Category: North Korea

Kim Yong Chol, NK's top negotiator with the US, and Ri Su Yong, head of the party's International Department, not going to Russia with Kim Jong Un. First time for Kim or Ri to skip out on the leader's foreign trip.

At least Ri is seen giving KJU a send-off. pic.twitter.com/qb2OaBZeTW

— Rachel Minyoung Lee (@rachelminyoung1) April 23, 2019

These two have much to discuss on how they plan to avoid international sanctions against North Korea:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Vladivostok on his personal train, Wednesday, for a high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia gave a red-carpet welcome for Kim at the train station in the Russian Far Eastern city amid tight security.

En route to Vladivostok, Kim’s train stopped at Khasan near the border between the two countries at around 9:40 a.m. (KST).

Russian government officials greeted the North Korean leader with flowers, salt and bread, as part of a local tradition to welcome guests. Local media outlets reported that Kim said he would visit Russia again in the future.

Kim stayed at the station for about an hour before resuming his journey to Vladivostok.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It appears that Ambassador Harris is emphasizing to North Korea that if they want a deal they better start thinking big:

February’s summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was about choosing between “a very bad deal and no deal,” and Trump made the right decision by ending the talks without an agreement, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea said Monday. 
Amb. Harry Harris made the remarks in a meeting with reporters, stressing that the North’s offer to dismantle its Yongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for the lifting of key sanctions represented a “bad deal” because it would have resulted in sanctions relief with the North’s weapons programs remaining largely intact.

The remark appears to underline Washington’s insistence on a “big deal” that calls for the lifting of sanctions only after the North’s complete denuclearization. It also differs from South Korea’s call for “a good enough deal” — a phased-in, incremental approach.

Yonhap

South Korea’s “good enough” strategy has been tried before and where has it led? To a North Korea equipped with nuclear weapons and ICBMs.

#NorthKorea's #KimJongUn thinks he can both intimidate and disrespect President #Trump. I think that could be Kim's last mistake. https://t.co/xItBOjdNv5

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) April 19, 2019

Here is why the Kim regime is pushing so hard to have sanctions eased for little to nothing in return:

For years, the North Korean state has produced coal, iron ore, seafood and textiles for export, mostly to its ally China. Mr. Kim and top officials have used this export revenue, as well as the earnings of North Korean workers abroad, to finance nuclear weapons, large projects like Samjiyon and their own privileged lifestyles.

Previous international sanctions aimed to prevent North Korea from acquiring weapons parts and technology. But the newer ones, imposed in the past few years, ban those lucrative exports, depriving Mr. Kim’s regime of its main source of income.
As a result, party officials, soldiers and police officers who make a living off the state are feeling the effects more sharply than ordinary people who have already learned to fend for themselves through hundreds of unofficial markets, according to defectors and economists.
“Hardest hit by sanctions are those 20 to 30 percent of the population who stay on the government’s socialist payroll and rations,” said Jiro Ishimaru, a Japanese journalist who monitors North Korea with the help of correspondents there. “Enterprising North Koreans can make as much in a day selling vegetables in the market as many military officers can make a month in official wages.”

New York Times

You can read more at the link, but Kim Jong-un has stated that negotiations have until the end of the year to make a deal.

I think the North Koreans believe that with the US Presidential election happening next year that President Trump is not going to want a return to missile and nuclear tests in 2020 before the election. The Kim regime is likely betting that the Trump administration signs up for their “pretend denuclearization” deal that eases sanctions, gives the Trump administration a so called foreign policy “win”, and the North Koreans keep a low profile before the election.

This approach has worked with past US administrations, but clearly this is not a typical US presidential administration. It will be interesting to see if the old North Korean playbook works on this administration as well.

I have no love for the Kim regime, but I am no fan of raiding their embassies like this either. This is a slippery slope I don’t think the US wants to encourage. How easy would it be for someone like Putin to create militant activist groups to raid other nation’s embassies for intelligence purposes if this type of activity is encouraged?:

Reuters has reported that U.S. authorities have arrested a former U.S. Marine who is a member of a group that allegedly raided the North Korean embassy in Madrid in February and stole electronics.

Citing sources familiar with the arrest, Reuters said that Christopher Ahn was arrested Thursday and appeared Friday in federal court in Los Angeles.

The group called Free Joseon, formerly known as Cheolima Civil Defense, is blamed for the February 22nd embassy raid.

Reuters did not say whether Ahn played a role in the raid but noted he is a member of the group.

The name Christopher Ahn has not previously been mentioned in media reports related to the embassy raid.

Reuters said the U.S. Justice Department has declined to comment on the arrest.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

I would not be surprised if the Kim regime intentionally made sure this was captured on satellite imagery just to further pressure the US to cut a “pretend denuclearization” deal with them:

Commercial satellite imagery from last week shows activity that could indicate the movement of radioactive material at North Korea’s main nuclear facility, a U.S. think tank said Tuesday.
The April 12 imagery shows five specialized railcars near the uranium enrichment facility and the radiochemistry laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear site, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“In the past these specialized railcars appear to have been associated with the movement of radioactive material or reprocessing campaigns,” it said in a report.
“The current activity, along with their configurations, does not rule out their possible involvement in such activity, either before or after a reprocessing campaign,” it added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears that the North Koreans are trying to get President Trump to remove anyone from negotiations that opposes their “pretend denuclearization” strategy:

North Korea is urging the U.S. government to remove Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from the current nuclear negotiations. 

Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday ran an interview with the director of the North America desk of the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

The official said rather than Pompeo, Pyongyang hopes for a more amicable and seasoned official to represent Washington should the stalled North Korea-U.S. negotiations resume. 

Arguing that Pompeo caused the collapse of the Hanoi talks, the official said it is fortunate that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un maintains good relations with U.S. President Donald Trump.

North Korea and Pompeo have had a rocky relationship.

In a briefing to foreign diplomats in Pyongyang on March 15, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui condemned Pompeo and White House National Security Advisor John Bolton for obstructing the talks in Hanoi.

KBS World News

You can read more at the link.

It looks like North Korea has decided to fire a battlefield rocket which allows them to slowly increase tensions without creating a full blown crisis that firing a ballistic missile would do:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Wednesday supervised a test firing of a “new-type tactical guided weapon” developed by an institute responsible for its missile program, according to state media. 

The development of the new weapon system was an “event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People’s Army,” read the state-run Rodong Sinmun’s English report on the test, which attributed the system’s development to the Academy of Defense Science. 

Several military analysts in South Korea said it could be a variation of a short-range ballistic missile launcher imported from Russia called the 9K720 Iskander, which North Korea displayed at a military parade in Pyongyang last February. 

The only description of the weapon itself in the Rodong Sinmun report was that its “design indexes” had “advantages … appreciated for the peculiar mode of guiding flight,” indicating that it was outfitted with a type of guidance system. The test involved “various modes of firing at different targets” that verified “the load of a powerful warhead,” the report added.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but Kim Jong-un promised President Trump to suspend missile and nuclear tests. When he decides to fire a ballistic missile is when we know negotiations are over. This test was just a warning to the Trump administration that the Kim regime is losing patience and want their “pretend denuclearization” deal.

North Korea’s newly selected leadership team is ready for action

Photo from today’s Rodong Sinmun pic.twitter.com/nYA1v2YqQT

— Chad O'Carroll (@chadocl) April 13, 2019