Via a reader tip comes news of another example of how Asian-Americans continue to grow in importance in American society:
The growth of the Asian-American community since the turn of the century has been reflected in all professional and social areas of life in the U.S., not least the armed forces.
In recent years, Americans of Asian background have been signing up for the military in growing numbers, and, in 2016, they were 28% more likely to be among the officer ranks than they were 12 years earlier.
The change was more pronounced in certain branches of the military than others. The number of Asian-American officers in the army, for example, grew by 41%. That compares with growth of just 4% for ethnic minorities overall and a 3.1% decline among African Americans. [Nikkei Asian Review]
Prominent North Korean defector Thae Yong-ho who is also a candidate for the most hated person by South Korean leftists who they haven’t put in jail yet, has started his own English language blog. In his recent posting he discusses how Kim Jong-un has no intention to denuclearize and is strengthening the Anti-Imperialist Education within North Korea against South Korea:
Thae Yong-ho
The reality is that when North Korea’s Kim Jong-un came out to the inter-Korean Summit and US-North Korean Summit, he had no intention of giving up his nuclear weapons. It was simply a way to earn time to hold onto his survival by putting on a ‘show’ of pretending to be interested in denuclearization.
While Kim Jong-un thinks that as long as he is in possession of nuclear weapons he will be able to continue the hereditary rule of the Kim family, in actuality, as long as North Korea has nuclear weapons it will not be treated as a ‘normal state.’ In fact the nuclear weapons will be the malignant tumour that leads to the collapse of the North Korean system.
At this moment in time, South Korean citizens are delighted at the start to an era of forgiveness and cooperation between the two Koreas and think that through these inter-Korean exchanges, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un will change.
However, while Kim Jong-un is pretending to be interested in inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation on the outside; internally, he is intensifying the ‘Anti-Imperialist Education’ and warning his people about getting swept away with the exchange and cooperations with South Korea. [Thae Yong-ho]
North Korea repatriated a South Korean citizen Tuesday through the border village of Panmunjom in a “positive humanitarian” move, Seoul’s unification ministry said.
In a message to Seoul a day earlier, Pyongyang claimed the 34-year-old, identified only by his surname Suh, illegally entered the country on July 22.
On Monday, the North’s Red Cross informed the South of a plan to send him back, and Seoul accepted the offer.
The North repatriated Suh via Panmunjom at 11 a.m. as scheduled, a ministry official told reporters.
He is under investigation by the South’s authorities into why and how he entered the North. He left for China before July 22, an informed source said.
The government views the North’s repatriation of Suh as “positive from a humanitarian perspective,” the official added.
But six South Korean nationals, including three missionaries, are still detained in the communist nation. [Yonhap]
It is interesting that President Trump was able to get all the American detainees released, but Moon Jae-in has done nothing to get ROK detainees released.
It appears that China has a new weapon that instead of running people over with tanks, they can now suppress protests by covertly setting people on fire:
China has developed a new portable laser weapon that can zap a target from nearly a kilometre away, according to researchers involved in the project.
The ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle is classified as being “non-lethal” but produces an energy beam that cannot be seen by the naked eye but can pass through windows and cause the “instant carbonisation” of human skin and tissues.
Ten years ago its capabilities would have been the preserve of sci-fi films, but one laser weapons scientist said the new device is able to “burn through clothes in a split second … If the fabric is flammable, the whole person will be set on fire”.
“The pain will be beyond endurance,” according to the researcher who had took part in the development and field testing of a prototype at the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shaanxi province.
The 15mm calibre weapon weighs three kilos (6.6lb), about the same as an AK-47, and has a range of 800 metres, or half a mile, and could be mounted on cars, boats and planes. [South China Morning Post]
You can read more at the link, but considering all the past failures with laser weapons I recommend patience before getting to worried about Chinese soldiers zapping US soldiers into ash.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) tours a catfish farm in Samchon, South Hwanghae Province, in this photo carried on North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Aug. 6, 2018. (Yonhap)
Here we go with yet another report of the Russians violating UN sanctions:
FILE – Piles of coal are seen in the Astafyev Cape area of the far eastern port of Nakhodka, Russia Sept. 5, 2017.
Russia engaged in more extensive oil exports to North Korea than had been previously reported, by setting up an illicit trade network that is likely still being used today to evade United Nations sanctions, according a South Korean research organization.
A recent report issued by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul used Russian customs data to document how “one North Korean state enterprise purchased 622,878 tons of Russian oil worth $238 million,” between 2015 and 2017.”
While China is North Korea’s main oil supplier, the ASAN estimate for Russian oil exports to North Korea is significantly higher than the $25 million in sales for the same period that was reported by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) in Seoul.
“Smuggling has always been an important element in the cross-border trade between North Korea and it’s important allies. What the Chinese government and the Russian government to a lesser extent have been doing is to turn a blind eye to these activities,” said Go Myong-Hyun, a North Korea analyst with the Asan Institute For Policy Studies in Seoul. [Voice of America]
You can read much more of how Russia is aiding North Korea’s efforts to get around UN sanctions at the link.
The Moon administration is now playing defense over the reports of ships carrying North Korean coal being allowed to dock in South Korea:
A Belize-flagged ship, the Jin Long, is docked at a port in Pohang, on South Korea’s east coast, on Aug. 7, 2018. (Yonhap)
The South Korean government on Tuesday dismissed a report that another foreign vessel carrying North Korean coal has entered a southeastern port in the country, potentially in breach of U.N. Security Council sanctions.
VOA, a U.S.-based broadcaster, reported earlier that a Belize-flagged ship, the Jin Long, docked at South Korea’s southeastern port of Pohang on the weekend and is still believed to be at the port. It cited the MarineTraffic vessel locating service.
The ship had been spotted at the Russian port of Nakhodka, along with black materials believed to be North Korean coal, days before arriving in Pohang, it added.
Rep. Yoo Ki-june, a South Korean opposition lawmaker, also said the freighter suspected of carrying 5,100 tons of North Korean coal is anchored at the Pohang port.
South Korea’s foreign ministry confirmed the entry of the ship itself but said it’s carrying Russian coal.
“There has been no confirmation of a violation of the (U.N.) Security Council resolution in an inspection of the ship by related authorities,” the ministry’s spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said at a press briefing. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but of course the documents are going to say it is “Russian coal”. These would not be very good smugglers if they are advertising they are shipping North Korean coal. What are the intelligence agencies saying that it is because they have the assets to determine where the coal actually came from.
This article sent to me via a reader tip is a couple of months old, but it is yet another example of what the Moon administration really want to do with the US-ROK alliance even though officially they will say something different:
Chung In Moon, a special adviser to President Moon Jae In for foreign affairs and national security
A top adviser to South Korea’s president says he would eventually like to see the U.S.–South Korea alliance end. In language that sounded almost Trump-like, Chung In Moon, a special adviser to President Moon Jae In for foreign affairs and national security, said in an interview that alliances in general are a “very unnatural state of international relations” and said that, “for me, the best thing is to really get rid of alliance.” In the meantime, he says, he “strongly” supports “the continued presence of American forces” in Korea, despite hoping for an arrangement that he thinks would better serve his nation’s interests.
It was a remarkable statement coming from a South Korean official who is playing a prominent advisory role in current negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program. South Korea has relied on its U.S. alliance since the 1950s to deter threats from its north—and the fate of that partnership, which North Korea has long sought to end, has been a contentious question as a summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump approaches. U.S. and South Korean officials have repeatedly insisted that the alliance is not a bargaining chip with North Korea. And Moon, who presented his ideas as his personal views, was discussing the future of the alliance as a theoretical question about Asia’s security architecture, not as a matter to be determined in nuclear talks. But his comments nevertheless suggested that if those talks succeed and overhaul geopolitics on the Korean peninsula, the alliance could come due for a reckoning. [The Atlantic]
You can read much more at the link, but President Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down. If he advocated openly 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.
However, if a peace treaty is signed to end the Korean War do not be surprised if the Moon administration allows left wing groups begin to put pressure on the US to withdraw. Think of it as a macro version of the current THAAD issue. The left wing groups have protested and sealed off the THAAD site making life difficult for the soldiers there. The Korean government could easily end the blockade, but choose not to. What if in the future if these groups are allowed to blockade and make life difficult for US personnel at for example Camp Humphreys?
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.
