Tag: North Korea

It looks like some forestry personnel will be joining the Vice Minister Forestry who was executed earlier this year:

On August 26, 2015, Korean Central Television (KCTV) aired a program entitled, Let’s Go Forward in Patriotism and Strength in the Forest Restoration Battle. The broadcast criticized several Forest Management Centers, including one in North Hwanghae Province’s Songnim. “They set up sun shades carelessly and then do not even water saplings properly. As a result saplings have become withered and yellow,” the program alleged.

The broadcast went on to a scathing critique of the tree nursery’s poor management: “The spraying equipment also does not properly work […] No more than 30% of the trees are alive […] The soil is overgrown with weeds […] One of the trees still has not sprouted.”

It also condemned the management of the Kangdong County tree nursery. “Because they do not properly conduct fertilizer management and also do not follow water guarantee measures, the saplings turn yellow and wither away. In the vegetable gardens there is so much seaweed that it is difficult to tell whether they are fields of saplings or meadows.”

“The fact that saplings can not grow properly is not due to unfavorable climate conditions but the defeatist and ‘non-owner’ work attitudes of the Forest Management Center workers and tree nursery work groups, who half-heartedly do their work and quit,” the broadcast added.  [North Korea Econ Watch]

You can read more at the link.

At U.N., Pyongyang puts it to U.S. to agree to peace treaty, not armistice, to ease tensions | The Japan Times http://t.co/ZuUxKIxBZD

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) October 2, 2015

Shown in the picture released on Oct. 3, 2015, is a comparsion of satellite photos of the North Korean town of Rason along the border with China and Russia, taken on September 2013 (top) and 2015. (Google/Yonhap)

UPDATE:

https://twitter.com/CurtisMelvin/status/650825007451533312

The Chinese have indicated that they will attend the 70th Anniversary of the Workers’ Party celebration in North Korea which leads me to believe the the Chinese government must have convinced the Kim regime to not begin another provocation cycle:

North Korea is likely to go for an ostentatious military parade for the celebration of the ruling party’s founding anniversary later this month, instead of a much-trumpeted launch of long-range missile, according to officials on Friday.

North Korea is expected to celebrate the landmark 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Oct. 10 with unusual events to show off its military might as the country has often done on major occasions.

Launch of a long-range missile has been the most speculated event, but officials said North Korea has so far not shown any signs of preparations for the launch before the anniversary date.

Instead, the country is putting together a military parade at an airfield in Pyongyang, which may involve new types of weapons.

“Various equipment and troops like combat jets, artillery equipment and missiles have been deployed to the Mirim Airport in Pyongyang. The North is preparing a parade event in commemoration of the party foundation,” a government official said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

The Sunshiners are back and they just cannot bring themselves to admit that they wrong.  All the Sunshine Policy did was keep one of the world’s worst governments in power with money and food aid that in turn was used to develop ballistic missiles and a nuclear program that are now a threat to the rest of the world:

At symposium, participants argue that if conciliatory policies had been continued, inter-Korean relations wouldn’t have deteriorated

At an academic conference to mark the eighth anniversary of the October 4 North-South Declaration, several voices called for a restoration of the Sunshine Policy and other initiatives to improve inter-Korean relations. On Oct. 2, the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, Korea Peace Forum and Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) co-hosted an international symposium for the eighth anniversary of the October 4 declaration at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul.

At the symposium, James Hoare, a Chatham House fellow who was charge d’affaires and HM Consul-General at the British Embassy in Pyongyang, said that what South and North need right now is a return to the Sunshine Policy initiatives enacted by Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun from 1997 to 2007. He added that if Lee Myung-bak had continued such initiatives instead of abandoning the October 4 Declaration, it would have helped inter-Korean relations immensely.　Moon Jae-in, leader of the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, claimed that if the initiatives of the October 4 declaration had continued, the lives of 70 million people would now be “brimming with hope and prosperity,” while the Korean Peninsula “reached out to the international community as a whole.” “The past eight years of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, however, have thrown inter-Korean relations back to the dark ages,” he added, adding that if measures such as the special zone of peace and cooperation in the West (Yellow) Sea and economic reunification had been properly implemented, the nation could have focused its efforts on conquering problems like stagnant growth, the decline of the middle class, and youth unemployment. The October 4 declaration included agreements to establish a “special zone of peace and cooperation” in the West Sea, including the city of Haeju and the surrounding maritime region, as well as the launch of joint fishing areas and peace districts.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.

https://twitter.com/freekorea_us/status/649907352817266689

This just goes to show how important B-52’s based out of Guam are to supporting deterrence on the Korean peninsula:

The U.S. Pacific forces commander requested that an additional six B-52 bombers remain on Guam in August when military tensions were running high on the Korean Peninsula, according to a U.S. military commander.

Gen. Robin Rand, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, revealed the request during a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, explaining the roles the U.S. strategic bombers play in defending the country and its allies.

“Most recently, in North Korea, when there was a flareup back in August, we had our six B-52s that have been on a continuous bomber presence at Guam for the last decade nonstop, and we are in the middle of a swapout. Six were going in to replace the six that were there,” Rand said.

“And the PACOM commander immediately contacted the Joint Staff and Air Force Global Strike and said, ‘Could we leave those six additional B-52s longer? We really like the presence,'” he said, referring to Pacific Command commander Adm. Harry Harris.

Rand did not say whether the request was accepted and the additional six bombers had remained there.

In another example, the general also said that in 2013, B-52s and B-2s flew nonstop to South Korea and dropped training ordnance on a bombing range as a show of force against North Korea when the communist nation ratcheted up tensions with near-daily threats of war against the South and the U.S.  [Yonhap]

Analysis: International service unlikely to N. Korea’s new Wonsan Int’l Airport – https://t.co/qurUTOHqTk

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) October 1, 2015

Orit Kopel (R), CEO of the Jimmy Wales Foundation, speaks during a press conference, held by the American Human Rights Foundation, in Seoul on Sept. 30, 2015, to urge South Korea’s parliament to approve a bill to promote human rights conditions in North Korea. (Yonhap)

This is why the Kim regime agrees to family reunions, not because they actually care about reuniting their citizens with southern family members, but because they get money from it and it is an additional bargaining chip for them to use.  They are now using that bargaining chip in an effort to silence President Park’s criticism of their expected rocket launch:

North Korea lashed out against President Park Geun-hye’s speech at the UN General Assembly on Monday and threatened to cancel planned cross-border family reunions.

South Korea’s “reckless” and “confrontational” behavior means that “the rare reunions of separated families are at stake like being on a thin ice,” a spokesman for the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement.

In her UN speech, Park urged Pyongyang not to go ahead with what it claims will be a satellite launch but is widely seen as an attempt to test long-range missile technology.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.