Here is yet another step in North Korea’s pressure campaign to get sanctions dropped for little to nothing in return:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party and discussed “important organizational and political measures and military steps to bolster up” the armed forces, state media said Sunday.
The meeting was held amid heightened tensions with the United States with Pyongyang threatening to seek a “new way” unless Washington comes up with a acceptable proposal in their nuclear negotiations by end of the year.
“Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un gave analysis and briefing on the complicated internal and external situation and said that the meeting would decide on important organizational and political measures and military steps to bolster up the overall armed forces of the country,” the Korean Central News Agency said.
“Also discussed were important issues for decisive improvement of the overall national defence and core matters for the sustained and accelerated development of military capability for self-defence,” it added.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The Atlantic has an article they recently published criticizing President Trump for his North Korea policy:
Pronouncing the diplomacy dead would be premature. There’s a chance that the North Koreans are simply trying to pressure Trump into making a deal on their terms as he faces reelection. Nevertheless, it’s a remarkable comedown for the Trump administration’s signature initiative to address what it has billed as the country’s top security threat. This is the policy in which the president has invested the most time and resources, the one that he has touted as his greatest success and made a model (maximum pressure + personal engagement by the president = wins for America) in his dealings everywhere from China to Iran. What’s at stake, though, isn’t just Trump’s legacy in foreign affairs or the Nobel Peace Prize he so clearly desires. Also at the mercy of what comes next are global efforts to stop the spread of the world’s most destructive weapons and potentially one of the last opportunities to reconcile North and South Korea after 70 years of alienation.
The Atlantic
You can read the whole thing at the link, but as I have been saying for years, the North Koreans are never going to denuclearize. The best the U.S. can hope for is the “Pretend Denuclearization” deal that Pyongyang has been pushing for. The Trump administration has resisted this which has predictably led to where we are at today. Pyongyang will create a “crisis” in the lead up to the U.S. presidential election, the media will breathlessly report on the “crisis”, and publications like the The Atlantic will write opinion pieces like this on how Trump’s policies have failed.
This is North Korea’s version of a pressure campaign to get what it wants which is the “Pretend Denuclearization” deal. This leaves the President with the choice of signing a “Pretend Denuclearization” deal that his critics will then claim he gave into North Korean pressure in return for a bad deal. The other option is to put pressure back on Pyongyang both diplomatically, economically, and militarily like back in 2017 that could lead to potential miscalculations.
I guess we will see what happens, but neither option will lead to the Kim regime denuclearizing.
It appears the fix may be in to get Cho Kuk’s wife as little punishment as possible for her crimes:
Prosecutors are challenging the impartiality of a judge presiding over the trial of Chung Kyung-sim, the wife of scandal-plagued former Justice Minister Cho Kuk.
The JoongAng Ilbo learned Friday that the Seoul Central District Court has failed to accurately record prosecutors’ arguments made during a session of Chung’s trial on Dec. 10. At the time, prosecutors complained to Judge Song In-gwon for 10 minutes after he rejected their request to revise indictments against Chung. The court’s official record of the session, however, said, “The prosecution said it has no special opinion.”
Prosecutors from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office asked Judge Song to change some specifics in their indictment of Chung. The prosecutors said they had been in a hurry to file the indictment against Chung.
Chung, a professor at Dongyang University, was first indicted on Sept. 6 for allegedly creating a Dongyang University presidential award for her daughter – without the knowledge of the president of the university – and secretly placing the president’s seal on the award.
Prosecutors normally indict a suspect after they’ve been questioned, but Chung was indicted that night without any questioning because the statute of limitations for her charge was about to expire the very next day, Sept. 7.
In the following weeks, prosecutors managed to detain Chung and question her multiple times, which led to their determination last month to indict her on 14 more charges, including obstruction of business, fraud, embezzlement and instigation of tampering, hiding and destroying evidence.
After the follow-up questioning, the prosecution attempted to revise their Sept. 6 indictment of Chung for forgery. They wanted to change the date, location and method of the alleged forgery, but the court refused the request. “If the prosecution was to change just one aspect, I would allow it,” Judge Song said on Dec. 10. “But they are trying to change five key factors.”
Prosecutors strongly protested the decision. “The court’s decision is unfair,” a prosecutor said. “We will review the rejection closely and ask again.”
As the prosecution continued its protest, Judge Song raised his voice in anger. “If you continue, I can remove you from the courtroom,” he said. “My judgment may be wrong. You can appeal after the sentencing.”
The court, however, recorded in the official minutes of the session that the prosecution presented “no special opinion” on the matter.
“This is a serious issue,” a prosecutor-turned-lawyer told the JoongAng Ilbo on Friday. “Civic groups could file a petition to accuse the court of tampering with an official document [the minutes].”
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link.
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