1. Pentagon denies US is considering pulling troops from South Korea
2, Esper doesn't regret delaying drills, despite N. Korea snub
3. US defense chief ends Asia tour with same troubles, risks
4. North Korea says 'not right time' for Kim to attend South Korea ASEAN summit
5. Panel: South Korean Officials Concerned with 'Ad Hoc' U.S. Policy
6. U.S. Hint at Troop Pullout Points to Major Crisis
7. N.Korean Slave Laborers Set to Return Home from Russia
8. Ex-U.S. Defense Chief Warns Against Delaying Joint Air Drill
9. Moon wished for N.K leader's participation in ASEAN summit to create int'l support for peace: Cheong Wa Dae
10. Minister expects more U.S.-N. Korea talks this year
11. S. Korea-U.S. alliance shaken by both sides
12. North declined relief for Kaesong, Kumgang
13. Seoul to include 'indirect costs' for defense deal with US
1. Pentagon denies US is considering pulling troops from South Korea
Lesson learned. Had the SECDEF initial pushed back on the question the Korean may not have gone forward with the rumor. An ambiguous response allows the press to speculate and report RUMINT and can even breed conspiracy theories.
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea: The Pentagon on Thursday (Nov 21) denied a South Korean news report saying that the United States was considering a significant cut to its troop numbers in South Korea if Seoul does not contribute more to the costs of the deployment.
"There is absolutely no truth to the Chosun Ilbo report that the US Department of Defence is currently considering removing any troops from the Korean Peninsula," Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement, referring to Secretary Mark Esper, who earlier on Thursday had said he was unaware of any such planning.
"Secretary Esper was in South Korea this past week where he repeatedly reiterated our ironclad commitment to (South Korea) and its people.
News stories such as this expose the dangerous and irresponsible flaws of single anonymous source reporting. We are demanding the Chosun Ilbo immediately retract their story."
2. Esper doesn't regret delaying drills, despite N. Korea snub
I disagree with the SECDEF. It is not taking the high ground or an act of goodwill. It is actually supporting Kim Jong-un's strategy and reinforces his belief that his strategy is working and that he can bend us to his will by increasing tension. This confirms to him that blackmail diplomacy still works: conduct provocations and raise tensions to get political and economic concessions. i also cannot agree with his statement that there is not a rift in the ROK/US alliance. If not a rift there is certainly friction and there may be cracks in the rock solid ROK/US alliance.
Esper doesn't regret delaying drills, despite N. Korea snub
AP · November 21, 2019
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says he does not regret postponing a U.S.-South Korean military air exercise, even though the gesture was rejected by North Korea as not enough to restart nuclear diplomacy.
Esper spoke to reporters Thursday morning shortly before boarding his plane in Hanoi, Vietnam, for a flight to Washington.
He described North Korea's response to the offer as being "not as positive as we would have liked." In Esper's words: "I don't regret taking the high road."
Esper and his South Korean counterpart had announced Sunday the allies indefinitely postponed the annual Vigilant Ace training in an "act of goodwill" toward North Korea. The moves were effort to convince North Korea to revive the nuclear talks that largely have stalled since the February collapse of a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol said on Tuesday the U.S. must scrap that military drill completely and abandon its hostility against his country if it wants to see the resumption of the nuclear negotiations.
Esper also said he does not believe there is a rift in the U.S.-South Korean alliance, despite a breakdown this week in negotiations over a U.S. demand for a five-fold increase in what Seoul pays to keep 28,500 American troops on its soil.
Jeong Eun Bo, a South Korean negotiator on those talks, told reporters Tuesday that another round of talks was scheduled but didn't specify when.
3. US defense chief ends Asia tour with same troubles, risks
It must have been a tough trip. The conversations among his traveling team must have been quite interesting.
US defense chief ends Asia tour with same troubles, risks
AP · by ROBERT BURNS · November 21, 2019
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper ended an Asia tour Thursday with the same trio of troubles on the Korean peninsula that he found on arrival last week. Together they pose risks to U.S. national security and to the future of Washington's alliance with South Korea.
The toughest of these problems, and arguably the most consequential, is North Korea's refusal to restart negotiations with Washington on eliminating its nuclear weapons.
Esper has no direct role in nuclear diplomacy, but he had hoped that his decision to postpone a military flying exercise with South Korea - which North Korea had criticized as provocative -would help nudge the North back to the negotiating table.
In announcing the postponement in the Thai capital last weekend, Esper called it an "act of goodwill" that would not degrade the combat readiness of U.S. and South Korean air forces. But the North quickly rejected the gesture, insisting the United States end its "hostile policy," which it sees as the root cause of the tensions that prompted the North to go nuclear in the first place.
Esper told reporters Thursday in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, that he was disappointed by the North's negative response.
"But I don't regret trying to take the high road, if you will, and keep the door open for peace and diplomacy," he said.
The problem, it now appears, is that the Americans have no idea what the North wants from Washington to end the diplomatic impasse. At stake is the possibility of a return to the level of tension that not long ago pushed both sides toward war.
Esper himself asserted last week that when he became Army secretary in late 2017, "we were on the path to war; it was very clear to me because the Army was making preparations."
Bruce Bennett, a North Korea analyst at the RAND Corp., a federally funded think-tank, sees a dangerous diplomatic disconnect.
"North Korea has been unwilling to explain what an end to 'U.S. hostile policy' means other than to say that the U.S. must no longer treat North Korea as an enemy," Bennett said in an email exchange this week. "The dozens of U.S. statements saying that the United States does not seek to destroy the regime have not met this North Korean requirement."
Bennett thinks it's possible that the North will be satisfied with nothing less than a withdrawal of all 28,500 American troops from South Korea and a dissolution of the U.S.-South Korean defense alliance that emerged from the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea has demanded that the U.S. come up by the end of this year with a mutually acceptable approach to resuming negotiations on eliminating the North's nuclear weapons and the infrastructure that supports it.
"They may move in a different direction" at that point, Esper said Thursday. "So I think we have to keep pressing forward. It's too important not to keep trying."
Complicating that effort is a new fissure between Seoul and Washington. The Trump administration is demanding a five-fold increase in the amount Seoul pays to keep U.S. troops in the country - up from just under $1 billion this year.
Esper is not leading those negotiations, but he said in Seoul last week that South Korea is wealthy enough to pay more. Shortly after that, the talks led by the State Department broke down. Seoul's view is that Washington is making an unreasonable demand for billions more in payments.
Esper dismissed reports that the U.S. is threatening a partial troop withdrawal if Seoul does not meet Washington's payment demands.
"We're not threatening allies over this," he said.
The third rift in relations that Esper encountered in Seoul is a standoff between South Korea and Japan - both U.S. defense treaty allies. Seoul says it will withdraw this week from an intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo, despite U.S. urgings that they settle their differences.
In Seoul, Esper told his Japanese and South Korean counterparts privately and in public that their dispute was only benefiting North Korea and China. But his words seemed to make no difference.
4. North Korea says 'not right time' for Kim to attend South Korea ASEAN summit
Kim could not take the chance of coming to Pusan. He would likely face protests and experience being disrespected. He knows Moon would not be able to prevent protests against him and if he faced such protests it would undermine his legitimacy in the north despite the strong information control. He cannot travel to the South until his subversion efforts have progressed sufficiently to ensure he will not face protests.
North Korea says 'not right time' for Kim to attend South Korea ASEAN summit
Reuters · by 2 Min Read · November 21, 2019
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea rejected an invitation for leader Kim Jong Un to attend a planned summit in Seoul with Southeast Asian nations next week, saying "now is not the time" due to strained ties, North Korean state media reported on Thursday.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in sent a letter of invitation to Kim on Nov. 5, with an offer for an envoy to attend if he was unable to participate in the event, the official KCNA news agency said.
Moon will host leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the South Korean port city of Busan next week to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their partnership, and has said Kim might join them.
While thanking Seoul for the invitation, North Korea requested the South's "understanding that we could not find any legitimate reason" for Kim to participate, KCNA said.
The statement accused South Korea of harming relations by depending on the United States in resolving inter-Korean issues.
"It is perplexing that they proposed discussing inter-Korean relations at such an unfitting multilateral venue, even after experiencing failures by relying so much on the United States," KCNA said.
The two Koreas undertook a flurry of diplomacy including three summits last year, during which Moon and Kim agreed to improve ties and restart stalled business initiatives.
But there has been no significant progress amid tightening sanctions aimed at the North's nuclear and missile programs, and lackluster denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; editing by Richard Pullin
5. Panel: South Korean Officials Concerned with 'Ad Hoc' U.S. Policy
Some thoughts:
"All warfare is based on deception." - Sun Tzu.
Maybe we are deceiving everyone.
"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity." - Sun Tzu .
Maybe we are seeking and creating opportunities.
"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment - that which they cannot anticipate." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
But I digress. Our allies and scholars are concerned.
Excerpts:
South Korean popular opinion still leans toward the United States, especially for security and also reflects a wariness of active involvement in China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. But the political leadership and public do "not yet" view China as a strategic competitor, in the same way, Washington does, Chaesung Chun, chair of the Center for National Security Studies in Seoul, said.
Seoul does "not want to be sandwiched" between Beijing and Washington and is forced to choose one nation over the other, said Yul Sohn, president of the East Asia Institute in Seoul.
"China and Korea are at the center of U.S. strategic thinking," Stapleton Roy, a former ambassador to Beijing and now at the Wilson Center, said. However, "the Korean [nuclear and missile] issue ... is front and center with the Department of Defense."
President Donald Trump "should receive credit" for the "wise move to [try] personal relations" with Kim to resolve the impasse, Roy said. "We had gotten ourselves in an untenable position," where "we only had a military option" in denuclearizing the peninsula.
The problem now is, Roy said, "we had no strategy for the engagement process" to continue. Korean issues have been "handled on an ad-hoc basis."
Panel: South Korean Officials Concerned with 'Ad Hoc' U.S. Policy - USNI News
news.usni.org · by John Grady · November 20, 2019
USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) arrives at Commander, Republic of Korea Fleet base in Busan, the new home on March 12, 2016. US Navy Photo
WASHINGTON - South Koreans increasingly wonder whether the White House's transactional approach to foreign relations means the United States will honor its commitment to come to their aid in a crisis, a panel of security experts said this week.
South Korea and other U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific, "worry what [the U.S.] transactional approach to allies" means in that situation, said Sook Jong Lee, a professor at Sugkyunkwan University while speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center. "The feeling of abandonment is kind of increasing."
Tensions increased within the Republic of Korea-United States security alliance when an American team of negotiators asked Seoul to dramatically increase what had been the burden-sharing cost of basing U.S. forces in Korea, Lee said. The hike seems to be "an excessive increase to allies" and demanding the South Koreans do more away from the peninsula to enhance regional security.
The agreement between Washington and Seoul last year increased Korea's payment to almost $1 billion annually. But this year, not only did the administration want a quadrupling of the payment "but added a new category of support" to be factored into the cost, said Patricia Kim, a senior policy analyst at the United States Institute of Peace.
There are 28,500 American soldiers and airmen stationed on the peninsula.
This demand for a higher payment puts the alliance "under a lot of stress," especially at a time when South Korean industries and businesses are feeling a financial squeeze from other U.S. foreign policy actions. The impact of the American-Chinese trade war on all allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific is that they "feel like collateral damage" after three years of tariff hikes, Lindsey Ford, of the Brookings Institution said.
A quarter of South Korea's exports go to China, and 20 percent of its imports come from there. The United States does about half that amount of export-import trade with South Korea, Lee said.
South Korean popular opinion still leans toward the United States, especially for security and also reflects a wariness of active involvement in China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. But the political leadership and public do "not yet" view China as a strategic competitor, in the same way, Washington does, Chaesung Chun, chair of the Center for National Security Studies in Seoul, said.
Seoul does "not want to be sandwiched" between Beijing and Washington and is forced to choose one nation over the other, said Yul Sohn, president of the East Asia Institute in Seoul.
"China and Korea are at the center of U.S. strategic thinking," Stapleton Roy, a former ambassador to Beijing and now at the Wilson Center, said. However, "the Korean [nuclear and missile] issue ... is front and center with the Department of Defense."
President Donald Trump "should receive credit" for the "wise move to [try] personal relations" with Kim to resolve the impasse, Roy said. "We had gotten ourselves in an untenable position," where "we only had a military option" in denuclearizing the peninsula.
The problem now is, Roy said, "we had no strategy for the engagement process" to continue. Korean issues have been "handled on an ad-hoc basis."
The panel agreed that the high-level summit meetings between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "has not found a breakthrough" over what to do about Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missiles. Kim demands an end to sanctions before moving on the weapons programs.
After the failure of the summit meeting in Hanoi to agree on future steps, North Korea resumed testing ballistic missiles, including sea-launched, but not with ranges that could hit the United States. It also threatened to resume nuclear testing at the start of the year.
Still, President Trump hinted over the weekend another summit could occur, when he sent a tweet directed to Kim. "You should act quickly, get the deal done. See you soon!"
Also, over the weekend, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced the cancellation of an air exercise with South Korea as a gesture of goodwill toward the north and an effort to "contribute to an environment conducive to diplomacy."
On Tuesday, The Washington Post quoted a North Korean Foreign Ministry adviser Kim Kye Gwan as saying, "We are no longer interested in such talks that bring nothing to us. ...As we have got nothing in return, we will no longer gift the U.S. president with something he can brag about."
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6. U.S. Hint at Troop Pullout Points to Major Crisis
Despite Pentagon denials and attempts to quash this the Korean press will continue to report on these "hints." Is it the US side hinting or is it the ROK side "hinting?" Again maybe it will have the effect of pre-empting a decision by generating opposition, maybe it will have the effect of waking people up in the ROK to the fact that the ROKG does need to provide increased funding to support US troops, or in the worst case it will become a self fulfilling prophecy.
There are rumblings in the administration of notoriously peevish U.S. President Donald Trump that it will pull some troops out of Korea unless Seoul agrees to pay an exorbitant bill for their upkeep. Asked about the possibility of downsizing the number of American troops stationed in South Korea, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, "I'm not going to prognosticate or speculate on what we may or may not do." The new U.S. defense secretary is fully aware of the impact that a troop downsizing would have on the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, and it is obvious why he gave such an ambiguous answer after cost-sharing talks collapsed on Tuesday.
He wishes to use that threat as leverage in negotiations aimed at getting South Korea to quintuple its share of the expenses to keep 28,500 American soldiers stationed here. Just four days ago, Esper had vowed to "maintain current U.S. troop levels and improve combat readiness." But less than an hour after the U.S. broke off the talks in Seoul, he turned tail, presumably at the orders of his commander in chief.
Even to talk about troop downsizing here was practically taboo under previous U.S. and South Korean administrations. But that and much else went out the window with Trump. The U.S. leader is for some reason obsessed with the notion that Korea is stiffing him. Since he simply cannot see the value and purpose of the longstanding alliance, U.S. troops here are simply a "waste of money." One U.S. military publication wrote early this year that fears are mounting over U.S. troop downsizing on the Korean Peninsula. Even the U.S. representative to defense cost-sharing talks acknowledged that possibility. In the 1970s, it was active-duty soldiers blocked then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter when he sought to downsize the number of soldiers stationed here, but now even the head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff has raised questions about the cost of keeping American soldiers here. Former U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and other officials who were supportive of American troop presence here are no longer with the Trump administration. Nobody knows what may happen next.
Once Seoul lets an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan lapse, Trump will probably escalate his threat of downsizing or withdrawing troops here. But President Moon Jae-in insists that while he will "think of alternatives" to scrapping it, he must stay the course in his standoff with Tokyo. This is no time to worry about saving face.
If American troops pull out of South Korea, the country will have no choice but to arm itself with nuclear weapons. The South Korean government and public will probably be deeply divided on that issue. No matter what happens, South Korea needs to protect its alliance with the U.S. and keep American troops stationed here to serve as a deterrent against North Korean aggression. The alliance faces a major crisis, but the government insists that everything is hunky-dory. We can only pray that it knows what it is doing.
7. N.Korean Slave Laborers Set to Return Home from Russia
The majority of slave laborers from the north are in Russia and China. Will all the laborers come home next month in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution? I doubt all will leave Russia and China but perhaps they will send a token home to provide the appearance they are complying. It will be interesting to see what other countries around the world do next month. This is another example of why human rights is a national security issue. These laborers provide direct support to the funding of the Kim family regime's royal court economy to keep the regime in power and provide funds to support the nuclear and missile development programs.
Train tickets between Russia and North Korea have sold out as many North Korean slave laborers are going home to meet the year-end deadline for their repatriation set by the UN Security Council.
A source in Ussuriysk told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday that train tickets between Moscow and Pyongyang are sold out until the end of the year.
The situation is the same in Vladivostok, and a source there said, "I've never seen train tickets to Pyongyang sold out a month in advance."
Nepal also recently submitted a report to the UN that it has deported 33 North Korean workers, VOA reported the same day.
In China, North Korean slave laborers are reportedly being kept on in rotation on tourist visas to subvert the deadline.
The North Korean regime typically steals the bulk of overseas laborers' wages and keeps them virtual prisoners under the control of trade officers at building sites, logging camps and Korean restaurants.
8. Ex-U.S. Defense Chief Warns Against Delaying Joint Air Drill
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has expressed concerns over the recent cancelation of joint South Korea-U.S. aerial drills.
"I don't know the facts, but those kinds of concession [to North Korea] before have not worked out," Hagel told Radio Free Asia on Monday.
"I don't know in detail what their agreements were in order to postpone those exercises," he said. "I would hope that whatever the reason was we postponed is a good reason. I hope it leads to an ultimate breakthrough in relation with North Korea... I would assume that's why they did it."
He added, "Those exercises have been very important to combat readiness to preparation on the peninsula for both South Korean forces and U.S. forces."
"But to unilaterally, arbitrarily postpone those exercises for no good reason is dangerous," he warned.
9. Moon wished for N.K leader's participation in ASEAN summit to create int'l support for peace: Cheong Wa Dae
Unfortunately I think this is merely wishful thinking.
Moon wished for N.K leader's participation in ASEAN summit to create int'l support for peace: Cheong Wa Dae | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이치동 · November 21, 2019
SEOUL, Nov. 21 (Yonhap) -- The office of President Moon Jae-in expressed regret Thursday that North Korea rejected an invitation for leader Kim Jong-un to visit South Korea for the upcoming summit with Southeast Asian nations, saying Moon wants a joint opportunity to drum up international support for the Korea peace process.
Cheong Wa Dae was responding to Pyongyang's statement hours earlier that Kim has decided to not to attend the Busan event scheduled for next week.
Moon sent a letter to Kim on Nov. 5 to thank him for his condolence message over the death of his mother, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson, Ko Min-jung.
In the letter, Moon said Kim's attendance of the South Korea-ASEAN special summit, set to kick off Monday, would help in spreading inter-Korean peace efforts.
Moon's view remains unchanged that the leaders of the two Koreas need to meet as often as possible and make joint efforts to garner global "understanding and support" for inter-Korean cooperation and the establishment of peace on the peninsula, Ko said.
Therefore, Moon hoped for such a "not-so-easy chance" to sit down with the leaders of the 10 ASEAN members states along with Kim, she added.
The North, however, said it would be "pointless" for Kim to visit Busan for the summit amid the lack of progress in implementing the agreements reached between him and Moon in past meetings.
10. Minister expects more U.S.-N. Korea talks this year
I attended this event. I would have thought there would have been more reporting on the human rights question a journalist from VOA asked (maybe there is or will be but I have not seen it yet). She asked for an explanation on why the two Koreans who escaped from the north were deported back. He provided a detailed description of the process of how all escapees are interviewed and processed and the decision is made whether they should stay or go. While it seemed pretty logical my questions are two: Why did the government not offer such a detailed public description as he provided and second, why were they sent back to the north in secrecy?
I asked him two questions - how should the ROK and US work together on Human Rights in north Korea. His answered focused on engagement. I asked him how he would like the US to support the Korean unification process to achieve a United Republic of Korea (UROK) (I offered my opinion in the preface to the question that I do not think there will be an end to the nuclear threat and Kim's crimes against humanity until there is secure, stable, economically vibrant non-nuclear peninsula unified under a liberal constitutional form of government - a United Republic of Korea (UROK). His answer focused on an evolving of the military alliance.
(LEAD) Minister expects more U.S.-N. Korea talks this year | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · November 21, 2019
(ATTN: UPDATES with more remarks by minister in last 6 paras)
By Lee Haye-ah
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Wednesday he expects the United States and North Korea to have one or two more opportunities to discuss the regime's nuclear weapons program before the end of the year.
Speaking at a seminar at the U.S. Institute of Peace, the minister also said it will be important for the two sides to seize those opportunities because it is uncertain if they will ever return.
His comments come as North Korea has urged the U.S. to show flexibility in their negotiations before the year's end, with the two sides apart on how much Pyongyang should denuclearize in order to receive sanctions relief and other concessions from the U.S.
"As the North continues to emphasize its year-end deadline, it is highly likely that there will be one or two more opportunities," Kim said in a keynote address. "What's important is that if these opportunities fall through, we cannot know when these opportunities will be made again."
The minister called on both Washington and Pyongyang to halt all "hostile acts" while talks are underway, noting that last year's suspension of South Korea-U.S. military exercises had a positive impact on the diplomatic process.
"If steps are taken to build trust between the North and the U.S., it will create an important turning point for the concrete implementation of denuclearization and the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula," he said.
The minister also emphasized the importance of creating a security environment in which the North can focus on its denuclearization.
"(We) must lead Chairman Kim to keep going forward without giving up on his commitment to abandon his nuclear program," he said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The minister has been in Washington since Sunday to attend the forum and meet with U.S. officials and experts on the sidelines.
A key challenge for inter-Korean relations has been the now-suspended tourist resort on North Korea's Mount Kumgang, where the North has threatened to tear down all South Korean-built facilities if they are not removed.
The minister still held out hope that the current tensions will provide the foundation for sustainable inter-Korean cooperation, saying the government will "actively seek the resumption and revitalization of tourism at Mount Kumgang in consideration of the changed conditions and environment."
He later spoke separately to reporters and cited his meeting earlier this week with U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun.
During their two-hour meeting, Kim said he got the impression that the U.S. is "very committed" to the negotiations with the North and well prepared to discuss the key points of contention.
"Overall, we agreed that it's important that inter-Korean relations and North-U.S. relations move in a virtuous circle," he said.
11. S. Korea-U.S. alliance shaken by both sides
This is quite a statement. The alliance has weathered a lot of ups and downs over the decades but I agree with the assessment that the current friction is unprecedented. We all need to step back and take a deep breath and reflect on our shared interests, shared values, and shared strategy. We need to realize there will be no success against north Korea if the ROK/US alliance is not rock solid and strong and if there is not good trilateral cooperation.
Such a threat to the alliance where both the South Korean and U.S. governments are shaking the foundation of the bilateral alliance to achieve different political goals on each side is unprecedented. The South Korea-U.S. alliance is not a type of relationship whose roots should be shaken by administrations granted finite terms in power. The alliance that has been built based on the sacrifice of the lives of many young people from both countries should not be destroyed as the result of conflicts between South Korea and Japan and arguments to charge more defense costs.
Now is the time for both Seoul and Washington to deeply reflect on and have respect for the meaning and values of the alliance.
S. Korea-U.S. alliance shaken by both sides
donga.com
Posted November. 21, 2019 07:33,
Updated November. 21, 2019 07:33
S. Korea-U.S. alliance shaken by both sides. November. 21, 2019 07:33. .
"I'm not going to prognosticate or speculate on what we may or may not do," U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper regarding said Monday whether or not the United States Forces Korea (USFK) will be reduced during his visit to the Philippines, which implies that he does not exclude the possibility of reducing the USFK. It is a big step back from the joint statement of the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) on Friday, which read that the defense secretary reconfirmed the commitment to maintain the USFK at the current level. Some predict that the U.S. negotiators will use the possibility to reduce the USFK as an implied card to put pressure regarding the issues of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), which will automatically expire at 12 a.m. on Saturday, and military cost sharing between South Korean and the U.S.
The chief U.S. negotiator left the third SMA meeting to negotiate the defense cost-sharing issue, citing that the Korean team was "not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden sharing," 80 minutes later after the meetings scheduled for seven hours began. This is the first time that such event happened since 1991 when the SMA discussions began. The U.S. side is deploying tactics to put pressure copying the rough negotiation methods adopted by U.S. President Donald Trump in order to execute the instructions given by the president who simply views the alliance as a matter of expenses. It is clear that the U.S. will continue to increase the level of pressure in the case that SMA talks and the GSOMIA issue do not unfold as it hopes.
South Korea cannot just blame the "politics of power" by the superpower that leads the global order. The current administration led by President Moon Jae-in should reflect on whether it has thought deeply about the future of the alliance. The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae claimed that the GSOMIA was a matter between South Korea and Japan despite its knowledge that the U.S. sees the agreement as a meaningful symbol of the three-way security cooperation among South Korea, the U.S., and Japan. Time is passing quickly to the expiry of the GSOMIA at 12 a.m. on Saturday, regardless of the concerns and pleas expressed by the U.S. administration, Congress, and pro-Korea experts. Such an attitude of the South Korean government is going to turn away pro-Korea figures in the U.S. who criticize President Trump's actions to weaken the alliance.
Such a threat to the alliance where both the South Korean and U.S. governments are shaking the foundation of the bilateral alliance to achieve different political goals on each side is unprecedented. The South Korea-U.S. alliance is not a type of relationship whose roots should be shaken by administrations granted finite terms in power. The alliance that has been built based on the sacrifice of the lives of many young people from both countries should not be destroyed as the result of conflicts between South Korea and Japan and arguments to charge more defense costs. Now is the time for both Seoul and Washington to deeply reflect on and have respect for the meaning and values of the alliance.
한국어
12. North declined relief for Kaesong, Kumgang
I had not heard we were willing to provide sanctions exemptions for Kaesong and Kumgang. If this is accurate and the north did turn them down it must mean that they really are desperate for much more sanctions relief than these two projects that have in the past have alleged provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Kim's royal court economy. Perhaps the strings that might have been attached to this offer were too restrictive and the north would not be able to benefit as it has in the past.
North Korea turned down an American offer in Hanoi, Vietnam, last February for sanctions exemptions for two economic projects with South Korea, according to new accounts by diplomatic sources.
The sources, who were familiar with the exchanges at the failed second summit between the leaders of the United States and North Korea in Hanoi, said Pyongyang was unwilling to accept relief for individual projects like the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mount Kumgang tours and wanted wholesale relief from several United Nations sanctions blocking foreign investment in its economy.
At a press conference following the summit, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said the North asked the United States to lift five of 11 sets of UN sanctions on its economy, those passed in resolutions from 2016 to 2017 that "hamper the economy and livelihood of [North Korea's] people," for which Pyongyang proposed to "permanently and completely dismantle all the material in the nuclear material production facilities in the Yongbyon area including plutonium and uranium," Ri said.
That suggestion proved unacceptable to U.S. President Donald Trump, who walked out of the discussions with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that day, even skipping a schedule lunch.
Seoul, which had high expectations for the summit, saw months of efforts to free up its Kaesong and Mount Kumgang projects from sanctions go up in smoke.
Eight months later, on Oct. 23, the North announced that Kim had ordered the removal of all South Korean-owned facilities from Mount Kumgang resort and subsequently rejected Seoul's overtures for dialogue on the subject.
If true, the sources' accounts contradict a long-established narrative on the Hanoi summit that Washington had been consistently opposed to sanctions relief for Kaesong and Mount Kumgang.
High-ranking figures in the U.S. State Department had publicly stated both before and after Hanoi that there were no plans to reconsider sanctions for the twin projects and that Pyongyang would first need to take major steps toward its denuclearization for sanctions to be lifted.
The North Korean demands for sanctions relief may have particularly referred to UN Resolution 2375, adopted in September 2017 in response to a nuclear test, which cut 30 percent of oil and 55 percent of petroleum products going into North Korea and completely banned all member states from investing or partaking in joint economic projects with the regime.
On Wednesday, while on a trip to Moscow for meetings at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Choe echoed remarks from several senior North Korean officials in recent days by saying Pyongyang had no interest in resuming denuclearization negotiations with Washington unless the United States lifts its "hostile policy" toward the North.
"I have no message [to give to the United States]," Choe told reporters, "But it is my thought that discussions related to nuclear issues are probably no longer on the table from now on."
If the United States does not retract its so-called hostile policy - which the North's top nuclear negotiator Kim Myong-gil said on Tuesday meant those related to its "security and development" - Choe said Pyongyang would not be interested in high-level talks or another summit.
BY JUNG HYO-SHIK, SHIM KYU-SEOK [ [email protected]]
13. Seoul to include 'indirect costs' for defense deal with US
But will the US (and specifically POTUS) accept this? I think both sides need come together to have a separate negotiation on defining the categories of support (both direct and indirect) before they work to determining fair and equitable funding levels.
Seoul to include 'indirect costs' for defense deal with US
The Korea Times · November 21, 2019
 Rep. Cho Jeong-sik, chief policymaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, center, speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly, Thursday. Yonhap
By Park Ji-won
Members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Thursday floated the idea of including South Korea's indirect financial contributions for the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) as "leverage" if Washington keeps asking Seoul to pay "excessive" costs.
"If Washington keeps making absurd demands, South Korea will seriously reconsider the adjustment of indirect costs created by the USFK apart from defense cost-sharing," Rep. Cho Jeong-sik, chief policymaker of the DPK, said during a party meeting, Thursday.
Underlining that U.S. President Donald Trump's current rumored demand for Seoul to pay $5 billion for U.S. forces here is "excessive" and not written in the U.S. - South Korea Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) or the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), he added the U.S.' demands for Korea to pay more in additional categories such as rotation of U.S. forces and off-peninsula drills are irrelevant to the defense of the Korean Peninsula.
"Korea is making large contributions in many categories directly and indirectly. For example, Korea is letting the USFK use harbors, railways and land for free. It costs 3.5 trillion won as of 2015. Seoul can [recalculate the indirect contributions] and use them as leverage," another DPK lawmaker who is familiar with the SMA negotiations said during a phone interview with The Korea Times.
The last round of talks broke down between Seoul and Washington over the renewal of the South's defense cost-sharing deal for next year. After the breakdown, the chief U.S. negotiator James DeHart said Washington was expecting to resume the negotiations when Seoul is prepared to cooperate on the "basis of mutual trust." But Jeong Eun-bo, chief South Korean negotiator in the talks, told reporters South Korea will stick to its principle of paying additional costs only under equitable and fair guidelines.
Another DPK lawmaker didn't completely rule out the possibility of restructuring the USFK, but added Washington would maintain the current number of troops in South Korea for a "couple more years."
"As far as I know, DPK floor leader Rep. Lee In-young, who is now in Washington, D.C., for scheduled meetings with senior White House and U.S. government officials, as well as members of Senate and the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill, is also set to express the National Assembly's general consensus for the need for a stronger alliance between the United States and South Korea," the lawmaker said on condition of anonymity.
Speaking at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee nomination, Thursday morning (KST), U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun, who has been nominated for the second-highest post at the State Department, said he believed Washington "should continue to station troops in South Korea."
While U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper didn't deny or admit the possibility of downsizing the USFK in response to questions from reporters during his visit to the Philippines, the South's defense ministry said Thursday Washington "reaffirmed its commitment" to maintain the current size at 28,500 troops.
Pointing to the Joint Communique adopted following the 51st Security Consultative Meeting between Esper and South Korea's Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, ministry spokesperson Col. Roh Jae-cheon told reporters in a regular briefing that the two countries were sharing "a firm notion" regarding the USFK's roles and importance for peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.
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