U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appears to lack a plan on how to deal with North Korea even though his administration is set to take off in less than a month, a U.S. expert said Sunday.
Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also said in an interview with CBS television that the Trump foreign policy team doesn’t seem to have a full strategy yet on China.
North Korea is “not an issue that Trump knows a lot about,” Glaser said, adding that the concern for the United States is that the North Koreans could pose an existential threat to the homeland if they can make a nuclear warhead that can potentially reach U.S. territory.
“Do we have a strategy that focuses on defense? Do we take a much more aggressive posture against North Korea?” Glaser said, wondering about Trump’s plan. “Some people are raising the possibility of a pre-emptive strike on a missile, if it’s on a launch pad, because we don’t know what’s atop that missile, whether it’s a satellite or a nuclear warhead.
“There may be some discussions about whether we really need to try to cut off trade and harm North Korea’s economy, go beyond sanctions that are really focused on depriving North Korea of weapons of mass destruction,” she said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but North Korea is not an “existential threat to the homeland”. The Kim regime would need a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons along with the transport erector launchers (TELs) to launch them to be able to destroy a country the size of the United States. Plus the DPRK’s warhead technology would have to be advanced enough to defeat the US’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. The Kim regime’s nukes are at best a deterrent that puts a handful of US cities at possible risk if military action is taken to remove the Kim regime.
As far as sanctions they obviously are not working to stop the Kim regime’s WMD programs because of China. As North Korean diplomat turned defector Thae Yong-ho has already said, the Kim regime understands it can get away with nuclear development because the Chinese will do nothing to stop them.
It is pretty clear that the incoming Trump administration does have a plan, it is just that it is one that is going to focus on China instead of North Korea which Glaser has already pointed out:
“It looks to me like Trump is trying to keep China off balance, to try and signal that he’s not necessarily going to conduct business as usual in the same way that it has been conducted over the last eight years under Obama and that he thinks it can appear that he can gain some leverage by signaling a willingness to confront China,” Glaser said.
Between 1966-1970 soldiers stationed on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) came in regular contact with North Korean infiltrators probing US military defenses in what became known as the “DMZ War”. Two examples of such incidents occurred the morning of August 10th, 1967 when North Korean infiltrators conducted two separate ambushes of 2nd and 7th Infantry Division soldiers:
The events that morning began when a 2nd Infantry Division military working dog by the name of “Blackie”, handled by Specialist Jack L. Tyrrell, were leading a squad sized patrol in the early morning hours. The patrol was sent out at dusk after a sentry during the night had heard a possible North Korean infiltrator near his post. As the patrol looked for the infiltrator Blackie smelled something suspicious and headed for a nearby tree. That is when a North Korean infiltrator sprung out from behind the tree and shot Blackie and SPC Tyrrell.
Ambush Prevented
After the initial firing more concealed North Koreans opened fire on the American patrol. However, the warning provided by Blackie had given the other members of the US patrol time to take cover. This allowed the Americans the opportunity to immediately return fire at the ambushers. The North Koreans realizing that their ambush had been compromised withdrew back towards the DMZ. The ambush cost Blackie his life, but no other Americans were killed with SPC Tyrrell being the only person wounded.
Work Detail Ambush
However, the ambush that Blackie had prematurely triggered was not the only ambush the North Koreans had planned that morning. US 7th Infantry Division soldiers from B company 2-31 Infantry Regiment had conducted a woodcutting mission inside the South Korean side of the DMZ that morning before returning to their camp for lunch around 11:45 AM. The soldiers moved south in a two truck convoy up a small hill in a drizzling rain. Each truck carried a platoon of US soldiers in the back of it. As the convoy approached the crest of the hill approximately 3-4 North Koreans appeared on the side of the lead truck and lobbed grenades at it. One of the grenades landed on the hood of the truck and killed the Platoon Sergeant Philip Boudreaux.
After the initial grenade attack more North Koreans opened up on the lead truck with small arms fire. In the ensuing ambush two more US soldiers, PFC Donald Craplicki and PFC Jerry Skaggs would be killed. The fatalities could have been much worse if it wasn’t for the actions of Specialist David Richardson who stood up on the back of the truck and returned fire at the ambushers while the other soldiers jumped out over the side of the truck and into an adjacent ditch to take cover. SPC Richardson was wounded by grenade fragments and shot twice, but incredibly continued to return fire. The return of fire from Richardson allowed platoon leader 2nd Lieutenant David Colwell who rode in the second truck to organize a response to the ambush.
While soldiers in the second truck took cover Colwell crawled up the hill to the first truck to check on the status of the soldiers. After helping to get wounded soldiers in the ambush zone out of the truck and administering first aid he ran back down the hill to order a soldier to run to a nearby outpost to request reinforcements. Other soldiers in the second truck then pushed forward to return fire at the ambushers. The firefight lasted about 30 minutes before the North Koreans withdrew back across the DMZ. No North Korean bodies were found, but US soldiers reported seeing some of the ambushers shot and blood was later found at the scene.
The aftermath from the ambush left the US with 3 soldiers killed in action, 16 more wounded and one ROK Army Korean Augmentee to the US Army (KATUSA) also wounded. 2LT Colwell would later go on to be recognized with a Bronze Star for his actions that morning. I could find no record of Specialist Richardson being awarded any valor medals, but it seems like he would have been a great candidate as well.
November 25, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes newspaper announcing the Bronze Star awarded to 2nd Lieutenant David Colwell.
Ambush Aftermath
A few days after the ambush the United Nations Command officially protested the aggression during the 253rd meeting of the military armistice commission. During the meeting the UNC spokesman Major General Marvin Demler blasted the North Korean delegation for the deadly attacks. North Korean spokesman Major General Chung Kuk-pak had the audacity to claim that if any UN soldiers had been killed it was because they shot each other by mistake. Later in the meeting Maj. Gen. Demler responded to the North Korean subterfuge by saying, “My colleagues and I agree that the proper assessment of this situation is that every ass likes to hear himself bray.” Demler continued to say that the UNC would “hunt down and kill or capture all North Korean communist intruders.” Despite Demler’s tough talking the North Koreans would go on two weeks later to launch an even more deadly ambush on Camp Liberty Bell that left 4 soldiers dead and 26 wounded to further escalate the growing DMZ War.
August 18, 1967 edition of the Pacific Stars and Stripes newspaper.
Click the below link for more DMZ Flashpoints articles:
The North Korean diplomat turned defector Thae Yong-ho wasn’t kidding when he said he would become an outspoken critic of the Kim Jong-un regime after defecting from the DPRK embassy in London:
Thae Yong-ho
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is determined to complete development of nuclear weapons by the end of 2017 and has no plans to give up the country’s nukes even if he is offered huge sums of money, a high-profile North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea said Tuesday.
Kim is “racing ahead with nuclear development after setting up a plan to develop it (nuclear weapons) at all costs by the end of 2017,” Thae Yong-ho, formerly No. 2 at the North Korean Embassy in London, said in a press briefing. It was his first media appearance since he escaped his post in London in July to take refuge in South Korea with his wife and two sons.
“As long as Kim Jong-un is (in power), North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons … the North will not give them up even if the country is offered $1 trillion or $10 trillion in return,” Thae said at the press briefing. “It’s not a matter of (economic) incentives.”
For North Korea, the year 2017 is “an opportune time” when South Korea and the United States will have new presidents, he said. “Due to domestic political procedures, North Korea calculates that South Korea and the U.S. will not be able to take physical or military actions to deter North Korea’s nuclear development.”
In the meantime, Pyongyang will try to open dialogue with Seoul and Washington’s new administrations as a nuclear-possessing state, Thae said of the North’s strategy to secure nuclear power status.
Until then, North Korea will continue to launch military provocations and conduct nuclear tests in a bid to frustrate Seoul and Washington’s sanctions-concentrated policy towards Pyongyang, Thae said. “North Korea believes that relentless provocations must shift new (South Korean and U.S.) governments’ policy lines into more stability-focused ones.” [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but Thae is just confirming what many of us have been saying for years, North Korea has no intention of giving up their nuclear weapons. In the article Thae also confirms that the North Koreans can continue to get away with their nuclear and provocation strategies because they know that the Chinese will do nothing to stop them.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly replaced Christmas with celebrations honoring his deceased grandmother. While Christians remain a minority in North Korea, Kim has declared Dec. 25 a holiday to pay tribute to Kim Jong Suk, who died in 1949, according to media reports Sunday.
Kim’s grandmother was born on Christmas Eve in 1919. Known as the “Sacred Mother of the Revolution,” she was the wife of former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and a Communist activist. To honor her birthday, many North Koreans visit her tomb on Dec. 25 each year.
North Korea has prevously banned Christmas trees and Kim has upheld his family’s anti-Christmas beliefs. In 2014, he threatened war against South Korea after it announced it would erect a Christmas tree along the border.
“The DPRK ostentatiously treats anyone of faith, but especially Christians, as hostile,” wrote Doug Bandow, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. “Believers place loyalty to God before that of the North Korean state. Churches allow people to act and organize outside of state entities. Christianity also has ties to a world seen as almost uniformly threatening by Pyongyang.” [International Business Times via a reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but considering how various Christian groups have been helping defectors escape from North Korea, it should be no surprise that Kim Jong-un has tried to eliminate Christmas.
It appears South Korea’s efforts to jam North Korea’s AM radio propaganda broadcasts has been successful:
Echo of Unification (통일의메아리방송), a North Korean radio station that broadcasts propaganda towards South Korea, dropped all mediumwave (AM band) broadcasting on December 21.
The move seemingly confirms the futility of the broadcasts, which consumed large amounts of electricity but were blocked by powerful South Korean government jamming transmitters, but the station isn’t giving up. In their place, it has brought on air additional shortwave and FM transmitters.
It’s all part of a game that’s been going on for decades. North and South Korea both broadcast propaganda at each other while trying to stop their own citizens from hearing the other’s broadcast. Similar battles used to be played out across borders around the world but have largely moved to the internet and social media. The lack of internet in North Korea and South Korean censorship mean radio still plays a part on the Korean peninsula. [North Korea Tech]
These photos from the North’s daily Rodong Sinmun on Dec. 20, 2016, show the country’s top leader Kim Jong-un watching the Masik Pass Ski Contest 2016. Teams from each province and the military competed in the contest in slalom, ski jump, giant slalom and downhill, according to the report. (Yonhap)
Via a reader tip comes news that North Korean border guards have received a special Christmas gift from Kim Jong-un, diarrhea!:
Several North Korean border guards are down with diarrhoea after consuming a special diet ordered by the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, sources told a radio service.
Kim had reportedly issued the order for better quality food for soldiers after receiving complaints about dietary deficiencies, but some of the supply was reportedly found to be adulterated.
“Under the direction of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s people’s armed forces increased the supply of materials to improve the diet of border guard soldiers,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Radio Free Asia, UPI reported. The province is located close to the China border.
The source added that all the soldiers, from a unit of border guards who consumed the new food supply, are suffering from diarrhea. [International Business Times]
You can read more at the link, but like I always do I want to caveat that this story is from an anonymous source so who knows if it is true or not.
What I found of most interest in this article is that US soldiers are training to look for North Korean “mad scientists”. Wouldn’t this be something the ROK Army would be better equipped to do then having random patrols of US soldiers in North Korea trying to find these scientists?:
A soldier with the Fort Riley, Kan.-based 3rd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division crouches on a staircase during a drill at Rodriguez Live Fire Range, South Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. The exercise was held with the 501st CBRNE Company as part of training to increase the readiness of troops to confront threat of chemical and biological weapons and nuclear weapons.
The U.S. soldiers donned gas masks as they cleared building after building after receiving intelligence that North Korean scientists were cooking up chemical weapons in the vicinity.
They found the makeshift lab with beakers and tubes filled with a yellow substance in a room off the icy rooftop of a two-story brick building. It was time to call the 501st CBRNE Company (Technical Escort), a specialized unit trained to deal with weapons of mass destruction.
The scenario was part of a training exercise, but the dangers facing the soldiers stationed near the front lines of the divided peninsula are all too real.
North Korea has demonstrated alarming progress in its nuclear weapons program this year, with two underground atomic explosions and two dozen ballistic missile tests.
But the Stalinist state is believed to have vast stockpiles of other nasty stuff, too.
“North Korea has the full spectrum of all types of chemical and biological weapons … and they’ve weaponized all of it,” Lt. Col. Roberto Salas, commander of the 23rd Chemical Battalion, told Stars and Stripes. [Stars & Stripes]
