Tag: North Korea

It is ironic that the Korean left that used a dubious tablet PC to take down the last Presidential administration is claiming these reactor papers are all lies by the political opposition:

The ruling bloc is going all out to defend itself against escalating suspicions that the Moon Jae-in administration attempted to initiate the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea in 2018. 

Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) are lashing out at the main opposition People Party of Korea (PPP) for raising the allegations ahead of the April 7 mayoral by-elections for Seoul and Busan, claiming it was re-engaging in the politics of “northern winds” often used by conservatives during election season.

President Moon called on the political circle to refrain from outdated political wrangling, in response to the rising calls from the opposition to clarify exactly whether there was any mention of a nuclear plant building project during his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Panmunjeom in April 2018. 

“At a time when the people are already struggling (from the coronavirus pandemic), we should not instigate conflict and make politics regress through outdated tactics. I urge the political circle to find better ways to cooperate in improving the peoples’ lives,” Moon said during a meeting with senior aides at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday.

Korea Times

The Moon administration is even threatening to take legal action against people criticizing the administration because of the reactor papers. We know this administration has a long track record of jailing journalists and now they may even try and jail a politician:

The presidential office said it would consider taking legal action immediately after PPP interim leader Kim Chong-in remarked Jan. 29 that the ruling bloc’s actions were “benefiting the North” when he first raised the suspicion about the nuclear power plant project. “It is a reckless political offensive meant to delude the people,” a senior presidential aide said Monday.

You can read more at the link.

The Moon administration has kept this very quiet for two years until it has now been leaked to the media:

A North Korean diplomat has defected to South Korea while serving as the acting chief of mission at the country’s embassy in Kuwait, a source said Monday.

Ryu Hyun-woo, who had served as the embassy’s charge d’affaires since Ambassador So Chang-sik was expelled from Kuwait after a U.N. resolution was adopted in 2017, entered South Korea, along with his family, according to the source. 

Further details were not available, including the timing of the defection.

But a media report earlier said that Ryu appears to have defected to the South in September 2019, about two months after Jo Song-gil, the acting ambassador to the North’s embassy in Italy, entered the country after disappearing in late 2018.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Ryu apparently defected to give his family a better life.

It looks like the

U.S. State Secretary nominee Antony Blinken hinted Tuesday (local time) that the Joe Biden administration may entirely rethink its policies toward North Korea, claiming that under Donald trump the situation with Pyongyang has deteriorated considerably.

Blinken did not specify what policies the United States will adopt in dealing with the totalitarian state during his confirmation hearing, however, as Biden and members of his foreign policy team have been critical of Trump’s handling of the Kim Jong-un regime, his comments are seen as heralding a big shift from their predecessor’s dealings with the North. 

“I think we have to review and we intend to review the entire approach and policy toward North Korea because this is a hard problem that has plagued administration after administration, and it’s a problem that has not gotten better,” Blinken said before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

“In fact, it’s gotten worse.”

Kim Yeoul-soo, chief of the Security Strategy Office at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said the remarks broadly meant a shift in foreign policy in accordance with the change of administration from Trump to Biden. 

“I think Blinken meant a shift from top-down diplomacy to a bottom-up approach and from bilateral negotiations to multilateral talks,” he said.

Kim also said that the nominee’s remarks at the hearing likely indicated the Biden team may pursue a nuclear deal similar to the one with Iran in 2015 when dealing with the North’s nuclear program as he wrote in an op-ed piece in the New York Times in 2018. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Iran deal would pretty much give the Kim regime what they want, keep their nukes and get sanctioned drops for just playing nice for awhile. They can then reinvest all the money coming in from the dropping of sanctions into their military and strategic programs.

The real item of interest will be if the Biden administration will pursue a peace treaty. If so this will once again play into the Kim regime’s confederation strategy and signal the beginning of the end for USFK.

Not only does former President Park got to deal with being imprisoned now the North Koreans are demanding her extradition to execute her:

North Korea has vowed to execute South Korea’s former president and her spy director, accusing them of planning to assassinate its supreme leadership.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that North Korea will impose a “death penalty” on ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye and former spy chief Lee Byoung Ho, and they could receive a “miserable dog’s death any time, at any place and by whatever methods from this moment.”

North Korea also demanded that South Korea hand over Park and Lee. Park was removed from office and arrested in March over a corruption scandal.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Has Kim Yo-jong’s profile risen too much that her brother is trying to now reduce it or have intelligence analysts just been wrong about her status?:

 The demotion of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister at an ongoing party congress is raising questions over whether it signals any change in her status in the top echelons of power.

During the sixth-day session of the party’s eighth congress in Pyongyang on Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, the leader’s younger sister, was not listed as a member nor as an alternate member of the party’s politburo, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Her absence on the politburo list drew a sharp contrast with South Korean intelligence authorities’ assessment that the younger Kim is “the de facto No. 2 leader” steering overall state affairs. They earlier predicted that she would be elevated to a higher party rank in the party congress.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is just a prelude to probably what is coming up, a crisis manufactured by North Korea to test the incoming Biden administration:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called the United States the “foremost principal enemy” of his country, threatening to continue advancing its nuclear capabilities, state media said Saturday.

Kim also said Washington’s policy against Pyongyang won’t change regardless of who is in the White House, adding that “key to establishing new relationship” between the two countries “lies in the U.S. withdrawal of its hostile policy towards” North Korea, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim made the remarks reporting to the eighth congress of the ruling Workers’ Party currently under way in Pyongyang, the North’s first reference to transition of power in Washington since Joe Biden’s election as U.S. president in November.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

As long as North Korea continues to put the vast majority of their resources into their military and nuclear weapons program they are never going to develop their economy. This apparently is okay with Kim Jong-un:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his five-year economic plan had failed to meet its goals “on almost every sector” as he kicked off a congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, state media KCNA reported on Wednesday.

The rare political gathering, which Kim last hosted in 2016, has drawn international attention as he is expected to unveil a new five-year economic plan and address inter-Korean ties and foreign policy. The congress, attended by 4,750 delegates and 2,000 spectators, comes just two weeks before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

In his opening speech, Kim said the country had achieved a “miraculous victory” by bolstering its power and global prestige since the last meeting, referring to military advances that culminated in successful tests in 2017 of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland and a series of meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump.

But the five-year economic strategy he set forth in 2016 had failed to deliver, he said, urging North Korea’s greater self-reliance.

“The strategy was due last year but it tremendously fell short of goals on almost every sector,” Kim said, according to KCNA.

In his 2016 plan, Kim called for accelerating economic growth and expanding domestic sources of energy, including nuclear power, to boost electricity supplies. He also underscored the “byungjin” policy of parallel development of nuclear weapons and the economy.

Reuters

You can read more at the link, but for the Kim regime to remain in power they have to maintain their threatening military capability. If North Korea did not have the military capability to destroy Seoul with their artillery and threaten the U.S. and its regional allies with nukes they would not be taken seriously.

The U.S. can have a good relationship any time it wants with North Korea by giving them everything that they want like dropping sanctions, removing USFK, and letting them keep their nuclear weapons:

North Korea wants to forge a good relationship with the United States, according to a Wall Street Journal report, Thursday (local time), raising speculation that Pyongyang may return to nuclear talks with Washington.

The media outlet said the reclusive state first reached out to a European Parliament Committee days ahead of the U.S. presidential election, Nov. 3, and Lukas Mandl, head of the European Parliament delegation, had a one-hour virtual meeting with the North Korean ambassador to Berlin in December. 

The report also said that the diplomat repeatedly stressed the North wanted to have good relations with the U.S. should the U.S. abandon its hostile policy against his country, but the North’s stance was not negative, given that the North did not represent a darkening in its position on the incoming Joe Biden administration. Kim Jong-un has remained quiet on Biden’s election. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.