Quotes of the Day:
What a society gets in its armed forces is exactly what it asks for, no more and no less. What it asks for tends to be a reflection of what it is. When a country looks at its fighting forces it is looking at a mirror: if the mirror is a true one the face that it sees will be its own.
— General Sir John Hackett, The Profession of Arms
An age builds up cities: an hour can destroy them.
— Seneca
Three men behind the enemy are worth 50 in front of him.
— Frederick The Great
1. U.S.-South Korea relations and a strategy for the Indo-Pacific region
2. FBI director calls China 'biggest' US threat; authorities warn of North Korean cyber attacks
3. S. Korea, U.S., Japan to hold talks among top diplomats in Bali this week
4. For Korea-Japan breakthrough, devil’s in the details
5. North Korea gives war death certificate to soldiers who died from COVID-19 symptoms
6. N. Korean hackers target health care facilities with ransomware: US agencies
7. N. Korean leader urges 'absolute obedience' to ruling party
8. Body found in Han River’s estuary may be that of a North Korean boy, police suspect
9. F-35 stealth fighter jets from US, South Korea send message to North Korea
10. FBI, treasury department issue joint advisory against N. Korean ransomware
11. North Korea and Iran: A Military Technology Partnership from Hell?
12. Global pivotal state vision and Korea's new multilateral diplomacy
13. Spotted: South Korea's KF-21 Boramae 'Stealthy' Fighter Nearly Ready to Fly
14. North Korea’s dire food shortage may become more acute
15. S Korean group floats balloons toward North amid animosities
16. Defector group says COVID-19 pain relievers, anti-Kim banners sent to North
17. North Korea's Kim convenes conference for strengthening 'monolithic' party rule (Read This)
18. Over 40 pct of N. Koreans undernourished: U.N. report
1. U.S.-South Korea relations and a strategy for the Indo-Pacific region
I agree with Ambassador DeTrani. Resolution of the "Korea question" and the unification of Korea is imperative. But whether it is peaceful will be determined by Kim Jong Un and the elite and the 2d tier leaders of the regime (as well as remnants of the military and true believers who will resist unification at all costs).
As I have written many times:
The only way we are going to see an end to the nuclear program and military threats as well as the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity being committed against the Korean people living in the north by the mafia-like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime is through achievement of unification and the establishment of a free and unified Korea that is secure and stable, non-nuclear, economically vibrant, and unified under a liberal constitutional form of government based on individual liberty, rule of law, and human rights as determined by the Korean people: A free and unified Korea or in short, a United Republic of Korea (UROK).
Recommendations For Yoon-Biden Summit – Must Build On The Strong Alliance Foundation
It's time for a new U.S.-Korea alliance for a free, unified peninsula
U.S.-South Korea relations and a strategy for the Indo-Pacific region
The peaceful reunification of the peninsula is imperative
OPINION:
The crucible of the Korean War forged the close allied relationship between the United States and South Korea. North Korea’s invasion of the South on June 25, 1950, and the United States’ entry into the war on June 27, 1950, were three years of living hell, with South Korean casualties of approximately 139,000 dead and 500,000 wounded and United States casualties of 37,000 dead and 103,000 wounded. The Armistice on July 27, 1953, ended this bloody war, but that’s all it did — it stopped the fighting but technically, until there is a peace treaty, the war with North Korea continues.
The U.S.- South Korea relationship is a critically important allied relationship, with over 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea and a United States extended nuclear deterrence commitment to our ally in South Korea. But the bilateral relationship is more than a close allied military relationship, given that South Korea, a model liberal democracy that shares our values, is the United States’ second-largest trading partner, with an extant robust Free Trade Agreement and close bilateral relations dating back to the early 20th century.
The goal since the Armistice in 1953 has been the reunification of the Korean Peninsula. All presidents, but especially presidents Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in have worked tirelessly to close the chasm with the North and move toward reunification. However, North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons — and its abominable human rights record — has to date made these efforts unsuccessful.
Presently, North Korea has a reported arsenal of 40 to 60 Plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranian-based nuclear weapons, with a very sophisticated arsenal of ballistic missiles, including short, medium and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The North’s recent launch of a gigantic Hwasong-17 ICBM was assessed as capable of reaching the whole of the United States. Indeed, the North’s work on submarine-launched and hypersonic missiles is of concern, as are the recent tests of cruise missiles and sophisticated short-range ballistic missiles reportedly capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.
South Korea and the United States continue to work toward convincing North Korea to denuclearize completely and verifiably in exchange for security assurances, the lifting of sanctions and economic development assistance and a path to normal relations, with the expectation that North Korea will make progress on human rights.
There has been some fleeting success with the North: the North-South Agreement of 1992; the Agreed Framework of 1994; the Six-Party Talks Joint Statement of September 2005; the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula in 2018; the Singapore Joint Statement of 2018 committing North Korea to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula; and the Hanoi Summit of 2019 that was unsuccessful. All these agreements eventually failed because North Korea was and is determined to retain its nuclear weapons.
North Korea’s senior negotiator in 2003, in one of our first meetings of the Six-Party Talks, told me that the United States should accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state, as we did Pakistan because their nuclear weapons are for deterrence purposes only. I said then and United States — and South Korea — policy continues to be that we will never accept North Korea as a nuclear-weapon state. To do so would result in a nuclear arms race in the region, with other countries seeking nuclear weapons, and the possibility that North Korea could provide a nuclear weapon and/or fissile material for a dirty bomb to a rogue state or terrorist organization.
Despite these setbacks with North Korea, efforts must continue for the denuclearization of the North and eventual reunification of the Korean Peninsula. It is obvious to some of us that Kim Jong-un wants to end North Korea’s isolation and wants to be a member of the international community, with access to financial institutions and not be dependent only on China for its economic and geopolitical future. But Kim wants this on his terms — being accepted as a nuclear weapons state.
To secure peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula is imperative. Also important, however, is to ensure that it is a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The East and South China seas and China’s militarization of the islands and reefs in the South China sea is indeed a potential flash point. And the Shanghai Communique of 1972 and the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 are clear in stating that the future of Taiwan should be resolved by peaceful means. These and other issues will require greater attention.
This is the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s visit to China and meeting with Chair Mao Zedong, which arranged for the normalization of relations in 1979. Currently, there’s over $600 billion of annual trade between the United States and China, with over 300 U.S. companies doing business in China and over 350,000 Chinese students studying in U.S. colleges and universities. Economic decoupling would harm both countries and a new cold war could devastate the region and the world.
The government of President Yoon Suk Yeol and the administration of President Biden are committed to strengthening this close bilateral allied relationship between South Korea and the U.S. This is good not only for our two countries but also for the region and the world.
The challenge for the Yoon administration will be getting traction with North Korea for improved inter-Korean relations. And progress on inter-Korean relations will depend heavily on North Korea’s willingness to meaningfully negotiate with the U.S. and South Korea on complete and verifiable denuclearization. Indeed, without progress on denuclearization and inter-Korean relations, the region will become less stable, with the potential of stumbling into accidental conflict with a North Korea with nuclear weapons.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the tragic war that continues, with the carnage we see each day on the news, should be a wake-up call that alliances to confront aggressors are important and military preparedness for defensive purposes is imperative. The security assurances Russia — and the United States and Great Britain — provided to Ukraine in 1994, with the Budapest Memorandum, in return for Ukraine turning over approximately 1,900 nuclear warheads to Russia, did not prevent Russia from invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Russia’s surprise, however, was that NATO and other countries, including South Korea, came together to support Ukraine, sanctioning Russia and providing Ukraine with the weapons and training necessary for their own defense, which has frustrated Russia’s military onslaught.
So, we must ensure that the U.S. — South Korea alliance remains strong, with a focus on a strong geopolitical, economic and military relationship.
Concurrently, we should continue to work hard at resuming meaningful negotiations with North Korea, knowing that it will be difficult getting North Korea to denuclearize completely and verifiably, especially after Russia’s invasion of a Ukraine that gave up its nuclear weapons for security assurances. That means we will have to work harder to establish trust with North Korea in our effort to convince Mr. Kim that North Korea will be more secure and more economically prosperous without nuclear weapons and with normal relations with the U.S. and South Korea and the international community. This will take time, patience and creativity. It’s something we must do.
• Joseph R. DeTrani is the former director of the National Counterproliferation Center and the special envoy for negotiations with North Korea. The views are the author’s and not any government agency or department.
Click to Read More and View Comments
Click to Hide
2. FBI director calls China 'biggest' US threat; authorities warn of North Korean cyber attacks
north Korea is ranking right up there.
Excerpts:
North Korean-backed cyber actors are targeting the health care and public health sector, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI and Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
These actors use Maui ransomware, a specific technology that has a North Korean hallmark, to infiltrate health care sectors and hold their systems ransom in exchange for a payment, American officials said in an advisory.
The officials said that since May 2021, the agencies have observed and reacted to "multiple" Maui ransomware incidents indicating that they came from North Korea.
"North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors used Maui ransomware in these incidents to encrypt servers responsible for healthcare services—including electronic health records services, diagnostics services, imaging services, and intranet services," the advisory states. "In some cases, these incidents disrupted the services provided by the targeted HPH Sector organizations for prolonged periods."
The agencies believe that because health care organizations "provide services that are critical to human life and health," they are likely to pay ransoms when attacked. Law enforcement advise not paying the ransom and to contact CISA or the FBI instead.
"Because of this assumption, the FBI, CISA, and Treasury assess North Korean state-sponsored actors are likely to continue targeting HPH Sector organizations," the officials said.
FBI director calls China 'biggest' US threat; authorities warn of North Korean cyber attacks
Speaking alongside his British counterpart in London on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray called China the "biggest long-term threat" to both the U.S. and the U.K.
"The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology -- whatever it is that makes your industry tick -- and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market," Wray said while giving remarks to international business leaders. "And they're set on using every tool at their disposal to do it."
Wray also warned of potential tactics by Chinese officials, saying they steal technology by using intelligence officers to "target" valuable pieces of information and companies.
"We've even caught people affiliated with Chinese companies out in the U.S. heartland, sneaking into fields to dig up proprietary, genetically modified seeds, which would have cost them nearly a decade and billions in research to develop themselves," Wray said. "And those efforts pale in comparison to their lavishly-resourced hacking program that's bigger than that of every other major country combined."
The Chinese, Wray said, use cyber to "steal" volumes of information. He said U.S. officials are working with MI5, the British intelligence service, to identify other investments that the Chinese government makes in proxy relationships -- a kind of third-party venue through which China steals information.
Wray said that U.S. companies should be wary of working with or in China, something about which he has warned before, and he urged business leaders to contact the FBI for further information on ways to mitigate the Chinese cyber threat.
FBI Director Christopher Wray at a joint press conference with MI5 Director General Ken McCallum at MI5 headquarters, in central London July 6, 2022.
Dominic Lipinski/AP
His warning was the latest episode of the U.S. pushing back on what they describe as Chinese hostility. Relations between the U.S. and China have evolved since President Joe Biden took office -- his predecessor Donald Trump embarked on a trade war with the country -- and the U.S. and China remain deeply intertwined, though they are often opposed on various issues.
After one call between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this year, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry said, "The U.S.-China relationship has not yet emerged from the predicament created by the previous U.S. administration but has instead encountered more and more challenges. The U.S. side has made a misreading and misjudgment of China's strategic intentions."
On Wednesday, Wray warned that if China were to invade Taiwan, U.S. companies could see a repeat, on a much larger scale, of the economic disarray from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting international condemnation.
"Just as in Russia, Western investments built over years could become hostage capital stranded, supply chains and relationships disrupted," he said. "Companies are caught between sanctions and Chinese law forbidding compliance with them. That's not just geopolitics. It's business forecasting."
Wray concluded by saying the U.S. and U.K. were working together to combat this threat.
His remarks come as American law enforcement agencies and the Treasury Department cautioned the public of another overseas adversary, this one targeting hospital systems.
North Korean-backed cyber actors are targeting the health care and public health sector, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI and Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
These actors use Maui ransomware, a specific technology that has a North Korean hallmark, to infiltrate health care sectors and hold their systems ransom in exchange for a payment, American officials said in an advisory.
The officials said that since May 2021, the agencies have observed and reacted to "multiple" Maui ransomware incidents indicating that they came from North Korea.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum, left, and FBI Director Christopher Wray meet at MI5 headquarters, in central London, July 6, 2022.
Dominic Lipinski/AP
"North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors used Maui ransomware in these incidents to encrypt servers responsible for healthcare services—including electronic health records services, diagnostics services, imaging services, and intranet services," the advisory states. "In some cases, these incidents disrupted the services provided by the targeted HPH Sector organizations for prolonged periods."
The agencies believe that because health care organizations "provide services that are critical to human life and health," they are likely to pay ransoms when attacked. Law enforcement advise not paying the ransom and to contact CISA or the FBI instead.
"Because of this assumption, the FBI, CISA, and Treasury assess North Korean state-sponsored actors are likely to continue targeting HPH Sector organizations," the officials said.
3. S. Korea, U.S., Japan to hold talks among top diplomats in Bali this week
Excerpt:
It would mark Park's first in-person group meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi since taking office in May, another show of the regional powers' efforts to bolster their security cooperation amid North Korea's unrelenting saber-rattling.
(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S., Japan to hold talks among top diplomats in Bali this week | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with plan for S. Korea-China talks in paras 5-6)
SEOUL/ BALI, July 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin is scheduled to hold trilateral talks with his American and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G-20) session in Indonesia this week, his ministry announced Thursday.
It would mark Park's first in-person group meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi since taking office in May, another show of the regional powers' efforts to bolster their security cooperation amid North Korea's unrelenting saber-rattling.
Their talks will be held in Bali on Friday afternoon, according to the ministry's deputy spokesperson Ahn Eun-joo.
But it remains undecided whether Park will have a separate formal bilateral meeting with the Japanese minister, she added.
Park also plans to meet bilaterally with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi later Thursday on the margins of the two-day G-20 Foreign Minister's Meeting.
It would serve as an opportunity for "candid discussions" on various issues of mutual concern, including ways for "mature and healthy" relations between the two sides, Park told reporters upon arriving on the Indonesian island.
He said, "I think I will also emphasize that China's role is of importance in order to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue."
Park is likely hold a series of bilateral talks as well with his counterparts from Indonesia, Australia and the European Union and multilateral talks with the other members of the MIKTA middle-power group -- Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey and Australia -- while staying in Bali.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
4. For Korea-Japan breakthrough, devil’s in the details
And there are a lot of details.
And hopefully such a summit will result in the President and Prime Minister once and for all pledging to place national security and national prosperity first while managing the historical issues and preventing those issues from impacting on national security and prosperity. I know I sound like a broken record. I know I sound like a broken record but we cannot emphasize this issue enough since it is so important to Korea, Japan, and the US.
For Korea-Japan breakthrough, devil’s in the details
Hopeful moves underway that could lead to a ground-breaking Yoon-Kishida summit
The announced formation this week in Seoul of a government-civil-society advisory group, charged with finding a solution to the issue of wartime forced labor, is the latest, and the most significant, sign of the determination of the new South Korean government to make a breakthrough in relations with Japan.
The key immediate issue is to avoid the implementation of court orders to seize the assets of Japanese companies – initially, Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries – which the Korean courts ruled must pay compensation to Koreans who were compelled to work in their factories and mines during the war.
Asset seizure is a red line for the Japanese government, which has taken the position that compensation issues were settled by the 1965 treaty normalizing relations between South Korea and Japan and the accompanying agreement on settlement of claims. In theory, the Korean Supreme Court can issue the seizure order at any time. But the backers of this new advisory group believe the courts will hold off until a solution is proposed.
“During this period, things will be at a standstill and the courts will listen to them,” argues former Foreign Ministry official Wi Sung-lac, who served most recently as the top foreign-policy adviser to the Democratic Party’s presidential campaign. “There will be no judge who will go ahead and trigger the monetization,” he predicts. “It is not a legal issue.”
In principle …
After a week of meetings in Korea with senior officials of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration and academic and other policy experts deeply involved with Japan, this writer did not find anyone who does not share the goal of a breakthrough in relations – at least in overall principle.
Agreement extends much of the way across the political spectrum, with the notable exception of hardline left-wing activists and their supporters in the former ruling Democratic Party.
“Restoration of relations with Japan is our priority,” a senior adviser to President Yoon told me last week.
The Yoon government is stocked with senior officials who are longtime advocates of good links with Japan, among them Foreign Minister Park Jin, deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo, and the new ambassador to Tokyo, Yun Duk-min.
The new government sees close ties to Japan as integral to its broader aim to make Korea a pivotal player in the global struggle of democracies against authoritarian challengers such as China and Russia – a struggle highlighted by the presence of both Korean and Japanese leaders at the NATO summit last week.
There is even support from some people identified with the left-of-center Democratic Party, the party of former President Moon Jae-in. “We need to improve relations with Japan,” said Pak Haksoon, a well-known policymaker and former head of the Sejong Institute, a powerful think-tank. “I am sorry Moon Jae-in did not do something creative toward Japan, so we will give some room to Yoon.”
But there are limits to any leeway the new Korean president has to explore a pathway to normalization of relations. The conservative leader was elected by a historically slim margin. Although his popularity was bolstered by victories in local elections last month, it is already slipping.
The Democratic Party controls the National Assembly and, overall, is not interested in making his life easier, particularly on any proposed compromise on sensitive wartime issues.
“People cannot forget about past history,” warns Pak, who now heads a think tank dedicated to former leader Kim Dae-jung. “If Yoon goes ahead without caring about what South Koreans keep deep in their hearts, there will be serious repercussions.”
Tokyo’s cautious response
Equally problematic is the attitude of the government of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, which has responded to every overture from Seoul with exceeding caution if not coldness.
Korean officials point to some positive signs, among them the attendance of Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at Yoon’s inauguration and a reception held for their transition-team delegation in Tokyo.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (left) meets incoming South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin in Seoul. Photo: South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs
But Tokyo refused a proposed visit by Korean Foreign Minister Park last month and turned down South Korean attempts to organize a serious bilateral meeting at the NATO summit – settling for a very brief exchange at a formal dinner and a short trilateral meeting organized by US President Joe Biden.
At that meeting, Kishida made no gestures to personal ties and talked only about a joint response to the threat of North Korean nuclear testing.
South Korean officials and Japan hands attribute Kishida’s less-than-warm response to several factors. Most point to the upcoming Upper House elections and to the ongoing power of more hardline conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party – politicians closely tied to former prime minister Shinzo Abe who don’t see the change in government in Seoul as a meaningful shift in Korea.
Japanese officials continue to insist that there can be no real progress until Korea makes a clear first step to remove the history issues that loom over the relationship.
“The Japanese were worried about meeting without a result,” observed former South Korean foreign minister and ambassador to Japan Yu Myung-hwan. “Kishida is not free from Abe’s influence.” Yu points to Kishida’s yielding to Abe’s pressure to push for a UNESCO world heritage status for a former gold mine on Sado Island that used wartime Korean forced laborers.
“Kishida doesn’t differentiate between the left in Korea, which is anti-Japan, and the Korean people who want to have better relations,” says Yu, who has been a prominent advocate of improved Korea-Japan relations.
He acknowledges the ongoing undercurrent of anti-Japanese feelings but urges Japan to provide the new government with more reciprocal and clear support for its efforts. “Kishida should help Yoon,” he says. “Just to meet and shake hands is very timid.”
Korean government officials share that frustration in the face of Japanese caution, though they understand the needs for Korea both to be patient and to take the first steps. Senior American officials echo those views.
In Seoul, there is a great deal of interest in the upcoming Japanese elections and the potential fate of Kishida – and that of Hayashi, who has been an active player in Korea-Japan relations and enjoys good personal relations with senior Koreans.
Kishida’s role in negotiating the 2015 Comfort Women agreement – and in persuading Abe to accept that deal – is appreciated by senior Korean officials. But there is also the sense that Kishida feels burned by the collapse of that deal at the hands of the Moon government and is now reluctant to risk a new bargain with Seoul.
Finding a roadmap
Seoul’s newly announced public-private committee is an attempt to meet the Japanese demand for a “first step.” The committee is chaired by Vice-Foreign Minister Cho Hyundong, an experienced official who is well aware of the challenges in finding an acceptable solution.
The 12 members of the committee include academic experts, business figures and, crucially, two lawyers who serve as the legal representative of the forced laborers. The goal is to come up with specific proposals, ones that have the backing of the victims and are potentially acceptable to Japan as well.
Display mannequins represent forced laborers working inside a Sado Island mine tunnel. Photo by imp98 (CC), flickr, 2016.
According to experts involved in creating the advisory group, there are several ideas on the table.
One approach was to get the victims and their lawyers to give up their claims but that is considered impossible – some of the victims are linked to a more hawkish organization that has already criticized the new group.
Another idea is to return to the arbitration procedure built into the 1965 treaty, which the Japanese government had initially proposed. But this may take years at best and would not hold off the asset seizure by the court, which has already repudiated the treaty.
The most viable idea seems to be to have Korean firms that benefited from Japanese loans and grants provided in the 1965 treaty – for example, Posco, the Korean steelmaker – give initial funds for compensation. Japanese firms would then be asked to voluntarily contribute to the fund created for that purpose.
According to former foreign minister Yu, who has been engaged in this process, lawyers for the victims are amenable to this solution. They have asked the Japanese government to allow them to talk directly to the Japanese firms, which so far Tokyo has refused to do, arguing it would undermine the 1965 treaty.
The aim in Seoul is to synchronize this roadmap to lead to a Yoon-Kishida summit. But that requires Kishida and his government also to take political risks. Korean senior officials are looking for some gestures from Japan to ease the way to a solution.
One step that would signal Japan’s serious interest in improving relations would be to remove the remaining controls on Korean exports, imposed during the downturn in relations with the Moon administration.
Another would be to show “an apologetic attitude” by reaffirming Kishida’s commitment to the Kono statement on comfort women and the statements of previous cabinets on war responsibility.
The key, however, is a readiness to resume normal bilateral meetings, at all levels.
It is stunning to realize that there has been no official state visit of a Japanese prime minister to South Korea since the visit of Naoto Kan in 2010, a dozen years ago, and no Korean presidential visit to Japan since the disastrous meeting in Kyoto in 2011.
The Biden administration’s efforts to push trilateral cooperation through triangular meetings on the sidelines of other events, such as the upcoming Group of Twenty foreign ministers meeting, are not a substitute for what should be normal diplomacy. It would be more useful for the Americans quietly to push Japan to respond more seriously to the outreach from South Korea.
“Japan needs to accept foreign-minister meetings and high-level summits readily,” says a former senior Korean official. “If they don’t do that, the window in South Korea will be closed quite easily.”
This article was originally published by The Oriental Economist. It is republished here with kind permission. Daniel Sneider is a lecturer of international policy and East Asian studies at Stanford University and a non-resident distinguished fellow at the Korea Economic Institute. Follow him on Twitter @DCSneider.
5. North Korea gives war death certificate to soldiers who died from COVID-19 symptoms
Well they are trying to combat the pandemic. But the certificates are worthless because the regime and the party can (or will) no longer try to take care of the people.
I am reminded of the scene in the Netflix K drama Crash Landing on You. The protagonist from South Korea joined some village women in a Kimchi battle where they are all worked to make Kimchi. She remarked to the ladies asking if everything is a war for the Korean people and one of the women replied incredulously, yes.
North Korea gives war death certificate to soldiers who died from COVID-19 symptoms
The certificate used to give families of war dead special privileges, but it is now essentially worthless.
By Hyemin Son for RFA Korean
2022.07.06
North Korean soldiers who died of COVID-19 symptoms after participating in a military parade in April are receiving an honorable war death certificate that used to confer bereaved families with special privileges, but is essentially worthless these days, sources in the country told RFA.
After two years of denying the coronavirus had penetrated its closed borders, North Korea in May acknowledged coronavirus had begun to spread among participants of the large-scale military parade held at the end of the previous month and declared a “maximum emergency” to fight the disease.
The soldiers who developed symptoms of COVID-19 after the parade and died while in quarantine were quickly cremated and their remains were returned to their families along with the once prestigious “Certificate of Honor for War Death.”
In years’ past, the certificate was given out only in the rarest of circumstances, such as when a soldier died in combat training or during the infrequent skirmishes with the South Korean military that occasionally erupt along the demilitarized zone that separates North from South. Bereaved families who received the certificate would also get extra food rations or special preference when applying for government jobs or party positions. But the sheer number of certificates sent out these days, combined with North Korea’s struggling economy, make the certificates essentially worthless, sources told RFA.
“Immediately after the massive military parade held in Kim Il Sung Square in April, the soldiers who were confirmed to have COVID-19 received intensive treatment at an isolation facility in Pyongyang,” a resident of the North Korean capital told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“But hundreds of the severely ill patients died and they were promptly cremated at the Obongsan crematory,” he said.
The cremations were ordered even before families were aware that their soldier had died, the source said. When they informed the families, they said the soldiers died while receiving treatment for an “acute respiratory infection,” stopping short of calling the infection COVID-19.
“Because the military parade was considered a success thanks to the sacrifice of the dead soldiers, the authorities awarded the families with the Certificate of Honor for War Death when they returned the ashes of their loved ones,” he said.
“The bereaved families wept at the sudden news, and they returned home with a cremation urn and the certificate as gifts from the state. A month and a half later, many of the families are still angry at the authorities, who they say have put these young soldiers in unnecessary danger, even killing some of them, for the sake of a military parade,” said the source.
The parade involved more than 100,000 military officers, soldiers and college students from all over the country, with students from the military university in Pyongyang participating in large numbers, another source from the city, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told RFA.
“I heard from an official of the Capital Quarantine Committee that many of the students were among the participants in the parade who died from COVID-19,” the second source said.
“The authorities secretly transported the dead bodies to the Obongsan crematory in Pyongyang. They cremated the bodies and gave the bereaved family an urn and the Certificate of Honor for War Death,” she said.
The certificate this time carries less meaning than it did in the past, according to the second source.
“It is customary to hold a public award ceremony as a national event for recipients of the Certificate of Honor for War Death, but the authorities quietly called on the bereaved families, because they want to keep secret the total number of parade participants who died from COVID-19,” she said.
“The bereaved families… were unable to say anything and wept while receiving the certificate. They are resentful at the thought that their healthy sons died because of a military parade,” she said.
While technically not fighting and dying in a battle, the parade participants are eligible for the certificate because they carried their military ID cards during the parade. On this technicality the parade was designated as combat training.
The certificate is merely a means to placate the bereaved families though, according to the second source.
Under normal circumstances the state would give many perks to the families who received the certificate including priority in personnel decisions, because the soldier died in battle or in combat training.
But these days, due to North Korea’s extreme economic hardship, and because most personnel decisions are decided through bribery, the certificate is no longer valued as it once was. In fact, the state has been widening the circumstances where soldiers can receive the certificate to justify giving more of them out, according to the second source.
“If soldiers die while working at a construction site, that should be treated as a labor safety accident, but there have been many cases where the Certificate of Honor for War Death is given when soldiers die while working on the Pyongyang Household Construction project, because it is a priority of the Highest Dignity,” said the second source, using an honorific term for the country’s leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim has vowed to build 10,000 new homes in the capital per year for a total of 50,000 homes by the end of 2025. The builders failed to reach their goal of 10,000 homes in 2021 but are still trying to hit 20,000 by the end of this year, so speed, rather than safety is the main concern, the second source said.
Giving out the war death certificate for deaths that are clearly unrelated to combat is becoming more common, a former high-ranking military official, who has resettled in South Korea after escaping the North, told RFA on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
“It’s just a trick to avoid complaints from the bereaved families and residents. They are angry at the leaders who held the parade [amid the pandemic], causing so many young people to die,” he said.
The North Korean government has only reported a handful of confirmed COVID-19 cases, but it has been tracking fever symptoms since it declared a maximum emergency after the post-parade breakout.
According to the most recent data published by the state-run Korea Central News Agency, more than 4.75 million people have come down with fever, at least 99.9 percent of whom have made full recoveries, while 74 people have died.
RFA was not able to determine if North Korea has counted any soldiers who participated in the parade among the 74 reported deaths.
Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
6. N. Korean hackers target health care facilities with ransomware: US agencies
Excerpts:
The US government agencies also warned that North Korean hackers are likely to continue to exploit the vulnerabilities of health care facilities on the presumption that it would be easier to receive a ransom fee from them.
“The North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors likely assume health care organizations are willing to pay ransoms because these organizations provide services that are critical to human life and health,” the joint security advisory said
“Because of this assumption, the FBI, CISA, and Treasury assess North Korean state-sponsored actors are likely to continue targeting HPH Sector organizations.”
But the US government agencies also highly discourage victims from paying ransom to cyber attacks as the payment does not guarantee the recovery of records and files and may breach relevant US sanctions laws and regulations.
N. Korean hackers target health care facilities with ransomware: US agencies
Joint cybersecurity advisory issued to raise alarm about ransomware attacks by N. Korea
Published : Jul 7, 2022 - 15:15 Updated : Jul 7, 2022 - 15:33
(123rf)
North Korea’s state-sponsored hackers have targeted hospitals and other health care facilities with ransomware, the US government agencies said Wednesday, warning of potential ransomware cyberattacks.
The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the US Treasury Department issued a joint cybersecurity advisory to raise the alarm about ransomware threats against the US health care and public health sector organizations and suggest ways to mitigate and prevent ransomware attacks.
The FBI has observed that North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors have used customized ransomware, known as Maui, multiple times to infiltrate and disable the computer networks of health care facilities at least since May 2021.
North Korean hackers were seen using Maui ransomware to “encrypt servers responsible for health care services -- including health records services, diagnostics services, imaging services and intranet services.”
Ransomware is a type of malicious software or malware that uses encryption to threaten to publish or block access to computer files and databases and hold them hostage until a victim pays a ransom fee to cyberattackers.
The US government agencies also warned that North Korean hackers are likely to continue to exploit the vulnerabilities of health care facilities on the presumption that it would be easier to receive a ransom fee from them.
“The North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors likely assume health care organizations are willing to pay ransoms because these organizations provide services that are critical to human life and health,” the joint security advisory said
“Because of this assumption, the FBI, CISA, and Treasury assess North Korean state-sponsored actors are likely to continue targeting HPH Sector organizations.”
But the US government agencies also highly discourage victims from paying ransom to cyber attacks as the payment does not guarantee the recovery of records and files and may breach relevant US sanctions laws and regulations.
7. N. Korean leader urges 'absolute obedience' to ruling party
This reminds me of the words of the highest ranking defector from the north, the late Hwang Jang Yop:
“The fundamental reason for human rights being trampled in North Korea lies in the ‘Dear Leader Absolutism’ dictatorship. There can be no human rights for the people in North Korea where the greatest morality and absolute law is giving one’s mind and body to the Dear Leader; and living as a slave who obeys completely and unconditionally the Dear Leader - it is the only life permitted the North Korean People.”
Hwang Jang Yop, 2 DEC 99
N. Korean leader urges 'absolute obedience' to ruling party
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides the first-ever workshop to strengthen the "monolithic" leadership of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), held from Saturday to Wednesday, at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang for officials in the party life guidance sections of organizational departments, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)'s Thursday report. Yonhap
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held the first-ever workshop to strengthen the "monolithic" leadership of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), state media reported Thursday, in his latest move aimed at tightening internal discipline.
The workshop, the first of its kind, was held from July 2-6 at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang for officials in the party life guidance sections of organizational departments, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The special workshop was held to establish the "monolithic leadership system" of the party's central committee "more thoroughly" across the party and society, realize the "organizational and ideological consolidation of the Party ranks in every way" and improve the role of the party, the KCNA said.
At the workshop, Kim stressed that all party organizations should "regard it as the main iron rule of Party life guidance to establish the discipline absolutely obeying the monolithic leadership of the Party Central Committee."
"Noting that our Party has powerfully guided socialist construction while further cementing the political position and displaying its fighting efficiency despite manifold harsh trials and challenges, he said it would have been unthinkable without the activities of the Party life guidance sections of the organizational departments of the Party committees at all levels," the KCNA added.
Kim also pointed out that the party life guidance sections failed to meet the demand and intention of the central committee, it said, suggesting that he could have rebuked the officials serving in the organizational department.
Attending the workshop were top party officials, such as Jo Yong-won, secretary for organizational affairs of the WPK's Central Committee, and Ri Il-hwan, secretary of the WPK Central Committee.
The workshop appears to be part of the North's efforts to tighten social discipline and rally internal unity amid multiple challenges, including growing economic pressure from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. (Yonhap)
8. Body found in Han River’s estuary may be that of a North Korean boy, police suspect
Another tragedy. Sadly this is not unusual.
Excerpt:
It is not a rarity that bodies of North Koreans wash up in the South.
Body found in Han River’s estuary may be that of a North Korean boy, police suspect
Published : Jul 6, 2022 - 13:30 Updated : Jul 6, 2022 - 13:41
A body found Tuesday in an estuary of the Han River just south of the border with North Korea may have floated from North Korea, police here said Wednesday.
The body, presumed to be a boy around 10 years old, was recovered at the estuary in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, just 9 kilometers from the Military Demarcation Line. It is where Han River meets the West Sea.
When the body was recovered, the deceased had only shorts on, which according to police investigators, looked worn out, had elastic waist strings and no fabric labels that are required for all clothing products sold here.
Han River (Yonhap)
Police said they were working to establish the boy’s identity, while leaving all possibilities open, including accidental drowning, foul play or the victim of a recent North Korean flood having been washed down here.
In late June, the communist North’s state-run Korea Central News Agency reported that most parts of the country had suffered damage from heavy torrential downpours and subsequent flooding.
It is not a rarity that bodies of North Koreans wash up in the South.
In the summer of 2007, Seoul authorities repatriated the bodies of 11 North Korean flood victims who had floated down to the South.
From news reports
9. F-35 stealth fighter jets from US, South Korea send message to North Korea
I wonder if we will see a ROK and US "elephant walk."
Kim Jong Un should fear this capability.
F-35 stealth fighter jets from US, South Korea send message to North Korea
CNN · by Brad Lendon and Gawon Bae, CNN
Seoul, South Korea (CNN)Top-of-the-line F-35 stealth fighter jets from the United States and South Korea are teaming up for the first time in a 10-day exercise meant to send a message to North Korea.
Six US Air Force F-35As from Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska arrived in South Korea on Tuesday and will fly with F-35s from the host nation in a series of exercises ending July 14, the two militaries said.
"This deployment is aimed at enhancing the interoperability of (our air forces) while demonstrating the strong deterrence and joint defense posture of the alliance," the South Korean Defense Ministry said.
A South Korean spokesperson said this is the first time stealth fighters from the two allies have worked together.
Experts say stealth fighters able to evade Pyongyang's radars would be vital in any action against North Korea.
A US Air Force F-35 fighter jet from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, arrives in South Korea to conduct flight operations on Tuesday.
"Considering the evolving threat posed by (North Korea), both leaders agree to initiate discussions to expand the scope and scale of combined military exercises and training on and around the Korean Peninsula," the White House said after the two presidents met. "Both leaders also reaffirm the commitment of the US to deploy strategic US military assets in a timely and coordinated manner as necessary."
Tensions with North Korea have been increasing in recent months. Pyongyang has been testing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads at a record pace, with at least 17 launches this year.
The US military said the American F-35s would operate alongside other US aircraft during their deployment, without giving specifics.
But working with the South Korean F-35s is the main event.
The F-35 is one of the world's most advanced fighter aircraft. The US operates hundreds of the jets, which come in three configurations, the conventional take-off and landing F-35As, flown by the Air Force; the Marine Corps' F-35Bs, which can land vertically; and the F-35C, configured for aircraft carrier operations.
Like the US Air Force, the South Korean Air Force flies the F-35A, with its first jet delivered by manufacturer Lockheed Martin in 2018. Its fleet of 40 of the fifth-generation jets became fully operational this spring.
South Korean F-35A stealth fighters perform an elephant walk on March 25.
On March 25, a day after one of Pyongyang's missile tests, Seoul staged an "elephant walk" of its F-35 fleet, lining up the jets all at once on a runway in a display of power.
"Using the F-35A stealth fighters, the invisible power capable of stealth infiltration and precise striking, we will achieve an overwhelming strategic victory and maintain a full military posture that will deter further actions by North Korea," then-Defense Minister Suh Wook said during the elephant walk.
Those warplanes were part of a massive annual US-South Korea exercise named Vigilant Ace, which was canceled later under the Donald Trump administration as the then-US President tried to entice North Korea's Kim Jong Un into giving up his nuclear missile programs.
After three meetings between Trump and Kim failed to yield an agreement, North Korea has ramped up its missile program. The US and South Korea fear Pyongyang may try to test a nuclear weapon soon, something it has not done since 2017.
CNN · by Brad Lendon and Gawon Bae, CNN
10. FBI, treasury department issue joint advisory against N. Korean ransomware
FBI, treasury department issue joint advisory against N. Korean ransomware
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a cybersecurity advisory on Wednesday against ransomware that it said is being used by North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors.
The advisory, jointly issued by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Department of Treasury, said North Korean hackers have been using Maui ransomware since at least May 2021 to target healthcare and public health (HPH) sector organizations.
"Since May 2021, the FBI has observed and responded to multiple Maui ransomware incidents at HPH Sector organizations," said the joint advisory, also noting that in some cases the ransomware had disrupted services provided by targeted organizations for "prolonged periods."
"North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors used Maui ransomware in these incidents to encrypt servers responsible for healthcare services—including electronic health records services, diagnostics services, imaging services, and intranet services," it added.
The advisory said Maui ransomware is an "encryption binary," which allows a remote actor to interact with the malware and identify files to encrypt.
The issuing organizations noted North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors may have deployed the malware against healthcare and public health organizations as they likely assumed healthcare organizations "are willing to pay ransoms because these organizations provide services that are critical to human life and health."
They, however, said they "highly discourage" paying ransoms because "doing so does not guarantee files and records will be recovered and may pose sanctions risks."
Providing money or other goods to North Korea may be subject to punishment under US and UN Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang.
North Korea is said to be increasingly using cyber attacks to secure funds for its nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction programs since the US and UN sanctions have reduced most of its sources for hard currency.
The US advisory urged caution by those in related sectors to mitigate ransomware attacks, which they said may include using multilayer network segmentation and securing personal identifiable information and patient health information and storing such information only on internal systems. (Yonhap)
11. North Korea and Iran: A Military Technology Partnership from Hell?
The revisionist and rogue powers are strongly intertwined. See the work of Dr. Bruce Bechtol to understand the north Korea-Iran connections.
North Korea and Iran: A Military Technology Partnership from Hell?
North Korea and Iran: The Real Axis of Military Evil? The international community has turned its focus squarely on Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February. While Putin’s offensive war certainly deserves the condemnation it regularly receives, two other rogue nations have escalated their malign behavior in the meantime.
North Korea and Iran are critical threats to U.S. national security. Tehran has ramped up its missile development program and raw materials production, and it is rapidly approaching its nuclear breakout time. Meanwhile, Pyongyang has carried out an unprecedented number of missile launches over the last year, bringing the nation closer to possessing a functional nuclear-weapons delivery system.
Artillery, Advisers, and Missiles
Shared opposition to American hegemony has fermented the Iranian-North Korean military partnership for years. The two nations’ strategic cooperation began after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Ostracized by the West, Pyongyang and Tehran turned to each other to acquire the means necessary for survival. Iran transferred oil to North Korea and received military expertise and equipment in exchange. During the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War, North Korea became a primary weapons supplier to Iran, cementing its global position as a major legal arms exporter to the developing world.
North Korea delivered the M1978 long-range artillery gun to Tehran in the 1980s, and this weapon remains in Iran’s arsenal today. Pyongyang also supplied Soviet T-54/T-55 tanks, Chinese equipment, and ammunition to Iran’s military forces. By the second half of the Iran-Iraq War, North Korea was funneling still more Soviet and Chinese military equipment to Iran. Most notably, however, North Korea sent technical advisers to Iran, and these advisers helped bring out the country’s military potential. Conventional wisdom holds that approximately 300 North Korean military advisers worked in Tehran by the end of the 1980s.
And that’s not all. Perhaps North Korea’s most critical contribution to the Iranian military during the Iran-Iraq War was the delivery of 300-kilometer-range Scud-B missiles. This purchase triggered the two countries’ ballistic missile relationship. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Pyongyang also agreed to aid Iran in developing the industrial infrastructure necessary to produce its own Scud-B variant.
Writes CSIS: “These variants imported from the DPRK – as well as those now assembled in Iran – were named the Shahab-1 (translation: “Meteor-1”). The Shahab-1 is nearly identical to the North Korean Scud B variant (Hwasong-5), although it likely incorporates materials more accessible to Iran.”
Iran reportedly first launched the Shahab-1 variant in the late 1980s and began manufacturing them indigenously by the mid-1990s.
North Korea-Iran, a Nuclear Team
During the 1990s, the partnership strengthened when Tehran purchased the Pyongyang-made, 500km-range Scud-C (Shahab-2) missile. In a 1993 report, the U.S. intelligence community cautioned that Iran, “one of North Korea’s best customers for ballistic missiles and related technology, is likely to be one of the first recipients of the 1,000 km Nodong. By the end of this decade [1990s], Iran could be able to assemble short-range (Scud B and Scud C) and medium-range No Dong ballistic missiles.”
According to reports, a 1994 meeting between North Korean Air Force Commander Gen. Cho Myong Rok and his Iranian counterpart culminated in the testing of the Nodong-2 missile in Tehran. In a 2008 report, the opposition group called the National Council of Resistance of Iran alleged that North Korean personnel were covertly working at a Defense Ministry site suspected of producing nuclear warhead technology. According to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “reportedly drew on North Korean expertise (and used an IRGC cutout, the “Shahid Rajaei” company), in order to construct a defense infrastructure that would protect and conceal its military nuclear program.” Iran’s Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites are a product of this collaboration.
In addition to its ballistic missile arsenal, Iran’s submarine arsenal, which it largely obtained in the early 2000s, can be attributed in part to the DPRK. Iran’s Ghadir-class midget submarines are essentially a carbon copy of North Korea’s MS-29 Yono class vessels. Acquired to patrol shallow coastal waters, the Ghadir submarines can fire torpedoes, lay mines, and join anti-shipping operations. While none of Tehran’s submarines can launch ballistic or cruise missiles, the Iranian Navy without doubt intends to change that.
Since 2006, the international community has implemented sanctions on Pyongyang to no avail. Even as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was in the works, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Pyongyang supplied missile components to Tehran. This move represented a clear violation of UN sanctions, but the Obama administration gave the rogue state a pass in order to not disrupt the deal’s prospects. This 2015 incident demonstrated how willing both North Korea and Iran are to circumvent international standards.
More recently, in 2020, North Korea and Iran resumed collaborative efforts to develop long-range missile capabilities, according to a UN report. The text of the annual report emphasized that cooperation includes the transfer of critical parts.
North Korea and Iran have both carried out various missile and rocket tests over the last few years. Just last week, Iran carried out a second test of its Zuljanah satellite rocket as nuclear negotiations reopened in Vienna. A few weeks earlier, North Korea launched eight short-range missiles in a similar escalation. Since the Iran-North Korea partnership has not faltered, the technological success of one state bodes well for the other.
Maya Carlin is a Middle East Defense Editor with 19FortyFive. She is also an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel.
12. Global pivotal state vision and Korea's new multilateral diplomacy
Useful analysis of President Yoon's foreign policy vision.
Global pivotal state vision and Korea's new multilateral diplomacy
By Yun Byung-se
"The attendance of the South Korean president at the NATO summit for the first time has historical significance at the NATO level," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during his meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol in Madrid last week.
From my standpoint, the implications of President Yoon's attendance at the summit are in no way confined to the global partnership between Korea and NATO, but are far-reaching for his administration's foreign and security policies down the road. Among other things, I attach special importance to the revitalization of Korea's multilateral diplomacy and to the growing and dynamic linkage of Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific collaboration on multiple global and regional challenges beyond the Korean Peninsula.
Indeed, President Yoon set out a national vision for a "global pivotal state" (GPS) and foreshadowed his commitment toward global leadership. In his inaugural speech, he put forth a sober assessment of multiple complex crises across the world that no one country or group of countries can resolve on their own.
He sent out a loud and clear message to work with fellow global citizens to solve problems within and beyond our respective borders. He declared that Korea will take on a greater role befitting its stature and in response to the calls of international community, including in sharing and protecting freedom, liberal democracy and the rule of law around the world.
What is noteworthy is the speed and resolve of follow-up actions being taken to fulfill his statements, both bilaterally and multilaterally, as well as the positive feedback from the U.S. and many like-minded countries. U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Korea ― coming unprecedentedly early on the 10th day after the Korean president's inauguration ― and the comprehensive joint statement with President Yoon served as a springboard for Korea's new multilateral diplomacy.
Their agreement to upgrade the U.S.-Korea alliance to a "global comprehensive strategic alliance beyond the Korean Peninsula" echoed Yoon's vision for Korea as a global pivotal state with a heightened role in advancing peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. They reaffirmed that "the global comprehensive strategic alliance is firmly rooted in the shared values of promoting democracy and the rules-based international order, fighting corruption and advancing human rights."
On the multilateral front, Yoon, in the short span of less than two months, attended the 2nd Global COVID-19 Summit and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) inaugural summit virtually as well as the NATO summit. On the margins of the NATO summit, the first trilateral summit among the U.S., Korea and Japan in almost five years was held and a meeting of the leaders of the four Asia-Pacific partner nations was also held for the first time.
While the COVID-19 summit was about the global health security of humankind as a whole, the IPEF and NATO summits were more about shaping a new international order ensuing from the end of the post-Cold War era, triggered primarily by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and aggravating U.S.-China strategic competition.
As the IPEF and NATO countries are more concerned with challenges and threats from the fast-changing geopolitical and geo-economic realities, they inevitably focus on how to galvanize the solidarity of like-minded countries who share the same rules-based order, universal values and security concerns.
For one thing, NATO's 2022 Strategic Concept adopted last week elucidated its vision: "We want to live in a world where sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights and international law are respected and where each country can choose its own path, free from aggression, coercion or subversion. We work with all who share these goals." This vision is basically not much different from what South Korea stands for.
This is why South Korea established a global partnership with NATO in 2006 and the two have worked together ever since in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Libya, as well as on various non-traditional security issues such as terrorism and cybersecurity. Three Korean foreign ministers, including myself, addressed the North Atlantic Council ― NATO's principal decision-making body ― on our common agendas. Korea is now poised to conclude a new partnership arrangement and open its mission to NATO later this year. As crises and conflicts are becoming boundless and borderless more than ever before, NATO and the Indo-Pacific countries, including Korea, are expected to collaborate more frequently.
In a similar vein, as the EU and Korea forged a strategic partnership in 2010, they will get closer through each other's Indo-Pacific strategy. Yoon's government is set to adopt a new Indo-Pacific strategy in the coming months. As such, it is so timely that NATO invited the leader of Korea along with three other global partners from the Indo-Pacific: Japan, Australia and New Zealand. When the Indo-Pacific meets the Euro-Atlantic, it could have huge impacts.
Such tendencies of like-minded partners to work together on common challenges in their regions or inter-regionally will be on the rise in an era of weakening global multilateral bodies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the U.N. Security Council, in particular. As the Yoon government made a good start on the above multilateral fronts, it should now carry the momentum forward in forthcoming regional and global gatherings and make its voice heard on issues of both common concern and interest, such as at the G20, East Asia Summit (EAS), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Summit for Democracy and the United Nations and its diverse bodies, to name a few.
No doubt, the road to a full-fledged global pivotal state will be long and bumpy. It requires a global mindset, prescience, enlightened self-interest, financial burden sharing, domestic support and, among other things, unwavering commitment to our common values and principles.
Formidable obstacles are already in place and will continue to come, including from our northern neighbors. We should manage and overcome those challenges in a wise and prudent way, but they should not be reasons for South Korea to shrink from taking on its growing responsibility as a global leader.
Professor Ramon Pacheco Pardo of King's College London said in his new book, "Shrimp to Whale," that South Korea is a "shrimp among whales no more," and "it has become a whale itself." As a corollary, he calls for a much stronger voice from South Korea in global and regional arenas, in collaboration with its partners as necessary. Whether you agree or not, such expectations are why the U.S. welcomed South Korea's participation in the IPEF and why NATO invited the Korean president to its summit for the first time in its history.
Yun Byung-se, former foreign minister of South Korea, is now a board member of the Korea Peace Foundation and a member of several ex-global leaders' forums and task forces, including the Astana Forum and its Consultative Council as well as the Task Force on U.S. Allies and Nuclear Weapons Proliferation sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
13. Spotted: South Korea's KF-21 Boramae 'Stealthy' Fighter Nearly Ready to Fly
Spotted: South Korea's KF-21 Boramae 'Stealthy' Fighter Nearly Ready to Fly
South Korea’s KF-21 Boramae Ready for Maiden Flight: Last month, the South Korean defense agency announced that was seeking to purchase additional Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighter jets as part of its preemptive strike strategy dubbed “Kill Chain,” which is meant to counter North Korean nuclear and missile threats.
Under the current plan, South Korea could receive 20 of the fifth-generation stealth fighters for its air force by 2030, Defense News first reported. Seoul had previously purchased 40 F-35A Block 3 fighters, and had received all of those aircraft by the end of last year. The additional jets would be the Block 4 variant, which provides various upgrades including an improved electro-optic system and are able to carry additional ordnance.
However, even as South Korea remains the largest operator of the F-35 after the United States, it has developed its own advanced fighter, the KF-21 Boramae. The aircraft, which has been developed entirely with domestic technology, has been seen to represent a significant step for South Korea’s defense industry.
The Assembly of the first prototype had begun in 2020, and the roll-out of the aircraft took place last year. The KF-21 program is currently about a month behind schedule, due largely to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Getting Ready to Take Flight
The KF-21 prototypes have been conducting various ground tests at the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) facility in Sacheon. Pre-flight ground tests have reportedly been concluded on the six flyable prototypes as well as the two ground-testing models. Before the KF-21 is certified “operational,” all six of the prototypes must complete approximately 2,000 test flight sorties.
The first prototype took part in taxiing and engine tests in advance of its first flight, which is scheduled to take place later this month. Video of that ground test was shared on Monday via YouTube.
This included operations of the General Electric F414-GE-400K engines, while the runway tests are largely seen as an indication that the maiden flight could take place in the coming weeks or even days. Multiple reports suggest that the flight will occur on July 22.
South Korea has been developing the KF-21 to replace its aging fleet of F-4E Phantom II and F-5E/F Tiger II fighters. The Republic of Korean Air Force (ROKAF) is expected to induct some 40 KF-21s by 2028, with a goal of having a full fleet of 120 aircraft deployed by 2032. In addition, 50 of the jets will be provided to Indonesia, which is a junior partner in the program.
While an advanced aircraft, the KF-21 isn’t meant to supersede the Lockheed Martin F-35. It lacks the stealth capabilities of the American-built aircraft, as it carries weapons externally on its six underwing and four under-fuselage hardpoints. The South Korean aircraft thus would complement its fleet of F-35s, while future plans call for a derivative that would utilize an internal weapons bay. In addition, the KF-21 Block 1 variants will have only air-to-air capabilities, while the subsequent Block 2 will be able to conduct air-to-ground operations.
However, these small steps show that South Korea could soon be the next military aviation powerhouse.
Now a Senior Editor for 1945, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes.
14. North Korea’s dire food shortage may become more acute
I cannot emphasize it enough. We need to observe for indicators of internal instability. Conditions could be worse than the Arduous March of the famine of 1994-96.
North Korea’s dire food shortage may become more acute
Even a wet rainy season might not save the harvest
For a look behind the scenes of our data journalism, sign up to Off the Charts, our weekly newsletter
The rainy season has finally started in North Korea, and not a moment too soon. Months of clear skies have left fields arid and crops undernourished, raising the risk of failed harvests (see chart). This is grave news. The country is experiencing chronic food-insecurity problems so severe that its leader, Kim Jong Un, last year drew a comparison to a famine in the 1990s that killed at least 200,000 and perhaps as many as 3m people. By the regime’s own admission, this year’s drought is the second-worst since records began in 1981.
Trustworthy information is hard to come by, but a report by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) gives some indication of how bad things may be. It uses snow coverage and rainfall to assess the potential damage to the harvest. Snow is important for all three of North Korea’s planting seasons. During the harsh winter it insulates crops sown in autumn. In spring it waters both these crops and those planted in March. And it ensures that soil is sufficiently moist for summer crops, which are the most important for meeting North Koreans’ nutritional needs. Though slightly better than last year, snow coverage has been markedly below average.
After a stormy March, spring rains ceased. April and May saw only 70% of the average rainfall, with the shortfall particularly affecting the southern regions where much of North Korea’s cereal is grown. Deprived of water, crops produce poorer harvests. The drought probably delayed the planting of maize and rice, the country’s two most important food staples. Combined with North Korea’s poor water management, an already precarious food situation is likely to get worse.
Most of North Korea’s rainfall comes in the summer, so there is still hope of recovery. But it is far from assured. And the summer storms have already brought severe flooding. The WFP also warns that heatwaves may be on the way, putting crops at further risk. With cross-border trade still severely constrained because of covid-19, help from abroad will be limited. The severity of North Korea’s own outbreak of the disease remains shrouded by the state’s false reporting, but at the very least restrictions on travel and markets make it harder to put food on the table. The monsoons will inspire trepidation, but also some hope for the harvest. Experience will have taught North Koreans not to be optimistic. ■
15. S Korean group floats balloons toward North amid animosities
So much being done by so few. Imagine if this group had the support of the government and was integrated into a holistic information and influence campaign?
Some considerations for a strategic influence campaign:
•Information and influence activities campaign to target regime elite, second tier leaders, and the population.
–Arguably the most important effort
–When is the best time to plant a tree?
–So much potential
•Full spectrum of media
•6.5 million smart phones and growing
•Korean Dramas – Crash Landing On You
•Use of escapees (defectors)
•Themes and messages for short and long term effects
•north Korea is a laboratory for PSYOP innovation
•How to help our ally with effective influence operations
7 Basic Considerations for Information and Influence Activities in the north
1.Focus on creating divisions within the elite
2.Influence the 2d tier leadership
3.Adopt simple concepts that are meaningful to the Korea people living in the north and support the idea of unification
4.Focus on human rights violations by the Kim Family Regime
5.Focus on educating people on the unification process (in the north and South)
–e.g., Korean Dramas
–Land ownership
–Political action at local level
–Bright future for those who engage in unification process
–Military leaders who secure WMD and prevent conflict will have a place in a unified Korea
6.Emphasize local leadership in the north during the unification process
7.Identify and support key communicators in the north
S Korean group floats balloons toward North amid animosities
AP · by HYUNG-JIN KIM · July 7, 2022
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korea activist said Thursday he launched more huge balloons carrying COVID-19 relief items toward North Korea, days after the North vowed to sternly deal with such activities and made a highly questionable claim they were a source of the virus.
South Korean experts doubt North Korea’s moves to blame South Korean balloons and say the intent might be to incite anti-South Korea sentiments and ease public complaints over its handling of the outbreak. The coronavirus is spread by people in close contact who inhale airborne droplets, and the expert consensus is that the spread of the virus from surfaces is virtually impossible.
Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, said his group floated 20 balloons carrying 20,000 masks and tens of thousands of vitamin C and fever-reducing tablets from a South Korean border town on Wednesday. He said he sent similar aid items by balloon across the inter-Korean border twice last month.
ADVERTISEMENT
One of the balloons carried a large placard calling North Korea leader Kim Jong Un “a hypocrite” and condemning him for holding South Korean activists responsible for the virus outbreak. But Park said the balloons didn’t carry what he had previously sent for years — small but numerous anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets, U.S. one-dollar bills and USB sticks containing information about the outside world. He said he’ll now focus on sending medical relief items because North Koreans urgently need them.
Since North Korea in May admitted to an omicron outbreak of the virus, its state media said about 4.8 million North Koreans have developed fevers but only 74 have died. Experts doubt the figures are accurate and speculate its disclosure of an extremely low death count is tooled to prevent political damage to Kim.
Last week, state media said the outbreak had been traced to residents who had contact with “alien things” in a town near the border and that authorities have been ordered “to vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons.”
Some outside experts, however, believe the omicron variant entered North Korea when it briefly reopened its northern border with China for freight traffic in January. Observers say the virus spread further when many North Koreans travelled to Pyongyang for massive public events marking state anniversaries in April and returned home.
“The one who spread COVID-19 is Kim Jong Un. But since public sentiments are really bad, he’s trying to put all the blame on us,” Park said. “How can materials spread COVID-19?”
Park is standing trial for a past leafleting campaign under a contentious South Korean law criminalizing such activities that took effect last year.
Park said he hasn’t been contacted by authorities about his recent ballooning activities. Police said Thursday they are investigating Park’s recent balloon launches but refused to provide further details.
North Korea is extremely sensitive to outside attempts to criticize Kim’s rule to people who has little access to information from foreign sources. In 2014, North Korea fired at balloons flying toward its territory, and in 2020 it destroyed an empty South Korean-built liaison office in the North to express its anger over leafleting.
AP · by HYUNG-JIN KIM · July 7, 2022
16. Defector group says COVID-19 pain relievers, anti-Kim banners sent to North
If I were to counsel the escapee (defector) groups I would say that they need to eliminate the anti-Kim banners and focus on useful information the Kokrean people in the north can use, positive information about unification, and educating them about their unalienable and universal human rights. And most importantly give them messages of hope that the ROK, the US, and the international community care about their welfare and are working to overcome the obstacle of the Kim family regime and the party.
Defector group says COVID-19 pain relievers, anti-Kim banners sent to North | Yonhap News Agency
GIMPO, South Korea, July 7 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean defectors' group said Thursday it has sent big balloons carrying COVID-19 pain relievers to North Korea, along with banners denouncing the regime's claim that leaflets sent from the South are responsible for its COVID-19 outbreak.
The Fighters for a Free North Korea said 20 plastic balloons were released at Gimpo, west of Seoul, on Wednesday, with 70,000 fever-reducing pills, 30,000 vitamin C tablets and 20,000 masks in them.
Also attached to the balloons were big banners countering North Korea's previous claim that its first COVID-19 outbreak was traced to a North Korean town adjacent to the inter-Korean border.
North Korean health authorities claimed a week earlier the country's COVID-19 outbreak had been traced to residents of a village in the eastern Kangwon province, who came into contact with "alien" things sent in balloons in April, apparently referring to leaflets and other materials coming from the South.
"We denounce Kim Jong-un, a hypocrite who let the vicious infectious disease from China spread and put the blame on anti-North leaflets," a photo of one of the banners, released by the defector group, showed.
With an aim to liberate North Korean people with the inflow of outside news and information, the defector group has long engaged in anti-North Korea leaflet campaigns. Their recent activities include the sending of leaflets in April on the news of President Yoon Suk-yeol's election and of COVID-19 pain relievers in late June.
pbr@yna.co.kr
(END)
17. North Korea's Kim convenes conference for strengthening 'monolithic' party rule (Read This)
"Monolithic" is an important word for the Kim family regime and the party.
It is important to understand the Ten Principles of Monolithic Ideology as this is what guides the life of all Koreans living in the north. The below is excepted from Robert Collins important HRNK report at this link: "Denied FROM THE START: Human Rights at the Local Level in North Korea" https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Collins_Denied_FINALFINALFINAL_WEB.pdf
In North Korea, the Suryong is the ultimate authority. The Kim regime has created a society based on loyalty to the Supreme Leader. Every North Korean is judged in relation to his or her family history and individual loyalty to the Suryong. Society is constructed in this manner so that stability is the norm when everyone is loyal. Within this society, North Koreans live in a state where political and social stability depend on the dominance of the Kim regime’s authority. No other form of leadership is allowed or tolerated in this monolithic Party-state where the population has no autonomy, no freedom of thought, and little room for individuality. All values, ideology, philosophy, economic and physical efforts, societal functions, and security practices are designed to serve the needs of the Supreme Leader. This enables a cult of personality that directs Party-state propaganda to reinforce the supremacy of the leader among the populace. For instance, every home is required to display pictures of both Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il as a daily reminder for every North Korean of their collective responsibility to serve the Supreme Leader. Most importantly, every North Korean, with no exception, is required to memorize the TPMI and comply with the demands of those principles, which focus on loyalty to the Supreme Leader.95 The Ten Principles are:96
1. Struggle with all your life to paint the entire society with the one color of the Great Leader Kim Il-sung’s revolutionary thought. (The intent of the first TPMI is to construct a society where everybody follows the same ideology without question or criticism.)
2. Respect and revere highly and with loyalty the Great Leader Kim Il-sung. (The intent of the second TPMI is to secure absolute loyalty to Kim Il-sung and, by extension, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un.)
3. Make absolute the authority of the Great Leader Kim Il-sung. (The intent of the third TPMI is to ensure complete loyalty to the Supreme Leader’s position with the implication that anything less is tantamount to treason.)
4. Accept the Great Leader Kim Il-sung’s revolutionary thought as your belief and take the Great Leader’s instructions as your creed. (The intent of the fourth TPMI is to shape the thoughts of each North Korean individual so that he or she acts exactly as told by the Supreme Leader and the Party.)97
5. Observe absolutely the principle of unconditional execution in carrying out the instructions of the Great Leader Kim Il-sung. (The intent of the fifth TPMI is to ensure personal, political, and professional performance consistent with principles three and four.)
6. Rally the unity of ideological intellect and revolutionary solidarity around the Great Leader Kim Il-sung. (The intent of the sixth TPMI is to eliminate political and ideological conflict with that of the Supreme Leader.)
7. Learn from the Great Leader Kim Il-sung and master communist dignity, the methods of revolutionary projects, and the people’s work styles. (The intent of the seventh TPMI is to mold societal work values that support the regime’s objectives.)
8. Preserve dearly the political life the Great Leader Kim Il-sung has bestowed upon you, and repay loyally for the Great Leader’s boundless political trust and considerations with high political awareness and skill. (The intent of the eighth TPMI is to ensure that every North Korean’s political life does not vary from that of the Supreme Leader and to guarantee compliance with the Supreme Leader’s directives.)
9. Establish a strong organizational discipline so that the entire Party, the entire people, and the entire military will operate uniformly under the sole leadership of the Great Leader Kim Il-sung. (The intent of the ninth TPMI is to ensure loyalty to the Party under one leadership.)
10. The great revolutionary accomplishments pioneered by the Great Leader Kim Il-sung must be succeeded and perfected by hereditary successions until the end. (The intent of the tenth TPMI is to guarantee the support of the entire population for Kim family succession.)98
North Korea's Kim convenes conference for strengthening 'monolithic' party rule
- World
SEOUL -
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened an unprecedented conference aimed at strengthening the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's (WPK) "monolithic" leadership across society, state media reported on Thursday.
The conference was the first of its kind and involved "realizing the organizational and ideological consolidation of the Party ranks in every way" and enhancing the party's leadership role, state news agency KCNA said.
The event focused on the "Party Life Guidance" (PLG) sections, which are powerful organizations that monitor and police loyalty of officials and members across the country.
According to a 2019 report by the U.S.-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), party life guidance is "arguably the most critical function" of the WPK, which is the founding and ruling party of North Korea.
As part of the powerful Organization and Guidance Department, PLG monitors trends and patterns in individual behavior, particularly those that may harm the interests of the supreme leader, the HRNK report said.
Its techniques include regular self-criticism sessions, where participants are required to confess their wrongdoings and face accusations from other members. It is also responsible for passing on guidance from senior leaders and plays a role in selecting which candidates are allowed to run in elections.
In remarks to the conference, Kim called party life guidance a "blood vessel and nerve gland" that firmly link party organizations with the central committee, and the main axis of implementing ideas and policies of the party, KCNA reported.
Kim has increasingly held events aimed at strengthening control in the country, which he has ruled since 2011. Experts said anti-pandemic efforts have further helped his authoritarian government impose new controls on the economy, travel, media and other elements of society.
According to human rights investigators, North Korea has conducted extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence and forced labor. The government has denied mistreating its citizens.
North Korea is grappling with multiple crises, including its first acknowledged COVID-19 outbreak, the economic effects of international sanctions and erratic weather events such as high temperatures and floods.
It said it has the COVID-19 situation under control, though a lack of data has led international experts to doubt the claims.
(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
18. Over 40 pct of N. Koreans undernourished: U.N. report
Over 40 pct of N. Koreans undernourished: U.N. report | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 7 (Yonhap) -- More than 40 percent of North Koreans are undernourished, a U.N. report showed Thursday amid concerns of food security in the impoverished country.
According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 report co-published by U.N. agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.N. Children's Fund and the World Food Programme, the prevalence of undernourishment among North Korea's 25-million population reached 41.6 percent from 2019 to 2021, compared with 33.8 percent from 2004 to 2006.
Meanwhile, 33.9 percent of North Korean women aged 15 to 49 suffered from anemia in 2019, compared with 13.5 percent of South Korean women in the age group in the same period.
The prevalence of stunting in the North's children aged under 5 stood at 18.2 percent in 2020, compared with 2.2 percent in South Korea.
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
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
