Tag: North Korea

This probably should be considered a good thing that the Trump administration is not in a hurry to cut a deal with North Korea for little to nothing in return:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. is “in no hurry” to negotiate with North Korea.

On Twitter, Trump wrote that “many people have asked how we are doing in our negotiations with North Korea” and that he “always reply by saying we are in no hurry.”

Trump added there is “wonderful potential for great economic success” for North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un “sees it better than anyone and will fully take advantage of it for his people.”

He maintained an optimistic outlook, saying “we are doing just fine.”

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

Found on my doorstep this morning, this flier calls for creating a new unified flag to greet Kim Jong Un when the "noble guest of unification" comes to Seoul. The zeal of nationalism is indeed palpable, and pervasive these days. pic.twitter.com/eYTE0MaTEH

— Sam Kim (@samkimasia) December 1, 2018

As I guessed would happen, the fate of upcoming exercises will be tied to any upcoming summit between Kim Jong-un and President Trump.  It makes too much sense to use these exercises as bartering chips if needed:

Seoul and Washington will make a decision on whether to conduct its annual Foal Eagle joint military exercise scheduled for next spring taking into consideration a potential second North Korea-U.S. summit, according to multiple military sources Thursday. 

“The United States is paying great attention to advancing North-U.S. relations,” a South Korean government source said. “Our military and government is also responding to the U.S. stance and having discussions taking into consideration the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.” 

U.S. President Donald Trump recently said that he is planning to hold his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in January or February, making the suspension of the South-U.S. drill more likely. 

Another government source here said, “What it means to make a decision to hold the drills linking it to the North-U.S. summit is that, in the case that North Korea does not come to the negotiating table, the Foal Eagle may be conducted.”   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Yes, their own people. https://t.co/YawX9VorHi

— Edward Oh 🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) December 5, 2018

It is starting to become pretty clear that sanctions will ultimately be dropped before North Korea denuclearizes based on the new rhetoric coming from the White House:

ohn Bolton, the U.S. national security adviser, said Thursday that Washington will remove sanctions when it sees “performance” from North Korea and advocated a second summit between the two countries’ leaders.

In an interview with Washington-based National Public Radio (NPR), Bolton discussed a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and said it will be possible “sometime after the first of the year.” 

Through a second North-U.S. summit, Bolton said Trump “is trying to give the North Koreans a chance to live up to the commitments they made at the Singapore summit” and has “held the door open for them.

“They need to walk through it,” Bolton continued. “This is one more chance for Kim Jong-un, who is the only decision maker that matters in the North Korean system, to deliver on what he said in Singapore.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

I am sure that this is something that enough cash sent up North can make happen.  His dad needed $500 million to host a summit in Pyongyang, so I am sure Kim Jong-un’s price to go to Seoul will be much higher:

Anchor:  North Korea continues to remain silent about a prospective visit to South Korea by leader Kim Jong-un.  If the visit is to take place before the end of the year, as the South Korean government hopes, there may only be a matter of days left to confirm a date and make arrangements.  Kim Bum-soo has more.

Report: It was at September’s inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang about three months ago when leaders of the two Koreas first held out the possibility of meeting again in Seoul.

[Sound bite: N. Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Korean)]
“I promised to President Moon Jae-in that I will visit Seoul in the near future. We will put an end to the tragedy of division as soon as possible and hold our hands together to embark on a sacred journey to peace and prosperity.”

[Sound bite: President Moon Jae-in (Korean)]
“I requested Chairman Kim Jong-un to visit Seoul and he decided to come to Seoul in the near future. ‘Near future’ means ‘within this year’ unless there is a special circumstances. Chairman Kim’s visit to Seoul would be the first by a North Korean leader and it will provide a breakthrough to the inter-Korean relations.”

Now, in December, with just a few weeks remaining in the year, the South still hasn’t heard any confirmation date from the North.  That’s according to Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, who told lawmakers Friday the South and North have been in talks to try to make the visit happen.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link, but it is not surprising at all to me the hypocrisy of how the Moon administration wants to champion someone with a visit to Seoul who has killed many Koreans in recent years, launched a nerve agent attack in an international airport just two years ago, has active gulags, still has kidnapped South Koreans, among a host of other provocations while at the same time regularly bashing the Japanese for things that happened 75-100 years ago.

Is anyone in the Moon administration going to demand apologies from Kim Jong-un for his regime’s transgressions against South Korea like they regularly demand from Japan?  Better yet what about demands for compensation for the victims of the Kim regime’s attacks?

Luckily that is less than the North Korean regime spent on luxury goods last year. Problem solved. https://t.co/Cr1KpECemX

— Bruce Klingner (@BruceKlingner) December 5, 2018

The Executive Editor for the Hankyoreh, Kim Jong-gu has written an open letter to the New York Times complaining about their bias against President Trump:

But as I read the newspaper’s reporting, I discovered that the Times’ reputation wasn’t grounded in fact. The pages of the newspaper were swamped with articles that openly supported Kerry. I also sincerely wanted Bush to lose the race, but the Times’ one-sided reporting made the allegations of bias in the South Korean press look like small potatoes.  (…………….)

As a South Korean citizen, however, I can’t help noticing a paradox: President Trump’s outsider status, his profound hostility to the foreign policy establishment, and his gambler-like drive to win have in fact improved the chances of peace on the Korean Peninsula. I find Trump’s unfiltered language, his wild behavior and his arrogant egotism as disgusting as anyone else. But there’s one thing for which he deserves credit, and that’s his boldness in negotiating with North Korea.

The Times is widely regarded as a progressive-leaning newspaper. Progressives believe in peace; they believe in reconciliation and win-win arrangements, not confrontation and quarrels. Obviously, it will be very difficult to bring about North Korea’s denuclearization and impossible to predict the outcome. Just as obviously, it’s the job of the press to offer a clear-headed analysis of these efforts and raise concerns when they fall short.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link, but it is a bit laughable that the Hankyoreh is complaining about bias when they are well known for being the most left wing biased major newspaper in South Korea.

I did find this statement quite entertaining from the article: “Progressives believe in peace; they believe in reconciliation and win-win arrangements, not confrontation and quarrels.”  Are South Korean conservative journalists thrown in jail for disagreeing with President Moon a sign of liberal “reconciliation”?  Is using labor unions to attack conservatives something that should be considered non-confrontational?  I could go on and on about the hypocrisy in the article which just shows the Hankyoreh should be the last newspaper in South Korea to complain about bias anywhere else.

The first part of the survey of North Korea’s railways has been completed:

The 28 South Koreans crossed into Dorasan Station, just south of the inter-Korean border, at around 5:11 p.m. following a six-day inspection that covered the rail line from Kaesong near the border with the South to Sinuiju near the border with China.

A train carrying six South Korean cars left for the North on Friday. It was taken over by a North Korean locomotive at Panmun Station, from which point five North Korean cars were connected to it for the joint work.

Why should a regime that has enough money to fund a luxurious lifestyle for Kim Jong-un and the regime elite as well as develop a robust nuclear program be given humanitarian aid?  It is pretty clear that the regime is using international organizations to help subsidize their nuclear program and lavish lifestyles by not having to divert resources to support their own people:

Bart Vermeiren, head of mission of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), made the remark in a recent interview in Seoul with Yonhap News Agency, amid growing calls for waiving sanctions for humanitarian projects.

“I think that humanitarian aid should remain depoliticized. It should not actually be linked to politics because it becomes dangerous. Then humanitarian aid becomes a tool, a negotiation tool so that should not be the case,” he said.