Author: GIKorea

If the New York Times report is to believed, there are members of the Trump administration advocating for a “freeze deal” which is really the first steps towards a “pretend denuclearization” deal with North Korea:

Washington’s goal in talks with North Korea remains its “final, fully verified denuclearization,” the U.S. State Department said Monday, denying speculation that the Trump administration was considering an incremental deal to freeze Pyongyang’s nuclear activity. 

A spokesman gave the response to a question from Yonhap on a New York Times report on Monday that said a splinter was widening within the administration over how to approach Pyongyang. The article said senior diplomatic officials are leaning towards an incremental approach as negotiations between the two countries resume.

The State Department’s Special Representative for North Korea Policy, Stephen Biegun, also denied the report, calling it “pure speculation.” 

According to the piece, U.S. officials are discussing a plan that could involve North Korea first closing down nuclear facilities capable of producing fissile material, and in return the United States could provide sanctions relief.  

This, in effect, would resemble the proposal that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un brought to his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, last February. Kim offered to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear complex in return for relief from five sets of economic sanctions imposed by the United States.

Under this possible deal for Yongbyon – or a larger one reportedly being considered by U.S. officials that would freeze activity at the nearby Kangson uranium facility as well – the North would no longer produce additional nuclear material, but none of its existing nuclear weapons or stockpiles would be touched. While this would imply de facto acceptance of North Korea’s status as a nuclear state, it could serve as an initial step toward full denuclearization in the future, the report said.

Joong Ang Ilbo

National Security Advisor John Bolton did not mince worlds on what he thought of the New York Times report:

I read this NYT story with curiosity. Neither the NSC staff nor I have discussed or heard of any desire to “settle for a nuclear freeze by NK.” This was a reprehensible attempt by someone to box in the President. There should be consequences. https://t.co/TTRPQkksza

— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) July 1, 2019

It is pretty clear that the New York Times is doing what they can to create strife within President Trump’s foreign policy team.

North Korean media needs to be read, in Korean, for more than a decade, to be understood in their context. And one needs to read more than what the North knows to be closely observed by the outside world. https://t.co/58EUhwmHUa

— the oranckay (@oranckay) July 1, 2019

It seems a bit premature from President Moon to declaring peace in our time:

 President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that North Korea and the United States have effectively declared an end to their hostile relations with the symbolic weekend meeting between their leaders at the inter-Korean border.

Although they did not sign any document, their action was tantamount to a “de facto declaration of an end to hostile relations and the beginning of a full-fledged peace era,” Moon stressed, speaking at a Cabinet meeting.

He was referring to a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Sunday.

Yonhap

President Moon might want to wait until next year to see if this is still the case because Kim Jong-un has previously said the regime is giving until next year for sanctions to be dropped. The Trump administration does not seem like it is going to drop sanctions without real denuclearization. I guess we will see what happens.

This news should not be a surprise to anyone:

Democratic lawmakers in the United States, including some running for the White House, say there’s little in President Donald Trump’s diplomatic track to convince them that his meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (gihm jung oon) may lead to a nuclear breakthrough.

Trump is coming under criticism for what Democrats see as his affinity for authoritarian leaders such as Kim and they are skeptical that the Trump-Kim sit-down at the Demilitarized Zone may amount to anything more than a photo opportunity.

Sen. Chuck Schumer says “dictators seem to get elevated and people who believe in democracy not.”

Former Obama Housing Secretary Julian Castro, a presidential candidate, wonders why Trump appears keen to raise Kim’s profile when, according to Castro, Kim hasn’t abided by past commitments about the North’s weapons programs.

And Sen. Bernie Sanders, also a 2020 candidate, says he’s not opposed to sitting down with America’s adversaries, but he tells ABC’s “This Week” that “we need real diplomacy” and he hasn’t seen that under Trump

Associated Press

This is coming from the people who supported President Obama when he flew to Cuba with his whole family to hang out with the dictators there. I doubt President Trump’s engagement with North Korea is going to get them to denuclearize, but the claims from his critics sound more like “since Trump is for it, I must be against it” instead of any reasoned policy position.

The President likes big things and this Samsung plant near Camp Humphreys was big enough to catch his attention:

U.S. President Donald Trump was so impressed with a Samsung Electronics manufacturing plant, he could hardly contain himself.

“I happened to fly over a building,” he said, according to a White House release of a conversation between the president and some 20 heads of Korean conglomerates on Sunday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, where the president stayed. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes. 

“It was one of the largest buildings I’ve ever seen; Samsung. Samsung […]And it was a manufacturing building,” he added. “And you know what I’m talking about, right?

“I looked; I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ It was acre on acre. How tall is that building? Like 12 or 10? Ten stories? I want to see it. I want to see it. I want to get some ideas.” 

Trump arrived on Air Force One at Osan Air Base, a U.S. Air Force Base at Pyeongtaek. He flew from there on Marine One, a helicopter, to Yongsan Garrison.

According to a Samsung official, the company has a semiconductor plant in Hwaseong, slightly north of Osan Air Base. 

“The plant has a Samsung logo on it,” said the Samsung official. “I think that’s what President Trump saw.” 

The flight path from Osan to Yongsan crosses close to Gyeongbu expressway, where Samsung plant is located. 

The plant that Trump probably saw is a new production line that was opened in April and where President Moon Jae-in announced Korea’s “system semiconductor” vision.

It is just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the U.S. base, and during the weekdays when there is less traffic, it only takes 30 minutes by car to travel from the base to the plant. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Whatever you say:

 An unidentified object detected on military radars flying near the border with North Korea turned out to be a flock of birds, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday, after the detection prompted fighter jets to scramble.

Earlier in the day, the JCS said that the military “is checking and taking measures after the military radar captured an unidentified object in the sky above the Demilitarized Zone in the central portion of the inter-Korean border in Gangwon Province at around 1 p.m.

The object was found some 4.5 kilometers above the ground, inside the no-fly zone that the two Koreas set up along the border under the inter-Korean military agreement signed in September last year, according to a JCS officer.

“Upon spotting that, the military deployed several jets in response, which later confirmed that the trace was made by around 20 birds, which were presumed to be wild geese,” the officer said. 

While scrambling the jets, the South Korean military sent a notification to North Korea via the inter-Korean military communication channel in accordance with the military pact in order to prevent any accidental clashes, he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I have heard of doppler radar picking up geese, but you would think the ROK would have more sensors to detect aircraft than just a doppler radar.

They have “boosted nuclear talks” in the past for NK, funneling into #DPRK coffers about $100M/year for NK’s WMD dev’t. NK’s 1st nuclear test was on Oct 9, 2006, during the Roh Moo Hyun admin, when Moon Jae-In was Roh’s right hand man in the Blue House. https://t.co/Lid0khrjlW

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) June 27, 2019