Quotes of the Day:
"What are the facts? Again and again and again - what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell," avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history" - what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into the unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!"
- Robert A. Heinlein - Time Enough For Love
"Disinformation operations, in essence, erode the very foundation of open societies ¬– not only for the victim but also for the perpetrator. When vast, secretive bureaucracies engage in systemic deception, at large scale and over a long time, they will optimize their own organizational culture for this purpose, and undermine the legitimacy of public administration at home. A society’s approach to active measures is a litmus test for its republican institutions. For liberal democracies in particular, disinformation represents a double threat: being at the receiving end of active measures will undermine democratic institutions – and giving in to the temptation to design and deploy them will have the same result. It is impossible to excel at disinformation and democracy at the same time. The stronger and the more robust a democratic body politic, the more resistant to disinformation it will be - the more reluctant to deploy and optimize disinformation. Weakened democracies, in turn, succumb more easily to the temptations of active measures.
- Thomas Rid, Active Measures - The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it ... This is the condition of children and barbarians, in whom instinct has learned nothing from experience."
- George Santayana
1. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: Early August (Korea)
2. U.S. Computer Games Have Kim Jong Un’s Little Sister Raging About ‘Nuclear War’
3. Biden should pressure Kim Jong Un — and help the North Korean people
4. Why The Number of North Korean Refugees in the United States Is So Low
5. U.S. holds no hostile intent toward N. Korea: State Dept.
6. Senior diplomats of S. Korea, U.S. hold phone talks after N.K. berates allied exercise
7. After NK warning, South on watch for response to drills
8. A big backfire (Kim Yo-jong's statements and South Korean response)
9. Kim Yong Chol, Department Director of WPK Central Committee, Issues Press Statement
10. Ex-USFK heads worry about politicization of joint drills
11. N. Korea refuses to answer S. Korea's hotline calls for 2nd day
12. N. Korea says it will make S. Korea, U.S. feel serious security crisis every minute
13. Cheong Wa Dae: No secret deal behind reconnection of hotlines with N. Korea
14. Group of Chinese residents asked to return to China as border remains closed to trade
15. N.Korea Sulks Again
16. South Korea’s misplaced military inferiority complex
17. South Korea in Uphill Battle to Recover Korean War Remains
18. Why Kim Jong Un's sister will not succeed him as North Korea's leader
1. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: Early August (Korea)
Korea
By David Maxwell
Previous Trend: Positive
2. U.S. Computer Games Have Kim Jong Un’s Little Sister Raging About ‘Nuclear War’
My comentas are at the conclusion.
U.S. Computer Games Have Kim Jong Un’s Little Sister Raging About ‘Nuclear War’
North Korea has unleashed its favorite weapon in a renewed campaign to intimidate South Korea’s liberal president into stopping upcoming virtual military exercises with the U.S.—and otherwise yielding to the will of leader Kim Jong Un.
The weapon of choice: Kim’s younger sister, Yo Jong. On Tuesday, she came out with a rhetorical blast at the war games, which are played almost entirely on computers between the U.S. and South Korean commands, calling them “preliminary exercises for nuclear war” beginning with “a preemptive attack on the DPRK,” the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
To show she speaks directly for her brother, her statement, carried in English by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency, concludes with the unusual line, “I release this article upon authorization.”
Kim Yo Jong, whose title is deputy department director of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, chaired by her brother, attacked the war games just as South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and his aides were talking about the size and scope of the exercises, which open next Monday for ten days. Americans and South Koreans, under their Combined Forces Command, have already begun “crisis management training” as a prelude to the exercises.
In a fit of petulance, North Korea on Tuesday failed to take calls on a North-South “hotline” that the North had restored two weeks ago after cutting them off 13 months ago in retaliation for drops of propaganda leaflets launched from the South by North Korean activists. Moon, who banned the leafleteering to placate the North and get on with talks, had seen reopening of the hotline as a sign the North was ready to resume negotiations.
Calls from South Korea’s unification and defense ministries “went unanswered,” according to Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, hours after the hotline and military channels had been operating normally.
While Kim Jong Un is largely silent on the war games, Yo Jong remains the tart-tongued voice of North Korea’s demands for South Korea to refuse to join them and for the U.S. to withdraw its 28,500 troops from the South.
“The United States must withdraw its aggressor forces and hardware from South Korea first of all.”
— Kim Yo Jong
“They are the most intensive expression of the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK aimed at stifling our state by force of arms,” she said in her latest statement. “They are an undesirable self-destructive act which must be paid for sure as they threaten the security of the Korean people and further jeopardize the situation of the Korean peninsula.”
North Korea’s wrath has struck a chord among Moon and his aides, who are hoping to negotiate with the North for the first time since the abortive summit of February 2019 between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in Hanoi. Trump cut off that summit, a follow-up to his first meeting with Kim in Singapore in June 2018, after failing to get him to agree to give up his nuclear program in exchange for an end to sanctions.
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Moon & Co. have warned that the war games may cause “provocations” from the North in the form of more missile tests, including the launch of a long-range missile capable of carrying a warhead to the U.S., or even a seventh underground nuclear test. North Korea last tested a nuclear device in September 2017 after Trump in the United Nations threatened to rain “fire and fury” on the North. Trump changed his tune next year in Singapore, where he professed he and Kim “fell in love,” after which he sought to ingratiate himself by abruptly canceling war games due to be held two months later.
Kim Yo Jong’s statement evoked the worst fears of North Korea reverting to a hard line despite economic difficulties that her brother has warned may be the country’s worst since the “arduous march” of the 1990s, in which as many as two million North Koreans died of starvation and disease.
“If peace is to be settled on the Korean peninsula, the United States must withdraw its aggressor forces and hardware from South Korea first of all,” she said, justifying the nuclear program that the U.S. has long insisted has to go.
“Only practical deterrence can ensure peace and security of the Korean peninsula,” she went on, promising to strengthen “our national defense capability and powerful ability for preemptive attack.”
The rhetoric left South Korean officials and political leaders badly divided.
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The director of the South’s national intelligence service, Park Jie-won, has called for “flexibility,” meaning possible cancellation of the war games that the South reluctantly agreed on under intense pressure from its own military leaders, and others at the unification ministry had made the same pleas. The Americans and South Koreans say such exercises are essential to bringing about OPCON, a plan for placing all forces under South Korean “operational control” rather than under the American general in command of U.S. Forces Korea and the Combined Forces Command.
“We should keep in mind that the Kim family regime's political warfare strategy relies heavily on its blackmail diplomacy. The use of increased tension, threats, and provocations to gain political and economic concessions,” said David Maxwell, a former special forces colonel in South Korea. “It is this kind of controversy that makes the OPCON transition hard and undermines confidence” in the ability of the South Koreans to assume command.
South Korean leaders, said Maxwell, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, should not “sacrifice readiness over the misguided belief” that “canceling, postponing, or scaling back readiness training will change Kim's behavior.”
Appointed by Moon as NIS director last year after a long record of looking for reconciliation with North Korea, Park Jie-won now faces the embarrassment of his own agency accusing four activists of accepting a $20,000 bribe from North Korea to propagandize in the South against the U.S.-Korean alliance. The NIS alleges the four had campaigned for Moon’s election in 2017 after the jailing of his conservative predecessor, Park Geun-hye, on corruption charges and had actively battled the acquisition from the U.S. of F-35 fighter planes.
The four are accused of violating South Korea’s national security law, enacted during the worst days of North-South confrontation. The charges provide ammunition for conservatives who accuse Moon of bending to the will of the North Koreans in hopes of reviving North-South talks and leaving a legacy of reconciliation before South Korea’s next presidential election next year. Moon, under the South’s constitution, cannot run for a second five-year term.
3. Biden should pressure Kim Jong Un — and help the North Korean people
Biden should pressure Kim Jong Un — and help the North Korean peopleUnfortunately to help the suffering Korean people living in the north through conventional means and through the provision of humanitarian assistance means Kim Jong-un must approve it and he is unlikely to do so. However, there are other ways to help the Korean people. And we should pursue those and do so aggressively.
Biden should pressure Kim Jong Un — and help the North Korean people
The Hill · by Joseph Bosco, opinion contributor · August 10, 2021
Whether President Biden’s team is ready or not, North Korea soon will be knocking on its door and will force it to confront the nuclear menace that has bedeviled every administration for more than three decades.
North Korea will come with its usual mixed, even contradictory, messages. Kim Jong Un’s regime claims, for example, that North Korea has not had a single case of COVID-19, yet the country is more locked down than ever and Kim has likened the current food and economic crisis to the 1990s famine known as the “Arduous March.”
On North-South relations, Pyongyang last week agreed with the Moon Jae-in government in South Korea to reopen a telephone hotline. But Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s younger sister, a more active governmental player in recent months, warned against reading too much into it. She said a rumored Moon-Kim meeting is “a premature hasty judgment [and that] hasty speculation and groundless interpretation will only bring despair.”
Summits cannot happen, she said, while Washington and Seoul plan to resume their “hostile war exercise,” even though this year’s drill will be remote because of pandemic restrictions. As in 2020, it will not move forces, simply computer simulations and high-tech communications — but that’s enough for Pyongyang to demand economic “compensation” for U.S.-South Korea “aggression.”
Still, the female Kim’s dismissive statements lacked the vitriol and bombast of her brother’s past rhetoric. Economic desperation — brought on by international sanctions, the pandemic, a drought and floods — may have persuaded Pyongyang that it can obtain sanctions relief only if denuclearization talks restart.
The Kims are confident that Moon and his team will offer some economic aid as an inducement, and that they can pressure the Biden administration to do the same. North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile arsenal already incentivizes Washington to talk, even if it means first making unilateral concessions wrapped in the moral comforter of humanitarian assistance.
Once talks start, Pyongyang predictably will demand further giveaways before making even the semblance of substantive progress toward denuclearization — and the North Korea nuclear problem will return to its sterile default dynamic. Without a changed U.S. strategy, the result will be tacit acceptance of North Korea as a nuclear weapons state to be “managed” rather than confronted.
After the White House completed its review of North Korea policy in April, spokesperson Jen Psaki reiterated that the administration’s goal is identical to that of every U.S. administration since Pyongyang began its nuclear program in the early 1990s: “Broadly speaking, we have a clear objective as it relates to North Korea, which is denuclearizing the … Korean Peninsula.”
She said Biden will try a creative approach to differentiate this president from Donald Trump and Barack Obama: “[O]ur policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience. … Our policy calls for a calibrated, practical approach.”
Yet, the Biden administration would be well-advised to adopt two of the three components of the early Trump “maximum-pressure campaign”: a credible threat of force, increased economic sanctions, and a sustained challenge to the Pyongyang regime’s moral legitimacy.
The Trump effort in 2017-2018 clearly caught the attention of not only Kim but also Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who summoned Kim for an urgent, first-time meeting just weeks before a planned Trump-Kim summit in Singapore. After the Beijing visit, Trump said Xi told him it “went very well” — and so it did from China’s perspective.
Whatever Xi’s instructions were to his young junior partner, they produced a noticeable change of tone and a shift in North Korea’s negotiating tactics. Pyongyang returned to its earlier harsh rhetoric, but cleverly directed it not at Trump personally, as Kim had done earlier, but at the working-level U.S. negotiating team. The goal was to separate them from the president who, they thought, was more likely to offer concessions in the hope of making a deal.
Trump welcomed Xi’s assurance that Kim was looking forward to their Singapore meeting, but he tweeted, “In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!” Singapore did produce Kim’s recommitment to North Korea’s 2005 pledge to abandon “all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs.”
But, whether Pyongyang was more serious about that commitment than those it had made in the decade and a half before, Beijing’s last-minute intervention disabused Kim of the idea. Xi knew that an actual breakthrough on North Korea’s nuclear program would mean the end of the double-game China had been playing successfully with the West for 30 years.
No longer would the Chinese be able to promise their help with North Korea in exchange for U.S. concessions on trade, China’s intellectual property theft and China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, and Western indulgence of its massive human rights violations.
Armed with Trump’s mixed experience on North Korea, Biden has an opportunity — and, given the growing urgency of the situation, an obligation — to restart the momentum Trump had going before Xi stepped in and it degenerated into a bizarre “love letters” phase.
No one, least of all Pyongyang and Beijing, would take seriously from the Biden team the kind of “fire and fury” threats Trump made against North Korea in 2017. But the other two elements of Trump’s pressure strategy — multilateral sanctions and human rights focus — would meld neatly with Biden’s proclaimed advantages over Trump’s “America First” approach.
Biden should urge other countries to step up Trump’s sanctions on the Kim regime and its elite supporters while sparing the general population and instead granting it broad-based humanitarian assistance.
The Biden administration’s emphasis on human rights would be a natural follow-up to Trump’s early speeches in Seoul, at the United Nations, and his 2018 State of the Union address calling the Kim regime unfit to govern. Complementing targeted sanctions, the strategy would separate the odious Pyongyang government from the victimized North Korean people.
Trump initially was on the right track with North Korea. Biden should get back to it.
Joseph Bosco served as China country director for the secretary of Defense from 2005 to 2006 and as Asia-Pacific director of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief from 2009 to 2010. He is a nonresident fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies and a member of the advisory board of the Global Taiwan Institute. Follow him on Twitter @BoscoJosephA.
The Hill · by Joseph Bosco, opinion contributor · August 10, 2021
4. Why The Number of North Korean Refugees in the United States Is So Low
Excerpts:
While a majority of North Korean escapees will choose to stay in South Korea, it is possible that many of them will change their minds, due to changing, unwelcoming conditions in South Korea and will want to resettle in another country such as the United States. Because they are automatically granted South Korean citizenship, it will be extremely difficult for them to receive asylum status in the United States because of the 9th Circuit decision that made it difficult to receive asylum based solely on the political situation in South Korea. Although this decision is mandatory within only the 9th Circuit, it is persuasive authority in other circuit courts of appeals. Other courts of appeals are not bound by this decision, but this could set a negative precedent in other jurisdictions as this decision can be instructive for other courts. Other jurisdictions and the 9th Circuit will hear similar cases in the future, so the federal judges under the 9th Circuit should overturn this decision, and other judges presiding in other circuit courts of appeals and immigration courts should give a favorable asylum decision, given the human rights situation in North Korea and the political situation in South Korea.
The United States should also create a special visa for North Korean escapees. With this special visa, they could avoid the long processing times of refugee and visa applications, and the competition with nationals from South Korea to obtain visa approval. It is important that this special visa provide an automatic qualification to permanent residency and eventually citizenship, instead of converting to another status that will allow them to obtain permanent residency, which will make this process time-consuming and more complicated. The Department of Homeland Security has the authority to establish special parole programs to address the circumstances of certain populations. In an immigration context, parole allows certain individuals to enter and remain in the United States. [37] The Department of Homeland Security has established special parole programs before and should establish one for North Korean escapees on humanitarian grounds due to their extraordinary circumstances. Through these potential avenues, obstacles will be removed within the immigration system, thus facilitating an easier path for North Korean refugee resettlement in the United States.
The U.S. government must prioritize the resettlement of North Korean escapees and should find ways to reduce the time-consuming process for them to resettle in the United States. Even though the number of North Korean escapees has decreased recently, circumstances can change, and there is a possibility of an increase in North Korean escapees in the near future, so it is important for the United States to be prepared. The United States should reevaluate its refugee resettlement program for North Korean escapees. A comprehensive review will help the United States prioritize and understand the needs of North Korean escapees and how U.S. government agencies can smoothly facilitate and expedite their resettlement in the United States.
Why The Number of North Korean Refugees in the United States Is So Low
By Eric Ryu, HRNK Research Intern
Edited by Sophia Hapin, HRNK Research Intern, and Rosa Park, HRNK Director of Programs and Editor
August 10, 2021
The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 intends to protect human rights and freedom in North Korea, including the promotion of humanitarian or legal assistance to North Koreans escapees.[1] Granting North Korean refugees [2] the opportunity to come to the United States was an important factor in adopting the act. However, since the United States formally began accepting North Korean refugees in 2006, the annual number has continuously been decreasing with a total of only 220 refugees resettled in the United States. [3] In fiscal year 2020 alone, the United States only accepted two refugees. [4] There are many factors that have contributed to the decline in the number of North Korean refugees to the United States. North Korean escapees will generally choose to resettle in South Korea as the country had accepted a total of 33,752 refugees as of January 27, [5], [6] but the process of resettling in the United States is much more time-consuming than in South Korea and navigating through the United States immigration system is very complex. Therefore, it is important to identify and understand why the number has decreased significantly, so the United States can address these concerns to facilitate North Korean refugee resettlement in the United States.
The Decline in the Number of North Korean Refugees
Not only has the population of resettled North Korean refugees in the United States declined, but the number of resettled North Korean refugees in general has also dropped significantly. According to the South Korean Ministry of Unification, in 2020, only 229 North Koreans resettled in South Korea. This is a low number compared to 2018, when 1,047 North Koreans resettled in South Korea. [7] A big factor in the decline of North Korean escapees is tighter border control in North Korea, which has made it a bigger challenge for North Koreans to escape.
Escaping North Korea is a difficult task. In many instances, the only feasible way to escape is across the North Korea-China border. [8] However, the Kim regime has increased its crackdowns at the border. Once the COVID-19 pandemic began, they implemented even tighter border control to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and increased restrictions of all movement within North Korea. [9] If North Koreans are caught trying to escape, the authorities will imprison them in political prison camps or other detention facilities, where they will face mistreatment and torture. [10]
Additionally, the North Korean government widely uses and produces propaganda that portrays the United States as the hated aggressor. The Kim regime has also focused its efforts on publicizing how difficult life is in South Korea in order to discourage defections, emphasizing the socioeconomic divisions between South Koreans and North Korean escapees. [11] While the regime does not attack the quality of life that is depicted in South Korean media, they highlight that North Koreans who live in South Korea are poorer and more miserable than they were in North Korea. [12] Ultimately, North Korea uses these tactics to inspire national pride and unity, and to reduce the number of defections.
Changing conditions in South Korea and the United States have been less welcoming. The South Korean government has cut back on funding to help North Korean escapees, they view the escapees as a hindrance in engaging with North Korea, [13] and there have been increases in discrimination, harassment, and restrictions on freedom. [14] The Trump Administration implemented a travel ban on citizens from North Korea [15] and reduced the refugee admittance cap every year in office. [16]
As the number of overall North Korean escapees has decreased, this has impacted the lack of refugee resettlement not only in South Korea, but also in the United States. The North Korean government has implemented tighter border controls and continues to use its propaganda to prevent North Koreans from escaping. Conditions in South Korea and the United States have also become less welcoming for North Korean escapees.
North Korean Escapees Generally Resettle in South Korea
For those who are able to escape, the majority of them opt to resettle in South Korea, instead of other countries. Koreans speak the same language in the South and in the North, and the Korean peninsula was a single nation prior to the division of the peninsula at the end of World War II in 1945, so there is a greater sense of familiarity. [17] On the contrary, moving to the United States would require learning English and adapting to a new culture, which are not simple tasks. Additionally, some already have existing family members in South Korea, so a support system through familial ties makes the transition to a new home smoother.
Despite South Korea’s cutbacks in funding for North Korean escapees, the benefits and assistance to resettle in South Korea are more generous than in the United States. [18] In the United States, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) provides support to refugees by assisting in the relocation process and providing needed services. [19] Some of the benefits include Refugee Cash Assistance, Refugee Medical Assistance, and Refugee Social Services. [20] Refugee Social Services, in particular, includes employment services, job training, job placement, English-language training, and translation and interpreter services. [21] In South Korea, North Korean escapees are additionally provided free education in public schools and public universities, $6,000 to $32,400 in settlement benefits (depending on the size of the household), and $13,300 to $19,100 in housing subsidies. [22] These are just a few examples of the benefits provided by South Korea, but they are significantly more generous than benefits received in the United States.
The Resettlement Process in the United States Takes Much Longer Than in South Korea
The resettlement process in South Korea begins almost immediately, while the resettlement process to the United States could take at an average of at least 18 to 24 months. [23] According to the South Korean Constitution, North Koreans are automatically granted South Korean citizenship. [24] In the United States, at the beginning of each fiscal year, the President and Congress determine a cap on the number of refugees to be accepted, which has declined each year. [25] Along with the total cap determination, the number of refugees actually resettled in the United States has also significantly decreased. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducts rigorous interviews to determine whether an individual meets the “refugee” definition. Along with an interview, refugees must pass an extensive security screening and fall within the numerical limits of a given year’s refugee admissions ceiling. [26] Once they have been accepted for resettlement, the Refugee Processing Center works with private voluntary agencies to determine where the refugee will live. Once placement has been secured, then the Resettlement Support Center will work together with the International Organization of Migration to schedule and arrange travel to the United States. [27]
If North Korean escapees choose to go to the United States, they must wait in a detention facility in Southeast Asia. [28] Most North Korean refugee applications to resettle in the United States are processed in Bangkok. [29] If they are granted refugee status in the United States, North Koreans will be given the same benefits as other refugees. In order to gain U.S. citizenship, they must go through a rigorous and time-consuming process. After at least one year of residing in the United States, refugees can apply for lawful permanent residence or a green card. [30] Once they receive their green card, they must wait another five years to apply for U.S. citizenship. [31] With an increased backlog of applications at USCIS, it could take months to years just for USCIS to send a receipt of their applications and to process them for an interview. As of March 31, 2021, approximately 7 million applications and petitions were pending before USCIS. [32]
For North Koreans who have resettled in South Korea and received benefits and South Korean citizenship, if they later decide to immigrate to the United States, they cannot be designated as refugees. Since they are automatically naturalized as citizens of South Korea, they cannot file a refugee application. Instead, if they want to immigrate to the United States, they must apply for and receive a visa like a F-1 (student), H-1B (employment), or B-1/B-2 (visitor) visa. These non-immigrant visas are temporary, so they do not provide a direct pathway to citizenship, and they must go back to South Korea once their visas are expired. In the case of H-1B visas, they may provide a path to permanent residence, if the employer decides to sponsor a green card application. The process is lengthy and difficult. An F-1 visa does not have a quota, and the application process is not as complicated, so it is not difficult to receive this visa. Laws limit the number of H-1B visas that are issued each year, and the H-1B visa application is extremely rigorous and requires more documentation, so it is difficult for South Koreans to apply successfully. South Korea is part of the Visa Waiver Program, which allows South Korean nationals to travel to the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa as long as they have a valid Electronic System for Travel authorization approval prior to travel. They can still apply for a B-1/B-2 visa, which will allow them to stay in the United States for up to six months. There are other avenues to immigrate to the United States that will allow a direct pathway to citizenship such as marriage to a U.S. citizen spouse or employment-based green cards, which are difficult to obtain. Once they are in the United States, they could file an asylum application, but it would have to be based on persecution not only in North Korea, but also in South Korea. They can apply for asylum regardless of immigration status, but they must apply within one year of arrival in the United States. [33] However, the immigration system is heavily backlogged with approximately 1.3 million pending asylum cases, so it would take at least several years for an asylum case to be adjudicated. Being granted asylum status provides the same benefits as refugee status. [34] Additionally, a recent decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has made it difficult for a North Korean escapee, now a South Korean citizen, to claim asylum in the United States, based solely on the political situation in South Korea. [35] This decision, unfortunately, does not consider the special circumstances of North Korean escapees and the current situation in South Korea, so it creates an additional barrier in allowing them to resettle in the United States.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The overall number of North Koreans escaping has declined significantly, which has been the prominent factor in the significant decline of North Koreans resettling in the United States. The United States has a large refugee resettlement program, but only a small number of North Koreans have resettled in the United States. As the North Korean Human Rights Act seeks to facilitate the entry of vulnerable North Koreans into the United States, the United States government must prioritize resettling North Korean escapees. It is inevitable that the majority of them will choose to resettle in South Korea, but for those who opt to resettle in the United States, they face additional obstacles.
North Korean escapees have to wait in detention facilities for years, while their refugee applications are being processed. The United States should prioritize and expedite the process for North Korean escapees. To gain refugee status under U.S. law, one of the prongs they need to fulfill is that they need to be of special humanitarian concern to the United States. [36] Given the repeated human rights violations in North Korea and the likelihood of torture and mistreatment if repatriated back to North Korea, it is clear that they are of special humanitarian concern and should be prioritized in having their refugee applications processed.
While a majority of North Korean escapees will choose to stay in South Korea, it is possible that many of them will change their minds, due to changing, unwelcoming conditions in South Korea and will want to resettle in another country such as the United States. Because they are automatically granted South Korean citizenship, it will be extremely difficult for them to receive asylum status in the United States because of the 9th Circuit decision that made it difficult to receive asylum based solely on the political situation in South Korea. Although this decision is mandatory within only the 9th Circuit, it is persuasive authority in other circuit courts of appeals. Other courts of appeals are not bound by this decision, but this could set a negative precedent in other jurisdictions as this decision can be instructive for other courts. Other jurisdictions and the 9th Circuit will hear similar cases in the future, so the federal judges under the 9th Circuit should overturn this decision, and other judges presiding in other circuit courts of appeals and immigration courts should give a favorable asylum decision, given the human rights situation in North Korea and the political situation in South Korea.
The United States should also create a special visa for North Korean escapees. With this special visa, they could avoid the long processing times of refugee and visa applications, and the competition with nationals from South Korea to obtain visa approval. It is important that this special visa provide an automatic qualification to permanent residency and eventually citizenship, instead of converting to another status that will allow them to obtain permanent residency, which will make this process time-consuming and more complicated. The Department of Homeland Security has the authority to establish special parole programs to address the circumstances of certain populations. In an immigration context, parole allows certain individuals to enter and remain in the United States. [37] The Department of Homeland Security has established special parole programs before and should establish one for North Korean escapees on humanitarian grounds due to their extraordinary circumstances. Through these potential avenues, obstacles will be removed within the immigration system, thus facilitating an easier path for North Korean refugee resettlement in the United States.
The U.S. government must prioritize the resettlement of North Korean escapees and should find ways to reduce the time-consuming process for them to resettle in the United States. Even though the number of North Korean escapees has decreased recently, circumstances can change, and there is a possibility of an increase in North Korean escapees in the near future, so it is important for the United States to be prepared. The United States should reevaluate its refugee resettlement program for North Korean escapees. A comprehensive review will help the United States prioritize and understand the needs of North Korean escapees and how U.S. government agencies can smoothly facilitate and expedite their resettlement in the United States.
[1] The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 was reauthorized in 2008, 2012, and 2017. The 2017 reauthorization extends through 2022. U.S. Congress, House, North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, HR 4011, 108th Cong., introduced in House March 23, 2004, https://www.congress.gov/108/plaws/publ333/PLAW-108publ333.pdf.
[2] Escapees or defectors are defined as those who have fled and renounced their home country, but they do not gain any legal status in the United States. They must apply for refugee status. Once a North Korean escapee is determined to be a refugee under United States law, they can live in the United States, and their legal status will be recognized as refugee, not escapee or defector.
[3] Robert R. King, “Number of North Korean Defectors Drops to Lowest Level in Two Decades,” CSIS, January 27, 2021, https://www.csis.org/analysis/number-north-korean-defectors-drops-lowest-level-two-decades.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Resettlement to another country is important for North Korean refugees as they will likely face torture if sent back to North Korea. UNHCR defines resettlement as the transfer of refugees from an asylum country to another country that has agreed to admit them and grant them permanent residence.
[6] King, “Number of North Korean Defectors Drops to Lowest Level in Two Decades.”
[7] King, “Number of North Korean Defectors Drops to Lowest Level in Two Decades.”
[8] Ibid
[9] U.S. Department of State, “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Human Rights Report,” (2020).
[10] Lina Yoon, “China Restarts Forced Returns of Refugees to North Korea,” Human Rights Watch, July 22, 2021, https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/22/china-restarts-forced-returns-refugees-north-korea?fbclid=IwAR11uUZ3e4ryd_zSBCRITyZ_8E4O0OaJKOq9LKfLltJoPdwk_k2jDQ38Wws#.
[11] Christopher Green, Steven Denney, and Brian Gleason, “The Whisper in the Ear: Re-Defector Press Conference as Information Management Tool,” Korean Economic Institute of America, (March 2015): 4.
[12] Ibid.
[13] King, “Number of North Korean Defectors Drops to Lowest Level in Two Decades.”
[14] Robert R. King, “South Korea Bans Balloons Carrying Leaflets to the North. Foreign Policy Problems Will Follow,” CSIS, December 22, 2020, https://www.csis.org/analysis/south-korea-bans-balloons-carrying-leaflets-north-foreign-policy-problems-will-follow.
[15] Jeff Mason and Phil Stewart, “Trump slaps travel restrictions on N.Korea, Venezuela in sweeping new ban,” Reuters, September 25, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-us-usa-immigration-trump/trump-slaps-travel-restrictions-on-n-korea-venezuela-in-sweeping-new-ban-idUSKCN1C01FZ.
[16] Kira Monin, Jeanne Batalova, and Tianjian Lai, “Refugees and Asylees in the United States,” MPI, May 13, 2021, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/refugees-and-asylees-united-states-2021.
[17] King, “Number of North Korean Defectors Drops to Lowest Level in Two Decades.”
[18] Elizabeth Shim, “U.S. accepted zero North Korea refugees in 2019, data show,” UPI¸ January 7, 2020, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/01/07/US-accepted-zero-North-Korea-refugees-in-2019-data-show/7291578416952/.
[19] Administration for Children and Families, “ORR Benefits-At-A-Glance,” https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/orr/orr_fact_sheet_benefits_at_a_glance.pdf.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Sophie Williams, “North Korean defectors: What happens when they get to the South?” BBC News, February 16, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49346262.
[23] “An Overview of U.S. Refugee Law and Policy,” American Immigration Council, July 9, 2021, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/overview-us-refugee-law-and-policy.
[24] Emma Poorman, “North Korean Defectors in South Korea and Asylum Seekers in the United States: A Comparison,” Northwestern Journal of Human Rights 17, no. 1 (2019): pp. 102-03, https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1221&context=njihr.
[25] Kira Monin, Jeanne Batalova, and Tianjian Lai, “Refugees and Asylees in the United States,” MPI, May 13, 2021, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/refugees-and-asylees-united-states-2021.
[26] “An Overview of U.S. Refugee Law and Policy,” American Immigration Council, July 9, 2021, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/overview-us-refugee-law-and-policy.
[27] Ibid.
[28] David Hawk, Roberta Cohen, Robert King, and Greg Scarlatoiu, “Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: The Role of the United Nations,” Lecture, The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Washington, DC, July 1, 2021.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Adjustment of status of refugees, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1159(b).
[31] Requirements of naturalization, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1427.
[32] Walter Ewing, “The COVID-19 Pandemic Made USCIS Backlogs Go from Bad to Worse,” Immigration Impact, July 6, 2021, https://immigrationimpact.com/2021/07/06/uscis-backlogs-2021-pandemic/#.YO0rAehKiUm.
[33] For those who apply for asylum after being in the United States for more than one year, they may qualify for an exception if they show changed circumstances materially affecting asylum eligibility for asylum or extraordinary circumstances relating to delay in filing. They must still file the asylum application within a reasonable time under the circumstances to be eligible for an exception. If they are not eligible for asylum, they are still eligible for other forms of protection like withholding of removal and relief under the Convention Against Torture.
[34] Raymond G. Lahoud, “Immigration Court System Staggers Amidst Looming Backlog of Asylum Cases,” National Law Review, June 24, 2021, https://www.natlawreview.com/article/immigration-court-system-staggers-amidst-looming-backlog-asylum-cases.
[35] Park v. Barr, 2020 WL 1231213 (9th Cir. 2020).
[36] Not firmly resettling in another country is another prong that needs to be fulfilled and had prior significant issues. Before 2004, U.S. immigration law treated a North Korean escapee as having South Korean citizenship, who was considered firmly resettled in South Korea and therefore ineligible for refugee status. Once the North Korean Human Rights Act was signed into law, section 302(b) changed the firm resettlement presumption, so for purposes of claiming asylum or refugee status in the United States, a North Korean escapee was not considered a national of South Korea.
[37] “The Use of Parole Under Immigration Law,” American Immigration Council, January 24, 2018, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/use-parole-under-immigration-law.
HRNK staff members and interns wish to dedicate this program to our colleague Katty Chi. A native of Chile and graduate of the London School of Economics, Katty became a North Korean human rights defender in her early 20s. Katty was chief of international affairs with the North Korea Strategy Center (NKSC) in Seoul from 2010 to 2014 and worked with the Seoul Office of Liberty in North Korea (LinK) from 2019 to 2020. A remarkable member of our small North Korean human rights community, Katty brought inspiration and good humor to all. Katty passed away in Seoul this past May, at the young age of 32. She is survived by her parents and brother living in Chile. With the YPWP series, we endeavor to honor Katty’s life and work.
Greg Scarlatoiu
If you have any questions or would like to write for us, contact us at outreach@hrnk.org.
5. U.S. holds no hostile intent toward N. Korea: State Dept.
We conduct defensive training because of the hostile intent the noregime holds toward the South.
(LEAD) U.S. holds no hostile intent toward N. Korea: State Dept. | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with additional details, minor edits in paras 2, 5-6; RECASTS last para to correct inter-Korean communication lines were reopened in late July instead of in August as previously sent)
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- The United States holds no hostile intent toward North Korea, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday, in reaction to a statement by North Korea denouncing the U.S. and South Korea over their joint military exercises.
The spokesman, Ned Price, said he had no comment on the statement issued by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong, but insisted that the joint military drills are purely defensive in nature.
"First, let me reiterate that the joint military exercises are purely defensive in nature. We have made that point repeatedly and it's a very important one," the spokesman said in a press briefing.
"Second, as we have long maintained, the United States harbors no hostile intent towards the DPRK," he added, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The North Korean leader' sister slammed South Korea and the U.S. for moving ahead with their summertime joint military exercise on Tuesday (Seoul time), calling it a preliminary nuclear war exercise against her country.
The statement came as South Korea and the U.S. began a preliminary exercise on Tuesday, ahead of their annual summertime joint exercise, set to be held Aug. 16-26.
"The important point for us is that they are purely defensive in nature," Price reiterated.
"More broadly, as we have said in recent weeks, we support inter-Korean dialogue. We support inter-Korean engagement, and we will continue to work with our ROK partners towards that end," he said.
ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.
North Korea earlier said holding the summertime joint military exercise will cast a cloud over inter-Korean relations.
Pyongyang did not answer daily calls from South Korea via liaison and military communication lines on Tuesday.
The reclusive state reopened the inter-Korean communication channels late last month, more than 13 months after it unilaterally severed them.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
6. Senior diplomats of S. Korea, U.S. hold phone talks after N.K. berates allied exercise
Good. And no need to overreact. Let Kim Yo-jong make a fool of herself with her petty taunts.
Senior diplomats of S. Korea, U.S. hold phone talks after N.K. berates allied exercise | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- Senior diplomats of South Korea and the United States held phone talks Tuesday, the foreign ministry said, after the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un slammed the allies for pressing ahead with their combined military exercise.
During the talks, First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman agreed to continue coordinated diplomatic efforts for substantive progress in the efforts for the complete denuclearization of and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, the ministry said.
Earlier in the day, Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's sister, issued a statement, calling the joint exercises the "the most vivid expression of the U.S. hostile policy" toward the North and vowing to strengthen the North's "deterrent of absolute capacity."
Seoul and Washington kicked off a preliminary training session ahead of next week's main exercise despite Kim's earlier warning that the maneuvers will cast a cloud over inter-Korean relations.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
7. After NK warning, South on watch for response to drills
Huh?
The "drills" have been suspended since 2019 because Trump wanted to save money??? The only time the the train was cancelled was tin March of 2020 at the start of COVID.But it has been held in August 2020 and March 2021.
Director Cheong makes the must important statement about not overreacting.
But I have to call out those who belittle the command post training because they use computer simulations and there is no field training.
CPXs are critically important. They are the PhD level of defense training because they can provide the full range of complex scenarios nK may use to attack the south. This training is much more important for the higher level staffs and commanders than field training.
And those who are describing training as reduced should be called out as well.
The number of personnel in a CPX is not visible to north Korea or the media. Why reduce the number of people who need to be trained in the defense plans to protect the ROK? And simply saying the numbers are reduced does not make nK happy. We need to conduct full up command post computer simulation training so the maximum number of CFC and components staff members and commanders can be trained on the various north Korean attack scenarios. Again this is phD level training for the higher HQ that cannot be replicated in field training scenarios.
Excerpts:
“We needn’t overreact every time the regime rolls out something disheartening because that’s North Korea,” said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute.
The drills, mainly held in spring and summer to bolster the allies’ defense readiness, are computer-based war games rather than all-out field exercises. They have been suspended since 2019, when former US President Donald Trump halted them to save costs and facilitate North Korea’s denuclearization.
Seoul and Washington are expected to follow through with this year’s exercises taking place next week from Aug. 16 to 26, though they are likely to scale them down in a new practice adopted at last year’s August drills amid concerns over COVID-19.
The reduced drills have prevented the South Korean government from taking over wartime operational control from the US, which has exercised it since the 1950-53 Korean War. Since it ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty, the two Koreas are technically still at war.
After NK warning, South on watch for response to drills
North fails to respond to inter-Korean hotline call Tuesday afternoon
Published : Aug 10, 2021 - 14:48 Updated : Aug 10, 2021 - 23:23
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convenes a meeting of key military commanders, July 30, 2021. (Yonhap-KCNA)
The presidential office is monitoring North Korea for a further reaction to the South Korea-US military exercises as the four-day preliminary drills took off Tuesday, a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said in response to Pyongyang’s accusation earlier in the day that the drills threatened peace.
Previously the Defense and Unification ministries had communicated with their North Korean counterparts by phone twice a day, but the North did not respond to a call from the South on Tuesday afternoon.
“We will not jump to any conclusions and will monitor North Korea’s response,” the official said, not giving a direct answer when asked whether President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had exchanged any more letters.
The two leaders had exchanged letters since April, the presidential office said earlier, describing the exchange as pivotal to reconnecting the inter-Korean hotlines two weeks ago. The North has since demanded the South suspend drills to accelerate a thaw in the strained inter-Korean relations.
“The drills, which epitomize America’s hostile policy toward us, are an unwelcome, self-destructive action that threatens stability on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim Yo-jong said, adding that Seoul and Washington would have to deal with a greater security threat if they brushed off her warning.
Kim Yo-jong, deputy director of Pyongyang’s propaganda affairs, called Washington hypocritical, describing its outreach to engage the regime unconditionally as a trick to mask its intention to invade the regime.
She called for the removal of US troops and US-made weapons from the South, referring to the F-35 stealth jets and the anti-missile battery known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. They hamper peace efforts, she said, adding that the North would bolster its defense readiness and its capabilities for a preemptive strike.
“She’s basically laying out justification for Pyongyang’s weapon tests. Tests could be imminent,” said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul.
But Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, said it was too early to look for signs of provocation. The North, which is under UN and US sanctions, has made it clear that sanctions relief has to take place for any engagement to resume, Park noted.
“We needn’t overreact every time the regime rolls out something disheartening because that’s North Korea,” said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute.
North Korea is used to weaponizing tension to get its way and South Korea should carry on with its policy rather than make adjustments along the way, Cheong said.
A Defense Ministry spokesperson declined to comment on Kim Yo-jong’s statement, saying the drills are a joint decision between the South and the US. A senior official at the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said the ministry would monitor the North’s response.
The drills, mainly held in spring and summer to bolster the allies’ defense readiness, are computer-based war games rather than all-out field exercises. They have been suspended since 2019, when former US President Donald Trump halted them to save costs and facilitate North Korea’s denuclearization.
Seoul and Washington are expected to follow through with this year’s exercises taking place next week from Aug. 16 to 26, though they are likely to scale them down in a new practice adopted at last year’s August drills amid concerns over COVID-19.
The reduced drills have prevented the South Korean government from taking over wartime operational control from the US, which has exercised it since the 1950-53 Korean War. Since it ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty, the two Koreas are technically still at war.
Seoul is not expected to complete the handover under President Moon, who promised to wrap it up before leaving office in May next year. The Defense Ministry neither confirms nor denies that the transfer can take place as planned.
8. A big backfire (Kim Yo-jong's statements and South Korean response)
Good OpEd.
Key point here.
All the chaos over the joint drill primarily resulted from the government’s reactions. Though the drill was reduced a bit as a result of Kim’s threat, what the government received in return was only a denouncement from North Korea. In the process, internal schisms in the ruling front were fully exposed. Washington certainly would not welcome such strange developments in South Korea. Its ally’s kowtowing to Kim only backfired.
Tuesday
August 10, 2021
A big backfire
Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister and vice director of the Workers’ Party, has issued a statement denouncing the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise after a preliminary drill to prepare for the computer-simulated Combined Command Post Training (CCPT) began Tuesday. The statement defining the drill as a “preparation for war” and a “betraying act” throws cold water on the possibility of resuming talks after the restoration last month of military communication lines between South and North Korea. Kim’s threat to augment North Korea’s capability to wage a pre-emptive strike and her description of the joint drill as “a self-destructive act” only helps deepen tension on the Korean Peninsula.
Kim Yo-jong took a step further by demanding America withdraw “its troops and weapons for war” from South Korea. Since confirming South Korea’s submissive attitude after her earlier threat over South Korea’s dispatching of propaganda leaflets across the border, she has been ratcheting up the volume of her warnings.
That can be attributed to the Moon Jae-in administration’s docile compliance with her demands. After her warning last year of deteriorated inter-Korean relations, the ruling Democratic Party (DP) hurriedly passed a bill banning the sending of anti-North Korea materials across the border. Recently, 74 lawmakers from the DP and splinter parties demanded a suspension of the drill. These reactions send North Korea the wrong message.
All the chaos over the joint drill primarily resulted from the government’s reactions. Though the drill was reduced a bit as a result of Kim’s threat, what the government received in return was only a denouncement from North Korea. In the process, internal schisms in the ruling front were fully exposed. Washington certainly would not welcome such strange developments in South Korea. Its ally’s kowtowing to Kim only backfired.
Such a weird farce must not be repeated. The joint drill should be conducted unwaveringly until North Korea denuclearizes and security threats disappear. The two allies must maximize the effect of the drill. Unless Pyongyang is proven to be determined to denuclearize, they must return to the mobilization of armed forces as in the past.
Any government must pursue inter-Korean dialogue and provide humanitarian aid to the North if necessary within the boundaries of international sanctions. But it must not compromise national security just to talk with North Korea. The government must draw a clear line between what it can accept and what it can’t. It must reject the North’s blackmail. That’s the only way to prevent a major miscalculation.
9. Kim Yong Chol, Department Director of WPK Central Committee, Issues Press Statement
Kim Yong-chol is providing reinforcing information fires to Kim Yo-jong.
You do have to admire how the Propaganda and Agitation Department can turn a simple command post computer simulation defensive training event into a major "confrontation."
The north is really trying to shape the information environment and conditions to support its political warfare strategy. It is a sight to behold.
Kim Yong Chol, Department Director of WPK Central Committee, Issues Press Statement
Date: 11/08/2021 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source
Pyongyang, August 11 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Chol, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), issued the following press statement Wednesday:
The south Korean authorities started again the frantic military exercises regarding our state as the enemy from Aug. 10, defying the opportunity of a turn hardly made amid unanimous expectation of all the compatriots at home and abroad for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.
On Aug. 1, upon authorization of the Party Central Committee, Kim Yo Jong, vice-department director of the C.C., the WPK, issued a press statement carrying a meaningful warning that the choice of hope or despair is totally up to the south Korean authorities, stressing that the military exercises slated by south Korea with the U.S. would be an unfavorable prelude further beclouding the future of the inter-Korean relations.
The south Korean authorities were obviously given an opportunity of option.
But the south Korean authorities have now revealed that peace and trust much touted by them whenever an opportunity presented itself were just a wordplay.
In disregard of our advice, they opted for alliance with outsiders, not harmony with compatriots, escalation of tension, not détente, and confrontation, not improved relations.
Now that they made their clear option known to the whole world, defying the opportunity, we will have to make clearer corresponding decision.
As we have already clarified, we will make them realize by the minute what a dangerous choice they made and what a serious security crisis they will face because of their wrong choice.
They must be made to clearly understand how dearly they have to pay for answering our good faith with hostile acts after letting go the opportunity for improved inter-Korean relations.
It is clear that there is no other option for us as south Korea and the U.S. opted for confrontation with our state, without making any change.
We will keep going on with what we should do. -0-
10. Ex-USFK heads worry about politicization of joint drills
Note these are all former commanders of the UNited Nations Command and most importantly the ROK/US Combined Forces Command which is the most important command for the defense of the ROK. I wish the Korean press would recognize that and shift focus from USFK to CFC.
Excerpts:
James Thurman, chief of the USFK from 2011 to 2013, told the Voice of America (VOA) Wednesday, “I think the ROK [Republic of Korea] needs to maintain readiness and always be prepared to defend its borders.”
On North Korea’s bellicose statements on the joint military drills between South Korea and the United States, Thurman said, “Frankly, I do not worry about their rhetoric… We have heard it before.”
...
Retired Gen. Burwell Bell told the VOA, “Military readiness of the alliance to effectively deter and if necessary defeat North Korea — and potentially China should it enter any future conflict on the Korean Peninsula — is not something that should be treated as a political tool to attempt to achieve potential short term enhancements to relations with North Korea.”
...
He added that the upcoming computer-simulated military command post exercise “is crucial at this point in time to achieve higher readiness and send a strong message of alliance solidarity to North Korea and China.”
...
John Tilelli, who served as USFK commander from 1996 to 1999, said that the computer-simulated command post exercises have been effective in training commanders and staff but stressed “it is key that all levels of command keep their service members trained in their war-fighting skills.”
Wednesday
August 11, 2021
Ex-USFK heads worry about politicization of joint drills
A group of 74 liberal lawmakers issued a joint statement on Aug. 5 calling for South Korea and the United States to postpone an annual summertime military exercise, announced in a press briefing by Democratic Party Rep. Sul Hoon, center. [LIM HYUN-DONG]
Former four-star generals that served as commanders of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) were more disturbed by South Korean liberal lawmakers’ calls to postpone the Seoul-Washington summertime military exercise than squawking by Pyongyang.
James Thurman, chief of the USFK from 2011 to 2013, told the Voice of America (VOA) Wednesday, “I think the ROK [Republic of Korea] needs to maintain readiness and always be prepared to defend its borders.”
On North Korea’s bellicose statements on the joint military drills between South Korea and the United States, Thurman said, “Frankly, I do not worry about their rhetoric… We have heard it before.”
Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s sister, released a statement on Aug. 1 demanding Seoul and Washington cancel their summertime joint military drill schedule, warning that it could cast a cloud over inter-Korean relations. She released a second bellicose statement calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Korea Tuesday, coinciding with the start of a preliminary training exercise ahead of next week’s computer-simulated combined command post exercise, which have been scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a joint statement last Thursday, a group of 74 liberal lawmakers led by the ruling Democratic Party (DP) called for South Korea and the United States to postpone the exercise scheduled to kick off next Monday. The statement described the drill as an “obstacle in bringing North Korea to the negotiation table, regardless of its scale.”
The DP leadership, however, has called the upcoming joint drill “inevitable,” stressing it was too late to postpone the exercise.
Some South Korean government officials, including the chief of the National Intelligence Service and unification minister, have also favored delaying the drill.
Retired Gen. Burwell Bell told the VOA, “Military readiness of the alliance to effectively deter and if necessary defeat North Korea — and potentially China should it enter any future conflict on the Korean Peninsula — is not something that should be treated as a political tool to attempt to achieve potential short term enhancements to relations with North Korea.”
“Weakness and unequal conciliation will only embolden both China and North Korea to fracture our great alliance and leave South Korea alone to face a future under North Korean rule,” said Bell, who served as commander of the USFK, Combined Forces Command and UN Command from 2006 to 2008.
His remarks reflected worries over the politicization of Seoul-Washington joint drills and a concern that such actions could send a bad signal to China and cause a further rift in the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
Bell said South Korea and the United States need to “take steps to bolster [their] military readiness” taking into consideration “shortfalls in alliance readiness” due to the Donald Trump administration and the Covid-19 pandemic.
He added that the upcoming computer-simulated military command post exercise “is crucial at this point in time to achieve higher readiness and send a strong message of alliance solidarity to North Korea and China.”
John Tilelli, who served as USFK commander from 1996 to 1999, said that the computer-simulated command post exercises have been effective in training commanders and staff but stressed “it is key that all levels of command keep their service members trained in their war-fighting skills.”
In response to Kim Yo-jong’s latest statement, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Wednesday that the United States “harbors no hostile intent towards the DPRK,” referring to the acronym for the North's full name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Washington remains "committed to the security of the Republic of Korea and our combined defense posture in accordance with our ironclad U.S.-ROK alliance,” he said, adding that the joint military drill is “purely defensive in nature.”
Price continued, “We support inter-Korean engagement, and we’ll continue to work with our ROK partners towards that end.”
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
11. N. Korea refuses to answer S. Korea's hotline calls for 2nd day
Yonhap is at least getting the headline right. The north is simply refusing to answer the phone. Communications lines have not been cut. *They also were not cut for the past 13 months when the north also did not simply answer the phone).
(2nd LD) N. Korea refuses to answer S. Korea's hotline calls for 2nd day | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with North Korea's refusal to answer afternoon calls, gov't reaction in paras 2-3)
By Choi Soo-hyang
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea did not answer South Korea's phone calls via liaison and military hotlines for the second consecutive day Wednesday, officials said, as Pyongyang is ramping up criticism against the South for going ahead with its summertime exercise with the United States.
The morning and afternoon calls via the inter-Korean liaison office and military communication channels in the eastern and western border regions went unanswered after the North began to shun the regular calls the previous day, according to the officials.
South Korea urged the North to return to the dialogue table, saying that "escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula cannot be of help to anyone."
The North remains unresponsive to the calls after it issued a series of angry statements as South Korea and the U.S. began a four-day preliminary training in the run-up to the main combined exercise set to kick off next week, despite the North's warning it will cloud inter-Korean relations.
Kim Yong-chol, a senior North Korean official, issued a statement earlier in the day, saying that the North will make the South "realize by the minute what a dangerous choice they made and what a serious security crisis they will face because of their wrong choice."
"They must be made to clearly understand how dearly they have to pay for answering our good faith with hostile acts after letting go the opportunity for improved inter-Korean relations," he said in the statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
The inter-Korean communication lines were restored late last month following a yearlong severance after President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to improve their chilled ties amid little progress in nuclear negotiations.
On Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, bristled at South Korea and the U.S. over the exercise, vowing to strengthen the country's national defense and preemptive strike capabilities "for rapidly countering any military actions against us."
Whether and how to conduct the allies' annual exercise drew keen attention, particularly after Kim Yo-jong warned early this month the drills would dampen the conciliatory mood created in the wake of the restoration of the communication lines.
Sources have said the South decided to go ahead with the exercise in a scaled-back manner, but Kim said it is still a "war rehearsal and preliminary nuclear war exercise" regardless of its scale or mode.
Following Kim's statement, Ned Price, a U.S. State Department spokesman, said the U.S. "harbors no hostile intent towards" North Korea, stressing that the drills are "purely defensive in nature."
scaaet@yna.co.kr
(END)
12. N. Korea says it will make S. Korea, U.S. feel serious security crisis every minute
Only north Korea could make answering the phone by a low level military duty officer such an important act in international relations.
(4th LD) N. Korea says it will make S. Korea, U.S. feel serious security crisis every minute | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: ADDS more info in paras 11-12)
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Wednesday slammed South Korea and the United States again for going ahead with its joint military exercise, warning it will make the allies feel a serious security crisis every minute.
Kim Yong-chol, head of the North's United Front Department handling inter-Korean affairs, made the remarks in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, saying the South Korean authorities have defied the opportunity to make a turn in relations.
The denouncement comes just a day after the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un criticized Seoul and Washington as they kicked off a preliminary training Tuesday ahead of next week's main exercise.
"We will make them realize by the minute what a dangerous choice they made and what a serious security crisis they will face because of their wrong choice," he said.
"They must be made to clearly understand how dearly they have to pay for answering our good faith with hostile acts after letting the opportunity go for improved inter-Korean relations," he added.
Kim denounced South Korea for answering the North's "good faith" with "hostile acts," calling Seoul's "much-touted" push for inter-Korean peace "just wordplay." He also said that the North has no choice but to "keep going on what we should," though he did not elaborate on what it will be.
On Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim, issued a strong-worded statement, slamming South Korea and the U.S. for going ahead with their joint military drill despite her earlier warning that the maneuvers will cloud inter-Korean relations.
She said that the country will further strengthen the country's "deterrent of absolute capacity" to cope with military threats.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said earlier that Washington harbors no hostile intent toward North Korea and insisted that the joint military drills are purely defensive in nature.
In response to Wednesday's statement, the unification ministry in Seoul said that it appears to be a repeat of what Kim Yo-jong said a day earlier, adding that the ministry will closely monitor the North's future actions.
Later in the day, the ministry released the government's stance on the North's statement, saying that "the escalation of military tension on the Korean Peninsula is beneficial to no one."
The government also redoubled calls for the North to return to dialogue at an early date for peace and stability on the peninsula and for development of cross-border relations.
North Korea did not answer South Korea's calls through military and liaison hotlines Wednesday morning for the second consecutive day in apparent protest against the military exercise.
The inter-Korean communication lines were restored late last month over a year after the North unilaterally severed them in anger over South Korean activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border in June 2020.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
13. Cheong Wa Dae: No secret deal behind reconnection of hotlines with N. Korea
These kinds of allegations are unhelpful. But if they were true I hope the lesson learned is that KJU's "deals" cannot be trusted - whenther made in public or secret.
Cheong Wa Dae: No secret deal behind reconnection of hotlines with N. Korea | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- The office of President Moon Jae-in dismissed an allegation Wednesday that it might have had a secret deal with North Korea for the reconnection of direct communication channels earlier this month.
It was responding to former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl's call for the clarification of a related process.
Yoon, a leading presidential candidate of the conservative main opposition People Power Party, took issue with Pyongyang's latest threats of retaliatory actions against South Korea's plan to go ahead with an annual joint military exercise with the United States.
Yoon asked in public whether there was any unannounced accord associated with the reopening of the hotlines.
A Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters that the suspicion raised by Yoon is "untrue."
Last month, the two Koreas reopened their military and government liaison hotlines in what Moon's office described as the fruit of Moon and the North's leader Kim Jong-un exchanging personal letters several times.
Pyongyang, however, has refused to answer daily hotline communication since Seoul made clear that it will not cancel or postpone the combined defense drills scheduled to kick off next week.
Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's sister, issued a statement Tuesday strongly criticizing South Korea. The following day, Kim Yong-chol, head of the United Front Department handling inter-Korean affairs, also warned of a serious security crisis from the allies' "wrong choice."
The Cheong Wa Dae official reiterated Seoul's position that it will continue efforts to establish peace and improve inter-Korean ties.
Cheong Wa Dae has no plan for an emergency session of the National Security Council (NSC) on the North's back-to-back statements, the official added on the customary condition of anonymity.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)
14. Group of Chinese residents asked to return to China as border remains closed to trade
Apparently an action to further control information flow into north Korea:
Excerpts:
Kim’s measures for the Chinese residents appears to be part of a diplomatic strategy with Chinese friendship, trade and aid in mind.
However, substantive difficulties faced by Chinese residents did not improve despite Kim’s measures, and with Chinese residents continuing to request permission to return to China, North Korean authorities allowed them to leave.
Meanwhile, there is also emerging concern that as Chinese residents return to China en masse, communication channels with the outside world will grow even narrower within North Korea.
Chinese residents are officially allowed to carry international telephones, and have played a role in relaying and distributing news and information about other countries within North Korea.
“As the border closure continues, communicating with those in North Korea is tough,” said the source. “If the Chinese residents leave North Korea, it will get even harder to learn what’s going on inside the country.”
Group of Chinese residents asked to return to China as border remains closed to trade - Daily NK
A source recently told Daily NK that a group of Chinese residents of North Korea who entered China last month via the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge had asked the North Korean authorities to return to China when no signs emerged of renewed trade between the two countries.
In a telephone conversation with Daily NK on Tuesday, a source in China said the Chinese who entered China through the Dandong customs house by way of Sinuiju, North Pyongan Province, were “people who had remained in North Korea believing as recently as last year that trade would soon resume.” However, he said they recently decided to return with signs pointing to the Sino-North Korean border remaining closed.
He added that while the Chinese residents in question had been living on remittances sent by family and friends in China, they had continuously complained of difficulties.
South Korean broadcaster KBS reported that 150 Chinese residents of North Korea returned to China last month.
According to Daily NK’s own reporting, the Chinese who returned in mid-July had been living in different regions of North Korea, including South Pyongan Province and the Hwanghae provinces. The authorities reportedly allowed them to exit the country all at once after collecting their petitions to leave.
North Korean authorities allowed a group of about 40 Chinese residents to return to China via the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge last December as well.
Subsequently, North Korea permitted several Chinese residents to return to China through the end of last year. Nonetheless, many Chinese residents reportedly believed at the time that there would be even greater demand for trade once the border reopened.
However, the source said that with North Korean authorities recently launching a sweeping inspection of trading institutions and strengthening control of the border with a concrete wall and high voltage wires, many of the remaining Chinese residents abandoned hope of renewed trade and decided to return to China.
The Sino-North Korean Friendship Bridge / Image: Daily NK
About 3,000 Chinese residents were living in North Korea prior to the authorities allowing them to leave the country last year.
However, about 1,000 Chinese residents have returned to China since late last year.
Chinese residents, or hwagyo, can actively participate in North Korea’s economy because they carry North Korean ID cards, despite being Chinese nationals.
They participate in trade, traveling freely between North Korea and China. They also play an important intermediary role in importing from China supplies needed by North Korean authorities.
However, Chinese residents have faced limits to their trading activities since North Korean closed the border with China last year to prevent COVID-19 from entering the country.
With discontent among Chinese residents growing, North Korean authorities even issued special measures to support them.
In an order issued to provincial party committees last October, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un praised Chinese residents as an “important treasure” who have helped continue the friendship between North Korea and China, and called on the committees to ease “as much as possible” regulations on their business activities and to resolve issues they face in their daily lives.
Kim’s measures for the Chinese residents appears to be part of a diplomatic strategy with Chinese friendship, trade and aid in mind.
However, substantive difficulties faced by Chinese residents did not improve despite Kim’s measures, and with Chinese residents continuing to request permission to return to China, North Korean authorities allowed them to leave.
Meanwhile, there is also emerging concern that as Chinese residents return to China en masse, communication channels with the outside world will grow even narrower within North Korea.
Chinese residents are officially allowed to carry international telephones, and have played a role in relaying and distributing news and information about other countries within North Korea.
“As the border closure continues, communicating with those in North Korea is tough,” said the source. “If the Chinese residents leave North Korea, it will get even harder to learn what’s going on inside the country.”
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
15. N.Korea Sulks Again
north Korea is led by a petulant brother and sister enabled by those around who should be able to act like adults.
But what this whole "episode" reveals is that Kim Jong-un neither can or even wants to act like a responsible member of the international community.
N.Korea Sulks Again
August 11, 2021 13:32
An expected rapprochement between the two Koreas heralded by the reconnection of communication lines has proved a flash in the pan as North Korea refused to answer daily routine calls from South Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong the same day denounced South Korea as "perfidious" for going ahead with joint military drills with the U.S.
The phone lines were only restored two weeks ago after unspecified behind-the-scenes negotiations. It is not known what if any promises President Moon Jae-in made to Kim Jong-un in letters they exchanged, or whether they could be interpreted as misleading.
The South and the U.S. on Tuesday started four days of preliminary training, for which Kim Yo-jong warned "a dear price should be paid."
A reconnaissance aircraft takes part in training at an air base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday. /Yonhap
The drills were scaled down due to the coronavirus pandemic but still sparked the familiar frenzied rhetoric.
"Whatever the scale and mode, the joint military exercises are of aggressive nature as they are a war rehearsal and preliminary nuclear war exercise," she added.
Top apparatchik Kim Yong-chol was quoted Wednesday as fulminating, "We will make them realize by the minute what a dangerous choice they made and what a serious security crisis they will face because of their wrong choice."
Earlier this month Kim Yo-jong already warned, "The restoration of the communication liaison lines should not be taken as anything more than just a physical reconnection."
- Copyright © Chosunilbo & Chosun.com
16. South Korea’s misplaced military inferiority complex
I will not discount the threat from the north simply because quantity has a quality all its own. I know it is not fashionable to say but I believe a war between only the South and north would result in the South prevailing. It will be long and bloody and the infrastructure in the north and South will be ruined such that a post war economy would be lucky to resume at a 1960's level (if not worse).
But an army big hats and goose stepping soldiers is not one to be feared as they have not fared well throughout history. Yes there are many challenges in the South Korean military and it is better as part of a combined military force but it is capable of defending the country. However, it is the presence of US forces that is responsible for ensuring deterrence against attack by the north.
Excerpts:
By contrast, the sight of thousands of goose-stepping and battle-ready North Korean soldiers and the procession of their latest missiles during their infamous military parades is impressive to behold.
South Korea’s misplaced military inferiority complex
Seoul should make clearer to its citizens the superiority of its military over the laggard and backward North
According to a survey by the Korea Institute for National Unification, in November 2020 more South Koreans believed that North Korea had a stronger military than South Korea.
That changed for the first time in 2021 – by a slim margin. More now believe the South Korean military is more robust than North Korea’s (37.1%) than the other way around (36.5%).
Why has it taken so long for South Koreans to acknowledge the superiority of their own military?
Donald Trump’s four-year term as president of the United States was a nerve-racking time for many in South Korea.
He repeatedly disparaged the free trade agreement between South Korea and the United States and made excessive demands in cost-sharing negotiations. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said President Trump had a personal dislike for South Korea, something he allegedly voiced in front of Hogan’s Korea-born wife.
President Trump’s approach made many in South Korea wonder if decoupling might be imminent, possibly helping convince many South Koreans that their country was in a much weaker position than North Korea.
The appearance of strength
By contrast, the sight of thousands of goose-stepping and battle-ready North Korean soldiers and the procession of their latest missiles during their infamous military parades is impressive to behold.
Neither South Korea nor the United States appears to have any path to denuclearizing North Korea.
South Korean tanks take part in an exercise near the DMZ in Paju, South Korea. Photo: AFP / Seung-il Ryu / NurPhoto
A reality check
Yet the North Korean military is not as formidable as it appears. Their weakness was apparent in 2017 when a North Korean soldier defected to the South across the DMZ.
After he was shot by his former comrades during his escape, the doctor responsible for saving the soldier’s life reported that he had found inside the soldier’s body parasites he had only previously read about in medical textbooks.
Food security between the two Koreas is so stark there is even a notable height difference between South and North Koreans – North Korean soldiers are so malnourished that many have become physically stunted.
In 2019, the South Korean Air Force bought 40 F-35 stealth fighters, and in 2020, it announced it would buy 40 more. Earlier this year, South Korea showed the world the prototype of its own indigenous 4.5 generation fighter jet, the KF-21 Boramae.
Aside from its fleet of submarines, none of North Korea’s conventional forces could ever hope to challenge South Korea’s Armed Forces.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observes a missile test. Photo: AFP / KCTV
Doomsday weapons
North Korean strategists are aware of South Korea’s military prowess and industrial output, which is why they have no intention of relinquishing their nuclear weapons.
Yet, having nuclear weapons is very different from using them. It’s because nuclear weapons are so terrifying that they are unusable. The moment one of their nuclear bombs detonates in South Korea, that would guarantee a vengeful retaliation from the full might of the South Korean and the United States militaries.
It is difficult to imagine anyone in North Korea’s top echelons of power would ever welcome such an eventuality.
In other words, not only would South Korea deploy its missiles – “decapitation weapons”–that could target North Korean leaders, but if war were to ever break out again on the Korean peninsula, South Korea’s existing non-nuclear weapons are sufficient to guarantee mutually assured destruction.
Not only are South Korea’s missiles already capable of targeting every inch of the Korean Peninsula, but the Hyunmoo-4, tested only last year, reportedly carries a payload as large as 2 tons to ranges of up to 800 kilometers.
Once it is completed, it is rumored that the Hyunmoo-4 will have a 3,000-kilometer range and be capable of supersonic flight.
In comparison, the “new-type tactical guided projectile” that North Korea tested in March is believed to be able to carry a payload of 2.5 tons. At this point, the debate between South and North Korean missile ranges and payload is strictly academic.
If the worst-case scenario ever broke out and both Koreas started lobbing all of their missiles at each other, the only difference would be that South Korea’s rubble would be radiated while North Korea’s rubble wouldn’t be.
To ensure its second-strike capability in the event of a war, South Korea also has anti-missile defense systems – Patriot missiles and THAAD. In addition, South Korea is also developing its domestic anti-missile defense, the L-SAM, and plans to build its own version of the Iron Dome to counter North Korea’s artillery.
Unfortunately, it is true that there is no such thing as a perfect missile defense system. Currently, missile defense is prohibitively expensive, not at all foolproof and can be beaten by sheer numbers of volleys.
However, South Korea doesn’t require a perfect missile defense shield. All it requires is a semi-working shield to make North Korean strategists consider that they won’t be able to take out all of South Korea’s missiles before they are launched to find their targets – them.
South Korean Special Army soldiers perform martial arts during a rehearsal of the 72nd Armed Forces Day ceremony at the headquarters of the Special Warfare Command in Icheon. Photo: AFP / South Korean Defence Ministry
Perception matters
Many believe that the North Korean military is full of hungry soldiers with nothing to lose. After all, just because North Korean soldiers are infested with parasites does not mean that they cannot fight.
At the same, many also believe that the South Korean military includes pampered soldiers who grew up in an affluent society. As such, they reason that the typical North Korean soldier is more willing to fight and win.
Furthermore, even though the South Korean military might be better armed and better fed than its North Korean counterpart, as the US learned in Vietnam and, more recently, in Afghanistan, having access to better amenities, weapons and ration deliveries do not at all guarantee military victory.
However, it would be a mistake to compare American troops, who are hobbled by their political leaders and the need to be perceived as benign liberators while they attempt to pacify remote corners of the world that are far away from their shores, to South Korean troops who would be engaged in what would be nothing less than a war that would determine whether they may continue to exist.
Case in point, in November 2010, after North Korea opened fire and shelled Yeonpyeong-do, defying the cynics, South Korean troops didn’t desert their posts. Instead, their training kicked in, and South Korean marines fired back within 13 minutes.
The South Korean military is not soft. On the contrary, it is a disciplined, well-armed and well-fed military that does not neglect its duties in defending its country.
South Korean soldiers participate in the Armed Forces Day at the Military Air Base in Daegu on October 1, 2019. Photo: AFP / Jeon Heon-kyun
On the other hand, not including being infested by parasites, there are also signs, including attention-grabbing defections, that the dedication of younger North Korean citizens who make up the KPA’s conscripts is not nearly as strong as its state media would have the outside world believe.
The erroneous view that South Korea’s military and soldiers are somehow weaker or less capable than North Korea’s serves Pyongyang’s goals at the expense of Seoul and Washington’s national interests.
South Korea ranked 10th worldwide in terms of nominal gross domestic product in 2020. As such, South Korea would have much to lose should the Korean War ever reignite. Combined with the perceived South Korean weakness vis-a-vis North Korea, South Korea’s political leaders and voters enter into negotiations with North Korea from a disadvantaged position.
South Koreans need to understand that their country is superior and that this superiority extends to the military. While triumphalism would not aid South Korea in dealing with North Korea, neither does an inferiority complex.
John Lee (johnwlee1013@gmail.com) is a blogger and freelance writer and columnist. A different version of this article was first published by Pacific Forum International. Lee’s work has also appeared in NK News, Channel News Asia, the South China Morning Post and La Croix. He lives in South Korea. Twitter: @koreanforeigner.
17.
We do have to appreciate the complexity of the situation that has developed in recent years with the regime's increased military capabilities combined with COVID, natural disasters, engagement with the South and US (multiple summits) and sanctions along with Kim's desperate attempt to maintain internal control over the people. While it makes for a nice argument to allow Kim to "stew in his own juices," the problem will be Kim's crisis action decision making when he can no longer control what is happening inside north Korea. And those decisions could involve some level of conflict internal and in the worst case externally (e.g., implosion and explosion).
Kim Jong Un’s Sister Blasts U.S.’s ‘Dangerous War Exercises,’ Threatens to Bolster Military
U.S.-South Korea military drills are planned for next week, angering Kim Yo Jong who wanted them canceled
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and his sister, Kim Yo Jong, in 2018.
PHOTO: KOREA SUMMIT PRESS POOL
By Timothy W. Martin
Updated Aug. 10, 2021 9:46 pm ET
SEOUL— Kim Jong Un’s sister vowed North Korea would amp up its national defense and deterrence after joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises that she demanded be canceled appeared likely to begin next week.
Preliminary training has already begun for the annual Seoul-Washington exercises, South Korean media reported. They were once large-scale field drills featuring tens of thousands of military personnel, but are now largely computer simulations, following orders from then-President Donald Trump to scale them back. But North Korea remains angry.
On Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean dictator’s younger sister, excoriated Washington and Seoul for ignoring her earlier warnings to halt the “dangerous war exercises.” In failing to do so, the present U.S. administration proves that engagement and dialogue overtures are nothing but “hypocrisy to cover up its aggressive nature,” Ms. Kim said in a statement carried by state media.
“The reality proves that only substantial deterrent, not words, can ensure the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula,” Ms. Kim said.
North Korea is prone to making grandiose claims in its state media, though it often telegraphs its next moves. To defend itself from outside military threats, Ms. Kim said the country would boost its national defenses, hone its pre-emptive strike powers and increase a deterrence of “absolute capacity.”
Late last month, North Korea made the surprise move to reopen a direct communication line with Seoul. But Ms. Kim, in an earlier statement, cautioned against over-optimism, pointing to the U.S.-South Korea drills as a litmus test of mutual trust.
After Ms. Kim’s statement, the North Koreans didn’t answer routine hotline calls later on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, according to South Korean officials. On Wednesday, a senior Pyongyang official criticized Seoul for opting for an “alliance with outsiders, not harmony with compatriots” and for choosing “confrontation, not improved relations,” according to a statement carried by the North’s state media.
Canceling the joint exercises was unlikely, especially since the Biden administration could look weak in bowing to Ms. Kim’s demands, so the restoration of the inter-Korean hotline appears to have been a low-risk gambit for Pyongyang, according to Go Myong-hyun, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute, a Seoul-based think tank. If the drills were shelved, Pyongyang may have come back to the table for talks, he added.
“Now, the Kim regime can confidently place the blame on the Biden administration for a breakdown of dialogue,” Mr. Go said. “North Korea will respond to the joint military exercises with provocations, likely with missile launches as it has done in the past.”
North Korea’s New Push to Export Its Propaganda
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North Korea’s New Push to Export Its Propaganda
A far cry from hawkish newscasts and displays of the regime’s weapons arsenal, North Korea’s vloggers showcase a softer side of life in Pyongyang. Here’s how the country is revamping its propaganda machine to target new audiences who speak English, French and Chinese. Photo composite: Sharon Shi
The U.S. and South Korea haven't conducted joint, large-scale field drills for years. After meeting Mr. Kim for the first time at a summit in Singapore in 2018, Mr. Trump, to the surprise of some of his own defense officials, said the exercises would be scaled back or suspended. Last year, spring training was canceled due to Covid-19. The exercises, including the one planned for this month, unfold indoors in front of computer monitors.
After the restoration of the inter-Korean hotline last month, political pressure built in South Korea about whether the joint training should go ahead as planned. Several dozen lawmakers from President Moon Jae-in’s ruling Democratic Party signed a petition saying the exercises would be delayed if the two Koreas struck an agreement to resume dialogue. But the ruling party’s chairman backed the exercises, calling them defensive in nature and necessary to maintain peace.
Pyongyang hasn’t conducted a nuclear test or test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in years. After a 2019 nuclear summit in Vietnam between Messrs. Kim and Trump ended without a deal, the North has conducted more than 20 smaller-range weapons tests. Pyongyang has also added to its nuclear arsenal, according to government and think-tank estimates.
A joint U.S.-South Korea military exercise north of Seoul in 2015.
PHOTO: LEE JIN-MAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last month, port activity was detected at a shipyard where one of the North’s two submersible test barges is warehoused, according to a satellite-imagery analysis by 38 North, a website focused on North Korea. The work suggests either maintenance or potential retrofitting to handle a new generation of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 38 North said.
Pyongyang had rolled out a new submarine-launched ballistic missile at a January military parade; state media touted it as the “world’s most powerful weapon.”
In June, Mr. Kim, making his first remarks about U.S. policy since Mr. Biden took office, kept his options open. The country should be ready for both dialogue and confrontation, he said.
But Pyongyang hadn’t shown much interest in talking, having brushed off Washington’s outreach for months. The two countries haven’t held formal denuclearization talks since October 2019. To come back to the table, Pyongyang is believed to want sanctions restrictions to allow for minerals exports and more imports of refined fuel, according to South Korean lawmakers briefed last week by Seoul’s spy agency.
North Korea has been dealing with a series of domestic crises, from a weakened economy and food shortages to recent floods that destroyed farmland and homes. The Kim regime sealed off its borders during the pandemic, curbing cross-border trade with China and forgoing foreign-tourism dollars.
17. South Korea in Uphill Battle to Recover Korean War Remains
One of our ROK and US shared values. We work to recover all our fallen and missing (though we remain disppaointed in handling of the 78,000+ ROK POWs who were never allowed to return by the north). But this is incredibly hard work.
South Korea in Uphill Battle to Recover Korean War Remains
ANYANG, South Korea — On the first day of each month, Kwak Geum-ja makes a pilgrimage to a Korean War memorial in her neighborhood to pray for her father, a South Korean soldier who died in battle when she was just a baby.
His remains have yet to be recovered, and the aging Kwak is eager for them to be found and interred at the national cemetery.
“I’m over 70 now. I won’t have any regrets in my life if I recover my father’s remains before I die,” a teary-eyed Kwak said during an interview in the city of Anyang, just south of the capital, Seoul. “I just want to see and confirm them with my eyes. Nothing more.”
Kwak is among the tens of thousands of South Koreans hoping the remains of their loved ones — soldiers who perished during the 1950-53 Korean War — will be found.
There’s still a long way to go.
Since recovery efforts modeled after a similar U.S. mission began in earnest more than 20 years ago, authorities have unearthed thousands of sets of remains believed to be deceased South Korean soldiers, but have only been able to identify 166 of them. The number of unrecovered South Korean soldiers stands at about 120,000.
South Korea has so far collected DNA samples from blood relatives of only about 47,000 slain soldiers to compare with DNA extracted from exhumed bones.
The conflict, which pitted South Korea and U.S.-led U.N. forces against North Korea and China, killed 1-2 million people, including 160,000 South Korean soldiers.
Finding their remains is an urgent, emotional task because most of the bereaved relatives are either elderly or have already passed away.
The recovery work is complicated by the fact that many South Korean soldiers were sent to the front without military identification during the war's opening phase, as the South rushed to blunt the surprise North Korean invasion. Authorities also didn’t keep most soldiers' dental records, chest X-rays and other forms of ID. Once the conflict ended, rapid post-war reconstruction and land redevelopment projects followed, making it difficult to locate some former battlefields and burial sites.
“It would be more meaningful for bereaved families to get back their loved ones’ remains when they are still alive. That’s our fundamental yet most difficult mission,” said Im Na Hyok, director of the central identification laboratory at a Defense Ministry-run agency that's responsible for recovering and identifying troops killed in action.
During a recent visit by Associated Press journalists to her laboratory, located in Seoul’s national cemetery, she discussed some of the remains authorities have dug up in recent years from a former battlefield inside the Demilitarized Zone, a strip of heavily fortified land that forms the de facto border between the two Koreas. It was South Korea’s first such excavation project in the DMZ since the war’s end.
Describing a yellowish, near-complete skeleton laid on a lab table, Im said the remains were likely a U.N. soldier from Europe, not Korean. She noted the higher-bridged nasal bone and teeth with amalgam fillings, a dental treatment that didn’t exist in both Koreas and China at the time of the war. A bulletproof vest, boots and other items collected with the skeleton were all found to be U.N.-provided gear, she said.
Another, less-complete skeleton is suspected to be a South Korean soldier. Im said the soldier likely died at around age 25, citing her team's examination of the wisdom teeth, tooth wear and the condition of other bones.
Im said she hopes to expand her office’s missions into North Korea, where Seoul believes about 30,000 unrecovered South Korean war dead are buried.
North Korea has never allowed South Korea to excavate on its territory. It also refuses to receive the remains of its soldiers South Korea has found.
But in a sign it prioritizes relations with Washington, North Korea still conducted 33 joint recovery operations with the U.S. from 1996-2005, collecting 229 sets of American remains on its territory. In 2018, it returned 55 boxes containing the remains of presumed U.S. service members missing from the war as a goodwill gesture, as the two countries were engaged in now-stalled diplomacy on the North’s nuclear program.
The Korean Peninsula remains at a technical state of war, because an armistice that ended the conflict in 1953 has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty. More than 7,500 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.
Kwak’s father, Pfc. Kwak Jeong-kyu, died at age 26 at the South Korean border town of Cheolwon on Jan. 1, 1951. She said she submitted her blood samples more than 10 years ago. Each year she receives a letter from the government saying her father’s remains have yet to be found.
She has no memory of her dad, since she was only a year old when he was conscripted into the army. As a child, Kwak said she hated attending village parties involving families, or seeing her friends' fathers show up at school.
Shortly before her mother died of a heart problem in 1984, the war widow sank into delirium and asked if her husband had returned.
“When she was dying, those were the only words she uttered … I think my mom said this because she had deep longings for him too,” Kwak said.
Choi Choong-sik, the 68-year-old son of a late South Korean marine, said it was only around 1980 that his family learned there was a grave with his father’s name on it at the national cemetery, although they were informed of his death soon after he was killed in the war's closing weeks.
Choi regularly pays his respects at the grave. But he still submitted DNA samples to the search commission, in case his father's remains are still out there. He feels there's a possibility someone else’s ashes might have been buried in the cemetery during the post-war chaos.
“I sometimes wonder if the remains at the grave are truly my father’s,” Choi said. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if my father’s real remains are recovered when I’m still alive?”
18. Why Kim Jong Un's sister will not succeed him as North Korea's leader
Succession is a critical issue for the north. If there is no designated success when KJU dies there could be catastrophic instability.
This is a credible description of how KimYo-jong is being employed by the regime.
Excerpts:
Referring to Kim Yo Jong, Fowdy said her rise to power has been part of a tactic in how to conduct international diplomacy.
"She is a secondary voice who is used to convey messages which are important but not of the gravity of Kim Jong Un himself, and this all part of the game with the US and South Korea," he said, adding that Kim Yo Jong acts more as an "angry messenger" when it comes to Seoul.
"She can voice discontent and disapproval, without cutting away the access to talks themselves of which would be facilitated by her brother."
He added that North Korea seeks to portray Kim Jon Un as more of a "good cop" and his sister as more of a "bad cop", but said she could never become the leader of the country.
Why Kim Jong Un's sister will not succeed him as North Korea's leader
Newsweek · by Jack Dutton · August 10, 2021
Despite Kim Yo Jong's seemingly increasing influence and rumours of Kim Jong Un's ill health, the sister of the North Korean leader is not destined to succeed him, experts tell Newsweek.
Kim Yo Jong is increasingly looking like the senior North Korean official making public statements directed at the international community.
Biden Wants North Korea Meeting, South Korea Says Now's the Time
Read more
"Even though Kim Yo Jong does often make statements on behalf of the North Korean government, this does not mean she is the one in control. Kim Jong Un is still very much the one calling the shots, as far as we know," Gabiela Bernal, a Korean Affairs Analyst based in Seoul, told Newsweek.
She added that Kim Jong Un is likely simply using his sister as a mouthpiece to express any anger and threats aimed at South Korea and the United States.
"This way, the comments don't fall directly on him and he can always backtrack through later statements to reopen the door for some form of diplomacy or talks," Bernal said.
She said it was unlikely Kim Yo Jong would become the next possible leader of the hermit kingdom for several reasons.
"One, her gender is a problem in NK given the patriarchal nature of the society. The only thing she has going for her is her bloodline, without which no woman would ever have such political influence in that country.
"If anything were to happen to KJU, it would be more likely that a high-level military figure loyal to the Kim family would take over in an official capacity while KYJ would play a more symbolic or ceremonial role. But it's too early to say for sure."
Tom Fowdy, North Korea and China Analysis at the Chollima Report told Newsweek that the international community tends to "think too deeply" into reports of Kim Jong Un's health, which are often based on hearsay or speculation.
"I think there has been a circus of hysteria in the media which has made serious analysis unhelpful. Kim has lost a lot of weight obviously, but that could be political in view to the country's situation as much as it may be health related," he said.
Kim Yo Jong (R), sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, talks with Chung Eui-yong (L), South Korea's top national security advisor, during a meeting to deliver a condolence message and flowers on her brother's behalf for former first lady Lee He-ho's funeral at border village of Panmunjom between South and North Korea on June 12, 2019 in Panmunjom, South Korea. Despite her perceived increasing influence, Kim Yo Jong is not destined to succeed her brother as North Korea’s leader, experts tell Newsweek. South Korean Ministry of Unification/Getty
"The condition of the North Korean leaders is always a closely guarded secret and the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) never wants to emit any recognition that its leaders may be experiencing outward weakness in terms of health," Fowdy added.
Referring to Kim Yo Jong, Fowdy said her rise to power has been part of a tactic in how to conduct international diplomacy.
"She is a secondary voice who is used to convey messages which are important but not of the gravity of Kim Jong Un himself, and this all part of the game with the US and South Korea," he said, adding that Kim Yo Jong acts more as an "angry messenger" when it comes to Seoul.
"She can voice discontent and disapproval, without cutting away the access to talks themselves of which would be facilitated by her brother."
He added that North Korea seeks to portray Kim Jon Un as more of a "good cop" and his sister as more of a "bad cop", but said she could never become the leader of the country.
"To become the 'successor' is not an automatic father-to-son trait as opposed to years of slowly building up their personality cult, power base and legitimacy too. She could be challenged by others."
In terms of Kim Jong Un's successor being one of his children, there is not much information about his offspring in the public sphere and details about his family are a closely guarded secret.
But the dictator is believed to have had three children with his wife Ri Sol Ju since their secretive marriage in 2009. A report by CNN from 2017 suggested that at least one of the couple's children is a boy.
Newsweek · by Jack Dutton · August 10, 2021
V/R
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Phone: 202-573-8647
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
