Shown is the military headquarters of the Korean exiled government in the western Chinese city of Chongqing during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea in the early part of the 20th century. The Chinese government said on Dec. 19, 2014, it had decided to preserve the building as a historic site. (Yonhap)
North Korea looks like they want to take a page out of the playbook they used for the sinking of the Cheonan where everyone knew they did it, but by continuing to deny it it allows their allies like Russia and China to help cover for them to prevent any real consequences for the attack:
North Korea said U.S. accusations that it was involved in a cyberattack on Sony Pictures were “groundless slander” and that it was wanted a joint investigation into the incident with the United States.
An unnamed spokesman of the North’s foreign ministry said there would be “grave consequences” if Washington refused to agree to the joint probe and continued to accuse Pyongyang, the official KCNA news agency reported on Saturday.
On Friday, President Barack Obama blamed North Korea for the devastating cyberattack, which led to the Hollywood studio cancelling “The Interview”, a comedy on the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
In its first substantive response to the accusation, the isolated North Korea said it could prove it had nothing to do with the massive hacking attack.
“We propose to conduct a joint investigation with the U.S. in response to groundless slander being perpetrated by the U.S. by mobilizing public opinion,” the North Korean spokesman said.
“If the U.S. refuses to accept our proposal for a joint investigation and continues to talk about some kind of response by dragging us into the case, it must remember there will be grave consequences,” the spokesman said. [Reuters]
You can read more at the link, but North Korea is back making threats against the US again. It will be interesting to see what the US response will be, but I do not see this as an act of war as some people are claiming. Why should poor network security by a company be a reason to draw the US into a war? This is a crime not an act of war. Pushing for further members of the Kim regime to be tried at the International Criminal Court would be one way to respond. It is highly symbolic, but it would be highly embarrassing for the Kim regime just like the past referral of North Korea for human rights violations was. Putting North Korea back on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, a list they never should have been taken off of in the first place, would be another way to respond. Finally as One Free Korea points out taking financial action against the regime could be the most effective way to really get the attention of the Kim regime to act as a deterrent against such a cyberattack in the future.
The U.S. government has approved the sale of four RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drones to South Korea.
The foreign military sale is included in a list of contracts announced on the Defense Department’s website Monday.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp.“has been awarded a $657,400,000 hybrid contract … for aircraft for the Republic of Korea,” the announcement stated.
The contract includes four RQ-4B Block 30 Global Hawk aircraft, two spare engines and ground control equipment. The first Global Hawk is to be delivered in 2018, the San Diego, Calif.-based company said in a statement. Each aircraft will contain an “Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite,” the DOD announcement said. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but this sale has been in the works for many years because of the delays caused by concerns that technology and information would be leaked to North Korea. Now with the US wanting the ROK to take on more of their defense responsibilities enough confidence in the South Koreans to protect this technology must have been built up to approve this sale.
Via the Marmot’s Hole comes this Wall Street Journal article from a Korean lawyer that gives you all the information you need to know in regards to South Korea’s highly criticized defamation laws:
A separate category of criminal defamation is criminal insult. This provides punishment up to one year in prison or 2 million won in fines. Unlike criminal defamation, criminal insult involves no statement of fact, but simply generalized epithets. To establish criminal insult, the insult needs to be: (1) made publicly (i.e. the same “publicity” requirement as criminal defamation); (2) directed to a specific individual, and; (3) objectively damaging to the social reputation of the insulted individual.
Further, even an insult that would in fact damage the reputation does not rise to a criminal level if, in the context of overall situation in which the insult was made, the statement is not outside of the bounds of social norms. For example, the Supreme Court in 2008 held that a golf caddy who complained about her boss on the Internet by calling him “pitiable” and “pathetic,” was not guilty of criminal insult. Among other reasons, the ruling was given because the level of her insult was quite light and it was made in the context of complaining about workplace conditions—both of which were within the social norms.
All in all, the full contour of Korea’s criminal defamation laws shows that it to be less outrageous than one may think. The law is hardly a license to punish every nick and cut caused by everyday speech. Although horror stories on the Internet regale in claiming that “truth is not a defense” in Korean criminal defamation, the truth had better be actually defamatory before any punishment is meted out.
One can easily think of many circumstances in which even a true fact about a person can lower social esteem, in a way that does not impinge on the public interest. If, for example, Person A has an embarrassing venereal disease, what would justify the actions of Person B who, intending to harm Person A’s reputation, widely publicizes that true fact?
Because the standards for criminal defamation are fairly strict, Korea’s prosecutors frequently decline to indict after receiving the criminal complaint. Even if the prosecutors do indict and the case moves forward, more than 90% of cases are dismissed or result in the prosecution’s defeat. (The author’s opinion is that the Korean government’s case against the Sankei’s Mr. Kato will fail as well because of the “public purpose” defense.) [Wall Street Journal]
I highly recommend reading the rest at the link, for those interested in this topic.
Here is an interesting report that says that North Korea was training agents to conduct terrorist attacks within the United States according to Bill Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon:
North Korea dispatched covert commando teams to the United States in the 1990s to attack nuclear power plants and major cities in a conflict, according to a declassified Defense Intelligence Agency report.
The DIA report, dated Sept. 13, 2004, reveals that five units of covert commandos were trained for the attacks inside the country.
According to the report, the “Reconnaissance Bureau, North Korea, had agents in place to attack American nuclear power plants.”
The document states that the North Korean Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, the ministry in charge of the military, “established five liaison offices in the early 1990s, to train and infiltrate operatives into the United States to attack nuclear power plants and major cities in case of hostilities.”
“One of the driving forces behind the establishment of the units and infiltration of operatives was the slow progress in developing a multi-stage ballistic missile.” [Washington Free Beacon]
You can read more at the link, to include the comments from a ROK Drop favorite and Korean War historian Mark Sauter on this issue. Gertz’s information is based on heavily redacted documents that Mark Sauter was able to uncover through Freedom of Information Act requests. Here is probably the most interesting passage from these documents:
North Korea’s interest in training its agents about Americans is supported by many other reports, including the one below about an alleged U.S. citizen known as “Jackson” who instructed North Korean special forces operatives in “U.S. Special Forces tactics, American English, and interrogation techniques” from before 1983 to at least 1993. The American, called “Comrade Ch’ang-sik” in Korean and said to be a U.S. Air Force POW, trained members of the 52nd Seaborne Sniper Battalion. He was reported to be the chief of psychological operations study at the Reconnaissance Bureau’s Madonghui College.* [DMZ War]
What is really interesting about this is that the EC-121 shootdown occurred over the Sea of Japan. Some wreckage from the crash along with two bodies were recovered on the Sea of Japan.
So the picture the source saw could not have been the EC-121. Maybe it was just a picture from the Korean War years that people mistook for the EC-121? Looking at his estimated age of “Jackson” he would be too young to be a Korean War POW and I have never heard of an Air Force officer being taken hostage or defecting across the DMZ. So who is this guy? Mark Sauter believes it may be US Army defector Jerry Parrish:
However, if the “Jackson report” above is accurate, it may be even more likely that “Jackson” was one of the five U.S. Army defectors to North Korea during the Cold War. These men were sometimes described as “POWs” by escapees from North Korea and some of “Jackson’s” characteristics match defector Jerry Wayne Parrish, now dead. [DMZ War]
Specialist Jerry Parrish defected to North Korea in 1963 while on patrol along the DMZ. Here is a picture of Parrish while in North Korea:
If the mysterious “Jackson” is Parrish it seems what US Special Forces knowledge he was teaching was not from personal experience. This leads me to believe his main job was teaching English like the other US defectors did. Anyway this is just another interesting chapter of the ongoing conflict with North Korea that these declassified documents are slowly shining a light on.
I did not realize that in Korea that it is actually illegal to give a veteran hiring preference, but this governmental committee is trying to change this in an effort to reform ROK military culture:
A committee meant to reform the military culture recommended that the government give extra points to job applicants who complete military service, a move that could reignite the controversy over the divide between men and women.
The committee recommended that such applicants be given a bonus 2 percent on company examinations, but that only 10 percent of successful applicants at a single company can receive the benefit.
It also said an individual can only receive the benefit five times in his lifetime while those who received heavy punishment for serious wrongdoings will be excluded from the proposed benefits, according to the committee.
“To help encourage draftees to successfully carry out their military duty, the ministry will review the recommendation that calls for giving extra credits to enlistees when they apply for a job,” the defense ministry said.
The move, however, could draw opposition from women, who are not obligated to serve in the military, at a time when the job market remains tight.
In 1999, the Constitutional Court ruled as unconstitutional the law giving males who served in the military an advantage in applying for public service positions, saying it was unfair to women and the disabled. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but if the ROK is serious about changing the military culture then spend the money to professionalize more of the military.
Considering how many more US and Japanese F-35s will be located in Japan it makes sense that the deep maintenance facility would be located there. Of course the ROKs have to show their displeasure with this:
South Korea said on Thursday it will not send its F-35 fleet to Japan for heavy airframe maintenance, one of the two Asian hubs chosen by the United States to service the Lockheed Martin Corp stealth fighter.
Instead, it is likely to fly the jets to Australia for maintenance, about eight times further away than Japan and well beyond their operating range. The three nations, all key U.S. allies, are the only countries in the region to have ordered the F-35s.
The F-35 program has been lauded as an example of the United States and its allies working together to bolster inter-operability, but in Asia the maintenance plan is bringing traditional rivalry between Seoul and Tokyo to the fore.
The three-star air force general who runs the F-35 program for the United States, Chris Bogdan, told reporters on Wednesday that Japan would handle heavy maintenance for the jets in the northern Pacific from early 2018, with Australia to handle maintenance in the southern Pacific.
“There will never be a case where our fighter jets will be taken to Japan for maintenance,” said an official at South Korea’s arms procurement agency, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.
“South Korea has the right to decide where to conduct maintenance for its F-35 jets, and it will decide whenever the need arises.”
The plan at the moment is for the 40 F-35s to be acquired by South Korea to be serviced in Australia, an Australian defense ministry source told Reuters on condition he wasn’t identified.
South Korea will receive the first of the stealth planes in 2018.
A source familiar with the F-35 program said South Korea could, at a later stage, negotiate with Washington on the possibility of handling the heavy maintenance of its own F-35 jets.
Such a deal would require a significant investment by Seoul, including specialized equipment used to test the jets’ stealth. [Reuters]
You can read more at the link, but when the ROKs decided to pursue the F-35 you would think that this was something that was discussed as part of the contract talks; so this should not be too surprising. I would not be surprised that this is just a big media show for domestic consumption now. 2023 is the earliest that the ROK’s F-35 need servicing so a lot can change by then. So it makes sense that Korean politicians now do not want the headache of being accused of compromising defense of the nation to Japan needlessly and let politicians down the road work something out where these planes are quietly serviced in Japan.
