Tag: North Korea

Here is more “pretend denuclearization” from the Kim regime:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invited U.S. nuclear experts to verify the permanent dismantling of the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday.

The U.S. State Department reported in a statement that Kim had “invited inspectors” to visit the Punggye-ri testing site, where all of North Korea’s six underground nuclear tests took place starting from 2006, to confirm that “it has been irreversibly dismantled.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I would hope the US Secretary of State would realize that this is not denuclearization.  It has long been reported that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site is largely unusable now due to the mountain beginning to collapse.  For all we know the North Koreans could have their slave labor teams busy drilling caverns into another mountain right now for a new test site.

If the Kim regime was serious about confidence building measures they would ship some nuclear material out of the country.  Of course that would be real denuclearization when what they want is “pretend denuclearization“.

It looks like a second Trump-Kim summit is coming:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hailed “progress” in discussions with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, Sunday (KST), saying the two had a “productive conversation” in taking steps toward denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

“I don’t have much to add. I would certainly tell you in private about our conversation. But we had a good productive conversation. As President Trump said there are many steps along the way and we took one of them today with another step forward. This is I think a good outcome for all of us,” Pompeo told President Moon Jae-in at Cheong Wa Dae late Sunday.

Pompeo said Kim had agreed to hold a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump “as early as possible,” adding working-level discussions between the two countries to set a date and location would take place soon.

President Moon responded that the second summit between Trump and Kim would be “decisive progress” in Pyongyang’s denuclearization process.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but my guess is that the second Trump-Kim summit will announce an end to the Korean War.  The Kim regime wants the peace treaty so badly because it then challenges the legitimacy of the US military presence in South Korea.  If there is peace why is USFK needed?

ROK President Moon has been saying all the right things that USFK will remain after any peace treaty is signed.  Despite claims in the media that Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in want US troops to stay after any peace deal is reached, but this is just all rhetoric to prevent energizing South Korean conservatives against Moon.

Remember Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down.  If he advocated openly for a USFK withdrawal that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces.  That is why I think the Moon administration will publicly say they support USFK staying, but will then have their surrogates do things to make life difficult for USFK.

If the US government decides to withdraw USFK in the future on their own accord then the Moon administration is able to get what it ultimately wanted without getting blamed for it.

It looks like Kim Jong-un may be heading off to Russia in the near future:

Pyongyang and Moscow are working to arrange an official visit to Russia for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a top Russian politician revealed Friday.

“(I) attended North Korea’s 70th foundation anniversary event on orders from President Putin,” Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of Russia’s Federation Council, told Seoul’s National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong ahead of her meeting with President Moon Jae-in. “There was a meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-un. (Moscow and Pyongyang) are negotiating on the dates and location of the Chairman Kim Jong-un’s visit to Russia.”

Matviyenko’s comments confirm rumors that have been circulating for some time, regarding the possibility that Kim might be planning to travel to Moscow in the near future.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but this could just be more optics to make Kim Jong-un look more like a legitimate world leader by visiting Russia.  The timing of this will be interesting to see if he visits Putin before meeting with President Trump if a second Trump-Kim summit does in fact happen.

Well, we must never forget 36 yrs of Japan's aggression which ended more than 70 years ago but must forget close to 70 yrs of Kim family's ongoing aggression against its people and South Korea. https://t.co/yTcUbDZRR3

— North Korea & Human Rights (@nefornkhr) October 4, 2018

South Korean delegates watch a 3D movie during a visit to the Sci-Tech Complex in Pyongyang on Oct. 4, 2018. A 160-strong South Korean delegation is now in Pyongyang to attend an event to jointly celebrate the anniversary of the 2007 inter-Korean summit. (Yonhap)

This picture is just calling for a caption contest.

Mr. Greg Scarlatoiu who is the executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea recently had an article published in the Wall Street Journal describing how he believes President Moon is ignoring human rights abuses in North Korea, tacitly advocating for North Korea’s “juche” ideology, and propping up a dictator:

The South Korean president stated that the two leaders had agreed to the principle of jaju-wonchik, or unification through self-determination. This principle is derived from North Korea’s juche ideology of self-reliance. A quick Korean-language internet search of the term will bring up North Korean propaganda websites such as Uriminzokkiri and the Korean Central News Agency. “Unification through self-determination” also excludes outsiders, especially the U.S.

Mr. Moon’s speeches may read like peace-building. But to those familiar with North Korean ideology, a speech tacitly endorsing juche only validates Mr. Kim’s brand of totalitarianism. It’s a statement of support for North Korean ideology and all that goes along with it, including nuclear weapons. Mr. Moon’s speech gave legitimacy to Mr. Kim’s corrupt and horrific rule.

Opposing the Pyongyang regime’s repression of the North Korean people and its threats to the South has become increasingly difficult with Mr. Moon in office. His government has reduced funding for organizations that promote human rights in the North by more than 90%, stopped balloon launches and loudspeaker broadcasting across the Demilitarized Zone and has been censoring the content of USB thumb drives smuggled by activists into North Korea. It is hard to imagine how Mr. Moon will ever move from warm praise of Mr. Kim to addressing the dire human-rights situation of North Koreans.  [Wall Street Journal via a reader tip]

You can read much more at the link.

Here is the latest on North Korea’s criminal cyber operations that is netting the Kim regime tens of millions of dollars:

North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests have stopped, but its hacking operations to gather intelligence and raise funds for the sanction-strapped government in Pyongyang may be gathering steam.

U.S. security firm FireEye raised the alarm Wednesday over a North Korean group that it says has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars by infiltrating the computer systems of banks around the world since 2014 through highly sophisticated and destructive attacks that have spanned at least 11 countries. It says the group is still operating and poses “an active global threat.”

It is part of a wider pattern of malicious state-backed cyber activity that has led the Trump administration to identify North Korea — along with Russia, Iran and China — as one of the main online threats facing the United States. Last month, the Justice Department charged a North Korean hacker said to have conspired in devastating cyberattacks, including an $81 million heist of Bangladesh’s central bank and the WannaCry virus that crippled parts of Britain’s National Health Service.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned of the use of malware by Hidden Cobra, the U.S. government’s byword for North Korea hackers, in fraudulent ATM cash withdrawals from banks in Asia and Africa. It said that Hidden Cobra was behind the theft of tens of millions of dollars from teller machines in the past two years. In one incident this year, cash had been simultaneously withdrawn from ATMs in 23 different countries, it said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Not that this took much foresight, but I called it that the 2nd Trump-Kim Summit if held would be to sign the end of the Korean War and that is apparently what it will be:

South Korea is proposing that the United States hold off on a demand for an inventory of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and accept the verified closure of a key North Korean nuclear facility as a next step in the negotiations, Seoul’s top diplomat said in an interview with The Washington Post.

The plan is designed to break the impasse between North Korea and the United States as President Trump comes under mounting pressure to demonstrate progress on the denuclearization talks. It will be one of the options available to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he arrives in North Korea on Sunday to restart negotiations.

In exchange for the verified dismantlement of the Yongbyon nuclear facility, the United States would declare an end to the Korean War, a key demand of Pyongyang that U.S. officials have been reluctant to make absent a major concession by North Korea.

“What North Korea has indicated is they will permanently dismantle their nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, which is a very big part of their nuclear program,” South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said during a discussion at the South Korean mission to the United Nations. “If they do that in return for America’s corresponding measures, such as the end-of-war declaration, I think that’s a huge step forward for denuclearization.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but closing of Yongbyon is once again just more “pretend denuclearization”.  The North Koreans can drag the closure out and then at a time of their choosing the North Koreans could kick any inspectors they do allow in out and blame the US for some manufactured reason.  Additionally we don’t even know what secret facilities they may be hiding.  Before this all happens they will have already be rewarded with the peace treaty they have been seeking.  Nuclear experts seems to understand this:

“If the Yongbyon shutdown proves to be the first bite of the apple, it might be an OK starting point, but if it proves to be the only bite of the apple, it will be deeply unsatisfying – and totally reversible,” said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Duyeon Kim, a Korea expert with the Center for a New American Security, said the closure of Yongbyon would be a “welcome” and “tangible” step but noted that North Korea would still be able to expand its nuclear arsenal and fissile material production at covert facilities elsewhere in the country.

The Kim regime wants the peace treaty so badly because it then challenges the legitimacy of the US military presence in South Korea.  If there is peace why is USFK needed?  John Bolton seems to understand this:

Hawks inside the Trump administration, in particular national security adviser John Bolton, remain skeptical of signing such a declaration out of fear that it will give North Korea and China justification to demand the removal of the 28,500 U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, people close to Bolton said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

Kang downplayed concerns about the declaration, emphasizing that it would be a purely “political” document and “not a legally binding treaty.”

President Moon has been saying all the right things that USFK will remain after any peace treaty is signed.  Despite claims in the media that Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in want US troops to stay after any peace deal is reached, this is just all rhetoric to prevent energizing South Korean conservatives against Moon.

Remember Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down.  If he advocated openly for a USFK withdrawal that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces.  That is why I think the Moon administration will publicly say they support USFK staying, but will then have their surrogates do things to make life difficult for USFK.

If the US government decides to withdraw USFK in the future on their own accord then the Moon administration is able to get what it ultimately wanted without getting blamed for it.  It appears that Trump might play along:

Trump, according to diplomats familiar with the negotiations, is open to signing the declaration and may not be bothered by ensuing demands about U.S. forces given his long-standing complaint that the United States pays far too much to station troops in East Asia.

It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out, but considering the mid-term elections are coming up it seems this would have to happen fast for maximum political benefit if the Trump administration really thinks this is a great deal.

“Kim Jong Un said that he is well aware that a lot of people in the world still cannot trust North Korea or think North Korea is deceiving…But what can North Korea gain from deceiving…?” Moon said quoting Kim. https://t.co/Kf79JY47VQ

— North Korea & Human Rights (@nefornkhr) October 2, 2018

This photo belatedly released by the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Oct. 2, 2018, shows South Korean magician Choi Hyun-woo (L) performing with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during an inter-Korean summit dinner at the North’s state banquet hall in Pyongyang on Sept. 18. (Yonhap)