Quotes of the Day:

“The person who writes for føōls is always sure of a large audience.”

- Arthur Schopenhauer

“Sooner or later, the local associates go too far and the connection has to be broken, so that the Americans end with their erstwhile friends as their enemies The most pathetic aspects of the question are the belief of the average American that he deserves to be liked, and his inability to understand why he is not when the fact becomes too obvious to be overlooked any longer.”

- Sir Alec Kirkbride, British ambassador to Libya, on US incompetence at choosing local military partners in asymmetric and indirect strategies (July 3, 1953)

"Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times."

- Winston Churchill

1. North Korea coming to Russia’s rescue in Ukraine?

2. North Korea mocks DC memorial’s new Wall of Remembrance as ‘ceremony play’

3. South Korean rain turns roads into rivers, leaves 8 dead

4.  8 dead, 7 missing in record rainfall in Seoul, surrounding areas

5. N. Korea issues heavy rain alert for southern regions

6. U.S. imposes sanctions on crypto mixer over ties with N. Korean hackers

7. Crypto Mixer Used by North Korea Slapped With US Sanctions

8. N. Korea reports no new suspected COVID-19 cases for 11th day: state media

9. Attacks on Ukrainian nuclear power plant are raising global concern

10. Korean envoy gets headwind from Pelosi's visit in China

11. Yoon should have met Pelosi

12. North Korea releases water from border dam after downpours

13.  N. Korea’s parliament revises outer space law, plans key meeting before Foundation Day

14. North Korea: Repeated Reshuffling at the Top

15. North Korean soldiers sent to collective farms to relieve manpower crunch

16.  “Kim Jong Un, a Dictator Who Brainwashes His People... President Biden Must Appoint a North Korean Human Rights Envoy as Soon as Possible" – Rep. Chris Smith

1. North Korea coming to Russia’s rescue in Ukraine?

Off the mark? Possibly. Some good points on why we should be skeptical. But it still bears watching. And even if off the mark and this does not come to pass there is still an influence opportunity in this. If they do not support a Russian (request (real or imagined) it could be used to undermine the legitimacy of the regime by te PSYOP/influence professionals.

North Korea coming to Russia’s rescue in Ukraine?

Reports that Pyongyang could supply as many as 100,000 volunteers to Russia’s war effort are way off the mark

asiatimes.com · by Andrew Salmon · August 8, 2022

SEOUL – Could North Korea deploy enough combat manpower and artillery to rejuvenate Russia’s flagging fortunes in the Ukraine war?

Even by the standards of often alarmist North Korean reportage, US and UK tabloid stories that appeared over the weekend and spread like wildfire over social media were startling.

According to the New York Post, 100,000 North Korean “volunteers,” armed with “counter battery experience,” could be deployed to assist the Russian military effort in Ukraine.

The possibility, citing unreferenced reports, was raised in a state-run TV program of Russia’s Channel One by defense pundit Igor Korotchenko. Korotchenko’s segment drew a surprised smile from a fellow panelist, and expressions of some bemusement subsequently.

According to experts who spoke with Asia Times, Korotchenko’s contention is dubious for multiple reasons. Yet, at a time when a controversial “legion” of international volunteers is fighting on Ukraine’s side, the experts do not discount the story completely.

The Kremlin, with its offensive in Ukraine largely stalled for a month and apparently unwilling to send conscripts into the carnage, certainly needs more boots on the ground if it is to regain the operational initiative. It also needs a solution to Kiev’s use of high-precision, long-range artillery.

At first glance, North Korea could provide that solution: It boasts both a massive pool of trained military manpower and a formidable long-range artillery arm. And North Korea – isolated, impoverished and massively dependent upon China – appears to be using the Ukraine War to move closer politically to Russia.

The Russian Armed Forces are 900,000-strong, but Putin continues to fight the Ukraine war only with professionals and volunteers despite the urgings of hardliners to deploy the entire Russian Army, conscripts and all.

“There is a serious shortage of manpower in the Russian military and Putin is clearly afraid to formally declare war, so there are these semi-comical statements about a ‘special military operation,’” Andrei Lankov, a Russian specialist on North Korea who teaches at Seoul’s Kookmin University, told Asia Times. “He would like to do it the American way, when they invade yet another country in the Middle East, but the Americans don’t send Harvard graduates into the trenches.”

While the “vast majority” of Russians currently support the war, according to opinion polls, Lankov reckons that Putin fears his population being exposed to a brutal conflict that is currently being fought exclusively by “professionals who are paid well and come from social margins.”

A Russian soldier takes part in Belarusian and Russian joint military drills at Brestsky firing range, Belarus, onn February 4, 2022. Photo: Video screengrab / Russian Defense Ministry Press Service

These political considerations leave Putin fighting with less men than the vast size of Ukraine and its rapidly mobilizing population demand.

“Hitler also had a problem getting his country and economy on total war footing until too late,” David Park, a retired US Army officer, said. “And Japan did not conscript Koreans until 1944 – once again, too late.”

As a result, Russia’s war in Ukraine is under-manned.

“At the height of the initial offensives towards Kiev and Kharkiv, Russia was templated to have deployed up to 190,000 troops, and right now their total troop strength is lower than that,” said Park, who undertook three tours in Korea and five Middle Eastern combat deployments.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has mobilized and is training hundreds of thousands of men while receiving shipments of ever-heavier arms from the West.

Russia is currently recruiting “volunteer” battalions nationwide to join the fighting. But early expectations that 40,000 Syrians might rally to the Russian effort long ago evaporated.

Moscow’s last significant offensive ended in the first week of July, with the capture of the city of Lyschansk. Since then, its ground operations – despite some minor tactical wins in the Donbas region – have largely stalled.

Ukrainian countermoves near Izium, in the north and Kherson, in the south, are significant. While neither has delivered victory, they suggest that Kiev may be, for the first time in this war, be taking over the initiative.

So could North Korea assist Moscow to regain its footing? Lankov doubts it, firstly for optical reasons.

While Western tabloid journalism has long demonized North Korea in Orientalist fashion as a deranged state run by a family of villains, that is not too far from the popular Russian view of the country.

“North Korea has had a very bad reputation inside Russia – it is seen as a crazy Oriental dictatorship – for decades,” Lankov said. “It is kind of symbol of everything which can go wrong about a country.”

For Russia’s leadership to turn to such a state for assistance would thus raise eyebrows at home. But there is no question that it is very highly militarized.

In terms of manpower, Kim is estimated to have 1.3 million men under arms. And Park noted that with all North Koreans serving the colors for at least 10 years, its forces are likely well-trained and cohesive enough to take over an entire section of Ukrainian frontage.

“An injection of 100,000 fresh and well-trained troops would be a significant boost to Russian combat power,” he said.

However, its limited strategic horizon – the Korean People’s Army (KPA) is trained exclusively to fight on and around the Korean peninsula – means it is highly unlikely that Pyongyang could detach 100,000 men to fight effectively on the other side of the globe.

“They are completely within their own world,” Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean general told Asia Times of the KPA, citing lack of recent expeditionary experience.

Pyongyang deployed air force units to fight for North Vietnam in the 1960s, and military advisors to various African countries – notably as trainers of the Zimbabwean army – in the 1980s. However, it has no significant off-peninsula military experience in recent years.

Moreover, it does not conduct drills with Russia’s military – or indeed, any other nation. Hence, the KPA lacks what military professionals call “inter-operable” capabilities – in the linguistic, technical, systemic and tactical realms.

While top North Korean officers used to be sent to Moscow’s elite Frunze Military Academy, “I don’t think they do that anymore,” Chun said.

Tanks take part in a military parade in Pyongyang. Photo: AFP

While much global commentary focuses on North Korea’s strategic weapons, the KPA also fields a massive armory of the weaponry of a type that is dominating the war in Ukraine: conventional artillery, both tube and rocket launched.

The KPA’s long-range, heavy guns are believed to be deeply dug into mountainsides – a defensive practice against enemy air power that dates back to the Korean War – from where they could fire on Seoul. It is highly unlike these huge howitzers could be removed and shifted west.

“It is not easy to do that, and these are very old models,” Chun said. “The Russians have the greatest number of artillery pieces in the world, they would only be getting the same capabilities they already have.”

However, more recently, Pyongyang has been developing mobile, long-range multiple rocket systems. Some of these, such as the K9 300mm MLRS, with a reported range of 200 kilometers, outrange the US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) being used by Kiev.

HIMARS rockets are taking out Russian command posts and transport nodes far behind the front lines and are being especially effective in taking out ammunition dumps, thereby depriving Russia’s tactical artillery of munitions.

However – widespread reportage to the contrary – the rockets are only half the Russian problem; the other half is targeting systems.

As a serving officer from a NATO military explained to Asia Times, the reason Ukraine is currently so effective at long-range strikes is that they are based upon real-time satellite reconnaissance data – supplied by NATO spy satellites and a fleet of US commercial satellites – that grants Ukrainian forces virtually live coverage of the entire battlefield.

While the Kremlin has digital maps of Ukraine, limitations in real-time satellite coverage mean that Russian firepower is forced to rely on air, drone and on-ground reconnaissance for live targeting data. But that datastream is far narrower than the broad-spread, ever-changing digital battle map at Kiev’s disposal.

This advantage is maximized by the clear summer skies. That will diminish when autumn comes, during which time only specialist, narrow-view satellite systems will be able to penetrate cloud cover, the NATO source explained.

But by then it will be too late for Russia to take advantage of, as the autumn mud will obviate major cross-country maneuver operations. This situation presents a conundrum for the Kremlin – a conundrum that the firepower-heavy, technology-light North Koreans offer no riposte to.

“The North Korean artillery is not a system that networks in the way we think,” Chun said. “It does not have that ability.”

Korotchenko, the Russian TV pundit – almost certainly hoping for similar success against HIMARS – made reference to North Korea’s “wealth of experience with counter-battery warfare.”

His reference was in error, however. In 2010, KPA artillery hit Yeongpyong, a South Korea-controlled island off of North Korea’s coast. However, it was the South Koreans who responded with counter-battery fire – albeit of questionable utility.

The North Koreans, having hit South Korean military targets with about one-third of their barrage, swiftly de-escalated, ceasing hostilities after just over one hour to prevent any retaliatory spiral. In the months-long, highly kinetic war being fought in Ukraine, the latter tactic has no utility.

Mobile multiple-launch rocket systems during an after-dark parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: AFP

The idea of North Korean troops being sent to assist Russia follows developments in the geopolitical space.

North Korea was one of the few nations that refused to join a UN condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and more recently granted diplomatic recognition to the Russian-supported breakaway Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

News broke in Russia last month that North Korea could send construction workers to assist in the reconstruction of the two battered republics. Alexander Matsegora, Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyong, called North Korean workers, “Highly qualified, hardworking, and ready to work in the most difficult conditions.”

Lankov, while dubious about the prospect of a military deployment, reckons that – given North Korea’s perennial foreign-exchange shortage – construction workers could well be sent.

“Technically speaking, that would be a violation of UNSC resolutions [against the employment of North Korean laborers by third countries] but they can pretend they are not paid by the Russian government, but by the Donbas republic governments,” he said.

Another North Korean watcher reckons that the “military volunteers” cited on the TV show could actually come from the ranks of the laborers, given North Korean males’ prior military experiences and given that, in recent years, North Korean labor has been working in the under-populated Russian Far East at logging and construction sites.

“Russia is already relying on North Korean workers in the Russian Far East where Russia has a manpower shortage, so I think the guy in the TV show echoed what other Russians say about those workers,” Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at Seoul-based think tank the Asan Institute told Asia Times.

But the forming of construction workers into units, arming them and providing them with combat leaders would generate even more problems than would incorporating regular North Korean units into Russia’s order of battle in Ukraine.

For that reason, “I doubt it if would have legs,” Go said.

And Kim and Putin have only ever met once – in 2019, in Vladivostok. But North Korea certainly seems keen to get closer to Russia.

The state is deeply isolated and heavily sanctioned, largely due to UN sanctions that both China and Russia have supported alongside the UN Security Council’s Western powers, France, the UK and US.

For this reason, North Korea is not incorporated in even ex-Western multinational organizations: It has not benefitted from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, nor is it a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, alongside China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

But now that it is so deeply entangled in the Ukraine war, Moscow may be prepared to look more kindly upon North Korea.

While Go agreed with Lankov that Russians’ popular view of North Korea is not positive, “I don’t think people in the Kremlin agree with that assessment,” he said. “The situation has changed. Russia has become sort of a rogue state, so they are in the same situation, there is a natural overlap – they are both isolated.”

After the establishment of the North Korean state in 1948, Moscow was Pyongyang’s primary benefactor. But after the USSR’s fall and China’s economic rise, Beijing filled that position. That has left North Korea dangerously dependent upon now-prosperous Beijing for such essentials as food aid, medical aid and fuel.

View of the Yalu River, also called the Amrok River or Amnok River, on the border of China and North Korea in Dandong city, northeast China’s Liaoning province, 11 May 2018. Photo: AFP via Imaginechina / Yang Yang

But now that Russia is vulnerable due to its entanglement in Ukraine, North Korea has a possible opportunity. Russia could feasibly counterbalance China as a supplier of fuel and grain – and even, possibly, as a second guarantor of national defense.

Beijing saved Pyongyang with its intervention in the Korean War, and the two have a mutual defense treaty known as the 1961 Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty. But it is not as firm as the Seoul-Washington security partnership.

While there are some 28,000 US troops based in South Korea, “there are no Chinese forces in North Korea,” said Go of the 1961 treaty. “It is more like a memorandum of understanding, an assumption that – if the North Koreans are pushed to the brink – maybe the Chinese will intervene, but it does not mean China will intervene automatically.”

If North Korea wants to sleep more soundly at night, there is only one other feasible partner in the region.

“The North Koreans want, or feel the need, to have similar a security architecture to what South Korea has,” Go said. “The only possibilities are China and Russia.”

Follow this writer on Twitter @ASalmonSeoul

asiatimes.com · by Andrew Salmon · August 8, 2022

2. North Korea mocks DC memorial’s new Wall of Remembrance as ‘ceremony play’

Even something as solemn as the Wall of Remembrance is a north Korean propaganda target.

Excerpt:

“The Wall of Remembrance and the unveiling ceremony play may comfort and commemorate someone; however, it would never lessen the nightmare of the lost war and cure the shame of the disastrous defeat,” said the column. The wall instead should stand as a testament to North Korea, “our great republic, which has embraced a great victory.”

North Korea mocks DC memorial’s new Wall of Remembrance as ‘ceremony play’

Stars and Stripes · by David Choi and Yoo Kyong Chang · August 8, 2022

A soldier with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, also know as The Old Guard, helps dedicate the Wall of Remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., July 27, 2022. (Josue Patricio/U.S. Army)

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — South Korea’s veterans affairs chief denounced North Korea’s mockery of a new Korean War memorial in Washington, D.C., and said honoring those who died for their country is a “courtesy and duty as a human being, regardless of political ideology.”

The North Korean state-run news outlet Uriminzokkiri, or With Our People, on Saturday described events in Washington as “ceremony play.”

“The Wall of Remembrance and the unveiling ceremony play may comfort and commemorate someone; however, it would never lessen the nightmare of the lost war and cure the shame of the disastrous defeat,” said the column. The wall instead should stand as a testament to North Korea, “our great republic, which has embraced a great victory.”

The Korean War Veterans Memorial was rededicated in a ceremony on July 27 to include a new Wall of Remembrance that contains the names of over 36,000 American and 7,100 South Korean augmented troops who were killed during the 1950-53 war.

On Sunday, Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Park Minshik described North Korea’s remarks as “irrational” and that it was “time that North Korea’s propaganda outlets should level up.”

Those who died in war ought to be remembered for their service, Park said in a statement posted on his Facebook account.

“The U.S. sent the largest number of young persons to the war and some of them never returned to their loving families,” Park said. “Commemorating the sacrifice and commitment is a courtesy and a duty as a human being, regardless of political ideology.”

North Korea’s state-run news outlets frequently criticize the U.S.-South Korea alliance and mock war casualties from the two countries.

The communist regime characterizes its Korean War campaign as a successful deterrent against imperialist forces. North Korea also holds tributes to the war dead and observes a national holiday to commemorate the signing of the Korean War Armistice Agreement.

Congress approved building the memorial wall in 2016 and construction workers broke ground in 2021. The renovations cost $22 million and were funded by donations from South Korean companies, religious groups and veterans’ organizations, according to the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation. Upgrades to the existing memorial included installation of rail lighting, planting of junipers and statue restorations.

"This wall reminds us of the depths of their sacrifice and instills in us a call of duty to carry on their fight," South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Cho Tae-yong said at the rededication ceremony, according to a Defense Department news release. “The service members we are here today to honor stood their ground in battlefields so that future generations could live in a vibrant democracy — indeed, [South Korea] is a vibrant democracy today.”

Stars and Stripes · by David Choi and Yoo Kyong Chang · August 8, 2022

3. South Korean rain turns roads into rivers, leaves 8 dead

I hope this subsides by the time I arrive Thursday evening.

If it is this bad in Seoul, imagine how bad things are in north Korea.

Excerpt:

Rainstorms also pounded North Korea, where authorities issued heavy rain warnings for the southern and western parts of the country. North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper described the rain as potentially disastrous and called for measures to protect farmland and prevent flooding on the Taedong River, which flows through the capital, Pyongyang.

South Korean rain turns roads into rivers, leaves 8 dead

AP · by KIM TONG-HYUNG · August 9, 2022

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Some of the heaviest rain in decades swamped South Korea’s capital region, turning Seoul’s streets into car-clogged rivers and sending floods cascading into subway stations. At least eight people were killed — some drowning in their homes — and seven others were missing, with more rain forecast, officials said Tuesday.

More than 43 centimeters (17 inches) of rain was measured in Seoul’s hardest-hit Dongjak district from Monday to noon Tuesday. Precipitation in the area exceeded 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) per hour at one point Monday night, the highest hourly downpour measured in Seoul since 1942.

Deserted cars and buses were scattered across streets as the water receded on Tuesday. Workers cleared uprooted trees, mud and debris with excavators and blocked off broken roads. Landslide warnings were issued in nearly 50 cities and towns, and 160 hiking paths in Seoul and mountainous Gangwon province were closed.

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Emergency crews worked overnight to restore most subway service as of Tuesday morning, but a route linking towns north of Seoul was shut Tuesday evening as continuing rain flooded some stations.

Dozens of roads, including major expressways near the swollen Han River, were closed because of rising water levels or partial flooding.

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“The heavy rainfall is expected to continue for days … we need to maintain our sense of alert and respond with all-out effort,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said at the government’s emergency headquarters.

The military was prepared to deploy troops to help with recovery efforts if requested by cities or regional governments, Defense Ministry spokesperson Moon Hong-sik said.

The rain began Monday morning and strengthened through the evening.

By nightfall, people were wading through thigh-high waters in streets in Gangnam, one of Seoul’s most bustling business and leisure districts, where cars and buses were stuck in mud-brown waters. Commuters evacuated as water cascaded down the stairs of the Isu subway station like a waterfall. In the nearby city of Seongnam, a rain-weakened hillside collapsed into a university soccer field.

Rescue workers failed to reach three people -– two sisters in their 40s and a 13-year-old girl -– who called for help before drowning in a basement home in the Gwanak district of southern Seoul on Monday night. Another woman drowned in her home in the nearby Dongjak district, where a public worker died while clearing fallen trees, likely from electrocution. Choi Seon-yeong, an official from the Dongjak district office, said it wasn’t immediately clear whether the death was caused by a damaged power source or equipment the man was using.

Three people were found dead in the debris of landslides and a collapsed bus station in the nearby cities of Gwangju and Hwaseong.

Four people were missing in southern Seoul’s Seocho district, the home of Yoon, who, according to his office, spent hours on the phone receiving briefings and issuing instructions overnight as rain flooded streets near his high-rise apartment complex.

Nearly 800 buildings in Seoul and nearby cities were damaged and at least 790 people were forced to evacuate from their homes, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.

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The country’s weather agency maintained a heavy rain warning for the Seoul metropolitan area and nearby regions on Tuesday and said precipitation may reach 5 to 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) an hour in some areas. It said around 10 to 35 centimeters (4 to 14 inches) of additional rain was expected across the capital region through Thursday.

Rainstorms also pounded North Korea, where authorities issued heavy rain warnings for the southern and western parts of the country. North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper described the rain as potentially disastrous and called for measures to protect farmland and prevent flooding on the Taedong River, which flows through the capital, Pyongyang.

AP · by KIM TONG-HYUNG · August 9, 2022​

4.  8 dead, 7 missing in record rainfall in Seoul, surrounding areas

This is certainly a devastating event. Video and photos at the link: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220809000855315?section=national/national

(5th LD) 8 dead, 7 missing in record rainfall in Seoul, surrounding areas | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 박보람 · August 9, 2022

(ATTN: UPDATES with latest info throughout; REPLACES photo)

By Park Boram

SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- Record rainfall, believed to be the heaviest in 115 years, has pummeled Seoul and surrounding regions, leaving eight people dead and seven others missing while flooding homes, vehicles, buildings and subway stations, officials said Tuesday.

Parts of Seoul, the western port city of Incheon and Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul received torrential rains of over 100 millimeters per hour Monday night, with per-hour precipitation in Seoul's Dongjak district reaching 141.5 mm at one point.

The downpours left five people dead and four others missing in Seoul, while in Gyeonggi Province, three had died and two others had gone missing as of 3 p.m., according to the government. One person remains unaccounted for in Gangwon Province.

The Korea Meteorological Administration's automated weather station in Dongjak recorded daily precipitation at 381.5 mm for Monday, far higher than the official record of 354.7 mm registered in August 1920 and the highest since the country started its first modern weather record system in 1907.

The 141.5-mm hourly precipitation in Dongjak also marks the highest number for Seoul, surpassing the record of 118.6 mm posted in the summer of 1942.

The weather agency said, however, the latest numbers will not go into the official record book because they were not collected at the agency's benchmark weather observation station in Seoul's Jongno district.

The weather agency said up to 300 mm of more rain is forecast for the capital area through Thursday, with southern Gyeonggi Province likely to see rains of more than 350 mm.

Nine people sustained injuries in Gyeonggi Province and 391 people from 230 households in the capital area were left homeless and took shelter in schools and other public facilities.

In Seoul's Gwanak district, three family members -- a woman in her 40s, her sister and the sister's teenage daughter -- reported they were trapped in a submerged semi-basement home at 9:07 p.m. Monday but were later found dead.

In Dongjak, a ward office employee in his 60s died of what was believed to be electric shocks at 6:50 p.m. during clean-up work after a roadside tree fell down due to the rain.

An additional person was killed at 5:40 p.m. in a submerged home in the district.

In the city of Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, one person was found dead trapped under the debris after a bus station collapsed, while one other died in the province after a landslip left him buried in earth.

The city of Hwaseong in Gyeonggi reported one person killed in a landslide at 4:27 a.m. Tuesday.

In Seoul's Seocho district, four people went missing, some in a corridor of an underground shopping area and others down a manhole, while two others in Gyeonggi's Gwangju remained unaccounted for after being swept away in a flooded stream.

One person in Gangwon went missing in Hoengseong County following a landslide.

The downpours also left many public facilities out of service, with eight cases of flooded railroads reported in Seoul, Incheon and elsewhere, and causing temporary suspension of services in sections of some railway and subway lines, including Seoul Subway Line 4 and the Gyeongin Line.

About 80 sections of the country's roads, three underground roadways and 26 riverside parking lots were blocked for safety concerns.

Entry into 156 hiking courses at five national mountain parks, including Mount Bukhan in the northern periphery of Seoul, remain barred. Eight passenger ferry routes also remained out of service Tuesday.

Authorities also closed sections of some highways in Seoul on Tuesday morning, including the Olympic and Dongbu expressways.

Fire authorities also rescued 88 people from flooded streams in Gyeonggi and other areas, the government also said.

By Tuesday afternoon, much of the disrupted public services were back on track, including Seoul Subway Line 9 where flooding partly suspended operations. Some road controls on the Olympic highway were lifted

The interior ministry upgraded its flood damage watch level from "alert" to the highest "serious" at 1 a.m. Tuesday.

As of 6 a.m., the country's central and other regions were receiving rains of up to 50 mm per hour, with the accumulated precipitation in Seoul reaching 422 mm from Monday through 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

The Korea Forest Service issued landslide advisories in 47 cities and counties across the nation Tuesday morning, including in nine districts in Seoul, parts of Incheon, Gyeonggi, Gangwon, and North and South Chungcheong provinces.

pbr@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 박보람 · August 9, 2022

5. N. Korea issues heavy rain alert for southern regions

We likely will not know the full extent of the devastation in the north but we can expect it will be worse than that in South Korea.  Photos and video at the link: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220809003800325?section=nk/nk

I recall some huge rains in the 1990s and the effects on the Imjin RIver. We got caught in it during a training exercise and had half our battalion on the north side of the river and the other half on the south side and we could not cross it.

N. Korea issues heavy rain alert for southern regions | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · August 9, 2022

SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea issued a heavy rain alert across its southern regions, state media reported Tuesday, as downpours pounded Pyongyang and other areas earlier this week.

The advisory was issued for regions in the southwestern provinces of North and South Hwanghae, some southern parts of the eastern Gangwon Province and the border city of Kaesong, according to the Korean Central Broadcasting Station.

It said 50 to 80 millimeters of rain is forecast in those regions.

On Monday, state media footage showed the Taedong River that runs through Pyongyang flooding riverside pathways in the capital.

The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, described the latest downpours as "disastrous" weather and called for thorough preventative measures against damages.

It said authorities are adjusting the floodgates of the West Sea Barrage near the western port city of Nampho to prevent the Taedong River from flooding and damaging farmland.

Coal mines in the country are also undergoing inspections to prevent flooding or collapse, it added.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · August 9, 2022

6. U.S. imposes sanctions on crypto mixer over ties with N. Korean hackers

​We must aggressively target the regime's all purpose sword. Sanctions are good but not sufficient.

U.S. imposes sanctions on crypto mixer over ties with N. Korean hackers | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · August 9, 2022

By Byun Duk-kun

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Yonhap) -- The United States imposed sanctions on virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash on Monday for its involvement in laundering virtual currency stolen by North Korean hackers.

The Department of Treasury said the currency mixer helped launder over US$455 million stolen by North Korea's state-sponsored hacking group, known as the Lazarus Group, in what it called the "largest known virtual currency heist to date."

"Today, Treasury is sanctioning Tornado Cash, a virtual currency mixer that launders the proceeds of cybercrimes, including those committed against victims in the United States," Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson was quoted as saying in a press release.

The department said Tornado Cash has laundered more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since its creation in 2019.

Both Tornado Cash and the Lazarus Group have been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2019, according to the department.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a separate statement, reaffirming U.S. commitment to crack down on illegal cyber activities by North Korean hackers.

"The United States will continue to pursue actions against mixers laundering virtual currency for criminals and those who assist them," he said, adding Tornado Cash is the second virtual currency mixer to be designated by the U.S.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on crypto currency mixer Blender.io in May for laundering some $20.5 million out of nearly $620 million stolen by the Lazarus Group from online game Axie Infinity earlier in the year.

"The United States will not hesitate to use its authorities against malicious cyber actors, to expose, disrupt, and promote accountability for perpetrators and enablers of criminal activities," Blinken said in the released statement.

bdk@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · August 9, 2022​

7. Crypto Mixer Used by North Korea Slapped With US Sanctions

Beware "Torbando Cash." A name like that should be an indicator. Then again we have names like Rocket Mortgage.

Crypto Mixer Used by North Korea Slapped With US Sanctions

• Tornado Cash described as go-to obfuscator for cyber criminals
• North Korea hackers have been tied to cryptocurrency hacks
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-08/crypto-mixer-tornado-cash-sanctioned-by-us-treasury-department?utm_source=google&utm_medium=bd&cmpId=google&sref=hhjZtX76

Tornado CashPhotographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

ByAndrew Martin and Christopher Condon

August 8, 2022 at 10:32 AM EDTUpdated onAugust 8, 2022 at 11:57 AM EDT

Tornado Cash, a popular cryptocurrency service that allows users to mask their transactions, was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department after North Korean hackers relied on it to launder illicit gains, officials announced on Monday. The sanctions bar American companies and individuals from doing business with it.

The platform facilitates anonymous transactions by mixing funds from different sources before transmitting them to the ultimate beneficiary. Tornado Cash has been used to launder more than $7 billion in virtual currency, a senior Treasury official said in a press conference. North Korea’s Lazarus Group has laundered about $450 million through the service, according to the official. It was also used to launder more than $100 million in the June hack of the Harmony blockchain’s Horizon Bridge, which allows crypto trading between other blockchains, the official said.

Described by administration officials as the go-to mixer for cyber criminals, Tornado Cash became the second such service targeted by the Treasury Department. In May, the agency issued sanctions against Blender.io, which was also allegedly used by North Korean hackers to launder illicit proceeds from hacking. Following the sanctions, it appears Blender.io is no longer operating, the official said.

The action against Tornado is a “watershed” moment and the Treasury’s “most significant action in the crypto space to date,” said Ari Redbord, head of legal and government affairs at TRM Labs, a blockchain analysis firm used by governments and financial institutions to fight fraud, money laundering and financial crime, in an email. “This designation sends a message that the US government will not tolerate mixing services that cannot stop illicit actors from using their services.”

Tornado Cash, which was created in 2019, couldn’t immediately be located for comment via its Twitter page. Administration officials declined to provide details on where it is based or who is behind it. 

The sanctions against Tornado Cash represent the latest effort by the administration to disrupt the illegal flow of funds from cyberattacks. In addition to sanctioning another crypto mixer earlier this year, the administration has targeted other entities that it says have enabled hackers to cleanse illicit funds, including seizing what was described as the world’s largest darknet market, Hydra Market, in April and sanctioning last year the virtual currency exchange Suex OTC for its alleged role in ransomware attacks.

North Korea has been accused of using hacking to steal money to finance Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s regime, including to pay for weapons. A senior Biden administration official said there have been seven major hacks of cryptocurrency-related entities since the first of the year. Among the hacks tied to North Korea was the heist of Horizon Bridge, and the hackers sent 41% of the $100 million to the Tornado Cash mixer, the blockchain forensics company Elliptic Enterprises Ltd. said in June. 

Tornado Cash is designed to preserve privacy on the Ethereum blockchain. Its technology breaks the link between the sender and receiver’s addresses on transactions sent to the Ethereum blockchain. The protocol has been used in the past by hackers who took $34 million from Crypto.com. 

Tornado Cash has more than 39,000 unique users, according to its site. Nearly 3.5 million Ether has been deposited into the service. Because it’s decentralized, sanctioning the service might be hard: If it’s shut down in one location, support will simply pop up in another. 

In an interview, one of the founders of Tornado Cash said it was “technically impossible” for sanctions to be enforced against decentralized protocols because of how they are designed. The project is smart contract-based, meaning that decisions are made by pre-written software programs instead of individuals. It also doesn’t provide any custodian services or have a centralized host for its website.

“We don’t have more access to it than any other users” of the protocol, Roman Semenov, one of three founders of Tornado Cash said in an interview from Thailand. “There’s not much we can do.”

Many researchers have found ways to trace funds going through Tornado and other mixers. In June, researcher Elliptic used its Tornado demixing capability to trace all of the funds stolen in the Horizon Bridge hack, for example, through Tornado and onwards to other wallets. Users of Elliptic can screen wallets and transactions for links to the stolen funds – even those that have passed through Tornado, the company said.

“While they may be decentralized, Treasury is saying that you need to have compliance controls,” TRM Labs’s Redbord said. “In the age of crypto a hack by North Korea means the ability to use funds for weapons proliferation. Treasury is saying that mixing services like Tornado Cash are not going to be allowed to facilitate the laundering of hacked funds.”

— With assistance by Olga Kharif

(updates with additional details throughout.)

8. N. Korea reports no new suspected COVID-19 cases for 11th day: state media

​I guess the regime has defeated COVID (based on reporting by the Propaganda and Agitation Department.)

(LEAD) N. Korea reports no new suspected COVID-19 cases for 11th day: state media | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · August 9, 2022

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more info)

By Yi Wonju

SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases have remained at zero for over a week, according to its state media Tuesday.

No new fever cases were reported over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters.

It did not provide any other information in its report.

The KCNA said health authorities are taking precautions against the spread of infections during the rainy season and stepping up efforts to improve the stability of the antivirus situation.

"Based on a more concrete and stable anti-epidemic system, the state emergency anti-epidemic headquarters carries out operation and command by focusing on building up the all-people anti-epidemic defence line in the current condition where it is confirmed that there are no cases of the malignant virus in the country," it said in an English-language report.

The authorities are also taking measures to improve "rainwater disposing capacity" and strengthen the maintenance of drainage systems to prevent the outbreak of diseases.

Earlier, the KCNA reported the North will hold a national meeting "early in August" to review antivirus measures, drawing attention to whether it will announce new regulations or declare an end to its coronavirus crisis.

The North's daily fever tally hit zero on July 29 after peaking at over 392,920 on May 15, three days after it announced a coronavirus outbreak.

julesyi@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · August 9, 2022​

9. Attacks on Ukrainian nuclear power plant are raising global concern

​South Korea must learn lessons from this. With some 24 nuclear power plants in South Korea, we should ask how north Korea will target them?

​

Attacks on Ukrainian nuclear power plant are raising global concern

donga.com

Posted August. 09, 2022 07:50,

Updated August. 09, 2022 07:50

Attacks on Ukrainian nuclear power plant are raising global concern. August. 09, 2022 07:50. by Eun-A Cho achim@donga.com.

As Ukraine and Russia are engaging in warfare in Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine where the largest nuclear power plant of Europe is located, concerns about the safety of the nuclear power plant are being raised. The Russian forces that seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in early March this year right after their invasion of Ukraine are using the power plant as a sort of shield as the Ukrainian forces began counterattacks in the south. As Russian forces were also deployed to Kherson, a city near Zaporizhzhia, the possibility of radiation leakage cannot be excluded when the battle intensified.

According to Reuters, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was under heavy attacks on Saturday and Sunday, which resulted in the injury of a person and damage to three radiation detection monitors. “Russian nuclear terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it on Twitter on Monday. “More international sanctions are warranted on Russia’s nuclear sector,” he said. However, Russia claimed that Ukraine’s launch of multiple rockets is what damaged the facilities.

As conflicts between the two countries worsen, international concerns are growing. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that attacking a nuclear power plant is a suicide attempt. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi also said that the incident underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster.

The two countries are also moving to the south after fierce battles in Donbas in eastern Ukraine. The U.K. Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that Russian trucks, tanks, and cannons are moving from Donbas to southwestern Ukraine, making the 350 kilometers from Zaporizhzhia to Kherson a new battlefield. The ministry also added that more Russian forces are being added in the Crimean Peninsula and Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.

한국어

donga.com

10. Korean envoy gets headwind from Pelosi's visit in China

How much worse would it have been if the President and Speaker had met face to face? Not much I suspect. Or if they had not spoken would things be better? I also suspect not.

Tuesday

August 9, 2022

Korean envoy gets headwind from Pelosi's visit in China

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/08/09/national/diplomacy/korea-china-foreign-minister/20220809190255771.html

Foreign Minister Park Jin, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi shake hands in their meeting in Qingdao, Shandong Province, on Tuesday. [MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS]

Foreign Minister Park Jin said he intends to use his visit to China as an opportunity to expand channels of communications between the countries. 

“Strategic competition between the United States and China is intensifying, and factors that threaten the international order are only growing,” Park told Korean expats and executives in China in a teleconference on Tuesday, just hours before a meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

“Although it is true that bilateral relations face difficult challenges, the government intends to continue to strengthen economic cooperation with China,” Park continued.

“I intend to use my visit to China as an opportunity to start a consultation channel between the two governments, which has been suspended for a while.”

This is Park’s first visit to China since being sworn into office in May. He last met Wang on the sidelines of the G20 ministerial summit in Bali, Indonesia, last month.

The two met for a discussion at around 4 p.m. Tuesday, which was expanded to a dinner at a hotel in Qingdao, Shandong Province, according to the Foreign Ministry. 

In addition to cooperation between Beijing and Seoul for denuclearization of North Korea, the two were expected to discuss more controversial issues between the two nations, including the “Chip 4” alliance.

The alliance on semiconductors, proposed by Washington to Seoul, Tokyo and Taipei in March, is scheduled to hold its first meeting in late August or early September.

The Korean government officially accepted the proposal on Monday, the same day Park left for China.

Park had told the press before his departure to Qingdao on Monday that the alliance is “not about isolating a specific country.”

“If China has any concerns [about the alliance], we will be sure to explain our position so as to resolve them,” Park told the press at ministry headquarters in Seoul on Monday. 

Beijing has been speaking out against the alliance for months.

But after the Korean government announced its decision to join it on Monday, the Global Times, a state mouthpiece, proposed that Korea play a role for China within the “Chip 4” alliance.

“If South Korea has to join small cliques pieced together by the U.S., the global community will expect to see South Korea truly play a balancing and corrective role,” it said. “This also manifests Seoul's unique value.”

The editorial praised President Yoon Suk-yeol for not meeting with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Seoul after her trip to Taiwan. Pelosi came to Seoul on Aug. 3 after a stop in Taiwan. 

The U.S. congresswoman was met by presidents or prime ministers in all the countries she visited on her Asian tour, including Malaysia, Singapore and Japan, but not in Korea. Yoon only spoke with her over the phone.

“As a result, South Korea has won recognition and respect from Chinese society,” said the Global Times in its editorial on Monday. “To a certain extent, this has created a constructive and positive atmosphere for Park's China visit.”

The Park-Wang summit also came ahead of the 30th anniversary of the establishing of Korea-China ties, which falls on Aug. 24.

Park and Wang were scheduled to go hiking together on Wednesday morning, but the plan was cancelled due to bad weather, said the Foreign Ministry. 

Park and his delegation were scheduled to return to Seoul on Wednesday. 

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]

11. Yoon should have met Pelosi

Perhaps. Coordination between the President's and Speaker's might have been better. But it likely would not have had much effect either way.

Tuesday

August 9, 2022

Yoon should have met Pelosi

Yeh Young-june

The author is an editorialwriter at the JoongAng Ilbo.

Chinese President Xi Jinping may be privately pleased by having an excuse courtesy of the United States to send warships and warplanes to the Taiwan Strait in protest of U.S House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island Beijing claims as its own. Xi could have at first been baffled by the bold move by the top American legislator but jumped at the opportunity to break the long-standing taboo of crossing the midline of the Taiwan Strait in full-scale war drills.

A taboo is no longer taboo once broken. Political gain also would have been huge through much-needed internal unity ahead of the National Congress. Xi could campaign for stronger public faith in the party and leadership by pointing out that the U.S. warships have been on the sidelines despite its war threats.

Whether all would be a gain cannot be sure. Xi could have stoked a greater risk for himself and uncertainty for his country’s future. The tensions between the United States. and China have elevated to a new level. The U.S.-led democracy front across South China Sea could expand to the Taiwan Strait. The U.S. would have upped the reasoning for defending Taiwan, and the Taiwanese distrust of the mainlanders could have increased. Xi’s aspirations to bring Taiwan under Chinese arms could become more distant.

The waves over the Taiwan Strait could spill over to the Korean Peninsula. Tensions in Taiwan have strong ramifications for the Korean Peninsula not just because of the geographic proximity, but also due to strategic deployment and military balance. The first thing the United States did after North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950 was to send warships to Taiwan to watch Chinese movements.

South Korea must closely watch the developments around the Taiwan Strait and heighten vigilance. Seoul could have learned through Pelosi, who flew to Seoul immediately from Taipei, on the thoughts of the U.S. government and Congress and their strategies against the Chinese response as well as Taiwan’s intentions and strategies and progress on the Chip 4 alliance. Seoul has stake in all of these issues, and President Yoon Suk-yeol should have gotten clear answers through a private conversation.

There could have been a limit to the discussions between Pelosi and National House speaker Kim Jin-pyo, who is a representative of the opposition party. The president’s office stayed passive about a meeting with Pelosi and later hastily arranged a phone conversation between Yoon and Pelosi. 

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited South Korea last week as part of her Asian tour targeting China, but she could not meet President Yoon Suk-yeol, as he was on vacation. [JOONGANG PHOTO] 

The excuse that Yoon was on a summer break could not stand. When an official of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries went missing while on an inspection at sea and was captured by North Koreans two years ago, President Moon Jae-in’s chief of staff, national security advisor, defense and unification ministers held an emergency meeting at night and waited until the morning to brief President Moon Jae-in so as not to wake him. That kind of excuses cannot be acceptable when the safety of public lives is at risk, as the prime presidential duty is to protect public lives. A president’s break should not collide with an important diplomatic event. Yoon could have saved some of his sinking approval rating if he showed up at the presidential office in Yongsan for a special meeting with a foreign guest.

There has been a speculation that Yoon had evaded a direct meeting with Pelosi in order not to upset Beijing. If that is true, Yoon is following in the poor footsteps of the former administration. Yoon promised an independent and proud diplomatic policy and a strong alliance with the United States. But neglecting a VIP from Washington not to anger its neighbor is not the way to achieve that. Whether China was the reason or not, Yoon’s passing of the U.S. visitor did not sit well with the public. All this may be why there is no stop in the slide of the president’s approval rating.

12. North Korea releases water from border dam after downpours

North Korea releases water from border dam after downpours

The Korea Times · by 2022-08-09 16:26 | Environment & Animals · August 9, 2022

Water gushes through the gates of Gunnam Dam on the Imjin River, which runs across the inter-Korean border, in the South Korean border town of Yeoncheon, Tuesday. Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

North Korea released water from a dam near South Korea without providing prior notice despite an inter-Korean agreement and Seoul's repeated requests, an official said Tuesday.

"It appears that North Korea has repeatedly opened floodgates on Hwanggang Dam without notifying us," an official told The Korea Times. "So far, there have been no reports of damage by the recent water release … North Korea seems to be adjusting the water level in the dam after heavy rainfall there."

The dam, which was constructed on the Imjin River in 2007, is situated 42 kilometers north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. North Korea agreed in October 2009 to give prior notice to the South after six South Koreans were killed in Yeoncheon one month earlier as a result of its massive release of water from the dam without notification.

The official said the South received such notices six times since the agreement; the latest one came in July 2013. When heavy rains hit the region in June, the Ministry of Unification urged Pyongyang again to abide by the deal after suspected water release from the dam. But it has not responded.

Before the 2009 incident, South Korea was building a dam in Yeoncheon to prevent possible flood damage. The construction was then accelerated and completed the following year. But given Gunnam Dam's relatively small size, damage in the South is inevitable if North Korea discharges too much water at once. The ministry is closely monitoring the situation there as rain is forecast this week, the official said.

Seoul metro region pummeled by heavy rainfall

After heavy downpours battered Yeoncheon and other central parts of the Korean Peninsula, Monday, the water level at Pilseung Bridge ― located over the river area between the two dams ― rose to as dangerously high as 5.3 meters that evening before starting to subside.

A riverside pathway is submerged by the Taedong River in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, in this captured footage from the official Korean Central Broadcasting Station. Yonhap

North Korea urges public to protect crops

North Korea has issued a heavy rain alert across its southern regions, calling on the public to protect crops, amid downpours that threaten to worsen its food shortages.

According to reports from the Korean Central Broadcasting Station and Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpieces of the ruling Workers' Party, the advisory was issued Tuesday across the areas near the inter-Korean border, including South Hwanghae and Gangwon Provinces as well as Gaeseong.

"It is our most important mission to protect the country's dignity and the lives of the people by protecting crops against the nature's challenges," the Rodong paper said.

In what appears to be recognition of global climate warming, the paper added it would be immensely important to be prepared for "more frequent rains and typhoons" as "disastrous abnormal climate" poses threats to its communist system of governance.

On Monday, the broadcaster reported that the Taedong River flooded riverside pathways in Pyongyang. It said authorities were trying their best to prevent the flood from damaging nearby farmlands as they adjusted the water levels.

The North Korean public have suffered from chronic food shortages and malnutrition. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the food situation became so severe that its leader Kim Jong-un drew a comparison to the infamous famine in the 1990s, which killed hundreds upon thousands of people ― if not millions.

According to the World Factbook, published online in May by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, North Korea's food insecurity worsened after the beginning of the pandemic and "a large portion of the population suffers from low levels of food consumption and very poor dietary diversity."

The Korea Times · by 2022-08-09 16:26 | Environment & Animals · August 9, 20222

The Korea Times · by 2022-08-09 16:26 | Environment & Animals · August 9, 2022

Water gushes through the gates of Gunnam Dam on the Imjin River, which runs across the inter-Korean border, in the South Korean border town of Yeoncheon, Tuesday. Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

North Korea released water from a dam near South Korea without providing prior notice despite an inter-Korean agreement and Seoul's repeated requests, an official said Tuesday.

"It appears that North Korea has repeatedly opened floodgates on Hwanggang Dam without notifying us," an official told The Korea Times. "So far, there have been no reports of damage by the recent water release … North Korea seems to be adjusting the water level in the dam after heavy rainfall there."

The dam, which was constructed on the Imjin River in 2007, is situated 42 kilometers north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. North Korea agreed in October 2009 to give prior notice to the South after six South Koreans were killed in Yeoncheon one month earlier as a result of its massive release of water from the dam without notification.

The official said the South received such notices six times since the agreement; the latest one came in July 2013. When heavy rains hit the region in June, the Ministry of Unification urged Pyongyang again to abide by the deal after suspected water release from the dam. But it has not responded.

Before the 2009 incident, South Korea was building a dam in Yeoncheon to prevent possible flood damage. The construction was then accelerated and completed the following year. But given Gunnam Dam's relatively small size, damage in the South is inevitable if North Korea discharges too much water at once. The ministry is closely monitoring the situation there as rain is forecast this week, the official said.

Seoul metro region pummeled by heavy rainfall

After heavy downpours battered Yeoncheon and other central parts of the Korean Peninsula, Monday, the water level at Pilseung Bridge ― located over the river area between the two dams ― rose to as dangerously high as 5.3 meters that evening before starting to subside.

A riverside pathway is submerged by the Taedong River in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, in this captured footage from the official Korean Central Broadcasting Station. Yonhap

North Korea urges public to protect crops

North Korea has issued a heavy rain alert across its southern regions, calling on the public to protect crops, amid downpours that threaten to worsen its food shortages.

According to reports from the Korean Central Broadcasting Station and Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpieces of the ruling Workers' Party, the advisory was issued Tuesday across the areas near the inter-Korean border, including South Hwanghae and Gangwon Provinces as well as Gaeseong.

"It is our most important mission to protect the country's dignity and the lives of the people by protecting crops against the nature's challenges," the Rodong paper said.

In what appears to be recognition of global climate warming, the paper added it would be immensely important to be prepared for "more frequent rains and typhoons" as "disastrous abnormal climate" poses threats to its communist system of governance.

On Monday, the broadcaster reported that the Taedong River flooded riverside pathways in Pyongyang. It said authorities were trying their best to prevent the flood from damaging nearby farmlands as they adjusted the water levels.

The North Korean public have suffered from chronic food shortages and malnutrition. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the food situation became so severe that its leader Kim Jong-un drew a comparison to the infamous famine in the 1990s, which killed hundreds upon thousands of people ― if not millions.

According to the World Factbook, published online in May by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, North Korea's food insecurity worsened after the beginning of the pandemic and "a large portion of the population suffers from low levels of food consumption and very poor dietary diversity."

The Korea Times · by 2022-08-09 16:26 | Environment & Animals · August 9, 2022

13. N. Korea’s parliament revises outer space law, plans key meeting before Foundation Day

Space law.

Excerpts:

North Korea’s parliament notably “revised and supplemented the law on space development,” which was adopted at the SPA session in April 2013 under the Kim Jong-un regime.

The amended law contains “detailed and concrete basic principles of space development and related norms, including procedure and implementation methods, to ensure space development activities legally and more firmly,” North Korea’s state media said, without further details.

The space development law essentially “regulates the design, manufacturing, assembly, launch, ground control, operating procedures of space vehicles such as artificial satellites,” according to the text of the pre-revised law.

N. Korea’s parliament revises outer space law, plans key meeting before Foundation Day

koreaherald.com · by Ji Da-gyum · August 8, 2022

Pyongyang to hold another nationwide meeting to set a new direction for anti-epidemic policy in early August

By Ji Da-gyum

Published : Aug 8, 2022 - 14:55 Updated : Aug 8, 2022 - 17:45

•  Back to List
• More article by this Writer

A plenary session of the standing committee of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly takes place at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on Aug. 7, 2022, with Chairman Choe Ryong-hae (standing) presiding. (Korean Central News Agency-Yonhap)

North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament has revised and supplemented the space development act while announcing its plan to hold a full-scale meeting in early September in the run-up to its National Foundation Day.

The decisions were made at the plenary meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly, held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on Sunday. Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the SPA, presided over the meeting, the state-run Korean Central News Agency and the Rodong Sinmun, a party organ, reported Monday.

Space development act

North Korea’s parliament notably “revised and supplemented the law on space development,” which was adopted at the SPA session in April 2013 under the Kim Jong-un regime.

The amended law contains “detailed and concrete basic principles of space development and related norms, including procedure and implementation methods, to ensure space development activities legally and more firmly,” North Korea’s state media said, without further details.

The space development law essentially “regulates the design, manufacturing, assembly, launch, ground control, operating procedures of space vehicles such as artificial satellites,” according to the text of the pre-revised law.

The amendment is noteworthy given that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in March pledged to launch a large number of reconnaissance satellites by 2025. The North Korean state media labeled its two ballistic missile launches, involving a new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile system in February and March, as an “important test” to develop a reconnaissance satellite.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency in April assessed that North Korea sought to capitalize on its space program as a disguise to test technology used in ballistic missiles and obtained valuable data applicable to the development of long-range and multistage ballistic missiles.

New laws on self-guard, medicine supply

The North Korean parliament also adopted the new “law on self-defense guard,” which contains provisions that “actively contribute to defending the social system and protecting people‘s lives and property,” the state media reported Monday.

The new act stipulates that the country should “establish the all-people self-defense guard system as well as ensuring conditions for self-defense and strengthening guidance and control over self-defense.”

“The adoption of the self-defense guard act is related to the significant increase in criminal acts such as robbery and theft in North Korea, and it is in line with the move to reinforce the ‘inminban’ security system in a bid to prevent crimes,” Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said. The Inminban local group is a network of Orwellian neighborhood watches that monitor local people.

“Internal circumstances - where violent crimes and offenses against public welfare have sharply increased due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation and shrinking activity in (black) market - appears to be reflected,” Lim added.

North Korea’s parliament also adopted a medicines control act that regulates the production, inspection, storage, supply, sale and use of medicines. The new law stipulates related basic principles to “ensure that medicines are thoroughly used to protect and promote public health,” according to state media reports.

Lim said the adoption of the law “seems to be a measure to eradicate the production of counterfeit drugs and illegal distributions and transactions which appeared during the COVID-19 situation, and secure medicines in preparation for a prolonged emergency anti-epidemic campaign.”

“The newly adopted, revised and supplemented laws reflect shifts in North Korea‘s important internal policies and changes in society,” Lim added.

Two key meetings to be held

The North Korean parliament’s standing committee also decided Sunday to hold a full-scale meeting on Sep. 7 in Pyongyang, the state media outlets reported the following day. The seventh session of the 14th SPA aims to discuss agenda topics, including adopting the law on socialist rural development and the law on afforestation and greening, as well as organizational issues.

The full-scale meeting will be notably open two days before North Korea marks National Foundation Day, which falls on Sep. 9. The last parliamentary meeting was held this February.

Meanwhile, a national review meeting on emergency anti-epidemic policy will be convened in early August with the decision of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers‘ Party of Korea and the Cabinet, the state media said Monday in a separate report.

The goal of the meeting is to “completely examine the achievements, experiences and lessons from the state emergency anti-epidemic work and decide the direction of new anti-epidemic policy.”

The policy review meeting came after North Korean state media outlets claimed that there had been zero fever cases between July 28 and Aug. 7. although questions remain on the validity of official statistics.

Since North Korea first admitted an outbreak of COVID-19 on May 12, it has reported daily cases in terms of the number of people with feverish symptoms. This is mainly due to a lack of diagnostic equipment.

The state media also argued on Aug. 4 that all of its feverish patients, which came to more than 4.77 million, had fully recovered as of 6:00 pm on Aug. 3.

(dagyumji@heraldcorp.com)

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14. North Korea: Repeated Reshuffling at the Top

For our north Korean leadership experts to assess.

Recall that Kim Jong Il had 21 years to consolidate power from the time he was appointed designated successor in 1973 (and the head of the Organization and Guidance Department). Kim Jong Un has had half the amount of time and it is taking place after he assumed power. He did not have the luxury of consolidation before taking power like his father.

Of course there could be one reason for the changes. Paranoia. If that is so, how can we exploit that?

North Korea: Repeated Reshuffling at the Top

Changes in key personnel continue to occur at a rapid pace.

thediplomat.com · by ISOZAKI Atsuhito · August 9, 2022

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Ever since Kim Jong-un took office, his administration has been marked by a rapid turnover of senior military officials, perhaps most notably the 2013 execution of Vice Chairman of the National Defence Commission Jang Song-thaek. At first, observers concluded that the young Kim, then still in his twenties, was trying to cement his grip on power by appointing people loyal to himself, rather than to his father Kim Jong-il. Ten years later, however, the changes of key personnel continue.

The 5th Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) was held from June 8 through 10. Even though less than one month had passed since North Korea first acknowledged cases of COVID-19 on May 12, it appeared that the regime wanted to demonstrate that it had successfully suppressed the outbreak, because in addition to this being the first “Enlarged Plenary Meeting” with many more participants than usual, no face masks were in evidence.

Rumor had it that Kim Jong-un was to talk policy towards the United States, but in fact nothing specific in this regard was announced. Instead, what caught the attention of observers was personnel. It was apparent how important this aspect was from the simple fact that “organizational issues” for the first time preceded reports on economic policy on the agenda.

In Japan, the United States, and South Korea, all reports focused on Choe Son-hui, who had been in charge of the practical aspects of the North Korea–United States summits, becoming North Korea’s first female foreign minister. However, that was only one of a large number of transfers. There were wholesale replacements of the directors of Economic Department and the Light Industry Department of WPK as well as key figures in the economic sphere, along with senior officials at the Korean People’s Army (KPA) and public security agencies.

It is also worth highlighting that this was the first time that a foreign minister was “appointed” at a party meeting. The Constitution of North Korea explicitly states that the ruling party is superior to the state, but cabinet ministers had previously all been appointed in the Supreme People’s Assembly. Although warped, the decision-making process had been valued. This time, not only the foreign minister but also the social security minister, state security minister, foodstuff industries minister, commerce minister, and even the vice premier were “appointed,” seeming to further move towards the unity of party and state.

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The appointment of Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, who had worked on U.S. policy for many years, could be interpreted as a move emphasizing relations with Washington, but this has always been the most important part of North Korea’s foreign policy. It is also apparent to Pyongyang that even having secured agreements on economic cooperation from former President Moon Jae-in, there is not going to be any actual benefit unless sanctions are lifted through a breakthrough in negotiations with the United States.

This round of personnel transfers ought to be thought of as part of a logical chain reaction. Ri Son-gwon went from foreign minister to United Front Department Director of WPK, while Kim Yong-chol moved from that role to become a politburo member of the WPK, although his precise post is not known. With the foreign minister post vacant, it makes sense that Choe Son-hui would go there from First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, so it would be far too rash to assume that the Kim administration is signaling a shift to wanting dialogue simply because she became foreign minister.

A meeting of the Secretariat of WPK was held in June 12 this year, where it became clear that the posts of secretaries for international and South Korean affairs remain vacant. This suggests that Kim is not prioritizing dialogue with the United States and South Korea for the time being. At the 8th Congress of WPK in January 2021, Kim spoke of the “principle of power for power and goodwill for goodwill” as a principle for dealing with the United States, but we should note that he now only mentioned “power for power.”

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There has likewise been a rapid reshuffling of senior military officials. With this round, the Kim Jong-un administration now has its ninth Chief of the General Staff and its sixth Director of the General Political Bureau. The current defense minister is also the ninth. The order of the three has also changed. Starting in the Kim Jong-il era, it was customary to present them in the order of Director of the General Political Bureau, Chief of the General Staff, and Defense Minister (formerly People’s Armed Forces Minister), but the Director of the General Political Bureau has subsequently switched with the Chief of the General Staff, with the Defense Minister reaching the top in April of this year.

Pak Jong-chon, who was harshly criticized and demoted in June 2021, joined the Presidium of the Politburo of WPK in September of the same year, followed by Ri Pyong-chol in April of this year, while Pak Thae-song, thought be some to have been executed, was reinstated as a politburo member at this meeting. In contrast to past charges, there was no complete purge but rather repeated promotions and demotions, which might be due to either a moderating of the supreme leader’s personality or the realization that too many purges would result in a staff shortage.

We have also seen changes in the order in which the Presidium of the Politburo members who directly support Kim Jong-un are introduced. Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly Choe Ryong-hae used to be presented after Kim Jong-un, but reports suggest that he is now preceded by Premier Kim Tok-hun and Jo Yong-won [Secretary of the Secretariat of WPK]. In particular, Jo Yong-won is not only director of the WPK Organization and Guidance Department but also secretary in charge of organizational affairs of the Party Central Committee. He was clearly become more prominent as he moderates Political Bureau meetings, for instance.

The rapid reshuffling of personnel tends to concentrate power in the hands of one person, as decisions typically take longer in a system of so-called collective leadership. Continued observation will be needed to determine if this demonstration of the power to control key appointments is helping to seize public sentiment, but it does seem to indicate that Kim’s grip on power is stable.

ISOZAKI Atsuhito is a Professor at Keio University.

thediplomat.com · by ISOZAKI Atsuhito · August 9, 2022

15. North Korean soldiers sent to collective farms to relieve manpower crunch

Discharge equals life sentence on a farm?

North Korean soldiers sent to collective farms to relieve manpower crunch

Soldiers about to be discharged fear that they may be stuck in the fields for the rest of their lives.

2022.08.08

rfa.org

North Korean authorities are dispatching veterans and soldiers about to demobilize to collective farms to make up for labor shortages, raising fears among the military ranks that they will be stuck doing hard jobs in rural areas for the rest of their lives, sources inside the country said.

The Ministry of Defense, formerly known as the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, has organized a command group to dispatch veterans and select soldiers scheduled to be discharged this year and in 2023, a military-related source in North Pyongan province told RFA.

The Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea issued a directive for the project to send veterans to collective farms in rural areas throughout the country, he said.

“The intensive deployment of veterans to collective farms is occurring because the aging rural workforce is getting older, and young people are leaving the countryside to engage in other livelihoods,” he said. “This is causing setbacks in farming.”

The General Political Bureau instructed the veterans to be sent to the farming collectives this year to join the Korean Workers’ Party, the country’s sole ruling party, by mid-November, said the source who declined to be named so as to speak freely.

The soldiers about to be discharged hope they won’t be included on the deployment list, fearing that if they are sent to rural areas, they will have to farm for the rest of their lives, he said.

“The soldiers who are about to be discharged this year can’t sleep at night because of their anxiety that they might be included on the list for this year's group mobilization into the countryside,” he said.

North Korean authorities also have extended the directive to other groups.

The children of parents who work in city factories and in business enterprises are also being selected to supplement the planned rural manpower, the source said.

North Korea has approximately 1.14 million active troops, including 950,000 in the army, 120,000 in the air force, 60,000 in the navy, 10,000 soldiers in strategic missile forces, and an estimated 200,000 internal security forces as of 2021, according to the CIA's World Factbook.

Military service is mandatory for North Koreans, with seven to eight years for men, and five years for women, according to the Korean National Intelligence Service in 2021.

Morale is low

The General Political Bureau held a meeting for each military unit and instructed the soldiers that they should recommend colleagues leaving the service for collective farm work, said a military-related source in North Hamgyong province.

“The soldiers sent to the countryside were told to be ideologically well equipped so that they could play a key role in strengthening rural farming,” he said. “However, the morale of the veterans who are caught in the deployment list has fallen so badly, so what is the use of ideological selection?”

Soldiers scheduled for discharge in 2023 have no way of avoiding deployment to the countryside, he said.

“Of course, the morale of the units is low, and the atmosphere is chaotic,” the source, who declined to be named so as to speak freely, told RFA.

“Some soldiers are blatantly negligent in their duties, saying that if they are discharged from the military in the future, they will be forced to advance into rural groups anyway,” he added. “Then they will join the Korean Workers’ Party regardless of how much effort is put into their military service time.”

North Korea grants party membership as a carrot to discharged soldiers who are going to be assigned to undesirable rural areas.

The soon-to-be-discharged soldiers are fearful of being sent to the countryside to work in hard jobs at farms, coal mines and construction sites, the source said.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

rfa.org

​16. “Kim Jong Un, a Dictator Who Brainwashes His People... President Biden Must Appoint a North Korean Human Rights Envoy as Soon as Possible" – Rep. Chris Smith

​My recommendation remains: Appoint Greg Scarlatoiu now.

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“Kim Jong Un, a Dictator Who Brainwashes His People... President Biden Must Appoint a North Korean Human Rights Envoy as Soon as Possible" – Rep. Chris Smith - OKN

onekoreanetwork.com · August 5, 2022

This article was originally published on VOA and translated by OKN Correspondent.

Republican House of Representatives member, Congressman Rep. Chris Smith criticized Kim Jong Un as a dictator who enforces a cult of personality. He welcomed the appointment of the Republic of Korea NK human rights envoy, and urged the Biden administration to fill the vacant special envoy for North Korean human rights position as soon as possible.

Republican Rep. Chris Smith, co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan organization in the US Congress, criticized North Korea’s human rights violations as without parallel.

On August 2nd, Rep. Smith released a statement regarding the USCIRF’s release of a new report on religious freedom in North Korea and stated that “the Report from USCIRF contains horrific information that 70,000 North Korean citizens are in prison for their religious beliefs.” He went on to note that, “The new USCIRF report—based on painstaking interviews with survivors, witnesses and even perpetrators of religious freedom in North Korea—makes it absolutely clear that the situation has not improved since 2014, when a United Nations commission of inquiry found an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.”

Furthermore, he pointed out that, “Additionally, the report—entitled ‘Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism and the Right to Freedom of Religion, Thought, and Conscience in North Korea’—emphasizes the highly organized efforts by the Workers’ Party of Korea to enforce an ideology known as Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism with an almost messianic fervor as a driving force of religious persecution.”

Rep. Smith went on to criticize the North Korean government as such: “The Government of North Korea is a totalitarian, Stalinist regime whose dictator Kim Jong-Un demands idolatrous reverence and brainwashes citizens into following a cult of personality.”

He also compared and contrasted North Korea with its neighbor to the south, saying that “In stark opposition to this evil regime, it is encouraging to see neighboring South Korea’s recent appointment of an ambassador-at-large on North Korean human rights issues.”

Rep. Smith also stressed again that ““With citizens of North Korea living in some of the most brutal and oppressive conditions in the world, the Biden Administration must take immediate action and appoint a Special Envoy on North Korean Human Rights—a position mandated by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, federal government commission under the U.S. government, pointed out in a new report on North Korea’s religious oppression on the 29th of last month that North Korea’s Worker’s Party is systematically leading the violation of religious freedom through criminal punishment and compulsory education, and forced ideological training.

Author

onekoreanetwork.com · August 5, 2022

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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

VIDEO "WHEREBY" Link: https://whereby.com/david-maxwell

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com