Tag: North Korea

Another US politician shares his point of view on what to do about North Korea:

Ohio Gov. and former U.S. presidential candidate John Kasich said Friday the best way to solve the problem of North Korea is “to eradicate the leadership.”

Kasich made the remark to reporters in Washington, noting that other forceful means, such as a military strike and war, are not a viable option because a North Korean counterstrike could result in a massive loss of lives.

“I believe the best way to solve this problem is to eradicate the leadership,” Kasich said.

He said that the U.S. could “remove a number of the top people and have a more benign leadership there that understands what’s at risk.”

Asked if that could be done militarily, he said, “You have to have very good intelligence. You have to have an ability to do things very quickly. It’s not beyond our capability to achieve that.”

“I don’t want to say any more than that, but that’s what I believe we need to do, as opposed to a full military strike,” Kasich said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Does anyone think their nuclear program wasn’t already accelerated?  I doubt the Trump administration is going to be too impressed with this claim:

North Korea pledged Monday to bolster its nuclear weapons program at maximum speed, issuing the country’s first official response to the recently released North Korea policy by the U.S. administration, which focuses on “maximum pressure and engagement.”

“Now that the U.S. is kicking up the overall racket for sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, pursuant to its new DPRK policy called ‘maximum pressure and engagement’, the DPRK will speed up at the maximum pace the measure for bolstering its nuclear deterrence,” a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement.

DPRK is the abbreviation of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The DPRK’s measures for bolstering the nuclear force to the maximum will be taken in a consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership,” according to the statement, carried by the state news wire Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The Committee for Human Rights In North Korea has published an open letter to President Trump asking him to use his Twitter account to promote human rights in North Korea:

To be sure, the national security of the American people and that of our allies is incredibly important and certainly your number one responsibility. However, human rights for the North Korean people are important as well.

In the Art of the Deal, your closing words include, “In my life, there are two things I’ve found I’m very good at: overcoming obstacles and motivating good people to do their best work.” You have also demonstrated a mastery of highly effective and spontaneous communications. Your unconventional communication and problem-solving talents are sorely needed, now.

Much like you have reduced the influence of the conventional news media by communicating with the American people directly through your Twitter account, an approach to North Korea’s problem sets is needed to blast through the traditional conventions that have not worked.

So beyond thumbing through the playbook of failed engagement and negotiation strategies, or placing over-reliance on an unreliable China, do what you do best—communicate directly to the people through Twitter. Use this venue to talk directly to the 25 million North Koreans who suffer under a brutal, multi-layered system of repression. Yes, North Koreans do not have access to your Tweets, but nearly everybody else does and numerous human rights groups have ways of sending those tweets into North Korea through surreptitious means.  [HRNK]

You can read the full letter at the link.

I wonder how the North Koreans could even find the USS Michigan much less sink it?  Sounds like another empty threat from the Kim regime:

After the United States deployed a nuclear-powered submarine and an aircraft carrier to South Korean waters amid high inter-Korean tensions, North Korea on Sunday threatened to sink the underwater vessel, accusing America of stepping up military intimidation.

“The moment the USS Michigan tries to budge even a little, it will be doomed to face the miserable fate of becoming a underwater ghost without being able to come to the surface,” the North’s propaganda website Uriminzokkiri said in a posting.

“The urgent fielding of the nuclear submarine in the waters off the Korean Peninsula, timed to coincide with the deployment of the super aircraft carrier strike group, is intended to further intensify military threats toward our republic,” the website claimed.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Possibly the best ever anecdote of a conversation with a North Korean, from @lgflake https://t.co/CWFK1pfuAk via pic.twitter.com/F0BTdK6JRj

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) April 28, 2017

It is pretty clear that over the next month enormous pressure is going to be put on North Korea to give up their nuclear and ICBM programs as even the European powers are now deploying military assets into the region:

France’s Mistral amphibious assault carrier docked in Nagasaki, Japan on April 29 in advance of military exercises to be conducted with the U.K., U.S., and Japan. Nagasaki is the closest major Japanese port to South Korea, and coming at a time of tension on the peninsula, the French and U.K. naval presence sends a strong message to both China and North Korea. Japan’s increased naval activity is also welcome support for South Korea, and will decrease diplomatic tension between the two natural allies. The U.K. and French presence shows that NATO, including the U.S., is strongly behind South Korea.  [Forbes]

You can read more at the link.

With the US military ready to respond to any nuclear or ICBM provocations from North Korea, I wonder if the Kim regime is setting conditions for justifying a provocation in the Yellow Sea instead with this recent announcement:

North Korea argued Saturday that South Korean navy warships have increasingly violated their disputed western sea border, heightening tension on the Korean Peninsula.

“The South Korean puppet navy warships’ intrusion into the territorial waters of the DPRK side in the West Sea of Korea has recently been on explosive increase,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English-language report monitored in Seoul. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

The KCNA argued that 101 navy warships infiltrated the inter-Korean maritime border on 81 occasions in April, which is almost twofold tallied in March.  [Korea Herald]

The Kim regime has never agreed to the Northern Limit Line established after the Korean War in the Yellow Sea.  They have a different definition of the border which means from their point of view the ROK ships are intruding in their territory.

North Korea may calculate that launching a provocation in the Yellow Sea may not trigger a US military response and at the same time allow the Kim regime to show power and save face despite the massive pressure the regime is facing.

Maybe there is something to the claims that the US is launching a cyber and electronic warfare campaign against North Korean missiles because they sure are having a lot of failures over the past year:

North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Saturday, which apparently exploded minutes after liftoff, according to South Korean and U.S. militaries.

“North Korea fired an unidentified missile from a site in the vicinity of Pukchang in Pyeongannam-do (South Pyeongan Province) in the northeastern direction at around 5:30 a.m today,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. “It is estimated to have failed.”

The U.S. Pacific Command also said it detected the launch from an airfield there.

“The missile did not leave North Korean territory,” its spokesman Cmdr. Dave Benham said. “The North American Aerospace Defense Command determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Considering the subdued reaction from the US military and government I think it is safe to say this was not an ICBM test which President Trump has voiced before would be a red line with North Korea. Here is what President Trump had to say in response to the failed launch:

North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2017

Trump is definitely conducting the charm offensive with Chinese President Xi considering all the positive comments he has made about him and even rebuffed a phone call from the Taiwanese President this week.

.@newsjean on Why South Koreans Aren’t Afraid of a Military Confrontation With the North https://t.co/PpOs7ZEpsn @NYMag

— Darcie Draudt (@darciedraudt) April 26, 2017

Here is the latest on what President Trump has to say in regards to the North Korean nuclear issue:

US President Donald Trump has paid North Korean leader a Kim Jong-un a strange, back-handed compliment – while at the same time warned the two countries are on the verge of a “major, major conflict”.

In an interview, the US leader admitted some grudging respect for Kim, referring to when the North Korean became leader of his secretive country in 2011.

“He’s 27 years old,” said Trump. “His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age,” he said.

“I’m not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I’m just saying that’s a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he’s rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he’s rational,” he said.

But that was as far as the praise went.

In a chilling warning that the world could be on the verge of a catastrophic war, Trump added: “There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely.

“We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult,” he said.

His warning came after the US in recent days pushed for North Korea not to carry out major new weapons tests.

The US has said it will talk directly with Kim to ensure North Korea got rid of any nuclear weapons.  [Yahoo News]

You can read more at the link.