Of the 47 surviving South Korean ‘comfort women’ 36 agreed to accept money from a fund paid for by Japan before it was closed by Seoul for not being part of a sufficient solution to the WWII legacy. https://t.co/KchOm3QDf4

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) July 6, 2019

It appears there is momentum moving towards reopening the Kaesong Industrial Park:

Nuclear negotiators of South Korea and the United States are set to discuss the possible reopening of now-shuttered Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea through the upcoming working-level talks on North Korea’s denuclearization, officials at the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), said Sunday.

“South Korea unofficially sent a message about the normalization of the Gaeseong joint border industrial park to North Korea. The North has yet to respond. However, Seoul will be working on how to come to an agreement on conditions, terms and other differentiations with the United States about reopening the complex,” a DPK lawmaker who is involved with the matter said by telephone.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this report comes on the heels of another recent report that the Trump administration is now looking at making a “Small Deal”. It appears the small deal could be reopening Kaesong for little to nothing in return which what has been tried before and failed to lead to any North Korean denuclearization.

If it reopens, the Kim regime will be able to use the estimated $110 million a year from the Kaesong Industrial Complex to help maintain the lifestyle of the regime elite and further develop their nuclear and missile capabilities. In return they may give the Trump administration a “cooling tower moment“. I guess we will see if this is what the Trump administration decides to sign up before.

I don’t see the Japanese backing down on their economic retaliation until the ROK government resolves the forced labor court ruling issue:

“Japan may suffer from the government’s strategy in the long term, but by then, the damage on our companies will be even greater,” Kang said.

Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong Global University, speculated Korea will “never beat Japan in the economic tit-for-tat.”

“It’s apparent Japan has planned its retaliatory measures carefully and meticulously, whereas Korea has come up with a counterstrategy hastily and hurriedly,” Park said. “I bet Japan has more cards to play as the economic showdown intensifies. I’m afraid that’s not the case for Korea.”

Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said, “Our countermeasures are not very practical.”

The analysts suggested going “back to the beginning” and resolving the dispute diplomatically.

“Everything started from the diplomatic dispute over Japan’s wartime past. Korea should resume talks with Japan and concentrate on forced labor,” Park said.

As an option, he cited the need for President Moon to send a special envoy, such as National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Shin Yul voiced a similar view.

“I’m not sure whether sending a special envoy is a good idea, but I’m certain mobilizing all possible diplomatic means is necessary at this point,” he said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration may have woken a sleeping giant. If the economic retaliation by Japan is ultimately effective, this could be something the Japanese government continues to turn to every time the ROK government pushes an anti-Japanese issue for domestic political purposes.

If the Trump administration goes with the “small deal” approach with North Korea, they are essentially doing what has already been tried before and did not work:

An editorial published by the Washington Post has put forward the argument that a step-by-step “small deal” is the only diplomatic way forward with North Korea.

Columnist Josh Rogin said in an op-ed Thursday that the United States and North Korea are resuming negotiations in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s impromptu meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last weekend, and that a fight over North Korea policy has rekindled within the Trump administration.

He said, “What we’re seeing now is a return to the idea of a step-by-step approach known as the ‘small deal,’” which he called the only diplomatic path with any chance of success.

He asserted that the Trump administration, led on this issue by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and special representative Stephen Biegun, is now returning to an incremental and phased approach to persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. 

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but a small deal would politically get the Trump administration through the 2020 election cycle which is what I think the North Koreans are counting on. The longer they wait and the harder they negotiate up to the 2020 election cycle the better deal they will likely get. Their goal is to get sanctions relief and keep their nukes and the small deal allows them to do this.

If a small deal is signed it will likely be marketed as a “Big Deal” if it includes a path to full denuclearization of North Korea. This politically allows the Trump administration to claim they have achieved a deal to completely denuclearize North Korea as a foreign policy achievement during the 2020 election. However, as we have seen in the past it is likely that the Kim regime will tear up the agreement at a time of their choosing and blame the U.S. for the deal’s failure. By the time this happens their treasury will be flush with cash due to the easing of sanctions and maybe even get major political concessions such as a Korean War peace treaty and USFK troop reductions.

I guess we will see where this is headed to in the next few months.

Don’t swim with sharks. You *will* eventually get bitten. https://t.co/hDd2DjjKG0

— 🇰🇷Edward Oh🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) July 5, 2019

The Blue House claims the First Lady was just wearing a simple butterfly pin, but as Dr. Tara O points out, this butterfly had far more meaning to anti-US groups in South Korea:

President Trump arrived in South Korea on June 29, 2019 after the G-20 meeting in Japan.  The next day, he visited the DMZ and met with Kim Jong-un. On the 29th, the South Korean First Lady is spotted wearing a light blue butterfly brooch near President Trump.  The light blue butterfly is a symbol adopted by anti-THAAD, anti-U.S. groups in South Korea.

First Lady Kim Jung-sook (김정숙) also wore the light blue butterfly pin the day before on June 28, 2019 in Japan at the G-20 meeting during the group photo session and the dinner banquet.

East Asia Research

You can read more at the link, but the First Lady was not the only one to wear the pin, other ROK officials did so as well during Trump’s visit. The blue butterfly has been become the symbol for all the anti-THAAD protesters in recent months.

Probably the most offensive thing about the anti-THAAD protesters is that it is based on lies that the electromagnetic waves from the radar are going to cause cancer and kill crops.

If the residents want to go measure electromagnetic waves they can do it right now.  They can purchase their own detection device and stand at their homes or farms and see what electromagnetic waves they detect.  They are not going to detect anything though because a group of Korean reporters were invited to the THAAD site on Guam and have already measured electromagnetic waves and found nothing.

This is simply not in my backyard protests that have been coopted by the usual anti-US groups that have little to do with the merits of the THAAD system and the ROK First Lady is apparently supporting this nonsense.

South Korea is already importing Muslim Brotherhood immigrants, they don’t need to have home grown ISIS members as well:

A South Korean man has been under investigation on charges of stealing a device used in military explosives while serving in the Army and collecting or uploading video clips related to the Islamic State (IS) militant group, defense ministry officials said Friday. 

The 23-year-old man, identified only by his surname, Park, allegedly stole at least one spark plug for explosives in October, 2017, when he was receiving training at an Army engineering unit as an explosive specialist, according to the officials.

Investigators also found a video clip on his cellphone on how to make homemade ammunition as well as a mobile app used by IS members and supporters. Also found at his home was a machete that looks similar to broad blade knives that have been used by terrorists, officials said.

The suspect had collected video clips and other materials related to IS and posted them online since 2016 until recently, the officials said, adding that he is suspected of exchanging emails with suspected members of the militant group.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but something I found interesting about this is that the FBI were the one that tipped off the ROK authorities about this guy contacting ISIS.

Well now we know what Australian Alek Sigley got in trouble for in North Korea, because he was “spying” for NK News:

KCNA said Sigley, who was caught “red-handed” by a “relevant institution” of the North on June 25, had abused his status as a student by “combing” through Pyongyang and providing photos and other information to news sites such as NK News and other “anti-DPRK” media, a reference to the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The news agency said the North expelled Sigley out of “humanitarian leniency.”

“He honestly admitted his spying acts of systematically collecting and offering data about the domestic situation of the DPRK and repeatedly asked for pardon, apologizing for encroachment upon the sovereignty of the DPRK,” the agency said.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link, but what Mr. Sigley was publishing articles at NK News about life in Pyongyang that were very innocuous. I suspect he did not get proper clearance for posting the articles and thus why he was detained. However, since he was spoken positively about North Korea for so long he did not get the Otto Warmbier treatment and was instead released. Here is a statement from NK News about Sigley’s detention.

It will be interesting to see if he ever turns up in Pyongyang again.