Tag: North Korea

You have to hand it to the Kim regime, if there is an illegal way to make money they will find it:

North Korean hackers stole about 100 million Korean won, or $88,000, worth of bitcoin from South Korean exchanges every month from 2013 to 2015, Yonhap News Agency reports, citing Radio Free Asia.

“Cyber criminals have turned to bitcoin for money as it is very difficult to track them down,” Choi Sang-myong, a senior official at South Korea’s cybersecurity firm Hauri, told Free Asia Radio, according to Yonhap. “Since tracking down the culprits is very difficult, North Korea had jumped on the bandwagon of bitcoin extortion since around 2012.”  [Business Insider]

You can read more at the link.

I guess we will soon find out, however the big question is going to be will President Trump do something in response?:

North Korea’s nuclear tests have grown steadily more destructive, and the country continues to pursue its longtime goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental missile capable of reaching targets around the globe.

The United States recently ordered an aircraft carrier and other warships toward the Korean Peninsula in a show of force intended to discourage the North from testing a nuclear weapon.

While examining satellite imagery, experts have observed a wide range of activity at Mount Mantap, a mile-high peak where North Korea conducts its nuclear tests. Beneath the mountain, a system of tunnels has been excavated for the past five detonations of the North’s nuclear bombs.

If history is any indication the Chinese will double-deal the US on North Korea:

I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will! U.S.A.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2017

A ROK Drop favorite, the reporter and author Andrew Salmon offers some perspective about claims of an imminent strike on North Korea:

Two weeks ago, I dined with a rather interesting visitor to Seoul. An ex-military officer, he assesses geopolitical risk for a global bank, and had been put in touch with your columnist by a mutual acquaintance. We compared notes on various peninsula-related matters.

He told me that several multinational banks and companies were quietly dusting off and reviewing plans to evacuate expatriates from South Korea in the event of a crisis. This raised my eyebrows. I live at ground zero ― central Seoul ― but had sensed no unusual tension.

These concerns, the gentleman explained, stem not from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ― a largely predictable quantity ― but from neophyte US President Donald Trump. Some fear that the mercurial POTUS is mulling military action against the North ― fears buttressed by his secretary of state’s comments that “all options” are on the table.

Our dinner took place prior to Trump’s warning that the U.S. would deal with North Korea independently of China, and before the U.S. Navy devastated a Syrian air base with a cruise missile barrage.

Since then, doom merchants have gone ballistic and media pundits are suffering from a near-terminal attack of the vapors.

“Trump wants war to divert attention from domestic failings!” quaver some. “The Syrian strike is a work-up for a North Korea operation!” simper others. “If Trump hits North Korea, Kim will invade South Korea, and/or retaliate with nukes!” gasp yet others. Even my mother (!) called from the UK to warn me.

Let’s calm down, man up and take account.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but basically Salmon discusses that what is new here is the Trump factor; everything else has happened before with out a war starting.  However, if a strike does happen North Korea’s reaction will likely be less than expected because if they to too far it could lead to regime change.

Once again people that do not understand missile defense are calling for the shoot down of a North Korea ICBM test:

The United States should be prepared to shoot down a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile in the event the communist regime test-fires one as threatened, a U.S. congressman said Monday.

Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) made the remark in an interview with CNN as tensions on the Korean Peninsula are running high with the U.S. sending an aircraft carrier strike group to the waters off the divided peninsula to guard against North Korean provocations.

“That battle carrier group has been in the region before. I think Kim Jong-un, he has the ability to kill hundreds of thousands of people right now in South Korea with the push of a button. He will stop at nothing to have an intercontinental ballistic missile,” Hurd said.

“We have to ask ourselves, what are we going to do when we see a potential test of an ICBM? Are we going to try to shoot that ICBM down? Are we going to let the test go on unimpeded? These are some of the questions that should be asked when it comes to Korea,” he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but it seems like every time North Korea threatens to do an ICBM test someone says the US should shoot it down.  What people don’t realize is that certain missile defense systems are designed to shoot down certain threats. For example a Patriot battery or even a THAAD in USFK cannot shoot down an ICBM. The only thing the US military has that can shoot down an ICBM is the GMD system that protects CONUS, Alaska and Hawaii. If North Korea fires an ICBM on a test trajectory to the south like they have done in the past the GMD system is not going to be able to shoot it down.

If North Korea fires an ICBM at US territory where the GMD system has to engage it the shoot down of its ICBM will be the least of its worries because that would be an act of war.

It appears that the Chinese government has gotten the message that President Trump is serious about striking North Korea if they try anything in the near term.  However, will China’s warning towards North Korea be heeded?  I guess we will find out:

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a peaceful resolution of rising tension on the Korean peninsula in a telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group steamed towards the region.

Trump, in an early morning note on Twitter, said the call with Xi, just days after they met in the United States, was a “very good” discussion of the “menace of North Korea”. The call came as an influential state-run Chinese newspaper warned that the Korean peninsula was the closest it has been to a “military clash” since North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006.  (……)

China’s Global Times newspaper said in an editorial that North Korea should halt any plan for nuclear and missile activities “for its own security”. While widely read in China and run by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, the Global Times does not represent government policy.

The newspaper noted Trump’s recent decision to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield in response to a deadly gas attack last week.

“Not only is Washington brimming with confidence and arrogance following the missile attacks on Syria, but Trump is also willing to be regarded as a man who honours his promises,” it said.

“The U.S. is making up its mind to stop the North from conducting further nuclear tests. It doesn’t plan to co-exist with a nuclear-armed Pyongyang,” it said. “Pyongyang should avoid making mistakes at this time.”

The Global Times said if North Korea made another provocative move, “Chinese society” might be willing to back unprecedented sanctions, “such as restricting oil imports”.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link.

It seems like the Kim regime is trying to put pressure on the next ROK government to cancel the THAAD deployment:

North Korea claimed on Tuesday that South Korea has become “a primary target of strike” by neighboring countries with its decision to deploy a U.S. missile defense system.

In a commentary, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said South Korea will only turn itself into a victim as it presses ahead with the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.

China has balked at the deployment, fearing that the system’s powerful radar could hurt its strategic security interests. Beijing has undertaken apparently retaliatory measures against South Korean companies and goods, as its relations with Seoul have deteriorated.

The North said South Korea has only itself to blame.

“The South Korean puppet regime is pressing ahead with the deployment of THAAD despite the strong protest of the public at home and abroad,” the KCNA’s English commentary read. “South Korea, which turned into the frontline base and nuclear outpost for the U.S. in carrying out its strategy for dominating Asia-Pacific, has become a primary target of strike by the neighboring countries due to the THAAD deployment, whereby the South Korean people cannot but fall victim to it.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The below theory does make sense because North Korea can get the technical data it needs from this test to advance their nuclear program and then use a nuclear freeze as bargaining chip to get free goodies from the incoming left leaning ROK government.  Then at a time of their choosing North Korea can break the agreement again, blame the US and the ROK for some made up reason and continue testing.  We have seen this before and it looks like whoever the incoming ROK government is wants to play this game again with the North.  However, the real wild card is does President Trump want to play this game?:

An expert said Monday that North Korea may carry out an upgraded nuclear test before a key anniversary in late April to have an upper hand in relations with the next South Korea government.

The possible test is also likely to be the last before Pyongyang sophisticates its nuclear capability, according to Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute.

“The possibility of North Korea pushing ahead with a nuclear test before the (85th) anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army on April 25 cannot be ruled out,” Cheong said in a forum in Seoul.

“It is assumed that North Korea would finish sophisticating its nuclear capabilities through the last nuclear test ahead of the launch of a new administration in the South before seeking to mend the fence with the new administration using a nuclear test freeze as a negotiating card,” he noted.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

As legions of ex-Obama officials endorse the strike, it's more and more clear the degree to which Obama was resisting his own advisors

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 7, 2017