I am sure the Kim regime is under intense pressure from China considering how North Korean soldiers have crossed the border and murdered Chinese citizens:
North Korea has been planting anti-personnel mines alongside the inter-Korean border for the past couple of months to prevent North Korean soldiers from fleeing to South Korea, a South Korean official said Sunday.
“Under the order of leader Kim Jong-un, the military has gone all-out to prevent soldiers from going AWOL across the North Korea-China border,” the official said, adding the deployment of land mines near the inter-Korean border seems to serve a similar purpose.
Last October, the two Koreas exchanged fire after troops from the communist country drew near the border. No one was hurt.
A month later, a North Korean patrol approached the land border again, prompting warning shots from South Korean troops. [Yonhap]
It looks like the North Koreans are sending a message that they are improving their anti-ship missile capabilities:
North Korea fired three short-range missiles into the East Sea on Sunday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The communist North “fired three KN-01 missiles from its eastern border town of Wonsan onto Mayang Island (in the East Sea) between 4:21 p.m. and 4:47 p.m. today,” the JCS said in a statement.
The launch is presumed to be Pyongyang’s additional test-firing of the anti-ship projectiles after two rounds of the same tests were carried out in February and last month, one of the JCS officers said, noting that the cruise missiles flew some 100 kilometers.
“Our military has been closely watching North Korea’s movements, and has maintained a full-fledged posture against their possible provocations,” the JCS said. [Yonhap]
In this photo, exclusively obtained and released on June 12, 2015 by local radio station BBS, black smoke and flames billow from a bridge between the 43rd floors of Koryo Hotel in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on the previous day. The fire had broken out at the hotel frequented by foreigners, without any information being provided on casualties or property damage, reports said on June 12, 2015. The fire appears to have been extinguished, according to The Associated Press. (Yonhap)
This could just be China cracking down on North Korean soldiers coming across the border and murdering Chinese citizens:
Chinese border guards shot and killed one person who was allegedly trying to illegally cross from North Korea on Thursday, authorities said.
The incident took place shortly before 4:00 p.m. (0800 GMT) after the suspect attempted to evade arrest by border guards, according to a brief statement from the Helong city government in Jilin province. It said the shooting is under investigation.
China’s 1,416-kilometer (880-mile) border with North Korea is a key crossing point for refugees from the impoverished hard-line communist state.[Stars & Stripes]
This Council on Foreign Relations article makes the case that North Korea is preventing South Korea from being an affective middle power nation in regards to cyber security issues:
US Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Jaeho Yeom, President of Korea University, as he arrives to speak about cyber security and Internet freedom at Korea University in Seoul, Korea on May 18, 2015. (Saul Loeb/Reuters).
South Korea is one of the world’s most wired countries, which demonstrates the country’s embrace of cyber technologies. However, this commitment renders South Korea vulnerable to malicious cyber activities. As has happened in many countries, South Korea has scaled up its domestic cybersecurity efforts to address cyber threats, including the appointment in 2015 of a presidential adviser on cybersecurity. Despite increased attention on cyber defense and resilience, South Korea has not developed approaches that obviously stand out from equivalent efforts by other countries. South Korea struggles with the same problems as other nations, which means its domestic cybersecurity activities do not necessarily boost its middle power ambitions.
These ambitions also suffer because South Korea faces threats from North Korea that dominate South Korea’s cybersecurity agenda. Although North Korea is a cyber menace beyond the Korean peninsula, no other country bears the cyber burden Pyongyang imposes on South Korea. Indeed, in no other country is cybersecurity so interwoven as part of an existential security threat. This burden damages South Korea’s middle power aspirations in cyber affairs by highlighting South Korea’s vulnerabilities, forcing Seoul to prioritize North Korean cyber threats, and undermining the idea South Korea has effective strategies other countries can use.
South Korea’s close political, economic, and security relationship with the United States also affects its desire to be a middle power on cyber issues. A function of middle powers is to find ways to navigate international cooperation through the shoals of great-power competition. Middle powers should be—or perceived to be—sufficiently independent to be able to broker such cooperation. South Korea remains dependent on the United States in defending against North Korea, which colors perceptions of how autonomous South Korea can be on security issues. [Council on Foreign Relations]
You can read more at the link, but you would think that South Korea would be a great nation to learn from in regards to cyber security if they are constantly being probed and attacked by the North Koreans.
Via a reader tip comes a link to this State Department document from the minutes of the Washington Special Actions Group Meeting on August 18, 1976 after Washington policy makers became aware of the DMZ Axe Murder Incident. The document show the internal deliberations that Secretary State Henry Kissinger had with his staff, the Department of Defense, and the CIA in regards to formulating a response to the murders of two US Army officers by the North Koreans. Here is an excerpt from the document:
Secretary Kissinger: Well there are two problems as I see it. The first problem is that two American officers have been beaten to death. The second problem is to review the procedures we are following in the DMZ. Now, regarding the first issue, I agree with the CIA analysis. My impression is that it was a premeditated attack. There were some fifty other things they could have done to stop us from pruning the tree.
Now this letter Stilwell wants to send to Kim. Why should he send a letter to Kim? What standing does he have?
Mr. Habib: Well Stilwell is the Commander of the UN Forces and Kim is the Commander of the North Korean Army. Kim also signed the original peace agreement.
Secretary Kissinger: There have already been White House and State Department statements deploring these murders. Why do we now also need a Stilwell statement? Does he have the authority to make a statement?
Mr. Abramowitz: No. He needs Washington approval.
Secretary Kissinger: Well lets put that in abeyance. I have talked to the President today about this. He feels that some sort of strong action is necessary but does not know precisely what it should be. Now there are two things that come to my mind. A few weeks ago we turned off a B-52 exercise because it would be provocative to the Chinese. We might resurrect that exercise. The second possibility would be to alert all forces in Korea.
Adm. Holloway: We could go from DEFCON 4 to DEFCON 3.
Secretary Kissinger: What would that do?
Adm. Holloway: Unless we had a specific plan in mind or the North Koreans felt we had a specific plan in mind they probably would not react at all.
Secretary Kissinger: Well on that basis you could not threaten anything.
Mr. Abramowitz: Stilwell recommends that we finish pruning the tree.
Mr. Clements: I am in complete accord with that and think we should cut the God damn thing down.
Secretary Kissinger: I am in favor of that too but I don’t think we should do anything about the tree until after we do something with our forces. What is the meaning of the DEFCON alert stages?
Adm. Holloway: 5 is normal and 1 is war. Stage 2 means that war is inevitable and stage 1 is when the shooting starts.
Mrs. Colbert: If the alert were moved up to 3 how would the media and the U.S. people react to that in this campaign year.
Secretary Kissinger: That has nothing to do with it. The important thing is that they beat two Americans to death and must pay the price.
Mrs. Colbert: The North Koreans are looking for indications that they can create another Vietnam type mentality in this country. Therefore to disabuse them of this it is important to have the right kinds of expressions of support from the media and opinion makers.
Secretary Kissinger: What about resurrecting the B-52 exercise? The State Department hereby withdraws its objections to it. This is tow the best time in the world to run it.
Mr. Habib: It was a training exercise.
Mr. Abramowitz: Would it scare the Americans or the Koreans?
Mr. Gleysteen: There is another exercise planned.
Secretary Kissinger: But everybody already knows about that one.
Mr. Clements: Is it true that in the exercise we would fly the B-52s over Korea and then go back?
Adm. Holloway: Yes.
Secretary Kissinger: How long would it take?
Lt. Gen. Smith: We could get it going in 72 hours possibly less.
You can read much more at the link, but all these deliberations led to Operation Paul Bunyan where the tree was cut down backed by massive US firepower in case the North Koreans tried to retaliate. What else is interesting is that deploying B-52’s and other bombers is still something the US government does to this day to send a message to the North Koreans.
This month will be the 13 year anniversary of the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle that saw six South Korean sailors murdered by the North Koreans along the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea. What was probably the most disgraceful about this attack was how the then South Korean government did everything possible to cover up the attack to maintain the illusion of the Sunshine Policy. Even worse was that the deceased sailors were treated like they were criminals:
The father said, “My son is buried in the National Cemetery. But I’m going to take my son’s remains to my family burial site in my hometown.” Having watched the situation develop, he thought his son who was killed by North Korean soldiers was considered nothing more than a criminal.
Some parents said that they are more scared of people who consider the U.S. a bigger enemy than North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who killed their son. We lose courage to defend the country, when we hear that a wife whose husband fell in the battle is preparing to leave this country. Reading a condolence letter from the USFK commander to mark the second anniversary, the wife said, “The Americans remember my husband and his brothers-in-arms better than Koreans… Frankly, I hate Korea.” [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read more about this attack at the below link:
However, times have changed and now with Sunshine Policy exposed for the fraud that it was the Korean movie industry is releasing a movie this month heroically depicting the ROK sailors that fought in the 2002 West Sea Battle:
The forgotten sacrifices made by young South Korean sailors during a bloody naval clash with North Korea 13 years ago will be portrayed on the silver screen in a new film funded partly by citizens.
The movie titled “Battle of Yeonpyeong,” to be released next week, is based on the naval skirmish between the two Koreas on June 29, 2002, in waters off the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong in the Yellow Sea.
Six sailors were killed and 18 others were injured after a fierce exchange of fire, which was sparked when two North Korean patrol boats infiltrated the maritime border.
The occasion, which is known to also have caused some 30 casualties in the North, is called the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong, with the first battle taking place in 1999. “I’ve wanted to depict the ironic situation where the young sailors, who are someone’s beloved sons, fathers, and friends, were killed on one side, while others were overwhelmed by the 2002 World Cup,” Kim Hak-soon, director of the film, said Wednesday ahead of a press preview. [Korea Observer]
You can read the rest of the article at the link, but I look forward to watching this movie.
Eminent domain is something used in the US as well that forces people to relocate thus North Korea probably should not be criticized for forcing people to move for a public works project like a highway. However, the article is probably accurate that the highway is being built to make it a little more difficult to defect to China:
The North Korean regime has resettled some 10,000 households to build a 270 km highway section along the Chinese border, a source said last Friday.
“The aim is to prevent people from fleeing the North,” the source said. Construction of the highway, which runs from Hyesan, Ryanggang Province to Musan, North Hamgyong Province, is nearly complete.
The regime reportedly forced the residents out because the border regions along the Apnok and Duman rivers are notoriously porous, and defections and smuggling are rife. [Chosun Ilbo via reader tip]
