I thought it was reported that North Korea has a price on this man's head. If true, wouldn't he be safer in jail than out free where he could be killed? https://t.co/P1xqexyzcx
— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) July 9, 2019
The question becomes what is the Trump administration going to give up in return for a freeze deal?:
The United States would hope to see a freeze in the North Korean nuclear program as the start of a process of denuclearization, the State Department said on Tuesday, ahead of fresh talks with Pyongyang supposed to take place this month.
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had a surprise meeting at the end of June in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas and agreed to resume a working-level dialogue, stalled since a failed summit in Vietnam in February.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the talks would likely happen “sometime in July … probably in the next two or three weeks.”
The Trump administration has dismissed a New York Times report that said an idea was taking shape among U.S. officials to seek to negotiate a nuclear freeze by North Korea, rather than its complete denuclearization, thereby tacitly accepting it as a nuclear state.
“(A) freeze, you know, that would never be the resolution of a process. That would never be the end of a process,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told a regular news briefing. “That would (be) something that we would certainly hope to see at the beginning. But I don’t think that the administration has ever characterized a freeze as being the end goal. That would be at the beginning of the process.”
Reuters
You can read more at the link, but if the Trump administration allows the reopening of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Kumgang Tours this would be a similar deal to what the Bush administration signed that the Kim regime later broke. However, that deal did cause North Korea to behave while the Bush administration was focused on the surge strategy in Iraq. The Trump administration could be thinking the same thing to get the Kim regime to behave during the upcoming reelection campaign and then get tough later on by pushing for real denuclearization.
This would seem to be in line with President Trump’s call for Japan to do more militarily in support of the US. However, this is not going to go over well in South Korea:
The defense ministry on Thursday voiced strong opposition to an alleged push by the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) to include Japan as an official member, saying that, according to U.N. Security Council resolutions, Tokyo is not entitled to such status.
According to sources, the UNC is seeking to include Japan as one of the UNC’s “sending states,” a move likely to inflame public sentiment in South Korea amid renewed historical tensions with Tokyo.
Should Japan obtain the membership, it would pave the way for its military involvement in the event of an armed conflict on the peninsula — a scenario unthinkable for many Koreans who harbor grievances stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.
Except for South Korea and the United States, the UNC currently has 16 sending states that are to provide combat troops, equipment and other forms of support in case of a contingency on the peninsula.
The sending states include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy and New Zealand. They have posted contingents at the UNC to support its operations centering on the observance and enforcement of the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War.
“Japan did not participate in the Korean War, so it cannot serve a role as a sending state,” Col. Roh Jae-cheon, the deputy ministry spokesman told a regular briefing, citing U.N. Resolutions 83 and 84.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This is the affect that I think the Trump administration’s tariffs on China is trying to cause, the movement of manufacturing out of China. Vietnam could end up being a big winner of this tariff war between the U.S. and China:
Nintendo Co. plans to start making its Switch video game console in Vietnam this year, transferring some of its production from China, a company spokesman said Tuesday.
The official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the change has been in the works for some time, to reduce risks that come from having production in one nation. He denied it was a direct response to the growing trade friction between the U.S. and China.
He declined to give details on manufacturers or production sites in Vietnam, citing company policy. He said production was set to start this summer but declined to give a date.
Japan’s major business daily Nikkei reported Tuesday that the move was driven by worries that U.S. tariffs on goods produced in China may affect game device sales.
Japan Times
You can read more at the link.
South Korea just posted the longest streak of unemployment at 4% or above in almost 20 years. This raises worries higher unemployment may be a new normal for the country that is facing headwinds in exports worldwide. pic.twitter.com/u09oiYAuVe
— Sam Kim 김혜성 (@samkimasia) July 10, 2019
As I have always said, people should not be visiting or investing in North Korea and helping to fund the Kim regime. Mr. Sigley has found this out the hard way:
Saying that he was “very sad” that he would be unable to complete his master’s degree at Kim Il Sung University, Sigley added on social media that he wants to continue academic work on North Korea, but that he wouldn’t be visiting the country any time soon. NK News, the outlet that KCNA accused Sigley of spying for, said in a statement that Sigley’s six articles between January and April 2019 were the extent of his relationship with the website and that “‘anti-state’ in nature is a misrepresentation which we reject.”
It is unknown what content in Sigley’s pieces irked officials in Pyongyang, given that he tried to dispel negative preconceptions about the country among foreigners in some of his articles. Sigley also ran a tour company he founded for foreigners in North Korea called Tongil Tours, which he said would be canceling all further trips until further notice.
“I may never again walk the streets of Pyongyang, a city that holds a very special place in my heart,” he wrote.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link, but fortunately he was not held very long, made to do forced labor, or tortured like what has happened to other detainees.
There is so much irony here when President Moon calls the Japanese trade restrictions “politically motivated”. Wasn’t the Moon administration’s attacks on Japan cancelling the comfort women agreement and threatening to confiscate assets of Japanese companies politically motivated?:
President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday ratcheted up the pressure on Japan to stop heading toward a “dead end” with “politically motivated” export restrictions against South Korea.
Speaking at a meeting with dozens of local business leaders at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, he stressed that the government is doing its best for a diplomatic resolution to the problem.
“I hope the Japanese government will respond to it,” Moon said. “I hope it will no longer go toward a dead end.”
He pointed out that Japan has taken the measure to damage the South Korean economy for political purposes, even groundlessly connecting it with sanctions on North Korea.
The move is “never desirable” for friendly ties and security cooperation between the two nations and is harmful to their economies and the global economy, Moon added.
He made it clear that his administration will push for international cooperation to cope with Japan’s action, while preparing for every possibility, such as a drawn-out bilateral trade standoff.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Just another example of what happens when tax rates get too high, the tax payers begin to leave:
Wealthy Koreans are migrating in increasing numbers to other countries because of the unstable economy and high tax rates at home.
Countries like the United States and Singapore are especially popular as immigration destinations because of their stable economies, lower tax rates and good education.
A wide range of people, from families with children to people in their 70s, were paying close attention to a seminar on investor immigration visas for the United States at the JW Marriott in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on June 15.
The attendees had their eyes on the Immigrant Investor Program, where people would invest around $500,000 to create jobs in the United States and receive an EB-5 visa in return. To qualify for the visa, people will need to make an investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States and plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administer the EB-5 Program. When issued an EB-5 visa through the program, entrepreneurs, their spouses as well as unmarried children under 21 are eligible to apply for a green card, which grants them permanent residence in the United States.
The number of Koreans issued an EB-5 visa in 2018 was 531, according to the U.S. Department of State. That is an increase of 336 people compared to 2017. Korea is in fourth place, following China, Vietnam and India, by the number of people receiving visas through the Immigrant Investor Program.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link, but this is what legal immigration looks like that Americans should support.
