Quote of the Day:

"Never try to argue with someone whose TV is bigger than their bookshelf."

- Emilia Clarke

​"​Perhaps the best solution to these problems lies in creating the​ ​political warfare instrument on long-term premises, while retaining​ flexibility on when and how to use it. Policy content can be adjusted​ ​to changing circumstances and needs, so long as the basic capability​ ​remains in working order. Such an approach appears to​ ​underlie the sustained commitment since the 1940s to​ ​American​ ​military power.

No such commitment has existed for political warfare capability,​ ​where there has been a history of organizations created,​ ​used for a time, and then destroyed in fact if not in form. Psychological​ ​operations capabilities created in World War If were​ ​never used for more than tactical purposes. Others were created​ ​in the late 1940s. made operational in the 1950s, and disrupted​ ​in the ​1​960s: by the late 1970s they were in serious disarray. By​ ​the early 1980s US Army Psyop existed mostly in skeletal form.​ ​Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, ​a​nd related research capabilities,​ ​such as the Munich-based Institute for the Study of the USSR,​ ​existed, but in much different form: their sense of purpose and​ ​status had lost much of its original impetus. CIA suppor​t​ of​ ​operations​ ​around the world had been drastically reduced or​ ​abandoned.​

America fared better in maintaining its public diplomacy​ ​capabilities. The Voice of America and most related USIA and​ ​State Department programming in other media remained as instruments​ ​of long-t​e​rm cultural exchange and g,,neal service new,​ ​programming. USIA's oversea presence, the US Information Service​ ​(USIS), under close State Department control, was often​ ​primarily​ ​concerned with the useful but limited task of providing​ ​public relations services for diplomatic missions. The 1980s​ ​brought a major expansion of VOA facilities, and the beginning​ ​of satellite TV programming known as "'Worldnet." The National​ ​Endowment for Democracy, funded by the Congress. with bipartisan​ ​backin​g​ was established in the late 1970s to give support​ ​at modest levels to democratic political and social activities in​ ​selected foreign countries: it offers a restrained potential for a​ ​systematic effort to propagate the principles of democracy abroad​ ​in cooperation with several similar organizations maintained for​ ​similar purposes by other Western democracies. Many believed​ ​these activities still lacked sufficient sense of strategic purpose​ ​​​​but they clearly gave America a more effective voice at the country​ ​​​level. America by the beginning of the 1980s had begun to update​ and expand its public diplomacy capability; it had only remnants​ ​of a political warfare force.​

America had also shifted part of its attention from Europe to​ ​Asia. The ambivalence was inherent in America's geography. and​ ​the alternation East or West was part of American history. The​ ​nature of the Asian involvement from the late 1960s to mid-1970s​ ​was unusually controversial, and for various reasons of an internal​ ​nature it was unusually self-destructive.​"​

​- Paul Smith, "On Political Warfare​

​"Against a stupidity that is in fashion, no wisdom compensates."

- Jose Ortega y Gasset​

​1. Meticulous joint military exercise to dampen N. Korea's war ambition

2. President Yoon vows to remember 55 West Sea heroes

3. ＜Interview with Two N. Korean＞ The 1.4 million young people petitioning for the military was just for show…they know they won’t have to join up to fight against the Americans and South Koreans

4.  To find missing 653 bullets, North Korean city is locked down, houses searched

5. North Korean Defector-Turned-Lawmaker to Attend Washington Summit

6. South Korea’s LG Energy to Build $5.6 Billion Battery Plant in Arizona

7. Korea Tiptoes Toward Reconciling Comfort Women Issue

8. Defector explains how North Korea's weapons overshadow human rights abuses

9. Kim Jong Un's daughter will NEVER rule North Korea

10. Moon Jae-in’s Blue House Official: “Bundles of Cash Sent to North Korea through Seongnam Airport

11. North Korea claims to have tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone. Analysts are skeptical

12. Torture, forced abortions and insects for food: Life inside North Korean jails, says this NGO

13. So much for the NK-Japan ‘Pyongyang Declaration’

14. Yoon and Kishida Are Fumbling South Korea-Japan Rapprochement

1. Meticulous joint military exercise to dampen N. Korea's war ambition

Conclusion:

However, considering the versatile counterattack history of South Korea-U.S. military cooperation overarching both nuclear and conventional weapons as well as missile defense systems, North Korean provocation that brings forward nuclear programs only may be nothing more than blackmail and ultimately self-destruction. The FS is the first joint exercise to apply a new combat operation plan replacing the traditional OPLAN 5015. North Korean provocations offered us a chance to verify and reinforce in detail the new joint operation plan that covers responses per scenario, including North Korean nuclear monitoring, detection of potential nuclear use, and immediate counterattack upon assault.

Meticulous joint military exercise to dampen N. Korea's war ambition

donga.com

Posted March. 25, 2023 07:58,

Updated March. 25, 2023 07:58

Meticulous joint military exercise to dampen N. Korea's war ambition. March. 25, 2023 07:58. .

North Korea announced that it successfully tested its new unmanned nuclear underwater vehicle. North Korean state media reported on Friday that its unmanned underwater vehicle for nuclear attack traveled undetected in oval and eight-shaped routes for 59 hours between 80 and 150 meters underwater. The media added that the vehicle reached the mock port of the enemy and exploded the mock nuclear warhead underwater.

The North also noted that it fired four strategic cruise missiles and exploded them in the air at an altitude of 600 meters. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that his nation should bolster nuclear war deterrence exponentially and show that to the enemy. The provocation aimed at the West Sea Defense Day that South Korea commemorates every year to pay tribute to the deceased service members, including sailors killed aboard the corvette Cheonan in an attack blamed on the North.

The underwater nuclear weapons test by the North this time around can be called as the ultimate diversification of its nuclear weapons attack. Dubbed by the regime as a "secret weapon," the underwater nuclear vehicle appears to mimic the Russian nuclear-powered torpedo Poseidon, which can travel underwater in stealth and trigger giant radioactive tsunami waves through an underwater explosion. Russia recently threatened the Western countries that it might deploy its nuclear submarine equipped with Poseidon after suffering setbacks in the war in Ukraine.

North Korea diversified its firing equipment and locations by testing multiple ballistic and cruise missiles with various ranges, utilizing transporter erector launchers (TEL), trains, submarines, reservoirs, and even underground hangars. It also varied hitting methods, testing explosions in the air and underwater. Though the technical competency or actual capability of its weapons still needs to be verified, the regime clearly attempts to mock South Korea and the U.S. by show of force with formidably destructive missiles that can avoid detection or interception.

On top of that, North Korean missile tests were all the more lavishly conducted during the large-scale joint military exercise Freedom Shield (FS) between South Korea and the U.S. The North boldly launched short-range, close-range, and long-range ballistic missiles, submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCM), and even nuclear torpedoes, seemingly not even concerned about the massive deployment of U.S. strategic military assets on the Korean Peninsula. It is hard to deny that North Korea is fearless and arrogant with its nuclear capabilities and programs.

However, considering the versatile counterattack history of South Korea-U.S. military cooperation overarching both nuclear and conventional weapons as well as missile defense systems, North Korean provocation that brings forward nuclear programs only may be nothing more than blackmail and ultimately self-destruction. The FS is the first joint exercise to apply a new combat operation plan replacing the traditional OPLAN 5015. North Korean provocations offered us a chance to verify and reinforce in detail the new joint operation plan that covers responses per scenario, including North Korean nuclear monitoring, detection of potential nuclear use, and immediate counterattack upon assault.

한국어

donga.com

2. President Yoon vows to remember 55 West Sea heroes

President Yoon vows to remember 55 West Sea heroes

donga.com

Posted March. 25, 2023 08:00,

Updated March. 25, 2023 08:00

President Yoon vows to remember 55 West Sea heroes. March. 25, 2023 08:00. by Kyu-Jin Shin, Joo-Young Jeon newjin@donga.com,aimhigh@donga.com.

"I would like to honor the 55 great heroes who dreamed of protecting the nation and its people by calling out their names."

"President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a memorial ceremony on Friday at the national cemetery in Daejeon to mark West Sea Defense Day. During the ceremony, he called out the names of the 55 service members who lost their lives in the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong in 2002, the sinking of the Cheonan warship in 2010, and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010. It was the first time an incumbent president had read out the names one by one. As President Yoon read the roll call of the fallen service members, he fought back tears for some 26 seconds, hiding his nose and mouth with his hands while keeping his head down. First Lady Kim Keon Hee also brushed away tears while the names were being read. President Yoon said, “Together with our people, I will forever remember the great heroes who defended the freedom of the Republic of Korea in the name of the nation.”

President Yoon vowed to make North Korea pay for its reckless provocations. He stated, “Our Navy and Marines have defended the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and our territories with their blood from numerous armed provocations by North Korea, including the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong, the sinking of the Cheonan warship, the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, and the Battle of Daecheong.” This was the first time President Yoon pointed out North Korea as responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan warship.

“In response to North Korea's nuclear and missile advancements and provocations, our government and military will significantly reinforce the South Korean three-axis system,” the president said. Throughout his speech that day, President Yoon emphasized the North's provocations, using the term six times.

This starkly contrasts former President Moon Jae-in, who participated in the memorial ceremonies of West Sea Defense Day in 2020 and 2021 but did not explicitly state that North Korea was responsible for the provocations. In 2020, Moon was questioned by Ms. Yoon Cheong-ja, the mother of Min Pyeong-gi, the late senior chief petty officer, about who caused the sinking of the Cheonan corvette.

Ms. Yoon stated during a phone interview with the Dong-A Ilbo that the President's speech made her feel as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her chest. “President Yoon also told me to take care of my health, which was very comforting,” she said.

“I felt taken care of during the ceremony," said Jeon Jun-young, the leader of the Veterans Association for survivors of the Cheonan sinking. "Unlike the previous administration that placed me in a corner, this time I was near the president, and even the smallest details were taken care of.”

한국어

donga.com

3. ＜Interview with Two N. Korean＞ The 1.4 million young people petitioning for the military was just for show…they know they won’t have to join up to fight against the Americans and South Koreans

Interesting reporting (if accurate).

Excerpt::

―― Is there anyone who is genuinely interested in volunteering for the military or rejoining the military?

There have been people such as former soldiers who failed to adjust to society and others facing life’s difficulties who have petitioned for service, but I’ve heard that none of these people actually went out to the events to sign their names. People who went to the events just did that so they could show off their loyalty with the knowledge that they wouldn’t have to join the military.

Someone I know received a physical examination as part of the process of joining the military this spring, but they failed the examination because they were considered too weak physically. This person applied to join the military at a group petition event held at their school, but that didn’t fly, either. That’s why the events were just a stunt for the cameras.

＜Interview with Two N. Korean＞ The 1.4 million young people petitioning for the military was just for show…they know they won’t have to join up to fight against the Americans and South Koreans

asiapress.org

North Korean state-run media reported on March 18 that young people had petitioned to join the military at schools and at workplaces. (Rodong Sinmun)

◆ Is it really true that 1.4 million young people have petitioned to join the military due to anger and hatred of the enemy?

Amid US-ROK joint military drills, North Korea’s state-run media outlets have reported that up to 1.4 million students and laborer-youth have volunteered for service in the military. This petition signing events the country has held, however, are nothing more than superficial shows; in fact, young people rarely join the military anymore, several reporting partners in the northern region of the country told ASIAPRESS recently. (KANG Ji-won)

On March 20, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that up to 1.4 million young people have enthusiastically volunteered for service in the military nationwide “filled with hatred toward the American imperialists and South Korean puppet-pirates” for their “completely reckless schemes to provoke a nuclear war.”

The article was a major story, with many photos of young people throughout the country petitioning to join the military.

The petition signing events shown in the article’s photos, however, were nothing more than a superficial show for the cameras. Two ASIAPRESS reporting partners living in the northern part of the country said that none of the young people will actually go forward with joining the military. The following is a Q&A with the two reporting partners.

◆ Just a show for the cameras

―― We’ve heard that up to 1.4 million people have petitioned to join the military, but are they really joining the military?

Petitioning for military service does not mean anyone will actually join the military. The authorities have ordered that the Socialist Youth League prepare for mobilization all those who have been selected at a moment’s notice, but all of this (the photos of people petitioning for service) is just a show. People from each workplace who were gathered beforehand simply participated in the petition events and wrote down their names.

―― So, they have not started the process of joining the military, then?

There’s been no talk of people undergoing physical checkups or going through other processes of joining the military, such as receiving uniforms. It’s all for show, because the number of people who petitioned just matches with the number of people who signed petitions. Nobody among the petitioners believes that they need to really join the military.

There are people, however, who are worried that the authorities will send the petitioners to farm areas after the fall in tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

―― Has there been a rise in the number of soon-to-be-graduates of high school who will join the military?

New recruits are scheduled to start their service from March 25, but I’ve heard that they won’t be conducting any more recruitment apart from those already selected.

―― Kim Jong-un regime is heavily criticized the joint US-ROK military drills.

The situation is tense, but the regime frequently tells us to “stay faithful because we have the Supreme Leader and the world’s best nuclear arsenal.” They’ve done so much of this kind of propaganda that there are even people who ask why the government is forcing them to do group petitions when the country already has nukes.

North Korean state-run media reported on March 18 that young people had petitioned to join the military at schools and at workplaces. (Rodong Sinmun)

◆ Petitioning to show loyalty to the state

―― Is there anyone who is genuinely interested in volunteering for the military or rejoining the military?

There have been people such as former soldiers who failed to adjust to society and others facing life’s difficulties who have petitioned for service, but I’ve heard that none of these people actually went out to the events to sign their names. People who went to the events just did that so they could show off their loyalty with the knowledge that they wouldn’t have to join the military.

Someone I know received a physical examination as part of the process of joining the military this spring, but they failed the examination because they were considered too weak physically. This person applied to join the military at a group petition event held at their school, but that didn’t fly, either. That’s why the events were just a stunt for the cameras.

―― Is the regime mobilizing civilians in any special way to resist the US and South Korea?

Apart from the drills held by civilian armed organizations (paramilitary groups) at each workplace, there’s been nothing.

※ ASIAPRESS communicates with reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.

asiapress.org

4. To find missing 653 bullets, North Korean city is locked down, houses searched

Or did someone just make a mistake on some paperwork and cause an accounting error?

To find missing 653 bullets, North Korean city is locked down, houses searched

Those who fail to report any bullets they find face three years’ hard labor

By Jieun Kim for RFA Korean

2023.03.24

rfa.org

After 653 bullets went missing during a recent military withdrawal, North Korean authorities have locked down the entire city of Hyesan and searched house-to-house for the ammunition, two sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.

The assault rifle ammunition was discovered to be missing on March 7, when soldiers with the Korean People’s Army 7th Corp were pulling back from the area surrounding the city, which lies on the border with China. They had been deployed there in 2020 to enforce the border closure at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They withdrew completely between Feb. 25 and Mar. 10, but an extensive investigation is underway because of a loss of bullets during the evacuation process,” a resident of the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

When it happened, the soldiers did not initially report it but tried to find the missing bullets themselves, according to the source. “But when the missing bullets could not be found, they notified the residents and began a rigorous search,” he said.

The police and military launched an investigation, sealed off the whole city, and began searching house to house, the source said.

“Those who have seen or picked up any number of bullets are required to report them as soon as possible.”

Those who fail to report any bullets they found could be punished, the source said.

“There have been no clues even after 10 days have passed since this investigation began,” the source said. “The city … will remain on lockdown until all 653 bullets are found.

Freedom delayed

Residents had been looking forward to the army’s withdrawal from the area, but during the investigation they will have even less freedom of movement, a Ryanggang province official, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told RFA.

“Last week, orders were issued to factories, farms, social groups and neighborhood watch units in the province to actively cooperate with the ammunition-related investigation,” the official said, adding that when the bullets were not recovered after 10 days, the investigating authorities resorted to lying to spread fear among the public.

“They tried to put pressure on the residents by bluffing that the withdrawal was a maneuver related to the safety of the Supreme Dignity from reactionary forces,” the official said, using an honorific to refer to the country’s leader Kim Jong Un.

Moving such a large force from the border region to protect Kim Jong Un could be interpreted by the people to mean that the country is under attack, and invaders were pushing towards Pyongyang.

“The Ministry of State Security, the Military Security Command of the Korean People's Army, and the Ministry of Social Security issued a particularly stern warning against ‘Plunder, Illegal Possession or Disposal of Weapons, Ammunition and Combat Technology Equipment’ as stipulated in the criminal law Article 78,” the official said.

“According to that law, a person who illegally possesses or transfers firearms, ammunition, or weapons shall be punished by reform through labor for more than three years,” he said.

The residents are afraid that if there is no resolution then the authorities will randomly punish someone who might be completely innocent, the official said.

“Some residents are saying that the authorities are raising the atmosphere of sharp military confrontation between the North and the South every day, even claiming that the South is provoking war,” said the official. “Because this incident occurred at a time of tension, residents are closely watching how the investigation will end.”

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong.

rfa.org

5. North Korean Defector-Turned-Lawmaker to Attend Washington Summit

North Korean Defector-Turned-Lawmaker to Attend Washington Summit

• Ji Seong-ho to deliver a speech amid North Korea’s protest
• US, South Korea press Kim Jong Un through shared values

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-25/south-korean-defector-turned-lawmaker-invited-to-address-congress?sref=hhjZtX76

ByJeong-Ho Lee

March 24, 2023 at 8:33 PM EDT

The US invited a South Korean lawmaker who defected from North Korea to address a Washington DC summit next week in a move likely to anger Pyongyang.

Ji Seong-ho is set to deliver a speech Tuesday in a panel discussion hosted by the bipartisan Commission of the US House of Representatives, House of Democracy Partnership. His office said on Saturday that he will emphasize the need for checks and balances in political systems and highlight how absolute power leads to corruption in authoritarian regimes.

Ji’s speech is expected to draw attention from North Korea, which has been threatening defector-turned-lawmakers like him and blaming the US and South Korea for stoking tensions. 

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been pushing to strengthen cooperation with allies through shared values, including human rights. 

The stance has drawn strong opposition from Pyongyang and resulted in military provocations. Most recently, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of weapons designed to deliver nuclear strikes against the U.S. and its allies, including a new underwater drone.

Ji is a member of South Korea’s ruling conservative People Power Party. Born in North Korea in 1982, he grew up during the famine of the 1990s and fled to China before eventually making his way to South Korea in 2006. Ji was elected to the South Korean National Assembly in 2020.

6. South Korea’s LG Energy to Build $5.6 Billion Battery Plant in Arizona

South Korea’s LG Energy to Build $5.6 Billion Battery Plant in Arizona

Company is the latest foreign battery maker to commit to projects tapping into the energy transition

https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-koreas-lg-energy-to-build-5-6-billion-battery-plant-in-arizona-b8abfa1d?page=1

By Jiyoung SohnFollow

March 24, 2023 6:34 am ET

SEOUL—South Korea’s LG Energy Solution Ltd. 373220 -1.04%decrease; red down pointing triangle said it would invest about $5.6 billion in a battery-manufacturing complex in Arizona, the latest in a string of new plants by foreign companies as the U.S. transitions toward cleaner fuels.

LG Energy said Friday that the new battery complex in Queen Creek, Ariz., will mainly serve electric-vehicle makers in North America.

The amount is about four times larger than what the firm had initially pledged when it first revealed plans last year to manufacture cylindrical batteries for electric vehicles in Arizona, though the project had been up in the air until Friday’s announcement. LG Energy said in June 2022 that it was reassessing its investment options due to unprecedented economic conditions. Inflation has been driving up the costs of raw materials and other expenses for manufacturers worldwide.

The complex announced Friday will consist of two battery plants and mark the largest investment ever for a stand-alone battery-manufacturing facility in North America, LG Energy said.

LG Energy’s announcement comes as battery makers have been pushing to build up a bigger production base in the U.S., which is looking to strengthen its local supply chains and reduce reliance on China while speeding up shifts to green technologies.

The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act has offered billions of dollars in tax credits for EVs sold in the U.S., but only applies if they have a certain value of their battery components assembled in North America.

LG Energy said the Arizona plant will meet the eligibility requirements of the EV tax-credits program under the IRA.

“We believe it’s the right move at the right time in order to empower [the] clear energy transition in the U.S.,” LG Energy Chief Executive Kwon Young-soo said.

The EV tax-credits program has stoked complaints from foreign car makers, but has opened business opportunities for non-Chinese battery players including South Korea’s LG Energy, Samsung SDI Co. and SK On Co. as well as Japan’s Panasonic Holdings Corp., which have all announced plans for new manufacturing plants in the U.S., including many via joint partnership with auto makers.

LG Energy is the world’s second-largest producer of EV batteries after China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., and has been seeking growth in the U.S., where it has seen a boost from Washington’s legislation intended to subsidize clean-energy industries and to reduce economic dependence on China.

When excluding China’s CATL, LG Energy is the top battery maker globally, accounting for 21% of the combined EV and energy-storage-system battery market by units sold last year, according to Seoul-based market-research firm SNE Research.

In addition to the Arizona complex, LG Energy is working to expand its battery-manufacturing base across North America. It has three plants it has built or is building across the U.S. with General Motors Co. as well as one planned plant with Honda Motor Co. in Ohio and one with Stellantis NV in Canada.

For the coming Arizona complex, the South Korean battery maker plans to spend roughly $3.2 billion on one plant for building cylindrical batteries serving electric vehicles with a production capacity of 27 gigawatt-hours. It is expected to start mass production in 2025.

The remaining amount will be spent on another plant for producing lithium-iron-phosphate pouch-type batteries used for energy storage systems, with a capacity of 16 gigawatt-hours. It is expected to start mass production in 2026, according to LG Energy.

Write to Jiyoung Sohn at jiyoung.sohn@wsj.com

Appeared in the March 25, 2023, print edition as 'LG Energy Plans $5.6 Billion Battery Factory for Arizona'.

7. Korea Tiptoes Toward Reconciling Comfort Women Issue

Korea Tiptoes Toward Reconciling Comfort Women Issue​

Yoon government seeks to push a painful issue into the past

10 hr ago​

asiasentinel.com · by Asia Sentinel

By: Shim Jae Hoon

It is noon in Seoul, time for young, activist Korean women to rush to the Japanese embassy to protest under banners denouncing wartime Japan’s dragooning of thousands of Korean women as “sexual slaves” for Japanese soldiers fighting in remote parts of China and Asia.

These Wednesday rallies on behalf of the so-called Comfort Women have continued without letup for more than 30 years, impressing even the most diehard protesters. The issue has been an albatross around the neck of Japan for a generation. But after decades of fiery rallies, the momentum for popular mobilization appears to be weakening, especially in the wake of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s recent policy initiatives to put the past behind and push for normalization.

Following his summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on March 16, Yoon has been repeatedly sending out messages to “remember what had happened in the past, but don’t let that tie you up today.”

Kishida himself appeared to have embraced that message as he carefully broached the subject at the summit talks, asking if Yoon was now ready to implement the 2015 agreement signed between the two countries to put the issue behind them. It had been signed between then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Korean President Park Geun Hye. In tandem with that agreement, Abe had created a ¥1 billion (US$7.6 million) foundation created from the Japanese government budget to compensate the surviving dozen or so of the thousands of women enslaved as compensation for their ordeals and care for retirement life.

With that accord in document form, Abe admitted to the Japanese military’s role in creating and running “Comfort Women” stations in overseas war zones and expressed a “heartfelt and sincere apology” on behalf of the Japanese government. In exchange, the Korean government was asked to accept in written form the proposition that it considered the Comfort Women issue as “finally, irreversibly” resolved, and not to be taken to international forums like the United Nations for further global denunciation.

If that inelegant phrase written into the accord sounded a bit crass for a diplomatic document, it did reflect the depth of the Japanese government’s mortifying position over this detritus of history. Korean protesters had a bronze statue cast of a teenage Korean girl supposedly seized for a Comfort Women station and placed it in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul as a reminder of their crime. Copies of the statue were also produced for permanent display in international cities like Berlin and Los Angeles as a global reminder of Japan’s crime.

That apparently wasn’t enough for the next government of leftwing, nationalist President Moon Jae In, who came to power three years later. He claimed that the accord fell insufficient for meeting the Comfort Women’s ordeal, and rejected Abe’s foundation, even though 70 percent of the foundation’s funds had been provided to the aging victims.

At the center of Moon’s breach of the accord was Seoul’s activist, feminist civic campaign organization representing the Comfort Women cause. According to independent analysts in Seoul and Tokyo, these civic campaigners stood in the way of resolving the issue amicably at government levels because they hadn’t been involved in negotiating it. Indeed, a leader of one such campaign organization, which collects donations for aging Comfort Women, has been indicted for embezzling some of the contributions.

With such scandals contributing to growing public ennui over the whole issue, Korea’s younger generation by and large are becoming more interested in wider contacts with globally interconnected culture, including with Japan. One such trend is the growing number of young Koreans – precisely the age groups considered sensitive to the history of Japanese colonial rule – choosing Japan as their travel destination. As soon as Japan reopened post-Covid 19 inbound tourism last December, nearly a half million young South Koreans – the highest number of foreign tourists to hit Japan that year – flocked to Japan, accounting for a full third of all of Japan’s foreign inbound tourists.

That’s not to say that average South Koreans have suddenly changed their feelings about Japan, only that they have become more judicious in their views. A good indication of that is their changing country preferences: a January survey by Korea Research Poll showed 36.2 percent of young South Koreans favoring Japan, up from 27.8 percent last year, and their preference for China, falling from 27 percent last year to 25.6 percent this year.

This of course doesn’t mean that younger South Koreans are becoming suddenly oblivious of their country’s past historical problems with Japan, only that they are becoming more balanced in their judgment as shown by more and more Japanese books being translated and offered at bookstores.

A reflection of this trend is in Seoul’s own academia. On Seoul’s steady-sellers list in the past few years are “Comfort Women of Empire” authored by Park Yu Ha, which dispassionately examines the issue, and Anti-Japan Tribalism by Lee Young Hoon. Both are university professors and experts on Japan. Park was sued and brought to the court for her writing that not all Comfort Women were forcibly seized by Japanese militarists for army brothels, that some had been abandoned by their families and that some had even been prostitutes. As for Lee, he has faced potential terrorist attacks from ultranationalists for writing that Koreans themselves should face blame for allowing Japan to colonize Korea by being a laggard in modernization, and should stop blaming Japan for all their ills.

These revisionist attempts at self-examination attest to growing maturity and self-confidence on the part of South Korean society (North Korea, gripped in a premodern dynastic control, remains a separate case) in an inevitable progression to a postindustrial economic landscape. Despite lingering evidence of political immaturity such as corruption, South Korea’s new generation as a whole is clearly taking a more balanced view on relations with its age-old nemesis Japan.

So what are the perspectives?

Following the recent compensation of Japan’s wartime Korean laborers by Seoul’s own government President Yoon is allowing time to heal the case. “Korea-Japan relations are not a zero-sum game in which one side loses and other side gains,” he told a recent cabinet session, responding to opposition party agitation calling Yoon’s initiatives a “traitorous sellout.” But Yoon, unperturbed, is taking the lead on attempts to change the whole course of bilateral ties with Japan. He wants to push the past behind, focusing on security threats from nuclear-armed North Korea and geopolitical tensions arising from worsening China-US relations. Seoul today is openly supportive of Japan’s strengthening military posture against North Korea and China.

Even so, Yoon recognizes the domestic risks of moving too rapidly. When asked how Seoul would proceed, Shim Kyu Sun, chairman of the government-sponsored “foundation for aiding victims of forced mobilization under imperial Japan,” answered that the Comfort Women issue was something that Korea and Japan should carefully work together to heal, adding “this issue involves emotion, not reasoning.”

According to Dr. Lee, author of Anti-Japan Tribalism, at least 3,600 of anywhere between 10,000 to 20,000 Asian women said to have been forced into army brothels were Korean, although other researchers have put the number far higher.

With charges of inhumanity attached to the whole issue, the Yoon government hopes to proceed carefully to avoid giving the impression it wants to write off the historical blight in one big step. For the time being, he appears unlikely to take up the issue in haste, given that neither side has officially repudiated the 2015 agreement itself, which Kishida as foreign minister at the time had brokered. The agreement itself still stands, with only its implementation being withheld by Korea. With most of them dying of old age, and with most of Japan’s fund set up for their welfare distributed, both sides understand the issue is slowly diminishing.

For President Yoon, the only official act remaining is to declare that the Abe-Park accord is officially implemented by restoring Japan’s foundation. Closure is essential for the progress of bilateral relations. In the words of Lee Young Hoon, author of Anti-Japan Tribalism, the issues of history pending between the two countries are as much unilateral to Korea as it is bilateral to Japan.

asiasentinel.com · by Asia Sentinel

​8​.​ Defector explains how North Korea's weapons overshadow human rights abuses

​

Excerpts from my good friends, Greg Scartlatoiu and Robert Collins:

"The challenge before, during and after the [formation of] the UN Commission of Inquiry is that human rights are always outperformed by other issues: military, nuclear, missiles, security," said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of HRNK. He emphasized, however, that human rights should be a priority for the international community, DW reported. Pierre Rigoulot, historian and author of a book looking at life in the North titled "The Aquariums of Pyongyang," told the panel that since the UN commission was started 10 years ago, "systematic human rights violations" in North Korea have only become worse.

"It has been 10 years since the UN Commission of Inquiry on North Korea was established. Nothing has changed in these 10 years. Nothing at all," North Korean defector Jung lamented."In the next 10 years, I will keep working to indict Kim Jong Un at the International Criminal Court, like I have been doing for the past 10 years. I urge the international community to support our efforts," he added. MEP Hoogeveen admitted that the international community needs to pay more attention to the North Korean regime's massive rights violations, DW reported.

...

​​"Despite discussions and engagement by the UN, we are not talking enough about it," he said.However, detailed information about human rights abuses in the isolated country is lacking. One of the main challenges for rights advocates is getting the attention of international policymakers. Robert Collins, a Korean expert and a senior advisor at HRNK, said Pyongyang's nuclear and missile program and human rights abuses in the country are linked in several ways.

"For instance, Kim's regime wants to spend money on its nuclear and missile program and not on providing food to its people," Collins told DW, adding that the country is facing an unprecedented food crisis. "The food crisis in the mid-1990s killed about 1.5 million people in North Korea. It is approaching the same level now," he added.

The North Korean expert believes the recent ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang carry a two-fold message. "The regime wants to tell the South Korea-US alliance that it is powerful and can strike them if they try to interfere with them," he said. He added that the threats are intended to send a message to the North Korean people that they should take pride in that the regime is powerful enough to attack South Korea, DW reported (ANI)

Defector explains how North Korea's weapons overshadow human rights abuses | International

"North Korea is a living hell," Jung Gwang-il, a North Korean defector and president of the No Chain rights organization, told DW on the sidelines of an EU Parliament event last week investigating the dire human rights situation in North Korea.

ANI | Updated: 21-03-2023 13:24 IST | Created: 21-03-2023 13:24 IST

devdiscourse.com

Despite the formation of commission to investigate the crimes against humanity in North Korea, ten years ago little has changed today and the West seems to be more concerned about Pyongyang's militaristic ambitions, according to a report in the DW. "North Korea is a living hell," Jung Gwang-il, a North Korean defector and president of the No Chain rights organization, told DW on the sidelines of an EU Parliament event last week investigating the dire human rights situation in North Korea.

"It is difficult for people in the outside world to understand what the situation is like in North Korea," he said. "Prisoners are treated as sub-humans. There are several kinds of detention facilities in the country," Jung added, DW reported.

Three North Korean defectors DW spoke to at the event in the French city of Strasbourg and presented a disturbing account of the human rights situation in their country. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime, they said, continues to detain citizens without charges, accusing them of having links with South Korean activists.

"Political prisoners are tortured, given electric shocks and beaten with a wooden stick, to get forced confessions. Then they are transferred to political prison camps, where they are subject to over 18 hours of forced labour a day," said Jung, who also gave his testimony to the EU Parliament session, DW reported. Another North Korean defector, who asked to remain anonymous, told DW that she fled the country in 2018. "The North Korean regime has declared all escapees who have come to the South as traitors. But we are not traitors. We left North Korea because life was hard there. We could not eat properly, and we were subject to political and economic repression," she added.

The defectors complained that the systematic human rights abuses in North Korea are not receiving adequate attention in the West. They contend that the international community is more concerned about the regime's military buildup. Last year, North Korea carried out an unprecedented number of weapons tests in defiance of international sanctions, DW reported. These issues took centre stage at the EU panel in Strasbourg, organized by The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), a Washington-based think-tank working to raise awareness about rights issues in North Korea.

"I have been studying North Korea for many years. The country remains one of the most isolated places while continuing to threaten the security of the world. But we must not forget about the 25 million people that live there," Michiel Hoogeveen, a member of the EU Parliament (MEP), told the panel, DW reported. Participants, however, agreed that Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs have taken precedence over the human suffering and plight of the North Korean people.

"The challenge before, during and after the [formation of] the UN Commission of Inquiry is that human rights are always outperformed by other issues: military, nuclear, missiles, security," said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of HRNK. He emphasized, however, that human rights should be a priority for the international community, DW reported. Pierre Rigoulot, historian and author of a book looking at life in the North titled "The Aquariums of Pyongyang," told the panel that since the UN commission was started 10 years ago, "systematic human rights violations" in North Korea have only become worse.

"It has been 10 years since the UN Commission of Inquiry on North Korea was established. Nothing has changed in these 10 years. Nothing at all," North Korean defector Jung lamented."In the next 10 years, I will keep working to indict Kim Jong Un at the International Criminal Court, like I have been doing for the past 10 years. I urge the international community to support our efforts," he added. MEP Hoogeveen admitted that the international community needs to pay more attention to the North Korean regime's massive rights violations, DW reported.

"Despite discussions and engagement by the UN, we are not talking enough about it," he said.However, detailed information about human rights abuses in the isolated country is lacking. One of the main challenges for rights advocates is getting the attention of international policymakers. Robert Collins, a Korean expert and a senior advisor at HRNK, said Pyongyang's nuclear and missile program and human rights abuses in the country are linked in several ways.

"For instance, Kim's regime wants to spend money on its nuclear and missile program and not on providing food to its people," Collins told DW, adding that the country is facing an unprecedented food crisis. "The food crisis in the mid-1990s killed about 1.5 million people in North Korea. It is approaching the same level now," he added.

The North Korean expert believes the recent ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang carry a two-fold message. "The regime wants to tell the South Korea-US alliance that it is powerful and can strike them if they try to interfere with them," he said. He added that the threats are intended to send a message to the North Korean people that they should take pride in that the regime is powerful enough to attack South Korea, DW reported (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

devdiscourse.com

9.  Kim Jong Un's daughter will NEVER rule North Korea

​Interesting speculation. ​I do think that Kim's actions over the past 3 years as a result of the COVID paradox show that he is concerned with the potential threats to his power from within. He has been using his defense against COVID to try to assert fotuther control cover the Korean people in the north while making them suffer and sacrfice so that he can pursue nuclear weapons and missiles.

Kim Jong Un's daughter will NEVER rule North Korea because he is losing his grip on power and even his inner circle no longer trust him, says defector

• Thae Yong-ho was high-ranking North Korean diplomat until he defected in 2016
• He said since Kim Jong Un came to power, the regime had gone 'very unstable'

By MIRIAM KUEPPER

PUBLISHED: 10:50 EDT, 24 March 2023 | UPDATED: 10:51 EDT, 24 March 2023

Daily Mail · by Miriam Kuepper · March 24, 2023

Kim Jong Un's daughter, Kim Ju Ae, will never rule North Korea because her father is losing his power as even his inner circle no longer trusts him, a defector now living in South Korea claimed.

South Korean lawmaker Thae Yong-ho was once a high-ranking North Korean diplomat, until he defected to South Korea in 2016.

After being a member of the National Assembly for more than two years, Thae was elected to be in the supreme council of South Korea's ruling People Power Party, making him the first defector to enter into a South Korean political party's leadership.

Thae said in an Interview with Radio Free Asia: 'I think the North Korean regime will never make it to the fourth generation with Kim Ju Ae.

'Since Kim Jong Un came to power, the North Korean regime has gone too far in a very unstable and abnormal direction over the past decade.'

A defector said: 'I think the North Korean regime will never make it to the fourth generation with Kim Ju Ae (left). Since Kim Jong Un came to power, the North Korean regime has gone too far in a very unstable and abnormal direction over the past decade.

South Korean lawmaker Thae Yong-ho (pictured) was once a high-ranking North Korean diplomat, until he defected to South Korea in 2016

He also doubted that Kim Jong Un will actually pass his position on to his daughter and not a son but reiterated that the North Korean dictator was building this image of a power succession over four generations whenever he can

Thae added that there were ever-changing players in the military and government leadership, which results in 'no consensus or solidarity between Kim Jong Un and the leaders surrounding him'.

He implied that this builds distrust, which was why they personnel is constantly replaced.

Thae continued: 'Next, young people who are growing up in North Korea have no loyalty to the North Korean system. They only value reality, and dream of a more open and prosperous country.

'When they grow up and become the backbone of North Korea in their 40s and 50s, I believe that Kim Jong Un's system will inevitably collapse.'

He also doubted that Kim Jong Un will actually pass his position on to his daughter and not a son but reiterated that the North Korean dictator was building this image of a power succession over four generations whenever he can.

'If Kim Jong Un is insecure about his health right now, let's say he got sick today, then [his sister] Kim Yo-jong has no choice but to emerge as a replacement,' he said and added: 'To some extent, Kim Yo-jong would rule.

'I think it may be part of a power struggle to imprint in advance that Kim Yo-jong cannot rule indefinitely, but that she would have to hand power over to Kim Jong Un's children when they become adults.'

Daily Mail · by Miriam Kuepper · March 24, 2023

10. Moon Jae-in’s Blue House Official: “Bundles of Cash Sent to North Korea through Seongnam Airport

Thank you to Dr. Tara O for translating and posting this as the article was not published in the English language Korean press.

Moon Jae-in’s Blue House Official: “Bundles of Cash Sent to North Korea through Seongnam Airport”

https://eastasiaresearch.org/2023/03/23/moon-jae-ins-blue-house-official-bundles-of-cash-sent-to-north-korea-through-seongnam-airport/

​2023-2-9, JoongAng Ilbo [TRANSLATION]

2018-9-20, Seoul Airport in Seongnam. Moon Jae-in returns from 2 nights/3 days visit to Pyongyang.

[Truncated]

In that case, did the Moon Jae-in government not have any remittances to North Korea? In this regard, I have heard something noteworthy. According to an official who worked at the presidential Blue House around the time of the three inter-Korean summits held in 2018, large bundles of dollars exceeding the regulations were sent to North Korea through Seoul Airport in Seongnam [K-16] [the location of the presidential airplanes], where flights to North Korea, including presidential planes, flew to and from North Korea, and the return flights were loaded with books on idolizing the hereditary regimes of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un and on communist ideology.

At the time, there were officials dispatched by the Ministry of Justice and the Customs Administration in charge of immigration control at Seoul Airport, but it is said that bundles of dollars that exceeded the limit ($10,000 per person) that could be taken out without declaration were sent to North Korea without any restraint.

[Truncated]

2019-9-19, Moon gives a speech at the May 1 Stadium filled with 150,000 people, broadcasted live

On September 19, 2019, then President Moon Jae-in delivered an unprecedented live speech to 150,000 Pyongyang citizens at the May 1 Stadium in Nunglado. A high-ranking official from the National Intelligence Service, who has extensive experience in secret negotiations with North Korea, asserted, “Without exception, North Korea demands kickback money after each secret contact,” and that “North Korea would most likely have demanded a corresponding price for a mega-political event, such as Moon giving a speech in Pyongyang, which would far exceed Kim Jong-un’s gift of Pungsan Dogs [to Moon Jae-in].”

2018-4-27. Moon-Kim summit. From left, Suh Hoon, Moon Jae-in, Im Jong-seok, Kim Yong-chol, Kim Jong-un, Kim Yo-jong

Not even [a bowl of] Pyongyang Naengmyun [a noodle dish] is free, so who would believe that giving a speech in Pyongyang would be free? Unless it was for humanitarian reasons, the crime of smearing the flag [treason] by smuggling bribe money to North Korea should be condemned without exception. This is because the money sent to North Korea is diverted to developing nuclear missiles and eventually returns as a deadly boomerang for South Korea’s security and people’s lives.

[Truncated]

[Note: If confirmed, this transfer to North Korea would constitute sanctions violations. There is no news that the current South Korean government is investigating this issue. Meanwhile, Im Jong-seok, Moon’s former Chief of Staff with Jusapa (Juche ideology/KimIlSongism worship) background, swiftly called for firing the editorial writer at JoongAng Ilbo for writing the article.]

Source:  https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/25141725#home

11. North Korea claims to have tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone. Analysts are skeptical

​Kudos to this headline editor. So many of the other headlines seemed to initially imply the north had actually tested a nuclear device.​

North Korea claims to have tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone. Analysts are skeptical | CNN

CNN · by Brad Lendon,Yoonjung Seo · March 24, 2023

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

North Korea on Friday claimed to have tested an underwater drone capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could create a “radioactive tsunami,” however, analysts urged skepticism noting a lack of proof.

A report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the drone, called the “Unmanned Underwater Nuclear Attack Craft ‘Haeil,’” was tested from March 21 to 23, cruising in waters off the country’s east coast for more than 59 hours before its test warhead was detonated on Thursday afternoon.

“The mission of the underwater nuclear strategic weapon is to stealthily infiltrate into operational waters and make a super-scale radioactive tsunami through underwater explosion to destroy naval striker groups and major operational ports of the enemy,” the KCNA report said.

The KCNA report said the weapon has been in development since 2012 and has undergone more than 50 tests in the past two years.

This week’s test “verified its reliability and safety and fully confirmed its lethal strike capability,” the KCNA report said, adding the drone can be deployed from any port or towed by a surface ship to begin its operations.

Analysts poured doubt on North Korea’s claims, noting that North Korea has previously exaggerated its capabilities and deployment time lines.

“Pyongyang’s latest claim to have a nuclear-capable underwater drone should be met with skepticism” because North Korea offered no proof, said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

In March 2022, North Korea released footage of what it claimed was a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that was later discredited by experts.

Writing on social media Friday, Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “I tend to take North Korea seriously, but can’t rule out the possibility that this is an attempt at deception.”

He added that it would be “ill-advised” to allocate limited fissile material for a warhead in an underwater drone, as opposed to a more “road-mobile” ballistic missiles.

North Korean state media says leader Kim Jong Un "personally guided" a test of a simulated underwater nuclear strategic weapon on March 21, according to KCNA.

Courtesy Rodong Sinmun

But the idea of an unmanned submersible carrying a nuclear warhead is not unique to North Korea.

Russia claims to have developed the Poseidon torpedo, a submarine-launched, nuclear-powered unmanned underwater vehicle capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear munitions. Its nuclear propulsion system would give the Poseidon virtually limitless range.

But Russia has offered no proof of a successful test of the Poseidon and analysts suspect it could be years from deployment.

North Korea’s purported new underwater weapon has important differences from the Poseidon.

It is conventionally powered and is not launched from a sub, meaning it would not be on a par with the Russian torpedo, the analysts said.

Missile tests

North Korea’s drone test claim comes at the same time Pyongyang said it tested nuclear-capable cruise missiles this week.

Four of the subsonic missiles hit targets in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, after flying oval and figure-8 patterns of 1,500 and 1,800 kilometers (932 and 1,118 miles) on Wednesday, KCNA reported.

Wednesday’s drill “let strategic cruise missile units get familiar with the procedures and processes for carrying out the tactical nuclear attack missions,” the report said.

Image from North Korean state media released Friday shows a cruise missile in flight.

Courtesy Rodong Sinmun

The state-run Rodong Sinmun released a series of photos on its website purportedly showing the cruise missiles and the underwater drone.

The KCNA report said Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons development was necessary to counter “the reckless military provocations being escalated by the U.S. and the South Korean authorities.”

US and South Korean forces have been holding their biggest war games in five years on the southern part of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea has been testing various missiles at the same time, including the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile last week and the tests of smaller range missiles like the cruise missiles tested on Wednesday.

Analysts say Pyongyang is delivering a message to the US and its allies in the region.

“North Korea’s ICBM tests are thinly veiled threats that it could potentially destroy American cities,” Easley said. “Its recent short-range missile firings attempt to increase the credibility, command, and control of its self-proclaimed tactical nuclear weapons units aimed at South Korea and Japan.”

CNN · by Brad Lendon,Yoonjung Seo · March 24, 2023

12. Torture, forced abortions and insects for food: Life inside North Korean jails, says this NGO

Torture, forced abortions and insects for food: Life inside North Korean jails, says this NGO | CNN

CNN · by Yoonjung Seo,Andrew Raine,Gawon Bae · March 23, 2023

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

Extrajudicial executions, rape, forced abortions, jail without trial, torture, starvation rations that leave prisoners so hungry some turn to eating insects.

These are just some of the abuses commonplace in North Korean prisons and other detention facilities, according to former detainees whose testimony forms the basis of a new report released by a human rights watchdog this week.

Using interviews with hundreds of survivors, witnesses and perpetrators of abuse who have fled the country, along with official documents, satellite images, architectural analysis and digital modeling of penal facilities, the non-profit NGO Korea Future has built up what it says is the most detailed picture yet of life inside the secretive country’s penal system.

“The purpose of our report is basically to reveal the human rights violations that have taken place within North Korea’s penal systems. (It) finds that even 10 years after the UN established a Commission of Inquiry there still is systematic and widespread human rights violations,” said Kim Jiwon, an investigator with Korea Future, which has offices in London, Seoul and The Hague and focuses on human rights issues in North Korea.

Alongside constructing 3D models of some of the detention sites, the group has documented what it believes are more than 1,000 instances of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, hundreds of instances of rape and other forms of sexual violence and more than 100 cases of denial of the right to life.

“Comparable to the Soviet Gulag, (North Korea’s) penal system is not to detain and rehabilitate persons sentenced by courts in safe and humane facilities. Nor is its purpose to decrease recidivism and increase public safety,” the report says.

“It is to isolate persons from society whose behaviour conflicts with upholding the singular authority of the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un.”

The report states it has identified hundreds of active participants it alleges have participated in the violence and is calling for investigations and prosecutions for the abuses. Korea Future used witness testimony and satellite imagery to map 206 detention facilities, across every North Korean province, alleging that abuses are personally carried out by officials as high-ranking as major generals.

A 3D model of one of the detention centers, recreated by CNN with information from Korea Future.

The report makes for grim reading. Among the cases it highlights are those of three people jailed after trying to cross the border – a punishable crime in this country. The group alleges one was forced to have an abortion when seven or eight months pregnant; another was fed as little as 80 grams (less than 3 ounces) of corn a day, a starvation diet that saw his weight drop from 60 kilograms (132 pounds) to 37 kilograms (82 pounds) within a month and forced him to supplement his diet with cockroaches and rodents; a third was forced to hold stress positions for up to 17 hours a day for 30 days. Other survivors, who spoke to CNN, recounted surviving on animal feed and becoming skeletally thin, witnessing rapes and being subject to severe beatings.

Korea Future is hoping other countries will consider pursuing domestic court cases against North Korean agents and that some of its findings can be used as evidence. And, it hopes western countries will apply targeted sanctions against some of the accused in the report.

Due to North Korea’s self-imposed isolation, which has become even stricter since the country closed its borders in 2020 in response to Covid-19, CNN cannot independently verify the accounts.

However, the conditions outlined in the report are in line with the findings of recent investigations by the United Nations, including a report to the UN Human Rights council this week by Special Rapporteur Elizabeth Salmón, who said women detained in political prison camps were “subjected to torture and ill-treatment, forced labor and gender-based violence, including sexual violence by state officials.”

A reconstruction by Korea Future of detainees (in blue) carrying out forced labour in a North Korean field. The prison guard is in orange.

The hermit country is known as one of the most closed and repressive nations in the world. CNN has sought comment from North Korea’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York for comment, but it has not responded.

North Korea frequently denies allegations of human rights abuses – in its prisons or elsewhere – often claiming they are part of a US-orchestrated campaign against it. This week, soon after a UN meeting on the human rights situation in the country, North Korea released a statement saying it “resolutely denounces and rejects” what it characterized as a “US-waged human rights pressure campaign.”

“That such a country takes issue with the ‘human rights’ situation of other countries is indeed a mockery of and an insult to human rights itself,” reads the statement.

Referring to a joint military exercise between the US and South Korea, it claimed the US was using its “human rights maneuver as a mechanism for invading” North Korea.

‘I didn’t feel like I was a human being’

Investigators from both Korea Future and the UN say many inmates become so dehumanized by the abuse that they begin to feel they somehow deserve it. Many, too, simply have no concept of human rights with which to frame their experience.

One former inmate, who says she was detained for little over a year from 2015 after complaining to authorities over her housing situation, likened her treatment to that of an animal.

“When we raise rabbits, we keep them in dens with fences and give them food. (In jail), it was like we were the rabbits, kept in a cell and given food from behind bars … we were not treated as humans, but as some kind of animal,” said the survivor, whose name CNN has agreed to protect as in North Korea the families of defectors can face retribution.

The location of North Hamgyong provincial holding centre, according to co-ordinates supplied by Korea Future to CNN.

At one point her cell was around two square meters (21.5 square feet), “and I know this because we were sleeping zig-zag stye and someone’s feet were touching my shoulders.”

“We should not move in the cell and we had to sit with our hands on our sides and as we were not supposed to look up we had to look down. We were not supposed to talk, so all you hear is people’s breathing sound.”

She described being fed only corn mixed with rice bran – more commonly used as animal feed.

“How can it be enough? When you eat breakfast, from the moment you put down your spoon, you’re hungry. It’s all grass and no nutrition so you get hungry as you don’t even feel the food inside your stomach.

“All your nutrition in your body is gone so you end up looking like a skeleton by the time you leave, just right before dying.” She was released after a little more than a year inside.

“I didn’t feel like I was a human being. I thought it would’ve been better to be dead if I had to live like that.”

Political prisoners

North Korea has long faced claims of torture and abuse in its political prison camps, known as “kwalliso”.

A landmark UN investigation in 2014 found that Pyongyang was using this type of camp to keep a lid on dissent – and the ruling Kim dynasty in power – and that up to 120,000 people were held in them. It also estimated that over the past few decades hundreds of thousands of political prisoners had died in kwalliso amid “unspeakable atrocities.”

Among Korea Future’s key contentions is that similar methods of abuse are being used “systematically” in ordinary prisons, known as “kyohwaso,” and other penal institutes such as holding centers and prosecution offices.

Not only that, but it says the abuse in these centers is “greater in scale … than in better-known political prison camps” and that while some of the people held in kyohwaso are accused of standard crimes, such as theft, many are being held essentially as political prisoners.

The report places responsibility on North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.

“The purpose of (North Korea’s) penal system is to isolate persons from society whose behaviour conflicts with upholding the singular authority of the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un,” states the report.

“Detainees are re-educated through forced labour, ideological instruction, and punitive brutality with the purpose of compelling unquestioning obedience and loyalty to the Supreme Leader.”

Kim Jiwon, an investigator for the human rights group Korea Future, speaks to CNN in Seoul in March 2023.

Charles Miller/CNN

‘They just didn’t have the concept of torture’

Kim Jiwon, the Korea Future investigator who interviewed many of the survivors, praised their courage in speaking up, adding that he had found it was “really, really difficult to hear their stories.”

“I can’t even fathom how they felt, and what they had to go through,” he said.

While difficult, asking the survivors to relive their experiences and cross checking their accounts against each other had been vital in corroborating and building up a picture of what had occurred, Kim said.

Among the things that had struck him during the interviews was that, so dehumanizing had their treatment been, that many “just didn’t have the concept of torture.”

“They were always told by the penal facility, the correctional officers, that they had done something bad. So they just simply thought that they were bad people and for that reason, they were being punished. This was very ingrained in their mindset,” Kim said.

“They didn’t even realize that they were being subjected to torture.”

A 3D model of one of the detention centers, recreated by CNN with data from Korea Future.

‘I thought I couldn’t live like this’

A male survivor whose testimony was used in the Korea Future report told CNN he had been detained multiple times for defection, including in 2000 and 2017, after making his way across the border with China to seek work.

While he described seeing prison guards raping women detainees, being beaten up and forced to walk around with his body bowed at a right angle during one spell in jail, he said the conditions were an improvement on his first experience.

“In the past, we had to crawl with both hands and knees when we were moving, but in 2017, we could stand up and walk. All you needed was to bend your back forward 90 degrees when moving,” he said.

He said as many as five people would be held in a single 6.6 square meter room (71 square feet) that had no heating, but that at least in 2017 they were given blankets to help them cope with the cold – winter temperatures in North Korea can fall as low as minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 degrees Celsius) – unlike when he was imprisoned in 2000, when they were given nothing.

He even went as far as to describe some periods of his detention as “no stress,” at one point moving to a center where there were no beatings or torture and thinking “wow, Korea has been changed.”

But he painted a bleaker picture of one holding center. “I noticed the center guards were raping female detainees at night. They’d ask some women to wash their clothes at night and when the women came out they raped (them)… I thought some things haven’t changed after all these years.”

A survivor from a North Korean detention center speaks to CNN.

He said he told an inspector what he had seen and that initially he was thanked for bringing the matter up, but soon afterward two men beat him up “so hard.”

Soon afterward, “I thought I couldn’t live like this so I broke the window in the room and grabbed a piece of glass,” he said. “The police guard came into my room and in front of them I stabbed my tummy.”

Despite all this, he said it was better to focus on those aspects that had improved – likening it to encouraging a child, saying that focusing purely on bad behavior would not encourage them to change for the better. He said in 2017 he received three meals a day and the same food as the police were eating, unlike in 2000 when his rations were only vegetable soup.

“We were used to being called like sons of bitches back in 2000,” he said. “But in 2017, we were called comrades.”

‘A crime against humanity’

James Heenan, representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul, said many escapees simply didn’t have a concept of human rights; one of the first steps in helping them was to educate them so they could recognize that what had happened to them was abuse.

“Generally they tell us the raw, unadulterated version of what happened to them and sometimes they see it as a bad thing. Sometimes I think that’s just the way the system works. (They think,) ‘I was beaten because I deserved it.’ So the issue of knowledge of human rights is a key one.”

Heenan said the abuse fit into four main categories.

Firstly, people were being detained arbitrarily and either not given a trial or given a show trial, without a lawyer, that might be as short as 10 minutes, he said. Secondly, people were being tortured and subject to other forms of ill treatment related to health, food and sanitation that could be “tantamount to torture if it’s done in a certain way,” he said.

James Heenan, of the UN Human Rights Office, speaks to CNN.

Thirdly, “We also see the issue of extrajudicial executions in prison, people who are just executed from prison without trial are subjected to the death penalty,” he said. “And the final thing that we see (is) forced labor. People in prisons, in detention, are forced to work in inhumane conditions for no pay for the profit of the state. And this is one of the most widespread violations we see.”

After the outbreak of Covid-19 prompted North Korea to shut down its few remaining connections with the outside world, it became harder to know what was happening in the detention centers, Heenan added. While prior to that, some escapees like the one who spoke to CNN, had suggested “limited improvements” with perhaps fewer cases of torture and extrajudicial killings, he cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from this saying there were too many “blind spots.”

“(For instance), many people are sent to political prison camps on lists, and not many people leave – they’re there for life until they die. So firsthand experience of most of these centers has always been difficult to come by,” he said.

But rights groups could be confident that such abuses were still occurring, he said, and that the situation was “still very dire,” because the testimonies of survivors were cross-checked for consistency, or “triangulated,” not only against other survivors but against medical evidence of their injuries and in some cases satellite evidence.

“These individuals are telling consistent stories … you also have the sheer weight of testimony, he said.

“In these cases, the weight of evidence, the weight of testimony is very, very strong.”

The situation in detention facilities was “one of the most egregious examples of the (human rights) violations we see (in North Korea),” Heenan added.

“And this is what the UN Commission (and most others) have concluded, that the things like torture and ill treatment and so forth that are going on in those facilities reaches the level of a crime against humanity.”

Additional reporting by Paula Hancocks.

CNN · by Yoonjung Seo,Andrew Raine,Gawon Bae · March 23, 2023

13. So much for the NK-Japan ‘Pyongyang Declaration’

So much for the NK-Japan ‘Pyongyang Declaration’

Efforts to resolve abductee, nuclear issues turned out to be so politically incorrect, Japanese lost their jobs

asiatimes.com · by Gregory Clark · March 23, 2023

In 2002, Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il signed a document that was to be called the Pyongyang Declaration.

It promised that the 30 million long-suffering people of North Korea would be lifted from poverty and oppression. The 170 million Japanese and South Koreans were to be freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation.

But those pledges were not carried out. Why? Why was the chance to end decades of hostility in northeast Asia – the chance to call a halt to North Korea’s nuclear war preparations – thrown away so casually?.

Now, finally, we get part of the story from a book whose Japanese title translates to Japan-North Korea Top Secret Negotiations.

It’s written by journalist Tsuyoshi Masuda of the national broadcaster NHK – who, throughout most of this drama, was bankisha to Hitoshi Tanaka, head of Japan’s foreign ministry’s Asia and Oceanic Bureau. A bankisha, under Japan’s system of kisha kurabu or journalist clubs controlling major information sources, is a reporter assigned virtually full-time to cover a particular source.

Hitoshi Tanaka. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The story we get from Masuda begins in October 2001 when diplomat Tanaka approaches Prime Minister Koizumi for permission to open negotiations with North Korea over the nuclear issue and the issue of North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens. Koizumi agrees and insists on absolute secrecy.

For almost a year Tanaka makes regular, secret weekend visits mainly to Dalian in China to negotiate with a younger, military-medalled man who calls himself Kim Chyoru of North Korea’s then-top organization, the National Defense Committee. (North Korean defectors have variously suggested other members of North Korea’s military establishment were involved, including one, Ryu Gyon, killed in 2011 in punishment for the failure of the abduction talks with Japan.)

North Korea reluctantly admits to holding abductees, but only five of them. The others whom Japan names have all died, Pyongyang claims – or were never abducted.

The result of these secret talks: Koizumi signs the Pyongyang Declaration in October 2002 during a one-day visit to Pyongyang. It promises normalization of relations with North Korea plus substantial economic aid, in exchange for the return of five abductees and an apology.

But included in the Japanese delegation is one Shinzo Abe, then deputy cabinet secretary. Behind him are powerful abductee rescue organizations formed earlier by Japan’s right wing.

He and they begin to insist that North Korea is hiding many more abductees, perhaps as many as 800 (one of those named is found dead under a boat near my house on the Pacific side of Japan). Eventually, the official figure for missing abductees is reduced to 17 of which Pyongyang insists four are unknown, eight are dead and five are ready to be returned.

Families show pictures of those they say were abducted. Megumi’s photo is second from left. Photo: NHK

Japan is shocked by the deaths. As proof that one of the most grieved abductees is dead – a girl named Megumi Yokota, abducted almost certainly by mistake at age 13 – Pyongyang provides samples of her cremation bones.

Abe then provides an amateur DNA tester who – despite criticism that cremation-tainted bones cannot be tested for DNA – maintains that the bones are those of someone else, .

Then under more pressure from Shinzo Abe, Tokyo decides to break promises that the returned abductees may go back to North Korea temporarily in order to persuade the foreign spouse of one and the four children of the others, born and being educated in North Korea, to go to Japan.

North Korea reluctantly bows to the pressure and agrees that all five should go to Japan regardless.

Even so, resentments in Japan over the haggling suggest North Korea’s hungry, self-generated hopes of gaining $100 million in economic aid have begun to be dashed. Tokyo finds it convenient to let those hopes slip away farther, claiming that some of the allegedly missing abductees are known to be alive but still have not been returned – Megumi in particular.

Many Japanese are legitimately shocked to have discovered that more than half the known abductees have been allowed to die in obscure circumstances in North Korea. They see Pyongyang as using the surviving five to bargain for favors.

Masuda’s story continues: Megumi’s grieving parents, together with shrines to Megumi, are taken around the world and presented to world leaders as further proof of Pyongyang’s duplicity in refusing to return her – although it has long since been reported that she married a South Korean abductee and died in 1994 after giving birth to a daughter.

It is 2014 before the parents are allowed by Tokyo to meet their granddaughter, and only in a third country, Mongolia. Their report of the meeting makes no mention of Megumi.

Sakie Yoshida meets Megumi’s daughter and granddaughter in Mongolia. Photo: Handout

That is Masuda’s story.

I played a cameo role here, thanks to having a chance shortly after the Mongolia visit to ask the mother, Sakie, why. Her cryptic reply: Her role is to support other abductee parents.)

Meanwhile, all critics of Tokyo’s abductee policies have been firmly criticized or ‘”canceled” (including a close colleague of mine, sacked as an outside director of the Mitsui and Co board for suggesting on a US site that the abductee issue had been concocted.

Even those relying on Foreign Ministry leaks confirming Pyongyang’s version of events are forced into making retractions.

The concocted abductee issue now seems destined to continue forever, even though most of the allegedly living but unreturned abductees would now be over 70 years old and of no possible use to North Korea.

Japan has lost all interest in the once proudly named Pyongyang Declaration, and in any attempt to establish relations with North Korea.

Gregory Clark is a former Australian diplomat and a longtime Japan resident. The book reviewed is Kyokuhi Kosho Ni-cho (Japan-North Korea Top Secret Negotiations), by Tsuyoshi Masuda. Tokyo: Ronso-sha, 2,000 yen.

asiatimes.com · by Gregory Clark · March 23, 2023

14. Yoon and Kishida Are Fumbling South Korea-Japan Rapprochement

Excerpts:

That doesn’t mean Yoon’s government shouldn’t be explaining the rationale of why it is important to move forward with Japan. But standing next to Kishida after having made a major concession is the singularly worst place to do it.

And if Yoon had to go to Japan now, he should have eaten Korean beef at a Zainichi Korean restaurant, not Japanese omurice. Instead of photos of beer glasses, we should’ve seen the two men visiting a Korean Japanese school together. Kishida should be showing the Korean people that Yoon’s outreach is being reciprocated. Instead, the poor optics just add to the impression that Yoon is making a one-sided concession. It makes it that much easier for the left to attach the pungent stigma of pro-Japan flunkeyism to the whole thing.

With Yoon and Kishida less than ideal midwives to a new relationship, there’s a real need for Washington to help move things along. Unfortunately, the Biden administration doesn’t seem to have any idea of how to do that beyond publicly praising it. This only further draws Korean public attention to it, and brings with it all the baggage of subservience to the United States.

Ironically then, whether this visit represents a new era of cooperation depends more on what happens in Beijing and Pyongyang than anywhere else. It is China’s and North Korea’s continued ratcheting up of a sense of shared threat that brings the two sides together — in spite of the underwhelming leadership in Seoul and Tokyo.

Yoon and Kishida Are Fumbling South Korea-Japan Rapprochement​

With Yoon and Kishida less than ideal midwives to a new relationship, there’s a real need for Washington to help move things along.​

thediplomat.com · by Joel Atkinson · March 24, 2023

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South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol managed to briefly get the world’s attention last week when he traveled to Japan for talks (and beers) with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. Relations under the previous left-leaning President Moon Jae-in were openly combative, with Moon not visiting Japan bilaterally during his term. So this summit sent a strong signal that with conservatives in power in Seoul, both sides would now be cooperating much more closely.

That’s big news. South Koreans typically have very negative views about former colonizer and neighbor Japan. Despite South Korea and Japan both being U.S. allies, some polls have even showed a majority of South Koreas saying they would support Pyongyang over Tokyo in a war between the two.

But there’s been something of a national vibe shift. Scenes of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un crossing the DMZ and joining Moon for hugs, talks, dinner and festivities in 2018 were met with enthusiastic optimism. There was real buzz, for example, around the prospect of South Koreans soon being able to take a train to Europe. But the Korean public has now seen that whole process play out, with Kim’s summits with Donald Trump and everything else, and nothing has changed. The Kim regime is still firing off missiles and raising tensions.

Accordingly, the public became more supportive of taking a tougher line toward the North. This is not enough to push the public toward seeing Japan that much more positively, but it has created some apathy toward improving security cooperation with Japan. Now, Yoon can show some understanding of Japan’s need for “counterstrike” capabilities in the face of the threat from the North, without it becoming a cudgel for the South Korean left.

China is perhaps the even more significant push factor. Attitudes toward China are at rock bottom. Much of that is due to a perception that Beijing is not treating South Korea with respect. That makes disrespect coming from Japan relatively less salient. Koreans have also been repulsed by what has happened in Hong Kong and are taking note of Beijing’s threatening approach to Taiwan.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and the people of Ukraine also deserve a lot of credit for the shit in Korean attitudes. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has Koreans thinking seriously about security, and Ukraine’s heroic resistance with U.S. support has inspired new appreciation for liberal democracy and the U.S. alliance.

Koreans are still worried about the economic implications of bad relations with China, and there is still skepticism toward U.S. motives. But overall, the growing anxiety around China is making both policymakers and the public more open to rapprochement with Japan.

Still, reaching out to Japan is far from easy. Burning through considerable political capital, Seoul has agreed that Japanese companies being directly liable for wartime forced labor compensation is off the table. After reaching the limit of what it can do, Seoul now hopes Tokyo will step up. This might take the form of a new, clearer apology for the pre-1945 history, voluntary payments to forced labor victims, or some kind of economic arrangement favorable to South Korea. It could even be Japan using its leverage in Washington to push for an expanded role for South Korea in international forums, or Korea-friendly concessions related to the CHIPS and Science Act or the Inflation Reduction Act.

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These expectations are not being matched the Japanese side. Tokyo is without doubt extremely concerned about China’s combination of growing military muscle and “dare to struggle” approach to foreign policy under Xi Jinping. But that didn’t make Japan willing to compromise over compensation claims.

Tokyo appears to have settled on a view of Seoul as untrustworthy. The thinking seems to be that if Japan makes any concessions now, the next Korean president won’t keep the ball rolling, and Tokyo will be left exposed and worse off. There’s also likely a belief that taking a tough approach got results and therefore conceding too much, too quickly would be a mistake.

This displays a worrying lack of strategic self-mastery in Tokyo. Before World War I, the British leadership put aside their deeply felt antipathy toward the French and Russians to focus on the rising German naval threat. In contrast to the “sharp discipline” the British displayed then, Tokyo is waiting for Seoul to do the work: a much easier — and much more dangerous — game.

Still, as long as the pressure from Beijing continues to rise, there will be increasing impetus to find a way out of the zero sum struggle over pride and humiliation the two countries are locked in. But it will be a long, fitful process.

Yoon doesn’t have the power to single-handedly re-orient South Korea’s approach to Japan. It would be an achievement even just to get cooperation back to where it was before the Moon administration, and then have it stay there after Yoon’s term ends in 2027.

Yoon’s visit is actually counterproductive in this respect. Instead of drawing the Korean public’s attention to the relationship, he should’ve gone anywhere but Japan after the announcement on compensation. Ideally, he would have gone to Europe to be feted as a statesman and sign major export deals — even visit Ukraine. Meanwhile, Washington would be publicizing concessions on the IRA and CHIPS Act, preferably even a little at Japan’s expense.

That doesn’t mean Yoon’s government shouldn’t be explaining the rationale of why it is important to move forward with Japan. But standing next to Kishida after having made a major concession is the singularly worst place to do it.

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And if Yoon had to go to Japan now, he should have eaten Korean beef at a Zainichi Korean restaurant, not Japanese omurice. Instead of photos of beer glasses, we should’ve seen the two men visiting a Korean Japanese school together. Kishida should be showing the Korean people that Yoon’s outreach is being reciprocated. Instead, the poor optics just add to the impression that Yoon is making a one-sided concession. It makes it that much easier for the left to attach the pungent stigma of pro-Japan flunkeyism to the whole thing.

With Yoon and Kishida less than ideal midwives to a new relationship, there’s a real need for Washington to help move things along. Unfortunately, the Biden administration doesn’t seem to have any idea of how to do that beyond publicly praising it. This only further draws Korean public attention to it, and brings with it all the baggage of subservience to the United States.

Ironically then, whether this visit represents a new era of cooperation depends more on what happens in Beijing and Pyongyang than anywhere else. It is China’s and North Korea’s continued ratcheting up of a sense of shared threat that brings the two sides together — in spite of the underwhelming leadership in Seoul and Tokyo.

Joel Atkinson

Joel Atkinson is a professor in the Graduate School of International and Area Studies (GSIAS) at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea, where he researches and teaches East Asian international politics.

thediplomat.com · by Joel Atkinson · March 24, 2023

​

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com