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Quotes of the Day:
"Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed."
~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]
"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist."
~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"Being born a woman is my awful tragedy . . . Yes, my consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars – to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording – all is spoiled by the fact that I am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and battery. My consuming interest in men and their lives is often misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to intimacy. Yet, God, I want to talk to everybody I can as deeply as I can. I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night . . ."
~ writer Sylvia Plath [1932-63]
1. U.S. has many tools available to hold N. Korea accountable: State Dept.
2. N. Korea, Russia defense cooperation 'not good' for Korean Peninsula: NSC official
3. S. Korean team rescues one more survivor in quake-hit Turkey
4. North Korea’s failing foreign policy
5. When the Same North Korea Policy Fails Over and Over Again
6. US launches unarmed ICBM into Pacific Ocean amid China, North Korea tensions
7. North Korea claims to show off ‘greatest’ nuclear attack capability
8. Everything we know about Kim Jong Un's daughter Ju-ae
9. North Korea ‘teeters on the brink of famine’ amid chronic food shortages
10. North’s military parade will make starving people disenchanted
11. Money for missiles: Crypto heists pay for North Korea’s nukes
12. U.S. ready to talk with North, but will continue joint exercises with allies
13. UK, S. Korea collaborate to defend against cyberattacks
14. How will AI affect translators of the future?
15. How did Gangnam become the Seoul epicenter it is today?
16. US, Japan, S Korea trilateral partnership basis for establishment of 'Asian NATO': Russia
1. U.S. has many tools available to hold N. Korea accountable: State Dept.
And the Kim family regime needs to be held accountable for a lot.
U.S. has many tools available to hold N. Korea accountable: State Dept. | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · February 11, 2023
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- The United States has a number of tools to hold North Korea to account for its continued and evolving provocations, a state department spokesperson said Friday, after North Korea unveiled what many suspect to be new solid-fuel missiles.
Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the state department, also reiterated U.S. commitment to engage in dialogue with the reclusive North.
"Our goal remains the same, which is the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and we have a number of tools in our tool belt available to hold the DPRK accountable," the spokesperson told a telephonic press briefing.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
A large missile, believed to be a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, appears during a military parade at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on the night of Feb. 8, 2023, to mark the 75th founding anniversary of the Korea People's Army, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Pyongyang showcased an array of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at a recent military parade, some of which were suspected to be new solid-fuel rockets that are more maneuverable and easier to launch than liquid-fuel missiles.
The military parade was held Wednesday (Korea time), marking the 75th founding anniversary of the North's armed forces.
Patel declined to comment when asked if the U.S. may consider adjusting its defense posture should the new North Korean missiles turn out to be solid-propellant ICBMs capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
"The United States and the Republic of Korea continue to pursue the shared objective of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he told the briefing, referring to South Korea by its official name.
"We believe that the only effective way to reduce nuclear threats on the peninsula is by curbing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems," added Patel.
The department spokesperson also reaffirmed U.S. commitment to engage in dialogue with North Korea.
"We have continued to reach out to the DPRK to engage in serious dialogue on this matter, and we have received no response," he said.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · February 11, 2023
2. N. Korea, Russia defense cooperation 'not good' for Korean Peninsula: NSC official
At a minimum the regime is likely gaining hard currency from Russia which of course will be used for advanced warfighting capabilities.
N. Korea, Russia defense cooperation 'not good' for Korean Peninsula: NSC official | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · February 11, 2023
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- Defense cooperation between North Korea and Russia is not good for the Korean Peninsula, a White House National Security Council (NSC) official noted Friday, pointing to the possible transfer of Russian military capabilities to the recalcitrant North.
John Kirby, NSC coordinator for strategic communications, also reiterated that Pyongyang has provided artillery ammunition to Russia for use in the latter's ongoing aggression against Ukraine.
John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, is seen speaking during a press briefing at the White House in Washington on Feb. 10, 2023 in this captured image. (Yonhap)
"I was up here not long ago talking about the burgeoning defense relationship between Iran and Russia, which is not only not good for the people of Ukraine. It's not good for the people in the Middle East because it will flow both ways and Russian capabilities could very well end up in Iranian hands," Kirby told a press briefing at the White House.
"And I would say the same about North Korea," he added.
The NSC official earlier provided satellite imagery of Russian railcars traveling between Russia and North Korea in November to deliver North Korean ammunition to a Russian para-military organization, the Wagner Group, for use in Ukraine.
"We know that they (North Koreans) are providing ammunition to Russia artillery, ammunition specifically," said Kirby.
"And again, that's not only not good for the people of Ukraine, it's not good for the Korean Peninsula and the region there that Russia, North Korea could be, again, developing a deeper defense relationship," he added.
Russia, along with China, successfully thwarted 10 United Nations Security Council meetings held last year to specifically discuss North Korea issues, frustrating efforts by the 13 other members of the Security Council to hold Pyongyang to account for an unprecedented number of ballistic missile tests it conducted, each in violation of multiple Security Council resolutions.
North Korea fired 69 ballistic missiles in 2022, marking a new annual record of ballistic missile tests, which previously was at 25.
The captured image shows a photo released by National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby at a White House press briefing in Washington on Jan. 20, 2023 that shows a set of Russian railcars traveling between Russia and North Korea on Nov. 18- Nov. 19, 2022 for a suspected delivery of North Korean military equipment to Russia's private military company, the Wagner Group. (Yonhap)
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · February 11, 2023
3. S. Korean team rescues one more survivor in quake-hit Turkey
(LEAD) S. Korean team rescues one more survivor in quake-hit Turkey | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 오석민 · February 11, 2023
(ATTN: ADDS more details throughout)
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's disaster relief team operating in quake-struck Turkey rescued an additional survivor Saturday after rescuing five survivors earlier this week, Seoul's foreign ministry said.
The rescue team, in cooperation with a Turkish relief team, pulled to safety a 65-year-old woman at around 2:04 p.m. (local time) in Antakya, according to the ministry.
She was conscious and was immediately sent to a nearby hospital, it added.
The woman became the sixth survivor rescued by the South Korean rescue team, which has been conducting operations in the southeastern city of Gaziantep, one of the hardest-hit areas, and other affected areas since Thursday.
"The rescue team will continue intensive search and rescue work in areas with high chances of having survivors," the ministry said in a release.
At least 24,000 people have died and tens of thousands of people remained unaccounted for after two major earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria earlier this week, according to foreign media reports.
Members of South Korea's disaster relief team dispatched to Turkey search for survivors, with the help of a bandaged rescue dog, at the site of a collapsed building in Antakya, southeastern Turkey, in this photo provided by the team on Feb. 11, 2023. (Yonhap)
graceoh@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 오석민 · February 11, 2023
4. North Korea’s failing foreign policy
It is good to see others recognize Kim's policy failures. He has failed on so many levels. We should be exploiting these failure. If we can initiate a superior alliance political warfare strategy we can induce change within the regime.
Excerpts:
Economic sanctions imposed by both the United Nations Security Council and the United States remain in place. Washington has shown no interest in meeting Pyongyang’s demand for “arms control talks,” which in practice would mean lifting U.S. sanctions in exchange for Pyongyang agreeing to limit its nuclear weapons and missile arsenals, likely without anything close to robust verification procedures.
The Korea Institute for Defense Analyses estimated in 2022 that North Korea had spent $1.6 billion on nuclear weapons — money the government could have invested in economic development or improved agricultural efficiency. Much of the North Korean population is undernourished and at risk of famine.
Acquiring nuclear weapons may have improved the Kim regime’s domestic legitimacy among those North Koreans who did not starve to death to pay for the program. In Pyongyang’s foreign relations, however, nuclear arms and advanced missiles have on balance worsened North Korea’s circumstances. The old extortion tactic has become counterproductive. The China-Russia-North Korea political bloc has in common not only authoritarianism, but also serious foreign policy blunders.
North Korea’s failing foreign policy
Nuclear weapons have yet to accomplish Pyongyang’s objectives
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2023/02/08/commentary/world-commentary/north-korea-foreign-policy/
This year has already brought a familiar series of events on the Korean Peninsula.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Seoul and announced an expansion of U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises.
U.S. and South Korean aircraft, including stealth fighters and a B-1 bomber, held bilateral training on Feb. 1. The next day, a North Korean government spokesperson said “the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is not interested in any contact or dialogue with the U.S. as long as it pursues its hostile policy and confrontational line.”
The accusation of a U.S. “hostile policy” is a rhetoric the North Korean government has employed for decades. Seoul and Washington had actually suspended most of their joint exercises during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump as a conciliatory gesture to Pyongyang. Large-scale exercises resumed amid a flurry of North Korean missile tests and soon after Pyongyang had rejected South Korea’s offer of economic assistance in exchange for denuclearization by the north.
These events underscore an important point. While Washington absorbs much criticism for its failure to induce North Korea’s government to dismantle its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, Pyongyang’s foreign policy has also failed — and arguably more profoundly.
As a foreign policy, the Kim regime’s acquisition of nuclear missiles has three possible objectives. The first is to increase North Korea’s international standing and prestige. The second is to improve North Korea’s security by scaring off South Korean and U.S. military action. The third is to enhance Pyongyang’s ability to extract political and economic concessions from South Korea, the United States and Japan. Pyongyang has failed on all three counts.
Kim Jong Un secured meetings with several world leaders in 2018 and 2019, but strictly speaking these meetings did not reflect new deference for Pyongyang because of its nuclear weapons. Rather, they were a reward for Kim expressing willingness to dismantle his nuclear weapons program.
Xi Jinping’s meetings with Kim in 2018, which ended the period of Xi distancing himself from Kim, resulted from China’s fear that Kim would make a deal with the United States without Beijing’s input. Pyongyang did not attain greater support from China by getting nuclear weapons, which China opposes. Rather, China supports Pyongyang in spite of its nuclear weapons because Beijing’s highest priority for North Korea is the survival of the Kim regime.
Once Kim’s professed willingness to denuclearize faded away, he receded back into the status of isolated international pariah.
Still, its nuclear weapons and missile programs have not made North Korea more secure.
The need to deter an invasion from the South is a fake North Korean problem. For at least two decades prior to North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006, South Korean and U.S. forces could have conquered the north and united the peninsula under South Korean control. They did not try, not only because the North Koreans could have devastated Seoul with artillery and rocket fire before going down in defeat, but also because Seoul doesn’t want the problem of managing northern Korea. South Koreans typically believe in principle that the Korean Peninsula should be united, but they are in no hurry to take on the hardship of rebuilding an economically backward country with an alien political and social culture.
If anything, nuclear weapons have made the Kim government less safe. North Korea has pushed South Korea toward acquiring its own nuclear arsenal, which would negate Pyongyang’s advantage and increase the risk of mutual destruction. In January, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said his country might consider this step despite the serious consequences, including a cutoff of foreign supplies of fuel for South Korea’s nuclear reactors and jeopardization of the U.S.-South Korea alliance. Even more striking, opinion polls now show that a majority of the South Korean public also favors developing an indigenous nuclear weapons capability.
As a condition for sharing U.S. missile technology with South Korea, starting in 1979 Washington required Seoul to limit its missiles to a maximum range of 180 kilometers and a maximum warhead weight of 500 kilograms. Under the pressure of North Korean weapons development, however, Washington repeatedly loosened and ultimately dropped the restrictions on range and payload. Seoul says this month it will test-fire the new Hyunmoo 5 missile, which can easily range all North Korean territory and carries what the South Korean government claims is the “world’s largest” conventional warhead.
The Kim regime’s highest value is presumably its own survival. Pyongyang’s actions, however, have resulted in South Korea developing its Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation plan, announced in 2016 as a response to the north’s fifth nuclear weapons test. The stated purpose of the plan is to kill North Korea’s political and military leadership in the event of a strike against South Korea or if Seoul expects the north is preparing to launch a nuclear attack.
According to the plan, South Korea will use conventionally armed missiles to destroy the parts of Pyongyang where North Korean leaders might be hunkering down. After North Korea’s sixth nuclear test in September 2017, South Korea’s armed forces announced the creation of a “decapitation unit,” a group of soldiers tasked with entering North Korea and finding and assassinating Kim.
Although it succeeded in enticing Trump to meet with Kim, a nuclear-armed North Korea has achieved no upgrade in political relations with the United States — no liaison office, no peace treaty and no removal of the north from the U.S. government’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism.”
A 2018 military confidence-building agreement between Seoul and Pyongyang is a dead letter because of repeated violations by North Korea. South Korea paid for an inter-Korean liaison office to be built in the north’s Kaesong Industrial Region in 2018, but the North Korean government destroyed it in 2020 to express anger over civic groups in South Korea sending anti-Kim regime literature across the border via balloons. Pyongyang has won no political concessions from Tokyo since North Korea’s first nuclear test.
Kim overreached during the brief period of U.S.-North Korea summitry in 2018-19.
He miscalculated that Trump would accept a deal in which the United States would drop the most consequential economic sanctions in exchange for North Korea closing down mostly redundant and obsolete facilities at its Nyongbyon nuclear complex. Kim failed to effectively pursue a separate North Korea objective, the reduction of U.S. forces in South Korea, an idea to which Trump had already signaled that he was receptive.
The acquisition of nuclear weapons has not improved the country’s economic fortunes. South Korea was paying Pyongyang nearly $100 million annually for the wages of North Korean workers in the Kaesong Industrial Complex. In early 2016, however, South Korea pulled its personnel out of Kaesong as a protest against a North Korean long-range missile test and the country’s sixth nuclear weapons test.
In 2022, Yoon’s government offered North Korea substantial economic assistance, including modernization of infrastructure, improvement of agricultural and energy production and food aid, but only in exchange for denuclearization. Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, derisively rejected the offer.
Economic sanctions imposed by both the United Nations Security Council and the United States remain in place. Washington has shown no interest in meeting Pyongyang’s demand for “arms control talks,” which in practice would mean lifting U.S. sanctions in exchange for Pyongyang agreeing to limit its nuclear weapons and missile arsenals, likely without anything close to robust verification procedures.
The Korea Institute for Defense Analyses estimated in 2022 that North Korea had spent $1.6 billion on nuclear weapons — money the government could have invested in economic development or improved agricultural efficiency. Much of the North Korean population is undernourished and at risk of famine.
Acquiring nuclear weapons may have improved the Kim regime’s domestic legitimacy among those North Koreans who did not starve to death to pay for the program. In Pyongyang’s foreign relations, however, nuclear arms and advanced missiles have on balance worsened North Korea’s circumstances. The old extortion tactic has become counterproductive. The China-Russia-North Korea political bloc has in common not only authoritarianism, but also serious foreign policy blunders.
Denny Roy as a senior fellow at the East-West Center.
5. When the Same North Korea Policy Fails Over and Over Again
The conventional wisdom: Blame US administrations. But the problem lies in Pyongyang.
But I think the headline of the article should read that Siegried Hecker's policies are not feasible, acceptable, or suitable.
Excerpts:
Hecker calls Trump’s decision to walk away from the 2019 Hanoi summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the “most serious hinge point,” claiming that Kim “appeared willing to take big steps to scale back the nuclear weapons program.” But that is not correct. Kim believed that Trump would strike a deal where Washington provided concessions for reversible actions at the Yongbyon complex. It is hard to blame him, since his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, and his father, Kim Jong Il, received similar deals from Trump’s predecessors. Trump, however, pushed back, demanding more for the kinds of concessions that his predecessors were willing to make for less.
Hecker’s policy recommendations are clearly not effective. The United States did ultimately adopt his preferred course of action, and it failed each time. The lesson from the history of U.S. policy on North Korea is that limited nuclear deals do not work and only delay the eventual expansion of nuclear programs. A better approach is using all available tools—diplomatic, economic, informational, and military—to address proliferation challenges. That’s an important lesson for the Biden administration as it decides its next steps on Iran’s nuclear efforts and Russian nuclear threats over Ukraine.
The root of all problems in Korea is the existence of the most evil mafia- like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime that has the objective of dominating the Korean Peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State. until we acknowledge and accept that we will never be able to address Korean security effectively. First and foremost we have to understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime.
Every administration has acted in good faith trying to at least manage the conditions while some have tried to really make major efforts to change the situation and calculus. But the problem remains the Kim family regime.
When the Same North Korea Policy Fails Over and Over Again
A veteran negotiator explains how Washington’s attempts at nonproliferation floundered.
By Anthony Ruggiero, the senior director of the nonproliferation and biodefense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Foreign Policy · by Anthony Ruggiero · February 11, 2023
When Siegfried Hecker visited North Korea in 2004, a senior North Korean nuclear scientist asked him, “Would you like to see our product?” Within minutes, Hecker, then a senior fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was holding North Korean plutonium, a building block for Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. In the just-released Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program, written with Elliot Serbin, Hecker provides an in-depth look at his visits to North Korea over seven consecutive years, from 2004 to 2010.
There is a vigorous debate among North Korea scholars on U.S. policy toward Pyongyang, but the consensus is that the policy has been a failure since 1994. Five presidents, Republican and Democratic, have failed to convince three generations of the Kim family that it is less secure with nuclear weapons. North Korea has pointed to Iraq and Libya—and the fates of their former leaders—as cautionary tales of what can happen to a nonnuclear country. In 1994, Ukraine famously gave up its Soviet-era nuclear warheads and strategic bombers to Russia in return for a security guarantee from Moscow, Washington, and London—and North Korea is noting how that ended. Hecker’s book, the newest entry into the North Korea discussion, is therefore an interesting and timely read for experts and nonexperts alike.
Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program, Siegfried S. Hecker with Elliot A. Serbin, Stanford University Press, 410 pp., , January 2023
Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program, Siegfried S. Hecker with Elliot A. Serbin, Stanford University Press, 410 pp., $40, January 2023
Hecker is upfront with the reader, explaining that he rejects the “conventional wisdom” that “good faith American efforts to halt the North’s nuclear program were circumvented by the North’s repeated violations of diplomatic agreements”—a perspective that he calls “neither true nor helpful.” Hecker believes that “each of the Kim regimes had a genuine interest in diplomacy,” and the book’s central thesis is that U.S. presidents since 2001 have “failed to weigh the risks and rewards presented by a particular combination of diplomatic and technical factors.” Hecker illustrates this through six moments that he calls “hinge points” in the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, writing that an “honest account” of this history is “not kind to Washington.”
Throughout the book, Hecker’s impeccable nuclear credentials are clear to the reader. The Los Alamos laboratory played a central role in the U.S. development of nuclear weapons during the Manhattan Project, and Hecker worked there for several decades, including nearly 12 years as its fifth director. He describes his expertise as “primarily in the technical domain,” but his work with nuclear scientists in Britain, France, China, and Russia means that he is, as he writes in the book, “no stranger to political and diplomatic issues.”
The book is a fascinating inside look into North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. But while Hecker believes his policy prescriptions are novel, they are, in fact, a repeat of the same unfortunate approach that has not worked for nearly three decades: paying North Korea to repeatedly close the same nuclear reactor.
The most compelling stories in the book come from Hecker’s first and last visits to North Korea. In 2004, he visited the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, which houses Pyongyang’s main nuclear reactor, where plutonium for nuclear weapons is produced. Since 1993, the U.S.-North Korea dispute has centered on the operation and ultimate disposition of this nuclear complex, which sits 56 miles north of Pyongyang. Hecker describes the dramatic moment during a meeting with Yongbyon Director Ri Hong Sop when Ri motioned for his subordinates to show the valuable material. Hecker immediately recognized this as a staged moment, noting in the book that Ri’s subordinates did not just happen to be walking in the hallway with a substance “more valuable than gold.” This was a pivotal moment in North Korea’s nuclear program, when it dropped any pretense that Yongbyon was part of a civilian nuclear program and underscored that the Kim regime was moving forward with its nuclear weapons efforts.
Hecker’s policy recommendations are clearly not effective; Washington ultimately adopted his preferred course of action, and it failed each time.
North Korea had a “bigger surprise” for Hecker during his final visit in 2010, when he was escorted to a secure facility in the Yongbyon complex and Pyongyang’s uranium enrichment facility was revealed. North Korea’s enrichment efforts were the central focus in the 2002 dispute with the Bush administration, and Hecker calls President George W. Bush’s subsequent decision to deal a “fatal blow” to the 1994 Agreed Framework negotiated by former President Bill Clinton the “most fateful hinge point.” According to Hecker, the administration did not fully evaluate or properly appreciate the “risks of walking away.”
In 1994, the Clinton administration had nearly gone to war to stop Pyongyang from accessing plutonium produced in the Yongbyon reactor. The two sides eventually struck a deal, the Agreed Framework, which Hecker calls “one of the major foreign policy accomplishments of the Clinton administration.” The crux of the deal was that North Korea would end its production of plutonium for nuclear weapons by halting operation of the Yongbyon reactor and, in exchange, Washington and its allies would create a consortium to build two light-water reactors that would provide energy and not plutonium.
In a 2002 report to Congress, the CIA said the United States “had been suspicious that North Korea has been working on uranium enrichment for several years.” The CIA noted that it had obtained “clear evidence” in mid-2002 “indicating that North Korea had begun acquiring material and equipment for a centrifuge facility.” In October 2002, the Bush administration understandably confronted the Kim regime with this intelligence, noting that North Korea was pursuing uranium enrichment as an alternative, covert pathway to a nuclear weapon. Hecker challenges the administration’s stated reason for exiting the agreement, writing that it was “largely political,” pointing to where John Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security at the time of the exit, stated later that he wanted to drive a stake through the agreement.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping
Pyongyang has abandoned any rapprochement with Washington.
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Worryingly, Washington’s concern does not rise to the level of the danger.
The two sides eventually returned to negotiations, issuing a joint statement in 2005 during the fourth round of the Six-Party Talks in Beijing; the statement was remarkably like the Agreed Framework and centered on North Korea’s Yongbyon facility. Hecker identifies this as the second hinge point, noting that the Bush administration undermined the agreement immediately after it was signed. About a year later, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test.
Pyongyang had not halted its proliferation activities, sending nuclear material to Libya for Tripoli’s covert nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang also helped build a nuclear reactor in Syria that was destroyed by Israel in 2007, which U.S. intelligence assessed was similar to North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor and would have been used by Damascus to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
Yet even after Pyongyang’s actions, the Bush administration tried to rescue the disarmament deal. During his second term, Bush rejected the advice of the “hard-liners” who Hecker suggests were driving North Korea policy and ultimately capitulated to Pyongyang’s demands. Washington removed the restrictions on Pyongyang imposed by the Trading With the Enemy Act and the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. The Bush administration paid $2.5 million to North Korea to destroy the Yongbyon reactor’s cooling tower.
Hecker identifies three hinge points during the Obama administration and asserts that it “never gave the North Korean threat the priority it required until it turned the issue over to [President Donald] Trump with the dire warning.” On this, he is correct; President Barack Obama’s policy of strategic patience was a disaster, sowing the seeds of North Korea’s escalations in 2017 and 2018. Obama did attempt a limited deal with North Korea in 2012—the Leap Day Deal—but each side had a different interpretation of its stipulations. After Pyongyang conducted a missile launch that scuttled the deal in Washington’s eyes, Obama put it on the back burner in favor of a nuclear deal with Iran.
Hecker calls Trump’s decision to walk away from the 2019 Hanoi summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the “most serious hinge point,” claiming that Kim “appeared willing to take big steps to scale back the nuclear weapons program.” But that is not correct. Kim believed that Trump would strike a deal where Washington provided concessions for reversible actions at the Yongbyon complex. It is hard to blame him, since his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, and his father, Kim Jong Il, received similar deals from Trump’s predecessors. Trump, however, pushed back, demanding more for the kinds of concessions that his predecessors were willing to make for less.
Hecker’s policy recommendations are clearly not effective. The United States did ultimately adopt his preferred course of action, and it failed each time. The lesson from the history of U.S. policy on North Korea is that limited nuclear deals do not work and only delay the eventual expansion of nuclear programs. A better approach is using all available tools—diplomatic, economic, informational, and military—to address proliferation challenges. That’s an important lesson for the Biden administration as it decides its next steps on Iran’s nuclear efforts and Russian nuclear threats over Ukraine.
Foreign Policy · by Anthony Ruggiero · February 11, 2023
6. US launches unarmed ICBM into Pacific Ocean amid China, North Korea tensions
I would like to read assessments from experts on how this ICBM test actually affects Xi's and Kim's thinking? Can we make a useful assessment as to whether this has a deterrent effect?
What actions actually deter Kim and Xi?
Video at the link: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-launches-unarmed-icbm-pacific-ocean-china-north-korea-tensions
US launches unarmed ICBM into Pacific Ocean amid China, North Korea tensions
Missile test comes days after North Korea organized parade displaying ICBM launchers and China flew spy balloon over US
By Chris Pandolfo | Fox News
foxnews.com · by Chris Pandolfo | Fox News
Video
US launches test ICBM amid China, North Korea tensions
The U.S. launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle, Feb. 9, 2023, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The U.S. Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile test from California in a show of nuclear readiness.
The test launched at 11:01 p.m. PT from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the base announced on Friday.
It was a "routine" activity "intended to demonstrate that the United States’ nuclear deterrent is safe, secure, reliable and effective," according to the announcement.
"A test launch displays the heart of our deterrence mission on the world’s stage, assuring our nation and its allies that our weapons are capable and our Airmen are ready and willing to defend peace across the globe at a moment's notice," said Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, Air Force Global Strike Command commander.
MATT GAETZ CALLS FOR BIDEN TO ‘BLOW UP TIKTOK’ AFTER US MILITARY SHOOTS DOWN SUSPECTED CHINESE SPY BALLOON
A team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle at 11:01 p.m. PT, Feb. 9, 2023, from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Landon Gunsauls)
CHINA CLAIMS CONGRESS ‘DRAMATIZING’ SPY FLIGHTS WITH BIPARTISAN RESOLUTION
The Air Force said the ICBM's test reentry vehicle traveled approximately 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, showing the "accuracy and reliability" of the U.S. ICBM system.
"This launch showcases the redundancy and reliability of our strategic deterrence systems while sending a visible message of assurance to allies," said Col. Christopher Cruise, 377th Test and Evaluation Group commander.
"This multilateral team reflects the precision and professionalism of our command, and our joint partners," Cruise added.
A team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle at 11:01 p.m. PT, Feb. 9, 2023, from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Landon Gunsauls)
The test launch comes days after the U.S. government shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. The balloon, which traveled across the continental United States before it was taken out, has been linked to a surveillance program run by the People's Republic of China military.
It also follows a show of force from North Korea's military, which paraded up to 12 individual Hwasong-17 ICBM launchers, Politico reported.
Officials said the launch was planned months in advance across multiple Air Forces agencies.
BIDEN SAYS CHINESE SPY FLIGHT ‘NOT A MAJOR BREACH’
Department of Defense press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters Wednesday the U.S. had been tracking China's surveillance practices before the latest balloon arrived stateside last week.
A team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle at 11:01 p.m. PT, Feb. 9, 2023, from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Landon Gunsauls)
"We are now learning more about the scale of this Chinese balloon surveillance program, which U.S. intelligence and the Pentagon have been observing for several years," he said. "Our awareness and understanding of this capability has increased."
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"When you look at the scope of this program — operating over at least five continents in regions like Latin America, South America, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Europe — again, it demonstrates why, for the Department of Defense, that China remains the pacing challenge and something that we'll continue to stay focused on," Ryder added.
Fox News' Jennifer Griffin and Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to chris.pandolfo@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.
foxnews.com · by Chris Pandolfo | Fox News
7. North Korea claims to show off ‘greatest’ nuclear attack capability
Video at the link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/09/north-korea-military-parade-icbm/?utm_source=pocket_saves
Kim's daughter is getting front and center billing. Notice how she pats Kim's cheek. Quite an orchestrated production.
North Korea claims to show off ‘greatest’ nuclear attack capability
The Washington Post · by Min Joo Kim · February 9, 2023
SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has taken his “beloved daughter” to a huge military parade that, Pyongyang claims, showed off its most advanced weapons, including “tactical nuclear units” and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
It was the second military outing for the tweenager, believed to be called Kim Ju Ae, in as many days, fueling suspicions that Kim is trying to position her as his heir apparent.
Their latest outing was at a huge, propaganda-filled parade through the center of the North Korean capital late Wednesday, marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army. The parade is closely watched by outside observers for clues about advances in North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
The high-profile military showcase featured intercontinental ballistic missiles that demonstrated the country’s “greatest nuclear strike capability,” the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.
Official parade photos showed at least 11 Hwasong-17 missiles, more than North Korea ever has at a single event. The weapon, which was first tested last year, is North Korea’s largest intercontinental ballistic missile, with the potential to reach the continental United States.
“North Korea’s quantitative advances with its ICBM force now render the arithmetic facing U.S. missile defense planning deeply unfavorable,” wrote Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
It was not immediately clear from the photos what advances in technology North Korea had made. Some of the ICBMs appeared to be solid-propellant missiles, which are “generally far more responsive” than their liquid-fuel counterparts, Panda wrote in an analysis for the NK Pro website.
Solid-propellant missiles can be launched much more quickly, making preparations more difficult to spot with satellites. Late last year, North Korea said it had successfully tested a solid-fuel motor for rockets.
North Korea also purported to show off “tactical nuclear units” that can pose direct threats to neighboring countries, including South Korea.
Rachel Minyoung Lee, a nonresident fellow at the Stimson Center, said North Korea’s military parade serves as “a compelling case for why the country has to keep pouring resources into national defense.”
“And if that is the case, what could possibly be more persuasive and powerful than mobilizing the supreme leader’s daughter to represent future generations?” she said.
The daughter has now appeared in public four times since November, all of them at important military events, fueling speculation about whether she is being groomed to be the regime’s fourth-generation successor.
The highly choreographed event drew tens of thousands of troops and civilians to Kim Il Sung Square in the capital. Satellite photos of Pyongyang over the past weeks have shown vehicles, horses and personnel formations in preparation for the parade.
While Kim stages a fanfare to highlight his nuclear ambitions, North Korea’s civilian economy faces a deepening crisis. The pandemic restrictions on crucial trade exacerbated the country’s economic isolation. North Korea watchers raised concerns about growing food insecurity, citing signs of agricultural failures and supply shortages in local markets.
“As the capital Pyongyang prepares for an ostentatious military parade, more than 40% of North Koreans suffer from malnutrition amid widespread food insecurity,” Boram Jang, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said in a news release.
The Washington Post · by Min Joo Kim · February 9, 2023
8. Everything we know about Kim Jong Un's daughter Ju-ae
One step away from the button? I think we are overreacting a little bit. On the other hand, she is being placed prominently front and center. But I bet Kim and his daughter and the Propaganda and Agitation Department are enjoying watching all the hyperventilating taking place over Kim Ju Ae
See the four minute video at this link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11735999/Everything-know-Kim-Jong-Uns-daughter-Ju-ae.html?utm_source=pocket_saves
Everything we know about Kim Jong Un's daughter Ju-ae
The nine-year-old who's one step from having her finger on the nuclear button: Everything we know about Kim Jong Un’s daughter Ju-ae– and the meaning of symbols hidden within her titles - are revealed by DAVID AVERRE
By MAIL ONLINE REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 03:57 EST, 11 February 2023 | UPDATED: 04:06 EST, 11 February 2023
353
Kim Jong-Un put his nine-year-old daughter center stage at a huge North Korean military parade last week - fueling fears that he is lining her up for power.
That would mean she would have her finger on the trigger of the country's growing nuclear arsenal.
In his video guide, David Averre decodes the praise heaped on her by Pyongyang's propaganda outlets and assesses just how soon she could rise to power.
Watch it here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11735999/Everything-know-Kim-Jong-Uns-daughter-Ju-ae.html?utm_source=pocket_saves
9. North Korea ‘teeters on the brink of famine’ amid chronic food shortages
Yes I am concerned with the north's advanced warfighting capabilities (nuclear and missile). However, I am frankly more concerned with the possibility of internal instability leading to catastrophic events (which could include the use of missiles and nuclear weapons resulting from the international instability and potential for regime collapse. We must not be myopically focused on trying to negotiate a denuclearization agreement. We must not put our "hopes" in the possibility that this administration or the next will be the first to be able to get a real agreement that lead to denuclearization in the north.
Photos at the link below.
North Korea ‘teeters on the brink of famine’ amid chronic food shortages
Experts fear the reclusive state will repeat the humanitarian disaster of the 1990s
By
Nicola Smith,
ASIA CORRESPONDENT
10 February 2023 • 2:15pm
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/north-korea-teeters-brink-famine-amid-chronic-food-shortages/
North Korea’s ruling party will meet later this month to tackle the “urgent” task of reviving the country’s agriculture sector as fears rise that chronic food shortages could trigger a humanitarian disaster.
State newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, reported this week that the gathering would take place in late February as “a turning point is necessary to powerfully promote a fundamental change in agricultural development.”
It did not reveal any further details but the reclusive state has long struggled with malnutrition and the risk of starvation caused by decades of economic mismanagement and the regime’s blinded pursuit of nuclear weapons which takes precedence above the population’s health.
Experts believe the situation has recently worsened in the perfect storm of natural disasters that have wiped out crops and extreme isolation through pandemic border closures.
Last month, the US-based 38 North programme, which monitors North Korea, warned in a report that “food availability has likely fallen below the bare minimum with regard to human needs,” citing quantity and price data to conclude food insecurity at its worst since the famine of the 1990s.
Kim Jong Un with his daughter and his wife Ri Sol Ju, left, attend the military parade in Pyongyang Credit: KCNA via KNS/AP
The Kim regime maintains its failed economic model and remains committed to its nuclear programme Credit: KCNA/via Reuters
“The Kim regime has insisted on maintaining a failed economic model and remains committed to its nuclear programme,” it said, adding that the Kim regime was unwilling to face necessary reforms out of fear of “internal competition and its own demise.”
Chronic food insecurity cannot be resolved without radical reforms of the current state-controlled system, said the report. It would require, among other things, “strengthening property rights, opening and revitalising the industrial and service sectors of the economy, and embracing an export-oriented model”.
The war in Ukraine was an additional stressor by driving up global prices of food, energy and fertiliser, it said, concluding, “put simply, North Korea teeters on the brink of famine.”
‘Worse than the Hunger Games’
The famine of the 1990s is still prominent in the country’s collective memory, when the collapse of food delivery systems and Russian support, economic incompetence and floods caused a catastrophe that killed an estimated 600,000 – 1 million people, or about three to five percent of the population.
Timothy Cho, a North Korean defector who now lives in the UK, recalls the horrors he experienced as a young boy during that time, when he, like many thousands of children, lived on the streets, trying to forage for scraps of food to stay alive.
“We sometimes went into a cabbage farm and ate raw cabbage. We tried all that we could to survive,” he told the Telegraph. “It was hard to see people next to you die of starvation. It was worse than the Hunger Games.”
He believes the crisis taught the population to be more self-sufficient and less reliant on the government for food supplies, but that despite personal contingency planning, people are now struggling against the odds.
Troops march during the military parade to honour the anniversary of North Korea's army Credit: KCNA/via REUTERS
Dr Marcus Noland, executive vice president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and a North Korea expert, said it was impossible to get a full picture of the current situation because of the lack of access to the country.
The country sealed its borders in early 2020 to protect its weak health system from Covid-19, prompting an exodus of diplomats and aid organisations.
But the available indicators, including volatile food prices, showed that “things are deteriorating and they don’t look good,” he said.
Dr Noland, who visited North Korea in 1997, calculated the food deficit at that time to be about 1.5 million metric tonnes, matching the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) own estimates.
In a December 2022 report on North Korea’s outlook, the FAO assessed “the food security situation is expected to remain fragile, given persisting economic constraints aggravated by a below-average 2022 agricultural output.”
The country sealed its borders in early 2020 to protect its weak health system from Covid-19 Credit: KCNA/via REUTERS
Dr Noland believes the current food shortage to be about 400,000 metric tonnes.
“Things are bad but they are not famine bad yet,” he said, while stressing that the current shortfall still had dire consequences for the population.
“It presumably means real hunger, real impact on the physical and mental development of children. It probably means deaths but I can’t prove that,” he said.
Dr Noland said that while it was possible clandestine food supplies from Russia and China could be alleviating the crisis, the total lack of transparency meant a future famine could also not be ruled out.
“They have pretty effectively sealed off information and so things could be worse and we wouldn’t know,” he said. “It’s a very uncertain situation.”
Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
The Telegraph · by Nicola Smith,
10. North’s military parade will make starving people disenchanted
Keep this statistic in mind as your read this OpEd:
The Korea Institute for Defense Analyses estimated in 2022 that North Korea had spent $1.6 billion on nuclear weapons — money the government could have invested in economic development or improved agricultural efficiency. Much of the North Korean population is undernourished and at risk of famine.
North’s military parade will make starving people disenchanted
donga.com
Posted February. 10, 2023 07:54,
Updated February. 10, 2023 07:54
North’s military parade will make starving people disenchanted. February. 10, 2023 07:54. .
At the nighttime military parade held at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang on Wednesday to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean People’s Army were intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and tactical nuclear operations units. A medium- and long-range missile was also detected, believed to be a new-type ICBM using solid fuel engines. The North Korean media touted “it is a display of the county’s greatest nuclear capabilities.” Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un joined the parade dressed in a fedora and coat reminiscent of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, accompanied by his “respected” daughter and wife, Lee Sol Ju.
The event was a huge show propagating the country’s establishment of the absolute monarchy of the 21st-century, combining nuclear armament with dynastic successions of four generations. Amid the colorful lights were splendid spectacles, including the marches of various troops, letters created by the crowd, and a jet air show, while sending a belligerent message with various strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, so-called “the all-round sword.” North Korea, which has raised military tensions throughout the last year with various provocations, is planning to launch a reconnaissance satellite and conduct its 7th nuclear test. Through this time’s armed protest, the North appears to have made clear its intention to continue the confrontation with the South and the U.S. going forward.
The North Korean leader also sought the effect of making it a fait accompli that the Kim administration would succeed from generation to generation by putting his daughter at the top of the podium. It may be too early to conclude that he chose his daughter as the successor, but he sent a clear message home and abroad that everyone should accept the succession of Kim’s family. Kim has already accompanied his daughter to propaganda sites for nuclear and missile development, including the ICBM test-launch site. At the celebration of Foundation Day on the previous day, he put his daughter at the center of the party. He highlighted ‘the great succession that goes on,’ saying, “The souls and missions of the first-generation revolutionists remain unchanged till today running through their successors to the 5th and 6th generations.
Behind Kim’s stage play to show off his nuclear armament and justify his hereditary succession are the sufferings and complaints of starving residents ticking away like a time bomb waiting to explode. The Kim Jong Un regime is using any means necessary, such as hacking virtual currency, to raise funds for governance and nuclear program, but he is failing to feed his people. The recent news tells us that even in Kaesong, which is known to have relatively higher living standards than other cities in the North, several people are dying from starvation every day. The flashy show may temporarily deceive people’s eyes, but it cannot fill their empty stomachs. What follows the illusion is horror, despair, and rebellion.
한국어
donga.com
11. Money for missiles: Crypto heists pay for North Korea’s nukes
This is an area where we can and should be very aggressive (though hopefully we are and it is just not being reported).
But this is another useful data point that could be part of an information and influence campaign. The regime is generating resources that could be used to care for the Korean people living in the north but Kim chooses to prioritize nuclear weapons and missiles over the welfare of the people.
Money for missiles: Crypto heists pay for North Korea’s nukes
Impoverished state finds the funds to challenge U.S. defenses
washingtontimes.com · by Andrew Salmon
Subscriber-only
North Korea’s parade of 11 intercontinental ballistic missiles through the streets of Pyongyang this week put on display a force that analysts say is capable of overwhelming the systems the U.S. military has put up to defend the homeland.
But the progress made by North Korean armorers raises an economic question in addition to the strategic one: How is the world’s richest country vulnerable to an impoverished state with an isolated, backward economy that ranks 135th in the world in national wealth?
Political will is clearly one answer. Regime head Kim Jong-un has made weapons development a focal economic priority. “For the strengthening and development of our armed forces, let us all double our efforts and do more for the prosperous development of the socialist motherland,” Mr. Kim said at a banquet this week, according to reports in the state media.
But that still begs the question of how North Korea, even more isolated economically after closing its borders since COVID-19 struck, earn the hard currency to underwrite the research, manufacture and deployment of its massive, nuclear-armed hardware
Part of the answer, South Korean officials and analysts say, is a specialized corps of online hackers who last year clandestinely brought in between $1.7 billion and $2 billion to finance North Korea’s military-industrial complex.
“There are many different departments in North Korea that send [abroad] IT workers and many of these organizations are listed under U.N. sanctions for [weapons of mass destruction] procurement,” said Chai Kyung-hoon, director of the North Korean Nuclear Policy Division of Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
SEE ALSO: North Korean missile display puts U.S., allies on notice
“What we are finding is these IT workers are playing an integral role in providing funds and procuring materials and components for nuclear missile development,” Mr. Chai told a major conference in Seoul Thursday on state threats in cyberspace.
Joint international efforts to choke off this money supply are just now getting off the ground, experts say.
Kim’s pricy arsenal
At North Korea’s 8th Party Congress in January 2021, Mr. Kim laid out a wish list of weapons so ambitious it made outside analysts gasp.
Key items included a “super-large” hydrogen bomb, tactical nuclear devices, mid- and long-range cruise missiles, anti-aircraft missiles, heavy tanks, multiple-warhead missiles, “hypersonic gliding flight warheads,” long-range drones, reconnaissance satellites — and the country’s first nuclear submarine.
While Pyongyang had conducted no nuclear tests since 2017, North Korea last year abruptly stepped up the pace of weapons activity, staging more tests of multiple classes of missiles and drones in one year than ever before. The tests included ICBMs, ballistic missiles with variable flight paths, long-range cruise missiles, and various tactical weapons, including long-range multiple-rocket systems, or MLRS.
While stiff-arming the Biden administration’s offers of direct talks, Pyongyang has only conducted one missile test so far in 2023. But Wednesday’s midnight parade showed that Mr. Kim is ticking off the items on his list.
Analysis of the photos of the parade that ran in South Korean media outlets suggested that, in addition to the 11 ICBMs, the North Korean military had put on display mock-ups of the first solid-fuel ICBMs in development by Pyongyang. Also mounted on specialized vehicles were 240mm MLRS, tactical guided missiles and what are believed to be new cruise missiles, along with a new tank.
It was an impressive — and expensive — display, again raising questions of where the Kim regime was getting the money to pull it off.
The U.S. Treasury’s “2021 Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers” report estimated that North Korea spends some $4 billion annually on its military, about 26% of GDP.
No other power comes close. According to the latest numbers from the World Bank, China spends 1.7% of GDP on its military, South Korea spends 2.8%, the US 3.5%, Russia 4.1% and Israel 5.2%.
To ease the burden arms development places on its national economy, North Korea is acquiring extra-national funds. The favored method is theft, carried out by a dedicated corps of cyber operatives.
Low visibility, high reward
North Korea’s cyber pilfering is not new. In 2016, North Korea hackers stole $81 million from the Bank of Bangladesh. In 2017, their infamous “Wanna-Cry” attack infected computers in 150 countries with ransomware.
But more recent operations have been especially low-visibility, high-reward. The leading target is the still-murky, lightly regulated world of cryptocurrencies.
“North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather than guns, stealing digital wallets of cryptocurrency instead of sacks of cash, are the world’s leading bank robbers,” the U.s. Justice Department charged in a 2021 indictment of three North Korean programmers.
The operatives work in two ways, Mr. Chai explained at the Seoul conference
One is through heists of cryptocurrencies, which he estimated earned Pyongyang $1.7 billion last year. The second is through the export of workers to global IT forms, who earn “hundreds of millions of dollars” in hard currency by creating apps and cryptocurrency-related products.
Though the Internet is borderless, the operatives deploy overseas to acquire the skills, network access and foreign currencies they need. They operate in countries such as China, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Thae Yong-ho, a North Korean defector and South Korean parliamentarian, told foreign reporters earlier this month that the North Korean IT candidates receive four years of specialized education before moving abroad to take jobs under assumed identities.
“When you develop games or programs, there are no borders or barriers,” Mr. Thae said. “So, it is very difficult to verify the identities of IT workers.”
Once employed, they purchase software and hone network-infiltration techniques, Mr. Thae said. There are North Koreans secretly working for Indian, Japanese, South Korean and U.S.-owned companies, he claimed.
Some operatives establish their own companies, often in Southeast Asia, with the mission of carrying out direct hacking and cyber theft operations.
Fighting back
Belated countermoves to cut off the North’s funding spigots are getting underway.
South Korea and the U.S. last year established a joint working group that combined law enforcement, intelligence, defense and finance experts to address the North’s financing channels. The group generated “a list of concrete actions” to be taken, Mr. Chai said, though he gave no details.
There is also ongoing cooperation between the UK’s MI5 and South Korea cyber authorities, and last year, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service joined NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence.
While Western partners bring advanced techniques and technologies, South Korea can share the lessons learned from painful experience.
“We have been attacked by the North a lot. so we have learned lessons and information and we can share this,” said Oh Il-sook, a cybersecurity expert at Seoul’s Institute for National Security Strategy. “We can show the characteristics of North Korea technologies and attacks.”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
Copyright © 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
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12. U.S. ready to talk with North, but will continue joint exercises with allies
The foundation for diplomacy and for a superior political warfare strategy must be a strong defense
Friday
February 10, 2023
dictionary + A - A
U.S. ready to talk with North, but will continue joint exercises with allies
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/02/10/national/northKorea/Korea-North-Korea-parade/20230210165445718.html
State Department Press Secretary Ned Price is seen speaking during a daily press briefing in Washington on Jan. 13 in this captured image. [YONHAP]
The United States is ready to engage in talks with North Korea but will continue to coordinate defensive exercises with allies in the region if Pyongyang keeps up its provocations and refuses to engage in diplomacy, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Thursday in Washington.
Speaking at a regular press briefing, State Department Press Secretary Ned Price also called Wednesday night’s military parade in Pyongyang “propaganda exercises” by the North but declined to share Washington’s assessment of an apparent mock-up for a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that was on display during the procession.
“We are prepared to engage in dialogue, in diplomacy with the DPRK to that end,” Price said, adding, “In the absence of any apparent inclination on the part of the DPRK to do that, we are going to continue to coordinate closely, to sit down to engage in diplomacy with our allies — Japan, ROK in this case, but also with partners and allies around the world."
DPRK and ROK are the acronyms for the official names of North and South Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea.
Price also said that joint “defensive maneuvers” by the United States and its regional allies “ensure that we make good on the commitment that we have to the ROK and Japan that our commitment to their security remains ironclad,” and said Washington’s approach to Pyongyang “will remain the same” if the latter does not change its behavior.
North Korea’s foreign ministry said Thursday that the regime is not interested in dialogue with the United States as long as Washington pursues what the regime calls a “hostile policy” toward Pyongyang.
“The escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula and in the region is entirely attributable to the hostile policy of the United States, which forces the DPRK to disarm itself unilaterally by dint of sanctions and military pressure and pursues the military expansion of its allies,” said an unidentified ministry spokesperson quoted in an English-language report by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un poses with top military brass and participants in the Feb. 8 military parade in Pyongyang in a commemorative photo released by the Korean Central News Agency on Thursday. To his immediate left stands Ri Pyong-chol, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party. [YONHAP]
The KCNA on Friday also released remarks made by leader Kim Jong-un at a photo session with parade participants that indicated his regime would not slow down its military’s development of more powerful weapons.
Kim said that suppressing “the increasingly brutal imperialist tyranny by force” requires the North’s army to “grow stronger at an incomparably faster speed than that of the past history,” according to the KCNA.
State media on Wednesday played footage of soldiers in the regime's special forces training outdoors in snow-covered terrain during the parade in Pyongyang as part of the regime's celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of its military.
Footage broadcast by the Korean Central Televsion during Wednesday's parade in Pyongyang showed soldiers from the regime's special forces training outdoors. [YONHAP]
Kim also praised participants for elevating the military parade as an event “specially recorded in history,” claiming it constituted “a clearer description of the prestige and greatness, high honor and rosy future of our state.”
Top military officials who attended the photo session included Ri Pyong-chol and Ri Yong-gil, both vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party.
Ankit Panda, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Radio Free Asia on Thursday that the North’s recent activities, such as displaying a solid-fuel ICBM mock-up and testing a solid-fuel engine that the Pyongyang’s state media claimed was for a “new-type strategic weapons system,” indicated the North would conduct its first test of a solid-fuel ICBM in a few months.
BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
13. UK, S. Korea collaborate to defend against cyberattacks
Excellent.
UK, S. Korea collaborate to defend against cyberattacks
The Korea Times · February 11, 2023
Participants of the Cyber Week forum, hosted by the British Embassy in South Korea, pose at Four Seasons Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Kwon Mee-yoo
By Kwon Mee-yoo
The British Embassy in Seoul hosted Cyber Week, which consisted of a series of events aimed at promoting collaboration between South Korea and the United Kingdom on cybersecurity, bringing together experts from the U.K. and South Korean governments as well as the private sector.
British ambassador to Seoul Colin Crooks noted how the pace and scale of global digital development have transformed our societies, businesses and organizations over the past decade during a two-day seminar on U.K. cybersecurity policy at Four Seasons Seoul, Wednesday.
"Rapid technological advancements and associated cost reductions have brought the world closer together than ever before, granting increased access to prosperity and innovation in free-market democratic systems. However, our societies are now threatened by malicious actors who seek to use technology to undermine democracy and disrupt free markets," Colins said.
"As a responsible nation, we must work closely with our friends and allies, and South Korea has a big role to play in this. The threats in cyberspace are the same for everyone. The British Embassy hopes to demonstrate the U.K.'s interest in building a partnership with South Korea across the full range of cybersecurity areas."
On Wednesday, experts discussed secure and resilient digital service providers and designing secure smart cities and connected places.
Gemma Ungoed-Thomas, director of State Threats and Cyber Security in the U.K. Cabinet Office, gave a keynote speech on the British vision for responsible cyber power, Thursday.
"It is probably quite natural that when I say cyber power, many of you immediately think of offensive cyber capabilities or military action. However, U.K.'s 2021 National Cyber Strategy acknowledges that in the modern digital age, the concept of cyber power is far more multifaceted than are offensive or defensive" Ungoed-Thomas said.
She explained how the U.K. and South Korea's presence and actions in cyberspace have become crucial to the success of foreign policy interests.
"The U.K. deliberately used the narrative 'responsible cyber power' in order to put focus on setting up the type of country we want to be both for our systems and on the world stage. It is a signal that U.K. has made a conscious decision to connect our cyber strengths and our engagement with cyberspace with our national mission to champion and uphold our political values."
According to Ungoed-Thomas, the U.K.'s ultimate vision for cyberspace is a shared space for all.
"We want to ensure that the design development and broader human engagement in cyberspace supports global stability, prosperity, and human rights," she said.
"To live up to this vision and to realize the full range of benefits that cyberspace offers for our collective systems, we need to continue to enhance collaboration with our closest allies like South Korea."
Panelists discuss ways to deter North Korean cyberattacks during the Cyber Week forum hosted by the British Embassy in South Korea at Four Seasons Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of British Embassy in Korea
Deterring North Korean cyberattacks
The session that received the most attention was a panel discussion on countermeasures against cyberattacks from North Korea.
Chai Kyung-hoon, director of the North Korean Nuclear Policy Division at Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, detailed how North Korea is financing its nuclear program through cyber operations.
"We have found that, especially in the past five years, North Korea has dramatically ramped up its cyber capability and has been utilizing that capability to create loopholes in the sanctions regime and also to generate huge amounts of revenue which most of which we believe are funneled towards nuclear missile development," Chai said.
"So we have come to the conclusion that if we do not clamp down on North Korea's illegal cyber activities, then we have a very little chance of deterring the further advancement of their nuclear missile program."
Chai stated that his division has two key responsibilities: to impede and minimize North Korea's cryptocurrency theft and to track down the vast amounts of money generated by North Korea's overseas IT workforce.
Joe Murphy, deputy head of State Threats & Cyber Deterrence at the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said the U.K. takes the cyber threats posed by North Korea very seriously, as they are tangible and persistent.
"It is incumbent upon us ― the U.K., ROK (South Korea) or other responsible sovereign powers ― to respond to that and to seek to deter this kind of behavior. In the U.K. view, we should do this across three main points. One is raising awareness on building transparency, the second is on imposing meaningful costs and the third is on building our collective resilience," Murphy said.
Referring to the cyberattacks against Britain's National Health Service's IT system, which were attributed to North Korea, Murphy noted that reckless and indiscriminate cyber activity can have tangible consequences, putting people's lives in danger and threatening the global community.
He added that collective response is crucial in deterring North Korea from continuing its offensive cyber operations.
"What we can do is, over time, change their decision calculus, so that the weighting of the costs and benefits of pursuing malicious cyber activity, raising the costs reducing the prospect of gaining benefits and ultimately getting to a place where they less and less see this kind of behavior as a as a beneficial path for them to pursue," Murphy said.
"While the DPRK continues to show what states should not do in cyberspace, we should exemplify a responsible state behavior, we should act within accordance of international law, we should operationalize and implement the U.N. norms with responsible state behavior and we should uphold and protect the international rules-based system."
The Korea Times · February 11, 2023
14. How will AI affect translators of the future?
Something we all have to deal with.
But will it help with interpretation? Can it account for the culture surrounding both languages in the translation process? Can it read body language? Can it determine tone in a discussion?
How will AI affect translators of the future?
The Korea Times · February 10, 2023
gettyimagesbank
By Park Han-sol
What should be the role of a human translator in the age of ever-evolving artificial intelligence (AI)? Will machine-powered translation benefit or replace its human counterparts?
The conundrum is knocking at our door sooner than we imagined.
On the evening of Feb. 8, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) made a surprise announcement about its annual translation awards, two months after having declared the winners for 2022.
Yukiko Matsusue, whose Japanese rendering of the Korean occult thriller webtoon "Mirae's Antique Shop" earned her the state-run organization's annual award for aspiring translators, had relied on the help of Naver's Papago machine-translation service ― which she hadn't made explicitly clear to the organization in the submission process.
While her speaking and listening skills in Korean aren't fluent, she has studied the language for about a year and has been a longtime fan of Korean-language webtoons, Matsusue revealed in a press statement released by LTI Korea.
"After perusing the original piece from beginning to end, I used Papago as an alternative to a dictionary to achieve a more accurate translation," she noted. "As the webtoon in question had a shaman as the protagonist, it contained a number of unfamiliar terms and concepts throughout. I, therefore, tried to identify the context behind the usage of those words by researching the relevant theses and such."
After running it through Papago, she "revised the text to improve its readability" in consideration of the flow of the piece and completed the translation.
The jury had previously not been aware of Matsusue's usage of the AI translation service, commending her work in December as a "translation that shows a full understanding of Korea's shamanistic elements."
In the press statement, LTI Korea vowed to contemplate the scope of a person's collaboration with AI in regard to the act of translating in the future and that it will carry out pertinent policy-level discussions.
Meanwhile, as for its annual prize for aspiring translators, the organization will stipulate from now on that all submissions must be "translations done through one's own efforts without the aid of external factors such as AI," in line with its goal of discovering talented new literature translators.
Whether Matsusue's award will be revoked or not is under review.
gettyimagesbank
Is AI here to stay when it comes to translation?
Jung Ha-yun, a literary translator and associate professor of interpreting and translation at Ewha Womans University, noted that several different factors must be considered, including the changing trend in the translation industry's layered relationship with AI-powered services, before addressing this controversy.
"First of all, bilingual translators who have a good grasp of both languages are much less likely to use AI translators. This is because there is actually a glaring lack of efficiency in trying to edit and revise machine-generated text when they are capable of translating the source language in their own heads," she told The Korea Times.
"That said, nowadays, in the case of amateurs (like Matsusue) and those who lack full fluency in one of the languages, it is highly possible that they will use the help of machine-powered tools as a quicker way to search for unclear terms than with a dictionary."
She went on to highlight that it would be inappropriate to argue that it was simply the power of AI that earned Matsusue the award.
"Even when utilizing an AI service, it is ultimately up to a human translator to revise and amend the machine-generated translation, as part of post-editing, to produce a final product, especially in the case of literary translations," she said. "Human intervention becomes necessary to capture the subtle nuances and tones of the source text ― unless the said text is strictly formulaic and technical."
AI-powered translation services can serve as a tool to assist translators ― like a dictionary or Google search ― but they won't be something that can replace the human element altogether, according to Jung.
Speaking from a more technical perspective, Jeon Chang-bae, chairman of the board of the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Ethics (IAAE), said that the main issue here is not about whether Matsusue relied on an AI translator or not.
Rather, it should have more to do with whether she, as the applicant, and LTI Korea, as the award organizer, notified each other and reached an agreement in regard to the usage of machine-powered services ― which they both failed to do.
"In principle, if an individual utilized AI as a tool to create content to enter a competition or a contest, they should make that clear to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings," he told The Korea Times. "Likewise, the host organization needs to specify the scope of its usage within the judging criteria."
The use of AI in creative fields currently lies in a legally and ethically gray area, which means there is a pressing need to set up clearer guidelines and build social consensus, he added.
Meanwhile, Jung cautioned that one alarming issue potentially raised by the emergence of machine-powered translation technology is that it can lead to the devaluation of human labor in the market. She gave examples of corporate clients that would push translators to use the AI tools and take the liberty of cutting down their fees citing "reduced workload."
"Artificial intelligence could continue to be used in this way to restructure the labor market," she said. "Against this backdrop, human translators are now tasked with contemplating their relationship with AI-powered services and what their own roles in the industry are going to be ― because, let's face it, the market is never going to completely remove AI from the picture."
The Korea Times · February 10, 2023
15. How did Gangnam become the Seoul epicenter it is today?
[Why] How did Gangnam become the Seoul epicenter it is today?
koreajoongangdaily.joins.com · February 11, 2023
Views of apartments from Mount Daemo in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, in November. [NEWS1]
Gangnam is known globally as the posh neighborhood that served as the backdrop of the “Gangnam Style” sensation in 2012.
Gangnam, where the biggest trends begin in Korea, is the mecca for almost everything loved by locals and tourists, from streets filled with luxury brands to the trendiest restaurants and even plastic surgery.
The term Gangnam technically means south of the river, and refers to three districts in Seoul below the Han River: Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa.
Residents in the entire Gangnam region are often characterized as having either come from a wealthy family or hard workers with professional jobs. So living in Gangnam is often seen as a barometer for one’s financial success.
Of all the households in Seoul with a monthly income above 8 million won ($6,400), 33.2 percent were in Gangnam District and 27.9 percent in Seocho District, according to a report published by Seoul City last June. Songpa District came in at fifth with 23.8 percent, after Yongsan District in central Seoul and Seongdong District in eastern Seoul.
Many popular sports stars, celebrities and lawmakers are or were once residents of the area, including actors Ko So-young, Ha Seok-jin and even President Yoon Suk Yeol, before he entered the presidential office in Yongsan District.
Of the 59 senior government officials under the Yoon administration, 49 percent of them own a house in Gangnam, according to data by Democratic Party lawmaker Koh Yong-jin in September.
But Gangnam hasn’t always been this fancy. Only in the last few decades has the area started to build up the reputation it has today.
Students on the streets filled with private academies in Daechi-dong in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, in 2021.[YONHAP]
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Why do people want to live in Gangnam? What's so great about living there?
Gangnam has all the characteristics a neighborhood needs to pull people in, like good jobs, transportation, education and surroundings.
Of the 848,552 companies located in Seoul, 14 percent are in Gangnam, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service.
Some of the major firms with headquarters in the three districts include Hyundai Motor, GS Caltex, NCSoft and crypto exchange Upbit operator Dunamu.
Gangnam is also a popular location among start-ups as they aim to build networks and find potential investors in the area.
“A lot of start-ups open offices in Gangnam, especially on Teheran street, because they can easily network and meet potential investors,” said Kaia Cha, a manager at Startup Alliance. “A lot of organizations that offer support programs for start-ups are also located in Gangnam.”
Even for those who don't work, Gangnam is an attractive place to live, especially those raising children.
It boasts some of the most prestigious schools in the country and is home to the famous education hot spot, Daechi-dong.
Daechi-dong is considered a hub of private education with more than 900 hagwon (private cram schools) crammed within a couple of blocks. That is four times more than in Nowon District, northern Seoul, which houses the city's second largest hagwon street.
To attend popular hagwon, students have to wait for months just to take a placement test. Some parents wait in line for hours at dawn, just to sign up for a class held by popular hagwon teachers.
During summer and winter vacations, students nationwide swarm into the neighborhood to attend the hagwons, creating a steady demand for apartment units nearby.
“I went to a Daechi-dong hagwon when I was a high school student because teachers there had more information on the suneung,” or the university entrance exam, said Hur Da-hee, an office worker.
Of all the students that were accepted into Seoul National University (SNU) last year, the top ranking university in Korea, 11.9 percent graduated from high schools in Gangnam and Seocho districts, according to data Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Min-jung received from SNU.
This education fever is reflected in housing prices.
The price of a 34-pyeong (1,210-square-foot) unit at Eunma Town apartment in Daechi-dong jumped 170 percent over the past decade through January, while the price for its jeonse (lump-sum deposit) jumped 68 percent, according to HogangNoNo, an apartment information provider.
The 44-year-old housing units sold for 2.82 billion won ($2.24 million) at their peak in November 2021.
During the same period, the nationwide average apartment sales price per square meter grew 96 percent while average jeonse price increased 86 percent, according to KB Land.
Galleria Department Store Luxury Hall West in Apgujeong-dong in Gangnam District, southern Seoul [GANGNAM-GU OFFICE]
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What else is Gangnam famous for?
Apart from education, Gangnam is also well-known for luxury shopping.
Cheongdam-dong in Gangnam District boasts luxury shopping streets, filled with global luxury brand stores, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Dior.
Department stores in Gangnam also carry more luxury brands.
The quality of a department store is usually judged by whether they carry the three top brands: Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Chanel.
Of the seven department stores nationwide that carry all three brands, four are located in Gangnam.
Naturally, department stores in Gangnam boast the highest revenue.
Last year, Shinsegae Department Store’s Gangnam branch in Seocho District reported 2.84 trillion won in revenue, followed by Lotte Department Store’s Jamsil branch in Songpa District, which recorded 2.60 trillion won. Hyundai Department Store’s Apgujeong branch came in at seventh with 1.24 trillion won.
The reputation of the department stores pull in customers from outside Gangnam.
“My fiancé and I went to the Galleria Department Store in Apgujeong to buy gifts for each other ahead of our wedding because I heard there are more diverse types of luxury products there,” said 31-year-old Kim Eun-ji who lives in Mok-dong, western Seoul. ”I was looking for products from Dior, but there aren’t many brands at the department store in Mok-dong.”
Easy access is another factor pulling more shoppers into Gangnam.
“Our Gangnam branch has great accessibility, connected to three subway lines and an express bus terminal” that travels from suburban areas, said Yoon Ji-sang, a spokesperson for Shinsegae Department Store. “More than 50 percent of our customers come from outside Seocho District,” where its branch is located.
Sign boards of plastic surgery clinics in Gangnam in 2018 [SHUTTERSTOCK]
Gangnam is also known for its huge number of plastic surgery clinics, particularly in Sinsa-dong.
Sinsa subway station is filled with advertisements for plastic surgery, and buses are pasted with ads promoting the clinics.
It's not uncommon to find people whose faces are wrapped in bandages due to plastic surgery strutting the streets.
There were 470 plastic surgery clinics registered in Gangnam in 2017, according to the National Tax Service. That is more than 30 percent of the total number of clinics in the country.
The National Tax Service hasn’t updated the figure since.
“I didn’t think twice about where to get my eyes done,” said a 31-year-old who underwent surgery late last year. Gangnam was their first choice because “there are lots of plastic surgery clinics there, and all the clinics my friends recommended were in Gangnam.”
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Was Gangnam always this popular?
Gangnam's current reputation doesn't actually date too far back. The region's development began in the 1960s during the presidency of Park Chung Hee.
Before the development, Gangnam was farmland and lots of mulberry fields.
Gangnam had long been excluded from development plans because of the lowlands and swamps that made construction there challenging. Its geographical features still make the area vulnerable to flooding, as was seen after heavy rainfall hit the area last summer.
Back in the 1960s, Gangbuk, or the areas north of the Han River, was more popular to live in than Gangnam. Most department stores and prestigious schools were located in Gangbuk, largely populated by the affluent.
Gangnam at the time was just “a secluded and peaceful village with several shabby thatched houses that stood on the foot of the hills,” according to late Son Jeong-mok, former director of the Urban Planning Bureau of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo in 2014.
Even two decades after development kicked off, Gangnam was still like the countryside.
“Everything in Gangnam was farmland when we moved there,” said a resident of Gangnam District who moved to the city in 1982 from Gangbuk. “I saw cows plowing fields and could smell fertilizer. The environment was a little scary as all the surroundings were paddies and mountains.”
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Why was Gangnam developed?
The primary purpose was to disperse Seoul’s population, which was densely concentrated in Gangbuk. In the 1960s, more than 70 percent of Seoul’s population lived in Gangbuk. In 1970, Seoul's population reached 5.43 million, up 14 percent from a year earlier.
The overpopulation issue caused housing shortage problems and resulted in disorganized urban sprawl in the city.
“Gangbuk could no longer handle it. The population kept growing,” said Son. “The development of Gangnam first began in earnest in the 1970s, and the population was about 6 million at the time. Gangbuk couldn’t handle it. That’s how the development of Gangnam began.”
Concern over an invasion by North Korea was another motivation for Gangnam's development.
Back in the 1960s, Korea was concerned about a possible reinvasion by North Korea. Gangbuk was more vulnerable, being only around 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from the demarcation line between South and North Korea that was created in 1953.
The Blue House raid, launched by North Korean commandos to assassinate President Park Chung Hee in 1968, awoke the authorities to the need to disperse the population and public agencies further away from the demarcation line.
In 1975, Seoul announced plans to build the social infrastructure to develop urban functions in Gangnam. Its first target was the transfer of government offices, like City Hall, the Public Prosecutors' Office and the headquarters of financial institutions, including the Bank of Korea and Korea Development Bank.
The attempt failed, and only the Supreme Court and the Public Prosecutors' Office moved to Gangnam. But over the course of the years, other institutions, like the National Intelligence Service, eventually moved to Gangnam.
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Did the development have any side effects?
One major drawback of the development has been the creation of a sense of incompatibility, felt by residents both in and out of Gangnam.
“How does it feel to live in Gangnam?” one commenter asked on Blind, an anonymous community for workers, on Feb. 8. “I come from a poor family in Daejeon. I often go to Gangnam for work, but every time I go, I feel jealous and inferior and wonder what it would feel like to live in an apartment that costs at least 2 billion won.”
Gangnam residents also tend to feel a certain way.
“I was raised and have lived in Gangnam my whole life and also have a house under my name in Gangnam,” wrote another commenter on Blind last month.
“But I’m afraid to live here. In order to give the same level of pocket money and education my parents gave me to my children, I need a good income. But that won’t be possible as an ordinary office worker, and my children will be mocked as beggars.”
The average cost for taking classes at a hagwon in Daechi-dong is 28,000 won per hour, the highest in Seoul, according to HogangNoNo — more than twice the cost of those in Mapo District, western Seoul.
“Every country has a wealthy neighborhood,” said Kim Jun-hyung, a professor teaching real estate at Myongji University. “But the problem in Korea is that the government does not disclose the income of residents living in a district. Transparently disclosing the information and collecting larger amounts of tax from wealthy neighborhoods and spending it on neighborhoods with mid-to-low income will be good welfare that could provide more opportunities for people with mid-to-low income to enter Gangnam.”
Eunma Town Apartment in Daechi-dong in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, in October. [Yonhap]
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Is Gangnam still being developed?
Gangnam development is still ongoing, with a massive underground public transit terminal and express trains to be established at Samseong Station in Gangnam District.
Projected to be Korea’s largest underground complex, the terminal spans 160,000 square meters (1.7 million square feet) and will comprise of seven basement floors that will serve as a multifunctional cultural and retail space.
The goal is to complete construction by 2028. More than a trillion won will be invested into the project.
The terminal will serve as a junction of transport, including for the Great Train Express (GTX) that will connect the southern and northern part of the metropolitan areas.
“Improved accessibility into Gangnam will increase hinterland of the city, which will result in construction of more facilities and commercial districts, consequently further raising the popularity of Gangnam,” said Prof. Kim.
The terminal and the GTX are expected to generate synergy effects with Hyundai Global Business Center, a massive development by Hyundai Motor Group to create an auto industry hub on land that spans across 79,342 square meters.
The construction is also spreading to apartments, as old apartments have received the green light to be reconstructed.
Eunma Town and Mido Mansion Apartment in Daechi-dong are some of the units to be reconstructed that are expected to turn into landmark units.
Eunma, constructed in 1979, received approval to be turned into a 35-story building, while Mido, built in 1983, is planned to be transformed into a 50-story building.
Eunma has been a symbol of Seoul's apartment reconstruction market, as its reconstruction has been subject to regulations and delays due to the authorities' concern of its repercussions on real estate speculation.
With all the developments planned, Gangnam's reputation, too, is only expected to build.
It has become more challenging for the government to yield influence on the further development of an area, as was done in the past when the epicenter of Seoul was shifted from Gangbuk to Gangnam.
“In the past, prestigious schools, public organizations and public workers were forced to move into Gangnam by the government. But using authoritative power to push such development isn’t easy today,” Kim added.
“With the infrastructure and transportation systems already concentrated in Gangnam and economies of scale already achieved, its reputation will stay solid unless South Korea and North Korea are unified,” said Prof. Seo Won-seok, who teaches at the department of urban planning and real estate at Chung-Ang University.
BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]
koreajoongangdaily.joins.com · February 11, 2023
16. US, Japan, S Korea trilateral partnership basis for establishment of 'Asian NATO': Russia
Mr. Putin need not worry. While an Asian NATO could be a useful alliance structure it is unlikely that one could ever really be developed due to historical and cultural reasons.
US, Japan, S Korea trilateral partnership basis for establishment of 'Asian NATO': Russia
republicworld.com\\
Last Updated: 10th February, 2023 17:48 IST
US, Japan, S Korea Trilateral Partnership Basis For Establishment Of 'Asian NATO': Russia
US, South Korea, and Japan's trilateral defence co-operation against the North Korean provocations is basis for establishment of "Asian NATO", says Russia
Written By
Zaini Majeed
IMAGE: AP
United States, South Korea, and Japan's trilateral defence co-operation against the North Korean provocations is the basis for the establishment of "Asian NATO", Russian Ambassador in Seoul Andrey Kulik maintained in an interview with the Russian state-affiliated news agency, Sputnik. Kulik derided the United States for forging diplomatic alliances aimed at the deterrence of Russia and its steadfast China. He noted that the three regional allies are taking a belligerent posture against Russian Federation in the "guise of" countering the ballistic missile launches of DPRK that Japan's military labels a regional threat.
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Yoon Suk Yeol, and US President Biden resolved to forge closer trilateral links for the security realm of the Indo-Pacific. US Defence Department stressed that the alliance will deter the series of ballistic missile and multiple ICBM launches, as well as the conventional military action by North Korea in 2023.
Biden administration has been urging the dictator Kim Jong-un's authoritarian regime for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in accordance with United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and to stop its “Audacious Initiative”. The US also reaffirmed the ASEAN centrality for enforcing a free and open Indo-Pacific in view of the Chinese PLA's military assertiveness. The United States also accused China's President Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin of "emboldening" North Korea's authoritarian leader Kim Jong-un at the UNSC as after nuclear-armed Pyongyang test-fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japan before plunging into the Pacific for the first time in five years.
South Korean special representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Gunn, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Takehiro Funakoshi, right, and US special representative for North Korea Sung Y. Kim, center at the US Embassy in Jakarta. Credit: AP
US-Japan-South Korea Alliance 'cornerstone of future Asian NATO'
Russia's President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, at an earlier state briefing slammed the United States' role in exacerbating the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine. Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Western allies, he noted, are not willing to listen to Russia's concerns and have demonstrated no willingness in coming to the table for negotiation for brokering peace, he told reporters in Moscow. Peskov slammed the Biden administration for its intent on fighting a proxy war with Russia “to the last Ukrainian".
Echoing Peskov's anti-American stance, Russia's Kulik asserted that there is "a strengthening of the 'triangle' of the US-South Korea-Japan, which in the future can be seen as one of the cornerstones of the future Asian NATO." Furthermore, the Russian ambassador told the Moscow-based paper that European Union headquarters in Brussels "makes no secret of its plans to expand the alliance's area of responsibility to the Indo-Pacific region in order to deter China and Russia."
Russia's ambassador noted that there have been increased military exercises off the coast of the Korean Peninsula by the US-South Korea-Japan citing the fabricated military threats by the North. Last week, Moscow's ally DPRK threatened to counter the US military moves with “most overwhelming nuclear force", reiterating that America was expanding military drills with rival South Korea and pushing bilateral tensions to an “extreme red line”. North's response came as US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin announced plans of mobilising the American military assets close to the Korean Peninsula that would include the deployment of fighter jets and bombers to strengthen joint training and operational planning.
First Published: 10th February, 2023 17:48 IST
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De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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