North Korea is back to its old tricks: Who, us? Human rights abuses? https://t.co/wN5hmG4tBz

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) February 16, 2018

Pak Il-chol of North Korea competes in the men’s 15km cross-country skiing event of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics at Alpensia Cross-Country Skiing Centre in PyeongChang, east of Seoul, on Feb. 16, 2018. He finished 107th among 116 contestants who completed the race. (Yonhap)

Here is a really good take down of the media’s love affair with Kim Yo-jong at this year’s Winter Olympics:

After a slow start, the media has its designated bad guy at the Winter Olympics. No sooner had Shaun White won the half-pipe than he became the snowboarding version of Harvey Weinstein.

Stories surfaced of sexual harassment allegations made against White in 2016. Reporters went into full #MeToo mode, repeating salacious details from a lawsuit filed by Lena Zawaideh, the former drummer in White’s rock band.

White’s dark background suddenly became the Big Story. I’m not here to defend White. If he did what was alleged, it is indefensible.

I’m just wondering why the selective outrage?

When it comes to dark backgrounds, the gold, silver and bronze medals at Pyeongchang all go to Kim Yo Jong. She is the sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, though from media reports you might only know her as “The Ivanka Trump of North Korea.”

Yeah, she’s just like the president’s daughter except for the death camps, the mass enslavement, the public executions, the starvation of her people, the torture and murder of a U.S. student Otto Warmbier and the threats to turn California into a nuclear wasteland.  [Orlando Sentinel]

You can read more at the link, but not only shouldn’t Kim Yo-jong be celebrated, but she and the rest of the North Koreans should not have been even allowed to even attend the Olympics.  Apartheid South Africa  was not allowed to attend the Olympics and they did not have no where near the same level of human rights violations as the Kim regime.  Additionally Apartheid South Africa was not a threat to world peace like the Kim regime.  Yet during the years of Apartheid did anyone see political and media figures championing that regime like we saw during the Winter Olympics with Kim Yo-jong?

The upcoming decision to me is pretty clear, what does the Moon administration value more, continued appeasement of the Kim regime or maintaining the readiness of US and ROK military forces?:

President Moon Jae-in is facing a growing dilemma over South Korea’s planned military exercises with the United States, with North Korea offering a rare gesture for warmer inter-Korean relations.

On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a meeting with its highest-ranking delegation which returned to Pyongyang Sunday after ending their three-day trip to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, ordered the regime to elevate the ongoing peaceful bilateral relationship with the South,.

The uncommon sign for reconciliation is raising the likelihood for a possible inter-Korean summit this year.

This is in line with President Moon’s North Korean policy under which he has underlined the need for holding enough dialogue to stop Pyongyang’s provocative military threats.

However, the South Korean government is likely to face a bumpy road ahead on the matter, as Seoul and Washington plan to resume their annual joint military exercise sometime in April. They delayed the drills – which normally take place around late February to early March – until after the Winter Olympics.

The South Korea-U.S. drills have for years drawn a strong backlash from North Korea. The Pentagon has in recent weeks reaffirmed its willingness to stage the drills right after the closing of the PyeongChang Paralympics in mid-March.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but either way Kim Jong-un has set him self up to win because if the joint exercise is cancelled he advances his agenda of separating the US from the ROK.  If the joint exercise is executed he then uses that as an excuse to continue missile and maybe even nuclear testing.

Regardless of the decision I would expect that Pyongyang will still push for the inter-Korea summit with the South just likely on different timetables.  The Kim regime needs the inter-Korean summit in order to get their payday of reopening the Kaesong Industrial Park and the joint tourism ventures in North Korea.  These ventures will help them skirt international sanctions to maintain revenue flowing into the regime.

In my opinion Admiral Harris is a great pick for ambassador to such an important regional security ally as Australia:

Addressing the US Committee on Armed Services on the challenges facing the US military in the region, Adm. Harris, the highest commander of US forces in Asia Pacific region, said the Trump administration must work to counter Beijing’s influence in the region.

“China’s intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril,” he said in public testimony. “I’m concerned China will now work to undermine the international rules-based order.”

Plain-spoken and well-known in the international community for his remarks on US policy in the Asia Pacific, Harris has often provoked a vitriolic reaction from Beijing, in particular for his passionate calls for action in the South China Sea.

His appointment would raise the stakes in the battle for influence in Asia, with experts saying Harris could push the Australian government to tighten military cooperation with its traditional ally.  [CNN]

North Korean orchestra stayed in Seoul's five-star Grand Walkerhill hotel — at South Korean taxpayer expense https://t.co/fpNzHfJ25w

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) February 14, 2018

I would not be surprised if this only increases further.

This photo, taken on Feb. 14, 2018, shows Tokyo’s government website announcing a draft guideline for Japanese high school textbooks to state that Dokdo, a set of South Korea-controlled islets in the East Sea, belong to Japan. This is the first time that Tokyo has specified its territorial claim to Dokdo in high school textbooks. (Yonhap)

Fortunately this guy was extremely incompetent in regards to his attempted attack on the US embassy in Seoul:

A Korean-Canadian man has been arrested for a botched Molotov cocktail attack on the U.S. embassy in Seoul, police said Monday.

The man, in his 30s, reportedly told police the attack was to punish the United States, which “has bullied South Korea and me.” He is known to have a mental disorder.

According to Jongno Police Station, which is in charge of the embassy’s external security, the man lit a handmade Molotov cocktail just outside the barbed wire fence encircling the embassy and was about to throw the fire bomb over the fence at 7 p.m. Sunday.

But he accidently dropped the Molotov cocktail into a bag filled with nine other Molotov cocktails, and set them all alight. He threw away the burning bag and fled, but was caught by police who rushed to the scene.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Admiral Harris seems to understand what the Kim regime’s ultimate goal of their nuclear weapon’s program is:

A top U.S. military commander said Wednesday he believes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is intent on reunifying the Korean Peninsula under a single, communist system.

Adm. Harry Harris, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, told a congressional hearing he does not agree with the predominant view that Kim is pursuing nuclear-tipped missiles to safeguard his regime only.

Kim is “after reunification under a single, communist system,” Harris told the House Armed Services Committee, adding that is the “long view.”

The North Korean leader’s nuclear ambitions contribute to that view and help him blackmail countries such as South Korea and the U.S., the commander said. And Washington should continue to increase economic and diplomatic sanctions on Pyongyang under its “maximum pressure” campaign to persuade Kim to abandon his nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.  [Yonhap]

As I and others have said repeatedly the development of nuclear weapons solely to deter US led regime change does not make sense.  North Korea’s conventional capabilities have proven to be an effective deterrent for decades.  Look at what they have done over the years with killing US soldiers, taking US naval personnel hostage, shooting down a US plane, attacking the Blue House to kill the ROK president, bombing an airliner out of the sky, hijacking an airplane, shelling a ROK island, sinking a ROK ship, etc.

None of these attacks led to a retaliatory strike because of their conventional capabilities were an effective deterrent.  So clearly there is more to why they want to develop nuclear weapons so aggressively.  The theory that makes the most sense is that the true intention of their nuclear program is to separate the US from South Korea and then seek a confederation on North Korean terms.

President Trump is taking credit for GM shutting down one of their factories in Gunsan and relocating to Detroit:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed General Motors Co.’s decision to shut down a plant in South Korea, saying the carmaker will now “move back” to Detroit.

GM announced the same day that it will close one of its four car assembly plants in South Korea by the end of May due to lower demand for its vehicles. The move came as part of the Detroit-based automaker’s broad restructuring program across the world.

“GM Korea company announced today that it will cease production and close its Gunsan plant in May of 2018, and they’re going to move back to Detroit,” Trump said at a trade-related meeting at the White House.

The facility in Gunsan, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, was underutilized and running at 20 percent of its capacity for the past three years.

“You don’t hear these things, except for the fact that Trump became president,” Trump said. “Believe me, you wouldn’t be hearing that. So they’re moving back from Korea to Detroit. They’re moving.”  [Korea Times]

Apparently GM is saying they are closing the plant due to higher labor costs in South Korea.  GM is trying to get the union to renegotiate its labor contract to keep its other three plants in the country open.