Author: GIKorea

형제 들께 고마워요. pic.twitter.com/uQ4vdk53y0

— Sopitas (@sopitas) June 27, 2018

This photo provided by KT Corp. on June 26, 2018, shows the booth of KT SAT, a satellite communications service provider, at CommunicAsia 2018 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, to promote the Mugunghwa-7 and other communication satellites. (Yonhap)

Here is some more interesting imagery analysis from the folks at 38 North:

Commercial satellite imagery from June 21 indicates that improvements to the infrastructure at North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center are continuing at a rapid pace. Modifications to the 5 MWe plutonium production reactor’s cooling system appear complete, but a less-than-normal cooling water discharge from the outfall pipe makes a determination of the reactor’s operational status difficult. The status of the Radiochemical Laboratory—used to separate plutonium from spent fuel rods—remains uncertain, although the associated Thermal Plant has likely continued operations, and a small non-industrial building of an unknown purpose has been newly erected near the cooling tower. Construction continues on support facilities throughout other operational areas of Yongbyon, especially at the Experimental Light Water Reactor (ELWR), where the new engineering office building appears externally complete and a small building similar to the one observed at the Radiochemical Laboratory has been erected.

Continued work at the Yongbyon facility should not be seen as having any relationship to North Korea’s pledge to denuclearize. The North’s nuclear cadre can be expected to proceed with business as usual until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang.  [38 North]

You can read much more and see the imagery analysis at the link.

I would not be surprised if the Kim regime is trying to rush completion of these projects and then try and declare that these facilities are for peaceful nuclear energy use.  The North Koreans could argue that South Korea has nuclear power plants, why can’t they?  This would allow the regime to maintain the ability to quickly process material for nuclear weapons again if they were to agree to give up the nuclear weapons they already have.

By the way, ROK Heads may remember that 38 North was part of the US-Korea Institute that the Moon administration tried to get certain employees of the think tank removed from because of their conservative leanings.  Since USKI would not remove the employees the Korean government cut funding and USKI was shutdown.  The shutdown of the USKI was part of a larger effort by the Moon administration to take control of media in South Korea.  Articles like this one showing continued nuclear upgrades by North Korea despite pledges to denuclearize are the types of articles the Moon administration may have wanted to suppress if they still controlled USKI.  It is good to see that 38 North has continued to publish despite the shutdown of the USKI.

This maybe South Korea’s most impressive World Cup win since 2002 even though it was ultimately meaningless since they were eliminated from the knockout stage of 16 teams:

South Korea stunned Germany 2-0 while being eliminated in the group stage at the FIFA World Cup on Wednesday, bringing the defending champions down with them.

South Korea needed to beat Germany by at least two goals and have Mexico defeat Sweden in the other Group F match Wednesday. The Taeguk Warriors took care of their own end at Kazan Arena in Kazan, some 800 kilometers east of Moscow, with Kim Young-gwon and Son Heung-min each scoring in second-half stoppage time. But Sweden made it all moot by beating Mexico 3-0 in Ekaterinburg.

South Korea, which earlier fell to Sweden and Mexico, finished third in Group F with three points, while netting three goals and conceding three. Sweden won the group with six points, beating Mexico, which also had six points, on goal difference.

Germany unceremoniously bowed of the tournament with three points, losing to South Korea in goal difference and becoming the third straight World Cup champions to miss the knockout stage in title defense.  [Yonhap]

These are very capable artillery pieces that Estonia is purchasing from South Korea:

Estonia has agreed to buy South Korean artillery in a $54 million deal that officials say will substantially boost the small Baltic country’s defense capacity.

The Estonian military procurement agency says the contract with Seoul-based weapons producer Hanwha Land Systems is for 12 K9 Thunder howitzers, training, maintenance and spare parts.

Agency director Col. Rauno Sirk said after a signing ceremony on Tuesday that the artillery pieces “will bring Estonia’s defense capacity to a new level and be one of the most considerable steps of building up armored maneuvering capacity.”

The first howitzers are to arrive in Estonia in 2020.  [Stars & Stripes]

ROK Drop favorite Michael Breen writes in the Korea Times that critics of President Trump’s North Korea policy need to show more patience.  Good luck with that ever happening, but he does accurately depict the media environment that is driving much of the negative criticism against Trump:

And yet, a majority of experts have criticized the American president. Why? Failure to secure a more detailed agreement. Talk about impatience.

This criticism is widespread, despite the fact that everyone accepts that, in contrast to many summit meetings where the top leaders sign off on agreements reached between their respective teams, this one was intended to kickstart a process.

So why was the analysis not about a good start?

I believe there are two parts to the answer and they are not easily separated. One is the good faith expert viewpoint and the other is the media environment in which it is expressed.  (…………)

The error in my opinion derives from media obsession with the person of the American president. This both slants reporting and media commentary and influences the way experts deliver their opinions.

If truth be told, media love Donald Trump. He just has to scratch his head and it’s newsworthy. Underlying almost all coverage is a view that he is morally and psychologically unfit to be president. (This is partly because he is a Republican, a party that has almost zero support among news reporters, and partly because, well, he is kind of unorthodox.)

The daily Trump story satisfies on the titillation level ― look what the idiot has done now ― and on the media self-righteousness level ― be warned, this is serious, this man has his finger on the button.

Had Barack Obama held this summit with Kim and achieved the same result, he would probably be up for his second Nobel Peace Prize. But because it’s Trump, I expect that even if the North does de-nuclearize, sign a Korean war peace treaty, and open an embassy in Pyongyang and open the gulag, Trump will still be found wanting.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

South Korean President Considering Joint 2030 World Cup Bid With North Korea via @forbes https://t.co/UiTHrJKvsy

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) June 24, 2018

Colonel-level military officials of the two Koreas meet at the Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine office in Paju, just south of the inter-Korean border, on June 25, 2018, in this photo provided by the Defense Ministry. The officials met to discuss restoring their military communication lines. (Yonhap)

It has now been 68 years since the start of the Korean War:

A solemn ceremony took place in Washington Monday to mark the 68th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, an annual event that carried special meaning as the remains of some of the fallen heroes are set to return home.

The ceremony drew some 200 people to the Korean War Veterans Memorial as the United States and North Korea are in talks to formally end the 1950-53 conflict that ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. [Yonhap]

Here is a cool quote from the article:

Cunningham, 88, said he served as a radar repairman with the Air Force during the war. He now drives an Amanti built by South Korea’s Kia.

“It is one of the finer cars that I have driven in the course of my lifetime, but when I left Korea in February of 1952 the last thing in my mind was that I would ever be driving a vehicle manufactured in this country because what I saw there was ashes and rubble,” he told Yonhap. “It’s very gratifying to us to see what’s been made of the economy — the 10th strongest economy in the world — and that’s very commendable.”

You can read more at the link.

Considering how popular the Dragon Hill Lodge is, I would not be surprised if from the US side these talks get slow rolled as much as possible:

There was sharp criticism from the city of Seoul and civic groups that leaving the 240,000㎡ ROK-US CFC on the site of the Yongsan Garrison would cause the park that will be built there after the land is returned to South Korea to end up looking malformed. South Korea and the US bowed to the pressure by agreeing at the end of last year to move ROK-US CFC to a building on the precincts of South Korea’s Ministry of Defense, located nearby. The relocation of the ROK-US CFC to the Defense Ministry grounds is reportedly supposed to be completed within the year.

On the other hand, little progress has reportedly been made in deliberations between South Korea and the US about relocating the Dragon Hill Lodge, which is located on the grounds of the base. The original agreement was for the 84,000㎡ resort to remain at Yongsan regardless of the base’s relocation. But recently, objections have been raised about leaving a US military facility that is not open to South Koreans at the center of the planned park.“There have not been any official discussions, and we are currently exchanging opinions,” said Defense Ministry spokesperson Choi Hyeon-su when asked about this in April.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.