Why should a regime that has enough money to fund a luxurious lifestyle for Kim Jong-un and the regime elite as well as develop a robust nuclear program be given humanitarian aid? It is pretty clear that the regime is using international organizations to help subsidize their nuclear program and lavish lifestyles by not having to divert resources to support their own people:
Bart Vermeiren, head of the North Korean office of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul. (Yonhap)
Politics should be kept separate from efforts for humanitarian aid, the head of the North Korean office of an international Red Cross organization has said, adding that any link between them could be “dangerous” as it could turn assistance into a “negotiation tool.”
Bart Vermeiren, head of mission of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), made the remark in a recent interview in Seoul with Yonhap News Agency, amid growing calls for waiving sanctions for humanitarian projects.
“I think that humanitarian aid should remain depoliticized. It should not actually be linked to politics because it becomes dangerous. Then humanitarian aid becomes a tool, a negotiation tool so that should not be the case,” he said.
Vermeiren was in Seoul on a four-day trip to meet Red Cross colleagues and policymakers to discuss cooperation. This marked his first official trip since he was sent to Pyongyang in July last year. His term as head of the ICRC’s Pyongyang office is to end in December. (…..)
Recently, a group of about 60 North Korea aid organizations in South Korea sent a joint letter urging the U.N. Security Council to exempt humanitarian assistance projects from sanctions on the communist nation. [Yonhap]
This appears to just be another way that the North Korea apologists are trying to get around the sanctions on the Kim regime. I would not be surprised if things like the infrastructure upgrades that the Moon administration has been advocating for in North Korea, will be considered “humanitarian assistance” to get around sanctions.
Still waiting to discover North Korea evading sanctions on items its apologists claim cause profound human suffering for lack thereof. But, priorities. https://t.co/KroAHgqAj7
It looks like the capitulation to Kim Jong-un’s demands is being considered by the Trump administration:
The U.S. government is willing to lift some economic sanctions on North Korea if the regime demonstrates “sincere measures” toward denuclearization, a source with knowledge of Pyongyang-Washington talks exclusively told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he wasn’t specifically told whether that meant the United States was willing to ease its own unilateral sanctions on the North or give sanctions exemptions to third countries, including South Korea, to carry out joint projects with Pyongyang.
The United States, one of five veto-wielding members in the United Nations Security Council, has a crucial say in UN sanctions on the North. Unanimous approval from a UN North Korean sanctions committee composed of the five countries – the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France – and 10 nonpermanent members on the UN Security Council is normally required for a sanctions waiver.
If the former hypothesis is true, it would mean Washington is willing to ease sanctions even before North Korean carries out total denuclearization, which goes against the long-held mantra of the White House that sanctions will not be eased before the North’s final, fully verified denuclearization, or FFVD.
The source told the paper that Washington’s definition of “sincere measures” from the North included a partial inventory of its nuclear weapons and facilities or allowing outside experts to inspect the Yongbyon nuclear plant. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This is a perfect example of “pretend denuclearization” if this does in fact happen. The Kim regime will have once again received a huge influx of cash for doing little to nothing in return and they get to keep their nukes.
When asked which country poses the most serious threat, China, Russia, Iran or North Korea, Mattis says: "in terms of URGENCY, North Korea is the problem." #RNDF2018
The only problem with this is that Kim Jong-un’s wish is to keep his nukes and have sanctions dropped:
US President Donald Trump will grant North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un his wishes if he delivers on denuclearisation, the South Korean president said Sunday, following talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
As officials work to arrange a second meeting between Trump and Kim, South Korea’s Moon Jae-in relayed a message to reporters given to him by the US president to pass on to the North’s leader.
“And the message was that President Trump has a very friendly view of Chairman Kim and that he likes him, and so he wishes Chairman Kim would implement the rest of their agreement and that he would make what Chairman Kim wants come true,” Moon told the Yonhap news agency while en route to New Zealand. [AFP]
I doubt this will become a major trend because the North Koreans will likely increase security on their side of the DMZ to prevent more defections:
A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea across the eastern land border on Saturday, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
With its surveillance equipment, the South Korean military detected the soldier crossing the military demarcation line at 7:56 a.m., the JCS said.
“Related agencies plan to investigate him regarding the details of how he came to the South,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters, adding that there were no “special activities” from the North Korean army on the front line.
“Following demolition of guard posts between the South and the North, our security operations on the front line have had no problem,” a JCS official said. “The soldier is safely in our custody.”
This is the first defection case after the two Koreas completely destroyed 10 front-line guard posts each and since the demining of a ridge in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Friday. [Yonhap]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has expressed a willingness to allow inspectors into the country’s main nuclear complex, a senior diplomatic source said Tuesday, citing a message sent to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Kim earlier expressed a willingness to permanently shut down the site in Yongbyon if the U.S. took “corresponding” measures, but his apparent offer to allow verification has not been reported.
If true, Kim’s offer would mark a significant step toward meeting U.S. demands for full and verified denuclearization, a position Washington has stuck to since a historic Trump-Kim summit in June.
“I understand that Chairman Kim told (South Korean) President Moon (Jae-in) during their summit in September that if the U.S. took corresponding steps he would not only be willing to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facilities but also allow verification,” the source with knowledge of U.S.-North Korea negotiations told Yonhap. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but if the sanctions are dropped the North Koreans will simply drag out closing down Yongbyon as long as possible until they can kick out the inspectors. By the time they manufacture a reason to kick out the inspectors they will have received their cash infusion from the dropping of sanctions.
It is pretty clear this is a standard North Korean playbook move here, will the Trump administration fall for it?
That + neutralizing SK as a threat to KJU's legitimacy by (1) extinguishing speech that criticizes NK & (2) ensuring that SK media smuggled into NK are either not anti-NK or affirmatively pro-NK. Goal isn't occupation; it's political supremacy, which looks increasingly plausible. https://t.co/siDMRG7UVq
Has anyone asked President Moon what he thinks about his new best friend locking away whole families in prison camps?:
Kim Ok
Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s secretary Kim Ok, once rumored to be the late ruler’s secret fourth wife, appears to have been sent to a prison camp, a local government official exclusively told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday.
South Korean intelligence authorities concluded that Kim Ok was imprisoned after Kim Jong-il died in December 2011, according to the source, who requested anonymity. Kim Ok appears to have been sent to a prison camp for political criminals in 2014 for her links to Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Jang was once considered the second most powerful man in the regime.
Jang was executed on Dec. 12, 2013, nearly two years after Kim Jong-un took power following his father’s death. At the time, Jang served as vice chairman of the Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission and chief of the Central Administrative Department. He was apprehended in November 2013 along with his close aides, kicked out of the party and tried in a special military tribunal. He was found guilty of “anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts in a bid to overthrow the leadership of the party and state and the socialist system,” in the words of North Korea’s official media.
Kim Ok is still alive, the South Korean government official said. Her close family members were all imprisoned as well, according to the source, but it is not known whether they’re still alive.
Kim Ok, who is 53, was seen shadowing Kim Jong-il inside and outside North Korea wherever he went. This caused local analysts to believe she was the late leader’s fourth wife, though North Korean media identified her as his secretary. She was so close to Kim Jong-il that when he visited China in May 2011, she sat next to him in his private vehicle. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
UNSCR 2397, paragraph 7 allows Air Koryo to buy all the spare parts it needs to keep flying those missile parts to your friends in Damascus & Tehran. https://t.co/fFGcM3lL4G
