North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un visits the Wonsan Shoes Factory in the country’s southeastern Kangwon Province in this photo published on Dec. 9, 2016, by daily newspaper Rodong Sinmun. Media report said Kim “dropped by” unannounced and was satisfied with the high production at the plant. (Yonhap)
The North Koreans may not be launching any provocations in the near term due to the South Korean political crisis, but they obviously don’t want people to forget about them either:
This capture from Pyongyang’s Korean Central Television shows North Korean soldiers attacking a replica of the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in a recent drill. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observed a special warfare unit’s drill to destroy specific targets in South Korea, the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday.
Kim watched the combat drill of the service personnel of the special operation battalion of KPA Unit 525, which included artillery shelling of and infiltration into key South Korean targets, such as the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, the KCNA report said. [Yonhap]
It looks like the North Koreans are willing to give some time to the incoming Trump administration:
Choe Sun-hui
A top North Korean diplomat is reported to have told her American counterparts at a meeting in Switzerland that the North will refrain from provocations until the Donald J. Trump administration’s North Korea policy is further developed.
According to Radio Free Asia on Wednesday, Choe Son-hui, director general of the U.S. Affairs Department of the North’s Foreign Ministry and a top envoy to the six-party talks, said at a meeting with her American counterparts in Geneva last month that the North “would not take action that might close the door before seeing what emerges.”
Choe reportedly told the U.S. delegation that she hopes the Trump administration will review its policy toward the North while keeping her statement in mind. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
However, she caveated her statement by saying this:
Yet, according to meeting records obtained by RFA, Choe reportedly said that should the South and the United States conduct a joint military drill, the North’s response will have to be “very tough.”
Seoul and Washington are scheduled to hold their annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercises in February.
This screen capture from the North’s Korean Central TV on Dec. 7, 2016, shows blurs in its broadcast of a rally in downtown Seoul, apparently trying to hide tall buildings around the site. Pyongyang has been active in reporting weekend protests in South Korea demanding the president’s resignation, but analysts say it still didn’t want to show South Korea’s economic development to its people. (Yonhap)
Some else has jumped on the North Korean regime change bandwagon:
Regime change is the only way to get North Korea off the current path, a former top American diplomat said Monday.
Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, made the point during a security forum, saying he no longer believes it’s possible to change Pyongyang’s behavior without a regime change.
“I, like some of the others around here, for years spent a lot of time talking about … we don’t really want regime change in North Korea. We just want to change the regime, their behavior change. We’re not looking to interfere with the leadership of the DPRK,” Armitage said.
“I no longer hold that view. The only way in my view that North Korea can be dissuaded from their present path is by a regime change,” he said during the forum on the Korea-U.S. alliance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Armitage also said that the U.S. should put greater pressure on the North over its human rights record and cut the regime off the international financial system.
“In my experience dealing with North Korea, two things have made an impression on them. One was the human rights security council resolution … and our interference in the finances of North Korea in the Macau bank,” he said. [Yonhap]
“We help them copy whatever they want onto microSD cards,” said Yao, who would only give his surname, in his tiny store primarily selling cameras.
“They usually want South Korean TV dramas,” he said, sliding open a display cabinet to reveal a stack of the tiny memory cards, each the size of a fingernail, that slot directly into DVD players and computers.
The flow of information in and out of North Korea is tightly controlled by authorities. Most North Koreans cannot access the internet or foreign media and share content secretly on USB sticks.
But tiny microSD cards are increasingly popular now because North Korea has been cracking down on USBs, Yao said.
“It’s getting harder to bring USBs across the border, customs will check what’s on them. But microSD cards are smaller, easier to slip through,” he said.Apart from their small size – the cards can be woven into clothes or hidden between the pages of a book – MicroSD cards can often be directly inserted into a “Notel”, a device popular in North Korea which can be powered by a car battery and plays DVDs and media from USB sticks and memory cards.”MicroSD cards make it easier and safer for North Koreans to smuggle foreign digital media in from China,” said Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), an organization which works with defectors. [Reuters]
You can read the rest at the link, but like I have been saying for years, subversive media is the type of engagement with North Korea I can support.
You can read more about North Korea’s “Notels” at the below link:
Another week and another threat against South Korea from the Kim regime:
Kim Jong Un instructed North Korean troops to “wipe out South Korea” in the latest sign of aggression from North Korea’s supreme leader. Kim’s remarks came during a military border exercise this week as the United Nations Security Council adopted sanctions targeting Pyongyang’s coal exports.
“This is how we must forcefully respond to those South Koreans. At first strike we must completely break the will of those South Koreans and wipe them all out,” Kim said according state-controlled television network KCTV.
Kim spoke directly to a marine brigade and a frontline unit that has been tasked with fighting Seoul. The drills included the rapid firing of artillery and Kim was briefed on their training plan, UPI reported Friday.
The annual winter training exercise was held near a disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea. North Korea state media said an island targeted during the training saw loud explosions and light that simulated “the enemy’s cities and military targets submerged in a sea of fire.” [International Business Tribune]
