Tag: North Korea

Ambassador Harris continues to upset the Moon administration, but what did he say was inaccurate?:

The office of President Moon Jae-in openly reproached U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris for his remark on Moon’s stated plans to resume inter-Korean cooperation, calling it “very inappropriate.”

“It’s very inappropriate for the ambassador to make such a mention for media over remarks by the president of the hosting nation,” a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters.

The official stressed that inter-Korean cooperation is a matter to be decided by the South Korean government, although Seoul is “always” in close consultation with Washington in making constant efforts for substantive progress in inter-Korean ties and the early resumption of dialogue between the United States and North Korea.

A spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy declined to comment directly on the presidential aide’s remarks.

“We are aware of the comment,” he told Yonhap News Agency. “We have nothing to offer at this time, and would refer you to Ambassador Harris’ recent public comments.”

Harris reportedly urged Seoul to hold prior consultations with Washington in its pursuit of allowing its nationals to make “individual” tours of Mount Kumgang on North Korea’s east coast.

It’s “better” to run such an issue “through the working group” to avoid “misunderstandings” that might trigger sanctions, he reportedly told a group of foreign reporters here, referring to a working-level consultation channel between the allies on North Korea affairs.

His remarks were viewed by many as a thinly veiled warning and an attempt to put pressure on the Moon administration as it seeks to jump-start inter-Korean projects that are unaffected by U.N. sanctions on the communist neighbor in a bid to help facilitate Pyongyang-Washington nuclear talks.

Yonhap

Essentially all Ambassador Harris is telling them is that before they attempt to do any projects with North Korea they better work it through the U.S. or face violating sanctions. It is pretty clear what the Moon administration is trying to do is find a way to get around the North Korean sanctions and Ambassador Harris is calling them out on it publicly.

The summer of 1967 was a deadly year for U.S. troops stationed on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in South Korea. In May a barracks building at Camp Walley was bombed, in August a work detail was ambushed, and Camp Liberty Bell were attacked. These attacks were part of a North Korean campaign against the U.S. military presence in South Korea called the “DMZ War“.

Before and after the August 28, 1967 attack on Camp Liberty Bell, North Korean commandoes secretly emplaced mines on roads used by U.S. troops along the DMZ. The mines used are called box mines and is the same type of crudely constructed mine that maimed two ROK soldiers back in 2015.

The first U.S. soldier killed by one of these mines in August 1967 was Specialist Billy J. Cook from the 2nd Infantry Division. The Jeep he was traveling in on August 22, 1967 was destroyed by a mine killing him and wounding one other soldier. Cook was originally from Virginia and left behind a wife who was living in Indiana at the time.

One week later and one day after the Camp Liberty Bell attack, three more U.S. soldiers were killed on August 29, 1967 by another landmine attack. A group of 2nd Infantry Division soldiers were traveling in three trucks, 2 kilometers south of the DMZ, when at approximately 6:30 PM two of the trucks hit landmines. The explosions killed Sergeant Phillip M. Corp, Private First Class Edgar W. McKee Jr., and Private First Class Paul G. Lund. Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded by the explosions. Three more soldiers from the Medical Evacuation vehicle sent in response were wounded as well when they hit a land mine.

These landmine attacks were just one of hundreds of attacks against U.S. and ROK forces between 1963 – 1969. North Korea was attempting to launch an insurgency within South Korea during a timeframe that the U.S. military was bogged down in Vietnam. The U.S. and ROK military’s ultimate success at defeating these attacks caused North Korea’s strategy to fail and popular support for the ROK government to grow within South Korea. Unfortunately the three U.S. soldiers killed by these landmines would not live see this.

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Please click the link below for more DMZ Flashpoints articles:

This should be a surprise to absolutely no one who follows China and North Korea issues closely:

In the case of the three banks, which were not identified by name, China opposed U.S. sanctions on a North Korean front company in Hong Kong linked to the banks. Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled last year that the three companies were in contempt for failing to comply with the subpoenas and fined them each $50,000 per day.

Bloomberg News reported that the three banks appeared to be the China Merchants Bank, the Bank of Communications and the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, identified as among China’s 10 largest banks. The banks told Bloomberg that they were not under investigation for sanctions violations.

In a second case involving covert Chinese support to North Korea, an FBI agent revealed in court papers that although China agreed to work with U.S. authorities in providing bank records under the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement, China never handed over any records. The FBI agent testified that based on the lack of cooperation “the MLAA process is not an effective way to obtain bank records from Chinese authorities with respect to investigations involving North Korea.”

That case involved a request for Chinese bank records regarding Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co. Ltd., a North Korean front company in China.

The agent was quoted as saying “one reason that Chinese authorities do not want to assist with North Korean investigations is that producing such records could reflect badly on the Chinese government and the Chinese financial industry.”

Washington Times

You can read more at the link.

The Australian student who was detained in North Korea last year is now telling his story on what happened to him:

An Australian student who was briefly detained in North Korea last year over spy charges said he had been kidnapped by secret police and forced to make a false confession, according to an article written by him and seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Alek Sigley was held for nine days from June 25 while studying for a postgraduate degree in modern Korean literature at the prestigious Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

He was expelled from the country after Swedish officials helped broker his release.

North Korean state media KCNA said he had admitted his “spying acts” including passing data and photos he collected by utilizing his status as a foreign student to “anti-state” media outlets.

Beyond denying that he was a spy and saying he was sad to have lost access to North Korea, Sigley has not previously publicized details of his detention.

In his first-hand account carried by a South Korea magazine, Sigley said that what appeared to be agents from the Stasi-like State Security Department, known as bowibu, “kidnapped” him from his dorm at the university.

“I was innocent but they filed false charges against me,” he wrote, without elaborating.

“They endlessly tried to teach me some kind of lessons by forcing me to make a written confession which was a concoction of fabricated evidence and crimes and illogical legal reasonings.”

Reuters

You can read more at the link, but at least he wasn’t tortured and is alive to tell about what happened unlike other former detainees in North Korea.

Like I have always said, people should not be visiting or investing in North Korea and helping to fund the Kim regime. Mr. Sigley has unfortunately found this out the hard way.

It will be interesting to see if the Trump administration responds to President Moon’s advocacy for South Korea to break international sanctions on the North:

President Moon Jae-in stressed the need Tuesday to expand inter-Korean cooperation, saying it could be conducive to drumming up international support for sanctions relief for the communist neighbor.

Speaking at his New Year’s press conference, he made it clear that South Korea will not sit idle waiting for Pyongyang-Washington dialogue to bear fruit.

“If (we) broaden cooperative ties between South and North to the maximum, it would not only facilitate North Korea-U.S. dialogue but also help win international support in connection with some exemptions or exceptions to sanctions on North Korea,” the president said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the term “inter-Korean cooperation” is code for restarting the Kaesong Industrial Park and Gumgang Resort tours which were both cash cows for the Kim regime. Essentially what President Moon is advocating for is continuing to fund the North Korean military machine with no reciprocal denuclearization agreement in place. Agreements like this is what allowed North Korea to become a nuclear menace in the first place and Moon wants double down on this policy.

What is the point of negotiations if the U.S. is supposed to give in to all of Pyongyang’s demands before the so called negotiations:

Former North Korean chief nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan said Saturday that dialogue with the United States can resume only when it fully accepts Pyongyang’s demands.

Kim, currently foreign ministry adviser, also stressed the North would never engage in a negotiation to exchange its core nuclear facility for partial sanctions relief as it did in the no-deal Hanoi summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in February last year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

There is a lot of analysis going on right now in regards to what the Iranian missile strike will lead to:

Iran responded to the United States’ killing of its top military official, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, by firing over a dozen ballistic missiles at two U.S. military facilities in Iraq Tuesday night.

The move is likely to stoke fear of a war between the U.S. and Iran, but retired Col. Stephen Ganyard, a former fighter pilot and ABC News military analyst, said that what happens next will really depend on the damage incurred by the missiles, which were fired at the Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq and the Ain Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq.

“It depends on what they hit. If they hit nothing, then the situation may de-escalate. If they hit something substantial and if they hurt Americans, then they can expect this will lead to a significant U.S. retaliation,” said Ganyard.

ABC News

It is being reported that the missile strike did not hurt any Americans which leads me to conclude that the attack was carefully planned to try and not hurt anyone. If the Iranians gave a lot of indications and warnings of an impending attack this would give the people at each location time to shelter in hardened structures. Additionally if the strikes hit on the perimeter of the bases that would reduce the risk of casualties as well.

I believe the Iranians calculated that if they killed any Americans President Trump would have to respond forcefully. Now with little damage to show for the missile attack it gives the U.S. President reason to not respond forcibly while allowing the Iranians to save face. Ironically this missile attack is likely a deescalation attempt by the Iranians.

However, what I am most interested in is what will the North Koreans learn from this missile attack? I have always believed that if a pre-emptive strike was taken against North Korea’s nuclear or missile related facilities the Kim regime would respond with ballistic missile strikes against U.S. military bases in South Korea. If President Trump does not respond strongly to the Iranian missile attack, this could signal to the Kim regime that such a strategy could be feasible as long as Americans are not killed.

That would be a difficult feat to pull off considering how densely populated South Korea is around U.S. military bases compared to the two bases in Iraq. However, if a U.S. airstrike killed North Korean soldiers or civilians they could justify the killing of U.S. military servicemembers in such a retaliatory strike.

Unlike the two bases in Iraq, U.S. military bases in South Korea do have missile defense battery’s to protect them. This will help mitigate any attack, but no missile defense is 100% effective if North Korea is committed to massing fires on one location.

As far ROK nationals killed or injured I think the Kim regime cares less about because they don’t feel the Blue House would push for forceful retaliation and they could just blame the death of the ROK nationals on the U.S. for conducting the pre-emptive strike. The Korean left would assuredly promote this rationale and likely be protesting the U.S. after any such attack.

So whatever response comes from the Trump administration after the Iranian missile attack, North Korea will assuredly be closely watching to inform any future response plans they may have.