Tag: North Korea

It looks like a Trump-Kim Summit Part 2 will be closer to happening with the announcement that Secretary of State Pompeo is making another trip to North Korea:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to North Korea next week to meet with its leader, Kim Jong-un, the State Department said Tuesday.

Pompeo will visit Pyongyang Sunday as the U.S. pushes to dismantle the regime’s nuclear weapons program and set up a second summit between President Donald Trump and Kim.

At their first summit in Singapore in June, Kim agreed to work toward “complete” denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for security guarantees from the U.S.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but if there is a second summit there is going to have to be major announcement that comes out of it and suspect it will be an agreement to end the Korean War which the ROK and North Korea have been wanting by the end of this year.

This rhetoric of ending the Korean War has been going on for months because the Kim regime wants the peace treaty because it then challenges the legitimacy of the military presence in South Korea.  If there is peace why is USFK needed?

President Moon is 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 looks like the Russian cargo ship suspected of sanctions violations was able to drop off its cargo somewhere before being investigated or this was all one big misunderstanding:

South Korea on Tuesday lifted a ban on the departure of a blacklisted Russian ship that it seized last week in the southern port city of Busan, following an investigation, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.

The Sevastopol was barred from leaving the country on Sept. 28 under a U.N. sanctions resolution after entering the country’s biggest port for repairs on Aug. 13, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“We have lifted the ban on the vessel as in our probe we didn’t found any violations committed by the ship. The cargo ship is now allowed to leave (South Korea) any time,” ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said over the phone.

The ministry said that “putting on hold” the ship’s departure is different from its detainment, which is a measure taken in cases where a vessel is confirmed to have engaged in illicit activities, such as any violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I would not be surprised if US authorities walked ROK authorities down to the dock to force them to take action:

South Korean authorities have seized a Russian-flagged ship and its crew in Busan on suspicion they are violating U.S. sanctions on North Korea, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

The seizure came after concern about the Seoul’s lax enforcement of international economic sanctions on North Korea amid improving inter-Korean relations.

It is still uncertain whether the seizure was an independent decision by South Korea or a request from the U.S.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

I am sure the irony is not lost on the Kim regime that they are bashing the Japanese Navy for an arms build up when it simply tested an SM-3 missile used for missile defense of their country.  An SM-3 missile is not used for offensive operations against North Korea:

North Korea on Saturday blasted Japan for trying to create tension on the Korean Peninsula, while also accusing the country of trying to rebuild its military.

“The maritime ‘Self-Defense Force’ (MSDF) of Japan recently conducted a test-fire of the interceptor missile SM-3 Block 1B on an Aegis destroyer in waters off Hawaii of the U.S. It is reportedly the first time that the MSDF conducted an interceptor missile test-fire,” the Rodong Sinmun, a newspaper published by the North’s Workers’ Party, reported.

In a commentary carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency, the newspaper insisted Japan was trying to build a military capable of waging war against others.

“The present reactionary regime of Japan seeks to put the Asia-Pacific region under control by turning Japan into a country capable of going to war,” it said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

How about the Kim regime takes steps towards real denuclearization instead of “pretend denuclearization” first:

North Korea’s foreign minister said Saturday that his country won’t dismantle its nuclear weapons program first without seeing corresponding measures from the United States.

Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Ri Yong-ho said his country’s commitment to denuclearization is firm but that it needs to see trust-building measures from the U.S.

“Without any trust in the U.S., there will be no confidence in our national security, and under such circumstances, there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first,” the minister said.

The North has taken “goodwill measures” by stopping its ballistic missile tests and dismantling a nuclear test site, among other things, Ri said. The U.S., on the other hand, has increased sanctions on the North and rejected Pyongyang’s calls for a declaration to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, he claimed.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans are continuing their line of attack of getting sanctions dropped for little to nothing in return.  They have yet to commit themselves to any real denuclearization.  They have stopped testing which can restart at anytime they have shuttered facilities that either no longer needed or easily rebuilt.  When nuclear material is flown out of the country and international inspectors are supervising the decommissioning of the Yongbyon nuclear plant then we know they are serious about denuclearization.

B.R. Myers does relatively few radio interviews, so it was a pleasure to speak with him at length this week while I hosted a KBS radio program. #korea #dprk https://t.co/1B4JTqL1Us

— Kurt Achin (@KurtAchin) September 26, 2018

It looks like the Moon administration continues to work around the sanctions on the North Koreans:

South Korea will seek to launch joint on-site inspections of cross-border railways with North Korea next month as part of efforts to reconnect the railways, as called for in last week’s inter-Korean summit agreement, the presidential spokesman said Friday.

The decision was made at a meeting of the committee formed to discuss measures to carry out the Pyongyang Declaration reached in the third summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang last week.

The agreement calls for breaking ground before the end of the year toward reconnecting two sets of cross-border roads and railways. One of them, called the Seohae Line, runs through the western section of the border and the other, called the Donghae Line, runs through the eastern section. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the United Nations Command has blessed off on this yet?  Despite all the concessions the Moon administration has made to the Kim regime, I have yet to read or see any report that the North Koreans have removed one piece of artillery or troop formation away from the DMZ.

I think it is arguable that USFK’s part in the US’s overall North Korea strategy is to do everything possible to not be the ones’ to blame if the current peace process falls apart because North Korea does not denuclearize.  The Kim regime would need an excuse for reneging on giving up their nukes and claiming that USFK is training to destroy them is a good excuse.  With that said they can just claim the US military presence in South Korea is enough to justify keeping their nukes as well:

Robert B. Abrams, a four-star US Army general who is nominated to become the next US Forces Korea (USFK) commander, stated that the suspension of joint military exercises between the US and South Korea has undermined combat readiness, and that an “atmosphere of detente” is being created on the Korean Peninsula.During a hearing to vet him for his new position at the Senate Armed Service Committee on Sept. 25, Abrams talked about the suspension of the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian joint military exercises in the wake of the US-North Korea summit meeting on June 12. According to an AFP report, he said “I think the suspension of the exercise this past August and September, I would say was a prudent risk if we’re willing to make the effort to change the relationship with [North Korea].”  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.

Personally I will believe a dawn of a new day has begun when North Korea’s nuclear material is being shipped out of the country.  I really do hope that happens, but I remain skeptical:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday hailed the “dawn of a new day” with North Korea as the U.S. pushes diplomacy to denuclearize the regime.

Chairing a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, Pompeo sounded a hopeful note on the diplomatic negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.

But he also called for strict enforcement of all U.N. Security Council sanctions on Pyongyang until denuclearization is achieved.

“Past diplomatic attempts to halt North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development were unsuccessful,” Pompeo said. “But now we’re at the dawn of a new day.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but despite all the flowery language, Secretary Pompeo is continuing to emphasize keeping the sanctions in place on the Kim regime.

Kim Song, North Korea’s new top envoy to the United Nations, is seen at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Sept. 20, 2018. Kim presented his credentials to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the day. (Yonhap)