Tag: North Korea

Notice Kim Jong-un said that North Korea would abandon efforts to peacefully reunify with South Korea, this means takign over the South by force is still on the table. In other words really nothing has changed:

North Korea will scrap its efforts to reunify the Korean Peninsula due to South Korea’s “collusion with foreign forces,” the country’s state-run news agency reported Sunday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the five-day, end-of-year ruling party plenary meeting in Pyongyang last week made a “decisive policy change” toward South Korea, according to a Korean Central News Agency report published Sunday.

Kim said Pyongyang will abandon its efforts to reunify the peninsula because of Seoul’s insistence on the “collapse of the [North Korean] regime” and “absorbing” the North, KCNA reported.

North Korean media frequently claim that efforts to peacefully reunite the peninsula following the 1950-53 Korean War is stymied by U.S.-South Korean military drills and economic sanctions.

“It is not suitable to … [North Korea] to discuss the issue of reunification with the strange clan, who is no more than a colonial stooge of the [United States],” the report said.

Stars & Stripes

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It is a Presidential election year in the U.S. which means it the beginning of silly season with everyone acting up to gain political leverage to include North Korea:

 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his military should “thoroughly annihilate” the United States and South Korea if provoked, state media reported Monday, after he vowed to boost national defense to cope with what he called an unprecedented U.S.-led confrontation.

North Korea has increased its warlike rhetoric in recent months in response to an expansion of U.S.-South Korean military drills. Experts expect Kim will continue to escalate his rhetoric and weapons tests because he likely believes he can use heightened tensions to wrest U.S. concessions if former President Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election in November.

In a five-day major ruling party meeting last week, Kim said he will launch three more military spy satellites, produce more nuclear materials and develop attack drones this year in what observers say is an attempt to increase his leverage in future diplomacy with the U.S.

Stars & Stripes

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The Kim regime has big plans in 2024 and none of them involve improving the welfare of its citizens:

North Korea aims to launch three additional spy satellites and produce more nuclear weapons next year, as it is accelerating war readiness against various forms of U.S. military threats, Pyongyang’s state media said Sunday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un set forth the goal as he wrapped up five days of the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Saturday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“Based on the experience of successfully launching and operating the first spy satellite in 2023 in the space development sector, the task of launching three more spy satellites in 2024 was unveiled and all-out measures to spur the development of the space science technology were discussed,” the KCNA said.

Yonhap

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The 2010 sinking of the Cheonan and other provocations by North Korea in the Yellow Sea have never had a proper response from the ROK. For example after the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle that saw six ROK sailors dead the North Koreans celebrated the aftermath while the ROK did nothing in response. In fact the ROK President did not attend the memorial ceremony and surviving family members were treated poorly in an effort to downplay the provocation. With the new ROK defense chief it looks like any future provocations will have a serious response:

South Korea’s defense chief on Tuesday instructed Navy officials to mercilessly bury North Korean sailors at sea in the event of another North Korean provocation.

Defense Minister Shin Won-sik made the remark as he inspected the new 2,800-ton ROKS Cheonan frigate, which was deployed for operations to the headquarters of the Navy’s Second Fleet in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, on Saturday.

Shin told Navy officials and sailors to “mercilessly bury (the enemy) at sea if the enemy stages yet another provocation” after he paid tribute to 46 fallen sailors at the memorial monument at the headquarters of the Navy’s Second Fleet.

In 2010, North Korea torpedoed the 1,200-ton-class Cheonan corvette near the western Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean sea border, killing 46 South Korean sailors. A Seoul-led multinational investigation concluded that Pyongyang torpedoed the Cheonan warship, but the North has denied its involvement in the incident.

Yonhap

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With North Korea wanting to reopen international tourism I guess we will see who will be the next western fool to get detained in 2024:

If there is anything different this year, it would be a policy emphasis on fostering its tourism industry, according to experts, Monday.

“North Korea had already focused on promoting its tourism industry before the coronavirus pandemic forced it to stop it all,” Kang Chae-yeon, a North Korean refugee-turned-scholar at the National Institute for Unification Education, told The Korea Times. “Next year, efforts to attract foreign visitors will be back on track.”

In a sign of gearing up for such efforts, North Korea adopted a new law in August to “vitalize and expand” its tourism industry, according to its state media.

Under the young leader, North Korea stepped up efforts to develop tourist sites, promoting “world-class” vacation properties across the country, including Samjiyon, a city situated near Mount Paektu, and Wonsan, a port city situated on the East Sea.

Korea Times

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ICBMs and nuclear brinkmanship is what keeps the Kim regime relevant so don’t expect them to stop anytime soon:

This satellite image, released by 38 North on Nov. 24, 2021, shows North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear complex, north of Pyongyang. North Korea appears to be continuing the operation of a 5-megawatt nuclear reactor at the complex, the U.S. monitoring website said the same day, citing the release of steam and water seen in recent satellite imagery. (Yonhap)

The United States has expressed serious concern over North Korea showing signs of starting the operation of a new light-water nuclear reactor in a possible attempt to produce nuclear weapons fuel.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said Thursday that the agency has detected more signs of the North commissioning the light-water reactor (LWR) at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, such as warm water being discharged from it.

The North’s “commissioning of a new light-water nuclear power plant raises serious concerns, including safety,” the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Vienna said in a statement. “The DPRK’s unlawful nuclear & ballistic missile programs continue to pose a grave threat to international peace & security.” (…..)

Grossi also said the further development of the North’s nuclear program, including the construction and operation of the LWR, is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and urged Pyongyang to fully comply with its obligations under the resolutions.

Yonhap

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It looks like Kim Jong-un is increasing his threatening rhetoric likely in an effort to improve negotating position if talks of dropping sanctions ever starts again:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects the launch of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Dec. 18, 2023, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency the following day. (Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said his country will launch a nuclear attack without hesitation in event of nuclear provocations from the enemy, state media said Thursday.

Kim made the remarks in an event held Wednesday to praise a missile unit for the successful launch of a solid-fuel Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) earlier this week.

Kim said the launch “clearly” showed enemies the North’s “offensive countermeasure” to “launch a nuclear attack without hesitation” in the event of any enemy’s nuclear provocations, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim stressed that a country’s sovereign rights can only be guaranteed through powerful strength, saying true defensive capabilities come from the actual capacity to strike any enemy in a pre-emptive manner, KCNA said.

Yonhap

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Kim Jong-il was the OG rocketman, so it is only fitting that his son would have a missile fired on his anniversary:

North Korea fired one short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Sunday, the 12th anniversary of the death of late leader Kim Jong-il, according to South Korea’s military.

The launch briefly raised speculation that it could be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) because South Korea’s First Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said a few days earlier the North could fire an ICBM within this month.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, however, that the North fired a short-range missile from in or around Pyongyang at about 10:38 p.m. and it flew about 570 kilometers before splashing in the East Sea.

Yonhap

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