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Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon hired these light blue-vested thugs tossing people to the ground. Dozens were injured. https://t.co/VUxfUGLgHv
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) June 26, 2019
You can read more at my prior posting about this violence in Seoul.
This sucks for this man’s family, but like I have said every time someone gets detained in North Korea, I have little sympathy for them. No one should be traveling to North Korea and supporting the Kim regime:
The family of an Australian who vanished in North Korea in mysterious circumstances have broken their silence.
Alek Sigley, 29, who is a postgraduate student at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang and a self-employed tour company operator, has not been seen or heard from by friends and loved ones for more than 48 hours.
He was identified in South Korean media overnight as having been taken into custody by North Korean officials.
Australian officials have been trying to confirm whether he has in fact been arrested or if there is some other explanation for his disappearance.
On Thursday afternoon, Mr Sigley’s family issued a statement confirming they remained unsure of his fate.
“As of 1pm (AEST), it has not been confirmed that Alek has been detained in the DPRK,” it said.
“The situation is that Alek has not been in digital contact with friends and family since Tuesday morning Australian time, which is unusual for him.
“Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is therefore seeking to confirm his whereabouts and welfare.”
“Alek is an Australian-born Asian scholar and traveller who has visited, studied and lived in several countries in Asia. Alek can speak Mandarin and Korean fluently along with some Japanese.
“He is studying for a Masters in Korean literature at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. Alek’s family hope to re-establish contact with him soon.”
News.com.au
You can read more at the link, but hopefully he is able to return home alive and not tortured unlike what other detainees experienced from the Kim regime.
Here we go again the with Moon administration pushing the Trump administration to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex an the Mt. Kumgang Tours before denuclearization takes place:
South Korea’s minister in charge of inter-Korean affairs said the government could consider resuming cross-border projects such as the Mount Geumgang tours and the Gaeseong industrial park before full-scale sanctions relief to facilitate the denuclearization process.
During an interview with Yonhap News Agency and six other global news agencies in Seoul on Wednesday, a reporter asked Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul whether the inter-Korean economic projects could restart before Pyongyang’s complete denuclearization.
Kim said the two projects could resume following sanctions relief or be considered in the early stages of sanctions relief as an exceptional step to faciliate denuclearization.
The remarks come after President Moon Jae-in, in a written interview with the seven news agencies, said he suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump fully utilize inter-Korean economic cooperation as corresponding measures to induce the North’s denuclearization.
KBS World Radio
You can read more at the link, but we have been down this road before. President Bush agreed to a deal with the North Koreans that left the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mt. Kumgang Tours cash cows open and the North Koreans did not denuclearize. They blew up an old nuclear cooling tower for the cameras which I am sure Kim Jong-un is willing to do again for the same deal.
It can be argued that all the Bush deal did was increase funding for the regime to further develop their nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. Does the Trump administration want to be ones that allows the Kim regime to complete the development of their nuclear weapons program?
This is a unique idea to differentiate from all the other bus tours in Seoul:
Seoul City Tour Bus, one of two bus companies providing hop-on, hop-off rides between key city landmarks, is now offering on-board meals.
Starting June 15, visitors who sign up for a “Bustaurant” journey are offered a barbecue eel lunch box with sides and drinks on the bus during a 30-minute stop at Sevitseom, LED-covered manmade floating islands near the banks of the Han River.
For children, the main dish will be either hamburger steak or fried pork cutlet.
Along with Yellow Balloon City Bus, Seoul City Tour Bus offers convenient access to traditional markets, historic neighborhoods and cultural landmarks for visitors on a tight schedule.
Bustaurant tours run two times a day. The day trip runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with hour-long guided tours at the National Museum of Korea, N Seoul Tower, one ancient palace (Gyeongbok Palace or Changdeok Palace) and one old neighborhood (Insa-dong or Bukchon Hanok Village) near Gwanghwamun.
The night trips are shorter, from 7:20 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and only let passengers off at N Seoul Tower and Cheonggye Stream, the final destination. The night course mostly travels along the Han River for a succession of light-clad bridges and high-rises out the window. Noteworthy sights include the 63 Building, the National Assembly and Seongsu Bridge.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
#MoonJaein admin sends ~$100 million to #KimJongUn regime. How? By sending 1.3 M sacks (40 kg each, total 50,000 tons) of #SouthKorean rice to NK via WFP. Its on top of $8 million already given to nK via WFP recently.
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) June 20, 2019
Moon is persistent.https://t.co/nINGdccBXb
Does anyone really think the North Koreans are going to allow ROK military personnel to see any sensitive training events much less dismantle their artillery and missile systems targeting South Korea?:
President Moon Jae-in expressed anticipation Wednesday that the two Koreas will exchange military information and observe each other’s exercises if their existing accords on building mutual confidence are fully implemented.
He put forward a two-track approach to reducing border tensions on the peninsula: through denuclearization as well as via the disarmament of conventional weapons. He was taking part in a joint written interview with Yonhap News Agency and six major foreign news agencies, days ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Japan and U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit here.
The two Koreas signed a comprehensive military agreement last September during Moon’s visit to Pyongyang for his third summit with the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
They have “completely” halted hostile acts along their border, pulled out guard posts from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), agreed on the joint excavation of war remains and endeavored to establish joint use of the Han River estuary.
The liberal president described the measures as “rudimentary.”
“If the inter-Korean agreement in the military domain is properly implemented, it will allow us to proceed to the stage of further enhancing transparency concerning military postures by exchanging pertinent information through the inter-Korean joint military committee and observing military drills and training,” Moon said, revealing his mid-term vision for the Korea peace process.
What’s also possible in tandem with progress in denuclearization is to “advance to the point of disarming threatening weapons such as the long-range North Korean artillery targeting our capital, Seoul, and the short-range missiles that both Koreas possess,” he added.
Yonhap
Dismantling their artillery and missile systems would take away the North’s ability to extort South Korea. This is like asking mobsters extorting neighborhood businesses to give up their guns. If they did what business owners would be afraid of them anymore?
I think what President Moon is really saying is that the ROK military will allow North Korea to see their training, dismantle their artillery and missiles first and then hope the North Koreans respond in kind.
What the US negotiators have to be careful of is the Kim regime promising to dismantle their nuclear facilities in exchange for dropping sanctions. After sanctions are dropped they can slow roll the dismantlement and then blame the U.S. for some made up reason for why they suddenly have to keep their nuclear capacity. They of course will keep all the hard currency they accumulated after the dropping of sanctions:
President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday that if North Korea dismantled its Yongbyon nuclear complex, the country’s denuclearization would be in an “irreversible stage.”
“If all of the nuclear facilities in the complex, including the plutonium reprocessing facilities and the uranium enrichment facilities, are completely demolished and verified,” Moon said in a written interview with seven global news agencies including Yonhap, “it would be possible to say that the denuclearization of North Korea has entered an irreversible stage.”
During his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27 and 28, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered to dismantle at least some of the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which includes a 5-megawatt plutonium production reactor.
Trump said Pyongyang had to do more for sanctions relief. That summit collapsed without a deal and led to an impasse in denuclearization dialogue ever since.
Yet the United States is engaged in “behind-the-scenes talks” with North Korea for a possible third summit, Moon said in the interview, noting that “there will be substantive progress if the two sides continue negotiations based on what was discussed in Singapore and Hanoi.” Kim and Trump’s first summit was in Singapore on June 12 of last year.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link.
