This is the kind of willful naïveté, the purposeful misrepresentation that drives me up the wall about this year’s detente w/ N Korea. Talk to them, yes; but praising Kim Jong Un? Jesus. Stop.Just stop. This is how Trump got rolled in SG. Read this first: https://t.co/USizTlr1pfhttps://t.co/0III7HLlmW
The United States on Friday welcomed the U.N. Security Council’s united support for the fully verified denuclearization of North Korea and pressed China and Russia to strictly enforce U.N. sanctions to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused North Korea of violating an array of tough sanctions imposed by the council. He warned that ”when sanctions are not enforced, the prospects for the successful denuclearization of North Korea are diminished.”
Nonetheless, Pompeo told reporters after meeting behind closed doors with the 15 council members that President Donald Trump ”remains upbeat about the prospects for denuclearization” following his historic summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. ”So do I, as progress is happening,” he added without elaborating.
The Trump administration hopes that one day North Korea will be at the United Nations ”not as a pariah but as a friend,” Pompeo said. But ”it will take full enforcement of sanctions for us to get there” as well as Kim following through ”on his personal commitments” to Trump. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I have to hand it to Secretary Pompeo, he is doing everything possible to not be seen as the belligerent whenever the breaking point with North Korea’s foot dragging on denuclearization happens.
There are probably going to be many people surprised slavery exists in North Korea after reading this, but the gulags and forced labor of its citizens for regime projects has been going on for decades:
North Korea has the highest prevalence of modern slavery in the world, with 1 out of every 10 citizens victims under the practice, according to estimates included in a new report.
More than 2.6 million people live under modern slavery in the country, the 2018 Global Slavery Index found, with the vast majority forced to work by the state. The report also argued that the North Korean government had the weakest response to slavery out of all the countries surveyed, as the North Korean state itself is involved in forced labor both inside and outside of the country.
The report defines modern slavery as slavery itself, as well as human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, and the sale and exploitation of children. [Washington Post]
You can read more at the link, but remember this number does not include the near slave labor that were once employed at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. Restarting the near slave labor project at Kaesong is one of the South Korean governments top priorities and why they want the US to drop sanctions against North Korea.
South Korea’s delegation heads for North Korea through the North and South Entry Office in Paju, north of Seoul, on July 20, 2018, for joint railway inspection. The two Koreas agreed in June to modernize and link their currently severed railways and conduct pre-inspections. They will look at the system along the eastern coast on the day and inspect the system along the western coast next week. (Yonhap)
Despite the sharp drop President Moon’s approval ratings remain very high:
President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating dropped sharply this week, a poll showed Thursday, amid concerns over a planned minimum wage hike that critics say is likely to further slow the local economy.
In a survey conducted by Realmeter on Monday through Wednesday, Moon’s approval rating came to 61.7 percent, down 6.4 percentage points from a week earlier.
The rate of decline was the steepest since Moon took office in May 2017, according to the local pollster. The latest reading also was the second lowest since Moon’s inauguration.
The sharp drop follows a controversial decision by the minimum wage commission to hike the country’s hourly minimum wage to 8,350 won ($7.39) from the start of next year, up 10.9 percent from the current 7,530 won.
The president apologized for what he called his government’s inevitable failure to raise the minimum wage to 10,000 won per hour by 2020. However, many, especially small and medium-sized businesses, argue the increases have already been too sharp and too frequent.
Of 1,504 adults surveyed in the latest poll, 42 percent of all respondents said the planned wage increase is too steep while another 40 percent answered the rise seemed adequate.
The ruling Democratic Party’s approval rating slipped 3.8 percentage points to 41.8 percent, marking five consecutive weeks of decline, while that of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party advanced 2.5 percentage points to 19.5 percent. [Korea Times]
Despite having a high approval rating, remember how quickly these numbers can change; former President Park once enjoyed high approval ratings as recently as 2015 when she was at 54%. She ended here her Presidency in 2017 at 5%.
The Prime Minister may want to ask the people enslaved in the gulags how much Kim Jong-un cares about his people:
Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon speaks during a meeting in Nairobi with Korean residents in Kenya on July 19, 2018. (Yonhap)
South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said Thursday that a series of changes has happened in North Korea and the most important of them is that the country finally has a leader caring for the livelihoods of his people.
Lee made the remark in Nairobi during a meeting with Korean residents in Kenya, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s policy to put a greater emphasis on economic development, and vowing to seize the chance to bring permanent peace to the divided Korean Peninsula. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but do these people actually think that talking nice about Kim Jong-un will make him decide to denuclearize?
Here is the latest on the martial law issue in South Korea:
Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman for the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, holds a press briefing at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on July 20, 2018. (Yonhap)
Documents submitted by the defense ministry show the earlier reported proposal from the defense intelligence agency to declare martial law may have been more deliberate than earlier believed, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Friday, apparently implying the military may have actually sought to go ahead with such a plan.
Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said the military maintained and renewed its plans for a martial law every two years, but that the new documents submitted by the ministry showed significant changes and differences from the original plans.
“Usually, the military renews its martial law plans every two years,” the spokesman told a press briefing. “(Cheong Wa Dae) has confirmed the submitted documents are completely different from the existing plans.”
The military documents have been submitted after President Moon Jae-in made a special order for the defense ministry and the military to submit all documents related to the martial law proposal from the Defense Security Command (DSC), which reportedly came in the wake of protest rallies and candlelight vigils in late 2016 that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye on suspicions of corruption.
Kim said the proposal even included plans to inspect and censor news articles.
Also, the DSC suggested the chief of the Army take control of a martial law command, instead of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under conventional military plans.
It also suggested the head of the National Intelligence Service be subject to leadership of the top military commander under its proposed martial law, suggesting military control of the government, as well as the top spy agency.
To the apparent surprise of many, the DSC even stressed a need to arrest and remove then opposition lawmakers who took part in the protest rallies against Park, partly to prevent the parliament from impeaching then-President Park and lifting the martial law, Kim explained. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but remember the martial law plans were updated to prepare for massive riots if President Park was not impeached. From what I have read these plans were for worst case scenarios. If massive riots were to happen that the police could not handle and threatened the stability of the government, was the ROK military expected to just stand by and do nothing?
That is why I would not be surprised if this martial law issue is being sensationalized to create an excuse for the Blue House to replace ROK military leadership they feel are not ideologically friendly to their political goals. Of course this will all be sold as “reforms” and not a purge.
Park Sang-yung, a member of a special prosecutor team investigating an opinion rigging scandal, talks to reporters after arriving at the team’s office in Seoul on July 20, 2018. A court on the night before rejected the team’s request for a writ, the first by the special prosecutor, to arrest a lawyer implicated in the scandal, dealing a setback to the probe. (Yonhap)
A special counsel team sought an arrest warrant for a lawyer surnamed Do, 61, a key figure in the “opinion-rigging” scandal masterminded by an influential blogger who went by the nickname “Druking.”
Druking and his followers initially used software to boost the popularity of Moon Jae-in in the lead up to the presidential election last May, hoping their “successful months-long campaigning efforts” would be “rewarded.” But after Kim Kyoung-soo, Moon’s key aide and now governor of South Gyeongsang Province, dismissed the blogger’s recommendation to appoint Do as the consul general of Korea in Osaka, they used the same tools to disparage Moon. Do, one of seven members in the group of followers, is suspected of offering legal consultation as well as controlling the group’s activities overall.
The team led by special counsel Huh Ik-bum sought an arrest warrant for Do on charges of violating the Political Campaign Fund Law and destroying evidence. Assistant special counsel Park Sang-yong said the team believed Do helped Druking meet with Rep. Roh Hoe-chan, the floor leader of the minor opposition Justice Party, and gave him 50 million won ($48,000) in illicit campaign funds. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but a judge denied the prosecutors request to arrest Do:
A Seoul court on Thursday denied the special prosecutors’ request to arrest a lawyer linked to an opinion rigging scandal on charges he gave illegal political funds to a prominent opposition lawmaker.
The 61-year-old suspect, identified only by his surname, Do, is under suspicion of being involved in setting up a meeting between a political power blogger known as Druking and Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the Justice Party in 2016 to deliver 50 million won (US$44,500) to Roh. [Yonhap]
