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Quotes of the Day:
"Be great in act, as you have been in thought."
– William Shakespeare
"Deliberation is the function of many; action is the function of one."
– Charles de Gaulle
"Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things."
– Ray Bradbury
1. Military theft resurges in N. Korea as food shortages worsen
2. Experts: “Kim Jong-un’s Hardline Statement is a Message Aimed at the US Presidential Election”
3. Expert: “Even if Trump is re-elected, the ROK-US-Japan alliance will continue to strengthen”
4. 2 U.S. B-1B bombers conducted joint drill with S. Korean Air Force on Oct. 1 Armed Force Day
5. N. Korea launches apparent trash balloons toward S. Korea: JCS
6. North Korea Gets A Folding Smartphone
7. Missile Strike Near Donetsk Eliminates 6 North Korean Officers – Intel
8. North Korea's Kim threatens to use nukes if attacked
9. South Korea military aircraft evacuates 97 from Lebanon amid escalating tension
10. Hamas built an underground war machine to ensure its own survival
11. Secret shipments: N. Korea's hidden flood relief efforts in Jagang province
12. US Pentagon Reiterates “End of Regime” in Response to Kim Jong-un’s ‘Nuclear Threat’
13. Beyond nuclear deterrence: the rise of semiconductor power
14. Why 'Ode to My Father' remains relevant today
1. Military theft resurges in N. Korea as food shortages worsen
This is one more reason why I remain concerned with internal instability and potential regime collapse which could be catastrophic not only for the Korean people in the north but also for the ROK/US alliance, Northeast Asia and the world.
Collapse will occur when the regime can no longer govern all the territory of the north from Pyongyang and when there is the loss of coherency and support of the military. These two conditions will result in regime collapse. But if Kim identifies these conditions as they occur or are building it could also lead him to the decision to execute his campaign plan to dominate the peninsula as the only possible path for survival (as far-fetched as that may seem to us).
Military theft resurges in N. Korea as food shortages worsen - Daily NK English
Unpaid and underfed, North Korean troops raid homes near bases, sparking fear and sympathy among locals
By Lee Chae Eun - October 4, 2024
dailynk.com · by Lee Chae Eun · October 4, 2024
FILE PHOTO: In this undated photograph, North Korean soldiers are seen walking near Namyang, North Hamgyong Province. (Daily NK)
Amid food shortages, a recent surge in burglaries near military bases in North Korea has been attributed to hungry soldiers robbing civilian homes.
“Soldiers have been committing more burglaries against Hyesan citizens lately,” a source in Ryanggang province told Daily NK recently. “These incidents are worsening conditions for already struggling people.”
In one night, on Sept. 20, ten families in a single neighborhood watch unit in Hyesan’s Kangan area were burglarized. The thieves took food, clothing, and even cooking utensils.
“Life is tough enough that people wake up groaning,” the source said. “Now, with burglars terrorizing the neighborhood, people’s suffering is indescribable.”
Witnesses reported the burglars wore military uniforms and carried weapons, fueling public anger toward service members.
Livestock theft has also increased, particularly in Hyesan’s outskirts where many families keep farm animals.
“For families dependent on livestock, this kind of theft abruptly deprives them of their livelihood,” the source added.
Similar incidents were common during North Korea’s severe famine in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While such thefts had decreased, they’ve recently resurged, spreading anxiety among civilians.
Some North Koreans, however, sympathize with the young soldiers driven to theft by hunger. Military service in North Korea lasts about ten years, six times longer than South Korea’s 18-month requirement. Unlike their South Korean counterparts, North Korean soldiers are unpaid and often expected to bribe officers.
“If the government would just keep soldiers from going hungry during their service, they wouldn’t have any reason to steal,” the source said. “It’s frustrating that our country can’t even manage that.”
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
dailynk.com · by Lee Chae Eun · October 4, 2024
2. Experts: “Kim Jong-un’s Hardline Statement is a Message Aimed at the US Presidential Election”
This is a Google translation of an RFA report.
I would like to know how KJU thinks he and his statements will impact the US election? Does he really think so? If so it is an indication of his lack of understanding of the US and the US electorate.
I predict that the US electorate will not be influenced in any way by KJU or his statements.
Experts: “Kim Jong-un’s Hardline Statement is a Message Aimed at the US Presidential Election”
https://www.rfa.org/korean/in_focus/nk_nuclear_talks/kju-speech-10042024095348.html
Seoul-Hong Seung-wook hongs@rfa.org
2024.10.04
North Korea's State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un inspected the training base of the Korean People's Army Special Operations Forces in the western region on October 2, the day after our Republic of Korea's Armed Forces Day, October 1. On that day, General Secretary Kim sent a strong message, suggesting the possibility of a nuclear attack on South Korea and the United States.
/Yonhap News
00:00 /05:35
Anchor : There is analysis in South Korea that North Korean General Secretary Kim Jong-un's strong remarks in response to South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol's Armed Forces Day speech were a message ahead of the U.S. presidential election . Reporter Hong Seung-wook reports from Seoul .
North Korean Workers' Party General Secretary Kim Jong-un sent a strong message suggesting the possibility of a nuclear attack on South Korea and the United States during his visit to a special operations force training base in the western region of the country on the 2nd .
According to North Korea's state-run media, General Secretary Kim took the unusual step of mentioning South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol by name and criticizing him using the expression " puppet . "
Meanwhile, North Korea repeatedly declared that it would not give up its nuclear weapons, claiming that it is a “ nuclear state ” and a “ nuclear power ,” and emphasized that it would respond by mobilizing all means possible if South Korea and the United States use force against North Korea .
It has been about two years since General Secretary Kim attacked President Yoon by mentioning his real name in the so-called Victory Day speech in July 2022 .
Secretary General Kim's strong remarks are interpreted as a response to President Yoon's Armed Forces Day speech on the 1st , in which he said, " If nuclear weapons are used, that day will be the end of the regime . "
Experts in South Korea have analyzed that North Korea used the South Korean government's remarks as an excuse to send a message to South Korea and the United States, especially the United States ahead of its presidential election .
Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Institute for Unification Studies, noted North Korea’s expression that its status as a nuclear state is “ irreversible ,” or irreversible, and diagnosed that “ this is intended to convey a message to the U.S. presidential election and, possibly, the next administration . ”
Hong Min, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Unification Studies : ( Regarding Kim Jong-un’s remarks ) there is the aspect of deterrence against the South, but by holding South Korea hostage, they also have deterrence against the United States , and they are trying to show that this is in fact an irreversible state .
Senior Researcher Hong analyzed this as a call for the next U.S. administration to change its approach toward North Korea at a time when the international community's voice for North Korea's denuclearization has grown quieter.
It was also said that the remarks reflected a kind of concern about the strengthening of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and South Korea's increasingly hardline stance toward the North, and that the remarks criticizing President Yoon by name were a kind of psychological warfare aimed at shifting responsibility for creating tension on the Korean Peninsula .
Cho Han-beom, a distinguished research fellow at the Korea Institute for Unification Studies, said that considering the large-scale parade by the South Korean military on Armed Forces Day and the content of President Yoon’s commemorative speech, he did not think that the level of North Korea’s response was high, and diagnosed that this was part of message management ahead of the U.S. presidential election .
Cho Han-beom, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for Unification Studies : The level of the statement itself was high, but it cannot be seen as that high as a response to the powerful Armed Forces Day military demonstration . There were no missile launches or large-scale military actions .
Research Fellow Cho Seok-ja assessed that North Korea is likely to have judged that there has been no satisfactory outcome in its relations with Russia and China, and that it is ultimately considering negotiations with the United States .
In particular, there is an analysis that the current situation in which the contents related to North Korea's denuclearization have been deleted from the platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States is advantageous to them, who want disarmament instead of nuclear abandonment, and are thus refraining from high-intensity provocations against the United States.
There has also been analysis that North Korea reacted sensitively and somewhat emotionally to South Korea's Armed Forces Day message.
Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha Womans University, commented on the fact that Vice Department Director Kim Yo-jong and General Secretary Kim have been criticizing South Korea in succession, and assessed that this is because they feel burdened by President Yoon's strong remarks .
Park Won-gon, Professor at Ewha Womans University : I think it is possible to see this as a rather emotional reaction, as Kim Yo-jong was the first to criticize the October 1 event , probably at Kim Jong-un’s direction , and Kim Jong-un then spoke about it again .
Earlier, Vice Department Director Kim Yo-jong issued a statement in her own name on the 3rd and strongly criticized South Korea's Armed Forces Day event .
Professor Park explained that North Korea appears to be responding differently to South Korea and the United States, and while it continues to make strong statements and military provocations toward South Korea, including mentions of nuclear weapons, it is refraining from long-range missile provocations toward the United States and sending indirect messages, such as through the disclosure of nuclear facilities .
In doing so, it was assessed that North Korea was taking into consideration the post-election period rather than inducing criticism and pressure through high-intensity provocations before the US presidential election.
President Yoon: “ If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons , the regime will end ”
North resumes dropping trash balloons after 10 days
On this day, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense released a statement titled “Position on Criticism of Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong’s Armed Forces Day Event , ” and emphasized that North Korea’s criticism of President Yoon was “ absolutely unacceptable behavior . ”
The Ministry of National Defense assessed that the North's criticism of the Armed Forces Day event by listing weapons systems and the Strategic Command one by one was an expression of its anxiety and unease due to the South Korean military's strong capabilities and firm posture.
He then pointed out that “ this is the result of North Koreans feeling anxious and compelled to see the might of the South Korean military, which has been featured in the world media as a rogue regime that has thoroughly deceived its people . ”
He also said that North Korea “ has nothing to gain from developing nuclear weapons and missiles , and that a nuclear provocation will spell the end of the North Korean regime immediately ,” and that “ they must realize that bringing about self-imposed impoverishment and isolation is the path to the end of the regime, and we strongly urge them to cease all acts that undermine peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula . ”
This is Hong Seung-wook of RFA's Radio Free Asia in Seoul .
Editor Yang Seong-won, Web Editor Kim Sang-il
3. Expert: “Even if Trump is re-elected, the ROK-US-Japan alliance will continue to strengthen”
This is a Google translation of an RFA report. Koreans seem a little more optimistic than Americans.
Excerpt:
On this day, Jenny Town, a senior researcher at the Stimson Center, a U.S. research institute, expressed concern that even if there is a will to continue the ROK-US-Japan alliance, if Trump, who advocates “reducing federal bureaucracy,” is re-elected, there may not be enough manpower to actually continue efforts to strengthen ROK-US-Japan cooperation .
Town Researcher : One of the things the Trump administration has talked about in Project 2025 is basically destroying the bureaucracy . No matter how institutionalized this cooperation is, if there is no bureaucracy, can you actually continue to do it ? I think that is a big concern and a big difference between the two administrations .
Town Researcher said that, depending on the nature of the administration following the Yoon Seok-yeol government, which has also worked hard to improve relations with Japan , questions may be raised about the sustainability of Korea-Japan and Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation .
He added that the South Korea-U.S. alliance, which was previously focused on the Korean Peninsula, has now become more complicated to operate due to expanded diplomatic issues such as Ukraine and Russia .
Expert: “Even if Trump is re-elected, the ROK-US-Japan alliance will continue to strengthen”
https://www.rfa.org/korean/in_focus/nk_nuclear_talks/trumpnkpolicy-10042024151258.html
WASHINGTON-Kim So-young kimso@rfa.org
2024.10.04
On the morning of September 11, a TV debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump was broadcast live on a television in the waiting room of Seoul Station.
Photo: RFA
00:00 / 03:03
Anchor : Even if US presidential candidate Donald Trump is re-elected as the next president, contrary to some concerns, there is an outlook that he will continue efforts to strengthen cooperation between South Korea, the US, and Japan. Reporter Kim So-young reports .
Kim Sung-hwan, chairman of the East Asia Foundation and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of South Korea, pointed out in a talk on the South Korea-U.S. alliance jointly hosted by the foundation and the Korea Society on the 4th that , with North Korea's continued provocations, the current situation is flowing into a confrontational structure between South Korea, the U.S., and Japan versus North Korea, China, and Russia .
Chairman Kim pointed out that the U.S. presidential election in November could be an uncertain variable that makes it difficult to predict the future of Korea-U.S. cooperation , and that there are concerns in Korean society that political changes in the U.S. could bring uncertainty about the policy continuity of Korea-U.S. relations .
However, he assessed that the ROK-US alliance is firmly established on a solid foundation, and that the alliance will not be shaken by a change in administration under the common values of liberal democracy and market economy .
Rep. Kim Young-bae, a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee who participated in the discussion via video conference , said that although it is difficult to maintain consistent policies because the Korean and U.S. administrations change every four to five years, efforts will be made at the National Assembly level to maintain a strong Korea-U.S. alliance .
Kim Jae-cheon, a professor at Sogang University in Korea who participated in the conversation that day, said that if candidate Trump is re-elected, there is an outlook that he will view the strengthening of cooperation between Korea, the US, and Japan as an achievement of the Biden administration and will not take follow-up measures to maintain cooperation among the three countries .
However, Professor Kim quoted former National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, who served as President Trump's National Security Advisor, as explaining that Trump views the trilateral talks between South Korea, the United States, and Japan as a very effective consultative body for containing China .
He also presented an optimistic outlook that even if Trump is re-elected, he will continue to make efforts to strengthen the trilateral relationship among South Korea, the United States, and Japan .
US Ambassador to Korea: “Korea , US , and Japan are stronger together”
North Korea criticizes US-ROK-Japan cooperation as “ pretext for provocation before and after US presidential election ”
On this day, Jenny Town, a senior researcher at the Stimson Center, a U.S. research institute, expressed concern that even if there is a will to continue the ROK-US-Japan alliance, if Trump, who advocates “reducing federal bureaucracy,” is re-elected, there may not be enough manpower to actually continue efforts to strengthen ROK-US-Japan cooperation .
Town Researcher : One of the things the Trump administration has talked about in Project 2025 is basically destroying the bureaucracy . No matter how institutionalized this cooperation is, if there is no bureaucracy, can you actually continue to do it ? I think that is a big concern and a big difference between the two administrations .
Town Researcher said that, depending on the nature of the administration following the Yoon Seok-yeol government, which has also worked hard to improve relations with Japan , questions may be raised about the sustainability of Korea-Japan and Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation .
He added that the South Korea-U.S. alliance, which was previously focused on the Korean Peninsula, has now become more complicated to operate due to expanded diplomatic issues such as Ukraine and Russia .
Meanwhile, Rep. Kim Geon, a member of the South Korean Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, emphasized that in response to the current North Korean threat, efforts should be made not only to strengthen South Korea-U.S. relations but also to divide relations between North Korea, China, and Russia.
Editor Park Bong-hyun , Web Lee Kyung-ha
4. 2 U.S. B-1B bombers conducted joint drill with S. Korean Air Force on Oct. 1 Armed Force Day
Putting an exclamation point on extended deterrence. Next time maybe they will overfly Pyongyang. That would really send a message. (note my sarcasm)
2 U.S. B-1B bombers conducted joint drill with S. Korean Air Force on Oct. 1 Armed Force Day | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Park Boram · October 5, 2024
SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) -- Two U.S. B-1B heavy bombers conducted a joint drill with the South Korean Air Force on Oct. 1 Armed Forces Day, before one of them participated in a national ceremony, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Saturday.
In a show of force, a U.S. B-1B bomber flew over Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, just south of the capital, alongside two F-15K jets during the ceremony marking Armed Forces Day, demonstrating the U.S. security commitment to South Korea.
According to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, two U.S. B-1B bombers conducted a simulated close air support exercise with two F-15K jets from the South Korean Air Force at the Pilsung Range in Gangwon Province on the morning of Oct. 1, before one of the bombers and the jets flew to Seongnam for the ceremony.
It marked the first time in four months that a B-1B bomber visited South Korea following a joint exercise conducted on June 5.
The Indo-Pacific Command said the exercise helped maintain the defense posture of both nations' air forces by enhancing joint operability between U.S. bombers and South Korean fighter jets.
A U.S. B-1B heavy bomber flies over Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, for the Armed Forces Day ceremony on Oct. 1, 2024. (Yonhap)
pbr@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Park Boram · October 5, 2024
5. N. Korea launches apparent trash balloons toward S. Korea: JCS
I received a text from a good friend who was sitting on the tarmac at Incheon yesterday. His plane was delayed because they had to pick up the north Korean trash balloons from the runway.
N. Korea launches apparent trash balloons toward S. Korea: JCS | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · October 4, 2024
SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea launched what appeared to be trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea early Friday morning, the South's military said, just two days after it sent more than 150 such balloons to the South.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff raised the possibility of the balloons floating toward northern Gyeonggi Province and other parts of the Seoul metropolitan area, advising citizens not to touch them and to be careful with potential balloon drops.
The latest launch marked the 24th of its kind since Pyongyang began the balloon campaign in late May.
South Korea's military has vowed to take "stern" military measures should North Korea "cross the line" with its ongoing trash balloon campaign or inflict serious damage to the South Korean people.
In response to the balloon launches, the South's military has been blasting daily anti-North Korean propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers on the border since July 21. It has refrained from directly shooting down the balloons, citing safety concerns.
Balloons presumed to be carrying trash float over Seoul on Oct. 2, 2024. (Yonhap)
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · October 4, 2024
6. North Korea Gets A Folding Smartphone
Can we exploit this technology? Are we working on exploiting it? Who is working on it?
North Korea Gets A Folding Smartphone
northkoreatech.org · by Martyn Williams · October 1, 2024
A North Korean company is marketing a foldable smartphone—the first time such a phone has been seen promoted in-country. The handset was likely imported from a Chinese manufacturer and presents further evidence that North Korea’s smartphone market has been rapidly expanding since pandemic-era border restrictions were lifted.
State media coverage of the annual “National Exhibition of IT Successes” showed the phone displayed by Madusan Economic Federation (마두산경제련합회). The event took place at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang from September 18 to 25, and is intended to highlight advances in the domestic IT industry.
Attendees at the National Exhibition of IT Successes in Pyongyang in September 2024 (Image: KCTV)
In television images, the phone can be seen both in the hands of an attendee at the exhibition and promoted on a screen at Madusan’s booth. However, the TV report did not specifically focus on the phone, so detailed specifications are not available.
Attendees at the National Exhibition of IT Successes in Pyongyang in September 2024 (Image: KCTV)
The TV images are not detailed enough to reveal additional details about the design beyond dual cameras on the outside and what appears to be a small display.
Attendees at the National Exhibition of IT Successes in Pyongyang in September 2024 (Image: KCTV)
Madusan has a range of business activities centered around international trade, according to a profile in a state-run magazine. It was formed in 2018 and is one of 10 companies in North Korea that sells smartphones under their own brand name.
The ten companies and many of the phones available are profiled in a recently published report, “Smartphones of North Korea 2024.”
The phones are all believed to come from Chinese manufacturers. Current handsets are equivalent to mid-market Android phones on sale in many countries. In some cases, the same phone is on sale in other countries because local companies have also sourced from the same Chinese vendor.
Pandemic border closures stalled the North Korean smartphone market in 2020, but it bounced back when restrictions began to lift in 2022. In 2023, several new brands were seen promoting handsets. This expansion has continued in 2024.
The country also launched its first 4G cellular network last year, and phones supporting the service have also been seen on sale.
While North Korean phone hardware comes from China, the software installed on the phone differs by country. They are based on the Android operating system but include domestically developed software that prevents users from viewing anything other than state-approved content. Domestic smartphone users also don’t have the ability to connect to the Internet or make and receive international phone calls.
Here’s a close-up of the three images:
A close-up of foldable smartphone seen at the National Exhibition of IT Successes in Pyongyang in September 2024 (Image: KCTV)
A foldable smartphone with dual cameras seen at the National Exhibition of IT Successes in Pyongyang in September 2024 (Image: KCTV)
A foldable smartphone promoted at the National Exhibition of IT Successes in Pyongyang in September 2024 (Image: KCTV)
northkoreatech.org · by Martyn Williams · October 1, 2024
7. Missile Strike Near Donetsk Eliminates 6 North Korean Officers – Intel
What might be the blowback here?
Missile Strike Near Donetsk Eliminates 6 North Korean Officers – Intel
kyivpost.com · by Kateryna Zakharchenko · October 4, 2024
Six officers from North Korea were among the 20 soldiers killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on Russian-occupied territory near Donetsk, intelligence sources say.
by Kateryna Zakharchenko | October 4, 2024, 4:34 pm
This picture taken on June 19, 2024 and released on June 20, 2024 from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (R) presenting the Kim Il Sung Medal to Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
More than 20 soldiers were killed as a result of an Oct. 3 missile strike on Russian-occupied territory near Donetsk, including six officers from North Korea, who came to confer with their Russian counterparts, Kyiv Post’s intelligence sources said. Three more North Korean servicemen were wounded.
According to reports from Russian social media, prior to the missile strike, the Russians were demonstrating to North Korean representatives the training of personnel for assault actions and defense.
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Last year, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported the arrival of a limited contingent of servicemen from North Korea to the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, including units of engineering troops, indicating active cooperation between Russia and North Korea.
The Center for National Resistance (CNR) reported in September 2023 that Russia was planning to bring North Korean citizens to the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk for construction work.
Moreover, Russian President Vladimir Putin, after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June of this year, persuaded his counterpart from Pyongyang to open “diplomatic missions in Donetsk and Luhansk.”
The CNR assessed that the North Koreans were invited to ensure the supply of labor in these regions, as the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine has resulted in a labor shortage throughout Russia and the occupied territories.
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This suggests that the Russian armed forces are preparing to repel a major attack on their military facilities and are bolstering their defenses, according to Atesh partisans.
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8. North Korea's Kim threatens to use nukes if attacked
Carefully worded? If attacked?
A threat to prevent a pre-emptive attack?
If Kim does not want a preemptive attack then he should not put a TEL with a nuclear warhead mated to a missile that is fueled and located in a launch site.
North Korea's Kim threatens to use nukes if attacked
04 Oct 2024 04:59PM
(Updated: 04 Oct 2024 05:17PM)
channelnewsasia.com
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would use nuclear weapons "without hesitation" if attacked by the South and ally the United States, state media reported on Friday (Oct 4).
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in decades, with Seoul this week staging a military parade where it showcased its bunker-busting "monster" missile and President Yoon Suk Yeol warned Kim that using nukes would mean the end of his regime.
Pyongyang has also been bombarding the South with balloons carrying bags of trash, and a fresh flurry was seen floating over Seoul early Friday by AFP reporters. Seoul's military confirmed it had detected the balloon launches overnight.
If an enemy's forces were "encroaching upon the sovereignty" of the North, Pyongyang would "use without hesitation all the offensive forces it has possessed, including nuclear weapons," Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Images in state media showed Kim, clad in his customary leather jacket, speaking at a training event for special operations forces.
There, he slammed Yoon for his "end of regime" comments and "clamouring" about his country's alliance with the United States.
Seoul, which does not have nuclear weapons of its own, is covered by the US nuclear umbrella, and Washington has stationed tens of thousands of troops in the country since the Korean war ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.
Kim said it was Seoul and Washington who were "destroying regional security and peace", KCNA reported, while branding South Korea's leader "an abnormal man".
MILITARY PARADE
On Tuesday, fighter jets flew over downtown Seoul and tanks rolled through the streets, as South Korea displayed for the first time its largest ballistic missile, the Hyunmoo-5, which is capable of destroying underground bunkers.
An American B-1B heavy bomber also staged a flyover of the ceremony early on Tuesday, flanked by F-15K jets.
Washington periodically deploys nuclear assets to the Korean peninsula, underscoring its protection of the South from Pyongyang's growing threats.
At the event marking South Korea's Armed Forces Day, Yoon said that if the North "attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will face the resolute and overwhelming response of our military and the US and Republic of Korea alliance".
"That day will be the end of the North Korean regime," he added.
North Korea is expected to scrap a landmark inter-Korean agreement signed in 1991 at a parliamentary meeting next week, Seoul's unification ministry said on Wednesday, as part of Kim's drive to officially define the South as an enemy state.
Earlier this year, Kim called to remove unification-related clauses from the constitution, while abolishing agencies dedicated to improving ties with the South.
Last month, the North also disclosed images of a uranium enrichment facility for the first time, showing leader Kim touring the site as he called for more centrifuges to boost the country's nuclear arsenal.
South Korea's spy agency later said the unprecedented disclosure was "directed at the US" and that North Korea was believed capable of producing a double-digit number of nuclear weapons.
Last week, a lawmaker told reporters that the National Intelligence Service had warned the North might carry out another nuclear test – its seventh – after the US elections in November.
Source: AFP/lh
9. South Korea military aircraft evacuates 97 from Lebanon amid escalating tension
South Korea military aircraft evacuates 97 from Lebanon amid escalating tension
04 Oct 2024 04:59PM
(Updated: 04 Oct 2024 05:17PM)
channelnewsasia.com
SEOUL: A South Korean military transport aircraft returned 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon on Saturday (Oct 5) as Middle East tensions rise, the country's foreign ministry said.
A KC-330 aircraft left Beirut on Friday afternoon with the evacuees, who include Lebanese family members, and arrived at a military airfield on the south of Seoul, the ministry said.
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered military aircraft to be deployed to evacuate South Korean citizens from parts of the Middle East as conflict escalates between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as the armed group's backer, Iran.
South Korea's defence ministry said it flew a C130J transport plane as backup, which is capable of operating on shorter runways and under fire, as a precaution, and sent 39 military personnel, including mechanics and diplomats.
The government will take further actions to ensure the safety of its citizens, the foreign ministry said without elaborating.
South Korean diplomats stationed in Lebanon remained in the country, Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korean nationals and their family members step off from South Korea's military aircraft after being evacuated from Lebanon, at the Seoul airport in Seongnam, South Korea, Saturday, Oct 5, 2024. (Korea Pool/Yonhap via AP)
In this photo provided by South Korea Foreign Ministry, South Korean Foreign Ministry's prompt response team and South Korean embassy officer to Lebanon, help people check in for evacuation at an airport in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct 4, 2024. (Photo: South Korea Foreign Ministry via AP)
Nations worldwide have prepared contingency plans to evacuate citizens from Lebanon after a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah, backed by Iran.
Although no country has launched a large-scale military evacuation yet, some are chartering aircraft.
Britain, for instance, has chartered a limited number of flights for citizens to leave Lebanon. More than 150 British nationals and dependents left Beirut on a government-chartered flight on Wednesday.
The United States has ordered dozens of troops deployed to Cyprus to help prepare for scenarios such as an evacuation of Americans from Lebanon. It is working with airlines to add flights out of Lebanon, with more seats for Americans, the State Department said on Tuesday
Australia has organised hundreds of airline seats for its citizens to leave Lebanon, flying military aircraft to Cyprus in a contingency plan.
Plans could include evacuation by sea, though Australian authorities have urged an estimated 15,000 citizens in Lebanon to leave while Beirut airport remains open.
Germany's foreign ministry said it was flying another 219 nationals out of Lebanon on Friday as it continues to evacuate non-essential staff, families of embassy workers and medically vulnerable nationals. It said it would support others trying to leave.
Japan dispatched two C-2 military transport aircraft to Lebanon on Thursday. The planes are standing by for the evacuation of Japanese nationals. There are 40 to 50 Japanese citizens in Lebanon.
More than 200 Chinese citizens have been safely evacuated from Lebanon, China's foreign ministry said on Saturday.
Source: Reuters/gs/cm
10. Hamas built an underground war machine to ensure its own survival
This might have been enhanced with an interview with Dr. Bruce Becthol to highlight the north Korean connection, particularly on tunnel contribution advice and assistance.
To the highlight statement I have to respond with "Yet." Modern military has faced the complexity of the battlefield in Gaza, "YET." Just wait until we encounter the 5000+ underground facilities on the Korean peninsula in the north.
And as an aside, I think north Korean support to Hexbollah may be even greater. But I would defer to Dr. Bechtol.
Excerpts:
“Nobody understood how extensive the tunnels were, or that there were so many different types of tunnels,” said Dana Stroul, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East during the first three years of the Biden administration.
Echoing a common assessment among U.S. and Israeli military officials, Stroul said the failure to grasp the many dimensions of Hamas’s most important strategic asset was “part of the intelligence failure” of Oct. 7, and one that has not yet been fully reckoned with. Fighting an enemy that can move horizontally and vertically, through a battlefield situated in heavily populated urban terrain, posed a formidable military challenge, she said.
“I don’t know that any modern military has faced the complexity of the battlefield that the IDF faced in Gaza,” she said.
The tunnels served to hide weapons production, according to Israeli, U.S. and Arab analysts, but they also served as a communications network, supply depot, highway system, logistics pipeline, bomb shelter and field hospital, officials said. Hidden tunnel shafts were used as staging grounds for ambushes. Underground living quarters became command centers and detention facilities for Israeli hostages.
Hamas built an underground war machine to ensure its own survival
Vowing self-sufficiency, Hamas turned a maze of tunnels in Gaza into weapons factories and well-stocked fortifications. A year after the war began, parts of the group remain deeply entrenched.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/10/05/hamas-tunnels-weapons-gaza-war-october-7-attacks/
18 min
1447
An Israeli soldier secures a tunnel beneath al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in November 2023. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
By Joby Warrick and Loveday Morris
October 5, 2024 at 2:00 a.m. EDT
AMMAN, Jordan — Six months before the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas’s top leader in the Gaza Strip was meeting with visiting Palestinian businessmen in the enclave when he made a shocking disclosure. Hamas was planning something big, Yahya Sinwar told his guests.
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“There’s going to be a surprise,” he said, according to one of the participants in the meeting, which has not been previously reported. While offering no details, he intimated that preparations had long been underway in Gaza itself, within Hamas’s network of underground fortresses. Of the allies and partners assisting the effort, he mentioned only one.
“God will help us,” he said.
Sinwar’s secret plan would reveal itself on a Jewish Sabbath morning one year ago as waves of attackers swarmed Israeli villages and military bases, killing about 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages. But the nature of Sinwar’s preparations — how, exactly, the group armed itself for the assault while simultaneously engineering a sophisticated, multilayered defense against the inevitable Israeli military response — would become clear only gradually, in the weeks and months of heavy fighting that followed.
Evidence accumulated over the past year has brought new clarity to Hamas’s operational planning before Oct. 7, revealing how and from where it obtained the means for both the attack itself and a carefully considered resistance phase that was designed to last up to 12 months. It shows how, despite years of isolation within a densely populated strip of land the size of Philadelphia, Hamas acquired an astonishing arsenal of rockets, explosives and small arms, while constructing the financial and defensive networks that enabled Sinwar and his followers to hold out for months under a determined assault by one of the world’s most capable militaries.
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Across Israel’s northern border, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah is in disarray after Israeli forces killed the group’s leader and decimated its command structure in a series of recent operations that revealed a deep penetration of the group by Israeli intelligence.
But a year after the Oct. 7 attacks, Sinwar, who studied Israeli tactics during years in prison and later became notorious for brutally rooting out suspected Israeli collaborators, has not only survived but is already laying the groundwork for the group’s reemergence, according to Hamas officials interviewed by The Washington Post.
Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian, center, from Kibbutz Kfar Aza into the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. (Hatem Ali/AP)
This article is based on interviews with more than two-dozen Israeli, U.S. and Arab military and intelligence analysts, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence assessments. The Post also interviewed current and former Hamas and Palestinian Authority officials, some of whom, like the businessman who met with Sinwar in the spring of 2023, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The accounts describe how Hamas, under Sinwar’s leadership, became relentlessly focused on achieving self-sufficiency, including a capacity to produce its own weapons and explosives, and carry out elaborate operations involving thousands of participants, while maintaining complete secrecy.
The group relied on outsiders for money and advice. It raised tens of millions of dollars, some of it from Iran, but much of it siphoned from aid money, charitable contributions, tax revenue and — after Oct. 7 — shareholder deposits stolen from Gazan banks. Hamas commanders traveled to Tehran for training, Israel Defense Forces officials say, and made multiple trips to Lebanon, where Iran had established an operations room to coordinate military planning and share technical know-how.
But the Hamas that Sinwar built was no mere proxy group, officials and experts said. Mindful of Israel’s ability to cut off Gaza from the world, Hamas spent years perfecting a war machine that could make its own munitions, carry out operations without outside approval or even knowledge, and then allow its fighters to disappear inside an elaborate underground maze — a warren beneath the streets of the seaside enclave estimated to consist of hundreds of miles of interlinked, reinforced passages, rooms and bunkers.
Hamas’s tunnels are its greatest engineering feat and, to Sinwar, the key to its survival.
“We succeeded in making manufacturing factories underground,” Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s political bureau from Gaza, said in an interview with The Post, “because we knew that one day all the channels would be closed.”
Yahya Sinwar, then Hamas's top leader in the Gaza Strip, attends a rally in Gaza City on Oct. 1, 2022. He became head of the Hamas political bureau in 2024 after the death of Ismail Haniyeh. (Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)
Hamas today is, without question, a badly diminished force. The group has lost its top civilian leader along with dozens of military commanders and an estimated 15,000 fighters, according to regional intelligence officials. Cash and weapons stockpiles are dwindling; swaths of the Strip lie in ruins; and at least 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Many of the group’s estimated 5,700 tunnel shafts have been destroyed by Israeli bombs.
Yet Hamas fights on. The group’s capabilities and tactics, revealed over the past year, have repeatedly challenged the conventional thinking about Hamas that existed before Oct. 7, 2023. They also raise new concerns about the organization’s ability to reconstitute itself in Gaza or elsewhere.
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How Joe Biden lost his grip on Israel’s war for ‘total victory’ in Gaza
The female soldiers who predicted Oct. 7 say they are still being silenced
Hamas built an underground war machine to ensure its own survival
Many analysts had believed that Hamas was heavily dependent on Iran and had smuggled in large shipments of Iranian-made rockets and missiles while making new ones in large underground factories. Yet a year later, IDF investigators in Gaza have turned up surprisingly few Iranian-made weapons, and no large-scale factories for mass assembly of rockets and missiles. Instead, they mostly found small workshops where metalworkers with simple lathes turned scavenged pipes and agricultural chemicals into components for explosive projectiles to be lobbed into Israeli villages.
After the IDF’s May invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, an Israeli commander reported finding no new active smuggling tunnels leading into Egypt, as many experts had believed existed. In the previous decade, when Gazans ran contraband through hundreds of tunnels along the border, Israeli forces would sometimes seal off the shafts with concrete, only to later discover that Hamas had drilled new passageways through the barriers. The group even tweaked rocket designs so that the components were small enough to fit through twists and turns in the reconfigured passageways.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing with Egypt in November 2023. (Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)
Yet after the Rafah invasion, intelligence analysts concluded that most of Hamas’s supply of imported weapons and components had entered overland, in trucks and cars passing through border crossings controlled by Egypt and Israel. The rest arrived years ago, before Egypt destroyed thousands of underground passageways and created a mile-wide system of barriers along its border with Gaza.
But the biggest surprise, U.S. and Israeli officials say, was the tunnels within Gaza. Israeli war planners well understood the challenge IDF soldiers faced in trying to defeat a foe that could move fighters and supplies freely through underground passages. But the size, scale and complexity of the Gaza “metro,” as it came to be dubbed, far exceeded Israeli estimations. IDF officials in interviews described their dismay after picking their way through bunkers 30 feet beneath Gaza’s streets, only to find shafts leading to deeper tunnels buried 120 feet underground.
“Their eyes were bulging,” said a former U.S. counterterrorism official who visited Hamas-built tunnels as a guest of the IDF. “They had no idea of the labyrinth. Can you image 150 kilometers of tunnels? The reality was several times bigger.”
‘We will come to you with endless rockets’
In private conversations and in public speeches before Oct. 7, Sinwar could not restrain himself from bragging about what his group had achieved. Outside Gaza, his words were mostly dismissed as empty boasts.
“We will come to you, God willing, in a roaring flood,” Sinwar warned Israelis at a rally for his supporters in Gaza on Dec. 14, 2022. “We will come to you with endless rockets, we will come to you in a limitless flood of soldiers, we will come to you with millions of our people, like the repeating tides.”
Sinwar, who had long dreamed of inflicting a savage blow that could disrupt the status quo with Israel, “made sure the money and material was there for many years,” said Abu Hamza, 33, a Hamas commander in the West Bank town of Jenin. Abu Hamza spoke on the condition that he be identified by his nom de guerre for security reasons.
A rocket is launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Mohammed Saber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
“Hamas built really well for this thing,” Abu Hamza said. Inside the tunnels, Hamas was “hiding weapons and making their own,” while laboring to ensure that Hamas could withstand any Israeli counterstrike.
“In Gaza we were working day and night, day and night, 24 hours,” said Hamad, the member of the group’s political bureau. “We prepared a lot, not for one year or two years.”
But even homemade weapons require parts that must be brought in from the outside. Hamad said getting components past the Israeli blockade was a constant challenge. Almost every facet of weapons production, from machine tools to agricultural chemicals for explosives, was either labeled for civilian use or hidden inside shipments of food or other everyday wares.
“We are in the situation that pressures us to do everything, and collect everything,” he said. “We face a very dangerous country, with a lot of technology and weapons. It’s not easy to fight Israel. We knew this equation very well.”
Homemade arsenal
The Israeli response to Oct. 7 began in earnest with a ground invasion three weeks later by an IDF force that eventually grew to 100,000 fighters. Within days, Israeli soldiers were venturing into Hamas’s tunnels, often with underground surveillance drones or bomb-sniffing dogs in the lead.
The images posted by the IDF in the weeks that followed offered the first glimpse into what Hamas had wrought underground. Among the initial findings were armories filled with weapons — thousands of them, of every make and description: North Korean-made F-7 rocket-propelled grenades, Bulgarian rifles, Iranian 60mm mortars and Italian-designed TC/6 mines, a copy of which is produced in Egypt.
But IDF officials eventually concluded that up to 80 percent of Hamas’s weapons were manufactured in Gaza, by the group itself. Among the homemade arms: antitank IEDs (improvised explosive devices), Claymore-type antipersonnel mines and thermobaric rocket-propelled grenades. Hamas — perhaps drawing inspiration from Islamic State fighters who used similar tactics in the 2017 battle for Mosul, Iraq — learned to modify small commercial drones to drop explosives, IDF officials said.
A cache of Hamas weapons is displayed at a military base in southern Israel on Oct. 20, 2023. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
Hamas’s specialty is short- and medium-range rockets, such as the M-75, a copy of the Iranian-made Fajr-5, capable of striking targets as far away as Tel Aviv. More common is the Qassam, named after a legendary Syrian Arab nationalist from the 1920s and featuring a design developed by Hamas more than 20 years ago. Hamas weaponeers have assembled thousands of Qassams from steel water pipes, shaping the metal into rocket bodies using metal presses and lathes, and packing the warheads with hundreds of pounds of explosives made from sugar and potassium nitrate fertilizer.
While limited in range, a single Qassam costs only a few hundred dollars to make. The Israeli military’s Iron Dome antimissile system shot down thousands of such rockets in the days after Oct. 7, but at a cost of roughly $50,000 per launch.
By January, the IDF had stumbled upon Hamas’s manufacturing hubs. Israeli soldiers found dedicated fabrication centers for producing small arms, ammunition and explosives, and other workshops for crafting the cylindrical frames for rockets. Some of the production facilities consisted of interconnected underground chambers that formed crude assembly lines. These were not factories, in the traditional sense. But they served the purpose.
“They are essentially labs with lathes,” said Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury Department counterterrorism official who has studied Hamas and its tunnels for more than a decade.
The largest of the manufacturing hubs discovered up to now consisted of a complex of underground workshops and street-level warehouses, raided by IDF forces in January beneath a crowded district in Khan Younis, a city in central Gaza. Connected by tunnels, it amounted to a weapons assembly line that extended nearly half a mile, according to an IDF weapons expert who analyzed the site.
“There were many different capabilities within the same location,” the IDF official said. “It was such a large operation, it took us about a week to process it.”
Secretly, and out of the view of satellite surveillance cameras, the group had a created a “Hamas military industrial complex” that could produce a variety of cheap weapons in vast quantities, said Levitt, who now serves as the director of the Reinhard counterterrorism program for the Washington Institute of Near East Policy. “Some of the weapons even had Hamas branding on them,” he said.
Cities beneath cities
The IDF had long known about the threat posed by tunnels. After Hamas used cross-border tunnels to abduct Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006, Israeli forces deployed special sensors along the border that allowed them to hear, see and map efforts to dig new passages into Israeli territory. Yet the size and complexity of the group’s tunnels within Gaza itself surprised everyone, including Israel’s vaunted intelligence services and their U.S. counterparts.
“Nobody understood how extensive the tunnels were, or that there were so many different types of tunnels,” said Dana Stroul, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East during the first three years of the Biden administration.
Echoing a common assessment among U.S. and Israeli military officials, Stroul said the failure to grasp the many dimensions of Hamas’s most important strategic asset was “part of the intelligence failure” of Oct. 7, and one that has not yet been fully reckoned with. Fighting an enemy that can move horizontally and vertically, through a battlefield situated in heavily populated urban terrain, posed a formidable military challenge, she said.
“I don’t know that any modern military has faced the complexity of the battlefield that the IDF faced in Gaza,” she said.
The tunnels served to hide weapons production, according to Israeli, U.S. and Arab analysts, but they also served as a communications network, supply depot, highway system, logistics pipeline, bomb shelter and field hospital, officials said. Hidden tunnel shafts were used as staging grounds for ambushes. Underground living quarters became command centers and detention facilities for Israeli hostages.
People sit amid destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. (Haitham Imad/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Costing, at minimum, hundreds of millions of dollars — money that Hamas diverted from humanitarian and economic development projects intended to improve the lives of ordinary Gazans — the tunnel system by Oct. 7 extended more than 300 miles, longer than the New York City subway, or about the distance from Tel Aviv to southern Turkey. The IDF acknowledges there is no practical way to destroy the entire system.
The IDF eventually became adept at fighting underground. But Maj. Gen. Dan Goldfus, an Israeli commander dubbed by local media as the IDF’s “tunnel destroyer,” said his forces initially faced a steep learning curve.
“All our definitions of tunnel shafts, tactical tunnels, strategic tunnels — none of that applies there,” Goldfus told the Hebrew-language newspaper Israel Hayom in August. “It’s all one large network; you can enter it at the [northern] Erez Crossing and emerge in Rafah [on the Egyptian border]. Everything there is connected to everything.”
Goldfus described a moment of wonder in February when the IDF arrived at Sinwar’s hastily vacated underground command center, a suite of well-appointed bunkers buried deep beneath the streets of Khan Younis.
“We reached senior officials’ compounds and we studied this infrastructure … this center of strength, its importance,” Goldfus told the newspaper. “It slowly became revealed to us before our eyes. And when I understood it — what can I say, hats off.”
Surviving the siege, eyeing a comeback
By the day of the Oct. 7 assault, Hamas’s well-trained military wing numbered about 35,000, including a vanguard of 6,000 shock troops who burst into Israel early that morning for the attack the group dubbed “Operation al-Aqsa Flood.” Hamad, the political bureau member, said the idea was to shake Israel to its core and force its leaders to end the siege on Gaza, halt settler expansion in the West Bank and curtail raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque, which sits atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, known in Islam as the Noble Sanctuary and revered by both Muslims and Jews. He said he was not aware of Oct. 7 planning in advance.
But Sinwar, Hamad said, also understood that Israel would respond with devastating force. Much of the planning and preparation in the years preceding the attack was devoted to ensuring that Hamas would not only survive the blow but also quickly recover so it could strike again.
The tunnels, amply stocked with provisions and weapons to last many months, would play a key role. But so would Hamas’s reserves of cash.
Hamas is believed to have socked away hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and cryptocurrencies before Oct. 7, much of it from tax revenue collected from Gazans as well as financial aid given by Qatar — with the tacit approval of Israeli leaders — in recent years to keep the enclave’s economy from collapsing.
Hamas has used the cash over the past year to pay fighters in the group’s military wing, who Hamad said are still being “looked after,” even as the roughly 2 million civilians in Gaza have been forced into destitution.
The money has also enabled Hamas to retain a functioning public sector to meet the basic needs of Gazans, the officials said. The group’s payroll includes 50,000 workers, including teachers, doctors, sanitation crews and more. Whatever money is left serves as a vital lifeline for Gazans struggling to feed their families at a time when many businesses and shops have been shuttered or destroyed. Hamas regularly announces collection points and times for aid recipients, with new locations posted every month.
Displaced Palestinians inspect tents destroyed by Israeli bombardment west of Rafah in May. (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)
“I don’t know where the money comes from,” said an employee of the Gaza Justice Ministry. “What I care about now is finding something to satisfy my two children’s hunger.”
Yet a year into the conflict, the tap appears to be finally running dry. Beginning in the spring, many Gazan workers began drawing only half their normal salaries, when they were paid at all.
With Israel’s unrelenting assault and a dearth of humanitarian trucks bearing food and other necessities reaching Gaza, Hamas may be reaching a tipping point, at least with regard to its supply of money and other vital resources, say analysts. While Hamas was prepared for an extended siege, a year of IDF operations in Gaza — combined with stricter controls by Israelis at border crossings — have nearly drained Hamas’s coffers, officials said. Hamad maintains that Hamas still has “channels” to ensure cash flow into Gaza, but he declined to elaborate.
Still, one of Hamas’s key assets remains available to the group with a nearly inexhaustible supply. Analysts say Gaza’s devastation is spurring recruitment, driving legions of embittered or desperate youths into the arms of Hamas.
“There is no shortage of young volunteers,” a senior Arab intelligence official said. “Perhaps they are not as well trained, but they will help Hamas make up for its losses. These are the people who have lost families, and they have one motive: revenge.”
Hamas, still in survival mode, appears already to be shifting to a new phase of conflict that could more easily harness the energy of its newest members. Social media postings by Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, have begun to promote the tactics of an insurgency, such as bombings using IEDs.
One illustration, titled “The Hunting,” depicts three Israeli soldiers approaching a pair of mines. A Hamas operative in the foreground extends his hand to touch the remote-control trigger.
“What is hidden,” it warns, “is immense.”
Middle East conflict
The Israel-Gaza war has gone on for months, and tensions have spilled into the surrounding Middle East region.
The war: On Oct. 7, Hamas militants launched an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking civilian hostages. See photos and videos of how the deadly assault unfolded. Israel declared war on Hamas in response, launching a ground invasion that fueled the biggest displacement in the region since Israel’s creation in 1948. In July 2024, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an attack Hamas has blamed on Israel.
Hezbollah: Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, a militant organization backed by Iran, have escalated over the past year, leading to an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. Israel’s airstrikes into Lebanon have grown more intense and deadly, killing over 1,400 people including Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s longtime leader. The Israel-Lebanon border has a history of violence that dates back to Israel’s founding.
Gaza crisis: In the Gaza Strip, Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars, killing tens of thousands and plunging at least half of the population into “famine-like conditions.” For months, Israel has resisted pressure from Western allies to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave.
U.S. involvement: Despite tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some U.S. politicians, including President Biden, the United States supports Israel with weapons, funds aid packages, and has vetoed or abstained from the United Nations’ cease-fire resolutions.
History: The roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mistrust are deep and complex, predating the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Read more on the history of the Gaza Strip.
View 3 more stories
By Joby Warrick
Joby Warrick joined The Washington Post’s National staff in 1996. He has served with the Post's investigative and national security teams, and writes about the Middle East, terrorism and weapons proliferation. He is the author of three books, including “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS," which was awarded a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.follow on X @jobywarrick
By Loveday Morris
Loveday Morris is The Washington Post's Berlin bureau chief. She was previously based in Jerusalem, Baghdad and Beirut for The Post.follow on X @LovedayM
11. Secret shipments: N. Korea's hidden flood relief efforts in Jagang province
Corruption is rampant. Anyone surprised? But slightly more seriously this may be the first report I have seen where the regime's advanced sanctions evasion capabilities are actually being used for the benefit of the people (somewhat);
Excerpts:
U.N. Security Council resolution 2379, adopted in December 2017, forbids exporting or transferring all industrial machinery, transportation equipment, steel and other metals to North Korea.
Because many of the imported items were subject to sanctions, the North Koreans chose to bring them into the country through state smuggling. The Daily NK could not confirm just how much material was imported, but the source said 14 ten-ton trucks carried the cargo into the country.
The Daily NK understands that the supplies were imported through state smuggling led by the trade management bureau of Jagang province and passed through Sinuiju customs with the help of North Pyongan province.
The authorities gave the customs house in Sinuiju little advance warning, suddenly informing it just seven hours before the smuggling operation began.
The authorities appear to have issued relevant orders only on the day of the operation to prevent word of the state smuggling from leaking.
Secret shipments: N. Korea's hidden flood relief efforts in Jagang province - Daily NK English
The smuggling efforts are focused on construction materials to rebuild severely damaged munition factories
By Eun Seol - October 4, 2024
dailynk.com · by Eun Seol · October 4, 2024
A cargo truck travels from Dandong, Liaoning province to Sinuju, North Pyongan province, via the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge on the morning of Jan. 20, 2024. (The Daily NK)
North Korea recently smuggled in relief supplies to flood-stricken regions of Jagang province, including many items subject to international sanctions on the country.
A source in North Pyongan province said recently that “many recovery supplies entered the country through the customs house in Sinuiju on Sept. 18” and that it “took six hours for all the supplies to enter.” In other words, so many supplies came from China that it took from 6 a.m. to noon to import them all.
Items that passed through customs at Sinuiju included building supplies for homes, roads and factories, parts for construction equipment and foodstuffs.
Specifically, architectural rebar, steel, aluminum, waterproofing supplies, road paving equipment, excavator and crane parts, truck tires and high-pressure pumps were imported through so-called state smuggling.
U.N. Security Council resolution 2379, adopted in December 2017, forbids exporting or transferring all industrial machinery, transportation equipment, steel and other metals to North Korea.
Because many of the imported items were subject to sanctions, the North Koreans chose to bring them into the country through state smuggling. The Daily NK could not confirm just how much material was imported, but the source said 14 ten-ton trucks carried the cargo into the country.
The Daily NK understands that the supplies were imported through state smuggling led by the trade management bureau of Jagang province and passed through Sinuiju customs with the help of North Pyongan province.
The authorities gave the customs house in Sinuiju little advance warning, suddenly informing it just seven hours before the smuggling operation began.
The authorities appear to have issued relevant orders only on the day of the operation to prevent word of the state smuggling from leaking.
In fact, the trade management bureau of Jagang province originally tried to import the relief items through the local customs house in Manpo because the goods were supplies the province needed for flood recovery efforts.
However, Chinese traders asked to transport the cargo through the Dandong-Sinuiju route because roads in Tonghua, Jilin province, were damaged in the recent flooding.
In response, the trade management bureau of Jagang province asked North Pyongan province for cooperation and imported the supplies through the customs house in Sinuiju.
Severe flood damage to munitions factories in Jagang province
Meanwhile, the North Korean authorities have not revealed the exact extent of flood damage in Jagang province, but it was reportedly so severe that relief work remains at its height even two months later.
With damage to munition factories in the province especially severe, the authorities reportedly imported large amounts of construction supplies needed to rebuild the plants through the latest state smuggling operation.
The source said the authorities also plan to provide munition factory workers with the foodstuffs imported by Jagang province’s trade management bureau.
“Flood damage in Jagang province was more severe than you’d think,” the source said. “Several more imports of such supplies will be needed to provide all the material needed to recover from the flood damage.”
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
dailynk.com · by Eun Seol · October 4, 2024
12. US Pentagon Reiterates “End of Regime” in Response to Kim Jong-un’s ‘Nuclear Threat’
And quickly I would imagine.
This is Google translation of an RFA report.
US Pentagon Reiterates “End of Regime” in Response to Kim Jong-un’s ‘Nuclear Threat’
https://www.rfa.org/korean/in_focus/nk_nuclear_talks/regime-change-10042024151610.html
Washington-Park
2024.10.04
US Department of Defense Building
/AP
00:00 /02:41
Anchor : The U.S. Department of Defense has once again emphasized that a nuclear attack would bring about the end of the regime in response to North Korean Workers' Party General Secretary Kim Jong-un's " nuclear threat " remarks . Reporter Park Jae-woo reports .
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl in a speech commemorating Armed Forces Day, saying, “ If he ignores the warning and attempts to use force to infringe upon the sovereignty of the republic, we will use all our attack power, including nuclear weapons . ”
Earlier, President Yoon warned that if North Korea uses nuclear weapons, it will be the end of the world , and General Secretary Kim responded by saying , “ It is not proper to talk about an overwhelming response to a nuclear state ,” and mentioned the possibility of “ using nuclear weapons . ”
In response, the U.S. Department of Defense emphasized that “ any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners would be unacceptable and would result in the end of the regime . ”
In an email to Radio Free Asia (RFA) on the 4th , Pentagon spokesman John Supple responded to a request for comment by saying , “ The United States and its allies and partners have made it clear that if North Korea uses nuclear weapons, the consequences will be dire . ”
Experts: “ Kim Jong-un’s Hardline Statement is a Message Aimed at the US Presidential Election ”
President Yoon: “ If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, the regime will end”
The South Korean Ministry of Defense also criticized the move in a statement released that day, saying, “ This is the result of people feeling anxious and compelled by the fear that North Korean citizens will see the might of our military . ”
He continued, “ The reason why this Armed Forces Day event was criticized in particular is because everyone is directly connected to the North Korean leadership ,” and evaluated it as “ an expression of anxiety and insecurity due to the military’s strong capabilities and firm stance . ”
Sidney Seiler, a former North Korea analyst for the National Intelligence Council under the Director of National Intelligence, also told Radio Free Asia (RFA) on the same day that General Secretary Kim was responding to South Korea's display of conventional weapons capabilities .
[ Former Analyst Seiler ] I think Kim Jong-un has expressed concern about South Korea's military capabilities . As you know, South Korea continues to build up reliable and powerful conventional capabilities that help deter North Korea's nuclear weapons . In addition to the Hyunmoo -5 , there are the F-35s, Global Hawks , etc.
On the 2nd , the South Korean Ministry of National Defense showed off its national defense capabilities to North Korea and other countries at home and abroad through a large-scale military parade on Armed Forces Day .
Meanwhile, according to South Korea's KBS , in a message sent to reporters that day, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff emphasized , " Our strategic and military target is not our fellow countrymen in North Korea , but everything is focused on Kim Jong-un alone . "
Editor Park Bong-hyeon, Web Editor Kim Sang-il
13. Beyond nuclear deterrence: the rise of semiconductor power
Excerpts:
Just as Taiwan strives to protect itself from China's threats as America's semiconductor hub, South Korea's semiconductor industry holds significance far beyond being just another sector. One key difference between South Korea and Taiwan is that, despite various political conflicts, Taiwan’s government, legislature, and public have consistently stood united on this issue. Taiwan’s version of the CHIPS Act, which guarantees a 25% tax credit for R&D until 2029, passed swiftly through its legislature without any partisan disagreement. The government also took the lead in building power plants and water reclamation facilities in regions where TSMC plants were being constructed.
In the same way that possessing nuclear weapons serves as a deterrent against provocations, the growing interdependence of industries in the modern era will increase the deterrent power of advanced industries. When South Korean semiconductors become indispensable to major countries, including the U.S., we will gain leverage in navigating the tensions between global powers.
Beyond nuclear deterrence: the rise of semiconductor power
donga.com
Posted October. 04, 2024 07:54,
Updated October. 04, 2024 07:54
Beyond nuclear deterrence: the rise of semiconductor power. October. 04, 2024 07:54. .
A small island nation with a population of 23 million, Taiwan once graced the cover of The Economist, a British economic weekly. The issue, dated May 1, 2021, bore the title "The Most Dangerous Place on Earth."
At the time, China’s threats toward Taiwan, aiming to reclaim the island, were intensifying. It was also a period when the world was grappling with a global semiconductor supply shortage following the pandemic. The Economist emphasized that “Taiwan is the heart of the semiconductor industry” and noted that “TSMC, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, produces 84% of the most advanced chips.” The article warned that if Taiwan were dragged into war, the crisis could ripple across the region and the global economy.
TSMC was manufacturing and supplying semiconductors for most of the major U.S. tech companies at the time, including Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, and Broadcom. It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to call it "America’s semiconductor factory." Despite repeated warnings from China, the U.S. actively engaged in safeguarding Taiwan’s independence. Joint military exercises were made public, and key figures such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made high-profile visits to the island.
Last week, at the Korea-U.S. Industrial Cooperation Conference, hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korea-America Association, I heard a noteworthy remark. Kwon Seok-jun, a professor of chemical engineering at Sungkyunkwan University, while analyzing the industrial impact of the U.S. presidential election, said, "By 2030, America’s dependence on semiconductors from East Asia, including Taiwan, will have decreased to a certain level, which may reduce the U.S. involvement in geopolitical risks like the Taiwan issue."
This assumption is based on the fact that by 2030, the semiconductor fabs being built by South Korea and Taiwan in the U.S. will likely be operating at stable production levels. Since the semiconductor supply crisis, the U.S. has continuously tried to localize its semiconductor supply chain. Despite the recent challenges faced by Intel and the delays in fab construction by Samsung and TSMC, the U.S. government's ultimate resolve remains unwavering.
While Professor Kwon’s comments specifically targeted Taiwan, the implications are just as relevant to South Korea, another frontline in the U.S.-China conflict. Beyond a long-standing military alliance with the U.S., South Korea now represents an economic security alliance centered around advanced strategic industries. However, if the “America First” sentiment grows strong within the U.S. and national interest takes precedence over global leadership, this could create both geopolitical and economic uncertainties for South Korea.
Just as Taiwan strives to protect itself from China's threats as America's semiconductor hub, South Korea's semiconductor industry holds significance far beyond being just another sector. One key difference between South Korea and Taiwan is that, despite various political conflicts, Taiwan’s government, legislature, and public have consistently stood united on this issue. Taiwan’s version of the CHIPS Act, which guarantees a 25% tax credit for R&D until 2029, passed swiftly through its legislature without any partisan disagreement. The government also took the lead in building power plants and water reclamation facilities in regions where TSMC plants were being constructed.
In the same way that possessing nuclear weapons serves as a deterrent against provocations, the growing interdependence of industries in the modern era will increase the deterrent power of advanced industries. When South Korean semiconductors become indispensable to major countries, including the U.S., we will gain leverage in navigating the tensions between global powers.
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14. Why 'Ode to My Father' remains relevant today
I strongly recommend this film. For anyone who wants to understand modern Korean history and culture from 1950 to the present this movie is very much worth watching. I first saw this screened at Norwich University with a few hundred military cadets at a conference on Korean security issues a few years ago. Fortunately the auditorium was dark so no one could see the tears in my eyes since I was so moved by this film.
Why 'Ode to My Father' remains relevant today
The Korea Times · October 5, 2024
A still from the film "Ode to My Father" / Courtesy of CJ Entertainment
By David A. Tizzard
If a house is on fire and a mother and three of her children are safely outside, should she risk her life to run in and save the remaining child? “Yes, of course!” you think. All life is sacred. Each individual precious. But the answer from a Korean mother in the 1950s might be "no." Because if she went inside and died, who would be left to feed the other children? Despite the grief of losing a husband and a child, she is expected to bury her trauma, endure the anguish, and continue dedicating her life, irrespective of her own feelings, to her children. That’s what Korean mothers do.
That is one of the first lessons presented in the 2014 Korean movie “Ode to My Father” (weirdly enough, the actual Korean title translates to “International Market”). Moreover, that theme of sacrifice and familial duty is one that continues until the end. Ideas of morality, of good versus evil, or heroes and villains, are all absent. The core idea is duty. Not personal gain. Not self-interest. Duty. Duty to one’s family. Duty to one’s loved ones. Duty to one’s country. No matter the consequences or the discomfort.
The individual, in a psychological sense as we know it today, had not yet been born then. It only arrived later with the implementation of neoliberalism throughout society and the consequent atomizing of people into groups of one.
Eldest children
We experience this necessity of duty through both women and men. The protagonist of “Ode to My Father,” Yoon Deok-soo, is a Korean man born and raised in North Korea but then evacuated to the South following the Chinese invasion during the Korean civil war in early 1951. Losing his father and younger sister along the way, at a tender age he becomes the “gajang” – the one responsible for supporting the family no matter what challenges may come. This heady task, generally placed on the eldest son, is a burden understood by many in East Asia. Even young people today speak of such pressures through the terms ‘K-jangnyeo’ and ‘K-jangnam’ (Korean first woman and Korean first man, respectively). Eldest daughters whisper wistfully of their desire to pursue arts, painting, or dancing, only to eventually be pressured into a nursing degree by their parents.
The newly appointed young “gajang” Yoon Deok-soo, in a sense, represents the Republic of Korea. Thrust into a geopolitical situation he does not necessarily understand nor care about, he sets about his task of seeing the family grow and prosper no matter the risks or hardships. We like to think of South Korea as a country steeped in thousands of years of tradition, but at the same time, its modern manifestation in the global world is very young. It was born in the late 1940s, and throughout the following decades it experienced immense growing pains, making mistakes, and struggling to find the right way forward. Yet like Deok-soo in the movie, it persisted. Only through that struggle do we see the country as it is today. Only because it endured such hardships in the past does it now have iced americanos, pop music, and streets that are safe and beautiful to walk upon.
As Deok-sook drinks next to a photo of his father, fighting to muster the courage to leave Korea and work in the dark, dank, dangerous mines of West Germany, he remembers his task is not to follow his own dreams (of being a ship captain) but to put his family first at every moment. “Arasseoyo! Arasseo,” he reluctantly sighs, sipping his soju. Above the photo, written in Korean, is a famous phrase attributed to Li Qingzhao, Aristotle, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
Throughout the movie, the hardships suffered by Deok-soo and those around him are indeed bitter. Unimaginably so, sometimes. During an argument with his wife (through which we are reminded that Deok-soo is not a "good character" in the sense we would understand today), he says he has decided to leave to earn more money. That it is his fate. His wife, with tears in her eyes, remarks that although it is his life, she wonders when he might start living for himself instead of others. At that moment, perhaps when a psychological breakthrough might happen, the national anthem plays and all citizens, by law, stand, hand on hearts, and salute the flag.
These continued hardships are not just endured by Deok-soo, they are done so silently. Unflinchingly. Returning from Vietnam with a bullet in his leg and his wife brought to tears again by the sight of her wounded husband, he brushes off any sympathy or concern. “It’s nothing,” he says.
Apology for authoritarianism
Some might argue that the movie promotes an excuse for authoritarianism. It concedes indivdual sovereignty to a greater cause. It places a person not at the top of the list of desirable conditions but in service to something else: their loved ones. Personal dreams are sacrificed so that others might enjoy comfort and pleasure.
And this is how families are created and how nations grow, not through the satiation of individual desire. The actual ideology underpinning the society is often irrelevant. The same principle applies in communist, capitalist, Muslim and atheist nations. If a sense of duty and sacrifice prevails, the group and community will thrive. If it is absent, the opposite will arise. Nihilism and hedonism will take root and people will play their fiddles in baths of milk as the world burns around them.
The movie presents a very positive and romanticized version of Korea’s cultural and economic growth. It does not feature Jeon Tae-il. It whitewashes Korea’s involvement in the Vietnam War. And ignores much of the oppression and murder carried out by military dictators over the decades. This is a movie made by Koreans, for Koreans, to paint Korean growth in a largely positive light. And it achieves its goal. For those who bemoan the absence of critical analysis in this movie, do they also ask why pop songs rarely feature minor chords or existential lyrics? Moreover, Korean cinema is replete with dark explorations of history and trauma. "Peppermint Candy," "Parasite," "Memories of Murder" and many many more all provide excellent and brutal portrayals of Korean society past and present. It’s not as if Korean society forbids or bans such movies like many of its Asian neighbours. In fact, international audiences seem to like them so much that things like "Ode to My Father" become almost lost amidst the noise of dystopia and suffering.
The most important thing to remember is that this movie is not the final word in the conversation about Korea’s growth. It is the start of a discussion. Many of my students know absolutely nothing about the Vietnam War, let alone Korea’s participation in it. We can then move to Viet Thanh Nguyen’s excellent book “Nothing Ever Dies.” We can explore how just like the Korean War helped make Japan rich, so did the Vietnam War help Korea become rich. War is like that. Undoubtedly, there are many complex and inter-related reasons for Korea’s success, including American financial and military support, the exploitation of domestic workers, (often young women), the relationship between the government and big business, Korean creativity, pragmatism and a never say die attitude. This last part is emphasized by the appearance of the Hyundai CEO in the movie in the early stages. Yet to achieve any of the success that would drive the country into the 21st century he says to a young Deok-soo, “There may be trials, but failure is not an option.” For both the young "gajang" and the country of South Korea, he is right.
The young and the old
When we look at young people today, it is easy to consider them selfish and disinterested. And some will immediately brush off this movie as over-the-top nonsense. Domestic members of the Democratic Party of Korea and cynical academics will say this movie is a vehicle for old Korean conservative patriotism, but it is clearly more than that. I have watched it four times over the past week with hundreds of students from all over the world. It actually moves young people from all walks of life. A young female Chinese student said it reminded her of her grandmother eating grass to survive. The tall Australian man said it spoke to him about his own family and their struggles. Everyone cried. Everyone, no matter where they were from, felt that this movie was speaking to them. Somehow. This decade-old Korean movie was telling them about their own family and their own country’s history.
And hopefully it also breeds some empathy for the elderly. When conversations in modern Korean society around gender, politics and modernization occur, we are very quickly and easily presented with dismissive remarks about the elderly members of society. “Just wait. Everything will be better when the old people die and get out of the way” is something I have heard suggested more than once. But the old people were children once, too. Their values, their ideas, and their lifestyle are all the result of the culture that created them. In the movie Deok-soo is not necessarily a good person (in the modern sense). He is misunderstood by his family and largely derided by them. But through the movie, through seeing his history, his past, his suffering, and his duty, we learn to understand him a bit more, even if we don’t necessarily agree with him. We cry when he cries.
And that is the beauty of this movie. It provides people with a genuinely moving aesthetic experience that might help them see the elderly people around them in a different light. It reminds them of the importance of history. And it tells them that sometimes, some people, choose duty over individual desire. And that is a good thing.
David A. Tizzard has a doctorate in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He is a social-cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He is also the host of the "Korea Deconstructed" podcast, which can be found online. He can be reached at datizzard@swu.ac.kr.
The Korea Times · October 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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