Category: North Korea

I had to wonder if I was reading the Yangpa or not after reading this:

Kim Jong-il, the hip leader of North Korea, this week told the foreign minister of neighboring China, “Chill, mo’fo!’ What he meant was that everyone can relax because tensions with the South Korean puppets and its allies had recently eased.

That was heart-warming news for Yang Jiechi, the top Chinese diplomat, whose country has a lot of face at stake as the host of the six-nations talks which, until now, have failed to resolve the issue of Kim’s nuclear weapons. [Korea Times]

But it is in fact actually Michael Breen who wrote these words in his latest column in the Korea Times. The article is actually a bit “Yanpa-ish” because of how cynical Breen is. Who can blame him considering how long he has been following affairs on the peninsula.

This story seems to be getting some legs with the Washington Post picking up on the seriousness of this allegation:

North Korea may be cooperating with Syria on some sort of nuclear facility in Syria, according to new intelligence the United States has gathered over the past six months, sources said. The evidence, said to come primarily from Israel, includes dramatic satellite imagery that led some U.S. officials to believe that the facility could be used to produce material for nuclear weapons.

The new information, particularly images received in the past 30 days, has been restricted to a few senior officials under the instructions of national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, leaving many in the intelligence community unaware of it or uncertain of its significance, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Some cautioned that initial reports of suspicious activity are frequently reevaluated over time and were skeptical that North Korea and Syria, which have cooperated on missile technology, would have a joint venture in the nuclear arena. [Glenn Kessler, Washington Post]

This article has added more details, but I still haven’t seen anything that concretely proves the allegations.  If these allegations are true this would be the most serious incident between the US and North Korea ever.  The US government will not look kindly at nuclear proliferation.  Could North Korea really be this desperate or stupid?  I can’t wait to hear what excuses the South Korean government will make for Kim Jong-il if true. With that said I still remain skeptical. 

Updated postings over at One Free Korea and DPRK Studies as well.

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It looks like North Korea may be having a going out of business sale:

After days of silence from the Israeli government, American officials confirmed Tuesday that Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes inside Syria last week, the first such attack since 2003.

A Defense Department official said Israeli jets had struck at least one target in northeastern Syria last Thursday, but the official said it was still unclear exactly what the jets hit and the extent of the bombing damage. […]

One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria.

“The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” the official said. He said it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a military action by another government. [Mark Mazzetti & Helene Cooper, New York Times] (HT: bohemian)

I have speculated before that North Korea would possibly give up its nuclear program for the right price, which is what we may now be seeing the beginning of, but I would be shocked if they gave up the handful of nuclear weapons they currently possess for a variety of reasons I have listed before. 

With that said I do have a hard time believing that Syria would be willing to buy nuclear equipment from North Korea and expect Israel to overlook it.  I think it is more likely conventional military weapons being sent to Hezbollah in Lebanon that was bombed.  You know the same weapons smuggling the UN sent forces into Lebanon to supposedly stop but have never bothered to do anything about it.  Either this report is false or Syria has been really emboldened by Hezbollah’s success in last years war. 

You can read more over at DPRK Studies and K.U. Studies as well.

It appears the "Dear Son" is back in favor with the "Dear Leader":

The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam (36) has returned to Pyongyang and is working at the Organization and Guidance Department of North Korea’s Worker’s Party, an intelligence source said Sunday. The department is the key agency that controls all of the party, the military and the government of North Korea. This has prompted analysts to speculate about a reconciliation and the possibility that Jopng-nam, who has been living in exile in Macau, could inherit the leadership instead of his younger half-brothers Jong-chul (26) and Jong-woon (24), who were variously tipped for the succession. [Chosun Ilbo]

This is probably a good assumption since Kim Jong-nam was given such an important government position.  Holding this position is probably a test of Kim Jong-nam’s worthiness to succeed his father.  If he does a good job he will probably be tapped as his successor.  One thing is for certain, Kim Jong-il is no longer the fattest man in North Korea.

North Korea is now saying 600 people died from the floods this month and updated their damage assessment across the country from the floods.  I am still maintaining that these floods are being hyped by the North Koreans to gain additional aid money.  Look at how much money they have already brought in:

On Friday, the United Nations said it will launch an appeal this coming week for between $15 million and $20 million to help about 400,000 North Koreans affected by the floods.  U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Margareta Wahlstrom, the deputy emergency relief coordinator, said the appeal will only focus on immediate emergency needs – food, medical care, water and sanitation.  South Korea delivered the first part of a $7.5 million emergency aid package to North Korea on Thursday including instant noodles, drinking water, blankets and medicine.

Additionally the flood gives President Roh and his legion of "sunshiners" the political cover they need to give North Korea a multi-billion dollar aid package during the upcoming second Inter-Korean Summit in Pyongyang.  Call me cynical, but I take nothing at face value from North Korea. 

I think Nomad is on to something with the fact that the North Korean Arirang Mass Games are going to continue despite the flooding, but the Second Inter-Korea Summit has been delayed.  Someone else who is on to something is OFK who finds the damage statistics from the flooding very suspicious:

Beyond that, things are less certain.  North Korea officially claims that the floods killed 300 people and left 300,000 homeless.  Those figures don’t jibe with each other.  In a mountainous and underdeveloped country, any disaster large enough to make more than a quarter of a million people homeless — the size of a small city — would have claimed more lives. 

OFK also links to this Bloomberg report that offers plenty dubious statistics as well:

The UN said today that 58,000 homes were damaged in the flooding, 50 percent of the country’s health clinics were destroyed, and as much as 70 percent of arable land was under water. More than 800 public buildings, 540 bridges, 70 sections of railway and 500 high-voltage power towers also were destroyed, according to the UN.  [Bloomberg]

It doesn’t make sense that the Arirang Mass Games would continue if these statistics that represent a nation wide mass disaster are true.  That is because these statistics are probably not true and the flooding is being used as a convenient excuse to delay the summit  to October so it has maximum impact on the South Korean presidential election, allow NK to have more time to make demands, ask for increased international aid that will not be monitored, as well as exact maximum propaganda value from the summit:

Moreover, October is a month for a series of celebrations in the North. October 8 marks the 10th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s inauguration as the Secretary General of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), while the 9th marks the first anniversary of the country’s nuclear test, and the 10th is the 62nd anniversary of the foundation of the KWP. If the South Korean president’s visit to Pyongyang coincides with these dates, North Korean propagandists could likely attempt to make the most of it. [Donga Ilbo]

Finally the biggest reason for playing up the flooding damage is that President Roh can use it as cover when he locks South Korea into an extended bribery yearly humanitarian aid package to North Korea.  He can claim it is the "North Korean Marshall Plan" to rebuild the country after the flooding.  Talk about a well time flood.  I bet Roh and Kim were both jumping at the chance to delay the summit when the rain started falling.

Deadly flooding has allegedly hit North Korea:

Heavy rains spawned flooding that left "hundreds" dead or missing in North Korea and destroyed more than 30,000 homes, the country’s state media reported Tuesday.

The official Korean Central News Agency said preliminary information revealed massive casualties after the storms that began last week, but gave no specific figures.

It said the rain also flooded tens of thousands of acres of farmland in the impoverished country that suffers from regular food shortages.

As bad as this sounds I take such reports with a grain of salt because the North Koreans use these natural disaster excuses to get more aid money from South Korea and it provides the ROK government the cover it needs to send it.  So when the big massive bribe aid package is announced during the 2nd Inter-Korean summit the ROK government can claim that it is also part of flood relief for North Korea.  Talk about a well timed flood. 

This is really nothing new and apears to be making more headlines in America than in Korea. I have to say that Andy over at the Marmot’s Hole probably sums this incident up the best.

Here is an interesting report from Strategy Page:

In central Iran, satellite photos revealed several tunnels being dug into a mountain near a nuclear weapons research facility. Several other nuclear research facilities have had some of their operations moved underground, but this tunneling operation is one of the most ambitious “protective” efforts yet undertaken. Iranian officials have been to North Korea, and seen the extensive underground facilities there. It’s possible, even likely, that North Korean engineers are lending their expertise (for a fee) to assist the Iranians in their tunnel construction. Tunnels for industrial facilities are not quite the same as highway, aqueduct or mining tunnels, which Iran has many of.

I did a little research and through Global Security.org I was able to locate the nuclear weapons research facility in central Iran.  The facility is located 15 kilometers southeast of the city of Isfahan.  The facility operates four nuclear reactors that were supplied by China.  I did a little Google Earthing to locate the site.  Here is where the city of Isfahan is located in relation to the rest of Iran:

Here is an image of where the nuclear facility is located in the vicinity of the city of Isfahan:

Here is a close up look at the nuclear facility:

Here is a still image of what this facility looks like:

To the northwest of the facility you can see the excavation occurring on the side of the moutain:

It appears that the center of the excavation is a possible concrete production facility to facilitate the construction of the bunker complex.  I highlighted on the image two bunkers that I could see that appeared either completed or at least their entrances are completed.  There is also what appears to be three possible large concrete buildings as well that may hide possible entrances to additional bunkers.  I could also make out what appears to be digging for two more bunkers on each side of the excavation area where our industrious North Korean engineers are hard at work for the Iranian mullahs.

Just another example that the enemies of the United States have no problem collaborating and working together in order to undermine the United States and the world community in general.

For those that have not been following the illegal activities of North Korea very closely, TIME magazine has a good article titled the "Sopranos State" that clearly lays out the wide range of criminal enterprises being masterminded by the regime in Pyongyang.  This last paragraph in the article pretty much sums up the current US policy to dealing with the criminal activities of North Korea:

So what can the U.S. and its allies do? As a start, Asher and others argue that Washington could lean more on China and South Korea to beef up their surveillance and interdiction of suspect ships coming out of North Korean ports–which over the long term could dissuade Kim & Co. from pursuing its Sopranos-state operations. But that would take time, and right now the U.S. appears focused on getting a nuclear deal out of Pyongyang, no matter what sort of activities it might have to overlook in the process. For Kim and his cronies in Bureau 39, that means business is only going to get better.

As long as the regime is allowed to make money through illegal means Kim Jong-il’s policy of Strategic Disengagement appears to be more likely. 

I highly recommend reading OFK’s take on how "Law Enforcement Will Be Compromised".

Today is the fifth anniversary of the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle which means for the ruling Korean government and their leftist allies it is, Hide Your Head in the Sand Day. For those of you not familiar with the West Sea Naval Battle let me recap it for you.

On June 29, 2002, one day before the closing ceremony of the World Cup the North Koreans tried to draw attention from all the glory South Korea had been receiving from their amazing World Cup performance that year by prevoking a naval battle in the West Sea. The North Koreans planned for and executed a premeditated ambush of a South Korean patrol boat. In the ensueing clash six sailors were killed and 18 more were wounded.

This tragedy of the murdered sailors was bad enough for those left behind, but to make matters worse for the victims and their families, the South Korean government did everything possible to keep the grieving families quiet because they did not want to upset the Sunshine Policy with North Korea. So while politicians in the Korean government encouraged anti-Americanism in the aftermath of the US Army armored vehicle accident that killed two Korean school girls earlier in June 2002, the Korean government in turn did nothing to address the premeditated murder of six ROK sailors by the North Koreans.

The government even told the families to be quiet about the incident and sent no flag officers to attend a memorial ceremony or even offer any condolescences. USFK however did send representatives to the ceremony and USFK Commander General LaPorte offered the families his condolescences.

One wife of a deceased sailor was so fed up with Korea, that she left Korea for good and went to the United States. This is what she said before boarding the plane:

“If the indifference and inhospitality shown to those soldiers who were killed or wounded protecting the nation continue, what soldier will lay down his life in the battlefield?”

Here’s a quote from one of the fathers of one of the murdered sailors that really struck a cord with me:

The father said, “My son is buried in the National Cemetery. But I’m going to take my son’s remains to my family burial site in my hometown.” Having watched the situation develop, he thought his son who was killed by North Korean soldiers was considered nothing more than a criminal.

Some parents said that they are more scared of people who consider the U.S. a bigger enemy than North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who killed their son. We lose courage to defend the country, when we hear that a wife whose husband fell in the battle is preparing to leave this country. Reading a condolence letter from the USFK commander to mark the second anniversary, the wife said, “The Americans remember my husband and his brothers-in-arms better than Koreans… Frankly, I hate Korea.”

“Frankly, I hate Korea”, no those are not the words of a disgruntled expat or GI saying that, that is a Korean woman who had enough of the actions of the Korean government and left the country.  She is not alone in her criticism of the Korean government over what happened in 2002.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper last year published a series of interviews from some of the sailors injured in the 2002 attack and here are excerpts of what they had to say:

Another naval gunner, Kim Taek-jung, 25, has given up his dream of becoming a civil engineer and is preparing for the civil service exam instead. “Because civil engineering requires active work at the site, I’ve made a realistic decision to become a public servant, I still have four or five pieces of shrapnel in my body,” Kim said. “One night I remembered the faces of my six dead comrades, but I couldn’t recall the name of one of them, so I sobbed all night.”

Although they suffer from sleepless nights and nightmares, those without external injuries are not entitled to benefits as “persons of merit.” Ko Kyug-rak, 25, also a naval gunner, said, “For over a year after the incident I was unable to sleep more than three hours a night.” Aboard the patrol boat that turned into a sea of flame, Ko saw his peers burned and their heads blown away and lost some of his hearing. But when he went to a military hospital to claim benefit, Ko was given cool treatment. “A doctor ignored the psychological problems and only asked me to show any external wounds,” he said. “If benefits for persons of merit are granted for this level of injuries, the doctor said, it would have an adverse effect on the state budget.”

Another wounded veteran, Kim Myun-joo, 26, has applied for meritorious benefit twice, but in vain. “I’m just sad because I feel like that post-traumatic stress disorder and efforts to safeguard the country are being neglected,” he said

Of the six victims this paper interviewed, three have office jobs and three are students, all trying hard to make a future for themselves despite the difficulties. What they want from the country is just one thing: that it remembers that many young people were killed or wounded while safeguarding the country on June 29, 2002. “I just wish they remembered the battle once a year, even if they don’t pay much attention. Nothing else,” said Lee Jae-yong, 25.

President Roh has never attended a memorial ceremony for the murdered sailors and I seriously doubt he will attend this one either.  Really only the ROK Navy to their credit and USFK memorialize the event every year. The South Korean ruling party politicians hide their heads in the sand every June 29th because this incident is perfect example of the failure of the Sunshine Policy. The South Korean government gives massive amounts of aid to North Korea and what do they do? They murder Korean sailors.  You give them more massive aid and what do they do? They fire a tactical ballistic missiles which further raised tensions in the region.  You give them even more massive aid and what do they do? They build and test nuclear weapons.

The Korean government has learned nothing five years after the West Sea Naval Battle because they have increased the aid shipments this year to North Korea to a record of over one billion dollars while simultaneously refusing to fully fund the US-ROK alliance.  Is it any wonder why North Korea is always so billigerent when they know they can continue to get away with it?

The Korean government is either in total denial about the nature of the North Korean regime or they just simply don’t care.  The first responsibility of any government should always be to protect their citizens.  The West Sea Naval Battle is just one example that the Korean government could care less what the North Koreans do to South Korean citizens.  Hundreds of South Korean citizens have been abducted by North Korean commandoes and agents over the years from South Korea.  A South Korean wife of one of the abductees had to mount her own personal operation to free her husband from enslavement in North Korea while the South Korean government did nothing.  Even sadder are the hundreds of South Korean POWs which still remain in North Korea against their will. If the South Korean government could care less about the welfare of servicemembers serving their country now, is it any surprise they could care less about the welfare of South Korean POWs kept in North Korea in violation of the armistice agreement signed decades ago.

Certainly the Korean government has learned nothing and if the same type of incident were to happen again the reaction of the Korean government will likely be the same, which is pretend nothing happened.  Unfortunately for the sailors and their families involved in the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle, something did happen and the memory of their sacrifices should be recognized by their government and the public in general.

USFK Commander General Burwin Bell built a memorial on Yongsan Garrison in memory of ROK Army soldier, SGT Yoon Jang-ho who was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan.  Maybe General Bell should also build a memorial to the sailors of the West Sea Naval Battle as well.