Tag: North Korea

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.

This is all part of North Korea’s strategy to pressure the U.S. to drop sanctions:

North Korea said Monday leader Kim Jong Un urged officials to overcome a “grim situation” facing the country and make stronger efforts to improve the food and living conditions of his people. 

But state media didn’t mention any specific comments toward Washington and Seoul while reporting on Kim’s speech marking the 76th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party’s founding.

Nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled for more than two years over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling U.S.-led sanctions against North Korea and the North’s denuclearization steps.

The country has ramped up its missile testing activity in recent weeks while making conditional peace offers to Seoul, reviving a pattern of pressuring South Korea to get what it wants from the United States.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link, but Kim Jong-un is inferring that the U.S. is responsible for the poor living conditions of his people. He is trying to make the case that dropping sanctions is a humanitarian issue. However all of us who follow North Korea issues know when sanctions were dropped in the past it was used to further develop their ballistic missile and nuclear programs. Why would this time be any different?

President Moon needs to be telling the Kim regime there is no need for confrontation and not the rest of us because they are the ones that have shelled a civilian island, sunk the Cheonan with a torpedo, kidnapped Korean citizens, and the list goes on and on:

President Moon Jae-in said that there is “no reason for confrontation” between the two Koreas Tuesday, a day after the restoring of cross-border hotlines, stressing the importance of co-prosperity with the North.    
   
“From the perspective of overseas Koreans, a Korea divided in two, into the South and the North, must be a sad reality,” said Moon, speaking at a ceremony marking 15th World Korean Day. “But we have no reason for confrontation. Competition over political systems and comparison of national power has long since become meaningless.”  
   
The two Koreas restored cross-border communication lines Monday, 55 days after Pyongyang suspended them to protest a military exercise, taken by the South as a positive signal to deescalate tensions and improve inter-Korean relations.    
   
“Now, it is even more important to prosper together,” continued Moon. “Even if unification takes time, the South and North can cooperate and get along well with each other.”   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but as I have said before with Moon presidency ending soon the Kim regime knows that their window of opportunity to get sanctions dropped is shrinking. Thus they are being nice to President Moon while at the same time trying to pressure the Biden administration to deal with them by executing missile tests. I would expect the provocations to escalate if the Kim regime feels they are not making progress towards an agreement with the Biden administration.

While the ROK was cutting military drills with the U.S., the Kim regime was actually increasing theirs:

Most of North Korea’s naval drills involving submarines in the past seven years took place in 2018, even as the two Koreas held talks three times to defuse tensions, Rep. Han Ki-ho of the opposition People Power Party said Tuesday, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The military found that the North deployed its submarines to rehearse attacks on the South about 150 times in 2018, the highest number since 2014, when such drills took place about 120 times. Excluding 2018 from 2015 to 2019, Pyongyang held the drill 87 times a year on average. 

No drills took place in 2020 because of the pandemic, according to the military.

But the 2018 drills were not made public at the time, and since 2018, South Korea has cut back on its own naval drills with the US to counter North Korean submarines.

The Navy held submarine drills with the US only eight times, spending two weeks in total running them in 2018, while in 2016, the allies spent a little over a month holding them.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.