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Quotes of the Day:
“Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much.”
- Johann Goethe
“Wisdom fears nothing, but still bows humbly to its own source, with its deeper understanding, loves all things, for it has seen the beauty, the tenderness, and the sweetness which underlie life's mystery.”
- Manly P. Hall
“However repugnant the idea is to liberal societies, the man who will willingly defend the free world in the fringe areas is not the responsible citizen-soldier. The man who will go where his colors go, without asking, who will fight a phantom foe in jungle and mountain range, without counting, and who will suffer and die in the midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptered Britain to democratic America. He is the stuff of which legions are made.
His pride is in his colors and his regiment, his training hard and thorough and coldly realistic, to fit him for what he must face, and his obedience to his orders. As a legionnaire, he held the gates of civilization for the classical world; as a blue-coated horseman, he swept the Indians from the Plains; he has been called United States Marine. He does the jobs—the utterly necessary jobs—no militia is willing to do. His task is moral or immoral according to the orders that send him forth.”
- T. R. Fehrenbach, This Kind of War (p. 658):
1. Remembering Otto Warmbier
2. Yoon meets with NATO chief, promises to help Ukrainian people
3. New evidence declares soldier POW before death in Korean War
4, 7 of 10 S. Koreans support independent development of nuclear weapons: poll
5. Discussing ROK nuclear armament is ‘inappropriate,’ unification minister says
6. ‘S. Korea, US both have roles to play on nuclear deterrence’
7. Accused spies for North Korea likely face imminent arrest
8. [Column] Lessons from North Korea’s commando attack
9. S. Korea, Japan hold working-level consultations on wartime forced labor
10. North Korean UAVs: small intruders, big ambitions?
11. US Defense Officials Not Losing Sight of China, North Korea
12. North Korea slams NATO chief's visit to South Korea as 'prelude' to confrontation, war
13. [Newsmaker] Why is Samsung starting a legal fight against smartphone repair shops in US?14.
1. Remembering Otto Warmbier
From my good friend and mentor and one of the true experts on north Korea.
Conclusion:
Many who are incarcerated in North Korea are forced to admit to fabricated charges or testify to some other fiction. Otto was also shown publicly apologizing in court. However, there is no evidence of subsequent cooperation with his torturers. Indeed, it is evident he did not cooperate any further. The North Korean regime would have made it public otherwise. Otto appears to have successfully resisted in a heroic manner, and we should remember him for that.
Remembering Otto Warmbier
hrnkinsider.org · by Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
By Robert Collins
January 30, 2023
Just before Christmas 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which included the “Otto Warmbier Countering North Korean Censorship and Surveillance Act.” The law “authorizes $10 million annually for the next five years to counter North Korea’s repressive censorship and surveillance state.”
Otto was imprisoned and tortured by the Kim regime for reasons that seem petty to almost all of us, but were taken exceedingly seriously by the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) and the Ministry of State Security (MSS). Otto died days after being returned to the United States to meet his family, unable to talk due to the torture that the North Korean regime inflicted on him.
The MSS took Otto into custody after he reportedly took down a propaganda poster in the hotel he was staying at. This seems like a minor infraction to us in the West. However, if the poster had the name of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, or Kim Jong-un on it, this act would be regarded as the worst of all crimes in North Korea—even worse than first-degree murder. This is not only law in North Korea, but most importantly, it is the firm policy of the KWP. Historically, North Koreans have been executed immediately for such an offense.
Any North Korean court official, security officer, or KWP member who fails to respond in the most brutal manner toward an offense against the Supreme Leader would be immediately imprisoned, along with their family members. It is hard to imagine that any government would punish its security personnel for failing to be brutal enough, but this is a fact of political life under the Kim family regime.
Otto had no way of knowing this. His youthful innocence resulted in him being detained by the ye-sim-gwa (pre-trial examination section) of the MSS. These interrogators are notorious for inflicting extremely harsh torture on the accused to extract confessions. There have been plenty of reports about detainees dying during interrogations.
North Korea’s courts, which are driven by party policy and not the rule of law, then issue a sentence based on forced confessions. Detainees are then sent to another detention facility, where they continue to face torture by the guards. The most extreme of these facilities are the Kim regime’s kwan-li-so political prison camps. Testimony on the horrific torture inflicted upon political prison camp detainees is beyond abundant.
Why the torture? In 2005, then-Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il directed security and prison officials to treat those incarcerated in political prison camps and related facilities as “poisonous grass.” He urged those that dealt with the incarcerated to root out the “poisonous grass” to “defend the dictatorship of the proletariat.” Supreme Leader directives are regarded as superior to the law in North Korea. They must be immediately and strictly implemented without hesitation. In other words, those who work in the ye-sim-gwa or the detention facilities must prove themselves loyal to Supreme Leader directives. How so?
Unlike any other country in the world, every North Korean, beginning at the age of nine and until they die, must conduct a public self-evaluation of their adherence to the directives of the Supreme Leaders—Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un—and how their performance falls short of these directives. They must criticize themselves, never compliment themselves. This is referred to as saenghwal chonghwa—lifestyle self-critique. The self-critique is followed by criticism from others.
This is done at least weekly, usually on Saturdays. Records of these self-critiques are kept by the organizational secretary of the KWP committee, which is embedded in every entity in North Korea—party, government, military, economic, or social. These records are transmitted to the all-powerful KWP Organization and Guidance Department (OGD). The OGD assigns a political action officer to manage every organization or regional area, including detention facilities.
There is an OGD political action officer or team of political action officers that monitor the ye-sim-gwa and detention facilities. These officers prepare reports for the Supreme Leader when deemed necessary. Considering how visible Otto’s trial was, it is difficult to believe that the North Korean leadership was not aware of exactly how he was being treated.
How does all of this inform our understanding of what happened to Otto? The interrogators in the ye-sim-gwa and Otto’s incarcerators would have had to admit their inadequate ill-treatment of Otto during self-critique sessions. Their fellow torturers and incarcerators would have had to complain that the official undergoing self-critique was not being brutal enough toward Otto. The brutal treatment of Otto was likely far more severe than that suffered by incarcerated North Koreans.
Many who are incarcerated in North Korea are forced to admit to fabricated charges or testify to some other fiction. Otto was also shown publicly apologizing in court. However, there is no evidence of subsequent cooperation with his torturers. Indeed, it is evident he did not cooperate any further. The North Korean regime would have made it public otherwise. Otto appears to have successfully resisted in a heroic manner, and we should remember him for that.
Categories: Human Rights, North Korea, Otto Warmbier, United States
hrnkinsider.org · by Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
2. Yoon meets with NATO chief, promises to help Ukrainian people
Yoon meets with NATO chief, promises to help Ukrainian people | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · January 30, 2023
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol met with the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Monday and promised to provide continued support for the Ukrainian people in their war against Russia, his office said.
Yoon met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during the official's two-day visit to South Korea and discussed South Korea-NATO ties, South Korea's Indo-Pacific strategy and North Korea's nuclear program, among other issues, according to senior presidential secretary for press affairs Kim Eun-hye.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (R) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg pose for a photo during their meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Jan. 30, 2023, in this photo provided by the office. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
"Secretary General Stoltenberg explained the current situation in Ukraine and expressed his thanks for South Korea's continued assistance, emphasizing the need to ensure the international community is not imprinted with the wrong message that an armed invasion is acceptable," Kim said in a written press briefing.
"President Yoon said he will continue to fulfill all possible roles in cooperation with the international community to help the Ukrainian people," she said.
Yoon recalled his attendance at a NATO summit in Madrid last June and expressed hope South Korea and the alliance will further expand their cooperation through the country's newly established mission to NATO.
He also explained the details of South Korea's Indo-Pacific strategy announced last December and noted the need to cooperate with NATO in its implementation.
On North Korea, Yoon called for the active role of the secretary general and NATO in discouraging the regime from carrying out further provocations amid its continued advancement of nuclear and missile capabilities.
Stoltenberg invited Yoon to a NATO summit scheduled for July in Lithuania, and the president thanked him for the invitation while promising to consider attending, Kim said.
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · January 30, 2023
3. . New evidence declares soldier POW before death in Korean War
New evidence declares soldier POW before death in Korean War
armytimes.com · by Staff Reports · January 27, 2023
Army scientists recently added a new chapter to the story of a 19-year-old Army private presumed to have died fighting in the Korean War in 1950.
Unit officials had declared Pfc. Ithiel E. Whatley, of Pensacola, Florida first missing in action and, nearly four years later “issued a presumptive finding of death” on Jan. 4, 1954, later declaring his remains “unrecoverable” in January 1956, according to a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency release.
Findings made in September 2022 and publicly announced on Jan. 20, now show he survived the fighting if only for a short time, to be held as a prisoner of war before his death.
RELATED
Remains of soldier who disappeared during Korean War identified
Army Cpl. Joseph J. Puopolo was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, following the Battle of Ch’ongch’on, according to the military.
Whatley served with M Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. During a “fighting withdrawal” south of Chochi’won, South Korea on July 12, 1950, fellow soldiers reported him missing.
With no eyewitness accounts of his capture nor records to show he had been held as a prisoner of war, the Army presumed him first missing and then dead.
However, during these declarations, the service recovered a set of remains on Oct. 6, 1950, designated X-143 Taejon from the Kum River. Officials transported those remains to the United Nations Military Cemetery Taejon and buried them with 164 sets of remains previously recovered from the area where officials believed Whatley went missing.
Whatley’s remains and other unidentified remains were then moved again to Japan in 1951 for further identification work. When that effort failed, the remains were again transported to Hawaii in 1956 and buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl Cemetery with other unknown remains from the Korean War.
Pfc. Ithiel E. Whatley, pictured here before his death fighting in the Korean War in 1950. (Defense Department)
During Phase 2 of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s Korean War Disinterment Project, Whatley’s remains were again disinterred and transported to the agency laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for further analysis.
In September, the X-143 remains were identified as Whatley’s.
“Whatley’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for,” according to the release.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
4. 7 of 10 S. Koreans support independent development of nuclear weapons: poll
Not a surprise. President Yoon will come under enormous pressure. My guess is that the only way he will be able to prevent developing South Korean nuclear weapons is for the US to redeploy nuclear weapons. If the US does not do so he may be at great political risk and could be force to start developing SOuth Korean nuclear weapons.
(LEAD) 7 of 10 S. Koreans support independent development of nuclear weapons: poll | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · January 30, 2023
(ATTN: CLARIFIES survey info in 2nd para; ADDS more info throughout)
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- Seven out of 10 South Koreans see the need for Seoul to independently pursue its own nuclear weapons development program, a survey showed Monday, amid concerns over escalating military threats from Pyongyang and a lack of trust in denuclearization negotiations with North Korea.
According to the Gallup Korea poll of 1,000 adults, commissioned by the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies, 76.6 percent replied that the South needs to develop nuclear weapons independently to counter Pyongyang's intensifying nuclear threats and deter its provocations.
The survey showed 77.6 percent of the respondents considered denuclearization of North Korea to be "impossible," while 78.6 percent said Pyongyang was likely to conduct its seventh nuclear test.
Of those polled, 72.4 percent also made positive assessments on South Korea's capability in developing its own nuclear weapons.
Among those surveyed, 51.3 percent said they believed the United States will actually demonstrate extended deterrence to defend Seoul in case of contingencies on the Korean Peninsula.
Extended deterrence refers to a commitment to the provision of the full range of military capabilities, including nuclear, conventional, missile defense and other advanced non-nuclear capabilities, to help defend allies and partners.
The survey was conducted from Nov. 28 to Dec. 16 last year through one-on-one in-person home interviews.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · January 30, 2023
5. Discussing ROK nuclear armament is ‘inappropriate,’ unification minister says
Discussing ROK nuclear armament is ‘inappropriate,’ unification minister says
Kwon Young-se says president stressed Seoul’s ‘will’ to defend against North Korea by floating ROK nuclearization
https://www.nknews.org/2023/01/discussing-rok-nuclear-armament-is-inappropriate-unification-minister-says/
Jeongmin Kim January 30, 2023
Discussing a South Korean nuclear program is “inappropriate,” unification minister Kwon Young-se said Sunday, weeks after President Yoon Suk-yeol said the country could rapidly acquire or develop nuclear weapons in a worst-case scenario.
Bringing nuclear weapons to South Korea in any way will be the same as “demolishing the principle of Korean Peninsula denuclearization with our own hands,” he said speaking in a live interview with KBS.
“And wherever the [U.S.] nuclear weapons are — on the peninsula or anywhere nearby — using such a weapon to punish [North Korea] won’t take much time,” the minister added, urging more caution regarding the issue.
“We should not simply think that deploying tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula will strengthen our response capabilities against [DPRK] nuclear weapons,” he added.
The unification minister also pointed out South Korea’s heavy reliance on foreign trade and warned of the economic “retaliation” that breaching the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) would invite in the form of sanctions and other penalties.
President Yoon said earlier this month the ROK could develop an indigenous nuclear weapon or deploy tactical nuclear weapons if “problems become more serious.”
“It would not take long to [develop] one for ourselves in a short period of time using our science and technology,” Yoon said, while emphasizing the need to “choose means that are realistically possible” such as U.S. extended deterrence.
Nevertheless, critics in South Korea and abroad slammed Yoon’s remarks as suggesting that he does not trust the U.S. to fulfill its extended deterrence commitments under the U.S.-ROK alliance.
Minister Kwon did not directly refute Yoon’s nuclear comments but said he interpreted them as a rhetorical emphasis of South Korea’s “strong will” to respond to the North Korean nuclear threat.
He added, however, that any questions about the U.S. commitment to defend the ROK were inappropriate as the two sides prepare for combined exercises “related to U.S. nuclear weapons” that will make the alliance “stronger than ever.”
North Korean people reading Rodong Sinmun | Image: NK News (Oct. 6, 2016)
RODONG SINMUN AND UNIFICATION
Kwon on Sunday also commented on the unification ministry’s 2023 work plan he presented to the president last Friday, explaining the government’s intention to gradually expand South Korean public access to digitized editions of the North Korean party daily Rodong Sinmun.
Internet users in South Korea cannot access DPRK websites and online material, and anyone interested in doing so must visit special government-run information centers or specific university libraries.
But it will soon be “a little bit more convenient” to read the DPRK’s primary mouthpiece, Kwon said. “Our citizens are mature … and can see past the wall of propaganda.”
South Korea will be able to use this “preemptive opening-up” of state media as “a sort of weapon” to demand North Korea open up to ROK media in the future, according to Kwon.
Meanwhile, the unification minister also dismissed naysayers who said President Yoon’s comment last week about preparing for Korean unification based on “liberal democratic order” amounted to advocating for the South to take over the North “by absorption.”
“I want to clearly point out that that is absolutely not the case,” Kwon said, explaining that Seoul sees unification “based on the people’s intention” from both Koreas through means such as national voting rather than “through forced absorption.”
Kwon recently returned to Seoul after accompanying Yoon to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the minister met with leaders of the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF.
“They sounded really frustrated,” he said, stating that the international organizations told him that dialogue with North Korea on humanitarian cooperation is “not going so well.”
Edited by Arius Derr
6. ‘S. Korea, US both have roles to play on nuclear deterrence’
Excerpts:
“So we think that as long as nuclear weapons exist, especially as long as we see that authoritarian powers are having them and actually investing heavily in modernizing them, as we see what China is doing and increasing the number of weapons and the range and also what North Korea is doing, then nuclear deterrence still has an extremely important task to fulfill," Stoltenberg said.
...
Stoltenberg added South Korea should not be overly economically dependent on China, a country he described as posing a “challenge” to the world. The NATO chief cited a German example where Russia had taken Berlin hostage as Moscow threatened to cut gas supplies to the EU member country.
‘S. Korea, US both have roles to play on nuclear deterrence’
koreaherald.com · by Choi Si-young · January 30, 2023
Published : Jan 30, 2023 - 15:49 Updated : Jan 30, 2023 - 15:58
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg delivers remarks at the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that efforts for nuclear deterrence by South Korea and the US helped nonproliferation, and such readiness to deter aggression is required as long as authoritarian powers do not relinquish their control over atomic weapons.
At a roundtable held in Seoul, the chief of the 30-member military alliance based in Brussels, Belgium, described a world split between like-minded countries sharing such values as freedom and democracy and those endorsing authoritarian rule, such as Russia, China and North Korea.
“So we think that as long as nuclear weapons exist, especially as long as we see that authoritarian powers are having them and actually investing heavily in modernizing them, as we see what China is doing and increasing the number of weapons and the range and also what North Korea is doing, then nuclear deterrence still has an extremely important task to fulfill," Stoltenberg said.
The NATO chief, who discussed expanding ties to curb North Korea’s aggression with Foreign Minister Park Jin on Friday, the first day of his two-day trip, did not offer specifics about how to bolster the kind of “extended deterrence” Seoul has maintained with Washington, its chief ally. The term refers to US support involving its nuclear umbrella and strategic assets like bombers and fighters, all meant to prevent outside aggression, including North Korea, South Korea’s biggest threat.
Bringing closure to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Stoltenberg noted, is in the interest of every country that seeks democracy, because a failure to do so sets a precedent that authoritarian countries can use force to get their way. Military support for Ukraine, like weapons and ammunition is the best way to ensure “tyranny does not prevail,” according to Stoltenberg.
He has accused North Korea of funneling weapons to Russia, a claim Pyongyang strongly disputes.
Stoltenberg added South Korea should not be overly economically dependent on China, a country he described as posing a “challenge” to the world. The NATO chief cited a German example where Russia had taken Berlin hostage as Moscow threatened to cut gas supplies to the EU member country.
By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)
koreaherald.com · by Choi Si-young · January 30, 2023
7. Accused spies for North Korea likely face imminent arrest
Subversion: the invisible threat that is a key part of the regime's political warfare strategy.
Monday
January 30, 2023
dictionary + A - A
Accused spies for North Korea likely face imminent arrest
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/01/30/national/northKorea/Korea-North-Korea-NIS/20230130183234619.html?detailWord=
Protesters outside the National Intelligence Service's regional branch in Changwon, South Gyeongsang on Monday demand the release of four individuals detained on suspicion of conducting seditious activities on behalf of North Korea. [YONHAP]
Prosecutors will likely file arrest warrants Tuesday against four individuals accused of conducting seditious activities on behalf of North Korea after a court struck down earlier warrant requests.
The four individuals were detained by officials from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and police on Saturday on suspicion of violating the National Security Act, which bans behavior or speech that expresses support for the North Korean regime or communism or advocates the overthrow of the South Korean government.
The Seoul Central District Court rejected the prosecution’s initial warrant requests on Sunday after finding that the four people detained by counterintelligence officials were unfairly treated in the process of being taken into custody.
The court’s rejection of the prosecution’s arrest warrants gives investigators 48 hours to file another warrant application before the suspects must be released.
Investigators believe the four individuals, based in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, established an underground organization called the Self-Reliant People’s Liberation Front in 2016.
The four, who are also members of a liberal South Gyeongsang political organization, are accused of organizing anti-U.S. protests and activities in support of North Korean athletes at the behest of orders from North Korean intelligence agents, whom they are suspected of meeting in various Southeast Asian countries, such as Cambodia.
Their arrest came as South Korean counterintelligence authorities began an expansive effort to investigate allegations that high-ranking members of several left-leaning South Korean organizations, including the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), actively collaborated with North Korean intelligence agents to foment unrest in the South.
The country’s spy agency and police carried out numerous raids last week on the KCTU’s headquarters in Jung District, central Seoul, as well the homes of four former and current KCTU executives in South Jeolla and Gyeonggi, the headquarters of the KCTU-affiliated Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, and a so-called “peace shelter” on Jeju Island — all to investigate allegations that trade union officials violated the National Security Act.
According to South Korean counterintelligence officials who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity, the NIS and police agency’s investigation centers on a KCTU executive and three others suspected of meeting with a North Korean agent from the Cultural Exchange Bureau, a department of Pyongyang’s ruling Workers’ Party, on multiple occasions from 2016 to 2019.
That bureau is responsible for conducting espionage operations against South Korea and establishing underground political organizations aimed at overthrowing the government in Seoul.
The KCTU has strongly protested the raids, claiming they represent “a crackdown by public security officials against the labor movement.”
BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
8. [Column] Lessons from North Korea’s commando attack
Very interesting point here. I cannot recall ever reading such a statement from South korea.
Excerpt:
Second, we must end our passive military attitude of coming up with countermeasures only after the North attacked us. Why can’t the North transfer its nuclear and missile technologies to Middle Eastern countries? It refrains from such a move as it knows very well that Israel has fierce retaliatory capabilities to enact eye-for-an eye revenge. The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad closely monitors the North’s arms exports. The North may have been warned that it would face stern retaliation if necessary. Our military must consult with the U.S. military in advance to have the ability to strike the origin of a North Korean attack. We must improve our capability to retaliate against drone attacks, including decapitation operations of the kind Kim Jong-un fears.
Monday
January 30, 2023
dictionary + A - A
[Column] Lessons from North Korea’s commando attack
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/01/30/opinion/columns/North-Korea-commando-attack-drones/20230130200815320.html
Lee Jong-chan
The author, a former director of the National Intelligence Service, is a steering committee member for the JoongAng Ilbo’s Reset Korea Campaign.
A group of North Korean commandos, including Kim Shin-jo, infiltrated the area near the Blue House on Jan. 21, 1968. If the Jongno police chief hadn’t stopped them near Jahamun, they would have entered the presidential compound to kill President Park Chung Hee. Fifty-five years after the infiltration, I was shocked to see the recent news reports of the North Korean drone that got into the airspace over the presidential office in Yongsan. I wondered how much longer we have to suffer such risks.
It was 1968: the Vietnam War was ongoing, and international communism was waging a solidarity struggle. North Korean leader Kim Il Sung latched on to this and declared an armed confrontation against the South, threatening to use legal, illegal, violent and nonviolent means.
After being caught off guard against the ambush, the Park administration immediately issued a presidential order to establish a counterespionage team at the Joint Chiefs of Staff to supervise and control all intelligence and investigative agencies and the military. Around this time, the local reserve army system was launched. The Korea Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) also started to train a special force to carry out retaliatory attacks against the North.
But there was a critical flaw. At that time, we had no power to launch a preemptive strike, and even faced limits in carrying out retaliatory attacks due to the U.S. wartime control over the Korean military. The U.S. was struggling with the Vietnam War and did not another war in Korea. Although the North captured the USS Pueblo two days after the attempted Blue House attack, the U.S. did not retaliate.
We were able to strengthen our defense forces, but we could not launch a retaliatory attack. In winter of that year, the North infiltrated a large number of guerrillas into the area around Samcheok and Uljin, but they were rounded up in a joint operation by local reserves and the regular army. As the South strengthened its defense capabilities, Kim Il Sung had to give up further infiltration attempts. When Lee Hu-rak, then director of the KCIA, visited North Korea in 1971, Kim apologized for the infiltration attempt. “It was an unauthorized act by extremists,” he explained. We learned for the first time that North Korea would bend when we responded strongly.
The North recently explored the possibility of drone attacks on the South. How must we respond to this new kind of provocation? Let’s learn lessons from the past.
First, we must establish an integrated military command system, as the past presidential order did, and set up a joint drone response team consisting of the civilian, government and military sectors. As drones are small and can fly at low altitudes, they are difficult to detect using existing methods. When we respond lukewarmly, the North will arm the drones and stage stronger provocations. The three sectors must work together to improve our ability to detect small-scale weapons and shoot them down precisely. It’s nonsense that our advanced IT and weapons development capabilities cannot disable the North’s drones.
Second, we must end our passive military attitude of coming up with countermeasures only after the North attacked us. Why can’t the North transfer its nuclear and missile technologies to Middle Eastern countries? It refrains from such a move as it knows very well that Israel has fierce retaliatory capabilities to enact eye-for-an eye revenge. The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad closely monitors the North’s arms exports. The North may have been warned that it would face stern retaliation if necessary. Our military must consult with the U.S. military in advance to have the ability to strike the origin of a North Korean attack. We must improve our capability to retaliate against drone attacks, including decapitation operations of the kind Kim Jong-un fears.
Third, the North’s reckless missile provocations allowed Japan to rearm itself. The U.S. has already acknowledged Japan’s ability to strike the origin of an attack. Japan is developing into a war-capable country. China, not North Korea, is the most sensitive to Japan’s arms buildup. When Japan accelerates its arms buildup, it could disturb the military power balance in Northeast Asia.
As a result, we do not want Japan’s defense powers to grow stronger than necessary. But North Korea is provoking the Japanese to revise their Peace Constitution and transform the country into one capable of war. Such situations can offer a diplomatic opportunity for us to urge China to help control the North’s provocations. We must warn the North of the dire consequences it faces for provocations if we really want to prevent another crisis similar to the situation in January 1968.
Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
9. S. Korea, Japan hold working-level consultations on wartime forced labor
S. Korea, Japan hold working-level consultations on wartime forced labor
The Korea Times · January 30, 2023
Seo Min-jung, director general for Asia and Pacific affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, answer reporters' questions during a briefing at the ministry building, Monday, after holding a working-level consultation with her Japanese counterpart, Takehiro Funakoshi, over compensation for Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor. Joint press corps
South Korea and Japan held working-level diplomatic consultations Monday on ways to compensate Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor under 2018 rulings by Seoul's Supreme Court.
Seo Min-jung, director general for Asia and Pacific affairs at South Korea's foreign ministry, met with her Japanese counterpart, Takehiro Funakoshi, for discussions at the Seoul ministry.
It marked their second face-to-face discussion after Seoul formally floated the idea of using a public foundation based in South Korea to pay the compensation for Korean victims who won lawsuits against two Japanese firms ― Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp.
Victims and supporting civic groups have rejected the plan, calling for Japan's apology and direct involvement by the accused companies in the compensation process.
South Korean officials have delivered such negative reactions to their Japanese counterparts and have pushed for Japan's participation in compensating victims.
The issue has long been a sticking point in the relations between Seoul and Tokyo, though the two neighbors have stepped up efforts to improve security cooperation against North Korea's provocations and threats.
Takehiro Funakoshi, director-general for Asian and Oceanian Affairs of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, enter the Korean foreign ministry building in Seoul, Monday, for discussions over wartime forced labor issue. Yonhap
After Monday's meeting, Seo told reporters that the two sides agreed to continue close bilateral communications at various levels, including those among high-level officials. Consultations on the forced labor issue have heretofore been carried out by working-level officials.
A ministry official said "the current situation requires omnidirectional consultations," signaling that the matter requires meetings among more senior officials to hammer out a more mutually agreeable solution.
The Japanese foreign ministry said in a press release that the two sides agreed to communicate with each other's diplomatic authorities in order to resolve pending issues.
Seoul and Tokyo have held several rounds of working-level consultations on ways to resolve the issue. Japan has claimed all reparation issues related to the 1910-45 colonial rule were settled under a 1965 treaty. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · January 30, 2023
10. North Korean UAVs: small intruders, big ambitions?
North Korean UAVs: small intruders, big ambitions?
Pyongyang’s renewal of UAV flights into South Korea flags its continuing ambition to further develop its inventory, and the challenges of detecting and deterring such activity.
Joseph Dempsey
@JosephHDempsey
Research Associate for Defence and Military Analysis
ABOUT JOSEPH
This blog post was first published on the Military Balance+ on 20 January 2023
Pyongyang’s latest violation of South Korean territory is a reminder of the challenge of countering small uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs). Irrespective of their effectiveness, however, North Korea almost certainly harbours greater goals for its evolving and as yet largely unseen UAV force.
On 26 December 2022, for apparently the first time in five years, North Korean UAVs were flown into South Korean airspace. Four UAVs of unknown type were used to conduct flights around Ganghwa Island, with a fifth seen over northern Seoul. Despite a five-hour operation involving combat aircraft and attack helicopters – one of the latter firing 100 rounds – the South Korean military were unable to destroy any of the UAVs, all likely returning safely home.
The South Korean Defence Ministry acknowledged the difficulties in tracking by radar the small reconnaissance UAVs but maintained it would be able to detect larger UAVs. The South’s air defences are not configured to deal with very slow and low flying, small signature targets.
While the incursion renewed pressure to improve counter-UAV capabilities, most hardware tailored toward small UAVs typically has a very limited range. Though such systems could be deployed to provide point defence for specific sites, this still might not deter Pyongyang given the wider propaganda value of the more public incursions.
The usual suspects
Though the UAV types involved are unconfirmed, two designs have been associated with earlier incursions between 2013–2017, the configuration of one bearing a resemblance to the UAV recently seen over Seoul. A 2016 UN Report matched the designs with two commercially available UAV models manufactured in China, the Trancomm SKY-09 and the Chinese-designed UV10. Their estimated sub-300 kilometre range meant the types fell below the UN arms embargo placed on North Korea at the time. None of the identified components – bar a Canadian autopilot on one – was subject to any export control. Even so, North Korea likely procured that UAV through front companies in China. The 2017 recovery of a UAV with stored images of the US THAAD ground-based air and missile defence system in Seongju County suggested a 500km round trip had at least been attempted, possibly through additional modification to the UAV intruder photographed over Seoul.
Identity (suspected): Trancomm SKY-09
Width x length: 1.93 m x 1.22 m
Weight (as recovered): 13 kg
Estimated range: 180–220 km
Identity (suspected): Chinese-designed UV10
Width x length: 2.46 m x 1.83 m
Weight (as recovered): 12.7 kg
Estimated range: 250–300 km
Both types were fitted with autopilots and a global positioning system (GPS), while the UV10 lookalike can also be flown from a ground control unit. The two UAV models appeared to have followed pre-programmed flight paths, making any countermeasure based on jamming the uplink from a ground-station irrelevant. Even if localised GPS jamming could be employed, the UAV could continue on its flight path using inertial navigation until connectivity is restored.
The use of commercial products to penetrate one of the world's most monitored and defended borders highlights the inherent dual-use nature of the technologies and the difficulties in their regulation. The increasingly blurred lines stretch to ‘hobbyist’ UAVs that have been adopted by state and non-state actors as a low-cost but valuable capability in the wars in Yemen and Ukraine.
While the UAVs can provide North Korea with a relatively cheap imagery reconnaissance, this is dependent on the recovery of the air vehicle. The imagery cannot be transmitted from the UAV to the ground. Pyonyang has recognised this as a limitation and has long sought to buy more capable platforms and to develop its own capability.
Over the years, Pyonyang has acquired or gained access to Soviet and later Russian UAV designs, along with US target drones, the last via the Middle East. By the middle of the last decade some put North Korea’s UAV inventory at more than 300 air vehicles. These UAVs were not only used for target practice or reconnaissance and, in some cases, they were apparently capable of carrying weapons. However, while North Korea is often keen to showcase military capabilities in other areas, its collection of imported and domestically produced UAVs remains largely under cover.
An additional eye in the sky?
North Korea’s ambition to improve its reconnaissance UAV capabilities did get a specific mention in the report from the January 2021 Workers Party Congress, which outlined a broad ‘wish list’ of military developments to be achieved. These included the ability to carry out airborne reconnaissance far further into South Korea, as well as satellite reconnaissance ambitions. Though the country has since remained silent on the UAV objective, it has sought to highlight other related areas of progress, including sub-orbital launches of a claimed developmental reconnaissance satellite in February, March and November last year.
Commercial satellite imagery from August and September 2022 shows two previously unseen UAV designs at Panghyon aircraft factory, a site historically associated with the country’s UAV programmes. The August example indicates a slender tube-like fuselage with swept wings, possibly suggesting a fast-target drone or reconnaissance UAV.
In contrast to this and other known North Korean designs, the September example is more consistent with contemporary reconnaissance UAVs with a disproportionately wide straight wing optimised for efficiency and endurance at medium altitude. The design makes the UAV ill-suited for infiltration tasks and it is more likely to be used for loitering and to conduct longer range cross-border surveillance from the relative safety of North Korean airspace or from international waters. However, North Korea’s access to corresponding technology, including but not necessarily limited to electro-optical sensors and compact radars to permit more stand-off reconnaissance, remains questionable.
Pyongyang could use its military parades as platforms to showcase further UAV designs, though this in itself is far from a guarantee of entry into service. Parade debut or no, however, North Korea’s interest in uninhabited systems continues unabated.
Author
11. US Defense Officials Not Losing Sight of China, North Korea
US Defense Officials Not Losing Sight of China, North Korea
January 30, 2023 4:16 AM
voanews.com
Aboard a U.S. military plane over the Pacific —
Less than a week after helping secure billions of dollars in additional military assistance for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, including U.S.- and German-made battle tanks, top U.S. defense officials are shifting their focus to the Indo-Pacific and growing threats from China and North Korea.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is making his sixth official visit to the region, starting late Monday with high-level meetings in Seoul, followed by a visit to the Philippines to meet with recently elected President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and his new national security leadership team.
“The security environment in the Indo-Pacific is growing more complex, which we see day to day,” said a senior U.S. defense official, citing ever more aggressive behavior by both China and North Korea.
SEE ALSO:
Pentagon Chief Set to Reassure South Korea Amid North’s Provocations
Specifically, the official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, cited a “a sharp uptick in destabilizing PRC [People’s Republic of China] operational behavior,” including what was described as “dangerous air-to-air intercepts” and Beijing’s use of “swarms of maritime militia vessels” in the South China Sea.
U.S. defense officials also emphasized their concern about North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal and its ongoing ballistic missile tests, calling the number of test launches unprecedented.
Pyongyang’s bellicose behavior has stoked growing fears in South Korea, where President Yoon Suk Yeol earlier this month suggested that Washington might need to redeploy nuclear weapons to the peninsula or that Seoul could begin developing its own nuclear arsenal.
SEE ALSO:
Why South Korea’s President is Talking About Nuclear Weapons
Austin will use meetings Tuesday with Yoon and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup to highlight Washington’s “ironclad extended deterrence commitment,” a second senior U.S. defense official said.
But the official cautioned the deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons to South Korea will not be on the table.
“We are committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the official said. “Our focus is emphasizing the importance of extended deterrence … that includes the full range of U.S. capabilities, including certainly our nuclear abilities, our conventional capabilities, as well as our missile defense.”
SEE ALSO:
US Says It's Not Considering Joint Nuclear Exercises with South Korea
It also includes increased cooperation and additional training, including a resumption later this year of U.S.-South Korean joint live-fire exercises on the peninsula following a hiatus of several years.
“We are committed to doing more,” the official added.
U.S. defense officials also expect to discuss Seoul’s support for Ukraine and ways the U.S. can deepen its cooperation with South Korea’s defense industry, which the officials praised as a world leader in advanced weaponry.
SEE ALSO:
NATO's Chief Urges South Korea to Step up Military Support for Ukraine
Following his meetings in South Korea. Austin will fly to the Philippines, where he will meet with U.S. troops working with their Philippine counterparts in Zamboanga before looking to further cement ties with Manila over shared concerns about China.
“We’ll be actively talking about what we can do together to address what has been a pretty notable period of harassment and coercion recently in the South China Sea,” said a third senior U.S. defense official, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity.
SEE ALSO:
Philippines Orders Strengthened Military Presence After 'Chinese Activities' Near Islands
After several years of tense discourse between Manila and Washington, the official said the Pentagon is seeing “a very positive upswing in the trajectory of the relationship.”
According to U.S. officials, the Pentagon sees the Philippines as a crucial part of a growing alliance of countries across the Indo-Pacific aimed at pushing back against Beijing, both with and without U.S. help.
And at the Pentagon, there is hope Austin’s visit will enable both countries to build upon previous defense agreements, including 2014’s Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, and help Manila modernize its forces and pivot from its ongoing counterterrorism mission so it can better confront Beijing.
“[Austin] will reiterate publicly what we have been very clear about, which is that our treaty commitments do apply in the South China Sea and that an armed attack on Philippine forces or vessels or aircraft in the South China Sea would be relevant to the defense treaty commitments that we have,” the official said.
Already, the Philippines is one of a handful of countries that gets critical maritime information and intelligence through a new U.S. initiative. And U.S. officials are also hoping to expand cooperation in Manila in the areas of space and cyberspace.
voanews.com
12. North Korea slams NATO chief's visit to South Korea as 'prelude' to confrontation, war
Although I agree with the NATO Chief we do need to understand how Kim is exploiting his comments. This plays into the regime's domestic propaganda to add to the external threats facing the north. The north can now say that NATO is a threat. That will add to the justification and rationale for the suffering and sacrifice of the Korean people in the north.
Monday
January 30, 2023
dictionary + A - A
North Korea slams NATO chief's visit to South Korea as 'prelude' to confrontation, war
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/01/30/national/northKorea/nato-north-korea-cold-war/20230130094138251.html
North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks in a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul. [YONHAP]
North Korea on Monday denounced a visit to South Korea by the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a "prelude" to war, saying the move could bring a "new Cold War" to the Asia-Pacific region.
In an article carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Tong-myong, a researcher of the North's organization on international political study, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's current trip to Northeast Asia appears to be aimed at "instigating" the creation of the Asian version of NATO.
"The trip of the NATO secretary general to South Korea and Japan is a prelude to confrontation and war as it brings the dark clouds of a 'new Cold War' to the Asia-Pacific region," Kim said.
Stoltenberg arrived in Seoul on Sunday for a two-day stay, and in a meeting with Foreign Minister Park Jin, he said the North's support of Russia's war with Ukraine reinforces the need for the rest of the world to stay "interconnected" in their security efforts.
The NATO chief plans to visit Japan later in the day for a two-day visit.
The North's researcher condemned Stoltenberg as the head of the military organization that turned Ukraine into a "theater of proxy war."
Kim said Stoltenberg will raise the need to build the Asian version of NATO, and put pressure on Seoul and Tokyo for their passive military support to Ukraine at a time when the United States has decided to supply tanks to Ukraine.
The North has recently denounced Washington's decision to send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, a move to help Kyiv's war with Russia. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, said Friday that Washington is crossing the "red line."
North Korea formally recognized the independence of the pro-Russian separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine, becoming the third country in the world to do so after Russia and Syria.
Yonhap
13. [Newsmaker] Why is Samsung starting a legal fight against smartphone repair shops in US?
Excerpts:
In the complaint, Samsung requested the repair shops to stop importing the panels using its technologies without permission, citing Section 337 of the US Tariff Act of 1930. Following the filing, US International Trade Commission, the US trade watchdog, has kicked off an investigation.
Technologies in question include Diamond Pixel, among others.
First unveiled in 2013, the Diamond Pixel technology places red, blue and green screen dots in the shape of diamonds on the panel to enhance the accuracy of the pictures, which compares to the conventional square-shaped pixel technology.
The technology is considered one of the key strengths of Samsung OLEDs.
[Newsmaker] Why is Samsung starting a legal fight against smartphone repair shops in US?
koreaherald.com · by Jo He-rim · January 30, 2023
Samsung Display has recently filed a complaint against 17 smartphone repair shops in the US over their use of “illegal” panels that it says infringed its highly sophisticated OLED patents, according to industry sources Monday.
The display-making unit of Samsung Electronics is a market leader making almost 70 percent of OLED panels used in high-end mobile devices, including Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone smartphones. Sources say the company seems determined to offer no leniency for frequent patent infringements done mostly by smaller Chinese rivals.
In the complaint, Samsung requested the repair shops to stop importing the panels using its technologies without permission, citing Section 337 of the US Tariff Act of 1930. Following the filing, US International Trade Commission, the US trade watchdog, has kicked off an investigation.
Technologies in question include Diamond Pixel, among others.
First unveiled in 2013, the Diamond Pixel technology places red, blue and green screen dots in the shape of diamonds on the panel to enhance the accuracy of the pictures, which compares to the conventional square-shaped pixel technology.
The technology is considered one of the key strengths of Samsung OLEDs.
Sources say Samsung is taking action against the US repair shops in an apparent move to deter the Chinese panel makers.
“If Samsung directly filed a complaint against the Chinese companies, it could grow into a patent war with China, which involves complicated geopolitical issues,” an industry source close to the matter told The Korea Herald on condition of anonymity. “The company is sending an indirect warning to them by raising the issue with the importers.”
The source also said the advanced patent protection system of the US is another reason for Samsung’s latest legal action.
A possible import ban on the Chinese panels is expected to deal a blow to the repair shops, including MobileSentrix, Injured Gadgets and DFW Cellphone & Parts, located across US states. Unless they secure Samsung’s authorized panels, they would not be able to offer repair services for Samsung panels.
Industry officials say the action will ultimately help create a fairer market order and prevent possible consumer damages.
“There are already several complaints about poor image quality or camera malfunctions of phones with Chinese panels,” said an industry official who wished to be unnamed.
Starting with the iPhone 12 series phones, for instance, Apple has blocked the True Tone light-adjusting feature from working if the original display gets replaced with an unauthorized product.
Samsung Display's latest legal action comes after the company said it was part of its responsibility to protect its patents for consumers.
"We are actively looking into ways to better protect our intellectual property rights, an outcome of the hard work of all company officials,” said Choi Kwon-young, executive vice president at Samsung Display, during an earnings conference call in February last year.
“Using legitimate technology and protecting its value is part of our duty for clients and customers. We will make our best effort to establish righteous governance culture,” Choi added.
By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)
koreaherald.com · by Jo He-rim · January 30, 2023
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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