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Quotes of the Day:
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society, gathers wisdom.”
– Isaac Asimov
"Rest, nature, books, music, such is my idea of happiness."
– Leo Tolstoy
“Thanks to the realistic ideas handed down by culture, mankind has survived and, in certain fields, progresses. But thanks to the pernicious nonsense drummed into every individual in the course of his acculturation, mankind, though surviving and progressing, has always been in trouble. History is the record, among other things, of the fantastic and generally fiendish tricks played upon itself by culture-maddened humanity. And the hideous game goes on.”
– Aldous Huxley
1. N. Korea fires some 200 artillery shells off western coast: S. Korean military
2. N. Korea rebuilds destroyed guard posts inside DMZ with concrete
3. North Korea Fires Artillery Barrage Toward Border Islands in the South
4. Russia fires missiles supplied by North Korea into Ukraine, says U.S. intelligence
5. N. Korean leader inspects factory producing launchers for solid-fuel ICBMs
6. Kim Ju-ae likely heir to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, says South’s spy agency
7. KPA General Staff Issues Report (nK live fire in NLL area)
8. North Korea fires 200 shells into sea off western coast
9. Korean shipbuilder’s submarine designs leaked to Taiwan
10. South Korea fires 400 artillery shells in response to North's provocation
11. Japan firm Hitachi Zosen accused of ‘betrayal’ for Korean forced labour payout
12. US designates NK for religious freedom violation for 22nd straight year
13. ‘The gap in the U.S. North Korean human rights law’ is the longest in history… “It’s disappointing that there is a lack of leadership in Congress.”
14. Pyongyang labor brigades face the music after engaging in “non-socialist” songs and dances
15. Why Kim has skipped his New Year’s speech
16. Tensions escalate as North Korea fires artillery shells off west coast
17. ROK Navy commissions 1st female submariners
18. Russia hit Ukraine with NK-made missiles: Kyiv
1. N. Korea fires some 200 artillery shells off western coast: S. Korean military
A nice way to start the day, thank you Kim Jong un. This of course is not unexpected. Kim will continue to act out. This Is all part of creating the threat perception from the South to keep the Korean people in the north in check.
The more we see of these types of actions and rhetoric the more concerned I am becoming regarding international instability and threats to the regime.
That said, as my friend and colleague from north Korea explained to me this week, he is concerned also that Kim Jong Un will be acting out, to include kinetically, at the behest of Putin as he wants to widen conflicts to distract from Ukraine.
When we consider all that is happening around the world, e.g., Putin's War in Ukraine, Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, actions in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, the Red Sea, and Taiwan, the strongest US deterrence rhetoric is used versus north Korea. The ROK/US alliance (Biden, Yon, US SECDEF, ROK MINDEF, and other senior leaders have made the statement over and over again that a north Korean attack on the South and the use of nuclear weapons will result in the Kim family regime ceasing to exist). Will Kim challenge these words of deterrence in support of the axis of authoritarianism to create dilemmas for the US and undermine US deterrence around the world?
(3rd LD) N. Korea fires some 200 artillery shells off western coast: S. Korean military | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · January 5, 2024
(ATTN: ADDS more details in paras 2, 9-14, photos)
By Chae Yun-hwan
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired some 200 artillery shells into waters off its western coast Friday morning, Seoul's military said, in its latest saber-rattling after it scrapped a 2018 inter-Korean military accord in November.
The move prompted an emergency evacuation order for civilians on the South Korean western border islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong. Also in response, the South Korean military staged live-fire drills on the border islands.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the artillery firings from Jangsan Cape and Deungsan Cape, both in the North's southwestern coastal areas, from 9:00 a.m. to 11 a.m.
The shells splashed into the maritime buffer zone north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea. The buffer zone, where artillery firing and naval drills are banned, was set under an inter-Korean military accord signed on Sept. 19, 2018, to reduce border tensions.
The JCS said there was no reported damage to South Korean citizens and the military or losses of human life from North Korea's firing.
A K1E1 tank fires a shell during live-fire drills on the northwestern border island of Baengnyeong on Jan. 5, 2024, in this photo provided by the defense ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
The South Korean military called the North's move a "provocative" act and warned of its corresponding measures.
"We gravely warn that the entire responsibility of such crisis-escalating situations lies with North Korea and strongly call for its immediate halt," JCS spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun said in a press conference.
"Under close coordination between South Korea and the United States, our military is tracking and monitoring related activity, and will conduct corresponding measures to North Korea's provocations."
In the afternoon, South Korean Marine Corps units on the islands of Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong staged live-fire exercises, involving K9 self-propelled howitzers and other assets, like K1E1 tanks, against simulated targets in waters south of the NLL, according to defense officials.
The South fired some 400 rounds into the maritime buffer zone, double the amount fired by the North.
The South Korean military fired artillery shots into the buffer zone for the first time since the signing of the 2018 accord. North Korea's latest firing marked the 16th one of its kind, including a missile launch in 2022.
Pyongyang last fired artillery shots into the maritime buffer zone in the East Sea on Dec. 6, 2022.
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik presided over the South's drills virtually from the JCS' command post in central Seoul and called for readiness against "reckless provocative" acts by the North.
"Our military ... needs to be equipped with a retaliatory posture for complete annihilation so that the enemy never attempts another provocation and to ensure peace through powerful strength," he was quoted as saying.
This undated file image, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows North Korean military drills. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
Last November, North Korea unilaterally scrapped the 2018 accord after Seoul partially suspended the deal in protest of the North's successful launch of a military spy satellite.
The 2018 accord, signed under the previous liberal President Moon Jae-in, was designed to dial down military tensions, prevent accidental clashes and build mutual trust.
It included setting up maritime buffer zones, a land buffer zone banning artillery drills and regiment-level field maneuvers, as well as no-fly zones near the border to prevent accidental aircraft clashes.
North Korea's latest saber-rattling came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean ties as relations "between two states hostile to each other" and called for stepped-up preparations to "suppress the whole territory of South Korea" at a year-end ruling party meeting.
South Korea's spy agency said last month that North Korea is highly likely to carry out military provocations or cyberattacks in early 2024 ahead of the South's parliamentary election in April and the U.S. presidential election in November.
A K9 self-propelled howitzer fires a shell during live-fire drills on the northwestern border island of Yeonpyeong on Jan. 5, 2024, in this photo provided by the defense ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · January 5, 2024
2. N. Korea rebuilds destroyed guard posts inside DMZ with concrete
Dilemmas. The regime wants to create dilemmas for the Alliance. The Alliance should respond with a return of US forces patrolling the DMZ integrated with ROK forces as I have written:
Return U.S. Troops to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
North Korea has withdrawn from the Comprehensive Military Agreement of 2018 and is rebuilding the guard posts that it removed.
Until 1991, U.S. Army infantrymen conducted combat patrolling in an American sector surrounding the Joint Security Area. In 2024, the U.S. military should return to combat patrolling, but this time, it should support ROK forces throughout the entire DMZ. This will reduce stress on ROK forces, increase interoperability between ROK and U.S. forces, demonstrate commitment to the defense of the ROK, and improve morale by conducting missions that bring them eye to eye with the enemy. Rotating infantry battalions will conduct pre-mission training in the United States, spend three months preparing to conduct combat patrols on the DMZ, complete a three-month rotation with ROK forces, then three months of large-scale unit training, and then rotate back to the Homeland.
(Excerpt from Revitalizing America's North Korea Policy, https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/revitalizing-americas-north-korea-policy-207642)
(LEAD) N. Korea rebuilds destroyed guard posts inside DMZ with concrete | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · January 5, 2024
(ATTN: RECASTS lead; UPDATES with more details throughout)
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea appears to be rebuilding all of its destroyed guard posts inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas with concrete structures, a military source said Friday.
Last November, the North began rebuilding the guard posts with wooden material after scrapping a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement designed to reduce tensions along the border, according to Seoul's defense officials.
"We have detected that North Korea has built concrete guard posts at the destroyed guard post (sites)," the source said, without providing further details.
The latest move suggests that North Korea could operate the guard posts on a full scale, such as the deployment of more heavy firearms and troops.
North Korean soldiers are spotted near a guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in this file photo provided by the South Korean defense ministry on Nov. 27, 2023. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
As part of the 2018 deal signed under former liberal President Moon Jae-in, the two Koreas demolished 10 guard posts inside the DMZ each and disarmed an additional one each, leaving the North with some 150 guard posts and South Korea with 67 of them.
North Korea, however, vowed to restore all military measures halted under the agreement after Seoul partially suspended the deal in protest of the North's successful launch of its first military spy satellite on Nov. 21.
The South Korean military also detected North Korean troops installing mines on two rare roads that had connected the two Koreas' eastern and western areas, once regarded as the symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation and exchanges, according to the source.
The Gyeongui land route connects South Korea's Paju to a now-shuttered joint industrial complex in North Korea's western border city of Kaesong. The road is not being used after Seoul shut down the Kaesong complex in 2016 in response to North Korea's nuclear and missile tests.
North Korea is also believed to have set up electric barbed wire around its side of the Donghae road along the eastern coast.
Military authorities believe North Korea apparently intends to install landmines in a bid to completely shut down the roads.
The South Korean military has also detected the North conducting drills with new-type drones, including the Morning Star-4 unveiled last year, with South Korean officials suspecting that they are intended for possible future provocations.
Meanwhile, South Korean warships operating near the maritime border in the Yellow Sea have also reportedly removed covers of naval guns in an apparent corresponding response to North Korea's increased opening of gunports on its northwestern coastline.
The guns of warships near the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, had been covered under the 2018 military agreement.
Tensions have recently heightened after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean ties as relations "between two states hostile to each other" and ordered preparations "to suppress the whole territory" of South Korea in a contingency at a year-end ruling party meeting.
This file photo, taken Oct. 27, 2022, shows Jangsan Cape in North Korea's southwestern province of South Hwanghae from South Korea's northwestern border island of Baengnyeong. The red-circled spots are presumed to be North Korean military facilities. (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · January 5, 2024
3. North Korea Fires Artillery Barrage Toward Border Islands in the South
North Korea Fires Artillery Barrage Toward Border Islands in the South
Seoul says no injuries occurred from the shelling, which comes as inter-Korean relations worsen
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/north-korea-fires-artillery-barrage-toward-border-islands-in-the-south-98972180?mod=hp_listb_pos1
By Dasl Yoon
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and Timothy W. Martin
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Updated Jan. 5, 2024 5:53 am ET
People at a railway station in Seoul watch a television showing the news about the artillery fire. PHOTO: JUNG YEON-JE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
SEOUL—North Korea fired more than 200 artillery shells near the western border islands of South Korea on Friday, reviving memories of prior violent clashes in the area as inter-Korean tensions escalate once again.
The barrage of shells, launched from roughly 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. local time, landed in North Korean waters shy of the Northern Limit Line, a disputed inter-Korean maritime border, Seoul’s military said. No residents were injured at the Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong islands, which are located just miles from North Korea’s coastline.
In response, Seoul’s military carried out live-fire drills from both islands on Friday afternoon. Residents there were ordered to evacuate to shelters until the drills had concluded.
The barrage occurred during a particularly fractious moment in inter-Korean relations. At a year-end plenary speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said there would be a decisive policy change in relations with South Korea. He said the two Koreas were belligerent states at war, not counterparts for reconciliation and unification—breaking from a decadeslong policy.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who backs a tougher line with the Kim regime, has expanded military coordination with the U.S. and Japan to combat North Korea’s advances. This week, Yoon said peace is built through strength, such as bolstering the country’s missile-defense system.
The commotion on Friday summoned painful incidents from the past. In late 2010, North Korea unleashed a shell attack on Yeonpyeong, setting the island ablaze and forcing citizens to scramble into bomb shelters. Four South Koreans died in the attack.
A visitor at the Unification Observatory in Paju, South Korea, looks toward the border with North Korea, PHOTO: LEE JIN-MAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Kim regime said the shelling followed South Korea having first fired artillery into North Korean waters. Seoul acknowledged military exercises had occurred, though denied that any of the shells had been fired at the North.
Earlier that same year, North Korea sank a South Korean naval ship in border-area waters west of the Korean Peninsula in the Yellow Sea, killing dozens of sailors. Seoul took months to formally accuse Pyongyang of the attack. North Korea denied involvement.
The pair of surprise clashes served as a wake-up call to South Korea, security experts say. In the ensuing years, Seoul’s military sharpened its military readiness at the border islands. The country’s naval fleet vastly improved its radar technology, missile firepower and survivability, the experts say.
The Kim regime would struggle to pull off similar lethal attacks on South Korea today, said Go Myong-hyun, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute, a Seoul-based think tank. Pyongyang showed some restraint with Friday’s artillery fire, as the shells didn’t even surpass the Northern Limit Line, he added. North Korea’s unilateral maritime border extends further south than the NLL.
“North Korea knows South Korea is much more prepared than the past,” Go said. “Clearly North Korea is observing the red line. This just shows deterrence against them is working.”
Following the 2010 attacks, various South Korean presidents attempted to revive dialogue with North Korea—offers that Pyongyang largely ignored. North Korea didn’t again launch a serious attack. But hopes of restoring inter-Korean projects faded after the Kim regime’s pair of nuclear tests in 2013 and 2016.
The two countries’ relations improved in 2018, as Kim shifted the country back to diplomacy with Washington and Seoul. South Korea’s then-leader Moon Jae-in, a left-leaning politician, favored engagement, meeting several times with Kim. The two countries made a pact that year to tone down military hostilities.
But by 2019, North Korea lost interest in talks with the U.S. or South Korea.
Yoon, a conservative who succeeded Moon and took office in May 2022, pivoted Seoul back toward a more confrontational stance with the Kim regime. Pyongyang routinely criticized the new South Korean leader in state media.
In November, the two Koreas backed away from the 2018 agreement. North Korea said it would resume all military activities it had halted under the pact, vowing to deploy stronger armed forces and new weapons to the border.
Both countries have since rearmed soldiers along the Demilitarized Zone. The North has also begun rebuilding border guard posts that were destroyed following the 2018 agreement.
At the year-end meetings, Kim ordered the North’s military to prepare to occupy the South in the event of a crisis. He called for revamps to the North Korean ministry that focused on reunification. He promised more spy-satellite launches and production of nuclear bombs.
North Korea’s weapons advances in recent years have largely focused on advancing short-range ballistic missiles that can target Seoul. The Kim regime also passed a new law allowing pre-emptive nuclear strikes. That is escalating the threat toward South Korea step-by-step, said Hwang Ji-hwan, a professor of international relations at the University of Seoul.
“North Korea has been setting the ground to raise military tensions even more this year,” Hwang said.
Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com and Timothy W. Martin at Timothy.Martin@wsj.com
4. Russia fires missiles supplied by North Korea into Ukraine, says U.S. intelligence
An indication of Russian desperation? And it is an opportunity for Kim to get hard currency as well as political support and acquiring advanced military technology.
As a good friend and north Korean expert pointed out to me, the missiles provided could be the KN -23 which is a north Korean modified or re-engineered Iskander which of course comes from Russia. The Irony. This will be helpful to north Korea as it will allow the missile to be tested in combat while filling shortfalls and gaps in Russian capabilities.
Russia fires missiles supplied by North Korea into Ukraine, says U.S. intelligence
Ballistic missiles provided by Pyongyang to Moscow are now being used on the battlefield, according to U.S. officials
By John Hudson and David L. Stern
Updated January 4, 2024 at 4:23 p.m. EST|Published January 4, 2024 at 1:08 p.m. EST
The Washington Post · by John Hudson · January 4, 2024
Russia has begun firing ballistic missiles provided by North Korea into Ukraine, the latest sign of cooperation between two of Washington’s archnemeses, the White House said Thursday.
Russia’s deployment of North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles, first reported by The Washington Post, indicates North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s growing support for Moscow’s war effort. It also shows Moscow’s ability to lean on pariah countries to make up for deficiencies in its own arsenal as the war in Ukraine approaches its third year.
“Russia has become increasingly isolated on the world stage and they’ve been forced to look to like-minded states for military equipment,” said White House spokesman John Kirby, who partially attributed Russia’s limited options to sanctions imposed by Washington.
Kirby presented a map showing the trajectory of Russia’s first known use of North Korean missiles on Saturday, launching from southern Russia and landing in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region — an area of intense fighting between Kyiv and Moscow.
The first strike landed in an open field, Kirby said. A second strike Tuesday was part of a larger overnight aerial attack that the United States has less information about. “We’re still assessing the impacts of these additional missiles,” Kirby said.
North Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several dozen ballistic missiles, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. intelligence.
“We expect Russia and North Korea to learn from these launches — and we anticipate that Russia will use additional North Korean missiles to target Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians,” Kirby said.
Kirby said that the missiles have a range of roughly 550 miles and that their transfer violates multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. He vowed that the United States would raise the issue at the United Nations and impose sanctions against individuals facilitating arms transfers between North Korea and Russia.
“We will not allow countries to aid Russia’s war machine in secret,” Kirby said.
U.S. officials believe that in exchange for the ballistic missiles, North Korea is seeking a variety of military equipment from Russia, including fighter aircraft, surface-to-air-missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment and other advanced technologies.
Michael Kofman, a military analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Russia’s war effort is being bolstered by imports of weaponry.
“Russia’s mobilized defense industrial production is now producing significantly more missiles per month than it was before the war. However, this is still not sufficient relative to its needs and can’t replace the stockpile of missiles it’s expended over the course of the last two years,” he said. “That means that Russia would benefit from having access to an additional stockpile from countries like North Korea.”
While officials said Pyongyang had provided “several dozen ballistic missiles” thus far, the extent of the weapons North Korea sent and how much it plans to provide in the coming months remain unclear.
In November, South Korea accused North Korea of supplying several types of missiles to Russia, including antitank missiles, portable anti-air missiles, ballistic missiles, and rifles, rocket launchers, mortars and shells.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Russia began receiving shipments of North Korean ballistic missiles several weeks ago.
The grinding war in Ukraine has seen little movement along the front lines since Kyiv’s stalled summer counteroffensive. But with the advent of winter, both sides have continued to pummel each other with missile and drone attacks.
On Thursday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its air defenses had repelled a major missile attack by Ukrainian forces on Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and Russian forces used as a staging ground for its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Russian antiaircraft systems shot down 10 Ukrainian “aircraft-guided missiles,” the ministry said.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, governor of the Sevastopol region in Crimea, said on Telegram that the missile attack was the “most massive in recent times” on the peninsula, adding that one person was injured by falling shrapnel.
Ukraine’s military said in a statement that it had successfully struck “a command post of a formation of the Russian occupation forces near Sevastopol.”
The Russian and Ukrainian claims could not be independently verified.
Separately, a Russian missile attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskyi on Thursday killed one person and injured eight, Ukraine’s State Emergency Services said.
Debris from a missile also damaged a repair and production facility of Ukraine’s state energy operator Ukrenergo, the company said in a statement.
Kostiantyn Khudov, Robyn Dixon and Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.
The Washington Post · by John Hudson · January 4, 2024
5. N. Korean leader inspects factory producing launchers for solid-fuel ICBMs
Yes, people are getting worked up about Kim's actions. But he continues to execute the Kim family regime playbook that is seven decades old. We look at each action in the current context and as something new and unusual (because we cannot recall the history). But in fact these actions are not something new and unusual.
(LEAD) N. Korean leader inspects factory producing launchers for solid-fuel ICBMs | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · January 5, 2024
(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in paras 8, 10)
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited a factory producing mobile launchers for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), stressing the need to strengthen the country's nuclear deterrence for a "military showdown" with its enemy, state media reported Friday.
During the visit, Kim ordered measures to expand the capacity to produce major transporter erector launchers (TELs), stressing that the factory plays an important role in bolstering the country's defense capabilities, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). It did not specify the date of his visit.
"Given the prevailing grave situation that requires the country to be more firmly prepared for a military showdown with the enemy, he indicated the tasks to be fulfilled by the factory," the KCNA said in an English-language dispatch.
This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 5, 2024, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un (C) and his daughter Ju-ae (R), inspecting a factory producing transporter erector launchers for strategic missiles. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Underscoring the need to produce various TELs for tactical and strategic weapons, Kim set forth immediate and long-term plans for their production and the task of expanding the factory's production capacity, it said.
Photos carried by the KCNA showed TELs for what appear to be solid-fuel Hwasong-18 and liquid-propellant Hwasong-17 ICBMs.
In April 2023, North Korea test-fired a Hwasong-18 ICBM for the first time and launched two more in July and December, respectively. The repressive regime launched a total of five ICBMs last year alone, marking the highest number in a single year.
At a year-end key party meeting, the North's leader called for stepped-up war readiness to deter "unprecedented" acts of U.S.-led confrontations and laid out plans to launch three more military spy satellites and bolster the nation's nuclear arsenal in 2024.
Meanwhile, the KCNA said Kim's daughter, known as Ju-ae, accompanied her father on the factory visit, calling her his "respected daughter."
South Korea's spy agency said Thursday that Ju-ae appears to be Kim's "most likely successor," marking the agency's first assessment of her possible succession in the reclusive regime.
Ju-ae, believed to be born in 2013, made her first public appearance on Nov. 18, 2022, when her father brought her to the launch site of a Hwasong-17 ICBM. Since then, she has made a total of 23 public appearances and 19 of them have been military events, according to Seoul's unification ministry.
Kim's entourage to the inspection also included Jo Chun-ryong, director of the ruling party's munitions industry department, and Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North's leader. Jo was promoted to party secretary during a year-end personnel reshuffle of the Workers' Party of Korea.
This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 5, 2024, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a factory that produces major transporter erector launchers. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · January 5, 2024
6. Kim Ju-ae likely heir to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, says South’s spy agency
We should be very wary of these reports.
And we should ask the "so what?" What are the real implications of this if it is in fact true?
Sometimes I think Kim Jong Un just wants to see us jump to conclusions and then laughs because he thinks we are being foolish.
Kim Ju-ae likely heir to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, says South’s spy agency
Intense speculation over future role of daughter, reportedly 10, comes as North Korea fires shells near South Korean islands
The Guardian · by Justin McCurry · January 5, 2024
The young daughter of Kim Jong-un is seen as her father’s heir apparent, South Korea’s spy agency has said, after speculation that the North Korean ruler is grooming her to become the fourth member of the dynasty to lead the country since its foundation more than seven decades ago.
There has been intense international speculation about Kim Ju-ae, who is reportedly about 10 years old, since she made her first public appearance in November 2022 when she watched a long-range missile test launch with her father.
The assessment by the National Intelligence Service came soon before residents of two South Korean islands close to the countries’ tense maritime border were ordered to seek shelter after North Korea fired artillery rounds into the sea on Friday.
“The North Korean military conducted over 200 rounds of firing today from about 9-11am (1200 to 0200 GMT) in the areas of Jangsan-got in the northern part of Baengnyeong island and the northern areas … of Yeonpyeong island,” a South Korean defence ministry official said at a briefing.
Officials on Yeonpyeong said civilians had been asked to evacuate, describing the order as a “preventive measure”.
The ministry would not confirm if the order was prompted by artillery fire from North Korea or by South Korean drills conducted in response. However, a text message sent to residents and confirmed by an island official cited “naval fire” to be conducted by South Korean troops from 3pm on Friday.
The waters near the disputed Northern Limit Line have been the site of several deadly clashes, including the sinking of a South Korean navy corvette early in 2010 by what is believed to be a North Korean torpedo.
In November 2010, North Korean artillery fired scores of rounds at Yeonpyeong killing four people, including two civilians, in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbour since the Korean war ended in 1953.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said it was not unusual for North Korea to fire artillery into the sea near the maritime border during its winter exercises.
“What’s different this year is that the two Koreas have recently backed away from a military confidence-building agreement, and Kim Jong-un has publicly disavowed reconciliation and unification with the South,” Easley said, adding that Pyongyang could “miscalculate that its claimed nuclear weapons give it control over escalation in case of a deadly incident”, despite warnings from the South’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, that any attack would be met with a stern response.
Kim Ju-ae has since accompanied Kim Jong-un to major public events, with state media calling her the North Korean leader’s “most beloved” or “respected” child and releasing footage and photos proving her rising political standing and closeness with her father.
South Korea’s spy agency made its assessment of her future role citing a comprehensive analysis of her public activities and the state protocols provided to her.
A senior general knelt and whispered to her when she clapped while watching a military parade at a VIP observation stand in September. She was photographed standing in front of her father at one point during a visit to the air force headquarters in November, with both Kims wearing sunglasses and long leather jackets. In a New Year’s Eve celebration at a packed Pyongyang stadium on Sunday, Kim Jong-un kissed her on the cheek and she did the same to her father.
Most of these scenes had been unimaginable in North Korea, where Kim Jong-un uses ruthless means to secure loyalty among officials and the country’s 26 million people.
The spy agency’s public affairs office said it still considers all possibilities regarding the North Korea’s power succession process because Kim Jong-un, who turns 40 on Monday, is still young, has no known major health issues, and has at least one other child.
The agency has an imperfect record in confirming developments in North Korea, one of the world’s most secretive nations. North Korea’s state media has yet to make any direct comments on succession or whether Kim Ju-ae has any siblings.
Symbolism or succession clues? Debut of Kim Jong-un’s daughter sparks speculation over North Korea’s future
Read more
Du Hyeogn Cha, an analyst at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said few could predict whether Kim Ju-ae would eventually become the North Korea’s next leader, adding that she lacked the political achievements essential to be formally anointed.
Since North Korea’s foundation in 1948, it has been successively ruled by male members of the Kim family. Kim Jong-un inherited power after his father, Kim Jong-il, died in late 2011. Kim Jong-il had become leader after his father and North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, died in 1994.
The name of Ju-ae matched what the retired NBA star Dennis Rodman called Kim’s baby daughter, whom he said he saw and held during a trip to Pyongyang in 2013. The spy agency told lawmakers in a private briefing last year that Kim Ju-ae had an older brother, as well as a younger sibling whose gender the agency had not confirmed.
The agency said at the time that she had never been enrolled in an official education facility and was getting homeschooled in Pyongyang, according to some of the lawmakers who attended the briefing.
The Guardian · by Justin McCurry · January 5, 2024
7. KPA General Staff Issues Report (nK live fire in NLL area)
The General Staff responds to the reports from the "military gangsters" of the South.
KPA General Staff Issues Report
https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1704460400-436427826/kpa-general-staff-issues-report/
Date: 05/01/2024 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source
Pyongyang, January 5 (KCNA) -- The General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) issued the following report on Friday:
On the ratification of the General Staff of the KPA, units and sub-units in charge of the southwestern coastal defence under the 4th Corps of the KPA staged a naval live-shell firing drill into five districts with 192 shells by mobilizing 47 cannons of various calibers of 13 companies and 1 platoon force from 09:00 to 11:00 on January 5.
The claim of the military gangsters of the Republic of Korea that the KPA fired naval artillery shells into the waters north of Paekryong Island and Yonphyong Island, a so-called buffer zone in the West Sea of Korea, is a far-fetched assertion to mislead the public opinion, and their evacuation and firing in return are also a trite method to throw the responsibility for the escalating tension on the KPA's drill.
The direction of naval live-shell firing doesn't give even an indirect effect on Paekryong and Yonphyong islands.
The naval live-shell firing drill conducted in the southwestern sea is a sort of natural countermeasure taken by the KPA against the military actions of the ROK military gangsters who staged large-scale artillery firing and maneuvers in the vicinity of the entire border area by mobilizing units and sub-units of five corps from the outset of the year while vociferating about demonstration of response posture.
The military gangsters of the ROK should neither say this or that about the responsibility for escalating tension nor bring misfortune on themselves.
If the enemies commit an act which may be regarded as a provocation under the pretext of so-called counteraction, the KPA will show tough counteraction on an unprecedented level.
The concept about the same nation and fellow countrymen has already been removed from our cognition. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche113.1.5.)
8. North Korea fires 200 shells into sea off western coast
And RFA is doubling down on Kim Ju Ae reports of succession in this article.
North Korea fires 200 shells into sea off western coast
Move comes after Kim Jong Un and daughter tour ICBM launcher factory
By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA
2024.01.04
Seoul, South Korea
rfa.org
UPDATED on Jan. 5, 2024 at 9:38 a.m. ET
North Korea launched some 200 artillery shells into waters off its western coast on Friday near the inter-Korean maritime border of the Northern Limit Line, or NLL, according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff. The area is near South Korea’s Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands.
The shells fired between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Seoul time caused no casualties to civilians or military personnel in the South, the JCS said in the statement. In response, Seoul directed residents on the islands to seek shelter, as it informed its plans to conduct “naval fire” drills by its troops later in the afternoon.
The artillery barrage came as U.S. and South Korean military forces began their first joint drills for this year on Thursday, involving the U.S. Air Force asset, Rivet Joint, a reconnaissance aircraft designed for intelligence collection.
On Nov. 23, 2010, the North shelled Yeonpyeong island, killing four South Korean residents and injuring 19, while causing severe damage to the entire island. South Korea returned fire shortly afterward in an incident that caused inter-Korean relations to sour sharply.
'Respected child'
Hours before the shells were fired, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that leader Kim Jong Un and “probable successor” Ju Ae visited an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, mobile launcher vehicle factory, a move seen by an expert that signals a strong commitment to ramp up the production of these vehicles.
Kim and his “respected child” Ju Ae “conducted an on-site guidance at an important military vehicle production factory,” the report said Friday.
Kim and the daughter, accompanied by major ruling party officials including the powerful sister Kim Yo Jong, observed “various military vehicles produced at the factory, gaining a detailed understanding of their production status,” KCNA added.
Photos released by KCNA show the North Korean leadership standing before mobile launch vehicles, which could be equipped to launch its latest ICBM, the Hwasong-18.
The use of transporter erector launchers, or TELs, complicates the ability of the United States and its regional allies to carry out pre-emptive strikes, as these mobile platforms offer enhanced concealment and mobility for missile deployments.
“This factory holds an extremely important position and plays a pivotal role in the historic endeavor of bolstering our national defense,” said Kim Jong Un, as cited by KCNA.
“In the current grave situation, where we must be more resolutely prepared for military confrontation, the contribution of this factory to our defense capabilities is of paramount importance,” he said.
North Korea must also further modernize its military capability, he added.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul and advisor to South Korean administrations, said that Pyongyang is determined to show that its stance on nuclear confrontation with the U.S. is a deeply serious commitment rather than mere rhetoric.
“Kim Jong Un’s display of ICBM mobile launcher vehicles signals a strong commitment to ramp up the production of these vehicles, in step with the increased manufacturing of nuclear missiles,” Yang said, adding that the interdependence between missiles and their launchers is “akin to that of a thread and needle” – each crucial to the other’s operation.
“Historically, North Korea relied on importing missile launch vehicles. However, through domestic production and customization, it has significantly improved the mobility, stealth, and quick deployment of its missile arsenal,” said the pundit.
Baekdu bloodline
The expert also noted the significance of Ju Ae accompanying the leader, saying her presence at military facilities underscored a specific symbolic message.
“It indicates that the commitment to bolstering national defense will persist, adhering to the doctrine that fortifying defense is a duty of the Baekdu bloodline,” Yang said.
The Baekdu bloodline, named after North Korea’s highest mountain Baekdu, refers to the lineage of North Korea’s ruling Kim family, as the hereditary leaders of the country.
The nominee to be the next head of South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday that he sees Ju Ae as the “probable successor” of North Korea, marking the first time the agency has officially indicated her possible succession of power.
Radio Free Asia reported in November last year that the daughter received a new official title “Morning Star of Korea” – an apparent and deliberate parallel to the country’s founding leader Kim Il Sung.
The daughter, born in 2013, has started making public appearances since November 2022, accompanying Kim Jong Un in North Korea’s various high-profile occasions, including his visiting of missile launching sites.
Edited by Taejun Kang, Elaine Chan and Malcolm Foster.
Updates to recast lead with artillery shells fired, background about 2010 incident on Yeonpyeong island.
rfa.org
9. Korean shipbuilder’s submarine designs leaked to Taiwan
Korean shipbuilder’s submarine designs leaked to Taiwan
https://www.chosun.com/english/companies-en/2024/01/05/LVMPFNK6S5GFROXV2YG65ES5BU/
By Park Jeong-yeop,
Lee So-yeon
Pubilshed 2024.01.05. 11:10
South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean (formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) submarine design drawings were leaked to Taiwan and are being investigated by police. Hanwha Ocean stated that it will firmly take responsibility for past and future technology leaks.
Class 209 Jangbogo-1 submarine built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering./ Hanwha Ocean
The submarine design drawings leaked to Taiwan are of the DSME1400 model, which Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering ordered three from Indonesia in 2011 for $110 million (1.43 trillion won). The DSME1400 is a derivative of the 209-class Jang Bogo- class 1 submarine.
According to police, the Gyeongnam Provincial Police is investigating two former Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering employees, including A, on suspicion of leaking technology. A and others stole submarine design drawings while working at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and later moved to Company B, a submarine development consulting firm.
Police believe that the drawings were leaked while the company was working with CSBC Corporation, Taiwan, which produces ships for civilian and military use, to build Taiwan’s own submarine, the Haikun.
Company B is already on trial for illegally exporting parts used in the Haikun production process overseas last year. In August last year, the First Trial Court sentenced the executive of Company B to one year and six months in prison and two years of probation for violating the Foreign Trade Act, and Company B to a fine of 1 billion won.
In response, Hanwha Ocean said, “We are committed to protecting national core technologies and have established a system of regular cooperation and collaboration with national intelligence agencies to prevent recurrence.”, adding, “Regarding technology leakage cases, we will deal with those involved in crimes, including those at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, firmly and strictly.”
10. South Korea fires 400 artillery shells in response to North's provocation
Tit for tat.
Were there recommendations to strike the nKPA fire control systems and firing batteries?
Friday
January 5, 2024
dictionary + A - A
Published: 05 Jan. 2024, 18:31
Updated: 05 Jan. 2024, 20:24
South Korea fires 400 artillery shells in response to North's provocation
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-01-05/national/northKorea/South-Korea-fires-back-400-artillery-shells-south-of-the-buffer-zone-in-response-to-North-Korean-provocation/1952239
K-9 howitzer fires shells during an exercise held in Pocheon, Gyeonggi, on Jan. 2. [YONHAP]
The South Korean military fired 400 shells into waters south of the Northern Limit Line, the maritime border between the two Koreas, on Friday in response to the 200 shells fired by North Korea earlier in the day.
K9 howitzers and tanks stationed on Yeonpyeong Island participated in the exercise.
Related Article
According to the South Korean Defense Ministry, the South Korean response exercise began at 3 p.m. under the command of the Northwest Islands Defense.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and the Joint Chiefs of Staff observed the exercise, which was streamed live from the command center.
The Defense Ministry said that it raised the alert level of the South Korean military.
It also explained that the South's exercise was directed at a virtual target south of the NLL.
The South Korean military said the exercise was a response to the North Korean provocation in the buffer zone established along the NLL under the inter-Korean military agreement signed in 2018 to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The morning artillery barrage aside, the Defense Ministry said it detected no other unusual activities by the North Korean military.
"We should be prepared to retaliate with the goal of completely devastating our enemy according to the principle of taking immediate and overwhelming action so that they dare not provoke us again," Shin said. "We need to support peace through overpowering force."
North Korea warned that it will take unprecedented action if South Korea provokes referring to the South Korean military exercise held on Friday.
BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]
11. Japan firm Hitachi Zosen accused of ‘betrayal’ for Korean forced labour payout
Obviously more friction for the ROK-Japan relationship.
Japan firm Hitachi Zosen accused of ‘betrayal’ for Korean forced labour payout
- Critics say Hitachi Zosen’s depositing of funds earmarked for forced labour compensation with a Korean court breaks with Japan’s position on the issue
- Tokyo continues to instruct Japanese companies not to compensate claimants – even if it one day means the seizure of their assets in South Korea
Julian Ryall
+ FOLLOW
Published: 3:00pm, 4 Jan, 2024
By Julian Ryall South China Morning Post3 min
January 4, 2024
View Original
South Korean’s Supreme Court last week upheld the lower court’s ruling and ordered Hitachi Zosen to pay the plaintiff 50 million won (US$38,150). With all legal challenges now exhausted, the plaintiff has indicated that he intends to collect the funds soon, his lawyer said.
The top court also recently ordered two more Japanese companies – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and Nippon Steel Corp – to compensate workers for forced labour, after turning down their appeals.
Korean courts have previously ruled that the assets of Japanese companies can be seized to compensate former forced labourers, but Hitachi Zosen is the only company known to have transferred funds. This is despite the Japanese government repeatedly stating that the Korean courts were ruling in contravention of a 1965 treaty that normalised diplomatic relations between the two countries and saw Tokyo pay US$500 million in compensation to Seoul for its decades of often brutal colonial occupation.
Japan has consistently asserted that the lump sum covered all claims against the country or its companies, but Korean courts have ruled that individuals do have the legal right to sue firms that employed them as forced labourers.
But the proposal has been rejected by former forced labourers and their supporters in South Korea, who say the redress should be made by the Japanese companies directly and be accompanied by a clear apology for their suffering.
The Japanese government continues to instruct domestic companies not to provide compensation to claimants, even if it means their property and assets in South Korea are seized and liquidated. Though this has yet to happen, if it did it would likely cause another major rift between the two countries.
Critics of the Korean courts’ rulings say Hitachi Zosen’s decision to transfer funds weakens Japan’s position and sets a bad precedent for other companies.
“It appears that Hitachi Zosen has gone against the government’s directions and this can only be bad for other companies as it’s a precedent that is negative for their cases,” said Yoichi Shimada, a conservative academic at Fukui Prefectural University.
“If this is accurate, then Hitachi Zosen is betraying the nation, the government and the other companies.”
If this is accurate, then Hitachi Zosen is betraying the nation, the government and the other companies
Yoichi Shimada, conservative academic
After the initial court rulings, a number of firms had considered paying the Korean plaintiffs to protect their business interests in South Korea, Shimada said, but the government intervened to convince them to resist the demands.
“Hitachi Zosen has broken that unity and that betrayal is deeply regrettable,” he said.
The Korean courts were packed with left-leaning judges appointed by former President Moon Jae-in, Shimada claimed, adding that if Japanese firms’ assets were ordered to be sold for compensation then Tokyo “will have no choice but to retaliate by imposing some sanctions on Korea”.
In South Korea, the reaction has been more positive, with Kim Sang-woo, a former politician with the left-leaning South Korean Congress for New Politics and now a board member at the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation, calling the court’s decision a step forward.
“It’s good to hear that the courts are making their own judgments in these cases rather than being pressured into a decision by their own government or another government,” he said.
“I think Yoon really is trying to resolve this issue, but Japan is not doing so much to help the situation … That may be because Prime Minister [Fumio] Kishida is under so much pressure from every quarter that he can’t afford to upset anyone any more.”
12. US designates NK for religious freedom violation for 22nd straight year
Yet Congress has failed to act to renew the north Korean Human Rights Act.
US designates NK for religious freedom violation for 22nd straight year
The Korea Times · January 5, 2024
In this June 6, 2020, file photo, North Korean students stage a rally to denounce South Korea following that defectors and other activists in South Korea flew anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border, at the Pyongyang Youth Park Open-air Theatre in Pyongyang. AP-Yonhap
The United States on Thursday designated North Korea and 11 other countries as "countries of particular concern" for religious freedom violations, marking the 22nd consecutive year the North has appeared on the annually updated list.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the list of the countries that he said have "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom."
The countries include Myanmar, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
"The challenges to religious freedom across the globe are structural, systemic, and deeply entrenched," Blinken said in a statement.
"But with thoughtful, sustained commitment from those who are unwilling to accept hatred, intolerance, and persecution as the status quo, we will one day see a world where all people live with dignity and equality," he added.
The secretary also designated Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam as "Special Watch List" countries for "engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom," he said.
Since Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, the U.S. government has annually assessed religious freedom situations in countries around the world and issued designations of countries of concern. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · January 5, 2024
13. ‘The gap in the U.S. North Korean human rights law’ is the longest in history… “It’s disappointing that there is a lack of leadership in Congress.”
Congress is not doing its job.
This isa google translation of a VOA report.
‘The gap in the U.S. North Korean human rights law’ is the longest in history… “It’s disappointing that there is a lack of leadership in Congress.”
https://www.voakorea.com/a/7415454.html
2023.12.28
As the U.S. Congress failed to approve the extension of the North Korean Human Rights Act again this year, the 'North Korean Human Rights Act gap' has entered its 15th month, the longest in history. Although there is no significant problem with budget support, some say that Congressional leadership on North Korean human rights issues is disappointing. This is reporter Lee Jo-eun.
The U.S. Congress ended its legislative session this year without approving an extension of the North Korean Human Rights Act.
As last year, the North Korean Human Rights Act was not extended this year, and the 'vacancy' situation in the North Korean Human Rights Act has entered its 15th month, the longest period in history.
The North Korean Human Rights Act, a temporary law, expired on September 30, 2022.
The North Korean Human Rights Act, enacted in 2004, was extended three times in 2008, 2012, and 2018.
Congress passed the reauthorization bill past its expiration date in 2018, but this is the first time that processing has been delayed for more than a year.
VOA requested comments from Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Young Kim, who led the bill, including the reasons for the delay in passing the bill, and is waiting for a response.
Previously, an official from Rep. Rubio's office told VOA that the processing of the Foreign Affairs Committee's agenda, including the bill to reauthorize the North Korean Human Rights Act, is being delayed because Republican Senator Rand Paul is withholding a vote on the agenda pending in the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Rep. Paul reportedly put the Foreign Affairs Committee agenda on hold, demanding access to internal administration documents related to the cause of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Meanwhile, this year, due to the fact that both the Senate and the House of Representatives were divided by a narrow margin between the Democratic and Republican parties, and the unprecedented situation of the Speaker of the House being removed, Congress was unable to speed up the process of processing most agenda items.
Human rights experts expressed disappointment that the North Korean Human Rights Act, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year, is virtually empty.
Greg Scarlatu, Secretary General of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
In a phone call with VOA on the 27th, Greg Scarlatu, Secretary General of the Committee for North Korean Human Rights, said, “Over the past 20 years, the U.S. Congress has been the U.S. government agency that has been most active in relation to human rights in North Korea,” adding, “Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the U.S. North Korean Human Rights Act.” “It’s the anniversary,” he said.
[Recording: Secretary General Scarlatu] “Over the past two decades, Congress has been the most active branch of the US government on North Korean human rights. Next year we will celebrate two decades since the signing into law of the US North Korean Human Rights Act...There continue to be champions of North Korean human rights in the US Congress, such as Congressman Chris Smith and Congresswoman Young Kim on the House side and Senator Marco Rubio on the Senate side. However, failure to reauthorize the act also signals a lack of leadership on the issue in Congress.”
He continued, “There remain members of the U.S. Congress who are active in advocating for North Korean human rights, such as Representative Chris Smith, Representative Young Kim, and Representative Rubio, but the failure to reauthorize the North Korean Human Rights Act is also a sign that the US Congress lacks broad leadership on North Korean human rights issues. “It does,” he pointed out.
He also said, “The North Korean Human Rights Act has been passed in South Korea, but implementation has been hindered due to partisan differences.” He added, “The problem facing the North Korean Human Rights Act in the U.S. and South Korea is that bipartisanship and ( He added, “This can be said to be evidence of a bilateral failure.”
[Recording: Secretary-General Scarlatu] “In South Korea, the North Korean Human Rights Act has been passed, but its implementation has been hampered by partisan disagreement. One can say that the trouble facing the US and ROK acts is a reflection of both bipartisan and bilateral failure to elevate the importance of North Korean human rights in North Korea policy. Left practically on their own, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are facing an increasingly daunting challenge.”
He said, “Civil society organizations (CSOs) are virtually left alone and facing increasingly difficult challenges.”
The North Korean Human Rights Act includes provisions to provide budget support to the U.S. government and private organizations for activities to improve access to information, promote democracy, and provide humanitarian support to North Korean defectors in North Korea.
Experts explain that while the extension of the North Korean Human Rights Act is delayed, there are currently no problems with budget support for related programs.
This is because the U.S. government's support funds specified in the North Korean Human Rights Act are pre-approved and allocated and can be funded through the entire budget of the State Department.
However, it is pointed out that it symbolically weakens the US message about human rights in North Korea.
Robert King, former U.S. State Department special envoy for North Korean human rights.
Robert King, former special envoy for North Korean human rights at the State Department, criticized the delay in extending the North Korean Human Rights Act, saying, “Rather than a problem caused by differences of opinion on the principles and purpose of the North Korean Human Rights Act, it is closer to the evil of Congress failing to get things done.”
[Recording: Former Special Envoy King] “It's more an indictment of Congress's inability to get things done than it is any kind of problem with disagreement over the principles and the purposes of the North Korea Human Rights Act... Although it's very difficult because we “don’t have control those individuals who are responsible for repatriating North Koreans from China, symbolically it is important and it does say something about US policy.”
In particular, this reauthorization bill also included provisions imposing sanctions on those responsible for the forcible repatriation of North Korean defectors.
Special Representative King said that the issue of China's forcible repatriation of North Korean defectors is "a very difficult issue because we cannot control those responsible, but it is symbolically important to say (through legislation) what the U.S. policy is on this issue." He emphasized.
This is Lee Jo-eun of VOA News.
14. Pyongyang labor brigades face the music after engaging in “non-socialist” songs and dances
Outside information (including perhaps especially music as it has long been used for resistance) is an existential threat to the regime. We should be responding to the artillery shelling with a massive information campaign.
Pyongyang labor brigades face the music after engaging in “non-socialist” songs and dances
Six young people were punished punished with unpaid labor and assigned the most demanding work at the construction site for three months
By Jong So Yong - 2024.01.05 10:00am
dailynk.com
Pyongyang labor brigades face the music after engaging in “non-socialist” songs and dances | Daily NK English
The Mirae Scientists Street in Pyongyang (Ryugong website)
North Korean authorities recently conducted a public struggle session for labor brigades working on a massive home-building project in Pyongyang because the songs and dances they performed for themselves were deemed “non-socialist,” Daily NK has learned.
“The public struggle session was conducted for two hours — from 8 AM to 10 AM — in mid-December against work brigades mobilized by ministries and central government agencies to build 50,000 new homes in Pyongyang,” a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The Unified Command on Non-Socialist and Anti-Socialist Behavior led the session.”
According to the source, a comprehensive report filed by security officers attached to the labor brigades sparked the Unified Command’s out-of-the-blue struggle session. The report was based on the officers’ one-month survey of the brigade personnel’s work “tendencies.”
The Unified Command began the struggle session by emphasizing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s order that people “speak, dance and sing according to our socialist ideological orientation,” explaining to the audience the Workers’ Party’s instructions to this effect.
During the struggle session, Unified Command officials said: “We have confirmed that the ministry and central government cadres and workers and Socialist Patriotic Youth League organizations participating in the construction of 50,000 homes in Pyongyang sang strange songs and danced strange dances when they gathered during breaks to eat, drink and relax.”
During the session, the Unified Command dragged on stage six young people the security officers’ report pointed out as having “sang strange songs and danced non-socialist dances.”
The officials said the six had committed the crime of “engaging in capitalist culture rather than our unique form of socialist culture during leisure sessions with other labor brigades and in their daily lives.”
“Neither the bottom dance they performed in front of people, nor the filthy songs they sang to unknown music with corrupt lyrics instead of loyal songs full of patriotism, nor the language in which they rattled on among themselves were in line with our culture,” officials with the Unified Command said during the struggle session.
However, officials at the struggle session failed to specify the song lyrics the people sang and the speech they used.
Unified Command officials also criticized officials mobilized to the labor brigades and older brigade members for laughing, chatting, and sympathizing with younger brigade members rather than taking them to task for their corrupt bourgeois lifestyles, calling such actions “beyond common sense.”
“This public struggle session was organized to signal the alarm against non-socialist behavior and, by publicly shaming [the six] by way of example, establish proper ethical standards befitting socialist citizens and Pyongyang residents, and as those who have participated in a construction project in the capital of the revolution.”
The six young people who were publicly criticized were then punished with unpaid labor and assigned the most demanding work at the construction site for three months.
The source said after the session ended, labor brigade officials and workers complained that the Unified Command had “convened a struggle session over nothing.”
He added that workers complained that singing and dancing made the difficulty and hunger they suffered manageable, “but now the authorities are trying to eliminate our simple joys and work like robots, which makes it hard to have fun while working.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
Jong So Yong
Jong So Yong is one of Daily NK’s freelance reporters. Questions about her articles can be directed to dailynk@uni-media.net.
dailynk.com
15. Why Kim has skipped his New Year’s speech
Interesting speculation. It is not the first time. Perhaps he is using actions to speak louder than words by visiting the TEL factory and firing some artillery in the West Sea.
Excerpts:
But Kim began delivering a New Year’s speech in 2013 to signify the arrival of his reign. That speech was his first as head of state since his father’s New Year’s address in 1994. Wearing a Mao jacket, Kim Jong-un pompously declared that he would “complete the revolutionary missions based on juche (self-reliance) ideology,” urging his people to “join a majestic march toward the construction of a powerful state.”
But he stopped delivering a New Year’s speech in 2019 and used the Workers’ Party’s conclusions instead from 2020. Given his outstanding governance style — cherishing the power of rhetoric — the decision is hard to understand. He certainly would have wanted to portray the impoverished country as one with rosy prospects and to present himself as a compassionate leader minding his people’s livelihood and agonizing over the unification of the divided land and the peace of the world. But he hasn’t since 2020.
Thursday
January 4, 2024
dictionary + A - A
Published: 04 Jan. 2024, 20:15
Why Kim has skipped his New Year’s speech
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-01-04/opinion/columns/Why-Kim-has-skipped-his-New-Years-speech/1951456
Kim Ho-heung
The author, an adjunct professor at Gachon University, is the director of the North Korea Strategy Center at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has skipped his New Year’s speech every year since 2020. He did the same in 2024. A New Year’s speech is an important political tool that allows world leaders to explain what their governments achieved over the past year and present national visions for the future. But rather than follow that tradition, the head of the reclusive state announced the conclusions reached at the plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party Central Committee at the end of December.
Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-il, never delivered a New Year’s speech after taking power in 1990. He instead ran a joint editorial in state-run newspapers — including the party’s mouthpiece, Rodong Sinmun — as the Communist Party of China did. Kim Jong-un did the same after inheriting the throne from his father in December 2011.
But Kim began delivering a New Year’s speech in 2013 to signify the arrival of his reign. That speech was his first as head of state since his father’s New Year’s address in 1994. Wearing a Mao jacket, Kim Jong-un pompously declared that he would “complete the revolutionary missions based on juche (self-reliance) ideology,” urging his people to “join a majestic march toward the construction of a powerful state.”
But he stopped delivering a New Year’s speech in 2019 and used the Workers’ Party’s conclusions instead from 2020. Given his outstanding governance style — cherishing the power of rhetoric — the decision is hard to understand. He certainly would have wanted to portray the impoverished country as one with rosy prospects and to present himself as a compassionate leader minding his people’s livelihood and agonizing over the unification of the divided land and the peace of the world. But he hasn’t since 2020.
There are a few likely reasons that Kim discontinued his annual speech. First of all, he may want to avoid responsibility for failed policies. It is noteworthy that he halted his New Year’s speech in 2020 — a year after his failed summit with the U.S. president in February 2019 in Hanoi. Kim had traveled 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) to the Vietnamese capital, spending more than 60 hours on a train, but he returned home empty-handed.
That was a direct insult to the integrity of a supreme ruler. The botched summit also fueled frustrations with his national strategy pursuing economic development and nuclear development at the same time. As Kim admitted, his renewed “Five-Year Economic Development Plan” also failed to achieve tangible results, as in the case with its earlier version.
Admitting to such policy mistakes and taking responsibility was out of the question for the impeccable leader, as clearly seen in his shifting the responsibility for his failed economic policies to the “extremely relaxed administrative disciplines among Cabinet members.”
Second, Kim continues to shun his New Year’s speech due to a critical dearth of hopeful messages for his people. He has poured all available resources into the development and advancement of nuclear weapons over the past decade. North Korea fired missiles, including ICBMs, on 30 occasions last year alone.
The recalcitrant state also appears to be approaching a seventh nuclear test, aiming to maximize tensions, get concessions from stakeholders and help resuscitate its moribund economy. But Pyongyang’s old-fashioned brinkmanship will not overcome the firm stances of South Korea and the United States. Such a threat only helps deepen the North’s economic hardship and diplomatic isolation. The repetitive cycles have already changed from “compensation following provocation followed by compensation” to “stronger sanctions following provocation.” In the face of a colossal dilemma where Kim can only demand self-reliance from his people, the New Year’s speech will only put more political burdens on Kim.
The Workers’ Party’s recent meeting only focused on enriching the North’s nuclear arsenal, emphasizing war preparations, and conquering South Korea rather than on finding rational solutions to save the country. It will take a while for Kim Jong-un to resume a New Year’s address representing an accurate recognition of reality and suggesting reasonable solutions to get his people out of poverty.
Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
16. Tensions escalate as North Korea fires artillery shells off west coast
In December. 2022 President Yoon said he would respond to north Korean provocations with information. So far we have not seen that happen. The alliance should respond to this provocation with a massive information campaign. The first thing I would do is involve the NGO of north Korean escapees to launch balloons from PY Do and YP Do. I would have the ROK/US CFC commander and the ROK Chairman of the JCS stand side by side on either or both islands and commend the escapees for their information efforts as they launch balloons to the north. And then I would have a massive electronic campaign to get information into the north.
And I would also include a massive puh on human rights as well. We could really hit Kim where it hurts (and help the Korean people in the north) without firing a shot.
Tensions escalate as North Korea fires artillery shells off west coast
The Korea Times · by 2024-01-05 20:25 | North Korea · January 5, 2024
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun delivers a briefing at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul, Friday, on North Korea's coastal artillery firing near Yeonpyeong Island and Baengnyeong Island. Yonhap
By Kim Hyun-bin
Tensions are rising on the Korean Peninsula, as North Korea is stepping up its military provocations, including firing of artillery shells and rebuilding demolished guard posts.
The moves follow the North's November decision to scrap an inter-Korean military pact which was inked in 2018 to reduce border tensions.
On Friday morning, North Korea fired approximately 200 artillery shells into waters off its west coast, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The artillery was fired from Jangsan Cape and Deungsan Cape, both situated in the North's southwestern coastal areas, and continued for two hours starting from 9 a.m. The shells landed in the maritime buffer zone north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border in the West Sea. This buffer zone was set under the 2018 military accord.
NK says live-fire drills 'natural response' to S. Korea threats: KCNA
There were no reported casualties or damage to South Korean civilians or military.
"We gravely warn that the entire responsibility of such crisis escalation lies with North Korea and strongly call for its immediate halt. Under close coordination between South Korea and the United States, our military is tracking and monitoring related activity, and will conduct corresponding measures to North Korea's provocations," JCS spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun said.
In response to the artillery firing, the South Korean military conducted live-fire drills on the northwestern border islands in the West Sea later in the day.
Residents of Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea take cover in an evacuation shelter, Friday. Yonhap
Along with Friday's firing, it was confirmed that North Korea has been using concrete to reconstruct frontline surveillance guard posts.
Following the military agreement signed on Sept. 19, 2018, both South and North Korea had demolished 10 out of the 11 guard posts each operating within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), withdrawing forces and equipment. After the North's announcement to scrap the agreement in November, the South Korean authorities have noticed the North moving to restore the guard posts.
In addition to the guard posts' reconstruction, North Korean forces were observed planting land mines on the Gyeongui railway line within the DMZ, a symbolic route for inter-Korean exchange and cooperation. Military authorities interpret this as a signal from North Korea to block and prevent future use of the train tracks.
Pyongyang announced the annulment of the 2018 pact after Seoul partially suspended the deal in protest of the North's successful launch of a military spy satellite. North Korea also fired artillery on Dec. 6 into a maritime buffer zone in the East Sea in violation of the accord.
Recently North Korean leader Kim Jong-un characterized inter-Korean ties as "relations between two states hostile to each other" during a ruling party meeting last month.
The Korea Times · by 2024-01-05 20:25 | North Korea · January 5, 2024
17. ROK Navy commissions 1st female submariners
It takes a special person to be a submariner. I have tremendous respect for all those who are willing to go to sea in a submarine.
ROK Navy commissions 1st female submariners
The Korea Times · January 5, 2024
Lieutenant Sung Ju-bin, left, and Lieutenant Yoo Hyo-jin take part in submarine control center training. Courtesy of Republic of Korea Navy
By Kim Hyun-bin
Korea has officially commissioned its first-ever female submariners, becoming the 14th nation to include women in submarine crews.
The Republic of Korea Navy said on Friday that nine female submariners — two officers and seven noncommissioned officers — completed the rigorous submarine basic training program, along with another 116 sailors, in a graduation ceremony at the Jinhae Naval Base.
The inclusion of female sailors in submarine crews followed a decision made during a naval policy meeting in July 2022, which aimed to expand opportunities for female service members. The recruitment process took place between January and March last year, with the nine successfully selected after physical examinations and interviews.
The newly commissioned female submariners are set to play integral roles in operating the 3,000-ton class medium-sized submarines, including the ROKS Dosan Ahn Changho and the Ahn Mu.
Their assignments cover a range of critical responsibilities, such as combat information gathering, navigation, sonar operation, electronics management and propulsion system maintenance.
Republic of Korea Navy's Dosan Ahn Changho-class sumbarine / Courtesy of Republic of Korea Navy
Lieutenant Yoo Hyo-jin, who is assuming the role of combat information officer on the Dosan Ahn Changho, exemplified the dedication and accomplishments of the first female submariners.
"With a profound sense of duty, I will safeguard the seas of Korea alongside submarine comrades. In the face of provocation, we will respond immediately and decisively under the strong spirit of winning, relentlessly retaliating to eliminate the enemy," Yoo said.
She entered the Naval Academy in 2015 and was subsequently chosen as an exchange student at the U.S. Naval Academy, completing the education program there from 2016 to 2020.
Korea's move to integrate female sailors into submarine crews reflects a global trend that began in 1985 in Norway.
The expansion of female participation in submarine operations now spans 13 other countries, including Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Spain, Germany, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Argentina, France, Netherlands and Japan.
The Korea Times · January 5, 2024
18. Russia hit Ukraine with NK-made missiles: Kyiv
Russia hit Ukraine with NK-made missiles: Kyiv
The Korea Times · by 2024-01-05 20:53 | Foreign Affairs · January 5, 2024
National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby speaks during a daily press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 4. AFP-Yonhap
Russia has hit Ukraine with missiles supplied by North Korea, a Ukrainian presidential aide said on social media on Friday, confirming an earlier statement by Washington citing its intelligence.
"There is no longer any disguise...as part of its outright genocidal war, the Russian Federation for the first time struck at the territory of Ukraine with missiles received from...North Korea," Podolyak wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Earlier on Friday, state media quoted the governor of the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv as saying missiles produced outside Russia had been fired into the province at the end of December and beginning of January.
"(Russia) is attacking Ukrainians with missiles received from a state where citizens are tortured in concentration camps for having an unregistered radio, talking to a tourist, watching TV shows," Podolyak said.
Podolyak did not provide evidence for the missiles being North Korean. In its statement on Thursday, Washington cited declassified intelligence. (Reuters)
The Korea Times · by 2024-01-05 20:53 | Foreign Affairs · January 5, 2024
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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