Moon returns from Russia where he pitched his own Northern Strategy (the "Northern Silk Road") to Putin, Medvedev and the Russian lower house. SK railroad officials accompanied him to confer with Russian ones re connecting to the Trans-Siberian Railwayhttps://t.co/sio2gDj7ra
I think we can take this as a good sign that the Trump administration will not drop sanctions prior to North Korea taking irreversible denuclearization measures:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday extended sanctions on North Korea for a year, citing the “unusual and extraordinary” threat posed by its nuclear weapons program.
The extension comes 10 days after Trump’s historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore, during which the North committed to “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for U.S. security guarantees.
“The existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the Government of North Korea continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Trump wrote in a routine notice to Congress.
For this reason, Trump said, six executive orders that were issued under his and past administrations to sanction North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs must continue in effect beyond June 26.
“Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency with respect to North Korea declared in Executive Order 13466,” he wrote.
The action appears to underscore the Trump administration’s goal of keeping sanctions on North Korea until it takes concrete steps toward denuclearization. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime must have been expecting this considering how muted their reaction has been so far.
What is most notable about this is that the Kim regime apparently did not demand bags of cash to make this happen. It appears to be simply a good will gesture in response to the cancelling of the UFG exercise:
North Korean soldiers hand over to United Nations troops standing at the inter-Korean border a casket containing the remains of one of seventeen U.S. servicemen who served in the Korean War during repatriation ceremonies at the treaty village of Panmunjom, North Korea, July 12, 1993. REUTERS-Yonhap
The U.S. military plans to send 215 empty caskets to North Korea via the inter-Korean border on Saturday to get back the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War, a South Korean military official said.About 30 U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) vehicles carrying the caskets were scheduled to depart from the Camp Humphreys base in Pyeongtaek for the border village of Panmunjom on Saturday afternoon, the official said on condition of anonymity.
“North Korea will repatriate the remains in the caskets,” the official said.
Recovering and repatriating the remains of U.S. troops killed during the 1950-53 war was one of the agreements that U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reached during their historic summit in Singapore earlier this month. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it is right now undetermined how the remains will be repatriated, but it is expected to happen in the next few days.
What I did not see in the article was if any money was handed over to North Korea for the return of the remains. My assumption would be probably not since the sanctions are still in place. It will be interesting to see how many remains the Kim regime hands over because Korean War remains are a cottage industry for the North Koreans to make money off of:
Marines of the First Marine Division pay their respects to fallen buddies during memorial services at the division’s cemetery at Hamhung, Korea, following the break-out from Chosin Reservoir, December 13, 1950. Cpl. Uthe. (Marine Corps)
The U.N. Command in South Korea is planning for the North Koreans to turn over the remains of U.S. troops who died in the 1950-53 war, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
It would be the first such repatriation in more than a decade.
The announcement follows an agreement by President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their summit last week to recover the remains of thousands of war dead, “including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.”
The U.S.-led command didn’t give a number or timing for the ceremony. The agency that oversees POW/MIA issues has said North Korean officials have indicated that they have recovered as many as 200 sets of remains over the years. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans know exactly where the bulk of the remains are because the US military buried a large number of casualties in marked cemeteries before evacuating North Korea after the Chinese intervened in the war.
The JSA may be preparing for the ceremony, but President Trump has said 200 remains have already been returned:
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that North Korea has sent back the remains of 200 American soldiers who were killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.
The repatriation is part of an agreement Trump signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their historic summit in Singapore last week.
“Our great fallen heroes, the remains, in fact today already 200 have been sent back,” Trump said at a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, noting that he had “great chemistry” and “got along really well” with Kim. [Korea Times]
I could find no confirmation that this has actually happened yet; you would think this would be major news which leads me to believe it hasn’t happened. However, if Kim does hand over 200 remains that is a pretty significant amount.
It has long been known by Korea watchers that President Moon Jae-in’s Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok has prolific communist and pro-North Korean past. Over at One Free Korea, Dr. Tara O has a guest post that provides detailed background information that shows how immersed Im was in communist ideology before entering the Blue House. What I found really interesting was how during the Roo Moo-hyun administration Im founded a group that collected royalties for the Kim regime in North Korea:
Im Jong-seok
In 2005, Im Jong-seok founded and led as chairman, the South-North Economic and Cultural Cooperation Foundation (남북경제문화협력재단). The Foundation has been collecting royalties from MBC, KBS, SBS, and other TV and online broadcasters for North Korean TV footage. According to the Ministry of Unification, the foundation collected an estimated $1,876,700 over 13 years and transferred the royalties to North Korea until the Cheonan sinking in 2010. It is still collecting royalties on behalf of North Korea’s Chosun Central Broadcasting Commission, with the plans to transfer the money once the sanctions are lifted. The foundation even called the Ministry of Defense Public Affairs and demanded royalties for using the missile test footage in July 2017. North Korea does not pay for footage from South Korean broadcasts.
The foundation also has other revenue streams. One is membership and the other is education & research. It collects about 32,700,000 Won (~$30,000) on average for its annual membership. It also became a contractor to the Seoul City and Seongdong District governments, developing South-North “peace education” programs. What is interesting is that the contract with Seoul City was signed on the same day as when Park Won-soon, Seoul City Mayor, appointed Im Jong-seok as the Deputy Mayor on June 11, 2014. Im was the campaign manager for Park prior to that in 2014, and successfully led to Park Won-soon’s re-election. [One Free Korea]
You can read much more at the link where Dr. O in painstaking detail lists all of Im Jong-seok’s communist and pro-North Korean ties. Does anyone think that Im Jong-seok who less than a decade ago was collecting royalties to send to the Kim regime is interested in being an honest broker now between the US and North Korea?
That's because from what we can see so far, it looks like a really shitty deal — far worse than the Iran JCPOA, far worse than Agreed Frameworks I & II, almost sure to consolidate Kim Jong-un's domestic control, nuclear status & hegemony over South Korea. https://t.co/4qVpZlCYw7
Like clockwork here comes surrogates for the Kim regime asking the Trump administration to remove sanctions for little to nothing in return:
Russia called on the United States and its allies on Friday to remove individual economic sanctions they imposed on North Korea besides the ones put forward in the name of the United Nations in line with easing tensions in the region.
“Russia supports the lifting of secondary boycotts that amount to unilateral sanctions, as we maintain a negative stance on those measures against North Korea taken by a slew of countries that circumvented the U.N. Security Council,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a briefing. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but if anything the Trump administration should be preparing for more sanctions to implement to further pressure the regime to take real measures towards denuclearization, not removing sanctions.
