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China-Japan-Koreas

Kim Jong Un invites South Korea's Moon to Pyongyang

2018-02-11

[DAWN] 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... invited the South's President Moon Jae-in for a summit in Pyongyang Saturday, Seoul said, even as the US warned against falling for Pyongyang's Olympic charm offensive. The invitation, delivered by Kim's visiting sister Kim Yo Jong, said Kim was willing to meet the South's leader "at the earliest date possible", said a front man for the presidential Blue House. An inter-Korean summit would be the third of its kind, after Kim's father and predecessor Kim Jong Il met the South's Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun in 2000 and 2007 respectively, both of them in Pyongyang. But it could threaten to sow division between Moon, who has long argued for engagement with the nuclear-armed North to bring it to the negotiating table, and 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... , who last year traded personal insults and threats of war with Kim. Washington insists that Pyongyang ‐ which is under multiple sets of UN Security Council sanctions ‐ must show a willingness to give up its weapons before any negotiations can happen.

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China-Japan-Koreas

MPs Poised to Vote on Park's Impeachment

2016-12-09

The National Assembly on Friday votes to impeach President Park Geun-hye, who is embroiled in a massive influence-peddling and corruption scandal. Last weekend, 171 lawmakers proposed the impeachment motion, but it needs a two-thirds majority or at least 200 lawmakers to pass. The plenary session has been set to start at 3 p.m. and the results are expected around an hour later. If it passes, Park's powers will be suspended immediately. The National Assembly then submits the impeachment bill to the Constitutional Court, where judges have 180 days to reach a ruling. In the impeachment attempt of President Roh Moo-hyun in 2004, the Constitutional Court took 63 days to reach a decision. Six of the nine Constitutional Court judges must rule the bill lawful. If they reject it Park is reinstated, but if it is upheld she steps down and loses her presidential immunity so she can be prosecuted. As expected, Park had no comment on Thursday. A Cheong Wa Dae official said, "It is difficult to make any comments ahead of the impeachment vote. The president will observe the developments in a calm manner and respond according to the results." Saenuri Party leader and Park loyalist Lee Jung-hyun made a last-ditch attempt to save Park's face. "The National Assembly should consider halting the impeachment process and letting the president step down in April, with presidential elections in June." The offer was on the table earlier, but even most Saenuri lawmakers no longer believe it is tenable and have told the president so. Lawmakers in the three opposition parties -- the Minjoo, People's and Justice party -- vowed to resign if the impeachment bill fails to garner enough votes. Including independents there are in fact 172 opposition lawmakers, so they need the support of at least 28 Saenuri lawmakers to vote with them, a quorum that seems likely to be achieved. Most Saenuri lawmakers outside Park's own traditionalist faction made no comments on Thursday, but Hwang Young-cheul, who heads a faction that does not support Park, said, "We will try our best to pass the impeachment bill."

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China-Japan-Koreas

U.S. Academic Warns of 'Hasty' Troop Control Transfer

2013-10-13

Full operational control of South Korean troops should not be handed over to Seoul in haste and out of political considerations, a U.S. academic says. Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the conservative Brookings Institution, Conservative? made the recommendation in an article titled "Don't Rush the U.S.-Korea Command Change" on Tuesday. "In Korea, our preeminent concerns need to be unity of command and effectiveness of our combined deterrent against a still very potent North Korean threat," he said. "Ensuring fair burden-sharing is not the principal prism through which this issue should be viewed." The original decision was a political one, because then-President Roh Moo-hyun was "playing the nationalism card,' O'Hanlon said, and "found a willing accomplice for the transfer plan in U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who wanted a more expeditionary American global footprint and felt that U.S. forces in Korea were too anchored to the peninsula." As usual, Mr. Rumsfeld had a good take on the problem... But he added the current "command arrangements are a remarkable testament to allied effort over the decades If it is to be changed, that should happen carefully and as slowly as military leaders on both sides think prudent." I think he's arguing for a glacial time scale, or maybe even geological... He cited the "tragic failed hostage rescue attempt in Iran in 1980" and "roughly a quarter of all American fatalities" from friendly fire in Iraq in 1991 as examples of a "failure of unified command" and poorly coordinated military operations. "Command structures that are bifurcated or otherwise ambiguous in certain ways can raise the risk of such tragedies in the future," he added. Easy. Put the South Koreans in charge of defending their country. We can leave air units there to help. But let the ROK bear the burden. That will unify the command in a hurry.

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China-Japan-Koreas

S.Korean presidential candidate vows unconditional aid for North

2012-08-21

Hat tip Josh Stanton. SEOUL, Aug 17(Reuters) - Moon Jae-in, the most popular South Korean opposition presidential candidate, said on Friday that if elected this year he would offer no strings attached economic aid to North Korea in a radical departure from current policy that has seen ties between the two states frozen. If he wins and opens up the money spigot to the North, we bring home all our troops from the South. No argument. Let the ROK figure out how to deal with the north, we'll move the troops to Guam, Hawaii and Washington state. The current policy of not kissing the Nork buttcrack is a radical departure from the policies of the previous administration... Moon, 59, a former human rights lawyer and confidant of ex-president Roh Moo-hyun whose policies of openness to the North were overturned by conservative President Lee Myung-bak, said that engagement was key to moving beyond the current stalemate between the two states, which remain technically at war. It's more than a technicality to Fat Boy and his uncle... "I would like to handle North Korea issues comprehensively. The current Lee Myung-bak administration has certain preconditions to resume talks with Pyongyang, saying we will not respond to the North unless it gives up its nuclear ambition. However, such approach makes both sides hard to take a step further," Moon told journalists at a briefing. There have been signs recently that North Korea's new ruler Fat Boy Kim Jong-un is more willing to open up than his father who he succeeded in December in a bid to revive the impoverished country's ailing economy, which is fraction of the size of the South's. He's all for openness right to the moment the North can strike... Kim's right hand man and uncle Jang Song-thaek is currently in Beijing seeking greater economic cooperation with China, its sole major ally, and Moon warned that unless South Korea took the lead, the North would fall completely into China's orbit. That is laughably clueless and is the sort of codswollop that only a socialist would believe. North Korea is and has been China's lapdog. South Koreans will elect a new president in December and Moon has 10 percent poll support versus conservative candidate Park Geun-hye's 36 percent approval rating, according to pollster Gallup. So the South Koreans aren't completely suicidal... Park, the daughter of South Korea's assassinated dictator Park Chung-hee, has also pledged to improve ties with North Korea, although she says the North would have to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions before Seoul would reach out. Moon's opposition Democratic United Party will hold its primary on Sept. 16, while Park's Saenuri party will hold its primary on Monday.

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China-Japan-Koreas

N.Korea Misses 1st Loan Repayment Deadline

2012-06-09

Deafening silence from North Korea greeted the first repayment date on Thursday for loans given by the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations. The Export-Import Bank of Korea faxed a notice to North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank on behalf of the South Korean government on May 4 informing them of the date of maturity and amount, but Pyongyang ignored it. North Korea was supposed to repay US$5.83 million including principal and interest by Thursday. The amount is the first tranche of maturing loans extended in 2000 of $88.36 million in the form of 200,000 tons of corn and 300,000 tons of rice. Between 2000 to 2007, the South gave the North 2.6 million tons of food worth $720 million. North Korea must repay $875.3 million by 2037 at an annual interest rate of 1 percent. The South Korean government already included the $5.83 million the North was scheduled to repay in its budget for this year. "If North Korea does not respond by Friday, we will notify it again of the repayment date and take additional measures," a Unification Ministry official said. But the chances are slim that the cash-strapped North will repay the debt amid chilly inter-Korean relations. North Korea has been hurling abuse and threats at South Korea since mid-April. The North's official KCNA news agency on Wednesday called President Lee Myung-bak a "rat" and compared him to Adolf Hitler. The Kim and Roh administrations failed to make back-up plans in case the North fails to pay back what it owes except for a penalty clause in case of default boosting the interest to 2 percent. In 2007 and 2008, South Korea also gave the North $80 million worth of raw materials to produce textiles, shoes and soap. At the time, North Korea repaid 3 percent of the loan with $2.4 million worth of zinc ingots. Repayments of the remaining $77.6 million become due after a five-year grace period, so North Korea must start repaying $8.6 million a year every year for 10 years starting in 2014. Seoul also loaned Pyongyang W585.2 billion (US$1=W1,172) from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund so it could re-connect railways and roads with the South that were severed in the 1950-53 Korean War. And it provided W149.4 billion worth of equipment to the North. The North must repay that loan in 20 years with a 10-year grace period at an annual interest of 1 percent. It also seems unlikely that South Korea will be able to recoup W1.37 trillion plus around W900 billion in interest it provided North Korea through an abortive project by the Korean Energy Development Organization to build a light-water reactor. The loans amount to a total of around W3.5 trillion, which the South will probably have to write off.

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China-Japan-Koreas

ROK Prosecutors probe ex-spy chief for leaking classified information

2011-01-27

SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Yonhap) -- State prosecutors on Wednesday said they have started a probe on a former spy chief who may have leaked classified information during an interview and in a book he co-wrote. The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office said Kim Man-bok, former head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) is undergoing investigation because of a recent interview carried in a Japanese magazine and a book criticising Seoul's current hardline stance toward North Korea. Without going into detail, the office said that the NIS requested a probe alleging that Kim may have leaked sensitive information he attained while in office under the previous administration. Kim was the country's spy master from 2006 through 2008 under President Roh Moo-hyun, whom conservatives claim was "too soft" toward North Korea. "The probe is being carried out like any other with prosecutors investigating the allegations raised by the NIS," a source said. Kim said in the interview and the book that the incumbent Lee Myung-bak administration has transformed the West Sea into a "sea of war."

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China-Japan-Koreas

Is the N. Korean Regime Unraveling?

2011-01-20

Not fast enough for me. Let's pray it doesn't turn out to be a bloody mess when it does, but that may be too much to hope for. Chun Young-woo, the presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security, reflected government views when he said Friday that North Korean regime would face "a short cut to its demise," experts believe. Chun was speaking in an interview with the U.S.' PBS. Why does the government believe that the regime is on its last legs? According to government data, the South gave the North a total of US$6.96 billion during the decade of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations. The figure covers aid in rice and fertilizers and cash provided under inter-Korean economic cooperation projects. It is 3.7 times the aid China gave North Korea during the same period and equivalent to 90 percent of the North's entire exports of $7.7 billion. "The North saw an annual trade deficit with China of between $700 million and $800 million, which it covered with aid and trade from the South," a government official said. Last year the North exported some $1 billion to China and imported about $1.8 billion. But under the Lee Myung-bak administration the North has received no aid from the South in the past three years, in contrast to 2.7 million tons of grains and 2.56 million tons of fertilizers a year under the previous administrations. The aid was worth $3.2 billion. Pyongyang used to earn some $300 million a year through trade with Seoul, mainly from fishery products and sand, Sand? Needed to make concrete. Ah. They actually build things in South Korea. but trade was stopped after the North sank the Navy corvette Cheonan in March last year. The only hard currency the North earns now from the South is $50 million a year in wages for the joint Kaesong Industrial Complex. As the North resumed nuclear armament and military provocations, aid from the international community also dried up. Radio Free Asia, quoting an official of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, reported in December that international aid to the North in 2010 was about $20.6 million, a mere 35 percent of the $58.75 million that flowed there in 2009. North Korea's domestic economy is a mess. Grain production this year is estimated to reach 3.8-3.9 million tons, which is 200,000-300,000 tons less than last year, the Institute for National Security and Strategy under the National Intelligence Service said. The food situation in the North is directly linked to public support for the regime. During the spring lean season last year, the North nearly coped with the food shortage by diverting rice from military storage, which according to a senior government official may not be feasible this year. In addition, the North Korean regime is strained by leader Kim Jong-il's ill health and the spread of waves of capitalism through South Korean drama. "Even if it won't collapse right away, the North may face a situation where it may have to agree to the South's demands in inter-Korean dialogue," said a government source.

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China-Japan-Koreas

S. Korea's Special Forces 'Vastly Outnumbered' by N. Korea's

2011-01-06

South Korea's special forces have dwindled to the point that they are outnumbered 10:1 by their North Korean counterparts, a military source said Wednesday. The source said the South is trying to find a way of countering the 200,000-strong North Korean special forces "because we found a serious imbalance in their strength in the process of re-evaluating threats from the North" following the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan in March and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November. The North has increased special forces by 80,000 to 200,000 over the past four years. By contrast, the number of the South Korean special forces stands at fewer than 20,000. Under a troop reduction plan during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, one of the Army's three Special Assault Commandos that are responsible for responding to North Korea's infiltration from the rear has already been disbanded. Each commando has about 1,200 troops. Over the past years, the North has focused on boosting light infantry units capable of infiltrating rapidly into the South through the frontline area. The South should have reinforced these special elite units to deal with the threat but has instead reduced them. The Army's Special Warfare Command, whose main duties are to infiltrate into the rear area and destroy strategic targets in the North in an emergency, has about 10,000 troops. South Korea's special forces units include the SACs, the SWC, the Navy UDT/SEAL, the Marine Corps' special search team, and the Air Force's combat controllers. At least 1,000 SWC troops are always on standby for dispatch abroad and therefore exempt from basic duties. Recognizing the seriousness of the matter, not only has the military been reviewing it, but a presidential defense committee has proposed boosting special forces. But no concrete plans have been presented yet. "The times demand that we boost special forces to cope with new security threats such as terrorist threats, as well as threats from the North's special troops," a government source said. "Top military brass need to try harder to work out a response as soon as possible."

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China-Japan-Koreas

N.Korea Upset at Becoming South's 'Main Enemy' Again

2010-12-29

[Chosun Ilbo] North Korea on Thursday accused the South of trying to drum up public support for war, taking issue with the revival of the term "main enemy" when referring to the North. "The South Korean conservative regime's attempt to include in its defense white paper the concept of the North being the main enemy is designed to put a war against our republic in writing," the Minju Choson, the organ of the North Korean Cabinet, said Thursday. "This is an intolerable act of treason, arousing the indignation of our armed forces and people." It warned if the South "provokes a war, it will taste the power of the war deterrent that our military and people have been strengthening. It will have no time for regret. This is not empty talk." The official North Korean Web site Uriminzokkiri on Wednesday called moves to restore the term "main enemy" in the defense white paper, which was struck during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, "the most wicked theory of confrontation and war," and added, "If the conservative faction takes the path of all-out confrontation and war, it will not escape ignoble destruction."

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China-Japan-Koreas

White Paper Declares Sunshine Policy Dead and Buried

2010-12-12

[Chosun Ilbo] The Unification Ministry on Wednesday released a new white paper which states that the Sunshine Policy of engagement with North Korea has failed. "Despite outward development over the past decade, inter-Korean relations have been under criticism from the public in terms of quality and process," the white paper says. "They have in fact become increasingly disillusioned with the North and more worried about security as the North continued its nuclear arms program." The white paper says that despite massive aid from South Korea and inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation during the last decade, neither the North's economy nor its people's lives have improved. "No satisfactory progress has been made in the issues of separated families, South Korean prisoners of war and abduction victims," it adds. "The North has made no positive change in proportion to aid and cooperation" from South Korea. Over the past 10 years, "the North Korean regime has adopted perverse foreign and inter-Korean policies," it says. As an example it cites the North's nuclear brinkmanship. It warns against future under-the-table deals like massive payments in 2002 to bring about the first inter-Korean summit. In future inter-Korean exchanges, cooperation projects and aid should take place only in formal and transparent ways, it says. The white paper adds that in sinking the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in March "the North proved that it has been consistently maintaining a reunification doctrine based on a strategy to turn the entire Korean Peninsula communist despite its outward policy in favor of cooperation and reconciliation." Since 1998, "the North has tried to look as if it made efforts to build inter-Korean cooperation and trust by accepting aid amounting to about US$4.5 billion, engaging in exchanges and economic cooperation, and responding to about 270 rounds of inter-Korean talks. But behind the South's back, it has launched provocations in the West Sea and conducted nuclear tests." The white paper blames the Kim Dae-jung and the Roh Moo-hyun administrations for having focused on vague sentimentalism toward the North or unilaterally adopting a leftwing ideology, and stresses the importance of raising awareness of the "two-faced" nature of the North Korean regime in the future.

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China-Japan-Koreas

How Sunshine Policy Fueled N.Korea's Nuclear Development

2010-12-11

[Chosun Ilbo] North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities grew substantially under the Sunshine Policy during the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, and the North now reportedly has about a dozen nuclear weapons. Pyongyang is also operating hundreds or even thousands of uranium enrichment centrifuges, whose existence South Korean leftwingers denied. "As a result of the former administrations' deliberate disregard under a decade of the Sunshine Policy, the crisis is now coming to a head," a Cheong Wa Dae staffer said Monday. ◆ No Halt to Nuclear Development North Korea's nuclear development program was no threat in February 1998 when the Kim Dae-jung government was inaugurated. No nuclear test had taken place, nor was there a uranium enrichment program. The 1994 Geneva Framework Agreement, whereby the North agreed to freeze its nuclear facilities if it was given light-water reactors, seemed to be working. But now North Korea has "about 10" nuclear bombs, according to a Unification Ministry estimate. The North long denied its uranium enrichment program. Suspicions were first raised in October 2002 by then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly. The South Korean leftwingers, taking sides with the North, said the program was invented by the neocons in the U.S. to ratchet up tensions and block reconciliation in Northeast Asia. In February 2007, then Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said there was "no intelligence" that the North has a uranium enrichment program. But in early October this year, the North showed U.S. nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker a facility with hundreds of centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Uranium nuclear weapons can be developed covertly and do not require testing like plutonium-based weapons. "They are more dangerous than nuclear weapons made from plutonium extracted from reactors," said Cheon Seong-whun of the Korea Institute for National Unification. A uranium enrichment facility with 1,000 centrifuges requires a mere 900 sq. m area and can enrich 20 kg of uranium a year, sufficient to make one nuclear weapon. North Korea started building enrichment facilities in the early 2000s, said a senior North Korean military scientist who defected to the South in 2000. That was when the first inter-Korean summit was in preparation. The joint statement agreed in the first summit did not mention the nuclear program at all, and the second summit communiqué only said "joint efforts" should be made to resolve the nuclear issue." ◆ Missile Development When Kim Sonny Jong-un officially emerged as heir to Kim Jong-il on Oct. 10 in a military parade on the anniversary of the Workers Party, an intermediate-range ballistic missile was shown to the international press for the first time. Dubbed "Musudan" by the U.S. intelligence services, it has a range of 3,000 to 4,000 km, making it capable of reaching the strategic U.S. military base in Guam. North Korea has simultaneously boosted nuclear and missile capabilities in the past decade, because "it can threaten the U.S. as well as the South only if it can load nuclear warheads on missiles," said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. The so-called Taepodong 1 missile the North test-fired in August 1998 flew some 1,600 km. The firing came four days prior to the opening of the 20th session of the Supreme People's Assembly, which marked the launch of the Kim Jong-il regime. The Taepodong 2 missile, fired in July 2006, failed, but a long-range missile launched in April 2009 flew 3,200-odd km. The North is now bent on developing missiles with a range of 6,700 km, capable of attacking Alaska and Guam. It has over 600 Scud missiles with a range of 300 to 500 km and 200-plus Rodong missiles with a range of 1,300 km.

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China-Japan-Koreas

S.Korea Paid Astronomical Sums to N.Korea

2010-12-04

[Chosun Ilbo] South Korea gave North Korea an astronomical US$2.98 billion during the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations from 1998-2008, according to a government tally announced Thursday. That is 1.5 times more than the amount of aid China gave to North Korea over the same period, which totaled $1.9 billion. The government and private businesses gave North Korea $1.84 billion through commercial trade, $544.23 million for package tours to the Mt. Kumgang resort, $450 million for an inter-Korean summit, $41.31 million in land use fees and wages for North Korean workers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex and $30.03 million as part of various social and cultural exchanges, according to internal documents of the Unification Ministry and other government agencies. ◆ Funds to Develop Nuclear Weapons "North Korea is believed to have spent $500-600 million to develop long-range missiles and $800-900 million to develop nuclear weapons," a South Korean government source said. "And the cash provided by South Korea could have been used to develop them." Former government officials during the previous administrations deny this. Lee Jae-joung, a former unification minister, said in a lecture in July last year, "It's frustrating to hear claims that North Korea conducted nuclear tests using money that the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations gave. So far the government offered cash to North Korea only once." He claims that the government was not responsible for paying North Korea $450 million for the first inter-Korean summit in 2000 as that was provided by private businesses together with the cash for the Mt. Kumgang package tours and the Kaesong Industrial Complex. However, The infamous However... the whereabouts of the cash payment of $400,000 Lee admits to is also uncertain. That was the money North Korea demanded in April 2007 to build a video-link center for the reunions of families separated by the Korean War. North Korea has yet to start construction. "I think they just extorted the money," a South Korean government official said. ◆ Hungry for Cash "North Korea demanded money for every event," said one Unification Ministry official who was in charge of humanitarian cooperation projects during the Roh administration. "We got the feeling that North Korea was trying to use the reunions of families separated by the Korean War as a means to make money." The North even demanded that South Korea pay $1,000 for each video clip exchanged by families in addition to all of the filming and editing equipment as part of a project back in 2007 that would allow some separated families to stay in touch via video messages, the official said. A National Assembly audit in 2006 revealed how North Korea made money off South Korean broadcasters. A key example is the W1 billion (US$1=W1,149) that state-run South Korean broadcaster KBS gave North Korea in 2003 to record a TV show about a singing contest in Pyongyang to mark Liberation Day. In 2005, SBS gave W700 million in cash and W200 million worth of paint and other goods to North Korea for a concert in the North Korean capital by South Korean singer Cho Yong-pil, while in 2002, MBC paid the North W320 million in cash and provided 5,000 TV sets (worth W734 million) for two concerts in Pyongyang by South Korean singers Lee Mi-ja and Yoon Do-hyun. North Korea also received sizable amounts from South Korean businesses and civic groups through unofficial channels or backroom deals. "Many business owners in the South had problems managing their companies because North Korea habitually made excessive demands for money," said Cho Bong-hyun, a researcher at the Industrial Bank of Korea's economic research center This suggests that a considerable amount of bribes were paid. One South Korean owner of a garment company that was based in Pyongyang said, "Bribes South Korean businesses paid in the early stages to prevent any problems later became customary. After North Korean officials got a taste of the money, they ended up asking for bribes first." A Unification Ministry official said, "It's impossible to estimate how much money was given to North Korea through unofficial channels. We can't even trace the use of official government money given to North Korea, such as the $400,000 for building a video-link center for the family reunions, so there is no way of telling what happened to money handed over under the table."

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