Tag: North Korea

Just another sign that North Korea does not plan to give up its nuclear weapons and is in fact expanding their program:

The chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Monday there are signs that North Korea is operating the Yongbyon nuclear complex’s uranium enrichment facility while carrying out construction work there.

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made the remarks amid speculation that North Korea appears to be preparing for what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.

“We have observed indications that the reported centrifuge enrichment facility at Yongbyon continues to operate and is now externally complete, expanding the building’s available floor space by approximately one-third,” Grossi said in a statement to the board of governors.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t know how many ways the North Koreans are going to keep telling the international community that they are not going to bargain away their nuclear weapons before someone believes them:

President Yoon Suk-yeol’s recently introduced “audacious initiative,” aimed at enticing North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons, seems to have already hit a snag as Pyongyang has guaranteed the right to use preemptive nuclear strikes in its new law.

Experts believe that North Korea’s legislation has to do with its efforts to win international recognition as a “nuclear state” while South Korea’s current denuclearization-based overture may require a change in tempo.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday that the Supreme People’s Assembly, the regime’s rubber-stamp parliament, passed a new law that will enable Pyongyang to automatically launch a nuclear strike if attacked. This replaced a 2013 law which first outlined the North’s nuclear status. 

“The status of our country as a nuclear weapons state has become irreversible,” KCNA quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as saying. “(We will) never give up nuclear weapons and there is absolutely no denuclearization, and no negotiation and no bargaining chip to trade in the process.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I highly recommend watching the entire news clip below of Russian propagandists trying to explain the defeat of their forces in Northeast Ukraine. In the clip the propagandists also make the case that North Korea should join Russia in an anti-Imperialist coalition against the west in Ukraine. I mentioned this before that it appears that the Russian propaganda apparatus is trying to will aid from North Korea into existence.

The Kim regime may be a lot of things, but they are not stupid. They will probably happily sell munitions to the Russians, but I don’t see them sending personnel and equipment in what is increasingly looking like a lost cause. The final statement from the show doesn’t exactly inspire confidence either, “Stalin called for ones who panic to be shot”.

This is a nice troll response by the Ukraine Defense Ministry to news that the Russians are buying munitions from the North Koreans:

Russia has been forced to buy military hardware from North Korea as sanctions squeeze Moscow’s ability to supply its military, the US says.

A US official revealed Moscow is the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from Pyongyang for use in Ukraine.

And they said that Russia could be forced to buy additional North Korean weaponry as the war dragged on. 

Buying from North Korea is a sign of “severe supply shortages”, they added.

The intelligence was first reported by the New York Times. Ukraine’s defence ministry tweeted a mocking response to the report, saying that it showed “Soviet weapons” had “exhausted their potential”.

The ministry said the while Ukraine was switching to Nato standards, Russia was heading in the direction of North Korean standards – be it in the field of “weapons, politics or standard of living”.

BBC

You can read more at the link.

The findings from this poll are easy to believe because from my experience as well, many South Koreans have just become numb to the North Korean threat:

Almost thirty years, more than a hundred missile launches and six nuclear weapons tests later, Pyongyang’s state media still issues apocalyptic threats to “completely annihilate” Seoul — but South Koreans appear to tune them out, while South Korean military officials respond to every North Korean provocation with the now predictable refrain: “Our military maintains a constant state of readiness.”  
   
So are South Koreans genuinely not concerned about North Korea — and are they confident they will be protected should the unthinkable happen?  
   
   
Do South Koreans even think about North Korea?   
   
On the surface, South Koreans appear less concerned about what goes on north of the DMZ and more preoccupied with domestic issues, like those surrounding real estate policy and the economy.  
   
Despite a flurry of North Korean missile tests in the lead-up to the March presidential election, two out of three South Koreans surveyed in a Feb. 3-4 poll of 1,006 adults by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) and the Kukmin Ilbo newspaper said the North Korean missile launches over the previous month would not influence their choice for the country’s next president.  
   
“Who has time to worry about North Korea? I think we’re all just busy trying to make ends meet,” said Lee Young-sun, a 50-year-old restaurant chef, when asked about how often she thinks about North Korea.  
   
Lee, who described herself as politically apathetic, said, “If I have to pick one issue that I thought about during the election, it would be unemployment and real estate prices.”  
   
Kim Dong-min, a 28-year-old IT worker, described a similar set of priorities. “I was worried mostly about economic policy during the lead-up to the presidential elections,” he said, adding that “things have been tough for millennials.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This seems like a good assessment, another possibility would be an ICBM launch towards the U.S. that lands in the ocean to demonstrate that the Kim regime can target the U.S. if it wants to:

Former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Park Jie-won said Monday that North Korea will likely conduct a nuclear test ahead of November’s U.S. midterm elections to show off its nuclear capability.

“They are going to do it in order to demonstrate a threat that its missile can fly to the U.S. carrying a miniaturized and lighter warhead, and to deal a blow to the Joe Biden administration ahead of the midterm elections,” Park said on KBS Radio. 

Park also said the North could undertake provocations in protest of military exercises that South Korea and the U.S. kicked off Monday.

“Chairman Kim Jong-un is not going to overlook it as if nothing happened,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a really interesting read from a North Korean defector that had a very different upbringing from most defectors:

It has been said “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” My name is Lee Seo-hyun. I am a North Korean escapee who gave up the certain opportunity to thrive in hell, and instead fled my native country to face certain uncertainty.

My experience as a North Korean escapee might surprise you. I did not grow up in extreme poverty; I was not coerced into human trafficking; nor do I have horrific stories of being a political prisoner. My father was a senior-level government officer for the North Korean regime, and his loyal commitment to the nation and the leader allowed our family to live in the capital Pyongyang, a privilege as North Koreans. 

Like most people in North Korea, I had no doubts about the regime because I was brainwashed. I truly believed what our leader said: “Our country is the envy of the world!” Yes, I was living in a bubble. Not of my choosing ― I wasn’t even aware of it ― but a bubble, nonetheless. 

What about you? Have you ever even considered the possibility that you may be living in a bubble, regardless of your politics or religion, regardless of the color of your skin or your perceived status in life?

What if the ‘Bubble’ ― the truth I had accepted without question ― is in some way no different from yours ― although yours probably doesn’t include political oppression and torture? 

Korea Times

I highly recommend reading the whole thing at the link.