Another setback for President Moon’s Sunshine 2.0:
This file photo, taken on Feb. 20, 2014, shows the reunions of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War held at Mount Kumgang in North Korea. (Yonhap)
North Korea rejected South Korean lawmakers’ call to hold a reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, saying Wednesday there can “never be any kind of humanitarian cooperation” between the two countries unless 13 North Koreans “detained” in the South are returned.
They include a group of 12 workers from a restaurant in China run by the North Korean government, whom Seoul says defected voluntarily. Pyongyang claims they were kidnapped by South Korea’s spy agency.
The North also wants a 13th citizen, Kim Ryon-hui, a vocal Kim Jung-un endorser here who wishes to go back home. She left her home in Pyongyang to seek advanced medical treatment in China for a liver illness. She asserts to have been deceived by a Chinese broker in 2011, who told her she could make a fortune in the South and then return to China or North Korea. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This was NK's 5th launch since Moon. This one landed in NK waters & 1 was surface-to-air. The remaining 3 landed in/near Japan/Russia's EEZ. pic.twitter.com/hfa3XPAmze
This will give the US Navy something to think about:
North Korea fired several short-range antiship cruise missiles Thursday morning off its eastern coast, which flew about 200 kilometers (124 miles) after peaking at an altitude of 2 kilometers before landing in the East Sea, local military officials said.
The first missile, detected by South Korean authorities at 6:18 a.m., was followed by “several more” projectiles for “several minutes.” The type of missile was not immediately known, as is often the usual case. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from the vicinity of North Korea’s eastern coastal city of Wonsan, Kangwon Province.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries are cooperating for further analysis. It was North Korea’s fifth missile test since President Moon Jae-in took office on May 10, and its 10th this year. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link. Here is what President Moon had to say in response to the 5th North Korean missile test since he took office:
After receiving reports about the provocation from the JCS as well as national security adviser Chung Eui-yong, President Moon convened a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) at 2 p.m. at Cheong Wa Dae to discuss countermeasures.
During the meeting, Moon made it clear that his government will never compromise on issues related to national security, presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun said.
“North Korea will only face the deepening of its isolation and economic trouble should it stick to this provocative mode,” Moon was quoted as saying.
The President also vowed to enhance the country’s ability to defend against the North’s nuclear and missile threats while maintaining the ROK-U.S. combined defense readiness, according to Park. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but degrading THAAD’s capability like President Moon is currently advocating for does not sound to me like enhancing the country’s capability to defend against missile attacks.
Officials at the Korean National Red Cross in Seoul check a database on inter-Korean families separated during the 1950-53 Korean War on June 5, 2017, when the speaker and ruling and opposition floor leaders agreed to seek their reunion on the Aug. 15 Independence Day. (Yonhap)
A group of North Korean soldiers looks down the southern side of the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom from the rooftop of the Panmungak Pavilion on June 2, 2017. (Yonhap)
This AP article stresses what I have been saying for years, that the Kim regime is not crazy or suicidal, but rather quite rational in regards to their pursuit of ICBMs and nuclear weapons:
Four extended range Scud missiles lift off from their mobile launchers in Tongchang-ri in North Pyongan rovince, North Korea, on March 6, 2017. KCNA/KOREA NEWS SERVICE/AP
Early one winter morning, Kim Jong Un stood at a remote observation post overlooking a valley of rice paddies near the Chinese border.
The North Korean leader beamed with delight as he watched four extended range Scud missiles roar off their mobile launchers, comparing the sight to a team of acrobats performing in unison. Minutes later the projectiles splashed into the sea off the Japanese coast, 620 miles from where he was standing.
It was an unprecedented event. North Korea had just run its first simulated nuclear attack on an American military base.
This scene from March 6, described in government propaganda, shows how the North’s seemingly crazy, suicidal nuclear program “. Rather, this is North Korea’s very deliberate strategy to ensure the survival of its ruling regime.
Back in the days of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s “eternal president” and Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, the ruling regime decided it needed two things to survive: reliable, long-range missiles and small, but potent, nuclear warheads. For a small and relatively poor country, that was, indeed, a distant and ambitious goal. But it detonated its first nuclear device on Oct. 9, 2006.
Today, North Korea is testing advanced ballistic missiles faster than ever — a record 24 last year and three in just the past month. With each missile and each nuclear device, it becomes a better equipped, better trained and better prepared adversary. Some experts believe it might be able to build a missile advanced enough to reach the United States’ mainland with a nuclear warhead in two to three years. [Associated Press]
You can read more at the link, including the scenarios that anyone against developing missile defense systems needs to consider.
