It looks like Kim Jong-un is getting his next marching orders from Chinese Emperor President Xi:
A vehicle forming part of the convoy believed to be that of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seen in Beijing June 19, 2018, in this still image taken from Reuters TV footage.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has touched down in Beijing, marking his third visit to China in as many months.
In a rare move, Chinese state media have already confirmed Kim is visiting from June 19 to 20. Kim’s arrival in Beijing, just one week after his summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore, signifies the importance North Korea is placing on its close neighbor and historic ally.
The North Korean leader touched down on Tuesday morning with reporters spotting Kim’s $1 million armored Mercedes at the airport before a motorcade entered Beijing’s streets.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also visited Beijing last week during which China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke of “the importance of China being a constructive participant in the next steps.” [Business Insider]
You can read more at the link, but something else to keep in mind is that Kim Jong-un must be feeling very secure at home considering the amount of trips he has been taken outside of the country.
This is pretty audacious whoever is committing these attacks on US diplomats:
The State Department is evacuating several Americans from China amid health concerns about mysterious symptoms arising after unusual noises detected by U.S. diplomats and their families working in the consulate in Guangzhou. U.S. DEPT OF STATE
The State Department is evacuating several Americans from China amid health concerns about mysterious symptoms arising after unusual noises detected by U.S. diplomats and their families working in the consulate in Guangzhou.
After initial screenings by a medical team dispatched last month when the first incident was reported, the State Department has sent “a number” of affected people to the United States for further evaluation, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
The evacuation was the first sign that the unexplained ailments previously known to have afflicted only one U.S. government employee in China has now broadened and threatens to become a full-blown health crisis like the one that affected at least 24 U.S. diplomats and their families in Cuba.
The latest round of evacuations began Wednesday in China, which was still Tuesday in the United States. More diplomats and their dependents are expected to be sent home in coming days. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but it is believed that the sonic attacks in Cuba were caused possibly by a flawed spying device. So whatever the spying device being used in Cuba was maybe it came from China and this same device malfunctioned while spying on US diplomats in Guangzhou as well?
This incident with a British man is pretty good analogy for what would happen to Taiwan and other Southeast Asian nations if they try and take on China on the simmering territorial disputes in the region, expect to get bullied and beaten into submission by overwhelming numbers:
A group of Chinese men assaulted a British man who had the word “Taiwan” tattooed on his forehead for refusing to say “Taiwan is part of China.”
Paul Farrell, who has lived in Taiwan for 14 years, lost two teeth, received a fat lip and ended up with bruises all over his body after 10 Chinese men beat him during his holiday in the southern Cambodian city of Sihanoukville, the Taiwan News reported Sunday.
According to the report, he became embroiled in an argument with them after they tried to pick a fight over the tattoo at a bar.
One of them suddenly shouted “Taiwan-China!” In response, Farrell said, “Taiwan-Taiwan!” And then they “went insane, grabbed poles and started attacking me,” he said.
He said at least 10 Chinese men savagely assaulted him, forcing him to say “Taiwan is part of China,” as hundreds of bystanders watched the attack.
Fearing for his life, Farrell eventually said: “OK, you think Taiwan is China, I’ll say Taiwan is China. I just want to leave.” [Korea Times]
Here is another strange brain injury inflicted on a US diplomat, this time in China:
US officials have issued a health alert in China after a US government employee stationed there reported “abnormal sensations of sound and pressure” that indicated a mild brain injury.
The US State Department is looking into whether the incident is a “sonic attack,” a US diplomatic official told CNN, similar to what happened in Cuba in 2016 and 2017, which led to a reduction in staffing at the nation’s US embassy in Havana.
The official who fell ill was assigned to the city of Guangzhou in southern China and reported a range of physical symptoms from late 2017 through to April 2018, the State Department said. The employee was sent back to the United States for assessment. The US Embassy in Beijing learned on May 18 that the clinical findings of the evaluation matched that of a “mild traumatic brain injury,” an embassy spokeswoman told CNN.
A US Diplomatic official told CNN the State Department “is looking into whether this is a sonic attack, similar to what happened in Cuba.” CNN has reached out to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs but has not yet received a response on this matter. [CNN]
You can read more at the link, but it is believed that the sonic attacks in Cuba were caused possibly by a flawed spying device. So whatever the spying device being used in Cuba was maybe it came from China and this same device malfunctioned there as well?
A mysterious North Korean aircraft caused speculation that Kim Jong-un was visiting China:
Japanese and South Korean media are speculating that a high-ranking North Korean official, possibly even leader Kim Jong Un, is visiting China after an airliner from the North landed in the Chinese port city of Dalian.
The South’s official Yonhap News Agency said the plane arrived Monday amid tight security. Japanese broadcaster NHK ran a picture of the Air Koryo plane that it said had been taken Tuesday afternoon at Dalian airport.
There are no regularly scheduled flights between North Korea and Dalian, although North Koreans are frequent visitors and its port has been instrumental in two-way trade. [Fox News]
It turned out that Kim Jong-un was in fact in China getting his marching orders from Emperor President Xi before Kim’s summit with President Trump:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their second summit in about 40 days in northeast China, the two nations’ state media reported Tuesday, ahead of an anticipated summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a dispatch from the Chinese city of Dalian, China’s Xinhua news agency reported that Kim and Xi held talks on Monday and Tuesday. The second summit between Kim and Xi appears to highlight efforts by the allies to restore ties that have been chilled by the North’s nuclear and missile development.
Kim and Xi “had an all-round and in-depth exchange of views on China-DPRK relations and major issues of common concern,” Xinhua said. DPRK is an acronym for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. [Yonhap]
This would explain why Kim Jong-un made the unusual public appearance of sorrow after the tragic bus accident in North Korea that killed 32 Chinese tourists:
Mao Xinyu, left, became the youngest Major General of the People’s Liberation Army of China, according to Chinese newspaper Ming Pao in Hong Kong, August 2010. / Korea Times file
Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong’s only grandson Mao Xinyu was possibly killed in a bus crash in North Korea in April that killed over 30 Chinese, according to a report from French radio.
Xinyu, the son of Mao Zedong’s second son Anqing who died fighting in the Korean War, was possibly one of 32 Chinese tourists who died when a bus fell from a bridge in North Hwanghae Province, Radio France Internationale’s Chinese version reported on April 30, citing a Chinese source.
The report said Xinyu, a Major General in the People’s Liberation Army of China, and most of the other Chinese tourists were the children of Chinese soldiers who fought in the Korean War.
The accident also killed four North Koreans.
The tourists died reportedly on their way back from a cemetery in Hoechang County in South Pyongan Province that was for Chinese soldiers who died during the Korean War. Mao Zedong’s eldest son Anying was buried there, which leads to the supposition Xinyu could have visited the cemetery to pay tribute to his uncle.
If it is true that Xinyu was among the dead, two direct descendants of Mao Zedong have perished on the Korean Peninsula. [Korea Times]
With all the developments happening on the Korean peninsula the Chinese have decided to show the South Koreans who is still boss in the region:
Seoul called in China’s ambassador on Saturday after a Chinese military plane violated South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ), officials said.
South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Yoon Soon-gu summoned Chinese Ambassador Qiu Guohong and called for Beijing to come up with measures to prevent such a violation from happening again, ministry officials said.
Separately, the Defense Ministry said it called in Du Nongyi, military attache of the Chinese embassy in Seoul, and lodged a stern protest against the Chinese military plane’s violation of the KADIZ.
According to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the Chinese aircraft, believed to be a reconnaissance plane, entered the air defense zone in the northwest in the morning and stayed for about four hours.
“At 10:44 a.m., one Chinese military plane entered the KADIZ from northwest of Ieo Island,” the JCS said in a statement, referring to the submerged rock south of Jeju Island.
It then changed direction near the southeastern port city of Pohang toward the eastern island of Ulleung before steering south and exiting the KADIZ on its entry route at 2:33 p.m., the JCS said. [Korea Times]
For those that don’t know Ieodo continues to be a territorial dispute between South Korea and the Chinese. The Chinese regularly violates the South Korean ADIZ at key times of their choosing to send a message to South Korea.
The islands of Vanuatu may appear as relative specks in the South Pacific Ocean, but for China’s military strategists, they could provide a significant boost in Beijing’s ability to project naval power.
The prospect of a Chinese military base in the heart of the South Pacific, reported by Australia’s Fairfax Media on Tuesday, will also complicate the strategic dominance of Western powers in an ocean area they have long effectively controlled, according to diplomats and experts monitoring developments.
Fairfax Media reported China has approached Vanuatu about establishing a permanent military presence there, saying the possibility of such a facility has already alarmed high level officials in Canberra and Washington.
Vanuatu’s foreign minister denied there had been any such discussion of a Chinese military base in the country. China’s defence ministry said the Fairfax report “completely did not accord with the facts” while a foreign ministry spokesman said the report was “fake news”. (…….)
While far from key shipping lanes and not as important as Indian Ocean ports, Vanuatu would put China close to the coast of Australia, a major U.S. ally, and give it a presence nearer the U.S. base of Guam beyond the Asian island chains that hem in Beijing.
Graeme Smith, a Pacific Affairs expert at the Australian National University, said a Chinese base on Vanuatu would send a strong message to Australia, the United States and their allies.
“It would be an incredibly aggressive signal to both the U.S. and Australia that ‘We’re here, get used to it’,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. [Reuters]
You can read more at the link, but how long will it be before some Chinese scholar says Vanuatu was historically part of China?
