Tag: North Korea

This week the ROK Defense Minister stated for the first time openly that South Korea should consider the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system:

Defense Minister Han Min-koo has echoed the need to consider the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense(THAAD) battery to the Korean Peninsula.

Appearing on a local television program late Monday, Han said that the deployment of THAAD to South Korea must be reviewed from a national security angle.

This is the first time that Han has openly debated over the missile interception system, fueling speculation that South Korea and the U.S. could open talks over the deployment in the coming weeks.  [KBS World Radio]

Here is how the Chinese responded this week to the increased speculation of Seoul considering the deployment of THAAD to Korea:

In an editorial Wednesday, Chinese state-media, the Global Times, claimed that the deployment of THAAD to the Korean Peninsula would hurt trust between Seoul and Beijing.

If anything is hurting trust between the two countries it is the Chinese allowing the Kim regime to continuously threaten South Korea with nuclear weapons, missiles and other deadly provocations with no consequences from Beijing.  The Chinese could build trust and likely stop the deployment of THAAD if they implemented the sanctions the US has been asking for in response to North Korea’s continuous provocations.

A water tank on the rooftop of a residential building in Suwon, south of Seoul, was found partially destroyed on Feb. 2, 2016, after what police say was a heavy bundle of propaganda leaflets from North Korea fell on it. Police said they retrieved some 30,000 leaflets that criticized the South Korean president and extolled the North’s recent nuclear test. Pyongyang has been sending propaganda material across the border after Seoul, in retaliation against the Jan. 6 nuclear detonation, resumed anti-North broadcasts though border loudspeakers. (Photo provided by the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency) (Yonhap)

https://twitter.com/RainerRippe/status/694398009837137920

https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/694541365074472960

It would not be surprising if this facility is in fact being built to manufacture hydrogen bomb ingredients considering the Kim regime’s state goal of building a hydrogen bomb.  With that said I think the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) may want to get a different acronym to describe themselves with:

North Korea is forging ahead with construction of a new nuclear facility believed to be designed to separate isotopes from spent fuel, such as tritium, a key ingredient for hydrogen bombs, a U.S. research institute said.

The Institute for Science and International Security said in a report released Monday that satellite imagery taken on Jan. 25 of the North’s Yongbyon nuclear complex shows “external construction signatures” at the new facility site, such as vehicles, construction material, and earth displacement activities.

“The precise purpose of this site remains unknown. However, it is of interest because the signatures visible through a historical analysis of satellite imagery are consistent with an isotope separation facility, including tritium separation,” ISIS said.

“This assessment is shared not only by an expert ISIS consulted but also by a government expert we consulted who has long experience in assessing activities at the Yongbyon site,” it said.

In September, ISIS first raised the possibility that the new facility could be an isotope separation plant.

If confirmed as such, the facility would separate isotopes from spent nuclear fuel rods from the 5-megawatt reactor, the North’s main plutonium-producing reactor, the institute said at the time. Though the reactor is not an ideal producer of isotopes, it can be used in that way, it added.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Chinese are attempting to stop the expected North Korean rocket launch by sending an envoy to North Korea which was likely prompted by reports that the ROK was considering deploying the THAAD missile defense system to Korea:

China’s top nuclear envoy made a surprise visit to North Korea on Tuesday, a news report said, amid rising tensions over the North’s fourth nuclear test last month.

Wu Dawei, China’s top delegate to the long-stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, flew into Pyongyang in the afternoon, Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported.

China is currently under international pressure to exert its leverage on North Korea to make sure Pyongyang ends its nuclear program.

Wu is expected to meet with North Korean officials over the Jan. 6 nuclear test, which Pyongyang claims was a successful detonation of a hydrogen bomb.

The test has raised security tensions in the region to a new high, with the U.N. Security Council pushing to adopt another sanctions resolution against Pyongyang.

South Korea appears to be inching closer to introducing an advanced U.S. missile defense system to counter the threats posed by North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Seems #NorthKorea satellite launch brewing for Kim Jong Il's bday. ITU notification submitted. Here we go

— Jenny Town (@j3nnyt0wn) February 2, 2016

Leave it to the North Koreans to come up with propaganda balloons this crude:

North Korea has been floating balloons over the border with a cargo of propaganda leaflets denouncing the United States as well as South Korean leader Park Geun-hye, calling her “political filth.”

Recently, the leaflets have been accompanied by genuine filth: cigarette butts and used toilet paper.

According to military and police sources Monday, Pyongyang began sending the balloons carrying leaflets starting from Jan. 12 to retaliate for South Korea’s resumption of propaganda broadcasts at the border earlier that week.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

Until the Chinese government changes its mind that a nuclear North Korea is a less a threat than a destabilized North Korea they are going to continue to stop harsh sanctions against the Kim regime.  This ultimately only encourages the Kim regime to advance their nuclear and missile programs and commit further provocations:

Apart from the more hard-line thinkers in Washington, virtually no one wants to have to deal with what might happen if concerted international action were to actually destabilize Kim Jong Un’s regime, however strongly they may feel about its human rights record, authoritarian government and militantly defiant attitude toward Washington, Tokyo, Seoul and anyone else it sees as a threat.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ran into that wall this week during talks in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. After meeting for more than four hours Wednesday, Kerry expressed his frustration with what the United States sees as China’s failure to do more to rein in Pyongyang, noting that “more significant and impactful sanctions were put in place against Iran, which did not have a nuclear weapon than against North Korea, which does.”

“All nations, particularly those who seek a global leadership role, or have a global leadership role, have a responsibility to deal with this threat,” Kerry said.

In response, Wang said China, which is North Korea’s most important ally, chief trading partner and a key source of economic assistance, agreed on the need for a new U.N. resolution. But he suggested Beijing would not support new penalties even though it condemned the Jan. 6 test.

“Sanctions are not an end in themselves,” Wang said bluntly. “The new resolution should not provoke new tension in the situation, still less destabilize the Korean Peninsula.”  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

https://twitter.com/freekorea_us/status/693434661138206720