Over at One Free Korea, there is a great update on the current actions going on in Washington, DC in response to the latest North Korean nuclear test. It appears the one thing Democrats and Republicans can agree on is that the “strategic patience” strategy with North Korea has not worked. So Congress is moving forward with their own sanctions package which is forcing the executive branch to preempt this by trying to implement their own new sanctions on North Korea. Whatever the sanctions are it seems to me if it does not include threatening to cut off banks’ access to the US financial system for conducting business with North Korea it will not work to curb their nuclear program:
The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee: Chairman Ed Royce (R, CA) and Ranking Member Elliot Engel (D, NY)]
So far, so good, but then, Nakamura’s sources criticize the President for not trying hard enough to get a deal, which isn’t quite fair. As The Wall Street Journaltold us yesterday, “U.S. officials say they have repeatedly tried to engage North Korea in dialogue about its nuclear program in recent months, but Pyongyang hasn’t responded to their advances.” It sounds self-serving, but the recordsupports that contention. Besides which, the harder American presidents try to “engage” North Korea, the worse their results tend to be.
In this climate, all the administration can really do is shift the focus to its push for tougher sanctions at the U.N. It needs a win in New York to make up for what looks like a general rout of its North Korea (non-) policy in Washington. The administration will probably announce new bilateral sanctions under existing executive orders to preempt some of the momentum in Congress, but I doubt that will appease Congress now. The administration can forget about any new diplomatic initiatives. Its goal now is to avoid a greater crisis, and to keep North Korea from sapping its credibility on other foreign policy issues. [One Free Korea]
It does seem like every few years we hear about a movie studio theme park coming to South Korea that never materializes. Maybe someone in the ROK should pursue a K-drama theme park instead of waiting to partner with a major Hollywood studio to make one?:
Is Korea a burial ground for movie studio theme parks? Every attempt to attract amusement parks by major U.S. film studios has failed in the past decade.
A huge plot of land in Songdo, Incheon, has remained idle for the last seven years. In the midst of tall weeds is a worn down sign that reads in Korean, “Paramount movie park Korea construction site.” In 2008, the site was chosen to be home to a Paramount theme park. The park was supposed to turn the area into a global tourist attraction by offering Asia’s first destination linked to Paramount, a studio famous for blockbuster films like the Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible franchises.
The project never went through because the Korean company driving it, Daewoo Motor Sales, was financially strapped due to the global financial meltdown in late 2008.
“This used to be a neighborhood that couples frequently visited but it has been empty for a long time,” said a 58-year-old realtor. “The damage caused by the cancellation of the project on the region’s commercial businesses has been huge.”
Since 2007, plans for four U.S. movie theme parks were announced but none were ever built. Analysts say the 2008 financial crisis was one cause, followed by friction between the studios and Korean project-operators.
The situation was similar when the South Gyeongsang government tried building a global theme park in the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone. The local government and Fox Studios signed a memorandum of understanding in 2014, but the project never materialized. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
From the US perspective assuring the ROK that America will full support them against a nuclear North Korea and that they have no need to pursue their own nuclear weapons program makes sense for near term regionally stability. However, since the Chinese government are the one’s enabling the Kim regime to move forward with their nuclear weapons program, it may take a shock like South Korea and Japan taking concrete actions to move forward with their own nuclear weapons program to get China to take real action against North Korea:
South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo, center, shakes hands with Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, right, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, at a press conference announcing a joint press release by South Korean and U.S. defense leaders. Gen. Lee Soon-jin, left, chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, also attended the press conference. [PARK JONG-KEUN]“President Obama reaffirmed the unshakeable U.S. commitment to the security of the [South], and the two leaders agreed to work together to forge a united and strong international response to North Korea’s latest reckless behavior,” the White House said.
The U.S. assurance to defend its ally from escalating North Korean threats came as conservatives in the South started demanding that the country arm itself with nuclear weapons. At a Supreme Council meeting of the ruling Saenuri Party, several leaders publicly stressed the need for defensive nuclear armaments.
“The time has come for the South to have a peaceful nuclear program for the sake of self-defense to counter the North’s fearful, destructive nuclear weapons,” said Rep. Won Yoo-chul, floor leader of the Saenuri Party. “The North is aiming at our head with nuclear weapons, and it is frustrating for us to just respond with sanctions.”
Won, a former chairman of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, had previously commented that the South should become a nuclear state, but this was the first time he voiced the opinion as the ruling party’s floor leader. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
A man bows toward the statue of independence fighter Lee Bong-chang at Hyochang Park in Seoul’s Yongsan Ward on Jan. 8, 2016, to mark the 84th anniversary of Lee’s patriotic actions against Japanese imperialism. In 1932, Lee threw a grenade toward Japanese Emperor Hirohito in a failed assassination attempt in Tokyo before being captured and hanged the same year. The Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. (Yonhap)
The article doesn’t say if the person was a government civilian or contractor, but regardless he has been fired for having ecstasy pills mailed to him in South Korea:
An American civilian who worked at the U.S. military in South Korea has been indicted on charges of trafficking drugs to Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul, prosecutors said Friday.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said the 35-year-old, identified only by his initial J, is suspected of receiving 35 pills of MDMA, better known as “ecstasy,” and 20.5 grams of hemp from an unidentified seller last year.
Still, the suspect was not taken into custody.
The drugs were sent from the Netherlands and went through the distribution center for military posts at Incheon International Airport, Seoul’s main gateway, before arriving at the military base, prosecutors said.
The suspect, who worked with the 8th U.S. Army, was fired in September after being caught by South Korean police who received a tip from the U.S. military’s criminal investigation division. [Yonhap]
Welcome to Korea Finder. The way this contest works is that each week a new image is posted and the first reader to accurately describe or locate the image gets a point. At the end of the year the reader with the highest amount of points will win a Korea related book of their choice.
For this week’s Korea Finder who knows what the location of the below image is?:
It appears that David Sanger at the New York Times understands what I have been saying for years, no matter how much anyone want to talk to them, the Kim regime has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons:
From Pyongyang’s viewpoint, there is little incentive to give up the nuclear arsenal. The world is not exactly banging on North Korea’s door to do business the way it is with Iran: The North has no oil, no striving middle class and little strategic value in the modern world. Its greatest power is the threat it poses to one of the most prosperous corners of the globe.
But many also consider it too dangerous to allow North Korea to fail. The Chinese know that if it ceases to exist, the South Koreans, and their American allies, will be on the Chinese border. The South Koreans know that if a conflict breaks out, the North will lose — but only after Seoul, just 35 miles or so from the North Korean border, is a smoking ruin.
So the North Korean strategy is to up the ante and hope the world will acknowledge it as a nuclear weapons power that has to be dealt with. H-Bomb or no H-bomb, nuclear weapons are the country’s insurance policy, and the test was a sign that it has no intention of cashing it in. [New York Times]
A customer shops for Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co.’s soju, a distilled beverage made of ethanol and water, at a giant retailer in Seoul on Jan. 4, 2016. Lotte, the maker of one of the top soju brands in the country, raised the price of its soju by an average 5.54 percent starting on the day, following suit of its rival Hite Jinro. With the hike, the factory price of the liquor passed the 1,000 won level per a bottle of 360 milliliters. (Yonhap)
