Tag: North Korea

Here is the latest on the recent North Korean manufactured “crisis”:

North Korea was seen removing multiple propaganda loudspeakers reinstalled recently along the border with South Korea, officials said Wednesday, after leader Kim Jong-un ordered the suspension of military action plans against the South.

The North recently set up around 20 to 30 loudspeakers in border areas after threatening to take military action against what it called “the enemy” in anger over Seoul’s failure to stop defectors from sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.

“North Korea is taking down those newly installed loudspeakers from earlier today,” a military source said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the most obvious question likely no one in the media will ask, is what did the Moon administration promise the Kim regime in return for reducing tensions?

This could be the last balloon launch for the Fighters for A Free North Korea for a while considering how the ROK government has put the clamps on their activities:

A South Korean activist group released balloons containing anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border in the dead of night on Monday, in defiance of the South Korean government’s attempts to prevent such acts amid heightened tensions with North Korea.    
   
Park Sang-hak, head of the organization Fighters for a Free North Korea, said six members of his group launched 20 balloons containing half a million leaflets, 500 books advertising the success of South Korea’s capitalist system, 2,000 one dollar bills and 1,000 memory cards across the border towards the North from a secluded location in Paju, Gyeonggi, from 11 p.m. to midnight.    
   
One of those balloons was discovered stuck on trees on the banks of a stream in Hongcheon County, Gangwon, by police Tuesday afternoon.  
   
“In order to evade [South Korean] police surveillance, I trained members unaccustomed to dispatching leaflets to send the flyers,” Park announced, before delivering a tirade condemning the Moon Jae-in administration for attempting to silence defector groups from speaking out.   
   
The Ministry of Unification, South Korea’s top inter-Korean agency, on Tuesday expressed “deep regret” at the act, and announced it was taking “serious” measures to punish the group for violating the government’s ban on leaflet distributions.    
   
“The government once again stresses clearly that it will strongly respond to the dissemination of leaflets and items towards North Korea, which raise tensions between South and North and endanger the lives and safety of local residents,” the ministry stated in a press release.  
   
The ministry spokesman raised doubts, however, about Park’s claim that his group had released 500,000 leaflets Monday night, saying that based on investigations of the amount of leaflets the group prepared beforehand and the wind conditions that night, none of the released balloons appear to have entered North Korean territory.   
   
After police confiscated the group’s hydrogen gas supplies used to fuel balloon launches in the past, the group apparently obtained only enough helium to float a single balloon — likely the one found at Hongcheon, the ministry said. The balloon that was retrieved did not contain books, dollar bills or memory cards, it added.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

I remember the good old days of North Korean propaganda music on the DMZ and U.S. troops station at the JSA may get to experience it again:

North Korea is reinstalling propaganda loudspeakers in regions along the inter-Korean border after removing them under a 2018 summit agreement with South Korea, military officials said Monday.

After the summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on April 27, 2018, the two Koreas agreed to halt all hostile acts against each other and eliminate their means, including broadcasting through loudspeakers and distribution of leaflets.

According to the authorities, North Korea has been detected setting up loudspeakers again “in multiple places” inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from around Sunday. It had dismantled dozens of loudspeakers in around 40 areas near the tense border in a first action to follow up on the Panmunjom Declaration.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Why are these people in the Moon administration surprised by any of this? This is all straight out of the North Korean playbook:

 The office of President Moon Jae-in strongly condemned the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Wednesday for her “rude and senseless” criticism of Moon and warned that it won’t tolerate the North’s unreasonable words and acts anymore.

“It is a senseless act to disparage (Moon’s speech earlier this week) in a very rude tone without understanding its purpose at all,” Yoon Do-han, Cheong Wa Dae’s senior secretary for public communication, said in a war of words between the two Koreas. (……..)

It’s an “unprecedentedly unreasonable” act to deliberately distort the purpose of the proposal, he stressed, adding that the North should have “basic etiquette.”

The North said Moon had “begged” it to accept his scheme to send either National Security Director Chung Eui-yong and National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon as a special envoy.

Making public such a sensitive issue unilaterally is something of a taboo in diplomacy and other state-to-state relationships.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but as long as Seoul’s response continues to be strongly worded statements they will continue to keep being pushed around by the Kim regime. They know there will never be any real consequences for their provocations as long as Moon is in power.

It is pretty clear that Kim Jong-un is using his sister to be the hard liner to push the Moon administration to make as many concessions as possible. When concessions are made then Kim Jong-un will pop up looking like a reasonable peacemaker.

Hat tip to One Free Korea for providing this link to the Wilson Center Digital Archive. The link shows that Terenti Shtykov who was the first Soviet ambassador to North Korea, sent a cable back to Moscow that reported on Kim Il Sung’s military planning for an invasion of South Korea. The cable clearly shows the North Koreans were well equipped and ready for their June 25, 1950 invasion of South Korea which incredibly many South Korean leftists still think the South Koreans attacked the North Koreans first. You can read the translated text of the May 30, 1950 Russian cable below.

To VYSHINSKY (for the Politburo [instantsiya]).

I met with Kim Il Sung, at his request, on 29 May. At the beginning of the conversation, Kim Il Sung reported that the weapons and ammunition, which he had requested during [his] stay in Moscow, had mainly already arrived. The weapons had been transported to the newly formed divisions, and the delivery of weapons to the soldiers would be completed by 1 June. He then reported that he had gone to the new divisions and familiarized himself with the progress of military training and thinks that the divisions will be combat-ready by the end of June.

Kim Il Sung reported that, at his order, the chief of the general staff had finished the drafting of a decision in principle for an attack [nastuplenie]. The chief of the general staff reported the plan to him together with Soviet General Vasil’yev. He approved the decision, which had been made and the choice of the main blow during the attack. He asked me to meet with him, the chief of the general staff, and Soviet General Vasil’yev in order to look over this decision together. I declined such a joint meeting, referring to the fact that I would be familiarized with the decision by General Vasil’yev. 

Kim Il Sung then reported that they are finishing organizational issues in the army by 1 June. The navy is somewhat behind as a consequence of the fact that they had still not received one trawler and one large subchaser [okhotnik] from the USSR [Translator’s note: “one trawler” and “one large subchaser” are circled]. The crews for these ships have been chosen, but they are not being trained inasmuch as these ships are not available. He asked me to take appropriate measures to speed up the arrival of the ships. I replied that according to the information available to me the ships would be delivered to Korea at the beginning of June. Kim Il Sung then explained that their infantry troops were ready to conduct combat operations. Of the 10 infantry divisions, seven were already completely ready to conduct offensive operations. The tank brigade and the motorcycle regiment are also ready. Three new rifle divisions finish training in June. This suits them since they are designated for the second echelon.

[Translator’s note: there is a handwritten comment in the left margin next to the above paragraph which is partly off the reproduced page and with a line drawn to lines 3-5 of the text: “…mark…that…; still…to give…”]

He then explained that the southerners do not have complete information about the People’s Army and its combat readiness. However, they are undertaking a series of steps right now to strengthen their army, although there are no large changes in the South Korean army. Taking into consideration that the People’s Army is prepared to conduct combat operations, he would like to begin military operations against the South at the end of June. It is disadvantageous for the northerners to put off the start of combat operations further for two reasons. First, the southerners might discover their intentions and take steps to strengthen their army. Second, there might be heavy rains in July and then the attack would have to be put off until September, and this is extremely undesirable. Kim Il sung then explained that, according to a report of the chief of the general staff, they would need 16 days to concentrate the troops. Accordingly, they should begin to move the troops to the concentration area between 8 and 10 June. Kim Il Sung explained that this issue had still not been put to the members of the Party political council for discussion, and it was planned to raise this in the next few days, depending on the time for the start of operations. I avoided a direct answer to his question about the time to begin combat operations, referring to the fact that this is a serious issue and that he should consult with the military as to how much time they need to prepare the troops and with the political council, and then make a final decision.

Note:

After the conversation with Kim Il Sung about these issues I called in advisers Generals Vasil’yev and Postnikov in order to find out their opinion about the degree of readiness of the troops and the reality of the time to begin combat operations at the end of June. Generals Vasil’yev and Postnikov think that much time will be needed to concentrate the troops and for a detailed working out of the operation with the commanders of divisions and regiments, and consequently, it would be advisable to begin the operation in July. However, taking into consideration that there are heavy rains in July and that having detected preparations for combat operations, the southerners would begin to strengthen their army, they are inclined to [the view] that the preparations of the troops of the People’s Army might be concluded and the operation begun at the end of June.

My opinion.

Inasmuch as Kim Il Sung is disposed to begin the operation at the end of June and that the preparation of the troops might be concluded by this time, we might accordingly agree with this time. Kim Il Sung then reported that they and Pak Heon-yeong [Pak Hon Yong] discussed a plan of political measures, which envisions that a peaceful unification of the country is offered to the southerners. In the beginning, they were thinking of acting in the name of the Fatherland Front and then in the name of the government. He asked me to receive Pak Heon-yeong and help him draw up these documents. I agreed.

At the end of the conversation, Kim Il Sung addressed a request to take appropriate steps to speed up the delivery of the medicines ordered for the trade mission but not yet received and for delivery of 10-15,000 tons of oil in June and July. Kim Il Sung stressed that they had a serious situation with gasoline. I promised to take appropriate steps.

[Handwritten note in the Technical ?estimate? What else [[one word off the page]]”]

I support Kim Il Sung’s request for medicines, and they also have a great need for gasoline.

I request urgent instructions [be given] regarding the issues that were touched on.

You can read more at the link.

If you do anything this weekend, I recommend reading this entire posting over at One Free Korea about the Ningpo 12. They were the group of North Korean waitresses that defected from their restaurant in China to South Korea in 2014. The Kim regime has claimed they were kidnapped by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

The lawyer group called Minbyun launched a lawsuit against the government essentially on the behalf of Kim Jong-un to validate this theory. Most ROK Heads know this, but for new readers it is important to understand that the Minbyun group are hard core leftists.  In the past they have attacked the USFK base relocation, tried to bring back the US beef issue, and tried to have North Korean defectors forcibly returned to North Korea.  Below is an excerpt from the OFK article that shows why the restaurant manager named Heo Gang-il changed his story about why they defected after meeting with Minbyun:

Heo claims that at the meetings, Jang offered him and three of the ex-waitresses a stipend of 300,000 to 500,000 won per month. Heo says that Jang also told him he could earn “a lot more money” by suing the South Korean government for coercing a defection under false pretenses. Jang also began to suggest that the four refugees go back to North Korea. He asked Heo to tell this story at a press conference. At one point, Minbyun lawyers handed some of the women photographs of their family members back in North Korea, posing before lavish banquets, which they had obtained from their “clients.” They also gave the women letters from their families, urging the women to return to the “open arms” of their motherland. Heo also recently told Yonhap TV that Kim Sam-seok urged them to go back to North Korea to save their families.

One Free Korea

JTBC the news network behind the fraudulent tablet computer story that was a major factor in the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye, was chosen to interview Heo for his new story about the defections. Major international media outlets like the New York Times ran articles that essentially supported North Korea’s view of events based on Heo’s change of story. Now we know that Heo was on the take from Minbyun. Incredibly Heo was meeting with Minbyun lawyers at the comfort women house now making headlines in South Korea that was run by the disgraced Yoon Mee-hyang:

Last month, South Korea’s largest-circulation daily, the right-leaning Chosun Ilbo, also found Heo in his new country of residence and interviewed him. Heo told the Chosun Ilbo that in June 2018, after the JTBC interview, Yoon Mee-hyang and Kim Sam-seok invited him and at least three of the 12 ex-waitresses to a weekend retreat at a shelter for the wartime rape survivors. It was the first of a series of such meetings. Also present at the meetings were representatives of various “civic groups,” including the Japan-based North Korean front group Chongryon, a “prisoners of conscience” organization, and Minbyun. The most notable Minbyun attendee was a lawyer named “Jang.” It may also have been around this time that at least some of the Ningpo 12 began volunteering at the Council’s shelter and befriending the elderly survivors.

Yoon Mee-hyang is married to Kim Sam-seok who is a convicted North Korean spy and she is accused of using comfort women to raise money for her own personal use. Now she is tied to the Ningpo-12 scandal as well. Incredibly Yoon is a newly appointed lawmaker for the South Korean ruling party.

Once again I highly recommend reading the whole article at the link.

This is how the Kim regime negotiates with the South:

North Korea will take its next step against South Korea, for what it claims to be Seoul’s betrayal and crimes against the communist state, it said Saturday, adding that its army has been entrusted to plan and take any necessary action.

“I feel it is high time to surely break with the South Korean authorities. We will soon take a next action,” Kim Yo-jong, first vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), said in a statement carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency.

Kim is also younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“By exercising my power authorized by the Supreme Leader, our Party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” the statement said.

She added, “the right to taking the next action against the enemy will be entrusted to the General Staff of our army.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I continue to believe the Kim regime is trying to squeeze concession out of the Moon administration. President Moon faces no political hurdles after his ruling party decisively won April’s parliamentary elections, so the Kim regime may be wondering what the hold up is in regards to investment into North Korea and the curtailing of sanctions.

This latest attempt to create a crisis is also clearly being used to build up Kim Yo-jong’s leadership profile within the regime and internationally. It will be interesting to see in the coming months if she continues to take a major role in regime messaging like she is currently doing.