Category: North Korea

It looks like the Moon administration has gotten President Trump to agree to allow South Korea to send tribute to Kim Jong-un:

South Korea made it official that it wants to offer food aid to North Korea despite the Kim Jong-un regime’s weekend military test, following a phone conversation between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump. 

The Ministry of Unification said Wednesday that the government will cooperate closely with the international community to push humanitarian food assistance to the North. The announcement by ministry spokesman Lee Sang-min followed an earlier Blue House briefing about Moon and Trump’s discussion of the issue in a phone conversation Tuesday night Seoul time. 

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Wednesday he will call a meeting with ministry officials to follow through on the discussion between Moon and Trump. “We will review the issue comprehensively and make an announcement,” Kim said at the inter-Korean border as he returned from a visit to Kaesong. “When a specific plan is created, we will tell the press.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I have said repeatedly that North Korea does not need food aid. There are hungry people in North Korea because the Kim regime keep them undernourished. If they can afford ICBMs and nuclear weapons, the Kim regime can definitely afford to buy food if they wanted to. Better yet North Korea recently purchased $640 million in luxury goods from China.

The regime is using their typical provocation playbook to extract concessions from South Korea and the international community. If history is any indication the food aid will be considered tribute from the imperialists to the Kim regime and then mostly given to the military and regime elite. The regime elite will then blackmarket what they don’t use to the people in North Korea to further drain them of what little money they may have.

Lucky shot! Captured by @planetlabs Planetscope satellite at 0154 UTC (1054 local) on Saturday as it overflew Wonsan, North Korea. pic.twitter.com/g5QgVI8hJf

— Martyn Williams (@martyn_williams) May 5, 2019

I wonder how the Kim regime would respond to the US military conducting “strike drills” right off the coast of North Korea and just claim it is to inspect their performance?:

 North Korea has conducted a “strike drill” for multiple rocket launchers and tactical guided weapons to test their performance, state media reported Sunday, a day after the communist nation fired unidentified short-range projectiles into the East Sea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised the “strike drill of defense units in the forefront area and on the eastern front which took place in the East Sea of Korea on Saturday,” according to the Korean Central News Agency.
“The purpose of the drill was to estimate and inspect the operating ability and the accuracy of striking duty performance of large-caliber long-range multiple rocket launchers and tactical guided weapons by defense units in the frontline area and on the eastern front,” the KCNA said.
“And the combat performance of arms and equipment and to more powerfully arouse the entire army to the movement for becoming crackshots with the drill as an occasion and thus put it at combat readiness posture all the time,” it added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

#KimJongUn should, in light of the impending emergency, divert cash from his dangerous weapons programs and buy food. He has enough cash so that every person in #NorthKorea can eat well. There is, consequently, no need for UN or other aid. https://t.co/Wf5Ruj13bV

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) May 3, 2019

After being called a missile test, the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff is now saying it appears the North Koreans fired off “projectiles” that were probably from a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS):

North Korea fired a barrage of unidentified short-range projectiles into the East Sea on Saturday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, in apparent saber-rattling amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States.
The JCS had earlier said the North fired multiple short-range “missiles” but later revised the announcement to portray what were fired only as “projectiles.” The projectiles were fired from areas near the east coast town of Wonsan between 9:06 a.m. and 9:27 a.m., the JCS said.
The change suggests the firings could have involved multiple rocket launchers, not missiles. 
“What the North fired this time is not a ballistic missile,” a military officer said.
The projectiles flew about 70 kilometers to 200 kilometers, the JCS said, adding that South Korean and U.S. authorities are analyzing details of the projectiles and the intention behind the firings.
“Our military has been closely watching North Korea’s movements and has maintained a full-fledged posture in close coordination with the U.S.,” the JCS said.
Last month, North Korea test-fired what it called “the new tactical guided weapon,” which, according to Seoul authorities, appeared to be a guided weapon for ground combat.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but what is interesting about this test is that it was fired out of Wonsan which happens to be an area that Kim Jong-un wants developed into an international tourism area. Conducting military provocations out of Wonsan does not help create an image of international tourism for Wonsan, which makes me wonder if the Kim regime is cooling on this idea?

If this was an MLRS test, it was likely their new KN-09 system. The KN-09 has a range of 190 kilometers which means from frontline positions North Korea can target the US military’s main bases in Korea, Osan Airbase and Camp Humphreys. This test firing is likely a reminder to the Trump administration of the artillery capability the North Koreans possess to target US troops in South Korea in hopes of pressuring them to agree to the “pretend denuclearization” deal they want.

Judging by the picture it appears that the THAAD soldiers are simply doing training on how to reload their launchers which is hardly provocative. However, when North Korea is looking for an excuse to raise tensions they will always find one:

North Korea has condemned a recent anti-ballistic missile defense drill by the United States Forces Korea (USFK), calling it a rash act of military provocation, the North’s propaganda media outlets said Friday.

The criticism came about a week after the USFK revealed it staged an exercise last month using the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system deployed in South Korea, at its Camp Humphreys garrison in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

“The drill is a military provocation that breaks the atmosphere of peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Uriminzokkiri, the North’s propaganda website, said.

“It would be a stupid misjudgment for the U.S. to believe that the country can achieve its impure intention by testing and threatening the North with power.” 

Pyongyang also stepped up pressure on Seoul, urging it to “behave discreetly” over the U.S.’s military exercises on the peninsula.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this is all standard North Korea playbook that we are seeing here.

This article makes me wonder if this is just more fake news or John Bolton signaling to North Korea that the US is serious enough about North Korea denuclearization to consider a military strike:

John Bolton, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, still believes that a military strike on North Korea is a viable option as denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang are stalled, The New Yorker reported earlier this week.

Citing unnamed U.S. government officials, the magazine said in its profile of Bolton published on Monday that Bolton privately told White House aides that the second U.S.-North summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, was unlikely to succeed.

Despite months of engagement with the North and Trump’s bragging about falling in “love” with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Bolton, according to the article, still believes that a strike is possible because the United States knows where most of North Korea’s nuclear weapons are.

“We can still do it,” a U.S. administration official cited Bolton as saying. “We know where most, if not all, of their weapons are. We could destroy their nuclear capability. There are ways to deal with their artillery.”

When asked about potential casualties, Bolton said he “wishes we weren’t at this point. But the military option remains viable.”

Other White House officials, on the other hand, are realizing that military force is not a realistic option, the source added. 

“I think we could have destroyed the North’s nuclear program in the 1990s. It was more concentrated and we knew where everything was,” the official said. “Not anymore. It’s too big and too dispersed.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

North Korea continues to vocalize that they want a “pretend denuclearization” deal by the end of the year:

A senior North Korean official on Tuesday warned of “unwanted consequences” if Washington does not shift its policy on North Korea’s denuclearization within this year, deepening the nuclear standoff with the U.S.
North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui did not elaborate on what she meant by “unwanted consequences” that she said the U.S. does not want to see. 
Choe also said “North Korea remains committed to achieving denuclearization and will denuclearize in due time. But it will be possible only when the U.S. changes its current way of calculation and reestablishes its stance,” according to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency. 
Choe’s remarks come after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s interview with CBS last Wednesday. Pompeo said the U.S. would “change paths” if the denuclearization talks with the North do not succeed.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but as I said before the Kim regime is likely betting that the Trump administration will give them a “pretend denuclearization” deal in order to claim credit for a foreign policy victory before the 2020 presidential election. Additionally a “pretend denuclearization” deal would keep North Korea quiet during the 2020 campaign season.

It will be interesting to see if their strategy is going to work or not.

President Trump is confirming that they did not pay North Korea any money for the release of Otto Warmbier:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of Otto Warmbier, a day after a report said Trump had approved a $2 million bill from Pyongyang for the American student’s care.
“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else,” Trump wrote in a tweet.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from Pyongyang to cover its care of the comatose college student, who was held in a North Korean prison for 17 months until June 2017.
Warmbier, a University of Virginia student from Ohio visiting North Korea as a tourist, was imprisoned in January 2016. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan from his hotel, North Korean state media said.
Warmbier died six days after his release from North Korea. An Ohio coroner said Warmbier died from a lack of oxygen and blood to his brain. North Korea, which has dismissed claims that it tortured the student, blamed food poisoning and a sleeping pill.
The Treasury Department received the bill from North Korea and it remained unpaid through 2017, the Post reported. It was not clear whether the administration paid the invoice later.

Yahoo News via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but the real story is the media narrative being created by the Washington Post that originally published the article. Instead of getting a response from the Trump administration on if they paid for Warmbier’s release they write an article implicating that Trump paid “ransom” money for Warmbier’s release. Later after the news cycle has moved on and White House denies any payment, far fewer people see this news.

Despite the sensational headlines, this story does not seem very well sourced:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the execution by firing squad of four foreign ministry officials after the failure of his Hanoi summit with Donald Trump, a report has claimed.
The officials were reportedly executed after the February talks between North Koreaand the US came to an end without any deal being made.
Pyongyang had accused the four officials of selling information to Washington before the Hanoi summit, according to a Japanese news agency.
The executions, which included a diplomat from North Korea’s embassy in Hanoi, have not been verified.

Asia Press claimed its reporter spoke to a trade official who was told the rumour about the executions.
It is claimed that the executions were watched by members of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and Korean People’s Army.

Yahoo News

You can read more at the link, but increasingly in our news media rumors and innuendo are being treated as hard news.