Pres. Moon (@moonriver365) at 63rd Newspaper Day Ceremony: "Newspapers are a mirror for our society. They are a barometer for the strength of a people and a nation. Thus, there is no difference between the goals of the people and the Government and those of #newspapers.” pic.twitter.com/eBbQa1uPGZ
— The Office of President Moon Jae-in (@TheBlueHouseENG) April 4, 2019
Apparently something blowing around in the wind made contact with a power switch to start the massive fire in Gangwon-do:
The state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) announced that the fire seemed to have been sparked by a power switch at a gas station in Goseong, just miles south of the border with North Korea. According to Kepco, “an alien substance” blown by the wind caught on an electric wire connected to a power switch, causing a spark, which grew into a fire.
Joong Ang Ilbo
No further detail was given about the unidentified substance.
You can read more at the link, but shouldn’t there be better fire prevention measures around these power switches to where something blowing in the wind doesn’t start a fire?
A “good enough deal” is just code for “pretend denuclearization”:
South Korea’s proposal for a “good enough deal” with North Korea to advance the now-stalled denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington is apparently gaining ground among U.S. officials and experts.
Korea Times
Cheong Wa Dae recently proposed a “good enough deal” as a possible alternative solution to both U.S. President Donald Trump’s “all-or-nothing” strategy and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s “small deal” approach.
Some U.S. experts have proposed “a phased approach” to break the stalemate ahead of a summit between Moon and Trump in Washington, D.C., scheduled from April 10 to 11.
The “good enough deal” assumes complete denuclearization, as outlined in Trump’s “all-or-nothing” strategy, is unrealistic.
It instead proposes a “couple of stages deal,” under which the U.S. and the North move onto the next stage and continue developing negotiations, as long as they find an agreement in the previous phase that was “good enough.”
This has all been tried before and did not work. Everyone remember the 2008 “cooling tower moment”:
As part of long and complex negotiations with the US, China and other nations over ending nuclear development in exchange for concessions, the reactor at Yongbyon was switched off last year. The facility is now being fully disabled, under the scrutiny of US experts.
The Guardian
North Korea’s denuclearisation took another significant step forwards yesterday when it submitted a long-awaited inventory of its atomic activities, prompting the US to initiate steps to remove Pyongyang from its list of states that sponsor terrorism.
The breakthrough, which will also see Washington lift some sanctions and Pyongyang demolish some of its nuclear facilities, is expected to jump-start six-party talks aimed at easing 55 years of tension on the peninsula.
The Kim regime does not care about having all the sanctions removed, all they need is partial sanctions relief. Partial relief allows money to come in to reinforce the lifestyle of the regime elite, increase funding for their military, and modernize their nuclear and missile capabilities. Notice I did not include improving the welfare of their people because that has obviously not been a priority for many decades in North Korea. Poor and marginally hungry people are easier to control.
This is why the focus for the Kim regime as well as the Moon administration in South Korea has been to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex and restart the Kumgang Resort tours as partial sanctions relief. The Kim regime also wants South Korean funded infrastructure improvements as well.
Kim Jong-un is willing to give the Trump administration their own “cooling tower moment” and smile for a few cameras to make this happen. However, they are not going to fully denuclearize for full full sanctions relief because they don’t need full sanctions relief. That is why I call all of this “pretend denuclearization“.
That is why I also think the Trump administration has been focusing on an all or nothing deal much to the chagrin of many so called experts.
“At this point, any realistic policy must begin with accepting the reality that complete and fully verifiable denuclearization is not a realistic prospect any time soon,” Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Hass wrote in a contribution to Project Syndicate magazine. “It need not and should not be abandoned as a long-term goal, but it cannot dominate near-term policy. An all-or-nothing policy toward North Korea will result in nothing.”
Korea Times
We will see over the coming months if the Trump administration listens to the advice from the expert crowd.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
Ruling party lawmaker Park Jeong attended the commemoration event for North Korean & Chinese forces buried in Paju, South Korea. But he skipped the commemoration event for the sailors killed from NK's attacks on Cheonan, Yeonpyeong, etc. held only 3 days prior. https://t.co/vpOzhKhCcr
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) April 4, 2019
It shows how big this fire on South Korea’s East Coast is that President Moon felt like he had to go out there in get in front of the cameras:
President Moon Jae-in on Friday made a surprise visit to the eastern city of Goseong, where more than 10,000 firefighters and military personnel have gathered to put out a massive fire that started the day before.
The president first visited the site command center in Goseong, 160 kilometers east of Seoul, where he urged continued efforts to completely put out the fire that is believed to have destroyed more than 300 buildings so far.“We may have failed to prevent the fire from spreading in the early stage because of strong winds, but I still believe we were able to stop the fire from spreading further because of the joint efforts of our firefighters, military and police officers and also civilians,” the president said after being briefed on current conditions, according to pool reports.
Later, the president visited a makeshift shelter set up at a school to offer his personal condolences to those evacuated and dislocated.
Yonhap
“The most important thing is not to get hurt. The life is what is most important,” Moon said while meeting with a group of residents who evacuated their homes in Goseong.
You can read more at the link.
Here is what President Moon’s trial balloon specialist had to say prior to next’s week summit between President Trump and President Moon:
The United States should give South Korea more leverage that it can use in dealing with North Korea, such as leeway in inter-Korean exchanges, if it wants Seoul to play a greater role in facilitating the stalled nuclear talks, a special presidential adviser said Thursday.
Moon Chung-in, a special presidential adviser for unification, foreign and security affairs, made the remark during a conference in Seoul, a week before Moon holds talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington.
The adviser said it will be a “herculean task” for Moon to play such a facilitating role so long as the North sees South Korea and the U.S. as on the same side.
Yonhap
I am being facetious here, but shouldn’t the U.S. and the ROK be on the same side when it comes to the denuclearization talks so the North Koreans cannot play one off against the other?
Any reading this site for long knows that the Moon administration is not really on the same side as the US and Moon Chung-in is just publicly stating what President Moon can’t. The Moon administration has long advocated lifting sanctions on the Kaesong Industrial Park and the Kumgang Tourism Resort. Both projects were once huge cash cows for the Kim regime before they were shut down by prior conservative governments.
North Korea wants to reopen these sanction busing projects for little to nothing in return as part of their “pretend denuclearization” strategy that the Moon administration endorses.
This is a really pretty area of South Korea that is unfortunately being scorched by this large wildfires:
A series of fires wreaked havoc on eastern coastal cities in Gangwon Province, from Thursday night to Friday, killing one person and forcing more than 4,000 to be evacuated from their homes.
Korea Times
The government declared a national disaster Friday morning as the damage mounted up, especially around Goseong; and is also considering designating the affected regions natural disaster areas to provide better support. A state of disaster is proclaimed when there is an urgent need to deploy emergency measures to minimize casualties and damage in the event of a major catastrophe.
According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, the fire in Goseong started by a roadside at around 7:17 p.m. Thursday, and spread quickly to neighboring areas, especially around Sokcho as strong winds fanned the flames.
Earlier in the afternoon, a separate fire broke out on one mountain in Inje, and another near Gangneung at about 11:50 p.m. that spread to Donghae.
A 60-year-old man died from the fire in Goseong, and another was seriously injured while more than 30 people have been treated for minor injuries.
About 130 houses, 11 warehouses and other buildings were destroyed in five towns and counties in the area, and more than 4,000 residents and tourists at holiday destinations in the province were evacuated, according to the authorities.
The Korea Forestry Service said about 250 hectares of forest was burnt down in Goseong alone, nearly the size of 735 soccer fields, as well as another 250 hectares in Gangneung and 25 hectares in Inje.
You can read more at the link, but it is horrible to see so many people lose their homes, hopefully no one loses their life due to this fire.
