If there is no agreement, no doubt you'll agree that Pyongyang has no basis to complain if we enforce sanctions aggressively, talk about human rights, hold defensive exercises, or install missile defenses. https://t.co/tPghepmVYF
This photo, provided by the defense ministry, shows Lt. Gen. Nam Young-sin, the commander of the Army’s Special Warfare Command, whom President Moon Jae-in appointed as the new head of the Defense Security Command (DSC) on Aug. 3, 2018. (Yonhap)
Considering that Hyundai was used to help pay the original $500 million bribe to the Kim regime to secure the first Inter-Korean summit, I can understand why North Korea has fond memories of working with the former chairman Chong Mong-hun:
In this photo provided by Hyundai Group, its chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun pays respect to late chairman Chung Mong-hun during a memorial service at Mount Kumgang on Aug. 3, 2018. (Yonhap)
A North Korean media outlet reported in detail on a South Korean firm’s devotion to inter-Korean cooperation Friday, apparently trying to create a favorable mood for resumption of the company’s now suspended tour program.
Uriminjokkiri, the North’s external propaganda website, shed light on Hyundai Group’s work and its relations with Pyongyang in time for a trip by group officials to Mount Kumgang to attend a memorial service for late chairman Chung Mong-hun.
Chung spearheaded the now suspended tour program to the North Korean mountain. His wife and current chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun was among the visitors.
The ceremony was attended by some 20 North Korean officials and 30 Hyundai officials, according to the company.
“We have expectations to resume the tour program within this year. That’s what the North was thinking too,” Hyun told reporters after her visit.
Yet the chairwoman said she did not have detailed discussions on the possible resumption of inter-Korean projects with the North Korean officials.
During a meeting with Hyun in 2005, the website said that the North’s then leader Kim Jong-il delivered condolences for the death of Chung, emphasizing that the North began its “first love” with Hyundai in terms of improving inter-Korean relations way ahead of its cooperation with the Seoul government.
Kim also praised Chung for his devotion to advancing relations between the two Koreas, calling him a “patriotic business person” who followed in the footsteps of his late father and group founder, Chung Ju-yung, according to the website. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but for those that don’t remember Chong Mong-hun committed suicide back in 2003 by jumping off of a building after he was indicted for his role in paying the bribe to North Korea.
It would be helpful if the article would have specified which news outlets were not invited to the news conference. Maybe the embassy only invited major news outlets and not smaller ones?:
Ambassador Harry Harris
New U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris held his first news conference Thursday since taking the job. The former admiral invited several newspapers and broadcasters, but others were not invited.
Certainly, it was his prerogative to invite who he wished, but this approach often carries risks.
In Harris’ case, it could send a wrong message not just to the uninvited media outlets but by extension their readership or audiences.
The “wrong” message is that the new ambassador is emulating his boss, President Donald Trump, picking choosing from the media so he can speak to outlets he views as favorable (in Trump’s case, Fox) and lumping the rest as fake news producers (in Trump’s case, CNN).
If he was following Trump’s lead, then it would not be a wrong message but an intended one. [Korea Times]
I would not be surprised if there is more to this story then what is being reported:
The U.S. government deported a Mexican woman on Friday who had lived in the country illegally for nearly two decades despite efforts by lawmakers to keep her in Florida with her husband, a Marine Corps veteran, and her two American children.
Alejandra Juarez, 38, was joined by her family and her congressman, Darren Soto, at Orlando International Airport for tearful farewells before her flight back to Mexico.
Juarez sought to illegally enter the United States in 1998 and was ordered to be removed, precluding her future chances at getting a visa or becoming a citizen, according to Soto and media interviews Juarez has given.
She illegally re-entered the country in 2000, the same year she married Temo Juarez, a Mexico native who went on to serve in the war in Iraq with the U.S. Marines and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen.
After being discovered in the country during a 2013 traffic stop, she had been required to check in every six months with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. [Reuters]
You can read the rest at the link if you want to read all the anti-Trump stuff even though her deportation process began under the Obama administration.
I feel bad for the kids, but their parents had nearly 20 years to work on her immigration status which leads me to believe there is more to this story. With that said should illegal immigrant wives of US military servicemembers receive special immigration status? That is basically the argument being made here.
It looks like Ambassador Harris is being consistent in the messaging coming from the White House towards Pyongyang that major concessions will not happen until real steps towards denuclearization occur:
Ambassador Harry Harris
New U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Harry Harris said there must be “demonstrable moves” from North Korea toward denuclearization before any declaration of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War is made between the two sides.
Harris, who held a news conference for local media on Thursday at the U.S. ambassador’s residence, is making his views known only a few weeks after arriving in South Korea.
“One of the things that hasn’t happened is the demonstrable moves toward denuclearization before we can entertain something like the end-of-war declaration,” Harris said, according to Yonhap.
“I think for the denuclearization to happen, we need to see the move and I haven’t seen that yet.” [UPI]
This photo, released by the KCNA on Aug. 3, 2018, shows the pleasure boat Daedonggang floating on the Daedong River in Pyongyang. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
I wonder if major corporations in the US even consider the espionage risk of hiring Chinese nationals for sensitive positions?:
The FBI said they arrested Xiaoqing Zheng, a General Electric engineer, and found a handbook explaining ‘resources’ China would people who provided it with technology (AFP Photo/VINCENT KESSLER)
A Chinese-American engineer faces charges of stealing valuable technology from General Electric, sneaking it out hidden in a picture of the sunset to take to China, the US Justice Department said.
Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, a US citizen also believed to have Chinese nationality, was due to appear before a judge in Albany, New York on Thursday, a day after his arrest, according to federal prosecutors.
Following a four-year investigation, the FBI arrested Xiaoqing Zheng after searching his home and finding, among other things, a handbook detailing “resources” Beijing would grant to individuals providing certain technologies.
Zheng’s arrest comes as President Donald Trump intensifies the trade war with Beijing, largely over complaints the country steals US technology or obliges American companies to share know-how in exchange for doing business in China. [AFP]
As I have been saying, the South Korean leftists want to get rid of the Defense Security Command and then claim they are conducting “reforms”:
A committee studying how to reform the military’s Defense Security Command (DSC) recommended on Thursday to abolish all legal underpinnings for the 70-year-old intelligence unit and substituting it with something new.
The committee also called for cutting the DSC’s workforce by at least 30 percent and shutting down all its regional units.
It was revealed last month that the DSC drew up contingency plans for martial law last year in case the Constitutional Court rejected the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye and chaos ensued.
Chang Young-dal, head of the committee, said at a press conference that after two months of deliberation, it recommended abolishing the legal foundation for the current DSC and setting up a new intelligence unit with a new name.
“We assess that if we achieve all reform measures, there will not be illegal meddling in political affairs or illegal surveillance of civilians,” said Chang, adding that a reformed DNC would not conduct activities that would negatively “affect the morale” of military officials by exerting a sense of “privilege.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but is there anyone that does think that whatever the reformed DSC becomes it won’t be stocked with leftists? Maybe Moon can have Im Jong-seok chair the “reformed” DSC?
