Tag: North Korea

I think what the Kim regime is signaling with these statements against the upcoming CCPT military exercise between the US and the ROK is that they are running out of patience with the Moon administration:

South Korea and the U.S. began a four-day preliminary drill, Tuesday, in the run-up to the main combined exercise set to kick off next week. 

“They must be made to clearly understand how dearly they have to pay for answering our good faith with hostile acts after letting go the opportunity for improved inter-Korean relations,” Kim said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

His statement came one day after Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, also denounced South Korea and the U.S., Tuesday, for pushing ahead with the exercises despite her earlier warning that they would “cloud inter-Korean relations.” Following her announcement, the North stopped answering the South’s telephone calls via liaison and military hotlines. The two Koreas had made calls twice a day since the lines were restored July 27. (………)

“As Kim Yo-jong clarified its plans in the denunciation of the combined exercises in a statement on March 15, the North Korean regime is highly anticipated to ditch the inter-Korean military agreement, while disbanding the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country and the Mount Geumgang International Tourism Bureau.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime has likely long been told by the Moon administration that a deal with the U.S. is near and has yet to deliver. With Moon’s time in office rapidly coming to end the Kim regime is likely seeing they need to push the Moon administration harder to get a deal done.

I bet he just had a cyst removed, just like his grandfather Kim Il-sung had removed decades prior:

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un was recently photographed out in public with what appeared to be a large green spot on the back of his head, once again fueling speculation over his health — long a topic of global fascination.

Another image showed him sporting an oblong bandage over the blemish. (…….)

On social media in recent days, some have pondered whether a medical procedure could have left behind a dark mark, while others pointed out that Kim’s grandfather and the founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, was also pictured when he was alive with a “tennis ball-sized” growth on the back of his head.

Kim’s grandfather died of a heart attack in 1994, as did Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011 at age 69.

Seattle Times

You can read more at the link.

The North Koreans have been much quieter then I was expecting them to be this summer. This leads me to believe there must be a lot of back channel communication happening that we don’t know about:

South and North Korea have restored their communication lines, Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday, with leaders of the two countries agreeing to rebuild mutual trust for better inter-Korean relations. 

This latest development has raised hopes for another reconciliatory mood on the Korean Peninsula and a resumption of the stalled nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea. 

“South and North Korea have agreed to restore their communication lines, which had been severed, as of 10 a.m., Tuesday,” presidential senior secretary for public communication Park Soo-hyun said during a press conference.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The WHO is lending creditability to North Korea that they are in fact free of the coronavirus:

North Korea has conducted coronavirus tests on around 35,000 people so far but found no infections, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday, amid the global spread of the more contagious delta variant.

According to the WHO’s weekly report on COVID-19, 718 North Koreans underwent virus tests from June 25 to July 1, bringing the total number of tested citizens to 32,512, but none were found to have been infected.

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but I guess it is easier to enforce quarantines when you have shoot to kill orders. Fortunately no other government has gone this far to enforce coronavirus restrictions.

The fact that China did not make a big deal out of this 60 year treaty anniversary with North Korea shows they maybe relations are not as tight as they may want people to think:

The leaders of North Korea and China pledged greater mutual assistance and cooperation on the 60th anniversary of their treaty of friendship through a letter exchange, according to the North’s state news agency on Sunday.  
   
The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released on Sunday the full texts of the letters exchanged by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping marking the 60th anniversary of the Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty, which was signed on July 11, 1961.  
   
In his letter to Xi, Kim described the friendship between the two countries as growing in vitality, especially in the face of what he called “hostile forces” around the world.  
   
“Despite the unprecedentedly complicated international situation in recent years, comradely trust and militant friendship between the DPRK and China grow stronger day by day,” Kim wrote, according to the KCNA.  
   
Xi wrote back that he looked forward to strengthening “strategic communication” between the two countries and called the 1961 treaty as laying “important political and legal foundations for consolidating the militant friendship” between China and the North. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Listening to Kim Jong-un it appears they have had an outbreak of COVID somewhere in North Korea:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said a “crucial case” has happened that could threaten the safety of his people and country in nationwide anti-epidemic efforts, state media reported Wednesday, spurring speculation that a coronavirus outbreak could have hit parts of the country.

Kim made the remarks as he presided over an extended politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party on Tuesday, accusing senior officials of neglecting their duties in carrying out measures needed to fight the global pandemic, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

“Senior officials in charge of important state affairs neglected the implementation of the important decisions of the party on taking organizational, institutional, material, scientific and technological measures … associated with the worldwide health crisis, and thus caused a crucial case of creating a great crisis in ensuring the security of the state and safety of the people and entailed grave consequences,” Kim was quoted as saying by the KCNA.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but considering how the Kim regime can literally lock people down they will likely quickly get this under control.

Kim Yo-jong is out playing the bad cop again:

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Tuesday that the United States has “wrong” expectations after U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called Kim’s comments about dialogue with the U.S. an “interesting signal.”

The statement from Kim Yo-jong also came a day after U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim said the U.S. has offered to meet with the North “anywhere, anytime without preconditions” and looks forward to Pyongyang responding positively to the overtures.

“I heard the news that the U.S. National Security Advisor had mentioned that he regards the position towards the U.S. as an ‘interesting signal,'” she said in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency said.

“A Korean proverb says that ‘In a dream, what counts most is to read it, not to have it,'” she said. “It seems that the U.S. may interpret the situation in such a way as to seek a comfort for itself. The expectation, which they chose to harbour the wrong way, would plunge them into a greater disappointment.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but like I have said before, the Kim regime will meet when they feel like they will get something of value out of it for little to nothing in return. So far the Biden administration is not willing to offer that.