Quotes of the Day:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
- United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.”
- Oscar Wilde
“[No] social principle in the world is more foolish and dangerous than the rapidly rising notion that hurtful words and ideas are a form of violence or torture (e.g., “harassment”) and that their perpetrators should be treated accordingly. That notion leads to the criminalization of criticism and the empowerment of authorities to regulate it. The new sensitivity is the old authoritarianism in disguise, and it is just as noxious.”
- Jonathan Rauch, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought
1. Treasury Targets Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Individuals Supporting Weapons of Mass Destruction and Ballistic Missile Programs
2. United States Designates Entities and Individuals Linked to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) Weapons Programs
3. U.S. pushing for more U.N. sanctions on North Korea over missiles
4. US sanctions 5 North Koreans following recent missile tests
5. Moon wants to formally end the Korean War. Can that bring peace?
6. Don't Push Your Ally into a Corner
7. Yanggang Province declares January “month of intensive crackdowns on illegal behavior”
8. South Korea fires up its ‘artificial sun’
9. Kim Jong Un’s Hypersonic Missiles Show He Can Hit U.S. Back
10. S. Korea's military capable of intercepting N.Korea's new missile: defense ministry
11. North Korea: Covid-19 Used to Bludgeon Rights
12. Trickle of Humanitarian Aid Enters North Korea as Border Closure Drags On
13. About 70 S.Korean attendees of U.S. tech show test positive for COVID-19
14. Decades after adoption, Camp Humphreys commander’s wife returns to Korea and a past nearly forgotten
15. Arirang TV - Peace and Prosperity Ep.133 N. Korea fires hypersonic missile, retracts from Beijing Olympics
1. Treasury Targets Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Individuals Supporting Weapons of Mass Destruction and Ballistic Missile Programs
Small victory. More can and must be done. But it is a start since we have for so long not maintained sufficient pressure on the regime by this administration and the last. Check out our Plan B sanctions section for recommendations here: https://bit.ly/3FsJPTO
New designations (not new sanctions as some press and pundits are saying). Are these Treasury (and State) designations in response to the lack of support by Russia and China for a UNSC statement condemning north Korea for its latest missile tests?
Treasury Targets Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Individuals Supporting Weapons of Mass Destruction and Ballistic Missile Programs
WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) individuals responsible for procuring goods for the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile-related programs. These actions are in line with U.S. efforts to prevent the advancement of the DPRK’s WMD and ballistic missile programs and impede attempts by Pyongyang to proliferate related technologies. They also follow the DPRK’s six ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which violated multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs).
“Today’s actions, part of the United States’ ongoing efforts to counter the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, target its continued use of overseas representatives to illegally procure goods for weapons,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “The DPRK’s latest missile launches are further evidence that it continues to advance prohibited programs despite the international community’s calls for diplomacy and denuclearization.”
The United States remains committed to seeking dialogue and diplomacy with the DPRK, but will continue to address the threat posed by the DPRK’s unlawful weapons programs to the United States and the international community.
DPRK WMD REPRESENTATIVES
OFAC designated a Russia-based DPRK national, Choe Myong Hyon, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13382 (“Blocking Property of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators and Their Supporters”) for having provided, or having attempted to provide, goods or services in support of the Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS). The SANS was designated by the U.S. Department of State on August 30, 2010, pursuant to E.O. 13382, and subsequently by the UN on March 7, 2013 for its involvement with or provision of support for the DPRK’s weapons programs. The SANS has subordinate defense-related procurement and proliferation entities that it uses to obtain commodities and technology to support the DPRK’s defense research and development programs. Choe Myong Hyon is a Vladivostok-based representative of a SANS-subordinate organization. In his role as a chief representative of a SANS-subordinate organization, Choe Myong Hyon has worked to procure telecommunications-related equipment from Russia for DPRK companies.
Today’s action also targets four China-based DPRK WMD representatives of SANS-subordinate organizations pursuant to E.O. 13382. Sim Kwang Sok is a Dalian-based chief representative who has worked to procure steel alloys for his DPRK headquarters. Kim Song Hun is a Shenyang-based representative who has worked to procure software and chemicals for the DPRK. Kang Chol Hak is also a Shenyang-based representative who has procured goods for his DPRK headquarters from Chinese companies. Pyon Kwang Chol is the deputy representative of a suspected cover company for a SANS-subordinate organization located in Dalian, where he was first assigned to work in 2014.
In a related action, the Department of State designated DPRK national O Yong Ho, Russian national Roman Anatolyevich Alar, and Russian entity Parsek LLC pursuant to E.O. 13382 for having engaged in activities or transactions that have materially contributed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery by DPRK.
SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of the individuals and entities that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC. OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all dealings by U.S. persons or within the United States (including transactions transiting the United States) that involve any property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons.
In addition, persons that engage in certain transactions with the individuals or entities designated today may themselves be exposed to designation. Furthermore, any foreign financial institution that knowingly facilitates a significant transaction or provides significant financial services for any of the individuals or entities designated today could be subject to U.S. correspondent account or payable-through sanctions.
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2. United States Designates Entities and Individuals Linked to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) Weapons Programs
Russia and China are complicit in supporting North Korean illicit weapons activities.
Excerpt:
The Department of the Treasury designations targeted five People’s Republic of China- and Russia-based DPRK representatives of a DPRK entity subordinate to the DPRK’s UN- and U.S.-designated Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS). The Department of State designated this entity in 2010 for its involvement with or provision of support for the DPRK’s weapons programs.
United States Designates Entities and Individuals Linked to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) Weapons Programs - United States Department of State
state.gov · by Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
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United States Designates Entities and Individuals Linked to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) Weapons Programs
Press Statement
January 12, 2022
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The United States has designated eight DPRK-linked individuals and entities under Executive Order 13382, which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and WMD delivery systems. The seven individuals and one entity designated today are all linked to the DPRK’s weapons programs.
These designations convey our serious and ongoing concern about the DPRK’s continued proliferation activities and those who support it. The United States will use every appropriate tool to address the DPRK’s WMD and ballistic missile programs, which constitute a serious threat to international peace and security and undermine the global nonproliferation regime.
Specifically, the U.S. Department of State has designated one DPRK individual, one Russian individual, and one Russian entity that have engaged in activities or transactions that have materially contributed to the proliferation of WMD or their means of delivery by DPRK.
Between at least 2018 and 2021, Russia-based DPRK national O Yong Ho has procured and engaged in efforts to procure missile-applicable items from third countries on behalf of the DPRK’s missile program, including aramid fiber, stainless steel tubes, and ball bearings on behalf of the Rocket Industry Department (aka Ministry of Rocket Industry), which is subordinate to the DPRK’s UN- and U.S.-designated Munitions Industry Department.
Between at least 2016 and 2021, O Yong Ho worked with Russian entity Parsek LLC and Russian national Roman Anatolyevich Alar, the director for development of Russian firm Parsek LLC, to procure multiple goods with ballistic missile applications, including Kevlar thread, aramid fiber, aviation oil, ball bearings, and precision milling machines controlled by the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Roman Anatolyevich Alar also provided O Yong Ho with instructions for creating solid rocket fuel mixtures.
The procurement and supply relationship between O Yong Ho, Roman Anatolyevich Alar, and Parsek LLC is a key source of missile-applicable goods and technology for the DPRK’s missile program.
The Department of the Treasury designations targeted five People’s Republic of China- and Russia-based DPRK representatives of a DPRK entity subordinate to the DPRK’s UN- and U.S.-designated Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS). The Department of State designated this entity in 2010 for its involvement with or provision of support for the DPRK’s weapons programs.
We have been and continue to coordinate closely with our allies and partners to address the threats posed by the DPRK’s destabilizing activity and to advance our shared objective of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We remain committed to seeking dialogue and diplomacy with the DPRK and call on the DPRK to engage in negotiations. We urge all UN Member States to fully implement the UN Security Council resolutions addressing the DPRK.
For more information about today’s designations, please see the Department of the Treasury’s press release.
state.gov · by Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
3. U.S. pushing for more U.N. sanctions on North Korea over missiles
This would seem to be an indicator that the Biden administration does not intend to offer sanctions relief to appease KimJong-un. That said it is unlikely we will be able to influence the N to add more sanctions because the PRC and Russia will likely block and action.
U.S. pushing for more U.N. sanctions on North Korea over missiles
Kim Jong Un, North Korea's leader, attends a meeting with Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, chairwoman of Vietnam's National Assembly, at the National Assembly in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Friday, March 1, 2019. SeongJoon Cho/Pool via Reuters/File Photo
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The United States is pushing the United Nations Security Council to impose more sanctions on North Korea following a series of North Korean missile launches, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on Wednesday.
"The U.S. is proposing U.N. sanctions following North Korea's six ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which were in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions," Thomas-Greenfield posted on Twitter.
Earlier on Wednesday the United States imposed unilateral sanctions over the missile launches. It blacklisted six North Koreans, one Russian and a Russian firm, accusing them of procuring goods for the programs from Russia and China.
A U.S. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had proposed five of those individuals also be subjected to a U.N. travel ban and asset freeze. The move has to be agreed by consensus by the Security Council's 15-member North Korea sanctions committee, which includes Russia and China.
"We continue to coordinate with partners to prepare the additional three individuals and entities designated by State for U.N. nomination," the U.S. diplomat said.
Since 2006 North Korea has been subjected to U.N. sanctions, which the Security Council has strengthened over the years in an effort to target funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has sought unsuccessfully to engage Pyongyang in dialogue to persuade it to give up its nuclear bombs and missiles since Biden took office in January last year.
North Korea continued developing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs during the first half of 2021 in violation of U.N. sanctions and despite the country's worsening economic situation, U.N. sanctions monitors reported in August. read more
Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler
4. US sanctions 5 North Koreans following recent missile tests
We will not back down in the face of north Korea rhetoric, threats, increased tension, and provocations. And it is Kim causing the suffering of the Korean people with his deliberate policy decisions:
Excerpts:
Desperate for relief from international sanctions over its nuclear and weapons programs, Pyongyang has been stepping up pressure on Washington and South Korea over denuclearization talks that have stalled since the failed Hanoi Summit between leaders of the U.S. and North Korea in February 2019.
North Korea’s fragile economy has been laid low by border closures and the suspension of trade with China since January 2020 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Pyongyang also faces strict trade sanctions imposed by the U.S. as well as the U.N. Security Council over its multiple nuclear and missile tests.
US sanctions 5 North Koreans following recent missile tests
The targets allegedly helped supply WMD programs from China and Russia.
The US Treasury Department on Wednesday announced sanctions on five North Korean nationals living abroad for allegedly helping to supply the country’s ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs.
The move follows Tuesday’s launch by Pyongyang of a hypersonic missile, the second launch in less than a week and one of six tests carried out by North Korea since last year in defiance of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The new sanctions target North Korea’s “continued use of overseas representatives to illegally procure goods for weapons,” Brian E. Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement Wednesday.
“The DPRK’s latest missile launches are further evidence that it continues to advance prohibited programs despite the international community’s calls for diplomacy and denuclearization,” Nelson said.
Named in the sanctions announced on Wednesday were Russia-based North Korean national Choe Myong Hyon and four North Koreans living in China: Sim Kwang Sok, Kim Song Hun, Kang Chol Hak, and Pyon Kwang Chol.
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the individuals and entities that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC,” the Treasury Department said, referring to the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Foreign financial institutions or individuals facilitating or engaging in prohibited transactions with the designated individuals may themselves face U.S. action, the Treasury Department said.
Desperate for relief from international sanctions over its nuclear and weapons programs, Pyongyang has been stepping up pressure on Washington and South Korea over denuclearization talks that have stalled since the failed Hanoi Summit between leaders of the U.S. and North Korea in February 2019.
North Korea’s fragile economy has been laid low by border closures and the suspension of trade with China since January 2020 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Pyongyang also faces strict trade sanctions imposed by the U.S. as well as the U.N. Security Council over its multiple nuclear and missile tests.
Sanctions' effectiveness questioned
Speaking to RFA, Bruce W. Bennett — an adjunct international/defense researcher at the RAND Corporation — said that North Korea is clearly receiving support for its missile and weapons programs from outside the country.
“And part of the way it gets that assistance is by having some of its people operating overseas and acquiring technology from companies that are more interested in profit than in national loyalty and following the rules," Bennett said.
"And so as a result, the course of action the U.S. has to take is to sanction those individuals, and to try to reduce the potential of that kind of thing continuing.”
The question now is how successful these sanctions are likely to be, Bennett said.
“And that’s very difficult to predict,” he said. “It’s a little hard to try to get this kind of activity under control.”
Ken Gause, a North Korea expert at the Center for Naval Analyses, agreed. "There's nothing really you can do to hold [North Korea] accountable. We put up about as much pressure as we can," he said.
"China's not playing ball, Russia's not playing ball. As long as they're not playing ball any sanctions are really going to fall flat."
"But if you were going to want to actually try something that may get you a different answer than just lobbing on more pressure, it's to do something very different, which is to figure out a way that you can entice North Korea into freezing their program," Gause said.
"And that means some sort of carrots, not just sanctions."
Written by Richard Finney with additional reporting by Hye Jun Seo of RFA’s Korean Service.
5. Moon wants to formally end the Korean War. Can that bring peace?
A dual between Christina Ahn and Sung-yoon Lee. My money is on Professor Lee.
Moon wants to formally end the Korean War. Can that bring peace?
South Korean president says end-of-war declaration will help revive peace talks, but critics say it risks undermining alliance with the US.
On the day that North Korea test fired its first missile of the year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in was in the border town of Goseong, to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a rail line that he hopes will one day reconnect the divided Korean peninsula.
Expressing concern that the January 5 test risked further destabilising inter-Korean ties, Moon stressed that his government would not give up hope of resuming peace talks.
Only dialogue can “fundamentally overcome this situation”, the South Korean president said. “If both Koreas work together and build trust, peace would be achieved one day.”
Since taking office five years ago, Moon has made unprecedented efforts to engage North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. The pair met three times in 2018, pledging to declare the Korean War – which ended not with a peace treaty, but an armistice in 1953 – over by the end of the year.
But that bid, along with negotiations on dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal and providing it relief from punishing global sanctions, stalled the following year, when a summit between Kim and former US President Donald Trump in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, broke down.
Kim has since rebuffed offers from Trump’s successor to resume talks without preconditions.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks with officials during an observation of what state media report is a hypersonic missile test at an undisclosed location in North Korea on January 11, 2022 [KCNA via Reuters]
In recent months, Moon, who is due to leave office in May, has stepped up efforts to put the peace process back on track, lobbying the US and China – both involved in the Korean War – for their backing to formally declare the conflict over.
In a recent address to the United Nations General Assembly, Moon said if all the major parties involved in the conflict “proclaim an end to the War, I believe we can make irreversible progress in denuclearisation and usher in an era of complete peace”.
The proposal has the support of most of the South Korean public, but has divided experts. Some say it could help break the diplomatic impasse on the Korean peninsula, while others fear it could threaten South Korea’s security, including by undermining the country’s defence alliance with the United States.
‘Political, symbolic measure’
Supporters of an end-of-war declaration say it is only diplomacy that has so far helped reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Christine Ahn, executive director of the advocacy group Women Cross DMZ, notes that the summits between the leaders of the US, South Korea and North Korea in 2018 and 2019 led to Kim imposing a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile testing, the release of three detained Americans, the demining of portions of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, as well as the reunion of separated families.
“It’s time to take the use of force off the table,” Ahn said, describing the proposed end-of-war declaration as a “political, symbolic measure” that can build confidence and create the momentum for a return to talks.
But to be effective, she says the declaration must be accompanied by “fundamental shifts in US policy as well as commitments by all sides to reduce hostilities”. This could include steps such as sanctions relief, scaling back the US and South Korea’s military exercises, as well as lifting the US’s travel ban on North Korea to allow family reunions.
Ahn says the signing of an end of war declaration will allow diplomats to “get to work, pick up where negotiations left off since Hanoi, and begin the process of setting timetables for disarmament”.
She adds that those who argue against such a declaration have offered no viable alternatives.
“Simply insisting that North Korea give in to US demands to denuclearise, and believing that more pressure-based tactics will achieve these goals when there is no evidence to the contrary, is not a viable solution,” she said.
The US is yet to confirm the extent of its support for Moon’s peace push, with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan saying last October that Seoul and Washington “have somewhat different perspectives on the precise sequence or timing or conditions” of the proposed treaty.
Washington has made little comment on the proposal since, although South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong said on December 29 that Seoul and Washington “have effectively reached an agreement on its draft text”.
The South Korean foreign ministry also said earlier that month that China is backing its initiative, quoting a top Chinese official as saying that Beijing believes such a move “will contribute to promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula”.
Diplomatic ruse?
North Korea’s response, however, has so far only been tepid.
Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, called the proposal “interesting and admirable” last year, but she said the conditions were not right because of Seoul’s “hostile” policies – a reference to economic sanctions and the annual US-South Korea military exercises that Pyongyang calls a rehearsal for invasion.
And Kim, in his new year’s speech this year, made no mention of the South Korean proposal.
Lee Sung-yoon, a North Korea expert at the Fletcher School at the Tufts University in the US, believes North Korea is only “feigning disinterest” as it has been pushing for an end-of-war declaration since the 1970s, when the US signed a peace accord to end the Vietnam War.
“North Korea has in mind the complete downgrading and withdrawal of US military support for South Korea in the long term. And the end of war declaration is a baby step, but a significant step headed in that direction,” he said.
There are currently some 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea, and Moon’s government has said the end-of-war declaration will not affect the alliance between the two nations. It also says that the proposal will not mean “a legal, structural change in the current armistice regime”, including in the standing of the US-led UN Command (UNC), the multi-national military force that helped repel the North Korean invasion in 1953 and is now tasked with enforcing the armistice.
But Lee says an end-of-war declaration “would arguably render the UNC illegitimate and it would have to be dismantled”, while also raising questions on the Korean Peninsula and in the US on the need for stationing American troops in South Korea.
“The most attractive model for North Korea is the Paris Peace Accord of January 1973 that ended the Vietnam War and led to the US withdrawal from South Vietnam,” said Lee. “It was called a peace treaty, a peace accord, but there was war days later, and the North unified Vietnam, under a communist government in 1975.”
He added: “So all these pleasant-sounding, peaceful sounding agreements are only good if there is the will, on both sides or among all signatories to keep the peace. Sometimes it is a diplomatic canard, it is a ruse to achieve the exact opposite, gain control, and acquire territory by non-peaceful means.”
‘Long shot’
For all the South Korean proposal’s merits and risks, its fate remains uncertain.
Moon’s single five-year term will expire in less than five months, and the race for the presidency is shaping up to be a tight contest.
Lee Jae-myung, the candidate from Moon’s party, backs the plan, but his main opponent, Yoon Seok-yul has spoken out against it, saying an end-of-war declaration could weaken the UNC and undermine domestic support for US military presence in South Korea.
And despite Seoul’s claims of support from the US and China for the proposed declaration, experts say there is little clarity on the international front.
Bong Young-shik, research fellow at the Yonsei University Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul, says the US and North Korea want different outcomes from an end-of-war declaration.
“For the US, a joint declaration is acceptable if it is going to lead to meaningful and substantial progress with regards to North Korea’s denuclearisation. But this declaration is not really closely connected with making progress on that front,” he said.
“And for North Korea, agreeing upon a joint declaration must lead to some substantial benefits. What North Korea wants the most is sanctions relief. But that is not something that the South Korean government can decide. So, unless there are guaranteed benefits, the North Korean government will not find that proposal attractive.
“This has been a long shot, a very long shot from the beginning.”
6. Don't Push Your Ally into a Corner
Victor Cha criticizes South Korea for conducting diplomacy in public (as opposed to public diplomacy) to try to box the U.S. into an end of war declaration. (I think there is a typo as Goerge H.W. Bush was not president in June 1993)
Conclusion:
As hard as Seoul and Washington work on a peace declaration, North Korea will accept it as no more than a piece of paper and demand even more concessions including sanctions relief, suspension of joint military exercises, withdrawal of U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan, and the end of the U.S. nuclear umbrella. In the meantime, Pyongyang will see such a declaration as de jure recognition that peace on the peninsula was achieved through the everlasting strength of North Korea's nuclear deterrent.
Don't Push Your Ally into a Corner
Earlier this month during a summit trip to Australia, President Moon Jae-in stated that the United States, China, and the two Koreas have agreed "in principle" to declare a formal end to the Korean War. He added, however, that North Korea's pre-condition for dialogue is the end of the U.S. "hostile policy." Moon further added, "And because of that, we are not able to sit down for a negotiation on the declarations between South and North Korea, and those between North Korea and the United States."
There is something in alliance politics known as "boxing in your ally," -- that is when one party makes public statements that pressure the other into a position of both blame and responsibility. In its last weeks in office, the Moon government appears to be doing this to President Joe Biden with regard to a peace declaration.
First, it is entirely unclear whether the statement by Moon in Canberra was coordinated in advance with Washington. While Washington and Seoul have been working hard on the language of a peace declaration over the past few months (largely at the latter's urging), these discussions seem not to be finalized, making the statement by Moon a bit premature. Experts in Washington received no signals from the Biden administration that it was ready to roll out such an announcement.
Second, even if North Korea's condition for peace talks is an end to U.S. hostile policy, then rather than putting the ball in the U.S. court, Seoul should have defended how often the United States, in fact, has provided assurances of non-hostility to North Korea over the years. Here is a sample:
• In a June 1993 joint communique between the U.S. and North Korea, President George H.W. Bush provided "assurance against the threat and use of force, including nuclear weapons."
• In the October 1994 U.S.-North Korea agreed framework, President Bill Clinton agreed to provide "formal assurances to North Korea, against the threat or use of nuclear weapons by the U.S."
• In Clinton's second term, the 2000 U.S.-North Korea joint communique stipulated, "The two sides stated that neither government would have hostile intent toward each other and confirmed the commitment of both governments to make every effort in the future to build a new relationship free from past enmity."
• In February 2002 in a joint press conference with President Kim Dae-Jung, Bush stated, "We have no intention of invading North Korea."
• In the September 2005 six-party joint statement, the U.S. affirmed "that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade North Korea with nuclear or conventional weapons."
• With President Roh Moo-hyun in November 2006, Bush further stated that "if [North Korea] gives up its weapons -- nuclear ambitions, that we would be willing to enter into security arrangements with the North Koreans."
• During his summit meeting with President Lee Myung-bak, President Barack Obama stated, "There is another path for North Korea -- a path that leads to peace and economic opportunity."
• Obama added in November 2009, "The United States is prepared to offer North Korea a different future… instead of increasing insecurity, it could have a future of greater security and respect."
• After the Singapore summit with Kim Jong-un in July 2018, President Donald Trump stated, "Yesterday's conflict does not have to be tomorrow's war. And as history has proven over and over again, adversaries can become friends."
From 1989 to 2021, U.S. presidents, secretaries of states, and national security advisers have offered assurances of non-hostile intent on at least 40 separate occasions. Based on this research I can say with confidence that the United States has provided more security assurances to North Korea than to any other non-ally; moreover, it has provided more explicit language of non-hostile intent to the North than to any other country.
After Moon's statement, Unification Minister Lee In-Young stated a few hours later that a peace declaration could be a "turning point" for resuming dialogue, and that the U.S. should take advantage of this opportunity because North Korea "hasn't made the situation deteriorate severely by raising tensions to a high level."
Again, this statement appears aimed at boxing in Washington. First, it seems to have relegated denuclearization to a lower priority as the word is used infrequently in the Moon government's statements about North Korea. Second, it again puts the ball in the U.S. court to supplement the peace declaration with concessions to bring North Korea back to talks (i.e., removal of sanctions on the regime without any corresponding denuclearization steps). Third, the statement about North Korean quiescence badly misleads the public because the absence of ballistic missile tests does not mean a cessation of Pyongyang's nuclear programs. Recent satellite imagery from the Center for Strategic and International Studies using heat signatures shows that the Yongbyon reactor and the reprocessing facility have been fully operational, which means the production of many more nuclear bombs.
As hard as Seoul and Washington work on a peace declaration, North Korea will accept it as no more than a piece of paper and demand even more concessions including sanctions relief, suspension of joint military exercises, withdrawal of U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan, and the end of the U.S. nuclear umbrella. In the meantime, Pyongyang will see such a declaration as de jure recognition that peace on the peninsula was achieved through the everlasting strength of North Korea's nuclear deterrent.
7. Yanggang Province declares January “month of intensive crackdowns on illegal behavior”
This is what life is like in north Korea. And this is an expression of the nature of the Kim family regime and how it must exert control over the KOrean people living in the north. The regime fears the people.
Excerpts:
The source said the Committee for Guiding Socialistic Legal Life designated January for a month-long crackdown on illegal phenomena to ensure their complete elimination. It also decided on measures to carry this out and to report the results to the Central Committee.
The committee also said that regardless of how good party ideology and policies are, there can be no progress in “legal activities” if the wrong executive and supervisory officials are in place, and that there would be a reshuffling of legal officials at the start of the year.
In fact, the source said there was mention during the meeting that some legal officials have harmed the image of “the sacred laws of the Republic,” hurting revolutionary unity.
The source further noted that the committee ordered that the ranks of legal officials be filled with people with professional knowledge and skills and party loyalty, regardless of where they are from or which university they attended. The places to which these new officials will be deployed were also ordered to create work conditions that will allow them to strengthen “legal controls.”
Yanggang Province declares January “month of intensive crackdowns on illegal behavior”
The provincial authorities have focused particularly on eliminating the use of illegal mobile phones
By Jong So Yong - 2022.01.13 2:43pm
The party committee of Yanggang Province convened 2022’s first meeting of its Committee for Guiding Socialistic Legal Life, which declared January a month for intensive crackdowns on illegal behavior.
A source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Wednesday that the Committee for Guiding Socialistic Legal Life held intense discussions for two hours on the afternoon of Jan. 3. The committee designated January a month to clamp down on illegal activity, and declared that laws will be bolstered more than ever.
According to the source, the committee began by calling on authorities to protect the state and people from the schemes of hostile forces this year “using the laws of the Republic, a powerful tool of the dictatorship of people’s democracy.”
In particular, the committee pointed out that given the nature of Yanggang Province – with Hyesan, Pochon County, and Samjiyon located on the China-North Korea border – the infiltration of capitalist ideas and culture has been harming the class and revolutionary consciousness of the people, and an end must be put to all the “anti-socialist and non-socialist factors” impacting local residents.
According to officials at the meeting, the most common problem along the border region this past year was the infiltration of capitalist culture through illegal videos. The committee called for stern actions against young people watching and sharing illegal videos, a seemingly never ending phenomenon.
The committee further called for the strengthening of the legal system to eradicate reactionary behavior by eliminating illegal mobile phones to prevent the leaking of state secrets to South Korea and China or transactions involving money from “traitors” who fled to South Korea.
A view of Hyesan, Yanggang Province, in August 2018. / Image: Daily NK
The committee underscored the need to demonstrate the effectiveness of socialist law by strictly applying the rules to reduce street commerce and wanton pilfering of forests for firewood, and by tracking phenomenon like resisting the law or bribing officials to avoid punishment.
The source said the Committee for Guiding Socialistic Legal Life designated January for a month-long crackdown on illegal phenomena to ensure their complete elimination. It also decided on measures to carry this out and to report the results to the Central Committee.
The committee also said that regardless of how good party ideology and policies are, there can be no progress in “legal activities” if the wrong executive and supervisory officials are in place, and that there would be a reshuffling of legal officials at the start of the year.
In fact, the source said there was mention during the meeting that some legal officials have harmed the image of “the sacred laws of the Republic,” hurting revolutionary unity.
The source further noted that the committee ordered that the ranks of legal officials be filled with people with professional knowledge and skills and party loyalty, regardless of where they are from or which university they attended. The places to which these new officials will be deployed were also ordered to create work conditions that will allow them to strengthen “legal controls.”
Jong So Yong is one of Daily NK’s freelance reporters. Questions about her articles can be directed to [email protected].
8. South Korea fires up its ‘artificial sun’
Excerpts:
Still, KSTAR is hardly alone: A nearby competitor is also winning kudos.
On December 30, it confined plasma for 1,056 seconds – more than 11 minutes – at 70 million degrees Celsius.
“The recent process of EAST is quite amazing,” Yoon said. “But there are two routes here.”
He explained that with plasma being a combination of ion and electrons, KSTAR works on heating ions, EAST on electrons – the dynamics of which are different.
“These are different routes to get to high-performance, steady-state operations,” Yoon said. “We are working together with EAST … this is a competition, but it’s a good thing.”
This element of complementary competition is clear; Chinese personnel are working at the KSTAR site, said Yoon.
Both the Chinese and South Korean projects are components in the larger global project that will be the make or break of fusion energy generation.
“This is not secret,” Yoon said. “We are all sharing the ITER project.”
South Korea fires up its ‘artificial sun’
KSTAR nuclear fusion project passes milestones as mankind seeks the magic bullet of clean and unlimited energy
DAEJEON – The “holy grail” of energy – clean, safe and virtually limitless – is being generated in a six-story building in a science park on the outskirts of a city south of the capital Seoul.
Nestled among buildings marked Korea Institute of Advanced Science and Technology and the Korean Institute of Nuclear Safety in Daejeon, one hour from central Seoul by KTX bullet train, lies a superconducting fusion power plant – or, if you prefer, “artificial sun.”
It is this facility that set a record that generated excited headlines across global scientific media at the end of last year.
On November 24, the KSTAR project of the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE) announced it had continuously operated plasma for 30 seconds with an ion temperature higher than 100 million degrees Celsius – more than double its previous time record.
To the uninitiated, this is gobbledegook. To the initiated, it is an encouraging milestone on the path to workable nuclear fusion – the power source that ignites the sun and the stars.
“We successfully sustained [fusion] for 30 seconds last year,” Yoo Suk-jae, the president of the KFE, told reporters visiting the KSTAR facility this week. “We usually say that fusion energy is a dream energy source – it is almost limitless, with low emission of greenhouse gases and no high-level radioactive waste – [but] this means fusion is not a dream.”
And in a world racked by distrust, hatred and conflict, KSTAR is part of a different dream.
It is a key player in one of mankind’s most ambitious scientific programs, albeit one that is little known outside its own sector: ITER. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which is rising in southern France, could feasibly overcome what many see as humanity’s greatest challenge – the energy and climate change crisis.
Remarkably – unlike other paradigm-smashing scientific mega-programs, such as the Manhattan Project and the Apollo Program – it is truly international in scope, crossing the world’s most hostile ideological and political frontiers.
ITER’s 35 member states include China, the EU (including the UK), India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
A model of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor under construction in the south of France, with an expected completion date of 2027. Photo: WikiCommons
KSTAR turns up the heat
The KFE was founded in 1995, employs 437 staff and has an annual budget of US$200 million. Its flagship project is the KSTAR, or Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research, in Daejon.
Despite its acronym, the KSTAR facility has nothing to do with K-pop, but everything to do with nuclear fusion.
Most energy sources consume a non-renewable resource: Biological sources such as wood or biomass, or fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
Renewable energies, such as solar, wind and hydro are clean and unlimited, but, lacking consistent generation, are unable to sustain the level of operations required for industry.
And nuclear fission, the process used in atomic power plants, creates dangerous waste.
Nuclear fusion suffers none of these drawbacks. In the heart of a star, hydrogen nuclei collide, fuse into heavier helium atoms and release tremendous amounts of energy. A star generates this fusion organically through its extreme gravitational densities and temperatures.
On Earth, the most promising “fuel” for nuclear fusion to occur has been found to be two hydrogen isotopes – deuterium and lithium. These can be sourced from the oceans’ virtually unlimited supply of seawater.
But while the fuels may be easy to source, their fusion is a fiendishly complex process. It requires huge, specialized devices that fuse the lithium and deuterium, turning them into a hydrogen state, where electrons separate from ions and gas becomes plasma.
Stars are aided by densities that the Earth’s atmosphere does not possess. So, for fusion to occur here, temperatures must be raised and maintained at extraordinary heat.
It is this maintenance, or “confinement,” of super-heated plasma that KSTAR does. Its tokamak – an experimental fusion reaction – is a mansion-sized device that would make a perfect set location for a science-fiction film.
Inside the KSTAR reactor room. Photo: Andrew Salmon
The tokamak uses powerful magnetic fields to confine the plasma in a donut-shaped vacuum ring. The plasma within reaches such ludicrous heat that thermal devices cannot measure it: Instead, scientists analyze its temperature by dissecting its light waves.
“We can generate tritium on-site from seawater,” KSTAR Director Yoon Si-woo told reporters as he showed them around the machinery. “We have to heat up the plasma up to 100 million degrees otherwise this [fusion] concept will not happen.”
November’s 30-second operation at 100-million degrees – a huge advance over KSTAR’s first experiment in 2008, which lasted only one second – was a critical milestone, Yoon said. But that length of time needs to be far exceeded for fusion to become viable as a power source.
Next steps
“This is not the end of the story, we must move on to 300 seconds – 300 is the minimum time frame to demonstrate steady-state operations, then this plasma can work forever. If we can’t achieve that – we have to do something else,” he said.
Things will be heating up at KSTAR in the next coming years. KSTAR’s deadline to hit the 300-second mark is 2026. Multiple hurdles lie ahead.
“To increase the fusion rate, you have to increase the temperature and the density,” Yoon said. “Now we are focused on temperature, but we must also focus on density.”
Another issue is cooling, which is now done by chilling the superconducting magnets with liquid helium. “We have to think about how to remove the exhaust from this high-temperature plasma,” he added.
Even so, the South Korean team is now the toast of the fusion world. Given that there are multiple tokamaks in operation around the world, what has made KSTAR so successful of late?
Its superconducting magnets suffer no heat loss, Yoon said, while KSTAR also boasts excellence in its ion-heating systems, and offers world-class diagnostics to monitor the plasma.
Unlike the fears surrounding nuclear fission, Yoon says fusion offers no such risks. “When it comes to safety, nothing can beat fusion,” Yoon said. “The issue is sustainability.”
One reason why South Korea is so advanced in this field is the specializations offered of local industry, which can produce the kind of super-high stress metals and machinery a tokamak requires
“We have a well-developed industry for this,” Yoon said. “Based on that, we have a lot of advantages.”
Indeed, Korea leads the world in shipbuilding technologies, and is also a key player in steel, construction and engineering.
He noted that while KSTAR is a government project – and as an experimental reactor, is not focusing on commercialization – major companies have worked on the reactor and its components.
Nameplates on the wall in the KSTAR building include the world’s leading shipyard, Hyundai Heavy Industries, as well as Samsung Engineering and Construction and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.
KFE President Yoo Suk-jae briefs international reporters on the progress of the KSTAR project, January 10, 2021. Photo: Asia Times / Andrew Salmon
Looking EAST
Still, KSTAR is hardly alone: A nearby competitor is also winning kudos.
On December 30, it confined plasma for 1,056 seconds – more than 11 minutes – at 70 million degrees Celsius.
“The recent process of EAST is quite amazing,” Yoon said. “But there are two routes here.”
He explained that with plasma being a combination of ion and electrons, KSTAR works on heating ions, EAST on electrons – the dynamics of which are different.
“These are different routes to get to high-performance, steady-state operations,” Yoon said. “We are working together with EAST … this is a competition, but it’s a good thing.”
This element of complementary competition is clear; Chinese personnel are working at the KSTAR site, said Yoon.
Both the Chinese and South Korean projects are components in the larger global project that will be the make or break of fusion energy generation.
“This is not secret,” Yoon said. “We are all sharing the ITER project.”
In part two of this story, Asia Times will examine how KSTAR contributes to the ITER project, the spin-off and commercial potential of fusion energy technologies and the overall feasibility of this massively ambitious sector.
9. Kim Jong Un’s Hypersonic Missiles Show He Can Hit U.S. Back
Excerpts:
Duyeon Kim, an adjunct senior fellow in Seoul at the Center for a New American Security, said Pyongyang is trying to create the impression that it can hit back. “Recent advances in its missile program indicate that North Korea still aims to secure a second-strike nuclear capability, make its missiles modern and more survivable, reassure the North Korean people of its military might in regard to the United States, and credibly gain entrance into the nuclear club,” she said.
Kim Jong Un is likely trying to prove he can strengthen North Korea’s position among the world’s nuclear-armed nations despite crushing economic sanctions. More advanced systems such as hypersonic glide vehicles give Kim leverage in future talks by allowing him to menace U.S. allies such as South Korea and Japan, as well as American bases in Asia.
...
“Kim probably wants the U.S. to perceive his threat potential as not only growing, but ever-expanding and with numerous possibilities,” said Soo Kim, a policy analyst with the RAND Corp. who previously worked at the Central Intelligence Agency. “This way, he not only ups his game for negotiations -- there’s also a surprise element that keeps the U.S. and the international community on their toes.”
Kim Jong Un’s Hypersonic Missiles Show He Can Hit U.S. Back
- North Korea claims successful test of more maneuverable rocket
- Part of broad push to deter preemptive strike by Washington
January 12, 2022, 6:05 AM ESTUpdated onJanuary 12, 2022, 6:00 PM EST
Just before dawn Tuesday, Kim Jong Un watched as a hypersonic missile took flight, “leaving behind it a column of fire,” and adding a new weapon in his arsenal that could potentially slip past U.S. defenses and deliver a nuclear bomb.
The rocket deployed a hypersonic glide vehicle that successfully hit a target at sea after flying roughly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) and performing a 240-kilometer “corkscrew” maneuver, the official Korean Central News Agency said. Kim supervised the launch, making his first reported appearance at a weapons test in almost two years and underscoring the importance of a missile that would “help bolster the war deterrent of the country.”
While North Korea’s claims weren’t immediately verified, the launch was symbolic of a shift in the regime’s testing program. For more than two years, Kim has been focused on churning out a range of missiles developed to evade allied defense systems and make the idea of any U.S.-led preemptive attack too costly to contemplate.
That may help deter another confrontation with the U.S. like in 2017, when former President Donald Trump threatened “fire and fury” and officials talked of a “bloody nose” strike on the country. The tests show that Kim pressed ahead with plans to ward off any future attacks, even after Trump opened unprecedented face-to-face negotiations the next year.
‘Nuclear Club’
Duyeon Kim, an adjunct senior fellow in Seoul at the Center for a New American Security, said Pyongyang is trying to create the impression that it can hit back. “Recent advances in its missile program indicate that North Korea still aims to secure a second-strike nuclear capability, make its missiles modern and more survivable, reassure the North Korean people of its military might in regard to the United States, and credibly gain entrance into the nuclear club,” she said.
Kim Jong Un is likely trying to prove he can strengthen North Korea’s position among the world’s nuclear-armed nations despite crushing economic sanctions. More advanced systems such as hypersonic glide vehicles give Kim leverage in future talks by allowing him to menace U.S. allies such as South Korea and Japan, as well as American bases in Asia.
North Korea has so far rebuffed President Joe Biden’s overtures, leaving negotiations little changed since Trump walked away from the negotiating table three years ago. Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told reporters Tuesday that the latest test “takes us in the wrong direction.”
“The United States has been saying since this administration came in that we are open to dialogue with North Korea, that we are open to talking about Covid and humanitarian support,” Nuland said. “And instead they’re firing off missiles.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department designated five North Koreans living overseas -- one in Russia, and four in China -- for aiding the country’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The State Department also designated some individuals and a Russian entity, Parsek LLC.
Kim Jong Un, right, looks at the monitors at a test launch of a missile on Jan. 11.Source: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP Photo
Call for Dialogue
“These designations convey our serious and ongoing concern about the DPRK’s continued proliferation activities and those who support it,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, referring to North Korea’s formal name. “We remain committed to seeking dialogue and diplomacy with the DPRK and call on the DPRK to engage in negotiations.”
The launch Tuesday was North Korea’s second test of a hypersonic glider in less than a week. Other weapons systems demonstrated in recent months include long-range cruise missiles, a new submarine-launched ballistic missile and nuclear-capable rockets fired from train cars.
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“Kim probably wants the U.S. to perceive his threat potential as not only growing, but ever-expanding and with numerous possibilities,” said Soo Kim, a policy analyst with the RAND Corp. who previously worked at the Central Intelligence Agency. “This way, he not only ups his game for negotiations -- there’s also a surprise element that keeps the U.S. and the international community on their toes.”
During Kim Jong Un’s decade in power, North Korea has gone from possessing a rudimentary nuclear bomb with no proven delivery system to likely detonating a thermonuclear device and building a missile that could carry it to the U.S. As punishment, Kim’s regime has been hit with international sanctions that have helped make the North Korean economy smaller than when he assumed leadership.
Defense analysts argue that what North Korea tested in its last two launches probably doesn’t qualify as a “hypersonic glide vehicle” because its wings wouldn’t provide enough lift for long-range flight. Instead, it was likely a“maneuvering reentry vehicle” that can separate from a missile and perform turns to evade interceptors.
“Though North Korea has made some claims, the full extent of this capability is unconfirmed,” said Joseph Dempsey, a research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “However, the ability to change trajectory or flight path could pose additional challenges for regional missile defenses.”
The latest missile -- which flew at almost 10 times the speed of sound -- would also be harder to track by existing allied radar systems, which have long been focused on more traditional trajectories. That has led to some discrepancies in accounts of the launch, with South Korea defense agencies saying the missile only traveled 700 km, not 1,000 km.
“The North Koreans could be embellishing their achievements, or the limited sensor arrays possessed by Japan and South Korea may have had some trouble coping with this new class of threat,” said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow in the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of the book “Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea.”
“These tests, I think, are largely accounted for by Kim’s own military modernization objectives in the pursuit of effective nuclear deterrence against the U.S.,” Panda added. “The North Koreans are not interested in talks right now.”
(Updates with U.S. government designations in ninth paragraph.)
10. S. Korea's military capable of intercepting N.Korea's new missile: defense ministry
I will look forward to the assessment from the missile defense experts.
S. Korea's military capable of intercepting N.Korea's new missile: defense ministry | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's military is capable of both detecting and intercepting what North Korea claims to be a hypersonic missile, Seoul's defense ministry said Thursday.
Boo Seung-chan, the ministry's spokesperson, highlighted the military's readiness posture amid concerns the North's latest missile could dodge the combined missile defense system of South Korea and the United States.
The North has claimed to have successfully conducted hypersonic missiles on Wednesday last week and Tuesday in an indication of its continued quest for the high-tech flight vehicle.
"Let me make it clear that South Korea's military possesses capabilities to not only detect this projectile but also intercept it," Boo told a regular press briefing. "We have also been continuously strengthening our system to respond."
Boo also pointed out the missile fired this week recorded a top speed of Mach 10 -- 10 times the speed of sound -- during its "boost phase" right after liftoff, remarks that suggested the missile could turn out to be a standard ballistic missile.
The North's medium-range Rodong missile is known to record a top speed of over Mach 9 during the boost phase and then fly much slower during its descent. But a hypersonic missile typically flies at a speed of at least Mach 5 during its glide flight or descent.
Soon after Tuesday's missile launch, Seoul officials assessed it had traveled at a maximum speed of Mach 10 but did not specify in which stage it recorded that speed.
"We hope there will not be any misunderstandings. We did not mean (the latest missile) had flown at Mach 10 during its glide flight," Boo said.
But the spokesperson did not elaborate further, saying the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the U.S. are conducting a detailed analysis for additional information.
(END)
11. North Korea: Covid-19 Used to Bludgeon Rights
The COVID paradox - the is deathly afraid of an outbreak but it has also exploited the opportunity to implement draconicon population and resources control measures to oppress the people in the name of COVID.
The subtitle gets it right. It is the regime's systemic repression that is causing the tremendous suffering that is a humanitarian crisis.
North Korea: Covid-19 Used to Bludgeon Rights
Deepening Systematic Repression Creates Humanitarian Crisis
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warns of possible food shortages during a Workers' Party meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 15, 2021. © 2021 Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
(New York) – North Korea’s unnecessary and extreme restrictions to contain the Covid-19 pandemic helped tighten government control while creating a humanitarian crisis, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022.
“North Korea used Covid-19 restrictions to further oppress the North Korean people while igniting a crisis over access to food, medicine, and other essential goods,” said Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Governments and international institutions should press the North Korean government to accept monitored international assistance like food, vaccines, and medicine, and to be transparent and non-discriminatory in addressing the pandemic.”
In the 752-page World Report 2022, its 32nd edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries. Executive Director Kenneth Roth challenges the conventional wisdom that autocracy is ascendent. In country after country, large numbers of people have recently taken to the streets, even at the risk of being arrested or shot, showing that the appeal of democracy remains strong. Meanwhile, autocrats are finding it more difficult to manipulate elections in their favor. Still, he says, democratic leaders must do a better job of meeting national and global challenges and of making sure that democracy delivers on its promised dividends.
In response to the pandemic, in August 2020 North Korea’s leadership created “buffer zones” on the border with China and Russia, and ordered soldiers to “unconditionally shoot” on sight anybody entering without permission. The government banned citizens from nearly all international travel.
The government blocked almost all official and unofficial trade and limited domestic travel almost solely to the movement of essential personnel and goods. As a result, food and other essentials were kept from entering the country, and reduced capacities to move products internally caused shortages of basic necessities. Major droughts in July followed by flooding in August exacerbated the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Under the totalitarian rule of Kim Jong Un, the third leader of the nearly 75-year Kim dynasty, the government maintained fearful obedience through threats of arbitrary imprisonment, torture, collective punishment, enforced disappearance, execution, and forced labor.
Receiving basic information from outside the country became a criminal offense after Pyongyang adopted a new law in December 2020 that bans people from distributing or watching media originating from South Korea, the United States, or Japan, punishable by long imprisonment and possibly the death penalty.
The government does not tolerate pluralism; bans independent media, civil society organizations, and trade unions; and systematically denies all basic liberties, including free expression, public assembly, association, and religion. The authorities routinely send perceived opponents of the government to secretive political prison camps (kwanliso) in remote regions, where they face torture, starvation rations, and forced labor.
In 2021 the North Korean government continued to prioritize strategic weapons development over poverty reduction, conducting missile tests between March and September.
12. Trickle of Humanitarian Aid Enters North Korea as Border Closure Drags On
The border is closed because of Kim Jong-un's deliberate decision.
Trickle of Humanitarian Aid Enters North Korea as Border Closure Drags On
By U.S. News Staff U.S. News & World Report2 min
By Josh Smith
SEOUL (Reuters) - After nearly two years of border closures to protect North Korea against the pandemic, some humanitarian aid is trickling into the country, though shipments of key supplies including food remain blocked, according to United Nations organisations.
The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said this week that at least two of its shipments of nutrition and tuberculosis treatment supplies were released after up to three months of quarantine.
"The first of these consignments of UNICEF supplies has now been cleared from disinfection at the port of Nampo and released to the government distribution centre ready for allocations to health and nutrition facilities," spokeswoman Caroline den Dulk told Reuters in an email.
The moves were first reported on Friday by Seoul-based NK News, but den Dulk did not elaborate on exactly when the shipments were released.
North Korea has not reported any COVID-19 cases and has imposed strict anti-virus measures, including border closures and domestic travel curbs since the pandemic began early 2020.
The U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea has said the country's most vulnerable people were at risk of starvation after it slipped deeper into isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
North Korea called that report "slander," but leader Kim Jong Un has admitted to a "tense" food situation.
Since August 2021, "very few relief items" were permitted to enter North Korea, after undergoing a quarantine period of more than three months followed by disinfection procedures, the World Food Programme said in its December report on North Korea.
WFP said after North Korea closed its borders in early 2020, the organisation continued to distribute food stocks already in the country, until the last of the stocks was distributed in March 2021.
"The closure of borders for food and people and restricted mobility within the country remain the key challenges," the report said. "There is currently no clear timeframe for reopening the border."
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in October that COVID-19 aid supplies had arrived in North Korea but were being held in quarantine at Nampo. WHO representatives did not respond to a request for updates on the status of those supplies.
(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
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13. About 70 S.Korean attendees of U.S. tech show test positive for COVID-19
Uh oh.
About 70 S.Korean attendees of U.S. tech show test positive for COVID-19
1/2
A sign in the Las Vegas Convention Center lobby welcomes attendees to CES 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., January 6, 2022. REUTERS/Steve Marcus
- Summary
- About 70 cases among CES attendees -S.Korea health authorities
- Samsung, SK, Hyundai Heavy employees test positive -sources, company
- S.Korea health official urges attendees to take PCR test
- Nevada says no evidence linking COVID-19 surge with CES
SEOUL/SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - About 70 South Korean nationals who attended the giant CES tech trade show in Las Vegas last week tested positive for COVID-19, health authorities of the Asian country said on Wednesday.
These included some executives and staff of major South Korean companies, according to industry sources and one company.
About 20 people from Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and about six at SK Group, parent of energy firm SK Innovation (096770.KS) and chipmaker SK Hynix (000660.KS), were among those who tested positive for the virus after attending CES, the sources said.
The cases risk dealing a blow to South Korea's COVID-19 control, after the country had just brought down daily number of infections from record highs in December by restoring tough social distancing rules and widely adopting vaccine passports at public locations.
Hyundai Heavy Industries (329180.KS) said six of its employees who attended CES tested positive while in the United States and were quarantined, and some have been released since.
"Multiple" Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and Hyundai Mobis employees who attended CES also tested positive after arriving back in South Korea, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified industry source without specifying the exact number of cases.
About 70 attendees, all South Korean nationals, have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Some 340 South Korean companies participated in CES, it added.
"Many Korean businesspeople who attended CES ... are now confirmed to be infected with COVID-19," Son Young-rae, a senior South Korean health ministry official, told a briefing.
"We are promptly contacting those who participated in the event and conducting epidemiological investigations, but we urge domestic businesspeople or those who are in Korea that attended the event to undergo PCR tests as soon as possible," he said.
Most of the Samsung officials who tested positive were flown back to Korea from Nevada in two chartered flights, arriving late on Tuesday Seoul time, and the remaining Samsung officials are expected to be flown back on Wednesday, South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported, citing unidentified industry sources.
The Samsung officials are being moved to quarantine facilities in South Korea and most were asymptomatic or have light symptoms, the paper said.
A spokesperson for Consumer Technology Association (CTA), CES' operator, did not have an immediate response.
Nevada state health authorities said, "Many new cases have had recent travel history, attended events, and have visited multiple locations where they could potentially have acquired their infection." They said they do "not have evidence linking the recent surge in COVID-19 cases with CES."
Samsung Electronics declined to confirm details of the cases. It said it "took a number of steps to protect the health and well-being of (CES) attendees", including requiring vaccines, mask mandates, social distancing protocols and providing testing for all employees throughout the week.
SK Group declined to comment on the cases, citing its policy of not disclosing personal information. Hyundai Motor Group did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to media.
South Korea reported 381 cases of infections contracted overseas for Tuesday, a record, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, bringing the daily number of infections across the country to 4,388.
Health ministry official Son said the rise of infections contracted overseas is seen mainly due to the spread of the Omicron variant, although the number of CES attendees who tested positive did have some effect.
Reporting by Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang in Seoul and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Muralikumar Anantharaman
14. Decades after adoption, Camp Humphreys commander’s wife returns to Korea and a past nearly forgotten
Decades after adoption, Camp Humphreys commander’s wife returns to Korea and a past nearly forgotten
In 1975, Tara Graves’ adoptive parents selected her from a catalog of children’s pictures and flew her from South Korea to the United States. Her Korean name was Kim Eun-sook. (Tara Graves)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — Tara Graves celebrates her birthday Saturday in South Korea, her first since she was born here more than 45 years ago.
Graves, 46, a personal fitness trainer and the wife of Camp Humphreys commander Col. Seth Graves, is among tens of thousands of South Koreans adopted to families around the world in the decades following the 1950-53 Korean War.
In 2020, the Army sent the Graves family from Brussels to South Korea, where Seth took command of the largest U.S. military base overseas.
The new assignment hit home for Tara Graves: She had not been in South Korea since she was adopted at 6 months old, she told Stars and Stripes in December.
Although she saw the move as an opportunity to reconnect with her birth family and Korean culture, it required her, like many adoptees, to reopen emotional scars.
“It’s almost like opening a box full of trauma,” Graves said. “You don’t know exactly what you’re going to get.”
‘Difficult childhood’
In 1975, Graves’ adoptive parents selected her from a catalog of children’s pictures and flew her from South Korea to New Jersey before her adoptive father’s job with manufacturing company 3M took them to Minnesota.
“It was a very difficult childhood growing up in Minnesota,” she said. “In the small town that we lived in, everyone was sort of predominantly Caucasian.”
As children, Tara and her younger brother, also an adopted Korean, were bullied and teased, she said. Her Minnesota upbringing fostered what she described as a “a very scary situation” due to her ethnic background in a predominantly white neighborhood.
“Being 5 years old and having older kids chase me down at the bus stop, throwing rocks at me, for what I looked like was very difficult,” she said.
At age 16, Graves, with her adoptive mother’s help, started a search for her birth family, she said, “because I wanted to know what happened.”
Through South Korea’s social services, she discovered a note left at an orphanage by a family member, hoping Graves would receive it and contact her birth family. She eventually reached her birth mother and exchanged photos and translated letters.
Graves said her birth mother refused to explain to her what transpired "until she saw me in person and that I learned how to speak the native language.”
Two years later, Graves “let it go” and stopped sending letters.
“I think I realized that the older that I became, I didn’t have this void of needing to go back to the motherland; to be whole; to know my whole story or meet my biological family,” she said. “I didn’t let that identify me. It wasn’t my identity, being a lost Korean American adoptee.”
Tara Graves poses between her husband, Army Col. Seth Graves, right, and her birth brother, Kim Hyung-bae, during a recent reunion in South Korea. (Kim Hyung Bae)
Healing
Graves ultimately decided that reconnecting with her family may “heal that part of me that hasn’t healed.”
After moving to South Korea, she contacted one of her six Korean siblings and made plans to meet at a café in Pyeongtaek, where Humphreys is located roughly 40 miles from Seoul.
It was an “extremely emotional” reunion, she said. Seth Graves and Jena, the couple’s 17-year-old daughter, also met their extended family members.
“She just looks like her sister,” Tara recalled one of her siblings saying.
Seth Graves said Tara and her birth family were “all very excited to finally meet each other” and described it as “very emotional.”
"I think it’s a very special moment for her,” Seth told Stars and Stripes on Thursday. “Had she and I not met, she may have never made it back to Korea and had the opportunity to meet her family.”
Seth added that Tara’s birth family “took her in with open arms” and also accepted him and Jena “as part of the family.”
While discussing her birth family’s history with her siblings, Graves discovered the true story behind her birth and adoption, a story that conflicted with what was passed down to her.
“All of that was not true,” she said.
Her siblings told Graves that her birth mother divorced her father and left all of their children in his care. When her father died several years later, the eldest brother, who had recently graduated from high school, took care of his five siblings.
"He remembers me being born and then feeding me, and everyone being happy,” Graves said of her brother. “And then, all of a sudden one day, I disappeared.”
‘Nothing to forgive’
While life in South Korea drastically improved in the decades that followed the Korean War, much of the population was still experiencing economic difficulties throughout the 1970s, Kongdan Oh, a former senior Asia specialist at the Institute for Defense Analyses, wrote in an analysis published by the Brookings Institution.
Kim Hyung-bae, the eldest son and a manager of an elementary school in Gangwon province, explained that their parents wanted another son and because “we are folks who experienced poverty” they put Tara up for adoption.
“Men are blind in their own cause,” Kim told Stars and Stripes. “I asked our parents where she went but heard nothing from them. They were answerless.”
Kim said his siblings were too young to understand the concept of adoption, he said, but he felt guilt later on.
“I once thought that adoption is better for her,” Kim said. “I also felt bad for her and thought [she] should be in the U.S. … even just that she should eat well and live well there.”
When the siblings first met, Kim asked Tara Graves for forgiveness, she said.
“There’s nothing to forgive,” Graves said. “But for him, it was very important that he had my forgiveness.”
About 22 years ago, Kim and his siblings exhumed the remains of their immediate family and reinterred them in one grave. Tara Graves’ siblings engraved their names on the tombstone.
Among those names was Kim Eun-sook, Graves’ Korean name.
“I thought we may see her again some time,” Kim said. “And I wanted to prove that Tara has a family in South Korea.”
David Choi
15. Arirang TV - Peace and Prosperity Ep.133 N. Korea fires hypersonic missile, retracts from Beijing Olympics
Video at the link. Ken Gause and I are interviewed in the first 10 minutes of this program. There are some production/editing issues. But Ken and I offer different responses to the recent missile test. Note this was filmed Sunday night before the 2d missile test took place but my comments still stand.
Arirang TV - Peace and Prosperity
Ep.133 N. Korea fires hypersonic missile, retracts from Beijing Olympics
World Ch. Schedule : TUE 20:30 KST
N. Korea fires hypersonic missile, retracts from Beijing Olympics
N. Korea conducted provocation for the first time this year by firing a hypersonic missile toward the East Sea on January 5th. Experts believe the latest firing would trigger the Kim regime to further ramp up its strategic weapons as Pyeongyang denied it’s a provocation but part of a weapons development plan amid efforts to boost its security capabilities.
On the day the hypersonic missile test was carried out, N. Korea also officially pulled out from the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Watchers speculate that Pyeongyang’s latest decision would cloud Seoul’s push for the end-of-war declaration and resume inter-Korean dialogue. We touch upon the future actions of N. Korea and ways to restart the stalled talks.
V/R
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Phone: 202-573-8647
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
