Tag: North Korea

If the report is true this just goes to show that when ever the collapse or final showdown with North Korea ever does come, it is going to even deadlier and messier then anyone wants to deal with now; that is why everyone’s foreign policy with North Korea is to just keep pushing the can down the road:

North Korea’s nuclear weapons capability may be larger and advancing more rapidly than either the United States or China had estimated, according to Chinese experts cited in a US news report.

A report by the Wall Street Journal says Chinese specialists on North Korea who met with US officials in February told them “that North Korea may already have 20 warheads, as well as the capability of producing enough weapons-grade uranium to double its arsenal by next year.”

US officials have warned over the past year about the North’s progress in “miniaturizing” its nuclear arsenal to fit atop a missile, as well as its gains in three separate long-range rocket programs. One such rocket is an intercontinental missile designed to carry a payload more than 5,000 miles, theoretically putting it within range of California.

Sigfried Hecker, a Stanford professor who attended the meeting in February, confirmed the contents of the presentation. Pyongyang allowed Mr. Hecker to visit in 2010, when he reported seeing a large uranium-enrichment facility.

“Some eight, nine, or 10 years ago, they had the bomb but not much of a nuclear arsenal,” the Journal quoted Hecker as saying. “I had hoped they wouldn’t go in this direction, but that’s what happened in the past five years.”  [Christian Science Monitor]

You can read the rest at the link.

I hope the US government vigorously goes after North Korean assets in order to pay this restitution:

A U.S. court has ordered North Korea to pay US$330 million in compensation to the family of a late Korean-American pastor abducted by the North in 2000 while trying to help North Korean defectors in China.

The Washington D.C. District Court delivered the verdict earlier this month, bringing the total amount of damages North Korea has to pay as results of a series of lawsuits in the U.S. so far to about $777 million, according to diplomatic sources.

Rev. Kim Dong-shik was taken by a North Korean kidnapping squad in 2000 from Yanbian in northeastern China, apparently due to his support for North Korean defectors in China. Kim is believed to have died the following year.

Kim’s family in the U.S. filed the lawsuit in 2009.

“This is an important human rights decision that will be utilized in all political abduction cases going forward,” said the Israel Law Center, known as Shurat HaDin, in a statement. The Israeli civic group filed the suit on behalf of Kim’s family.

Few expect North Korea to comply with the verdict and pay the damages, but Shurat HaDin is seeking to seize North Korean assets the U.S. government has frozen as part of a series of financial sanctions over Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction development and other bad behavior.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but you can read more at the Kim Dong-shik kidnapping at this link and this link.

Robert Farley who is an assistant professor at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce shares his views on how North Korea would try and attack South Korea:

The clearest path to North Korean victory in war depends on a quick defeat of South Korean forces, providing the United States and Japan with a fait accompli that Pyongyang will expect Beijing to back.

The North Korean attack would likely involve a classic 20th century combined arms assault, using artillery to disrupt RoK defenses and soften up positions (as well as create civilian panic), infantry to break holes in the South Korean lines, and mechanized forces to exploit those gaps.  The North Koreans could well add special forces (potentially deployed to South Korea before the initiation of hostilities) and regular forces deployed by tunnel to South Korean rear areas.

The Korean People’s Air Force is ancient, and has received no significant infusion of Russian or Chinese technology in years.  The force has very little counter-air capability relative to the Republic of Korea Air Force, and its fighters would find themselves easy prey for well-trained South Korean pilots flying sophisticated aircraft.  The KPA can expect very little ground support, either on the tactical or operational scales, and would likely struggle under South Korean air attacks.  [The National Interest]

You can read the rest at the link, but North Korea’s success during a war with South Korea relies heavily on the use of ballistic missiles to attack airfields and seaports in an effort to deny reinforcements from the US military.  Is it any wonder why the THAAD missile defense system is such a hot topic in South Korea right now for the US military and the North Korean stooges in South Korea are trying so hard to stop its deployment.

I think everyone except the Air Force senior leadership realizes it is crazy to think the F-35 can provide the same capability as the A-10:

The commander of U.S. forces in South Korea said Wednesday that the retirement of the A-10 aircraft will leave a gap in the ability to take out enemy tanks from the air.

Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti made the comment under questioning by House lawmakers and said he would compensate for the change by using air and ground forces differently if war breaks out on the peninsula.

The Air Force is pushing a controversial plan to retire the 1970’s-era close air support stalwart, which can shoot tank-busting depleted uranium rounds, and replace it with the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter, which remains in development and will have limited combat capability when it first goes into operation this summer.

“It would open a gap in terms of that aircraft with that specific capability,” said Scaparrotti, who along with other defense officials warned Wednesday of an increasingly belligerent North Korea.

The testimony comes a day after the Pentagon told lawmakers that the first version of the F-35 will not be able to outdo the A-10 Warthog and its powerful nose cannon on the battlefield.

The Block 2B set to got to the Marine Corps this summer will only be able to carry four bombs and not have any guns. Future variants are expected to have improved weapons but still face high development hurdles.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

Just in case anyone cares it was recently Kim Il-sung Day in North Korea:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid homage to his late grandfather as the country celebrated his 103rd birthday. Military and party executives and ordinary citizens vowed loyalty to the country and dozens of cannon salutes were unleashed.

At midnight, flowers were laid before the embalmed bodies of national founder Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to mark the “Day of the Sun,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The participants “consolidated their pledge to actively contribute to building as soon as possible a rich, powerful and thriving paradise of the people, an unparalleled strong country,” the agency said.   [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link, but for how long now has the Kim regime been promising to building a powerful and rich country?

I wonder if the Iranians were using this shipment as a way to test US willingness to strike a deal?

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, welcomes North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong, for a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014

North Korea supplied several shipments of missile components to Iran during recent nuclear talks and the transfers appear to violate United Nations sanctions on both countries, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

Since September more than two shipments of missile parts have been monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies as they transited from North Korea to Iran, said officials familiar with intelligence reports who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Details of the arms shipments were included in President Obama’s daily intelligence briefings and officials suggested information about the transfers was kept secret from the United Nations, which is in charge of monitoring sanctions violations.

Critics of the U.S.-led nuclear framework agreement reached in Switzerland earlier this month have said one major deficiency of the accord is its failure to address Iran’s missile program, considered a key nuclear delivery system for the Islamist regime.  [The Washington Free Beachon]

You can read the rest at the link, but if the Iranians saw that the US was allowing this ship to travel to Iran unmolested then that may have been a sign to the regime that the US was eager to cut a deal and overlook obvious sanctions violations. Anyone else have any other theories on the timing of this shipment?

A foreign runner is cheered by North Korean spectators during an annual marathon in Pyongyang on April 12, 2015, in this photo released by the North’s Korean Central News Agency. The marathon, which drew about 650 foreigners, was held as one of the events marking the 103rd birth anniversary of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung, which falls on April 15. (Yonhap)

So who thinks the North Koreans would actually being doing us all a favor if they detained these people?:

The United States on Monday reiterated a warning against traveling to North Korea as dozens of American and other activists plan to walk across the heavily fortified inter-Korean border in an effort to promote peace on the divided peninsula.

About 30 female activists from around the world, including American activist Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire from Ireland, plan to march from North Korea to the South via the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that bisects the two Koreas to mark the May 24 International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament.

They say they hope to help unite Korean families separated by the border, reduce military tensions between the two Koreas, and help ultimately end the Korean War by replacing the 1953 Armistice Agreement with a permanent peace treaty.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans won’t detain these people because they are useful idiots for the Kim regime.  As usual these people justify their actions by saying they are trying to promote peace.  It looks to me like they are more concerned about promoting themselves.

Should someone who willing goes into North Korea and does something stupid be considered a hostage?

A U.S. House lawmaker has introduced a bill that appoints a federal officer charged with overseeing efforts to win the release of American citizens held by hostile groups and rogue states like North Korea.

The Hostage Recovery Improvement Act (H.R.1498), introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) late last month with support from 11 co-sponsors, calls for the president to designate “an existing federal officer to coordinate efforts to secure the release of U.S. citizens who are hostages of hostile groups or state sponsors of terrorism.”

The “Interagency Hostage Recovery Coordinator” should be named within 60 days after the bill’s enactment.

While defining the term “state sponsors of terrorism,” the bill singled out North Korea as a country that should be considered a terrorism sponsor nation under the act, even though the communist nation is no longer on the State Department’s list of states sponsoring terrorism.

U.S. citizens have often been detained in North Korea.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

This wasn’t the typical way to premiere a film in a new country, but for North Korea this will have to do:

“The Interview” is headed to North Korea, but don’t expect it in Pyongyang theaters anytime soon.

CNN has reported that North Korean defector Lee Min-bok has been launching balloons filled with DVDs of the Hollywood comedy toward the Demilitarized Zone.

Lee described the movie as vulgar and not particularly funny. However, its cinematic quality isn’t the point, Lee told CNN.

“The regime hates this film because it shows Kim Jong-un as a man, not a god,” Lee said to CNN. “He cries and is afraid like us and then he’s assassinated.”

Lee launched the most recent batch of 80,000 DVDs, dollar bills and political leaflets – his fourth such launch – in the middle of the night Saturday near the Korean border, after checking wind speed and direction.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but previously North Korea has made a number of threats against refugee activists to try and stop them from launching these balloons.