Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners

Quotes of the Day:

“You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.”

- Robert A. Heinlein

“There is nothing more fruitful than ignorance in action.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

- Ray Bradbury

1. U.S. Sanctions Russian Company Over Alleged Support for North Korean Weapons Programs

2. How To Enhance South Korea’s Conventional Deterrent

3. Why Japan and South Korea care about Taiwan

4. Seoul imposes unilateral sanctions on NK firm, 5 individuals linked to WMD financing

5. S. Korea launches drone operations command amid N. Korean threats

6. U.N. rapporteur for North Korean human rights to visit Seoul next week

7. A defector testifies about N. Korean human rights atrocities

8. Yoon warns against spreading falsehoods about Camp David alliance

9. US lawmakers seek to meet UN officials to stop China from sending back N. Korean defectors

10. Pyongyang's missile provocation challenges S. Korean military headquarters

11. N.Korea Practices Occupying S.Korea

12. North Koreans continue smuggling attempts across China-N. Korea border

13. ＜Inside N. Korea＞ Report suggests deaths in second largest city of Hamhung

14. US Army engineers float South Korean tanks during ‘wet gap’ drill near DMZ

1. U.S. Sanctions Russian Company Over Alleged Support for North Korean Weapons Programs

Excerpts:

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday that it added three names to its sanctions list: Moscow-based company Intellekt, Russian national Sergey Mikhaylovich Kozlov and Russia-based North Korean national Jon Jin Yong. Intellekt is linked to Kozlov, Treasury said.

The sanctions were a response to North Korea’s failed attempt last week to launch a reconnaissance satellite into orbit. Treasury said its move was coordinated with authorities in South Korea and Japan, U.S. allies the Biden administration has seen as potential bulwarks against North Korea and China.

U.S. Sanctions Russian Company Over Alleged Support for North Korean Weapons Programs

The move, coordinated with South Korea and Japan, came after a summit with the countries at Camp David

By Richard Vanderford

Aug. 31, 2023 6:29 pm ET

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-sanctions-russian-company-over-alleged-support-for-north-korean-weapons-programs-79642dd0

People in South Korea watch a television report on North Korea’s failed attempt to launch a reconnaissance satellite. Treasury said the sanctions move was in response to the attempt. PHOTO: JEON HEON-KYUN/ZUMA PRESS

The U.S. has imposed sanctions aimed at a Russian company’s alleged support for North Korean development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, part of a coordinated move with South Korea and Japan.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday that it added three names to its sanctions list: Moscow-based company Intellekt, Russian national Sergey Mikhaylovich Kozlov and Russia-based North Korean national Jon Jin Yong. Intellekt is linked to Kozlov, Treasury said.

The sanctions were a response to North Korea’s failed attempt last week to launch a reconnaissance satellite into orbit. Treasury said its move was coordinated with authorities in South Korea and Japan, U.S. allies the Biden administration has seen as potential bulwarks against North Korea and China.

“The United States will continue to coordinate closely with the Republic of Korea and Japan in our collective effort to combat the DPRK’s unlawful and destructive activities,” said Brian Nelson, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

President Biden hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David earlier this month, the first visit by foreign leaders to the presidential retreat site since 2015. U.S. officials described the three-way summit as historic, given the lingering animosity over Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea.

Treasury says Jon worked on a construction project in Moscow involving Intellekt and a company linked to the Second Academy of Natural Sciences, a North Korean organization previously targeted with sanctions for its alleged role in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Intellekt and the sanctioned individuals couldn’t be reached for comment.

Treasury has previously imposed sanctions aimed at derailing cooperation between Russia and North Korea, part of a strategy to stop international support for Russia’s war against Ukraine. Earlier this month, Treasury targeted companies it said were controlled by a Slovak arms dealer who allegedly tried to facilitate deals in which Russia would supply raw materials to North Korea in exchange for weapons and munitions.

How To Enhance South Korea’s Conventional Deterrent - War on the Rocks

warontherocks.com · by Jung Jae Kwon · September 1, 2023

North Korea’s nuclear and missile program continues to advance. Most worryingly, these capabilities will likely be deployed in pursuit of the North’s declaratory doctrine of pre-emptive nuclear escalation. The U.S.-South Korean alliance now has to cope with the possibility of North Korea using tactical nuclear weapons in order to achieve military or political objectives without triggering American nuclear retaliation.

South Korea’s response for the last decade has been its ambitious conventional force development plan, known as the Three-Axis System. This focuses on both precision strikes and intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. With the lifting of bilateral missile guidelines, Seoul’s efforts to develop ballistic missile and space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities are now in full swing.

To make the most of these efforts, South Korea should focus on improving the survivability and reliability of its conventional strike capabilities by investing more in passive defense. These assets provide a crucial means of retaliating against North Korea’s limited nuclear employment and imposing costs on the leadership in Pyongyang. As such, enhancing their survivability would yield many benefits for both South Korea and the U.S.-South Korean alliance.

Complicating North Korea’s Calculus

Conventional precision strikes represent the most readily-available option for responding to North Korean limited nuclear use while minimizing the risk of escalation. They could be used to destroy hard and deeply buried targets, making them attractive for striking regime assets within cities. This is particularly important as U.S. political leaders could be hesitant to use tactical nuclear weapons against urban targets.

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Hence, for Seoul, improving the survivability and reliability of its massive conventional strike capabilities should be the key strategic goal. These non-nuclear strategic weapon systems — not to mention U.S. forward-deployed assets in the region — present a difficult operational and strategic problem for North Korea. Seoul’s increasing number of missiles and growing variety of platforms increase the risk of immediate retaliation for Pyongyang. Their enhanced survivability would ensure North Korea faces serious costs should they decide to escalate.

Making South Korea’s conventional assets more survivable would also discourage North Korea from contemplating a “bolt out of the blue” attack to disarm the South Korean and the U.S. forces in the region. As such, in addition to improving the Korean Air and Missile Defense to protect its key strike assets, targeting capabilities, and other supporting facilities, South Korea should also invest more in passive defense measures, an area that Seoul has traditionally paid less attention to. Of particular importance is making its command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance — as well as other critical national infrastructure such as energy and communications — more redundant and resilient. The North has threatened to strike these facilities. Civil defense drills, recently conducted for the first time in six years, should be strengthened and held more routinely.

Military planners should also adopt the optimal combination of passive defense tactics for countering missiles, including hardening, dispersion, and deception. The U.S. and Korean air forces are already experimenting with dispersion to adapt to the changing operational environment. As the land-based Hyunmoo-series missiles are road-mobile, South Korea’s Army Strategic Missile Command could apply similar tactics to increase survivability while maintaining the operational readiness of its missile force. Seoul should increase the number of mobile missile launchers to this end.

These small tactical matters would complicate the military calculus for North Korea, which still faces significant resource constraints, and add to the overall deterrent effects of the alliance’s combined defense posture. North Korea undoubtedly follows the measures implemented by the United States and South Korea and the joint drills conducted to prepare for a nuclear contingency scenario. When coupled with Seoul’s multi-layered missile defense system and the U.S. theater missile defense assets, passive defense tactics could significantly reduce the likelihood of success and the potential benefits of nuclear use for North Korea while also raising the costs. Passive defense tactics are particularly valuable because many experts question the feasibility of using offensive counter-missile operations to deny North Korea’s first use of weapons of mass destruction and worry about the implications for crisis stability.

Deterrence and Insurance

From the broader strategic and political perspective, Seoul’s possession of a reliable conventional means of cost-imposition on the North Korean leadership is also an insurance policy. Despite the various institutionalized mechanisms for nuclear consultation for the U.S.-South Korean alliance, the most fundamental fact has not changed: Nuclear employment ultimately requires “explicit authorization of the President of the United States.” And while there is certainly a belief that nuclear use should be met with nuclear use, if U.S. political leaders were presented with a menu of options in response to a North Korean strike, they might still prefer to minimize collateral damage. This could be especially true for the Biden administration, which emphasizes non-nuclear means of deterrence. As a result, planners have an incentive to present conventional options to achieve the desired damage.

As an ally, Seoul should also hedge against unpredictability in American nuclear policy. Political support for nuclear consultation may not continue beyond the Biden administration. In this light, former National Security Advisor Kim Sung-Han has noted that the next 18 months represent a “golden time” for making substantive progress on extended nuclear deterrence. Moreover, while the United States has incrementally increased deployment of low-yield nuclear weapons in recent years, the capability remains limited, and America faces constraints in their employment. The heated debate over nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles reflects this division within the U.S. expert community and the lack of clarity in the future direction of American policy. For South Korea, advanced conventional weapons can help to fill this gap.

Conversely, in the face of growing great-power competition and breakdown of arms control, Seoul may eventually find Washington pushing for forward deployment of land-based missiles that have a range beyond that needed for North Korea. Future U.S. administrations could even try an abrupt nuclearization of the alliance through steps like building storage sites for American tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea. Though these scenarios seem less likely today, regional and global trends suggest that they may not be in the future. They would pose difficult domestic political challenges for South Korean leaders even though they have previously sought such measures, just as they did for European NATO allies during the Cold War. Seoul’s advanced conventional strike capabilities would place South Korean leaders in a better bargaining position when faced with these potential changes in American policy.

South Korea’s Best Option

It is important to recognize that the U.S. nuclear umbrella is still the ultimate guarantor of security for South Korea today. Washington should ensure that Seoul has a meaningful role in American nuclear planning, decision-making, and employment to enhance the effectiveness of extended nuclear deterrence. Otherwise, calls for redeployment of American tactical nuclear weapons or an indigenous nuclear deterrent will quickly regain traction in Seoul. It remains the case that many in South Korea regard nuclear hedging as the only effective hedging strategy to adopt.

However, after South Korea reaffirmed its commitment to nonproliferation in the Washington Declaration, Seoul’s best course of action today is to focus on improving the survivability and reliability of the advanced conventional strike capabilities it has already invested heavily in. To do so, it should continue to upgrade tactical defensive measures and devise creative ways of employing them in response to limited nuclear use by North Korea.

As it is operationalized today, deterrence draws from a continuous spectrum of capabilities, both nuclear and non-nuclear, as well as kinetic and non-kinetic. In this sense, Seoul is already contributing greatly to the “combined deterrence and response posture” vis-à-vis a nuclear North Korea. South Korea can continue to expand this contribution.

Shifting focus to non-nuclear strategic weapons will have many other benefits for Seoul. It could help to manage expectations — both among elites and the public — about extended nuclear deterrence and improve alliance cohesion. Focusing on survivability would help to allay American concerns about entrapment, contribute to strategic stability by limiting pathways to inadvertent nuclear escalation, and allow South Korea to maintain agency in shaping the combined defense posture in the future. Seoul should embrace this path to a stronger and more survivable non-nuclear deterrent.

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Jung Jae Kwon is a Stanton Nuclear Security Research Fellow at the Project on Managing the Atom and the International Security Program of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is also a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Political Science and Security Studies Program.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Commentary

warontherocks.com · by Jung Jae Kwon · September 1, 2023

3. Why Japan and South Korea care about Taiwan

Excerpts:

Only the US can provide that level of deterrence and, as the Hoover Institution’s Larry Diamond and James Ellis point out, US credibility is on the line in Taiwan. Yoon went to Washington to secure further nuclear guarantees in the conviction, shared with his Japanese peers, that at this moment in history American comprehensive deterrence is essential for preventing the region from blowing itself apart.

Taiwan was not party to those conversations, nor was it invited to the Camp David summit, but with the growing convergence of interests among conventionally armed democracies facing nuclear-armed revisionist dictators, Taiwan can no longer be left out of consideration when Japan, South Korea and the US meet and act in the region. They each have good reason to care about Taiwan.

Why Japan and South Korea care about Taiwan | The Strategist

aspistrategist.org.au · by John Fitzgerald · August 31, 2023

A piece missing from Australian conversations on the China–US tangle over Taiwan is the island’s growing strategic importance to other countries in the region. What happens between Beijing and Taipei matters for Japan and South Korea.

Things are moving fast in Northeast Asia. Seoul has long been reluctant to speak out about China’s claims over Taiwan or its expanding military exercises in the Taiwan Strait. Under President Moon Jae-in, South Korea was wary of offending China, its largest export market, and had its hands full countering North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs without worrying unduly about Taiwan. It seemed inconceivable that Seoul would coordinate with Tokyo and Washington to oppose Chinese policy in the Taiwan Strait. And yet towards the end of his term, in May 2021, Moon issued a joint statement with President Joe Biden emphasising ‘the importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait’. That was a small step for Washington but a big step for South Korea.

Then, at Camp David earlier this month, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol issued a joint statement with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Biden affirming ‘the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community’. Declaring stability in the strait a concern for the international community is what China calls ‘internationalising’ the Taiwan issue, another no-no. This was hardly new for Yoon’s Japanese and American co-signatories, who issued a similar statement at the close of the G7 meeting in Hiroshima in April, but for Seoul it was another big step.

Between times, Yoon mooted developing a nuclear deterrence force but opted instead to visit Washington and secure express commitments from the American president on stationing nuclear weapons and on sharing sensitive information over North Korean missile activities. Another big step. Why?

The audacity and timing of Seoul’s comments point to a growing convergence between the tensions dividing China and Taiwan along the Taiwan Strait and those dividing the two Koreas at the 38th parallel. These two flashpoint fault lines are merging, geopolitically, around an unresolved and potentially explosive historical impasse concerning national division and reunification in Northeast Asia.

A fundamental principle of nationalism, understood as the everyday ideological underpinning of the international state system, is that nation-states should be whole, bounded and sovereign. A nation-state that regards itself as substantively incomplete, rightly or spuriously, is likely to be an unstable revisionist member of the international system. China is such a state, as are the two Koreas and post-Soviet Russia. Today these self-proclaimed incomplete states are concentrated in one volatile region, Northeast Asia, where irredentist sentiment can be heard clamouring on one side or the other for territorial unification.

Systemic instability of this kind need not portend conflict, but the likelihood of conflict rises and falls with other factors, including economic relations, ideological affinities, and relative military strength among revisionist and status quo states.

One factor is trade dependence. Claims of bilateral trade dependence on China are often overstated—as Australia discovered to its relief—but just 10 years ago dependence on China was very real in the case of Taiwan and South Korea. As value chains and supply chains move out of China, those claims are losing traction.

Taiwan’s policy options have long been thought constrained by its dependence on trade with China. True, China absorbs around 40% of Taiwan’s total exports, but final demand in China for Taiwan’s products is minimal. Jason Kao of the College of Management at Yuan Ze University in Taiwan estimates that 90% of Taiwan’s exports to China are processed for re-export from China for consumption elsewhere. If these value chains move out of China, Taiwanese firms are likely to follow them wherever they lead, taking the value with them. What’s more, says Kao, six of China’s top 10 exporting manufacturers are Taiwanese firms. If they were to leave, along with the value chains, it’s not Taiwan that would suffer but China.

Political and business leaders in South Korea appear to be drawing similar conclusions. Yoon’s decision to align with Japan and the US over Taiwan points to a major strategic reassessment by South Korea that its future is tied, not to China as it appeared a decade ago, but to an open global trading system governed by markets and the rule of law, with mobile value chains. As the China-dependence argument loses weight, its passing carries strategic implications as well as lessons for economic policy and businesses strategies.

This can’t be separated out from ideological differences. Ideological issues are gaining weight in political decision-making in the region’s key mover, China, as John Garnaut pointed out more than six years ago. Ideological differences alone are unlikely to cause interstate conflict, but they hamper efforts to resolve it, the more so when they map directly onto divisions between states or alignments among them. In this case, geopolitical divisions separating each aggrieved state map closely onto their differences as either highly personalised dictatorships or constitutional democracies, and are reflected in evolving alignments among them, with the dictatorial states merging on one side and the democracies aligning on the other. It should be noted that none of the democracies proposes to invade or seize territory from its counterpart on the authoritarian side. Yet each faces a bullying neighbour that threatens to absorb or cut away at it.

A third factor is relative military strength, including nuclear capability. The most glaring difference separating the two aligned sets is that all three dictatorships are independently nuclear-armed while none of the democratic states they threaten possesses nuclear weapons. So the lessons that Sweden and Finland took from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have not been lost on South Korea: whereas Stockholm and Helsinki scrambled for cover under NATO’s nuclear umbrella, Seoul doubled down on its commitment to US comprehensive deterrence.

And then there’s Japan. The region’s three incomplete revisionist states are not only nuclear-armed and aligned, but they share a deep hostility towards the other major non-nuclear democracy in the region, Japan. Taiwan and South Korea are on relatively good terms with each other and with Japan, giving Tokyo a stake in both converging issues, particularly the dispute between Beijing and Taipei.

In recent years, Japan’s leaders have declared peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait a matter of life and death for their country. On 8 August, former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso reaffirmed his country’s commitment to non-nuclear principles, in a keynote address to the Taipei Ketagalan Forum, even when facing ‘the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II’. Echoing Kishida’s projection at the 2022 Shangri-La Dialogue—‘Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow’—he said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed that unilateral changes to the status quo could happen overnight and East Asia could be next in line. This matters for Taiwan, obviously, but it matters no less for Japan. Referencing the Hiroshima G7 statement, Aso said that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait was an ‘indispensable element in security and prosperity in the international community’.

Aso’s message reinforced a statement he made two years earlier that an invasion of Taiwan by China would pose a ‘threat to Japan’s survival’. He is not alone in this assessment. Few former leaders of Japan are quite as outspoken, but many concur with his assessment of the risks to Japan if a hostile government in Beijing were to take Taiwan. China would control commercial shipping in the Taiwan Strait, much as Russia now seeks to control cargo vessels in the Black Sea. That would threaten sea lanes vital to Japan and South Korea, and it could slice away the string of islands linking the main islands of Japan to the seas east of Taiwan, much as Russia is chipping off oblasts in eastern Ukraine. For Japan, as for South Korea, credible nuclear deterrence is a matter of national survival.

Only the US can provide that level of deterrence and, as the Hoover Institution’s Larry Diamond and James Ellis point out, US credibility is on the line in Taiwan. Yoon went to Washington to secure further nuclear guarantees in the conviction, shared with his Japanese peers, that at this moment in history American comprehensive deterrence is essential for preventing the region from blowing itself apart.

Taiwan was not party to those conversations, nor was it invited to the Camp David summit, but with the growing convergence of interests among conventionally armed democracies facing nuclear-armed revisionist dictators, Taiwan can no longer be left out of consideration when Japan, South Korea and the US meet and act in the region. They each have good reason to care about Taiwan.

aspistrategist.org.au · by John Fitzgerald · August 31, 2023

4. Seoul imposes unilateral sanctions on NK firm, 5 individuals linked to WMD financing

Seoul imposes unilateral sanctions on NK firm, 5 individuals linked to WMD financing

The Korea Times · by 2023-09-01 08:16 | North Korea · September 1, 2023

This photo, carried by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on Aug. 31, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un, left, visiting the training command post of the General Staff of the North Korean army on Aug. 29 as the country conducted military command drills involving the entire army in response to the ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint military drill, the Ulchi Freedom Shield. Yonhap

South Korea on Friday imposed unilateral sanctions on a North Korean company and five individuals involved in illicit financing for weapons of mass destruction programs, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

The North's Ryukyong Program Development and its chief, Ryu Kyong-chol, were among those newly added to Seoul's sanctions list against Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development programs, according to the ministry.

The other individuals are Kim Hak-chol, Jang Won-chol, Ri Chol-min and Kim Ju-won, all of whom are connected to the company.

South Korea was the first in the world to sanction the named individuals and company among other nations that have in place independent blacklists connected to North Korea's weapons program, according to the ministry.

The announcement came after Pyongyang's failed launch of a purported space rocket, carrying what it claimed to be was a military reconnaissance satellite, last Thursday, which marked its second botched attempt this year.

US imposes sanctions on 2 individuals, 1 entity for funding NK's illegal weapons program

North Korea also conducted a military command post drill Tuesday involving the scenario of occupying South Korean territory in response to Seoul and Washington's combined military exercise.

The ministry said the latest sanctions "demonstrate the strong determination of our government to lead international efforts to prevent North Korea's development of satellites, drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles."

It added the sanctions also target North Korea's efforts to evade international sanctions and Pyongyang's efforts to procure funds for nuclear and missile activities.

The announcement marks Seoul's 11th unilateral sanctions measure against the North since the launch of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration in May last year.

A total of 54 individuals and 51 agencies have been added to the sanctions list since he came to office. (Yonhap)

The Korea Times · by 2023-09-01 08:16 | North Korea · September 1, 2023

5. S. Korea launches drone operations command amid N. Korean threats

S. Korea launches drone operations command amid N. Korean threats | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · September 1, 2023

SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea launched a joint military command overseeing drone operations Friday, officials said, amid efforts to step up the use of the unmanned assets to respond to evolving military threats from Pyongyang.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) held a ceremony marking the establishment of the Drone Operations Command -- the military's first joint combat command, involving all of its armed services -- in an area around the border city of Pocheon, 51 kilometers northeast of Seoul.

The command will mainly utilize the unmanned assets to carry out defensive and offensive operations and deter various asymmetric threats posed by the enemy, including drones, nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction during a contingency, according to the JCS.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum (L) presents the flag of the newly established Drone Operations Command to the unit's inaugural commander, Maj. Gen. Lee Bo-hyung, during the command's launch ceremony at an undisclosed area around Pocheon, 51 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on Sept. 1, 2023, in this photo provided by the JCS. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

It is also tasked with conducting surveillance, reconnaissance and strike operations, as well as psychological warfare and electromagnetic warfare at a strategic and operational level.

The command plans to acquire assets that are available by the end of this year to ensure operations can be carried out immediately, the JCS said, noting that it is pushing to quickly deploy various advanced drones through fast-tracking acquisition procedures.

"By deterring various asymmetric provocative threats, such as North Korean drones, and acquiring capabilities and a posture to strongly punish provocations, (the drone operations command) must become a unit that instills fear in the enemy and is trusted by the people," President Yoon Suk Yeol was quoted as saying in a message read on his behalf.

The command's launch came as Seoul has sought to beef up counter-drone measures after North Korea's drone incursions late last year.

Five North Korean drones intruded across the inter-Korean border in December, with one of them having penetrated a no-fly zone close to Seoul's presidential office.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · September 1, 2023

6. U.N. rapporteur for North Korean human rights to visit Seoul next week

U.N. rapporteur for North Korean human rights to visit Seoul next week | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Yoon-seung · September 1, 2023

SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Yonhap) -- U.N. special rapporteur for North Korea's human rights will visit South Korea next week to meet Seoul officials as well as defectors from the reclusive regime, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Elizabeth Salmon is expected to arrive here Monday for a nine-day stay to meet foreign, unification and justice officials, along with North Korean defectors, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

She is also scheduled to hold a press conference in Seoul on Sept. 12.

The rapporteur will submit a report on North Korean human rights issues to the U.N. based on results from the upcoming visit.

This Sept. 2, 2022, file photo shows Elizabeth Salmon, United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, speaking during a news conference in Seoul. (Yonhap)

colin@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Yoon-seung · September 1, 2023

7. A defector testifies about N. Korean human rights atrocities

A defector testifies about N. Korean human rights atrocities

donga.com

Posted August. 31, 2023 08:09,

Updated August. 31, 2023 08:09

A defector testifies about N. Korean human rights atrocities. August. 31, 2023 08:09. by Kyu-Jin Shin newjin@donga.com.

“I feared my hands might be slashed, but I gritted my teeth, holding onto the belief in a world of freedom as I made my daring journey across the Duman River,” reminisced Kim Il-hyuk, a defector from North Korea, recalling his escape in 2011 by crossing the river while relying solely on a single rope. Kim drew attention with his bold assertion aimed at the dictatorial regime led by Kim Jong Un in the North, declaring that “dictatorships cannot endure.”

Speaking at the Korea Global Forum held at the Westin Josun Seoul, Kim vividly recounted his harrowing experience of fleeing North Korea. “Even upon reaching China successfully, the risk of being apprehended loomed large. Capture would mean either facing execution or enduring a lifetime of forced labor within political prison camps,” Kim emphasized. “To evade detection, I feigned that I could not speak and concealed myself in a locker during checkpoint crossings.”

Kim further shared, “My father was apprehended for using a Chinese-made mobile phone to communicate. He was subsequently sent to a forced labor camp, and my family had to visit him monthly to prevent starvation.” He also recounted the grim reality within the labor camp, where many succumbed to starvation, with some resorting to consuming dried seaweed to the point of rupturing their stomachs due to its swelling.

Recounting the tragic fate of his aunt, Kim revealed that she suffered brutal beatings and severe torture, eventually losing her life in a political prison camp for not reporting Kim’s defection to the authorities. “The people of North Korea deserve a life of dignity, much like our own lives,” Kim passionately asserted, urging the Korean society to pay heed to the dire human rights situation in North Korea.

The Korea Global Forum centered on “North Korea’s Nuclear Threats, Human Rights, and Unification.” While the conference’s name was altered to “Korean Peninsula Global Peace Forum” during the former Moon Jae-in administration, the term ‘peace’ was omitted under the current administration. Vice Minister Moon Seung-hyun of the Unification Ministry, delivering the keynote address on behalf of Minister Kim Young-ho, emphasized that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration considers North Korea’s human rights dilemma as significant as its nuclear threats.

한국어

donga.com

8. Yoon warns against spreading falsehoods about Camp David alliance

Well the Camp David Summit did not result in a trilateral alliance.

But very strong anti communist, anti authoritarian and anti opportunist statements.

Friday

September 1, 2023

dictionary + A - A

Published: 01 Sep. 2023, 18:04

Yoon warns against spreading falsehoods about Camp David alliance

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-09-01/national/politics/Yoon-warns-against-spreading-falsehoods-about-Camp-David-alliance/1860555

President Yoon Suk Yeol makes a speech at the 60th anniversary of the Korean National Diplomatic Academy ceremony at Seocho-dong, Seoul, on Friday. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday issued a strong warning against those who still support totalitarian communists, opportunists and those who fuel anti-Japanese sentiments as a means of inciting insecurity.

“There are those who attempt to mislead the public, suggesting that the cooperative system between Korea, the United States, and Japan that came out of Camp David, would endanger our country and people,” Yoon said. “Our freedom is constantly under threat.”

During a ceremony celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Korean National Diplomatic Academy, President Yoon emphasized that diplomatic ambiguity implies a country lacking in values and philosophy.

“A diplomacy that is unpredictable to its counterparts not only affects credibility but also national interests,” Yoon added.

The president's comments seem to be a jab at his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who maintained an ambiguous position in relations with both China and the United States.

While Moon attempted to strengthen ties with China, including unsuccessful attempts to invite China's President Xi Jinping to Seoul, he didn’t seem to have a solid relationship with then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

However, regarding North Korea and Japan, Moon was clear in his stance.

During his five years in office, he developed a closer relationship with Pyongyang while taking a hardline stance against Tokyo, to the extent that Tokyo and Seoul imposed trade restrictions on each other.

In particular, Tokyo strongly protested when Moon, after taking office, overturned a settlement between the South Korean and Japanese governments made during his predecessor Park Geun-hye on "comfort women" from the colonial period.

When the Moon administration withdrew from the intelligence-sharing pact with Japan over North Korea, Japan lashed out at the South for being an unreliable partner.

President Yoon Suk Yeol takes pictures with those that participated in the ceremony celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Korean National Diplomatic Academy in Seocho-dong, Seoul, on Friday. [YONHAP]

Since Yoon took office, the dynamics of the previous administration have shifted. The South has strengthened its alliance with Japan and the United States, while relations with China have become awkward.

The Yoon government has also taken a hardline stance against North Korea.

The stronger alliance between South Korea and Japan became more evident on Friday when both nations imposed sanctions against North Korea in response to Pyongyang's reconnaissance satellite launch a week ago, which both Seoul and Tokyo consider to have been a test of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

This development followed a stronger alliance that not only included military cooperation but also joint economic efforts, which was forged during the first exclusive meeting between Yoon, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David on Aug. 18.

President Yoon's comments on Friday also come amid growing controversy surrounding historical figures.

The Gwangju city government is at odds with the Yoon government, particularly the Veteran Affairs Ministry, over spending 4.8 billion won ($3.6 million) to construct a park commemorating Jeong Yul-sung, also known as Zheng Lucheng.

The composer, who was born in Gwangju and later became a naturalized Chinese citizen, was a communist who wrote the marching anthem for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and fought against South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Gwangju already has several monuments dedicated to Jeong Yul-sung, including a reconstruction of his birthplace and a street named after him.

While Gwangju argued that the park would attract a larger group of Chinese, the ministry has raised questions on whether it is appropriate for the city to commemorate a communist.

Another major social debate that has taken center stage is the Defense Ministry's decision to relocate the bust of the Korean independence army general, Hong Beom-do.

Some sources have claimed that the Moon Jae-in government attempted to reshape the identity of the Korean military by basing it on a historic figure who was anti-Japanese and pro-North.

President Yoon Suk Yeol purchasing a crab at Noryangjin fish market in Seoul on Thursday in support of fishmongers, whose businesses had been affected by the recent debate related to Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. [YONHAP]

Yoon is also seen as targeting the Democratic Party (DP), whose leader, Lee Jae-myung, has been on a hunger strike since Thursday in protest of the discharge of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The DP has been holding rallies against the nuclear power plant's discharge while criticizing the Yoon government for supporting the Japanese government's decision.

Despite tests conducted by the Korean and Japanese governments, as well as by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirming that the radioactive elements in the discharged water meet safety standards, the DP has continued to raise health concerns.

“The Korean National Diplomatic Academy must serve as a compass for our diplomats, guiding them to pursue diplomacy with clear values, historical perspectives and a national outlook,” Yoon said.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]

9. US lawmakers seek to meet UN officials to stop China from sending back N. Korean defectors

From an NGO report I just read, the forcible repatriation from China has begun.

US lawmakers seek to meet UN officials to stop China from sending back N. Korean defectors - The Korea Times

koreatimes.co.kr

Activists urge Beijing to stop repatriating North Korean refugees detained in China during a rally held in central Seoul in July, 2022. Korea Times fileBy Kang Hyun-kyung

U.S. lawmakers Christopher Smith and Jeff Merkley, co-chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), released an open letter calling for a meeting with two U.N. high commissioners to discuss ways to prevent Beijing from repatriating North Korean defectors held in China.

Their open letter was unveiled on Thursday (Seoul time) as North Korea opened its border with China on Sunday to allow its workers to return home.

The reopening of the North Korea-China border, after being closed since January 2020 in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, has become a source of concern as a massive humanitarian crisis looms. As many as 2,000 North Korean defectors are currently detained in China and are feared to be repatriated back to the North against their will.

In the letter, Rep. Smith and Sen. Merkley requested U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and the High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi to set up a meeting to discuss ways to prevent China from sending the North Koreans back to the North.

“We would like to request either an on-line or in-person meeting with both of you, either jointly or separately, to discuss the further steps that the U.N. can take to prevent forced repatriation and avert a potential mass human rights crisis,” the letter reads.

UN rapporteur closely watching signs of China deporting NK defectors

“We note with gratitude that after a 6-year hiatus, the Security Council held a public meeting on North Korean human rights, during which High Commissioner Turk made a veiled reference to China’s role in the forced repatriation of North Korean refugees. We understand that others within then U.N. System have expressed concern about this issue as well.”

The U.S. lawmakers voiced concerns that China has ignored the international community’s repeated calls to stop repatriating North Korean refugees.

“However, the Chinese government remains intransigent, alleging that the principle of non-refoulement does not apply to North Korean defectors as they are considered illegal immigrants―a conclusory assertion which does not comport with the PRC’s obligations under international law,” they said in the letter. PRC is an acronym for People’s Republic of China.

The U.S. lawmakers proposed a meeting with the U.N. officials more than two months after a CECC hearing was held on the issue in June.

koreatimes.co.kr

10. Pyongyang's missile provocation challenges S. Korean military headquarters

Concur with this assessment.

Conclusion:

Kim said the Kim Jong-un regime has been increasing belligerence against South Korea-U.S. joint exercises over recent years, unlike his father Kim Jong-il who often disappeared from public view when joint drills were being held in the South.

The analyst commented that the North would continue to scale up its missile provocations while using strengthened South Korea-U.S. military cooperation to justify its actions.

Pyongyang's missile provocation challenges S. Korean military headquarters

The Korea Times · August 31, 2023

A news report on a North Korean missile launch is aired on a TV screen at Seoul Station, Thursday. Yonhap

N. Korea conducts military drills aimed at 'occupying entire territory of the South'

By Lee Hyo-jin

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles (SLBM) toward the East Sea on Wednesday night; hours after the U.S. dispatched strategic bombers to the Korean Peninsula for joint aerial drills with South Korea.

Defense analysts viewed the North's late-night provocation, which came amid an annual South Korea-U.S. military exercise, as a warning to show that it is capable of launching an attack at any time, targeting the South's critical military facilities.

The two SLBMs were fired between 11:40 p.m. and 11:55 p.m., Wednesday, from Sunan, a district of Pyongyang, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). Both missiles flew about 360 kilometers before falling into the waters off the east coast.

"The time of the launch and flight distance of the missiles suggest that the North was sending a message that it can launch an attack any time on our critical military facilities," said Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, a think tank.

The missiles' flight distance of 360 kilometers was long enough to target South Korea's Gyeryongdae military headquarters in South Chungcheong Province, located about 350 kilometers from Pyongyang's Sunan district.

Moreover, in a photo released by Pyongyang's state media, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was apparently pointing to the area near Gyeryongdae on a map of the Korean Peninsula while giving instructions to the military about an ongoing command drill.

The KCNA said the North Korean leader visited the command post of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) on Tuesday, where he was briefed about the command drill, which is aimed at "occupying the whole territory of the southern half."

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, third from right, visits the training command post of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, Tuesday, in this photo released by the nation's state media, Korean Central News Agency, Thursday. Yonhap

In that sense, Shin viewed that the North's latest provocation was intended to boast about its nuclear and missile capabilities, rather than being driven out of fear or anxiety over the deployment of U.S. strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang claimed that the missile launches were a "tactical nuclear strike drill" as a warning signal to the enemy "who challenges us with military threats such as the deployment of strategic nuclear assets."

"The U.S. imperialists let a formation of B-1B nuclear strategic bombers conduct a joint attack formation drill against the DPRK together with fighters of the military gangsters of the 'Republic of Korea,'" the KCNA report read. DPRK is the acronym of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

U.S. B-1B strategic bombers engaged in joint aerial drills with South Korea's FA-50 fighter jets on Wednesday, in a demonstration of a combined defense posture by the two nations. It was the 10th flyover by U.S. bombers over the Korean Peninsula this year.

"The Kim regime's military provocations toward South Korea-U.S. military drills are evolving. They are becoming more blatant and belligerent," said Kim Yeoul-soo, director of the security research office at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs.

Kim said the Kim Jong-un regime has been increasing belligerence against South Korea-U.S. joint exercises over recent years, unlike his father Kim Jong-il who often disappeared from public view when joint drills were being held in the South.

The analyst commented that the North would continue to scale up its missile provocations while using strengthened South Korea-U.S. military cooperation to justify its actions.

The Korea Times · August 31, 2023

11. N.Korea Practices Occupying S.Korea

We must never forget these questions. Kim is answering them for us.

1. Do we believe that Kim Jong-un has abandoned the seven decades old strategy of subversion, coercion-extortion (blackmail diplomacy), and use of force to achieve unification dominated by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State in order to ensure the survival of the mafia like crime family cult known as Kim family regime?

2. In support of that strategy do we believe that Kim Jong-un has abandoned the objective to split the ROK/US Alliance and get US forces off the peninsula? Has KJU given up his divide to conquer strategy - divide the alliance to conquer the ROK?

N.Korea Practices Occupying S.Korea

english.chosun.com

September 01, 2023 13:45

North Korea has been staging a command post exercise to practice occupying South Korean territory in an all-out war, state media said Thursday.

The drill seems to be a computer-simulated war game rather than a field exercise. It is the first time the regime has publicly announced such a drill.

The announcement came in an apparent response to the joint South Korea-U.S. Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise that had been conducted from Aug. 21 to Thursday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un points at a map of South Korea during a visit to a military command post on Aug. 29, in this photo from the [North] Korean Central News Agency on Thursday.

The official [North] Korean Central News Agency reported that the drill was launched Tuesday in response to a "treacherous" situation, referring to the joint exercise.

During his visit to a command post on Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim was briefed by the chief of the Army General Staff on hour-by-hour and stage-by-stage possible movements of enemy forces in the event of war, it added.

The drill was "aimed at occupying the entire territory of the southern half by repelling the enemy's sudden armed invasion and switching over to an all-out counterattack," state media said.

Kim Jong-un Threatens to Arm Navy with Nukes

N.Korea Fails in Fresh Attempt to Launch Satellite

N.Korea to Try Launching Spy Satellite Again

N.Korea's Spy Satellite 'of No Military Value'

Military Examines Turbopump from N.Korean Space Rocket

N.Korea 'Sought China's Help to Salvage Crashed Rocket'

Wreckage of N.Korean Space Rocket Retrieved

N.Korea Threatens to Stop Announcing Space Rocket Launches

Salvage of Crashed N.Korean Rocket Continues

Military Salvages Piece of Crashed N.Korean Rocket

N.Korean Satellite Falls into West Sea

Seoul Warns Pyongyang Against Satellite Launch

Kim Jong-un Checks Preparations for N. Korea's 1st Military Satellite

N.Korea Ready to Launch 1st Spy Satellite

N.Korea 'Test-Launches 1st Spy Satellite'

english.chosun.com

12. North Koreans continue smuggling attempts across China-N. Korea border

The people are desperate and the regime is afraid of their economic activity.

North Koreans continue smuggling attempts across China-N. Korea border

Their government, however, is operating several organizations to build border barriers and prevent smuggling and defections

By Mun Dong Hui - 2023.08.31 4:54pm

dailynk.com

North Koreans continue smuggling attempts across China-N. Korea border | Daily NK English

A marker delineating the border between China and North Korea (Wikimedia Commons)

North Koreans continue attempts to smuggle across the China-North Korea frontier despite their government’s efforts to build barriers on the border, Daily NK has learned.

“The construction of border barriers has made it tougher to approach the border, but people continue to attempt smuggling activities,” a source in North Korea told Daily NK last Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Because the electrified fences aren’t always electrified, you can deal with the surveillance cameras by making deals with the soldiers on patrol, and you can dig holes in the earth under the walls.”

North Korea is building so-called “barriers” along the border to prevent illegal acts such as smuggling and defections, including surveillance cameras and electrified fences.

However, since smuggling is directly tied to the livelihood of border residents, locals are continuing their attempts to smuggle, constantly searching for blindspots and bribing the border patrol so they can operate with its approval and assistance, the source said.

People feel sorry for the many young soldiers forced to build the border barriers in terrible conditions. They believe that simply building the border barriers cannot put a complete stop to smuggling, defections and other illegal acts, the source explained.

“In fact, all this difficult construction work is for nothing. They can’t catch somebody who is determined to escape just because there is a barrier, and they can’t stop people who have made up their mind to smuggle.

“On the contrary, people feel bad that soldiers protecting the people are doing work like piling rocks at such a young age to stop defections or smuggling. After seeing such an ugly spectacle, parents who have sent their children to the military worry that their kids, too, might be struggling under similar circumstances.”

Barrier construction is dangerous work

In fact, local people have witnessed several accidents during construction of the barriers that have resulted in casualties, the source said.

“Engineering troops working on border barriers in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province and Pochon, Yanggang Province were hit in the head with cement pillars. Even though the injured soldiers were bleeding profusely, [their commanders] just dilly-dallied at the scene and the soldiers died without even going to the hospital. Their bodies were buried on a nearby mountain.

“That’s the rule for dealing with fatalities. The system informs the parents at the end of the year, so even the parents of the soldiers who were killed this time will learn of their deaths at the end of the year.”

North Korea is operating several organizations to build the border barriers and prevent smuggling and defections.

“There are several commands dealing with the border,” the source said. “There’s the Aug. 4 Unified Command, the Defense Ministry’s Command 725 and the Unified Command of the Defense Ministry’s Bureau 1215, among others.”

The Aug. 4 Unified Command is composed of provincial branches of the Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Social Security, provincial Ministry of Social Security patrol teams, mobile strike forces and the security departments of local military units. It manages and supervises the patrols along the border and reports back to Pyongyang, as well as verifying and inspecting the border lockdown in accordance with orders from Pyongyang.

The Defense Ministry’s Command 725 organizes and commands the intensive restrictions placed on public access to the border to stop defections, illegal entries into the country and smuggling. It also compiles and files general reports on the border closure according to rule changes when they happen to the Military Politics Guidance Bureau.

The Unified Command of the Defense Ministry’s Bureau 1215 specializes in building the border barriers. It gives army units mobilized for construction their building tasks, provides guidance on the state of construction and technical matters, repairs and strengthens the barriers and inspects their state of operations.

Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.

Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.

Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.

Read in Korean

Mun Dong Hui

Mun Dong Hui is one of Daily NK’s full-time journalists. Please direct any questions about his articles to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.

dailynk.com

13. ＜Inside N. Korea＞ Report suggests deaths in second largest city of Hamhung

We must be concerned with internal conditions and the potential for internal instability and possible resistance activities.

＜Inside N. Korea＞ Report suggests deaths in second largest city of Hamhung…One visitor to the city reports: “People are dying of starvation and disease. Crime is increasing, leading to a brutal atmosphere in the city.”

asiapress.org

(FILE PHOTO) Hamhung Station in June 2005. People can be seen going back and forth carrying large bags. Taken by RI Jun (ASIAPRESS)

Hamhung is North Korea’s second largest city, with an estimated population of 700,000 to 800,000 people. The city’s economic situation appears severe given that for the last two or so years, rumors have spread throughout North Korea about continued deaths in the city due to starvation and disease, along with high levels of crime. Movement between regions is still strictly controlled, so it is difficult to get details about the situation in the city; however, an ASIAPRESS reporting partner in the northern part of the country recently provided vivid testimony about conditions there through people travelling in and out of the city. (KANG Ji-won / ISHIMARU Jiro)

◆ Information controls made it impossible for N. Koreans to know what’s going on

“It seems like a lot of people in Hamhung have died due to starvation and disease. Robberies and other hideous crimes are occurring frequently.”

Such rumors were heard frequently in the northern region of North Korea from late 2021. As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic started in late January 2020, the authorities shut down the border with China and strictly controlled movement of people inside the country. That is why even North Koreans faced difficulties in understanding what was happening in other parts of the country.

ASIAPRESS looked into having our reporting partners in urban areas of the northern part of the country take trips to Hamhung, but they failed to receive permission from the authorities to conduct business trips or travel to the city. One reporting partner, “A,” explained:

“Everybody has probably heard that the situation in Hamhung is quite bad. However, everyone hesitates to learn more in detail about what’s happening there. Crackdowns on false rumors these days are harsh, and there’s a lot of cases where people are investigated for talking about information that puts the country in a bad light.”

◆ Rise in deaths due to starvation and disease in May and June

In early August, “A” had the opportunity to meet with “B,” who travels to and from Hamhung, to hear about the situation inside the city. Below is what “B” told “A” about conditions in the city:

“According to ‘B,’ lots of people died in Hamhung during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year there’s been a lot of people dying from starvation. ‘B’ says that an average of three people has died per inminban in May to June of this year in one area of Hamhung he visits. There’s even people in each district who are experts in dealing with corpses. Everyone is having a tough time, so they just wrap up corpses in cloth and put them out (on the street) without even holding funerals.”

※ The Kim Jong-un regime officially acknowledged the outbreak of COVID-19 in May 2022, and the disease seemed to spread quickly, infecting people throughout the country within a couple of months.

※ Inminban are North Korea’s lowest administrative units and typically are made up of 20-30 households, or around 50-80 people. Districts typically have 20-40 inminban. The population of one district is typically around 1,000 to 3,000 people. If an average of three people per inminban died in the period from May to June, this means that around 3.75-6%, or 60-120 people, per inminban perished.

(FILE PHOTO) A homeless child who looks to be around middle-school age is warming themself from the heat of burning coal briquettes. Take in November 2012 (ASIAPRESS)

◆ Robberies, extortion, and begging…a savage atmosphere

“A” told ASIAPRESS more about what “B” told him:

“The downtown area of Hamhung is brutal. It’s like a different world compared to where I live. When he got off at Hamhung Station in the daytime, several swindlers and pickpockets swarmed around him. They didn’t try to steal from him without being seen, they openly put their hands into his bag or pockets. Some even showed him knives.

“They know that he wouldn’t give them money even if they demand it, so if they saw him carrying something, they would come over and say, ‘What do you have? Share it with me.’ He (“B”) told me he was scared.

“The police and enforcer teams stand around managing security, and so he yelled out to them, but the criminal didn’t even try to run. He just smiled and walked away.

“Women don’t go out alone because they’re scared of getting robbed, and they make sure to take a man with them when they do. People gather in groups of three to five when they ride bikes, because robbers will steal them, too.

“When he went to Sapo Market, two men in front of the public toilet told him to give them money, but when he said he had no money, they told him to hand over the vegetables in his bag. He gave them the entire bag because he feared the murderous look in their eyes. People at the market just pretended not to notice what had happened.

“There’s also a lot of homeless people. He saw more than 20 of them at Sapo Market. Students were also selling goods, almost like they were begging for money. He was surprised because they kept trying to get him to buy some rubber bands.

“There were a lot of very thin men sitting on the streetside. They were clearly out of work, but (the authorities) weren’t doing anything about them.

※ For decades, the Kim Jong-un regime had forced adult men to work at assigned workplaces, and those who fail to go to work or leave their assigned workplaces are considered “jobless” and face harsh crackdowns and punishment.

◆ Why is Hamhung in such dire conditions?

Why is a large city like Hamhung facing such bad conditions?

Several reporting partners agreed that the reason lies in the fact that the city “has a large population and is not close to farming areas.”

In fact, even during the mass famine of the late 1990s, Hamhung saw a much greater number of deaths than other cities. Hamhung is an industrial city, with factories related to chemicals and textiles. There are many large factories that have more than 5,000 workers.

In the late 1990s, North Korea faced a social crisis due to the paralyzed economy, and the country’s food distribution system almost completely evaporated. Hamhung, with its large number of factory workers, was suddenly faced with many people facing starvation. There were few farming areas nearby, which meant there were limits to how much food could be brought in.

◆ Restrictions on private economic activities having negative impact

The Kim Jong-un regime has strongly restricted the movement of people and goods under the pretext of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, the authorities have fiercely cracked down on “non-socialist behavior,” such as people running small-scale private businesses and engaging in wage labor not sanctioned by the government.

As a result, most urban dwellers have faced a drastic fall in their cash incomes and are suffering from poverty. Hamhung has a large population and is far from farming areas, which appears to have caused severe problems for many people in the city.

ASIAPRESS has received unconfirmed reports that the situations in Chongjin and Kimchaek are also severe, with a great number of people dying of starvation and a rise in crime.

※ ASIAPRESS smuggles Chinese cellphones into North Korea to maintain communication with its reporting partners.

Map of North Korea ( ASIAPRESS)

asiapress.org

14. US Army engineers float South Korean tanks during ‘wet gap’ drill near DMZ

I recall participating in many of these river crossings in 2d ID long ago

US Army engineers float South Korean tanks during ‘wet gap’ drill near DMZ

Stars and Stripes · by David Choi · August 31, 2023

Soldiers from 11th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division connect ribbon bridges during a wet-gap crossing drill with South Korean troops at a reservoir in Cheorwon county, near the North Korean border, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. (Christopher Green/Stars and Stripes)

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CHEORWON, South Korea — U.S. and South Korean combat engineers demonstrated their bridge-building prowess Thursday by moving an armored column across open water just 15 miles from the border with North Korea.

About 220 soldiers — 70 from the 11th Engineer Battalion, U.S. 2nd Infantry Division and 150 South Koreans — used 6 ½-ton floating sections to lay a bridge across a reservoir in Gangwon province.

The exercise culminated with a column of South Korean K1A2 tanks and K21 fighting vehicles moving a quarter-mile across the 23-foot-deep, open water, or “wet gap,” atop the floating bridge.

South Korean soldiers direct a K21 infantry fighting vehicle onto the shore during Ulchi Freedom Shield training in Cheorwon county, near the Demilitarized Zone, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. (Christopher Green/Stars and Stripes)

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Perfecting the wet-gap crossing is essential to maintaining an effective deterrent against adversaries like North Korea, said battalion commander Lt. Col. Brent Kinney.

“We continually have to refine and achieve the highest state of readiness possible so that we can support that ‘fight tonight’ mentality,” he told reporters, invoking the U.S. Forces Korea motto. “It’s not a bumper sticker. You can’t just say we’re ready to fight tonight — we have to actually perfect and hone our skills such that if we’re called to serve in a deterrence posture, we are ready.”

The U.S. and South Korean armies use compatible bridging equipment, which simplifies a coordinated operation and training on each other’s methods, Kinney said.

Wet-gap training is particularly important in South Korea, where much of the terrain is either mountainous or wet, said Lt. Col. Nam Kung Kyung of the South Korean Mechanized Infantry Division.

A South Korean K1A2 tank crosses a reservoir during "wet gap" training in Cheorwon county, near the Demilitarized Zone, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. (Christopher Green/Stars and Stripes)

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The training was one of the roughly 30 drills during Ulchi Freedom Shield, an 11-day test of the U.S. and South Korean forces’ ability to defend against the North Korean military.

Last week, roughly 500 U.S. and South Korean troops practiced their street-fighting skills in the Urban Area Operating Center, a simulated city block eight miles from the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.

North Korea conducted its own exercise late Wednesday. It fired two short-range ballistic missiles, part of a simulated, “scorched earth” nuclear attack, followed by rehearsal of a South Korean occupation, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday.

The missiles flew roughly 225 miles before splashing into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the exercise, according to KCNA.

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense in a statement to news reporters Thursday said it “strongly condemned” the launch and was conducting a joint analysis of the missiles with the U.S. military.

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David Choi

David Choi is based in South Korea and reports on the U.S. military and foreign policy. He served in the U.S. Army and California Army National Guard. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Stars and Stripes · by David Choi · August 31, 2023

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

If you do not read anything else in the 2017 National Security Strategy read this on page 14:

"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."

Access NSS HERE

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