I've been called a free speech "absolutist" & I embrace the label. But no society can remain free if it allows some people to threaten violence against others for the peaceful expression of their views. A society that does so selectively commits censorship by proxy. #juchejugendhttps://t.co/ZETAzwrTzB
Mourning late BushThe U.S. national flag flies at half-mast to mourn the death of former President George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Dec. 5, 2018. (Yonhap)
Here is what South Korea’s new defense minister had to say to his top general officers:
Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, clad in a black suit, and top commanders salute the national flag during a meeting in Seoul on Dec. 5, 2018. (Yonhap)
South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo on Wednesday stressed the importance of maintaining a robust defense posture to buttress the nascent peace process on the peninsula.
Presiding over a year-end meeting with more than 140 top commanders nationwide, the minister cited two pillars of the government’s security strategy: peace and strong defense capability.
“There should be no change, not even a little, to our military’s mission and role despite the easing of military tensions between the South and the North and confidence building,” Jeong said at the start of the session held at the Ministry of National Defense compound in Seoul. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but it seems to me the cancelling of joint exercises is a major change to the ROK defense readiness.
The first part of the survey of North Korea’s railways has been completed:
This photo provided by the Joint Press Corps shows a group of South Korean officials and railway experts speaking to reporters after returning home on Dec. 5, 2018, following a six-day railway inspection in North Korea. (Yonhap)
A group of South Korean officials and railway experts returned home Wednesday after completing a joint inspection of the rail system in western North Korea.
The 28 South Koreans crossed into Dorasan Station, just south of the inter-Korean border, at around 5:11 p.m. following a six-day inspection that covered the rail line from Kaesong near the border with the South to Sinuiju near the border with China.
A train carrying six South Korean cars left for the North on Friday. It was taken over by a North Korean locomotive at Panmun Station, from which point five North Korean cars were connected to it for the joint work.
“The overall railway conditions have not been better or much worse compared with when we visited there before,” Lim Jong-il, a transportation ministry official who headed the team, told reporters. He was involved in a 2007 railway inspection in the North. [Yonhap]
Why should a regime that has enough money to fund a luxurious lifestyle for Kim Jong-un and the regime elite as well as develop a robust nuclear program be given humanitarian aid? It is pretty clear that the regime is using international organizations to help subsidize their nuclear program and lavish lifestyles by not having to divert resources to support their own people:
Bart Vermeiren, head of the North Korean office of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul. (Yonhap)
Politics should be kept separate from efforts for humanitarian aid, the head of the North Korean office of an international Red Cross organization has said, adding that any link between them could be “dangerous” as it could turn assistance into a “negotiation tool.”
Bart Vermeiren, head of mission of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), made the remark in a recent interview in Seoul with Yonhap News Agency, amid growing calls for waiving sanctions for humanitarian projects.
“I think that humanitarian aid should remain depoliticized. It should not actually be linked to politics because it becomes dangerous. Then humanitarian aid becomes a tool, a negotiation tool so that should not be the case,” he said.
Vermeiren was in Seoul on a four-day trip to meet Red Cross colleagues and policymakers to discuss cooperation. This marked his first official trip since he was sent to Pyongyang in July last year. His term as head of the ICRC’s Pyongyang office is to end in December. (…..)
Recently, a group of about 60 North Korea aid organizations in South Korea sent a joint letter urging the U.N. Security Council to exempt humanitarian assistance projects from sanctions on the communist nation. [Yonhap]
This appears to just be another way that the North Korea apologists are trying to get around the sanctions on the Kim regime. I would not be surprised if things like the infrastructure upgrades that the Moon administration has been advocating for in North Korea, will be considered “humanitarian assistance” to get around sanctions.
Still waiting to discover North Korea evading sanctions on items its apologists claim cause profound human suffering for lack thereof. But, priorities. https://t.co/KroAHgqAj7
NK leader visits shoe factoryThis combined image, carried by North Korea’s main daily Rodong Sinmun on Dec. 3, 2018, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting a shoe factory in the eastern port of Wonsan. As is customary, the paper didn’t provide the date of his visit. (Yonhap)
It looks like the capitulation to Kim Jong-un’s demands is being considered by the Trump administration:
The U.S. government is willing to lift some economic sanctions on North Korea if the regime demonstrates “sincere measures” toward denuclearization, a source with knowledge of Pyongyang-Washington talks exclusively told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he wasn’t specifically told whether that meant the United States was willing to ease its own unilateral sanctions on the North or give sanctions exemptions to third countries, including South Korea, to carry out joint projects with Pyongyang.
The United States, one of five veto-wielding members in the United Nations Security Council, has a crucial say in UN sanctions on the North. Unanimous approval from a UN North Korean sanctions committee composed of the five countries – the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France – and 10 nonpermanent members on the UN Security Council is normally required for a sanctions waiver.
If the former hypothesis is true, it would mean Washington is willing to ease sanctions even before North Korean carries out total denuclearization, which goes against the long-held mantra of the White House that sanctions will not be eased before the North’s final, fully verified denuclearization, or FFVD.
The source told the paper that Washington’s definition of “sincere measures” from the North included a partial inventory of its nuclear weapons and facilities or allowing outside experts to inspect the Yongbyon nuclear plant. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This is a perfect example of “pretend denuclearization” if this does in fact happen. The Kim regime will have once again received a huge influx of cash for doing little to nothing in return and they get to keep their nukes.
Everyone needs to remember that Moon Chung-in is the trial balloon specialist for the Moon Jae-in administration. Because the US will not drop sanctions until North Korea denuclearizes it appears that the South Koreans are instead going to try and get around sanctions by throwing around the term “humanitarian assistance” and even more strangely “humanitarian businesses”:
In this file photo taken on Nov. 29, 2018, Moon Chung-in, a special presidential adviser for unification, foreign and security affairs, speaks during a seminar in Seoul. (Yonhap)
The United States can help break the impasse in denuclearization talks with North Korea without sanctions relief if it allows humanitarian businesses in the communist nation to go forward, a special adviser to President Moon Jae-in said Monday.
Moon Chung-in, a special presidential adviser for unification, foreign and security affairs, made the remark during a lecture in Seoul, reiterating President Moon’s earlier remark that rewards for the North’s denuclearization steps do not necessarily have to be a relaxation of sanctions.
“Many American citizens wish to conduct humanitarian businesses in North Korea, but cannot due to government restrictions,” the adviser said. “Relieving those restrictions could send a fairly positive message to North Korea.”
President Moon told reporters earlier that rewards for North Korea’s denuclearization steps could include a delay or reduction of a South Korea-U.S. military exercise, humanitarian assistance or even non-political exchanges, such as sports and cultural exchanges. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but of course Moon Chung-in did not specify what “humanitarian businesses” he was talking about. So is Samsung, who the Moon administration has been pressuring to invest in North Korea, suddenly going to become a “humanitarian business” to get around sanctions? Will the big railway improvement project in North Korea the Moon administration has been pushing become “humanitarian assistance” to avoid sanctions?
Hopefully the Trump administration squashes this latest sanctions busting trial balloon from the ROK government.
My guess would be is that the uncertainty is probably over the annual Key Resolve and UFG exercises held each spring and summer. It seems to me that keeping these exercises on schedule can be used to pressure the Kim regime to make progress on denuclearization. Why reward them with cancelling the exercises if they have not done nothing in return? The fate of these exercises I think will be closely tied to the much discussed Kim-Trump summit that is supposed to happen early next year.
South Korea and the United States have not yet made a decision on whether to continue suspending their joint military exercises next year despite an earlier pledge to finalize the schedules for the drills no later than Dec. 1.
The pledge was made on the sidelines of the annual Security Consultative Meeting in Washington in October. South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said he would announce the 2019 joint exercise plans under close consultation with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, but no specific timelines or schedules have been confirmed.
“The announcement was expected to be made before the aforementioned deadline, but both defense leaders are still narrowing their differences on the agenda,” the South’s defense ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said. “We will announce the details at the earliest possible date.”
This came at a time when the allies are scaling down their joint military drills in reflection of the ongoing peace momentum on the Korean Peninsula.
On Monday, South Korea started an independent air drill replacing the Vigilant Ace joint aerial exercise with the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Monday. [Korea Times]
