Tag: North Korea

It is business as usual on the Korean peninsula:

North Korea fired two short-range projectiles from a western region toward the East Sea on Tuesday, South Korea’s military said, just hours after the communist nation offered to resume nuclear talks with the United States.

The projectiles were fired at 6:53 a.m. and 7:12 a.m. from areas in the city of Kaechon, South Pyongan Province, about 80 kilometers north of the capital, Pyongyang, in a northeastern direction, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

Both flew around 330 km across the peninsula, reaching a maximum altitude of around 50 to 60 km, the JCS said, while declining to confirm if the two projectiles landed in the East Sea or how fast they flew. The JCS added that South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are analyzing their exact type. (…….)

The firings came just hours after the North’s First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui expressed a willingness to resume denuclearization talks with the U.S. in late September and demanded that Washington come up with a new proposal acceptable to Pyongyang.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but as I have been saying for months, the North Koreans are going to push for the dropping sanctions on Kaesong and other cross border projects for little to nothing in return. If they don’t get a deal by the end of the year I expect them to start testing their longer range systems in order to create a “crisis” during the Presidential campaign season next year.

Creating such a crisis would undermine President Trump’s foreign policy credentials that his Democratic rivals can attack him with. So it will be interesting to see if President Trump decides to cut a deal to keep Pyongyang quiet next year. If not things could be very interesting on the peninsula next year.

It seems that an outsider like this operating in North Korea would be closely watched by the Kim regime making any espionage attempts extremely risky:

A former prisoner in North Korea has told German media that he used to spy for the CIA, seeking out nuclear secrets and taking pictures with a concealed wristwatch camera.

In a TV report by public broadcaster NDR, South Korean-born US citizen Kim Dong-chul, 67, recounts his former espionage operations, arrest and the abuse and torture he suffered behind bars.

“I approached military officers and scientists who I knew needed money,” Kim says in the programme, showing crooked fingers that he claims were broken by soldiers’ boots during his interrogation.

Kim Dong-chul was one of three American detainees freed by Pyongyang in May 2018, in the lead-up to the first summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The ex-prisoner has since told South Korean media that he used to gather information for the country’s National Intelligence Service and the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The businessman and former Christian missionary had become a trusted insider in North Korea, where from 2001 he ran a hotel in the Rason special economic zone near the China and Russia borders.

He was arrested in October 2015 after he reportedly received a USB stick containing nuclear-linked data and other military information from a former North Korean soldier.

In April 2016 he was sentenced to 10 years’ hard labour for subversion and espionage.

In the TV programme, he reports that after the 2011 death of former leader Kim Jong Il, he was recruited by a CIA agent in South Korea.

AFP

You can read more at the link.

It makes sense that this guy would get promoted considering the priority that the Kim regime has put on developing bigger and better rocket and missile systems:

Pyongyang has named an army general with expertise in artillery as its new military commander, North Korean state media reported, in a move that an analyst said could signal plans for the development of new weapons.

Pak Jong Chon was appointed the “chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army,” KCNA said late Friday, adding that the decision was announced during a meeting attended by leader Kim Jong Un.

Pak succeeds Ri Yong Gil, an expert on military operations who has served in the position on two separate occasions since 2013.

His promotion from head of the Korean People’s Army’s Artillery Command may suggest a new military focus on weapons development, said Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector and researcher in Seoul.

The North was particularly threatened by the South’s acquisition of cutting-edge American F-35 stealth fighter jets — known for their ability to evade radar detection — earlier this year, Ahn told AFP.

“It is also notable that Pak accompanied Kim during the North’s test-firing of its new weapons,” he added. “With him as the North’s top military officer, it’s more likely that Pyongyang will prioritise artillery along with its new weapons system.”

AFP

Your regular reminder that our differences with Pyongyang are bigger than a freeze deal or an empty promise of peace. A lasting peace will require it to make a sustainable commitment to systemic change, & its word alone means nothing.https://t.co/ElZbD8jVp4 via @The_Daily_NK

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) August 31, 2019

Some more companies have been hit with sanctions after violating United Nations sanctions on North Korea:

The United States on Friday sanctioned three shipping firms for allegedly engaging in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum goods to North Korea.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced the measures on its website, adding that the companies are based in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The department also sanctioned two Taiwanese individuals and designated a Panama-flagged vessel as blocked property for engaging in related activity.

“Treasury will implement and enforce existing U.S. and U.N. sanctions on individuals, entities and vessels involved in illicit ship-to-ship transfers with North Korean flagged vessels,” she added.

The United States on Friday sanctioned three shipping firms for allegedly engaging in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum goods to North Korea.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced the measures on its website, adding that the companies are based in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The department also sanctioned two Taiwanese individuals and designated a Panama-flagged vessel as blocked property for engaging in related activity.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I wonder at some point if ships will start being seized to more forcibly enforce sanctions on North Korea?

I don’t think anyone doubts North Korea’s economic potential, the real question is if their economic potential can be reached and the Kim regime still remains in power:

U.S. President Donald Trump again touted North Korea’s “tremendous” economic potential on Monday, seemingly urging the regime to return to denuclearization talks.

The negotiations have yet to resume despite Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s agreement to do so within several weeks after their impromptu meeting on the inter-Korean border on June 30.

“I think that North Korea has tremendous economic potential, and I think that Kim Jong-un sees that,” Trump said at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the conclusion of a Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears that the North Koreans have yet more features of their new missile systems to test:

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says that North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea Saturday morning from the eastern town of Sondok in South Hamgyong Province.

The JCS said the missiles were fired at 6:45 and 7:02 a.m. and both flew about 380 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 97 kilometers and a top speed of over Mach six-point-five.

The JCS also said it will share information on the latest launches with Japan following Tokyo’s request as the bilateral intelligence-sharing pact of the General Security of Military Information Agreement, or GSOMIA, is still in effect. 

The South Korean military is monitoring the situation in case of additional launches.

According to Japan’s Kyodo news agency, the Tokyo government also announced North Korea appears to have fired a ballistic missile but the projectiles did not reach Japanese waters or its exclusive economic zone.

Saturday’s launch comes eight days after the regime’s last firing on August 16th but it’s the first since a South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise ended this past Tuesday.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but you have to love the irony of South Korea pushing for a boycott of Japan over a trade dispute while wanting to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Park despite North Korea regularly firing missiles designed to destroy the ROK.

Here is the latest information on the new weapon system that North Korea is believed to have tested:

North Korea said Saturday that it has tested a “new weapon” under the guidance of its leader, Kim Jong-un, in the launch of two projectiles the previous day.

Kim “guided the test-fire of (a) new weapon again on Friday morning,” the Korean Central News Agency said. “The national defense scientists showed a perfect result in the test-fire, too, and helped cement bigger confidence in this weapon system.”

“It is our party’s goal of defense building to possess invincible military capabilities no one dare provoke and to keep bolstering them,” Kim was quoted as saying. “Everyone should remember that it is the party’s core plan and fixed will for defense building to possess such a powerful force strong enough to discourage any forces from daring to provoke us.”

The KCNA did not provide other details on the weapon, including its name.

The report came a day after South Korea’s military said that the North fired two projectiles presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast. It said that they flew around 230 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 30 km.

Military experts say that the projectiles bear outward similarities to the U.S.’ Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), a surface-to-surface missile system.

Photos released by the North’s media showed missiles that were launched from a transporter erector launcher (TEL) hitting a faraway target on a small rocky islet in the East Sea.

Friday’s firing came six days after North Korea flew two projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles, though the North said later it tested a “new weapon.” It also was the sixth such launch since late July.

North Korea’s version of ATACMS is assessed as one of its three newly-developed weapons, including a large-caliber multiple launch guided rocket system and short-range missiles known as KN-23s, its version of the Russian Iskander.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.