Tag: North Korea

North Korea seems to be sending a message that they are growing impatient waiting for the sanctions to be dropped:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed the successful test of an unspecified “newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon,” state media reported Friday, in an apparent bid to apply pressure on the United States and South Korea.

It didn’t appear to be a test of a nuclear device or a long-range missile with the potential to target the U.S. A string of such tests last year had many fearing war before the North turned to engagement and diplomacy. Still, any mention of weapons testing could influence the direction of stalled diplomatic efforts spearheaded by Washington and aimed at ridding the North of its nuclear weapons.

The North hasn’t publicly tested any weapons since November 2017, but in recent days Pyongyang reportedly expressed anger at U.S.-led international sanctions and ongoing small-scale military drills between South Korea and the United States.

Earlier this month, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned it could bring back its policy of bolstering its nuclear arsenal if it doesn’t receive sanctions relief.

“It’s North Korea-style coercive diplomacy. North Korea is saying ‘If you don’t listen to us, you will face political burdens,'” said analyst Shin Beomchul of Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but of course the Moon administration in South Korea is playing down this weapons test:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected the “successful” test of a “high-tech tactical weapon” at a national defense institute, state media reported early Friday (local time).

It marked the first such inspection by the leader following his viewing of an intercontinental ballistic missile launch in November 2017.

More DMZ guards posts have come down:

South Korea has blown up some of its own guard posts within the Demilitarized Zone as part of efforts to implement an inter-Korean military agreement.

The Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday that although it is using excavators to destroy many of the DMZ guard posts, considering concerns about safety and environmental protection, some posts located on hillsides had to be destroyed using explosives.

The ministry also unveiled photos that were taken last Sunday showing how the North Koreans were destroying their own guard posts.

The photos featured North Korean soldiers demolishing the military structure using large-sized hammers.   [KBS Global]

President Moon said KJU is not deceiving anyone because he never agreed to close SRBM bases, and they aren't related to ICBMs or IRBMs. Which means he's ok with NK pointing SRBMs at SKorea.

I love this feeling of schadenfreude watching Moon make a total ass of himself. https://t.co/niYIL7VHhE

— John Lee (The Korean Foreigner) (@koreanforeigner) November 13, 2018

If Putin wants reciprocal measures how about he tell Kim Jong-un to start shipping out nuclear material from North Korea?  Whenever the apologists talk about reciprocal measures they always demand that the US drop sanctions for little to nothing in return from North Korea:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, talked about easing sanctions on North Korea in their talks Wednesday on the sidelines of a regional summit in Singapore, Moon’s office said.

Moon requested Moscow’s active role in efforts to persuade Pyongyang to take denuclearization steps in a “bolder manner,” according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.

They had “comprehensive” discussions on the terms and conditions of easing sanctions on the North, he added.

In the 58-minute meeting, Putin was quoted as telling Moon that there should be reciprocal measures if there is progress in denuclearization.

The meeting, their fourth since Moon took office last year, came days after high-level denuclearization negotiations between the United States and the North were abruptly called off last week.

In Wednesday’s meeting, Moon and Putin were expected to discuss ways to get the denuclearization talks restarted at an early date, as well as measures to further strengthen relations between the two countries.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

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)