Quotes of the Day:
“Teachers need our active support and encouragement. They are doing one of the most necessary and exacting jobs in the land. They are developing our most precious national resource: our children, our future citizens.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
- Isaac Asimov
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew."
- Abraham Lincoln, December 1862
1. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: July - KOREA
2. S. Korea to create 'strategic command' to lead 'three-axis' system against N.K. threats
3. State spy agency seeks prosecutors' probe into alleged mishandling of past cases involving N. Korea
4. S.Korea's Yoon warns of stern retaliation in case of N.Korea's provocation
5. Yoon Suk-yeol tells top brass to be ready to respond to North
6. South Korea’s Yoon Stirs Debate with Unconventional Communications Style
7. Pyongyang starts liking crypto a bit too much
8. Gap between China, South Korea is widening as Seoul pivots to Washington
9. Korea, China's top envoys may be getting together
10. North Koreans: Watching foreign movies is ‘impure’\
11. Amid worsening medicine shortages, N. Korea cracks down on private drug sellers
12. Using farmland for mining, construction now banned in North Korea
13. ＜Inside N. Korea＞Investigating N. Korea’s COVID-19 Situation
1. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: July - KOREA
Korea
By David Maxwell
Previous Trend: Positive
Even as it continues to emphasize that it is willing to engage North Korea anytime, anywhere, and without preconditions, the Biden administration remains focused on “stern deterrence” of Pyongyang. Each North Korean provocation provides an opportunity to emphasize the strength of the ROK-U.S. alliance and to demonstrate that the regime’s efforts to secure sanctions relief through intimidation will not succeed.
The Biden administration is responding to Pyongyang’s latest provocations by increasing military training and exercises to overcome the decline in readiness over the past four years, during which time U.S. and ROK forces canceled, postponed, and scaled back major combined exercises. Washington and Seoul appear to be in lockstep about the importance of resuming aggressive training. In addition, during a June 13 meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his South Korean counterpart, the two leaders agreed to revive the U.S.-ROK Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group, aimed at enhancing deterrence of Pyongyang.
On June 29, President Biden and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts held a trilateral meeting at the NATO summit in Spain. Improving alliance relationships, especially trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan, and the United States, is a key objective of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
2. S. Korea to create 'strategic command' to lead 'three-axis' system against N.K. threats
A Korean "STRATCOM." It will be interesting to see how this fits into the ROK/US CFC and Military Committee structure.
Excerpt:
The three-pronged system refers to the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation, an operational plan to incapacitate the North Korean leadership in a major conflict; the Kill Chain pre-emptive strike platform; and the Korea Air and Missile Defense system.
(LEAD) S. Korea to create 'strategic command' to lead 'three-axis' system against N.K. threats | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in paras 12-13)
By Song Sang-ho
SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will push to launch a "strategic command" as an overarching organ to implement its "three-axis" defense system aimed at countering North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats, the defense ministry said Wednesday.
President Yoon Suk-yeol and top commanders discussed the issue and other key defense priorities during their meeting at the Gyeryongdae military headquarters, 160 kilometers south of Seoul. He presided over the top brass' session for the first time since assuming office in May.
The push for the envisioned unit comes as the South is striving to sharpen deterrence following a series of North Korea's ballistic missile launches and preparations for what would be its seventh nuclear test.
"They discussed the issue of creating the strategic command in phases to ensure it can effectively command and control the three-axis system and lead the efforts for the systematic force development," the ministry said in a press release.
The three-pronged system refers to the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation, an operational plan to incapacitate the North Korean leadership in a major conflict; the Kill Chain pre-emptive strike platform; and the Korea Air and Missile Defense system.
The ministry seeks to come up with a specific plan for the creation of the command next year and establish it in 2024, an informed source said, requesting anonymity.
If formed, the command is expected to oversee the operations of the country's current and future core military assets, including F-35A radar-evading fighters, reconnaissance satellites, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile interceptors and Hyunmoo-type ballistic missiles.
It is also likely to command key assets for security operations in cyberspace and outer space, as the military is striving to enhance cross-domain operational capabilities by improving inter-service cooperation, observers said.
At the military gathering, participants agreed to reinforce the South Korean military's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and bolster capabilities that undergird the operation of the three-axis system.
"Through this, they agreed to strengthen our military's independent deterrence and capabilities to respond (to North Korean threats)," the ministry said.
The ministry also outlined its efforts to expeditiously roll out artificial intelligence (AI)-based defense systems incorporating both unmanned and manned military equipment. The efforts included crafting "more rapid, flexible" defense acquisition procedures and nurturing AI specialists.
In line with the modernization efforts, the military plans to conduct the trial operation of units employing cutting-edge technologies and expand such units in phases to all armed services.
The Army has already run the Army TIGER trial unit armed with high-tech equipment at its 25th Division since last month. TIGER is short for the transformative innovation of ground forces enhanced by the fourth industrial revolution technology.
Participants in the meeting included Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, Joint Chiefs of Staff chief Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Park Jeong-hwan, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lee Jong-ho, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Jung Sang-hwa and Marine Commandant Lt. Gen. Kim Tae-sung.
(END)
3. State spy agency seeks prosecutors' probe into alleged mishandling of past cases involving N. Korea
This could get ugly.
(LEAD) State spy agency seeks prosecutors' probe into alleged mishandling of past cases involving N. Korea | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with response from former spy chief in paras 6-7)
By Yi Wonju
SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's state spy agency said Wednesday it has requested formal investigations by prosecutors into allegations that two of its former chiefs mishandled controversial incidents involving North Korea a few years earlier.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) filed a complaint with the Supreme Prosecutors Office against Park Jie-won for "deleting intelligence-related reports without authorization" in regard to North Korea's killing of a South Korean fisheries official in 2020.
Park, formerly a longtime lawmaker, is accused of abusing his authority and unlawfully destroying public electronic records during his stint as director of the NIS under the previous liberal Moon Jae-in administration.
In September 2020, Lee Dae-jun, then 47 years old, was fatally shot by the North's coast guard near the Yellow Sea border between the two Koreas, a day after going missing while on duty on board a fishery inspection boat.
A storm of controversy has stirred up here since the South's Coast Guard and the defense ministry recently announced that they have not found any concrete evidence backing the probe results from two years ago that the official might have attempted to defect to North Korea. It marked an about-face from their relevant assessments made public under the Moon government.
Park dismissed the allegations, saying that he knew nothing of them.
"(The allegations) are completely groundless," he told Yonhap News Agency over the phone. "(Filing such a complaint) is also a needless thing for the NIS to do."
The spy agency also requested that the prosecution service look into a suspicion that Suh Hoon ordered an early end to an internal investigation into the case of two North Korean fishermen who were sent back to the North in November 2019 after being captured near the eastern inter-Korean sea border.
Suh worked as head of the NIS from 2017 to 2020 and then served as Moon's national security advisor for two years. South Korea went through a power change to the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration via the March 9 presidential election. Yoon has pledged to get tough on North Korea if it continues provocative acts.
(END)
4. S.Korea's Yoon warns of stern retaliation in case of N.Korea's provocation
S.Korea's Yoon warns of stern retaliation in case of N.Korea's provocation
SEOUL, July 6 (Reuters) - South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the military on Wednesday to "promptly and sternly" retaliate in case of any North Korean provocation amid concerns the North could conduct its first nuclear test in five years.
Yoon, who took office in May, presided over his first meeting with top military commanders and called for strong capabilities to deter North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes, the presidential office said.
North Korea has this year been conducting missile tests at an unprecedented pace, and is believed to be preparing for its seventh nuclear test.
The military meeting took place a day after U.S. Air Force F-35A stealth fighters arrived in South Korea on their first publicly announced visit since 2017 as the allies and the nuclear-armed North engage in an escalating cycle of displays of weapons. read more
"President Yoon said strong defence capabilities should be ready to protect the country's security and national interest as the security uncertainties surrounding South Korea and Northeast Asia are growing more than ever," according to the presidential office.
Last week, Yoon met with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid and agreed to explore further means to reinforce "extended deterrence" against North Korea. read more
Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Kim Coghill
5. Yoon Suk-yeol tells top brass to be ready to respond to North
Excerpts:
The Ministry of National Defense said later Wednesday that it is preparing to launch a new "strategic command" aimed at implementing the South Korean three-axis defense system.
The command is expected to be established in 2024 and will control core military assets including strategic weapons and possibly cyberspace and outer space security assets.
Wednesday
July 6, 2022
Yoon Suk-yeol tells top brass to be ready to respond to North
President Yoon Suk-yeol, center, presides over his first meeting of top military commanders at the Gyeryongdae military complex in South Chungcheong Tuesday. [YONHAP]
President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the South Korean military to swiftly respond to any North Korean provocation in his first meeting with top military commanders Tuesday.
"If North Korea carries out a provocation, we must swiftly and sternly retaliate," said Yoon in a visit to the Gyeryongdae military headquarters in South Chungcheong.
"It's the military's mission to protect the lives, property, territory and sovereignty of the people at any cost. We must show our resolve that we will never compromise on security."
In the meeting of top brass from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, Yoon ordered a "dramatic strengthening of capabilities to respond to North Korean nuclear and missile threats," according to the presidential office spokesperson in a statement.
He added that only a strong deterrence can preserve peace on the Korean Peninsula, taking a more hawkish stance than his liberal predecessor President Moon Jae-in.
"North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are growing and there is a deepening incompleteness in the security situation in Northeast Asia," said Yoon.
"We must support a strong defense force to protect our country's security and national interests. We need to build a strong military force that can reliably deter and respond to any provocations from North Korea and maintain a firm readiness posture."
Describing the current security situation as "serious," Yoon stressed the need to "come up with fundamental countermeasures against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats."
He called for an increase in the effectiveness of extended deterrence based on the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
He also urged the military to independently build a South Korean three-axis system that "has the capability and readiness posture to prevail over North Korea's nuclear and missile threats."
The South Korean three-axis system refers to a Kill Chain pre-emptive strike system, Korean Air and Missile Defense system and Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation plan.
Yoon also called for a "leap forward to become a scientific and technological powerhouse." He stressed the importance of utilizing artificial intelligence-based defense systems and preparing for potential security threats by "applying cutting-edge science and technologies to all areas of defense in a situation where military service resources are decreasing."
He said that the so-called fourth industrial revolution "is changing the way war is waged."
Yoon encouraged the deployment of military satellite and manned and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, early acquisition of precision strike missile systems and development of space assets, electronic warfare and cyber capabilities, according to the presidential office.
He instructed officials of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy who attended the meeting to cooperate.
Yoon also said he will increase the defense budget and improve related laws, working conditions and the overall military system, promising to "actively support the establishment of a national defense posture and defense innovation."
Participants in the meeting included Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Kim Seung-kyum, Army Chief of Staff Park Jeong-hwan, Chief of Naval Operations Lee Jong-ho, Air Force Chief of Staff Jung Sang-hwa, Marine Corps Commandant Kim Tae-sung and Defense Acquisition Program Administration Minister Eom Dong-hwan.
Yoon received a briefing on defense policy direction from Defense Minister Lee and listened to opinions from the commanders and experts on military issues.
The Ministry of National Defense said later Wednesday that it is preparing to launch a new "strategic command" aimed at implementing the South Korean three-axis defense system.
The command is expected to be established in 2024 and will control core military assets including strategic weapons and possibly cyberspace and outer space security assets.
6. South Korea’s Yoon Stirs Debate with Unconventional Communications Style
Excerpts:
As a result, Yoon’s so-called “doorstepping” sessions are causing a major stir in South Korean political circles. Critics say his behavior is shallow and undignified, lowering the standards of political etiquette. It’s “childish small talk,” said Yu Hyun-jae, professor of communications at Seoul’s Sogang University. “This kind of casual language may have developed in the United States, but there’s no such culture in Korea,” Yu told VOA.
Even some of Yoon’s conservative allies are uneasy with his unconventional communications style. In an interview with local media, Kim Jong-in, the former head of South Korea’s main conservative party, said Yoon’s remarks have been inappropriately simplistic. Political rhetoric, Kim said, should not be constructed “in a way ordinary people talk." “Since the president’s words are delivered directly to the public, they should be very sophisticated and deliberate," he added.
South Korea’s Yoon Stirs Debate with Unconventional Communications Style
July 05, 2022 7:23 AM
Seoul —
Almost every morning before he starts work, South Korea’s new president stops to chat with a scrum of journalists camped in the lobby of his presidential office. Standing on a red carpet in front of a row of flashing cameras, boom microphones, and reporters trying to out-shout one another, Yoon Suk Yeol offers opinions on a range of issues, both serious and lighthearted.
Yoon has weighed in on whether the K-Pop group BTS should receive exemptions from mandatory military service. He has commented on when North Korea will conduct its next weapons test. He regularly answers questions about his wife, whose extravagant personna and busy public schedule have drawn constant media scrutiny. On one occasion, he casually invited a reporter to a meal of kimchi stew.
It’s the fulfillment of a campaign promise for Yoon. A conservative political outsider who had never held elected office, Yoon pledged to be more accessible than past South Korean presidents, many of whom were criticized for doing too few media engagements.
While Yoon’s informal communications style would be routine in many countries, it is unprecedented in South Korea. Outside of annual press conferences, South Korean presidents rarely meet the media. When they do, their comments are typically deliberate, formal, and unremarkable.
As a result, Yoon’s so-called “doorstepping” sessions are causing a major stir in South Korean political circles. Critics say his behavior is shallow and undignified, lowering the standards of political etiquette. It’s “childish small talk,” said Yu Hyun-jae, professor of communications at Seoul’s Sogang University. “This kind of casual language may have developed in the United States, but there’s no such culture in Korea,” Yu told VOA.
Even some of Yoon’s conservative allies are uneasy with his unconventional communications style. In an interview with local media, Kim Jong-in, the former head of South Korea’s main conservative party, said Yoon’s remarks have been inappropriately simplistic. Political rhetoric, Kim said, should not be constructed “in a way ordinary people talk." “Since the president’s words are delivered directly to the public, they should be very sophisticated and deliberate," he added.
Setting the agenda
So far, South Korean media are making the most of the new president’s approachability. Yoon’s impromptu remarks dominate political coverage, generating breaking news alerts and sparking fresh news cycles that serve as fodder for heated talk show debates throughout the day.
Some critics worry Yoon will use that feedback loop to frame public debate or create distractions, especially as his political fortunes seem to worsen. Barely a month after taking office, Yoon’s approval rating has already sunk below 45%.
Yoon’s defenders say it’s only natural to use the presidency to set agendas in a democracy, where the power of persuasion is key to enacting policies. Yoon, they argue, is only speaking directly to the people, circumventing media outlets widely seen as biased.
That kind of tactic is increasingly common in democracies around the world. In the United States, ex-President Donald Trump spoke to reporters several times a day and shared his thoughts on a near constant basis using social media.
There’s only one Trump
Some analysts have compared Trump and Yoon, noting both men are relatively non-ideological outsiders with little political experience before becoming president.
But the comparison only goes so far. Whereas Trump, a former TV game show host, had decades of working with or in the media, the ex-prosecutor Yoon often appears uncomfortable in front of the camera. Many of his allies fear he will make gaffes.
Another difference: Yoon does not employ social media in the same way as Trump, who would often use Twitter to lob highly personal insults at his critics and rivals.
“Trump’s outreach was usually to obfuscate or self-promote,” whereas Yoon “seems to be answering questions seriously and making a good faith effort,” said Robert Kelly, a professor of political science at South Korea’s Pusan National University.
“Any president in a democracy has massive agenda-setting power — the bully pulpit and all that. I don’t find that a big deal,” Kelly added. “If Yoon is monopolizing the discussion, [Korean lawmakers] can push back.”
But concerns about Yoon’s media approach may linger, in part because of the young nature of South Korea’s democracy. In the view of one journalist at a left-leaning newspaper, many South Koreans remember the country’s previous military rule, when newspapers dutifully published the president’s words on their front pages every morning. While today’s dynamic may be fundamentally different, Yoon’s approach still makes many Koreans uncomfortable, said the journalist, who did not receive permission to discuss the issue publicly.
As a solution, the Kwanhun Club, a non-partisan association of Korean journalists, proposes reducing the size of the media pool camped outside Yoon’s office. Such a restructuring, the organization says, would make the doorstepping sessions more substantive, in part by improving the quality of questions. The presidential office has not yet responded to the proposal, the Kwanhun Club said.
In the meantime, Yoon appears to be getting more comfortable engaging the media. In recent weeks, his doorstepping sessions have lasted for a longer time — giving both his supporters and critics more to debate.
“It could be regarded as positive if he is trying new things,” said Lee Junhan, a professor at Incheon National University. “But if it merely ends up being a show, that’s a problem.”
7. Pyongyang starts liking crypto a bit too much
The all purpose sword works well for the regime.
Wednesday
July 6, 2022
Pyongyang starts liking crypto a bit too much
A bitcoin representation is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. [REUTERS/YONHAP]
Cryptocurrency has emerged as a big moneymaking business for North Korea, both in trading and outright stealing.
Both are ways of getting around international sanctions targeting its missile and nuclear weapons programs. But their rewards also present some formidable risks, including the dwindling value of any ill-gotten gains they make.
Over the past five years, Pyongyang is estimated to have raised approximately $1.6 billion through cryptocurrency heists and trading, according to various investigators and experts.
Cryptocurrency theft, such as the suspected purloining of $100 million in cryptocurrency from U.S.-based Horizon Bridge on June 23, is just one tool in Pyongyang’s arsenal to evade sanctions. North Korea’s methods have become necessarily more sophisticated after United Nations Security Council resolutions targeted Pyongyang’s formerly preferred ways of raising foreign currency.
In the past, North Korea focused on narcotics manufacturing and trading, arms sales to anti-Western and non-aligned countries, and counterfeiting U.S. dollars to illicitly raise money for its weapons programs.
Mandatory remittances from North Korean workers dispatched abroad by the regime also helped Pyongyang amass foreign currency.
North Korea was estimated to have sent about a total of 100,000 workers to overseas construction sites, factories and restaurants in neighboring China and Russia, as well as far-flung countries such as Qatar and Poland, before the Covid-19 pandemic. The annual income generated by these workers was estimated to have reached about $500 million.
A less orthodox way through which the North raised foreign currency included exports of monumental bronze statues made by the state-owned Mansudae Art Studio to authoritarian rulers in Benin, Congo, Zimbabwe and Angola.
These activities did not escape the attention of the United States, which persuaded the Security Council to adopt two resolutions in August and December 2017 banning North Korea from sending its workers abroad and exports by Mansudae Art Studio.
The broadening of international sanctions, and Pyongyang’s self-imposed blockade on overseas movement as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, forced the regime to ratchet up its illicit operation in cryptocurrencies, which are not bound by the existing sanctions network.
“From the view of North Korea, which closed its borders to prevent the spread of Covid-19, cryptocurrencies are attractive means of both evading sanctions and acquiring foreign currency,” said Jeong Yoo-seok, a researcher at IBK Economic Research Institute.
While North Korean operatives initially engaged in cybercrime by hacking foreign websites, companies and financial institutions, the regime’s hacking groups, such as Lazarus, turned their attention to cryptocurrency as interest grew worldwide.
For North Korea, one major advantage of cryptocurrencies is that many trades are conducted via peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions without government interference.
Cryptocurrency is not, however, without risks for Pyongyang.
Due to instability in the cryptocurrency market, the total value of cryptocurrencies stolen by North Korea may have decreased by more than $100 million due to the recent downtown in the cryptocurrency market.
Chainalisys, a U.S. blockchain analysis company, recently concluded that the value of cryptocurrency still retained by North Korea, which had not been converted into fiat currency, was worth $170 million (about 220.1 billion won) at the end of last year, but recently plunged to $65 million (about 84.1 billion won).
Such risks have not appeared to deter Pyongyang from engaging in cryptocurrency theft — rather, the regime’s crypto heists have only grown more brazen in the past year.
In a January report, Chainalisys estimated that the total value of cryptocurrency North Korea netted through cybercrime last year was $400 million, while it concluded in a separate May report that the amount of cryptocurrency the North illegally acquired this year was just under $1 billion.
8. Gap between China, South Korea is widening as Seoul pivots to Washington
Excerpts:
A poll by the US-based Pew Research Centre released last week found that favourable views of China had sunk to a record low in South Korea, one of the biggest declines across 19 countries surveyed. Just 19 per cent of respondents had a positive opinion of China when polled between February and June, compared to 38 per cent in a 2018 poll.
...
Some 200 academics were asked to rate bilateral ties on a scale of 0 to 10 – the South Koreans put them at 4.66, while the Chinese score was 6.24, the Hankyoreh newspaper reported. Asked about the outlook for the next five years, the Chinese observers gave a more optimistic score of 7.02 compared to the South Koreans’ 4.92.
Gap between China, South Korea is widening as Seoul pivots to Washington
- It couldn’t come at a worse time for Beijing, as it prepares for a major leadership reshuffle amid an economic slowdown and global pushback
- Recent surveys have revealed the trust deficit between the two nations and suggest there could be difficult times ahead for the bilateral relationship
+ FOLLOW
Published: 6:06pm, 5 Jul, 2022
By Shi Jiangtao South China Morning Post3 min
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has given China an idea of what the US pivot may look like. Photo: Reuters
Eight weeks into the job, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has given Beijing an idea of what Seoul’s pivot to Washington may look like.
He has promised to join the United States to help preserve peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and to step up a military alliance with the US and Japan. Last week he became the first South Korean leader to attend a Nato summit.
It could not come at a worse time for Beijing, as the leadership prepares for a major reshuffle while facing the worst economic slowdown in decades caused by its zero-Covid rules and global pushback against its pro-Russia stance and assertive foreign policy.
Recent surveys have meanwhile revealed the trust deficit between the two Asian neighbours and suggest there could be a rough patch ahead under Yoon, who narrowly won the March election riding a wave of rising anti-Chinese sentiment.
A poll by the US-based Pew Research Centre released last week found that favourable views of China had sunk to a record low in South Korea, one of the biggest declines across 19 countries surveyed. Just 19 per cent of respondents had a positive opinion of China when polled between February and June, compared to 38 per cent in a 2018 poll.
That was in line with the results of other recent surveys, including one by Korean magazine SisaIN and Hankook Research last year that found South Koreans viewed China more negatively than Japan for the first time in decades. The 1,000 South Koreans surveyed also overwhelmingly favoured Washington over Beijing.
Academics have also been polled on their views of the relationship. Those in South Korea tended to have a more pessimistic outlook than those in China, according to a survey early this year by Sungkyunkwan University’s Sungkyun Institute of China Studies in Seoul.
Some 200 academics were asked to rate bilateral ties on a scale of 0 to 10 – the South Koreans put them at 4.66, while the Chinese score was 6.24, the Hankyoreh newspaper reported. Asked about the outlook for the next five years, the Chinese observers gave a more optimistic score of 7.02 compared to the South Koreans’ 4.92.
There was also a divergence of views on what has caused the decline in relations. The Chinese academics, largely toeing the official line, blamed “external factors, including international politics”, while the South Koreans pointed to “differences in historical and cultural perceptions” and “nationalistic conflict”.
One Chinese expert who took part told me the results were not surprising in the wake of Beijing’s economic sanctions over Seoul’s deployment of the THAAD US anti-missile system in 2017. He said the gap between the two countries had widened even under Yoon’s China-friendly predecessor Moon Jae-in.
South Korean experts told me that Beijing’s aggressive diplomacy and its handling of Hong Kong have dealt perhaps the biggest blow to the country’s image in South Korea, especially among younger people who are most negative about China in the polls.
9. Korea, China's top envoys may be getting together
Excerpt:
Yoon and his foreign policy team had announced a departure from the previous Moon Jae-in government’s policy of so-called “strategy ambiguity” in dealing with issues related to the U.S.-China rivalry.
Wednesday
July 6, 2022
Korea, China's top envoys may be getting together
Foreign Minister Park Jin, top and bottom right, in a video conference call with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, bottom left, on May 16. [NEWS1]
Foreign Minister Park Jin may be meeting China's top envoy Wang Yi at the G20 foreign ministerial summit in Indonesia this week.
Such a meeting would be the first since Korea sworn in its conservative government led by Yoon Suk-yeol two months ago.
“We are coordinating bilateral and multilateral meetings to take place on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ summit,” said a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry in a press briefing Wednesday. “The meetings will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.”
The ministry was reportedly working on organizing as many as 10 sideline meetings for Park with the top envoys of the participating countries, which include China, Japan, the United States, Indonesia, Britain, France, Mexico, India and Saudi Arabia. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was also reported to be attending.
The G20 ministerial meeting is taking place in Bali from Thursday to Friday, during which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to meet with Wang on the sidelines.
Park left for the G20 foreign ministerial meeting on Tuesday, stopping in Singapore to meet with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the country’s trade and foreign ministers.
“As a follow-up measure to last week's NATO summit in Madrid, we will discuss ways to respond to global supply chain issues and address food and energy shortages,” Park told reporters at Incheon International Airport prior to his departure on Tuesday. “Through this forum, we will strengthen the foundation of our national identity as a global pivotal country that contributes to freedom, peace and prosperity worldwide.”
Since he was inaugurated, Yoon has put out messages supporting values such as democracy, freedom and human rights, including in his inauguration speech in May and more recently at the NATO summit in Madrid last week.
His statements have never openly criticized China, although one issued jointly with U.S. President Joe Biden after a summit on May 21 emphasized the “importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” a touchy issue for China.
When asked about how he intends to navigate relations with China, Park told the JoongAng Ilbo in an interview last month that he wants “open and consistent communications” with Beijing.
Although Beijing had bristled at NATO members’ statement last week that called the country’s “coercive policies” a challenge to their values and security, it seemed to treat Korea’s attendance at the summit differently from Japan’s.
Korea and Japan are not members of NATO but were among four Asia Pacific countries invited to the summit.
“Japan says it welcomes greater input from NATO to the Indo-Pacific region, it seems Japan intends to spearhead NATO’s foray into the Asia-Pacific,” Zhao Lijian, the foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing, said last Friday. “This is driven entirely by selfish interest and a Cold War mentality.”
When asked about Korea’s attendance, Zhao focused his response on bilateral trade levels, stressing that two-way trade volume increased by around a third year-on-year to “a record high $362.35 billion last year.” He added that “China stands ready to work together with the Republic of Korea to advance economic and trade cooperation and deliver more benefits to both peoples.”
Yoon and his foreign policy team had announced a departure from the previous Moon Jae-in government’s policy of so-called “strategy ambiguity” in dealing with issues related to the U.S.-China rivalry.
10. North Koreans: Watching foreign movies is ‘impure’
I hate to beat a dead horse but it is the Korean people in the north who Kim fears more than the US. And he fears them most when they are armed with information. Kim is showing us how deathly afraid he is of the Korean people. And this should be enough evidence to show us that we must embark on a comprehensive influence campaign to deter war, influence the 2d tier leadership to not go to war and to secure their WMD and prevent its use, and to prepare the population for a free and unified Korea..
North Koreans: Watching foreign movies is ‘impure’
‘Treason fundamentally no different from pointing a gun at your fatherland and its people when they are suffering’
On a night drive from North Korea’s east coast to Pyongyang, the driver stopped at a floodlit guard post. A rare American visitor who was riding in the car asked for whom the guards were searching.
“Impure elements,” was the answer.
“What’s that mean?”
No one would say, at first. “You know,” said one of the North Koreans in the car. “You know who they are.”
The visitor kept pestering them and finally one of the North Koreans explained: “They are spies, people trying to destroy the system. We shoot them.”
Impure elements, then, were South Korean or American agents – including saboteurs. To guard against them, rifle-carrying soldiers were posted at highway and railway bridges.
In many countries these days fashions, including popular buzzwords, change with the passage of decades or even years. In North Korea, not so much.
There, the third-generation Kim family regime, with its incessant propaganda, seeks with considerable success to keep linguistic and other fashions aligned with the preferences of Kim Il Sung, the founding ruler (born 1912, took power 1946, died 1994).
This writer had that encounter at the guard post in 1979, a year when American men were casting off bellbottoms, which had come into fashion around 1967 but were no longer considered fab; the more fashion-conscious instead were getting their groove on in skin-tight trousers.
As for North Korea? This month you can still hear the country’s propaganda machine railing against the “impure.” A new article from Daily NK, a Seoul-based news organization whose reporters communicate with people inside North Korea by phone, illustrates.
“North Korea recently distributed ‘explanatory materials’ to the Socialist Patriotic Youth League emphasizing the struggle against watching or distributing ‘impure recorded materials’” such as movies and TV shows from South Korea and other countries, it says.
In the materials, North Korean authorities claimed the failure to stop the secret viewing and distribution of “strange, decadent” recordings has been “tarnishing a healthy social atmosphere.” The materials warned that “once you get a taste, you just cannot stop and, in the end, you will find yourself up to your neck in treason and betrayal, just as the nation’s enemies intended.”
In particular North Korea called secretly watching or smuggling in and distributing impure recordings, “when the imperialists’ ideological and cultural intrusion schemes are growing crueler than ever,” an “act of treason fundamentally no different from pointing a gun at your fatherland and its people when they are suffering.” The materials further said that “if you’re still going around with hidden impure recordings of a strange and decadent nature, watching them, smuggling them or illegally selling them, we can only call this an intentional act to drag our youth into fantasies about capitalism and rotten bourgeois lifestyles.”
Photo: YouTube
Such domestic propaganda campaigns, while a constant, typically are cranked up to higher pitch at times when domestic conditions are especially poor – when the regime may think it has reason to worry about the effects of negative, only partially outsider-influenced public opinion on its long-term survival prospects.
Indeed, things lately have been approaching a 21st-century low point. The economy hangs by a thread after three years of a zero-Covid policy, even more extreme than that of the Chinese, that has involved an almost total stoppage of foreign trade.
The regime of Kim Jong Un, third in the line of family rulers, despite some outsiders’ predictions when he took power at twenty-something, has survived the consequences of Kim dynastic mismanagement for a decade.
But outside analysts still have to wonder whether for Kim’s subjects there’s a lower limit to which they have yet to descend and beneath which – regardless of the impure consequences – they will be mad as hell and won’t take it anymore.
Bradley K. Martin is the author of Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty, where there appears a version of this article’s lead anecdote. Follow him on Twitter @bradleykmartin
11. Amid worsening medicine shortages, N. Korea cracks down on private drug sellers
And this will only make things worse.
Amid worsening medicine shortages, N. Korea cracks down on private drug sellers - Daily NK
With drug prices rising over ten-fold since the closure of the border, North Korea recently declared price ceilings for drugs in each region
North Korean state media published this photo of a pharmacy on June 13. (Rodong Sinmun - News1)
North Korean authorities are cracking down hard on private sales of medications as shortages of medicine in the country continue to worsen. With the authorities recently confiscating the entire drug supplies of people caught selling medications in markets or from their homes without permits, many North Koreans are finding it increasingly difficult to purchase medications in emergency situations.
According to multiple Daily NK sources in North Korea, the “unified command on non-socialist and anti-socialist behavior” has been cracking down on private sales of medicine since early July.
Officially, North Korea bans ordinary people from selling medications, but with so many people trying to acquire drugs from markets, even market management offices have turned a blind eye to people dodging crackdowns to sell medications.
Recently, however, the unified command has been conducting stakeouts in front of homes where drugs are being sold, barging in as soon as they see a deal go down and confiscating the stash to send to hospitals or the military.
North Korea’s intense crackdown on private drug sales appears aimed at allowing North Koreans to feel the so-called “love for the people” of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim recently donated drugs from his own household to residents of South Hwanghae Province in the wake of a spike in waterborne diseases in the region, asking that they be “conveyed quickly to be of some help to efforts to provide medical treatment.”
Following Kim’s lead, other key aides and Central Committee cadres have been donating drugs as well, including Kim Yo Jong — the North Korean leader’s powerful sister — and Jo Yong Won, the ruling party’s organizational secretary and head of the party’s Organization and Guidance Department. Even provincial cadres have recently started taking part in the drug donation drive Kim started.
Nevertheless, with drugs in woefully short supply, drug prices are shooting through the roof in North Korea. In fact, a package of antibiotics costs over KPW 20,000, while anti-fever medication such as aspirin is hard to come by.
With drug shortages growing even worse, market merchants have also begun selling medications for KPW 2,000 to 3,000 a tablet, rather than selling them by the box or by the dose.
With public discontent emerging over these high-priced, under-the-table transactions, North Korean authorities have moved to crack down heavily on drug sales conducted by private sellers.
In particular, with drug prices spiking over ten-fold following the closure of the border, North Korea recently declared price ceilings for drugs in each region.
According to a source in North Hamgyong Province, the order set price ceilings for a list of medical supplies, such as KPW 250 for butterfly needles, KPW 3,102 for chloramphenicol, KPW 245 for disposable injectors, KPW 3,870 for sodium lactate solution, and KPW 615 for antibiotic gentamicin, which is used to treat diarrhea and bacterial infections.
These prices are similar to those set by the state. However, the source said private drug merchants could never sell their wares at these prices because they purchase their drugs at much higher wholesale prices.
That is to say, the price ceilings North Korea’s government has presented are little more than a charade to show that the state controls drug sales. The authorities would face a tough time implementing those ceilings in reality.
“With supplies running woefully short, it seems the authorities have intensified crackdowns to help supplying drugs through official channels. That being said, pharmacies [in major cities] have no drugs in stock, so when will the handful of drug stores in each region get them?” said the source, adding, “It will be difficult to completely crack down on private drug merchants because people can easily purchase different kinds of medications by going to the homes of private drug merchants near markets or hospitals, even if they are expensive.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
12. Using farmland for mining, construction now banned in North Korea
Excerpts:
“The order highlighted that there are a large number of land violations in the grain producing areas, and this is hindering the country’s grain production plans. Most of the country’s special organizations openly violate agricultural land policies for gold mining or construction projects. These are powerful and reputable organizations,” he said.
The special organizations are divisions within government agencies like the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of State Security and parts of the military. They include Office 39, the organization charged with procuring slush funds for the country’s leader Kim Jong Un and his family.
The government has limited capability to properly fund itself, and each ministry or agency must go into business in order to function properly.
Using farmland for mining, construction now banned in North Korea
Organizations that fund the government sometimes use farmland for other businesses, exacerbating food shortages.
By Chang Gyu Ahn for RFA Korean
2022.07.05
North Korea is cracking down on government-run entities that illegally use farmland for other money-making activities, like gold mining and manufacturing, sources in the country told RFA.
For a country chronically short on food, allowing farmland to be used for anything but growing food could lead to a public backlash. Authorities are now warning collective farms and revenue-producing arms of various governmental agencies that they could be punished for doing anything except growing food on lands designated for agricultural production.
“Late last month, orders were issued from the central government to investigate the destruction and illegal use of agricultural lands meant to produce grain. Investigations are now underway,” an official from the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“The order highlighted that there are a large number of land violations in the grain producing areas, and this is hindering the country’s grain production plans. Most of the country’s special organizations openly violate agricultural land policies for gold mining or construction projects. These are powerful and reputable organizations,” he said.
The special organizations are divisions within government agencies like the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of State Security and parts of the military. They include Office 39, the organization charged with procuring slush funds for the country’s leader Kim Jong Un and his family.
The government has limited capability to properly fund itself, and each ministry or agency must go into business in order to function properly.
The source said that the special organizations have been ignoring the agricultural designations for land use and “invading” them with new factories, buildings or mining operations.
“Each cooperative farm has therefore been ordered to report in detail how the special organizations are using their land, especially for goldmines and construction,” he said.
“In principle these organizations cannot do anything other than agriculture on those lands without permission from the state, but it is common for them to use threats or bribery to convince local officials to allow them to use the land for other purposes,” the source said.
Entities that legally want to repurpose farmland must go through an arduous bureaucratic process that includes permission from five different organizations: the collective farm, the province’s farm management office, the provincial government, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of National Territory Environment Protection, according to the source.
“Authorities have been taking steps to increase food production in recent years, but they are missing the most important point. The fastest way to solve the long-term food shortage is to give the farmland back to the farmers and allow them to process their own harvest,” he said.
Such a move could provide incentive for the farmers to earn a living off of the crops they grow, but it would also go against the ideas collective farming and communal land ownership.
Cooperative farms in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong are also under investigation, and authorities are punishing those implicated in bribery, a resident of the city of Hoeryong told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“With this order, the organizations that were invading the farmland as well as the officials who took bribes will not be able to sleep at night,” the second source said. “However, this order was only a loud proclamation, and it is ultimately a fruitless measure that will end in smoke.”
The Central Committee has a history of talking about strict measures but rarely enforces them, the second source said.
“For whatever reason, the organizations that are capable of invading agricultural land and using it for other purposes are powerful, and a lot of the foreign currency that they earn goes into party funds,” he said.
Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
13. ＜Inside N. Korea＞Investigating N. Korea’s COVID-19 Situation
＜Inside N. Korea＞Investigating N. Korea’s COVID-19 Situation (2)…Deaths in Yanggang Province…Authorities lift ban on vehicular movement between cities
A photograph of Hyesan. The city’s lockdown was lifted in mid-June. There were reports of people dying amid shortages of food and medicine. This photo was taken in May 2014 from the Chinese side of the border. (ASIAPRESS)
The Korean Central News Agency continues to announce new fever cases every morning. On July 2, new fever cases were reported to be around 3,540, less than 1% of the cases reported during the peak of the pandemic in mid-May (around 390,000 cases). State-run media continues to claim that only 73 people have died so far. However, many people in country say that the statistics do not reflect reality. ASIAPRESS recently conducted an investigation on what has been happening in the northern part of the country following the North Korean government’s acknowledgement of a COVID-19 outbreak on May 12. This second installment of a multi-part series of articles focuses on circumstances in Hyesan, Yanggang Province. (ISHIMARU Jiro, KANG Ji-Won)
◆ The authorities claim deaths are due to illnesses other than COVID-19
Case No. 1
I live in an apartment in the central part of the city. Four people have died from the 42 members of my inminban, including two elderly people, one child, and one young person.
I’ve heard that, on average, there have been around 2-5 deaths per inminban in the city. I can’t confirm whether these people have died of COVID-19, starvation, or another illness, but the authorities are claiming that most of these people died of other illnesses.
◆ Authorities claim a former soldier died of tuberculosis
Case No. 2
I live in an area of the city a little ways away from the city center. My inminban is made up of around 50 people and there have been 3 deaths, including two young people and one child. One of the young people who died was a former soldier who had been suffering from tuberculosis. He suffered from a high fever after the spread of COVID-19 and then died. The authorities claimed he had died from tuberculosis, not the coronavirus.
Disease control rules are still strictly enforced, and the authorities are also conducting crackdowns. People can’t visit other cities or counties, but from late June we’ve gradually been able to travel by car. I’ve heard a rumor that all the restrictions will soon be lifted.
Map of North Korea ( ASIAPRESS)
◆ Lifting of restrictions on vehicular movement between cities
Case No. 3
I understand that 2-3 people are dying per inminban on average. I don’t know whether people are dying because of the coronavirus, starvation, or other illnesses. It’s unclear what’s really going on because many people who died during the lockdown had already been suffering from malnutrition or lack of medicine to treat their illnesses.
There’s quite a few people who are suffering from the aftereffects (of COVID-19). They are losing their sense of hearing or smell, or even suffering from paralysis of the limbs. I’ve heard that inminban in the Sinheung-dong neighborhood, where the rich people live, have not suffered from any deaths.
I suspect that most people have caught COVID-19. The authorities are selecting people for labor mobilizations from among those who have recovered from the coronavirus. People are hoping that everyone just catches the coronavirus so the border with China will open quickly (and trade with China will restart).
(As of June 30) prohibitions on movement between regions are gradually being lifted. It’s not easy for people to travel by foot, but vehicles are allowed to move between cities. The authorities have allowed vehicles with just a driver and one other person to move goods. There are many trading company vehicles travelling back and forth between cities. (End)
※ ASIAPRESS communicates with reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
