Tag: North Korea

It seems the U.S. can never consistently keep pressure on North Korea to ever get any results, but here is the latest administration to try:

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Washington is looking at various ways to address the North Korean nuclear issue, including “pressure measures” and “diplomatic paths,” during its ongoing policy review.

During a press conference with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their Japanese counterparts, Toshimitsu Motegi and Nobuo Kishi, in Tokyo, Blinken also pointed out the U.S.’ commitment to dealing with human rights abuses in the North.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

So much for Kim Yo-jong being sidelined by her brother because she is clearly back to playing a key role attacking South Korea and the U.S.:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened Tuesday to scrap a military peace agreement with South Korea and break up a Workers’ Party organ tasked with inter-Korean dialogue as she lambasted the South for conducting military exercises with the United States.

Kim Yo-jong also warned the new U.S. administration of President Joe Biden not to engage in such hostile acts, saying it better not do things that would “keep it from getting a good night’s sleep” if it wants to sleep well for the next four years.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if the US government does anything to try and seize North Korean assets to pay this court settlement:

A federal court has awarded $2.3 billion to several crewmembers and families of the USS Pueblo, a Navy ship taken hostage by North Korea more than 50 years ago.

Split evenly for compensatory and punitive damages, the amount is among the largest ever awarded in a state-sponsored terrorism case, according to Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, the Washington-based law firm that filed the case three years ago on behalf of 61 crew members and 110 family members in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link and learn more about the USS Pueblo Incident at this link. I doubt the surviving crew members and the family members will ever see any money from North Korea, but at least this ruling will make it harder for the engagement crowd to make their case that aid for little to nothing in return should be U.S. policy with the Kim regime.

The BBC has an article on North Korea’s slave labor system based on a report released recently by the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korea Human Rights:

Generations of South Korean prisoners of war are being used as slave labour in North Korean coal mines to generate money for the regime and its weapons programme, according to a report released by a human rights organisation. The BBC has taken a closer look at the allegations.

“When I see slaves shackled and dragged on TV, I see myself,” Choi Ki-sun told me. He was one of an estimated 50,000 prisoners seized by North Korea at the end of the Korean War in 1953.

“When we were dragged to labour camps, we were at gun point, lined up with armed guards around. What else could this be if not slave labour?”

Mr Choi (not his real name) said he continued to work in a mine in North Hamgyeong province alongside around 670 other prisoners of war (POWs) until his escape, 40 years later.

BBC News

You can read the rest at the link, but the article goes on to discuss the songbun system and how someone’s class can sentence them to slave labor as well. For those that have closely followed this issue the fate of Korean War POWs, the songbun system, and North Korea’s slave labor camps is nothing new.

Clearly the NKHR is trying to remind people of the regime’s brutality likely because there is an effort by the engagement crowd to once again appease the Kim regime for little to nothing in return. If the engagers want to give Kim Jong-un his dream deal, than the American public should clearly understand the brutality of the regime they want to prop up.

It looks like Kim Jong-un is trying to make himself look more legitimate to English readers:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is now using “president” as his official title in English, instead of “chairman” as he has used in the past, according to the North’s state media. 

The English service of the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has been using president rather than chairman since Feb. 12 a report about Kim’s attendance at a Lunar New Year performance with leading members of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

Since then, the KCNA has been referring to him as the “general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).” The DPRK is North Korea’s official name. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It has been speculated that North Korea would likely test the Biden administration at some point with a provocation and this March may be when they do it:

While North Korea is expected to respond strongly to an envisaged combined military drill between South Korea and the United States, including a show of force, Seoul has few options to properly tame Pyongyang’s anger which will likely lead to heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula, according to diplomatic observers, Monday.

However, they say it is a silver lining that the North’s possible provocation would not be enough to spoil the South Korean government’s peace initiative as the totalitarian state also remains cautious about its acts negatively affecting the new U.S. administration’s review of policy toward it.

The allies are now discussing holding the annual springtime drill, which will be proceeded under the form of computer-simulated command post training, in the second week of March, with them fine-tuning the details such as how to program it, according to military officials. 

However, given that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned against the “war game,” it is highly likely that the North Korean regime will stage a military provocation. The Kim regime denounced the joint exercise as a rehearsal for an invasion.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.