The Trump administration may be sending a message to North Korea by sending a well respected US Navy admiral to possibly be the next US ambassador to South Korea instead of Australia as previously announced:
Admiral Harry Harris
U.S. Navy Admiral Harry Harris, who was formerly nominated as ambassador to Australia, may be re-nominated as the ambassador to South Korea, according to media reports, Wednesday.
The U.S. and South Korean governments have not confirmed the nomination, but Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop noted the change, Wednesday, after being informed by U.S. Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan a day earlier, according to an AP report.
“While we would have welcomed Admiral Harris here as the ambassador to Australia, we understand that there are significant challenges for the United States on the Korean Peninsula,” she was quoted as saying.
U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Harris to be ambassador to Australia in February.
Harris, 61, reportedly planned to retire this year, but decided to take the post as ambassador to Australia based on his deep interest in bilateral relations between the countries. He is known to have less experience in dealing with South Korea. [Korea Times]
CSIS expert Tara O states something that I have said before that if Kim Jong-un is serious about peace on the peninsula why doesn’t he start pulling back his artillery and troops from the DMZ?:
Tara O
President Moon Jae-in should seek ways to reduce the military threat posed by North Korea before signing a peace treaty, said Tara O, an adjunct fellow at the Pacific Forum CSIS, Tuesday.
She urged Moon to raise this issue at his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to be held at the border village of Panmunjeom, Friday.
“Unless there are concrete measures to reduce the threat, the signing of a peace treaty is premature and only makes South Korea more vulnerable,” O said in an interview.
“Besides, North Korea does not even want to sign a peace treaty with South Korea; it wants to sign it with the U.S.”
O’s advice came after President Moon said last week he was optimistic about signing a peace treaty with North Korea to formally end the Korean War.
She suggested Moon make detailed requests to Kim, such as moving the North’s artillery away from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), destroying its chemical and biological weapons, reducing its military forces and changing its official goal of unifying the entire Korean Peninsula under its rule.
She called any peace treaty without a reduction of military threats “a trap.”
“It’s not about peace. It’s about doing away with the justification for the U.S. troop presence in South Korea, because their mission is to deter, and if that doesn’t work, then defend the South and defeat the North,” she said.
O, an expert on North Korea, is a retired U.S. Air Force officer who worked on numerous assignments in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., including the Pentagon and U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command (CFC). [Korea Times]
It looks like Kim Jong-un is highly concerned about losing Chinese tourists and their money after this horrible bus accident in North Korea:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited survivors in hospital, calling the bus crash his people’s “own misfortune”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has expressed his “bitter sorrow” after dozens of Chinese tourists were killed when a bus they were travelling in plunged off a bridge.
Thirty-two Chinese tourists and four North Koreans perished in the accident south of Pyongyang Sunday night, Chinese officials and state media said. Two other Chinese nationals were injured.
In a rare admission of negative news from North Korea’s tightly controlled propaganda network, the KCNA news agency on Tuesday said Kim met personally with the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang and later visited survivors in hospital.
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, carried a front-page on Kim’s actions, including pictures of him in a doctor’s white coat, holding the two survivors’ hands as they lay in their hospital beds. [AFP via a reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but such a high profile appearance by Kim Jong-un probably means that the North Korean driver was at fault for the accident as well.
Mike Pompeo met with KJU 3-4 times during his 3-day stay in Pyongyang per Asahi Shimbun. KJU reportedly said he's on the same wavelength with Pompeo: "This is the first time I'm meeting someone who has the same fire in the belly as I do" (loose translation)https://t.co/frgRdVqTmj
I hope Kim Jong-un is sincere about this, but I remain extremely skeptical:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is said to have sent his message to the Trump administration that he would accept a denuclearization verification and intensive inspection by international inspectors including the International Atomic Energy Agency’s visit to its nuclear facilities. Kim, who announced that the regime would shutter a nuclear site in Punggye-ri over the weekend, is reported to have made more detailed reference to the possible inspection and verification for denuclearization. With the upcoming bilateral summit between Washington and Pyongyang, the negotiations on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will go more smoothly.
CIA director and Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo secretly met with Kim earlier this month to lay the groundwork for direct North Korea-U.S. talks under the condition of the regime’s complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization, South Korea’s intelligence agency said on Monday. Acting as a special envoy for Trump, Pompeo strongly urged North Korea to allow an international verification procedure to check that regime dismantles the nuclear program.
Kim reportedly said he would freeze the nuclear program, report any nuclear activities, and allow international inspectors to visit its facilities only if Washington engages in sincere negotiations, according to observations by South Korea’s intelligence agency. Pompeo is reported to have raised the need for intensive verification procedure in a short period time, citing that North Korea previously expelled IAEA inspectors. He also said inspectors may have to carry out a special inspection into nuclear facilities additionally, if necessary. Kim is said to have not raised any objection to these demands. On the timing and scope of nuclear inspections, Kim will, however, make more cautious decisions after taking into deep consideration what he will gain in return. [Donga Ilbo]
Comedian Jon Stewart relays an audience question during a USO show at Osan Air Base, South Korea, Monday, April 23, 2018.
Comedian Jon Stewart and a host of other celebrities that included a country music singer and a TV chef entertained troops Monday evening at the home of the 51st Fighter Wing.
Servicemembers packed Osan’s Enlisted Club for the USO show, which kicked off with a monologue by Stewart followed by a one-on-one basketball lesson from former Detroit Piston Richard “Rip” Hamilton.
Things shifted into high gear when chef Robert Irvine challenged anyone in the audience to knock out 100 pushups before he could grill a steak. Irvine easily won, and later gave Stars and Stripes some tips on how to beat him. [Stars & Stripes]
Two Korean nationals were part of the group of 10 people killed in the deadly van attack in Toronto:
Minassian has been taken into police custody and is due to appear in court on Tuesday. Police have not disclosed his motive, but sources suggested mental illness was a factor
Two Koreans were killed and one was injured in a van attack in Toronto, the Korean government said Tuesday (KST).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said two Koreans were killed and one was seriously wounded as a result of the attack, in which a van plowed into pedestrians in the Canadian city. Their identities have not been disclosed.
The government has sent consular officials to local hospitals and police stations to help them and their families.
“The foreign ministry has taken necessary steps, including contacting the families of the victims, and plans to provide relevant consular support,” a ministry official said.
A large Korean community is in the area. The incident occurred when people rushed out for lunch.
According to reports, a man deliberately plowed his white Ryder rental van into a lunch-hour crowd, killing 10 people and injuring 15.
The suspect, Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill, Ontario, is in custody. Minassian was arrested about 30 minutes after police received the emergency call. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the reported reason for this attack is one of the weirdest yet; this killer Alek Minassian is supposedly part of an online group called “incel” for being involuntary celibate due to women rejecting him. This attack was a way to stand up for the “incel’ community.
Members of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, including the party’s chairman Hong Joon-pyo (4th from R, 1st row), rally in front of the National Assembly in Seoul on April 22, 2018, to call for an independent counsel probe into a burgeoning opinion rigging scandal involving an influential blogger with alleged ties to a ruling party lawmaker. (Yonhap)
