This photo, taken on Jan. 18, 2017, and released by the Choson Sinbo newspaper on Jan. 31, 2017, shows the snow-capped Chollima Statue in Pyongyang, which depicts a soaring pegasus with a pair of citizens riding the majestic beast. The name of the statue means “thousand-mile horse.” (Yonhap)
Whatever abuse of power he was involved in must not have been that bad considering he wasn’t executed:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sacked the chief of the country’s spy agency on suspected abuse of power after the ruling party conducted surveillance on the ministry, sources said Friday.
Kim Won-hong, 72, was dismissed from the head of the Ministry of State Security after the party’s audit late last year found his agency had abused its authority, according to the sources familiar with North Korean affairs.
His military rank may have been demoted to lieutenant general from full general, they said.
North Korea’s security ministry has powerful authority as it screens so-called reactionary elements in society, supervises political prisoners’ camps and arrests those who attempt to flee the country.
Known as one of heavyweights in North Korea, Kim became the head of the spy agency in April 2012 after Kim Jong-un took office in late 2011.
He is also known to have spearheaded the move to execute Jang Song-thaek in December 2013, the once-powerful uncle of the North’s young leader.
A local report said that Kim might have been dismissed for abusing his position and on corruption charges, adding there is a slim chance for him to be reinstated. [Yonhap]
The Chinese and the Russians both know the THAAD system is no threat to them, they are just using this as a way to create a wedge in the US-ROK alliance. With a left wing candidate likely winning the upcoming ROK presidency if the impeachment of President Park is upheld it will be interesting to see what happens with the planned deployment of THAAD:
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis answers questions from reporters during a flight to South Korea. Photo courtesy of the Defense Department.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that none other than North Korea needs to worry about the planned deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.
Mattis, who arrived in Seoul on his first overseas trip since taking office, made the remark to reporters traveling together with him on the plane, stressing THAAD is a defensive system, according to a transcript provided by the Pentagon.
“There’s only one reason that we even have this under discussion right now, and that is North Korea’s activities,” Mattis said. “THAAD is for defense of our allies’ people, of our troops who are committed to their defense.”
“Were it not for the provocative behavior of North Korea we would have no need for THAAD out here. There’s no other nation that needs to be concerned about THAAD other than North Korea,” he said. [Yonhap]
There have been many North Korea experts arguing that President Trump should pursue a deal with North Korea to freeze their nuclear and ICBM programs. One US expert has now called any freeze deal with North Korea a “mirage”:
David Straub
Most proponents are more careful than Mr. Clapper and refer to a “freeze” rather than a “cap.” A cap suggests U.S. acceptance of North Korea as a nuclear weapons state for the indefinite future. Doing that would destroy U.S. credibility not only with its allies in Seoul and Tokyo but throughout the world as well. It would also undermine the global nuclear nonproliferation regime and signal to Iran that it could violate its own nuclear agreement with impunity.
Most cap proponents understand this and so talk publicly instead about a freeze, arguing that it would just be a steppingstone on the way to elimination. This is disingenuous because they themselves don’t believe Pyongyang will ever give up the nuclear weapons it already has or even fully stop its nuclear development activities under a freeze.
In truth, a freeze now would just be a cap in disguise. The entire international community would also regard it as such, unlike in earlier years when the North’s nuclear capabilities were not as advanced and their elimination was still considered possible.
A negotiated freeze is like a mirage, an illusion that recedes as quickly as one tries to approach it. That applies both to what we would need Pyongyang to do and what Pyongyang would demand of us in return for a freeze. [The Hill]
You can read more at the link, but the way I look at it is that any freeze deal should not include a peace treaty and only scaling down of US-ROK military exercises plus some lifting of sanctions. A peace treaty should only be offered in return for the complete dismantlement of their nuclear and ICBM programs which we know they will never do.
The freeze deal should then have strong language in it that any non-compliance by North Korea opens them to a bombing strike to ensure compliance. Including bombing strike wording then gives the US world opinion on its side if it needs to use force and makes it in the Chinese regime’s interest to ensure their benefactors in Pyongyang comply with the deal.
I and others have been saying this for years that the Kim regime would never denuclearize and its seems it is becoming a more popular viewpoint:
The United States should give up on any last-remaining hope that engagement with North Korea could lead to its denuclearization, a U.S. expert told a Senate hearing Tuesday, calling for all-round pressure on Pyongyang to rethink its nuclear pursuit.
Nicholas Eberstadt, a senior analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, made the remark during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, as some experts have stepped up calls for reopening negotiations with Pyongyang to curb its dangerously accelerating nuclear and missile programs.
“At this juncture, as so often in the past, serious people around the world are calling to ‘bring North Korea back to the table’ to try to settle the DPRK nuclear issue. However, seeing the DPRK for what it is, rather than what we would like it to be, should oblige us to recognize two highly unpleasant truths,” Eberstadt said.
“First, the real existing North Korean leadership will never willingly give up their nuclear option. Never. Acquiescing in denuclearization would be tantamount to abandoning the sacred mission of Korean unification: which is to say, disavowing the DPRK’s raison d’etre,” he said.
Therefore, submitting to foreign demands to give up its nuclear weapons could well mean more than humiliation and disgrace for North Korean leadership, and would mean delegitimization and destabilization for the regime as well, the expert said.
“Second, international entreaties —- summitry, conferencing, bargaining, and all the rest —- can never succeed in convincing the DPRK to relinquish its nuclear program. Sovereign governments simply do not trade away their vital national interests,” he said. [Yonhap]
Unlike many other places in the world a popular uprising in North Korea I don’t think will do much. This is because the Kim regime will just kill the people and then pretend it didn’t happen just like what their primary sponsors in Beijing did at Tiananmen Square back in 1989. What I do see the outside information flowing in doing is discrediting the regime with the North Korean public. This would make it easier for someone in the military down the road perhaps to launch a coup with little public resistance:
Thae Yong-ho
North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to Britain has told a group of reporters that a “popular uprising” against North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is imminent. Thae Yong Ho, who defected to South Korea in August of 2016, said that sanctions against the regime and its inability to control the flow of information about the outside world were weakening its grip on authority.
Thae’s comments came during a press conference in Seoul, the first time he has spoken to international media since his defection.
During the press conference, Thae, who speaks fluent English, declared that “Kim Jong-Un’s days are numbered,” as information about the outside world becomes more accessible. “Low-level dissent or criticism of the regime, until recently unthinkable, is becoming more frequent,” he added. [Yahoo News]
This combined photo, provided by North Korea’s ruling party organ Rodong Sinmun on Jan. 26, 2017, shows a new developed district under construction in Pyongyang, named “Ryomyong Street.” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un toured the construction site, ordering the project to be completed by April 15, the birth anniversary of late founder Kim Il-song, according to the newspaper. (Yonhap)
Here is what General Brown, the US Army Pacific commander had to say about North Korea recently:
Gen. Robert Brown, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, speaks during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington on Jan. 25. (Yonhap)
The U.S. Pacific Army commander said Wednesday North Korea is his biggest concern as the unpredictable communist nation has aggressively forged ahead with its nuclear and missile programs.
“The thing that keeps me up at night, though, the thing I worry the most about is North Korea. The most likely threat to all of us sitting here, in my opinion,” Gen. Robert Brown, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, said during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Brown said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has conducted many more missile launches since taking power following the death of his late father in 2011 than the late leader did in his 17 years of rule. He also said the North’s leader is the only individual in the 21st century to test a nuclear weapon.
“There’s something going on there and there’s this belligerent aggressiveness,” he said.
The general highlighted the North’s unpredictability, calling its actions a “black swan.”
“I do worry about the most likely threat: North Korea, because obviously, every soldier that I lead, every individual that I am in charge of would be involved, would be there — some within hours, some are already there on the peninsula, and some would move in that direction very quickly,” Brown said.
“I have significant responsibilities. Things like: noncombatant evacuation operations on the peninsula and getting several half a million people out of there, minor and little things that are easy. Those types of challenges. I do worry about that. There’s just so many things,” he said. [Yonhap]
This is pretty significant that the US, ROK and Japanese Navies continue to do this interoperability missile defense exercises. Hopefully a new administration in the ROK does not stop ROK participation in the future:
The United States, South Korea and Japan kicked off naval missile-defense drills Friday, joining forces to counter the growing threat from North Korea.
The three-day exercise began amid fears that the North may test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile or stage another provocation in connection with Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Friday.
The Yokosuka, Japan-based guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem, Japan’s JDS Kirishima and South Korea’s Sejong the Great participated in missile detection and tracking drills in the waters off the divided peninsula and Japan. [Stars & Stripes]
