B.R. Myers does relatively few radio interviews, so it was a pleasure to speak with him at length this week while I hosted a KBS radio program. #korea#dprkhttps://t.co/1B4JTqL1Us
Personally I will believe a dawn of a new day has begun when North Korea’s nuclear material is being shipped out of the country. I really do hope that happens, but I remain skeptical:
This AFP file photo shows U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Yonhap)
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday hailed the “dawn of a new day” with North Korea as the U.S. pushes diplomacy to denuclearize the regime.
Chairing a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, Pompeo sounded a hopeful note on the diplomatic negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.
But he also called for strict enforcement of all U.N. Security Council sanctions on Pyongyang until denuclearization is achieved.
“Past diplomatic attempts to halt North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development were unsuccessful,” Pompeo said. “But now we’re at the dawn of a new day.” [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but despite all the flowery language, Secretary Pompeo is continuing to emphasize keeping the sanctions in place on the Kim regime.
It is pretty clear that Kim Jong-un is doing everything he can to influence the South Korean public that he can be trusted:
Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju (left) with South Korean president Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook (R) on Mount Paektu, where Kim attempted to make ‘finger hearts’ sign. Photograph: Kcna Via Kns/AFP/Getty Images
During a joint visit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to the top of Mount Paekdu, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un posed for cameras with the hottest photo gesture in South Korea: a finger heart.
Kim made the gesture, which crosses the thumb and the index finger to make the shape of a heart, when he posed for a photo with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, against the backdrop of Cheonji or Heaven Lake on top of the mountain Thursday, the South’s presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.
The gesture has been one of the most popular photo poses in South Korea in recent years — perhaps as popular as the conventional V gesture — as a lot of actors, actresses and singers, including boy band BTS, have used it.
After trying to figure out how to make the gesture, the North’s leader approached the spokesperson.
“How do you do this?” Kim was quoted as asking. “I can’t make it in the right shape.”
Kim managed to make the gesture and his wife, Ri, put her hands under Kim’s hand as if she’s upholding the heart, according to the spokesman [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but this is all a carefully choreographed narrative being constructed of Kim Jong-un that I would not be surprised if the Moon administration is helping to craft.
I think this article is very accurate in describing the Kim regime as wanting to be as denuclearized as Pakistan:
For seven years, Kim Jong-un has pursued an in-your-face strategy for building his nuclear arsenal: detonating blasts underground and firing missiles into the sky, all to send the message that his country’s nuclear buildup is irreversible.
Now he appears to be changing his approach, current and former American intelligence officials say, tailoring it to his reading of the man he met for a few hours three months ago in Singapore: President Trump.
North Korea is making nuclear fuel and building weapons as actively as ever, the publicly available evidence suggests. But he now appears to be borrowing a page from Israel, Pakistan and India: He is keeping quiet about it, conducting no public nuclear demonstrations and creating no crises, allowing Mr. Trump to portray a denuclearization effort as on track. (……..)
Still, nuclear production continues unabated, satellite photographs and other evidence suggest. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has not persuaded the North Koreans to turn over an inventory of their major nuclear facilities and materials, much less declare how many weapons they possess. While Mr. Kim has blown up entrances to a nuclear test site and appeared to start dismantling a test stand for missile engines, he has not allowed in any inspectors to determine whether the actions were simply for show. (………..)
Mr. Kim’s strategy now appears to be simple: Mimic Pakistan, which conducted a major nuclear test in 1998 and deflected demands for years that it give up its weapons. Pakistan has largely succeeded. It has a substantial arsenal, and when Mr. Pompeo visited Islamabad recently, there was little public discussion of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. [New York Times]
You can read more at the link, but I have been saying this repeatedly that the Kim regime wants “Pretend Denuclearization” and not real denuclearization. Pretend denuclearization allows them to keep their nukes like Pakistan in return for a peace treaty ending the Korean War and having sanctions dropped. It seems foolish that anyone would agree to this, but there are many people in the academic class, political class, and US adversaries who think this is a great idea.
In the coming weeks we will see if the Trump administration agrees to this because clearly North Korea is betting that with the US midterm elections coming up that President Trump will want a supposed foreign policy victory.
¿Nuclear inspections? No, KJU did not agree to that. Where does this stuff come from? Is someone suffering from cognitive impairment? Or is someone a compulsive liar? Or both? https://t.co/3wWFZouaR2
The Kim regime continues to advocate for the Trump administration to end the Korean War:
North Korea repeatedly called for the U.S. to declare an end to the Korean War, as a means to protect its regime from hostilities. However, the U.S. has required North Korea to take tangible and verifiable denuclearization measures first.
So far, North Korea has shut down its Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and dismantled parts of its Tongchang-ri missile testing site, but these measures have yet to be verified.
The North has now pledged to shutdown the Tongchang-ri facility completely in a verifiable manner.
There had been expectations for the North to pledge to submit a list of its nuclear weapons in exchange for the U.S. declaring an end to the Korean War.
However, the North made clear that it would not take any further measures until the U.S. declares the end of the war. [Korea Times]
This rhetoric of ending the Korean War has been going on for months because the Kim regime wants the peace treaty because it then challenges the legitimacy of the military presence in South Korea. If there is peace why is USFK needed?
President Moon is saying all the right things that USFK will remain after any peace treaty is signed. Despite claims in the media that Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in want US troops to stay after any peace deal is reached, this is just all rhetoric to prevent energizing South Korean conservatives against Moon.
Remember Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down. If he advocated openly for a USFK withdrawal that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces. That is why I think the Moon administration will publicly say they support USFK staying, but will then have their surrogates do things to make life difficult for USFK.
Possibly the future of USFK after a peace treaty could look a lot like the current THAAD site in Seongju. President Moon will say all the right things that he supports USFK, just like he supposedly supports the THAAD site, but will set conditions to make it difficult for its continued existence and cause the US to withdraw troops on its own accord.
Remember that Kim Jong-un’s dad, Kim Jong-il once said that he would visit Seoul and never did:
North and South Korea agreed that the Korean Peninsula should turn into a “land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats,” Moon said following the conclusion of his summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Moon, Kim said he will visit the South’s capital Seoul “in the near future.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but but if Kim gets sanctions dropped, is flush with cash from the Moon administration, and achieve a confederation which brings forth unification on North Korean terms, of course he would be willing to visit Seoul.
The irony of Kim Jong-un visiting Seoul is that the guy responsible for the murder of dozens of South Koreans and horrific human rights abuses will likely be treated as a hero by the Moon administration while the two former ROK Presidents who stood up to Kim Jong-un, Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak rot prison.
This report makes me wonder if there is a arms for petroleum agreement going on between North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China?:
North Korea has reportedly sold arms and military equipment to Middle East countries in violation of the United Nations sanctions.
The Wall Street Journal issued the report on Saturday citing a secret report by experts monitoring UN sanctions against the regime.
The UN experts said in the report that they found new evidence of the North’s arms smuggling and illegal financial transactions.
The panel said that the evidence showed North Korea sold tanks, ballistic missiles and rocket-propelled grenades to Yemen’s Houthi insurgents and other entities via a Syrian arms smuggler.
The UN report said that North Korean arms experts had visited a munitions factory in Syria multiple times. It added that the North’s imports of petroleum products surged on the routes involving Russian and Chinese vessels. [KBS World Radio]
While the Moon administration continues to play nice with North Korea, the Trump administration continues to add new sanctions over the Kim regime’s nuclear program:
This AP file photo shows U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. (Yonhap)
The United States on Thursday sanctioned two companies in China and Russia for allegedly facilitating North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
The Department of the Treasury also sanctioned a North Korean individual in the latest set of sanctions aimed at denuclearizing the regime.
Thursday’s action particularly targets the revenue earned for the Pyongyang government by North Korean IT workers overseas.
The Treasury said it is sanctioning China Silver Star, which is “nominally a Chinese IT company, but in reality … managed and controlled by North Koreans.”
Also being sanctioned is the firm’s CEO, Jong Song-hwa, and its Russia-based front company, Volasys Silver Star.
“These actions are intended to stop the flow of illicit revenue to North Korea from overseas information technology workers disguising their true identities and hiding behind front companies, aliases, and third-party nationals,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but it appears that the Trump administration is not ready to sign up for “pretend denuclearization“.
