It seems to me that the Kim regime is working hard to butter up the US President while playing hardball with his underlings:
President Donald Trump Thursday released a letter from Kim Jong Un, in which the North Korean leader voices confidence in efforts to end their nuclear standoff, while calling on his US counterpart to take “practical actions” to build trust.
“A very nice note from Chairman Kim of North Korea,” Trump tweeted alongside a copy of the letter dated July 6 — the day that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Pyongyang for what turned out to be difficult talks with Kim’s regime.
“Great progress being made!” Trump added in his tweet.
In the letter Kim describes his June 12 summit with Trump in Singapore, and the resulting joint statement agreed by both sides, as the “start of a meaningful journey.”
“I firmly believe that the strong will, sincere efforts and unique approach of myself and Your Excellency Mr. President aimed at opening up a new future between the DPRK and the U.S. will sure surely come to fruition,” Kim writes.
“I deeply appreciate the energetic and extraordinary efforts made by Your Excellency Mr. President for the improvement of relations between the two countries and the faithful implementation of the joint statement,” he adds.
The North Korean leader also voices hope that “the invariable trust and confidence in Your Excellency Mr. President will be further strengthened in the future process of taking practical actions.” [AFP]
You can read more at the link, but my thoughts on this is that the Kim regime as well as the Moon administration in South Korea, both understand that guys like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo have no intention of dropping sanctions until real denuclearization occurs. That is why I believe they have been trying to appeal to President Trump’s ego in attempt to overrule his advisors and drop the sanctions for pretend denuclearization deal.
That is why I believe President Moon has come out and said that President Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and now we have Kim Jong-un appealing to his ego by calling Trump “Your Excellency” repeatedly. Time will tell if their strategy works or not.
The Army’s new physical fitness test is on its way with units beginning to field the equipment to take the test this year and final implementation in 2020:
There are six events in the ACFT:
Strength Deadlift. This is a three-repetition maximum deadlift to test muscular strength; it mimics movement to safety and effectively lifting and carrying heavy loads.
Standing Power Throw. This event involves throwing a 10-pound medicine ball as far as possible over the head and to the rear. It measures upper and lower muscular power, balance and whole body flexibility.
Hand-Raised Push-ups. This event forces the soldier to go all the way to the floor and raise his hands before coming back up again, measuring upper-body muscular endurance.
A 250-Meter Sprint, Drag and Carry. This is five different events within one event — a 50-meter sprint; a backward 50-meter drag of a 90-pound sled; a 50-meter movement; a 50-meter carry of two 40-pound kettle bells; and a final 50-meter sprint. It measures muscular strength, power, speed and reaction time.
Leg Tuck. A soldier hangs perpendicular to the pull-up bar and brings his knees up to his elbows and back down again for one repetition. It measures muscular strength, endurance and grip.
Two-Mile Run. The ACFT retains the two-mile run portion of the APFT, which is designed to measure aerobic and muscular endurance.
All events must be completed in 50 minutes or less, so there is mandated rest and a maximum time for each event, Frost said. Each soldier gets two minutes’ rest between each of the first five events and five minutes of rest before the two-mile run. [Military.com]
You can read much more at the link, but if soldiers must complete the test in 50 minutes or less I will be interested to see how a company level unit will be able to execute this with six events. It seems units would have to make this a multi-day event to get everyone complete.
I am also interested to see what the minimum scores will be considering this is a gender and age neutral test.
South Korean female archers train during a media event for the 2018 Asian Games at the National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province, on July 10, 2018. (Yonhap)
This cost savings number is a drop in the bucket compared to rest of the Pentagon’s budget:
The United States’ annual August military drills with South Korea canceled last month by order of President Donald Trump as his administration negotiates a halt to North Korea’s nuclear program would have cost the Pentagon about $14 million, according to defense officials.
Pentagon officials were unable last month to provide a cost-savings estimate for canceling the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise. After Trump met with the North’s leader Kim Jong Un on June 12, the president announced he would halt all joint “war games” with South Korea so long as North Korea was negotiating in good faith.
On Wednesday, Army Col. Rob Manning, the Pentagon spokesman who provided the $14 million figure for the suspended military drill, did not have a breakdown explaining how defense officials arrived at that cost. Manning also did not have an estimate for cost savings for additional joint exercises in South Korea that could be canceled in the future. [Stars & Stripes]
The issue of signing a peace treaty to end the Korean War is one of the major objectives of North Korea and China to ultimately get USFK withdrawn from South Korea:
President Moon Jae-in (C) arrives at Singapore’s Changi Airport on July 11, 2018, for a three-day state visit that will include a summit with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo by Yonhap
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he wants to bring a formal end to the Korean War this year.
“The goal of our government is to declare an official end of the Korean War this year, which marks the 65th anniversary of signing the truce agreement,” he said in an interview with Singaporean media The Straits Times, according to Yonhap. Moon is on a three-day state visit in Singapore.
After the three-year war, China, North Korea and the U.N. agreed to an armistice in 1953.
“It will provide a milestone to the process for permanent peace along with denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and a peace treaty between the North and South,” said Moon.
He added that his country is discussing with the U.S. and North Korea about when and how the declaration for the end of the Korean War will be announced. [UPI]
Here is what Moon had to say about the future of USFK:
Moon noted that the U.S. military presence in South Korea is irrelevant to the denuclearization negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea.
“South Korea and the U.S. hold a firm position on the roles and importance of U.S. Forces in Korea for sustaining peace and stability in the Northeast Asian region and the Korean peninsula,” he said.
Remember that I have long believed that President Moon cannot publicly advocate against keeping USFK in Korea post-peace treaty because that will mobilize the conservative opposition against him. However, Moon can use his surrogates to make life difficult for USFK to where the US could decide to withdraw on its own. This gets Moon and his left wing base in South Korea what they ultimately want, USFK withdrawal without getting blamed for it.
It also gives North Korea and China what they ultimately want as well, but will the North Koreans agree to denuclearization if USFK was to withdraw? I guess we will see what happens over the next year.
It is going to be interesting to see how much market the new Homeplus Special warehouse store is going to be able to capture in South Korea:
Inside of Home plus Special in Mokdong, southwestern Seoul / Courtesy of Home plus
The second basement of Home plus’ Mokdong branch in southwestern Seoul looked totally different, Wednesday, as the discount store’s space selling groceries has been converted into a warehouse store with capacious shelves piled with boxes.
“As I said in March at a press conference about the business strategy of Home plus, we will unveil Home plus Special today to fulfill our promise to make a store satisfying our customers,” Home plus CEO Lim Il-soon said at a press conference, a day before the opening of Seoul’s first Home plus Special. “We opened Home plus Special stores in Daegu and Busan last month, and they have been well-received by consumers.”
Defining Mokdong as the battlefield of retailers in Korea, she predicted fierce competition with Yangpyung Costco Warehouse and Lotte Vic Market’s Yeongdeungpo branch, which are 1.6 kilometers and 2.7 kilometers from Home plus Special, respectively.
Home plus, however, is confident the new warehouse store will be a success. [Korea Times]
DPRK's most successful public relations campaign ever… The country is now more favored than China and Japan among South Koreans, so as Kim Jong-un more favored than Xi Jinxing and Shinzo Abe. This is unprecedented for an @asaninst survey! pic.twitter.com/kooAWNE0D5
Cold War era South Korea was host to many deadly and bizarre incidents. On March 31, 1970, Japan Airlines flight 351, a 727 aircraft flying from Tokyo to Fukuoka was hijacked and eventually flown to Seoul adding to the long list of bizarre incidents involving South Korea.
From the April 1, 1970 Stars & Stripes
This hijacking known as the “Yodogo Hijacking” in Japan, would be the second one in four months involving South Korea. On December 12, 1969 a civilian South Korean airplane was hijacked and flown across the DMZ by North Korean agents. This time the JAL aircraft was not hijacked by North Korean agents, but instead communist sympathizers from the left wing Japanese Red Army Faction.
The “Yodogo Hijacking”
As the aircraft was flying to the city of Fukuoka in southern Japan, nine members of the Japanese Red Army, known as “Sekigun” in Japanese, wielded samurai swords and pipe bombs to take control of the plane with its 122 passengers and 7 crew members. It is amazing to think that airline security was so lax back then that this many weapons could be smuggled on to the plane. After seizing the plane the Red Army Faction, composed of students ages 16 to 27, tied up all the passengers to their chairs. They originally planned to fly the plane directly to Pyongyang, but allowed it to land at Itazuke Airbase outside of Fukuoka once they learned from the pilot, Captain Shinji Ishida that the plane did not have enough fuel to fly to Pyongyang.
The hijackers had mistakenly thought the plane could fly all the way to Havana and were shocked to learn the plane could not even fly across the Pacific much less to Cuba. In need of fuel, the hijackers agreed to release 10 women, 12 children, and one elderly male passengers in return for enough fuel to fly to North Korea. From Fukuoka they planned to fly to Pyongyang and then figure out a way to get to their ultimate destination of Cuba.
From the April 1, 1970 Stars & Stripes newspaper
The Ruse
The plane spent a total of five hours on the ground at Fukuoka before lifting off again to fly to North Korea. As the plane flew towards the DMZ it took warning fire from ROK air defense batteries and was escorted by fighter jets to Kimpo Airport at Seoul in attempt to make the hijackers think they were in North Korea. To continue the ruse, authorities in South Korea also decorated Kimpo International Airport to look like an airport in North Korea. They did this by removing all South Korean flags and flying North Korean ones instead and placing placards welcoming the hijackers to North Korea. They even had personnel at the airport dressed in communist uniforms. Like I said before bizarre things happen in South Korea.
After the plane landed Korean Airlines official Chung Man-jin approached the JAL aircraft and over a megaphone welcomed the hijackers to Pyongyang. The hijackers yelled back down at Chung through the pilot’s window that they believed they were in Seoul. The ruse was failing because they saw no pictures of Kim Il-sung posted anywhere. ROK authorities then quickly got a picture of Kim Il-sung posted for the hijackers to see. After six hours of negotiations the ROK authorities gave up on the ruse after the hijackers spotted a US Northwest Airlines plane parked on the tarmac.
From the April 1, 1970 Stars & Stripes
The Negotiations
After giving up on the ruse, ROK authorities began negotiations with the hijackers. The negotiations were high contentious as the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane multiple times. It wasn’t until the Japanese Transportation Vice Minister Shinjiro Yamamura agreed to be a replacement hostage that progress was made. A deal was made where a tire that had popped during the landing was repaired and the plane refueled in return for releasing 50 hostages.
From the April 5, 1970 Stars & Stripes newspaper
After the release of 50 hostages Mr. Yamamura would then board the plane to become a replacement hostage. Once Yamamura was on board another 50 hostages were released. It can’t be understated how brave this decision by Yamamura was because some of the hostages from the December 1969 Korean Airlines hijacking never came home. Plus the crew from the USS Pueblo had been held hostage for nearly a year in North Korea and were tortured before being released. Mr. Yamamura when he volunteered knew that he risked never going home again and being tortured, yet he went anyway.
From the April 4, 1970 Stars & Stripes newspaper
Surprisingly when Mr. Yamamura boarded the plane the hijackers were quite congenial with him. For example one of the hijackers playfully pretended to stop Yamamura from running away from the plane. Another hijacker carried his luggage on to the plane and they had a final wave and farewell before entering the plane. The hijackers were apparently quite congenial with the passengers as well. Two of the last hostages to leave were Americans Herbert Brill, a Pepsi-Cola executive and Reverend Daniel MacDonald. When both left the plane they were smiling and shaking hands with the hijackers before departing.
Escape to North Korea
On April 3, 1970, JAL 351 with the nine hijackers, the three crew members, and the Transportation Vice Minister flew from Kimpo Airport, across the DMZ, and landed at Mirim Field outside of Pyongyang. When they landed in North Korea the hijackers exited the plane and struck karate poses in excitement of what they had done. They were then treated as heroes by the ruling Kim Il-sung government and given political asylum in North Korea. Fortunately for the hostages they were treated well by the Kim regime and after some initial stalling, they allowed the plane and the hostages to fly back to Tokyo on April 5th.
From the April 5, 1970 Stars & Stripes newspaper
Historical Japanese news footage of the JAL 351 hijacking at Fukuoka and Kimpo Airport can be seen in the below video. Additionally footage of Shinjiro Yamamura walking into the airplane at Kimpo followed by the release of the passengers can be seen:
Who Were the Hijackers?
Most of the hijackers were students from Doshisha or Kyoto University which were the two top universities in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto. Eight of the students were leftist nobodies, except for one student, Moriaki Wakabayashi. Wakabayashi was the bass player for a popular Doshisha University based underground rock band called Les Rallizes Denudes.
From the April 5, 1970 Stars & Stripes newspaper
The band was formed by Takashi Mizutani who was a studying sociology and French literature at the time. His French literature background is where the name of the band, that he was the lead singer for, came from. Takashi was offered to participate in the hijacking, but declined to become involved. The band would have eventually faded off into obscurity if Wakabayashi had not helped to hijack JAL 351. After the hijacking the band remained together for many years afterwards. You can listen to a sampling of their music by watching the below video:
After initially arriving in North Korea the hijackers may have been treated as heroes, but their ultimate goal of traveling on to Cuba was denied to them. From the Kim regime perspective letting them travel on to Cuba would be embarrassing because the perception would be that North Korea was not good enough for them. North Korea was after all sold as being the “worker’s paradise”, thus the hijackers were forced to stay in North Korea.
Interestingly the mastermind of the hijacking, did not take part in the actual operation. His name was Takaya Shiomi. He was arrested in Japan and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released from prison in 1989 and worked as a lowly paid parking garage attendant. After his release he joined the anti-US movement in Okinawa and wrote several books about the Red Army Faction. He died in Tokyo in 2017 of heart failure.
The 9 hijackers on the other hand were forced to settle into life in North Korea. One of the things the hijackers eventually wanted to make life more bearable in North Korea was to have wives. There was no chance of them being given North Korean wives because of the racial ideology of the Kim regime that promotes the importance of keeping the Korean bloodline pure. Because of this they worked on encouraging Japanese women with their same leftist ideology to defect to North Korea. Incredibly they were very successful with five Japanese women traveling to North Korea in 1992 to marry the hijackers.
It is unknown what jobs all the hijackers have held in North Korea, but something they are believed to be involved in was helping with the abduction of Japanese nationals abroad. It is believed that the Korean Workers Party in North Korea was using the hijackers to help create a Japanese revolution based on Kim Il-Sung’s doctrine. Two of the hijackers that were allowed to travel abroad were arrested. The youngest hijacker, Yasuhiro, Shibata was only 16 years old when he participated in the hijacking. In 1985 he was sent to Japan to help raise money for the Red Army Faction. Shibata was able to operate in Japan for three years before being arrested in 1988.
From the May 12, 1988 Stars & Stripes newspaper.
Shibata was eventually tried and sentenced to 5 years in prison. One of the things that authorities learned from Shibata was that one of the hijackers, Yoshida Kintaro died of illness in Pyongyang in 1985.
Another hijacker Yoshimi Tanaka was arrested on the Cambodia-Thai border by Cambodian authorities. He was caught after a high-speed car chase across the country after Cambodian and US Secret Service agents were tipped off by an anonymous tip that Tanaka and North Korean diplomats were smuggling millions of counterfeit US dollars into Thailand.
From the April 6, 1996 Stars & Stripes newspaper.
Tanaka was deported to Thailand where he was acquitted of counterfeiting, but deported to Japan to face punishment for his role in the JAL 351 hijacking. He received a 12-year jail sentence from the Japanese court. Tanaka would never see freedom again since he died of liver cancer in 2007 while still serving his prison sentence. He was 58 years old.
From the June 25, 1999 Stars & Stripes newspaper.
While he was in jail Japanese authorities learned from Tanaka that another hijacker Takamaro Tamiya died in 1995. Tanaka’s death brought the number of hijackers remaining in North Korea to five. Over the years the hijackers requested to return to Japan, and wanted to open negotiations with the Japanese government to surrender if they did not do jail time. The Japanese government has so far expressed no interest in giving immunity to the hijackers. In 2001 and 2004 the Japanese government did allow various wives and children of the hijackers to return to Japan. In 2014, Japanese journalists were able to visit the “Japanese Village” in North Korea and interview the remaining hijackers.
Japanese Village in North Korea
What they found was that the village which was once luxurious, has since decayed, but is still quite nice by North Korean standards. The hijackers even have email access and their own satellite TV dish. There is currently only 4 hijackers remaining in the village since one of them Takeshi Okamoto is believed to have been killed with his wife while trying to flee North Korea.
The four remaining “Yodo-go” hijackers being interviewed by the media in Pyongyang (From left to right: Kimihiro Uomoto, Takahiro Konishi, Shiro Akagi, Moriaki Wakabayashi) (September 2004) (Photo: Kyodo Press)
Here is a quick summary of the fate of all nine of the JAL 351 hijackers:
Takahiro Konishi – Still in North Korea
Shiro Akagi – Still in North Korea
Moriaki Wakabayashi – Still in North Korea
Kimihiro Uomoto – Still in North Korea
Yasuhiro, Shibata – Arrested in Japan in 1988 after traveling to Japan on a false passport to raise money for the Red Army. Was sentenced to 5 years in jail.
Yoshimi Tanaka – Arrested in Cambodia in 2000 trying smuggle counterfeit US dollars. Died in 2007 of liver cancer while serving a 12-year jail sentence in Japan.
Takamaro Tamiya – Died in 1995
Yoshida Kintaro – Died in 1985
Takeshi Okamoto – Believed killed trying to flee North Korea with his wife
Conclusion
The hijacking of JAL 351 was the first hijacking by the Japanese Red Army Faction and began a nearly two decade long run of terrorism committed by the left wing group. The most notable was the Lod Airport massacre in Israel in 1972. Three members of the Japanese Red Army were trained by Palestinian terrorists to conduct an attack that left 26 people dead and 80 more injured. The only Red Army terrorist that survived the attack, Kozo Okamoto was the brother of JAL 351 hijacker Takeshi Okamoto. The last deadly attack by the Red Army Faction occurred in 1988 when they bombed a USO nightclub in Naples, Italy killing five people.
Fortunately for the passengers of JAL Flight 351, the terrorists that took them hostage did not resort to deadly force. The responsible actions by the Japanese and ROK authorities, even though the ruse at Kimpo Airport failed, did manage to ultimately get all the hostages and even the plane returned to Japan. Though not all the JAL 351 hijackers have been captured, they have in a way experienced their own confinement in North Korea for the rest of their lives. Fortunately with the advances in aviation security such a hijacking should never happen again, though it would be fun to see ROK authorities try to disguise Incheon International Airport as a North Korean airfield.
