Tag: North Korea

The Kim regime’s favorite South Korean broadcaster JTBC, that used fake news to help bring down former ROK President Park Geun-hye, is now looking to open a Pyongyang bureau office:

Eight officials of South Korean TV station JTBC will visit North Korea’s capital Pyongyang next week to discuss inter-Korean exchange in the field of media and the opening of the broadcaster’s bureau there.

It will become the first case of inter-Korean cooperation in media since inter-Korean military tension subsided early this year.

Seoul’s unification ministry approved their visit to the North late Friday. The ministry’s approval is a must for South Korean citizens to visit the North since the two Koreas are technically still at war with each other because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The ministry said the JTBC delegation, headed by its newsroom managing director Kwon Suk-chun, will visit the North from July 9 to 12, during which time they will meet with North Korean broadcasters and officials from the National Reconciliation Council, which invited the delegation to the North.

The purpose of the visit is to discuss “inter-Korean exchange in the field of media and JTBC’s opening of a Pyongyang bureau,” said the ministry in a message sent to reporters. It didn’t give further details.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Chosun Ilbo: Mike Pompeo is literally bringing a copy of Elton John's "Rocket Man" record to Kim Jong Un https://t.co/OY8eIGNudP

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) July 6, 2018

The North Koreans are up to their old tricks:

North Korea says high-level talks with a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were “regrettable” and has accused Washington of trying to unilaterally pressure the country into abandoning its nukes.

The statement by an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman on Saturday came hours after Pompeo concluded two days of talks with North Korean officials led by Kim Yong Chol.

The statement says that the United States betrayed the spirit of last month’s summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by making unilateral demands on “CVID,” or the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea.

It says the outcome of the follow-up talks was “very concerning” because it has led to a “dangerous phase that might rattle our willingness for denuclearization that had been firm.” [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but my best guess on what is going on is that North Korea wants some of the sanctions dropped for the little to nothing they have done to denuclearize.  This is their standard playbook from past negotiations.

The other thing that is in their playbook is using the remains of US servicemembers killed during the Korean War as bargaining chips.   When the return of 200 war remains was announced I was wondering what the cost would be?  Now we know they were just bargaining chips by the Kim regime to get sanctions dropped.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has wrapped up two days of talks with senior North Korean officials without meeting Kim Jong Un but with commitments for new discussions on denuclearization and the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War.

The Kim regime is only committing to further discussions on the return of the remains which proves they are simply bargaining chips to get what the Kim regime wants which is some of the sanctions dropped.  South Korean President Moon is ready to send the Kim regime cash and aid, but the sanctions are preventing him from doing so.

What will be important to watch now is if the Trump administration flinches and allows some of the sanctions to be dropped to keep the negotiations going.  If they do then truly nothing has changed, the Trump administration is just the latest government to be fooled by the Kim regime’s false promises to denuclearize.

It is still business as usual for North Korea’s hackers:

North Korean hackers are suspected of carrying out cyber attacks aimed at raising profits and collecting data despite warm relations between the two Koreas, security experts here said Thursday.

According to security sources, North Korea has not desisted from attacking South Korean organizations even though Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to stop hostile acts against each other after the landmark summit held in late April.

A North Korea-based hacking group, dubbed “Hidden Cobra,” recently infected local hospitals and manufacturing firms with malicious codes, cyber security sources said. The group is also presumed to have attacked financial and media companies around the globe to collect data.

ESTsecurity Corp., a local security firm, said Wednesday a hacking group is sending out e-mails disguised as a South Korean governmental agency carrying out research on separated families of the two Koreas. The email can infect the computer with advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I fail to see how any of this is good news. https://t.co/AAe7PIZNgT

— John Lee (The Korean Foreigner) (@koreanforeigner) July 5, 2018

I hope no one is surprised by this because this has always been one of the long game end states:

Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to work toward the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea during their third summit in China, according to a Japanese press report.

The Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday the two leaders agreed to cooperate strategically on a shared objective of the removal of the 28,500 U.S. soldiers in the South, following the summit in Singapore where President Donald Trump described joint drills as “very provocative” and costly.

The Asahi’s source, described as well versed in China-North Korea affairs, said Beijing and Pyongyang also agreed to bide their time and not rush negotiations with Washington.

The report comes a day ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo‘s visit to Pyongyang, his third known trip to North Korea.

China and North Korea see an opportunity to ask U.S. troops to leave if and when a peace treaty is signed.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link, but you can add the Russians and South Korean leftists to this list as well that want US troops off of the peninsula.  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.

Possibly the future of USFK after a peace treaty could look a lot like the current THAAD site in Seongju.  President Moon will say all the right things that he supports USFK, just like he supposedly supports the THAAD site, but will set conditions to make it difficult for its continued existence and cause the US to withdraw troops on its own accord.

A former nuclear envoy from past six party talks believes things are different now and Kim Jong-un really does mean to denuclearize:

DeTrani, currently a professor at Missouri State University’s Graduate Department of Defense and Strategic Studies in Fairfax, Virginia, believes that this time will be totally different from the past in three aspects.

3 reasons to be optimistic

The first thing that he thinks we should pay attention to is that the ongoing movement has been spearheaded by the top two leaders ― U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, not negotiators.

“The difference is that the two leaders are talking about these critical issues and coming up with the path to resolve it. It’s their words and commitment. That changed the equation,” he said in an interview with The Korea Times at The Shilla hotel in Seoul on June 28.

“In the past we were working through negotiators and looking for approval of leadership. It has been reversed productively. So it’s a different equation,” he added. “Literally, Kim, President Trump, Moon and Xi Jinping all are saying the same thing. We have never had this before.”

The second reason he cited for his optimism is that the North’s economy is in a dire situation.

According to DeTrani’s assessment, without sanctions relief, Kim won’t be able to push for economic developments he has promised to his people so he has made a strategic decision to denuclearize the isolated country.

“The key here is economic development. Kim has said that he had to do more for the people and we see elements of economic reform going on now. This is the path seemingly he wants to take,” he said.

“If he has crushing sanctions and intimidating joint military exercises, (it means) total isolation. So I think he has made strategic decision to change that equation.”

The third reason behind his optimism is his belief that Kim, who studied in Switzerland, is a different person from his father or grandfather.

“Recently, North Korea had worked with UNICEF. That’s significant. I think he is a different leader and he wants to do more for the people,” he said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but

Such positive vibes! Kim Yong Chol says Mike Pompeo's North Korea meeting will 'turn out well' https://t.co/0e1fAhwnvS

— Elizabeth Shim (@GlobalAsianista) July 5, 2018

Here is the latest from the State Department on North Korean denuclearization efforts:

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday declined to specify a deadline for North Korea’s denuclearization ahead of negotiations to be led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later this week.

Pompeo is slated to travel to Pyongyang Thursday to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and flesh out a denuclearization agreement signed by Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump at their historic summit last month.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said Sunday that he expects Pompeo to discuss with the North Koreans a plan to dismantle the nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in a year.

“I know some individuals have given timelines. We’re not going to provide a timeline for that,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said at a regular press briefing.

“The secretary’s looking forward to having these meetings. A lot of work is left to be done, certainly. We go into this eyes wide open, with a very clear view of these conversations,” she added.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Is max pressure dead? Well, there's moderate pressure. If "max pressure leading to engagement" was 2017, then 2018 might be "engagement supported by moderate pressure." Need to be plugged in to know re movement of military hardware? No, it's all pub infohttps://t.co/8M5UAKRojg

— Noon in Korea (@NoonInKorea) July 4, 2018