms experts had visited a munitions factory in Syria multiple times. It added that the North’s imports of petroleum products surged on the routes involving Russian and Chinese vessels. [KBS World Radio]
Just like President Trump is claimed in Woodward’s book to have been exploring the ordering of a preemptive strike on North Korea, what is the big deal if he was likewise exploring the option of removing dependents from South Korea?
Woodward writes that Trump even proposed sending a tweet declaring that he was ordering all U.S. military dependents out of South Korea, an act that would likely be read in North Korea as a signal that the United States was preparing for war.
The tweet never went out.
On Dec. 3, after another North Korean ICBM test, Sen. Lindsay Graham advocated removing U.S. troops’ families from South Korea in an interview. The book says that, the following day, McMaster was informed that Ri Su-yong, a vice chairman of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee and director of the committee’s International Affairs Department, told intermediaries “that the North would take the evacuation of U.S. civilians as a sign of imminent attack.”
Hence, withdrawing the dependents of American troops should be “one of the last cards to play,” and the possible tweets were described by Woodward as having “scared the daylights out of the Pentagon leadership,” Defense Secretary James Mattis and Dunford.
Graham, in a change of heart, was said to have advised Trump in a phone call in January that a decision to withdraw U.S. troops’ families is “hard to go back” on, and that it would “rock the South Korean stock market and the Japanese economy.” When asked by Trump if he should delay such an evacuation, Graham, who has been a hard-liner on the North, was quoted as telling him, “I don’t think you should ever start this process unless you’re ready to go to war.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
If what is discussed in Woodward’s book is true, Trump like many people not familiar with the situation, may have thought removing dependents would be a good idea to make sure a preemptive strike option could be executed if needed. Clearly his aides and Senator Graham advised him otherwise of the difficulties and ramifications of removing dependents from South Korea and the President decided otherwise.
If the autopsy shows the girl died from alcohol poisoning I would hope these two are charged with at least manslaughter:
An arrest warrant is being sought against two high schoolers on charges of allegedly raping a high school girl, Saturday, the police said. The girl was found dead afterwards.
According to the Yeonggwang Police in South Jeolla Province, two 17 year-old students surnamed Jung and Baek raped the victim, 16, in a motel room in Yeonggwang county on Thursday.
It was between 2:10 a.m and 4:15 a.m. when the two left the crime scene. The victim was later found dead by the owner of the motel who came in to clean up the room, around 4 p.m. that day.
According to the police, Jung and Baek had planned to commit sexual assault after they got the girl drunk in a “drinking game.” They had known the girl since childhood. [Korea Times]
At best, a conduit for N Korean diktat & S Korean self-censorship. More likely a cradle of comingling coffers for coddling Kim, dodging sanctions, & breeding anti-US, anti-Japanese sentiment. https://t.co/9Qz4i5rRB3
Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko, head of the Russian Federation Council, leaves Pyongyang on Sept. 10, 2018, after attending North Korea’s founding day celebration a day earlier in this photo from the North’s Korean Central News Agency. The media outlet released a series of photos showing foreign guests leaving after attending the ceremony. (Yonhap)
Hanna Kim, a Korean-American, lays flowers at a monument built in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Sept. 15, 2018, to commemorate the successful Incheon landing operation led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, then commander of the U.S.-led U.N. forces during the Korean War. She and other young Korean-Americans launched the “Remember 727” project in which the numbers indicate the month and day when the war ended. This photo was provided by Kim (Yonhap)
It will be interesting to see how many more requests General Brooks will be receiving from the Moon administration to send materials across the border:
Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of United Nations Command and the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) at an event in Seoul on Wednesday / Yonhap
The U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) authorized South Korea vehicles and personnel to cross the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) to support construction of communication infrastructure that will be used in inter-Korean business projects.
“Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, Commander of United Nations Command, authorized vehicles and personnel from the Republic of Korea to cross the Military Demarcation Line today in the eastern transportation corridor to support construction of communication infrastructure to be used between the Republic of Korea and North Korea,” said the UNC press release, Thursday.
“The approval allows more material than what is needed to repair communication lines, and will result in the construction of a communication building.” [Korea Times]
It appears that Ambassador Harris is going to need to start packing a gun to protect himself after reading this article:
Habib House is the U.S. ambassador’s residence in downtown Seoul. Yonhap
What if it had been a terrorist?
That must be what crossed the mind of U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris.
About 10 p.m. on Sept. 3, an intruder was caught prowling Habib House, the U.S. ambassador’s residence in downtown Seoul.
It is said Harris is not happy with the intrusion and the lack of adequate follow-up measures by Korean police.
The intruder proved to be a Korean-Chinese woman who arrived in Korea two days before the break-in.
When discovered in the house, she was reportedly speaking incoherently and making an unfounded claim that she was a relative of former President Lee Myung-bak, now in jail and being tried for corruption while in office, among other things.
It couldn’t be confirmed whether the ambassador was at home when the intrusion happened. But he is said to be upset about what could have happened if the woman was an IS terrorist trained to harm him.
He is said to be dissatisfied with the Korean police response, not even offering written assurances promising no repetition of a similar incident.
The Namdaemun police station, which is handling the case, told The Korea Times that the suspect was released 48 hours after the incident and it was no big deal.
“Breaking in and entering is not a serious crime,” a police officer said. “By law we could hold the woman for 48 hours. So we released her.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but based on the police response to this incident, any crazy leftist could break into the US ambassador’s house to launch a protest against the Trump administration’s North Korea policies with no consequences.
What makes this matter even worse is that the prior US ambassador Mark Lippert was brutally knifed in the face by inadequate Korean security.
