Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners

Quotes of the Day:

"In science, where alone something approximating to genuine knowledge is to be found, men’s attitude is tentative and full of doubt. In religion and politics on the contrary, though there is as yet nothing approaching scientific knowledge, everybody considers it de rigueur to have a dogmatic opinion, to be backed up by inflicting starvation, prison, and war, and to be carefully guarded from argumentative competition with any different opinion. None of our beliefs is quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error."

- Bertrand Russell, Free Thought and Official Propaganda (1922)

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

- commonly attributed to George Orwell

“Nothing is so dull as logic, and nothing is so important.”

- Will Durant

1. U.S. Congress to invite South Korea's Yoon for address with eye on China

2. N. Korean leader urges more production of weapons-grade nuclear materials; photos of tactical nuclear warheads released

3. N. Korea fires missile 30 minutes before ROK-US joint drill

4. North displays ‘tactical nukes’ as Nimitz arrives in Busan

5. Yoon vows not to give single won to N. Korea if it continues nuclear pursuit

6. Satellite Imagery Reveals New Activity at the Old Waste Site at Yongbyon

7. Onboard USS Nimitz, allies vow ironclad defense

8. North Korea unveils new nuclear warheads as US air carrier arrives in South

9. Yoon calls for full disclosure of N.K. human rights violations

10. S. Korea welcomes U.N. report on N. Korea's abduction, enforced disappearances

11. S. Korea voices 'deep regrets' over Japan's controversial history textbooks

12. Kim Jong-un Calls for Nuclear Arms Use 'Anywhere'

13. Japan claims Dokdo, soft-pedals forced labor in textbooks

14. Kim Jong Un Says He Will Expand Production of Nuclear Material

15. China backs summit with South Korea, Japan: envoy

16. Union officials arrested in hunt for North Korean spies

17. Underwater Nuclear Drone: North Korea’s Nuclear Madmen

18. Shedding light on the cruelty of North Korea’s border protection squad, the Storm Corps

19. For founder’s birthday, North Korean cities ordered to decorate streets with flowers

20. Podcast: 121 Korea Reunification by David Maxwell

21. Can the Japan-South Korea rapprochement stick?

1. U.S. Congress to invite South Korea's Yoon for address with eye on China

I have not yet seen any reporting on this in the Korean press though we have known this was being discussed.

I think Rep. Kim needs a briefing on exercises, "joint drills," sustaining readiness, and an understanding of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command's training regimen as the "new normal." I think she would be pleased if she understood.

Excerpt:

"Within that alliance and the framework, we have always provided the exercises, and now we should be able to do more frequent" joint drills, Kim said.

U.S. Congress to invite South Korea's Yoon for address with eye on China

Key lawmaker calls for more joint exercises to handle North Korea's provocations

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/U.S.-Congress-to-invite-South-Korea-s-Yoon-for-address-with-eye-on-China

RYO NAKAMURA, Nikkei staff writer

March 28, 2023 02:03 JST

WASHINGTON -- U.S. lawmakers are arranging to have South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speak before Congress, sources familiar with the matter told Nikkei, in hopes of promoting a stronger alliance to deal with North Korea and China.

U.S President Joe Biden is set to host Yoon for a state visit and formal state dinner April 26 -- the first for a South Korean leader in 12 years -- to showcase their close ties 70 years on from the signing of their mutual defense treaty.

Republican Rep. Young Kim told Nikkei on Friday that the Congress is working for Yoon to address a joint session. Kim, who is Korean American and closely involved in bilateral relations, chairs the Indo-Pacific subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, giving her a major role in Asia policy.

Kim said that she and her Democratic counterpart in the subcommittee Ami Bera -- along with Foreign Affairs Committee chair Michael McCaul and ranking member Gregory Meeks -- have sent a joint letter to urge House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to invite Yoon, and discussions are underway.

"I want to say that I'm very optimistic that it's just a matter of time" before McCarthy extends an official invitation, Kim said.

Yoon's administration has requested an address before Congress, according to South Korean media. He would be the first South Korean leader to do so since Park Geun-hye 10 years ago.

The warm welcome from lawmakers reflects positive views on Yoon's shift toward deterrence against North Korea. American and South Korean forces this month resumed large-scale spring field exercises for the first time in five years, and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan docked in South Korea for the first time in four years last fall.

"Within that alliance and the framework, we have always provided the exercises, and now we should be able to do more frequent" joint drills, Kim said.

"We shouldn't be worried about what North Korea feels about this. We shouldn't be worried about what [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is thinking about this," she said. "We should be more worried about what are the ways that we can continue to have a stronger security alliance."

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby criticized Pyongyang's repeated missile tests and said "we're going to continue to make sure that we've got the requisite military capabilities in place." Working closely with Yoon's administration would be essential.

American lawmakers deeply distrusted the more conciliatory approach pursued by Yoon's predecessor, Moon Jae-in.

A congressional source noted Moon's push for a formal declaration to end the Korean War, even amid the North's continued nuclear and missile development, as especially worrying. "It was seen as a unilateral concession to a tyrannical regime," the person said.

Washington hopes to work with Seoul against China as well. To that end, Kim welcomed the recent agreement between South Korea and Japan to restore frayed ties.

"I think that we have both leaders very committed to finding that common ground, for a common cause of countering the [Chinese Communist Party's] growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region," Kim said. She called for wide-ranging trilateral economic and security cooperation among the two countries and the U.S., with an eye toward China.

Seoul released an Indo-Pacific strategy document late last year that puts it on a similar foreign-affairs wavelength to Washington and Tokyo.

In a meeting of East Asian leaders last year, Yoon said attempting to change the status quo through force is unacceptable, alluding to China's maritime military activity. This is a notable shift from Moon's administration, which maintained a more ambiguous stance while prioritizing economic relations.

But U.S.-South Korean cooperation is "going to be pretty difficult when it comes to China," argued Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. "Maybe there can be some cooperation on supply chain issues and technology. I think it's going to be very hard to talk about Taiwan issues openly."

"I think the Biden team is less focused on North Korea than some previous U.S. administrations have been," Cooper said.

"It's going to be hard for South Korea to be seen as being as critical if all South Korea is doing is providing value on the Korean Peninsula," he added, contending that Yoon will need to pivot from talk to action with regard to expanding Seoul's role in the Indo-Pacific.

2. N. Korean leader urges more production of weapons-grade nuclear materials; photos of tactical nuclear warheads released

There should be no misunderstanding Kim Jong Un will never negotiate away his treasured sword.

(LEAD) N. Korean leader urges more production of weapons-grade nuclear materials; photos of tactical nuclear warheads released | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · March 28, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more details; ADDS photos)

By Kim Soo-yeon

SEOUL, March 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has "guided" the country's nuclear weaponization project, calling for expanding the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials for an exponential increase in its nuclear arsenal, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday.

Kim also inspected what appeared to be tactical nuclear warheads Monday, with South Korea and the United States staging combined naval exercises, involving a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

The North's leader called for "flawless" preparations for the use of nuclear weapons "anytime and anywhere," as he received a briefing by the Nuclear Weapons Institute on the country's nuclear force, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on March 28, 2023, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (4th from R) guiding the country's nuclear weaponization project the previous day, while calling for expanding the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

"We should never be satisfied with the work to consolidate the thoroughgoing response posture of our nuclear force and should continuously strive to strengthen nuclear force steadily," Kim was quoted as saying by the KCNA.

He stressed the need to "expand on a far-sighted way the production of weapon-grade nuclear materials and put spurs to continuing to produce powerful nuclear weapons" to meet the country's goal of an exponential increase in the nuclear arsenal, the KCNA said in an English-language report.

Kim reviewed the nation's nuclear weapon combined management system "Haekbangashoe," meaning a "nuclear trigger" in Korean, and examined plans and written orders for nuclear counterattack operations.

The North's state media released photos of Kim inspecting what looks like tactical nuclear warheads called "Hwasan-31" for the first time.

Photos showed around 10 tactical nuclear warheads lining up, with an apparent intent to show that the country could put such warheads on super-large multiple rocket launchers or cruise missiles targeting South Korea.

The North's nuclear threat came as Seoul and Washington are staging the Ssangyong amphibious landing exercise, which is scheduled to end next Monday.

The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its strike group held joint drills with South Korea's Navy assets Monday in waters off the southern resort island of Jeju. The carrier is set to make a port call in the southeastern port of Busan later in the day.

The North intensified its weapons tests this month to protest the allies' military exercises, which the secretive nation views as rehearsals for an invasion against it.

This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on March 28, 2023, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) guiding the country's nuclear weaponization project the previous day, while calling for expanding the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

In a separate dispatch, the KCNA said a missile unit conducted a demonstration education firing drill simulating tactical nuclear attacks Monday.

The drill involved two ground-to-ground tactical ballistic missiles with a "nuclear air explosion" striking mode, the KCNA said. Mock nuclear warheads were detonated 500 meters above the target island off Kim Chaek, North Hamgyong Province.

South Korea's military said Monday that the North fired two short-range ballistic missiles from the Chunghwa area south of Pyongyang. The missiles flew some 370 kilometers before landing in the East Sea.

North Korea also said it conducted another test of a nuclear-capable underwater weapon system Saturday through Monday.

The "Haeil-1 type underwater nuclear attack drone" cruised along a "jagged and oval" course in the East Sea for 41 hours and 27 minutes, and set off a test warhead underwater, the KCNA said.

The North said Friday it had tested its new underwater nuclear attack drone capable of generating a "radioactive tsunami." Seoul's military raised doubts about the North's claim, saying the test may have been exaggerated and the North's development of such a weapon appears to be in an "early" stage.

Youtube

https://youtu.be/hoYUs9Xz7FA

This photo, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on March 28, 2023, shows the North conducting a demonstration education firing drill simulating tactical nuclear attacks involving the midair detonation of mock nuclear warheads. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · March 28, 2023

3. N. Korea fires missile 30 minutes before ROK-US joint drill

Interesting and illustrative Korean language graphic at the link.

N. Korea fires missile 30 minutes before ROK-US joint drill

https://www.donga.com/en/home/article/all/20230328/4049917/1

Posted March. 28, 2023 08:08,

Updated March. 28, 2023 08:09

North Korea fired two short-distance ballistic missiles capable of targeting the entire Korean peninsula on Monday, five days after it claimed to have performed a mock nuclear warhead explosion test by firing a strategic cruise missile targeting the South and the U.S. base in Japan. The second missile was fired 30 minutes before the joint South Korea-U.S. Military Drill started in the southern part of Jeju, with the U.S. arriving with world-class naval forces including Nimitz aircraft carrier (CVN-68, around 100,000 tons) and AEGIS.

“Two short-term ballistic missiles fired from Joongwha of North Hwanghae Province to the East Sea from 7:47 to 8:00 a.m. were identified,” said the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The missiles flew around 370 kilometers and landed in the East Sea.

Military authorities say that the missile is likely to be KN-23, which North Korea claimed to use at the nuclear fire mock test that was performed 800 meters in mid-air on March 19. The maximum flight range of KN-23 is 800 kilometers. “Preparations are taken in light of the risk of additional provocation as the Nimitz arrives at the port of Busan on March 28,” a military source said.

“North Korea is seriously threatening regional security order by using aggressive nuclear weapons,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Kim Seung-kyeom. "We will make it clear that nuclear attack attempts by the enemy will result in the end of the regime."

4. North displays ‘tactical nukes’ as Nimitz arrives in Busan

Excerpts:

The launches took place a day before the arrival of the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 11, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, in Busan on Tuesday.

Rear Adm. Christopher Sweeney, commander of Carrier Strike Group 11, said at a press briefing aboard USS Nimitz that the carrier group is to conduct a trilateral exercise with the Republic of Korea Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force after it leaves port.

A South Korean defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to reporters said the trilateral exercise is expected to take place early next week after the carrier departs Busan this weekend.

South Korea, the United States and Japan previously held three-way maritime drills in September and October last year, which took place in the East Sea with the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan present.

Tuesday

March 28, 2023

dictionary + A - A

North displays ‘tactical nukes’ as Nimitz arrives in Busan

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/03/28/national/northKorea/Korea-North-Korea-Kim-Jongun/20230328175818654.html

In this footage by Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central Television, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is seen inspecting what state media called the regime's arsenal of Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warheads. [YONHAP]

A U.S. Navy carrier strike group, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, arrived in Busan on Tuesday ahead of trilateral exercises with South Korea and Japan amid high tensions in the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's advancing missile and nuclear weapons program.

Before the carrier strike group arrived, Pyongyang's state media released a report on leader Kim Jong-un's inspection of the regime's nuclear arsenal, including photos of a new tactical nuclear warhead intended for various North Korean weapons delivery systems.

Kim urged an expansion in the production of fissile material for more nuclear weapons, according to the report.

In an English-language report by the North's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim was quoted as calling for "flawless" preparations for the potential use of nuclear weapons "anytime and anywhere" as he was briefed by the regime's Nuclear Weapons Institute on the state of the regime's nuclear arsenal.

The North Korean leader was also quoted as calling for an expansion in "the production of weapon-grade nuclear materials" to "produce powerful nuclear weapons."

Photos accompanying the KCNA report showed Kim inspecting an array of previously unseen tactical nuclear warheads named Hwasan-31.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence experts have warned for months that the regime had finalized preparations for a seventh nuclear weapons test, which would likely focus on testing a miniature nuclear warhead, according to Olli Heinonen, a former deputy director at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in October.

At the time, Heinonen said the regime would likely produce new plutonium because the older plutonium already reprocessed at the North's primary uranium enrichment and reprocessing facility in Yongbyon, North Pyongan Province, was not suitable for use in the miniaturization of nuclear warheads.

Successful miniaturization would allow the regime to mount nuclear weapons on various missiles and artillery rockets.

Photos of the Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warheads released by state media showed them lined up under signs that read "nuclear warhead for 600-millimeter super-large artillery launcher," "nuclear warhead for Hwasong-11 missile" and "nuclear warhead for Hwasal-2," suggesting they had been adapted to be compatible with multiple-rocket launchers, ballistic and cruise missiles.

In another report also released Tuesday, the KCNA said a missile unit launched two ground-to-ground ballistic missiles as part of an exercise simulating tactical nuclear attacks on Monday.

According to the KCNA, the two missiles were configured so that their mock nuclear warheads would detonate mid-air.

The state news agency said that the mock warheads detonated 500 meters (1,640 feet) above a target island in the East Sea off the coast of Kim Chaek, North Hamgyong Province.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) told reporters Monday morning that it detected the launch of two short-range ballistic missiles from Chunghwa County, North Hwanghae Province, on the Yellow Sea.

The JCS said the missiles flew approximately 370 kilometers (230 miles) before landing in the East Sea.

The nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier is docked in Busan Naval Base after its arrival on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The launches took place a day before the arrival of the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 11, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, in Busan on Tuesday.

Rear Adm. Christopher Sweeney, commander of Carrier Strike Group 11, said at a press briefing aboard USS Nimitz that the carrier group is to conduct a trilateral exercise with the Republic of Korea Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force after it leaves port.

A South Korean defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to reporters said the trilateral exercise is expected to take place early next week after the carrier departs Busan this weekend.

South Korea, the United States and Japan previously held three-way maritime drills in September and October last year, which took place in the East Sea with the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan present.

USS Nimitz is docked at the Commander, Republic of Korea Base following joint exercises with the Republic of Korea Navy south of Jeju Island on Monday.

USS Nimitz is the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 11, which includes USS Bunker Hill, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, and two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Decatur. Aboard USS Nimitz are some 70 combat aircraft, including F/A-18 fighters and E-2 Hawkeye early warning aircraft.

Sweeney said during the press conference that he’s “not threatened or worried about North Korea,” adding that the United States has “deployable strategic assets at the ready on every day.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]

5. Yoon vows not to give single won to N. Korea if it continues nuclear pursuit

We should keep in mind it was the billions of dollars transferred to the regime during the Sunshine Policy period (1997-2007) that saved the regime following the Arduous March/Famine of 94-96and allowed it to test its first nuclear device in 2006.

Note I said "saved the regime." What saved the people was the failure of the Korean Workers Party's Public Distribution System which led to the people establishing their own markets and fending for themselves. Today there are some 400 markets that have been the foundation of resilience for much of the population. Yet Kim is cracking down on these markets (using the "COVID PAradox") and trying to reign in this capitalism that is a threat to his regime.

President Yoon is doing and saying the right thing.

(2nd LD) Yoon vows not to give single won to N. Korea if it continues nuclear pursuit | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · March 28, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with fresh remarks by Yoon; CHANGES headline)

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, March 28 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that not a single won should be given to North Korea as long as it continues to develop nuclear weapons, according to his spokesperson.

Yoon made the remark during a Cabinet meeting after being briefed by Unification Minister Kwon Young-se on the government's first public release of a North Korean human rights report this Friday.

"Disclosing the reality of North Korea's human rights situation is very important to national security as well, because it shows where the legitimacy of a state can be found," he was quoted as saying by Lee Do-woon during a press briefing.

"From now on, the unification ministry should stop giving away to North Korea and make it clear that as long as North Korea pursues nuclear development, we cannot give them a single won," he said, apparently referring to economic aid under past administrations.

Yoon's remark came as North Korea has intensified its weapons testing in recent weeks in protest of expanded military exercises between South Korea and the United States.

Hours before the Cabinet meeting, North Korean state media released photos of what appeared to be miniaturized nuclear warheads and said leader Kim Jong-un had called for boosting the production of weapons-grade nuclear material to expand the country's arsenal.

Yoon stressed that investigating the reality of North Korea's human rights, political, economic and social situation, and making it known to the world is the "key road map" for national security and inter-Korean reunification, Lee said.

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on March 28, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

Under the North Korean Human Rights Act passed in 2016, the government has published an annual report on North Korea's human rights situation without disclosing it to the public.

The law also calls for the establishment of a North Korean human rights foundation, but its launch has been delayed for years as the main opposition Democratic Party has refused to recommend its share of members for the foundation's board.

"Seven years have passed since the North Korean Human Rights Act was enacted, but the North Korean human rights foundation has still not been launched, and the North Korean human rights report is only now being published," Yoon said in opening remarks broadcast live on television.

"The North Korean Human Rights Act must be implemented in practice even now," he added. "The reality of the appalling human rights violations against the North Korean people must be fully revealed to the international community."

Yoon said he hopes to see the North's human rights conditions widely publicized during the Summit for Democracy starting Wednesday and during the ongoing regular session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

He also called on each government ministry, including the unification and education ministries, to use the publication of the North Korean human rights report to inform people at home and abroad of the North's human rights situation.

The Cabinet meeting was held to discuss next year's government budget, among other items.

Yoon said the government will spend boldly to fulfill its job while pursuing strong fiscal reforms to ensure not a single penny of taxpayers' money goes to waste.

He especially called for preventing "leaks" in the form of subsidies for organizations that lack transparency or "populist distributions of cash."

On South Korea's campaign to host the 2030 World Expo in the port city of Busan, Yoon noted that an inspection team of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), an intergovernmental body in charge of overseeing the Expo, is due to visit the country next week, and urged the Cabinet members to do their best to win the bid.

Yoon also recalled his instructions the previous day to strengthen policy coordination between the government and the ruling People Power Party, saying the public's opinion should be reflected in all stages of the policymaking process.

"All policies should be looked at from the perspective of the young people of the MZ generation," he was quoted as saying, referring to millennials and Gen Z. "The MZ generation lead the public opinion of not only that generation but of all generations."

Yoon has repeatedly called for paying close attention to the public's wishes after his administration's initial proposal to raise the legal cap on weekly work hours from 52 hours to 69 faced backlash, especially from young generations.

hague@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · March 28, 2023

6. Satellite Imagery Reveals New Activity at the Old Waste Site at Yongbyon

Imagery at the link.

Satellite Imagery Reveals New Activity at the Old Waste Site at Yongbyon

https://www.38north.org/2023/03/satellite-imagery-reveals-new-activity-at-the-old-waste-site-at-yongbyon/

BY: OLLI HEINONEN
MARCH 26, 2023

Recent commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center indicates new activities have started at the center’s “Old Waste Site.” The original waste facility, similar in design to radioactive waste facilities in other countries, was buried and never inspected, despite International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requests to do so in 1992. Since then, there has been no major activity in this area, only occasional agricultural use, until earlier this month. While it is too early to confirm what is happening at this site, demolishing the Old Waste Site or building something over it will make verification efforts of past activities more difficult in the future.

Background

Following the entry into force of an IAEA Safeguards Agreement, the DPRK submitted in 1992 its initial declaration on nuclear material and facilities. Subsequent inspections by the IAEA revealed inconsistencies between the information North Korea provided and IAEA verification findings related to plutonium separation activities.

Since Pyongyang was unable to explain those noted inconsistencies, the IAEA requested special inspections at two sites in Yongbyon: a building next to the Radiochemical Laboratory called Building 500 and a nuclear waste site known simply as the “Old Waste Site.” Inspections of these two facilities could provide important information on past nuclear activities.

North Korea did not provide access to either site, and as such, the IAEA Board of Governors adopted in April 1993 a resolution finding the DPRK in noncompliance with its Safeguards Agreement, and the matter was reported to the United Nations Security Council.

The Old Waste Site was similar in design to waste sites that the Soviet Union had assisted its clients of IRT reactors to build to store radioactive waste. North Korea had covered this site and the access road to it with soil and claimed that it was not a nuclear site. However, the IAEA obtained satellite imagery before the concealment activities, which showed the site structure was similar to other radioactive waste storage facilities.

Radioactive waste site in Tuwaitha, Iraq, which was built with the assistance of the former Soviet Union. (Source: Haider Kamil Esa Al-Hamadani, “Design an Effective Physical Security System to Prevent Breaches in the Security of Radioactive Material at Al-Tuwaitha Nuclear Site” (presentation, sponsorship, Third International Regulators Conference on Nuclear Security, Marrakech, Morocco, October 1-4, 2019).

Recent Activity at the Old Waste Site

Since 1992, no major activity has been seen at the Old Waste Site, although it has been occasionally used for agricultural purposes.[1] Previous

Expand

Figure 2b. The site has mainly been used for agricultural purposes since 1992. Image: Google Earth, annotation by 38 North. For media licensing options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com.

Figure 2a. The site has mainly been used for agricultural purposes since 1992. Image: Google Earth, annotation by 38 North. For media licensing options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com.

Figure 2b. The site has mainly been used for agricultural purposes since 1992. Image: Google Earth, annotation by 38 North. For media licensing options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com.

Figure 2a. The site has mainly been used for agricultural purposes since 1992. Image: Google Earth, annotation by 38 North. For media licensing options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com.

Figure 2b. The site has mainly been used for agricultural purposes since 1992. Image: Google Earth, annotation by 38 North. For media licensing options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com. Next

However, recent imagery shows that sometime between March 6 and 17, new activities have started that are gradually revealing construction similar in design to radioactive waste storage facilities in Tuwaitha, Iraq. By March 21, the foundation shape is clearer.

It is too early to conclude the exact purpose of these ongoing activities, although it appears the Old Waste Site buried in 1992 is slowly being uncovered. If this is the case, the intention may be to demolish the facility, a valuable source of information about North Korea’s past plutonium production efforts, such as the presence of undeclared plutonium and activities related to plutonium metallurgy. Alternatively, this may be the beginning stages of building a new structure on this site, burying the Old Waste Site for good. In either situation, it will make verification efforts in the future more difficult should IAEA inspectors ever be granted access again. Previous

Expand

Figure 3c. The site is gradually revealing structures typical of radioactive waste sites. Image Pleiades NEO © Airbus DS 2023. For media options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com.

Figure 3c. The site is gradually revealing structures typical of radioactive waste sites. Image Pleiades NEO © Airbus DS 2023. For media options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com. Next

[1]
One exception was in imagery from May 15, 2013; minor excavation activity was observed. The purpose of which is unknown.

7. Onboard USS Nimitz, allies vow ironclad defense

Five acres of sovereign US territory that can be projected around the world.

Photos at the link: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20230328000743&np=1&mp=1

[From the Scene] Onboard USS Nimitz, allies vow ironclad defense

koreaherald.com · by Ji Da-gyum · March 28, 2023

The US Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz makes a call at a naval base in the port city of Busan, 325 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 28, 2023, in yet another show of America's military might against growing North Korean threats. (Yonhap)

BUSAN — Dozens of aircraft were lined up on the flight deck of the USS Nimitz, with a flight deck about the size of three football fields and the top of the mast the equivalent of some 23 stories high from the keel.

Aircraft ready for battle on the US Navy’s nuclear-powered supercarrier included the F/A-18 Super Hornet tactical aircraft, E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning and battle management aircraft, Sea Hawk submarine hunter and anti-surface warfare helicopters and EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, according to US officials. Half of them were on the deck with the rest secured in the hangar bay below the flight deck, they added.

The movable air base, powered by two nuclear reactors, anchored alongside two destroyers armed with missiles at a naval base in Busan on Tuesday morning to demonstrate the allies’ enduring commitment to the defense of South Korea, amid North Korea’s persisting saber-rattling.

With a total of around 5,000 crew members and 70 aircraft, the 100,000-metric ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Decatur were anchored at the South Korean Fleet Command decorated with South Korean and US flags at around 10 a.m.

“It’s a great representation of the United States’ ironclad commitment to the safety and security of the Republic of Korea,” Commander of the US Naval Forces Korea Rear Adm. Mark Schafer told reporters during a news conference held on the flight deck, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea. “It’s an opportunity to reinforce the mission readiness between the ROK navy and the US Navy.”

Aircraft including F/A-18 Super Hornet tactical aircraft are on standby on the deck ofthe deck of the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, which makes a call at a naval base in the port city of Busan, 325 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 28, 2023. (Ji Da-gyum/ Korea Herald)

E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning and battle management aircraft and other fighter jets are seen aboard the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in South Korea's southeastern city of Busan on March 28, 2023. (Ji Da-gyum/ Korea Herald)

The US Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are the epitome of US military strength and are a means to flex US military muscle abroad. US aircraft carriers can project air power anywhere in the world and have capabilities to operate in all domains, from space to undersea.

South Korea sees the deployment of the US supercarrier on the Korean Peninsula as a way to exhibit extended deterrence, which is the US commitment to deter or respond to coercion and external attacks on US allies and partners with the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons.

But the emboldened Kim Jong-un regime in the North ratcheted up tensions instead of cowering before the appearance of the US key strategic asset on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korean state media for the first time disclosed tactical nuclear warheads designed to hit key targets in South Korean territory hours before the aircraft carrier and its strike group entered the naval base.

In an apparent warning to the allies, state media concurrently claimed that Pyongyang had conducted another test of a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone -- which was developed to stealthily submerge into enemy operational areas and destroy enemy warships and key naval bases by generating a radioactive tsunami -- from March 25 to 27. Pyongyang also said it conducted a live-fire drill practicing exploding tactical nuclear weapons mounted on two ballistic missiles in the air.

Rear Adm. Christopher Sweeney (Far Left), the commander of Carrier Strike Group 11, speaks during a South Korea-U.S. joint news conference aboard the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier at the South Korean naval base in Busan, 325 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 28, 2023. The nuclear-powered carrier entered the base earlier in the day for joint drills. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

‘Not going to be coerced’

Rear Adm. Christopher Sweeney, the commander of the carrier strike group, however, dismissed North Korea’s bellicose rhetoric, underscoring that the deployment of the US aircraft carrier is intended to assure US allies at the “very basic maritime security level.”

“Let me just get to the message again: We don’t seek conflict with the DPRK. We seek peace and security. We’re not going to be coerced. We’re not going to be bullied and we’re not going anywhere,” he said, referring to North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

“We are prepared for any contingency and we train at all levels and in all domains from space to the undersea with our allies.”

Sweeney said the US and South Korean navies and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force will stage maritime exercises after the carrier strike group leaves the Busan Naval Base to improve interoperability among the three countries that commonly seek security.

The trilateral maritime drills are expected to be staged early next week in international waters given that the US strike group is scheduled to anchor at the naval base in Busan until this weekend, South Korean and US military sources confirmed to The Korea Herald.

Before entering the Busan Naval Base, the USS Nimitz and its strike group staged combined maritime drills with South Korean Navy warships in international waters south of Jeju Island on Monday morning. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea just before the drills began.

“We always talk about how the DPRK is furthering its capability, and so are we,” Sweeney said. “And not just with the US Navy, but as a joint force with our allies here in the Republic of Korea.”

Sweeney underscored that the “alliance is prepared to adapt to new challenges and threats to ensure the security of future generations of Koreans and Americans.”

Dozens of fighter jets, including F/A-18 Super Hornet tactical aircraft and EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, are on standby on the deck of the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, which makes a call at a naval base in the port city of Busan, 325 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 28, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

Symbolic move

The US aircraft carrier’s planned visit was the first of its kind since September last year when the US Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan also anchored at the Busan Naval Base.

The US' latest dispatch of an aircraft carrier has different significance at a juncture when the allies have stepped up the deployment of US strategic assets in a bid to enhance their deterrence and readiness posture against escalating missile and nuclear threats from North Korea.

The commander of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group said South Korea will “likely see further strike groups” in the region.

North Korea’s accelerated nuclear and military buildup has raised questions over whether such frequent deployments of US strategic assets have been effective in deterring North Korea’s aggression, while simultaneously refueling debates over South Korea’s own nuclear armament.

North Korea has conducted seven sets of missile launches in less than three weeks in tit-for-tat moves in response to the revival of large-scale field training exercises between the US and South Korea. North Korea fired a total of 18 ballistic and cruise missiles, including one intercontinental ballistic missile, within 19 days starting on March 9. The North Korean state media on Friday also claimed that Pyongyang tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone.

Rear Adm. Schafer said the US has been “paying close attention” when asked by The Korea Herald whether the recent continuing dispatches of US strategic assets to South Korea has affected North Korea’s behaviors and changed the perception of the North Korean leadership.

The commander of the US Naval Forces Korea also underscored that it is important for the allies to make every effort to enhance their deterrence and readiness posture.

“But we’re absolutely sure in our mission readiness that the more often the ROK Navy and the US Navy work together, we are doing what we can to fulfill our responsibilities in this alliance and then to be as ready as we can be,” Schafer said.

“We want to do all that we can to preserve peace and deter any provocation and aggression, so we focus on mission readiness between our allies and partners.”

A South Korea-U.S. joint news conference takes place on the deck of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier at the South Korean naval base in Busan, 325 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 28, 2023. The nuclear-powered carrier entered the base earlier in the day for joint drills. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

By Ji Da-gyum (dagyumji@heraldcorp.com)

koreaherald.com · by Ji Da-gyum · March 28, 2023

8. North Korea unveils new nuclear warheads as US air carrier arrives in South

Excerpts:

Experts say the images could indicate progress in miniaturising warheads that are powerful yet small enough to mount on intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S.

"It has something more powerful in a smaller space. That's worrisome," said Kune Y. Suh, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University, comparing the new warheads to the 2016 version.

North Korea unveils new nuclear warheads as US air carrier arrives in South

Reuters · by Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL/BUSAN, March 28 (Reuters) - North Korea unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads and vowed to produce more weapons-grade nuclear material to expand the country's arsenal, state media KCNA said on Tuesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea for military drills.

KCNA released photos of the warheads, dubbed Hwasan-31s, as leader Kim Jong Un visited the Nuclear Weapons Institute, where he inspected new tactical nuclear weapons and technology for mounting warheads on ballistic missiles, as well as nuclear counterattack operation plans.

Experts say the images could indicate progress in miniaturising warheads that are powerful yet small enough to mount on intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S.

"It has something more powerful in a smaller space. That's worrisome," said Kune Y. Suh, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University, comparing the new warheads to the 2016 version.

Kim Dong-yup, a former South Korean naval officer who teaches at Kyungnam University, said the warheads were most likely designed for use with at least eight different delivery platforms listed in posters on the wall, including missiles and submarines.

"Those are not limited to tactical missiles but appear to be a miniaturised, lightweight and standardised warhead that can mount on various vehicles," he said.

"Now that the delivery vehicles are nearly ready, they would churn out warheads to secure second strike capabilities - perhaps hundreds, not dozens - while running centrifuges even harder to get weapons-grade nuclear material," he added

Kim Jong Un ordered the production of weapons-grade materials in a "far-sighted way" to boost its nuclear arsenal "exponentially" and produce powerful weapons, KCNA said.

He said the enemy of the country's nuclear forces is not a specific state or group but "war and nuclear disaster themselves," and the policy of expanding the arsenal is solely aimed at defending the country, and regional peace and stability.

Kim was also briefed on an IT-based integrated nuclear weapon management system called Haekbangashoe, which means "nuclear trigger", whose accuracy, reliability and security were verified during recent drills simulating a nuclear counterattack, KCNA said.

North Korea has been ramping up tensions, firing short-range ballistic missiles on Monday and conducting a nuclear counterattack simulation last week against the U.S. and South Korea, which it accused of rehearsing an invasion with their military exercises.

North Korea's military simulated a nuclear airburst with two tactical ballistic missiles equipped with mock warheads during Monday's training, while testing a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone again on March 25-27, KCNA said in separate dispatches.

The underwater drone, called Haeil-1, reached a target in the waters off the northeast coast after cruising along a "jagged and oval" 600km (373-mile) course for more than 41 hours, it said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said North Korea does not deserve "a single penny" of economic aid while pushing for nuclear development, his spokesman said.

A South Korean military spokesman said that additional tests and analysis would be needed to verify whether the North's new warheads are deployable, but that its report on the underwater drone was most likely "exaggerated and fabricated."

U.S. AIR CARRIER

Also on Tuesday, a U.S. carrier strike group led by the USS Nimitz docked at the Busan naval base in South Korea after conducting joint maritime drills. It was the carrier's first visit in nearly six years and coincides with the 70th anniversary of the two countries' alliance.

Rear Admiral Kim Ji-hoon of the South Korean navy said joint exercises were intended to improve U.S. extended deterrence - the military capability, especially nuclear forces, to deter attacks on its allies - given the North's evolving threats.

The strike group commander, Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney, said his ships were prepared for any contingency.

"We don't seek conflicts with the DPRK. We seek peace and security. We're not going to be coerced, we're not going to be bullied and we're not going anywhere," he told reporters.

DPRK is an abbreviation for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang has accused the allies of stoking tensions and using exercises to rehearse an invasion.

A commentary in the Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling party media outlet, said the drills, especially those involving the aircraft carrier, amount to "an open declaration of war" and preparations for a "preemptive attack" against North Korea.

"The frantic war drills in the puppet region are not just military drills but nuclear war drills for a preemptive strike ... pursuant to the U.S. political and military option to escalate confrontation with the DPRK and finally lead to a war," it said.

Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Ju-min Park in Seoul and Dae-woung Kim in Busan; Editing by Tom Hogue, Stephen Coates and Gerry Doyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Reuters · by Hyonhee Shin

9. Yoon calls for full disclosure of N.K. human rights violations

President Yoon is adopting a human rights upfront approach.

(LEAD) Yoon calls for full disclosure of N.K. human rights violations | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · March 28, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES with details)

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, March 28 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that North Korea's human rights abuses should be fully laid bare around the world, as the government prepares to publish a report on the North's human rights situation for the first time.

"The reality of the appalling human rights violations against the North Korean people must be fully revealed to the international community," Yoon said during a Cabinet meeting.

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on March 28, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

Under the North Korean Human Rights Act passed in 2016, the unification minister is required to submit an annual report to the National Assembly on North Korea's human rights situation.

The Cabinet meeting was held to discuss next year's government budget, among other items.

Yoon said the government will spend boldly to fulfill its job while pursuing strong fiscal reforms to ensure not a single penny of taxpayers' money goes to waste.

He especially called for preventing "leaks" in the form of subsidies for organizations that lack transparency or "populist distributions of cash."

hague@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · March 28, 2023

10. S. Korea welcomes U.N. report on N. Korea's abduction, enforced disappearances

S. Korea welcomes U.N. report on N. Korea's abduction, enforced disappearances | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · March 28, 2023

SEOUL, March 28 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government on Tuesday welcomed a new report by the United Nations Human Rights Office condemning North Korea's abductions and human rights violations.

In the report published Tuesday, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) highlighted the economic, social and emotional suffering of victims of the forcibly disappeared. It also criticized systematic abductions and enforced disappearances by North Korea as "crimes against humanity."

Shortly after the release, South Korea's foreign and unification ministries, along with the defense and justice ministries, issued a joint press release welcoming the report.

"Our government welcomes the latest OHCHR report and we hope that the report contributes to raising the international community's interest in North Korea's dire human rights situation and the issue of enforced disappearance," the statement read.

The ministries also urged the North to take immediate steps to end such violations as recommended in the report, and to "expand cooperation with U.N. mechanisms in the field of human rights."

The report is based on 80 in-depth interviews conducted between 2016 and 2022 with 38 male and 42 female victims of enforced disappearance. They included the relatives of the forcibly disappeared, North Koreans who escaped their country and foreigners who have fled the North after being abducted.

It called on Pyongyang to acknowledge the occurrence of enforced disappearances, immediately return the victims of abduction and ensure full accountability for the crimes by carrying out independent investigations.

This composite file image, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows the emblem of the U.N. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

julesyi@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · March 28, 2023

11. S. Korea voices 'deep regrets' over Japan's controversial history textbooks

One step forward, two steps back.

(2nd LD) S. Korea voices 'deep regrets' over Japan's controversial history textbooks | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 장동우 · March 28, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES with ministry's summoning of Japanese embassy official in 5th para)

SEOUL/TOKYO, March 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea lodged a strong protest against Japan on Tuesday over its new school textbooks apparently watering down the coercive nature of its wartime wrongdoings and intensifying its sovereignty claim to Dokdo.

Earlier in the day, Tokyo's education ministry announced the approval of the 149 textbooks for elementary school students for use in 2024, a move that came in spite of Seoul's efforts to improve its bilateral ties with the neighbor amid Washington's campaign for bolstering the trilateral security partnership.

In a statement, Lim Soo-suk, spokesperson for Seoul's foreign ministry, expressed "deep regrets" over the new textbooks and urged Tokyo to address the problem.

He called on Japan to show sincerity to fulfill the spirit of its previous apology over wartime wrongdoings.

The ministry called in Naoki Kumagai, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to deliver a formal protest message.

Activists hold an emergency news conference at a civic organization in Seoul on March 28, 2023, to criticize Japan's approval of new elementary school textbooks containing an intensified claim to South Korea's easternmost Dokdo islets and watered-down descriptions of Japan's military conscription of Koreans during its 1910-45 colonization. (Yonhap)

Yonhap News Agency analyzed relevant parts in a sample of those textbooks and found that a description of Japan's atrocities against Koreans during its 1910-45 colonization of the peninsula has been watered down.

For those who were forced to serve in Japan's military during World War II, a current textbook says Korean men were conscripted as soldiers. But a new version, endorsed by the ministry, describes them as "having participated in" the military. A caption of a related photo read that they applied to become soldiers, apparently backing Japan's longtime assertion that Koreans joined its imperial military "voluntarily."

Another textbook dropped the expression "conscription" itself.

On Dokdo, a set of Seoul-controlled rocky outcroppings in the East Sea, the textbooks say they are Tokyo's indigenous territory, with the world "illegal" added for what it claims to be South Korea's occupation.

This file photo provided by Seoul's foreign ministry shows Dokdo, a set of South Korea-controlled rocky islets in the East Sea. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

odissy@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 장동우 · March 28, 2023

12. Kim Jong-un Calls for Nuclear Arms Use 'Anywhere'

Again, what evidence is there that Kim Jong Un has any intention of giving up his nuclear weapons?

Kim Jong-un Calls for Nuclear Arms Use 'Anywhere'

By Roh Suk-jo

https://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2023/03/28/2023032800781.html

March 28, 2023 09:51

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for the country's nuclear weapons to be ready for use "any time and anywhere," state media said Tuesday.

Kim "called for efforts to expand the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials and continue to produce powerful nuclear weapons in a bid to meet the goal of an exponential increase in the nuclear arsenal," according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

"Only when we perfectly prepare the ability to use nuclear weapons at any time and from any place will we ensure that we will forever not have to use nuclear weapons," he said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (center) talks with military officers at a nuclear research institute in an unidentified location, in this photo from the [North] Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday.

On Monday the North continued a spate of missile provocation by firing two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, a day before the arrival in Busan of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

The missiles were fired from Junghwa, North Hwanghae Province between around 7:45 a.m. and 8 a.m., the Joint Chiefs of Staff here said, and flew about 370 km before falling into the East Sea.

An F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter lands on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz during a joint naval exercise with South Korea in waters off Jeju Island on Monday. /Newsis

North Korea's recent flurry of missile launches was probably a protest against massive joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises that have been going on for weeks.

The South Korean and the U.S. navies staged drills with the USS Nimitz in international waters south of Jeju Island on Monday with the South Korean Aegis destroyer King Sejong the Great and destroyer Choe Yeong escorting the aircraft carrier to Busan.

13. Japan claims Dokdo, soft-pedals forced labor in textbooks

Again, perhaps two large steps backward. Will this undo President Yoon's efforts? I expect he will receive even more harsh criticism from Koreans.

Tuesday

March 28, 2023

dictionary + A - A

Japan claims Dokdo, soft-pedals forced labor in textbooks

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/03/28/national/diplomacy/korea-japan-textbooks/20230328163857586.html

Lim Soo-suk, spokesperson for the Korean Foreign Ministry, holds a press briefing regarding Japan’s approval of history textbooks that claim the Dokdo islets as its own, in Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed regrets to Japan on Tuesday after Tokyo approved history textbooks that claim the Dokdo islets as its own and contain diluted descriptions of forced labor.

The Japanese move has returned two red flag issues to the agenda of Korea-Japan relations despite a recent détente.

"The Korean government expresses deep regret that the Japanese government approved the contents of elementary school textbooks that continue to make the unreasonable claims they have made over the past several decades," Lim Soo-suk, spokesperson of the ministry, said in a statement.

The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology regularly examines and approves the content of textbooks in Japan.

Japanese textbooks submitted to the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for contents approval in this file photo dated March 29, 2022. [YONHAP]

Following a meeting Tuesday, it approved for publication of several textbooks for grades three to six in elementary school that claimed the Dokdo islets as Japanese "inherent territory."

"In particular, we strongly protest the fact that the Japanese government once again approved the textbooks containing unreasonable claims about Dokdo, which is clearly our own territory historically, geographically and according to international law."

The Dokdo islets, located in the East Sea and effectively controlled by Korea, are a painful reminder of Japan's imperialistic past and its 1910-45 colonial rule over the peninsula.

Korea denies that a territorial dispute even exists as the Dokdo islets are historically, geographically and under international law an integral part of Korean territory.

Japan calls the islets Takeshima and claims them as its "inherent territory" in its official documents, including its national security strategy.

The textbooks approved by the Japanese government on Tuesday were also reported to have omitted the expression "forced" in describing the history of Koreans and Chinese forced to work by imperial Japan.

Lim, in his statement, said that Seoul expresses "strong regret" that the descriptions of forced labor were "changed in a direction that dilutes the nature of coercion."

"The Korean government urges the Japanese government to sincerely inherit the spirit of apology and reflection of its past," Lim said.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in his recent meeting with Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Tokyo earlier this month, also referred to this spirit, which he said was about upholding the position of "previous cabinets on historical recognition."

Hailed as a historic bilateral summit, the first to take place in either country in 12 years, the meeting between Yoon and Kishida gained a global spotlight as even a ranking White House official and the British foreign secretary issued statements welcoming an apparent thaw in Korea-Japan ties.

Relations were frozen for years as their dispute on the forced labor issue expanded to impact its trade and security cooperation.

After the Supreme Court in Korea ordered the Japanese companies Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate the forced labor victims in landmark rulings in 2018, acknowledging the illegality of Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, Japan protested and placed export restrictions on Korea.

Korea subsequently threatened to walk out of its military intelligence pact with Japan.

Then the Korean government on March 6 announced that it will create a fund with donations from Korean companies that received certain benefits from Japan to compensate the victims instead, after which Yoon and Kishida met in Tokyo to hail a new chapter in their relations.

The history textbook decisions could jeopardize the recent thaw.

An exhibition room at the Northeast Asian History Foundation in western Seoul shows a model of the Dokdo islets on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

“The party cannot help but express strong regret and condemnation,” the People Power Party’s deputy floor leader Song Eon-seog said on Tuesday. “The Korean government should also convey its strong protest to the Japanese government.”

Members of the Democratic Party have already been criticizing the Yoon government following the summit for failing to win due returns from Japan in the recent visit, such as a direct apology from Kishida to the forced labor victims.

Japanese history textbooks have often derailed bilateral relations, even when they were considered to have been at their best after 1998 when Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi released a joint statement in which Obuchi expressed “deep remorse and heartfelt apology” for Japan’s causing “tremendous damage and suffering to the people of the Republic of Korea through its colonial rule.”

Japan’s approval of history textbooks three years later, which Korea said attempted to justify its 1910-45 occupation of Korea through a partial emphasis on how much their colonization contributed to Korea’s modernization, led to one of the strongest measures of protest from the Korean foreign ministry, a recall of its ambassador to Japan.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]

14. Kim Jong Un Says He Will Expand Production of Nuclear Material

Excerpts:

“Only when we perfectly prepare the ability to use nuclear weapons at any time and from any place will we ensure that we will forever not have to use nuclear weapons,” Mr. Kim said during the inspection.

Mr. Kim called on his nuclear scientists to increase production of the weapons-grade fissile material used to make nuclear bombs. North Korea increased its stockpile of plutonium to 154 pounds in 2022, adding 44 pounds from 2020, according to a white paper published last year by South Korea’s Defense Ministry.

Kim Jong Un Says He Will Expand Production of Nuclear Material

North Korean leader inspects new tactical nuclear warheads, calling his weapons program defensive

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kim-jong-un-says-he-will-expand-production-of-nuclear-material-ff60f5ea?page=1

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting tactical nuclear warheads.

PHOTO: /KCNA VIA KNS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Dasl YoonFollow

March 28, 2023 2:59 am ET

SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for expanding the production of nuclear material to boost the country’s arsenal exponentially, saying his weapons program was aimed at defending the country.

Photos released by North Korean state media on Tuesday showed Mr. Kim inspecting new tactical nuclear warheads, called “Hwasan-31,” for the first time. Around 10 red and green nuclear warheads were displayed alongside short-range ballistic missiles and long-range cruise missiles. He also reviewed plans for a nuclear counterattack and was briefed on a nuclear-weapons management system called “Haekbangashoe,” which means nuclear trigger, state media said.

“Only when we perfectly prepare the ability to use nuclear weapons at any time and from any place will we ensure that we will forever not have to use nuclear weapons,” Mr. Kim said during the inspection.

Mr. Kim called on his nuclear scientists to increase production of the weapons-grade fissile material used to make nuclear bombs. North Korea increased its stockpile of plutonium to 154 pounds in 2022, adding 44 pounds from 2020, according to a white paper published last year by South Korea’s Defense Ministry.

Watch: North Korea Fires ICBM Ahead of Japan-South Korea Summit

China backs summit with South Korea, Japan: envoy

koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · March 28, 2023

Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming said Tuesday that Beijing supports a possible trilateral summit with South Korea and Japan.

“We have continued to say so, and we will cooperate with South Korea’s efforts. South Korea is making a lot of efforts right now, and we hope that these efforts will lead to a good result,” the ambassador said.

Xing’s remarks came during a meeting with the South Korean ruling People Power Party’s chair Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, who was the first to suggest that the summit of the three neighboring countries resume.

The last summit of the leaders of South Korea, Japan and China was in 2019, and was the eighth such summit to be held.

“President Yoon recently visited Japan, reinitiating shuttle diplomacy, and I hope that the three countries of East Asia will engage with one another more closely,” the ruling party head said.

“I hope that the trilateral summit between Korea, China and Japan will be held in the hope of maintaining very close ties with China, not only in terms of trade and economy, but across all sectors.”

Kim added that he hoped for China’s “constructive role” in bringing North Korea to the negotiation table.

At the meeting, which took place at the conference room of the National Assembly building in central Seoul, the ambassador said South Korea and China were “inseparable neighbors.”

“The two leaders of China and South Korea have said that we are partners and neighbors. We will continue to work in that direction,” he said.

Congratulating Kim on his election as the party’s head earlier this month, Xing said the Chinese Communist Party hoped to work more closely with the People Power Party in the future.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)

koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · March 28, 2023

16. Union officials arrested in hunt for North Korean spies

Defending against and cleaning up after the work of north Korea's United Front Department and the Cultural Engagement Bureau.

north Korea is actively conducting subversion against South korea.

Union officials arrested in hunt for North Korean spies

koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · March 28, 2023

Four high-level officials of a South Korean umbrella labor union were arrested Tuesday, in the latest development in a widening investigation into suspected North Korean espionage.

In a statement Tuesday, investigative and intelligence authorities said they found “substantial evidence” to suspect the labor union officials of working with North Korean spies.

In January, police and the intelligence service together searched the homes and offices of the four labor union officials and found more than 100 documents suggesting they were communicating with North Korea and aiding its spying activities, the statement read.

The latest suspicions brought under scrutiny the labor union’s history of protesting against South Korea’s joint military exercises with the US and the US forces being stationed here.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, the ruling party's spokesperson Rep. Kim Mi-ae said that the labor union’s anti-US strikes “do nothing to improve labor initiatives.”

She added that the arrest warrant being issued for the labor union officials signifies the “court acknowledging the gravity of the suspected espionage crimes.”

Rep. Tae Yong-ho, who sits on the ruling party’s supreme council, worried that the labor union’s anti-US forces rallies could potentially jeopardize South Korea’s alliance with the US.

“Imagine if these images, with no context, were to be presented to an unknowing third party as if they represent the South Korean majority,” he said in a press conference last month.

So far the labor union has denied involvement in North Korean espionage, with its spokesperson telling The Korea Herald that the investigations appeared to be “an attempt to paint the union as pro-communist.”

“It’s an old-time ploy,” he said.

The labor union is just one among several South Korean groups under investigation in the latest spying scandal.

Two weeks ago, four members of a "Korea unification group" were indicted for being in a North Korean spy ring. According to Seoul prosecutors, the group’s four members had regularly met with North Korean agents in Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia and Vietnam over the years, colluding with them on spying and other operations.

The head of the left-leaning Progressive Party’s committee on Jeju Island, Park Hyun-woo, was arrested last month after allegedly praising the Kim Jong-un regime.

President Yoon Suk Yeol has on multiple occasions expressed that he considers the emerging suspicions of North Korean espionage-related crimes to be serious.

During his first dinner with the new ruling party leaders elected earlier this month, the president “showed deep concerns” over a series of revelations in the suspected spying scandal, party sources said.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)

koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · March 28, 2023

17. Underwater Nuclear Drone: North Korea’s Nuclear Madmen

I disagree with the first sentence of conclusion but I strongly agree with the remaining sentences.

Conclusion:

The only sensible strategy is working for complete and verifiable denuclearization and refusing to give North Korea its most cherished international goal—U.S. and world acknowledgement as a nuclear power. While awaiting meaningful negotiations toward denuclearization, it is crucial for the international community to increase North Korea’s isolation and the effectiveness of sanctions, while the United States, South Korea, and Japan strengthen their alliance and military capabilities and stand ready to respond to North Korea’s nuclear threats. Kim must understand that any use of nuclear weapons against the United States or its Allies and partners, and further, any invasion into South Korea, will only lead to the end of his regime. Otherwise, we are left at the mercy of nuclear daredevils hell-bent on repeating the worst excesses of the early decades of the Cold War, including maintaining the delusion that a nuclear war can be fought and won.

Underwater Nuclear Drone: North Korea’s Nuclear Madmen

https://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/underwater-nuclear-drone-north-koreas-nuclear-madmen

by David Albright

March 27, 2023

Download PDF

One remarkably irresponsible claim by Kim Jong Un is North Korea’s announced testing of an underwater drone that it states can carry a nuclear weapon, able to infiltrate enemy waters and create a deadly radioactive plume of water. ¹ Kim’s parallel claims of the weapon creating a deadly tsunami can be seen as hyperbole; perhaps he is confusing a tsunami with the radioactive waterfall following the lifting of immense amounts of water into the atmosphere by an underwater nuclear explosion. Nonetheless, such a detonation could severely contaminate ships and port cities with intense radioactive fallout mixed with water.

Figure 1. Kim Jong Un beaming next to an alleged underwater drone. North Korea claims this drone can hold a nuclear weapon. Source: Rodong Sinmun.

Of course, North Korea’s ability to put a nuclear warhead into an underwater drone should not be taken as given; the announced test involved conventional explosives only. The warhead diameter can be roughly estimated by scaling from the head of a gleeful Kim next to an alleged underwater drone (Figure 1). This process gives an estimated diameter for the drone system in the range of 40 to 50 centimeters. This diameter could conceivably hold a pure fission weapon, but it is on the small size and would likely have a yield in the range of 10-25 kilotons. For comparison, Iran’s best known nuclear weapon design had a diameter of 55 centimeters and an expected yield of ten kilotons. Given North Korea’s underground testing experience, their weaponeers may be able to achieve the necessary level of miniaturization for outfitting an underwater drone with a nuclear weapon, but just as likely, North Korea cannot do so without additional underground nuclear testing aimed at reducing the diameter of the nuclear warhead while maintaining its explosive yield.

Operation Crossroads

It is worth reviewing the first underwater nuclear detonation, an unexpected radioactive disaster that occurred during Operation Crossroads in 1946. Crossroads was planned to involve three successive nuclear explosions over or under the Bikini Lagoon in the South Pacific and a host of warships placed around the lagoon as “target” vessels. The second test, codenamed Baker, was a 21 kiloton fission explosion detonated 90 feet underwater. Baker caused a huge surge of radioactively contaminated water to fall out in the test area, causing far more radioactive contamination than expected (see Figures 2 and 3). The U.S. planners had expected that the radioactive column would rise over 10,000 feet, but instead the explosion sent up a million-ton column of radioactively contaminated water, spray, and steam only about 6,000 feet into the atmosphere, entrapping more radiation near the earth’s surface, much of which rained down on the lagoon in a spectacular waterfall. The unexpected contamination led to the cancellation of the third test, and the ultimate scuttling of many of the over seventy target naval vessels moored in the vicinity of the blast point, because, despite extensive efforts by military personnel, the ships defied decontamination. ²

Many military personnel had been ordered to return to the lagoon area soon after the blast to decontaminate the target vessels. They were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, with little protection, little training, and little hope of avoiding significant radiation doses. U.S. military leadership downplayed the extent of the radiation danger to its own troops. It was not until the mid-1980s that a new U.S. leadership, largely based in Congress, would accept the inherent risk and harm of this test. Meanwhile, U.S. leadership had come to realize the danger of such testing; the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, in addition to banning atmospheric nuclear testing, also banned underwater nuclear testing.

Figure 2. Shortly after the underwater Baker test during Operation Crossroads. Source U.S. government, reproduced in Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Operation_Crossroads_Baker_(wide).jpg.

Figure 3. As the after-effects of explosion progressed, well over a million tonnes of water spray fell back into the lagoon (left image). On the right, a closeup of the radioactive base surge, like mist and water at the bottom of a waterfall, is seen moving toward the ships in the lagoon. Source U.S. government, reproduced in Wikimedia, href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Operation_Crossroads_Baker.jpg “>https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Operation_Crossroads_Baker.jpg.

Overzealous Race for Nuclear Arms

North Korea appears oblivious of the lessons of the Cold War, as it races to develop ICBMs, SLBMs, cruise missiles, many types of tactical rockets and missiles, and now underwater drones, all slated to carry nuclear weapons. Although North Korea faces many difficulties in achieving its goals, its leadership appears stuck in the old 1950s Cold War mindset, developing far too many nuclear weapons, constantly threatening to use them, and preparing itself to fight a nuclear war, a war that in reality it can neither win nor survive.

North Korea’s announcement about a nuclear-armed drone, a weapon that the Baker test showed to have insidious radioactive fallout effects, adds further credence to its leadership’s dangerous mindset. U.S. military planners during the early Cold War had a similarly stark outlook and expected a nuclear war to break out by the 1960s. Fortunately, that war never occurred, but the close calls were numerous. North Korean leadership appears to be replaying a portion of that dangerous history. Can we avoid nuclear catastrophe again?

Kim and his closest advisors often appear gleeful about nuclear weapons or missile advancements, but from the outside they appear like drunks stumbling down an extremely perilous path. Negotiating traditional nuclear arms control limits with this group is not going to reduce the risk of nuclear war. Neither is South Korea building nuclear weapons.

The only sensible strategy is working for complete and verifiable denuclearization and refusing to give North Korea its most cherished international goal—U.S. and world acknowledgement as a nuclear power. While awaiting meaningful negotiations toward denuclearization, it is crucial for the international community to increase North Korea’s isolation and the effectiveness of sanctions, while the United States, South Korea, and Japan strengthen their alliance and military capabilities and stand ready to respond to North Korea’s nuclear threats. Kim must understand that any use of nuclear weapons against the United States or its Allies and partners, and further, any invasion into South Korea, will only lead to the end of his regime. Otherwise, we are left at the mercy of nuclear daredevils hell-bent on repeating the worst excesses of the early decades of the Cold War, including maintaining the delusion that a nuclear war can be fought and won.

^{1. See for example, Brad Lendon and Yoonjun Seo, “North Korea Claims to Have Tested a Nuclear-Capable Underwater Drone. Analysts Are Skeptical,” CNN, March 24, 2023. See also Rondong Sinmun,}^{http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTVAMjAyMy0wMy0yNC1IMDA0QA==.}^↩

^{2. Arjun Makhijani and David Albright, “Irradiation of Personnel During Operation Crossroads A Evaluation Based On Official Documents,”}^{Institute for Energy and Environmental Research,}^{May 1983,}^{https://ieer.org/resource/nuclear-weapons/irradiation-personnel-operation-crossroads/.}^↩

18. Shedding light on the cruelty of North Korea’s border protection squad, the Storm Corps

"Brilliantly meritorious service" for killing your fellow Koreans.

But this shows two things about the regime: Kim does not care about the welfare of the Korean people and he is deathly afraid of the people.

Excerpts:

The deployment of Storm Corps personnel to the border, despite the presence of the border guards, to completely shut the frontier — with even the authority to summarily fire upon and execute people approaching the border — was quite exceptional.

Government orders also instructed the border patrol to fire upon people or animals illegally approaching the buffer zone. However, members of the border patrol have been unable to bring themselves to cruelly shoot at people living near the border because they regard these people as akin to family who treat them to meals. When faced with a situation requiring the firing of a weapon, border patrol soldiers simply fire into the air using blanks.

Meanwhile, the Storm Corps soldiers who fired on people without much thought received awards for rendering brilliantly meritorious military service, with the government lionizing them as so loyal to the state that it could dispatch them anywhere and at any time whenever the nation is struggling most. To people living along the border, however, the Storm Corps are nothing more than murderers and objects of fear.

Shedding light on the cruelty of North Korea’s border protection squad, the Storm Corps

Storm Corps soldiers who fired on people without much thought received awards for rendering brilliantly meritorious military service

By Kim Jeong Yoon - 2023.03.28 8:57am

dailynk.com

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observing Storm Corps training in 2013. (Rodong Sinmun)

This article is part of a series written by Daily NK journalist Kim Jeong Hun entitled “North Korea’s Secret Stories.”

Amid growing complaints among people living near the China-North Korea border about the continued border closure, around 100 soldiers gathered in the assembly hall of Yanggang Province’s provincial party committee in the early morning of Aug. 25 of last year.

The soldiers were part of the 11th Corps, also known as the “Storm Corps,” a special forces unit of proven ideological soundness and loyalty, that was sent to the border in the summer of 2020 — at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic — on direct orders from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The soldiers, along with the border patrol, slammed the border shut in accordance with a government proclamation establishing a buffer zone along the frontier and a curfew. The Storm Corps immediately established a “shoot first, report later” system, mercilessly shooting at anyone who approached the border, including those suspected of trying to defect or conducting smuggling activities.

In the early morning of Aug. 25, 2022, Storm Corps soldiers who had rendered distinguished service during operations to close the border gathered to receive awards. The event was attended by the commanders from the General Political Bureau and General Staff Department, as well as secretaries from provincial party organizations.

The soldiers who rendered the most distinguished service were awarded with “frontline admission to the Workers’ Party,” while others were given Orders of Korean Labour, Medals For Military Merit and Korean People’s Army commendations, as well as commendations from the corps or headquarters political bureau.

“Frontline admission to the Workers’ Party” is a term that began with Kim Il Sung’s practice of convening party cell meetings at the front line during the Korean War to immediately admit soldiers into the party to boost morale and enthusiasm for the fight. As it suggests, it means the immediate, on-the-spot granting of party membership.

The award was initially intended for people who stood in front of enemy guns or rendered some other brilliant service, but at this ceremony, most of the recipients were Storm Corps personnel who mercilessly shot and killed people while carrying out operations to seal the China-North Korea border.

The recipients of the other awards were Storm Corps soldiers who turned over everyone they busted at guard posts along the border to law enforcement agencies.

Border guard troops also took part in the ceremony, but none of them received “frontline admission to the Workers’ Party” or other commendations. The border patrol troops at the event were simply spectators to applaud the Storm Corps troops as they received awards.

The deployment of Storm Corps personnel to the border, despite the presence of the border guards, to completely shut the frontier — with even the authority to summarily fire upon and execute people approaching the border — was quite exceptional.

Government orders also instructed the border patrol to fire upon people or animals illegally approaching the buffer zone. However, members of the border patrol have been unable to bring themselves to cruelly shoot at people living near the border because they regard these people as akin to family who treat them to meals. When faced with a situation requiring the firing of a weapon, border patrol soldiers simply fire into the air using blanks.

Meanwhile, the Storm Corps soldiers who fired on people without much thought received awards for rendering brilliantly meritorious military service, with the government lionizing them as so loyal to the state that it could dispatch them anywhere and at any time whenever the nation is struggling most. To people living along the border, however, the Storm Corps are nothing more than murderers and objects of fear.

Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.

Daily NK works with a network of reporting partners who live inside North Korea. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.

Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.

Read in Korean

dailynk.com

19. For founder’s birthday, North Korean cities ordered to decorate streets with flowers

For founder’s birthday, North Korean cities ordered to decorate streets with flowers

Some towns are creating paper flowers to make up for a shortage of real ones.

By Changgyu Ahn for RFA Korean

2023.03.27

rfa.org

To celebrate the April 15 birthday of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung, authorities have ordered cities and towns to decorate the streets with flowers for the first time in three years, two sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.

The holiday is a big deal in North Korea, where it is known as the “Day of the Sun.” Together with the “Day of the Shining Star,” the Feb. 16 birthday of his son, Kim Jong Il, the holiday perpetuates the personality cult surrounding the Kim family, which has ruled the country for three generations.

Normally, the capital of Pyongyang and other major cities are decorated with flowers and new propaganda paintings and slogans are splashed across the cities ahead of the Day of the Sun, but that stopped about three years ago in most places due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authorities want to bring the flowers back this year, even in rural towns and villages, a company official from Pochon county in the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA’s Korean Service Wednesday on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“It seems like an attempt to change the mood in the province, which has gone sour due to ongoing food shortages and a lack of daily necessities,” the source said.

North Korea’s food situation was already dire prior to the pandemic but it got worse when authorities shut down the Sino-Korean border and suspended all trade for more than two years. Although rail freight between the northeast Asian neighbors has resumed, North Korea has not yet fully recovered.

Flowers play an important role in the Days of the Sun and Shining Star because both of the late leaders have flower species named after them, a strain of orchid named Kimilsungia, and a strain of begonia named Kimjongilia, although it wasn’t clear if this year’s decoration orders called for either species.

People walk in the street decorated with colorful flowers on the occasion of the 110th birth anniversary of late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang, April 15, 2022. Credit: Associated Press

Paper flowers to make up for shortfall

To adorn the streets of Pochon county with flowers, the landscaping management office has had to get creative, making paper flowers to make up for a shortfall of real ones, the source said.

“They are growing as many fresh flowers as possible to decorate the center of the town and supplement them with paper flowers if they don’t have enough,” said the source.

“The landscaping management office operates a small vinyl greenhouse but it is difficult to keep the temperature constant, so they have not been able to grow many flowers.”

The greenhouse’s temperature is maintained by firewood brought in by employees from the mountainside, it hasn’t been working well.

“The office therefore distributed five flower pots to each employee who lives in decent conditions to grow the flowers in their homes,” the source said.

Chongjin scramble

In Chongjin, one of the country’s largest cities, authorities are scrambling to grow flowers fast enough.

They haven’t had to prepare flowers for the Day of the Sun in three years, and the order took them by surprise, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“This year the Central Committee issued instructions to decorate the roads with flowers to create a festive atmosphere, so the landscaping management office of each district of the city, as well as the city’s flower office are struggling to prepare fresh flowers,” the second source said.

“Keeping the right temperature inside the greenhouse is key to growing flowers quickly so that they can be ready for April 15th,” the second source said. “Currently, landscaping management offices and flower offices are spending money that they barely have to buy firewood from the market to maintain the temperature.”

This could turn out to be problematic down the road, as the central government has not told the local office that they would finance their firewood purchases, the second source said.

Most residents could care less about the festivities or the flowers, the second source said.

“[They] are busy making a living every day have no time to appreciate or think about flowers,” he said. “The authorities’ order to set the holiday atmosphere with flower decorations for the ‘Day of the Sun’ is just a makeshift measure to try to end the dark atmosphere caused by hardships in life.”

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

rfa.org

20. Podcast: 121 Korea Reunification by David Maxwell

My latest podcast with the Civil Affairs Association. It was recorded in December.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/121-korea-reunification-by-david-maxwell/id1371006736?i=1000606219592

121 Korea Reunification by David Maxwell

One CA

Government

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Welcome to the One CA Podcast.

This week we talk with David Maxwell, a retired Army Colonel who now works with the Defense of Democracies and other institutions to achieve a peaceful reunification for Korea.

In the episode, David discusses current conditions, events that have made a difference, and strategies for peaceful reunification.

One Podcast aims to inspire people interested in working on-ground diplomacy to forward U.S. foreign policy.

We bring in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences and recommendations for working the "last three feet" of foreign relations.

Have a story to tell? Email us to either speak or guest-host at: capodcasting@gmail.com

One CA Podcast is a product of the Civil Affairs Association: https://www.civilaffairsassoc.org/

Maxwell's bio on Defense of Democracies: https://www.fdd.org/team/david-maxwell/

Special thanks for Pat Benatar and Legacy Records for the song "We Belong," Which is an excellent fit for the story.

21. Can the Japan-South Korea rapprochement stick?

Excerpts:

President Yoon has offered his own full-throated defense of his policy, declaring that “the necessity of cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo is ever increasing” amid global issues such as escalating US-China tensions, supply chain disruptions and North Korean nuclear threats.

The door to rapprochement and normalization of South Korea–Japan relations has been opened — and there is a clear way to pave the road forward so that it can withstand coming storms. But the perils of reversal remain. For now, it is Kishida who bears the responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Can the Japan-South Korea rapprochement stick?

The perils of reversal remain despite US pressure to bring the two long-time adversaries together to better balance China

By DANIEL SNEIDER

MARCH 27, 2023

asiatimes.com · by Daniel Sneider · March 27, 2023

The Tokyo summit that brought together South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on March 23, 2023, cleared away much of the accumulated debris of the last five years of dysfunctionality.

The two-day official visit — the first by a South Korean president in a dozen years — checked off a substantial list of to-do items. It restored regular meetings between the leaders of the two countries and rolled back the tit-for-tat trade measures in place since 2019.

The two leaders embraced a shared security agenda, topped by countering North Korea, and reaffirmed the operation of the General Security of Military Information Agreement intelligence-sharing pact.

The stage is now set for a return to normalcy, or at least functionality, in South Korea-Japan relations. Looming over both leaders was the United States, their mutual ally. Biden administration officials have been pounding away at the need for trilateral cooperation, particularly in the security arena.

For Yoon, the Tokyo summit was a necessary precondition for a state visit to Washington next month.

US President Joe Biden speaks as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol listens during a news conference at the People’s House inside the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul’s Yongsan District, May 21, 2022. Photo: Twitter

But the visit also offered evidence that Seoul and Tokyo share a desire to push back against a drift towards Cold War-style confrontation and full-scale economic war, with the two leaders announcing the creation of a new dialogue on economic security and a desire to restore the trilateral summit dialogue with China.

All of this was made possible due to President Yoon’s politically risky decision to accept the failure in reaching a bilateral agreement with Japan on the thorny wartime issue of compensation for South Korean laborers forced to work in Japanese mines and factories without pay.

The primary driver of the recent downturn in South Korea–Japan relations was the Supreme Court of Korea’s decision in 2018 to order two Japanese firms — Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — to pay a handful of surviving laborers.

Months of negotiations at the ministerial level failed to bridge the gap on this issue. South Korea yielded to Japan’s insistence that it was legally not obliged to pay the forced laborers, as this issue had been settled by the Claims Agreement reached at the time of normalization of the two countries’ diplomatic relations in 1965. Seoul offered instead to use an existing fund for compensation, fed by contributions from POSCO and other South Korean firms.

But the South Korean government pushed for the two Japanese firms to offer voluntary contributions to that fund in addition to their own statement of apology, in the hope that it would be echoed by Prime Minister Kishida. This push was rightfully seen as key to gaining the acceptance of the victims, their lawyers and the public.

Prime Minister Kishida balked at crossing that Rubicon. He is wary of bilateral agreements on historical issues due to the controversies that arose from the 2015 compensation and apology deal for South Korean “comfort women” that he reached as foreign minister. And Kishida is under heavy pressure from Japanese conservatives who oppose any concession on history.

In his statement at a joint press conference, Kishida issued no clear expression of his own about the troubled past and ruled out any Japanese moves to reimburse the workers, even indirectly.

This morally murky response from Japan has fed those in South Korea who see this as a surrender. Polls show that a significant majority of South Koreans want the Japanese firms to join in and apologize.

The opposition Democratic Party has assailed the outcome and has organized loud and somewhat ritualized public protests. Though there is a clear desire in South Korea to move away from the past, even supporters of Yoon’s policy express dismay at Japan’s lack of courage.

Former Korean ambassador to Tokyo Shin Kak-Soo expressed his disappointment with “the timidity from the Japanese government to respond to the bold initiative by President Yoon, who risked his political fortune.” Shin continued, “At least the Prime Minister should have made a sincere and concrete apology.”

Comfort women statues like this pair in a Shanghai park have been raised globally by South Korean civic groups. Photo: AFP / Johannes Eisele

There is some hope that Kishida will use the opportunity of a visit to South Korea later this year as a moment to step forward. Yoon has made efforts to sell reconciliation in Japan by meeting with two conservative Liberal Democratic Party stalwarts, Taro Aso and former prime minister Yoshihide Suga. But so far, Kishida seems unable or unwilling to reciprocate.

Lurking behind all this is the possibility that these legal issues may not be fully resolved by a unilaterally created fund. A few of the 15 litigants in the Nippon Steel case are refusing to accept payments from that fund.

And beyond them are other suits that have been filed against a larger set of Japanese companies, one of them being a class action style suit on behalf of potentially almost 1,000 surviving laborers and their descendants against more than 60 Japanese firms.

But while the resolution of these suits will require substantial funds, there is a readiness to accept a settlement, according to some of the lawyers representing the victims. Most of the 15 litigants in the Supreme Court case have privately agreed to the settlement.

“They want to embrace the settlement, especially with the enhancement of an apology,” says Robert Swift, the lead counsel for the larger class action suit and co-counsel for other suits now pending. “It’s actually very simple — the foundation will have the money, the foundation will pay the money, and the claimants will dismiss their litigation.”

President Yoon has offered his own full-throated defense of his policy, declaring that “the necessity of cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo is ever increasing” amid global issues such as escalating US-China tensions, supply chain disruptions and North Korean nuclear threats.

The door to rapprochement and normalization of South Korea–Japan relations has been opened — and there is a clear way to pave the road forward so that it can withstand coming storms. But the perils of reversal remain. For now, it is Kishida who bears the responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Daniel Sneider is a lecturer on international policy and East Asian studies at Stanford University and a non-resident distinguished fellow at the Korea Economic Institute. Follow him on Twitter at @DCSneider

This article was originally published by East Asia Forum and is republished with permission.

asiatimes.com · by Daniel Sneider · March 27, 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

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

If you do not read anything else in the 2017 National Security Strategy read this on page 14:

"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."

Access NSS HERE

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