Tag: North Korea

Joint Railway Inspection In North Korea Begins

| December 1, 2018

After the ROK completes this railway inspection they will know how much cash they will need to handover to Kim Jong-un to upgrade his railway lines while he does little to nothing in return.  The artillery along the DMZ is still there pointed at Seoul and the ballistic missiles and rockets are still there pointed at other cities in South Korea:

A South Korean train departed for North Korea on Friday for an 18-day joint railway inspection that the Koreas are conducting as part of efforts to modernize, and eventually reconnect, rail lines across their border.

The train, made up of six cars and carrying dozens of South Korean officials and experts, left Dorasan Station, just south of the inter-Korean border, around 9:05 a.m. for Panmun Station, near the North’s border city of Kaesong.

The train will be used to inspect 1,200 kilometers of rail track in the North through Dec. 17.

The inspection is part of a summit agreement between the leaders of the Koreas, signed in April, to modernize and eventually reconnect rail systems across their border in a bid to foster reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.

“The inter-Korean railway connection project is intended to overcome division and open a new future of the Korean Peninsula,” Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told a ceremony at Dorasan Station to mark the launch of the inspection.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the South Korean officials on this train will get to see the North Korean child slave labor in action maintaining the rails?

The ‘chain gang’ of children works along a stretch of railway (Image: Daily Mirror)

North Korea Claims It Will Allow Inspectors Into Yongbyon Nuclear Facility

| November 29, 2018

Here we go again with pretend denuclearization:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has expressed a willingness to allow inspectors into the country’s main nuclear complex, a senior diplomatic source said Tuesday, citing a message sent to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kim earlier expressed a willingness to permanently shut down the site in Yongbyon if the U.S. took “corresponding” measures, but his apparent offer to allow verification has not been reported.

If true, Kim’s offer would mark a significant step toward meeting U.S. demands for full and verified denuclearization, a position Washington has stuck to since a historic Trump-Kim summit in June.

“I understand that Chairman Kim told (South Korean) President Moon (Jae-in) during their summit in September that if the U.S. took corresponding steps he would not only be willing to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facilities but also allow verification,” the source with knowledge of U.S.-North Korea negotiations told Yonhap.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but if the sanctions are dropped the North Koreans will simply drag out closing down Yongbyon as long as possible until they can kick out the inspectors.  By the time they manufacture a reason to kick out the inspectors they will have received their cash infusion from the dropping of sanctions.

It is pretty clear this is a standard North Korean playbook move here, will the Trump administration fall for it?

Blue House Claims the Majority of South Koreans Support Dropping Sanctions on North Korea

| November 28, 2018

Considering this poll was done by the Blue House I would not give it much creditability until an outside agency does polling on this issue:

A majority of South Koreans think it is necessary to ease sanctions on North Korea to accelerate denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a survey showed Tuesday.

According to the survey of 1,000 adults here by the National Unification Advisory Council, a presidential consultative body mainly on long-term inter-Korean ties, 64 percent expressed support for easing sanctions on the North as denuclearization talks are underway.

Of the total, 20.4 percent said that they do not support sanctions relief much, while 11.6 percent said they do not support such a move at all, the survey showed.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but how would respondents have answered if asked if they support dropping sanctions for little to nothing in return from the Kim regime?  That is essentially what is going on right now.

Tweet of the Day: South Korea’s Regret

| November 27, 2018

Declassified Documents Show Former President Carter Tried to Hold Summit with Kim Il-sung

| November 27, 2018

I don’t think anyone will be surprised to find out that former President Jimmy Carter tried to hold a peace conference with the North Koreans back in 1979:

The United States pushed for high-level talks with South and North Korea on reducing military tensions in the late 1970s amid a controversy over a troop pullout or reduction plan, declassified diplomatic documents showed Sunday.

The rift between the presidents of the allies at that time — Park Chung-hee and Jimmy Carter — about the size of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) was highlighted in a transcript of their talks in Seoul on June 30, 1979.

“I can’t promise that we will freeze forces levels,” Carter told Park, according to a White House document on their hourlong conversation.

Carter questioned South Korea’s commitment to a hike in defense budgets to counter North Korea’s rapid military buildup.

Park stressed his military was making efforts to beef up combat power but needed more time.

Cater asked, “My understanding is that you are particularly concerned about the presence of the Second (Infantry) Division and the Combined Forces Command. Do you also want the U.S. to maintain its protective nuclear umbrella as well?”

Park said yes. And Carter asked again, “If we decide to modify or reduce other force levels, you would like adequate notification and consultations?”

Park also said yes.

In the summit, Carter confirmed South Korea’s clear opposition to either the withdrawal of the USFK or a scale-down, with the North’s military threats growing. The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Carter soon accelerated a drive for dialogue with North Korea on easing tensions.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but Carter tried to hold a summit with the ROK and North Korea in Jakarta, Indonesia.  It never happened because the Kim Il-sung regime blew him off.

UN Security Council Approves Sanctions Exemption for North Korean Railway Survey

| November 27, 2018

Another UN sanctions exemption for little to nothing in return from North Korea:

The United Nations Security Council has granted a sanctions exemption that will allow North and South Korea to move forward with a joint railway project, according to a report.

Seoul had requested an exemption for the delivery of fuel and other material needed to conduct a survey in North Korea focused on reconnecting cross-border railways.

The request was approved Friday by the security council’s North Korea sanctions committee, a foreign ministry official said according to the Yonhap News Agency.

The decision comes days after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the South that it should not improve ties with the North without marked progress in nuclear talks.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Political Supremacy

| November 26, 2018

Kim Jong-il’s Former Secretary and Her Entire Family Reportedly Locked Away in A Prison Camp

| November 25, 2018

Has anyone asked President Moon what he thinks about his new best friend locking away whole families in prison camps?:

Kim Ok

Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s secretary Kim Ok, once rumored to be the late ruler’s secret fourth wife, appears to have been sent to a prison camp, a local government official exclusively told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday.

South Korean intelligence authorities concluded that Kim Ok was imprisoned after Kim Jong-il died in December 2011, according to the source, who requested anonymity. Kim Ok appears to have been sent to a prison camp for political criminals in 2014 for her links to Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Jang was once considered the second most powerful man in the regime.

Jang was executed on Dec. 12, 2013, nearly two years after Kim Jong-un took power following his father’s death. At the time, Jang served as vice chairman of the Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission and chief of the Central Administrative Department. He was apprehended in November 2013 along with his close aides, kicked out of the party and tried in a special military tribunal. He was found guilty of “anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts in a bid to overthrow the leadership of the party and state and the socialist system,” in the words of North Korea’s official media.

Kim Ok is still alive, the South Korean government official said. Her close family members were all imprisoned as well, according to the source, but it is not known whether they’re still alive.

Kim Ok, who is 53, was seen shadowing Kim Jong-il inside and outside North Korea wherever he went. This caused local analysts to believe she was the late leader’s fourth wife, though North Korean media identified her as his secretary. She was so close to Kim Jong-il that when he visited China in May 2011, she sat next to him in his private vehicle.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

North and South Korean Soldiers Meet and Shake Hands at Former Korean War Battlesite

| November 25, 2018

The demilitarization of the ironically named Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) continues:

Military construction crews from North and South Korea, building the first central inter-Korean road in 65 years, met today at Arrowhead Hill in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and shook hands.

Arrowhead Hill was the place of one of the bloodiest battle sites of the war is now the first.

In October South and North Korea troops began the task of removing land mines from the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom as well as the Arrowhead Hill (Hwasalmeori) region in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, where joint exhumation of the remains of Korean War MIA/POW are set to take place. (Hani.co.kr)

On Thursday troops from the North and South met and shook hands on Arrowhead Hill.  [Gateway Pundit via a reader tip]

 

Tweet of the Day: UN Sanctions Exemption Allow Air Koryo to Keep Flying

| November 24, 2018