This image released by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration on June 29, 2018, shows the design of South Korea’s indigenous fighter jet KF-X program aimed at manufacturing 120 advanced fighter jets to replace the Air Force’s aging F-4 and F-5 combat planes. South Korea plans to complete the design process by Sep. 2019 and produce the first prototype in 2021. (Yonhap)
Good luck with this because I am very skeptical this will happen:
President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Sunday the U.S. has a plan that would lead to the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in a year.
John Bolton said top U.S. diplomat Mike Pompeo will be discussing that plan with North Korea in the near future. Bolton added that it would be to the North’s advantage to cooperate to see sanctions lifted quickly and aid from South Korea and Japan start to flow.
Bolton’s remarks on CBS’ “Face the Nation” appeared to be the first time the Trump administration had publicly suggested a timeline for North Korea to fulfill the commitment leader Kim Jong Un made at a summit with President Donald Trump last month for the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. [Stars & Stripes]
As I have been saying the North Koreans want the lifting of sanctions to occur for little to nothing in return. Clearly Emperor President Xi and Czar President Putin are onboard with this position. The only thing standing in their way right now is President Trump:
North Korea appears to be seeking a lifting of international sanctions imposed on the country by using its longtime ally, China, as leverage.
North Korea is shifting its focus toward economic development, and for that goal, sanctions relief and economic cooperation with other countries will be essential. While it is creating the atmosphere by offering peace through the inter-Korean and the Washington-Pyongyang summits, it seems the North believes China can speed up the process.
Last week, the Japanese media reported China and Russia submitted a statement to the U.N. Security Council seeking the lifting of sanctions on North Korea.
It was reportedly dismissed due to U.S. opposition, which stated North Korea’s denuclearization would have to make progress first.
“China does not regard lifting the sanctions as an end in itself ― the Security Council should support and cooperate in the current mood of dialogue and efforts toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang said in a press briefing, Friday. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but does anyone think President Trump will eventually fold and allow sanctions relief without any real denuclearization efforts by the Kim regime?
It looks like this is turning into yet another event where the North Koreans milk money out of the South Koreans:
A South Korean delegation arrives at the eastern Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Office in Gangwon Province on June 29, 2018, after visiting North Korea to check facilities for the reunions of separated families slated for August. (Yonhap)
North Korean facilities to host the planned August reunions of separated families during the 1950-1953 Korean War are in need of major repairs, a South Korean inspection team said upon returning home on Friday after a three-day visit there.
The 20-strong inspection team involving South Korean government officials and civilian workers crossed the eastern border on Wednesday afternoon to visit Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast, the venue for the reunions slated for Aug. 20-26.
“South and North technicians did the inspection together, which went smoothly with active support from North Korean officials,” said team leader Kim Byung-dae, a senior official in charge of humanitarian cooperation at the Unification Ministry.
“It’s been quite a while since the last reunion happened in October 2015 there. So there are many places that need fixing,” Kim said, adding the government will do its best to make sure the reunion runs smoothly and to minimize any inconvenience for senior family members. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder what the bill for these “major repairs” is going to be?
It appears someone’s pet monkey has gotten lose and is now threatening hikers on Mt. Bukhan just outside of Seoul:
A rogue monkey on Mt. Bukhan has attacked several hikers.
According to the Ministry of Environment Thursday, officials have been trying to capture the monkey since they received reports about it last week. The mountain is not a natural habit for the creatures.
A video clip, which has gone viral, shows the monkey wandering around the mountain. The person who posted it on YouTube on June 9 was almost attacked when he went near the animal.
He backed off and said: “This monkey is not afraid of humans at all.” [Korea Times via a reader tip]
You can read more at the link or view the Youtube video below:
If anyone thought were going to stop all their nuclear programs because of a summit then they have no knowledge of past negotiations with the Kim regime. Additionally here we go again with intelligence officials leaking classified information to the media:
As President Donald Trump touted a new era of diplomacy with the North Korean regime, a classified intelligence assessment appeared to tell a different story, according to several US intelligence officials.
The assessment revealed that, in recent months, North Korea had upped its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at several secret sites, according to over a dozen intelligence officials cited in an NBC News report published Friday. The officials said they believe North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be trying to conceal the secret facilities from the US.
“Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles,” one senior US intelligence official said to NBC News. “We are watching closely.”
According to five US officials cited by NBC News, the North Korean regime was increasing production of enriched uranium, even as relations with the US improved following the 2018 Winter Olympics. And since the leaders of both countries held a summit in Singapore in mid-June, the Trump administration has already delivered some concessions to the North. [Business Insider]
You can read more at the link, but it only makes sense that the North Koreans are going to rush to increase the amount of fuel and weapons they have to maximize their bargaining position. Like I have always said I seriously doubt the regime will completely denuclearize.
On a side note, I do find it interesting how the media now is highly critical of North Korean double dealing when during past negotiations many in the media made excuses for North Korean double dealing.
This is why South Korea dreads a collapse of the Kim regime:
Sammy Hyun is now a US citizen and has lived in the US since 2007 – and he considers himself to be ‘lucky’. Photograph: Noah Smith for the Guardian
When Chang Ho Kim was living in North Korea, information trickled in from China about the world outside the closed country. Through the lens of pirated movies, he says, America had looked to Kim like “a very rich and luxurious place”.
Defectors from the North automatically become South Korean citizens after a mandatory three-month transition that is part debriefing, part re-education. Most North Korean defectors in the South stand out, and the Kims were no exception. They have distinct accents, and are often shorter and slighter with darker, sallow skin from years of malnutrition. It’s hard to avoid South Koreans’ prejudice and suspicions that North Koreans are spies.
Remembering the Hollywood images of the US, the Kims decided to make their way to the US illegally through a broker.
But for the Kims, and others like them, life in the US is not necessarily easier.
The American celluloid dream comes with skyrocketing price tags. North Koreans arrive with little or no experience of bills, rent, and no means to cope with the lack of social services and health insurance that illegal immigrants must navigate.
“American life is so hard. Money, money, money,” said Pastor Young Gu Kim, an evangelical South Korean immigrant who helps defectors. “Some defectors told me, ‘Oh pastor, sometimes I miss it over there.’”
Like Chang Ho Kim, many North Koreans enter illegally and settle in Los Angeles, amid the large population of ethnic Koreans. Nearly 200 former North Koreans live in Los Angeles, advocacy groups say, but exact numbers are unknown. [The Guardian]
You can read more at the link, but North Koreans are not socialized to live in a western society that largely demands individual initiative to work hard and make money to support ones self. Imagine if millions of North Koreans showed up in South Korea instead of the small trickle that currently exists if the regime was to collapse. The social problems this would cause would be enormous and thus why the ROK government is pushing a policy of gradual reunification instead of regime collapse.
