Author: GIKorea

I don’t think the North Koreans have to worry about giving up their nuclear science when few people think they will ever actually denuclearize in the first place:

North Korea will not give up its nuclear science even in the event of denuclearization, the country’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said, according to Iranian media reports.

Speaking in Tehran, Thursday, Ri speculated the U.S. will remain hostile toward North Korea even after their leaders held a summit in June and said his country needs a safeguard.

Ri, who arrived in Iran on Tuesday, made his remarks as Pyongyang and Washington accuse each other of dragging their feet in implementing the agreement reached at the summit on the North’s denuclearization.

His remarks also came after the government of U.S. President Donald Trump issued a fresh round of nuclear sanctions against Iran, Tuesday.

The Trump administration previously broke the 2015 nuclear deal among Iran and the six major powers _ the U.S., China, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and Germany. The Tuesday sanctions heightened Iran’s distrust toward the U.S. nuclear policy.  [Korea Times]

For the Korea Times’ benefit I will need to educate them on the Iran Nuclear Deal.  The deal was never ratified by the US Senate which means all it was, was a personal promise from then President Barack Obama to the Iranians.  He is no longer the President which means the current President is not obligated to keep Obama’s personal promise.  The Iranians and the six other nations involved with this deal all knew this, but figured Hillary Clinton would be the next President, thus keeping the deal in place for an extended timeframe.

That is why I have always said that any denuclearization agreement reached with North Korea should be ratified by the Senate because then the US is obligated by treaty to follow it.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

#breaking Warning from North Korea: “high-level officials within the U.S. administration are making baseless allegations against us and…intensifying international sanctions… there is no guarantee that the hard-won atmosphere of stability on the Korean Peninsula will continue” pic.twitter.com/sEhPkJOPRD

— Will Ripley (@willripleyCNN) August 10, 2018

Jenny Jin of the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency speaks in an interview with Yonhap in Washington on Aug. 8, 2018. The forensic scientist of Korean descent is in charge of identifying the remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War repatriated by North Korea. (Yonhap)

It looks like President Moon and Kim Jong-un need to have another meeting to determine their next step to get around sanctions since the Trump administration will not drop them for little to nothing in return as they had hoped:

The two Koreas have agreed to hold high-level talks Monday to prepare for another summit between their leaders, even as nuclear talks between the North and the United States have stalled.

Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon will lead the South Korean delegation to the meeting on the northern side of the truce village of Panmunjom, which straddles the heavily fortified border, the ministry said Thursday.

The North offered to hold the talks but has yet to announce its chief delegate, a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy. The two sides planned to discuss preparations for another summit as well as review the implementation of agreements made during the first one on April 27.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met again in a more informal summit in late May. Both of those meetings – which were the first inter-Korean summits in more than a decade – were held in Panmunjom.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

The Kim regime is not going to let this issue go:

North Korea reiterated its demand Thursday for the United States to agree to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, saying that it would help bring in peace and create mutual trust.

Declaring an end to the Korean War is “the demand of our time” and will be the “first process” toward a peace and security guarantee, the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, said in a commentary.

The newspaper added that it is “abnormal” to see distrust and animosity going on between the North and the U.S. even now, saying that it is time to take action toward declaring an end to the war.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime wants to end the Korean War and get a peace treaty signed because then that would justify demands to withdraw USFK from the peninsula.  With the end of the US-ROK alliance the ROK and North Korea can move forward with their confederation idea which will essentially lead to unification on the Kim regime’s terms.

However, the Trump administration has made it clear that no peace treaty will be offered until real denuclearization happens.  Over the coming year I guess we will see who blinks first.

If true this is far from #CVID touted by many US officials (to which #DPRK has never agreed anyway). https://t.co/bWsKaMQpxt

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 8, 2018

This photo released by the Seoul Historiography Institute on Aug. 8, 2018, shows orphans in Seoul during the Korean War. (Yonhap)

President Moon’s approval rating is still very high at 58%, but it has dropped nearly 20 points in the past three months which has to be worrying:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating dipped to a record low of 58 percent, the first time the president’s popularity fell below the 60 percent level since he took office in May 2017.

In a poll conducted by Realmeter between Monday and Wednesday of 1,507 adults nationwide, support for Moon declined by 5.2 percentage points to 58 percent from 63.2 percent a week earlier amid controversy over minimum wage hikes that have hurt small business owners and seemingly depressed new hiring across the country.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder what President Moon’s approval rating will be once the Kim regime reneges on its promise to denuclearize?

The intelligence the US had must have been indisputable because the ROK government is now admitting that they did in fact allow in shipments of North Korean coal:

South Korea received 6.6 billion won ($5.86 million) worth of North Korean coal and pig iron, of which the country of origin was fabricated, the nation’s customs agency said, Friday.

Cheong Wa Dae said there is no conflict between South Korea and the U.S. regarding the issue as the two countries are coordinating closely with mutual trust.

According to the Korea Customs Service (KCS), three South Korean importers brought in 35,038 tons of North Korean coal and pig iron from April through October last year.

They turned out to have used a Russian port as a transit hub, fabricating the materials as Russian coal. They brokered exports of North Korean goods to other countries via Russia, and got North Korean coal as a commission. (……..)

There is concern the confirmation may negatively affect South Korea’s alliance with the United States as well as its relations with North Korea.

“Though the United States has been moving to improve ties with North Korea, engaging in talks, it has been continuing pressure,” said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

Washington has been firm that sanctions should be maintained until North Korea takes concrete steps for denuclearization.

“As it turned out that South Korea, which is a U.S. ally, violated the sanctions, there will be negative effects,” he said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but remember these are the violations that have been provable, I have to wonder what else has been going on in violation of UN sanctions?