Tag: North Korea

Apparently Kim Jong-un does not like to be reminded that he is a young leader:

Former North Korean Defense Minister Hyon Yong Chol was executed for making disparaging remarks about Kim Jong Un, and the North Korean leader poses a greater threat than his father to South Korea, an analyst said Wednesday.

Chung Sung-jang, a researcher at South Korea’s Sejong Institute said intelligence gathered from a defector indicated the purged Hyon often referred to Kim as a “young person,” Yonhap reported.

Hyon also held several other grievances toward Kim and had criticized him for neglecting his duties, according to a Seoul spy agency report in May.

Hyon’s complaints eventually reached Kim, and they factored into the North Korean leader’s decision to eliminate his defense minister.

But Kim’s purge of Hyon was not an impromptu gesture that emerged from a personal vendetta, South Korean outlet Newsis reported.

According to Chung’s analysis, Hyon’s execution is part of Kim’s larger strategy of reducing a bloated military elite, a plan that includes the ongoing personnel changes and demotions taking place within the elite ranks of North Korea’s military.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link, but as always keep in mind that this analysis is based on defector testimony which is not always reliable.

The height of the “DMZ War” was between 1967-1972 where a number of provocations by the North Koreans killed dozens of US troops.  However, if there was an event that could be looked back at as the start of the DMZ War it would probably be the 1963 Jeep ambush.  In the early morning of July 29, 1963 three soldiers from A Troop, 1st Recon Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division were driving down a dirt road 50 yards south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone to relieve a guard post.  As they passed over a bridge they were ambushed by a 5-7 man North Korean squad.  They used small arms fire and grenades which killed the driver and caused the Jeep to rollover into a minefield.  The three soldiers in the Jeep did not stand a chance at being able to defend themselves from this cowardly ambush.  The below picture of the acting 1st Cavalry Division Commander Brigadier General Charles Pershing Brown sums up how angry American soldiers at the time had to be about this ambush:

The attack made front page news back in the US because it was the first time the North Koreans had launched an attack on the South side of the DMZ:

Here is how the Stars & Stripes initially reported on the ambush:

What I find fascinating about this incident is that the US responded to the North Korean provocation much the same way we still do today, with United Nations letters and harsh rhetoric that was so famously lampooned in the movie “Team America: World Police“.  A follow on Stars & Stripes article would provide further information about the attack to include naming the casualties:

The two soldiers killed in the attack were:

• Private First Class Charles T. Dessert, 19 of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania
• Private David A. Seller, 24 of Theresa, Wisconsin

Here is an article with David Seller’s picture on it that was sent to the Korean War Educator by his family:

Here is a picture of his flag draped coffin during his funeral in Wisconsin:

Here is another article with a picture of the other deceased soldier Private First Class Charles Dessert:

The wounded soldier from this attack was:

• Private First Class William L. Foster, 26 of Baltimore, Maryland

Amazingly Foster survived the attack despite being shot in the chest, hip, abdomen, and hand.  Doctors at a hospital set up a Kimpo Airfield were able to extract three of the four bullets.  The fourth bullet was lodged next to his spine so the doctors decided to leave it there.  What is even more amazing about Foster is that he fought and was wounded at the age of 15 in the Korean War as well:

Here is a picture of him as paratrooper in the Korean War via Getty Images:

He may be the only US soldier ever wounded in both the Korean War and the DMZ War.  I could not find out what ever happened to William Foster, but I hope he is living a long life right now to make up for the tribulations he went through in Korea as a young man.  He would probably be a fascinating interview if he is still alive and a journalist was able to track him down.

Anyway the next day after the attack that killed Dessert and Seller and wounded Foster, a four man North Korean patrol was found south of the DMZ.  The US and ROK forces were able to kill the four man infiltration team, but not before another US soldier and a Korean soldier were also dead:

The US soldier killed in the attack was:

• Corporal George F. Larion

Corporal Larion was a member of the 1st Cavalry Division and received posthumously a Bronze Star Medal for his actions during the engagement with the North Korean infiltrators.  Another soldier, Sergeant Abraham W. McManus also received a Bronze Star Medal during the same attack.

All of this combat happened just two days after the 10 year anniversary of the signing of the armistice to end the Korean War.  It was pretty clear that the North Koreans were using the date to send a symbolic message to the US much like they continue to use significant dates to signify provocations to this day.  Their provocations today have only been deadly against the Korean military, however as history has shown the North Koreans will attack US military members if they feel they can get away with it.  Obviously in 1963 and throughout the DMZ War period the Kim regime at the time felt comfortable that they could commit these provocations with little blow back due to the US being tied down in Vietnam and their support from China and the Soviet Union.  If the North Koreans today develop a reliable nuclear weapon capability would they feel confident again that they could launch attacks against US soldiers with little blow back?  Time will tell, but for soldiers serving in Korea today, this attack 1963 should serve as a reminder of what the Kim regime is capable of.

For more DMZ Flashpoints articles please click the below link:

It looks like the next North Korean provocation cycle will occur in October if these analysts are correct:

Construction to upgrade North Korea’s main rocket launch site now appears complete amid expectations in rival South Korea that a launch could take place in October, a U.S. research institute said Tuesday.

South Korean officials are predicting the North will mark the upcoming 70th anniversary of the ruling communist party with a “strategic provocation” – possibly a blastoff from the west coast site of Sohae from where Pyongyang launched its first rocket into space in December 2012, drawing international condemnation.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies says commercial satellite imagery taken July 21 shows Pyongyang has made quick work since spring of constructing a support building on the launch pad where rockets would be prepared. It has also apparently completed a moveable structure on rails, several stories high, that would be used to shift rockets or rocket stages to the launch tower.   (……………)

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency last week cited unnamed government sources as saying that North Korea has almost completed modifications at Sohae, including an extended launch tower, and that it would be used to fire a long-range missile bigger than the rocket launched three years ago. This would mark the Oct. 10 anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

“I’m sure we’ll have a grand celebration,” North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations, Jang Il Hun, told reporters Tuesday in response to a question about a possible missile test for the anniversary. He added, “We are free to do whatever we want.”  [Associated Press]

This would actually be a fitting tribute for the Kim regime’s 70th anniversary commemoration because Kim Jong-un has been very diligent in associating himself with the nation’s space program.  Kim Jong-un does not have the military or governmental credentials of his grandfather or father, but I believe he is trying to make his own mark as the person advancing North Korea’s technological prowess, be it smartphones, expanding intranet access, submarine technology, nuclear technology, and most importantly the nation’s space program.

I don’t know how much more blunt the Kim regime can be that it has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons:

Lately North Korea has been boasting their nuclear arms capabilities a bit more than usual and part of that might be from outside pressure following the Iran nuclear deal.

North Korea’s ambassador to China Ji Jae-ryong made it very clear on Tuesday that the communist country would continue with their developing their arsenal. In fact, any form of dialogue was unwelcome according to him.

“The DPRK (North Korea) is not interested at all in dialogue to discuss its nuclear program,” Ji said at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing according to Yonhap News Agency. “We are a nuclear weapons state both in name and in reality.”

Ji also mentioned during his statement that his country had already completed the development of a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can be mounted on a missile.  [Korea Times]

Like I have said repeatedly before, all the people calling for North Korean nuclear disarmament are wasting their time because they have no intention of giving up their nuclear weapons; why should they?

It looks like there is an update to the cult of personality going on in North Korea:

In North Korea, there’s no escaping the Kim family.

“Eternal President” Kim Il Sung continues to reign — according to North Korean lore — 21 years after his death. His son, “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il, died in 2011 but lies in state with his father in a huge mausoleum the size of Buckingham Palace on the outskirts of Pyongyang. And the grandson, “Great Successor” Kim Jong Un, is making sure none of his subjects forget about the family line — by strengthening the bizarre personality cult that the family has perpetuated during the past 60 years.

The latest outlet for Kimism: new statues. The regime has been tearing down statues of Kim Il Sung around the country — an act that must be require all sorts of hoopla since it’s a treasonous offense to even place a newspaper with a photo of one of the Kims face down — and replacing them with huge new statues of Kim Senior and Kim Junior.

“This looks like part of Kim Jong Un’s plan to solidify his hereditary succession, carry on his father’s mantle,” says Curtis Melvin, a North Korea researcher at the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, Johns Hopkins, who has studied the country’s geography extensively using satellite imagery. He has noted the steady replacement of the statues over time, thanks to his remarkable knowledge of the country through Google Earth.  [Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link.

WomenCross DMZ: Marching for peace, failing North Koreans http://t.co/5B4TekXHrT

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) July 27, 2015

I guess this means we will no longer see any defenders of the 1994 Agreed Framework considering one of the nation’s top Democrats has now disavowed it:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the recent landmark deal on Iran’s nuclear program grew out of “the failure of the North Korea experience.”

Kerry also said that Iran and North Korea are different, defending the Iranian deal during a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing as Republican senators raised concern the Iranian deal could fall apart like the 1994 nuclear deal with North Korea.

“Iran has also agreed to accept the additional protocol, and the additional protocol is an outgrowth of the failure of the North Korea experience, which put in additional access requirements precisely so that we do know what Iran is doing,” Kerry said.

The 1994 deal with North Korea, known as the Agreed Framework, required North Korea to freeze and ultimately dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for economic and political concessions. But the deal fell apart after the North was found to have been running a secret nuclear program in late 2002.

Kerry stressed that Iran is different from the North.

“Unlike North Korea, that created a nuclear weapon and exploded one and pulled out of the NPT (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty), Iran has done none of that,” he said.

The North Korea experience is “what gave birth to the additional protocol” in the Iranian deal, Kerry said.  [Yonhap]

I can still remember the good old days when Democrats claimed the failure of the Agreed Framework was all Bush’s fault.  How times have changed.

Sources: New, longer list of NK banned songs now circulating & being enforced. http://t.co/hGzvX6aiin

— Richard Horgan (@LiberateLaura) July 26, 2015

This photo published in the North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivering a congratulatory address during a national meeting of veterans in Pyongyang on July 25, 2015. (Yonhap)

It must have been a good exercise to warrant this much attention from the North Koreans:

North Korea leveled a verbal attack on the United States Saturday for South Korean artillery drills near the disputed border in the Yellow Sea.

In a statement, the Panmunjom mission of the Korean People’s Army claimed that the U.S. is behind the “military provocations,” as it seeks to maintain the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de-facto sea border between the two Koreas.

“The U.S. is hurling the puppet forces into ceaseless arms build-up and military provocations in the above-said waters in a sinister bid to preserve the illegal ‘northern limit line’, to begin with,” an unnamed spokesman said, according to Korean Central News Agency.

The NLL was drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War but the North has refused to acknowledge it.

It’s a “foolish intention to preserve the waning justification” for the U.N. Command, the North’s military said.

“These reckless military provocations of the U.S. will only precipitate its doomsday,” read the statement.  [Yonhap]