Tag: North Korea

The below article has a number of charts showing the unclassified military capabilities that the North Korean military has.  Out of all the military equipment and  personnel they have their biggest threats I believe is their artillery due to its proximity to Seoul and then their ballistic missiles that can strike all of South Korea as well as targets off of the peninsula with chemical and in the future nuclear weapons:

The US Office of the Secretary of the Defense has released its annual report to Congress on North Korea’s military, and the findings are chilling. Included in the report are the following three maps, which outline North Korea’s military might.

North Korea’s ground forces make up the primary thrust of the rogue nation’s military. Nearly 70% of its ground forces are forward deployed to within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the South Korean border.

The ground forces are a mix of infantry corps, which are predominantly comprised of regular and light-infantry units. In general, these forces are housed in fortified underground facilities facing toward South Korea.

In addition to infantry, the ground corps also has large armor and artillery corps. Although corps make use of old technology, their forward-deployed nature remains a threat to South Korea. North Korea’s artillery, in particular, is worrisome as the long-range cannons and rockets are capable of hitting South Korea’s capital, Seoul, from over the border in the event of a war.

But aside from North Korea’s special forces, its ground forces are generally underfed, ill-equipped, and poorly trained.  [Business Insider]

You can read the rest at the link.

"Kim Jong-un is the executor of the legacy." Some of my notes noted by @BBC @EvanstheAirwave https://t.co/7gGcaJd6Ql pic.twitter.com/LFzVZ6xzHP

— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) February 24, 2016

I think the Kim regime is counting on China to bail them out of any serous economic troubles caused by increased sanctions in order to maintain regime stability:

 

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un regime may face resistance from its military should the armed forces grow disgruntled at its bungled economic policy under the communist party-centric politics, a government-commissioned report showed Tuesday.

Written by the Industry-Academy Cooperation Foundation affiliated with the Seoul National University of Education, the report warned the absence of economic progress in the impoverished state could weaken the governing legitimacy of the Workers’ Party.

The report, entitled “A Study on the Party-Military Relations of the Kim Jong-un Regime,” was commissioned by the Unification Ministry.

It underscored the importance of Pyongyang’s economic growth for the autocratic ruler to secure the people’s backing and legitimize his authority.

The relatively smooth transition toward the current Kim regime was a “result of the military’s relative concessions,” the report said, noting that under the young leader the center of power has shifted to the ruling party from the military.

But the military could call for reshaping the political order in its own favor if Kim fails to shore up the country’s debilitated economy and ensure sustainable military expenditures, the report pointed out.

“The stability of the Kim regime and party-military relations hinges on the country’s economic growth and continued military spending,” the report said.   [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

It looks like South Korean students will no longer be dressed in clothes made by quasi-slave labor:

Tens of thousands of secondary school students may not be able to wear school uniforms for the upcoming semester, as suppliers based in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) are unable to deliver the goods in time after the complex was shut down due to strained inter-Korean relations.

Those students may have to wait for up to two more months to buy new uniforms, while the new semester begins on March 2.

A day after South Korea announced the shutdown of the inter-Korean industrial park on Feb. 10, North Korea expelled all South Korean workers from the complex.

According to Mansun, a uniform subcontractor to Hyungji Elite, the largest school uniform manufacturer here, more than 80,000 sets of uniforms were left behind in its factory in Gaeseong.

“When we were forced out, we were not allowed to take our products with us,” an official from Mansun said. “Not only us but three other subcontractors for school uniform manufacturers were prevented from bringing the products, causing the uniform supply shortage.” [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

[Video Report] North Korean People’s ‘Water War’ because of water shortage #NorthKorea #DPRK https://t.co/8VZiB74oZr pic.twitter.com/ZiHvWmxHUa

— RimjingangNK (@RimjingangNK) February 19, 2016

The ROK government is making a good point in regards to why North Korea is allowed to remain a member of the United Nations when it does not comply with any of the UN resolutions leveled against the country?  I doubt it will go any where, but it is still worth bringing up:

South Korea has officially questioned North Korea’s qualification as a member of the United Nations during a U.N. meeting this week, citing Pyongyang’s repeated violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

South Korea’s U.N. ambassador, Oh Joon, raised the question during a meeting Monday of the U.N. Security Council, saying the North pledged to accept and to uphold the purposes and principles of the U.N. as laid out in its charter when it joined the U.N. in 1991, together with South Korea.

“Twenty-five years ago, the DPRK solemnly pledged to comply with the obligations of the U.N. Charter as a new member, but during the past decade, the DPRK has persistently violated all Security Council resolutions on the DPRK,” Oh said, according to video footage of the meeting. He used the initials for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“This is not only a direct challenge to the authority of the Security Council, but also a contradiction to both the letter and spirit of the pledge it made. This breach of obligation by the DPRK calls into question its qualification as a member of the United Nations,” he said.

It was the first time the South has taken issue with the North’s U.N. membership.  [Yonhap via One Free Korea]

You can read more at the link as well as over at One Free Korea.

That is what another expert, Nah Liang Tuang (PhD) is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, is recommending in this Diplomat Op-ed piece.  Professor Nah also believes that quiet diplomacy could get the Chinese to restrict oil supplies into North Korea as well to further pressure the regime:

Consequently, if any new UNSC resolutions are going to be as limp wristed as the previous four, it might be advisable for the U.S. along with its regional allies, Japan and South Korea, to begin actively targeting anyinternational bank accounts identified as being linked with Pyongyang’s elites, irrespective of their links to the DPRK’s nuclear or missile establishment. As in the case of the $25 million in North Korea funds deposited in Macau’s Banco Delta Asia, which was frozen in late 2005 at the behest of the U.S. on money laundering allegations, so too could action be taken against accounts privately held by Pyongyang’s upper crust. In this manner, Washington, Tokyo and Seoul could actively ferret out the slush funds and retirement accounts of Kim Jong-un’s inner circle, and any bigwigs who walk the corridors of power.

Once identified, American, Japanese and South Korean representatives could then request that these covert nest eggs be frozen while being investigated for money laundering, failure to comply with this request resulting in the boycotting of the aforesaid bank by the U.S., Japanese and South Korean governments along with the companies of these wealthy nations. Considering that Pyongyang was and probably still is involved in the counterfeiting of U.S. currency, counterfeit cigarettes, narcotics production/smuggling and other shady businesses, it would be a fair bet that many of these accounts are part of the money laundering chain in the Kim regime’s criminal enterprises. With resultant legal action taken against the offending accounts, and the realization amongst the DPRK’s elite that their financial reserves overseas are under threat, Kim Jong-un would have a harder time maintaining his rule as the DPRK’s oligarchical system encounters difficulty securing the welfare of those at its apex.

Finally, if quiet diplomacy with Beijing can secure Chinese cooperation, Kim Jong-un might be reminded of the Kim dynasty’s vulnerability with a short interruption in the supply of Chinese oil. [The Diplomat]

You can read more at the link.

The North Koreans keeping getting more and more lewd in regards to their comments about South Korean President Park Geun-hye:

 North Korea responded to an unusually harsh verbal attack by South Korea’s president against the North’s leader and its recent nuclear test and rocket launch with a characteristically colorful invective of its own Saturday, calling her policy traitorous and adding that Washington’s newly enacted sanctions are “laughable.”

The North’s official reaction — including the insult “senile granny” — was expected, though it took several days for Pyongyang to announce it through its state-run media.

North Korea regularly condemns South Korean President Park Geun-hye through sexist and violent language, saying recently that she lives upon “the groin of her American boss.”  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

This does make you wonder if for security precautions the North Koreans kept Kim Jong-un indoors somewhere or maybe he was just to lazy to show up for the picture?:

Recent photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to have been doctored, prompting speculation regarding Kim’s wariness about his personal safety as tensions rise on the peninsula.

The photographs that ran on the seventh page of state newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Friday show Kim surrounded by a large group of party officials, posing before the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported.

Kumsusan is also the mausoleum of the late Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder.

But something doesn’t look quite right.

On closer inspection, the main flag at the top of the building flutters in one direction, while a group of flags in the background flies in the opposite way, an unlikely phenomenon if wind was blowing at the time the photograph was taken.  [Business Insider]

You can read more at the link.

A ROK Drop favorite Park Sang-hak and other North Korean defectors have had security measures improved for them when the ROK National Intelligence Service (NIS) learned of specific information about North Korean terror and assassination attempts within the ROK.  In the case of Park Sang-hak the North Koreans have tried to kill him before:

Following the latest intelligence assessment that North Korea is planning terrorist attacks against the South, security measures to protect high-value targets including influential defectors have been beefed up.

The National Police Agency has reinforced the security detail for former North Korean diplomat Ko Young-hwan, vice president of the Institute for National Security Strategy of the National Intelligence Service (NIS). He was put under the highest level of monitoring, as the intelligence community obtained a death threat from the North.

Ko served in the North’s Foreign Ministry from 1978 to 1991. He defected from his post as the first secretary of the North Korean Embassy in the Republic of Congo in 1991.

“I was told by the police that they had obtained specific threats,” Ko told Yonhap News Agency. “I was normally guarded by two agents, but the number has increased to eight.”

The police also improved security measures for Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector currently leading the campaign to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border using balloons.

The North has previously assassinated a high-profile defector in the South. Yi Han-yong, nephew of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s mistress Song Hye-rim, defected to the South in 1982 while studying in Switzerland. He was shot in February 1997 by two assailants suspected of being agents from North Korean special forces. He died in a hospital later that month.

The NIS informed the government and the ruling party Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had ordered the country’s intelligence agencies to prepare for terror attacks against the South. In addition to threats on cyberattacks and attacks on public facilities, assassination and kidnapping of high-value targets were also feared.   [Joong Ang lbo]

You can read more at the link.