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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

China-Japan-Koreas
Norks willing to dismantle nuke production in return for partial sanctions relief
2019-03-01
[TWITTER]
Embarrassment for Trump as NorthK foreign minister holds surprise press conference to blame pres. for collapse of nuke summit because HE asked for too much

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] North Korean officials made a rare appearance on Thursday after President Trump departed Vietnam to publicly dispute aspects of his claims about the breakdown in talks. Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said the country asked for 'partial sanctions' relief, primarily in the areas harming North Korean citizens and affecting their livelihoods. In return, Pyongyang offered to 'permanently' close its plutonium and uranium facilities in the Yongbyon region in the presence of U.S. inspectors. He said North Korea asked the U.S. to lift sanctions corresponding with five United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
 resolutions adopted between 2016 and 2017. Trump said that North Korea was 'not ready' to meet the United States' conditions. Ri said talks broke down 'when it became crystal clear that the US is not ready to accept our proposal,' according to a Bloomberg. The U.S. president expressed confidence that an accord could be struck in the future that would see North Korea denuclearize, but the Ri told news hounds: 'Our proposal will never change.' He left media availability without taking questions. His deputy Choe Son-hui did interact with press, and took a question in English from an NBC news hound on Otto Warmbier. Choe declined to comment, telling a rowdy group of news hounds would only talk about denuclearization. She proceeded to answer questions in Korean for three and a half more minutes before she left the scrum at Melia Hotel in Hanoi. Trump speculated at his presser that 'top leadership' in North Korea did not know about the college student's arrest and his condition, considering it wasn't to Kim's 'advantage' to send him back in a coma.
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China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea may try to emulate Vietnamese economic reform
2019-02-19
Oh my goodness, that would be wonderful!
[DAWN] North Korea, which suffers from poverty and isolation partly due to international sanctions imposed against the country for its nuclear and missile tests, has proclaimed a shift in national focus from nuclear weapons development to economic development.

"North Korea has done a lot of case studies on economic development plans that brought rapid growth to other countries. Vietnam is one of them. Its biggest concern is how to open its doors with Kim’s regime remaining intact. In other words, how to control its people while allowing them to set up private businesses," Kim Young-hui, a North Korean defector and senior research fellow at the state-run Korea Development Bank, told The Korea Herald.

Pyongyang’s willingness to borrow economic development ideas from Hanoi is no secret. During the inter-Korean summit in April last year, Chairman Kim reportedly expressed interest in emulating the reform model to South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho visited Hanoi at the end of November 2018 to study the Doi Moi Policy, an economic reform policy Vietnam adopted in 1986 after realising its socialist model was about to collapse. The inflation rate had skyrocketed to 700 per cent due to US-led trade embargoes as well as poor access to reconstruction aid after prolonged wars with Cambodia and the United States.

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China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea says US 'undermining' path to denuclearisation
2018-08-05
[Al Jazeera] North Korea has accused the United States of undermining the process of denuclearisation and for showing "alarming" impatience on the issue, after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the need to maintain full sanctions pressure on Pyongyang.

At the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said on Saturday that his country stood "firm in its determination and commitment" to implement the June deal between US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
 and North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
But he also criticised the US for undermining confidence in the process: "What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention."

"As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added.

His comments came after Pompeo said at the same forum that he was emphasising to countries "the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea", while adding that he was "optimistic" about the prospects for progress when it came to North Korean denuclearisation.

At the June 12 historic talks in Singapore, Kim signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" - a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament.

Since the agreement, Pyongyang had taken "goodwill measures", including a halt on nuclear and missile tests and "dismantling a nuclear test ground", Ri said, according to a statement.

He said the US "is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK," referring to the initials of North Korea's official name.
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China-Japan-Koreas
Major diplomatic game afoot as Korean war games will be shorter than last year
2018-03-22
[ATimes] Military drills shortened
Details of this year’s drills were announced in Washington late on Monday evening, and on Tuesday in Seoul, agencies in both capitals reported. Although the two allies said they would be “similar in scale” to last year’s war games, they will be shorter in duration.

Frenzied diplomatic game
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho held three days of high-level meetings in Sweden last week. “The foreign ministers discussed opportunities and challenges for continued diplomatic efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict as well as bilateral relations,” the Swedish Foreign Ministry said after talks wrapped up, according to Reuters. Stockholm has been tight-lipped on the content of the meetings, but Sweden, which maintains a large embassy in Pyongyang, has traditionally acted as a proxy for US diplomatic interests in North Korea.

Meanwhile, CNN reports that Sweden is helping to negotiate the release of three US citizens currently being held in North Korean prisons.

So-called “1.5 Track” meetings – an unusual channel in which American academics, Korea watchers and retired diplomats meet with serving North Korean diplomats behind closed doors – will take place in Finland this week. Leading the North Korean delegation is North Korea’s point man for US affairs, Choe Kang-il, and South Korean officials will also be present at the meeting, AP reported.

US National Security Adviser H R McMaster met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in San Francisco for talks over the weekend on denuclearization, South Korea announced said in a statement. Topics discussed included both the inter-Korean and North Korea-US summits.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Hwa has a particularly full dance card. Following a lightning trip to the United States from March 15-17, when she met officials from Congress, the State Department and media, she has gone to Brussels for European Union ministerial meetings to discuss cooperation on the North Korean nuclear issue. She also met the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the EU Council.
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China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea: Take hydrogen bomb test threat ‘literally’
2017-10-26
[PRESSTV] A high-ranking North Korean official has warned that Pyongyang’s threats of testing a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean should be taken "literally."

During a Wednesday interview with CNN, the North Korean Foreign Ministry official, Ri Yong-pil, stressed that his country "has always brought its words into action."

While addressing the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
 General Assembly last month, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho announced that the North may test a powerful hydrogen bomb in the near future.
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China-Japan-Koreas
N.Korea Threatens to Continue Nuclear Arms Development
2016-09-29
North Korea's foreign minister on Friday threatened that his country "will continue to take measures to strengthen its national nuclear armed forces in both quantity and quality."

In a further gesture of defiance against international sanctions, Ri Yong-ho refused to meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Ri said the aim of North Korea's nuclear weapons program was to "defend the dignity and right to existence and safeguard genuine peace vis-a-vis the increased nuclear war threat of the United States."

He accused the UN Security Council of supporting the power politics of the U.S. and other "hostile forces." He denounced the latest UN Security Council Resolution and asked why other nuclear weapons states have never been sanctioned.

Ri added there is no evidence in the UN Charter or international law that stipulates nuclear and ballistic missile tests are a threat or should be outlawed. He called on South Korea and the U.S. to halt joint military exercises on the North's doorstep.

The North Korean foreign minister arrived in New York on Sept. 20 but did not schedule any meetings with other world leaders.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking on the same day, urged North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons and missile development.
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China-Japan-Koreas
Pudgy's family tightens grip
2014-09-08
There are increasing signs that the immediate family of North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un are consolidating their positions in the regime, amid hints that his sister Yeo-jong has been promoted to a senior post.
Of course. This is what dynasties do...
The official [North] Korean Central News Agency on Thursday reported that Pudgy Kim Jong-un, his wife Ri Sol-ju and Kim Yeo-jong, watched a performance in Pyongyang on Wednesday. In the status-conscious official media, the order of names speaks volumes, and KCNA named Yeo-jong ahead of Ri Jae-il, a senior official in charge of propaganda at the Workers Party. Previously she was named after Ri Jae-il.

That suggests Kim Yeo-jong, who has reportedly been in charge of an agency known as Room 38 under the Workers Party which manages the regime's coffers and businesses that earn foreign currency, has been promoted.

"Even Suet Face Kim Jong-un was named after Army Chief Ri Yong-ho until he was designated successor to the throne," a source recalls. The source added that it is therefore highly likely the shift in the order of names signifies a promotion.

The fact that Ri Sol-ju was referred to as "comrade" rather than Kim's wife suggests that she also now holds an official position in the Workers Party.
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China-Japan-Koreas
Pudgy's Sister Put in Charge of Regime's Coffers
2014-01-14
North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un has put his younger sister Yeo-jong in charge of the regime's coffers since the execution of his uncle Jang Song-taek on Dec. 12 last year.

Pudgy Kim Jong-un ordered the restructuring of hard-currency earners, which used to be controlled by Jang, North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a group of North Korean activists in South Korea, quoted a North Korean source as saying. The source said Kim Yeo-jong has taken charge of Department 54 and other currency-earning agencies in the Workers Party.

Department 54 supplies electricity, coal, fuel, clothes and other necessities to the military but also runs a slew of other businesses. It was originally operated by the military but Jang placed it under the supervision of the party when the Army chief Ri Yong-ho was dismissed in 2012.

Kim Yeo-jong has also taken control of Taesong Bank and the Reunification and Development Bank under the Workers Party's Room 39; Taehung Management Bureau and Kumgang Management Bureau under Room 38; and Kyonghung Guidance Bureau and Rakwon Guidance Bureau, which used to be controlled by her aunt Kim Kyong-hui, according to the solidarity group.

Choe Ryong-hae, the military Politburo chief, reportedly asked Suet Face Kim Jong-un to put Department 54 back into military hands to buy Chinese fighter jets, but his request was rejected. Instead, the military was given charge of about 30 trading companies that had been run by the Cabinet, it added.
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China-Japan-Koreas
N.Korea 'Could Freeze Nuclear, Missile Tests'
2013-10-13
A former U.S. State Department official says North Korea may be willing to declare a moratorium on nuclear weapons and missile testing.

Joel Wit, a senior fellow with the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, told Yonhap News on Wednesday that he was given the assurance by Ri Yong-ho , the North's top nuclear envoy, at a seminar last month in Berlin.
Last month? Out of date by about 29 days, Comrade Wit...
Declaring a moratorium on nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile testing was part of a U.S.-North Korea deal signed last year. Wit called on North Korea and the U.S. to hold face-to-face talks on ways to denuclearize the North.
Wit thus demonstrates himself to be a tool of the North Koreans...
But he added the moratorium cannot be a precondition for international talks
No, no, certainly not!
but may lick in once all sides are at the table.
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China-Japan-Koreas
N.Korea Hoping for Talks with Ex-U.S. Officials
2013-09-27
North Korean officials are reportedly trying to meet with former U.S. officials this week. Yonhap News cited sources in Washington as saying the North's chief nuclear negotiator Ri Yong-ho is in Berlin to attend a seminar alongside a number of U.S. experts on the Korean peninsula.

Attendees from the U.S. include Washington's ex-nuclear negotiator Stephen Bosworth and former State Department official Joel Wit.

Diplomatic sources said the seminar is being private and no incumbent U.S. officials will attend, but there is a chance that the ex-U.S. officials may decide to meet Ri.
Nothing good will come of this. Bosworth and Wit are known squishes when it comes to the Norks.
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China-Japan-Koreas
U.S. not responsive to China's offer of six-way meeting
2013-09-06
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. government said Thursday it was contemplating whether to accept China's invitation to an informal multilateral meeting that would set the stage for a rare meeting with the North Koreans.

China recently suggested a mid-September gathering with the U.S., the two Koreas, Japan and Russia attended by their senior officials and academics. China proposed Sept. 18 as a candidate date for the event, intended to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program. The six countries are members of the Beijing-based negotiations last held in December 2008.

North Korea is expected to send its nuclear envoy, Ri Yong-ho, to the proposed session, according to a diplomatic source.

But the Barack Obama administration was cautious about such a meeting at a time when North Korea's seriousness on dialogue remains untested and an American citizen is still jailed in the communist nation.

"The United States has not made a final decision on participation in this event," a State Department official said on the customary condition of anonymity.

China's top point man on Korea, Wu Dawei, traveled to North Korea last week for meetings with senior officials.

In Beijing, China's foreign ministry confirmed Thursday (local time) that the China Institute of International Studies, a state-run think tank, will "hold a seminar on Sept. 18 to review the past course of the six-party talks."

Ministry spokesman Hong Lei emphasized the importance of reviving the six-way talks, viewed by many as one of the best mechanisms to deal with North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.

"The six-party talks remain an important platform for the realization of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and also an important mechanism for the improvement of relations between relevant parties," Hong said. "We hope that our relevant parties will stick to the six-party talks and solve relevant issues through dialogue."

Next week, meanwhile, the U.S. is sending a delegation specializing in North Korea issues to Northeast Asia for regular consultations.

"A U.S. delegation led by Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies will travel to the Republic of Korea, China and Japan Sept. 8-13 for meetings with senior officials in each country to discuss North Korea policy," the State Department announced.

The team will visit Seoul on Monday and Tuesday, where Davies will meet his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yong, followed by trips to Beijing and Tokyo, it said. In the Chinese capital, Davies plans to have discussions with Wu Dawei, special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs.
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China-Japan-Koreas
Pudgy Beefs Up Security Amid Fear of Unrest
2012-12-09
North Korean leader Suet Face Kim Jong-un has apparently stationed around 100 armored vehicles at his house, summer home and other facilities for fear of a military coup or uprising, sources say.

Fat Boy Kim "is extremely nervous about the possibility of an emergency developing inside North Korea," claimed an informed source.

According to the source, Kim recently ordered officials to "place top priority" on his personal security and to keep his itinerary top secret. As a result, the venues of events he attends are swarming with guards carrying automatic rifles and hand grenades, while his personal plainclothes bodyguards can also be spotted carrying long, black bags apparently containing heavy weapons.
Just a tad nervous, is he...
Security agents cordon off areas surrounding events attended by Kim and confiscate watches and cigarettes from pedestrians. Mobile phone signals are also jammed.

On July 26, all mobile phone signals in downtown Pyongyang were jammed from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. while Kim attended a performance marking the 59th anniversary of the armistice in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The security service, which runs its own university, established a three to six-month course to train surveillance experts.

"Kim Jong-un desperately needs to bolster his personal security detail due to mounting opposition to his efforts to rein in the military," said one diplomatic source.
And just how does he trust his own security detail? If I were in the opposition that's how I'd get to him...
North Korea continues to import riot-control equipment from China, including helmets, bulletproof vests, road blocks and tear gas, for fear of public unrest.

North Korea watchers say there is growing public discontent with the young leader. There has apparently been a surge in disobedience and a lack of discipline in the military. Sources say military officers grumble at the appointment of Choe Ryong-hae as director of the People's Army General Political Bureau, a top military position, despite the fact that he has no military experience.

"Choe appointed members from the Socialist Youth League, where he comes from, to key military posts and has assumed control of various businesses run by the military, losing trust and loyalty among the troops," the source said.
Since the troops are losing their revenue streams and now are eating like commoners .. which is to say, they aren't eating...
The abrupt sacking of former Army chief Ri Yong-ho in July has also damaged morale in the military, which was allowed to metastasize into a state within the state under former leader Kim Jong-il's "military-first" doctrine.

Veteran officials in the North's Workers Party are also unhappy with the young leader's confusing reshuffles and impulsive orders. They apparently complain secretly that the inexperienced leader is "running wild."
Perhaps they should just get him a mistress...
Kim's efforts since June to improve the North's economy floundered on fierce opposition from party hardliners afraid of losing their grip on power. High-ranking party officials ignore Kim's orders and write them off as unrealistic, and are instead busy watching their backs or looking for ways to make money, the source said.

"Even Kim Jong-un as the ruler of the notorious North Korean regime cannot unleash an unrestrained reign of terror," said one intelligence official here. "He probably chose to launch a rocket now to gain some credibility."
And when it fails?
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