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Quotes of the Day:
“Forgetting our objectives. —During the journey we commonly forget its goal. Almost every profession is chosen and commenced as a means to an end but continued as an end in itself. Forgetting our objectives is the most frequent of all acts of stupidity. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, 1844”
- Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
- Albert Einstein
We make war that we may live in peace.
~ Aristotle
1. Yoon says S. Korea should consider suspending 2018 tension reduction deal
2. Former N.K. Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho likely executed last year: report
3. U.S. fully committed to defending S. Korea against N. Korean hostility: White House
4. Is Kim Jong-un’s ‘Most Beloved Daughter’ North Korea’s Next Leader?
5. The World and Everything in It: January 3, 2023 - The outlook for North Korea
6. U.S., South Korea eye tabletop drills on North Korean nuclear attack
7. Fate of inter-Korean military accord hangs in balance amid Pyongyang's recalcitrance
8. South Korea, U.S. in talks over nuclear planning, tabletop exercise
9. N. Korean military claims 12 drones infiltrated South Korea
10. More than a dozen people killed in S. Hamgyong Province mine collapse
11. N. Korea conducts nationwide lectures explaining new language law
12. [Editorial] North should stop and return to dialogue
13. Debate reopens over loudspeaker broadcasts in DMZ
14. Korea to establish 'K-rice belt' in Africa
1. Yoon says S. Korea should consider suspending 2018 tension reduction deal
Full disclosure: I was opposed to the 2018 Comprehensive Military Agreement because it undermined alliance readiness and provided an advantage to the north.
I would recommend not ending the agreement but instead suspending some of the requirements (e.g. bo fly zone inthe vic of the DMZ. I think the ROK should keep it in force and use it to illustrate how the north is violating it (following the 7 decades pattern of violating agreements). But since the north has violated the no fly zone along the DMZ the ROK should allow alliance ISR flights in the vicinity of the DMZ. That will improve readiness to defend the South. But the ROK should maintain the moral high ground of upholding agreements but adjusting specific aspects when the north violates the agreement and to ensure alliance forces can maintain the highest level of readiness. Again keeping the agreement in force allows the ROK and the international community to highlight north Korean violations (which should be exploited by the influence campaign informing the Korean people in the north that it is the regime that is demonstrating hostilities and not the alliance. We should recall that the regime's standard operating procedure when faced with internal threats and potential instability or resistance is to "externalize" the threat and blame the alliance for hostile posture toward the north, thus justifying the sacrifices and suffering required of the Korean people of the north as they live under draconian population and resources control measures to prevent resistance).
(2nd LD) Yoon says S. Korea should consider suspending 2018 tension reduction deal | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · January 4, 2023
(ATTN: UPDATES with details)
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered aides to consider suspending a 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement if North Korea violates the South's territory again, an official said Wednesday.
Yoon's remark came after five North Korean drones infiltrated South Korean airspace last week, raising serious questions about South Korea's readiness posture.
On Wednesday, Yoon was briefed by the presidential National Security Office, the defense ministry, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Agency for Defense Development on the country's anti-drone preparations.
"President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the National Security Office to consider suspending the Sept. 19 military agreement in the event North Korea carries out another provocation violating our territory," senior presidential secretary for press affairs Kim Eun-hye told reporters.
Yoon also instructed Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup to establish a joint drone unit tasked with carrying out multiple missions, including surveillance and reconnaissance operations, build a system enabling the mass production of small, hard-to-detect drones within the year and push to develop stealth drones before the end of the year, Kim said.
Yoon's instructions were a call for the South Korean armed forces to build an "overwhelming response capability that goes beyond a proportionate response to North Korea's provocations," Kim explained.
Yoon especially emphasized the importance of a firm security readiness posture, while seeking to fulfill his role and responsibility as commander-in-chief, protecting the lives and safety of the people, she said.
The Sept. 19 agreement, which was signed after a 2018 summit between then President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, calls for halting all hostile military activity between the Koreas.
It also includes plans to turn the Demilitarized Zone into a peace zone, devise military guarantees for the activation of cross-border exchanges and establish military confidence-building measures.
The presidential office said North Korea has "explicitly" violated the agreement 17 times, including 15 times starting in October.
hague@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · January 4, 2023
2. Former N.K. Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho likely executed last year: report
Japanese reports of north Korea leadership changes must be taken with a grain of salt.
Officials in north Korea sometimes seem to have 9 lives or are resurrected.
Then again, Kim requires scapegoats for blame as he will never accept responsibility for regime failures (despite some of his rhetoric in the past that seemed to border on accepting responsibility).
Former N.K. Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho likely executed last year: report | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · January 4, 2023
SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- Former North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho appears to have been executed last year, a Japanese newspaper reported Wednesday.
Ri seems to have been executed around between the summer and fall of last year, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, citing unnamed multiple sources.
Four or five officials from North Korea's foreign ministry appear to have been executed successively around the time of Ri's death, according to the report.
It added that some unspecific issues related to the North Korean Embassy in Britain might have been the reasons behind their executions, saying that all of them, including Ri, worked in the diplomatic mission.
South Korea's unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said it is aware of the news report and checking relevant information.
Ri, who was appointed as the North's top diplomat in 2016, played a key role in negotiations with the U.S. for the 2018 and 2019 summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then U.S. President Donald Trump. The Hanoi summit in early 2019 ended with no deal. Ri is known to have left office in 2020.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · January 4, 2023
3. U.S. fully committed to defending S. Korea against N. Korean hostility: White House
The administration is recovering from President Biden's "no" to the question of nuclear training exercises.
There should be do doubt that the US is committed to the defense of the ROK and tha extended deterrence remains in full effect though the specifics remain ncessaily ambiguous.
U.S. fully committed to defending S. Korea against N. Korean hostility: White House | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · January 4, 2023
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (Yonhap) -- The United States remains fully committed to defending South Korea against any hostility, including a nuclear attack by North Korea, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.
She said the allies are also working to further improve their joint readiness.
"The United States is fully committed to our alliance with the ROK, providing extended deterrence through the full range of U.S. defense capabilities," the spokesperson told a daily press briefing, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.
Her remarks come after President Joe Biden said "no" when asked if the U.S. was discussing holding joint nuclear exercises with South Korea.
A South Korean newspaper earlier reported South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as saying that the countries are discussing such drills.
Jean-Pierre noted joint nuclear exercises are held between nuclear states, as explained earlier by Yoon's presidential office, while underlining the fact that Yoon and Biden have instead instructed their governments to further enhance their joint defense readiness based on U.S. extended deterrence.
"Following their meeting in Cambodia, President Biden and President Yoon tasked their teams to plan for an effective, coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea, and so that is what the teams are working on, and what President Yoon was clearly referencing when he made his comments," she told the press briefing.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price underscored U.S. commitment to providing extended deterrence to South Korea.
"In terms of extended deterrence, we are fully committed to our alliance with the ROK and providing extended deterrence through the full range of U.S. defense capabilities," he told a department press briefing.
"We are continuing to have discussions to see to it that extended deterrence is meaningful and that we can demonstrate both in word and in deed that our commitment to the security of the ROK and Japan as our treaty allies is ironclad," he added.
North Korea has openly threatened to preemptively use its tactical nuclear weapons against South Korea.
Also in a recently concluded plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called on his country to "exponentially" expand its nuclear arsenal while labeling South Korea an "undoubted enemy."
Price said it was "unfortunate" that North Korea appears to have embraced provocation over dialogue.
"We have made repeatedly clear that we harbor no hostile intent towards the DPRK. We are prepared to engage in constructive, good-faith principle dialogue towards what is our ultimate goal. That is the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he added.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · January 4, 2023
4. Is Kim Jong-un’s ‘Most Beloved Daughter’ North Korea’s Next Leader?
Still a lot of speculation that I think is not helpful.
As a side note I think Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute seems to be the Korean analyst most quoted by the media (Korean and US) these days.
Is Kim Jong-un’s ‘Most Beloved Daughter’ North Korea’s Next Leader?
nytimes.com · by Choe Sang-Hun · January 4, 2023
Her appearances in state media, most recently in undated photos released on New Year’s Day, have triggered growing speculation about succession plans in the country.
A photograph provided by North Korean state media showed Kim Jong-un and his daughter after a test missile launch in November.Credit...Korean Central News Agency, via Associated Press
North Korean state media has not revealed much about the cherub-faced young girl who has made several appearances with Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, in recent weeks.
On New Year’s Day, state media carried undated photos of her and Mr. Kim visiting a nuclear missile facility. Her age and name have not yet been reported; she has simply been referred to as Mr. Kim’s “most beloved daughter.”
That was enough to raise questions about the young girl’s place in the Kim family dynasty and whether she was being groomed as Mr. Kim’s successor.
North Korea is not a monarchy. Its top leader is supposedly elected through a ruling Workers’ Party congress. In reality, though, the Kims have run the country like a private family enterprise since its founding at the end of World War II.
Both Mr. Kim’s grandfather and father ruled until they died. Mr. Kim, who turns 39 next Monday, has already been in power for 11 years and is unlikely to go anywhere any time soon.
Yet the question of who would inherit the regime — and its fast-growing nuclear arsenal — has remained the subject of endless fascination among officials and analysts, especially when doubts about Mr. Kim’s health have emerged.
The speculation of North Korea’s succession plans unfolded as Seoul and Washington said this week that they were discussing how to better cope with North Korea’s growing nuclear threat, employing the full range of American defense capabilities.
The recent guessing game about succession first began after North Korea launched its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile on Nov. 18 in one of the country’s most significant weapons tests.
The following day, North Korean state media reported that Mr. Kim watched the launch with his daughter, and released photos of the girl in a white padded jacket, holding Mr. Kim’s hand as they walked around the testing site.
Days later, the National Intelligence Agency of South Korea identified the young girl as Kim Ju-ae, the baby that retired N.B.A. star Dennis Rodman said he was allowed to hold when he met Mr. Kim in Pyongyang in 2013.
Ju-ae’s public appearance marked the first time Pyongyang confirmed that Mr. Kim had a child. Until her debut in state media, ordinary North Koreans had never seen any of Mr. Kim’s children.
South Korean intelligence officials have said that Mr. Kim has three children, with the eldest likely being a son. Ju-ae is his second child, believed to be 9 or 10, they said.
Outside analysts quickly noted that she was described as “beloved” and had been chosen to represent the next generation of the Kim family. They were also intrigued by Mr. Kim’s decision to introduce her at a missile test site, highlighting the link between the Kim family and the North’s weapons program.
The speculation around succession deepened when Ju-ae joined her father again, this time in late November for a group photo with missile engineers. She was dressed more formally for the occasion, with a long black coat and fur collar, her hand nestled on her father’s shoulder as he sat in front of the crowd of cheering engineers. Top generals bowed before her.
“The photos are likely part of a carefully worked out program to show to North Koreans that Kim Ju-ae is going to become the successor,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a longtime researcher of the Kim family at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.
If Mr. Kim chose a daughter over a son as his heir apparent, it would be a highly unusual move in deeply patriarchal North Korea. But Mr. Kim himself was an unlikely choice to become the leader of the country.
As the youngest of three sons, Mr. Kim leapfrogged over his brothers when his father, Kim Jong-il, recognized his domineering attitude and tapped him as successor, according to analysts.
And although the North’s leadership is predominantly male, the regime under Mr. Kim includes a few prominent women, such as the outspoken anchorwoman Ri Chun-hee, Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and Mr. Kim’s sister and spokeswoman Kim Yo-jong, who has issued a stream of belligerent threats against South Korea in recent months.
By revealing a possible successor early on, Mr. Kim may be trying to avoid the mistakes his father made, some analysts said.
Kim Jong-il anointed Mr. Kim as heir when the son was still a child, but he kept it secret outside of his inner circle. Many analysts had speculated that Kim Jong-nam — the senior Kim’s eldest son and Mr. Kim’s half brother — would become his successor. Others said the father would pick Kim Jong-chol, Mr. Kim’s elder brother. Some even said the hereditary succession in North Korea would end with Kim Jong-il’s death.
Only after the father had a stroke in 2008 did North Korea start hinting that Mr. Kim was the chosen successor. Ordinary North Koreans had never seen him until he appeared in state media in 2010.
When his father died in 2011, there was much doubt, at home and abroad, about Mr. Kim’s ability to lead. It took years before he established his unchallenged authority through a series of bloody purges, including the execution of his own uncle and the assassination of his half brother.
After he took power, Mr. Kim made his government and his family less secretive. His father was known for living with beautiful women, including Mr. Kim’s mother, but never introduced them to the public. One of the first things Mr. Kim did as leader was to make a public appearance with his wife, Ri Sol-ju.
By revealing a successor early, Mr. Kim may be “giving the successor enough time to prepare,” Mr. Cheong said. “He wants his successor to avoid the hurried, fast-track succession at home and the skepticism from the outside that he had to go through.”
Most analysts agreed that by taking one of his children to events related to his arsenal, Mr. Kim was reminding the North’s people, especially its youth, that his family’s dynastic rule and nuclear weapons development would continue into the next generation.
But not everyone saw Ju-ae’s presence as a sign that she had been elevated in the family. “It’s premature to conclude that she is going to become the successor, especially if her father has a son,” said Ahn Chan-il, a defector from North Korea who runs a research institute in Seoul.
Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who fled to South Korea in 2016 and is now a lawmaker in Seoul, told reporters that the world would know that Mr. Kim had chosen a successor only when the North started idolizing a particular child as a godlike figure, as they did with Mr. Kim once his succession was made formal.
Mr. Kim has been promoting and firing top officials like pieces on a chessboard, frequently reshuffling his government. Last week, Pak Jong-chon, a top military official, was replaced. Those maneuverings have kept observers guessing, but such speculation is forbidden in the North’s tightly censored news media.
“North Koreans take hereditary rule by the Kim family for granted because they have never experienced free election,” Mr. Ahn said. “They are less interested in who rules them but more interested in who will make their life better than Kim Jong-un has.”
nytimes.com · by Choe Sang-Hun · January 4, 2023
5. The World and Everything in It: January 3, 2023 - The outlook for North Korea
My recent interview on north Korea on the World Radio Program - "The World and Everything In It." You can listen to the podcast at the link or read the transcript below.
. https://wng.org/podcasts/the-world-and-everything-in-it-january-3-2023-1672727095#.Y7T6WO5v-dI.twitter
The World and Everything in It: January 3, 2023
The outlook for North Korea and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region in 2023; Haiti’s security situation is attracting international attention; and January’s Classic Book of the Month. Plus: commentary from Whitney Williams, and the Tuesday morning news
wng.org
MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!
North Korea’s provocations last year do not bode well for this year. Today, we analyze the increased tensions in Southeast Asia.
NICK EICHER, HOST: Also the United Nations says Haiti is on “the verge of an abyss.” What’s it going to take for Haiti to stand on its own?
Plus WORLD’s Classic Book of the Month.
And learning to ignore that persistent critic.
REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, January 3rd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.
EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!
REICHARD: Time now for news with Kent Covington.
KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: New Congress / McCarthy » The 118th Congress of the United States will be seated today with Republicans claiming the House majority. But one question remains: Who will hold the speaker’s gavel?
California’s Kevin McCarthy won the GOP’s internal vote for the role, but Republican holdouts remain.
Congressman Brad Wenstrup said Monday …
WENSTRUP: Some say they won’t vote for him. You have even more members who say they won’t vote for anybody but Kevin McCarthy. So that puts in kind of a stalemate before we even get going.
To claim the gavel, McCarthy now needs “yes” votes from a majority of all members voting in the Speaker election.
If he doesn’t reach that threshold on the first ballot, members will keep voting until someone wins the majority.
Moscow says Ukrainian rocket kills 63 Russian troops » Rockets rained down on a Russian facility in the occupied eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, killing dozens of invading troops. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.
KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The Kremlin rarely admits significant military losses. But Russia’s defense ministry called it one of the deadliest attacks on Moscow's forces since the start of the war.
Ukraine fired six rockets from a HIMARS launch system. Russia says it shot down two of them, but the rest found their mark.
The U.S.-supplied HIMARS systems have enabled Ukraine to hit key targets.
Ammunition stored close to the facility reportedly exploded in the attack … leading to 63 deaths.
For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.
Weather » A storm system is taking aim at the Midwest this week after triggering floods in California.
Zeki Abed owns a motorcycle storage facility in San Francisco. He told KGO-TV:
ABED: Within 15 minutes, the garage door busted, cracked, and weather just started pouring in.
Floodwaters also wreaked havoc at the San Francisco Zoo.
Forecasters say that same weather system could drop 6 to 10 inches of snow in places like Minneapolis today and into tomorrow.
Hobbs sworn in as gov of AZ » In Arizona, Democrat Katie Hobbs took the oath of office on Monday, becoming the state’s 24th governor.
She won a close and contentious race over Republican Kari Lake by just 17,000 votes.
Lake never conceded. Last week, she lost her legal fight over the election results.
Hobbs is Arizona’s outgoing secretary of state. She takes over for now former Republican Governor Doug Ducey.
NASA China warning » The head of NASA says the United States is locked in a new space race to the moon—this time with China. WORLD’s Mary Muncy has that story.
MARY MUNCY, REPORTER: NASA administrator Bill Nelson warns that China may claim parts of the moon as its territory if it gets back there before the United States.
He said China might cordon off resource-rich areas of the moon under the guise of scientific research and say, “Keep out … this is our territory."
Nelson, a former astronaut, told Politico that "It is a fact: we’re in a space race."
China established its own space station earlier this year. NASA, meantime, is working on its Artemis series of future lunar missions.
For WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy
Air passenger bill of rights » Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal is among a number of lawmakers pushing for what they call the airline passengers bill of rights. The legislation would require airlines to compensate passengers for the extra costs of disrupted flights like meals and hotel stays.
BLUMENTHAL: The numbers of cancellations and delays has risen by 63%. One out of every four flights in America in 2022 was canceled or delayed.
The renewed push comes after Southwest Airlines had to cancel thousands of flights last week.
The bill would require air carriers to pay at least $1,300 to any passenger denied boarding as a result of overbooking a flight. It would also force airlines to immediately refund baggage fees for damaged or lost bags.
I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: increased tensions in Southeast Asia.
Plus, the Classic Book of the Month for January.
This is The World and Everything in It.
MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday, the 3rd of January, 2023.
You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we’re happy you’ve joined us today! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.
NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up today, North Korea.
After its record number of missile tests and other military exercises in 2022, the outlook for North Korea in 2023 seems daunting.
WORLD’s Josh Schumacher on the forecast for what to expect.
KISHIDA: [Japanese]
JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Last month, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters the government conducted a test to see if Japan could survive an attack by its enemies.
He said the answer was no. Its current self-defense measures are not adequate.
And that’s why Fumio Kishida announced in December that Japan would significantly alter its self-defense strategy. Ever since World War II, the country has outsourced most of its defense to the United States. It kept just a small, police-style military force.
But now, Japan will allow its military to engage in preemptive strikes. It is planning a military buildup through 2027.
But why? Well, because tensions have ratcheted up in the region.
David Maxwell is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is a 30-year veteran of the U-S Army, and served in special forces. He retired in 2011 after teaching at the National War College. Throughout his career, he specialized in military operations in Asia, and specifically Korea. He says Japan’s military buildup has quite a bit to do with China. But also a lot to do with North Korea.
MAXWELL: So what we're really seeing is North Korea, conducting political warfare and blackmail diplomacy, while at the same time trying to advance their military capabilities.
Even though North Korea has conducted more missile tests this year than ever before, Maxwell says the Kim regime is not prepared for war.
MAXWELL: In fact, we've seen indications that right now, even though they're in their normal winter training period cycle, that they're reducing training for soldiers because of lack of food. They are postured in offensive positions with their artillery, forward position 70% of their military is forward positioned between the DMZ and Pyongyang. However, we are not seeing the preparations for war.
Maxwell describes an asymmetrical military buildup by the North: rather than building a well-rounded military force, North Korea is focusing exclusively on building up its nuclear and missile arsenal.
MAXWELL: He's also developing the full range of missiles from short range ballistic missiles, medium range, intermediate range, and then intercontinental ballistic missiles. And he's tested various kinds as well.
Maxwell says the Kim regime relies on a strategy of provoking the international community into giving it sanctions relief.
The day after Christmas—only about a week ago—North Korea sent several drones across the border into South Korea.
SK MILITARY LEADER: [Korean]
An official from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff saying his country responded by scrambling jets, firing warning shots, and sending some of its own drones back across the North Korean border. That sort of thing hasn’t happened since 2017.
Meanwhile, China is stepping up its provocations and aggressions—not just against Taiwan and Japan, but also the U-S.
AUDIO: [Jets]
That’s declassified audio from late last month of a Chinese plane maneuvering to within 20 feet in front of a U.S. plane while it conducted routine and legal patrols in the South China Sea. According to the U.S. military, the unsafe maneuver could’ve put the U-S pilot in danger.
But Maxwell says that North Korea is at the center of tensions and uncertainty in the region and elsewhere.
MAXWELL: Not only is North Korea connected to China and Japan, but also to Iran, into Syria, and they have proliferated weapons to training to conflict areas, Yemen, Africa, North Africa, you know, and they will sell weapons to anybody to make to make money. And so this little peninsula, really is connected to all the major threats, the United States is concerned about.
Maxwell says there are two ways North Korea’s trajectory could radically change.
The first is that the military elite in North Korea could turn on Kim Jong Un for not getting sanctions lifted.
MAXWELL: Despite his sanctions evasion activities, he really must get those sanctions lifted because of promises to the military elite. Now, if the military are not satisfied, we could see them try to exert pressure on Kim Jong and to change his behavior. That would be a positive for us. There's absolutely no guarantee of that. But it must remain a possibility.
And the other way things could change is the North Korean people saying enough is enough.
MAXWELL: An outlying possibility is unrest among the people that would really force Kim Jong Un to change his behavior. Because you know, if they cannot control the population. And we should remember too, that Kim Jong Un actually is more afraid of the population than he is of the US military.
Until either of those things happens, countries like Japan are forced to prepare for continued escalations—from North Korea, as well as China. Dozens of North Korean test missiles have already flown over, or near Japan in the past year and that very well could continue.
KISHIDA: [Japanese]
And that’s why Japan is, for the first time since WWII, changing its national security posture.
Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.
MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: the crisis in Haiti.
Less than 700 miles from the coast of Florida, violence, hunger, and disease plague the country of Haiti.
NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s so bad that in November, the United Nations put it this way: Haiti is on the “verge of an abyss” and it can’t get better on its own.
Joining us now is Brian Concanon, founder of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.
REICHARD: Welcome, Brian.
BRIAN CONCANNON, GUEST: Thanks for having me.
REICHARD: Brian, you lived and worked in Haiti in the late 1990s and early two-thousands. How is the current crisis there different from the past?
CONCANNON: Back in the late 90s, when I first got to Haiti, I was with the United Nations. And it was part of a coming together of the international community, recognizing the international community had supported Haitian dictatorships in the past, including the Duvalier regime. And everybody got together and said, Okay, we're going to do it differently. We're going to support democracy. So in the time I was there, the first half from 1995 to about 2000, the international community put a lot of support for Haitian democracy. And that worked. Haiti's democracy actually worked. Starting in 2000, the international community decided to pull back on that support, and ended up undermining Haiti's democracy leading to a coup in 2004. We're now in 2023 and Haiti has not hit the high watermark of democracy that it had back in around 2000. And Haitians are still out there fighting every day for democracy in meeting rooms, in the streets, on the media. But unfortunately, their way forward to prosperity and stability is blocked by a repressive corrupt government that is propped up by the international community.
REICHARD: The United Nations is calling for a peacekeeping force in Haiti. Is that something that Haitians want?
CONCANNON: There are some Haitians who feel they have no other choice and are in favor of it. But most organized civil society have said they don't want it. Because in 1994, just before I got to Haiti, there was a peacekeeping force that was welcomed by Haitians and that worked. That peacekeeping force was brought in to restore democracy in Haiti. The current planned or proposed peacekeeping force is not to restore democracy, it's actually to continue propping up the government. It's been requested by a government that has no popular support or legitimacy. And Haitians see the peacekeeping force as a way of prolonging that government's ability to steal and repress the population. So I think Haitians aren't categorically opposed to foreign help, they're just opposed to foreign help that's going to prop up their repressive government.
REICHARD: In the past, aid sent to Haiti sometimes didn’t serve the intended purpose. I’m thinking of the tens of billions of dollars donated after the earthquake in 2010. What makes it so difficult to get help where it’s needed in Haiti?
CONCANNON: That's a really big question and there's been lots of good books written about it. A couple of kind of top headlines. One is that a lot of the aid that's sent Haiti's way—even a lot of it that's been given by American families with all the best intentions—it ends up serving the international community more than it serves the Haitian people. Salaries get spent on expensive foreign consultants, on security, on lots of other things. But it's also important, and this was one of the key takeaways from the earthquake, most of the money spent on Haiti does not go through the Haitian government. And so most of it, a lot of it that's wasted is wasted by international organizations, not by Haitians themselves. But the last part is it's difficult to work on Haiti because the problems are so complex. You have different types of problems reinforcing, you have educational deficiencies, which means you have fewer educated workers, you have environmental problems, you have economic problems, you have infrastructure problems like roads not working. And all of these problems come together in ways that make helping Haiti in the short term difficult. And so what needs to be done is a long term plan to bring political stability to Haiti and have sustainable development.
REICHARD: And how can foreign missions and ministries play in Haiti’s rebuilding?
CONCANNON: The first thing people need to do is to listen to Haitians. That seems like an easy thing to do. But it is not done. And again, the diagnostics after the 2010 earthquake, all of them said that there was insufficient participation by Haitians. But that still happens. Again, it happened in the 2016 Hurricane Matthew, and it happens today, where Haitians are not appropriately consulted. What Haitians are saying is if the international community wants to help, the first thing it should do—before it does anything affirmatively, it should do something negatively, it should allow Haitians to really run their own country. And at that point, issues of how economic assistance comes in—infrastructure development, security assistance, all those issues can be decided by a government with popular support and legitimacy. At that point, you can have long term progress, like you did between 1995 and 2000.
REICHARD: Brian Concannon is the Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. Brian, thanks for joining us.
CONCANNON: Well, thanks so much for having me.
NICK EICHER, HOST: People in Seoul, South Korea can be forgiven for thinking a mysterious light seen last Friday night may have come from out of this world!
Video footage showed an object in the sky beaming a cone of light onto the city streets below.
But after some callers expressed fear they were looking at an invading UFO, the South Korean Defense Ministry said nothing to see here, folks, it was merely a test-fired solid-fuel rocket.
The ministry said it did not announce the launch in advance because it involved military security issues.
If we spot a flying bicycle, we’ll know there’s more to the story than the South Korean government is admitting.
REICHARD: Nice reference to E.T.
EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.
NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 3rd.
Thank you for turning to The World and Everything in It to help start your day.
Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.
MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next: G.K. Chesterton.
Many Christians know the author for his Father Brown mysteries and his profoundly theological quotable quotes.
WORLD book reviewer Emily Whitten recommends one of his nonfiction books for our January Classic Book of the Month.
EMILY WHITTEN, REVIEWER: English author G. K. Chesterton published his apologetic book, Orthodoxy, in 1908. At the time, he was in his 30s, and fairly well-known as a journalist. He hadn’t yet joined the Roman Catholic Church, published his Father Brown books, or begun his popular BBC radio addresses—like this one written just three months before he died in 1936.
CHESTERTON: I myself have even been blamed for defending the spices of life against what was called the simple life.
In contrast to that older, grandfatherly voice, Orthodoxy conveys the thoughts of a vibrant, young man, still settling into his stride. In this audiobook clip read by John Lee, you hear the main idea of the book.
ORTHODOXY: How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world, and yet at home in it? How can this queer cosmic town with its many-legged citizens, with its monstrous and ancient lamps—how can this world give us at once the fascination of a strange town and the comfort and honor of being our own town? I wish to set forth my faith as particularly answering this double spiritual need.
The word “orthodoxy” comes from the Greek word “ortho”, meaning right, straight, or true. Orthodox Christian beliefs then might be defined as right Christian beliefs. For Chesterton, orthodoxy was both familiar and unfamiliar. Unfamiliar because he hadn’t always embraced Christianity. Like an explorer sailing to find new lands, he went looking for God’s truth. But as the book unfolds, we see that God’s truth was never far away.
Trevin Wax is an author and vice president of the North American Mission Board. He says Chesterton’s book shaped his own journey to find truth.
WAX: And I think the main point of Orthodoxy, and one of the reasons it's still a relevant book, even though it can be difficult and a challenging book to read is, what he's saying is, you actually will never make progress in thought and moving into the world as it actually is, unless you believe in something outside of yourself.
Last year, Wax published a book titled The Thrill of Orthodoxy which tips its hat to Chesterton in several ways. He also published an annotated version of Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, to help new readers engage the classic.
Wax says Chesterton is relevant for our age in many ways. Right off the bat, Chesterton mocks the idea that merely believing in yourself can be the foundation for a good life.
WAX: Chesterton’s right. It leads to cultural insanity. And that's what we're looking at. That's what we're watching happen in real time. We have to believe what anyone says about themselves. And we have to believe in how they identify themselves and we have to believe that sort of self trust is at the foundation of everything.
On his journey, Chesterton often felt the lure of modern heresies, and he helps readers avoid those traps. For instance, many of Chesterton’s contemporaries believed new scientific theories disproved the existence of God. Some saw the fact that the sun repeatedly rises and sets day after day as proof God isn’t involved. But Chesterton challenges that reasoning. Perhaps, he says, God enjoys repetition in the same way a child does, constantly saying, “do it again.” Here’s Wax reading a quote.
WAX: “It is possible that God says every morning, do it again to the sun. And every evening, do it again to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike. It may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy, for we have sinned and grown old, and our father is younger than we. The repetition in nature may not be a mere recurrence. It may be a theatrical encore.”
Chesterton will be particularly interesting to conservative Christians. He stood firmly against the Marxist and evolutionary views of his day that exalted progress and denigrated the past.
That said, Chesterton isn’t trustworthy on every topic. For instance, he greatly misunderstands the Puritans, he’s overly sympathetic to Roman Catholicism, and his critique of predestination is laughable at times. Wax warns us to read thoughtfully.
WAX: But then also just to know Chesterton is one of these writers that when he's really right, he's really, really right. And when he gets things wrong, he gets them really, really wrong.
Why read Chesterton, then? He may be one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the 20th century. He had a profoundly positive effect on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and many other Christian thinkers.
WAX: When you think about Chesterton, you have to think about him as a journalist, not as a theologian. That’s not to say he doesn't deal with theological concepts, he does, but like, I'm not I don't go again and again to Chesterton for theological consultation. I go to Chesterton, because he awakes my wonder at the world around me and at the gospel. That's what he does.
Our Classic Book of the Month, Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton can be difficult to read, so I do recommend Wax’s annotated version. But however you engage, I hope Chesterton can strengthen your belief not in yourself, but in God–and His familiar and unfamiliar grandeur.
I’m Emily Whitten.
MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 3rd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.
NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Commentator Whitney Williams now on how to survive those criticisms that just won’t quit.
AUDIO: [Musical score/rain from Titanic scene]
WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: It was a dark and stormy night.
Well, not literally—it was actually a beautiful summer day on the Galveston, Texas coastline. Not too hot, a nice breeze ... My husband, three boys, and I sat on the open-air deck of a large seafood restaurant overlooking tired shrimp boats. But as the sun shone down on us and relaxed vacation vibes wafted through the breeze, a dark storm wreaked havoc in my soul.
Several days earlier, at the beginning of our vacation, I’d received a heaping helping of criticism–several helpings, in fact.
And to be honest, it almost choked me … people being so right about my wrongness. I could have taken it as an opportunity to learn and grow, of course, but instead, I sat there chewing and chewing, sinking further and further into the depths of self-deprecation. “I’m obviously not cut out for this work you’ve given me, Lord.”
“Spit that out!” I imagined Him telling me in that moment, as if I were a little girl who’d just stuck a marble in her mouth.
“Lord?” I questioned, cheeks full.
“Spit it out!” I pictured him saying. “That gristle you’ve been chewing on—that embarrassment you feel … that shame and fear that keeps you standing still … If you want to live, give it to me. Spit it out.”
And he held out His hand.
So I did.
I wish I could tell you that that was that. But the thing about Satan is, he doesn’t let you forget your past sins and mistakes, does he? So there I was, sitting in church more than a year later, chewing, once again, on the gristle of criticism, when Jimmy Needham, a pastor at my church, reminded me that the cross has already said the worst possible thing that could be said about me–I was so wretched, God’s Son had to die to make me okay.
In other words, get over it, Whitney.
Picture you’re in line for a strawberry milkshake on the Titanic and someone skips ahead of you, Needham continued in so many words. Oh, you’re ticked. But then, the boat hits an iceberg. Everyone’s running. Leo passes you by and Kate Winslet. Fast forward a bit … you and this line skipper guy, you’ve been saved, you’ve been rescued …
Sermon: And they get you out, they sit you down, they put that nice warm blanket on you, they give you a cup of hot tea, and my question is, after all that, do you give a single rip about your strawberry milkshake? No. We can get over things we think are big when we stare at something bigger, yeah?
Yeah.
Oh, regurgitated criticism, where is your sting in light of my sin and Christ’s saving grace?
TITANIC: Come on, you really gotta hock it back. Get some leverage to it, use your arms. Arc your neck …
I’m Whitney Williams.
NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: the 118th U.S. Congress. We’ll preview the upcoming session.
And, building connections with grandchildren takes work, but so worth it. Kim Henderson will show us how.
That and more tomorrow.
I’m Nick Eicher.
MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.
The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.
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Go now in grace and peace.
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6. U.S., South Korea eye tabletop drills on North Korean nuclear attack
The Biden and Yoon administration have been clearing up this misunderstanding. Bruce Klngner's and my comments below.
Here are my complete comments I provided to Ryo Nakamura:
I think the subsequent statements from the Yoon Administration and from a US government official as reported by Reuters has resolved this confusion. The U.S. is concerned with the perception of proliferation issues and nuclear planning with non-nuclear states. But there is a mechanism to conduct these tabletop exercises which are very necessary. It is important to conduct the full range of contingency planning for nuclear warfare given north Korea's increasing threats.
What is important is that the US commitment to extended deterrence remains rock solid for both Korea and Japan. It is unambiguous. The US commitment is illustrated by the continued permanent stationing of troops in the ROK and Japan.
U.S., South Korea eye tabletop drills on North Korean nuclear attack
Official stresses importance of deterrence, alliance with Seoul amid rift fears
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/N-Korea-at-crossroads/U.S.-South-Korea-eye-tabletop-drills-on-North-Korean-nuclear-attack
RYO NAKAMURA and JUNNOSUKE KOBARA, Nikkei staff writers
January 4, 2023 01:51 JSTUpdated on January 4, 2023 05:39 JST
TOKYO/SEOUL -- South Korea and the U.S. are planning tabletop military exercises against a potential nuclear attack by North Korea, a senior U.S. official has said, as Pyongyang signals a push to produce more nuclear weapons in 2023.
"The DPRK's actions and statements have caused increasing concern," a senior U.S. official told Nikkei on Monday, referring to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
The U.S. official spoke after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's high-profile interview with local media published on the same day, in which he said Seoul and Washington were discussing possible joint exercises that involve U.S. nuclear assets.
"The United States and [South Korea] are working together to strengthen extended deterrence, including eventually through tabletop exercises that will explore our joint response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by the DPRK," the senior U.S. official said.
"This is consistent with President Yoon's comment that the United States and [South Korea] will expand planning, information sharing, exercises, and training," the official added, stressing Washington's continued commitment to defense cooperation with Seoul.
Yoon's interview sparked controversy, especially after comments from Washington fueled speculation of a rift between the two allies' positions.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday that he was not discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea when asked about Yoon's remarks.
"As the president said, we are not discussing joint nuclear exercises," a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council later said in statement, adding that South Korea "is a non-nuclear weapons state."
"The U.S. is concerned with the perception of proliferation issues and nuclear planning with non-nuclear states," said David Maxwell, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "But there is a mechanism to conduct these tabletop exercises which are very necessary. It is important to conduct the full range of contingency planning for nuclear warfare given North Korea's increasing threats."
Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, said: "The two sides should quickly make a joint statement to reduce confusion and eliminate a potential source of friction."
"While there has been little discussion in Washington over reintroduction of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to the peninsula, Seoul developing nuclear weapons, or a nuclear-sharing agreement, the nuclear issue is dominant in South Korea," he said. "South Koreans are increasingly questioning the viability of the U.S. extended deterrence guarantee and public opinion polls show a high level of support for an indigenous South Korean nuclear program."
In response to Biden's remarks, South Korea's presidential office on Tuesday said the two countries "are in talks over information-sharing, joint planning and the joint implementation plans that follow, in relation to the operation of U.S. nuclear assets, to respond to North Korea's nuclear weapons."
U.S. and South Korean defense officials in November had agreed to conduct annual tabletop exercises, including for a North Korean nuclear use scenario, amid the growing nuclear and missile threat posed by Pyongyang.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for the mass production of tactical nuclear weapons in 2023, state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Sunday. Kim also urged the development of new intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as the launch of a military satellite.
"The United States is fully committed to our alliance with the ROK and providing extended deterrence through the full range of U.S. defense capabilities," the NSC spokesperson said, using South Korea's official acronym.
7. Fate of inter-Korean military accord hangs in balance amid Pyongyang's recalcitrance
As I said., keep the agreement in force and let the north continue to break it. Maintain the moral high ground and suspend aspects of the agreement that hinder readiness and defense (e.g., training and no fly zones vicinity of the DMZ).
(LEAD) (News Focus) Fate of inter-Korean military accord hangs in balance amid Pyongyang's recalcitrance | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · January 4, 2023
(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in 18th para)
By Song Sang-ho and Chae Yun-hwan
SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- The fate of the 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement grew murkier Wednesday, as North Korea's repeated violations, including recent drone infiltrations, have driven South Korea to publicly raise the possibility of its suspension.
President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered his aides to consider its suspension should Pyongyang violate the South's territory again, his senior press secretary, Kim Eun-hye, said, in a clear warning that the agreement could recede into history depending on the North's course of action.
The move followed at least 17 violations by the North of the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA), which was signed on Sept. 19, 2018, to reduce military tensions, prevent accidental clashes and build mutual trust, according to Seoul's defense ministry.
The latest breach came in December, when the North sent five small unmanned aerial vehicles across the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) separating the two Koreas. One of them flew to northern Seoul in an incursion that called the South's readiness posture into question.
Other violations include the North's firing of a barrage of artillery shots into eastern and western maritime "buffer zones," set under the CMA, on multiple occasions in October, November and December.
Yoon's stern message followed a thinly-veiled warning by Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup a week ago.
"The Sept. 19 agreement is not there only for us to observe," Lee told lawmakers during a session of the National Assembly's national defense committee.
The CMA was inked soon after an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in 2018, fanning hopes that it could set in motion earnest efforts not only to build trust, but also lay the groundwork for mutual conventional arms control.
The agreement included setting up a land buffer zone, where artillery drills and regiment-level field maneuvers are to be suspended, as well as maritime buffer zones, where artillery firing and naval drills are to be banned. It also designated no-fly zones near the border to prevent accidental aircraft clashes.
Also in the agreement were schemes to withdraw some border guard posts, disarm the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), jointly excavate remains of Korean War troops in the DMZ and devise measures for the joint use of the Han River estuary.
Despite the recalcitrant regime's earlier breaches, the South had maintained a cautious stance over the agreement's fate and repeatedly urged the North to comply with it.
But such a stance changed in the wake of the drone infiltrations, which observers warned could be used for lethal combat operations, such as those involving chemical and biological weapons.
"In the event of North Korean provocations, our military will cool-headedly weigh necessary steps, including the suspension of the Sept. 19 agreement, while keeping close tabs on North Korean movements," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Drone incursions have laid bare the South's insufficient readiness to detect, track and shoot down such small drones. The North's drones, in particular, flew on abnormal trajectories, changing flight speed and altitudes in unexpected ways, according to the defense ministry.
The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff has rearranged its available military resources and assets, such as radar systems, attack helicopters and air defense weapons, to better counter growing threats from North Korean drones.
The military plans to establish a system for the mass-production of hard-to-detect small drones within this year, as well as spurring efforts to secure radar-evading drones and "drone-killer" systems, according to the ministry.
It is also poised to establish a joint drone unit -- capable of conducting multiple missions, such as reconnaissance and surveillance operations, and electronic warfare maneuvers -- "at an early date."
Under a law on the development of inter-Korean relations, the president can suspend the whole or part of an inter-Korean agreement but should designate a suspension period. As the CMA was ratified without parliamentary consent, its suspension does not require parliamentary approval.
Some observers expressed concerns that the suspension of the CMA, if realized, could further escalate tensions when the prospects of North Korean provocations have risen following North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's renewed push to strengthen "self-defensive" capabilities.
During a key ruling party meeting late last year, Kim raised the need for an "exponential" increase in the country's nuclear arsenal, unveiled a plan to develop a new intercontinental ballistic missile and launch a military surveillance satellite "at the earliest possible date."
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · January 4, 2023
8. South Korea, U.S. in talks over nuclear planning, tabletop exercise
South Korea, U.S. in talks over nuclear planning, tabletop exercise
Reuters · by Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL/WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - South Korea and the United States are discussing launching a tabletop exercise and engaging in joint planning to counter North Korea's increasing nuclear threats, officials from both sides said on Tuesday.
The plan came amid South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's push to strengthen American extended deterrence - the U.S. military capability, especially its nuclear forces, to deter attacks on its allies - since taking office in May, in the face of evolving North Korean threats.
In a newspaper interview released on Monday, Yoon said the allies are discussing joint nuclear planning and exercises and that would help clear doubts about the extended deterrence, with its existing concept "falling short of convincing" South Koreans.
"In order to respond to the North Korean nuclear weapons, the two countries are discussing ways to share information on the operation of U.S.-owned nuclear assets, and joint planning and execution of them accordingly," Yoon's press secretary, Kim Eun-hye, said in a statement.
The two leaders "tasked their teams to plan for an effective, a coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea, and so that is what the teams are working on," White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.
A senior U.S. administration official elaborated, adding that both sides are looking at enhanced information-sharing, joint contingency planning and an eventual tabletop exercise following a request from their presidents after a meeting in Cambodia in November to explore ways to address North Korea's threats.
But the official noted regular nuclear exercises would be "extremely difficult" because South Korea is not a nuclear power, echoing the comment from U.S. President Joe Biden late on Monday that the allies were not discussing such activities. U.S. policy does not allow for the joint control of nuclear assets anywhere in the world.
"This is going to be done through a variety of ways, including as President Yoon said, through enhanced information-sharing, joint planning and expanding the range of contingencies that we plan for, as well as training, and with the idea eventually leading up to a tabletop exercise," the U.S. official told Reuters.
The timing of the planned exercises has not been finalised, but they would take place "in the not-too-distant future" and cover scenarios including but not limited to nuclear situations, the official said.
"The idea is to also try and make sure that we're able to fully think through the range of possibilities based on the DPRK capabilities which they've demonstrated, as well as their statements," that official added, using North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
When asked about the tabletop exercises, a spokesperson for South Korea's defence ministry said talks were under way but declined to provide details.
The two countries have revived consultations on extended deterrence this year after a years-long hiatus while North Korea increased its nuclear and missile capability.
Pyongyang defined South Korea as an "undoubted enemy" and vowed to beef up its nuclear arsenal this year, after firing a record number of missiles in 2022 and fuelling tension by sending drones into the South in December.
"The U.S. countermeasures have not kept up with the North's advancing nuclear programmes, and the extended deterrence strategy is almost no different from when their nuclear capability was insignificant and weaker," said Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.
But Kim Dong-yup, a professor at Kyungnam University, said the comment from Biden, who has sole authority to authorise the use of U.S. nuclear weapons, suggests an American reluctance to share nuclear operations, given their sensitivity and security concerns.
"Given growing voices for tactical nuclear weapons, Washington could try to give reassurances and send more nuclear assets when we want, but they're unlikely to fully materialise President Yoon's push for greater extended deterrence," Kim said.
Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Stephen Coates
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Reuters · by Hyonhee Shin
9. N. Korean military claims 12 drones infiltrated South Korea
Remember north Korean political warfare is designed to undermine South Korean government legitimacy and sow discord in the South. We are basically seeing infiltration but what is little more than a model airplane. And of course the other desired effect of these provocations is to reinforce regime legitimacy. That is what we are seeing here.
Is the technology of other countries similar? Recall that the South is sending photos from the moon via its space vehicle. The north showed us photos of Seoul that were far inferior to what can be downloaded from Google Earth.
N. Korean military claims 12 drones infiltrated South Korea
High-ranking cadres who had assumed that the South Korean air force was far superior said the drone incursion shows the two sides’ technology is at a similar level
dailynk.com
A North Korean drone discovered in South Korea's Gangwon Province in June 2017 on display. (Yonhap)
After concerns about a security vacuum in South Korea were kindled by a flight of North Korean drones that penetrated all the way to Seoul, the North Korean military has identified the drones’ incursion into South Korea as one of their main achievements in a report about the military’s winter exercises this past December.
A high-ranking source in North Korea told Daily NK on Monday that an interim report on the military’s winter exercises, which began Dec. 1, described the drone incursion as a success and claimed that the operation had thrown the “enemy stronghold” into panic. The report was drafted by the Operations Bureau of the General Staff Department on Dec. 27, the day after the drone incursion.
In addition to the drone provocation, the report also detailed the status of exercises following the reorganization of the military and evaluated drones that have been deployed for action, the source said.
The Operations Bureau report also claimed that a total of twelve drones had infiltrated South Korea, but that enemy military had only been able to detect five of them.
According to the report, the twelve drones had been dispatched together on Dec. 26 and all flew south of the Military Demarcation Line, but the seven drones with a shorter range only made it to the northern section of South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province before returning to North Korea.
Daily NK was unable to confirm whether the number of drones sent by North Korea was twelve or only five, or whether North Korea falsely inflated the figure to promote unity inside the military and promote the superiority of the regime.
However, it seems unlikely that North Korea would have included drones with too short a range to carry out their mission, deliberately sending them to the vicinity of the Military Demarcation Line only to have them return to North Korean territory.
If the twelve drones were launched simultaneously as the North Korean military report claims, the seven drones that were not detected in South Korean airspace may well have crashed before crossing the Military Demarcation Line. There is a strong possibility, therefore, that the military authorities included falsehoods in the report so as to play up the achievements of the winter exercises.
Nevertheless, the North Korean military appears likely to advertise the drone incursion and the South Korean military’s failure to detect the drones in advance or shoot them down in political propaganda distributed to military cadres with the goal of boosting morale inside the military.
In fact, high-ranking cadres in the North Korean military who had assumed that the South Korean air force was far superior to North Korea’s in terms of weaponry and detection technology said the drone incursion seems to have shown that the two sides’ technology is at a similar level.
That seems to mark a departure from the self-deprecatory tone adopted by North Korean cadres who admitted that North Korean satellite technology is still just getting off the ground compared to South Korean technology.
On Dec. 22, the South Korean government responded to satellite imagery of Seoul published by North Korea by releasing its own high-resolution color photography of Pyongyang taken by “land satellite No. 1.”
But the North Korean government will probably not distribute material about the drone incursion to the entire military or officially acknowledge the provocation, since that would open it up to criticism from the international community and demands that it take responsibility.
As of Monday, North Korean media outlets such as the Rodong Sinmun and the Korean Central News Agency have not made any mention of the drone incursion.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
dailynk.com
10. More than a dozen people killed in S. Hamgyong Province mine collapse
A lot to unpack from this:
There is no OSHA in north Korea (note sarcasm).
- Soldiers conducting mine activities because military leaders are eager to earn foreign currency.
- There are natural resources in the north.
- Soldier listed as died in line of duty during winter training exercises
- regime leadership focused on resuming mining activities rather than dealing with the dead and safety procedures.
More than a dozen people killed in S. Hamgyong Province mine collapse
Eager to earn foreign currency, the authorities had soldiers work long hours in a dangerous mine shaft without even setting up mine props to hold the ceiling up, a source told Daily NK
dailynk.com
Gold bullion bars (Wikimedia Commons)
Over a dozen North Korean civilians and soldiers who had been transferred from winter military exercises to work in a gold mine lost their lives in a recent mine collapse, Daily NK has learned.
The accident was allegedly the result of insufficient safety measures by the North Korean government, which is desperately trying to earn foreign currency.
“Twelve North Korean soldiers in a unit attached to Training Camp No. 108 in Yonggwang County [in South Hamgyong Province] and three civilian workers were killed in a gold mine cave-in early on Dec. 19. Guards outside the entrance died along with the rest after they stepped into the mine to get out of the cold,” a source in the North Korean military told Daily NK on Dec. 26.
“While the winter exercises are currently being held, the leaders of the Yonggwang County unit attached to Training Camp No. 108 assigned some of their soldiers to work on a newly discovered gold vein. Workers reported signs of an impending cave-in a few days earlier, but they were told to stay on the job a few more days. The push to earn foreign currency before the end of the year culminated in the death of innocent people,” the source explained.
Unit regulations, which ban outsiders from entering the gold mine, were being enforced by a pair of soldiers standing guard outside the mine at night. “They had apparently gone ten meters into the mine shaft because of the extreme cold. That’s where they were napping when they were caught in the cave-in,” the source added.
According to the source, twelve soldiers and three civilian workers were killed and two automatic rifles, a bag of ammunition, gas masks and extra magazines were buried in the cave-in.
The military authorities were so eager to earn more foreign currency that despite the winter exercises, they had soldiers work long hours in the dangerous mine shaft without even setting up mine props to hold the ceiling up, the source claimed.
“State security agents from No. 108 Training Camp spent 24 hours excavating the mine to rescue the trapped workers, but they were already dead,” he said.
The source provided the following account of the current situation on the ground:
“The unit has decided that all the soldiers who died in the cave-in at the gold mine in Yonggwang County will be recorded as having died on the line of duty during the winter exercises. It has also beefed up guard duty to block unauthorized access to the mine where the new gold vein has been found.
“After the fatal accident, officials from the Ministry of Defense rushed down to figure out what had happened. Rather than dealing with the loss of life, those officials gave clandestine orders to quickly bring the gold mine back into operation and to dispatch more soldiers to the mine work.”
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
dailynk.com
11. N. Korea conducts nationwide lectures explaining new language law
When faced with hardship the regime's only response is stepped up propaganda and more ideological indoctrination.
And this is about countering foreign influence within north Korean culture and language. (As if this foreign influence is the cause of the north's problems)
N. Korea conducts nationwide lectures explaining new language law
“We, as warriors on the frontlines of propaganda and agitation, have long failed the public,” attendees at one lecture at South Pyongan Province were told
dailynk.com
A panorama of Pyongyang published in state media in December 2019. (Rodong Sinmun - News1)
North Korea recently announced plans to enact the “Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act” at the upcoming Jan. 17 meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly. The government is now conducting lectures aimed at explaining the rationale behind the law to propaganda officials throughout the country.
According to a Daily NK source in South Pyongan Province on Dec. 22, staff in the South Pyongan Province Party Committee’s propaganda and agitation department attended a Saturday cadre study meeting on Dec. 17. While instructing the staff on the various directions they would be taking their work, the director of the department mentioned the adoption of the “Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act.”
The cadre took time during the meeting to set forth the reasoning behind the new law. “Our party’s propaganda and agitation workers are not properly doing their duty as warriors, and the amount of reactionary culture that has mixed into our natural language has become intolerable,” the director said, adding, “[North Korea] is standing at a dangerous crossroads [that will decide whether] our nation’s cultural language will be erased.’”
In other words, the law is intended to comprehensively crack down on North Koreans who watch South Korean movies and dramas and try to copy South Korean-style fashion, hairstyles, and ways of speaking. In fact, South Korean-style phrases, such as referring to comrades as “friends,” using the pet name “oppa” (literally “older brother”) to refer to one’s husband, and the South Korean word for “embarrassed,” are popular among young North Koreans.
North Korean authorities also appear to recognize this reality, and the South Pyongan Province official pointed this out during the lecture, saying: “We have failed to protect party members, workers, and young people from the enemy’s invasive propaganda and agitation. Now, reactionary culture is rampant throughout our entire society.
“Young people [10 to 30-year-olds] think that copying the speech and behavior of the [South Korean] puppets is just part of keeping up with new trends or the novelty of taking part in a new culture,” the director continued, adding, “This is exactly what South Korea and our enemies are hoping for, so we must focus our work on completely crushing [the invasion of reactionary culture].”
The “anti-reactionary thought law,” which was enacted in late 2020, banned South Korean styles of singing or speaking, punishable by forced labor or up to two years of re-education through labor. Combined with the “Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act,” these two laws appear to aim to eliminate the South Korean pop culture wave that has spread across the younger generation.
During the lecture, the director also urged attendees to re-awaken themselves as propaganda workers. “We, as warriors on the frontlines of propaganda and agitation, have long failed the public,” attendees were told. “In our aims for the next year, wiping out reactionary culture must be our greatest focus.
“Young people are lowering the red flag of revolution. They admire and go out of their way to try to learn capitalist ways of speaking. This is a dangerous social trend,” he went on to emphasize. “We must precisely discern the state of affairs, grasp the problem, and set out our course of action for this fight.
“As the Cultural Language Protection Act comes into effect, we will set a direction for distinct ideological projects to ideologically awaken the youth, party workers, and laborers in 2023, with those plans to be reviewed by the end of January.” In short, he announced that there would be a thorough review of their activities in the future.
The “Pyongyang cultural language” refers to North Korea’s standard dialect, which is rooted in one of Kim Il Sung’s “teachings” and has been in use since the 1960s. North Korea claims the language is a “synthesis of the unique character and excellence of the national language and constitutes the original form of the modern, sophisticated Korean language.”
Translated by Rose Adams.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
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12. [Editorial] North should stop and return to dialogue
But it is doubtful that Kim will return to talks without concessions or appeasement. And the paradox is that such appeasement will be assessed as success for Kim's political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies. And if he believes they work then why would he abandon them and negotiate as a responsible member of the international community?
Wednesday
January 4, 2023
dictionary + A - A
[Editorial] North should stop and return to dialogue
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/01/04/opinion/editorials/North-Korea-missile-provocation/20230104195030518.html
President Yoon Suk Yeol has ordered the National Security Office and the Ministry of National Defense to consider “a suspension of the Sept. 19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement” if North Korea crosses the line again. His statement translates into a stern warning about the North’s unceasing missile launches last year and its seventh nuclear test expected early this year. The conservative president upholding clear principles took a dramatic departure from former liberal president Moon Jae-in who persistently took a submissive attitude toward North Korea for five years. The future of a hurried military agreement between South and North Korea in 2018 will depend on how North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will react.
The military agreement was a part of the Sept. 19 joint declaration in Pyongyang between Moon and Kim in 2018. The military agreement aimed to ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and build mutual trust to prevent a war. To achieve the goal, the agreement declared to stop “all hostile activities against the other” for a military implementation of the Panmunjom Declaration the two leaders made in April that year.
Despite good intentions, North Korea violated the military agreement soon. After the Kim-Trump summit failed in Hanoi in 2019, Kim first violated the agreement by commanding an artillery drill in a buffer zone in the Yellow Sea on the 9th anniversary of North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010. In May 2020, North Korean soldiers fired rifles toward our guard post on the DMZ. After the start of the Yoon administration last May, North Korea brazenly ignored the military agreement by shooting a number of missiles, including a test-firing of an ICBM.
But the Yoon administration did not scrap the military agreement immediately, as it has to take into account the possibility of Pyongyang taking additional actions in case Seoul first declares a scrapping of the military deal.
However, the North’s recent missile launches and the infiltration of its drones into our air space stimulated the Yoon administration once again. Yoon strongly threatened to consider a suspension of the military agreement.
But the military agreement will not become null and void immediately, as President Yoon has left some room for the military to consider the scale and pattern of actions to help avert a catastrophic situation on the peninsula.
In a closed-door meeting, Yoon ordered our military to overwhelmingly respond to any additional provocations from North Korea. North Korea must not ignore his stern warning. We urge Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible.
13. Debate reopens over loudspeaker broadcasts in DMZ
I am glad to see this being discussed. For some of the best analysis of how information affects the nKPA soldiers please review this report from the Committee for Human RIghts in North Korea (HRNK)
Army of the Indoctrinated: The Suryong, the Soldier, and Information in the KPA
George Hutchinson
Apr 26, 2022
https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Hutchinson_KPA_web_0426.pdf
The bottom line is we need a sophisticated and comprehensive information and influence activities campaign.
Debate reopens over loudspeaker broadcasts in DMZ
The Korea Times · January 4, 2023
South Korean soldiers dismantle stacked loudspeakers in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, in this May 2018 photo. Joint Press Corps
Experts divided over effectiveness of loudspeaker use
By Kang Seung-woo
The resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts has been emerging as a possible counter-measure in response to North Korea's security threats as South Korea has limited options to take in response to the North's recent use of drones to cross the inter-Korean border, infiltrating the South for the first time in five years.
The South Korean military used to operate propaganda broadcast posts along the border as a key part of its psychological warfare tactics against North Korea. The broadcast messages were mainly critical of the North Korean regime, leading Pyongyang to express strong opposition to such tactics, apparently concerned about the possible effects they might have on its military and people. The use of the loudspeakers has been suspended since the inter-Korean summit in April 2018.
"What Kim Jong-un fears the most are loudspeaker broadcasts targeting North Korean soldiers deployed on the border," Rep. Tae Yong-ho of the ruling People Power Party said last week.
The audio messages can be heard some 10 kilometers into Gaeseong in the daytime and for 24 kilometers at night, according to the South Korean military.
"History has proven that loudspeaker broadcasting to North Korea is the quickest and most effective way to peacefully manage the situation along the border and deter war," the defector-turned-politician added.
In the wake of North Korea's landmine attack in the Demilitarized Zone that seriously injured two South Korean soldiers in August 2015, the South Korean military resumed broadcasting propaganda directed to the North ― for the first time in 11 years.
While North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared a "quasi-state of war" in frontline areas at that time, Pyongyang offered high-level inter-Korean talks, where Pyongyang expressed regret for the mine explosions in exchange for Seoul's suspension of propaganda broadcasts.
Previously, the lawmaker also proposed that South Korea resume the use of loudspeaker broadcasts as part of efforts to prevent North Korea from conducting a seventh nuclear test in advance by preemptively warning its resumption to the North in the event of another nuclear test.
Cha Du-hyeogn, a principal fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, also said the government needs to consider the option.
"We can respond to the drone infiltrations in the same way, but exploring options that North Korea is the most fearful of, they are loudspeaker broadcasts and propaganda leaflets. We need to consider resuming them in this case," he said in a recent radio interview.
The loudspeaker broadcasts have been a hot-button issue between South and North Korea, leading to many disputes over the decades. Both sides have deployed speakers to direct propaganda at one another, and the North Korean regime has on many occasions responded sensitively to the matter.
In that respect, former President Moon Jae-in and the North Korean leader held a summit at the truce village of Panmunjeom on the inter-Korean border, April 27, 2018, where they agreed to stop all hostile acts including loudspeaker broadcasting and the scattering of leaflets in areas along the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), to dismantle their means and to transform the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into a peace zone in a genuine sense.
Another barrier to resuming the propaganda broadcasts is the so-called "anti-leaflet law" that prohibits the launching of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, with violators subject to a maximum prison term of three years or a fine of 30 million won ($23,000).
In that regard, President Yoon Suk-yeol called the law "a wrong decision" when he was the president-elect, while Unification Minister Kwon Young-se also said in an opinion submitted to the Constitutional Court that the law is unconstitutional and restricts freedom of expression and political activities.
However, Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, questioned if loudspeaker broadcasting will be effective in defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
"The South Korean government's stance is focused on deescalating tensions and deterring provocations, but loudspeaker broadcasting may provide an excuse for North Korea to make further provocations, so I think it would be better no to resume it preemptively," Shin said.
The Korea Times · January 4, 2023
14. Korea to establish 'K-rice belt' in Africa
A "global pivotal state."
Recall that South Korea is the only OECD nation in the world to go from a major aid recipient to a major donor nation.
Korea to establish 'K-rice belt' in Africa
The Korea Times · January 4, 2023
Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Chung Hwang-keun. Korea Times file
By Lee Kyung-min
The government will establish what it calls a "K-rice belt" across seven countries in Africa, in order to advance current official development assistance (ODA) programs to countries that are struggling with a lack of agricultural infrastructure, compounded by geographical and other limitations unfavorable to growing crops, the food ministry said Wednesday.
Those countries are Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Ghana, Cameroon, Uganda and Kenya. The ministry will sign memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with those countries this year to help them identify ways to more effectively nurture the traditional industry, enabled in part by renting out used Korean agricultural equipment.
These are among the key policy directives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for 2023.
Global cooperation with key grain-producing countries will be strengthened through efforts to diversify trade partner countries in Central and South America.
A minister-chaired special task force will be launched to help Korea achieve $10 billion (12 trillion won) in agricultural exports this year, promoting IT-mediated smart farming technologies and capabilities of strong local players. The goal is to push up the figure further to $15 billion in 2027.
The government intends to raise the country's overall food self-sufficiency rate to 55.5 percent by 2027, up from 44.4 percent in 2021, propelled mostly by the increased output of locally grown grain. Rice is the only grain that has registered a self-sufficiency rate of a robust 84.6 percent. About 80 percent of other crops are imported.
Agriculture officials from Oman are on a guided tour of a smart farm operated by Nongshim in Anyang, Gyeoonggi Province, Nov. 24 2022. Korea Times file
Tangible results
"The year 2023 will be an opportunity for us to make great contributions to the growth of not only the agriculture and food industries but also the economy as a whole," Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Chung Hwang-keun said during a briefing of the ministry's directives for 2023 to President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Up to 30 percent of animal and produce farming will be automated with housing and financing arrangements by 2027, an effort to encourage a greater number of young farmers to find a future in the traditional, rapidly aging industry certain to perish without immediate policy assistance.
The number of overseas grain terminals operated by local firms will be increased to five from two, to secure stable grain distribution channels. The current two are in Ukraine and the Port of Longview in the U.S. state of Washington, operated respectively by POSCO International, a trading affiliate of POSCO, and Pan Ocean, a shipping firm. Up to 50 billion won in financing will be provided to new terminal operators this year.
A fund of 200 billion won will be established to facilitate foreign investment in local agriculture and food industries. Also to be set up is a secondary fund of 20 billion won to foster new local startups, as mediated by a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE). The agreement is between investors and companies, offering investors rights to future equity, and is a simpler mechanism for startups seeking initial funding.
The Korea Times · January 4, 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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