We kept hearing from the media how North Korea was going to launch an ICBM during their Foundation Day holiday and instead they used the holiday to celebrate their successful hydrogen bomb test:
This file photo, released by the Korean Central News Agency on Sept. 10, 2017, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un holding hands with other ranking officials at a banquet in celebration of its latest nuclear test conducted on Sept. 3. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hailed the latest nuclear test as “a great victory” at a celebration banquet, and praised the officials and experts for their efforts in carrying out the successful experiment, its state media said Sunday.
The Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea hosted a feast to mark the North’s sixth and the most powerful test conducted last week, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Last Sunday, Pyongyang said it conducted a hydrogen bomb test at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the country’s northeast, which it claimed can fit on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the United States.
Kim appeared at the banquet hall in the Mokran House, attended by other ranking military officials, and heaped praise on the attendees for “most proudly and realistically carrying out the tasks,” the state mouthpiece said.
Although it did not specify when the banquet was held, it is presumed to have taken place Saturday, which marked the 69th founding anniversary of the regime’s establishment.
During the banquet, they played video footage on a large screen of what is presumed to be a hydrogen bomb warhead being assembled by its scientists, according to its state television network. [Yonhap]
Image of North Korean ship detained in 2013 in Panama. [CNN]
The proposed U.S. sanctions would also freeze all foreign financial assets of the government and its leader, Kim Jong Un. The U.S. draft also identified nine ships that have carried out activities prohibited by previous U.N. resolutions and would authorize any U.N. member state to stop these vessels on the high seas without their consent and use “all necessary measures” — which in U.N. language includes force — to carry out an inspection and direct the vessel to a port.
Professor Joseph DeThomas of Pennsylvania State University, a former U.S. ambassador and State Department official who dealt with North Korea, said the U.S. demand for quick council action is “an indicator of how the administration thinks time has run out.”
“My sense is they believe that they don’t have time for a delicate diplomatic dance,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday. “The other possibility … is they want to see the color of China’s money. They’re putting down the marker here and saying ‘OK, Are you prepared to do what is necessary to put pressure on North Korea at a moment when we’re simply out of time?'” [Associated Press]
North Korea’s embassy in Mexico City is seen in this photo taken on Sept. 7, 2017, the day the Mexican government announced it is expelling the North’s envoy after declaring him persona non grata. The North’s Ambassador Kim Hyong-gil was given 72 hours to leave the country in what appears to be Mexico’s punitive sanctions against Pyongyang’s repeated nuclear and missile provocations. (Yonhap)
The North Korean regime has their sexist caricature of Nikki Haley that they love to repeat to try and discredit her:
Nikki Haley
As for the North Koreans, their official news agency on Friday said the country’s “nuclear weaponization … has reached its final phase.”
The KCNA report sharply criticized U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley for playing “the flagship role” in the Trump administration’s “hideous sanctions and pressure racket against the DPRK.”
The agency called Haley “a political prostitute” and dismissed as “rubbish” her comments at an emergency Security Council meeting Monday following the latest nuclear test that the DPRK is “begging for a war.” The agency accused the U.S. of being the “chieftain of aggression and war and wrecker of peace.”
The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said it had no comment on the KCNA report, which concluded by saying: “The U.S. administration will have to pay a dear price for her tongue-lashing.” [Associated Press]
The timing of the recent provocations could just be coincidence, but maybe the Kim regime is trying to embarrass Chinese President Xi:
“There’s a lot of domestic politics in North Korea where this young leader who isn’t well-known, he’s not proven yet, especially has to show that he’s not in the pocket of Beijing,” said John Delury of Seoul’s Yonsei University. “I think he made the decision first to keep Hu Jintao and then (current President) Xi Jinping really at bay.”
Within months of coming to power, Kim telegraphed North Korea’s intentions by amending its constitution to proclaim itself a nuclear state. The execution of Jang in 2013 sealed Beijing’s distrust of the young leader.
“Of course the Chinese were not happy,” said a foreign diplomat in Beijing focused on North Korea. “Executing your uncle, that’s from the feudal ages.”
In an attempt to warm ties, Xi sent high-ranking Communist Party official Liu Yunshan to attend the North’s October 2015 military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
Liu hand-delivered a letter from Xi praising Kim’s leadership and including congratulations not just from the Chinese Communist Party but Xi’s personal “cordial wishes” in a powerful show of respect.
Xi’s overture has been repaid with increasingly brazen actions by Pyongyang, which many observers believe are timed for maximum embarrassment to Beijing. Sunday’s nuclear test, for example, took place as China hosted a BRICS summit, while in May, the North launched a long-range missile just hours before the Belt and Road Forum, dedicated to Xi’s signature foreign policy initiative. [Reuters]
What does North Korea have to do to convince the Korean left that billions of dollars in economic aid the Kim regime can use to bolster their nuclear and missile programs is not a good idea?:
This file photo taken on Aug. 23, 2017, shows President Moon Jae-in presiding over a foreign and unification policy discussion meeting in Seoul. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s unification ministry said Friday it plans to seek trilateral economic cooperation involving the two Koreas and Russia after taking into account international sanctions and public sentiment.
President Moon Jae-in has unveiled the so-called new Northern Policy designed to expand economic cooperation with northern states including North Korea.
The Ministry of Unification said that the initiative involving the two Koreas and Russia will help implement Moon’s another vision to build a new economic belt with North Korea. (…..)
The JoongAng Ilbo reported that the government plans to boost the fund by about US$2 billion to fund a potential trilateral project among Seoul, Pyongyang and Moscow to establish the complex in areas spanning the North Korean port city of Rajin and Russia’s Khasan.
Lee said that the report is not true, saying that the state inter-Korean cooperation fund for next year amounts to just 1.046 trillion won.
The idea of building a factory park in the Rajin-Khasan area was first floated under the liberal government of former President Roh Moo-hyun in 2003-2008. But it was known to be put on hold mainly due to North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I am sure it would interesting to be a fly on the wall and listen to President Trump reaction after he reads this.
Peace in our time with North Korea is just around the corner, US ambassador to North Korea former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman is on the case:
With tensions brewing between the leaders of the United States and North Korea, one man believes he can help keep the peace.
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman hopes to “straighten things out” between President Donald Trump and supreme leader Kim Jong Un, two men Rodman calls friends.
He appeared on “Good Morning Britain” via satellite from Los Angeles on Wednesday and was asked about his relationship with Kim and the multiple trips to North Korea.
However, Rodman feels if Trump makes the first move, positive results could come of it. (………)
“I think if the president even tries to reach out for Kim, I think it would be a great possibility things can happen,” he said, adding that Trump and Kim don’t have to be friends, just start a dialogue. [Star-Telegram]
Here is the latest on the follow up actions from the Trump administration after North Korea’s weekend nuclear test:
President Donald Trump left war with North Korea on the table as an option if Pyongyang doesn’t behave after a call with China’s Xi Jinping on Wednesday that the the U.S. leader described as ‘very, very frank.’
Trump told reporters as he was leaving the White House for a tax speech outside Washington, ‘We will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea.’
War is ‘certainly not our first choice,’ he said in response to a shouted question, ‘but we will see what happens.’
The administration has repeatedly said it is keeping every option on the table as it grapples with the threat from North Korea. The president’s remark is likely to stir new worries, however, that Trump is actually mulling military action. [Daily Mail]
You can read more at the link, but why shouldn’t the President consider all options available to him? It is pretty clear the Chinese option is the one he is pursuing and giving a chance to work before even contemplating a military response.
