So will this be the visit where the Trump administration gives in and allows sanctions to be dropped against North Korea for little to nothing in return? I guess we will see:
Mike Pompeo
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s upcoming Pyongyang visit is expected to break the ongoing political stalemate surrounding the timeline of North Korea’s denuclearization, experts said Monday.
The sign of hope comes at a time when no outstanding progress has been made over the issue following the historic June 12 summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
A specific timeline for Pompeo’s visit to the North Korean capital has yet to be confirmed. But with U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton saying recently that Pompeo will “soon” make his fourth visit to Pyongyang, expectations are he will visit the regime sometime between the end of this month and the beginning of next month.
“Pompeo has failed to generate specific outcomes over the denuclearization dialogue with North Korea during his previous visits to Pyongyang,” said Kim Sang-ki, director at the Korea Institute for National Unification’s policy division.
“My view is that his upcoming visit is aimed at creating tangible achievements to put an end to the ongoing deadlock in denuclearization talks with North Korea. In this regard, Washington may push for conditions that would lead to declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War.” [Korea Times]
I met a group of NK defectors from SK recently. Asked whether I should refer them as "defectors" or "new settlers" they said smiling: "freed people." https://t.co/I3nupZ52Yu
South Korean participants arrive at an immigration office on the east coast to cross into North Korea for a reunion event for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War at the Mount Kumgang resort on the North’s east coast on Aug. 20, 2018. The family reunion event, the first of its kind in nearly three years, will be held there till Aug. 26. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
Here is an update on the Inter-Korean family reunions that the North Koreans are currently holding at the Kumgang Resort on the country’s east coast:
This photo taken by Joint Press Corps shows Lee Keum-seom (L), 92, with her son during a family reunion event held at a Mount Kumgang resort on North Korea’s east coast on Aug. 20, 2018, after nearly seven decades of separation caused by the Korean War. (Yonhap)
The first session of reunions will be followed by a dinner to be hosted by the North Korean side later in the day.
Some of them appeared to be a little uncomfortable at first, apparently reflecting the decades without contact, but the awkwardness soon melted away and they engaged in conversation, asking each other about how they have lived.
On the second day, the families will be granted more time to meet, helping them become closer. They will see each other again Tuesday morning and have lunch together in their hotel rooms, the first time the separated families will have had such a private meeting since the start of the reunion event.
They will have six meetings totaling 11 hours by Wednesday, according to the unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean affair.
In subsequent reunions planned to take place from Friday to Sunday, 83 North Koreans will also meet their relatives found to be alive in the South. More than 300 South Koreans will travel to the venue later this week for the event.
The two rounds of family reunions are a follow-up on an agreement the leaders of South and North Korea reached in April to address humanitarian issues arising from nearly seven decades of division caused by the Korean War.
The event came amid a thaw in relations between the two Koreas after a yearslong hiatus and tensions heightened by the North’s continued pursuit of nuclear and missile programs. [Yonhap]
You can read much more at the link, but I have to wonder how much money was transferred to host this event? Family reunions has long been used by the Kim regime as a bargaining chip to get what they want from the ROK and a cottage industry to make money. We know that South Korea had to renovate the Kumgang Resort for the North Koreans. How much did that cost?
If DPRK is saying they will allow monitors in and inform ICAO of missile tests, does not bode well for freeze. Perhaps timed to apply pressure on admin to come to agreement with DPRK while hinting could restart tests in future under ICAO monitoring.
Members of a unified Korean men’s rowing team catch their breath after finishing last in their qualification group in the team’s Asian Games debut at Jakabaring Lake inside Jakabaring Sports City in Palembang, a co-host city of the 2018 Asian Games along with Jakarta, on Aug. 19, 2018. (Yonhap)
This seems an awful lot of fencing to be removed from the border areas:
South Korea’s defense ministry plans to gradually remove more than half of all coastal and riverside barbed wire fences across the country to help ease residents’ inconveniences, officials said Thursday.
The move, which is part of the Defense Reform 2.0 initiative aimed at creating a smaller yet stronger military, came amid Seoul’s push for inter-Korean cooperation and rapprochement.
The ministry plans to inspect all fences across the nation, which measure about 300 kilometers in total, to determine which can be eliminated in a way that does not hurt the country’s coastal defense.
“At this point in time, we think that some 57 percent of the fences can possibly be removed,” a ministry official said, declining to be named. “We will take action this year as to the sections that the military can eliminate on its own, while we plan to take care of other fences in stages.” [Korea Times]
The US Treasury Department is continuing to go after companies that violate sanctions against North Korea:
The United States imposed sanctions on a Russian port service agency and Chinese firms for aiding North Korean ships and selling alcohol and tobacco to Pyongyang in breach of U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. Treasury said in a statement on Wednesday that China-based Dalian Sun Moon Star International Logistics Trading Co. Ltd and its Singapore-based affiliate SINSMS Pte. Ltd had netted more than $1 billion a year by exporting alcohol and cigarette products to North Korea.
The department also sanctioned Russian-based Profinet Pte Ltd and its director general, Vasili Aleksandrovich Kolchanov, for providing port services on at least six occasions to North Korean-flagged ships.
Kolchanov was personally involved in North Korea-related deals and interacted directly with North Korean representatives in Russia, the department said.
“The tactics that these entities based in China, Singapore, and Russia are using to attempt to evade sanctions are prohibited under U.S. law, and all facets of the shipping industry have a responsibility to abide by them or expose themselves to serious risks,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. [Reuters]
How many ppl believe an unchanged N Korea – i.e., one still the Kimist DPRK – will be more peaceful,rather than more belligerent or dangerous,if it becomes more prosperous? Isn’t it much safer that NK change first, bf we help it get wealthier? Isn’t this subsidizing dictatorship? https://t.co/St0yw59ums
I think the Moon administration may be trying to create a precedent of sanctions exemptions at the Kaesong Industrial Complex with this request. If this gets approved down the road they could request even more small exemptions and pretty soon they have a working industrial park again:
The Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea is seen in this file photo. All operations in the joint venture between the two Koreas have been stopped since 2016 when Seoul decided to close the complex. Yonhap
South Korea’s foreign ministry said Wednesday it was talking with the United States to possibly obtain sanctions relief for North Korea, though the ministry didn’t specify when the relief would happen.
“The ministry is in discussions with the United States to get the go-ahead for partial sanctions relief, which will be helpful for South Korea to push forward the country’s business projects, most of which are non-commercial, with North Korea. But the South has no plans to violate U.N. sanctions now being imposed on the North,” said a ministry official.
The official added the U.N. Security Council’s actions would support and conform to the efforts of diplomatic talks toward denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.
At the Singapore summit in June between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Trump said economic sanctions will be maintained until Pyongyang’s nuclear program is “no longer a problem.”
The remarks came after Seoul began supplying power to the liaison office located inside the joint industrial park in Gaeseong, North Korea. Seoul’s unification ministry said South Korea seeks to run the office within this month in consultation with the U.S. and the allies.
It also said the power supply will be limited to the joint liaison office, not the entire Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC), and that its measure should not be seen as a sign of easing the U.S.-led international sanctions on Pyongyang.
The measure however, raised suspicions whether South Korea will be walking a tightrope between abiding by the sanctions and seeking exemptions from the sanctions to help the impoverished Pyongyang regime. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the Trump administration should tell them to have North Korea provide the power themselves.
