Tag: North Korea

You would think that with the close ties the US and Poland have, that the Trump administration would have convinced the Poles to not use North Korean near-slave labor:

North Korean slave laborers are paid only US$27 a month on average working 12 to 16 hours a day in Polish shipyards, according to a Dutch academic. Most of their nominal wages go straight into the coffers of the North Korean regime.

Prof. Remco Breuker of Leiden University in the Netherlands told Voice of America on Saturday, “After the obligatory expenses, they would be left with about 27 dollars a month. That’s what they would be able to send home.”

A former North Korean worker at a shipyard in Poland is suing a Dutch shipbuilder over the slave-like conditions under a Dutch law that makes profiting from exploitation a crime even if the alleged offender is not the victim’s direct employer, which has turned the spotlight on the abuses.

The North Korean regime typically takes 70 to 90 percent of the wages of laborers it sends overseas to earn hard currency.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

👇1. Exactly what I told @washingtonpost @mradamtaylor but this part of my quote didnt make it in story (it's ok, it happens; @ArmsControlWonk said it but slightly differently). NK is doing what KJU ordered it to do in Jan 1 – mass produce missiles and nuke warheads… https://t.co/EIxd86U2X2

— Duyeon Kim (@duyeonkim) November 13, 2018

Like I said when this story initially broke, next someone is going to point out that the Kim regime still has artillery pointed at Seoul like it is some big revelation:

South Korea’s presidential office on Tuesday played down a new report on North Korea’s “undisclosed” missile sites, saying the state intelligence communities of South Korea and the United States earlier acquired relevant information.

Cheong Wa Dae added that it’s going too far to call the North’s continued activity a “great deception” given that it has no specific agreement to dismantle or disclose the facilities mentioned in the report issued by Beyond Parallel, a group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The group said it has located 13 out of an estimated 20 missile operating bases undeclared by the secretive communist regime.

“The dispersed deployment of these bases and distinctive tactics employed by ballistic missile units are combined with decades of extensive camouflage, concealment and deception practices to maximize the survival of its missile units from pre-emptive strikes and during wartime operations,” the report said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more a the link, but the South Korean government has basically took a nothing to see here, this is just business as usual approach to the news.

I really hope no one is surprised by any of this; next someone will take notice that the artillery that threatens Seoul is still in place:

A U.S. think tank said on Monday it had identified at least 13 of an estimated 20 undeclared missile operating bases inside North Korea, underscoring the challenge for American negotiators hoping to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

In reports released by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, researcher Joseph Bermudez said maintenance and minor infrastructure improvements have been observed at some of the sites, despite the ongoing negotiations.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to work toward denuclearization at their landmark June summit in Singapore, but the agreement was short on specifics and negotiations have made little headway.

Shortly after that summit, Trump tweeted that “there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”  [Reuters]

You can read the rest at the link, but the plan all along for the Kim regime was to get a peace treaty signed and sanctions dropped for little to nothing in return.  As long as the sanctions remain in place it is still not a complete win for the Kim regime.

Let’s not be cynical. Assemblyman Park Ji-Won, who, aftern having transferred $500M to Kim Jong Il in 2000 later said, “not a single dollar has been sent Kim,” said today “to raise suspicion is to deceive the public,” thus not categorically denying it. Maybe it was under $500M. https://t.co/FKLgeyh7Jl

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) November 11, 2018

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Kim Yong-woo (C) inspects the destruction of a South Korean guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas at the central section of the inter-Korean border in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, on Nov. 12, 2018, in this photo released by the Army. Ministry officials said South and North Korea have each withdrawn troops and firearms from 11 guard posts as of Nov. 10 for their complete demolition, one of the inter-Korean military agreements aimed at easing cross-border tensions. (Yonhap)

I was wondering how long North Korea would wait before complaining about this announced joint exercise:

North Korea has stepped up criticism of South Korea and the United States for their resumption of joint marine exercises, calling the move a military act against the ongoing peace momentum on the Korean Peninsula.

The verbal provocation came a week after the allies resumed the marine drills, the Korea Marine exercise Program (KMEP), for two weeks in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Seoul and Washington suspended a series of joint military drills this year in consideration of the reconciliatory relations between the two Koreas, but the allies decided to resume the drill to enhance defense readiness here.

“Seoul and Washington should stop such a military act and remain consistent in the ongoing tension-easing on the peninsula by stopping any military exercises,” Rodong Sinmun, the North’s official mouthpiece, said Monday.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

$1 million can fit in a grocery bag. $100 mil in std 48"×40". A C-130 can easily hold 48 std pallets worth or $4.8 billion, X 4 aircraft=$19.2 billion. X 4 flts ea/. Lots of room for oranges+cash+others to #NorthKorea & to bring back anybody/thing from NK.https://t.co/WA626Y26uA https://t.co/w2geHb28dQ

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) November 11, 2018

It looks like the United Nations Command is still upholding sanctions though the Moon administration doesn’t want them to:

The unification ministry set aside around 350 billion won ($315 million) to connect the rail and road networks of the two Koreas according to documents that were initially undisclosed.

The documents obtained by Rep. Choung Byoung-gug of the Bareunmirae Party from the ministry and National Assembly, stated that 352.6 billion won out of a 1.97 trillion won fund for inter-Korean affairs had been set aside to link transport networks with North Korea. The documents for the first time showed the government’s budget for the project.

Specifically, the ministry had set aside 134.1 billion won for rail connections and 54.8 billion won for roads. The ministry also reportedly drew up another 163.7 billion won for “establishing infrastructure for inter-Korean economic cooperation.”

The budget was drawn up at a time when the project has been put on hold as the Koreas have yet to conduct inspections on train tracks in the North. This is because the United Nations Command, which is in charge of approving personnel and equipment crossing the military demarcation line (MDL), has barred South Koreans from crossing to survey the North’s transport infrastructure.

This is due to the fact that a South Korean train carrying oil needs to cross the MDL. The United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea ban this. Resolution 2397 states “all member states shall prohibit the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to North Korea, through their territories or by their nationals, or using their flag vessels, aircraft, pipelines, rail lines, or vehicles, of all refined petroleum products.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Headline misleading. The peninsula is not engulfed in active war. De facto peace has been kept–by deterrence–since 1953, grated there are varying degrees of "peace."

A mere declaration of peace or even a peace treaty does not denote real peace. Just ask Saigon circa 1975. https://t.co/GNFruvaoO9

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) November 9, 2018