Tag: North Korea

It seems a bit premature from President Moon to declaring peace in our time:

 President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that North Korea and the United States have effectively declared an end to their hostile relations with the symbolic weekend meeting between their leaders at the inter-Korean border.

Although they did not sign any document, their action was tantamount to a “de facto declaration of an end to hostile relations and the beginning of a full-fledged peace era,” Moon stressed, speaking at a Cabinet meeting.

He was referring to a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Sunday.

Yonhap

President Moon might want to wait until next year to see if this is still the case because Kim Jong-un has previously said the regime is giving until next year for sanctions to be dropped. The Trump administration does not seem like it is going to drop sanctions without real denuclearization. I guess we will see what happens.

They have “boosted nuclear talks” in the past for NK, funneling into #DPRK coffers about $100M/year for NK’s WMD dev’t. NK’s 1st nuclear test was on Oct 9, 2006, during the Roh Moo Hyun admin, when Moon Jae-In was Roh’s right hand man in the Blue House. https://t.co/Lid0khrjlW

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) June 27, 2019

This meeting makes me wonder why it was hastily announced at the last minute? It seems likely that with the letters the two leaders sent each other that they knew this meeting was a possibility. The only reason I can think of to delay announcing the meeting is either for security concerns or to prevent the U.S. news media from having time to create a negative narrative before the meeting. Since this happened so quick all the U.S. news media had time to do is report the news which is something they are not used to:

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed at a brief, hurriedly arranged meeting on the inter-Korean border Sunday that deadlocked denuclearization talks will resume. 

“We’ve agreed that we’re each going to designate a team. The teams will try to work out some details,” Trump said after talks with Kim behind closed doors in the truce village of Panmunjom. Trump and Kim sat down for nearly an hour, their first face-to-face meeting since a second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February ended prematurely and without a deal. 

U.S. negotiators will be led by Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun, according to Trump. He said the United States and North would start working over the next two to three weeks for a comprehensive deal – but that he does not want a rushed agreement. “We’re not looking for speed,” he said. “We’re looking to get it right.” 

Trump repeatedly stressed that tensions were rapidly reduced since he took office, and that the North is not conducting nuclear or long-range ballistic missile tests. 

“We are in a very good path,” Trump said. Asked if the United States will lift sanctions on the North, Trump said they will remain for now, but he looks forward to taking them off when progress is made. 

Before sitting down for the 50-minute private talks, Trump and Kim met each other at the military demarcation line, the de facto land border between the two Koreas that bisects the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). After a handshake, Trump crossed the line to join Kim on the northern side, becoming the first U.S. president to step on North Korean soil while in office. U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed at a brief, hurriedly arranged meeting on the inter-Korean border Sunday that deadlocked denuclearization talks will resume.  (……..)

“You are the first U.S. president in history to set foot on our soil,” Kim told Trump before the meeting. “It is an extraordinary decision to settle the unfortunate past and pioneer a great future.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but here is a CBS News video of the historic meeting:

I have to believe that during the 50 minute meeting that ROK President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un did the best sales job they could to get President Trump on board with allowing the Kaesong Industrial Park and Mt. Kumgang Tours to reopen in return for “Pretend Denuclearization“.

It will be interesting to see where this meeting leads to.

Via a reader tip comes news that the North Koreans that arrived undetected by the ROK authorities in Samcheok may not have been fishermen as claimed:

Mystery continues to shroud the defection of two North Korean sailors earlier this month after their wooden boat entered a South Korean harbor completely undetected, which set off a scandal over the lack of alertness by the South’s military. 

Jeon Dong-jin, a South Korean fisherman who saw the North Korean boat enter Samcheok Harbor in Gangwon on June 15 told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday that he was first filled with curiosity at seeing North Koreans for the first time, but soon became afraid.  

“It reminded me of the time an armed North Korean squad infiltrated Gangneung in 1996,” he said, in reference to an incident in which 26 North Korean reconnaissance agents covertly landed near Gangneung, Gangwon, on a submarine but were hunted down by the South Korean army after being spotted. In the ensuing series of firefights that lasted from September to November that year, 12 South Korean soldiers and four civilians were killed, as well as 24 of the North’s agents. 

“If the North Koreans on the wooden dinghy had been armed agents, we would have all been killed,” said Jeon. 

Four North Koreans were on the boat at sea for six days – four in South Korean waters – until it moored at Samcheok. The first person to report the North Koreans did not belong to the military, but was instead a resident of the harbor city. After questioning, two of the crew defected to the South, while the other two returned to the North through the border village of Panmunjom on June 18. 

Many residents of the city are upset with the military’s inability to detect the boat’s infiltration. 

“In their words, [the military] said they were closely monitoring the [maritime border] with cutting edge technology, but in reality they did nothing while the dinghy entered the harbor,” said one resident, Jang Hyung-baek. “I can’t help but think we were tricked.” 

According to Captain Jeon, Samcheok residents remain particularly dubious about the claim that the North Korean sailors had been marooned on their vessel for almost a week. 

“Except for one of them, who looked like he was deliberately growing a beard, the North Koreans were clean-shaven,” he said. “I’ve never heard of a case where people set adrift at sea shave themselves.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but just looking at how they are dressed in the picture indicates to me that this was a failed spy operation. They are clearly dressed to try and blend in with the ROK population, not as fishermen. The Moon administration will definitely want to continue to claim these are fishermen in order not to spoil the so called reconciliation mood that is going on right now.

I do find it interesting that the ROK repatriated two of the North Koreans right away while the other two stayed. If they were on a spy mission and were compromised and it is interesting that two of the spies took the chance to defect instead of going back to North Korea.

This sucks for this man’s family, but like I have said every time someone gets detained in North Korea, I have little sympathy for them. No one should be traveling to North Korea and supporting the Kim regime:

The family of an Australian who vanished in North Korea in mysterious circumstances have broken their silence. 

Alek Sigley, 29, who is a postgraduate student at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang and a self-employed tour company operator, has not been seen or heard from by friends and loved ones for more than 48 hours.

He was identified in South Korean media overnight as having been taken into custody by North Korean officials.

Australian officials have been trying to confirm whether he has in fact been arrested or if there is some other explanation for his disappearance.

On Thursday afternoon, Mr Sigley’s family issued a statement confirming they remained unsure of his fate.

“As of 1pm (AEST), it has not been confirmed that Alek has been detained in the DPRK,” it said.

“The situation is that Alek has not been in digital contact with friends and family since Tuesday morning Australian time, which is unusual for him.

“Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is therefore seeking to confirm his whereabouts and welfare.”

“Alek is an Australian-born Asian scholar and traveller who has visited, studied and lived in several countries in Asia. Alek can speak Mandarin and Korean fluently along with some Japanese.

“He is studying for a Masters in Korean literature at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. Alek’s family hope to re-establish contact with him soon.”

News.com.au

You can read more at the link, but hopefully he is able to return home alive and not tortured unlike what other detainees experienced from the Kim regime.

Here we go again the with Moon administration pushing the Trump administration to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex an the Mt. Kumgang Tours before denuclearization takes place:

South Korea’s minister in charge of inter-Korean affairs said the government could consider resuming cross-border projects such as the Mount Geumgang tours and the Gaeseong industrial park before full-scale sanctions relief to facilitate the denuclearization process.

During an interview with Yonhap News Agency and six other global news agencies in Seoul on Wednesday, a reporter asked Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul whether the inter-Korean economic projects could restart before Pyongyang’s complete denuclearization.

Kim said the two projects could resume following sanctions relief or be considered in the early stages of sanctions relief as an exceptional step to faciliate denuclearization.

The remarks come after President Moon Jae-in, in a written interview with the seven news agencies, said he suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump fully utilize inter-Korean economic cooperation as corresponding measures to induce the North’s denuclearization.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but we have been down this road before. President Bush agreed to a deal with the North Koreans that left the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mt. Kumgang Tours cash cows open and the North Koreans did not denuclearize. They blew up an old nuclear cooling tower for the cameras which I am sure Kim Jong-un is willing to do again for the same deal.

It can be argued that all the Bush deal did was increase funding for the regime to further develop their nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. Does the Trump administration want to be ones that allows the Kim regime to complete the development of their nuclear weapons program?

#MoonJaein admin sends ~$100 million to #KimJongUn regime. How? By sending 1.3 M sacks (40 kg each, total 50,000 tons) of #SouthKorean rice to NK via WFP. Its on top of $8 million already given to nK via WFP recently.
Moon is persistent.https://t.co/nINGdccBXb

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) June 20, 2019

What the US negotiators have to be careful of is the Kim regime promising to dismantle their nuclear facilities in exchange for dropping sanctions. After sanctions are dropped they can slow roll the dismantlement and then blame the U.S. for some made up reason for why they suddenly have to keep their nuclear capacity. They of course will keep all the hard currency they accumulated after the dropping of sanctions:

President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday that if North Korea dismantled its Yongbyon nuclear complex, the country’s denuclearization would be in an “irreversible stage.”

“If all of the nuclear facilities in the complex, including the plutonium reprocessing facilities and the uranium enrichment facilities, are completely demolished and verified,” Moon said in a written interview with seven global news agencies including Yonhap, “it would be possible to say that the denuclearization of North Korea has entered an irreversible stage.” 

During his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27 and 28, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered to dismantle at least some of the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which includes a 5-megawatt plutonium production reactor.

Trump said Pyongyang had to do more for sanctions relief. That summit collapsed without a deal and led to an impasse in denuclearization dialogue ever since. 

Yet the United States is engaged in “behind-the-scenes talks” with North Korea for a possible third summit, Moon said in the interview, noting that “there will be substantive progress if the two sides continue negotiations based on what was discussed in Singapore and Hanoi.” Kim and Trump’s first summit was in Singapore on June 12 of last year.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Considering that she is Kim Jong-un’s trusted sister, she has probably always been a national leader, but is now officially filling the role:

North Korean leader’s younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, has been elevated to the level of a national leader, an upgrade from her previous role as a protocol assistant to the leader, the main South Korean intelligence agency concluded Tuesday in its analysis of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unprecedented state visit to the North last week. 

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) on Tuesday briefed Rep. Lee Hye-hoon of the Bareunmirae Party, chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, about Xi’s visit to the North on Thursday and Friday. Following the briefing, Lee met with journalists and shared some of the NIS’s analysis, which dissected in detail Xi’s 27-hour stay in Pyongyang, including his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

According to Lee, Kim Yo-jong has been elevated to the level of a national leader. 

“If you look at the photos [of last week’s summit], she was standing in the same level of Choe Ryong-hae, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, and Ri Su-yon, vice chairman of the Workers’ Party,” Lee quoted the NIS as saying. “The NIS believes that Kim’s role has been adjusted and her weight has been increased [within the North’s regime].” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Legally going after the people and organizations that break sanctions and freezing their assets like what happened with this guy should be vigorously pursued:

Taiwan’s justice ministry has expressed regret after a businessman convicted over illegal oil sales to North Korea leapt to his death.

Authorities launched a probe into Chen Shih-hsien last year after Seoul said it had detained a Hong Kong-registered ship suspected of transferring oil to a North Korean vessel, flouting UN sanctions. 

Chen, 54, was later indicted on forgery charges for making a false declaration that a ship he had chartered was bound for Hong Kong when it actually sailed to international waters to sell the oil. 

A district court in southern Kaohsiung city last month sentenced him to 119 days in jail, suspended for two years.

Chen’s assets were frozen after Taiwan’s government imposed a ban on all financial dealings with him and locked up his companies’ bank accounts due to the probe, which he was appealing against.

The justice ministry said in a statement it deeply regretted the passing of Chen, who jumped from a building on Friday in a suspected suicide. 

Local media said Chen left a “suicide note” while prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.

Chen’s case revolved around a ship called the Lighthouse Winmore, which was impounded in late 2017 by South Korean authorities after it allegedly transferred 600 tonnes of oil to the North’s Sam Jong 2.

The vessel was chartered by the Billions Bunker Group, which is incorporated in the Marshall Islands and run by Chen.

Reports said Chen sold oil products through “a Chinese middleman”.

AFP

You can read more at the link, but China is always going to be the weak link when it comes to sanctions and probably all the more reason why the Trump administration has been putting economic pressure on them.