This just confirms what I have been saying for years, the Kim regime is never going to give up their nuclear weapons:
North Korea is believed to have up to 60 nuclear bombs and the world’s third-largest stockpile of chemical weapons totaling up to 5,000 tons, the U.S. Army has said.
The U.S. Department of the Army headquarters made the assessment in its report, titled “North Korean tactics,” which was published last month, saying Pyongyang is unlikely to give up these weapons to ensure the regime’s survival.
“Estimates for North Korean nuclear weapons range from 20-60 bombs, with the capability to produce 6 new devices each year,” the U.S. military said, noting that some reports state that the regime could obtain as many as 100 by the end of this year.
“North Korea sought nuclear weapons because its leaders thought the threat of a nuclear attack would prevent other countries from contemplating a regime change,” according to the report, which also pointed out that leader Kim Jong-un witnessed the case of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and “does not want something similar to happen in North Korea.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This is likely just propaganda for Kim’s domestic audience to show how much he cares for his people as well as a signal to an international audience to send aid regardless of whether they need it or not:
Severe flooding caused by intense monsoon rains have prompted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un into an atypical response that may signal a dire situation in the isolated country amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly 1,500 acres of rice fields have flooded and about 730 singe-story homes and 179 housing blocks have been destroyed as of early August, North Korea has announced. (………..)
According to the the regime’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim ordered grain from his special food reserves to be dispensed to victims of the recent flooding. The regime also claimed that no one from the county Kim visited died in the flooding, though similar flooding has killed dozens in South Korea and China.
Business Insider
You can read more at the link, but I think what will happen is that the Kim regime and the Moon administration in South Korea will use the floods as an excuse to violate sanctions to send aid to North Korea. This move by Kim allows the Moon administration to say that, “Look even Kim Jong-un is giving up his food, how can we not help?” I guess we will see what happens.
If the White House settles for something less than full denuclearization a deal can likely be reached with North Korea:
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he will make deals with North Korea “very quickly” if reelected in November.
Trump was referring to his administration’s stalled efforts to get North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for concessions.
“If and when we win, we will make deals with Iran very quickly. We’ll make deals with North Korea very quickly,” he said during a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey.
“Now whatever happened to the word North Korea? You haven’t seen that, have you?” he continued. “If I didn’t win the election in 2016, our country would now be — maybe it would be over by now — but in war with North Korea.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the best deal North Korea will ever agree to is “pretend denuclearization“.
The faces in the Unification Ministry may change but the goal remains the same, find a way to avoid sanctions to send bulk cash transfers to North Korea:
“I’ll actively look for ways to restart the Mount Kumgang tour project,” he said while visiting Jejin Station in Goseong, northeast of Seoul, near the Demilitarized Zone that separates two Koreas. “The resumption of the tour program will send a message of peace on the Korean Peninsula and revive the economy of border regions.”
The minister also said he will go ahead with plans to reconnect the rail network to North Korea in a bid to create a new economic order on the Korean Peninsula.
During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Lee said he would look for a “creative solution” to restart the tour program to North Korea’s scenic mountains in the form of individual tours as a way to improve inter-Korean relations without violating international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang.
Started in 2003, the project was suspended after a South Korean tourist was shot dead near the mountain resort in 2008. The program’s formal resumption requires a sanctions waiver, as it involves bulk cash transfer to the North.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It looks like North Korea has found a way to blame South Korea for coronavirus cases in their country:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened an emergency politburo meeting of the Workers’ Party and adopted the “maximum emergency system” against coronavirus after a defector returned home from South Korea with virus symptoms, state media reported Sunday.
During the meeting held on Saturday, Kim also said he took “the preemptive measure of totally blocking Kaesong” after the “runaway” returned to the border city on July 19 after crossing the military demarcation line, three years after fleeing to the South, the Korean Central News Agency said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the coronavirus has likely entered North Korea a long time ago from North Koreans moving back and forth across the Chinese border. The Kim regime claims there has been no coronavirus cases which few people believe. Now they can come out and claim they actually do have coronavirus cases and the South Koreans are to blame for it.
By the way has DMZ border security gotten so weak that people can just walk across over to Kaeseong now?
It looks like the North Korean gulags will have a few more people in them:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un strongly criticized officials for carrying out the construction of a large-scale general hospital “in a careless manner” and ordered the replacement of all of those responsible, state media said Monday.
Kim made the remarks during a “field guidance” trip to the construction site for Pyongyang General Hospital, one of his top-priority projects he has vowed to complete by Oct. 10, the 75th founding anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party. He attended its groundbreaking ceremony in March, calling it a “crucial task” for the country’s public health.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
