The Kim regime to maintain its legitimacy as rulers of North Korea has to keep its people on a wartime footing. The below article is an example of some of the little things they require their citizens to do to maintain the illusion of war being just around the corner:
North Korea is making its people put together plans to move the relics and portraits of their late leaders — Kim Il-sung and his son Jong-il — to safe places in the event of an emergency like war, a U.S. broadcaster, monitored here, reported Monday.
“Of late, preparations to transfer the two Kims’ relics and portraits displayed at the provincial artifacts centers are underway in case of a contingency,” The Radio Free Asia (RFA) said, citing a source in the country’s northeastern North Hamgyong Province.
“A minute order regarding transfer places and the materials necessary has been issued,” the broadcaster said.
In case of the Provincial Artifacts Center in Cheongjin, it has been decided that the relics there will be moved into a cave in the Chongam District, according to the broadcaster. [Yonhap]
For those that have about a half hour it is well worth reading the entire recollections of a 13-month tour of duty in the 1975-1976 timeframe by Specialist William Ferguson in the Korean JSA. Something I learned from reading the recollections was how brutal the death of 1st Lieutenant Mark Barrett was during the DMZ Axe Murder Incident:
First Lieutenant Mark Barrett
Nobody knows what happened to Lt. Barrett, he’s nowhere to be seen (Later, after all the pictures are developed, he’s seen jumping over a retaining wall and heading down into the depression area between CP#3 and KPA#8). As people are climbing into the back of the deuce, and getting Capt. Bonifas’ body loaded up as well, several KPA guards try to grab them and pull them back out. Several guys beat some of them back with axe handles. Another KPA guard tries to climb into the deuce as well. One GI picks up a fire extinguisher, fires it into the KPA guards face, and when it’s empty, he picks it up over his head and throws it right at the KPA guard, catching him square in the forehead and snapping his head back. Finally, after every visible friendly is accounted for, both deuces (the one that carried the KSC workers and their security force, and the one that stayed with the regular CP#3 guards) leave the area and regroup. Lt. Barrett is missing, nobody can see him anywhere, and the guys who are up at OP#5 who first reported and filmed everything, have no idea where he’s at either. They say that after our personnel left, the Joe’s drag around 5 KPA bodies across the Bridge by picking up their heels (which they probably wouldn’t do if they were alive). Several other limp bodies are loaded into the KPA guard trucks, extent of injuries unknown. They stay on heightened alert for all KPA activity and for any sign of Lt. Barrett. They notice that the KPA guards at KPA#8 are taking turns going down into the depression between their checkpoint and CP#3. They stay a few minutes, come back up, and hand the axe to another guard, who then goes down into the depression. They say that after about an hour or so of this, they become just to suspicious and a jeep full of JSA personnel heads out to investigate. They head down into the depression and find what’s left of Lt. Barrett, though somehow he’s still alive. He’s immediately removed and medi-vac’d, but dies enroute.
End of unverified story as relayed to me by several 1st. Plt. members who were there. Taken in the context of the time, I have no reason to doubt anything they related to me. We were all pretty depressed, itching for payback, and lies or braggadocio would have been to easy to expose due to the amount of people involved and the pictures taken.
I remember when the alert first sounded. It was our off day, and I was downrange drinking in Sonju-Ri with a buddy. We asked an MP what was going on, and he said there was a fight at the JSA. We went to grab a taxi, and drove to Munsan so we could catch the next bus north. When we got to Freedom Bridge, we asked the MP checking ID’s for further news. He said that a couple people were hurt real bad, maybe dead, up at the JSA. During the ride up, I kept thinking to myself “Damnit. We were supposed to be the ones up there. They were supposed to trim the tree last week when we were up there!”. (I forget what the reason was, but for some reason, the original scheduled day for the tree trimming was delayed, from August 13th and instead it turned into a Security Officers Meeting.. Our Platoon was supposed to be the ones working the JSA on the original date.) An hour later (after the alert first sounded) we finally arrived at camp and were told by the gate guards at CP#1 when we arrived to get full field gear on, Capt. Bonifas was dead, several guys from 1st platoon were injured, and Lt. Barrett was missing.
A few hours later we were informed that they had recovered the body of Lt. Barret. He was found in the depression between CP#3 and KPA#8, cut to pieces by KPA guards who took turns for over an hour, going down into the depression with an axe, only to return later and hand the axe to another guard who would then disappear into the depression for awhile. Later that night I was in the NCO club and talking with one of the guys from 3rd Plt, who were on QRF that day. He was pissed, saying the whole time during the fight they sat at CP#2, while their Lt. waited for orders from Capt. Bonifas (who was already dead) to head into the JSA and provide help. This has always been neglected in every account I’ve ever read! Some accounts state that the QRF was a mile away, outside the DMZ, when the daytime QRF was only about 200 yards from CP#2, well inside the DMZ and almost within the JSA! General Singlaub’s book gives the impression that the QRF actually made it to the scene of the fighting, which it didn’t. Talking with several other members of 3rd Plt. that night seemed to verify the story. They all said that they waited around at CP#2 for their Lt. to receive authorization from Capt. Bonifas to enter. [Memories of the JSA]
I highly recommend reading the entire article at the link, but I can only imagine the horror that 1LT Barrett experienced having North Korean soldiers take turns for an hour hitting him with an axe. You would think the QRF would have immediately responded once word was out that a US officer was missing and not wait an hour to respond.
Operation Paul Bunyan was the response to these murders which William Ferguson provides a first-hand account of since he participated in the tree cutting detail which in a way was funny to read:
0700 hours. We roll into the JSA. The KPA can officially see us. Normally, they’d just be getting ready to open up KPA#7 and 8, but today was planned to minimize contact and we arrive about 45 minutes earlier than usual, so those checkpoints aren’t manned yet. The KPA guards across the Bridge don’t see us until we are almost to the tree. PFC Exum pulls up next to CP#3 and we jump out of the back of the deuce, When we are all out, he backs it up onto the bridge, preventing any vehicles from crossing, The rest of the vehicles are right behind us, everybody un-assing the trucks before they even stop. The dumptruck with the engineers pulls up next to the tree, so they can stand on it instead of having to use a ladder. The ROK’s with us, who are “supposed to” be limited as we are, with just .45’s and axe handles, begin throwing sandbags out of their deuces, Under the sandbags they have M-16’s, M-60’s, and a few M-79’s.
Several f them head over to Exum’s deuce and stand around watching the KPA guards across the bridge. I’m on the detachment that’s facing north, and I can see the 4 guards over there frantically running about and trying to get a hold of a superior on the phone. I look over at KP#3, a North Korean checkpoint just outside of the JSA and situated up on a hill, and I can see the guards up there run outside with a machinegun and set it up covering us. About two minutes later, a bunch of the KPA guard trucks and several buses pull up across the bridge from us. It seems like they sit there forever, several minutes at least. A few of the ROK marines with us unbutton their shirts, showing that they have claymore mines strapped to their chests and they have the clacker (firing mechanism) in their hands. They start yelling and waving at the KPA to come on over. One of the ROK’s is laying on his side, on the ground, supporting his head his his hand, looking all casual and care free. Once in a while he lifts his head a bit and hits the rear tire of Exum’s deuce with the back of his fist, shaking the entire truck bed. Anybody who’s ever been on a deuce knows that’s not easy.
Somebody tells me LTC Vierra just gave an order on the radio and I look back. Our supporting helicopters rise up on line above the horizon, giving the North Koreans a perfect view of their amassed firepower. The line of choppers seems to stretch for over a mile. Upon seeing this, the North Koreans unload their vehicles and scatter along their side of the dike that is along the river. They set up in two-man groups, signifying that most of them are machinegun positions.
There I am, close to two million people stretched all along the DMZ and who knows how many tens of thousands within probably three miles of where we are at, nukes in the air (aboard B-52’s), who knows how much artillery from both sides concentrated on our location, crazy guys with mines on their chest yelling at the North Koreans to come on over, KPA less than 100 meters away with machineguns and AK-47’s trained on us, and me and my buddies are standing around with axe handles and .45’s. [Memories of the JSA]
Once again read the whole thing at the link, because more was done by the detail than cut the tree down according to Ferguson’s account. An example of how inflated Army awards are today, Specialist Ferguson for participating in the tree cutting detail was give a Certificate of Achievement:
Finally I want to give Bill Ferguson a big thank you for posting his memories during this timeframe.
I am a big supporter of radio programming into North Korea because it is a proven way to challenge the Kim regime’s propaganda machine within the country. Many defectors have said that listening to illegal radio programs is how they learned about the outside world and inspired them to defect. The BBC is now going to join the Korean Broadcasting System, the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia as producers of North Korean radio programming:
The BBC World Service will launch a daily radio program aimed at North Korea as part of its biggest expansion since the 1940s.
The Korean service will be transmitted in short wave in a bid to evade the communist regime’s government censors, the Financial Times reported.
It’s one of 11 new language services announced Wednesday by the British Broadcasting Corp. as part of an expansion financed by a $360 million funding boost from the British government. [Stars & Stripes]
This guy definitely went off the deep end. If he wanted to defect it would have been easier for him to fly to China and walk into North Korea that way:
On November 15, a North Korean defector known as Mr. A was caught while trying to re-enter North Korea in Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province. Following the incident, the relevant government departments including the police and the Ministry of Unification have made statements urging more proactive approaches toward helping defectors experiencing difficulties in settling down.
According to the police and the military, Mr. A was caught on CCTV near a fence under the jurisdiction of the 25th Division of Yeoncheon Province in the afternoon of November 15, and was arrested by a dispatched force. The military handed Mr. A over to the police as he is a civilian.
Mr. A is known to have defected from North Korea in 2001 and settled in South Korea. He is married to a female North Korean defector and had been working as an assistant driver of a forklift while living in Ulsan. During the police interrogation, he is reported to have said that as he was suffering from economic hardship and his marital relations had broken down, he wished to re-enter North Korea under the belief that life across the border would be better for him.’ [NK Daily]
So Se Pyong, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, gestures during an interview with Reuters at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva, Switzerland, November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
If a U.S. administration of Donald Trump withdraws troops and equipment from South Korea and secures a peace treaty ending war on the peninsula, it could lead to normalizing relations with North Korea, a Pyongyang envoy told Reuters on Thursday.
But for now North Korea will pursue its policy of “simultaneous development” of both its nuclear program and the economy, So Se Pyong, North Korea’s Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva said. “It will be continued.” [Reuters]
It appears that the North Koreans are taking a wait and see approach in regards to how they will respond to the election of Donald Trump:
North Korea has made its first indirect comment on the result of the US presidential election, one week after American voters went to the polls.
The first mention of Donald Trump’s victory appeared in a news report on a different matter entirely – and then only as a means to attack Pyongyang’s sworn enemy, South Korea.
Hidden deep down in a commentary calling for the resignation of embattled South Korean President Park Geun-hye, state news agency KCNA refers to her ruling Saenuri Party making use of a “Trump emergency system” to divert the public’s attention away from the current cronyism scandal threatening Ms Park’s leadership.
In the same report, headlined “South Korea leader ‘bound to get buried’ over scandal”, KCNA goes on to make its first mention of last week’s election, saying Ms Park and her followers were making a “bid to use even the US presidential election as an emergency measure” to escape impeachment.
Mr Trump is mentioned entirely without context, with no explanation to readers who or what “Trump” might be, and Korea-watchers will have to go back to June this year to find his last meaningful mention by Pyongyang. [BBC]
A candidate for a future Secretary of State under the Donald Trump administration says that there is “zero” chance of a pre-emptive US strike on North Korea:
John Bolton, considered a top candidate for secretary of state under the incoming administration of Donald Trump, said Wednesday the U.S. won’t launch a preemptive strike against North Korea, according to a South Korean lawmaker.
Bolton, who served as a top nonproliferation official under George W. Bush and is known for hawkish views on North Korea and other security threats, made the remark when he met with a group of South Korean lawmakers, according to Rep. Na Kyung-won of the ruling Saenuri Party.
Bolton even said there is “zero” chance of a U.S. preemptive attack on the North, according to Na.
“He said he’s well aware of how much price South Korea should pay in that case,” the lawmaker said. “He said the North Korean nuclear issue is being considered a top issue of concern due to the North’s nuclear tests and missile launches.” [Yonhap]
