It looks like North Korea’s activities helping the Iranian military is continuing to expand:
An open-source intelligence publishing group says North Korea may be helping Iran build new rocket-launch facilities.
IHS Jane’s said Friday that a new rocket-launch pad was spotted by satellite in the city of Semnan some four hours east of the Iranian capital of Tehran. According to the London-based intelligence group, analysis suggests that Iran has been collaborating with North Korea to build the launch pad.
Jane’s said Iran made public its “Simorgh” space-launch vehicle (SLV) on February third but did not make public the location of the rocket’s launch complex.
Jane’s was quoted as saying that the platforms seen on the new gantry tower resemble those seen on the gantry tower at North Korea’s new launch pad at Tongchang and a drainage pit 170 meters in front of the pad also mirrors one at Pyongyang’s new west-coast launch site.
The group also said that the first stage of the Simorgh strongly resembles the North Korean Unha-Two, with four clustered engines and nearly the same dimensions. [KBS Global]
You can read more about North Korea and Iran’s military cooperation here, here, and here.
I went on Google Earth and did a little exploring around the Semnan area in Iran and was able to located the launch facility supposedly constructed by the North Koreans:
This launch facility is located way out in a very isolated desert area:
Here is the lonely base camp that I imagine must suck to be stationed at:
Here is the actual launch site itself:
Here are two launch sites from the North Korea and judging from the Google Earth imagery they actually don’t like all that much a like:
Can any readers make out obvious similarities from the Google Earth imagery because I sure can’t.
This looks like it may be interesting read though the information provided by the defector is a bit dated:
A North Korean colonel who spent two decades going on European shopping sprees for his country’s rulers said Thursday the late dictator Kim Il Sung lived in luxury while many people struggled to survive in his impoverished communist nation.
Kim Jong Ryul, who spent 16 years under cover in Austria, also described how the “great leader” and his son and successor Kim Jong Il spent millions pampering and protecting themselves with Western goods — everything from luxury cars, carpets and exotic foods, to monitors that can detect heartbeats of people hiding behind walls and gold-plated handguns.
The colonel’s account — told in a new book by Austrian journalists Ingrid Steiner-Gashi and Dardan Gashi — shows the deep divide between the lifestyles of the North Korean leadership and their citizens, who sometimes must subsist eating tree bark, knowing they will be sent to labor camps if they criticize the government. [MSNBC]
In the late night darkness of the Korean DMZ on April 14, 1968 one of the deadliest incidents along this tension filled border would occur. That night four UN Command personnel would lose their lives after a deadly North Korean ambush of their truck. Here is how the Stars & Stripes would report the story:
ALONG THE DMZ, Korea — Observers at the scene of Sunday night’s bold ambush by Communist North Koreans who machine-gunned and killed four United Nations Command soldiers reached one conclusion: “I don’t see how anybody survived this.”
About 20 bullet holes could be seen in the shattered front windshield of the truck. Both headlights were blasted out. Three of the tires were punctured and at least 40 rounds had ripped through the truck’s rear canvas cover. Two UNC troops survived the attack, but were wounded.
A pool of dried blood, a severed wristwatch, glass fragments and discarded bandage wrappers were scattered around the ground near the truck.
A U.S. Army spokesman said parts of a Soviet fragmentation grenade were found.
Lt. Col. M. G. Engle, chief of the UNC Joint Observation Team, found several empty North Korean ammunition clips and numerous spent rounds of Soviet-made 7.62-mm bullets near the ambush scene.
Engle had arrived here to meet with a North Korean delegation at 6 a.m. Monday to investigate the ambush, but the Communists failed to show up. They had been asked by Rear Adm. J. V. Smith, UNC senior member of the Military Armistice Commission, to participate in a Joint Observer Team (JOT) investigation.
Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Herman A. Praeger, commander of the 8th U.S. Army Support Command Advance Camp three miles south of Panmunjom, described the machine-gun fire which cut down the relief guards as “deadly accurate and delivered from close range.”
Praeger, one of the first U.S. officials to arrive at the scene, shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday, said about 200 rounds of machine-gun fire came from both sides of the dirt road.
The three-quarter-ton truck, lights on and flying a white flag in accordance with armistice rules, carried three men in the cab and three others in the back under cover of the canvas top, according to Praeger.
The UNC guards were carrying .45-cal. pistols but it was not known whether they returned any shots, Praeger said.
The dead and injured were taken by helicopter to the 121st Evac. Hospital in ASCOM after the ambush.
The truck and guards were from the support element at the Advance Camp, not from the 2nd Inf. Div. as previously reported.
Of interest is this ambush occurred at the same time that the US was negotiating for the release of the crew from the USS Pueblo that had been captured back in January 1968. Additionally President Lyndon B. Johnson was meeting the next day with ROK President Park Chung-hee in Hawaii to discuss the USS Pueblo Incident and the sending of an additional 50,000 ROK soldiers to Vietnam. Arguably the North Koreans were sending a message about their resolve for US capitulation on the USS Pueblo issue and give Park reason to not send more troops to Vietnam.
April 16, 1968 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
August 17, 1968 edition of the Stars & Stripes.April 16, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
Conclusion
This ambush of the vehicle was one that followed a series of deadly North Korean provocations during the late 1960′s to include an ambush of Camp Liberty Bell, the Camp Walley barracks bombing, along with other attacks; most notably the Blue House Raid. This period of increased North Korean attacks would eventually come to be known as the DMZ War. This period of American military history is little known, but had important strategic consequences for the US military that unfortunately the four UN Command soldiers killed in the truck ambush would never live to see.
You can read more DMZ Flashpoint articles at the below link:
I remember in 1980(?) an incident at the DMZ that ocurred during the turmoil after Pak Chung Hee was assassinated. An ambush in the DMZ that was emphatically denied by the North Koreans, even though the evidence of spent shells and NK hats(?) were found.
It would seem that the KCIA at the time had planned the ambush to implicate the North and bring the US closer in supporting the new military regime in South Korea. The south was in tumoil at the time with riots and many killed in demonstrations,(est 200+) by the military, at Kwang Ju (?)
What does that have to do with this article? I don’t know, but it jogged my memory.
One of the best reads on this subject was written by then Major Daniel Bolger. He is now Major General Bolger and the CG of 1st CAV. His Leavenworth Paper Number 19, Scenes from an Unfinished War: Low-Intensity Conflict in Korea, 1966-1968, is well worth the read. It can be found at: http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/Bolge…
A writer sent a comment regarding Agent Orange drums being used/stored in ASCOM Eighth Army during his tour, I believe 1968/1969 he did not leave an E-Mail address, I would appreciate communicating with anyone who served at ASCOM who could help other Vets with similar Agent Orange exposure claims, I also served there from 1967-1969 and could help.
A writer sent a comment regarding Agent Orange drums being used/stored in ASCOM Eighth Army during his tour, I believe 1968/1969, I would appreciate communicating with anyone who served at ASCOM who could help many Vets with similar Agent Orange exposure claims, I also served there from 1967-1969 and could help.
my husband was in korea at the time 16 men died and they could not fire back they had no ammo in thier weapons. After this episode they were sent to the DMZwith a .45 and an m14.
I was home on leave waaiting to go to Korea on the night the truck ws ambushed. I saw the news report on tv. When I arrived in Korea I was assigned to JSA and replaced the Sgt. who was killed on the truck that was ambushed. There were firefights every night during that year along the DMZ. It was truly a forgotten war.
MIke Johnson
Sgt. E5
JSA Apr-Oct 1968
This story was distorted by the Army from the very beginning. I suspect that they wanted to minimize things due to the Viet Nam War having priority. There were about 10 or 11 people in that vehicle. Unbelieveably, the driver survived the initial attack and was later killed after begging for his life. One guy in front survived by playing dead. Another 2 in the back. SSgt. Robert Hawkins, A Co. 1/38 Inf. put together how it was done. 3 North Koreans, an L-shaped ambush with grenades and AK-47 fire. Hours afterwards they were trailed by blood hounds into Freedom Village. SSgt. Hawkins decided not to trail the NK’s into the village for fear of civilian harm.
My brother, LeRoy R. Jacks, Jr. was one of the surviving American soldiers that were in that jeep that day. There were only 6 people in that jeep, according to him. When the jeep was fired upon, the jeep stopped and the driver stood up saying “We surrender” and then they were immediately fired upon. My brother said that he got hit and one of the soldiers fell on top of him, which is probably what saved his life. He said they got close enough to take his gun out of its holster. He knew they were not taking prisoners so he just “froze” there. When he was able to finally come “home”, he showed us slides of the jeep and the clothes they had on. It was really a miracle that anyone lived that day. He also showed us slides of the “alleged” peace talks at Panmunjom where they were discussing the incident termed “The Pueblo Crisis” While they were supposed to be concerned with human lives, the two sides were trying to upstage the other side as to “which side had the higher flag”. Every day there were taller flags. This was nothing but “Trivial Pursuit” at a time when the lives of our servicemen were in jeopardy. My brother passed away 10 years ago of cancer. He was only one week away from his 55th birthday which was on July 29. He was never “proud” of the incident .
Your date is incorrect. It happened on 14 April 1968 not 17 April 1968. It happened on Easter Sunday morning. Look up Easter Sunday in 1968 and see what date it fell on. I remember the date because I was assigned to the US Army Support Group, JSA at the time. One of my worst days in the Army.
I WAS ON CHECK POST 3/THE BRIDGE/ THE DAY OF THE ATTACK WHEN THINGS BEGAN TO HAPPEN 1 A SGT E5 WAS THERE WITH A JEEP VISITING A FLUKE WHEN THE N KOKEAN COVERED 3/4 TON CAME ACROSS THE BRIDGE MY JOB WAS TO OBSERVE, LOG AND GUESS HOW MANY OCCUPANTS AT 25MPH TODAY THEY STOPPED THE JEEP CAUGHT THEM BY SURPRISE AND THEY DIDNOT LIKE IT I WAS HEADING OUTSIDE TO SEE WHAT THESE ASSHOLES WERE UP TO BUT WAS ORDERED TO STAND DOWN AND STAY PUT LOTS OF YELLING AND RUNNING AROUND OUTSIDE AND AN OFFICER DIRECTING TO SLASH ALL 4 TIRES WHICH THEY DID AND LEFT INTO JSA CALL TO MOTOR POOL SGT AND JEEP LEFT NOON CHOW RELIEF TRUCK /THE TRUCK/ WAS LATE I CALLED IN TOLD TO WAIT THELL CHECK 1 HR LATER CALLED AGAIN TOLD TO KEEP THE LINE CLEAR AND REPORT ANY THING STANGE? SOON THE TROOPS ARRIVED IWAS TOLD NOTHING REPORT BACK TO ADVANCE CAMP MY 45 TAKEN AWAY THEY WERE AFRAID OF REPRISALS AND BACK TO SEOUL IN 12HRS WE WERE TOLD NOTHING NEVER QUESTIONED AND I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT WAS COVERED TILL NOW AND THE INTERNET I FIRMLY BELIVE THE GUNS AND THE MEN THAT KILLED OUR TROOPS WERE IN THE BACK OF THAT TRUCK
North Korean human rights activist Park Sang-hak wasn’t lying, he was back out there today sending up his propaganda balloons into North Korea:
Civic groups fly anti-N. Korea leaflets
Dec. 3, PAJU, South Korea — Members of conservative civic groups fly balloons carrying anti-North Korea leaflets in the South Korean border town of Paju, north of Seoul, on Dec. 3. In the leaflets, the civic groups urged the North to repatriate the hundreds of South Koreans abducted by North Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953. (Yonhap)
North Korea has been complaining for months about the balloons filled with anti-Kim Jong-il propaganda leaflets that a coalition of North Korean defector, Christian, abductee, and Christian groups have been sending over the DMZ and into North Korea. North Korea has even threatened war over the leaflets showing how irritated the regime is with the leaflets which is probably a sign the leaflets are having its desired effect of undermining the regime. Well now the usual suspects have mobilized to try and stop these groups from sending their leaflets into North Korea:
South Korean groups sent propaganda leaflets critical of North Korea over the strictly controlled Demilitarized Zone on Tuesday as they scuffled with liberal activists who desperately tried to stop the launch.
The groups sent off a large balloon carrying 10,000 leaflets at a spot near the west coast, a day after North Korea tightened border traffic with South Korea in an initial retaliatory step against Seoul’s hardline policy toward Pyongyang.
The groups had prepared ten balloons to carry 100,000 leaflets but managed to send just one after clashing with dozens of liberal activists looking to prevent further damage to inter-Korean relations. The opposing members stole the remaining leaflets from a truck parked nearby.
One activist was hospitalized and another was taken into police custody, according to police officials.
Rarely seen since the Cold War, leaflets have recently emerged as a divisive issue between the two Koreas. Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have worsened since the launch of conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in February. (…)
North Korea has repeatedly threatened to cut all ties with Seoul if it fails to stop the conservative activists from sending the leaflets. Seoul also asked them to stop in order not to further enrage the North.
Pyongyang has mobilized soldiers en mass in a campaign to collect leaflets that have fallen on western coastal towns near the border, Washington-based Radio Free Asia reported earlier in the day, citing Chinese sources well-informed on North Korea.
Experts say the leaflets have struck a nerve because they often contain information on the 66-year-old Kim’s reported health problems, of which most North Koreans are likely unaware. (…)
Many of the leaflets have repeatedly criticized Kim for enjoying a lavish life while his people suffering from chronic food shortages, and urge North Koreans to rise up against the “killer whose death is approaching.”
The leaflets sometimes are mixed with U.S. dollar bills or Chinese yuan notes to entice North Koreans to pick them up. In the impoverished nation, one can live a month on one dollar, according to Park Sang-hak, a North Korea defector whose group has been sending the leaflets for about four years. [Yonhap]
It is interesting that soldiers are having to scour the countryside to look for balloons because it means the regime does not trust the population to turn in the leaflets in fear they may actually read them.
There is a great article in the Washington Post that tells more about one of the leaders sending out these propaganda leaflets. Park Sang-hak is a North Korean defector that actually worked in a propaganda department for North Korea before defecting. His hatred of Kim Jong-il is motivated by the fact his two uncles were killed and his fiance’ sexually abused because of his defection. Here is what Park had to say about the leftist groups that assaulted him:
It took more than an hour of pushing and shoving, and the help of a phalanx of South Korean policemen, before Park and others could launch a single balloon.
After it had soared into a cloudless sky and was carried north by the breeze, Park taunted his adversaries.
“You are the running dogs of Kim Jong Il!” he shouted. “You are trash!”
“You are afraid of unification!” they shouted back.
Park replied, “I am going to launch balloons every day, if the weather permits.”
Ironically if anyone is anti-unification it is the leftist groups that demand the South Korean government continue to subsidize Kim Jong-il’s lifestyle. I think Park would do well to contact some of the veteran organizations that protected the MacArthur Statue in Incheon when these leftists groups tried to tear it down a few years back. I’m sure there is nothing more satisfying for some of these retired ROK Marine Corps types then getting the chance to bash some of these leftist groups heads in.
There have been many flashpoints on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) over the years with patrols being ambushed and even an American barracks being bombed, but there has probably never been a North Korean attack as brazen as the ambush on Camp Liberty Bell. On the afternoon of August 28, 1967 soldiers of Charlie Company 76th Engineer Battalion had just returned to Camp Liberty Bell for dinner after a hard day of working on improving the main road that travels north to the Korean armistice village of Panmunjom located 2.3 kilometers north of the camp.
The August 31, 1967 edition of the Pacific Stars & Stripes newspaper.
Chow Hall Ambush
Some soldiers were sitting down on tables eating while many others were still waiting in line to get their food. As the soldiers went through their daily ritual to get their chow shots suddenly rang out and bullets smashed into the chow hall tent. Soldiers ran for cover and others turned over the chow hall tables in hopes they would provide adequate cover from the incoming bullets.
Hill overlooking Camp Liberty Bell where North Korean commandos attacked the camp in 1967. Image via the 2ID Association website.
The soldiers outside also raced for cover and spotted the gunmen on a 100 meter hill overlooking Camp Liberty Bell firing down on the American soldiers. The camp’s quick reaction force (QRF) raced to prepare a counterattack against the enemy. With shots still ringing out, the quick reaction force advanced up a road leading to the top of the hill to intercept the gunmen. The QRF took two casualties as they advanced up the road when one of the American soldiers stepped on a landmine planted by the North Korean commandos. By the time the QRF was able to get to the top of the hill the commandos had fled. The QRF estimates that they saw about 9-12 North Korean commandos on the hill and found over 1,000 rounds of unspent Soviet 7.62 ammo left at the firing position on the hill. The QRF followed the commandos’ tracks leading from the position and determined they had successfully crossed back over the DMZ to North Korea.
In this modern day Google Earth image you can see the hill that rises above the current Camp Bonifas where Camp Liberty Bell at the time time of the attack was located. The proximity of the DMZ fence made escape very easy for the North Korean commandos.
The aftermath of the attack saw Camp Liberty Bell with pools of blood splattered across the compound mixed with the shouts of pain and suffering from the wounded. Unfortunately three soldiers could not shout out in pain because they lied dead on the ground after the North Korean attack. The initial dead included one American, Specialist Michael Vogel and two Korean KATUSA soldiers that died in the unprovoked attack. Private First Class Curtis Rivers was seriously wounded and would later die of his wounds raising the death toll further.
August 31, 1967 edition of the Pacific Stars & Stripes.
Attack Aftermath
The attack was considered the most serious attack since the signing of the Korean armistice agreement in 1953 that involved an area south of the demilitarized zone. The attack followed two North Korean ambushes launched on August 10, 1967 that killed three US soldiers.
The attack on Camp Liberty Bell proved even more deadly with four soldiers dead and many more wounded. In total twenty-six people were wounded in the attack that included fourteen US soldiers, nine South Korean soldiers, and three Korean civilian employees. The United Nations Command made the usual protests against the North Koreans during a meeting a Panmunjom and of course the North Korean communists denied all knowledge of the attack. This attack would be one in a long series of attacks that would occur against frontline forces stationed in Korea in what would eventually come to be known as the “DMZ War“.
August 31, 1967 edition of the Pacific Stars & Stripes.
For more DMZ Flashpoints articles please click the below link:
Fresh after being caught with highly enriched uranium, the North Koreans are now announcing that they are going to have a hard time making a “complete declaration” of their nuclear activities:
A Japanese daily says North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator has hinted that uranium is not subject to its nuclear program disclosure.
The Tokyo Shimbun quoted Chinese officials as saying North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan told his Beijing counterpart Wu Dawei that plutonium is the key to the disclosure.
The report said the comment reflects Pyongyang’s intent to limit its disclosure to the production and use of plutonium.
The paper also predicted considerable difficulty in the “complete declaration” of North Korea’s nuclear program as requested by the parties to the six-way nuclear talks. [KBS]
Would anyone be surprised if North Korea misses the year end deadline to declare all their nuclear activities all together? I sure wouldn’t. The North Koreans are already saying the US should be “flexible” with the deadline. No matter what happens the Six Party Charade will continue and everyone knows it.
It will be interesting to see how the North Korea apologists will respond to this latest finding supporting a covert North Korean highly enriched uranium nuclear program:
U.S. scientists have discovered traces of enriched uranium on smelted aluminum tubing provided by North Korea, apparently contradicting Pyongyang’s denial that it had a clandestine nuclear program, according to U.S. and diplomatic sources.
The United States has long pointed to North Korea’s acquisition of thousands of aluminum tubes as evidence of such a program, saying the tubes could be used as the outer casing for centrifuges needed to spin hot uranium gas into the fuel for nuclear weapons. North Korea has denied that contention and, as part of a declaration on its nuclear programs due by the end of the year, recently provided the United States with a small sample to demonstrate that the tubes were used for conventional purposes. [Glenn Kessler – Washington Post]
The discovery of the high enriched uranium is going to make it very difficult for the State Department to continue to make excuses for Pyongyang all in the name of diplomacy especially with increased Congressional pressure on the State Department to get North Korea to come clean on their nuclear proliferation activities with Syria.Â
However, at least one of the usual North Korea apologists has come out to defend Pyongyang:
David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said the equipment did not need to be in the same room but could have picked up the uranium traces from a person who was exposed to both sets of equipment. He said that several Energy Department laboratories have highly sophisticated methods of detecting the nuclear material from items that had been thoroughly decontaminated.
“There is a real art in extracting enriched uranium from samples,” Albright said. The labs can detect micrograms of enriched uranium, which he said is “way beyond what any normal radiation detector would pick up.” However, he said, such minute quantities could easily have come from other sources.
Of course, that assumption — that the enriched uranium traces got onto the tubes in Pakistan, seems unlikely. Presumably, a shadowy axis-of-evil nuclear scientist of above-average intelligence would look for a less suspicious, uranium-trace-free source for its tubes. For obvious reasons, Khan’s own procurement network was decentralized and relied on a global network of suppliers for itself and its clients. The Iranians, for example, were smart enough to get their aluminum tubes through Russian suppliers. So why would any North Korean procurer buy aluminum tubes from the world’s most suspicious source, especially if its purpose was peaceful?
Other views on this:
You can read more from One Free Korea here. Ampontan see similarities with North Korea’s lies with the HEU issue and their lies over kidnapped Japanese citizens. DPRK Forum sees another Team America moment in all of this.
UPDATE: One of things critics of the 2nd Inter-Korean summit have been bringing up is that Kim Jong-il promised Kim Dae-jung during the 1st Inter-Korean summit that he would visit Seoul for the 2nd meeting. The excuse that Kim Jong-il is using is that “security concerns” are preventing him from traveling to Seoul. Kim likes traveling by train when he leaves the country and the South Korean government expects people to believe that Kim Jong-il can’t take his train on the new train track laid through the DMZ that cost the South Korean taxpayer $80 million bucks to do one test run on, to come to Seoul?
In response to criticism about a secret payoff the South Korean government is claiming there was no secret pay off:
Kim Man-bok denied that there was any cash attached to the deal. Such talk, he said, is “groundless and absurd.” He said the summit was worked out in a “transparent manner.”
If the Roh administration has not provided any secret bribe than that means the likelihood of Roh signing an agreement which makes South Korea have to give unconditional aid to North Korea for a fixed number of years is more likely. I began digging through my archives a bit more and found what Roh administration may have planned:
The government provides rice and fertilizer to the North on humanitarian grounds. But that is not enough to address the fundamental poverty there, and a different approach is needed. Lee appears to be thinking of comprehensive economic aid so Pyongyang can overcome poverty. Experts speculate that the government is thinking about a large-scale economic package similar to the Marshall Plan that revived Europe after World War II.
(…)
On Tuesday, the unification minister said, “We need to offer aid to North Korea from a more productive and longer perspective beyond what is currently being done. We need to restate our concept of aiding the North so that it can continue under the next administration.” Kim Tae-hyo, a political scientist at Sungkyunkwan University, says “it sounds as if the government wants to help North Korea in infrastructure or logistics systems, beyond cooperative projects like package tours to Mt. Kumgang or the Kaesong Industrial Complex. It seems to have concluded that it must do it in a way so the next government can’t change the policy on aid to the North it has set.”
I think it is now pretty clear that this is what the Roh administration has in store, a massive unconditional aid package that when the conservatives come into power, they cannot over turn. The fundamental problem with poverty in North Korea that such a massive aid package won’t fix is that the cause of poverty in the country, the North Korean regime! You can give them fertilizer and food, you can pave all the roads in North Korea, but poverty will remain because it is in the regime’s interest to keep the people poor and the South Korean government knows it and does not care.
It is all about the photo op and maintaining the “Myth of Progress“. Sadly I believe most people in South Korea want to believe the myth is true, which means people like this 66 year old grandma will be left fighting to expose what the regime really is.
________________________________________
I come home from work today and find out that peace in our time is at hand, with the announcement of a second Inter-Korean summit. At least that is what would think after reading this South Korean government’s press release:
President Roh Moo-hyun will visit Pyongyang Aug. 28-30 to hold a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Roh’s office Cheong Wa Dae said in a statement Wednesday.
“The two Koreas have agreed to hold a summit in Pyongyang Aug. 28-30. For the summit, Roh will remain in the North Korean capital for three days,” said the statement.
“The second inter-Korean summit is expected to contribute to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula. The talks will also provide momentum to settle the North Korean nuclear problem,” it said.
Hmmmm, “peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula”? I don’t know about the peace portion, but I guarantee there will be some prosperity for at least one person, Kim Jong-il. The last inter-Korean summit that Kim Dae-jung lined up in 2000 that earned him the Noble Peace Prize was only agreed upon after $500 million dollars was secretly sent to North Korea. The going rate for this meeting had to be much more expensive considering the lame duck status of President Roh Moo-hyun. Whatever the bribe is this time, it won’t be found out after the election, but as usual it will be the Korean taxpayer that will lose out.
President Roh has already put down some pretty good down payments on the inter-Korean summit bribe. Anyone remember the suitcase stuffed with $400,000 in cash or the hundreds of tons of supposed humanitarian aid, not to mention all the oil the North Koreans received from the denuclearization agreement, which will never be up held. Plus Kim Jong-il is earning millions more from his slave labor camp at Kaesong. Also don’t forget the one billion dollars in aid sent to North Korea this year along with the $80 million to Kim Jong-il to allow the South Koreans to test drive one train across the DMZ in what I like to call the World’s Most Expensive Train Ride. Remember all the unification talk and feel good stories about riding trains from Seoul to Paris via North Korea after that train ride? Well what has that train ride accomplished since then? Well nothing, and that is what this summit is going to accomplish for the people of South Korea.
Roh thinks he is going to get some kind of legacy over this and the leftist politicians think this summit will help them in the presidential election this year. They will end up losers in all of this and the only winner of this summit will be Kim Jong-il who has been banking in the money from all the South Korean extortion payments and may get what my biggest fear of all is, some kind of agreement for unconditional aid for a set number of years that a future conservative president cannot over turn. Why would Roh Moo-hyun care about the loss of Korean tax payers dollars when he has scored the World’s Most Expensive Photo Op.
If President Roh had any ounce of decency and moral courage in him he would demand that Kim Jong-il return the 3,790 South Korean citizens kidnapped by North Korea over the years along with accounting for the many thousands more of Korean War POWs. If he was able to win the release of these people from the gulag that is North Korea, than Roh would be worthy of some legacy, but I fully expect that winning the freedom for these South Korean citizens will be left to 66 year old grandmas to do. But, hey “peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula” is on its way.
Actually predicting that a second inter-Korean summit was going to happen was quite easy and predicting what is going to come out of it is even easier. Expect Kim Jong-il to only make vague promises and declarations with no substance. President Roh understands Kim Jong-il won’t denuclearize or make any major concessions, but that isn’t what a second inter-Korean summit is about. It is all about the photo-op and keeping the myth of progress alive.
Personally I think a photo of President Roh toasting Kim Jong-il, ala Madeline Albright, will be a fitting legacy for Roh.
Courtesy of OFK, comes this great interview of a modern day Korean sex slave in China. Here is a sample of the interview:
For a while, all seemed well: she earned her keep, and a little pocket money, by working on the family farm, obtained a false identity and even began a romance with the farmers’ son.
Then, four years ago, she was caught by the Chinese police, searching farm to farm in a crackdown on illegal immigrants. “They checked my documents, and they were fake,” said Miss Ban.
“They said they would arrest me and give me back to the North Korean authorities. We all know what that means.”
The policemen forced her to have sex with each of them in turn, and then demanded she hand them most of her savings in return for keeping quiet.
The only alternative then was to go on the run again. “I knew they would not leave me alone,” she said. “These people are like leeches. They would suck you dry, and when you are of no further use to them, give you away.”
That was when a North Korean friend offered her a job at the massage parlour, where she is “protected” because the owner bribes the police.
She is unusual in having gone there of her own accord: many of her colleagues, she says, have been “sold” to the parlour in order to pay their debts to cross-border people-trafficking gangs. The slightest word of complaint, and the police will be tipped off about their illegal status.
This is what Ms. Ban had to say about returning to North Korea:
People like Miss Ban, however, have extra reason to feel a shudder when they glance across the river. Should she be caught by the Chinese authorities and deported, she would face jail, labour camp and possibly even execution, all for the crime of abandoning the “paradise on earth” created by Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s tyrant leader.
She vows, however, that this will never happen. “The only way I’m going back to Korea is in a coffin,” she said, a look of defiance flashing across her face. “F*** you, comrade Kim Jong-il.”
Make sure you read the whole thing because her story is tragic and representative of the tens of thousands of North Korean refugees hiding in China that South Korea and the rest of the world prefer to pretend do not exist. This is why I have a hard time taking seriously the demagogues that condemn Japan for sexual slavery of women during World War II, but they do nothing to stop the trafficking of sex slaves in China today.
