It just makes you wonder why these European countries instead of taking legal action just close these embassies instead?:
This file photo, dated Sept. 10, 2016, shows the North Korean Embassy in Sofia. (Yonhap)
The Polish government plans to take legal action to prevent the North Korean Embassy in Warsaw from continuing on its alleged illegal commercial activities, a U.S.-based media said Tuesday.
Voice of America (VOA) reported that the European country’s foreign ministry has sent VOA an email saying it will take additional steps to terminate the embassy’s illegal activities in line with new sanctions that the U.N. Security Council imposed on the North in response to its fifth and largest nuclear test.
The North Korean embassy has allegedly carried out illegal commercial activities by leasing part of its premises to local companies to earn foreign currency.
According to VOA, the Polish government has never given permission to such activities and has notified the embassy many times that they run afoul of international laws.
Similar activities by North Korean embassies across the European Union have come to the fore, and the EU has been discussing a comprehensive measure to resolve them, the report said.
Through the adoption of Resolution 2321 adopted by the U.N. Security Council, the North’s alleged illegal business practices were revealed.
The report also said Pyongyang is known to have made illegal profits through its overseas missions in four countries — Poland, Germany, Romania and Bulgaria — and these countries have expressed a resolve explicitly and implicitly to bring the issue to a settlement. [Yonhap]
This was actually good advice which so far the Kim regime has been following:
Robert Gallucci
A former chief U.S. nuclear negotiator with North Korea said he advised diplomats from Pyongyang to refrain from greeting a new U.S. administration with nuclear or missile tests when he met with them in Malaysia in October.
Robert Gallucci, who negotiated a now-defunct 1994 nuclear freeze deal with the North, held meetings in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 21-22 with senior diplomats from North Korea, including Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol and Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jang Il-hun.
“When I met North Korean representatives for Track II discussions in Kuala Lumpur, I took the opportunity to advise them that they should avoid greeting a new American administration with new nuclear or ballistic missile tests, or any aggressive moves towards the U.S. or its allies,” Gallucci said.
“I suggested that whomever the next president turned out to be, they would not appreciate such a greeting and would undoubtedly respond with appropriate vigor and certainly not with an inclination to negotiate any time soon,” he said in a statement prepared for a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing set for Tuesday. [Yonhap]
Here is what else Mr. Gallucci had to say about what other North Korea experts have been advocating for:
Gallucci said that the U.S. should not seek anything short of North Korea’s complete denuclearization, voicing concern that too many analysts are now arguing that all the U.S. needs is to stop the North Korean nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs from growing.
Seeking such a freeze is “unrealistic and dangerous,” he said.
Entering into negotiations with the North without the U.S. declaring its goal of a non-nuclear North Korea would “appear to have the United States legitimize the North’s nuclear weapons status, and thus increase the likelihood that before too long South Korea and then Japan would follow suit,” Gallucci said.
The way I look at it is that Gallucci wants the US to negotiate for something the North Koreans will never give up. What deal could the US possibly offer for the Kim regime to give up their nuclear weapons? I have not heard one person give a realistic option on what the incentive would be for the Kim regime to give up its nukes. This is like going into negotiations with the Taliban and asking them to give up radical Islam, that is how important the nuclear weapons are to the Kim regime. Nuclear weapons is something that legitimizes and assures regime survival, just like radical Islam is to the Taliban.
The North Koreans could conduct a provocation of some kind in honor of Kim Jong-il’s birthday, but I still tend to think the timing in March during the Key Resolve exercise makes the most sense for them to conduct a strategic provocation, but I guess we will see:
Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the central government complex in Seoul on Feb. 7, 2017. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Tuesday warned of North Korea’s possible strategic provocations ahead of the birthday of its late former leader next week, stressing the need for Seoul to maintain strong security cooperation with its ally Washington.
During a Cabinet meeting, Hwang also noted that U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis’ visit to Seoul last week reaffirmed the robust bilateral alliance and sent a “strong” warning to an increasingly provocative Pyongyang.
“North Korea’s threats of provocations — including its claim that it is in the closing phase of preparations to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile — are increasingly explicit,” Hwang said.
“Especially this month, which includes the 75th birthday of (former North Korean leader) Kim Jong-il, the likelihood of strategic provocations is higher than before,” he added. The late Kim’s birthday falls next Thursday. [Yonhap]
It does make me wonder if the Kim regime and the Mullahs in Iran coordinated their recent missile test in order to test the reaction of the Trump administration:
North Korea is expected to watch closely how the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump responds to Iran’s missile launch and what policy the new administration puts together on Pyongyang before it carries out its threatened missile test, a U.S. expert said Sunday.
“It has been my contention that N.K. would delay testing an ICBM or a nuclear test until they had a better read on the Trump administration. They will closely watch the U.S. response to Iran’s test,” Ken Gause, a senior North Korea analyst at CNA Corp. in Washington, told Yonhap News Agency. (…….)
The Trump administration has shown toughness on Iran’s missile test. The Treasury Department slapped fresh sanctions over the missile test. National Security Advisor Mike Flynn warned the U.S. was “officially putting Iran on notice.” Asked if he’s willing to consider a military option, Trump said Thursday that “Nothing is off the table.” [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I think if North Korea tries anything I think they would do it in March during the Key Resolve military exercise timeframe. They have historically launched their shorter range SCUDs during military exercises which I expect they would likely do again this year.
The missile that Iran recently test had some believing they may have tested North Korea’s Musudan missile. According to one expert the test by Iran was not a Musudan they have had one successful flight test of, but likely an equivalent of North Korea’s No Dong missile that North Korea has a long history of successful flight tests with:
Chances are low that the ballistic missile recently test-fired by Iran could have been North Korea’s Musudan intermediate range ballistic missile, a defense expert said.
Iran launched the missile on Jan. 29, which flew about 1,000 kilometers. Media reports have since surfaced suggesting that the missile could be the same as North Korea’s Musudan missile, which, if confirmed, would mean missile cooperation between the two countries is still ongoing.
But Michael Elleman, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said in an article carried by the website 38 North that there is little possibility that the Iranians have tested the Musudan.
“If the Iranian missile were modeled on the 3,000 kilometer-range Musudan, it would be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, contrary to the U.S. description of the Khorramshahr as a medium-range ballistic missile,” Elleman said.
While the July 2016 and January 2017 test flights conducted by Iran were largely successful, North Korea’s tests of the Musudan failed soon after launch in six of eight attempts, a wide discrepancy that is difficult to explain even if Iran is more capable at missile development, he said. [Yonhap]
Another year with an upcoming Key Resolve exercise means once again more threats from North Korea:
North Korea issued a threat Wednesday that the upcoming annual joint military drills between South Korea and the United States will result in a catastrophic outcome as the U.S. defense secretary is set to travel to Seoul this week to discuss ways to reinforce the alliance against the North.
“The problem is the South Korean government, in defiance of the atmosphere, is already making a fuss about taking the path to push ahead with Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises in March and bring in again U.S. nuclear strategic assets,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in its statement carried by the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
“It’s needless to say what catastrophic outcome could result when such nuclear war rehearsals take place in front of us at a time our strategic status has changed,” the statement said, suggesting the country’s possession of own nuclear weapons. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans have been quiet recently so I would not be surprised if they do a missile test or some other provocation during the Key Resolve timeframe.
Here is the latest opinion on what the US should do about North Korea:
Washington should consider preemptively striking North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), said U.S. Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, during the committee’s first hearing this year on North Korea on Tuesday.
The comment comes amid rising tension in South Korea and the United States after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared during his New Year’s address on Jan. 1 that his country was in its “final stage” of test-firing an ICBM, which would be the first of such tests if Kim actually follows through.
Seoul has yet to acknowledge detecting any signs that the North was preparing a test-fire, although several military sources here claim to have discovered two new missiles along North Korea’s eastern coast that could be an ICBM under work. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
