Tag: North Korea

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that follows North Korea:

 An accidental conflict with North Korea is unlikely anytime soon with Pyongyang maintaining a very tight grip on its military, the chairman of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.

Gen. Mark Milley also dismissed the possibility of something accidental taking place within the North or its military in the near future.

“I would say that the government of North Korea at this point in time appears to be stable and they have good control over their military and their systems and all of their weaponry, etc,” the top U.S. military officer said in a forum hosted by the Aspen Institute think tank in Washington.

“So I don’t think you would see something accidental happen from them. It could, but I don’t think that’s highly probable. They have very, very tight control over their system,” he added when asked about the level of control North Korea has over its weapons and internal security.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the military actions North Korea takes are highly calculated. The shelling Yeonpyeong Island or sinking the Cheonan were all highly calculated military decisions by the regime leadership, not just military commanders going rogue.

This is a standard Kim regime playbook item, make unreasonable demands for little to nothing in return:

North Korea is said to have demanded, as preconditions for talks on declaring the end of the Korean War, that South Korea and the United States stop their combined military exercises and that economic sanctions against Pyongyang be lifted.

A lawmaker who attended a parliamentary audit of the National Intelligence Service on Thursday told reporters later that the agency’s chief had made the revelation. 

South Korea and the US have already reduced their combined drills, both to ease inter-Korean tensions and due to the coronavirus pandemic, to the extent that there is great concern about preparedness.

Above all, there is no chance of Pyongyang giving up on its nuclear weapons. It has tested an array of missiles while reportedly reactivating its nuclear facilities. 

Korea Herald via OFK

Yet this is what the Moon administration wants to do. In fact President Moon wants the U.S. to agree to an end of Korean War peace treaty which even the Korean Herald has now picked up on what I have been saying for years is a very bad idea:

The Moon regime argues that an end-of-war declaration would open the way for denuclearization. But with the war over, North Korea would likely demand the dissolution of the United Nations Command and the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea. A formal end to the war would only obscure the mandate of the UN Command — created under US leadership after the Korean War broke out — and ultimately of the US forces stationed in South Korea.

Without a doubt, these are demands that would jeopardize the nation’s security, and yet the Moon administration is pushing almost blindly for an end-of-war declaration — or even for inter-Korean dialogue to that end. The North, which had been unresponsive to the South’s proposals at first, seems to be seeking to take advantage of Moon’s obsession. It has offered preconditions just for discussion of the issue, not for an end-of-war declaration itself. 

Fortunately so far the Biden administration has resisted these calls from the Moon administration and hopefully it stays that way.

It looks like the Biden administration may be entertaining the idea of pursuing and end of the Korean War declaration with North Korea:

The U.S. special representative for North Korea said Sunday that he looks forward to continuing exploring different options with South Korea to resume dialogue with North Korea, including the proposed declaration of a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

Sung Kim also reiterated Washington’s willingness to help address the North’s humanitarian concerns for its people in need, while urging Pyongyang to stop missile launches, which he cast as “concerning and counterproductive.”

Kim made the remarks soon after he held talks with his South Korean counterpart, Noh Kyu-duk, to discuss joint efforts to resume stalled nuclear diplomacy.

“I look forward to continuing to work with special representative Noh to explore different ideas and initiatives, including the ROK’s end-of-war proposal as we continue to pursue our shared objectives on the peninsula,” Kim said, referring to South Korea’s official name, Republic of Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but that didn’t take long for the State Department to change their tune. The Kim regime launches a few missiles and State is now considering the end of war declaration. I guess we will see if they are actually serious about this or not. I would think Sung Kim is smart enough to realize why the North Koreans want the end of war declaration so badly.

The rhetoric for ending the Korean War has been going on for years because both the Moon administration and the Kim regime in North Korea want the peace treaty because it then challenges the legitimacy of the U.S. military presence in South Korea.  If there is peace why is USFK needed? The Korean left and the Kim regime have always wanted the U.S. out of Korea and a peace treaty with little to nothing in return from North Korea is one path towards doing that. 

The real question is if the Biden administration is going to take the bait on this or not? With all the bad headlines they may be eager for something that looks like a foreign policy victory by pursuing such a declaration. I guess we will see what happens.

This is called keeping up with the Jones. The ROK Navy recently test fired an SLBM so the Kim regime likely told their weapons experts to hurry up and put together an SLBM test as well. Additionally the ROK has a space launch this week that North Korea is likely trying to steal headlines from as well:

 North Korea fired what appears to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) toward the East Sea on Tuesday, South Korea’s military said, in yet another setback to Seoul’s drive for peace with Pyongyang.

The short-range missile was launched from waters east of Sinpo, a city on the North’s east coast, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The launch was detected at 10:17 a.m., it said.

The missile traveled about 590 kilometers at a top altitude of around 60 km, an informed source said, noting the possibility that the North might have used a submarine as a launch platform this time.

The North previously conducted an SLBM test in 2015 and 2019. The South’s military believes that it used a barge rather than a submarine during the past tests.

Officials said that Tuesday’s launch came after South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities had detected signs of a possible weapons test near Sinpo, where the North has been pushing to build a 3,200-ton submarine capable of SLBM operations.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I am sure the irony is not lost on the Kim regime complaining about preparing for a war of aggression when they are the ones that have repeatedly fired missiles at Japan and even over the country in recent years. If the Kim regime as well as their buddies in China were not conducting such massive and provocative arms build ups the Japanese would not be expanding their military capabilities in response:

North Korea on Wednesday condemned Japan‘s recent push to build up its military, branding it as “preparations for a war of aggression.”

A commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) noted Japan is planning to import over 20 U.S.-made reconnaissance drones, and pushing to possess aircraft carriers and introduce the latest stealth fighters.

“The gravity of the issue lies in the fact that Japan pushes ahead with such arms buildup under the pretext of coping with ’threats from neighboring countries,‘” the state media said.

“This shows that Japan is stepping up the preparations for a war of aggression in order to realize the ambition for overseas expansion at any cost,” it added.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Wearing a t-shirt with the face of a political leader is not what I would consider normal in most countries. How many people did anyone see wearing t-shirts with Joe Biden’s or Donald Trump’s face on it during the last election cycle? The t-shirts I see with a political leader on them is from the commie wannabes wearing t-shirts with Che Guevara’s face on them:

A T-shirt with a printed portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was spotted during a public event in Pyongyang for the first time, state media showed, amid the reclusive regime’s push to rev up an image of being a “normal state.” 

According to footage released by the North’s official Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station on Tuesday, an orchestra conductor was clad in the white T-shirt with Kim’s face printed in black and white on the front at a defense expo the previous day. 

North Koreans are hardly seen wearing such clothes, which could get dirty, as the Kim family is deified as sacred figures in the North with their portraits treated as a subject of worship.

In 2019, the North’s main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, ran a story praising a ship engineer for his “heroic act” of saving the portraits of Kim and the country’s two late leaders from a sinking vessel.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Moon administration is thinking the Biden administration is probably at its most amiable time to push this initiative thinking they are desperate for a foreign policy “victory”:

Suh Hoon, director of national security, said Monday that he plans to discuss President Moon Jae-in’s recent proposal to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War in the United States this week.    

“The communication channels between the two Koreas are up and working again, it is time to reaffirm where we stand on inter-Korean and North-U.S. relations,” Suh told a group of reporters upon arrival at Reagan airport on Monday.    

“The declaration to end the Korean War will also be discussed [with my counterparts],” he said, adding that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and possible sanctions relief for North Korea may also be included in the conversations.  

The Moon government from its early days has been calling for a formal declaration to end the Korean War, with the call repeated again at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York last month, when Moon gave a speech. The Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I guess we will see if the Biden administration falls for this or not.

A Korean War peace treaty is something that North Korea has long sought as a way to end the presence of US troops in South Korea. If there is peace why is USFK needed?

President Moon has been saying all the right things that USFK will remain after any peace treaty is signed, to include claiming Kim Jong-un understands this as well. However, this is likely just rhetoric to prevent energizing South Korean conservatives against a peace treaty before next Spring’s presidential election.

Remember Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down.  If he openly advocated for a USFK withdrawal, that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him and the ruling party with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces.  

Expect the Moon administration to continue to push this initiative along with dropping sanctions while North Korea pressures the Biden administration with their weapons provocations. This is all intended to push the Biden administration into a deal the Kim regime wants while Washington can claim a foreign policy victory by ending the provocation cycle.

Here is the latest from Kim Jong-un; just more of the same:

North Korea has doubled down on its ambition to be declared a nuclear state, while urging the United States to change its “hostile” policy toward the country, and offer sanctions relief. 

The country’s leader Kim Jong-un made the remarks in a speech at a defense development exhibition to mark the 76th founding anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, Sunday. 

In the speech, Kim accused Seoul of being “hypocritical” and having “double standards” for continuing to boost its military capabilities while talking ostensibly of “peace, cooperation and prosperity.”

Expressing “strong regrets,” Kim said the North will respond with “strong actions” if South Korea continues to “infringe upon our rights to self-defense.”

His remarks come as the North has recently been ramping up accusations that the South and the United States have been employing “double standards” in reference to the allies’ criticism of the North’s missile launches as provocations while justifying their own as “deterrence.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Kim Jong-un is using this speech to legitimize upcoming weapons test provocations that will be used to pressure the Biden administration into cutting a deal. The only deal the Kim Regime is interested in is one that lifts sanctions for little to nothing in return.