The North Koreans continue to send propaganda across the DMZ likely in response to the activists who continue to send propaganda leaflets north of the DMZ:
What appears to be a North Korean flyer was found in the front yard of the National Assembly on Tuesday morning. It contains messages criticizing the South Korean government and its policies on the North. / Yonhap
A large number of North Korean leaflets were found in southwestern Seoul on Tuesday morning.
Yeongdeungpo police station said police collected more than 1,300 flyers as of 7 a.m. after they were bombarded with reports that North Korean posters were scattered in the streets of Yeouido as early as Monday night.
The flyers contained messages criticizing South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her policies on the North. One flyer said: “Park Geun-hye is the maid of the U.S. and a war maniac.
“(What we want is) Conversation, not battle. (What we want is) Trust, not distrust. (What we want is) Holding talks between the military authorities of North and South Korea.” [Korea Times]
Two high-ranking officials from the North Korean embassy in Beijing – including a man who had overseen leader Kim Jong-un’s health care – defected with their families last month, a source well-informed on North Korea revealed.
“On Sept. 28, a heavyweight representative in North Korea’s mission in Beijing – who came from the Health Ministry – escaped with his wife and daughter,” the source exclusively told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday. “This family made contact with the Japanese Embassy in China to begin the procedure to head to Japan.”
The official has relatives in Japan, which was why he chose to defect to Tokyo rather than Seoul.
As a high-ranking Health Ministry official, he would have overseen the Bonghwa Medical Center, which treats North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his family, as well as the Namsan Hospital and the Red Cross Hospital. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the health official is fleeing because he is getting blamed for the poor health of Kim Jong-un? It must be a stressful job trying to keep that guy healthy.
Here is yet another example of China allowing North Korea to evade sanctions to purchase aircraft with military utility:
One of the planes displayed during North Korea’s first air show last month was made in New Zealand with American parts, underscoring the difficulties of implementing sanctions when North Korea’s long border with China remains so porous.
North Korea put on quite the display at the Wonsan International Friendship Air Festival, held at the recently upgraded Kalma airport on the country’s east coast. Planes featured included a one-sixth size version of an American F-16 fighter jet and Soviet-era MiGs flown by female pilots known as “flowers of the sky.” There also was a two-hour-long aerobatic display by North Korea’s air force.
The air show is thought to have been inspired by Kim Jong Un’s fascination with all things aviation. The North Korean leader has been featured in state media piloting light aircraft and has a summer residence in Wonsan, where the renovation of the airport is thought to be linked to his love of flying.
Aviation enthusiasts have now traced one of the planes on display – a white, 10-seater P-750 XSTOL with a North Korean flag on its tail — to Pacific Aerospace, an aviation company based in Hamilton, New Zealand.
New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry is investigating how the plane ended up in North Korea, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Pacific Aerospace sold the plane last December through its Chinese agent, Beijing General Aviation Company, to a Chinese company called Free Sky Aviation, Damian Camp, the company’s chief executive, said in a phone interview. It remains registered with the Chinese civil aviation authority, he said.
Camp said he was “completely mystified” to learn that the plane had shown up in North Korea with a North Korean flag on it. [Washington Post via a reader tip]
You can read more at the link as well as view video of the aircraft at this link.
It is great to finally see a South Korean leader openly advocate for North Korean citizens to stand up to the Kim Jong-un regime by voting with their feet:
President Park Geun-hye issued a blunt message to urge North Korean soldiers and citizens to defect to the South, inviting criticisms from liberal politicians over her provocativeness while fueling speculations about conditions in the reclusive communist regime.
Park made the comment in a speech at a ceremony to mark Armed Forces Day on Saturday. In the speech, she addressed the latest security crisis caused by the Kim Jong-un regime’s nuclear and missile development and the South’s determination to counter it.
Park made perhaps the most provocative proposal by far to North Koreans. “Today, I want to clearly tell the reality that the North Korean regime is facing to the North Korean authorities, military and people,” she said, stressing that it is a misunderstanding and miscalculation of the young North Korean ruler to expect to achieve security and internal unity by demonstrating its nuclear and missile capabilities and escalating military tensions.
She noted that the international community is reacting differently from the past to the North’s provocations and the North is facing strengthened pressures and sanctions, while the negotiation stage has ended.
She, then, directly addressed the North Korean people. “We know the brutal reality that you are facing now. The international community is also seriously concerned about the North Korean regime’s human rights abuses.”
Promising that the South will do its best to end the North’s provocations and inhumane rule, Park said, “We will leave the path open for the North Korean people to find hope and life. Come to the free land of the Republic of Korea at any time.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
That is what Mr. Richard Haas from the Council on Foreign Relations believes should be considered:
The U.S. should try to dispel China’s concern about potential negative effects on its national interests in the event of North Korea’s collapse in order to win Beijing’s help in pressuring Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs, a U.S. expert said.
Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, also said in an article that should such persuasive efforts toward China fail, the U.S. would have to either live with a North Korea capable of striking the U.S. with nuclear missiles or launch military action to take out the North’s nuclear and missile facilities. (…….)
“One would be to live with a North Korea in possession of missiles that could bring nuclear bombs to U.S. soil,” he said. “The policy would become one of defense (deploying additional anti-missile systems) and deterrence, with North Korea understanding that any use or spread of nuclear weapons would lead to the end of the regime and possibly nuclear retaliation.”
The second option would be a military attack on the North’s nuclear and missile capabilities, he said.
“The danger is that such a strike might not achieve all of its objectives and trigger either a conventional military attack on South Korea (where nearly 30,000 US troops are based) or even a nuclear attack from the North,” he said.
The third option would be to launch such a conventional military attack only if intelligence showed North Korea was putting its missiles on alert and readying them for imminent use, but the danger in that option is the intelligence might not be sufficiently clear or come early enough, he said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I don’t believe we are at that point yet considering that other options such as aggressively sanctioning Chinese banks and businesses have not be used yet. Allowing South Korea to develop their own nuclear deterrent would be preferable to a preemptive military strike that could ignite a second Korean War.
