Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners

Seoul to announce normalization of GSOMIA: Seoul to annoQuotes of the Day:

“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.’

- Walt Whitman

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”

- Voltaire

Characteristics of the American Way of War (3 of 13)

3. Ahistorical. As a future-oriented, still somewhat "new" country, one that has a founding ideology of faith in, hope for, and commitment to, human betterment, it is only to be expected that Americans should be less than highly respectful of what they might otherwise be inclined to allow history to teach them. A defense community led by the historically disrespectful and ill-educated, is all but condemned to find itself surprised by events for which some historical understanding could have prepared them. History cannot repeat itself, of course, but, as naval historian Geoffrey Till has aptly observed, "The chief utility of history for the analysis of present and future lies in its ability, not to point out lessons, but to isolate things that need thinking about.... History provides insights and questions, not answers."

As Sam Sarkesian, John Collins, and Max Boot, among others, have sought to remind us, the United States has a rich and extensive history of experience with irregular enemies. Moreover, that experience was by no means entirely negative. The trouble was and, until very recently, has remained, that such varied experience of irregular warfare was never embraced and adopted by the Army as the basis for the development of doctrine for a core competency. Rephrased, the Army improvised and waged irregular warfare, sometimes just regular war against irregulars, when it had to. But that task was always viewed officially as a regrettable diversion from preparation for "real war." Real war, of course, meant war against regular peers, the kind of war that Europeans waged against each other.

To be brutal, the U.S. Army has a fairly well-filled basket of negative experience with irregular enemies. If the institution is willing to learn, and to regard COIN as a necessary enduring competency to be achieved through an adaptable transformation, past errors all but demand to be recognized. As we have sought to insist throughout this monograph, COIN warfare is not a black art. Rather, its principles and priorities are well-known and noncontroversial. All that is necessary is for the soldier to be willing and able to learn from history, recent American history at that. Unfortunately, the first and truest love of the U.S. defense community is with technology, not with history. That great American strategic theorist, Bernard Brodie, explained for all time why history should not be neglected. He reminded those in need of reminding that "the only empirical data we have about how people conduct war and behave under its stresses is our experience with it in the past, however much we have to make adjustments for subsequent changes in conditions."66 An Army struggling to adapt to the unfamiliar and unwelcome challenges of irregular warfare cannot afford to be ahistorical, let alone antihistorical.

Colin Gray, 2006

1. 2023 ANNUAL THREAT ASSESSMENT OF THE U.S. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

2. N. Korea likely to conduct nuclear test amid continued missile testing: U.S. report

3. S. Korea, Poland in talks over Warsaw's infantry fighting vehicle acquisition plan: source

4. South Korea’s Bold Move to Mend Relations with Tokyo

5. Yoon to visit Japan next week for summit with Kishida

6. Minister says law banning spread of anti-N. Korea leaflets should be abolished

7. S. Korea, U.S. pledge to step up efforts to cut off illicit funds to N. Korean weapons program

8. South Korea Says U.S. Chips Act Subsidies Have Too Many Requirements

9. South Korea Approves Export of Weapons Components to Ukraine

10. N. Korea unveils stamp designs featuring last month's military parade

11. U.S. Firms to Pay into Fund for Korean Victims of Wartime Forced Labor

12. Many N. Koreans cynical about results of agriculture-focused plenary meeting

13. Most N. Korean prison camp escapees are quickly captured

14. For International Women’s Day, North Korean women urged to bear more children

15. N. Korea fires short-range ballistic missile toward Yellow Sea: S. Korean military

16. Pyongyang slams Foreign Minister Park for comments

17. [Editorial] Securing nuclear deterrence is top priority

18. Seoul to announce normalization of GSOMIA: Japanese media

1. 2023 ANNUAL THREAT ASSESSMENT OF THE U.S. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

The 40 page assessment is at this link: https://www.odni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ATA-2023-Unclassified-Report.pdf

The 2 page north Korea assessment is below.

I get that the assessment and is abbreviated unclassified summary for the public but I am a little disappointed in that while the assessment does summarize the major threats - e.g., regional and global objectives, military capabilities, WMD, and cyber it does not address the nature of the Kim family regime, its long term objectives, and strategy of the regime. It does not address information and influence operations (nK propaganda), it does not address the potential for regime instability and collapse. It does not address the regime's political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategy and how its pursuit of advanced military capabilities supports those two strategies.

Below the ODNI assessment is an outline of a talk I gave this week to summarize the north Korean threat.

2023 ANNUAL THREAT ASSESSMENT OF THE U.S. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

https://www.odni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/reports-publications-2023/item/2363-2023-annual-threat-assessment-of-the-u-s-intelligence-community

Date: March 8, 2023

This annual report of worldwide threats to the national security of the United States responds to Section 617 of the FY21 Intelligence Authorization Act (Pub. L. No. 116-260). This report reflects the collective insights of the Intelligence Community (IC), which is committed every day to providing the nuanced, independent, and unvarnished intelligence that policymakers, warfighters, and domestic law enforcement personnel need to protect American lives and America’s interests anywhere in the world.

Download the report.

Published in Reports and Publications 2023

NORTH KOREA

REGIONAL AND GLOBAL OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is continuing efforts to enhance North Korea’s nuclear and conventional capabilities targeting the United States and its allies, which will enable periodic aggressive actions to try to reshape the regional security environment in his favor. Kim probably is attempting to secure North Korea’s position in what he perceives to be an international environment conducive to his brutal authoritarian system, as demonstrated by North Korea’s repeated public support for Beijing and Moscow’s foreign policy priorities.

 Kim almost certainly views nuclear weapons and ICBMs as the ultimate guarantor of his autocratic rule and has no intention of abandoning those programs, believing that over time he will gain international acceptance as a nuclear power. In 2022, Kim reinforced that position by testing multiple ICBMs intended to improve North Korea’s ability to strike the United States and revising his country’s nuclear law, underscoring the nuclear forces as the backbone of North Korea’s national defense.

 North Korea is using its nuclear-capable missile program to try to establish strategic dominance over South Korea and U.S. forces in the region by pursuing missiles probably aimed at defeating missile defenses on the peninsula and the region and issuing threats to militarily respond to any perceived attacks against its sovereignty.

 Since September 2022, North Korea has timed its missile launches and military demonstrations to counter U.S.–South Korea exercises probably to attempt to coerce the United States and South Korea to change their behavior and counteract South Korean President Yoon’s hardline policies toward the North. Pyongyang probably wants the alliance to decrease the pace and scale of the exercises with the ultimate goal of undermining the strength of the alliance.

 North Korea increasingly will engage in illicit activities, including cyber theft and exporting UN proscribed commodities, to fund regime priorities such as the WMD program.

MILITARY CAPABILITIES

North Korea’s military will pose a serious threat to the United States and its allies by continuing to invest in niche capabilities designed to provide Kim with a range of options to deter outside intervention, offset enduring deficiencies in the country’s conventional forces, and advance his political objectives through coercion.

 North Korea’s COVID-19 restrictions and reliance on the Korean People’s Army (KPA) to enforce and execute some pandemic countermeasures probably have caused overall KPA combat readiness to decline in the near term, but key units probably will remain capable of executing their wartime missions.

Kim is continuing to prioritize efforts to build an increasingly capable missile force designed to evade U.S. and regional missile defenses. Kim probably will continue to order missile tests—from cruise missiles through ICBMs, and HGVs—to validate technical objectives, reinforce deterrence, and normalize Pyongyang’s missile testing. To support development of these new missile systems, North Korea continues to import a variety of dual-use goods in violation of UN sanctions, primarily from China and Russia.

WMD

Kim remains strongly committed to expanding the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal and maintaining nuclear weapons as a centerpiece of his national security structure. Public statements have reinforced North Korea’s intent to enhance its ability to threaten both South Korea and the U.S. homeland.

 North Korea probably is preparing to test a nuclear device to further its stated military modernization goals to facilitate “tactical nuclear operations.” In September 2022, North Korea codified a law reaffirming its self-proclaimed status as a nuclear power, establishing open-ended conditions for nuclear use, command and control, and rejecting denuclearization.

North Korea’s CBW capabilities remain a threat, and the IC is concerned that Pyongyang may use such weapons during a conflict or in an unconventional or clandestine attack.

CYBER

North Korea’s cyber program poses a sophisticated and agile espionage, cybercrime, and attack threat. Pyongyang’s cyber forces have matured and are fully capable of achieving a range of strategic objectives against diverse targets, including a wider target set in the United States

 Pyongyang probably possesses the expertise to cause temporary, limited disruptions of some critical infrastructure networks and disrupt business networks in the United States.

North Korea’s cyber program continues to adapt to global trends in cybercrime by conducting cryptocurrency heists, diversifying its range of financially motivated cyber operations, and continuing to leverage advanced social engineering techniques.

 In one heist in 2022, Pyongyang stole a record $625 million from a Singapore-based blockchain technology firm.

Beyond Pyongyang’s cybercrime efforts, cyber actors linked to North Korea have conducted espionage efforts against a range of organizations, including media, academia, defense companies, and governments in multiple countries. North Korea continues to conduct cyber espionage to obtain technical information almost certainly intended to advance Pyongyang’s military and WMD programs.

My assessment

1. Common assumptions about the threat. – nature, objectives, strategy of the KFR

ROK White Paper – names nK threat
Political Warfare, Blackmail Diplomacy, Pursuit of Advanced Warfighting Capabilities.
Survival of the regime – through domination of the peninsula
Understanding the threat forms the basis of policy and strategy

Note: The way to counter provocations is to ensure that Kim does not achieve the effects he desires by conducting the provocation.

2. Need for an external threat to justify sacrifice and suffering of the Korean people in the north

3. WMD

Deterrence – threat to US

First use – achieve quick victory
Warfighting
Support to blackmail diplomacy
Support to political warfare - subvert ROK and alliance – e..g, missiles tests to drive ROK to go nuclear – alliance friction
Note positive aspect of nuclear discussions – ROK committed to doing what is necessary for its own defense

4. Conventional Threats

Quantity as a quality all its own.
Obsolete military equipment – but always surprised when they show us well maintained equipment
WTC but reports of scaled back training due to food shortage
No open source reporting of any signs of mobilization or preparations for attacks

5. nk information operations - supports PW/BD - and domestic propaganda to control population - Active subversion of the South and of the alliance

6. Potential Instability

COVID paradox – draconian population and resources control measures.

Indicators of breakdown of military chains of control
Corruption
No safety valve/relief mechanism – (no Sunshine Policy and loss of market activity due to regime crackdown.

7. Asymmetric capabilities- (provocations, proliferation, nuclear program, missile, cyber, and SOF) subversion of ROK, and global illicit activities.

8. Peninsula Nexus – 2,3 economic, nuclear powers, huge military presence, what happens on the peninsula will have global effects - support to China and Russia and vice versa

9. The “Big 5” for the Korean Peninsula

1. War - must deter, and if attacked defend, fight, and defeat the nKPA.

2. Regime Collapse - must prepare for the real possibility and understand it could lead to war and both war and regime collapse could result in resistance within the north.

3. Human Rights and Crimes Against Humanity - (gulags, external forced labor, etc) must focus on as it is a threat to the Kim Family Regime and undermines domestic legitimacy - it is a moral imperative and a national security issue. KJU denies human rights to remain in power.

4. Asymmetric threats (provocations, proliferation, nuclear program, missile, cyber, and SOF) subversion of ROK, and global illicit activities.

5. Unification - the biggest challenge and the solution.

We should never forget that north Korea is master of denial and deception in all that it does from military operations to strategy to diplomatic negotiations.

10. Big 8 Contingencies

1. Provocations to gain political and economic concessions

2. nk Attack – execution of the nK campaign plan to reunify the peninsula by force

3. Civil War/Chaos/Anarchy

4. Refugee crisis

5. Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster relief

6. WMD, loss of control – seize and secure operations

7. Resistance to foreign intervention (e.g., insurgency)

8. How to handle the nKPA during regime collapse short of war

2. N. Korea likely to conduct nuclear test amid continued missile testing: U.S. report

N. Korea likely to conduct nuclear test amid continued missile testing: U.S. report | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · March 9, 2023

By Byun Duk-kun

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is expected to conduct a nuclear test as it continues to develop its missile capabilities in an attempt to drive a wedge between the United States and South Korea, a U.S. intelligence report said Wednesday.

The 2023 Annual Threat Assessment also noted that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may have no intention to give up his nuclear weapons.

"Kim almost certainly views nuclear weapons and ICBMs as the ultimate guarantor of his autocratic rule and has no intention of abandoning those programs, believing that over time he will gain international acceptance as a nuclear power," said the report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

"North Korea is using its nuclear-capable missile program to try to establish strategic dominance over South Korea and U.S. forces in the region by pursuing missiles probably aimed at defeating missile defenses on the peninsula and the region and issuing threats to militarily respond to any perceived attacks against its sovereignty," the report added.

Avril Haines, director of national intelligence (L), is seen speaking during a Senate intelligence committee hearing in Washington on March 8, 2023 on the release of the 2023 Annual Threat Assessment report in this captured image. (Yonhap)

North Korea staged nine intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in less than 12 months, with the last test taking place in February.

The country also fired an unprecedented 69 ballistic missiles in 2022 alone, marking a new annual record of ballistic missiles launched in a single year. Its previous record was 25.

The report noted that since September 2022, the North has timed its missile launches and military demonstrations to counter joint military exercises of the U.S. and South Korea "probably to attempt to coerce the United States and South Korea to change their behavior."

"Pyongyang probably wants the alliance to decrease the pace and scale of the exercises with the ultimate goal of undermining the strength of the alliance," it said. "Kim probably will continue to order missile tests ... to validate technical objectives, reinforce deterrence, and normalize Pyongyang's missile testing."

The report also highlights the possibility of a nuclear test, saying the North Korean leader remains "strongly committed to expanding the country's nuclear weapons arsenal and maintaining nuclear weapons as a centerpiece of his national security structure."

"North Korea probably is preparing to test a nuclear device to further its stated military modernization goals to facilitate "tactical nuclear operations"," it said.

Seoul and Washington earlier said the North may conduct a nuclear test at any time, noting the country appears to have completed all preparations for a nuclear test.

North Korea conducted its sixth and last nuclear test in September 2017.

The annual intelligence report also warned that the North will continue to engage in illicit cyber activities to fund its illegal nuclear and missile development programs.

"North Korea's cyber program continues to adapt to global trends in cybercrime by conducting cryptocurrency heists, diversifying its range of financially motivated cyber operations, and continuing to leverage advanced social engineering techniques," it said.

The White House National Security Council earlier said the North secures up to 30 percent of the fund for its weapons programs through cryptocurrency heists and other illicit activities such as money laundering.

Youtube

https://youtu.be/OS9IfKUq0rw

bdk@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · March 9, 2023

3. S. Korea, Poland in talks over Warsaw's infantry fighting vehicle acquisition plan: source

Teh South Korean defense industry is really stepping up.

S. Korea, Poland in talks over Warsaw's infantry fighting vehicle acquisition plan: source | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · March 9, 2023

SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and Poland are in "early-stage" consultations on possible bilateral cooperation over Warsaw's major infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) acquisition project, an informed source said Thursday.

The two sides have been discussing technological cooperation and other possibilities related to the Polish project to secure 1,400 "Borsuk" IFVs, but no decision has been made yet, according to the source. Borsuk means badger in Polish.

Warsaw has been pushing to secure the Borsuk IFVs to replace Soviet-era BMP-1 combat vehicles under the project seen as one of the largest Polish armament programs. The deliveries of the first new IFVs are planned for 2024-2025, according to reports.

Bilateral technological cooperation on the IFV procurement could enhance military interoperability between the two countries given that Poland is likely to operate Borsuk IFVs, alongside South Korean-made K2 battle tanks, observers said.

Last year, South Korean companies signed contracts with Poland to supply K2 tanks, K-9 self-propelled howitzers, FA-50 light attack aircraft and Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers.

Meanwhile, Poland has reportedly requested that a South Korean defense company build a factory in the European nation to produce ammunition to be used in the operation of K-2 tanks and K-9 howitzers.

This file photo, released Sept. 30, 2022, by the Army shows K-9 self-propelled howitzers engaging in live-fire drills at a training site in Paju, 28 kilometers northwest of Seoul. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

sshluck@yna.co.kr

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en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · March 9, 2023

4. South Korea’s Bold Move to Mend Relations with Tokyo

Will Japan reciprocate?

South Korea’s Bold Move to Mend Relations with Tokyo

19fortyfive.com · by Bruce Klingner · March 8, 2023

On March 6, Seoul announced a new plan for resolving the lingering dispute with Japan over compensation for South Koreans forced to labor for Japanese companies during the 1910-45 occupation. If successful, it would facilitate bilateral reconciliation and remove a major impediment to U.S. efforts to enhance trilateral security cooperation against common North Korean and Chinese security threats.

The plan drops Seoul’s previous demands for direct payments from Japanese companies or the government. Instead, Foreign Minister Pak Jin announced that payments to the victims would come from South Korean corporate contributions to a government foundation. The proposal triggered harsh rebukes from the victims and the opposition party, which had demanded direct Japanese recompense and apology.

By itself, Seoul’s one-sided action seems an unsatisfactory resolution to a 2018 South Korean court ruling requiring two Japanese companies to provide compensation. However, the announcement is likely the first step of a comprehensive plan choreographed with Japan that will gradually become public. Japanese firms may decide to voluntarily contribute to the fund and Tokyo may remove economic trade restrictions it imposed on South Korea in retaliation for the court ruling.

Historic issues impede security cooperation

Japanese–South Korean relations suffer from centuries of built-up animosity arising from sensitive historical issues and sovereignty disputes. Cyclical spikes in tensions are triggered by incidents that unleash nationalist furor in both countries.

In 2018, mutual trust deteriorated when President Moon Jae-in unilaterally rescinded a 2015 bilateral agreement on “comfort women” – a euphemism for South Korean women forced to serve in Japanese military brothels – that had been negotiated by the previous South Korean administration. Under that accord, Tokyo had provided an apology and agreed to pay $8 million to Korean women in return for Seoul declaring the matter “finally and irreversibly” resolved.

That same year, the South Korean Supreme Court ordered Japanese companies Nippon Steel Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay 100 million Korean won ($77,000) to each of 15 South Korean plaintiffs conscripted into labor. Japanese companies resisted complying, in part due to concerns of the legal precedent for numerous additional cases. The South Korean court responded by authorizing seizure of the Japanese firms’ assets.

In 2019, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that there were at least a dozen additional pending cases that could impact more than 70 companies. South Korea estimates that about 7.8 million Koreans were forced by Japan to serve as soldiers, military officials and workers during World War II.

Tokyo declared that the court ruling violated the 1965 treaty that restored Japanese–South Korean diplomatic relations. As part of that treaty, Tokyo provided $800 million in aid and loans to resolve all outstanding issues of compensation from the Japanese occupation. In 2019, Japan retaliated to the ruling by imposing export restrictions to South Korea of chemicals critical for producing semiconductors and smartphones. Tokyo also removed South Korea from its “white list” of countries deemed not to pose a security risk and which receive preferential treatment for export-control procedures.

Waiting on reciprocal Japanese actions

In response to the Foreign Minister Park’s statement, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida affirmed that he had “inherited” and accepted apologies made by previous Japanese administrations. The most notable was the 1998 South Korean-Japanese joint declaration in which Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi acknowledged that Japan’s colonial rule of Korea had caused “tremendous damage and suffering to the people [and] expressed his deep remorse and heartfelt apology.”

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi welcomed the new proposal from the Yoon administration “as a way to restore a healthy relationship between Japan and South Korea.” He added that Seoul’s announcement did not include any Japanese companies making voluntary contributions, but that Tokyo “does not take a particular position” on the issue, seemingly opening the way for Japanese firms to do so.

The Kishida administration appears to be preparing to remove its 2019 export restrictions on South Korea. Seoul announced it would suspend, though not yet withdraw, its complaint filed with the World Trade Organization against Japan. In turn, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced it will initiate bilateral talks to ease its tightened export controls to South Korea. There are now indications that President Yoon may travel to Tokyo this month to meet with Kishida.

Yoon overcame Japanese wariness

Since his inauguration last year, Yoon has advocated a “forward-looking partnership” with Japan to overcome historical and sovereignty disputes and enhance regional cooperation against shared threats and challenges. Most recently, Yoon extended an olive branch during his speech commemorating the 104th anniversary of the March 1st Independence Movement. Yoon boldly described Japan as having “transformed from a militaristic aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values” as South Korea.

In the past, South Korean presidents had often used the event to highlight the brutality of the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula. Yoon paid homage to the South Korean patriots of the past but, rather than playing to nationalist themes, he commendably emphasized the necessity of working with Japan to overcome current threats.

Cautious optimism is warranted

Yoon’s attempts at reconciliation require that Japan carry through on the expected removal of export controls, as well as Japanese company contributions to the fund for victim compensation. Even if the Kishida administration does so, Yoon will still face strong domestic backlash from those arguing against reconciling with Korea’s colonial oppressor without more explicit Japanese acknowledgment of guilt.

That said, the forecast is much improved from a year ago. The change in administration in both Seoul and Tokyo resulted in leaders more aware of the necessity of cooperation to respond to a deteriorating security environment. In December, both countries issued new national security documents articulating threats to the rule of law from China and North Korea. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscored the potential dangers of similar Chinese action against Taiwan.

President Joe Biden hailed Seoul’s initiative as “a groundbreaking new chapter of cooperation and partnership between two of the United States’ closest allies.” Last year, South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. resumed trilateral military exercises after a five-year hiatus. The three countries engaged in anti-submarine and ballistic missile exercises and also agreed to initiate real-time exchanges of information on North Korean missile threats.

Yoon’s initiative is another positive step forward in South Korea assuming a more influential and pivotal role commensurate with its diplomatic, security, and economic strengths. The U.S. should build on the momentum by urging even greater cooperation amongst its allies, including trilateral meetings of defense and foreign ministers and coordinated contingency planning against regional threats.

Author Expertise and Experience

Bruce Klingner specializes in Korean and Japanese affairs as the senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. He is also a 19FortyFive Contributing Editor.

19fortyfive.com · by Bruce Klingner · March 8, 2023

5. Yoon to visit Japan next week for summit with Kishida

Good news. Hopefully the ROK and Japan will maintain momentum and continue forward progress but there will likely be tough battles with their domestic constituencies across the political spectrum. I have heard that the forced labor issue is a main issue in Korea and it consumes most of the media bandwidth (as well as the coffee shop talk).

(LEAD) Yoon to visit Japan next week for summit with Kishida | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · March 9, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES with details, background)

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol will visit Tokyo next week for a summit with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, his office said Thursday, the first bilateral presidential trip to Japan in 12 years made possible after Seoul announced a solution to a dispute over wartime forced labor.

The March 16-17 trip will be the first such visit since former President Lee Myung-bak traveled to the neighboring country in 2011. Former President Moon Jae-in visited Osaka in 2019, but that trip was for a summit of the Group of 20 nations, not a bilateral visit.

In this file photo, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pose for a photo prior to their talks in New York on Sept. 21, 2022, as they meet on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. (Yonhap)

"The visit will become an important milestone for the improvement and development of South Korea-Japan relations," the presidential office said in a statement.

"Through President Yoon's visit to Japan, we hope cooperation across various areas, including security, economy, society and culture, will be expanded in order for South Korea and Japan to overcome the unfortunate history of the past and move toward the future, and that exchanges between the two countries' peoples will be further vitalized," it added.

Other details of Yoon's itinerary in Japan are still under discussion, it said.

The trip will come less than two weeks after Seoul announced its decision to compensate Korean forced labor victims through a public foundation supported by donations from South Korean businesses, not the Japanese firms accused of mobilizing the workers during World War II.

Relations between the two countries frayed badly after South Korea's Supreme Court ordered the two Japanese firms in 2018 -- Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries -- to compensate the victims despite Tokyo's insistence that all reparations were settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral ties.

South Korea was under Japan's colonial rule from 1910-45.

South Korea's decision to compensate the victims without Japanese involvement was seen as a show of Yoon's strong commitment to improving relations with Japan in the face of various security and economic challenges, including the threat of North Korea's nuclear program.

First lady Kim Keon Hee will accompany Yoon on the trip and hold friendly events with Kishida's wife, Yuko, the presidential office said.

hague@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · March 9, 2023

6. Minister says law banning spread of anti-N. Korea leaflets should be abolished

Excellent. A. good sign. This means the MOU and the ROK are ready to step with a sophisticated information and influence campaign.

Minister says law banning spread of anti-N. Korea leaflets should be abolished | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · March 9, 2023

SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification minister on Thursday criticized the law banning the sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea as an "absolutely bad act," citing its clause on the punishment of violators, according to a news report.

"The clause of the law that legally blocks the things that could help North Korean people's right to know has a problem," Kwon Young-se said in an interview with the Voice of America.

The so-called anti-Pyongyang leaflet law, pushed by the former liberal government, went into effect in March 2021, with violators subject to face a prison term of up to three years or a fine of 30 million won (US$22,729).

In an opinion submitted to the Constitutional Court in November last year, Kwon said the law is unconstitutional and restricts the freedom of expression and political activities.

"The clause (related to punishment) should be removed as soon as possible. ... Eventually, the law should be revised," Kwon said.

An official at Seoul's unification ministry said the minister intended to say that it is not desirable to restrict the leaflet campaign with the law.

Unification Minister Kwon Young-se speaks at a ceremony to mark the 54th founding anniversary of the ministry on March 2, 2023. (Yonhap)

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · March 9, 2023

7. S. Korea, U.S. pledge to step up efforts to cut off illicit funds to N. Korean weapons program

We have to go after Department 39 around the world and all its illicit activities. As JSOC used to say it takes a network to defeat a network. We need a network of friends, partners, and allies, to go after the regime's illicit activities.

S. Korea, U.S. pledge to step up efforts to cut off illicit funds to N. Korean weapons program | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · March 9, 2023

By Byun Duk-kun

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States have agreed to intensify their joint efforts to cut off illicit funds being funneled to North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs, the South Korean foreign ministry said Wednesday.

The agreement came in the third U.S.-South Korea working group meeting on North Korean cyber threats held here in Washington on Tuesday.

"South Korea and the U.S. discussed concrete ways to block North Korea's illicit cyber activities such as cryptocurrency heist and overseas deployment of North Korean information technology (IT) workers that have become a major source of hard currency for the North Korean regime," the foreign ministry said of the meeting in a press release.

"The two sides reviewed various ways such as expanding private-public sector cooperation, imposing additional sanctions and strengthening joint investigation of the countries to actively counter North Korea's evolving cryptocurrency theft methods," it added.

The countries also noted that they have already made a considerable level of progress in dealing with multiple cryptocurrency heist cases by freezing and seizing assets stolen by North Korean actors, according to the foreign ministry.

The South Korean delegation to the working group meeting was led by Lee Joon-il, director-general for North Korean nuclear affairs. The U.S. side was headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jung Pak, who concurrently serves as deputy special envoy for North Korea.

Youtube

https://youtu.be/XKDzYcbkLuw

bdk@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · March 9, 2023

8. South Korea Says U.S. Chips Act Subsidies Have Too Many Requirements

South Korea Says U.S. Chips Act Subsidies Have Too Many Requirements

Trade ministry says ‘unusual conditions’ will make investment in U.S. difficult

https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-korea-says-u-s-chips-act-subsidies-have-too-many-requirements-825b3fe9?page=1

By Jiyoung SohnFollow

Updated March 7, 2023 9:54 pm ET

SEOUL—The U.S. Chips Act is dangling billions of dollars in subsidies in front of the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturers, but South Korea says there are too many strings attached.

The conditions for receiving the subsidies unveiled last week are putting two of South Korea’s biggest chip makers—Samsung Electronics Co. SSNHZ 0.00%increase; green up pointing triangle and SK Hynix Inc.—in 000660 -1.27%decrease; red down pointing triangle a difficult position as they decide whether to apply for the federal funding, government officials and industry analysts said.

South Korea’s minister of trade, industry and energy described the requirements under the $53 billion chip subsidy program as vast and unconventional. Asking firms to submit information about their management and technology could expose them to business risks, the official, Lee Chang-yang, said Monday. The demand that companies offer child care for employees, together with rising interest rates and inflation, would drive up the already high cost of investing in the U.S., he said.

“There are many unusual conditions that are completely different from the subsidies we generally provide for foreign investment,” said Mr. Lee. He said South Korean officials were discussing those terms with their U.S. counterparts.

.Samsung and SK Hynix would also face new restrictions on expanding their chip production facilities based in China if they were to apply for the U.S. chip subsidies.

South Korea’s trade minister, Ahn Duk-geun, will be in Washington, D.C., this week to meet with high-level U.S. government officials, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Tuesday. The ministry said it would make the same points in Washington that Mr. Lee outlined in his remarks and stress that if the U.S. wants to stabilize and advance its semiconductor supply chain, it will need the cooperation of South Korean companies.

The U.S. has said many of the requirements in the program are intended to safeguard taxpayer investments and give awards based on rigorous financial analysis and due diligence. “We are not writing blank checks to any company that asks,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said last week.

Samsung, which runs this chip facility in Hwaseong, South Korea, is building a $17 billion contract chip-making factory in Texas.

PHOTO: YONHAP/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

The U.S. is seeking to attract more chip production facilities, with the goal of creating at least two manufacturing clusters for cutting-edge semiconductors by 2030, according to the Commerce Department.

In addition to Samsung and SK Hynix, top candidates for the subsidy program include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chip maker, and Intel Corp. Samsung and SK Hynix said they are reviewing the terms and declined to comment further. TSMC declined to comment. Intel has said the Chips Act would make American companies more competitive and restore global balance in the chip making industry.

Samsung and SK Hynix are the world’s two largest memory chip makers. Samsung is building a $17 billion contract chip-making factory for producing cutting-edge semiconductors in Taylor, Texas. SK Group, the owner of SK Hynix, pledged last year to invest $15 billion in semiconductor research and development and facilities for advanced packaging in the U.S.

The Chips Act includes a host of financial provisions. Companies that accept the subsidies are required to share with the U.S. government a portion of their profits that exceed initial projections by an agreed-upon threshold, while refraining from using federal funds for stock buybacks and dividends.

“This so-called profit-sharing clause is essentially taking away what they gave” through the subsidies, said Kim Yang-paeng, a senior researcher covering semiconductors at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, a state-run think tank.

Companies are concerned about requirements to turn over information about profit projections and factory production because they are considered carefully guarded trade secrets, said Mr. Kim. “Even though all subsidies inevitably come with preconditions, what the U.S. is asking for here may be too much and beyond what’s necessary,” he said.

The Commerce Department said it expected the profit-sharing clause to be imposed only in cases in which the project significantly exceeds its projected returns and that the amount collected won’t exceed 75% of the subsidy the company received. It also said the U.S. recognizes the importance of protecting confidential business information and will follow applicable laws to protect it.

The Chips Act requires firms to create plans around workforce development. Some policy analysts have criticized a requirement for firms that receive over $150 million or more in subsidies to provide affordable child care for facility and construction workers, saying the rule will add to the costs. Others, however, say the added expense would be offset by the subsidies, combined with other tax credits the U.S. offers for building chip plants.

The Commerce Department has stressed that child care provisions are necessary to ensure qualified workers are able to participate in the program. Ms. Raimondo has pointed to a lack of child care as the single-most significant factor keeping people, particularly women, out of the workforce.

The subsidies are partly aimed at offsetting the higher cost of manufacturing in the U.S. TSMC executives have expressed concerns about the financial downsides and challenges of re-creating their supply chain—which they have built in Taiwan over decades—in the U.S. TSMC founder Morris Chang has said the costs of making chips in Arizona, where the company is building a cutting-edge chip factory, may be at least 50% higher than in Taiwan.

Chip maker TSMC, which runs this facility in Nanjing, China, has a one-year exemption from U.S. curbs on China’s chip industry.

PHOTO: STR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

South Korea’s pushback against the terms of the chip subsidies highlights the challenges the U.S. faces in furthering its domestic interests while trying to convince allies to join in its efforts to counter China.

Firms that receive the chip subsidies are barred from engaging in joint research and technology licensing efforts or expanding semiconductor manufacturing capacity in “countries of concern” for 10 years. Mr. Lee didn’t mention the restriction that people in the chip industry refer to as the “China guardrail” in his Monday remarks, but it would mean Samsung and SK Hynix, which have invested in building up a production base in China, wouldn’t be able to expand their capacity there.

Samsung operates a NAND flash memory-chip plant in the central Chinese city of Xi’an and a chip-packaging facility in the eastern city of Suzhou. SK Hynix operates DRAM memory-chip production facilities in the city of Wuxi, and owns Intel Corp.’s NAND flash memory-chip factories in Dalian through a deal struck in 2020. TSMC operates chip-making facilities in the Chinese cities of Nanjing and Shanghai.

The companies are already facing dilemmas over how to manage their operations in China after the U.S. last year restricted exports to China of advanced chips and the equipment used to produce them. The U.S. granted TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix one-year exemptions from those rules.

Washington hasn’t definitively said what would happen at the end of that period, but Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez said last month that the U.S. is likely to put a cap on the firms’ chip production in China beyond a specified technology level.

Biden: America Can Never Lose Edge in Semiconductor Manufacturing Again

South Korea Approves Export of Weapons Components to Ukraine

Seoul says its policy against providing lethal aid to Kyiv hasn’t changed

https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-korea-approves-export-of-weapons-components-to-ukraine-dfe68d6?page=1

By Dasl YoonFollow

Updated March 8, 2023 9:47 am ET

SEOUL—South Korea said it had approved the export of its weapons components to Ukraine last year, as the country faces pressure to provide military aid directly to Kyiv.

South Korea has supplied Ukraine with $100 million in humanitarian aid since the war began in February 2022, but it has said it wouldn’t provide lethal aid to Kyiv. The South Korean Defense Ministry said Wednesday that policy hadn’t changed, adding that it had approved the export of its components that were part of Krab howitzers made in Poland.

South Korea, one of the world’s fastest-growing arms exporters, signed its largest military-export deal last year to supply tanks and jet fighters to Poland. Warsaw also bought artillery, ammunition and weapons components such as chassis. The chassis were part of the Krab howitzers, which also included components from Germany and the U.K., the Defense Ministry said.

South Korea’s export approval was earlier reported by Reuters.

South Korea sold artillery shells to the U.S. last year that were destined for Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported in November. The South Korean government said negotiations happened under the premise that the U.S. would be the final user.

Poland has also purchased weapons from South Korea to replace many of the weapons it has sent to Kyiv. The Pentagon said earlier this month that the U.S. was discussing buying more ammunition from South Korea.

Seoul has come under pressure to directly supply weapons to Ukraine because it makes weapons that are compatible with those used by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries and can often produce them faster than other European suppliers, weapons-industry analysts say.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in January asked South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to consider amending Seoul’s policy on military aid for Kyiv.

PHOTO: SOUTH KOREA PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE/YONHAP/ASSOCIATED PRESS

In January, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged South Korea to consider changing its policy to provide military support to Ukraine, saying the country was in urgent need of ammunition in its fight against Russia.

Last week, the Ukrainian ambassador in Seoul called on the South Korean government to provide lethal weapons to Kyiv, during a speech at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a state-funded think tank in Seoul.

Seoul plans to send an additional $130 million in financial aid and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry said in February. But the South Korean government has maintained it won’t provide lethal weapons, citing a law that prevents it from arming countries engaged in conflicts.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last week that supplying military assistance was South Korea’s decision and that the country had already been very helpful.

Ukraine, Russia Set to Launch Spring Offensives: What to Expect

N. Korea unveils stamp designs featuring last month's military parade | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · March 9, 2023

SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday unveiled the designs of new stamps to commemorate its military parade held last month, including one featuring a white horse apparently belonging to leader Kim Jong-un's daughter Ju-ae.

The stamp designs uploaded on the website of the North's Stamp Corp. show photos of the North displaying long-range ballistic missiles and its troops marching across Kim Il Sung Plaza during the military parade on Feb. 8. The stamps will be issued March 20.

Of the eight stamps, one design displays a white horse, which state media said is favored the most by the leader's "beloved" child Ju-ae. The white horse is symbolic of the "Paektu bloodline" of Kim's royal family.

The North appears to be using Kim Ju-ae, believed to be some 10 years old, in a propaganda campaign for the regime with the recent publication of stamps and a photo album featuring her.

Observers said it is too early to judge if she has been anointed as Kim Jong-un's successor, adding that the country seems to be displaying her legitimacy as a descendant of the "Paektu bloodline" of the Kim dynasty.

This image, captured from the website of North Korea's Stamp Corp. on March 9, 2023, shows a set of stamp designs featuring its military parade held last month to mark the 75th founding anniversary of the North's army. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · March 9, 2023

11. U.S. Firms to Pay into Fund for Korean Victims of Wartime Forced Labor

I did not see this one coming.

Excerpt:

This will pose some pressure on Japanese firms under the Korean government's plan to seek business donations to compensate the victims.

U.S. Firms to Pay into Fund for Korean Victims of Wartime Forced Labor

english.chosun.com

March 09, 2023 13:37

The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea has pledged donations to a government fund that will be set up to compensate Korean victims of wartime forced labor under Japanese rule.

This will pose some pressure on Japanese firms under the Korean government's plan to seek business donations to compensate the victims.

AMCHAM chairman James Kim said in a meeting with Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho Wednesday, "I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the historic agreement announced by the Korean and Japanese governments concerning the conclusion of discussions on sensitive historical issues."

He thanked the Korean government for helping to develop the trilateral partnership between Korea, Japan and the U.S., which is "critical to the peace and prosperity of the region." Kim promised that AMCHAM will encourage member companies to back the initiative and make donations to the fund to support the "epoch-making" agreement.

Established in 1953, AMCHAM consists of about 800 American businesses and some 1,500 American businesspeople based here.

Kim told the Chosun Ilbo he agrees 100 percent with the Seoul-Tokyo agreement and would like to help. "The improvement of Seoul-Tokyo ties is also important to the U.S.," he added.

AMCHAM has already started talking with member companies so that they can make donations voluntarily.

"We welcome it," an official with the fund under the Ministry of Interior and Safety said. "We also expect Japanese firms that hope for better ties between Seoul and Tokyo to join."

The fund is to pay about W4 billion to 15 victims who won a historic case in the Supreme Court in 2018 ordering Japanese companies to pay reparations. It will seek voluntary donations from 16 big companies like POSCO that benefited from lump-sum reparations paid by Japan under the 1965 normalization treaty (US$1=W1,321).

Separately, the Federation of Korean Industries and the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), the top business associations of the two countries, will set up a scholarship fund timed with President Yoon Suk-yeol's visit to Japan next week. The fund will be used to promote exchange of young people between the two countries.

Keidanren is expected to tell its 1,400 member companies soon how to donate to the fund.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel, the two Japanese companies that were ordered to pay reparations to the Korean victims, will probably not make any immediate contribution to save face.

"Formally, Japan maintains that it can't accept the Korean Supreme Court's decision because it violates international law, but it seems ready to tolerate voluntary donations from Japanese companies," said a government source here.

Japan Hails Korean Plan to Compensate Forced Labor Victims

Korea Proposes Solution to Compensating Forced Laborers

Yoon Calls Japan 'Partner' in Independence Movement Day Speech

S.Korea, Japan Foreign Ministers Hold 1st Meeting in 5 Years

Mitsubishi Built Memorial for Chinese Forced Labor Victims

New Taskforce to Tackle Compensation for Wartime Forced Labor

english.chosun.com

12. Many N. Koreans cynical about results of agriculture-focused plenary meeting

The subtitle provides a useful theme for messages to north Korea.

Many N. Koreans cynical about results of agriculture-focused plenary meeting

“People are enraged because the government spends all its energy on flashy events without bothering to find a fundamental solution to the food issue," a reporting partner told Daily NK

By Lee Chae Un - 2023.03.08 5:00pm

dailynk.com

Kim Jong Un at the plenary session, which was held from Feb. 26 to Mar. 1, 2023. (Rodong Sinmun-News1)

The policies adopted at a recent plenary session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea have earned a cynical response from many people inside the country, Daily NK has learned.

“People haven’t been able to conceal their disappointment over the outcome of the meeting. In four days of discussion, officials didn’t manage to arrive at any meaningful measures,” a reporting partner in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

North Korean media reported on the results of the expanded plenary session, which was held from Feb. 26 to Mar. 1, and the authorities organized lectures to call on the public to carry out the initiatives adopted by the Central Committee. But according to Daily NK’s reporting partner, many North Koreans have responded cooly to government appeals to increase crop yield per field and to utilize more new machinery on farms, regarding those initiatives as unrealistic.

“One of the reasons that farm output has been falling over the past few years is because imports of fertilizer have been halted by the closure of the national border. Since the government is asking farmers to boost yields without even resolving the fertilizer issue, it’s no wonder that people aren’t enthusiastic about the government’s agenda,” the reporting partner told Daily NK.

“Watching this expanded plenary session, I got the impression that officials think that North Koreans are in poverty because they’re bad at farming. What I want to know is whether people have ever been allowed to eat their fill of corn after a good crop,” a resident of Hamhung was quoted as saying by the reporting partner.

“It seems pointless to ask people who are barely getting by amid the food shortage to produce more crops per field. In the end, the authorities are using farm preparations as an excuse to spread propaganda while ignoring the people’s complaints about the food shortage,” another Hamhung resident told the reporting partner.

“Sending us more farm machinery would be nice, but that should come after they’ve addressed the livelihood of the people supposed to run that machinery. People on the verge of starvation aren’t likely to do a great job,” yet another resident of Hamhung retorted.

“People are getting anxious about their livelihood because there’s been a sharp increase in families running low on food, with some even starving to death, although we haven’t even gotten to the ‘barley hump’ yet,” the reporting partner said, referring to the lean time of year before the spring harvest.

“People are enraged because the government spends all its energy on flashy events without bothering to find a fundamental solution to the food issue.”

Translated by David Carruth. 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

13. Most N. Korean prison camp escapees are quickly captured

Although small in number at least there are some trying to escape. Most likely they have to do it before they become severely malnourished and no longer have the energy to try to escape and evade.

Most N. Korean prison camp escapees are quickly captured

A total of 17 inmates broke out of Kaechon Reeducation Camp last year, but all were caught and tried within a week, a reporting partner told Daily NK

By Mun Dong Hui - 2023.03.09 10:00am

dailynk.com

Image: pixabay

A reporting partner inside North Korea with deep knowledge of the country’s prison system recently told Daily NK that prison escapes do occur, but runaways are quickly caught by the authorities.

In January, a prisoner at Hamhung Reeducation Camp “who was doing time for using a Chinese mobile phone and human trafficking escaped and was caught less than 48 hours later,” the reporting partner said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He added that a total of 17 inmates broke out of Kaechon Reeducation Camp last year, but all were caught and tried within a week.

“Prisoners continue to escape from prison camps, but most are arrested shortly after,” he said.

The reporting partner said that when escapees return to the camps, they are treated even worse and receive increased levels of punishment.

He said fugitives who are caught lose any shortened sentences or pardons they received prior to fleeing.

“They also get 30 days to three months of solitary confinement and receive half the regular amount of food,” he said. “Fugitives cannot bathe, change clothes or exercise.”

“In regards to everything they do outside the camps while on the lam, the authorities go through a process of handing down punishments for additional crimes committed based on reports from local police.”

The reporting partner said for crimes committed after they escape, prisoners see neither a prosecutor nor a court, but are instead investigated, tried and punished by the prison camp authorities.

He said the camps have the authority to decide punishments for escaped prisoners because inmates have been stripped of their citizenship rights.

The reporting partner further noted that while escapees are sometimes shot or given life sentences, “[the authorities] definitely don’t kill everyone who escapes, and escapees are often moved to the toughest part of the camp and given two or three times the amount of disciplinary tasks than normal.”

The cirumstances in Sariwon prison camp, run as a showcase for the international community, differ from other camps, and there are reportedly few escapes.

The camp, which is opened to the international community when it asks to see a North Korean prison to investigate human rights concerns, hosts a select population, most of whom may receive visitors.

The reporting partner said Sariwon Prison is home to the children of cadres who broke the law, and people who turned themselves in just prior to being sent to political prison camps.

“There is less than 400 inmates there, and about 80% of the prisoners can receive visitors,” he said.

Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.

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

Read in Korean

dailynk.com

14. For International Women’s Day, North Korean women urged to bear more children

How about honoring and cherishing the Korean women in the north? Is that all Kim Jong Un can do - urge them to bear more children? So they can send more children into the Army?

For International Women’s Day, North Korean women urged to bear more children

Women who sent 7 or 8 children to serve in the military are lionized.

By Chang Gyu Ahn for RFA Korean

2023.03.08

rfa.org

In honor of International Women’s Day, North Korean women have been urged to bear more children who will grow up to serve in the nearly 1-million strong Korean People’s Army – praised as an act of the “greatest patriotism,” sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.

The message has come in a series of ideological lectures for housewives, a resident in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong said on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“Last week, a lecture was held on active support for the People's Army, saying that having many children and sending them to the People's Army is the greatest patriotism,” the source said.

A second source, based in the northern province of Ryanggang, said the lectures held up legendarily fertile women as the greatest example of patriots.

“They introduced some patriots who sent seven or eight of their kids to the military as an example,” the Ryanggang resident said. “The lecturer emphasized the need to have a patriotic spirit that puts the needs of the country ahead of the family, like these women have.”

But the lectures may really have been aimed at collecting donations from housewives to support the military, the Ryanggang source said.

“In our current difficult living situation, how many citizens can provide material support?”

Manpower – and womanpower

The North Korean military makes up for its lack of advanced technology through sheer numbers.

Compared to the more prosperous and democratic South’s 555,000 military personnel who are equipped with modern weaponry, North Korea has 1.15 million personnel in all its military branches, and many are using equipment that sometimes dates back to the Soviet era.

To maintain such large numbers, every able-bodied North Korean man must serve seven or eight years in the military, and women are strongly encouraged to join for up to five years. The number of enlisted women has been increasing recently due to a shortage of enlisted men in recent years.

North Korean soldiers march in a military parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army in Pyongyang, Feb, 8, 2023. Every able-bodied North Korean man must serve seven or eight years in the military. Credit: AFP/KCNA via KNS

The recent lectures also dedicated a lot of time to highlighting historical women who worked to support soldiers in wartime, the North Hamgyong source said.

“The lecture said that all women should learn from the patriotic spirit of the Namgang village women who supported the front lines in the 1950s,” said the second source.

During the 1950-1953 Korean War, women from the small village in the eastern province of Kangwon are said to have shuttled ammunition and food to North Korean soldiers fighting nearby. Their exploits were lionized in film to the point that they are now held up as one of the chief examples of female patriotism.

Rewarded with trip to Pyongyang

These days, North Korea’s most patriotic women – presumably those who have sent many children to the military – are honored with a trip to Pyongyang, according to the North Hamgyong source. The lecture explained that the country’s leader Kim Jong Un publicly promised he would personally invite active supporters to be special representatives to important military celebrations.

These included the 75th Army Foundation Day events that were held in mid-February, and in July, the anniversary of the 1953 armistice that ended hostilities in the Korean War, which the North calls the “Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.”

The lecture recapped how Kim welcomed the patriots in February, the source said.

A woman and a child lay a bouquet of flowers as they pay their respects before the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il to mark the 10-year anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, the father of current leader Kim Jong Un, in Pyongyang on Dec. 16, 2021. Credit: AFP

“Kim Jong Un met with them and took commemorative photos,” the source said. “He also had them visit various places in Pyongyang, and benevolently gave them the opportunity to rest at the Yangdok Hot Spring Resort.”

Additionally, the lectures said that each city, county and province is supposed to register people as “military support enthusiasts.”

In some cases, the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party will choose outstanding contributors as enthusiasts, the source said, adding that the objective is to create a social atmosphere that is conducive to military support.

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

rfa.org

15. N. Korea fires short-range ballistic missile toward Yellow Sea: S. Korean military

Or as the Koreans call iit, the West Sea. It might produce a good photo as the sun sets in Asia.

Excerpt:

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from the North's western port city of Nampo at 6:20 p.m. It did not elaborate further.

(LEAD) N. Korea fires short-range ballistic missile toward Yellow Sea: S. Korean military | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · March 9, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES with more background info in last 2 paras)

SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile toward the Yellow Sea on Thursday, Seoul's military said, in the latest show of force ahead of a major South Korea-U.S. military exercise set to begin next week.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from the North's western port city of Nampo at 6:20 p.m. It did not elaborate further.

"While strengthening its monitoring and vigilance, our military is maintaining a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the United States," the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.

The latest launch came as the allies are preparing to kick off the Freedom Shield exercise set to take place from Monday through March 23. The exercise is to proceed concurrently with the large-scale field training exercise, called the Warrior Shield.

Last month, Pyongyang warned Seoul and Washington would face "unprecedentedly" strong counteractions should they press ahead with this year's plans for combined drills, which it has decried as preparations for a war of aggression.

In apparent shows of force against possible provocations by North Korea, the U.S. has recently deployed high-profile military assets to the Korean Peninsula, including B-1B and B-52H strategic bombers as well as a nuclear-powered submarine.

The allies are also in talks for the U.S. to send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to South Korea later this month, according to an informed source.

This undated file photo released by the Korean Central News Agency shows a North Korean missile launch. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

sshluck@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · March 9, 2023

16. Pyongyang slams Foreign Minister Park for comments

north Korea watches CNN.

Thursday

March 9, 2023

dictionary + A - A

Pyongyang slams Foreign Minister Park for comments

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/03/09/national/northKorea/Korea-North-Korea-Uriminzokkiri/20230309184538916.html

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin speaks to reporters at Incheon International Airport before his departure to the United States for diplomatic talks last month. [NEWS1]

North Korea blasted South Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin for remarks in a recent interview with CNN where he said the regime must be pressured to return to talks on its illicit weapons programs.

In an editorial titled “Pitiful sleepwalkers of the 21st century” that was published Thursday, Pyongyang propaganda outlet Uriminzokkiri characterized Park's remarks as “flattering the United States” and saying Washington “is the only one who can protect them.”

In an interview with CNN on Feb. 22, Park said South Korea and the United States “have to create an environment where North Korea has no choice but to come back to the negotiation table.”

The foreign minister also said past experiences taught “that when we are strong, North Korea comes to the dialogue table," but that “when we are weak, they try to take advantage of that vulnerability.”

But Uriminzokkiri said the South Korean foreign minister’s remarks suggested he was “begging for help” from Washington to put pressure on Pyongyang.

The propaganda outlet claimed in its editorial that Park “appeared to have not shaken off his delusional hallucinations despite being painfully proved wrong.”

“The United States and other forces aligned against our republic have applied pressure on us for decades, but it has only reinforced our iron will to become stronger and increase our national power,” the editorial claimed.

The title of the editorial was drawn from the 2014 history book “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914” and intended as an analogy to how South Korea and the United States are miscalculating the cost of a potential conflict with North Korea, according to the outlet.

“Just as the sleepwalkers of the 20th century brought down a tremendously catastrophic world war upon all of humanity, these 21st century sleepwalkers will bring about a wrath that will imperil the existence of not only South Korea, but also their own,” the editorial also said.

On Tuesday, the North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency released a statement by Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, where she said the regime would regard any move by the United States to intercept the regime’s missiles as “a declaration of war,” highlighting the possibility that Pyongyang could fire missiles into the Pacific Ocean.

Last month, Kim also issued a statement saying that the frequency of North Korean launches into the Pacific will depend on the U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula.

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

17. [Editorial] Securing nuclear deterrence is top priority

"Deterrence works. Until it doesn't." Sir Lawrence Freedman.

Excerpt:

President Yoon has pressed with the controversial compensation program for the victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor in order to set the grounds for stronger ties with Japan and the U.S. against North Korean nuclear threats. The chain summits with Japan in March and the U.S. in April can help build stronger readiness against growing North Korean risks. We hope the U.S. fully addresses the security anxieties from Korea and upholds common values and alliance based on trust and cooperation.

Thursday

March 9, 2023

dictionary + A - A

[Editorial] Securing nuclear deterrence is top priority

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/03/09/opinion/editorials/nuclear-umbrella-nuclear-deterrence-North-Korea/20230309202009751.html

President Yoon Seok Yeol will be making a state visit to the United States on April 26, the two governments announced on Tuesday. Yoon will hold his third meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden since taking office in May last year. It will be the first state visit by a Korean president in 12 years as this year marks the 70th anniversary of Armistice Treaty and the alliance of South Korea and the United States.

The summit talks also take place against the backdrop of the tumultuous geopolitical environment with rapid advancement in the North Korean nuclear and missile program, the ever-intensifying U.S.-China power contest, and the Russia-Ukraine war. South Korea must strengthen the alliance against the mounting nuclear threats from North Korea. In particular, Seoul must ensure trust in Washington’s extended deterrence through the nuclear umbrella.

Due to skepticism over the U.S. provision of a nuclear umbrella in times of crisis, a public poll conducted at the beginning of the year showed 77 percent of South Koreans supporting the country developing nuclear weapons on its own. President Yoon must answer to the growing public demand. Kim Sung-han, the National Security Advisor currently stateside, said he met with a number of U.S. security and foreign affairs officials to discuss various ways to strengthen and escalate the Korea-U.S. alliance through the momentum of the 70th anniversary of the alliance. He said that an array of U.S. defense capabilities through the deployment of strategic assets and combined military drills could help raise the Korean people’s confidence in the U.S. defense commitment.

A Japanese media outlet reported that the United States has been tapping the idea of launching a new consultative body with South Korea and Japan on the nuclear deterrence. The United States currently has vice ministerial-level dialogue channels with Korea and Japan separately. But if a tripartite consultative body is established, it can help share information on U.S. nuclear assets to deter North Korea.

The U.S.-led NATO has been running a Nuclear Planning Group since 1966 among defense ministers of member countries to make policy decisions on nuclear weapons and strategies. A similar concept can be arranged for South Korea, the United States and Japan, which could be helpful to Korean interests.

President Yoon has pressed with the controversial compensation program for the victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor in order to set the grounds for stronger ties with Japan and the U.S. against North Korean nuclear threats. The chain summits with Japan in March and the U.S. in April can help build stronger readiness against growing North Korean risks. We hope the U.S. fully addresses the security anxieties from Korea and upholds common values and alliance based on trust and cooperation.

18. Seoul to announce normalization of GSOMIA: Japanese media

Because it is in Seoul's best interest to do so.

Seoul to announce normalization of GSOMIA: Japanese media

The Korea Times · by 2023-03-09 18:50 | Politics · March 9, 2023

Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during their summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 13, 2022. Korea Times file

By Kang Seung-woo

A Japanese media outlet reported, Thursday, that the South Korean government has decided to put the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) back on track amid signs of improving ties between the neighboring countries.

The GSOMIA is a bilateral security agreement between South Korea and Japan to share sensitive military and intelligence information. The former Moon Jae-in administration nearly let the pact expire in 2019 in response to Tokyo's tightened controls on exports to Seoul.

However, South Korea conditionally suspended the decision to terminate the agreement, following a resolution passed in the U.S. Senate calling on Seoul to renew it, leaving the pact in a somewhat unstable state, as the South Korean government had said that it could scrap the GSOMIA at any time.

Citing a South Korean government official, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, "As North Korea advances its nuclear and missile development, Japan and South Korea will work to strengthen cooperation in the field of security."

It also said the Yoon Suk Yeol administration plans to withdraw the documents that notified Japan of the end of the GSOMIA in 2019 and inform the country that it will withdraw relevant measures it took at the time.

The report came days after the Yoon administration developed a resolution on compensating victims of Japan's wartime forced labor by using a public foundation funded by Korean companies without direct payment from Japan, raising speculation that the plan could clear the way for improving frayed ties.

The forced labor issue has caused Korea-Japan relations to sink to the lowest level since the postwar period because of a 2018 South Korean Supreme Court order for Japanese companies ― Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel ― to compensate Korean victims who were forced to work for Imperial Japan during its 1910-45 colonial occupation of Korea.

Since taking office in May 2022, President Yoon has been making efforts to normalize the nation's relationship with Japan, based on the importance of trilateral security cooperation with the U.S. against North Korea's evolving threats. Pyongyang ended last year with a record 38 ballistic missile launches in total.

In response to the report, the South Korean defense ministry said it plans to review it in consultation with relevant government organizations in accordance with the progress in Korea-Japan relations.

According to the South Korean presidential office, Thursday, Yoon will travel to Tokyo to meeting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida March 16 and 17, the news report said, "The two leaders are expected to confirm the importance of the GSOMIA at next week's summit."

It added that the timing of the final announcement of normalization will be decided based on the progress of the Japanese government's lifting of its export control on three key industrial materials critical for South Korea's chip and display industries in apparent retaliation over the top court's rulings.

The Korea Times · by 2023-03-09 18:50 | Politics · March 9, 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

unce normalization of GSOMIA: Japanese media media

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."

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