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Quotes of the Day:
“Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.”
- Aristophanes
“Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.”
- Francis Bacon, The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon
“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all – except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.”
- John F Kennedy, Saturday Review, October 29th, 1960
1. Top U.S. diplomat for East Asia policy holds talks with Seoul officials on trade, alliance
2. The John Batchelor Show: #SouthKorea: ROK takes command.
3. Otto Warmbier's Parents Give Scholarship to N.Korean Defector
4. Defense minister encourages S. Korean, U.S. troops in allied exercise
5. S. Korean, Japanese diplomats discuss Tokyo's wartime forced labor
6. North Korea's crypto activity dangerously underestimated
7. Unification minister renews resolve to help enhance N.K. human rights
8. N. Korea claims recent fever outbreak caused by flu, not coronavirus
9. US ambassador urges Korea to play role in shaping rules-based order in Indo-Pacific
10. N. Korea continues intense disease control measures in regions along its borders
11. S Korea signs $2.25 billion deal with Russia nuclear company
12. Japan, Korea defy US with big Russian energy deals
13. South Korea’s president needs to learn the basics
14. How U.S.-South Korea Military Drills Impact North Korea | Opinion
1. Top U.S. diplomat for East Asia policy holds talks with Seoul officials on trade, alliance
Again, continued high level diplomatic engagement. Another indication of the strength of the alliance.
The two sides also agreed to enhance the allies' close coordination to stop North Korea's provocations and encourage its return to dialogue, according to the ministry.
The U.S. diplomat reaffirmed Washington's "strong support" for Seoul's "audacious" plan to help North Korea improve its economy in return for its steps towards denuclearization.
We cannot stop north Korea nprovocations. They are a key part of north Korean strategy.
Regarding the "audacious plan," here are some of my thoughts:
I think the main problem is that this initiative is not bold and audacious but actually sustains the status quo. This appears to be an action for action plan based on the carrot of economic incentives in return for steps toward denuclearization. I think the Korean people in South are tired of the same proposals just as Kim Jong Un is.
And of course I think it is clear to all of us that Kim Jong Un has no intent to give up is “treasured sword” that provides a deterrent capability for his survival and supports his three fold strategy of political warfare, blackmail diplomacy, and advanced warfighting capabilities to eventually dominate the Korean peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State.
I think the Yoon administration raised expectations with the use of an “audacious initiative” and the Korean people in the north and South are underwhelmed.
I am reminded of the words of a Korea hand who once said, everything with north Korea has been tried and there is only repackaging old ideas.
Some argue economic engagement and information is a threat to the regime. In reality, Kim is a threat to his own existence. His deliberate decision to prioritize nuclear and missile development, support to the regime elite, and developed advanced warfighting capabilities at the expense of the Korean people in the north is truly a criminal act. Kim Jong Un needs to reform his economy to allow the north to survive yet due to the nature of the regime and the political system he cannot reform because to do so would undermine the legitimacy of the regime.
And the provision of economic aid and development would mean that outsiders would have to have access to the north and this will mean engagement with the people and access to information, which is an existential threat to the regime.
There seems to be little difference than the Trump proposal which was that if Kim would make the right strategic decision north Korea could have a brighter future. The right strategic decision means to give up his nuclear weapons. He believes he cannot do that and still survive. Kim Jong Un does not want a brighter future for the Korean people and the nation, he only wants a brighter future for himself, the regime, the elite, and the military, at the expense of the people. And the brighter future is a threat to the regime because it means engagement and information that will undermine the legitimacy of the regime.
However, there actually is a bold and audacious strategy and they can be found in the words of the newly appointed South Korean Ambassador for Human Rights in north Korea, Professor Lee Shin Hwa. What we need is an information offensive to get information into the north. It is time to stop neglecting human rights in the north and for the ROK/US alliance to take a human rights upfront approach.
An information and influence campaign based on human rights can form the basis for change in the north and this will be to support what should be the bold and audacious plan – to seek a free and unified Korea. It is only when there is a free and unified Korea that there will be an end to the nuclear threat and the crimes against humanity being perpetrated against the Korean people in the north. A new bold and audacious plan will give Kim Jong Un the opportunity to change or be changed from within. Ultimately the Korean people must solve the Korea question (which can be found in paragraph 60 of the Armistice the describes the unnatural division of the peninsula).
We have to understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime. It does not want to denuclearize and instead wants to dominate the peninsula. It is using political warfare, blackmail diplomacy, and developing advanced warfighting capabilities to do so. Once we understand this then we can see that the path forward has to be to seek a free and unified Korea. And we can do this through human rights and aggressive and sophisticated information and influence activities campaign. We can create the opportunity for Kim’s choices – he can change his behavior, the elite and military can force him to change his behavior, or he can suffer change at the hands of the Korean people in the north.
Human rights is not only a moral imperative but also a national security issue. Kim Jong Un must deny the human rights of the Korean people in the north in order to remain in power.
The ROK/US alliance must take a human rights up front approach. But I think President Yoon has not revealed his entire plan yet and even if he has, he can add to it. I am encouraged by the appointment of a South Korean ambassador for human rights, Professor Lee Shin Hwa, which like the United States has been unfilled since 2017.
But we cannot put aside the human rights issue. Even just reading the summary of the 2014 Commission of Inquiry show what an evil regime exists in the north and it has committed some of the worst crimes against humanity since WWII and is with a doubt the worst human rights abuser in the 21st Century.
As I have noted the two most important mechanisms for driving change within north Korea are human rights and information. The Korean people in the north need to be educated about their rights and understand that they have unalienable as outlined in the UN universal declaration of Human Rights. Although the most sinister system of social control, Songbun, and the most dangerous and brutal security apparatus in the world exists in north Korea to oppress the people, it is information and international support that will help set the people free. We owe it to the Korean people in the north to help them. In the US Army Special Forces we have a motto that says “De Oppresso Liber” – “to free the oppressed.” In the case of north Korea we must pledge to help the Korean people free themselves.
(2nd LD) Top U.S. diplomat for East Asia policy holds talks with Seoul officials on trade, alliance | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 김은정 · August 26, 2022
(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in paras 4-6, 11; ADDS photo)
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia policy held a series of talks with South Korean officials in Seoul on Friday on a wide range of topics, including North Korea policy, trade and the bilateral alliance.
Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, met his South Korean counterpart, Yeo Seung-bae, and then paid courtesy calls on Foreign Minister Park Jin and Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Do-hoon.
During the back-to-back talks with the U.S. diplomat, Seoul officials delivered South Korean businesses' concerns about the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which gives tax incentives only for electric vehicles built in North America, and other pending issues.
Park told Kritenbrink that Washington's discriminatory treatment of Korean companies could violate the terms of the bilateral free trade agreement and the World Trade Organization's most-favored-nation treatment principle, according to the ministry.
The top Seoul diplomat highlighted South Korean companies' massive investment in the U.S. and Seoul's joining of U.S.-led economic initiatives in trade, critical minerals and semiconductor supply chain, and called for measures by Washington to address their concerns.
"(Park) called for (Washington) to promptly make efforts to come up with possible solutions, including exemption or postponement of such discriminatory acts," the ministry said in a release.
In closed-door talks, Kritenbrink said Washington is well aware of Seoul's concerns over the act's potential impact on the automotive industry here and pledged to continue consultations between the two governments, an informed source said on condition of anonymity.
The two sides also agreed to enhance the allies' close coordination to stop North Korea's provocations and encourage its return to dialogue, according to the ministry.
The U.S. diplomat reaffirmed Washington's "strong support" for Seoul's "audacious" plan to help North Korea improve its economy in return for its steps towards denuclearization.
His visit here came at a time when Seoul and Washington have been carrying out their largest annual military drills in years since Monday amid concerns that Pyongyang could react to them by engaging in provocative acts.
On Friday, Kim Gunn, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, talked with his U.S. counterpart, Sung Kim, over the phone to reaffirm their commitment to strong deterrence against Pyongyang's threat and coordinate on the two nations' North Korean policy, the ministry said in a separate release.
Kritenbrink arrived in Seoul on Thursday on the second and last leg of his six-day regional trip that also took him to Mongolia. He is to leave Saturday morning.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 김은정 · August 26, 2022
2. The John Batchelor Show: #SouthKorea: ROK takes command.
I spend about 10 minutes with John Batcehlor and Gordon Chang discussing Ulchi Freedom Shield, the importance of readiness, the lesson that we need to learn about scaling back exercises to entice Kim Jong Un to negotiate, OPCON transition and Korean General An commanding the ROK/US CFC for the exercise as well as the potential for additional THAAD deployment. and the importance of ROK-Japan-US integrated missile defense.
https://podcastaddict.com/episode/144230586
#SouthKorea: ROK takes command. David Maxwell, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and senior fellow at the Global Peace Foundation. @GordonGChang, Gatestone, Newsweek, The Hill
3. Otto Warmbier's Parents Give Scholarship to N.Korean Defector
Escapee. Seohyun and her family are escapees. I am very grateful to her entire family as they have been instrumental in helping me (and many others) to understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime.
I also think we should commend the Warmbiers. Despite the pain they have suffered they continue to take action to oppose Kim Jong Un and his brutal regime. And one of the ways to really stick it in his eye is to help escapees live successful lives in freedom. This is a positive message for the Korean people in the north - they can live successful lives in freedom. VOA has already reported on this for broadcast into north Korea and the South Korea media has reported on this extensively.
Congratulations to Seohyun and thank you to Cindy and Fred Warmbier.
Otto Warmbier's Parents Give Scholarship to N.Korean Defector
english.chosun.com
August 26, 2022 13:44
Lee Seo-hyun
The parents of Otto Warmbier, an American student who was murdered by the North Korean regime, are giving a scholarship to a North Korean defector.
Fred Warmbier told Voice of America on Wednesday that the couple have awarded a scholarship in their son's name to Lee Seo-hyun, a North Korean defector who is studying in the U.S. The parents expressed the hope that the scholarship will be a "strong message" to the North Korean regime.
Born in Ohio, Otto Warmbier visited North Korea as part of a tour group in December 2015 but was arrested and sentenced to prison on charges of trying to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel. He was tortured in prison and only returned to the U.S. in a coma and on the brink of death in June 2017, dying six days later.
Lee fled North Korea with her father, a senior official with the Workers Party who worked for Room 39, which looks after leader Kim Jong-un's personal coffers. They settled in Washington and she studies at Columbia University Graduate School.
"I think the Otto Warmbier Scholarship means more to me than anything else because of the brutal Kim regime," she told VOA. Warmbier's parents [are] punishing North Korea and contributing to the bright future of North Korea, which is very encouraging and, above all, a strong message of hope."
"The Warmbier parents' decision will send a strong warning message that the continued barbaric behavior of the Kim regime will pay," she added.
Lee has been criticizing the regime's oppression and talking about the North's human rights abuses on a YouTube channel that she started in 2020.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier attend a press conference in Seoul on Nov. 22, 2019.
Fred Warmbier told VOA that he met her at a lecture in Washington, D.C., and was greatly impressed by her passion for striving for freedom in North Korea since her defection, giving up the privileges of the North Korean elite. He also said he hopes "his son's name and his legacy will be a stronger message to the North Korean regime."
Cindy Warmbier said the couple do not want their son to be remembered as just a victim and that they want his legacy to be recalled much more than his death.
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- Copyright © Chosunilbo & Chosun.com
english.chosun.com
4. Defense minister encourages S. Korean, U.S. troops in allied exercise
Defense minister encourages S. Korean, U.S. troops in allied exercise | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 강윤승 · August 26, 2022
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup visited an Army unit just south of Seoul on Friday to encourage South Korean and U.S. troops engaging in a combined military exercise.
Lee met the troops at the Ground Component Command, a wartime unit formed to conduct the allies' Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise that kicked off Monday and is set to run through Sept. 1. It is located in Yongin, 49 kilometers south of Seoul.
The minister called on service members to focus on maximizing their wartime operational capabilities during the UFS and maintain a "firm" defense posture to respond "sternly and immediately" to any direct enemy provocations.
Concerns have persisted that Pyongyang could engage in provocative acts, given its hardening rhetoric against Seoul and Washington, and signs that it has completed key preparations for what would be its seventh nuclear test.
colin@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 강윤승 · August 26, 2022
5. S. Korean, Japanese diplomats discuss Tokyo's wartime forced labor
As stated many times, the ROK and Japan must prioritize national security and national prosperity and pledge to manage the historical issues without allowing them to harm security and prosperity.
S. Korean, Japanese diplomats discuss Tokyo's wartime forced labor | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 김은정 · August 26, 2022
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- Diplomats from South Korea and Japan held talks in Tokyo on Friday to discuss the long-simmering issue of the latter's wartime forced labor, as the two countries seek to move beyond historical grievances in the face of shared security threats from North Korea.
Lee Sang-ryeol, the director general for Asia and Pacific affairs, met with his Japanese counterpart, Takehiro Funakoshi, amid concerns that a legal process here to liquidate assets of Japanese firms to compensate forced labor victims could further strain ties between Seoul and Tokyo.
"Lee explained (Seoul's) efforts to enhance bilateral relations and address the forced labor issue, and called on Japan once again to show a sincere response for the resolution of the issue," the ministry said in a release.
The ministry cast the latest meeting as part of continued communication to draw up a "reasonable solution" over the forced labor issue.
"The two director generals shared the view that it is important for the diplomatic authorities of the two countries to continue communication to restore and improve South Korea-Japan relations," it said.
Their latest meeting drew attention as the Supreme Court might soon hand down rulings that could force Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to sell its assets in South Korea to compensate Korean victims.
Liquidation of the Japanese firm's assets could hamper the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's efforts to improve soured ties with Japan, which has warned of consequences in such cases.
During the two-hour meeting, Lee told Funakoshi about the potential compensation schemes discussed in a public-private body launched in early July and Seoul's plan to draw up a solution that reflects victims' opinions, a foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
The diplomatic spat over the thorny issue began after the Supreme Court made unprecedented rulings in 2018 that Japanese firms should pay compensation to forced labor victims, and Japan imposed export curbs against South Korea in apparent retaliation.
Japan has claimed that all reparation issues related to the 1910-45 colonial rule were settled under a 1965 treaty that the two countries signed to normalize relations.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 김은정 · August 26, 2022
6. North Korea's crypto activity dangerously underestimated
The all purpose sword of north Korean cyber.
North Korea's crypto activity dangerously underestimated
uk.finance.yahoo.com · by Brian McGleenon
Watch: North Korea's crypto activity dangerously underestimated - The Crypto Mile
North Korea's exploitation of cryptocurrency back-channels for sanctions evasion is a growing threat and one that has not been fully understood.
The US Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, sanctioned Tornado Cash on August 8 over fears the 'mixer' platform aided North Korean hackers.
But, the illicit funds flowing through Tornado Cash are just the tip of the iceberg and Pyongyang's exploitation of cryptocurrency mixers to aid the proliferation of its deadly arsenal is developing.
According to blockchain analysis, North Korea has successfully seized roughly $1bn worth of cryptocurrency from 2021 to March 2022 alone.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un. Photograph: KCNA via Reuters.
Pyongyang is the greatest state-sponsored cyber threat to the traditional global financial order and to the developing cryptocurrency sector.
On this week's The Crypto Mile, we are joined by King Mallory, the director of the Centre for Global Risk and Security at the RAND Corporation, to talk about how pariah states are using crypto to violate sanctions.
Read more: Crypto live prices
Mallory explained how North Korea has already used crypto to launder hundreds of millions of dollars of stolen funds.
He said: "Using Tornado Cash is far from the first case."
"At the moment very little can stop North Korea from using other crypto platforms that permit anonymous transfers and do not enforce 'know your customer' rules to aid its import and export flows.
"However, as we already discussed, I expect that governments will increasingly clamp down on such providers.
"Furthermore, I expect governments will move to forbid transactions with providers in jurisdictions that refuse to clamp down on crypto platforms that allow anonymous transfers."
North Korea is famous for it's extraordinarily daring hacks.
US and EU government agencies are now flexing their ability to strike against the open-source crypto-code that enables pariah states to evade sanctions.
This move by OFAC sets a precedent that has the crypto-industry stepping back with a nervous pause.
The recent developments have led the cryptocurrency ecosystem to find itself at a crossroads; whether to champion the anonymity and privacy provided by the creative algorithms of its brightest developers or acquiesce to the strong-arm tactics of government agencies.
Mallory warned that the window of opportunity for the crypto sector to self-regulate is closing and that major resources could soon be directed by the international community to crush crypto channels that allow sanctions evasion.
Speaking on this week's The Crypto Mile, he said: "The Tornado cash indictment is an indication that the window for the international crypto market to self-regulate if it was ever doing so, is closing.
"I anticipate that governments will increasingly intervene to prosecute and shut down crypto operators that continue to allow anonymous transfers."
One of the developers behind Tornado Cash has now been arrested, and this so-called 'war against code' could imperil any decentralised application or even major crypto-networks such as Ethereum, through guilt by association.
A meeting at the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Photograph: Reuters/Gary Cameron
Crypto-clampdown resources expected to soar
The director of the Centre for Global Risk and Security at the RAND Corporation stressed that it is only part of the crypto-ecosystem that allows such anonymous exchanges of funds, such as Tornado Cash, and that he expects governments will increasingly clamp down on such providers.
He said: "Crypto of this kind is allowing sanctions evaders to circumvent the formal financial system and the relatively effective controls that are in place to prevent that system’s abuse."
Mallory estimated that the current share of resources directed at halting cryptocurrency pathways for sanctions circumvention currently lies around 5%.
But, he expects this share will rise as sanction violators increasingly adopt crypto-channels for their illicit funding pathways.
He said: "As the amount of money laundered via crypto continues to move into the billions I expect that share will grow rapidly, perhaps reaching a level as high as 25% within ten years, if the abuse of crypto continues unchecked."
There is concern about the amount of money laundering that goes on in the cryptosphere. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Tornado Cash
Tornado Cash is a transaction privacy tool that works by mixing users’ crypto up in a common pool before sending it off to its intended destination. In this way, it completely obfuscates who sent what to whom, and is contrary to what makes a publicly distributed ledger, or blockchain significant, which is that all trades are visible and cannot be corrupted.
Tornado Cash is not a traditional company, but an open-source software project based on the Ethereum blockchain.
It is run in a decentralised manner by people, usually anonymous, through servers speckled across the earth.
Tornado Cash is maintained by a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, or DAO, which makes it difficult to corner a direct owner, and seize intellectual property, as the algorithms behind the platform are open source. In 2020, the Tornado Cash team wrote a blog post that said, “from now on, Tornado.cash is largely living by the precepts that code is law.
"No one can modify the smart contracts and the protocol is decentralised and unstoppable, as long as Ethereum isn’t changed or taken down.”
This of course draws the world's second-largest crypto-blockchain by market capitalisation into the fray and the decision to sanction code, and those that interact with it could have far-flung consequences for the 'smart contract' network co-founded by Vitalik Buterin.
Cryptocurrencies are at a fork in the road.
A fork in the road
Battle lines are being drawn and the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem that first drew breath when Satoshi Nakomoto launched the bitcoin network in 2009 is at a fork in the road. One way could lead to mass adoption by submitting to the regulatory restrictions and overseeing hand of centralised authority. But, this compromise is anathema to many in the sector.
The other way leads to further antagonism of the powers that be through a multitude of loopholes where government agencies find themselves always playing catch up. But this move could make it impossible for crypto to mature and reach its goal of mass adoption.
In this way, the only hope for bitcoin (BTC-USD), ethereum (ETH-USD) and the plethora of other cryptocurrencies is the full-scale collapse of the legacy systems of finance, trade and governance, and the rise of a new order where the green shoot of a decentralised world sprouts from the ashes of its forebear.
Watch: The Crypto Mile: The Ethereum Merge
uk.finance.yahoo.com · by Brian McGleenon
7. Unification minister renews resolve to help enhance N.K. human rights
it does appear that the Yoon administration is going to adopt a human rights upfront approach.
Unification minister renews resolve to help enhance N.K. human rights | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · August 26, 2022
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Unification Minister Kwon Young-se reaffirmed the government's resolve Friday to help enhance the human rights situation in North Korea as he met with the leaders of local civic organizations.
Kwon met Heo Kwang-il, head of the North Korean Human Rights Union, and chiefs of three other groups, and stressed the government's "obligation and will" to deal with the human rights and humanitarian situations in the reclusive country, according to the unification ministry.
The minister also reiterated the government's principle to accept all North Korean defectors, saying his ministry seeks to make institutional and legal improvements to that end and help defectors settle smoothly once they make it here.
The meeting came a day after South Korea held its first interagency government meeting on North Korean human rights policy in over two years.
The Yoon Suk-yeol administration has taken a more proactive stance in dealing with the North's rights issues in a shift from the preceding Moon Jae-in administration.
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · August 26, 2022
8. N. Korea claims recent fever outbreak caused by flu, not coronavirus
The Propaganda and Agitation department is conducting damage control to try to continue to claim victory in the COVID War.
(LEAD) N. Korea claims recent fever outbreak caused by flu, not coronavirus | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · August 26, 2022
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more details; MODIFIES lead paras; ADDS byline)
By Yi Wonju
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Friday the latest fever cases in the northeastern province of Ryanggang were found to have been caused by influenza.
On Thursday, the North said four fever cases suspected of carrying "malignant epidemic" were reported in Ryanggang Province bordering China, raising concerns over a second coronavirus wave just two weeks after it declared victory over the crisis that began in mid-May.
"According to information from the State Emergency Epidemic Prevention Headquarters, it made clear that all the fever cases that occurred in Ryanggang Province were influenza," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Health officials urged people to wear masks and report to relevant authorities without traveling or moving if they show symptoms of fever, saying that influenza can easily occur in all areas of the country.
The fever patients returned back to normal body temperature and the lockdown of the area was lifted, according to the KCNA.
The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, urged people to remain on "maximum" alert against the global crisis and maintain "ironclad barriers" to prevent the spread of infections.
"We still have a long way to go before the emergency anti-epidemic work is over," it said.
The paper called on officials and workers to "fulfill their responsibilities and roles" by tightening their antivirus efforts and following quarantine guidelines.
On Aug. 10, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered the lifting of the country's "maximum emergency anti-epidemic" measures.
Pyongyang had claimed to be coronavirus-free for over two years amid the global outbreak before announcing its first COVID-19 case on May 12.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · August 26, 2022
9. US ambassador urges Korea to play role in shaping rules-based order in Indo-Pacific
I think this is the intent of the Yoon Administration as President Yoon has written that he wants South Korea to step up on the world stage and become a global pivotal state. And it is in South Korean interests to help protect the rules based international order.
US ambassador urges Korea to play role in shaping rules-based order in Indo-Pacific
The Korea Times · August 26, 2022
Participants in the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM) Digital Innovation Forum 2022 pose at Grand Hyatt Seoul, Friday. First row fourth from left are U.S. Ambassador to Korea Philip Goldberg, Rep. Jung Chung-rae, AMCHAM Chairman James Kim and Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. Yonhap
By Park Jae-hyuk
The U.S. ambassador to Korea said Friday that the two countries should strengthen their partnership in trade and technology to build a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific.
During the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM) Digital Innovation Forum, Friday, U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg welcomed the Yoon administration's decision to join the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), saying that Korea has an important role to play in helping shape the "rules-based order" that enables prosperity.
"Korea will also be a part of the initial meeting of the Chip 4 in discussing how we can secure supply chains in the semiconductor field," the ambassador said. "I plan to work together with the Yoon administration, Korean people, Korean businesses and our businesses from the United States on a shared vision for a free and opened Indo-Pacific and a world committed to the international rules-based democratic principles and universal human rights."
U.S. Ambassador to Korea Philip Goldberg delivers congratulatory remarks at the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea Digital Innovation Forum at Grand Hyatt Seoul, Friday. Yonhap
Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, who is on a two-day economic development trip to Korea, also talked about supply chain issues at the forum, mentioning his visit a day earlier to Samsung SDI's factory in Cheonan city, South Chungcheong Province. The Korean electric vehicle battery maker agreed earlier this year to invest $2.5 billion in the city of Kokomo, Indiana to establish a joint venture with Stellantis.
Holcomb, who came to Korea following his four-day trip to Taiwan, noted that all places he had visited throughout this week are related to the supply of components for five major carmakers located in Indiana. He met with semiconductor industry officials in Taiwan, including representatives from TSMC.
"South Korea and Indiana have many common values, interests and goals," he said. "Our economic and educational ties continue to grow year after year with always a focus on today, tomorrow and the future of industry. Many more exciting opportunities lie ahead of us both to lengthen and strengthen our many bonds, building upon the cherished partnerships we already share."
Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb delivers congratulatory remarks at the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea Digital Innovation Forum at Grand Hyatt Seoul, Friday. Yonhap
Rep. Jung Chung-rae of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who delivered congratulatory remarks as the chairman of the National Assembly's science, ICT, broadcasting, and communications committee, acknowledged the necessity of strengthening the Korea-U.S. economic alliance, saying that U.S. companies have played major roles for Korea to become a powerhouse in culture and digitization. The lawmaker mentioned Netflix which enabled Korean content, such as "Squid Game," to win global popularity.
The AMCHAM Digital Innovation Forum was held for the first time this year to celebrate the R&D contributions of global technology companies and their promotion of digital transformation, which has emerged as a critical business strategy for sustainable economic growth.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for companies to become even more digital." AMCHAM Chairman James Kim said. "Digital trade has now become a key economic growth strategy globally, including the U.S. and Korea."
The Korea Times · August 26, 2022
10. N. Korea continues intense disease control measures in regions along its borders
Actions speak louder than words. The regime is both afraid of COVID coming across the border but it also capitalized on that justification to impose strict population and resources control measures to further oppress the people.
N. Korea continues intense disease control measures in regions along its borders
Some people along the China-DPRK border say it will be more than a decade before they will be able to approach the border again, a source told Daily NK
dailynk.com
FILE PHOTO: A view of Yanggang Province from the Chinese side of the China-North Korea border. (Daily NK)
Since declaring victory over COVID-19, North Korea has been taking measures to return to normal life, including the lifting of mask mandates.
However, intense emergency quarantine measures continue in regions along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in the southern part of the country and China-North Korea border.
Residents of North Korea’s border regions are complaining about their situation, which is diametrically opposed to that of residents of the country’s interior. They are complaining that the authorities’ quarantine policies differ region-to-region, with the “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system” still in effect in regions that border South Korea and China.
A Daily NK source in South Hwanghae Province said Monday that the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Command issued a command to emergency quarantine headquarters in coastal regions of South Hwanghae Province and other frontline parts of the province on Aug. 13 calling for the “impregnable defense” of the coast against South Korean “schemes” to insert the virus into the North.
The order said there is “no guarantee that frontline areas of Gangwon Province will be the only places to get enemy items into which the malicious virus has been implanted.”
Some residents of border regions of South Hwanghae Province are responding to the order by complaining that the “declaration of victory in quarantine efforts applied to interior regions only, with nothing applying to frontline regions,” and that authorities will “blame frontline regions bordering South Korea if there’s another COVID-19 outbreak.”
A Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province, which borders China, also said that in provincial regions, emergency quarantine headquarters continue to operate as before despite the government’s declaration of victory.
“In particular, the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Command ordered that necessary measures be taken after reconsidering quarantine policies regarding regions along the border region in North Hamgyong Province,” he said.
The source said the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Command and its regional commands are not disbanding, explaining that they continue to operate normally, and regional commands in border and frontline regions have been ordered to come up with new quarantine measures.
“When they heard ‘victory in the quarantine war,’ people along the border in North Hamgyong Province thought the border closure over the past nearly three years and patrols by trigger-happy soldiers would ease a bit,” said the source. “People along the border rely on smuggling to make a living and are in the depths of suffering. They say they think it will be more than a decade before individuals will be able to approach the border again.”
In fact, North Korean public health and disease control officials in the border regions are saying another outbreak of COVID-19 is likely.
In discussions regarding the completely unvaccinated state of North Koreans, some doctors and disease control officials warn that the government should avoid just imposing intensive disease controls in the border areas and instead focus on the nationwide spread of the disease. They say that if authorities “aren’t careful in times such as these, the virus could spread and grow prevalent once again,” the source in South Hamgyong Province said.
In North Hamgyong Province, local doctors say the government worries most about public chaos that might last months or years due to an outbreak of a variant virus, and the resulting damage to the national economy. They argue that “99% of border residents have natural immunity as they’ve already had [the virus], so it won’t matter to them if the virus runs rampant again. However, people with no immunity will have a tough time,” Daily NK’s source in the province said.
Meanwhile, the Rodong Sinmun ran an article on page 4 of its Aug. 16 edition entitled, “Let’s More Thoroughly Ensure Conscious Consistency and Consistency of Action.”
The article said that although the country vanquished a virus “terrorizing all humanity” in the shortest time possible and achieved victory in the “quarantine war,” this did not mean the risk of the disease spreading had been completely eliminated, or that state emergency quarantine efforts had come to an end.
The paper put readers on guard, warning that about 10 subtypes more infectious and better able to evade immunity than the “stealth Omicron variant” – but little different in terms of severity or lethality – that hit North Korea have appeared around the world, with cases and deaths continuing to rise.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
dailynk.com
11. S Korea signs $2.25 billion deal with Russia nuclear company
S Korea signs $2.25 billion deal with Russia nuclear company
AP · by KIM TONG-HYUNG · August 25, 2022
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has signed a 3 trillion won ($2.25 billion) contract with a Russian state-run nuclear energy company to provide components and construct turbine buildings for Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, officials said Thursday.
The South Koreans hailed the deal as a triumph for their nuclear power industry, although it made for awkward optics as their American allies push an economic pressure campaign to isolate Russia over its war on Ukraine.
South Korean officials said the United States was consulted in advance about the deal and that the technologies being supplied by Seoul for the project would not clash with international sanctions against Russia.
According to South Korea’s presidential office and trade ministry, the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power was subcontracted by Russia’s Atomstroyexport to provide certain materials and equipment and construct turbine buildings and other structures at the plant being built in Dabaa. The Mediterranean coastal town is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of Cairo.
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Atomstroyexport, also called ASE, is a subsidiary of Rosatom, a state-owned Russian nuclear conglomerate. The company has a contract with Egypt to deliver four 1,200 megawatt reactors through 2030. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s part of project is from 2023 to 2029.
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A senior aide of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the negotiations were slowed by “unexpected variables,” mainly Russia’s war on Ukraine and the U.S.-led sanctions campaign against Moscow over its aggression.
Choi Sang-mok, Yoon’s senior secretary for economic affairs, said South Korea provided an explanation to the United States in advance about its plans to participate in the Dabaa project and that the allies will maintain close consultation as the work proceeds. As part of U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow, South Korea has ended transactions with Russia’s central bank and sovereign wealth funds and banned exports of strategic materials to Russia.
Neither Choi nor officials from South Korea’s trade ministry elaborated on how the crisis in Ukraine and the sanctions on Moscow affected the negotiations between Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power and ASE.
Choi stressed that South Korea’s involvement in the project would not clash with international sanctions against Russia.
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“Any kind of issue can be met by various uncertainties, but those have all been resolved as of now, and that’s why we were able to finalize the agreement,” he said.
Yoon’s office expressed hope that South Korea’s participation in the Dabaa project would help the country gain a foothold in future nuclear projects across Africa and also improve its chances to export to countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power had been engaging in negotiations with ASE as the preferred bidder for the turbine-related project since December, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Go Myong-hyun, a senior analyst at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said the deal wouldn’t have been possible without an export approval by the United States as the components provided by Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power likely include U.S.-originated technology.
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Current sanctions against Moscow also do not include specific restrictions related to nuclear energy and the Biden administration would have no interest in disrupting a crucial project for Egypt, which it sees as a key partner in the region, Go said.
While South Korea’s involvement in the Dabaa project wouldn’t immediately be a problem between the allies if the Americans signed off on it, things could change depending on how Russia’s war on Ukraine goes and whether Washington expands its export controls against Moscow, Go said.
Yoon’s office said the Dabaa project is South Korea’s biggest export of nuclear power technology since 2009, when a South Korean-led consortium won a $20 billion contract to build nuclear power reactors in the United Arab Emirates.
Yoon, a conservative who took office in May, has pledged to boost South Korean exports of nuclear power technology, which he says were dented under the policies of his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who sought to reduce the country’s domestic dependence on nuclear energy.
Yoon in a statement on Facebook said the deal reaffirms South Korea’s “advanced technology and safeness and strong supply chains” in the nuclear power industry. His government has set a goal of exporting 10 nuclear power reactors by 2030.
AP · by KIM TONG-HYUNG · August 25, 2022
12. Japan, Korea defy US with big Russian energy deals
Our cornerstone and linchpin alliances.
Japan, Korea defy US with big Russian energy deals
Seoul and Tokyo prioritize economic pragmatism over punishing Moscow for Ukraine invasion
asiatimes.com · by Andrew Salmon · August 26, 2022
SEOUL – US-led efforts to suppress and contain Russia’s energy-centric economy suffered their latest blows yesterday – blows dealt by its two leading East Asian allies.
In the latest sign of the unwillingness of US-allied capitals to sever energy ties with Russia, South Korea and Japan are, respectively, entering and maintaining energy deals with Russian players.
South Korea yesterday (August 25) announced that the state-owned Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co (KHNP) would supply US$2.25 billion worth of components and engineering for a Russia-built nuclear power plant to be raised in Egypt.
Separately, two major Japanese trading firms yesterday confirmed that they will retain their stakes in Russia’s Sakhalin II natural gas project. Those developments followed related news on the opposite side of the balance earlier in the week.
Staunch US ally the UK, a major supplier of both arms and political support to Ukraine, is on target to terminate all Russian energy imports by year’s end. Official data found that London had ended Russian oil imports in June, though some natural gas imports lingered.
But the UK is fortunate to have access to local energy supplies. Amid the Ukraine crisis, the UK’s now ex-leader Boris Johnson has said that London will give its North Sea fields, “a new lease of life.”
Elsewhere in the Global North – the prosperous democracies which have, to greater or lesser degrees, condemned and sanctioned Moscow for its storm upon Kiev – the outlook for continued pressure on the Russian economy is cloudy.
Across the inflation-racked EU, perhaps the biggest economic questions facing governments are whether, how, and to what extent member countries can realistically slash their politically embarrassing dependencies on Russian energy.
These questions are going to be asked with increasing volume and frequency as summer fades and the cold season sets in.
A worker on the construction site of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, northeastern Germany. Photo: AFP / Tobias Schwarz
And far to the east, neither South Korea nor Japan – two US allies that are both net energy importers boasting heavily industrialized economies – are positioned to cut back on power use. Nor does either appear willing to cut energy links with Moscow, which owns vast energy reserves in the nearby Russian Far East.
Moreover, Seoul’s nascent Yoon Suk-yeol administration is keen to resume exports in the nuclear sector. Meanwhile in Tokyo, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is taking the political baby steps required to dust the mothballs off Japan’s nuclear sector, which was effectively frozen in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The developments showcase – yet again – the corresponding interests that link Seoul and Tokyo, regardless of the endless historical disputes that divide the two governments.
Russia-Korea in a nuclear embrace
In a surprise announcement, Seoul revealed late yesterday that KHNP will supply equipment and buildings for Egypt’s first nuclear power plant project, northwest of Cairo, which will encompass four reactors.
KHNP will be the junior partner under Russia’s Atomstroyexport. Last month, Egyptian media reported that Atomstroyexport, as the leader of the consortium building the plant, was responsible for selecting all sub-contractors.
KHNP’s win was hailed by none other than President Yoon – who has professed his closeness to US political stances both in this spring’s election campaign and since entering office in May – in a Facebook post.
Certainly, it is a substantial revival of for South Korea’s nuclear-energy related ambitions, expertize and exports. One area where Yoon has most strongly reversed the policies of his predecessor Moon Jae-in is on the nuclear power front.
Moon, a conviction anti-atomic politician, had reduced nuclear’s share in the national energy mix. Yoon has vowed a restart.
Yoon’s Senior Secretary for Economic Affairs Choi Sang-mok called the win the biggest export order for domestic nuclear players since 2009, when a South Korea-led consortium won a tender to build the UAE’s Bakrah atomic power plant.
Choi admitted that there had been “unforeseen difficulties” surrounding the deal – the Ukraine War and related sanctions upon Russia. And it was clear that Seoul would be explaining matters to Washington.
According to Yonhap News Agency, related agencies have been instructed by the president to offer the United States a briefing on the deal, Choi revealed.
Japan retains stake in Sakhalin II
Japanese firms Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp, meanwhile, plan to retain their interests in the Sakhalin 2 oil and gas project and will notify Russia of this intention by the end of the month, Kyodo News Agency reported yesterday.
The Japanese companies have both decided to invest in the new operator established by Moscow to take control of the project in the Russian Far East. That managerial change followed a February announcement by UK’s Shell – which previously held a 27.5% stake – that it was exiting the project and all other investments in Russia.
The Japanese players’ decision had been signaled earlier this month when the two firms wrote down the value of their combined 20.5% investment in Sakhalin II, but did not divest it.
Aerial view of Russia’s Sakhalin 2 gas project. Image: Shell
The decision to retain was made in light of Tokyo’s aim to secure a stable supply of LNG amid the seismic disruptions that have followed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kyodo reported.
Japanese strategicians had previously made clear that their country was over-reliant on Middle Eastern suppliers – a situation that offered Russia the opportunity to fulfill Japan’s diversification ambitions.
Like Korea’s Yoon, Kishida has also signaled a reset for nuclear.
Speaking at an energy policy meeting in Tokyo yesterday, he said that Japan should consider building next-generation nuclear reactors, in addition to both restarting existing plants that are currently offline and extending their lifespans.
Yesterday’s statements follow similar pledges made in July. Then, Kishida and his energy minister had said that they wanted nine nuclear reactors on-grid and generating by the end of the year. That would be an advance on the five reactors currently in operation Japan-wide. The nine plants would generate some 10% of national energy needs.
Follow this writer on Twitter @ASalmonSeoul
asiatimes.com · by Andrew Salmon · August 26, 2022
13. South Korea’s president needs to learn the basics
South Korea’s president needs to learn the basics
Politics is as much about presentation as policy
The Economist
Speaking to the press on his 100th day in office, on August 17th, Yoon Suk-yeol could hardly have been less charismatic had he tried. Rattling at breakneck speed through obvious policy ambitions (denuclearising North Korea, mending ties with Japan) and minor accomplishments (attending a nato meeting in Spain), South Korea’s president at least upheld his campaign promise not to “put on a show”.
That is in keeping with the anti-politician schtick that he deployed to win office in March. His predecessor, Moon Jae-in, was a smooth operator with a long political career. Mr Yoon is a gruff prosecutor who entered politics less than a year before he was elected. Yet as president, the schtick has been exposed as reality: his lack of political skill has become a liability.
Less than a third of South Koreans view him favourably. Though many dislike his policies, especially on education and the economy, they loathe the imperious way he presents them. His attempts to look open by allowing journalists to fire questions at him as he comes to work have instead made him look unprepared. Mr Yoon is, to mangle a handy Korean phrase, getting his clothes soaked in a drizzle of unforced errors.
This unpopularity could undermine his agenda. A perception of incompetence and arrogance makes the people—and the press—predisposed to think the worst of him. Another Korean expression may apply: Mr Yoon has begun doing up his shirt with the wrong button.
What Mr Yoon needs is someone like Tak Hyun-min, the previous president’s spin doctor. Mr Tak controlled every aspect of Mr Moon’s public persona, ensuring every photo-op sent the right message and that his words and actions always met the moment. Mr Yoon has belatedly recognised this. On August 21st he hired as his senior public-relations secretary Kim Eun-hye, a politician who used to be a news anchor. Banyan wonders what advice Ms Kim might give Mr Yoon to get his presidency back on track.
One tip is obvious. Politicians are judged not just on what they do, but how they do it. Several of Mr Yoon’s appointments to his cabinet and personal staff have had a whiff of impropriety about them. A fair share of them came from the prosecutor’s office, his previous fief. Four of his cabinet nominees withdrew from the process over accusations of nepotism, graft or sexual harassment. On many occasions Mr Yoon has skipped conventional vetting procedures. His defence is that the appointments are perfectly legal. That is a prosecutor’s answer. A politician knows that the appearance of propriety counts just as much as the thing itself.
Since his dip in the polls, Mr Yoon has repeated his victory promise to “follow the people’s will”. A second thing Ms Kim could impress upon him is that presidents should lead, not follow. His job is to make hard choices and explain his decisions clearly, something he failed to do when moving his office across the capital at great cost to the taxpayer. Mr Yoon has yet to learn even the basic political trick of presenting every popular policy as his own idea, let alone master the much harder task of selling unpopular ones.
Ms Kim might also tell South Korea’s president that, while rushing in headlong looks unprofessional and backtracking appears inept, to do both is the hallmark of an amateur. Mr Yoon could have explained away not meeting Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of America’s House of Representatives, when she visited Seoul after a trip to Taiwan earlier this month. Instead he dealt with criticism by making a last-minute phone call to her. Similarly, an announcement in July that children would start school a year earlier was so unpopular that the minister responsible, Park Soon-ae, was forced to resign. The briefest of consultations would have predicted the backlash.
Mr Yoon has had a bad start. He is not just unpopular. He also faces an opposition-controlled parliament and does not completely control his own party. He has already reshuffled his personal office, and still needs to fill the important positions of health and education ministers. He would do well to bring in not just competent and scandal-free people, but those from beyond his immediate circle, which would help widen his support. And he will need to act fast to win over the public. With just a single five-year term allowed by the constitution, South Korean presidents have little time to build a legacy. Hence the last and most important bit of advice, which takes in all the previous ones: learn the rules before you break them.
Read more from Banyan, our columnist on Asia:
Is Bongbong Marcos’s early pragmatism a paradox or an illusion? (Aug 4th)
The Economist
14. How U.S.-South Korea Military Drills Impact North Korea | Opinion
I disagree with the author's third point especially because it will lead some to believe that if we reduce our threat that somehow Kim is going to change his behavior.
Kim wants us to assess his views of the exercises this way. But the fact is that Kim views the exercises as a lever to be exploited to support political warfare and blackmail diplomacy and an opportunity to both drive a wedge in the alliance and weaken the combined military deterrent. He wants to come to the conclusion that we can offer exercise cancellation as a security guarantee. Nothing could be more dangerous and we should learn from the cancellation, postponement, and scaling back of exercises over the past four years that such actions do not create positive conditions and effects.
Excerpt:
Third and finally, the North Koreans are highly reactive to what goes on south of the 38th Parallel. The joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises are described by Washington and Seoul as defensive measures designed to ensure the allies retain the skills and capability to respond to a potential North Korean attack. Pyongyang, however, views those very same drills as offensive maneuvers—justifying its ongoing nuclear and conventional weapons development. While military exercises in South Korea are necessary to maintain deterrence, they also reconfirm the belief in North Korea that an operationally viable nuclear weapons program is an absolute prerequisite for regime security.
OPINION
How U.S.-South Korea Military Drills Impact North Korea | Opinion
DANIEL R. DEPETRIS , FELLOW, DEFENSE PRIORITIES
ON 8/25/22 AT 7:30 AM EDT
Newsweek · by Daniel R. DePetris · August 25, 2022
This week, the United States and South Korean inaugurated their summer-time joint military exercises, which will last until the end of August. Joint drills between the two allies are hardly new. What is new is the scale; for the first time since 2018, tens of thousands of troops from both countries will be in the field, practicing their skills for a variety of contingencies, including the removal of weapons of mass destruction.
More important than the actual drills, however, is what their resumption represents. Notwithstanding the Biden administration's repeated willingness to meet and talk with North Korea "anywhere, anytime, without preconditions," it isn't willing to delay the exercises any longer for the sake of a phantom diplomatic process. It's abundantly clear the U.S. doesn't envision negotiations with Pyongyang happening soon, if ever.
On strategy toward North Korea, the differences between Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden couldn't be starker. Trump, who made his displeasure with the U.S. foreign policy establishment abundantly clear (even as he placed many establishment-minded individuals in key positions), was more than happy to buck the conventional wisdom, even if it opened himself up to criticism of being naïve, reckless, or unpredictable, Trump often prided himself on his unpredictability and was willing to do things—like meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un directly and cancel annual exercises with Seoul—that his predecessors would not dare. When Trump made the decision in March 2018 to begin his summitry with Kim, both his defense secretary and national security adviser were skeptical of the idea and highlighted the risks of doing so.
In contrast, President Biden's North Korea strategy has been the definition of conventional. Whereas Trump was perfectly fine strolling around the garden with Kim and singing his praises during press conferences, Biden has essentially outsourced North Korea policy to the lower rings of national security bureaucracy. Asked in May whether he would meet consider meeting with Kim, Biden stressed such a hypothetical meeting would only be possible if the North Koreans demonstrated a seriousness about denuclearization. At its core, the Biden administration's North Korea strategy is eerily similar to President Barack Obama's so-called strategic patience: increase U.S. economic sanctions against the North, boost Washington's military alliance with South Korea, and keep the pressure on until Pyongyang agrees to hold talks about nuclear disarmament.
Ironically, those two very different strategies resulted in the same result: failure. While Trump held three summits with Kim and was able to extract a North Korean moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, he wasn't able to cajole the North Koreans into trading away their nuclear deterrent for economic incentives and promises of normalization. Biden's strategy has met a similar fate; the Kim dynasty is not only brushing off Washington's entreaties, but broke the moratorium on long-range missile tests in March and has spent the year testing new weapons systems at a steady clip. Pyongyang has conducted 18 rounds of missile tests so far in 2022, the most in a single year.
For U.S. policymakers responsible for North Korea, all of this is downright discouraging, if not depressing. The U.S. has tried to denuclearize North Korea since the George H.W. Bush administration and has come up short every time. Washington has seemingly utilized every strategy at its disposal, from stringent sanctions at the U.S. Security Council to direct, bilateral diplomacy at the leadership level. There have been promises of widespread economic assistance to the North Koreans and the occasional threat of military force. But nothing has worked.
South Korean soldiers participate in an anti-terror and anti-chemical terror exercise as part of the 2022 Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) at Lotte shopping mall on Aug. 23, 2022, in Seoul, South Korea.The 11 days exercise, which features drills including the handling of chemical and biological attacks, is a regular joint exercise between U.S. and South Korean troops to prepare for potential emergencies on the Korean Peninsula. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
Just recently, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol proposed a comprehensive economic aid package to Pyongyang, from food aid to investments in North Korean infrastructure. Yet Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong Un, dismissed Yoon's proposal with characteristic bluster, insulting the South Korean president personally and calling his initiative an idea tried numerous times in the past.
It's easy for U.S. officials to simply throw up their hands. But self-pity does no good—acknowledging the lessons of our failures would be far more productive.
First, it should be clear at this point that nuclear weapons are a core component of the Kim dynasty's identity and a significant source of its internal legitimacy. North Korea codified itself as a nuclear weapons state in its constitution a decade ago, could possess as many as 60 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, and is in the process of pairing those warheads to an increasingly diverse array of missile platforms. To trade those weapons away would be to overturn everything the Kim dynasty has worked for since the early 1990s and essentially turns its investment of a nuclear capability into a wasteful enterprise.
Second, Kim Jong Un is highly unlikely to cash in his nuclear chips for economic assistance, no matter how dire North Korea's internal situation. According to the Bank of Korea, the Kim regime's decision to close the borders as a COVID-19 measure has resulted in two years of economic contraction. The price of basic staples like rice and corn have risen, causing speculation that North Korea is flirting with famine. As much as Kim may wish to fix these problems and grow the North Korean economy, he isn't going to sacrifice his nuclear deterrent to do it.
Third and finally, the North Koreans are highly reactive to what goes on south of the 38th Parallel. The joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises are described by Washington and Seoul as defensive measures designed to ensure the allies retain the skills and capability to respond to a potential North Korean attack. Pyongyang, however, views those very same drills as offensive maneuvers—justifying its ongoing nuclear and conventional weapons development. While military exercises in South Korea are necessary to maintain deterrence, they also reconfirm the belief in North Korea that an operationally viable nuclear weapons program is an absolute prerequisite for regime security.
U.S. presidents come and go. But the perennial issue that is the North Korean nuclear weapons program stays very much the same.
Daniel R. DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a foreign affairs columnist at Newsweek.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Newsweek · by Daniel R. DePetris · August 25, 2022
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
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Phone: 202-573-8647
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