Quotes of the Day:

“Society needs more individuals who understand their duty to act, rather than merely asserting their freedom to act. True progress arises from a profound sense of responsibility." 

- Seneca, the Younger.

“Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.” 

- African proverb

“A seed grows with no sound but a tree falls with huge noise. Destruction has noise, but creation is quiet. This is the power of silence… Grow silently.” 

- Confucius.

1. N. Korea says it successfully placed spy satellite into orbit, will launch more

2. S. Korea partially suspends 2018 inter-Korean military accord

3. U.S. 'strongly' condemns N. Korea's launch of space rocket

4. N. Korea's claimed success in spy satellite launch raises possibility of Russian assistance

5. USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrives in Busan in show of force

6. U.S. nuclear-powered sub arrives in S. Korea after N. Korea's satellite launch

7. S. Korea, U.S., Japan in talks to hold joint maritime drill in response to N.K. spy satellite launch

8. Nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan condemn N. Korea’s satellite launch

9. S. Korea, U.S., Japan share information on N.K. spy satellite launch: JCS

10. S. Korea says it will resume reconnaissance activities around inter-Korean border in wake of N.K. satellite launch

11. North Korea Claims Its Spy-Satellite Launch Succeeded After Prior Fails

12. S​outh Korea Scraps No-Fly Zone Near Border With North Korea

13. North's hackers pose as officials, journalists to steal info and crypto

14. South Korea suspends no surveillance clause of 2018 inter-Korean military agreement

15. N. Korean leader's son veiled in mystery amid 'Kim Il-sung phenomenon'

16.  From Yoon Dong-ju to Blackpink: banquet at Buckingham reaffirms deep ties (UK-South Korea)

17. Why North Korea may use nuclear weapons first, and why current US policy toward Pyongyang is unsustainable

18. BTS members RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook enlist for South Korean military service

1. N. Korea says it successfully placed spy satellite into orbit, will launch more

I have not seen any estimates from the intelligence community yet. I thought Kim would wait one more day for Thanksgiving but I guess the day before is close enough.

(4th LD) N. Korea says it successfully placed spy satellite into orbit, will launch more | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · November 22, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES with photos)

By Kim Eun-jung and Chae Yun-hwan

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Wednesday it has successfully placed a spy satellite into orbit and will launch several more satellites "in a short span of time" to secure its reconnaissance capabilities against South Korea.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that the North launched a reconnaissance satellite called the Malligyong-1 on a new type of Chollima-1 rocket from a launch site in Tongchang-ri on the west coast at 10:42 p.m. Tuesday.

The purported success followed two earlier botched launch attempts in May and August, respectively. It came amid growing speculation that Russia might have provided the North with military technology in return for the North's supply of military equipment and munitions for use in Russia's war in Ukraine.

"The carrier rocket 'Chollima-1' flew normally along the preset flight track and accurately put the reconnaissance satellite 'Malligyong-1' on its orbit at 22:54:13, 705s after the launch," the KCNA said in an English-language report.

This photo, provided by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 22, 2023, shows the launch of the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 on a a new type of Chollima-1 rocket from Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, at 10:42 p.m. the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observed the launch at the site and congratulated officials, scientists and technicians associated with the launch preparations, it said.

Pending a detailed analysis of the launch, South Korea and the United States did not confirm whether it was a success. But they condemned it as a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions banning any test using ballistic missile technology.

In response to the launch, Seoul said it will resume reconnaissance and surveillance activities around the inter-Korean border as it vowed to take steps to suspend part of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement designed to reduce border tensions and prevent accidental clashes.

The North defended the latest launch as its "legitimate" right to strengthen "self-defensive capabilities" and vowed to launch several additional spy satellites "in a short span of time," according to the KCNA.

"(The launch) will make a significant contribution to definitely ramping up the war preparedness of the armed forces of the Republic," the KCNA said.

This photo, provided by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 22, 2023, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observing the launch of the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 on a new type of Chollima-1 rocket from Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, at 10:42 p.m. the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

A Seoul official said that the North's latest launch can be considered an actual success when the "satellite circles the earth in orbit several times."

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that it is conducting a comprehensive analysis on the specifics of the rocket, while pledging that Seoul and Washington will maintain a "robust" defense posture.

"North Korea's military satellite launch constitutes a provocative act that blatantly violates the U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting its use of ballistic missile technology as well as scientific and technological cooperation," the JCS said in a text message to reporters.

The JCS said that South Korea, the U.S. and Japan had deployed Aegis destroyers near the planned flight path in advance to jointly detect and track the North's satellite and shared relevant information shortly after the launch.

Tuesday's launch came hours before the beginning of a 10-day launch window that the North had given Japan earlier as a safety warning, saying it would launch a satellite-carrying space rocket sometime between Wednesday and Dec. 1.

This photo, provided by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 22, 2023, shows the launch of the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 on a new type of Chollima-1 rocket from Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, at 10:42 p.m. the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

Following the launch, South Korea's presidential National Security Council (NSC) said it will take steps to suspend part of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.

The agreement established buffer zones and no-fly zones near the inter-Korean border that include a ban on artillery firing, naval drills and surveillance activities to prevent clashes between the two Koreas.

The White House said that the U.S. "strongly" condemns the North's launch, which it called a "brazen" violation of multiple UNSC resolutions.

Seoul and Washington have expressed concerns over Pyongyang's preparations for a spy satellite launch with technological assistance from Russia following a rare summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in September.

Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said during Sunday's media interview that North Korea is believed to have overcome its engine problems in its satellite with Russia's assistance.

A military spy satellite is among the high-tech weapons that the North has vowed to develop to enhance its defense capability, which also include solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles and a nuclear-powered submarine.

Tuesday's launch came hours after USS Carl Vinson arrived at a naval base in the southeastern city of Busan.

This photo, provided by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 22, 2023, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observing the launch of the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 on a new type of Chollima-1 rocket from Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, at 10:42 p.m. the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

ejkim@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · November 22, 2023

2. S. Korea partially suspends 2018 inter-Korean military accord

Good. Suspend what impacts readiness. Keep the CMA in force. Call out north Korea for violations. Pulling out of the CMA would not have influenced Kim's decision to launch at all.

(3rd LD) S. Korea partially suspends 2018 inter-Korean military accord | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · November 22, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES with defense ministry's response in paras 8-9)

By Kim Han-joo

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea suspended part of a 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement Wednesday in response to North Korea's latest launch of a military spy satellite.

Under the proposal approved in an extraordinary Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Seoul will restore reconnaissance and surveillance activities around the inter-Korean border. President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is on a state visit to Britain, electronically approved the motion later in the day.

The move came after North Korea claimed success in its third attempt to place a spy satellite into orbit. The launch took place late Tuesday from a launch site in Tongchang-ri on North Korea's northwest coast.

"North Korea is clearly demonstrating that it has no will to abide by the Sept. 19 Military Agreement designed to reduce military tension on the Korean Peninsula and to build trust," Han said during the meeting.

The effectiveness of Article 1, Clause 3 of the agreement will be suspended, allowing Seoul to immediately restore reconnaissance and surveillance operations against North Korea in the area around the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) separating the two Koreas, also known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

The section outlines no-fly zones that were established around the MDL in November 2018.

"Our military's ability to identify threatening targets and its response posture will be greatly enhanced," Han said, adding that such a measure is vital for national security.

The defense ministry said the partial suspension will take effect at 3 p.m.

"Our military will resume aerial surveillance and reconnaissance operations to detect signs of North Korea's provocations near the MDL," Deputy Minister for National Defense Policy Heo Tae-keun said during a press briefing.

The Comprehensive Military Agreement, signed on Sept. 19, 2018, under the previous liberal administration of President Moon Jae-in, calls for halting all hostile military activity between the Koreas, setting up maritime buffer zones and turning the DMZ into a peace zone, among other things.

Yoon led the presidential National Security Council meeting from London, where he is currently on a four-day state visit, and was briefed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the details of the launch, according to his office.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo (C) presides over a Cabinet meeting at the Seoul government complex in central Seoul on Nov. 22, 2023. (Yonhap)

khj@yna.co.kr

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · November 22, 2023

3. U.S. 'strongly' condemns N. Korea's launch of space rocket

Well we certainly would not welcome it.

(LEAD) U.S. 'strongly' condemns N. Korea's launch of space rocket | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · November 22, 2023

(ATTN: ADDS more remarks from U.S. officials in paras 9-11, 13-14)

By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (Yonhap) -- The United States "strongly" condemns North Korea's latest launch of what it claims to be a space launch vehicle, the White House said Tuesday, calling it a "brazen" violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The North launched a rocket carrying a claimed military reconnaissance satellite southward from the Tongchang-ri area on its west coast on Tuesday (Korea time), according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, following two failed attempts -- in May and August.

"The United States strongly condemns the DPRK for its launch of a space launch vehicle (SLV) using ballistic missile technology, which is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, raises tensions, and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond," National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"This space launch involved technologies that are directly related to the DPRK intercontinental ballistic missile program," she added, urging "all countries to condemn this launch and call on the DPRK to come to the table for serious negotiations."

President Joe Biden and his national security team are assessing the situation in close coordination with allies and partners, she said.

The spokesperson also reiterated that the door for diplomacy has not closed.

"But Pyongyang must immediately cease its provocative actions and instead choose engagement," she said. "The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and the defense of our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies."

The State Department did not confirm whether the North's launch was successful, saying the U.S.' government assessment is still ongoing.

"We condemn the DPRK's unlawful launch of a military reconnaissance satellite today," Matthew Miller, the department's spokesperson, told a press briefing.

"This launch utilizes ballistic missile technology, which includes space launch vehicles, it violates multiple UNSC resolutions, and we will continue to work with the international community to send a strong signal to the DPRK that its actions will only intensify its isolation as it undermines stability and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula," he added.

The North's latest launch drew keen attention amid speculation that Russia might have provided the North with military technology in return for the North's supply of military equipment and munitions to help Moscow's war against Ukraine.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that she is not aware if the North's launch had anything to do with Russia's assistance.

"I'm not aware of anything to do with this launch and Russia," she told a press briefing. "All I can tell you is that we are aware of the space launch vehicle that North Korea launched, I believe is today."

On Monday, USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, arrived at a naval base in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, in an apparent show of readiness against the North's launch preparation.

South Korea is also preparing to place its first military satellite -- mounted on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket -- into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Nov. 30 -- a move that some said might have put pressure on Pyongyang.

The North has been striving to secure a space-based reconnaissance asset as part of key defense projects unveiled at the eighth congress of its ruling party in early 2021.

Observers said that the North appears intent to secure intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets as it is far behind the allies in ISR capabilities despite its focus on developing an array of formidable weapons systems, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles and tactical nuclear arms.

This photo provided by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on June 1, 2023, shows the launch of the North's new Chollima-1 rocket, allegedly carrying a military reconnaissance satellite, Malligyong-1, from Tongchang-ri on the North's west coast at 6:29 a.m. the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

sshluck@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · November 22, 2023

4. N. Korea's claimed success in spy satellite launch raises possibility of Russian assistance

​A rocket launch that supports ballistic missile development is one thing. What I am also interested in is what capabilities will the satellite have? And how effective can a single satellite be? 

N. Korea's claimed success in spy satellite launch raises possibility of Russian assistance | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · November 22, 2023

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's claimed success in placing its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit on its third attempt has raised the possibility it could have received technological assistance from Russia.

North Korea said a new type of Chollima-1 space rocket successfully put the Malligyong-1 satellite into orbit on Tuesday night, just months after two botched attempts in May and August, respectively.

The latest launch came amid growing speculation that Russia might have provided the North with military technology in return for the North's supply of military equipment and munitions for use in Russia's war in Ukraine.

A new type of Chollima-1 rocket carrying a reconnaissance satellite called the Malligyong-1 lifts off from the launching pad at the Sohae satellite launch site in Tongchang-ri in northwestern North Korea at 10:42 p.m. on Nov. 21, 2023, in this photo released the next day by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. North Korea said it has successfully placed the spy satellite into orbit and will launch several more satellites "in a short span of time" to secure its reconnaissance capabilities against South Korea. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

South Korea earlier retrieved wreckage from the first attempt, which the North claimed to have experienced an "abnormal" startup of the second-stage engine, and concluded it had no military use as a reconnaissance satellite.

Pyongyang blamed booster malfunctions at the third-stage level on its second attempt.

But in just three months, North Korea came back declaring the successful launch of its first spy satellite and vowed to launch several more "in a short span of time" to secure its reconnaissance capabilities against South Korea.

South Korean military officials and intelligence said that Russia is likely to have provided technical support to the North.

In September, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un traveled to Russia and held a rare summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. When asked whether Russia would help the North build the satellites, Putin told reporters that was the reason "why we came here."

Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said during Sunday's media interview that North Korea is believed to have overcome its engine problems in its satellite with Russia's assistance.

Earlier this week, a military official told reporters an 80-ton liquid fuel engine was transferred from Russia to the North even before the September summit, and said evidence suggests that Russian engineers entered the North after the summit.

Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a state-run think tank, said Russian engineers could have participated in the improvement of the new type of Chollima-1 rocket.

Pending a detailed analysis of the launch, South Korea and the United States did not confirm whether it was a success. Observers say a successful launch could significantly enhance the North's monitoring of the South.

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Yi Wonju · November 22, 2023

5. USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrives in Busan in show of force

The new normal. Sustained exercises to ensure interoperability and readiness.

(3rd LD) USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrives in Busan in show of force

Chae Yun-hwan

All News 16:04 November 21, 2023

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20231121000253315?section=news

(ATTN: ADDS U.S. official's remarks in paras 6-7)

By Chae Yun-hwan

SEOUL, Nov. 21 (Yonhap) -- The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrived at a naval base in the southeastern city of Busan on Tuesday, South Korea's Navy said, hours after North Korea notified Japan of a plan to launch a space rocket in the coming days.

The nuclear-powered vessel of Carrier Strike Group 1 entered the naval base in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, in a show of U.S. military might amid heightened tensions over North Korea's plan to launch the rocket between Wednesday and Dec. 1.

It would mark Pyongyang's third such attempt this year after two botched attempts to put a military spy satellite into orbit in May and August, respectively, and would come despite South Korea's warning Monday to stop preparations for the launch.

"The U.S. Carrier Strike Group 1's visit demonstrates the South Korea-U.S. alliance's solid combined defense posture and firm resolve to respond to advancing North Korean nuclear and missile threats," Rear Adm. Kim Ji-hoon, director of the maritime operations center at the ROK Fleet, was quoted as saying.

ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, the official name for South Korea.

"An aircraft carrier port visit demonstrates the United States' commitment to the alliance," Rear Adm. Carlos Sardiello, commander of the carrier strike group, said in a release.

"Cooperation between the U.S. and Republic of Korea navies is critical to maintaining peace and security in Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula."

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrives at a naval base in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Nov. 21, 2023. (Yonhap)

The USS Carl Vinson, which last visited South Korea in 2017, is the third U.S. aircraft carrier to visit the country this year, following the USS Nimitz's arrival in March and the USS Ronald Reagan in October.

The visits came as Washington seeks to bolster its defense commitment to South Korea against evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.

In April, the United States pledged to further enhance the "regular visibility" of its strategic assets to South Korea in the Washington Declaration issued by President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, Seoul's defense ministry said it is monitoring the possibility of North Korea carrying out the rocket launch on the first day of its planned launch window, citing the timing of the previous launches this year.

"On the first and second attempts, the launches took place on the first day (of the launch window), specifically in the early morning," Jeon Ha-kyou, the defense ministry's spokesperson, said in a regular briefing.

"We are looking into that possibility (for the upcoming launch), while we will also need to look at the weather situation."

North Korea notified relevant countries and the International Maritime Organization of planned launches on six occasions between 2009 and this year. North Korea conducted a launch on the first day in three cases, followed by two cases on the second day and a single case on the third day.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr

(END)

6. U.S. nuclear-powered sub arrives in S. Korea after N. Korea's satellite launch

On the sea, in the air, and under the sea.  

U.S. nuclear-powered sub arrives in S. Korea after N. Korea's satellite launch

Yoo Cheong-mo

All News 11:11 November 22, 2023

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20231122004500315?section=news

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine arrived in South Korea on Wednesday, one day after North Korea's latest launch of a military spy satellite.

The USS Santa Fe (SSN-763), a Los Angeles-class submarine, entered the Jeju Naval Base on the southern resort island in the morning, the South Korean Navy said, coinciding with North Korea's claim of success in its third attempt to send a spy satellite into orbit the previous day.

The USS Santa Fe belongs to the U.S. Navy's Carrier Strike Group 1, together with the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier that pulled into a naval base in the southeastern city of Busan on Tuesday.

The South Korean Navy said it will further strengthen naval exchanges and cooperation with the United States and the combined defense posture on the occasion of the USS Santa Fe's visit.

The file photo provided by the Navy shows a U.S. Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered submarine pulling into Jeju Naval Base on July 24, 2023. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

7. S. Korea, U.S., Japan in talks to hold joint maritime drill in response to N.K. spy satellite launch

Another indicator of the Kim family regime's failing strategy. With every provocation , trilateral cooperation (ROK, Japan, and US) just grows stronger.

S. Korea, U.S., Japan in talks to hold joint maritime drill in response to N.K. spy satellite launch

en.yna.co.kr

S. Korea, U.S., Japan in talks to hold joint maritime drill in response to N.K. spy satellite launch | Yonhap News Agency

Kim Seung-yeon

All News 11:32 November 22, 2023

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) — South Korea is in talks with the United States and Japan about holding a joint maritime drill involving a U.S. aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korea’s claimed success of its spy satellite launch, government sources said Wednesday.

The navies of South Korea and the U.S. will be joined by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in the envisioned drill, with the USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier currently docked in Busan, joining the exercise, multiple government sources said.

“We’re in consultations to conduct joint South Korea-U.S., and South Korea-U.S.-Japan maritime exercises in the southern waters of the Korean Peninsula this weekend, when the Carl Vinson is set to return,” a source said.

The South Korea-U.S. drill is likely to take place on Saturday, with the three-way exercise to follow on Sunday.

The USS Carl Vinson arrived at a naval base in the southeastern port city on Monday, in an apparent show of readiness against the North’s launch preparations.

North Korea claimed a new type of Chollima-1 space rocket successfully put the Malligyong-1 satellite into orbit on Tuesday night, just months after two botched attempts in May and August, respectively.

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrives at a naval base in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Nov. 21, 2023. (Yonhap)

elly@yna.co.kr

(END)

Keywords

#satellite launch

HOME All News

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8. Nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan condemn N. Korea’s satellite launch

Military AND diplomatic work being conducted. No one should think that Korea is a low priority for the alliance.  

Nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan condemn N. Korea’s satellite launch | Yonhap News Agency

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Kim Seung-yeon

All News 08:24 November 22, 2023

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) — The nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan held phone talks Wednesday and condemned North Korea’s launch of what it claimed to be a military spy satellite, the foreign ministry said.

North Korea said it successfully launched a space rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite southward from the Tongchang-ri area on its west coast late Tuesday, after two failed attempts in May and August, respectively.

Kim Gunn, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, spoke by phone with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Jung Pak and Hiroyuki Namazu, respectively, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.

In the phone talks, the three “strongly condemned” the launch that threatens the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in East Asia, saying it is a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions banning the North from any launches using ballistic missile technologies.

“They also expressed deep concern that the North carried out a deceptive launch, as it came more than an hour before the time it had previously announced, seriously jeopardizing the safety of planes and vessels this time again, as it did in the two previous launches,” the ministry said.

The North had notified Japan of its plan to launch the satellite between Wednesday and Dec. 1.

Based on their close coordination, the three envoys agreed to take action against the North’s illegal provocations together with the international community, the ministry said.

elly@yna.co.kr

(END)

Keywords

#nuclear envoys

Nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan condemn N. Korea’s satellite launch

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9. S. Korea, U.S., Japan share information on N.K. spy satellite launch: JCS

Again, with every provocation, trilateral (ROK,Japan, US) cooperation grows stronger. Kim's strategy is failing - a key line of effort for the regime is to drive wedges in US alliances.

(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S., Japan share information on N.K. spy satellite launch: JCS | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · November 22, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES with Pentagon press release in last 3 paras)

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea, the United States and Japan shared information about North Korea's launch of what it claimed to be a military spy satellite, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday.

"We immediately detected, tracked and monitored the launch, and shared related information among South Korea, the United States and Japan, and we are comprehensively analyzing detailed specifications," the JCS said in a message to reporters.

North Korea said it successfully launched a space rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite southward from its west coast late Tuesday, after two failed attempts in May and August, respectively.

The JCS said that the three countries had an Aegis destroyer equipped with radar with a detection range of over 1,000 kilometers on standby in the sea areas designated by each country for joint detection and tracking among the three countries.

A military official said that it was not a real-time sharing of information as such a system has not been initiated yet. The three countries plan to start operating the real-time three-way information sharing system next month.

The JCS has yet to confirm whether the North's launch made the entry into orbit.

"North Korea said it was successful, but we can confirm whether it has entered properly after the satellite circles the orbit a few times," a military official said.

The JCS vowed to maintain the capability and readiness to "overwhelmingly respond" to any provocation by the North under the allies' solid combined defense posture, while keeping a close eye on the North's various activities.

Meanwhile, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner held separate phone talks with South Korea's Deputy Defense Minister for Policy Heo Tae-keun and Japan's Director-General for Defense Policy Koji Kano to discuss the North's launch, according to the Pentagon.

The officials "strongly" condemned the North's launch as a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, the Pentagon said in a press release. Ratner reaffirmed America's "ironclad" extended deterrence commitment to South Korea and Japan, it added.

Extended deterrence refers to the U.S.' commitment to using the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its allies.

Lt. Gen. Kang Ho-pil, chief director of operations at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks during a press briefing at the Ministry of Defense in Yongsan, Seoul, on Nov. 20, 2023. (Yonhap)

elly@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · November 22, 2023

10. S. Korea says it will resume reconnaissance activities around inter-Korean border in wake of N.K. satellite launch

This is very important. We have long advocated for this.

(LEAD) S. Korea says it will resume reconnaissance activities around inter-Korean border in wake of N.K. satellite launch | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · November 22, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES with details of NSC statement, President Yoon's remarks; CHANGES headline, photo)

By Lee Haye-ah

LONDON, Nov. 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea said Tuesday it will resume reconnaissance and surveillance activities around the inter-Korean border as it takes steps to suspend part of a 2018 military tension reduction deal in response to North Korea's latest launch of a military spy satellite.

The presidential National Security Council (NSC) issued the statement after North Korea claimed success in its third attempt to place a spy satellite into orbit.

The launch took place late Tuesday (local time) from a launch site in Tongchang-ri on North Korea's northwest coast.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (R) presides over a National Security Council meeting from a hotel in London during his state visit to Britain on Nov. 21, 2023, in this photo provided by his office. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

"The government will take steps to suspend the effectiveness of Article 1, Clause 3 of the 'Sept. 19 Military Agreement' and restore reconnaissance and surveillance operations against North Korea in the area around the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that were carried out in the past," the NSC said, referring to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the Korean Peninsula.

"Such action will greatly strengthen our military's ability to identify North Korean threat targets and its response posture," it said.

The NSC argued it was taking a legitimate step to defend South Korea's security amid North Korea's repeated violations of the 2018 agreement, nuclear and missile threats, and various provocations.

The fate of the rest of the agreement will depend on North Korea's future actions, it added.

The Comprehensive Military Agreement, signed on Sept. 19, 2018, under the previous liberal administration of President Moon Jae-in, calls for halting all hostile military activity between the Koreas, setting up maritime buffer zones and turning the DMZ into a peace zone, among other things.

Article 1, Clause 3 -- the section possibly subject to suspension -- outlines no-fly zones that were established around the MDL in November 2018.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol led an NSC meeting from London where he is currently on a four-day state visit and was briefed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the details of the launch, according to his office.

Yoon said that regardless of its success or failure, North Korea's launch was aimed at strengthening its reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities against South Korea and enhancing its intercontinental ballistic missile performance.

He instructed the government to take response measures in accordance with the law and to accurately explain to the people and the international community that such measures are the minimum defensive steps needed to protect the country.

He also called for thorough preparations against additional provocations by North Korea and maintaining a firm South Korea-United States combined defense posture as well as close trilateral coordination among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan.

The NSC "strongly denounced" the launch as a direct violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and a threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

"We also make clear that we are always open to dialogue between the authorities of the South and North to discuss the reduction of tensions on the Korean Peninsula," the NSC said. "The Yoon Suk Yeol government will respond sternly to any provocation by North Korea, while putting top priority on the people's safety through a strong security posture."

hague@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · November 22, 2023

11. North Korea Claims Its Spy-Satellite Launch Succeeded After Prior Fails

I wonder if Kim is upset because the Israeli hostages held by the Hamas terrorists in Gaza are making more news than his satellite launch.

North Korea Claims Its Spy-Satellite Launch Succeeded After Prior Fails

Satellite launches represent a core pursuit of deepening military coordination between North Korea and Russia

https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/north-korea-launches-suspected-spy-satellite-after-two-botched-tries-92ead3ec?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1

By Dasl Yoon

Follow

Updated Nov. 21, 2023 7:22 pm ET

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s image appeared on television screen in Seoul in September. PHOTO: AHN YOUNG-JOON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEOUL—North Korea said it had successfully placed its homegrown spy satellite into orbit, a much-anticipated attempt after a pair of failed tries this year and a recent assumption that the Russians would help fix matters.

Military-reconnaissance technology stands among leader Kim Jong Un’s top weapons objectives, as an essential war deterrent against the U.S. and its allies. 

Kim, wearing a khaki jacket, oversaw the late Tuesday evening test as North Korea’s three-stage “Chollima-1” rocket took flight, according to Pyongyang’s state media. Around 12 minutes after a 10:42 p.m. liftoff, the country’s “Malligyong-1” spy satellite was put into orbit.

North Korea didn’t specify if the Malligyong-1 satellite had orbited around Earth multiple times—only that it had reached space. Seoul and Tokyo didn’t label the North Korean launch as a success, citing ongoing assessments.

The launch had drawn extra attention because satellites represent a core pursuit of the deepening military coordination between North Korea and Russia. In September, Kim, the 39-year-old dictator, met Russian President Vladimir Putin at Russia’s main spaceport. Putin at the time promised assistance for North Korea’s satellite endeavors.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia in September. PHOTO: KCNA/REUTERS

U.S. and South Korean officials have said that North Korea has been supplying weapons to Russia for its war efforts in Ukraine—a claim that Moscow and Pyongyang have dismissed as baseless.

North Korea has conducted more than 20 weapons tests this year, though none since Sept. 13. Pyongyang has test-fired its next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile, which has the range to strike the U.S. mainland, as well as cruise missiles launched from a submarine.  

The Kim regime had earlier alerted Japanese authorities that a satellite launch could occur in a 10-day window that began Wednesday local time. The actual test happened before the allotted time frame. 

North Korea’s space agency said it would launch more spy satellites in the near future to secure surveillance capabilities over South Korea, which is pursuing satellite technology of its own. Having space-based surveillance boosts not only the Kim regime’s surveillance, but could also make long-range missile strikes more precise, weapons experts say. 

Pyongyang failed to launch its spy satellite into space twice this year. During the first attempt in May, North Korean state media cited a malfunction in the second stage of the rocket launch. The follow-up attempt in August faltered because of an error in the rocket’s emergency blasting system, state media said.

North Korea had vowed to make a third attempt in October. The timing was likely delayed due to North Korea examining the space-launch vehicle’s engine and receiving some technical assistance from Russia, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Nov. 1.

Objects salvaged from the sea following a failed North Korean launch were displayed in South Korea in June. PHOTO: YONHAP/ASSOCIATED PRESS

There has been a long history of Russia supplying hardware, know-how and experts to North Korea for its weapons program. That includes what Pyongyang called “Earth-observation satellites” launched in 2012 and 2016. In recent months, Moscow and Pyongyang have been more public about military cooperation, and Russia may have stepped in for the recent launch, said Markus Schiller, a missile expert at consulting firm ST Analytics.

“Usually rockets fail for mundane reasons, and Russia could have implemented some processes for quality management because they’ve been flying to space for a long time,” Schiller said.

Pyongyang’s current technology is rudimentary and far from the global standard for military surveillance. Debris from the botched May launch, which was recovered and analyzed by the U.S. and South Korea, showed the North’s satellite was only capable of basic reconnaissance duty, capturing low-resolution imagery. 

Weapons experts say North Korea would have to deploy dozens of spy satellites to possess meaningful reconnaissance capabilities. With a single low-orbit satellite flying around the Earth every 90 minutes or so, North Korea would get images from above the Korean Peninsula every 10 to 12 days, and Pyongyang still lacks capability to capture high-resolution imagery, they say. 

In response to the Tuesday test, South Korea discussed suspending parts of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement and resuming front-line aerial surveillance. The White House condemned the satellite launch for violating United Nations Security Council resolutions and called on North Korea to return to dialogue. 

U.N. Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from any satellite launches because they are seen as a cover for testing ballistic missiles. But Pyongyang has continued to emphasize the need for a military-surveillance system in space. The U.N. has failed to impose additional sanctions because of opposition from North Korea’s allies, China and Russia, which hold veto powers.

Russia’s deputy prime minister said in April that Moscow had 192 satellites of all kinds in orbit, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

Any significant North Korean progress from cooperation with Russia on military-satellite technology would take at least a year to materialize, said Yang Uk, a military expert at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank in Seoul. For the Tuesday test, Russia may have used launch data it had accumulated over the years on the separation process and configurations to help North Korea pinpoint the prior causes of failure, he added.

“Russia’s involvement would help accelerate putting North Korea’s spy satellite into space, saving them time and money,” Yang said.

Alastair Gale and Chieko Tsuneoka contributed to this article.

Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com

12. S​outh Korea Scraps No-Fly Zone Near Border With North Korea

This was one of the major weaknesses of the Comprehensive Military Agreement. This is a good move by South JKorea and will enhance the readiness of the ROK/US military alliance.

S​outh Korea Scraps No-Fly Zone Near Border With North Korea

The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · November 22, 2023

​It decided to resume surveillance flights there a day after North Korea claimed to have launched its first military spy satellite.

By

Nov. 22, 2023, 6:31 a.m. ET

SEOUL — South Korea suspended a no-fly zone on the border with North Korea on Wednesday, paving the way for it to resume surveillance flights there a day after the North successfully placed its first military spy satellite into orbit.

North Korea said on Wednesday that the rocket that lifted off ​a day earlier from its ​Tongchang-ri space launching station “accurately” put the satellite in orbit. The North’s state media devoted full front-page coverage to the launch, which came after two previous satellite launches, conducted in May and in August, failed because of​ rocket malfunction.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, later visited the National Aerospace Technology Administration in Pyongyang and saw aerial photos that the satellite took of Anderson Air Force Base and other American military facilities on the Western Pacific island of Guam, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The Malligyong-1, the North’s first homemade military spy satellite, will formally start its reconnaissance mission on Dec. 1 after several days of fine-tuning, the news agency said.

It reported that during the visit, Mr. Kim called on his country to launch more reconnaissance satellites so that its military can have “‘eyes’ overlooking a very long distance,” as well as “a strong ‘fist’ beating a very long distance,” is an apparent reference to the North’s growing arsenal of nuclear missiles.

When North Korea placed ​experimental scientific satellites into orbit in 2012 and again in 2016, it claimed that the devices were broadcasting “revolutionary” songs from space​. But Western officials said they could not detect any signals coming from the satellites​ and that they eventually tumbled off their orbit, disintegrated.

On Wednesday, the South Korean military acknowledged that the North succeeded in placing Malligyong-1 in orbit. But it said it needed more analysis to determine whether the satellite was functioning normally. It was too early to determine whether the Malligyong-1 was able to open its solar panels to charge its battery and then send signals and images to its ground station, said Chang Young-keun, a professor at Korea Aerospace University​ just outside Seoul.

Still, governments in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have all condemned the launch as a violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea from launching space rockets. The nuclear-armed North has repeatedly been accused by Washington and its allies of using its space program as a cover for developing long-range ballistic missile technologies.

When Mr. Kim watched the rocket launching at Tongchang-ri on Wednesday, he was accompanied by senior officials in charge of the North’s nuclear and missile programs — including Jang Chang Ha, the general director of the North’s General Missile Bureau.

In response to the Malligyong-1 launch, South Korea moved swiftly to nullify part of the agreement it signed with North Korea in 2018 to ease ​military tensions​. The deal had establish​ed a no-fly zone along the​ inter-Korean border​ and banned aerial surveillance flights and live-fire military drills there.

South Korea said on Wednesday it would no longer abide by the no-fly zone or the ban on frontline surveillance flights.

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative government ​has often threatened to scrap the deal, saying that the agreement undermined its ability to closely monitor the North’s capabilities for a surprise attack and that the North repeatedly flouted the deal by conducting artillery drills near the border.

“North Korea has made it clear that it is not interested in easing military tensions on the Korean Peninsula or in living up to the military agreement to build trust,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo of South Korea said on Wednesday.

​The Malligyong-1 was believed to have only rudimentary functions as a spy satellite​, unable to deliver the kind of high-resolution imagery that countries like the United States get from their satellites, ​according to the officials who studied the debris from the failed launch in May.

North Korea is believed to have received technical help ​from Russia in preparing for Tuesday’s launch, according to South Korean officials, but t​here has not been enough time for the North to build a new​, better satellite since its last fail​ed launch in August, said ​Mr. Chang​. The North​ could improve ​the satellites it planned to launch in the future, he added, if Russia helps it acquire sensors, computers and other satellite equipment.

​Military cooperation between North Korea and Russia has accelerated since Mr. Kim met with President Vladimir V. Putin in the Russian Far East in September.

A fully functional military satellite capability would give North Korea real-time information about U.S. and South Korean military activities on the peninsula, according to Victor Cha and Ellen Kim, both Korea experts at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“This could also afford North Korea progress in fielding a survivable nuclear deterrent,” they wrote. “At the same time, this could also show North Korea that its professed claim of an imminent attack by the United States and South Korea is not a reality, and this could help stabilize the peninsula.”

Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun

The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · November 22, 2023

13. North's hackers pose as officials, journalists to steal info and crypto

​Everyone must be vigilant in their email communications.

November 22, 2023

 dictionary + A - A 

Published: 22 Nov. 2023, 17:46

North's hackers pose as officials, journalists to steal info and crypto

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-11-22/national/northKorea/Norths-hackers-pose-as-officials-journalists-to-steal-info-and-crypto/1919045

North Korea's state-backed hackers use proxy servers to send scam emails to Korean portal site users. This scheme resulted in the theft of personal data and information from 1,468 victims. [NATIONAL POLICE AGENCY]

North Korean hackers posing as South Korean governmental agencies and journalists stole personal information to pilfer cryptocurrency, according to South Korea’s National Police Agency on Tuesday.

The police confirmed Tuesday that the hackers stole the information of 1,468 victims between March and October, including 57 incumbent or retired government officials in diplomacy, military and national security. 

The other 1,411 were working in the private sector.

North has engaged in email phishing in recent years. Police say the scale and scope of North Korea's phishing have grown this year.

The phishing emails pretended to be sent from the South Korean National Police Agency, National Health Insurance Service, National Pension Service and National Tax Service.

The hackers used clickbait in their email, adding words like “notice” or “questionnaire.” 

Once the recipient opened the scam email or attached file, malware was installed automatically on the victim's computer. 

Scam email sent to a user using Korean portal website, Naver. The email pretends to have electronic document issued by the National Health Insurance Service. The green-colored confirmation button directs the user to the phishing page. [NATIONAL POLICE AGENCY]

The malware created channels to steal personal data and information. The emails also included embedded links to fake websites that stole personal information.

The police believe the illegal cyber activity was aimed at stealing cryptocurrency.

The hackers expropriated 19 victims’ user IDs and profiles to log in to their cryptocurrency trading accounts. They also executed crypto mining programs on more than 147 proxy servers they seized.

Last year, they stripped virtual assets by distributing ransomware that coerced victims to pay money and valuables to regain their property.

Police shut down 42 phishing websites managed by North Korean hacking groups through coordination with the Korea Internet & Security Agency to prevent further losses. Also, the police will share the list of servers the North Korean hackers used with the government’s intelligence and cyber-related authorities.

“The police will work closely with relevant institutions and agencies to continuously track down North Korea’s cyber attacks and breaches to prevent losses,” an official from the police agency said.

National Police Agency's officer gives a briefing on scam emails sent from North Korea at the National Office of Investigation in Seodaemun District, western Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

North Korean hackers are not first-time offenders.

North Korean hackers sent emails last May impersonating an assistant of Rep. Tae Yong-ho, a lawmaker of the conservative People Power Party who was a North Korean diplomat before he defected to the South.

In the faked emails, the hackers pretended to represent the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, a state-run institution that trains Korean diplomats. On some occasions, they took on identities of reporters covering then President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol's transition committee and sent scam emails to military experts.

South Korea sanctioned North Korea’s state-backed hacking group “Kimsuky,” believed to be behind significant cyberattacks and the theft of satellite technology worldwide. South Korea became the first country in the world to sanction Kimsuky in June.

According to a joint U.S.-South Korean advisory, Kimsuky operates under North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, a military organization that functions as the country's premier foreign intelligence agency.

To prevent data leakage, users should change their passwords periodically and use two-step verification measures. Also, blocking foreign IP addresses can reduce the risk of being hacked.

BY LEE YOUNG-KEUN, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]

14. South Korea suspends no surveillance clause of 2018 inter-Korean military agreement

This is what we have been advocating. Do not scrap the entire agreement, just suspend what is most damaging to readiness.

Wednesday

November 22, 2023

 dictionary + A - A 

Published: 22 Nov. 2023, 11:10

South Korea suspends no surveillance clause of 2018 inter-Korean military agreement

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-11-22/national/northKorea/South-Korea-suspends-no-surveillance-clause-of-2018-interKorean-military-agreement/1918846

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Cabinet members salute to the Korean flag at the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday morning at governmental complex in central Seoul. [YONHAP]

The South Korean government on Wednesday suspended a provision that restricts surveillance on North Korea in the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement in response to North's latest launch of a military spy satellite.

The decision to partially suspend the military accord was made in a Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Wednesday morning. President Yoon Suk Yeol, on a state visit to Britain, approved the motion to restore reconnaissance and surveillance activities around the inter-Korean border.

The inter-Korean military accord signed on Sept. 19, 2018, aims to reduce hostile military activities between the two Koreas by setting up buffer zones.

"It is an act of direct aggression threatening Korea's security," Han said. "The launch of a military spy satellite also violated United Nations Security Council resolutions and went against multiple warnings coming from Korea and the global society."

The move comes after the North's third attempt to launch a reconnaissance satellite late Tuesday night, which Pyongyang said Wednesday ended in success.

"North Korea is clearly demonstrating that it has no will to abide by the Sept. 19 military agreement designed to reduce military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and to build trust," Han said in the meeting.

The effectiveness of Article 1, Clause 3 of the agreement will be suspended, allowing Seoul to immediately restore reconnaissance and surveillance operations against North Korea around the military demarcation line in the demilitarized zone.

"Our military's ability to identify threatening targets and its response posture will be greatly enhanced," Han said, adding that such a measure is vital for national security.

When the suspension is notified to the North, it will become legally effective. It does not require mutual recognition or approval.

North Korea launches a Chollima-1 rocket carrying its Malligyong-1 military reconnaissance satellite from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, on Tuesday night. The photo was carried by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency. [YONHAP]

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday announced at dawn the successful launch of a reconnaissance satellite, the Malligyong-1, mounted on a Chollima-1 rocket.

The announcement came three hours after the launch happened on Tuesday night at the Sohae satellite launching station in Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province.

The KCNA said, "705 seconds after the launch, Chollima-1 rocket flew through the expected flight route and put the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 on the exact flight orbit." 

It added that its National Aerospace Development Administration will submit plans to launch several more spy satellites in the near future at the upcoming plenary meeting of its ruling Workers' Party Central Committee.

North Korea previously failed to launch spy satellites in May and August.  

BY LEE SOO-JUNG, YONHAP [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]

15. N. Korean leader's son veiled in mystery amid 'Kim Il-sung phenomenon'

The succession game continues.

I will grant that Kim Il Sung had a distinguished look about him but both Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un have always struck me as caricatures and do not look like dynamic and strong leaders to me.

How much worse can Kim Jong Un's son be?

There is always plastic surgery.

Excerpt.

Kim Jong-un's son faces succession hurdles as he lacks resemblance to founder: experts

N. Korean leader's son veiled in mystery amid 'Kim Il-sung phenomenon'

The Korea Times · November 21, 2023

A photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, and his daughter, known to the media as Ju-ae, attending a banquet celebrating the 75th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA) during a visit to the lodging quarters of KPA General Officers in Pyongyang, North Korea, Feb. 7. EPA-Yonhap

Kim Jong-un's son faces succession hurdles as he lacks resemblance to founder: experts

By Kang Hyun-kyung

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is known to have a son with his wife, Ri Sol-ju.

According to the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the couple has three children. Their daughter, widely known to the media as Ju-ae, is the second child. The eldest is a son. The gender of their third child is unknown.

Citing sources in North Korea, Choe Su-yong, a retired NIS official, provides a different account of the North Korean leader’s children.

He claimed that Kim has two children with Ri; the eldest is a son and the girl, known as Ju-ae, is the younger. He said Kim has two other children born out of wedlock.

Their accounts, albeit slightly different, have one thing in common: Kim has a son with Ri who is older than their daughter. Since her first public appearance at the launch site of the Hwasong- 17 intercontinental ballistic missile in November last year, Kim’s daughter has drawn media frenzy.

Unlike Kim’s globally known daughter, his son is veiled in mystery. He has never been spotted in public.

Little information is available about his son, triggering speculation about the North Korean leader’s motives behind his decision to appear in public only with his daughter.

Some experts speculate that Kim’s daughter is an heir apparent and the father is helping his daughter hone her leadership skills. But others disagree and say it is too early to predict a successor.

Choe claims Kim’s son doesn’t look good from North Koreans’ standpoint, and his unappealing physical appearance seems to have discouraged Kim from disclosing his son in public.

“Unlike his father or his sister who is plump and well-fed, Kim’s son is said to be pale and thin,” he told The Korea Times, quoting sources in the North. “I heard that his son doesn’t look like his great-grandfather Kim Il-sung at all.”

For the royal family members in North Korea, a physical appearance that resembles Kim Il-sung (1912-1994), the founder of North Korea, is considered an asset in the rise to power.

Kim Jong-un was chosen as a successor to his father, Kim Jong-il, because the younger Kim was aggressive and more like his grandfather than his elder brother Jong-chul, according to Kenji Fujimoto who served as chef for the Kim family for 13 years before he escaped the North in 2001.

In his memoir published in 2003, Fujimoto recounted Kim Jong-chul as being quiet and shy. Several times his father mentioned the older son’s leadership succession, saying he was like a girl and could not make it.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, front, inspects a tree nursery in Gangwon Province in the North's territory in this July 24, 2018 file photo. He wears a wide-brimmed straw hat, which his grandfather Kim Il-sung used to wear frequently when he was alive. Yonhap

Grandson emulating grandfather

Since coming to power in 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong-un has been emulating his grandfather.

He speaks like his grandfather and walks like him too. The younger Kim changed his hairstyle, brandishing a short cut, a look that echoes the late Kim Il-sung.

In a media interview, Hong Soon-kyung, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to the South in 2000, said that the two Kims are very similar.

“The more I see the younger Kim (on TV), the more I feel that he’s just like his grandfather,” he said. “The way he wears clothes, the way he walks, everything about him makes me feel that way. I feel that a young Kim Il-sung is there as I saw the late Kim when I was in North Korea.”

The younger Kim’s endeavor to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather has continued since his rise to power. During a military parade held in June this year, Kim was spotted with a bowler hat and black coat, clothing items his grandfather used to wear when he was young. The grandson was also seen in public several times with a wide-brimmed straw hat when he inspected several different sites, including railway and military facilities. His grandfather frequently wore straw hats.

Kim Seong-min, president of Free North Korea Radio (FNKR), said Kim Jong-un seems to be trying to capitalize on the legacy and positive associations that North Koreans have with his grandfather.

“Kim Il-sung used to gain a lot of support from the public when he was alive and he is still respected by North Koreans. But his son was not popular. The older Kim’s enduring popularity probably explains why he (Kim Jong-un) tries to make himself look like his grandfather,” he said.

The food situation in North Korea was relatively stable during the Kim Il-sung period. It was after his sudden death in 1994 that the North Korean economy underwent extreme hardships. Hit by the floods that devastated the nation in the mid-1990s, the North was plagued by starvation and malnutrition. The great famine took the lives of hundreds of thousands of North Koreans. It was during the Kim Jong-il period when North Koreans, driven by starvation, began to risk their lives to cross the border with China for food and better lives. In the early 2000s, over 1000 North Korean escapees annually arrived in the South.

The relatively stable economic situation during the Kim Il-sung era seemed to help his positive image among the people.

His grandson and aides are taking advantage of public sentiment toward the founder of North Korea.

Kim Jong-un’s endeavor to emulate his grandfather seems to be related to the cult of personality campaign aimed at drawing the support of North Koreans.

Like Kim Jong-un, his grandfather was obese with a fatty belly.

In North Korea, FNKR leader Kim said, people with fat bellies are more likely to give a good first impression than skinny people are.

“Most North Koreans are malnourished and skinny because they don’t eat well, and obese people are very rare,” he said. “So, when they see fatty people, they say they look like high-ranking officials of the Workers’ Party because unlike malnourished ordinary North Koreans, people from the upper class are well fed.”

Therefore, from the average North Korean’s standpoint, he said people who are thin and pale are hardly likely to give a good impression to the public, especially if they are politicians.

Citizens visit the portraits of the country's late leaders Kim Il-sung, left, and Kim Jong-il on the occasion of the 78th founding anniversary of the Worker's Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, Oct. 10. AP-Yonhap

The Korea Times · November 21, 2023

​16. From Yoon Dong-ju to Blackpink: banquet at Buckingham reaffirms deep ties

I guess Kim Jong Un wanted to overshadow President Yoon's visit to the UK by conducting the launch this week.

From Yoon Dong-ju to Blackpink: banquet at Buckingham reaffirms deep ties

koreaherald.com · by Lee Jung-youn · November 22, 2023

By Lee Jung-youn

Published : Nov. 22, 2023 - 15:48

• Link copied

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (second from right) and first lady Kim Keon Hee (right) pose for a photo with King Charles III (second from left) and Queen Camilla before attending a state banquet held at Buckingham Palace, Tuesday, local time. (Yonhap)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee, who are on a state visit to Britain to mark the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, attended a state banquet hosted by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace, Tuesday.

The two leaders confirmed the strong relationship between South Korea and Britain, paying tribute to influential cultural figures and the history of each country.

After attending an official welcoming ceremony at Horse Guards Square, Yoon inspected the Guard of Honor and moved to Buckingham Palace, where the state banquet was held with King Charles and Queen Camilla.

At the beginning of his speech as host of the state dinner, King Charles praised South Korea’s achievements through its turbulent history, saying "Welcome to Britain" in Korean. He also quoted a verse from the poem, "The Wind Blows," by the poet Yoon Dong-ju, one of Korea's most beloved poets, who was active during the Japanese colonial era.

Through the verse, "While the wind keeps blowing, My feet stand upon a rock. While the river keeps flowing, My feet stand upon a hill," the king complimented Korea on firmly maintaining its national identity amid bewildering change.

King Charles also pointed out the cultural assets that Korea has shown in recent years, enumerating some of the famous artists of both countries: “Korea has matched Danny Boyle with Bong Joon-ho, James Bond with Squid Game, and the Beatles’ 'Let It Be' with BTS’ 'Dynamite.'” He paid tribute to the four members of K-pop band Blackpink, who also attended the banquet.

Yoon emphasized the strong relationship between the two countries, saying that about 81,000 British soldiers fought for Korea's freedom during the 1950-53 Korean War. "With the noble sacrifice of British soldiers, the Republic of Korea was able to grow into a politically free, economically prosperous and culturally enriched country."

Yoon went on to say that he was enthusiastic about the Beatles, Queen and Elton John in his school days, and paid tribute to Britain as a country that has set milestones in all fields, including industry, literature and science.

In offering a toast to the future of the two countries, Yoon quoted a line from Shakespeare's sonnet No. 104: "To me, fair friend, the United Kingdom, you never can be old.”

About 180 distinguished guests from both countries attended the state banquet. The government personnel including Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, Foreign Minister Park Jin, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, Industry Minister Bang Moon-kyu and National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong accompanied Yoon. Several business leaders including Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin also attended the ceremony.

In addition to Blackpink members Rose, Jennie, Jisoo and Lisa, famous celebrities, athletes and influencers, such as football player Cho So-hyun from Birmingham City Women and Oliver Kendal who operates the Korean Englishman YouTube channel, were also present.

On the British side, royal family members and parliamentary figures including Prime Minister R

17. Why North Korea may use nuclear weapons first, and why current US policy toward Pyongyang is unsustainable

Conclusion:

We are approaching a critical mass of North Korean nuclear weapons and delivery systems which will demand a more radical solution—perhaps a hawkish one, such as South Korean nuclearization; perhaps a dovish one, such as South Korean recognition of North Korea. But the status quo—of allied half-measures, rickety sanctions, kicking the can down the road, hoping China will strong-arm North Korea, hoping missile defense will eventually work well enough to provide some ‘roof,’ and so on—is increasingly unsustainable.

Why North Korea may use nuclear weapons first, and why current US policy toward Pyongyang is unsustainable

thebulletin.org · · November 21, 2023

Robert E. Kelly

Robert E. Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly; RobertEdwinKelly.com) is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Pusan National University...

Kim Jong Un reviews missile strike plans, March 29 2013.

North Korea has large incentives to use a tactical nuclear weapon—or several of them—early in another conflict on the Korean peninsula. Deciding how to respond to this is probably the most important contemporary debate inside the US-South Korea alliance.

A negotiated bargain that controls North Korean weapons of mass destruction would, of course, be the ideal way to avoid such a conflict, but any such deal seems highly unlikely. The most likely window for a breakthrough came during the overlapping ‘dovish’ presidencies of American President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-In. But it has closed. For a brief moment, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un faced the most negotiation-interested leaders in the history of his country’s primary geopolitical opponents – the US and South Korea. Trump particularly was a unique American president regarding North Korea – willing to meet Kim repeatedly without preconditions.

Tragically, Kim missed this Trump-Moon opportunity in 2018-2020. He offered only one deal to Trump, and it was so balance-negative for the allies that Trump had to reject it. So the North Korea debate in the democratic world—particularly in South Korea, the United States, and Japan—has reverted to traditional, hawkish approaches. If North Korea will not bargain—or, more specifically, if it will only propose lopsided deals—then the allies must consider military responses to the possibility of North Korean first-use.

There are three reasons that North Korea will likely use nuclear weapons first if war erupts on the Korean peninsula: Operationally, Pyongyang will face an intense “use-it-or-lose-it” dilemma regarding its weapons of mass destruction as soon as a war starts. Strategically, its conventional military is quite inferior to the forces ranged against it. And grand strategically, any serious conflict between the two Koreas will quickly become existential for the North.

I suggest two responses to this difficult challenge for the United States and its allies: At the time of attack, the allies should respond with nonnuclear retaliation as long as politically feasible, in order to prevent further nuclear escalation. However, this will be difficult given the likely post-strike panic and hysteria. So, in preparation, the US should deconcentrate its northeast Asian conventional footprint, to reduce North Korean opportunities to engage in nuclear blackmail regarding regional American clusters of military equipment and personnel, and to reduce potential US casualties and consequent massive retaliation pressures if North Korea does launch a nuclear attack.

North Korean first-use incentives. The incentives for North Korea to use nuclear weapons first in a major conflict are powerful:

Operationally, North Korea will likely have only a very short time window to use its weapons of mass destruction. The Americans will almost certainly try to immediately suppress Northern missiles. An imminent, massive US-South Korea disarming strike creates an extreme use-it-or-lose-it dilemma for Pyongyang. If Kim Jong-Un does not use his nuclear weapons at the start of hostilities, most will be destroyed a short time later by allied airpower, turning an inter-Korean conflict into a conventional war that the North will probably lose. Frighteningly, this may encourage Kim to also release his strategic nuclear weapons almost immediately after fighting begins.

Strategically, North Korea’s conventional military is almost certainly insufficient against capabilities. The (North) Korean People’s Army (KPA) is large but its equipment is technologically outdated. Sanctions limit the North’s production and fuel reserves. The country’s chronic malnutrition likely affects its soldiers’ health and fitness. Allied air supremacy would expose North Korean military assets to intense, immediate bombardment. Allied superiority in almost every area—logistics, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and weaponry—would be tremendous.

The North can leverage its proximity to South Korea’s center of gravity, the massive Seoul-Kyeonggi-Incheon corridor of northwestern South Korea. This area is uncomfortably close to the demilitarized zone, and North Korean forces are flush against the border to threaten it with massive missile and artillery bombardments. But this conventional countervalue threat—particularly the well-publicized artillery threat to Seoul—does not undermine South Korea’s military capabilities. The South Korean military would likely win a Korean-only conflict, and with American assistance, the North’s defeat would be crushing.

North Korea’s dysfunctional economic model, compounded by sanctions, make catch-up impossible. Its inability to close the conventional military gap is an obvious reason for the North’s construction of nuclear weapons, and Pyongyang has unsurprisingly talked up tactical nuclear weapons and their use. Without them, the North would lose the war, and strategically, using them sooner rather than later—before the KPA starts to lose on the battlefield—would be its best move.

On the grand strategy level, nuclear first-use is the Kim regime’s best chance at survival in a war. Defeat would bring regime change, and probably annihilation for the Kims. This is a critical difference between North Korea, on the one hand, and China and Russia. Russia has probably not used nuclear weapons in Ukraine because the war is not existential. A defeat there is not an offensive threat to the Russian state or territory, or to the regime of President Vladimir Putin. Similarly, if China were to be defeated around Taiwan, that would not lead to an invasion of the mainland or national collapse. Neither Ukraine nor Taiwan has revisionist intentions against their opponents. South Korea and its American ally do, so the consequences of defeat for North Korea are far worse than for Russia or China.

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The South Korean constitution claims sovereignty over the entire Korean peninsula. A conventional second Korean War would open the possibility of national unity as the KPA was defeated on the battlefield and the South Korean army moved north. Nationalist hopes throughout the peninsula would soar. And for America, the opportunity to finally rid itself of one of its worst adversaries—to push for final victory on Southern terms— would be very tempting.

Because any serious Korean conflict would quickly become existential for the Kim regime, the incentive to launch nuclear weapons first—to deter or slow a march northward by the victorious allies—would be tremendous. China might militarily assist the North, per their alliance requirements, but that commitment is not very credible now. The Sino-North Korean relationship is transactional not affective. Instead, escalating to deescalate—using tactical nuclear weapons, with threats of further strikes unless the allies stop—would likely be the Kims’ best chance to prevent a catastrophic defeat.

In short, North Korea has massive first-use incentives. If it will not bargain to reduce its stockpile, then fashioning an agreed alliance response is critical. And the alliance should do it now. The first wartime use of a nuclear weapon since World War II will likely ignite global panic and terror. That would be a terrible, heated time to think through the allied response. There will be immediate calls for revenge in kind, if not massive retaliation. That would threaten a major US-North Korean nuclear exchange which could then chain-gang other regional players into the conflict too.

How should South Korea and the United States respond? For the United States and its allies, there are two reasonable responses—preparatory and contemporaneous—to the tough dilemma posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

Before the North can attack, the allies should prepare by deconcentrating America’s northeast Asian force structure, for two reasons: North Korean will likely make immediate nuclear missile threats against regional concentrations of Americans to constrain US options in a Korean contingency. US military bases in South Korea and Japan—especially a very large site like Camp Humphreys, located just 40 miles from Seoul—present obvious missile targets for the North. They concentrate US citizens and assets; missile defense cannot assuredly defend them; and they can be taken hostage with missile strike threats.

Russia’s nuclear weapons have blocked direct NATO involvement in the Ukraine War. North Korea will likely try the same in Korea by threatening US east Asian bases. If North Korean nuclear blackmail can prevent, or at least slow, US assistance to South Korea, then Pyongyang’s chances of victory—coupled with tactical nuclear weapons use against the South Korean army—rise.

Were North Korea to strike American regional sites, the resultant mass US nuclear casualties would place nearly irresistible pressure on the US president to respond with nuclear weapons. Congress and the public would be outraged and demand retribution. America’s tendency to geopolitically overreact, to use extraordinary levels of force in conflicts, is well-established. The larger the US death toll, the greater would be the domestic call for massive retaliation. That could spark a regional nuclear chain-gang.

Traditionally, US soldiers in South Korea have been considered a “tripwire.” Their early deaths in a war would ensure an enraged American public and Congress, and therefore a commitment to fight on South Korea’s behalf. This was probably valuable alliance affirmation in the era of conventional inter-Korean competition. But in today’s nuclearized and missilized peninsular environment, that tripwire constrains US options and portends a spiraling regional confrontation after a likely American overresponse. Recently, the United States has been concentrating its South Korean basing for logistical reasons. Inadvertently, in this Korean missile age, the US is also offering attractive missile targets to the North.

Next, if the North does launch a nuclear attack, the United States should respond conventionally, not with nuclear weapons, as long as politically feasible. The political pressure to retaliate in kind, or with even greater nuclear force, will of course be tremendous, particularly if there were American casualties, which is likely given South Korea’s high population density. But there are many reasons why an immediate US nuclear response would be a mistake:

• The United States and South Korea would initially retain conventional superiority despite Northern tactical nuclear strikes. North Korean limited nuclear war options are not necessarily battlefield-decisive. Military necessity would probably not require nuclear retaliation, so as long as North Korean nuclear use remained limited to low-yield strikes.
• Operationally, nuclear blasts would irradiate the battlefield, making it harder for allied forces to advance northward and finish the conflict. Adding US-created blast zones to those created by the North would worsen the problem. The Korean peninsula is 70 percent mountainous and only 150-200 miles wide. So the relevant battlespace—mostly between the west coast and the peninsula’s mountain spine—is already narrow; more nuclear blast zones would constrain allied maneuver even further.
• US nuclear restraint would help swing global opinion—particularly in China and Russia— behind the allies. China and Russia oppose Korean unification. They will be tempted to intervene in a conflict to save their valuable spoiler with a long record of distracting their American competitor. Northern nuclear use could dramatically alter that calculus, encouraging Beijing and Moscow to remain neutral or even assist an allied victory out of sheer fear of North Korean behavior. US nuclear retaliation would override any such re-evaluation.
• Conversely, US nuclear use in Korea might chain-gang China and Russia into the war. As the Ukraine War demonstrates, a major conventional conflict involving a nuclear power can be geographically contained. A second Korean war need not spiral out of control. But US nuclear use near China and Russia would pressure both to intervene to save the North from elimination.
• US nuclear strikes would substantially worsen the reconstruction burden on a post-unification Korea run by Seoul. Blast zones from Northern nuclear strikes would be costly to rehabilitate; US nuclear strikes would only add to the load. That South Korea has revisionist intentions on North Korea—that it wishes to absorb it— substantial alters the cost-calculus of American nuclear use. The United States and South Korea would have to pay to decontaminate and rebuild after victory, which is not an element of US nuclear thinking regarding traditional opponents like China or Russia.

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Unresolved issues. I have broached only a few of the many strategic problems created by North Korea’s unchecked nuclear and missile programs. The situation will worsen as North Korea builds a submarine-based deterrent, improves its targeting with satellites, develops multiple-warhead missiles, and so on. Conventional deterrence in Korea may be stable, but nuclear deterrence is probably not. A stable, enduring nuclear stalemate is unlikely in a dyad as asymmetric as North Korea and the US/South Korea.

Three policy questions flow from this analysis:

Should the allies launch a massive aerial disarming strike in a conflict? As discussed above, North Korea’s fear of that strike incentivizes its nearly immediate first-use. That, in turn, incentivizes exactly that immediate and large allied disarming strike. Each action responds to the other in worsening regressive spiral. When moving first has huge strategic advantages, the result is a hair-trigger balance encouraging preemption.

Should South Korea build nuclear weapons? North Korea likely hopes that its nuclear weapons—particularly their threat to the American homeland—will blunt US assistance to South Korea in a conflict, much as oblique Russian nuclear threats have retarded NATO assistance to Ukraine. Direct local nuclear deterrence might stay North Korea’s hand by reducing its nuclear weapons ‘wedge’ between nuclear-but-distant America and nonnuclear-but-proximate South Korea. US objections to South Korean nuclearization turn on the erosion of nonproliferation norms, but such fears are likely exaggerated.

Should the United States and South Korea give up on unification? Bolstered by massive inter-Korean economic and conventional asymmetries, Seoul’s desire to unify makes any serious Korean conflict an existential one for Pyongyang. An existential threat is an obviously compelling reason to build nuclear weapons. Surrendering South Korea’s pretension to unity might reduce North Korea’s perception that it must have nuclear weapons. South Korean progressives such as former President Moon Jae-In seem willing to countenance such a move to escape from the pressures sketched in this essay. The downsides are costly, though: North Korea might not keep its denuclearization word; North Korea’s population would be lost to history’s worst orwellian tyranny; and the US-South Korea alliance would likely fracture in obsolescence after an inter-Korea reconciliation.

There is no obvious policy answer to the North Korean first-use problem. All the responses suggested above have clear downsides. US regional deconcentration, for example, would be expensive and complicated, and South Korea and other US regional allies might read it as retrenchment or partial abandonment. Sanctions have blunted the North Korean problem for decades; without them, the problem would be even worse than it already is. But they are a stop-gap measure. The North Korean program marches on despite them, and China and Russia will not suddenly enforce them properly after two decades of ignoring pleas to do so.

We are approaching a critical mass of North Korean nuclear weapons and delivery systems which will demand a more radical solution—perhaps a hawkish one, such as South Korean nuclearization; perhaps a dovish one, such as South Korean recognition of North Korea. But the status quo—of allied half-measures, rickety sanctions, kicking the can down the road, hoping China will strong-arm North Korea, hoping missile defense will eventually work well enough to provide some ‘roof,’ and so on—is increasingly unsustainable.

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thebulletin.org · by John Mecklin · November 21, 2023

18. BTS members RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook enlist for South Korean military service

This might be a very good move to support deterrence. Surely north Korea would not want to be responsible for anything happening to BTS and suffer the wrath of the world for its actions that might harm the members of this supergroup boy band (note my attempt at humor).

BTS members RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook enlist for South Korean military service

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/entertainment/bts-break-military-service-scli-intl/index.html?utm

By Jack Guy, CNN

 2 minute read 

Published 5:44 AM EST, Wed November 22, 2023

BTS, pictured in Las Vegas, Nevada in April 2022

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images/File

CNN — 

Four more members of South Korean boy band BTS are set to start their compulsory military service as the group’s hiatus continues.

This means all seven members of BTS are now either serving in the South Korean military or in the process of enlisting.

“We would like to inform our fans that RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook have initiated the military enlistment process,” the band’s music label BIGHIT Music wrote in a statement.

BTS members to embark on mandatory military service

“The artists are preparing to fulfill their military service duties. We will inform you of further updates in due course,” it added.

“We ask you for your continued love and support for RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook until they complete their military service and safely return. Our company will spare no effort in providing support for our artists,” the statement continued.

Military service is mandatory in South Korea, where almost all able-bodied men are required to serve in the army for 18 months by the time they are 28 years old.

South Korea’s parliament passed a bill in 2020 allowing pop stars – namely those who “excel in popular culture and art” – to defer their service until the age of 30.

In October 2022, the label announced that members of the band would embark on military service, with Jin, the oldest member, the first to start the process.

BTS member Suga begins military service in South Korea

Jin turned 30 in 2022, and the band also announced a break from group musical activities to pursue solo projects in June that year.

Members J-Hope and Suga enlisted earlier this year.

BTS is expected to reconvene as a group around 2025, according to BIGHIT Music.

The record label said it has been looking at the timing of the band’s military service, “to respect the needs of the country and for these healthy young men,” and it said the time was “now.”

BTS formed in 2013 with seven members: RM, Jin, V, J-Hope, Suga, Jimin and Jungkook.

The band went on to achieve global fame, with number one singles in more than 100 countries around the world.

In 2022, BTS was the 5th most streamed artist in the world on Spotify, and the most streamed K-pop artist.

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