Tag: North Korea

38 North has an op-ed in response to the recent article that a ROK Drop favorite Joshua Stanton contributed to on CNN.  The author Joseph DeThomas doesn’t believe that the targeted sanctions that Stanton advocates for will work:

A recent op-ed by Sung-Yoon Lee and Joshua Stanton highlights what should happen in dealing with North Korea. Unfortunately, for this long-time practitioner in the field of nonproliferation sanctions, it also highlights what cannot happen—or at least what cannot happen at an acceptable level of risk with the limited knowledge and the complex agendas that policymakers face.

At the highest level of analysis, Lee and Stanton get some key points right. The effort of multiple US administrations to negotiate away the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons has been a truly bipartisan failure. Four US presidents—two of each party—have tried and yet it seems the story of failure repeats itself in very familiar ways. However, the authors certainly over-simplify the story of those efforts. It is worthy of note that the four administrations came at the problem from very different perspectives and initially tried tactics that ranged from highly confrontational to being predisposed to engagement. Yet, all ended up more or less in the same policy dead-end. This might lead one to suspect that the problem with North Korean policy might not rest primarily with naiveté in Washington but rather with a single-minded Pyongyang that has a very limited diplomatic repertoire.

Lee and Stanton are correct that it is extremely unlikely that any set of negotiated incentives will ever induce the DPRK to give up its nuclear weapons. They are probably also correct that—if North Korea were to be coerced into giving up its weapons—it would require regime-threatening measures to be put into play. But, that does not mean that such measures can be created at this time. Moreover, it does not mean they should be implemented unless a careful calculation of the costs and benefits can be made.  [38 North]

You can read the rest at the link.

Basic Information

• Name: Jesse L. Brown
• Born: Hattiesburg, Mississippi
• Battlefield: Battle of the Chosin Reservoir
• Date: December 4, 1950

The Early Life of Jesse Brown

The US military has seen many African-American war heroes over the years that have in recent times finally been appreciated by the American public at large and even dramatized by Hollywood in movies such as Glory and the Tuskegee Airmen. However, the Korean War had its own African-American war heroes just like other American conflicts, but similar to most heroes from this war, they have been largely ignored. One of these heroes is US Navy Ensign Jesse Leroy Brown.

Brown was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1926 as the son of a poor sharecropper. His home had no electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. Young Jesse Brown growing up in 1940’s Mississippi also had to deal with more then his fair share of racism. However, despite all the adversity facing Brown he was inspired at a young age to be a pilot one day. Young Jesse’s love of aviation began when he used to stare fascinated at airplanes that would fly over his head as he worked in the cotton fields.

His dream of being a pilot motivated him to do well in school and he did so well in fact that he finished second in class at Eureka High School and was accepted into Ohio State University in 1944. This was a big deal for Brown to be accepted to Ohio State because at the time most African-Americans were regulated to attending black colleges. At the time less then 1% of Ohio State’s student population was considered black and Jesse Brown was one of them.

Following His Dream

Brown did well in college where he studied engineering and in 1946 enlisted into the US Navy ROTC program in order to pursue his childhood ambition of being a pilot. At this time there had never been a black US Navy pilot and there were still plenty of people in the Navy interested in keeping it that way. Brown’s own ROTC instructor at Ohio State used racial slurs against him and discouraged him from trying to be a pilot.

Captain William L. Erdmann gives the oath office aboard the USS Leyte to Ensign Jesse Brown.

Despite this Jesse Brown entered US Navy flight school in Pensacola, Florida. He was the only African-American in a class of 600 students. Brown worked hard at flight school and fought through adversity like he had his entire life and was rewarded by achieving his life’s ambition of being a pilot when he was issued his flight wings in October 1948. He had in fact become the US Navy’s first African-American pilot. The following year he would receive a naval officer’s commission as an Ensign. By this time the new Ensign Brown had married to his wife Daisy and shortly after had their first daughter Pamela. Life for Brown was good, but unfortunately this isn’t where this story ends.

Air Combat in Korea

In 1950 Ensign Brown was assigned to the USS Leyte. In October 1950 the USS Leyte received orders to deploy to the Sea of Japan as part of the United Nations response to the communist North Korean attack against South Korea. Ensign Brown was assigned to the 32^nd Fighter Squadron flying F4U-4 Corsairs while assigned to the USS Leyte. In the skies of North Korea, Brown went on to win air combat medals for his part in leading his aircraft section in air attacks against enemy positions in 20 air combat missions. His last mission would prove to be his most heroic of all.

USS Leyte at port in Sasebo, Japan in November, 1950.

In late November, 1950 the communist Chinese had launched their surprise offensive against the advancing UN troops in North Korea. US Marines and the US 7^th Infantry Division in eastern North Korea had found themselves surrounded and cut off by the advancing Chinese hordes in an area known as the Chosin Reservoir. On December 4, 1950 Ensign Brown’s section was flying reconnaissance around the Chosin Reservoir area looking for any targets of opportunity to destroy. It they saw any enemy troops or equipment they would strafe them. The Marines and soldiers fighting in the Chosin Reservoir were greatly outnumbered and their air superiority was the one advantage they had against the huge Chinese force they encountered.

Ensign Jesse Brown aboard the USS Leyte.

Corsairs from the 32^nd Fighter Squadron swooped down low and fast and strafed every enemy position they could find in support of the soldiers and Marines on the ground. It was after one of these strafings that Ensign Brown called on his radio to say that he was losing oil pressure. Apparently during the strafing one of the enemy’s guns had collected a lucky hit that knocked out his airplanes oil pressure.

The Last Fight of Jesse Brown

The area around the Chosun Reservoir is highly mountainous and thus Brown was going to be in for a hard landing and the condition of his airplane was going to make it only worse. Brown crash landed on the snowy slopes of steep-mountain at about 5,300 feet in elevation. His plane broke apart on impact and the his fellow Corsair pilots initially thought he had to have died in the crash. However, that was not the case as incredibly the hatch of what was left of his plane slowly opened and Brown started waving at the other pilots to send him help. Brown didn’t exit his airplane so this caused the other pilots to realize he must be either pinned in the wreckage or too injured to get out.

A 1950 image of Ensign Jesse Brown in his F4U-4 Corsair.

Brown’s commander Lieutenant Commander Richard Cevoli radioed in for a helicopter rescue of Brown, but in the meantime the remaining Corsair pilots had to do their best to protect Brown from the Chinese hordes that were swarming over all the hillsides in the area. The Corsairs circled Brown’s wreckage and strafed any soldiers in the area. After a half hour one of the Corsair pilots, Lieutenant Thomas Hudner decided to take matters into his own hands. Hudner became a good friends with Ensign Brown during the year they were assigned together on the USS Leyte. Hudner had been greatly impressed with Brown’s life story as well as his flying skills. Lieutenant Hudner just couldn’t let his good friend die alone on that hillside before the rescue helicopter arrived. It had been thirty minutes and the temperature outside was well below zero. Somebody had to help Brown or he would die before the rescue chopper ever arrived.

Lieutenant Thomas J. Hudner picture via Wikipedia.

In an attempt to save his friend, Hudner without asking permission from his commander, decided to crash land his own plane onto the mountain. Hudner flew his plane into the wind in order to slow his descent as much as possible and then crashed onto the same hillside about 100 yards from Brown’s crash site. Hudner’s slower descent by flying into the wind had caused him to land his plane without it breaking fully apart like Brown’s had. This is what Lieutenant Hudner had to say years later about the decision to crash his air plane:

The Navy Public Affairs Library records Hudner as having said in an interview with Jax Air News, the newspaper at the Naval Air Station at Jacksonville, Florida, “I knew what I had to do. I was not going to leave him down there for the Chinese. Besides, it was 30 degrees below zero on that slope, and he was a fellow aviator. My association with the Marines had rubbed off on me. They don’t leave wounded Marines behind.”

The Rescue Attempt

After the landing, Hudner ran over to Brown’s plane to check on his condition. He found Brown still alive but near death from the cold. His hands were completely frozen and he was shivering uncontrollably. He was also in extreme pain from the crash. His Corsair’s control panel during the wreck has buckled forward and smashed into his legs pinning him into the aircraft. Hudner gave Brown what extra clothing he could to keep warm and then proceeded to try to extract him from the plane. Hudner did everything he could to try and free Brown, but was unsuccessful. He ran back over to his plane and radioed that the rescue helicopter needs to bring an axe with them to help free Brown from the wreckage.

Matt Hall’s artist depiction of the crash of Ensign Jesse Brown’s Corsair.

To make matters worse smoke started coming from the wreckage which threatened to engulf into flames what was left of the plane. Lieutenant Hudner left Brown to try and put out the fire by throwing snow on it which he was only able to minimize, but not stop the fire with. About an hour after the wreck the Marine rescue chopper finally arrived and they had brought an axe with them. Hudner worked with the rescue team to free Brown from the wreckage, but even with the axe they could not get Brown’s legs unpinned from the wreckage.

It was approaching sunset and the Marine rescue team informed Lieutenant Hudner that their helicopter was not equipped to fly at night and that they would have to leave now. By this time Jesse Brown was barely conscious and the last thing he told his good friend Thomas Hudner was to tell his wife Daisy that he loved her. Hudner and the rescue team flew off and when Hudner reported back to his Captain about what happened he ordered a napalm airstrike on the crash scene of the two Corsairs. A few hours later the two crashed Corsairs were burned with napalm and the frozen body of Ensign Jesse Brown the first African-American Naval pilot was incinerated with it.

The Aftermath

Hudner after the failed rescued figured he would be reprimanded and his Naval career ended for crashing a perfectly fine Corsair aircraft in a failed attempt to save one man, a black man at that. However, Lieutenant Hudner’s command did something totally unexpected, they instead recommended him for the nation’s highest combat award, the Medal of Honor. Additionally the deceased Ensign Brown was awarded the second highest honor for combat pilots, the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Lieutenant Thomas Hudner is awarded the Medal of Honor by US President Harry Truman.

Lieutenant Hudner was awarded his Medal of Honor on April 13, 1951 by President Harry Truman during a ceremony held at the White House. Among all the mostly white Americans that had congregated at the White House to award a white man the Medal of Honor was a lone young, black female, Daisy Brown. She stood next to Lieutenant Hudner as he was awarded his medal where he relayed to her the message that her husband Jesse Brown wanted him to tell her, that he loved her.

Remembering Jesse L. Brown

Today the story of Ensign Jesse Brown is largely forgotten like most of the heroes from America’s Forgotten War. Despite this there are a few reminders of Jesse Brown’s legacy. In 1972 the a Knox Class Naval Destroyer was named the USS Jesse L. Brown in honor of the Korean War hero. Both Daisy Brown and Thomas Hudner were on hand for the commissioning ceremony for the ship. The ship remained on active service until 1994 when the ship was decommissioned and in 1998 it was sold to the Egyptian Navy. There are plans in place by the Navy to possibly name another ship after Jesse Brown in the future, hopefully this happens.

Daisy Brown and Thomas Hudner attend the commissioning ceremony for the USS Jesse L. Brown.

Besides the ship, Jesse Brown has had a barracks building at a Meridian, Mississippi Naval Base named after him along with a county tax building in his hometown of Hattiesburg. Finally in 1998 a book, The Flight of Jesse Leroy Brown was written with the help of Daisy Brown to further increase awareness of the short, but incredible life of Jesse Brown.

Recently there was controversy at the Cannes Film Festival when Spike Lee some what accused Clint Eastwood of racism for not including any black soldiers in his two films about the Battle of Iwo Jima. I have watched both movies and never even noticed that there was no black soldiers in them, however if Spike Lee wants to increase awareness about the service of African-Americans in wartime then instead of attacking Clint Eastwood how about he make a movie based on the life of Jesse Brown? The story of Jesse Brown is one literally just waiting for a Hollywood film to be made. With all the crap war films out there like Rendition, In the Valley Elah, Stop Loss, and the rest of the anti-military films being released by Hollywood, the story of Jesse Brown is one that needs to be told and one I am willing to bet that millions of Americans would line up to see at the box office as well.

A Black History poster featuring Ensign Jesse Brown and the destroyer named after him.

Ensign Jesse Brown was a true American success story. He overcame poverty and racial discrimination to follow his life’s dream to become a pilot. Through hard work and dedication he completed college became a Naval officer and a pilot. Not only was a pilot but he was a great one as well that excelled in combat and ended up paying the ultimate price for defending his country that had earlier treated him as a second class citizen. For his inspiring life story as well as his combat heroism during the Korean War, Ensign Jesse L. Brown is without a doubt a Hero of the Korean War.

Temporary lodging facility at Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi named after Ensign Jesse L. Brown.

You can read more of the ROK Drop featured series Heroes of the Korean War at the below link:

It appears that the US and South Korea has finally come to the conclusion that the country they need to be negotiating with to halt the Kim regime’s nuclear program is not North Korea, but instead China:

Since President Park Geun-hye expressed skepticism over the efficacy of the long-stalled six-party talks and called for five-party talks — excluding North Korea — last Friday, the allies and China seem to be split with Beijing in favor of keeping the six-party format intact.

The talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have not been held since late 2008. Park thus proposed exploring “various and creative ways” including holding the five-party talks to tackle the North’s nuclear conundrum, her aides said.

Washington has offered support for Park’s proposal for the five-party talks, while Beijing urged the early resumption of the six-party talks that it has hosted — a move that observers say displayed its disapproval of the five-way formula.

“The United States supports President Park’s call for a five-party meeting. We believe coordination with the other parties would be a useful step in our ongoing efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula through credible and authentic negotiations,” a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said in a statement to the local media.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

If anyone knows about high quality food products it is Kim Jong-un:

Kim Jong Un provided field guidance at a food production plant on Saturday, Pyongyang time, marking his first public factory visit of 2016.

Pyongyang’s state-controlled media outlet KCNA reported Kim called on factory workers at Gold Cup Athletes Comprehensive Food Factory to produce more gustatory and nutritious food products for the state’s athletes.

ADVERTISING

South Korean outlet Newsis reported it’s likely the plant was recently renovated and Kim was marking the new opening with an official visit.

Kim expressed satisfaction with the factory and said it had improved over the past year.

“Great improvements to the lives of the people will come, if everyone, like the factory’s cadres and employees here who make [North Korea] products that are the envy of the world, work with ambition and determination for the good of the [North Korean people],” Kim reportedly said.

The North Korean leader added cadres from other factories should learn from the plant’s example.

Pyongyang has previously stated the country’s top priority is to transform itself into an “economic powerhouse.”  [UPI]

You can read the rest at the link.

A couple of interesting Op-eds have been published recently.  The first op-ed published on CNN includes Joshua Stanton a ROK Drop favorite that blogs over at One Free Korea.  The op-ed emphasizes two key points

The only way to change this equation is to persuade Pyongyang that its regime preservation is dependent on reform and disarmament.

Washington may achieve this with a two-pronged strategy targeting Pyongyang’s systemic vulnerabilities: First, block the Kim Jong Un regime’s offshore hard currency reserves and income with financial sanctions, including secondary sanctions against its foreign enablers. This would significantly diminish, if not altogether deny, Kim the means to pay his military, security forces and elites that repress the North Korean public.

Second, delegitimize Kim’s rule in the eyes of his people and the world by engaging them through broadcasting and other information operations directed at the North Korean people, reinforced by a sustained diplomatic campaign to demand accountability for the regime’s crimes against humanity.  [CNN]

Here is probably the most important paragraph of the op-ed:

Through each of Pyongyang’s previous nuclear and long-range missile tests, U.S. policymakers have harbored the illusion that Beijing’s patience with Pyongyang must have finally run out.

But all Beijing has done so far is demonstrate a disingenuous pattern of diplomatic ambidexterity. China will not solve the North Korea problem for the United States until China sees the Kim regime as a financial liability, a threat to its own security or a threat to stability along its own border.

The Kim regime knows that they can survive any sanctions as long as the Chinese continue to believe that regime stability is in their strategic interests.  This is why they continue to conduct provocations like the latest nuclear test despite Chinese objections because they know they can get away with it.  China’s strategic interests in regards to North Korea much shift before any real change in North Korea can occur.

Inter-K signals don't come any brighter or clearer than replacing KYG with KYC. Except perhaps killing KYG first. https://t.co/LcQc98Ac6T

— Christopher Green (@Dest_Pyongyang) January 18, 2016

Here is another sign of increased ROK and Japanese military cooperation which will hopefully continue to build trust between the two nations.  For those that don’t know DSP satellites have infrared sensors that can detect heat from missile launches or nuclear detonations:

South Korea plans to set up a new military network to share text and imagery information on North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missiles with the United States and Japan this year, the Defense Ministry said Friday.

The military plans to install a Link16 data link, connecting its interface control cell with that of the United States Forces Korea, both in Osan, south of Seoul, showed the ministry’s 2016 policy plan reported to President Park Geun-hye earlier in the day.

The military tactical data exchange network will allow the allies to share text and imagery intelligence on North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities nearly on a real-time basis.

With the data link, South Korea will be able to gain access to U.S. information collected from its Defense Support Program reconnaissance satellite over the Korean Peninsula.

The move practically means South Korea will have the real-time military data link also with Japan, given the USFK’s Link16 connection with the Japanese military.

“Despite the U.S.-Japan linkage, information sharing will not take place without the agreement from each side and, even if it takes place, it will be confined to subjects on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles,” a defense official said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

What is with this idiots traveling to North Korea?  I feel bad for the family that has to deal with their loved one being detained by the North Koreans, but I do not believe the US government has any obligation to try and get someone released that voluntarily went some where that is notorious for detaining Americans:

North Korea announced Friday the arrest of a U.S. university student for what it called a “hostile act” orchestrated by the American government to undermine the authoritarian nation.

In language that mirrors past North Korean claims of outside conspiracies, Pyongyang’s state media said the University of Virginia student entered the country under the guise of a tourist and plotted to destroy North Korean unity with “the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation.”

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report that the student, whom it identified as Warmbier Otto Frederick, was “arrested while perpetrating a hostile act,” but didn’t say when he was detained or explain the nature of the act. North Korea has sometimes listed English-language surnames first, in the Korean style. The University of Virginia’s online student directory lists someone named Otto Frederick Warmbier as an undergraduate commerce student.

A China-based tour company specializing in travel to North Korea, Young Pioneer Tours, confirmed that one of its customers, identified only as “Otto,” had been detained in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, but provided no other details. Social media accounts for Warmbier show interests in finance, travel and rap music; he was on the University of Virginia’s dean’s list and attended high school in Wyoming City, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio.  [Associated Press]

You can read the rest at the link.

Seoul should pull the plug on Kaesong. It's failed in its objective to induce NK reform and behavior moderation https://t.co/UHdYaKIQdg

— Bruce Klingner (@BruceKlingner) January 18, 2016

N.Korean speakers broadcasting inward: S.Korean media https://t.co/aHBhs8u6k1

— Jieun Baek (@JieunBaek1) January 18, 2016