South Korean Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung leads Easter Mass at Myeongdong Cathedral in downtown Seoul on April 5, 2015. (Yonhap)

That is what some people are wondering:

Today, North Korea faces the prospect of another significant food shortage and a purported loss of income from China, its largest trading partner and closest among precious few allies.

But are things so bad right now that Pyongyang will be willing to discuss its nuclear weapons program?

“North Korea says its nuclear program means its life,” said Kang Sung Kyu, professor of North Korea Studies at Korea University in Sejong-shi.

Kang is skeptical that North Korea is serious about negotiations, or that any agreements would stand — a valid concern, given how previous deals have fallen apart as Pyongyang repeatedly reneged on key points in the past.

It’s also unclear what role China might play in North Korea’s decision-making.  (……….)

Paik and Kang remain skeptical that talks at this point would accomplish much; Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear program in 2007 after much negotiation, only to resume testing two years later.

However, it does appear that China and the other members of the “six-party talks,” a group of countries that negotiated several now-tattered accords in the 2000s, are ready to talk to North Korea once again.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry recently posted a photo of Russia’s deputy foreign minister and China’s representative for Korean affairs with the following caption: “The two sides exchanged views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and on the restarting of the six-party talks.”

China has not provided details on what those views entail.

South Korea, Japan, the U.S., China and Russia have reached “a certain degree of consensus” on how to restart the talks that fell apart in 2008, said Hwang Joon-kook, South Korea’s ambassador to the talks — again without providing details, according to Reuters.   [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but supposedly the US government is having talks with North Korea right now in regards to holding talks.  As I have been saying for years now the North Koreans will never give up their nuclear program.  What the North Koreans want in any nuclear talks is to be recognized as a nuclear power like Pakistan has become and with it the dropping of sanctions.  What would the US get out of such a deal?  The North Koreans would probably gives some vague promises of not building more nukes, but the big thing is that they would keep quiet for a few years like they have after past deals so the usual suspects can declare peace in our time and the outgoing administration can leave office without problems from North Korea.  Then later when a new US President takes office the North Koreans will start the cycle of provocations and negotiations all over again and by then North Korea will have a stronger hand with better nukes and missiles to make threats with.

This simple change to train stations reportedly could save many lives.

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert tests a full change model of the Spark, displayed by GM Korea, the local unit of U.S.-based General Motors Co., as he attends the 2015 Seoul Motor Show at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Ilsan, just north of Seoul, on April 3, 2015, in this photo provided by the automaker. (Yonhap)

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Well according to the Korean female LPGA players it is because they practice more:

The world’s best female golfers are gathered at Mission Hills Golf Club this week for the first major of the 2015 LPGA Tour season — the ANA Inspiration.

It’s become a familiar sight while walking along the driving range and seeing almost half of the stalls filled by South Korean golfers.

Many argue it’s just a numbers game and with more players from a certain country, the more you’ll see them on leaderboards.

“It’s not intimidating to me at all,” says American Cristie Kerr who became world No. 10 after her win from the previous week. “It’s pretty simple really. They seem to outnumber a lot of other factions on the tour.”

The 37-year-old veteran is responsible for snapping the streak of six wins by Korean-born golfers after topping Lydia Ko at the Kia Classic.

Granted it’s not Kerr’s job to break down the demographics of the field, but at the moment there are 25 South Korean players who hold an LPGA Tour card compared to 45 Americans.

24 of those 25 are in the field this week while the number of Americans is just north of 35.

After all the theories flying around about Korean golfers, it only made sense to just ask them directly.

“It’s all practice” says world No. 13 Mirim Lee. “Golfers from Korea practice so much and the KLPGA is a really good tour. When I was an amateur I would wake up everyday at 5 a.m. and practice until 8 or 9 p.m.”

“In my opinion Korean players practice a lot more,” says world No. 2 Inbee Park, the highest ranked South Korean player on tour.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

The Black Panther Party’s relations with North Korea.

Soldiers take part in a joint landing drill between South Korea and the United States on a beach in Pohang, southeastern South Korea, on March 30, 2015. (Yonhap)

Here is the latest on the comfort women front:

A congressional delegation led by U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi met with Korean leaders including President Park Geun-hye on Thursday in Seoul, where they discussed regional and bilateral issues, particularly the outstanding historical issues between Korea and Japan.

The bipartisan congressional delegation arrived in Korea for a two-day trip, part of its five-nation Asia tour. The 10-member team included Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel and Sander Levin and Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick.

During their meeting at the Blue House, President Park explained to the delegation the urgency of resolving the issues concerning Korea’s “comfort women,” a term used for the women Japan coerced into sexual slavery during World War II.

Park pointed out that the victims are now elderly – some reaching 90 years old – and that the clock was ticking, a Blue House official said.

Pelosi replied that the issues needed to be resolved for the sake of women’s rights, the official said.

Tokyo’s refusal to officially apologize for forcibly recruiting thousands of young women, mostly Koreans, into military brothels during World War II has long been a key point of contention between Seoul and Tokyo. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link,but I wonder if these representatives know that the Japanese government has already apologized multiple times in regards to the comfort women issue.  Here for example is the apology that Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato made back in 1992:

The Government again would like to express its sincere apology and remorse to all those who have suffered indescribable hardship as so-called “wartime comfort women”, irrespective of their nationality or place of birth. With profound remorse and determination that such a mistake must never be repeated, Japan will maintain its stance as a pacifist nation and will endeavor to build up new future-oriented relations with the Republic of Korea and with other countries and regions in Asia.

As I listen to many people, I feel truly grieved for this issue. By listening to the opinions of people from various directions, I would like to consider sincerely in what way we can express our feelings to those who suffered such hardship.  [Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan]

I wonder if this Congressional delegation knows that Abe already apologized over the comfort women issue all the way back in 2007 as well in Newsweek magazine:

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday expressed regrets that his country’s military forced women into sexual slavery during World War II.

The remark, made in an interview with a weekly U.S. news magazine on the eve of his visit to the United States, may have been aimed at mending fences. The premier has been criticized by many countries for claiming there is no evidence that the Japanese military took any part in the forced recruitment of the so-called comfort women to serve its troops who invaded Asian countries.

“As Japan’s prime minister, I’m extremely sorry that they were made to endure such pain,” Abe told Newsweek. The Japanese leader reiterated that his government respected and stood by a statement by former Chief Cabinet Minister Yohei Kono in 1993 that apologized for the Japanese military’s involvement in the use of women as sexual slaves.

There is no argument from me that Prime Minister Abe and some of the people around him have made insensitive comments in the past in regards to the comfort women, but they have maintained all prior apologies made by the government of Japan.  Is the standard now that every Prime Minister in Japan has to apologize for World War II crimes when they take office?  Even when they take office for a second time like Abe has after already making a prior apology?  This is why the Japanese public I think has reached apology fatigue and support Abe on this issue.  .

If the people criticizing Japan really cared about women’s right they would instead be directing their outrage towards China which currently maintains a modern day comfort woman system using North Korean refugees who are coerced into becoming prostitutes.  Likewise if Abe was serious about resolving the comfort women issue he would make Japan into a champion of women’s rights by advocating for the North Korean refugees currently being used as a modern day comfort women.  Instead 10 years from now the same people will probably still be arguing over who needs to apologize for what while the modern day comfort women system continues.

That is what the below Diplomat article discusses which is based on a Chinese news media article:

During the Deng Xiaoping era, China’s foreign policy was characterized by the phrase “tao guang yang hui,” generally translated as “keeping a low profile.” In recent years, however, observers have begun to question whether this strategy still holds sway in Chinese diplomacy, particularly in light of Xi Jinping’s recent exhortation for China to practice “major power diplomacy.”

Chinese media just turned that debate over on its head, by positing that it’s Washington, rather than Beijing, that is entering a period of “low profile” foreign policy today.

An article in Xinhua, published online Wednesday, posits that the U.S. has turned inward and is entering its own period of tao guang yang hui. The article argues that America’s “confidence and power” to “interfere” in external affairs has weakened over the past six years, with President Barack Obama preoccupied with domestic economic development. The lede cites Obama’s philosophy of “don’t do stupid stuff” as evidence.

The piece interviews Chinese experts who agree, as Xinhua puts it, that the U.S. inward-focus is growing “more and more obvious” and that “for the last two years of Obama’s term, [the U.S.] may enter an American-style period of ‘keeping a low profile.’”

One of the experts who contributed to the debate is scholar Wang Jisi of Peking University, who notes that although the U.S. isn’t in an irreversible decline, “U.S. influence on global political affairs has obviously declined.” The reason for this, Wang says, is a combination of weakening influence and power among U.S. allies (notably in Europe and Japan) and the rise of developing countries like China. Wang and another expert, Xu Changyin of Xinhua’s own World Affairs Research Center, both argue that Obama will try to focus on internal economic issues for the remainder of his term.  [The Diplomat]

You can read the rest at the link, but one way to look at this is that the Chinese government knows that now is the time to push hard on issues of contention knowing the US will do little about it.  An example of this appears to be happening in the South China Sea where the Chinese continue to claim sovereignty over the entire sea while the US pushes allies in the region to do more.  The South China Sea issue is actually small compared to if China tries to use this time frame to push militarily on the Taiwan issue.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.