Tag: North Korea

UPDATE #2: It sounds like at least somebody in the South Korean government has been reading Kaplan:

China is pursuing the so-called Northeast Project to co-opt Korean history with an eye on claiming North Korean territory when the regime there collapses, a senior lawmaker quoted a Chinese leader as saying. Former National Assembly speaker Kim Won-ki quoted the remarks in the Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee on Thursday, saying they were made in a frank meeting with the high-ranking Chinese official.

The Chinese leader also reportedly said Beijing finds the Kim Jong-il regime and the political situation in North Korea very unstable. In any emergency, the U.S and allied army would move to North Korea?s border with China and face the Chinese People’s Liberation Army there, a situation Beijing would not tolerate, he said.

Meanwhile, Chinese attempts to distort ancient Korean history have this time taken it to the point of trademarking as their own the spot of the birth of the Korean people according to the Dangun mythology, Mt. Baekdu, by attaching the Chinese name, “Changbai shan.”

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UPDATE #1: Richardson has more analysis of the Kaplan article over at TKL.

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It seems like every six months somebody writes an article about what should happen in the event of a North Korean collapse. The latest person to take his shot at providing a theory of what to do in the event of a North Korean collapse is Robert Kaplan. Well now we know what Mr. Kaplan was up to two months ago at the DMZ. Coming Anarchy first reported on this, but you had to have an Atlantic Magazine subscription to read the complete article, however Robert was nice enough to actually cut and paste the whole article.

Basically Kaplan provides a good summary of the Korean situation and provides his recommendations about how to handle a post-Kim Jong-il North Korea. Kaplan believes that the Chinese are making a power play to control a post-Kim Jong-il North Korea by either militarily occupying the country or installing a puppet regime subservient to China. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to those following things here on the peninsula. I would actually be more surprised if China wasn’t making plans to exert some kind of authority over North Korea after a collapse. After all the Chinese are fearful of the masses of refugees that could pour across their borders not to mention the regional economic and military threat a united Korean peninsula could become a few decades after reunification to China. I’m also sure the Chinese wouldn’t appreciate a united Korea with US troops in it as well. So it is totally in their interest to establish conditions to where they will exert some kind of authority over a post-Kim Jong-il North Korea and prevent a unified Korean peninsula. However, don’t expect a collapsed North Korea any time soon. China will not allow that country to collapse until after the Beijing Olympics. The 2008 Olympics is going to be China’s coming out party and they don’t’ want anything like a massive refugee crisis or war on the Korean peninsula to ruin it. The scenario of China taking authority over North Korea is a very real one. China is already trying to claim ancient Korean history as their own so if they ever do occupy North Korea they can use their shared history as part of the reasoning for doing so. It worked in Tibet, why not North Korea too?

Kaplan also provides scenarios of a collapsed North Korea being occupied by US, Chinese, Russian, and South Korean troops. I have long advocated that the US should not send in any troops into a collapsed North Korea and that the ROK Army should overwhelmingly fill the country with soldiers to exert authority over the north before the Chinese or Russians can move in. If the US moves into North Korea that would give the Chinese and the Russians the green light to move in as well. In the interest of a unified democratic Korean peninsula the US and South Korea cannot have these two country’s occupy any portion of North Korea. That is why it is critical that South Korea quickly deploys it’s forces throughout North Korea and implement martial law and immediately begin humanitarian assistance to exert a sense of authority. North Koreans have been brought up since the day they were born to hate the United States and if the ROK Army is seen working side by side with the United States in North Korea this may give many North Koreans the impression that the South Koreans are the pawns of the United States and may be more inclined to wanting a Chinese occupation instead. It is critical that the South Koreans have to be viewed early on as the legitimate occupiers of North Korea by the North Korean population. The US military could be best used in South Korea to help the ROK Army establish camps and give humanitarian aid to North Korean refugees that may poor into South Korea. Even this has to appear to be South Korean led. Everything done in the early days of a collapse has to be viewed in the context of building the legitimacy of the South Korean government in the eyes of the North Korean population. Also the US Navy would be critical to blockade the country to ensure no weapons or WMD are being smuggled out of the country.

Another recommendation that Kaplan advocates is that the US should not conduct a military strike on North Korea in response to a missile test, which he is absolutely correct about. This is something I have long believed in though for slightly different reasons than Kaplan’s. Kaplan believes North Korea would retaliate with a limited artillery attack on Seoul and Yongsan Garrison. I don’t think he would do that because that would provoke a war because the automatic counter battery fire back at North Korea would just be tremendous which would ultimately escalate into full scale war. What I think is more likely is that North Korea would retaliate in more unconventional ways like terrorist attacks on subways, bombing bridges, shooting down civilian airliners, or small scale DMZ shootouts for example that would not precipitate a full scale war, but still inflict heavy damage on the South Koreans which the regime could in turn blame the US for and then use the attack on his country as an excuse for a complete nuclear arms build up. Kim Jong-il is desperately praying for a US air attack that the Clinton era history revisionists want George W. Bush to give to him. The Clinton era policy advice on Korea is as incompetent now as it was back when they were in power. Fortunately President Bush is not taking their advice and sticking to economic sanctions to wear down the Kim regime.

Overall, the Kaplan article is a good read for those who haven’t been following the situation on the Korean peninsula to closely and I think it is great he debunks the Clinton era policy makers recommendations to bomb North Korea. Ultimately reading the article I think it is increasingly clear that South Korea’s greatest national interest should be in maintaining a strong US-ROK relationship because South Korea has no chance of a reunified, democratic Korean peninsula without the United States to counter balance the territorial and hegemonic ambitions of China and Russia.

It looks like Kim Jong-il may have crossed China one too many times::

The Bank of China has frozen North Korea’s accounts at a branch in Macau due to Pyongyang’s counterfeiting and money laundering activities, it emerged Monday. It is the very BOC branch where South Korea’s National Intelligence Service transferred US$200 million to the North to guarantee the success of the first North-South summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and then-president Kim Dae-jung in 2000. U.S. pressure on the Macau-based bank Banco Delta Asia last year to freeze North Korean accounts reignited conflict between the U.S and the North.

Grand National Party lawmaker Park Jin said a former high-ranking U.S. official told him about the Chinese bank¿s decision when Park visited Washington last week. A South Korean government official later confirmed the account, saying Beijing could not turn down Washington¿s demand to clean up dubious accounts since it is well aware of the importance of improving financial transparency for the sake of trade. Analysts say that is one reason behind the recent rift between North Korea and its long-term ally over the North¿s missile tests.

US diplomats have been saying that China has been very helpful during the North Korean nuclear crisis and it appears behind the scenes they have if this latest crackdown is any indication.

This resolution is actually quite impressive that US Ambassador John Bolton was able to get both the Russians and the Chinese to back this resolution against North Korea:

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose weapons-related sanctions on North Korea in response to its flurry of missile tests earlier this month.

The resolution demands that North Korea suspend “all activities” on its ballistic missile programs.

It requires all U.N. members to prevent imports from or exports to North Korea of missiles and missile-related items as well as materials that could be used in weapons of mass destruction.

To avert a veto from China, the resolution does not mention Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which is used on a legally binding document. But Security Council members say the resolution is mandatory because of the way it is worded.

China and Russia had originally proposed weaker language, but agreed to a tough resolution. They expressed fears that Chapter 7 would lead to military action as in Iraq.

The real judge of this resolution is going to be how well it is enforced.  Remember Saddam Hussein had sanctions leveled against him by the UN and from first hand experience I can tell you that the sanctions did not stop him from buying lots of weapons for his war machine from the usual sources such as the Russians and even so called US allies like France.  So quite possibly the Chinese and Russians signed on to this resolution knowing full well it will only be enforced by the US and the Japanese only.

Here is what the North Koreans think of the sanctions:

North Korea’s envoy to the United Nations warned Saturday his country would be forced to take “strong physical action” should it be pressured on its “self-defensive” missile launches, protesting a resolution passed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council condemning his government.

Amb. Pak Gil-yon, addressing the council, said North Korea “totally rejects” the resolution and vowed Pyongyang will “go on with missile launch exercises as part of its efforts to bolster deterrent for self-defense in the future.”
He said the United States has “totally hamstrung efforts” for sincere dialogue on North Korean issues by applying financial sanctions.  He also accused the U.S. of threatening the North with military exercises targeting it.

At least these sanctions are something against North Korea, but don’t expect this resolution to solve the North Korea problem.  This resolution just makes it a little bit more difficult for North Korea to import parts for their missiles and in turning selling them internationally.  This just tightens the noose a little bit more on North Korea’s sources of hard currency and hopefully will ultimately make them more likely to return to six party talks seeking to make a deal over their nuclear program.  At least that is the hope, but I remain skeptical.

UPDATE #7:  Sitting here checking out the news sites before going to work and no new missiles have been fired yet.  However, the White House is saying that the North Koreans may fire more today:

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday that North Korea has additional missiles that could be launched in the next day.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also said more launches could be coming, the AP reported.

“We think they probably do intend to launch more missiles in the next day or two,” the AP quoted Downer as saying after he phoned North Korea’s ambassador to protest the launches.

Looking at the news sites cooler heads are prevaling in Washington however the news networks are continuing to hype military action over these missile tests.  War is good for TV ratings.

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UPDATE #6:  This is great, I come back from work and there is still missiles being launched and talking heads on TV demanding military action against North Korea.  Reportedly a seventh missile was launched just a few minutes ago and it lasted for six minutes.  I’m watching Larry King and he has Clinton era officials Sandy Berger and Madelline Albright trying to rewrite their failed history with dealing with North Korea.  They are complaining that President Bush isn’t using diplomacy and engagement with North Korea like they did.

Let me see the Clinton era government used diplomacy and gave the North Koreans massive amounts of aid and what did they get for it?  North Korea went ahead and secretly continued their nuclear program and fired a missile over Japan in 1998 not to mention the mini-sub incidents in South Korea that led to the deaths of numerous Korean soldiers and civilians.  This is what the Democrats consider successful diplomacy?  The North Koreans have actually been much better behaved during the Bush administration than during the Clinton era, thus the need by these people to rewrite history.

Now Bill Richardson is on the TV saying the US needs to continue the momentum of the six party talks.  Momentum?  What Momentum?  I think the US government will probably set up some further six party talks but I really think the government shouldn’t do anything that makes it appear they are giving into North Korean demands.  That just encourages them to be more belligerent.  Ignoring them and being cool about the missile test is the best way to go.  If anything this missile test weakened Kim’s hand because his big bad missile failed.

Oh God, Albright is now saying we need to request the UN to do something about North Korea.  Yeah that will scare the Norks, the big bad UN.  I must change the channel I cannot take anymore of these Clinton era people.

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UPDATE #5:  Here is my favorite international response so far:

Asked about the missiles, Han Song Ryol, deputy chief of North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview: “We diplomats do not know what the military is doing.”

Fox News is now reporting that NORAD is saying that a fourth, fifth, and sixth missiles were just fired..

I just saw some guy on Fox News advocating a military strike on North Korea because of this “in your face” provocation.  The news anchor asked what if the North Koreans in response nuked Seoul and the guy just said that we need to bomb all their military capacity in order to prevent them from being able to strike Seoul.  This is a perfect example of how little the American media understands about the military situation in Korea.  To take out every missile, rocket, and artillery piece that could strike Seoul would require a full scale war, which no one wants.  An attack on North Korea would not be like a bombing campaign of Kosovo.  If you attack North Korea you best be ready to fight a bloody second Korean War.

The CNN guy was just talking to the Seoul correspondent and was surprised by the shoulder shrugging reaction of the South Koreans.  When you have lived within artillery range for the last 50 years who would care about a missile.

Here is a BBC graphic of missile ranges if anyone cares:

Alright I have to go to work but this was enough early morning comedy for me watching the American media.  I’m sure other K-bloggers will keep everyone up to date on  this “threat to world peace” as quoted by CNN.  I think the greater threat to world peace was Italy advancing to the World Cup finals but that is a whole other story.

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UPDATE #4:  Here is what the BBC is reporting::

After news of the missile launch Mr Bolton said: “We are urgently consulting with members of the Security Council.”

Japan “strongly protested” North Korea’s move, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.

The BBC’s Charles Scanlon says North Korea has been feeling under pressure in recent months with the US refusing to negotiate on its demands over its nuclear plans.

This may be a way for North Korea to get attention and break the diplomatic log jam, our correspondent adds.

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UPDATE #3:  Yonhap News is reporting the South Korean reaction:

Th South Korean government confirmed Wednesday that North Korea test-fired at least three missiles.
But the government said it was still trying to confirm details of the missiles..
South Korea immediately called an emergency meeting of security-related ministers.

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UPDATE #2:  I’m watching CNN right now and they had some guy on there blaming Bush for not giving enough carrots to the North Koreans and not preventing the launch.  The CNN is questioning some guy about if North Korea can still nuke the US with a missile.  The “expert” says they cannot nuke the US yet. Isn’t that a stupid question to ask after their ICBM failed miserably just an hour ago?  The expert did say we need to see what the trajectory of the missile was to see if it was aimed at the US and react accordingly.

I think it is safe to say that North Korea is getting exactly what they wanted from this launch.  Attention and scaremongering from the US media in order to pressure the US government into taking them seriously.

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UPDATE #1:  Coming Anarchy has a post on the launch up and here is the Fox News report on the launch:

North Korea may have tried to fire a long-range missile, but it failed in flight, two U.S. officials told FOX News on Tuesday. Two non-guided, medium-range Scud-style missiles were also fired, North American Aerospace Defense Command confirmed.

Japanese public broadcasting channel NHK first reported the missile launches. The two Scud missiles landed in the Sea of Japan, the first about 360 miles from mainland Japan, NHK said. Japan’s Kyodo news agency said the missiles were believed to be mid-range Rodong missiles, and landed about 300 miles off the western coast of Japan’s Hokkaido Island.

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North Korea has finally test fired their stupid missiles and guess what, like I have been saying all along the long range Taepodong-2 missile failed:

North Korea launched a long-range Taepodong-2 missile early Wednesday in an apparently unsuccessful test that failed in flight, a senior State Department official said.

North Korea also tested at least two smaller missiles, U.S. sources told CNN.

Both missiles were launched from a site other than the one intelligence officials have watched for weeks ahead of the long-range missile test, a senior State Department official said.

I’m watching Fox News right now and they are saying the Taepodong-2 missile failed after 35 seconds of flight and of course the news programs are repeating over and over again that the US is not under attack.  Boy, what a relief (sarcasm).  What a joke, I still can’t believe people mostly Democrats have been advocating starting a war over this stupid missile.  I’m curious to what these people are going to be saying over the coming days.

I will post more as developments happen.

At least someone besides USFK remembers the sacrifice of Major Yun Yeong-ha and his men during the West Sea naval clash between North and South Korea back in 2002. The naval battle was a pre-meditated ambush and murder of these sailors by the North Koreans that was alledgedly order by Pyongyang in order to draw attention away from the World Cup that was happening in South Korea at the time.

The South Korean government has done everything possible to cover up this ambush and make excuses for the North Koreans in order to keep the Sunshine Policy going. In fact the government has boycotted memorial services held by the navy to remember the six murdered sailors:

A remembrance celebration to mark the second anniversary of the battle was held yesterday at the headquarters of the Naval 2nd Fleet in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, with 150 people including victims¿ families participating. However, the event was dismally lonely, and more distressing, the bereaved families despairingly poured out questions in full cry to this society and the government.

Did the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea launched an investigation to find out facts as it does now when the West Sea naval battle broke out? Who apologized for the death of our boys? People, irrespective of rank, have been successively rushing to deliver condolence for a man who went to a foreign country to earn money and died there. But who went to the funeral services of the six sailors who sacrificed their lives for the nation? Even the Defense Minister and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as government officials did not attend the services.

Here is a sample of how angered the families of these sailors have been towards the Korean government:

Kim Jong-seon, the widow of Petty Officer Han Sang-guk, who was killed in a June 2002 naval battle with North Korea in the West Sea, turned her back on her homeland Sunday and boarded a flight bound for the United States. Before getting on her flight, she said, ¿If the indifference and inhospitality shown to those soldiers who were killed or wounded protecting the nation continue, what soldier will lay down his life in the battlefield?¿

In the battle on June 29, 2002 — one day prior to the closing ceremony of the Korea-Japan World Cup — six sailors were killed and 18 wounded when a North Korean patrol boat that had crossed over the northern line of control ambushed a South Korean naval vessel. The bereaved have spent the last three years in an atmosphere where it was difficult to even grieve. Nervous government officials, worrying that the incident might cast a pall over the Sunshine Policy, even warned the families to please be quiet.

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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.”

The treatment of the families and the appeasement of North Korea after the murder of these sailors was the first indications of how poor a government the Roh Moo-hyun administration was going to be. Plus this incident is a perfect example of the hypocrisy of the Korean leftists. They have been protesting for years over the USFK tactical vehicle traffic accident that tragically killed two Korean girls despite compensation to the families and apologies up and down the chain of command to include President Bush himself over the accident. Yet not one word muttered against North Korea by these people when they murder six South Korean sailors.

At least the ROK Navy has the intestinal fortitude to remember the sacrifices of these sailors. The ROK Navy has been the ones holding the annual ceremony marking the anniversary of the attack plus they have recently named one of their newest destroyers after the senior officer killed in the clash, Major Yun Yeong-ha.

The ROK naval destroyers are only named after great Korean patriots (Hat tip: reader):

All Ahn Yong-Bok class destroyers are named after Korean patriots. The first vessel destroyer was recently named Ahn Yong-Bok (Hangul:¿¿¿) after a Korean patriot who protested over Tokugawa Shogunate‘s repeated claim over Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo/Takeshima) and made Tokugawa Shogunate confirm in writing that Liancourt Rocks were Korean possessions. The second destroyer is to be named Ji Deok-Chil (Hangul:¿¿¿), after Staff Sergeant Ji Deok-Chil, who sacrificed his life to save his comrades during the Vietnam war. The third unit is to be named Yun Yeong-Ha (Hangul:¿¿¿), after Major Yun Yeong-Ha who fell in line of duty during a skirmish between the Republic of Korea Navy force and North Korean Navy. The fourth destroyer is to be named for General Yi Sabu of Silla dynasty of Korea, who subjugated Usan-Guk (present-day Ulleung-do) by employing brilliant naval tactics. The fifth and sixth destroyers are yet to be named.

I wonder how this got by the Blue House? To bad all six destroyers weren’t named after all six of the deceased sailors.

The first group ever of North Korean refugees allowed asylum status in the United States has arrived:

Six refugees from North Korea, including four women who say they were victims of sexual slavery or forced marriages, have fled to the United States, a senator said Saturday.

The group is the first from North Korea to be given official refugee status since passage of a 2004 law that makes it easier for North Koreans to apply for such status.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, said the six refugees arrived at an undisclosed U.S. location Friday night from a Southeast Asian nation. He would not identify from which nation they came because of worries about security for their families and to avoid diplomatic complications with the country that sent them.

“This is a great act of compassion by the United States and the other countries involved,” said Brownback, a co-sponsor of the law. He said that the refugees’ arrival in the United States showed “the act is working” by making the refugees’ human rights a part of U.S. policy toward the North.

It is very common for North Korean women who are hiding secretly in northern China to become victims of sexual slavery and forced marriages because if they don’t agree to such practices than they can be turned over to the Chinese authorities which means deportation back to North Korea and from there the gulag.

Hopefully this will be more than just a one time event because this will give refugees hiding in China and other Asian countries another outlet to seek asylum besides South Korea.  This news is not going to make South Korea to happy though.  South Korea is actively trying to prevent North Koreans from defecting in order to appease the Kim Jong Il government in North Korea.  Appeasing the North Koreans is of more interest to the current South Korean government than human rights of refugees.

This is pretty amazing that this family actually made across the maritime border without being detected:

A family of five North Koreans, including two children, were found adrift aboard a small barge inside South Korean water across the eastern sea border, military officials said Sunday.

A South Korean coast guard boat spotted the barge carrying the North Koreans sailing across the tightly guarded border in the East Sea on Saturday night and towed it to Goseong, a port on the east coast, they said.

The North Koreans told investigators their boat had drifted for two days before striking a rock, the officials said.

The military and the Coast Guard were jointly investigating whether the North Koreans had an intention to defect, they said.

The investigation should be short, but I’m not sure what else a family of five on a barge would be doing out in the middle of the East Sea in the cold other than defect.

Prior Posting: Carter’s Deal

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With Carter going live on CNN to announce this deal the White House felt they had to circle the wagons with Carter in order to appear to the American public that they were still in control of the situation. You have to remember that at the time the Clinton administration was looked at as foreign policy novices after the fiasco a year prior in Somalia. The administration would have looked really incompetent if they were seen as contradicting against what their perceived negotiator Carter was putting out to the American public on CNN.

Just like that Clinton’s policy making team went from drawing up war plans to defend Korea, to deciding how to implement the White House’s version of a nuclear freeze in order to make it look like that the White House was in fact calling the shots, not Carter or the North Koreans. On June 17th in Pyongyang, Carter received the administration’s version of a nuclear freeze which was slightly different from what he had agreed to with Kim Il-sung on a day prior. Carter objected to the new conditions because he felt it was unlikely that the North Koreans would agree to them. However, the North Koreans quickly agreed to the White House’s version of a freeze thus saving the White House some face and still giving the North Koreans what they wanted.

The fact that Carter was so concerned about the North Koreans not accepting the White House’s version of a freeze just goes to show how little Carter understood of North Korean negotiation tactics. The North Koreans have long been masters at appearing to be overly emotional and for lack of a better term creating an impression of being crazy and unpredictable. However, the North Koreans are in fact quite rational with set goals and objectives they want to achieve and only created the persona of unpredictability in order to convince peaceniks like Carter that they were serious about going to war at a moments notice if they didn’t get what they wanted.

In fact I find it unlikely that the North Koreans would have immediately went to war even if the White House was successful in implementing sanctions. The North Koreans knew all to well that war meant the end of their regime and their way of life because they knew they had no chance of winning a prolonged war with the US and South Korea. For people like North Korea’s ruling elite the only thing they worry about is keeping the money coming in to finance their lifestyles and war was not the way to do this, but the North Koreans had to convince Carter otherwise which they were successful in doing.

When Carter returned to Seoul, South Korean President Kim Young-sam was not very agreeable with Carter’s deal because once again he felt that the future of South Korea was being decided by foreign powers without the consultation of South Korea, which those that know a lot about Korean history can tell you is a point that runs deep in Korean society. One point that President Kim was excited about however, was that Kim Il Sung had told Carter during his trip that he would be willing to hold a summit with Kim Young-sam in the future. This never did come to fruition due to Kim Il Sung’s death months later.

When Carter was making plans to return to the US he wanted to head straight to the White House to consult the administration. However, the White House was still privately furious at Carter and did not want him to go to Washington. Later the administration relented and Carter flew to Washington and met the White House officials but President Clinton decided to go to Camp David and only spoke with Carter by telephone. I think it is safe to say that President Clinton was still pretty pissed off at Carter for undermining his White House policies.

I think Clinton knew Carter had set a dangerous precedent in regards to dealing with countries with weapons of mass destruction by appeasing the North Koreans and in effect causing the world’s most powerful nation, the United States, to bow down and give into the demands of one of the world’s poorest and most destitute nations all in the name of freezing a nuclear program. What signal would this send to the rest of the world’s dictators? If you want respect from the US, build WMD. It is that simple.

Carter could care less though because he felt he had finally made his long lost legacy by bringing peace to the Korean peninsula, however as history has shown which I’m sure President Clinton knew would, the 1994 Agreed Frame Work collapsed in 2002 when North Korea was discovered to be continuing on with a covert nuclear program despite the agreement to build the light water reactors.

The North Korean nuclear crisis continues to this day but has recently been overshadowed by the more clear and present danger Iran which is unsurprisingly playing the same cards that North Korea played so well in 1994 that they only want nuclear energy not weapons. Much like Clinton in 1994 President Bush is preparing to refer Iran to the UN for sanctions which Iran is implying would mean war as well.

Wouldn’t it be something if Carter popped up in Tehran trying to broker another similar peace deal with the mullahs especially when it was the Iranians who ended his presidency in disgrace by sacking the US Embassy and kidnapping it’s diplomats. However, with Carter there isn’t a dictator he doesn’t like as long as it serves his own personal ego to attain the legacy he will probably never receive.

I wonder if the Iranian’s have a hotel room already booked for him?

Prior Posting: Jimmy Carter’s Interference in US Presidential Policy

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In addition to developing nuclear weapons the North Koreans were in the process of a slow but steady build up of forces on the Demilitarized Zone over the past decade. In 1994 the North Koreans had 65% of their military positioned on the DMZ compared to just 45% a decade earlier. The build up included massive amounts of artillery to include 2,400 multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and 8,400 artillery pieces. These weapons could pound the South Korean metropolis of Seoul with 5,000 rounds of artillery every 12 hours. This is why the North Korean referred to turning Seoul into a “Sea of Fire” during this nuclear crisis.

They had been building up to the moment for years and the time had come to push the international envelope. With the end of the Soviet Union and communism in China, North Korea was not getting the free aid and good trade deals that they were used to getting from the former communist block countries. With little economic might to fall back on, playing the nuclear card seemed like a good way to get international aid and North Korea was ready to play it.

Washington began a diplomatic approach to solve the crisis but was simultaneously preparing the military option. Apache attack helicopters and PATRIOT missiles were moved into Korea for the first time along with additional Abrams and Bradley tanks. Even with these reinforcements, 52,000 US casualties and 490,000 ROK Army casualties were expected in just the first 90 days if war broke out. The economic damage would total more than one trillion US dollars. The stakes were very high and any mis-step could lead to war.

Next Posting: Carter Enters the Nuclear Crisis

Today the 9th of December is the 38th anniversary of the 1968 death of a young Korean boy, Lee Seung-bok, who was murdered by North Korean commandos who had infiltrated into Gangwon province. On the night of December 9th the communists stormed into the small traditional home that the Lee family lived, in search of food and shelter. The family gave them what food they had and hoped that the commandos would soon leave.

However, things turned tragic when the communists asked the 7 year old Lee Seung-bok if he preferred North Korea or South Korea. The young boy said he liked South Korea. The commandos began to beat him, but he would not change his mind and before being killed he said the now famous line, “I hate Communists!” The North Korean commandos then proceeded to cut out the 10 year old boys mouth and then began to butcher the rest of the family after they tried to stop the killing of Lee Seung-bok.

In total the 7 year old Seung-bok, his 5 year old, brother Seung-su, his 2 year old sister Seung-ja, and his 31 year old mother Joo Dae-ha were killed by the communists and left to die outside. However, his older brother who was also stabbed and had his head smashed with a rock, did survive. Though seriously wounded he was able to stagger to the residence of his family’s closest neighbor once the commandos left and plead for help and warn others of the infiltrators. Also a family friend had arrived at the residence and was attacked by the North Koreans and stabbed in the leg but he was also able to escape and warn nearby ROK Army officials.

The now alerted neighbors immediately began to take up what crude weapons they had and began guard shifts to watch for the North Koreans until local authorities arrived. The ROK Army arrived and began to secure the area and search for the communist spies.  Unfortunately the murderers were never found and escaped, but the words of Lee Seung-bok served as a rallying cry in schools across Korea and continue to resonate to this day. However, these words resonate today not with an anti-communist message but as a myth created by the authoritarian government of then President Park Chung Hee.

So how did this change in perceptions occur? Of course by repeating a lie over and over again until people just assume it is true. This is propaganda 101 for every communist and that is exactly what they did in the Lee Seung-bok incident. Over the past 12 years so called “progressive groups” using names that actually sound legitimate, which in this case the pro-North Korean sympathizers called themselves the People’s Coalition for Media Reform, to disguise who they really are because they just can’t come out and say they are communists because then people would not take them seriously. This is the same tactic being used currently in the General MacArthur controversy raging in Inchon. Anyway this group accused the then Park Chung-hee government and the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reporters who covered the tragedy as fabricating the entire story and not even being at the scene.

This tactic of disinformation in the Lee Seung-bok case has been allowed to simmer in the Korean publics for over the last 12 years where now people take it to be the truth even though last year the Seoul District Court sentenced the leaders of the People’s Coalition for Media Reform to jail terms for fabrication and libel, but the damage has already been done in the publics’s perception of this incident.

It is amazing to me that such blatant disinformation about the incident would be allowed to simmer for this long even though there are numerous eyewitnesses including Lee Seung-bok’s own brother who survived the massacre who verify the accounts of what happened that night. The only reason I can see that this disinformation has been allowed to simmer in the public’s imagination for so long is because more liberal governments who have come to power in South Korea over the last 12 years have been eager to defame the former President Park Chung-hee who still holds a positive image with many South Koreans for turning the country from one of the world’s poorest countries and into an economic power house. There is also the dual reason of appeasing the North Koreans as well in the name of the “Sunshine Policy” even if it means destroying the image and sacrifice of this young boy.

If you want to see for yourself the story of Lee Seung-bok, I encourage you to check out the Lee Seung-bok memorial located near the Soksa interchange on Interstate 50. Just exit off of Interstate 50 on the interchange and head North for about 10 minutes on highway 31 until you see the memorial located to your right. The memorial is quite large and with a huge parking lot, so you can’t miss it.

The memorial is located near where the incident actually happened and includes an accurate replica of Lee Seung-bok’s home, his grave site, a military static display, a park, and a museum with a theater that depicts all the details of the Lee Seung-bok tragedy. The video they play in the theater can also be viewed online by clicking here. I checked the memorial out as part of a side trip while traveling to Odaesan National Park. The memorial is an interesting excursion if you are in the area and the ride up highway 31 features some really gorgeous Gangwon-do mountain scenery.