It looks like China is trying to get business back to usual with North Korea despite their continuing COVID protocols:
A cargo train crosses the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge over the Amnok River from the Chinese border city of Dandong toward North Korea’s border city of Sinuiju at 7:43 a.m. on Sept. 27, 2022. (Yonhap)
Cargo train operation between North Korea and China is likely to continue, a South Korean government official said Tuesday, citing Beijing’s confirmation of its resumption following a five-month suspension.
On Monday, a freight train from the Chinese border city of Dandong was seen crossing a railway bridge over the Amnok River toward North Korea for the first time since late April.
Speaking at a press briefing later in the day, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, confirmed the resumption of the train service linking Dandong and the North’s border city of Sinuiju.
North Korea just could not help itself and desperately had to make a headline since Vice President Harris will be in Seoul later this week:
North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile into the East Sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, two days after a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier arrived here for allied drills.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from an area in or around Taechon, North Pyongan Province, at 6:53 a.m., and that it flew some 600 kilometers at an apogee of around 60 km at a top speed of Mach 5.
The intelligence authorities of the South and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis for other details, the JCS said.
The launch came as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris plans to visit Seoul later this week and the allies are set to hold a joint maritime exercise in the East Sea, involving the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group.
If this communication was about re-starting talks about denuclearization the Kim regime has made it pretty clear they have no interest in such talks:
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim speaks during a meeting with reporters at the U.S. ambassadorial residence in Seoul on Sept. 20, 2022. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
The United States made yet another dialogue offer to North Korea this summer through a communication channel in New York, but the North has not responded, Washington’s top nuclear envoy said Tuesday.
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim said that the overture was made through the so-called New York channel, involving the North’s diplomatic mission at the U.N., in July, as he highlighted the Joe Biden administration’s continued commitment to reengage with Pyongyang.
“I believe our last communication with the DPRK was during the summer. We sent the message reiterating our interest in re-engagement and also re-offering our assistance in COVID-related items,” Kim said in a meeting with reporters in Seoul, referring to the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “But I say ‘no interest’ (from the North) in the sense that they have not responded to any of our messages.”
Just another sign that North Korea does not plan to give up its nuclear weapons and is in fact expanding their program:
The chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Monday there are signs that North Korea is operating the Yongbyon nuclear complex’s uranium enrichment facility while carrying out construction work there.
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made the remarks amid speculation that North Korea appears to be preparing for what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.
“We have observed indications that the reported centrifuge enrichment facility at Yongbyon continues to operate and is now externally complete, expanding the building’s available floor space by approximately one-third,” Grossi said in a statement to the board of governors.
I don’t know how many ways the North Koreans are going to keep telling the international community that they are not going to bargain away their nuclear weapons before someone believes them:
A photo released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivering a speech during a parliamentary session in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday. Yonhap
President Yoon Suk-yeol’s recently introduced “audacious initiative,” aimed at enticing North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons, seems to have already hit a snag as Pyongyang has guaranteed the right to use preemptive nuclear strikes in its new law.
Experts believe that North Korea’s legislation has to do with its efforts to win international recognition as a “nuclear state” while South Korea’s current denuclearization-based overture may require a change in tempo.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday that the Supreme People’s Assembly, the regime’s rubber-stamp parliament, passed a new law that will enable Pyongyang to automatically launch a nuclear strike if attacked. This replaced a 2013 law which first outlined the North’s nuclear status.
“The status of our country as a nuclear weapons state has become irreversible,” KCNA quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as saying. “(We will) never give up nuclear weapons and there is absolutely no denuclearization, and no negotiation and no bargaining chip to trade in the process.”
This seems like a good assessment, another possibility would be an ICBM launch towards the U.S. that lands in the ocean to demonstrate that the Kim regime can target the U.S. if it wants to:
Former National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won leaves his home in western Seoul on Aug. 16, 2022 after prosecutors conducted a raid in relation to an ongoing probe into the previous administration’s handling of the death of a fisheries official at the hands of North Korea in 2020. (Yonhap)
Former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Park Jie-won said Monday that North Korea will likely conduct a nuclear test ahead of November’s U.S. midterm elections to show off its nuclear capability.
“They are going to do it in order to demonstrate a threat that its missile can fly to the U.S. carrying a miniaturized and lighter warhead, and to deal a blow to the Joe Biden administration ahead of the midterm elections,” Park said on KBS Radio.
Park also said the North could undertake provocations in protest of military exercises that South Korea and the U.S. kicked off Monday.
“Chairman Kim Jong-un is not going to overlook it as if nothing happened,” he said.
This is a really interesting read from a North Korean defector that had a very different upbringing from most defectors:
Lee Seo-hyun, a Keynote Speaker with Freedom Speakers International, is a North Korean defector who recently launched a GoFundMe after she was recently accepted into the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University). She delivered the following speech at TEDxUCLA on June 4, 2022. Courtesy of Casey Lartigue Jr.
It has been said “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” My name is Lee Seo-hyun. I am a North Korean escapee who gave up the certain opportunity to thrive in hell, and instead fled my native country to face certain uncertainty.
My experience as a North Korean escapee might surprise you. I did not grow up in extreme poverty; I was not coerced into human trafficking; nor do I have horrific stories of being a political prisoner. My father was a senior-level government officer for the North Korean regime, and his loyal commitment to the nation and the leader allowed our family to live in the capital Pyongyang, a privilege as North Koreans.
Like most people in North Korea, I had no doubts about the regime because I was brainwashed. I truly believed what our leader said: “Our country is the envy of the world!” Yes, I was living in a bubble. Not of my choosing ― I wasn’t even aware of it ― but a bubble, nonetheless.
What about you? Have you ever even considered the possibility that you may be living in a bubble, regardless of your politics or religion, regardless of the color of your skin or your perceived status in life?
What if the ‘Bubble’ ― the truth I had accepted without question ― is in some way no different from yours ― although yours probably doesn’t include political oppression and torture?
North Korea provided some fireworks for President Yoon’s 100th day in office:
North Korea launches what it claimed was a hypersonic missile, Jan. 5, in this photo provided by the North Korean government. North Korea seems to have test-fired two cruise missiles toward the Yellow Sea on Wednesday. AP-Yonhap
North Korea test-fired two cruise missiles toward the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, a South Korean military official said, as President Yoon Suk-yeol held a press conference to mark the 100th day since taking office.
“(The military) has detected two cruise missiles launched by North Korea from Onchon, South Pyongan Province, into the Yellow Sea early this morning,” the official said on the customary condition of anonymity without providing further details, including the exact type of missiles and time of the firing.
