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Quotes of the Day:
"If it is any consolation, you should be aware that very few armies have been equally competent in the conduct of regular and irregular warfare. The principal reason is glaringly obvious. Armies generally are organized, equipped, and trained to fight other armies with characteristics similar to theirs. In regular warfare one seeks victory though the decisive defeat of the enemies’ forces on the battlefield. Although the enterprise is thoroughly political in motivation and meaning, the proximate behavior is, and has to be, military. An army commander may contribute to a dialog on strategy with his political masters, but corporals, sergeants, captains, colonels, and even one- and two-star generals will not.20 They will be fully occupied fighting the war. The problem is that in irregular warfare there is an armed enemy in the theater, but his military defeat or humiliation is not the prime objective of the COIN effort. This is not to say that such defeat is unimportant, a vital matter to which I shall return."
- Colin Gray
"He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything."
- Arabian proverb
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
1. S. Korea, U.S. revive consultative meeting on N.K. human rights after 6 years
2. JCS says N. Korea could test-fire solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile
3. Experts react: Are the US and South Korea following through on the Washington Declaration?
4. Nuclear arms of N. Korea, China, Russia pose 'existential' dangers to U.S., its allies: report
5. U.N. committee adopts resolution on N. Korean human rights for 19th straight year
6. Defense chief vows to ramp up cyberwarfare capability
7. Half a Million Youngsters Sit University Entrance Exam
8. Apple CEO Tim Cook vows to continue cooperation, investment in S. Korea
9. Yoon calls for enhancing connectivity of world economy with APEC at center
10. “UNC member states confirm their willingness to intervene in case of emergency… “We look forward to full-scale participation in joint training.”
11. Truth commission launches probe into N. Korea's 'paradise on Earth' lies
12. North Korean leader's daughter known by wrong name: expert
13. NK, Russia sign cooperation protocol after talks on economy, science: KCNA
14. N. Korea warns of 'visible, strategic' military actions over S. Korea-U.S. defense talks
15. Kimchi Day to go global
16. Risking war from Europe to Asia
17. N Korea, Russia strengthen key sector ties, risk UN sanctions breach
18. ＜Inside N. Korea＞ ASIAPRESS confirms that defectors were forcibly repatriated in October…N. K authorities warn would-be defectors that they will be caught by facial recognition systems in China
1. S. Korea, U.S. revive consultative meeting on N.K. human rights after 6 years
We can now take an alliance human rights upfront approach.
S. Korea, U.S. revive consultative meeting on N.K. human rights after 6 years | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · November 16, 2023
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States resumed a long-suspended bilateral forum on North Korea's human rights and held a meeting in Brussels this week for the first time in six years, the foreign ministry said Thursday.
Chun Young-hee, director general for the Korean Peninsula peace regime at the ministry, and Ambassador Julie Turner met in Brussels on Wednesday (local time), and discussed ways for bilateral and multilateral cooperation to improve North Korea's human rights situation, it said.
The two sides criticized the dire rights situation in the North and voiced concerns over the regime's use of the pandemic to tighten control over its people, as well as blocking information from entering the country, according to the ministry.
South Korea and the U.S. launched the bilateral North Korean Human Rights Consultation in 2016, and held three meetings that year and the following year.
The talks, however, were suspended under the previous liberal administration of President Moon Jae-in. Since taking office in May last year, the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration has taken a proactive stance in addressing the North's rights issues.
Chun Young-hee (3rd from L), director general for the Korean Peninsula peace regime at South Korea's foreign ministry, holds a consultative meeting on the North Korean human rights issue with Julie Turner (2nd from R), U.S. special envoy on North Korean human rights, in Brussels, Belgium, on Nov. 15, 2023, in this photo provided by the ministry the following day. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
julesyi@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · November 16, 2023
2. JCS says N. Korea could test-fire solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile
Excerpts:
Lee said the test of the solid-fuel, which is harder to detect due to shorter preparation time, is part of Pyongyang's pursuit of solid-fuel missiles with varying ranges, in addition to new types of short-range ballistic missiles and the Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, which it test-fired in April and July.
North Korea's missile development "poses a serious threat not only to the Korean Peninsula but also to global peace and stability," he said.
In light of North Korea's growing missile and nuclear threats, the JCS official said the South Korean military will shore up its capabilities and strengthen the joint extended deterrence efforts with the U.S.
"Intelligence authorities of South Korea and the U.S. have been coordinating to closely monitor North Korea's technology development, activities and possibilities of various provocations," Lee said.
JCS says N. Korea could test-fire solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · November 16, 2023
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean military said Thursday that North Korea could test-fire a new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) following its recent tests of its solid-fuel engine to advance its weapons program.
Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun made the assessment, a day after North Korea said it has successfully tested newly developed solid-fuel engines for a new type of IRBM over the past week.
Lee said Pyongyang's solid-fuel IRBM under development could potentially target U.S. military bases in Japan and Guam, as well as United Nations Command's rear bases in Japan, which are designed to provide vital logistics support in time of contingencies on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea "is highly likely to conduct an actual test-firing (of the IRBM) in the future," Lee said during a regular press briefing.
A fire shoots out and smoke rises during a ground jet test of a new type of high-thrust solid engine for intermediate-range ballistic missiles, in this undated photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 15, 2023. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Lee said the test of the solid-fuel, which is harder to detect due to shorter preparation time, is part of Pyongyang's pursuit of solid-fuel missiles with varying ranges, in addition to new types of short-range ballistic missiles and the Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, which it test-fired in April and July.
North Korea's missile development "poses a serious threat not only to the Korean Peninsula but also to global peace and stability," he said.
In light of North Korea's growing missile and nuclear threats, the JCS official said the South Korean military will shore up its capabilities and strengthen the joint extended deterrence efforts with the U.S.
"Intelligence authorities of South Korea and the U.S. have been coordinating to closely monitor North Korea's technology development, activities and possibilities of various provocations," Lee said.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · November 16, 2023
3. Experts react: Are the US and South Korea following through on the Washington Declaration?
Yes, the focus of this piece is on extended deterrence and the implementation of the Washington Declaration which is very important.. However, I will renew my criticism that the SCM omitted the political object of the alliance and did not acknowledge the strategic guidance from both presidents, namely the pursuit of a free and unified Korea. The military must be prepared to provide military support to the political process of unification following war, regime collapse, or any other contingency that might occur on the Korean peninsula.
Experts react: Are the US and South Korea following through on the Washington Declaration?
atlanticcouncil.org · by jcookson · November 15, 2023
China Indo-Pacific Japan Korea Politics & Diplomacy Security & Defense United States and Canada
New Atlanticist
November 15, 2023 • 12:50 pm ET
By Atlantic Council experts
The deterrence is in the details. In April, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and US President Joe Biden unveiled the landmark Washington Declaration on nuclear deterrence and consultation, part of an ambitious agenda laid out at their summit to strengthen the seventy-year-old US-South Korea alliance and deter North Korea from launching an attack. This week, US and South Korean defense officials and military leaders met in Seoul for two meetings that, while long-standing annual events, have taken on a new urgency following the Declaration: the fifty-fifth Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) between top civilian defense officials and the forty-eighth Military Committee Meeting (MCM) between four-star military officers. Below, Atlantic Council experts break down the results of these meetings and share their insights on whether the ambitions set out in April are becoming a reality now.
Click to jump to an expert analysis:
Click to jump to an expert analysis:
Markus Garlauskas: The work has begun to operationalize and institutionalize progress
Bee Yun Jo: Progress is being made in all five pillars of extended deterrence
Brad Gericke: The US-South Korea “Defense Vision” is where the rubber meets the road
Jessica Taylor: US-South Korea cooperation now needs new operational plans to go with it
Lauren D. Gilbert: The alliance will need a bottom-up approach to weather domestic uncertainty
Kyoko Imai: Building the foundation for Seoul-Tokyo-Washington cooperation
The work has begun to operationalize and institutionalize progress
These meetings faced high South Korean expectations to quickly demonstrate progress beyond “just words” since the April summit, and exceeded these expectations in several areas that Bee Yun Jo highlights below. As the recent Atlantic Council report “Deterrence is crumbling in Korea: How we can fix it” explains, the alliance is facing new drivers of risk to deterrence, so the United States and South Korea need to take steps to reduce the risk of strategic deterrence failure. Given the seriousness of the risk of North Korea using chemical and nuclear weapons in particular, Major General (retired) Brad Gericke zeroes in on the importance of getting the details right for alliance preparations to counter the use of such weapons of mass destruction (WMD) where “the rubber meets the road.”
Though details from meetings are often scant in public communiques, the SCM readout did include specific new language on alliance preparations to meet nuclear attacks: a table-top-exercise with nuclear use focus for the first time; discussion of including North Korean nuclear use during a future alliance military exercise; and even “joint execution and planning” for South Korean military support to US nuclear operations. Such measures strengthen “deterrence by denial” by signaling the alliance’s ability to “fight through” a nuclear attack, as well as better positioning the alliance if deterrence fails. Though less camera-friendly than deploying aircraft carriers, missile submarines, and bombers, these new measures have deterrent weight beyond displaying long-established capabilities.
This year, for the first time, the SCM was also bracketed by new multilateral defense meetings. A US-South Korea-Japan trilateral just before the SCM—as Kyoko Imai outlines—capitalized on political momentum to start operationalizing trilateral defense cooperation on missile warning and military exercises. Then after the SCM, representatives from United Nations Command member states—including rom Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—met to declare their unity with the United States and South Korea in the event of renewed hostilities in Korea.
Overall, these meetings should go a long way in reassuring South Koreans, restoring the crumbing deterrence of North Korea, and strengthening multilateral mechanisms supporting alliance deterrence efforts. But—as Jessica Taylor warns—these meetings showed perhaps not as much progress toward the even more politically sensitive subject of preparing for and deterring a two-front war with China and North Korea. Ultimately, successfully operationalizing new defense measures in the alliance, particularly on politically sensitive topics, as Lauren Gilbert explains, will require consistent working-level follow-through to institutionalize the gains made in this year’s high-level meetings—before the favorable political climate that has enabled such progress shifts in the years ahead.
—Markus Garlauskas led the US intelligence community’s strategic analysis on North Korea as the national intelligence officer for North Korea, after serving as the chief strategist at the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command and US Forces Korea. He is the director of the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security of the Atlantic Council, and is @Mister_G_2 on X (formerly Twitter).
Report
Nov 9, 2023
Deterrence is crumbling in Korea: How we can fix it
By Markus Garlauskas, Lauren D. Gilbert
Conventional wisdom in the United States holds that deterrence in Korea is strong, but this widespread confidence is based on a backward look at long-standing assumptions that are no longer tenable, along with rapidly shifting politico-military conditions. This report explains the urgent actions required to get ahead of these changes and maintain effective deterrence.
China Indo-Pacific
Progress is being made in all five pillars of extended deterrence
With the pressing need to show that the Washington Declaration and the newly inaugurated Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) are “more than words,” this fifty-fifth SCM was surely a performance and credibility test for the alliance. The test results so far are encouraging.
Despite only seven months passing since the Washington Declaration was signed in April 2023, substantive progress is already evident in all five pledged areas to enhance extended deterrence against North Korean threats. As specified during the inaugural NCG meeting in July 2023, the five areas include: 1. information sharing (development of security and information sharing protocols against North Korean threats); 2. joint planning and execution; 3. a consultation mechanism (nuclear consultation and communication processes in crises and contingencies); 4. joint exercises, simulations, and training; and 5. enhancing visibility of US strategic asset deployments around the Korean Peninsula.
To highlight, new accomplishments out of the latest SCM are as follows. For information sharing, the allies have newly agreed to share data from US reconnaissance satellites by “expand[ing] cooperation of the US Shared Early Warning System (SEWS).” There is an evident shared understanding on the need to enhance the alliance’s joint detection capabilities if the alliance is to enable joint planning and execution of its capabilities against North Korean missile threats.
For joint planning and execution, the fifty-fifth SCM marked the signing of a newly revised joint South Korea-US deterrence strategy, known as the “tailored deterrence strategy (TDS).” While there were calls to update the TDS as North Korea continued to advance its nuclear and missile capabilities, the progress was limited and slow. The TDS, because it was written in 2013, was not able to fully reflect North Korea’s rapidly changing capabilities and offensive nuclear doctrine and scenarios, vis-à-vis US and South Korean capabilities. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik’s final signing of the new TDS during the fifty-fifth SCM is a manifestation of the alliance’s expedited progress since the Washington Declaration and the establishment of the NCG.
More importantly, the fifty-fifth SCM highlighted the alliance’s renewed alignment in the means to enhance credibility of the United States’ nuclear umbrella: Via operationalizing conventional-nuclear integration of alliance capabilities. By expanding and specifying the “ROK-side role in preparation against DPRK’s nuclear and other WMD use and conventional threats,” the alliance seeks to operationalize the “full range of capabilities” against any North Korean attacks.
For consultation, there is also notable progress. When the NCG was first established in April, questions loomed on its role and possible overlap with the existing consultation mechanisms on extended deterrence, particularly the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCG) . However, as stated in the fifty-fifth SCM’s joint communique, the NCG is now to regularly update its activities “at future SCMs”; and its role is clarified as focusing on operational-level “work streams” of “joint execution and planning for ROK conventional support to US nuclear operations in a contingency.” Synchronization and coordination of the NCG within bilateral defense mechanisms signal substantive progress on alliance consultation.
While new measures are less visible in the fourth and fifth pledged areas, the fifty-fifth SCM clearly reaffirms allies’ continued efforts to expand and regularize exercises, as well as to enhance visibility of the United States’ strategic assets. A subtle but significant development that should not be forgotten is the alliance’s agreement to enhance “rotational deployments” of US strategic assets “in and around” the Korean Peninsula, instead of just “around” the Korean Peninsula, as it was described in earlier documents.
—Bee Yun Jo is a nonresident senior fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and an associate research fellow in the Defense Strategy Division at the Center for Security and Strategy at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
The US-South Korea “Defense Vision” is where the rubber meets the road
As the SCM readout correctly stated: The “US-ROK Alliance is the linchpin of peace, stability, and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and beyond.” Formal strategic engagements such as the SCM are essential to ensure the alliance successfully exercises this “linchpin” role, by aligning the US and South Korean governments on mutual interests of deterrence against North Korean or Chinese aggression in Northeast Asia.
Notably, this SCM declared that through a combined “Defense Vision” the US and South Korean armed forces will be “enhancing extended deterrence efforts against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), modernizing Alliance capabilities by evolving into a science and technology alliance, and strengthening solidarity and regional security cooperation with like-minded partners.” In military terms, this is where the rubber meets the road, and the details will matter greatly. Washington and Seoul have to get these details right.
Operational risk is high on the Korean Peninsula, despite the limitations of North Korea’s military. North Korea’s relative decline in conventional capabilities in some ways heightens operational risk, because it leaves Pyongyang with no good options other than employing WMDs in the event it triggers a full-scale conflict. North Korea can employ unmanned aerial systems (i.e. drones), small teams of infiltrators, and massive volleys of artillery and missiles. But none of these tools will threaten the survival of the South Korean government or state.
North Korea’s large repositories of chemical weapons and its nuclear arsenal present an extraordinary danger. If Pyongyang comes to believe that these are the only tools available to it to achieve its objectives, then it might use them, despite the risk of retaliation. The US and South Korean armed forces, whose numbers have generally trended down in recent years despite improvements in niche areas such as missile defenses, will likely find it challenging to quickly snuff out North Korean WMD attacks and then take the critical action of seizing North Korea’s WMD stockpiles and disabling its command and control systems. These latter tasks are critical missions for US and South Korean forces in the event of war. They would be difficult to accomplish and require ample resources, investments that the “Defense Vision” should prioritize.
— Major General Brad Gericke, US Army (ret.), is a nonresident senior fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Most recently, Gericke served as the Army’s longest-tenured senior strategist and chief of plans.
US-South Korea cooperation now needs new operational plans to go with it
The SCM and MCM joint communiques go a step further toward extending the alliance’s security cooperation beyond the Korean peninsula. But until cooperation is institutionalized in the form of operational plans, it is unclear whether the alliance is prepared for a multi-front conflict in Northeast Asia. Through the Washington Declaration and the trilateral summit with Japan, South Korean and US senior leaders communicated a shared desire for the maintenance of peace and security across the Taiwan Strait. However, Yoon also declared that in the event of a conflict across the Taiwan Strait, South Korea would expect the United States to meet its treaty obligations to South Korea first. Yoon specifically voiced concern that North Korea would take advantage of a cross-strait contingency to carry out kinetic provocations against South Korea. This points to a discussion that the allies need to have concerning military readiness and how the alliance will operate during this possible scenario and others. To truly enhance deterrence, the United States, in cooperation with its allies, needs to demonstrate the political will and military capability to respond to a contingency beyond the peninsula.
Furthermore, the SCM joint communique mentions the significance that the EDSCG and the newly formed NCG will play in extended deterrence. However, it is unclear how these two groups differ from each other. As it stands, readouts from each meeting invoke similar language. To ensure that the NCG is not just seen as window dressing in efforts to address the South Korean public’s concerns, the alliance should clarify how these two groups differ.
—Jessica Taylor is a nonresident fellow in the Scowcroft Center’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative. Taylor has served in the US Department of Defense in both military and civil service capacities for nearly twenty years.
The alliance will need a bottom-up approach to weather domestic uncertainty
Following the completion of the fifty-fifth SCM and the forty-eighth MCM, the US-South Korea alliance appears stronger than ever. The SCM joint communique described an alliance designed not only to strengthen deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, but one that also seeks to move beyond a primary focus on traditional security and into other areas, such as new and emerging technologies, democratic values, and stronger connections with other like-minded allies and partners.
While it currently appears natural that this progress will continue into the future and onto the hundredth anniversary of the alliance in 2053, history cautions that this might not be the case. South Korea faces a public push for its own indigenous nuclear weapons, a National Assembly election in early 2024, and a president with a falling approval rating. Meanwhile, the United States faces uncertainty in Congress and has an impending election in 2024 with far-reaching implications. This all serves to show that the political climate that has resulted in successes, including the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) and the Camp David Summit, could change at any moment.
The progress shown in the SCM and MCM is vital, but to truly solidify the nature of these changes, implementation is required from the bottom up. Similar convenings beyond the ministerial level are needed to discuss feasible operational strategies and to provide a trust-building mechanism that will eventually establish these changes as the norm. As we’ve seen in several such initiatives, those at the working level are key for lasting and impactful change, even amid upheavals in the political climate.
—Lauren D. Gilbert is an associate director with the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative, housed within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
Building the foundation for Seoul-Tokyo-Washington cooperation
On November 12—one day before the fifty-fifth US-South Korea SCM—Austin, Shin, and Japanese Minister of Defense Kihara Minoru held the first-ever Trilateral Ministerial Meeting. The proximity of these meetings is no coincidence. It signifies the importance of trilateral security cooperation to US-South Korea plans to safeguard peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. More importantly, in a new and promising development in the bilateral relationship, South Korea and Japan have indicated their willingness to set aside long-standing differences to address mutual security concerns.
The most imminent regional security threat for both countries is North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile stockpile. While Pyongyang has traditionally succeeded in creating wedges between the two countries, its belligerent rhetoric and barrage of weapons testing have pushed Seoul and Tokyo closer than ever before. On top of this, the global security environment, including burgeoning military ties between North Korea and Russia, and the threat of a Hamas-style surprise attack by North Korean forces, has further heightened the trilateral partnership’s fears.
Although the US-South Korea-Japan partnership has strengthened significantly, this momentum won’t last forever. Relations between Japan and South Korea are particularly susceptible to swift reversals following changes in each country’s domestic political environments. With elections upcoming in the United States, Japan, and South Korea, the window of opportunity is narrowing rapidly. To prevent the dismantling of the immense progress that has been made thus far, the current administrations are intent on institutionalizing the trilateral partnership at warp speed.
In particular, the Camp David Summit—convening Biden, Yoon, and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida in August 2023—marked a new and forward-looking chapter in the trilateral partnership. The Trilateral Ministerial Meeting and subsequent SCM serve to reinforce the agreements made at Camp David with concrete and operational milestones for each deliverable. First, the ministers confirmed that the data-sharing mechanism to exchange real-time missile warning data of North Korean missile launches is in the final stages of testing and will be fully operational by year’s end. Additionally, the multi-year framework to conduct annual and multi-domain trilateral exercises—building on aerial exercise in October 2023—will also be finalized by December of this year.
Ultimately, the aim of senior leaders and working-level officials in Tokyo, Seoul, and Washington should be to lay the foundation for a trilateral partnership that is immune to drastic political swings in each country. The United States should also help create the building blocks to enable greater trust and direct coordination between Japan and South Korea. A truly trilateral common threat perspective and ability to share information will enable greater interoperability and wide-ranging opportunities for enhanced cooperation through future defense initiatives.
—Kyoko Imai is an assistant director with the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative (IPSI) of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
4. Nuclear arms of N. Korea, China, Russia pose 'existential' dangers to U.S., its allies: report
The 37 page report can be downloaded here: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ISAB-Report-on-Deterrence-in-a-World-of-Nuclear-Multipolarity_Final-Accessible.pdf
Nuclear arms of N. Korea, China, Russia pose 'existential' dangers to U.S., its allies: report | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · November 16, 2023
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- The nuclear weapons of North Korea, China and Russia continue to present "existential" dangers to the United States and its allies, according to a report by a U.S. government advisory board released Wednesday.
The State Department's International Security Advisory Board (ISAB) released the Report on Deterrence in a World of Nuclear Multipolarity, stressing that tackling the dangers from potential adversaries must be prioritized.
"Nuclear weapons in the hands of these and other adversaries, including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, continue to pose existential dangers to the United States and its friends, partners and allies around the world," the report said, referring to the North by its official name. "Thus responding effectively to these developments must be a national priority."
The report noted the nuclear challenge as it highlighted that the U.S. is now facing two nuclear near-peer competitors -- Russia and China.
"Russia, a former partner in nuclear risk reduction, has used nuclear threats as tools of coercion in its illegal invasion of Ukraine," the report said. "The PRC is seeking to significantly expand its arsenal."
PRC stands for China's official name, the People's Republic of China.
The report, in particular, cited a 2022 Pentagon report projecting that Beijing's nuclear arsenal could reach a stockpile of 1,500 warheads by 2035.
It also pointed out that the rapid diffusion of technology means U.S. allies are much less dependent on America for advanced technology.
"The gradual abandonment of the U.S.-Republic of Korea missile guidelines over the past two decades illustrates the declining relevance of technology controls in discouraging allies' proliferation," it said, referring to South Korea by its official name.
"But allies' military ambitions could also entail the pursuit of nuclear weapons. This should be categorically opposed by the United States," it added.
In 2021, Seoul and Washington lifted their missile guideline restrictions that had barred the South from developing or possessing ballistic missiles with a maximum range greater than 800 kilometers.
The ISAB is overseen by the under secretary of state for arms control and international security and provides its recommendations to the secretary through the under secretary.
This file photo, released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 10, 2022, shows a missile launched from an underwater platform in the North. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
sshluck@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · November 16, 2023
5. U.N. committee adopts resolution on N. Korean human rights for 19th straight year
I guess the cynic would say what has 19 years of resolutions brought us? Or more importantly and correctly, what have they done for the Korean people in the north?
That said, we must not give up the fight for human rights in north Korea. They are a moral imperative and a national security issue.
(2nd LD) U.N. committee adopts resolution on N. Korean human rights for 19th straight year | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · November 16, 2023
(ATTN: ADDS comments from foreign ministry; CHANGES dateline)
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK/SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- A U.N. General Assembly committee has passed a resolution on North Korean human rights for the 19th consecutive year amid growing concerns for the safety of North Korean escapees who were repatriated from China.
On Wednesday, the Third Committee handling human rights and social affairs adopted by consensus the resolution, which calls on countries to honor the international principle of non-refoulement. The resolution will be sent to a full General Assembly session for approval in December.
The passage came as Seoul and Washington have voiced concerns on continuing reports that hundreds of North Korean defectors in China have been forcibly repatriated as cross-border travel has increased following the North's full lifting of pandemic-driven border closures this year.
Led by the European Union, this year's resolution highlighted "very serious concerns" over the repatriations.
The resolution "strongly urges all member states to respect the "fundamental principle of non-refoulement, especially in the light of a resumption of cross-border travel."
Regarding North Koreans seeking refuge, it calls for compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment -- apparently out of persistent concerns that once repatriated, North Koreans could face harsh treatment.
Moreover, it encourages the Security Council to take "appropriate" action to ensure accountability, including by considering the referral of the North Korean situation to the International Criminal Court, and further sanctions to effectively target those who appear to be "most responsible for human rights violations."
It also condemns "in the strongest terms the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights" in the North.
At the committee session, North Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Kim Song lambasted the resolution when it was tabled for the committee's endorsement.
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) categorically denied the draft resolution on the human rights situation in the DPRK submitted by the EU ... as an anti-DPRK political plot," he said, referring to the North by its official name.
He went on to criticize the resolution as a "fraudulent document consistent with falsehood, fabrication and plot" while stressing that the North has its "people-first" policy implemented in "all spheres of social life."
This image shows a resolution on North Korea's human rights violations at a session of the U.N. Security Council. (Yonhap)
On Thursday, South Korea's foreign ministry welcomed the committee's approval of the resolution.
"Our government welcomes the adoption of the resolution by consensus at the Third Committee of the 78th U.N. General Assembly, with 62 countries, including South Korea, participating as co-sponsors," foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said during a regular press briefing.
When asked about the ministry's assessment on why the resolution did not mention China by name, Lim stressed that the resolution urges "all" U.N. member states to respect the principle of non-refoulement.
Since 2005, the U.N. General Assembly has adopted the resolution condemning North Korea's dire human rights situation every year.
As it did last year, South Korea co-sponsored the latest resolution. Since taking office in May last year, the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration has taken a proactive stance in dealing with the North's rights issues.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · November 16, 2023
6. Defense chief vows to ramp up cyberwarfare capability
A critical warfighting domain and a domain that must be defended across the spectrum of conflict.
Defense chief vows to ramp up cyberwarfare capability | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · November 16, 2023
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said Thursday that South Korea will draw up a "proactive and offensive" cybersecurity strategy to counter escalating cyberthreats to the military and the defense industry.
Shin stressed the importance of training cybersecurity professionals, also known as "white hat hackers," amid rising threats in the new sphere of war, defining cyberwarfare capabilities as "central to national defense."
"North Korea is hacking weapons development programs and space-related technologies worldwide," Shin said during an opening remark for the 2023 White Hat Conference, co-hosted by the ministry and Cyber Operations Command.
"It has also leaked personal information for cyber espionage and stolen cryptocurrency to fund its nuclear and missile development," he added.
Shin pledged to develop the military's cyber capabilities and related technologies jointly with the industry, academia and other institutions, as well as expanding cooperation with the United States and other like-minded nations.
"The military will formulate a proactive, offensive cybersecurity strategy to counter comprehensive cyberthreats in the defense sector. It will also develop related policies, systems and international cooperation frameworks to strengthen combat capabilities in the cyber domain," he said.
In June, South Korea and the U.S. created their first joint cybersecurity guidance aimed at ensuring smooth combined military operations.
The 2023 White Hat Conference, co-hosted by the Ministry of National Defense and Cyber Operations Command, is held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul on Nov. 16, 2023, in this photo provided by the ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · November 16, 2023
7. Half a Million Youngsters Sit University Entrance Exam
This day in Korea always amazes me. You really have to respect the Korean people and their focus on their children's education and the lengths the entire nation goes to to support the youth on test day. That said, the pressure on children is just too severe. A child's entire future should not be determined by a single test day. How can the Korean people harness their near radical support for education while ensuring the mental health and welfare of their youth and ensuring that there are more opportunities for success than just one day every November>
Half a Million Youngsters Sit University Entrance Exam
english.chosun.com
November 16, 2023 09:42
More than 500,000 students take the annual university entrance exam in 1,279 venues across the country on Thursday.
All eyes are on the test's difficulty after the government in June decided to eliminate "killer questions" or highly challenging problems that can typically only be solved if students have been drilled in expensive crammers.
According to the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, around 730 educators who were involved in preparing this year's exam have been living together isolated from contact with the outside world for 40 days to ensure that no questions are leaked.
Students sit the annual university entrance exam in a high school in Seoul on Thursday. /Newsis
Numbers are higher than usual this year despite the dwindling student population. A total of 504,588 students are taking the test. More than one-third or 35.3 percent are repeat candidates, the highest proportion since 1996, since many expect this year's exam would be relatively easy, so they want to give it one more try to increase their chances of getting into top-ranked universities.
This is the first year since the coronavirus pandemic broke out that face masks are no longer mandatory, and Plexiglas partitions are gone. Even candidates who have tested positive for COVID can takes the test alongside their peers but have to eat lunch in separate areas.
Candidates turned up at their designated test venues by 8:10 a.m. sharp and were not allowed to bring mobile phones or other smart devices, earphones or e-cigarettes inside.
Students walk to a test venue for the annual university entrance exam in Gwangju on Thursday. /Yonhap
Rain was expected across the country, but thunderstorms forecast for some western parts of the country are unlikely before 1:10 p.m., when the important English listening test starts. "If thunder obstructs the listening comprehension test, administrators can let students listen again during the ensuing 20-minute break," an Education Ministry official said.
The first snowfall of the season is expected on Friday in mountainous parts of Jeju Island and southwestern Korea. But on Thursday no dramatic drop in temperatures was expected. In previous years students often shivered in cold weather on exam day.
8. Apple CEO Tim Cook vows to continue cooperation, investment in S. Korea
Apple CEO Tim Cook vows to continue cooperation, investment in S. Korea | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · November 16, 2023
By Lee Haye-ah
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- Apple CEO Tim Cook vowed Wednesday to continue cooperation with and investment in South Korean firms as he met with President Yoon Suk Yeol on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, a presidential official said.
Yoon met with Cook prior to the start of the APEC CEO Summit and praised the tech giant for its contributions to developing South Korea's digital innovation ecosystem and for inspiring innovation in numerous young people and companies around the world, according to senior presidential secretary for economic affairs Choi Sang-mok.
Cook said Apple would not have been able to reach its current position without the help of the South Korean government and South Korean business partners, and noted the company concluded deals worth more than US$100 billion with South Korean companies over the past five years.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (R) shakes hands with Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook during their meeting at a hotel in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023, after arriving in the U.S. city the same day to take part in the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. (Yonhap)
"(Cook) said Apple will continue cooperation and investment to enable capable South Korean companies to grow further," Choi told reporters here.
Cook also shared that South Korea has special significance to him because his father was a veteran of the Korean War and had a special affection for the country.
Yoon expressed his gratitude on behalf of the South Korean people for Cook's father's service, while also urging the CEO to increase cooperation with South Korean companies boasting the world's leading skills and capabilities, and promising the government's active assistance.
The president met separately with GM Senior Vice President Shilpan Amin, who expressed his confidence in South Korean businesses' operations in light of the government's bold regulatory reforms and institutional improvements in line with global standards.
"He said he will continue to increase production in South Korea following the partnership over the past 30 years," Choi said.
During a meeting with Visa Executive Chair Al Kelly, Yoon thanked the company for its investments in South Korea and stressed the government's commitment to continuing to make institutional changes.
Kelly vowed to pursue the digitalization of financial services used by small business owners, while also noting there were tangible changes in exchanges and cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan since Yoon took office last year, Choi said.
hague@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · November 16, 2023
9. Yoon calls for enhancing connectivity of world economy with APEC at center
Yoon calls for enhancing connectivity of world economy with APEC at center | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · November 16, 2023
By Lee Haye-ah
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called Wednesday for enhancing the connectivity of the world economy in areas that include trade and supply chains, with the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum at its center.
Yoon issued the call during a keynote speech delivered at the APEC CEO Summit in San Francisco, shortly after he arrived in the city for the APEC leaders' summit.
"Today the world economy is once again faced with an enormous challenge. The strength of connection is weakening, and the strength of division is gaining force here and there," he said during the gathering at the Moscone Center.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum's CEO Summit at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023. (Yonhap)
Yoon said the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict and deepening technological hegemony, as well as resource weaponization, are accelerating the segmentation of the world economy into blocs, while supply chain risks highlighted by the pandemic are posing a "large threat" to nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
He also said that despite the infinite possibilities of the digital economy, data connectivity and the value it produces have yet to meet market expectations.
"In order for the world economy to once again restore its dynamism and continue sustainable growth, APEC must stand at the center to accelerate the connectivity of the world economy," he said, before outlining three types of connectivity.
First, he said, connectivity must be strengthened in trade, investment and supply chains, especially as supply chain risks are a matter of national security for states and of survival for businesses.
To do so, he proposed that APEC come up with support measures to help its member states and companies establish a supply chain response capability and share their past experiences of instituting early warning systems and taking other steps to overcome crises.
Yoon said the second type of connectivity that requires strengthening is in the digital sector and reaffirmed South Korea's commitment to actively participating in international discussions to establish digital rules.
Finally, Yoon called for expanding exchanges among the future generations of APEC member economies.
In particular, he said South Korea proposes a "Young Scientists Exchange Initiative" based on the success of the APEC Business Travel Card, which facilitates short-term business travel within the APEC region by streamlining entry procedures.
"It will guarantee free movement within the region of young people with a certain-level degree in science and who work in research and development," he said.
The APEC CEO Summit was attended by some 1,200 businesspeople and academics from within the APEC region, top business executives, including Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and leaders of APEC member economies, such as the United States, Vietnam and Peru.
hague@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · November 16, 2023
10. “UNC member states confirm their willingness to intervene in case of emergency… “We look forward to full-scale participation in joint training.”
Eunhung Cho of VOA News interviewed Adm Harris, Dr. Bennett, Lt Gen Gregson, and me on the ROK-UNC Defense Ministers meeting in Korea this week. This is a google translation of the Korean report.
“UNC member states confirm their willingness to intervene in case of emergency… “We look forward to full-scale participation in joint training.”
https://www.voakorea.com/a/7355072.html
2023.11.15
American experts assessed that it was significant that 17 UNC member states, including the United States, confirmed South Korea's defense commitments and sent a strong warning message to North Korea. There are also predictions that UNC member states will participate in joint training in a more earnest manner in the future. Reporter Cho Eun-jeong reports.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris evaluated it as important on the 14th that UNC member states expressed their will to jointly respond to armed attacks through the first Korea-UNC Defense Ministers' Meeting.
Harry Harris, former U.S. Ambassador to Korea
[Former Ambassador Harris] “The significance is that the Sending States reaffirmed, publicly, their commitment to defend the Republic. Not just the US, which one would expect as a treaty ally, but 16 other nations. “This is a big deal.”
Former Ambassador Harris, who served as commander of the Pacific Command during the Trump administration, told VOA on this day, “It is significant that the member states of the United Nations Command have publicly reaffirmed their pledge to defend Korea,” adding, “Not only the United States, which must naturally defend Korea as a treaty ally, but also other 16 “It is very important that the country participates,” he said.
Representatives of 17 UNC member states, including U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, held a meeting with South Korean Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik on the 14th and issued a joint statement saying, “There is no possibility that hostile acts or armed attacks that threaten the security of the Republic of Korea on the Korean Peninsula will resume, contrary to the principles of the United Nations.” “If this happens, we will respond jointly,” he declared.
Bruce Bennett, Senior Researcher, Land Research Institute
Bruce Bennett, a senior researcher at the Rand Institute, said in a phone call with VOA on the 14th that through this declaration, UNC member states are “confirming that they will intervene if North Korea attacks South Korea.”
[Recording: Researcher Bennett] “Really the focus I think, of this kind of activity, is let's convince North Korea that if they decide to go to war, they have an international problem on their hands and that helps deter North Korea.”
He said the focus of this meeting was “to let North Korea know that if it decides to go to war, it will become an international problem,” adding, “This will help deter North Korea.”
It is a demonstration of the united international capacity to defeat North Korea's invasion.
Bennett said that if North Korea starts a war, several countries can immediately participate in South Korea's defense because of the presence of the UNC.
Otherwise, political negotiations would be needed for other countries to participate.
South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol also said in a congratulatory message sent to the ROK-UN Defense Ministers' Meeting, “The UN Command not only implements the armistice agreement, but also integrates the forces of friendly countries and provides them to the ROK-US combined forces in case of emergency without a separate UN Security Council resolution.”
The 'Korea-UN Command Defense Ministers' Meeting', attended by the defense ministers or representatives of Korea and 17 UN Command member states, was held for the first time at the Ministry of National Defense building in Seoul on the 14th. Photo = Korean Ministry of Defense.
“UNC member countries provide logistics in case of emergency on the Korean Peninsula”
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia-Pacific Affairs Wallace Gregson said in a phone call with VOA that day that the importance of the United Nations Command to the defense of the Korean Peninsula was reaffirmed through this meeting.
In light of the war in Ukraine, if a conflict breaks out on the Korean Peninsula again, it will be very 'logistically intensive' and therefore it will be very important to request UNC member states to provide supplies to Korea.
Wallace Gregson, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia-Pacific Affairs
[Recording: Former Assistant Secretary Gregson] “The more we talk, the more we can find unique contributions for each nation in the UNC, and the more we find cooperation among the various nations in United Nations command, the more they the more we are assured of a prompt and effective response to any renewal of hostilities on the peninsula.”
Former Assistant Secretary Gregson said, as in the recent ROK-UN Command Defense Ministers' Meeting, “The more we talk, the more we can understand how each country within the UNC can uniquely contribute.”
He added, “The more we promote cooperation between various countries within the UNC, the more quickly and effectively we can respond when hostilities resume on the Korean Peninsula.”
“We will revitalize joint training and increase interoperability.”
Meanwhile, regarding the decision to revitalize joint exercises and training between the U.S.-ROK Alliance and UNC member states, interoperability will increase in the future, said David Maxwell, former deputy director of the Asia-Pacific Strategy Center and a former operational staff member of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command.
[Recording: Vice President Maxwell] “There's always been limited participation in, you know, varies over the years. But what they're really talking about is, is to really use the full capabilities of the UN command in support of the ROK US Combined Forces Command. And so really what this means is increasing the staff capability, the integration with the host nation, with South Korea and to really conduct realistic exercises.”
David Maxwell, Vice President, Asia-Pacific Strategy Center
Vice Representative Maxwell explained that the participation of UNC member states in the U.S.-ROK joint training was limited and the level of participation varied from year to year.
At the same time, he said that what Korea and the UNC member states have agreed to this time is “to actually use all of the capabilities of the UN Command to support the ROK-US Combined Forces Command.”
“What this means in practice is strengthening staff capacity and integration with our host country, South Korea, and conducting practical training,” he said.
Vice Representative Maxwell also said that so far, UNC member states have mainly participated in computer simulation 'war games', but in the future, they will be able to improve their war-fighting capabilities by participating more actively in land, sea and air training.
In addition, the Korean government's official proposal to dispatch Korean troops, including generals, to the UNC Staff Department at the meeting on this day was also evaluated as a measure to improve interoperability.
[Recording: Vice President Maxwell] “Remember that the bulk of the forces that defend South Korea are South Korean. And so regardless of how many forces the US sends the international community, the majority of forces will always be South Korea. So South Korea is the main effort. And so sending South Korean officers to the UN staff will improve interoperability. I mean, there are nobody who's more expert on the terrain, on the defense plans and the military capabilities that exist on the Korean Peninsula than officers from the Korean military.”
Vice Representative Maxwell said, “Most of the troops defending Korea are the Korean military,” and added, “No matter how many troops the United States sends, Korea will be the main force.”
He added, “No one knows the terrain, defense plans, and military capabilities of the Korean Peninsula better than ROK military officers.”
Vice Representative Maxwell explained that the 'revitalization' of the United Nations Command has been promoted in earnest since 2014 as a work to ensure that the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces, U.S. Forces Korea, and United Nations Command can each become fully functional independent commands.
He said that, especially since 2014, more and more countries have been sending officers to the United Nations Command, with Australia, Canada, and New Zealand sending deputy commanders and senior officers.
Deputy Representative Maxwell said this is intended to integrate international forces for maximum military effectiveness in defending Korea.
Meanwhile, in response to the criticism that the end-of-war declaration promoted by the former Moon Jae-in administration could lead to the disbandment of the UNC, former Ambassador Harris repeatedly emphasized the importance of the UNC.
[Former Ambassador Harris] “The end-of-war declaration was always naive. We already have an end-of-war declaration...it's called the Armistice. The question which supporters of such a declaration never adequately addressed to my satisfaction is what changes the day after the declaration is signed? North Korea still remains a threat. The Armistice is still extant. The US is still treaty-bound to defend the ROK. The UNC is critically important to the day-to-day management of the Joint Security Area and to the involvement of the Sending States.”
Former Ambassador Harris said, “It is a naive idea to declare the end of the war,” and added, “There is already an armistice agreement.”
He then asked, “What will change the day after the declaration of the end of the war is signed?” and added, “North Korea still remains a threat, the armistice line still exists, and the United States still has an obligation to defend South Korea according to the treaty.”
“The United Nations Command is very important to the day-to-day management of the Joint Security Area and the participation of troop-contributing countries,” he said.
Vice Representative Maxwell said, “The idea that the declaration of the end of the war will lead to the dissolution of the UNC is speculation,” and added, “We do not know what decision the Security Council will make.”
However, he emphasized, “The error in the declaration of the end of the war is that a single piece of paper cannot stop the bullets, rockets, and artillery that will rain down on Seoul,” and “There can be no declaration of the end of the war if there is no promise to reduce actual troops.”
He pointed out that “the declaration does not change North Korea’s attack posture toward South Korea, nor does it change Kim Jong-un’s intentions.”
The United Nations Command was formed by UN resolution after North Korea's invasion of the South on June 25, 1950, and since the signing of the Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953, it has been responsible for managing the Armistice Agreement and supporting the U.S.-ROK Combined Forces Command in case of emergency.
Currently, the UNC member states are 14 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkmenistan, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, the Netherlands, Colombia, Greece, New Zealand, Belgium, France, and South Africa, which sent combat troops during the Korean War, and Norway and Denmark, which sent medical support groups. , Italy, etc.
The Korean Ministry of National Defense plans to regularize the ROK-UNC Defense Ministers' Meeting in the future.
North Korea continues to demand the disbandment of the United Nations Command.
The North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Disarmament and Peace Research Institute argued in a press statement on the 13th that "disbanding the United Nations Command is an essential demand to prevent the outbreak of a new war and protect peace and security on the Korean Peninsula."
This is Cho Eun-jeong of VOA News.
11. Truth commission launches probe into N. Korea's 'paradise on Earth' lies
Excellent. It is important to recognise this scam/crime by north Korea.
As I have recommended we need to take a holistic view of human rights and include all elements of the north's crimes against humanity from the gulags and political prison camps and Songbun inside north Korea, the 78,000 ROK POWs never returned, to the abductees from South Korea and Japan and the 93,000 Koreans who were duped into returning to the north.
Excerpt:
All this means that the efforts to shed light on the sufferings of the victims are finally gaining traction, after being ignored by both Japanese and South Korean governments for decades, said Lee Ji-yoon, a program manager at the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, an NGO in Seoul.
“For too long, authorities in both South Korea and Japan shifted the blame onto the victims, who were deceived by the North Korean government,” Lee said.
The tragedy began following Korea’s independence from Japan and the subsequent 1950-53 Korean War. While their country was divided, ethnic Koreans in Japan lost their Japanese citizenship as a result of the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951.
When North Korea started to promote the resettlement program mainly targeting them — as it sought to fill a labor void after the war — many Koreans in Japan fell for its false promises of a “paradise on Earth,” where they would not have to pay for anything. But their illusions of communism were shattered by the brutal reality of life in North Korea as soon as they arrived, by which time it was too late to change their minds.
Truth commission launches probe into N. Korea's 'paradise on Earth' lies
The Korea Times · November 16, 2023
People wave North Korean flags before boarding ships bound for North Korea at the port of Niigata in Japan, in this file photo from December 1959. South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an independent investigative state body, has recently launched a probe into the case, an official and human rights activists told The Korea Times on Thursday. Courtesy of Kim Deog-young
Efforts to shed light on suffering of 100,000 victims gain traction after decades
By Jung Min-ho
South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has recently launched an investigation into North Korea’s resettlement program, under which nearly 100,000 people were tricked into moving there between 1959 and 1984.
According to an official from the commission and human rights activists on Thursday, the independent investigative state body is looking into North Korea’s rights abuses against more than 93,000 people, mainly ethnic Koreans living in Japan, who went there dreaming of a new life in a “socialist utopia” based on the lies of the regime.
This is the first investigation initiated by a governmental organization on that case. Activists representing more than 20 victims, who later escaped North Korea, and their families, said they submitted an official request for investigation in December 2022.
“Years of our efforts have not been in vain. We are deeply grateful for the decision,” Lee So-ra, a director of a Japanese NGO supporting the survivors, told The Korea Times. “I hope this investigation will help the South Korean public understand more about the rights violations caused by the resettlement program and, based on the outcome, will lead to proper measures for the victims.”
The revelation of the commission’s move comes after the Tokyo High Court’s verdict against the regime and Chongryon, a pro-North Korean group that played a major role in promoting the program in Japan. The appeals court ruled on Oct. 30 that Japan has jurisdiction over the case and found the North Korean government violated the four plaintiffs’ rights by enticing them with disinformation and then confining them within its territory.
All this means that the efforts to shed light on the sufferings of the victims are finally gaining traction, after being ignored by both Japanese and South Korean governments for decades, said Lee Ji-yoon, a program manager at the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, an NGO in Seoul.
“For too long, authorities in both South Korea and Japan shifted the blame onto the victims, who were deceived by the North Korean government,” Lee said.
The tragedy began following Korea’s independence from Japan and the subsequent 1950-53 Korean War. While their country was divided, ethnic Koreans in Japan lost their Japanese citizenship as a result of the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951.
When North Korea started to promote the resettlement program mainly targeting them — as it sought to fill a labor void after the war — many Koreans in Japan fell for its false promises of a “paradise on Earth,” where they would not have to pay for anything. But their illusions of communism were shattered by the brutal reality of life in North Korea as soon as they arrived, by which time it was too late to change their minds.
Yet there is little government information available about the victims' personal details, the rights violations they suffered in North Korea and what the South Korean government did to stop the resettlement program. Rights groups said they rely mostly on public information from the Red Cross, one of the parties involved in the program.
Citing witnesses’ accounts, Lee said rights violations started the moment the ships departed from the port of Niigata in Japan.
“There was a case in which a teenage boy who said he wanted to return home to Japan was later separated from his parents over his ‘mental problem,’” she said. “Yet we still don’t have detailed data about what happened to them in North Korea.”
She said her group asked the commission to look deeper into each abuse case and publish a comprehensive report. For now, records from state departments and agencies are scattered and many of them remain confidential, she added.
“All this will require close collaboration with the government and activists in Japan as well as the Red Cross. I hope this fact-finding mission will become a starting point of the two countries’ cooperation for the common goal of improving human rights in North Korea,” she said.
The Korea Times · November 16, 2023
12. North Korean leader's daughter known by wrong name: expert
Dennis Rodman, our best intelligence source in north Korea, strikes again. :-)
Hmmm... maybe that could make a SITCOM about KJU's daughter and call it "That Girl." (okay, only people over a certain age will understand my reference and my lame attempt at humor).
Excerpt:
“Ju-ae is a misnomer,” Choe Su-yong, a former official at the National Intelligence Service (NIS), told The Korea Times. “Her name is Eun-ju, not Ju-ae.”
Choe said retired U.S. basketball star Dennis Rodman, who visited North Korea several times, with his last trip taking place in 2017, is the source of an “unconfirmed fact” about Kim’s daughter.
“I heard that Kim introduced his daughter to Rodman during his visit to North Korea, saying in Korean that ‘jeo-ae’ (that girl) is his daughter. Rodman seemed to have misunderstood the Korean word ‘jeo-ae’ as her name,” he said, citing intelligence he gathered from his informants in North Korea as the source of the information. “Rodman told the media that Kim’s daughter’s name is Ju-ae and this is what she has been called as such ever since.”
Choe, who had worked in the counter-espionage division at the NIS for two decades before retiring in 2010, declined to share further details about his informants, saying he did not want to risk their lives.
This reporter contacted Rodman via email to confirm Choe’s claim, but the U.S. sports star did not respond to the request.
North Korean leader's daughter known by wrong name: expert
The Korea Times · November 16, 2023
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talks with the North's Navy Commander Adm. Kim Myong-sik, right, with the leader’s daughter, Ju-ae, sitting in the middle during their congratulatory visit marking the anniversary of the Navy on Aug. 28, in this image captured from the North's Korean Central Television, Aug. 29. Yonhap
Retired intelligence officer says Kim Jong-un has four children, two of them born out of wedlock
By Kang Hyun-kyung
In North Korea, any information about its leader is top secret.
When Kim Jong-il (1941-2011), the father of current leader Kim Jong-un, was in power, North Korean residents did not even know if he was married or not or whether he had any children.
Some defectors testified that it was only after they arrived in South Korea that they came to know the older Kim had married several times and had four children, including Kim Jong-un and his half-brother Jong-nam who was assassinated after being poisoned by VX nerve agent in 2014 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
North Korea’s decades-long tradition of keeping its leader’s family tree under wraps was partially broken when Kim Jong-un rose to power following his father’s sudden death in 2011 due to cardiac arrest.
Kim appeared in public with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, multiple times. He showed up at several major events along with his daughter since she was first spotted in November last year during the test launch of the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile.
Despite the change, other details of Kim’s daughter, such as her age and other siblings, remain unknown as North Korean officials have kept their lips tightly sealed.
In North Korea’s state-controlled media, Kim’s daughter is depicted as the “respected child” or “dear child” of its supreme leader, without revealing her name.
South Korean and Western media, however, have referred to her as Kim’s second child “Ju-ae” since her first public appearance.
A retired South Korean intelligence officer claimed that the media is using the wrong name to refer to Kim’s daughter.
“Ju-ae is a misnomer,” Choe Su-yong, a former official at the National Intelligence Service (NIS), told The Korea Times. “Her name is Eun-ju, not Ju-ae.”
Choe said retired U.S. basketball star Dennis Rodman, who visited North Korea several times, with his last trip taking place in 2017, is the source of an “unconfirmed fact” about Kim’s daughter.
“I heard that Kim introduced his daughter to Rodman during his visit to North Korea, saying in Korean that ‘jeo-ae’ (that girl) is his daughter. Rodman seemed to have misunderstood the Korean word ‘jeo-ae’ as her name,” he said, citing intelligence he gathered from his informants in North Korea as the source of the information. “Rodman told the media that Kim’s daughter’s name is Ju-ae and this is what she has been called as such ever since.”
Choe, who had worked in the counter-espionage division at the NIS for two decades before retiring in 2010, declined to share further details about his informants, saying he did not want to risk their lives.
This reporter contacted Rodman via email to confirm Choe’s claim, but the U.S. sports star did not respond to the request.
In an interview with the British daily, The Guardian, released in September 2013, Rodman shared some details of his private meeting with Kim and his family.
The NBA star said he shared many meals and drinks with Kim and his family.
“I held their baby Ju-ae and spoke with Ms. Ri as well. He’s a good dad and has a beautiful family,” he said.
The NIS told The Korea Times that there is no additional information it can share with the media about Kim’s daughter.
Unification Ministry spokesperson Koo Byung-sam said the ministry is not in a position to confirm information on the North Korean leader’s daughter.
“Her name is known to be Ju-ae after U.S. sports star Dennis Rodman revealed her name in the media. There is no extra information that the unification ministry can share about her name,” he told The Korea Times.
This handout image taken by Jason Mojica and received from VICE Media on March 1, 2013 shows former NBA star Dennis Rodman, front right, applauding as he sits next to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, front left, with other spectators at a basketball game in Pyongyang. AFP-Yonhap
Gag order generates unconfirmed facts
An Chan-il, the first North Korean defector to obtain a doctoral degree in the South, said information about the North Korean leader’s children is top secret, so there is no way for the residents of the reclusive state or people outside of the country to know about it.
“Only a few North Koreans, who are very close to Kim, would know about his children,” he said. “In North Korea, speaking publicly about the leader’s family tree or genealogy is prohibited and those who break that rule will be taken to a prison camp.”
The defector added there is a kind of gag order in place about the ruling family members.
“Prohibiting people from accessing information about the royal family is part of the culture of the personality cult. In North Korea, people are not supposed to speak publicly about the personal life of their leader or his children. North Korean residents are not even allowed to have the same name as the leader,” he said.
An said his younger brother had to change his name because he shared the first name with former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. “His name was An Jong-il and he voluntarily changed his first name as he didn’t want to get in trouble,” he said.
After Kim’s daughter’s first public appearance in November last year, the NIS confirmed that the girl’s name is Ju-ae and that she is Kim’s second child.
According to the spy agency, Kim and Ri married in 2009 and they have three children with the first child born in 2010, the second in 2013 and the third in 2017.
Choe, however, questions the accuracy of the information, citing intelligence he gathered from his sources in the North revealing that Kim Jong-un has four children, not three as the NIS confirmed.
He said Kim's wife, Ri, gave birth to two children — a son named “Ryong-ju” and the daughter known to the media as Ju-ae. The two others — the eldest and the youngest — were born out of wedlock.
“Kim’s first child is a son, and his name is Il-bong,” Choe said, adding that he is an illegitimate child and his mother is North Korean singer-turned-politician Hyon Song-wol. “Kim’s youngest child is believed to be five years old or less. It remains unknown whether that child is a girl or a boy, but the child was born out of wedlock, too. The mother of that child is a Korean Japanese pianist. She is known by her first name Ryo-sim. But I don’t have any further details about her,” he added.
Duped by the propaganda portraying North Korea as a paradise, nearly 100,000 Koreans living in Japan migrated to North Korea on a ferry since 1959. In the North, they and their children have been victims of various forms of discrimination and persecution as some were accused of being spies. The woman who allegedly had a child with Kim Jong-un is believed to be a descendant of those Koreans who migrated to the North from Japan.
Information about Kim’s children matters, because factors like the order of birth, gender and whether they are legitimate or illegitimate all affect the selection of Kim’s successor.
Choe claimed that there was a power struggle in the North during the past few years, adding that Hyon survived and became Kim Jong-un’s favorite aide.
Hyon, who is the mother of Kim’s first child, according to Choe, is a North Korean singer and former leader of the Moranbong Band and the Samjiyon Orchestra. She has drawn keen media attention for her dramatic rise from being a singer to a high-ranking politician.
She was promoted to vice director of North Korea’s powerful Propaganda and Agitation Department and became a protocol officer for Kim Jong-un, a role previously played by Kim’s powerful sister Yo-jong.
As a protocol officer, Hyon has appeared alongside the North Korean leader at major political events.
Some Western media described Hyon as Kim’s ex-girlfriend.
Choe said Hyon’s ties with the North Korean leader began in the late 1990s when Kim Jong-un was studying in Switzerland. At that time, he said Hyon served as a kind of nanny and caretaker for Kim and his sister, and her relationship with Kim continued after they returned to the North.
Singer Hyon Song-wol, then leader of the North Korean Samjiyon Orchestra, smiles at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 1, 2019. Reuters-Yonhap
The Korea Times · November 16, 2023
13. NK, Russia sign cooperation protocol after talks on economy, science: KCNA
Of course they did.
NK, Russia sign cooperation protocol after talks on economy, science: KCNA
The Korea Times · November 16, 2023
North Korea and Russia sign a protocol on expanding cooperation in the fields of trade, economy, science and technology, Nov. 15, in this photo carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. Yonhap
North Korea and Russia have signed a protocol on expanding cooperation in various fields following bilateral talks on economy, science and technology held in Pyongyang, the North's state media reported Thursday.
The agreement was signed after the two countries held the 10th meeting of the Committee for Cooperation in Trade, Economy, Science and Technology on Wednesday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said without specifying details.
The meeting was a follow-up to the rare summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in September. A Russian government delegation, led by Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov, arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday to attend the meeting.
The meeting discussed measures for "revitalizing and expanding the multifaceted bilateral exchange and cooperation in different fields, including trade, economy, science and technology," under the agreement reached at the Kim-Putin summit, the KCNA said.
The North-Russia committee, a ministerial-level consultative body on economic cooperation, had held nine rounds of meetings between 1996 and 2019.
Seoul's unification ministry earlier said the committee is likely to discuss various issues, ranging from food aid, economic and logistics cooperation to dispatching North Korean workers to Russia at the November meeting.
The ministry warned the North that the international community is closely watching the talks amid persistent suspicions over its arms trade with Russia.
Meanwhile, the KCNA said in a separate dispatch that the sports ministers of North Korea and Russia held talks in Pyongyang and signed an agreement to expand exchanges and cooperation in the sports field for 2024-2026. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · November 16, 2023
14. N. Korea warns of 'visible, strategic' military actions over S. Korea-U.S. defense talks
All talk and no real significant action. In the immortal words of George Bush: "bring it on."
But I do not mean to be flippant. We are maintaining a high level of readiness and defense capability that does deter Kim from an attack. He is not stupid. He is smart enough to know that an attack into strength means certain defeat and destruction.
(LEAD) N. Korea warns of 'visible, strategic' military actions over S. Korea-U.S. defense talks | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · November 16, 2023
(ATTN: UPDATES with reaction from Seoul's unification ministry in last 2 paras)
By Kim Soo-yeon
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea threatened Thursday to take more "visible and strategic" military actions after South Korea and the United States updated their joint deterrence strategies against the North during their latest annual defense chief talks.
The North's defense ministry issued the statement, claiming that the "tailored deterrence strategy" adopted when the South Korean and U.S. defense chiefs held the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Seoul on Monday shows their ulterior goal is to invade the North.
North Korea's armed forces "strongly control and manage all threats to its national security and interests with more offensive and overwhelming counteraction capabilities and through visible strategic deterrent military actions," a ministry spokesperson said in the statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea conducts ground jet tests of a new type of high-thrust solid-fuel engines for intermediate-range ballistic missiles, in this photo carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 15, 2023. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
North Korea also denounced South Korea, the United States and Japan for agreeing to launch a real-time missile warning data sharing system in December, and Washington's deployment of its key strategic assets to the peninsula.
"It is the noble mission of the Korean People's Army to thoroughly deter any outside aggression attempt, mount a resolute counterattack on any military provocation that encroaches upon the sovereignty and security of the state and maintain full war readiness to reliably defend the territorial integrity of the country," the spokesperson said.
North Korea appears to seek to use the latest Seoul-Washington defense talks as an excuse to launch major provocations in the coming weeks.
The North said Wednesday it has successfully conducted ground tests of newly developed solid-fuel engines for a new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). The secretive regime is also believed to be preparing to launch a military spy satellite following its previous two failed attempts in May and August.
South Korea's unification ministry defended the allies' revision of the tailored deterrence strategy at the SCM as a "justifiable and self-defensive" measure to better counter North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
"It is the North Korean regime and its military that have raised tensions on the peninsula, as they pay no attention to people's lives, and are obsessed with nuclear and missile development," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · November 16, 2023
15. Kimchi Day to go global
Soft power. (Or spicy fermented cabbage power).
Kimchi Day to go global
koreaherald.com · by Lee Yoon-seo · November 16, 2023
By Lee Yoon-seo
Published : Nov. 16, 2023 - 22:22
Ambassador of Honduras to Korea Rodolfo Pastor Fasquell (second from left), Ambassador of Belarus to Korea Andrew Chernetsky (third from left) and Kim Chun-jin (fifth from left), CEO of Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. and other embassy officials pose for a photo during the launch of the Global Kimchi Forum in Seoul on Thursday. (Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp.)
Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. on Thursday declared "Global Kimchi Day" to raise awareness about the Korean staple food globally, together with Korean food buyers and foreign diplomats during the Buy Korean Food trade fair in Seoul.
The state-run food trade agency, known as aT, has already celebrated Nov. 22 as Kimchi Day following a revision to the Kimchi Industry Promotion Act in February 2020.
At Thursday’s event, aT vowed to seek the day’s global recognition, joining together with foreign supporters, including 12 buyers from nine countries, including the UK, the US, Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan, who were designated as goodwill ambassadors.
The event was joined by several ambassadors and diplomats from seven countries, including Argentina, Belarus, Honduras and Venezuela.
The Global Kimchi Forum, a consultative body bringing in voluntary cooperation globally to encourage the adoption of Kimchi Day around the world, was also launched as a part of the event.
"The global designation of Kimchi Day is an opportunity to confirm that the popularity and status of kimchi has increased worldwide, and also an opportunity to inform the international community that Korea is the suzerain state of kimchi," said aT CEO Kim Chun-jin.
"I believe today's proclamation ceremony event of 'Global Kimchi Day' will serve as an opportunity to publicize the excellence and value of kimchi to the world and to promote the health of all mankind."
koreaherald.com · by Lee Yoon-seo · November 16, 2023
16. Risking war from Europe to Asia
I just cannot get my head around this paragraph and especially the last sentence. So it would be a good thing to take out the test site even though it would likely cause strikes against the South? DOoI have that right? I am genuinely unsure of the intern of this paragraph. It certainly is the job of the 4th estate to critique the government and the military. But what about offering military advice and recommendations to attack? Especially one that will result in the loss of significant blood and treasure?
It’s possible to criticize the Americans for not responding more forcefully. It’s also possible to credit President Biden with exercising forbearance. Similarly, it would not be a good idea to take out the sites from which the North Koreans test-fire missiles or their nuclear test site in the mountainous northeast not far from the Chinese border. The result could well be Chinese and Russian intervention, North Korean strikes against the South and worldwide condemnation of the U.S., not North Korea and its powerful friends.
Risking war from Europe to Asia
The Korea Times · November 16, 2023
By Donald Kirk
Donald_Kirk_200
The specter of pressure points from Ukraine to North Korea raises a disturbing question. Is the U.S. prepared for a multi-front war?
That’s not an esoteric, theoretical abstraction. Conflict can break out anywhere opposing forces face one another, often when not expected. Washington now is financing fighting forces in dozens of countries and promising to run to the rescue of more if they too are sucked into war.
Two of these wars are more than sporadic struggles between guerrilla forces. Ukraine and Israel, largely at American expense, are fighting for their lives.
Waning international support for Ukraine means Russia’s President Vladimir Putin must keep fighting, so that eventually his enemies, notably the U.S., will tire of pumping ever more billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry into Ukrainian forces. In a waiting game, the Russians, holding 20 percent of Ukrainian territory next to their own borders, including Crimea, could hang in for years.
Then there’s Israel’s war against Hamas, which is costing the U.S. billions more than the nearly $4 billion Washington already was committed to investing this year in Israel’s military establishment. It’s not likely, considering American political support for Israel, that the U.S. will stop giving whatever is needed to buttress the Israeli Defense Forces despite outcries against the war in the U.S. and just about every other country.
No one anticipated the outbreak of either of these wars in advance. The Russians had been nibbling away at Ukraine after taking over Crimea, but who knew they’d invade the whole country? No one, including the Israelis, imagined Hamas would walk into a kibbutz in southern Israel last month on the way to a gruesome massacre.
Both those wars now confront the U.S. and its allies with the terrible question of how they think they can stand up against potential enemies like China and North Korea if their leaders stupidly break the uneasy peace? Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has talked a great game in his latest swing through the Indo-Pacific region, proclaiming the tightness of the U.S. bond with its South Korean ally and cozying up to India and Indonesia, non-allies whom Washington would like to draw into its security network.
Behind the usual words of the “ironclad” U.S.-Korean alliance lies concern about whether the U.S., when push comes to shove, would live up to its obligations to Korea as well as Japan. And what would the U.S. do if China’s President Xi Jinping lost all patience and decided to try and take over the independent island province of Taiwan? What if China, not giving up its claim to the South China Sea, fires on American fighters cruising in what the U.S. says are open skies?
We’re past the debacle in Afghanistan and on to greater problems in Ukraine and Israel plus Gaza. American interests extend throughout the region. A flotilla of American warships hovers in the Eastern Mediterranean, loaded with warplanes ready to take off from carriers and marines pumped and primed to land on the beaches
Incredibly, about 8,000 U.S. troops are in Qatar, from which Hamas leaders direct operations in Gaza. The U.S. also has a critical air base in Turkey, a NATO ally whose president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said Hamas “is not a terrorist organization” and, of course, joined the call for Israeli forces to get out of Gaza. American advisory forces remain in Iraq advising on how to parry Iranian intrusions and influence, and they’re aiding Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
How should the Americans respond to attacks on these forces by the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp? In one recent case, the U.S. sent two F15 fighter planes on a retaliatory bombing run against a place in Syria where weapons were stored – a warning of worse to come in case of more attacks on Americans scattered around the Middle East.
It’s possible to criticize the Americans for not responding more forcefully. It’s also possible to credit President Biden with exercising forbearance. Similarly, it would not be a good idea to take out the sites from which the North Koreans test-fire missiles or their nuclear test site in the mountainous northeast not far from the Chinese border. The result could well be Chinese and Russian intervention, North Korean strikes against the South and worldwide condemnation of the U.S., not North Korea and its powerful friends.
From Eastern Europe to Northeast Asia, the world is on edge. Mistakes could be catastrophic.
Donald Kirk (www.donaldkirk.com) writes about war and peace from Seoul and Washington.
The Korea Times · November 16, 2023
17. N Korea, Russia strengthen key sector ties, risk UN sanctions breach
N Korea, Russia strengthen key sector ties, risk UN sanctions breach
Moscow’s support for the North could offer a way to navigate through the complex web of international sanctions.
By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA
2023.11.15
Seoul, South Korea
rfa.org
North Korea and Russia agreed to further boost their cooperation in various sectors, including the economy, science, and technology – a development that could create potential loopholes in the United Nations sanctions aimed at curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
Officials of Pyongyang and Moscow signed a protocol that vows the expansion of the bilateral cooperation in North Korea’s capital Wednesday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
“The Protocol of the 10th Meeting of the Trade, Economic and Scientific Cooperation Commission between the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Government of the Russian Federation was signed,” KCNA said Thursday.
Since Tuesday, Russia has dispatched a delegation to Pyongyang, led by its natural resources minister Alexander Kozlov, to participate in the bilateral meeting.
“A number of issues were specifically discussed, including measures to revitalize and expand multifaceted bilateral exchanges and cooperation projects,” KCNA said, adding that the fields of discussion encompassed trade, economy, science, and technology without elaborating further.
But the state media explained the agreement was in accordance with the general consensus reached during the summit between the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September.
Two months ago, the two leaders engaged in a mutual agreement to strengthen their bilateral relations in the Far East of Russia. Specifically, they consented to cooperate in multiple sectors, such as technology and the economy.
Central to this cooperation is the possibility of Russia providing rocket technology in exchange for ammunition supplies, which are essential for sustaining its aggression against Ukraine.
Indications of this cooperation are already evident. On Wednesday, KCNA reported the successful test of a new solid-fuel engine for an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).
The technical complexity involved in testing IRBM engines suggests that Russian technical support could have assisted North Korea in acquiring high-thrust solid-fuel engines developed for their new type of IRBM. North Korea’s IRBM has a range of some 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) , capable of striking U.S. territories in the West Pacific, including Guam.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told its lawmakers in the National Assembly earlier this month that Russia has already acquired over 1 million artillery shells from North Korea since August.
The extent of the technology and ammunition exchange between North Korea and Russia remains unclear. However, the bilateral development, which involves enhanced cooperation from economy to military technology, may lead to ineffectiveness of the existing U.N. sanction regimes designed to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
In particular, Russia’s economic assistance to the Kim Jong Un regime may provide Pyongyang an alternative means and resilience to muddle-through the multilateral economic sanctions. Additionally, Moscow’s technology aid might help the North bypass international restrictions on curbing its missile technology progression.
To respond to these new geopolitical threats, the U.S. and its Asian allies, including South Korea and Japan, are likely to further tighten their security cooperation.
The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and his South Korean counterpart Park Jin, and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa met in San Francisco Tuesday, calling the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea a “serious threat to international peace and stability,” according to a statement from South Korea’s foreign ministry.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Elaine Chan
rfa.org
18. ＜Inside N. Korea＞ ASIAPRESS confirms that defectors were forcibly repatriated in October…N. K authorities warn would-be defectors that they will be caught by facial recognition systems in China
It is a brave new world with this sophisticated surveillance capabilities of authoritarian regimes.
＜Inside N. Korea＞ ASIAPRESS confirms that defectors were forcibly repatriated in October…N. K authorities warn would-be defectors that they will be caught by facial recognition systems in China
asiapress.org
The Chinese side of the Tumen River, which serves as the border between North Korea and China. Two layers of barbed-wire fencing can be seen on the “border road” on the banks of the Tumen River. An area near Hoeryong can be seen across the river. North Koreans are unable to even touch the waters of the Tumen River. Taken in August 2023 by ASIAPRESS.
In early October, the Chinese government forcibly repatriated a large number of defectors who had been detained in the country, unable to return home due to North Korea’s border lockdown. Reports suggested that the number of defectors repatriated was 500 people, and ASIAPRESS confirmed that the defectors were repatriated to Yanggang Province in the northern part of the country. North Korea’s law enforcement authorities are warning people that “if you flee to China, you’ll be caught immediately.” (KANG Ji-won)
◆ Father expresses worry about severe punishment awaiting repatriated daughter
“They say that China has developed so much that they can use machines to distinguish between Chinese and foreigners. Is that true?”
In early November, an ASIAPRESS reporting partner in Yanggang Province sent over the above question. He said that after a large number of defectors were repatriated from China in early October, Hyesan’s security officials were warning people that “even if you flee to China, facial recognition technology will ensure you are quickly caught and repatriated.”
While it is unclear exactly how many defectors were repatriated to Yanggang Province from China, the reporting partner knew several people with relatives who were repatriated and met with them to find out more. Here is what the reporting partner told ASIAPRESS:
“There are several families who have relatives who were caught in China and forcibly repatriated. One person told me that his daughter had been sold into China several years ago and that she had sent him money several times over the years, but she was forcibly repatriated back to North Korea in October.”
According to the reporting partner, the man was very unhappy because he was worried that his daughter would face serious punishment and that he would also face trouble from the authorities. A security official who told him that his daughter had been repatriated said: “Anyone who defects to China will immediately be caught. You’ll be able to visit her from around November 10.”
A poorly made sentry post built to monitor people approaching the Yalu River. Taken on the Chinese side of the Yalu River across from Sinuiju, North Pyongan Province, in mid-October 2023.
◆ Authorities warn would-be defectors that facial recognition will lead to immediate arrests in China
The reporting partner told ASIAPRESS that the state security agency is warning people that defecting into China is impossible because of China’s facial recognition systems.
“A security official said that the people caught and repatriated (in October) had all been living in China after defecting, and that they were caught by the authorities through security cameras on streets and outside homes even though their faces were not registered (in facial recognition systems). He also said that China has developed so much that (defectors) will be caught the moment they cross the border.
“Security officials are also telling people they think might run away to China that they’ll just face repatriation and severe punishment if they cross over into China without knowing the situation there. They’re warning that (defecting to China) is like cutting out one’s eye.”
The reporting partner is obviously talking about the facial recognition systems installed in many surveillance cameras located in public places in China. The North Korean authorities are placing excessive emphasis on facial recognition systems to encourage people from defecting. The reporting partner further explained:
“The authorities are intentionally saying these things to threaten people. (In January 2020) after the borders were locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become very ignorant about circumstances outside the country, so many people have heard the authorities talk about being quickly apprehended by facial recognition and come to the conclusion that defecting is impossible because of how much China has changed.”
◆ Huge drop in defections to South Korea
The high point of defections to South Korea was in 2009, when 2,941 people entered the country. After Kim Jong-un gained power in 2012, security along the North Korean borders has intensified so much that the number of defections has been curtailed significantly; however, even up until 2019, several thousand people were able to reach South Korea. In 2020, however, only 229 people reached South Korea, and this fell to 63 in 2021, 67 in 2022, and 139 as of September 2023 (according to Ministry of Unification statistics). Moreover, most of the people defecting into South Korea were those who had spent considerable time in China and Russia. After the start of the pandemic, it has become very rare for North Koreans to escape their country.
While the Kim Jong-un regime’s border lockdown has been the biggest factor, China’s zero-COVID policies also led to severe restrictions on movement inside the country, which forced defectors to stay there.
※ ASIAPRESS communicates with reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.
Map of North Korea ( ASIAPRESS)
asiapress.org
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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