It looks like this may be what the upcoming negotiations come down to, what does denuclearization really mean?:

The White House is gearing up for President Trump to discuss denuclearization with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their much anticipated summit next month. But what does “denuclearization” mean?

It depends on whom you are asking. To some in Washington, “the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” as Trump tweeted late last month, means Kim handing over his nuclear weapons and missile systems and allowing international inspectors to check that the regime is keeping its word.

To Pyongyang, it means something very, very different. It means mutual steps to get rid of nuclear weapons, including requiring the United States to take down the nuclear umbrella it has put up over South Korea and Japan.  (……..)

At the very least, Kim would agree to relinquish his weapons only if the United States agreed to end its military alliance with South Korea, in place since the 1950-53 Korean War, Narang said. He would also likely insist the United States end its commitment to “extended deterrence” in South Korea and Japan — its threat of nuclear retaliation if its allies in Asia come under attack from North Korea.  [Washington Post]

You can read more at the link, but what I think is important to realize here, is that whatever Kim Jong-un says during negotiations is what the Chinese want as well.  The Kim regime has long wanted to separate the ROK from the US.  Withdrawing the US military from the Korean peninsula would meet this goal.  However, the Kim regime making demands to end security guarantees to Japan I think is really Beijing talking.

This may end of backfiring on the Moon administration:

The U.S.-Korea Institute (USKI) stated it will close next month due to a cut in funding from the South Korean government, media outlets reported Tuesday.

The USKI is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. It runs the website 38 North specializing in North Korea affairs.

The USKI received 2.1 billion won ($1.87 million) in annual funding from the government, through the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) affiliated with the Prime Minister’s Office.

This is about 60 percent of its total budget, according to a KIEP official. The USKI also receives funding from Johns Hopkins University, she said.

According to AP, USKI Chairman Robert Gallucci said the think tank will close in May, after rejecting “utterly inappropriate meddling” in its academic affairs.

Earlier, the government stated it would stop funding the institute starting in June, citing problems with transparency in accounting and selecting visiting scholars and interns.

The USKI claimed there had been pressure from Cheong Wa Dae to oust the institute’s director Jae H. Ku, due to his conservative inclinations that were out of line with the liberal Moon Jae-in administration. Ku has headed the think tank since 2007.   [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.  For those who haven’t I recommend reading my prior post on this subject as well.  The 38North.org website operated by USKI has a posting up saying they will continue to publish.

The silencing of the US-Korea Institute I think may backfire because they have been largely friendly to the Moon administration’s policies.  Now that the organization is no longer funded by the Korean government their may be more of a willingness to take on the Moon administration.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

“The danger is entering into negotiations with unrealistic expectations that Kim is just going to hand over the keys to his nuclear kingdom. He won’t,” says @NarangVipin https://t.co/DbfABm9XD3

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) April 9, 2018

A notice apologizing for a massive “fat-finger” dividend payment error at Samsung Securities Co. is posted on the door of the brokerage’s branch in Seoul on April 9, 2018. Last week, the brokerage mistakenly paid employees huge amount of shares in dividends instead of cash dividends. (Yonhap)

Could this be the beginning of the end of the Dragon Hill Lodge?  I hope not:

The Ministry of National Defense plans to discuss demolishing the Dragon Hill Hotel, a lodging facility for U.S. soldiers inside the Yongsan garrison with the United States Forces Korea (USFK).

This is in line with the relocation of USFK headquarters from Yongsan to Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province by the end of this year. The USFK initially planned to keep the hotel in Yongsan.

However, there have been complaints from locals that the existence of the hotel is not helpful for a plan to redevelop the Yongsan base.

“We will take enough time with the USFK to discuss the details for the demolition of the facility,” defense ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said in a media briefing, Tuesday.  [Korea Times via a reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but the Dragon Hill Lodge is a great facility and it seems like a waste to destroy it.  Plus there is a huge number of Korean national that are employed there that would lose their jobs.  Hopefully something can be worked out.

I was never a fan of allowing foreigners into the military and now it seems this program has become more trouble than it is worth:

Their brains, specialized talents and home country made them sought-after assets for the U.S. military.

Now these ambitious, well-educated Army recruits are finding themselves sidelined and under suspicion, many stalled wherever they were when the rules changed in late 2016. For some, that means being stuck under the restrictive rules of basic training or Army job specialty training in essential lockdown with few privileges, little to do and, as foreigners pending permanent immigration status, uncertainty about their futures.

Since 2009, the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest program has attracted 10,000 foreign-born recruits with language and medical skills to fill a recruitment and talent gap in the Army. In exchange, these mostly 30-somethings were offered the promise of professional advancement and a fast track to citizenship. But that stalled after the Department of Defense determined in September 2016 that MAVNIs posed “counterintelligence and security risks” (further detailed in a May 2017 memo) and instituted lengthy security screenings for every recruit in the program.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read much more at the link, but the way I look at it is if the military cannot recruit its own citizens to defend it than maybe the country is no longer worth defending.

I feel bad for workers being laid off because of the planned relocation of the 2nd Infantry Division, but this is something that has been known for many years and should not be a surprise to anyone:

DONGDUCHEON, South Korea, April 8 (Yonhap) — Many South Koreans working at a major U.S. military base in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, are likely to be laid off within the year due to its planned relocation to the southwestern city of Pyeongtaek, their union said Sunday.

The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division notified the union of its plan to dismiss South Korean workers at Camp Casey in the city last month, according to official sources.

But the U.S. Force Korea (USFK) has yet to disclose the scale or timing of the declared layoffs, the union said. It added that the USFK is reportedly to maintain the total number of workers at U.S. bases across the nation at some 8,000 by September and cut this to some 7,750 in the latter half of the year.

Most of the workers are doing odd jobs like cleaning, with a considerable number of them being the breadwinners of four-member families and receiving just under 40 million won (US$37,418) per annum, the union said.

The USFK has not given any prior account of whom will be fired thus far as South Korean workers belonging to the USFK are not subject to the domestic labor law but come under the jurisdiction of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), signed between the two nations, the union said.

According to the SOFA, the USFK are only required to give notice 45 days in advance before dismissals, with no explanations needed, it added.  [MSN via reader tip]

You can read more at the link.

Leave it to North Korea to pile it on the already disgraced Park Geun-hye:

North Korea on Saturday called disgraced former South Korean President Park Geun-hye a “traitor” responsible for “extra-large hideous corruption,” in its first reaction to the sentencing of Park to 24 years in prison on corruption charges.

The insults carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency came a day after the Seoul Central District Court found Park guilty on a variety of charges, including abusing her power and taking tens and millions of dollars from companies in bribes and through extortion. She had been under arrest since March last year.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

.@benjaminkatzeff looks into Dandong and finds that laborers are returning to the city, a sign that the Chinese may be relaxing sanctions enforcement there. Read the latest from our affiliate site North Korean Economy Watchhttps://t.co/pcixJL5Ccw pic.twitter.com/yxhCuCeq2W

— 38 North (@38NorthNK) April 9, 2018

This image shows a post that former President Lee Myung-bak uploaded to his Facebook account right after the prosecution announced his indictment over a string of corruption charges, including bribery, abuse of power and embezzlement, on April 9, 2018. (Yonhap)