Tag: North Korea

Via a reader tip comes this news that the North Koreans decided to do their part and begin a provocation cycle during the UFG16 military exercise by planting landmines at the Panmunjom peace village:

The American-led U.N. Command in South Korea on Tuesday accused North Korea of planting land mines near a truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.

Much of the border, one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints, is strewn with land mines and laced with barbed wire. But South Korean media said no land mines had been planted in the area of the truce village of Panmunjom until North Korea placed an unspecified number there last week.

The U.N. Command said in a statement that it “strongly condemns” any North Korean action that jeopardizes the safety of personnel in the DMZ.

It said it wouldn’t speculate on why North Korea placed the mines there. Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean government official, said the North apparently planted the mines to prevent front-line North Korean soldiers from defecting to South Korea via Panmunjom.  [Seattle Times]

You can read more at the link, but it would be surprising to see a North Korean soldier defect at Panmunjom because of how specially selected they are for that mission.  Anyway according to the Joong Ang Ilbo the mines were planted near the Bridge of No Return:

Image of the Bridge of No Return via the DMZ webpage.

“The South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities detected last week that the North Korean soldiers were planting multiple mines north of the Bridge of No Return near Panmunjom,” the source said. “It is the first time that they witnessed the North’s land mine placement in that area since the Armistice Agreement was signed in July 1953.”

The Bridge of No Return is located inside the truce village, west of the Joint Security Area. The bridge crosses the military demarcation line between the two Koreas, and it was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the Korean War. The name came from the final ultimatum given to the prisoners of war before their repatriation, because they would never be allowed to return once they cross the bridge to return to their homeland.

“Under the regulations governing the truce, planting land mines is forbidden in the areas near the Panmunjom,” said a South Korean government official. “The guards are banned from carrying heavy weapons. The United Nations Command strongly protested to the North about the move.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but keep in mind that the Bridge of No Return was the location of the 1976 DMZ Axe Murder Incident.  August 18th was the 40 year anniversary of this incident which leads me to believe the planting of the landmines was a North Korean jab at the US in regards to the anniversary of this incident.

It would be interesting to know if the recent defection of a North Korean diplomat also included the confiscation of regime funds:

Defection by North Korean diplomats who have access to foreign currency holdings would make it harder for North Korea to bring in money from abroad which can eventually hasten the communist regime’s collapse in the event of a financial crisis, a renowned U.S. scholar said Monday.

The analysis by Stephen Haggard, professor at the University of California San Diego, reflects the speculation of growing instability in North Korea, as seen by recent defections of North Korean overseas workers who had played a part in repatriating hard currency to the cash-strapped regime.

Last week, the South Korean government confirmed that a London-based senior North Korean diplomat defected to the South with his family, which can be viewed as another sign of cracks in the North’s ability to keep its key people in check.

Seoul did not confirm whether the diplomat, Thae Yong-ho, brought foreign currency with him, but news reports said his escape may have dealt a blow to North Korea’s overseas earnings because he reportedly may have had knowledge of the foreign exchange operations of the Kim Jong-un regime in Europe.

In April, a group of 13 North Korean employees working at a North Korean state-run restaurant in China defected to South Korea en mass, spawning speculations that the sanctions-squeezed North Korean elite were feeling the pinch of United Nations’ sanctions on the communist country and opting to bolt.

“Historically, I’ve never thought of the collapse of North Korea in terms of political collapse, but I believe in the scenario … with respect to the possibility of financial crisis,” the professor said in a seminar arranged by the East Asia Foundation in Seoul.

North Korea’s thinning foreign currency income, caused by UN-imposed trade bans and the shutdown of its inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, left the country vulnerable to the possibility of a “sudden” financial crisis that can lead to a subsequent regime collapse, he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but as Mr. Haggard points out in the article as long as China continues to not impose UN sanctions on North Korea the Kim regime will likely continue to survive.

August 18 in North Korea: No defection news whatsoever; top story is Kim Jong-un at a hog farm pic.twitter.com/gaX9fygNiv

— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) August 19, 2016

South Korea warns of possible North Korean assassination squads @AFP https://t.co/FFrKTymICt #DPRK

— Sunghee Hwang (@sungheehwang) August 21, 2016

Yesterday the regime was claiming their diplomat was coerced into defecting and today they are claiming he is a criminal:

In its first official response to the high-profile defection, the North accused the South of launching an “anti-DPRK (North Korea) smear campaign and confrontation.”

“The Park Geun-hye group of traitors in South Korea carried out an operation to bring to South Korea a DPRK’s diplomat who fled his mission in London with his family for fear of legal punishment for his crimes,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English dispatch monitored in Seoul.

The KCNA did not identify Thae by his name but claimed the fugitive “was instructed to return home in June last for questioning as regards the embezzlement of huge amount of state funds, leakage of state secrets for money and rape of a minor.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

North Korea has intensified military actions around South Korea-US drills under Kim Jong Un. https://t.co/RRKKwT2BJK pic.twitter.com/8w1zn9j1Dp

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) August 19, 2016

Here is just another example of the fantasy land narrative in North Korea:

On Thursday, the anniversary of the incident, the Korean People’s Army Panmunjom Mission spokesman said that North Korea will “never forget the Panmunjom incident, which took place intentionally under U.S. imperialists looking for an excuse to start a war of invasion while permanently occupying the South.”

North Korea stated the U.S. version of the incident was a “cunning stratagem” to find a way out of its responsibility for the event, adding that the incident is a “serious lesson in history.”

“Only death lies for aggressors and provokers,” North Korea said in the statement issued on KCNA.

According to Pyongyang, the incident involved U.S. forces “pushing forward” South Korean “puppet guards” who “screamed in the direction of [North Korean] soldiers” then assumed “combat-ready positions.”

The South Korea and U.S. forces then brought in “heavy weaponry” and installed a “large surveillance tower.” Their “perilous military provocations tell all,” North Korea stated.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link as well as more about the DMZ Axe Murder Incident at the below link:

• DMZ Flashpoints: The 1976 DMZ Axe Murder Incident

Here are some more details about the defection of North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho:

According to multiple sources who spoke under the condition of anonymity, Thae physically met an official from the South Korean government in mid-July at a tennis court in Britain and said he wished to defect with his wife and two sons. The family realized that plan late last month, traveling directly from the United Kingdom to South Korea.

That rendezvous at the tennis court was the first time Thae had ever opened up to a South Korean official about his desire to defect, the sources said.

Steve Evans, a South Korean correspondent for BBC, wrote in an article published Tuesday that he has pleasant memories” with Thae and that “the signs were there” that the diplomat thought about defecting to South Korea.

“I recall he asked me about life in Seoul,” wrote Evans. “I told him it was a mega-bustling city, a world away from Pyongyang.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans are blaming the defection on coercion by the ROK with money, women and possibly even kidnapping his kids.

Another rat has fled the sinking ship:

A North Korean diplomat stationed in Britain left his post to seek asylum in another country earlier this month along with his wife and child, the latest in a series of defections by senior North Korean officials.

According to a source with in-depth knowledge of North Korea on Monday, the diplomat embarked on a defection journey “following a scrupulous plan” and was in the process of “landing in a third country as an asylum seeker.” In matters of defection, “third country” signifies a country that is neither North nor South Korea.

“The North Korean Embassy in Britain tried to find him, but it is said that it has failed,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I would think the North Korean regime will probably now consider not allowing these diplomats to serve overseas with their families to prevent defections.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/765932233500655616