Author: GIKorea

Many people complain about wearing mask outdoors, imagine having to wear an entire hazmat suit:

North Korean troops have become somewhat of a rare sight. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, North Korean soldiers have avoided showing themselves in public to ward off the disease, at the cost of suspending in-person talks with the U.N. Command about upholding the armistice.

“They no longer meet with us face to face,” said Lt. Col. Griff Hofman of the U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission behind the sky-blue conference huts at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom managed by the commission.

“It’s all done via the hotline, and they generally stay in Panmungak,” he said, referring to the main building on the North Korean side of the area that is also known as the Phanmun Pavilion. “If North Korean troops needed to go outdoors, they wore hazmat suits.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Great to see this proposed missile about to go into development, but this mobile launcher probably should have been developed many years ago:

South Korea plans to adopt a basic plan as early as next month to develop a new advanced guided missile capable of striking North Korean long-range artillery pieces hidden in caves, the state arms procurement agency said Sunday.

The envisioned missile will be an upgraded version of the Korean Tactical Surface-to-Surface Missile (KTSSM), which is dubbed the “long-range artillery killer,” according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

While the existing KTSSM system is operated on a fixed platform, the envisioned missile is expected to be run on a mobile launcher, which will enhance its maneuverability and survivability.

The current KTSSM has a range of 180 kilometers with its caliber at 400 millimeters. Its upgraded version is expected to be larger with a longer operational range of some 300 km.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Not only has he supposedly banned the name “Ju-ae”, but has also forced people already with that name to change it:

North Korean state TV on Sunday aired footage of leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Ju-ae, riding a white horse in an apparent display of her legitimacy as a descendant of the ruling family’s “Paekdu bloodline.”

In the footage on Korean Central Television, Ju-ae is seen mounted on a white horse during Wednesday’s massive military parade staged in Pyongyang to mark the 75th founding anniversary of the North’s armed forces.

The white horse is symbolic of the Kim family, and leader Kim Jong-un was famously seen riding one on Mount Paekdu in October 2019, eight months after the Hanoi summit between Kim and then U.S. President Donald Trump broke down.

Meanwhile, U.S. broadcaster Radio Free Asia quoted sources as saying Saturday that North Korean authorities are forcing people named Ju-ae to change their names.

North Korea previously prohibited the use of the same name as all the former and current leaders — Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, the broadcaster said.

Yonhap

By the way Yonhap, that picture does not look like Kim Jong-un’s daughter.

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

Here are what Korea experts are saying about the China spy balloon controversy:

Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said an intensifying U.S.-Sino rivalry is not favorable to the security situation on the peninsula, adding, “We would see China’s role regarding North Korea’s nuclear issue diminishing following the balloon saga.”

Cho said it is noteworthy that South Korea and the U.S. staged combined air drills involving strategic bombers and stealth fighters over the West Sea, which is right under China’s nose. 

“South Korea and the U.S. conducted combined air drills, involving B-1B strategic bombers, and F-22, F-35A and F-35B stealth jets, over the West Sea on Feb. 1. Two days later, another drill with the stealth fighters occurred, which is unprecedented,” he said.

“Given that the U.S. first detected the balloon on Jan. 28, the drills served as a U.S. warning to China in response to the spy balloon.”

Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said China has always been part of the North Korean problem rather than part of the solution. 

“Beijing would occasionally allow incremental stronger U.N. resolutions in response to egregious North Korean provocations only to subsequently turn a blind eye to violations of those resolutions by Chinese entities,” he said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Bruce Klingner is right, China has no intentions of resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. They are more than happy to pretend to be trying to solve the issue from time to time without actually doing anything.

I think North Korea knows that China will more publicly have its back at the UN making it more likely they will go ahead with more provocative ICBM and nuclear tests in the future.

It was party time in North Korea:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a nighttime military parade in Pyongyang earlier this week to mark the 75th founding anniversary of its armed forces, photos carried by state media showed Thursday.

Flanked by top military and party officials, Kim took to the reviewing stand to watch the military parade held in Kim Il Sung Square on Wednesday to mark the Korean People’s Army (KPA) anniversary, according to photos released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Clad in a long black coat and wearing a felt hat, Kim smiled and waved to the crowd. His outfit was reminiscent of those of the country’s late founder, Kim Il-sung.

The KCNA has not released any report on the details of the military parade, including whether Kim delivered a speech.

According to satellite images from the U.S.-based space technology firm Maxar Technologies, the North appears to have paraded a range of new ballistic missiles, including its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on a mobile launcher.

Though many of the missiles remain unidentified, some observers raised the possibility that the list of the missiles on display might include a solid-propellant one that the North has recently been working on.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but with the parade over I guess we will see if the North Koreans decide to fire one of the ICBMs off or not.

President Yoon become the first president in seven years to chair the annual Integrated Defense Council meeting. He plans to chair the meeting every year while he is president:

 President Yoon Suk Yeol accused the previous administration on Wednesday of weakening the country’s defense posture by neglecting necessary drills and relying on a “fake peace.”

Yoon made the remark while presiding over the annual central integrated defense council meeting in an apparent reference to former President Moon Jae-in’s push for reconciliation with North Korea.

Critics have argued the Moon administration’s peace drive bought North Korea time to advance its missile and nuclear weapons programs.

“Under the previous government the meeting was downsized, and integrated drills between the civil sector, government, military and police were not properly implemented because of its reliance on fake peace,” Yoon said during the meeting held at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae.

“As a result, there was a weakening in combining all national defense powers into one and in the implementation of the nationwide all-out war for the defense of the nation,” he said.

The meeting, designed to assess the country’s overall defense posture, was attended by some 160 officials and experts from the central and local governments, the National Intelligence Service, the military, police, Coast Guard and national fire agency.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but to be fair the previous Moon administration is not solely responsible for the current nuclear and missile threats the ROK now faces from North Korea. Every Korean president since the Kim Dae-jung administration that has paid off North Korea is responsible for funding the military threat the ROK now faces.