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Quotes of the Day:
3 – “Beware the one-party state. The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.”
– Timothy Snyder
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."
– Thomas Jefferson
"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force."
– Ayn Rand
1. New US-ROK Combined Forces Commander Brunson: “Stability in the Region Depends on US-ROK-Japan Security Cooperation”
2. Ex-top U.S. envoy recalls his decision to come to S. Korea as most rewarding
3. North Korea's Russia Alliance and Missiles are a Big Problem for Trump and Allies
4. South Korea’s conservatives rally, rebound in face of martial law, impeachment dramas
5. Yoon's lawyers file for injunction against 2nd detention warrant
6. USFK commander stresses need to maintain trilateral cooperation among S. Korea, U.S., Japan
7. N. Korea's missile launch this week shows where 'blood' money ends up: Seoul envoy
8. Home of ex-security official raided in probe over alleged leak of THAAD-related intelligence (South Korea)
9. U.S. may weigh nuclear sharing with South Korea under Trump, experts say
10. Elbridge Colby and the Return of Republican Realism
11. Editorial: Democratic Party must prioritize governance over election ambitions
12. Troops will not be allowed to help prevent Yoon's arrest, says Defense Ministry
13. Trump cabinet and Korea
14. Trump's 2nd term personnel include those who are pro-North Korea dialogue... A signal for a new North Korea policy?
15. [Wang Son-taek] ‘Kisses democracy’ will prevail
16. “North Korea, Kim Joo-ae’s solo activities may be disclosed for achievements”
17. Loud, eerie noises from North Korean speakers take a toll on villagers across border
1. New US-ROK Combined Forces Commander Brunson: “Stability in the Region Depends on US-ROK-Japan Security Cooperation”
This is a Google translation of a VOA report.
New US-ROK Combined Forces Commander Brunson: “Stability in the Region Depends on US-ROK-Japan Security Cooperation”
https://www.voakorea.com/a/7930705.html
2025.1.9
On the 9th, at the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Korea, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Myong-soo and Commander of the US-ROK Combined Forces Command Xavier Brunson reaffirmed the 'ironclad ROK-US alliance' and discussed 'measures to strengthen the combined defense posture' in the reception room. (Photo source: Defense Media Agency of the Republic of Korea)
Xavier Brunson, the new commander of the US-ROK Combined Forces Command, said that stability in the region depends on US-ROK-Japan security cooperation. As both the US and South Korea are going through a domestic political transition, the importance of maintaining and strengthening US-ROK-Japan security cooperation is being emphasized. Let’s connect with reporter Kim Hwan-yong in Seoul to learn more.
Anchor) The new commander of the US-ROK Combined Forces Command, Xavier Brunson, visited the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Reporter) Yes.
According to the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commander of the US-ROK Combined Forces Command Brunson, who took office on the 20th of last month, visited the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the 9th and discussed the recent security situation on the Korean Peninsula and current issues in the US-ROK alliance with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Myung-soo.
On the 9th, at the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Korea, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Myong-soo and Commander of the US-ROK Combined Forces Command Xavier Brunson received a report on the status of military readiness at the Joint Chiefs of Staff Combat Control Center and had an in-depth discussion on current issues of the ROK-US alliance. (Photo source: Defense Media Agency of the Republic of Korea)
To commemorate Commander Brunson's first visit since taking office, the Joint Chiefs of Staff held a welcoming ceremony at the Ministry of National Defense parade ground, and Commander Brunson and Chairman Kim received a report on the military readiness posture at the Joint Chiefs of Staff combat control room.
Commander Brunson reaffirmed the importance of US-ROK-Japan security cooperation, which he had emphasized during his telephone conversation with Chairman Kim on the 23rd of last month.
He stressed that “it is important to maintain the momentum of the trilateral training,” and that “stability in the region depends on the continued development of security cooperation between the U.S., South Korea, and Japan.”
Guestbook written by Commander of US-ROK Combined Forces Forces Xavier Brunson, who visited the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Korea on the 9th. (Photo source: Defense Media Agency of the Republic of Korea)
Commander Brunson also emphasized the importance of communication between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Commander of the Combined Forces Command, saying, “Maintaining a robust combined readiness posture is key to the defense of the Republic of Korea.”
Chairman Kim emphasized “timely communication between the US and South Korea” and said, “Let’s maintain the ironclad US-South Korea alliance and the alliance’s firm joint defense posture.”
Host) Didn’t US Secretary of State Tony Blinken continue to emphasize US-ROK-Japan security cooperation during his previous visits to Korea and Japan? What is the background behind the US’s continued emphasis on trilateral cooperation?
U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who visited South Korea on the 6th, met with Acting President Choi Sang-mok of South Korea at the Seoul Government Complex and took a commemorative photo before the meeting.
Reporter) Secretary Blinken visited Korea as a farewell visit ahead of the inauguration of the Trump administration on the 20th, and met with Acting President Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance, and National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik in Seoul on the 6th.
At this event, Secretary Blinken reiterated the importance of bilateral cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea and trilateral cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea and Japan across a wide range of global and regional issues.
U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who visited Tokyo, Japan on the 7th, shakes hands with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya before their meeting.
Also, on the 7th, in Tokyo, together with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, he strongly condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launch and reaffirmed that "it is important to continue close cooperation between the US and Japan and between the US and South Korea in responding to North Korea, including the nuclear and missile issues and the abduction issue."
Dr. Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification, a government-affiliated think tank, explained that this is a move to send a message of strong commitment between the three countries to ensure that the US-ROK-Japan security cooperation system, which the Joe Biden administration has been pushing for to be institutionalized, will not be shaken as the US and South Korea face a domestic political transition.
Kim Hyun-wook, director of the Sejong Institute, a private research institute, said that amid the possibility of an early change of government in South Korea due to the passage of the impeachment bill against President Yoon Seok-yeol, the need for security cooperation between the U.S., South Korea, and Japan is being continuously emphasized.
[Recording: Director Kim Hyun-wook] “I think the importance of Korea-US-Japan cooperation was emphasized again in that context, because if there is a change in government in Korea’s domestic politics, the new government’s foreign policy and its stance on Korea, US, and Japan will become uncertain.”
Host) If there is an early change of government in Korea, what kind of impact do you think it will have on the US-ROK-Japan security cooperation system?
Reporter) In Korea, there is tension between the value diplomacy forces that value cooperation with the Western democratic camp against the authoritarian camp and the balanced diplomacy forces that seek practical gains between the US and China.
On the 6th of last month, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, the main opposition party in Korea, is being interviewed by foreign media at the National Assembly in Yeouido.
The Democratic Party of Korea, the main opposition party leading the impeachment of President Yoon, is a political force that has pursued balanced diplomacy.
However, Koh Yoo-hwan, professor emeritus at Dongguk University, said that even if a change of government occurs in South Korea, it will not be able to ignore security cooperation with the US and Japan due to major changes in the international situation, such as the growing North Korean nuclear threat and the intensifying US-China hegemony competition. He also said that the biggest variable in terms of whether it will expand and develop as a military cooperation system is the will of the Trump administration.
[Recording: Professor Emeritus Koh Yoo-hwan] “In terms of developing cooperation from this so-called Asian concept into a military regional cooperation targeting China and Russia, the level and content of cooperation may be determined depending on the will of the U.S. government, and the cooperation based on the information-sharing agreement between South Korea and Japan to counter North Korean threats will not be significantly damaged.”
Dr. Hong Min said that if a change of government takes place in South Korea, there is a possibility that the historical conflict between South Korea and Japan will resurface, weakening the US-South Korea-Japan military cooperation.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet is launched from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) during the Freedom Edge exercise, a joint U.S.-South Korea-Japan exercise in June last year.
Dr. Hong predicted that Freedom Edge, a joint US-ROK-Japan multi-domain exercise that was conducted twice, is something that the US has been preparing for for a long time and is intended to respond three-dimensionally to the heightened North Korean nuclear threat, so it would be difficult for any government in South Korea to find a reason to reject it, but that if conflict with Japan arises, South Korea's level of participation in the exercise could be lowered.
Host) The inauguration of the new Trump administration is also a variable that will affect the US-ROK-Japan security cooperation system. What kind of analysis is being made in Korea regarding this?
Reporter) Director Kim Hyeon-wook said that even during the first Trump administration, the United States tried to restore Korea-Japan relations.
It also analyzed that President-elect Trump's perception has changed from his first term when he viewed the overseas stationing of US troops negatively to now acknowledging the need for overseas stationing of US troops.
Dr. Jang Yong-seok of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University predicted that President-elect Trump will also not tolerate China’s challenge to the U.S. hegemony, and that he will maintain the framework of cooperation between the U.S., South Korea, and Japan as a response to this.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on the 7th.
Dr. Jang said that the Trump administration will likely try to significantly increase the security cost burden on Korea through bilateral negotiations while maintaining the US-ROK-Japan cooperative system, which could lead to conflict with the Korean government.
Jang Yong-seok, Visiting Researcher, Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, Seoul National University (Photo credit: Institute of International Affairs)
[Recording: Dr. Jang Yong-seok] “I think that while this framework itself will be maintained, it will be seen as a way to actively pursue America’s national interests by shifting even more of the burden to Korea and regional countries, and in that sense, I think there are aspects where conflicting elements are bound to grow bigger than they are now.”
Anchor) Reporter Kim, the US-ROK-Japan security cooperation system is most strongly aimed at China, but wouldn’t the recent military cooperation between North Korea and Russia at the level of an alliance also be a variable in the survival and strengthening of this system?
Reporter) There is also such analysis.
Dr. Hong Min predicted that if North Korea-Russia military cooperation becomes more blatant, such as through joint training exercises, the justification for US-ROK-Japan security cooperation will be further strengthened.
Dr. Hong said that as the Trump administration pushes to end the war in Ukraine, the possibility of negotiations with not only Russia but also North Korea has been raised, and whether the negotiations proceed smoothly between the parties could affect the intensity of North Korea-Russia military cooperation.
Hong Min, Senior Researcher, Korea Institute for National Unification
[Recording: Dr. Hong Min] “If things don’t go well for either Ukraine or North Korea, or if neither side does well, and things don’t go as planned by the United States, then North Korea and Russia may boldly conduct joint training exercises in a visible form to pressure the United States.”
President-elect Trump had pledged to bring an early end to the war in Ukraine during the presidential election campaign and had flaunted his personal friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, leading to speculation that negotiations between the US and North Korea could resume.
This is Hwan-yong Kim from VOA News in Seoul.
2. Ex-top U.S. envoy recalls his decision to come to S. Korea as most rewarding
Ex-top U.S. envoy recalls his decision to come to S. Korea as most rewarding | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · January 9, 2025
By Kim Seung-yeon
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Yonhap) -- Former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg recalled that his decision to come to Seoul to serve as the top envoy was the most rewarding choice he had made.
Goldberg made the remark in his farewell message on social media Wednesday, a day after he left his post following a 2 1/2-year term -- also his last position before retirement.
"When I first considered retiring a few years ago, I chose to postpone that plan to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea (ROK). That decision was one of the most rewarding ones of my career," Goldberg said in a video clip posted on X.
"I've witnessed the strength of the U.S.-ROK alliance, the warmth of the Korean people, and in recent weeks, the resilience of Korea's democracy," he said.
The political turmoil in South Korea, sparked by President Yoon Suk Yeol's shocking and brief imposition of martial law, and subsequently his impeachment, completely upended the ambassador's final month in Seoul.
Washington had reacted with a negative tone, expressing "grave concerns" over Seoul's political instability. But the allies quickly moved to reinforce their commitment to the alliance, with the U.S. placing full confidence in South Korea's democratic and constitutional processes.
Goldberg again highlighted the value of the bilateral alliance.
"Together, we've marked over 70 years of the U.S.-ROK alliance, an enduring partnership built on shared values, mutual respect and our commitment to democracy, peace and security," he said.
"I retire I leave with gratitude for our shared successes and confidence in the continued strength of the U.S.-ROK alliance," Goldberg added.
This image, captured from former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg's X account, shows him making a farewell speech in a video clip, a day after he left his post in Seoul after a 2 1/2-year term, the last position he will have held as a diplomat before his retirement. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
elly@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · January 9, 2025
3. North Korea's Russia Alliance and Missiles are a Big Problem for Trump and Allies
North Korea's Russia Alliance and Missiles are a Big Problem for Trump and Allies
19fortyfive.com · by Bruce Klingner · January 7, 2025
North Korea fired a shot across the stern of the outgoing Biden administration by launching a missile during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to South Korea. Blinken was in Seoul to affirm U.S. support for its ally despite ongoing political turmoil wrought by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law last month and subsequent impeachment.
The missile launch also serves as a signal to the incoming Trump administration that the regime’s growing nuclear and missile capabilities would exact a higher price in any future negotiations.
General view during the test firing of what state media report is a North Korean “new type” of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in this undated photo released on March 24, 2022 by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). KCNA via REUTERS
On January 6, North Korea launched a missile that flew 1,100 kilometers (690 miles) before landing in the Sea of Japan. The type of missile remains unclear, but it could be the Hwasong-16, a solid-fueled intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) which has both a conical hypersonic maneuverable warhead and wing-shaped hypersonic glide maneuverable warhead variants. Both missile versions were first tested last year and can evade missile defenses.
While the missile launch could have been conducted for additional developmental testing of a new missile, any provocation – particularly during a high-level visit – is habitually interpreted as a signal whose meaning is hotly debated by Korea watchers. Strong North Korean action could be a dismissal of rampant speculation of a resumption of U.S.-North Korean engagement during a second President Donald Trump term.
Donald Trump and North Korea: What Happens Next?
Despite Trump’s touting his strong relationship with Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang declared last August that it was not interested in dialogue with Washington regardless of the presidential election result. The regime declared that both candidates reflected Washington’s “unchanging aggressive and hostile policy.” The last bilateral U.S.-North Korean diplomatic meeting was in October 2019.
Kim has been emboldened by stronger ties with Russia including a mutual defense signed last year in a summit with President Vladimir Putin. Pyongyang has provided millions of artillery rounds, weapons, and 12,000 troops to support Russian operations in Ukraine, receiving an estimated $6 billion in benefits in return. Russian largesse, which enables Pyongyang to offset the impact of international sanctions, comes without any preconditions as would be required in any nuclear deal with the United States.
Conversely, the road to negotiations with North Korea in the past has often first passed through a crisis, with the regime escalating tensions in order to revert to the status quo ante and raise the price of an eventual settlement. Some experts speculate that Kim could conduct North Korea’s seventh nuclear test near Trump’s inauguration, though both Washington and Seoul declared such a test was imminent since March 2022.
Regardless of Pyongyang’s intended message, the missile launch underscores the importance of trilateral security cooperation amongst the United States, South Korea, and Japan. A few short months ago, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan were like three strong horses harnessed together, pulling in the same direction. Foreign and security policies among the three countries were in near total alignment. The biggest uncertainty was potential U.S. policy changes under a second Trump term.
But now Japan has been weakened by new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s feckless decision to call a snap election in October that led to his party losing its legislative majority for the first time in 15 years. The Japanese ship of state may still be heading in the same direction as before, but the sails are luffing. Its captain must now put all policy issues to a vote by the crew, having to gain agreement from opposition parties for passage of any legislation including funding for Japan’s pledged doubling of defense spending.
Hwasong-12 IRBM. Image Credit: North Korea State Media.
The South Korean ship of state ran aground due to Yoon’s unwarranted declaration of martial law. The constitutional system, commendably enough, prevailed, but the nation is in tumult after the impeachment of Yoon and acting President Han Duck-soo, and a lengthening list of arrests of senior officials. The opposition party has now moved beyond a ship’s crew revolting against unconstitutional actions by the captain and is now engaged in a retributive mutiny against the norms of political rule.
If Yoon’s impeachment is upheld by the Constitutional Court, the progressive opposition Democratic Party will likely win a special presidential election. The new president would return to the party’s conciliatory outreach to China and North Korea, aggressive nationalist policy toward Japan, and downplaying South Korea’s alliance with the United States.
Yoon’s bold and politically risky outreach to Japan, despite fierce domestic criticism, was commendable and single-handedly brought about South Korean-Japanese reconciliation and resurgence of trilateral military coordination with the U.S. But his recent actions jeopardize all of the gains made in recent years in forging common allied responses to regional security challenges.
The incoming Trump administration will be looking for reliable allies and partners for confronting the growing Chinese and North Korean threats. Until recently, both South Korea and Japan were seen as sturdy and dependable allies. But the United States is now allied with two foundering ships of state even as Washington debates setting its own course in the Indo-Pacific. We have likely seen the high-water mark of trilateralism, and prospects for policy success are dimmer than just a few short months ago.
About the Author: Bruce Klingner
Bruce Klingner is senior research fellow for Northeast Asia in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation. He served 20 years with the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency, including as CIA’s deputy division chief for Korea.
19fortyfive.com · by Bruce Klingner · January 7, 2025
4. South Korea’s conservatives rally, rebound in face of martial law, impeachment dramas
Excerpts:
Still, even staunch Yoon supporters acknowledge the uncertainty over the election fraud charges.
“We have a few bits of circumstantial evidence for election fraud, but no substantial evidence,” said Kim Chul-hong, who teaches at the Presbyterian University. “We hope that President Yoon has substantial evidence as he sent troops and got some information from the election commission computer servers.”
If data is revealed in upcoming Constitutional Court hearings, “there will be an upheaval to turn round the political geography of Korea,” Mr. Kim said.
Some of the impeached president’s supporters hope the election fraud and “fake news” controversies in South Korea elicit sympathy from the incoming Trump administration.
Elon Musk “is the right arm of Trump and is paying attention to our progress,” said Sogang University’s Mr. Yoon. The billionaire entrepreneur posted “wow” on X in response to a photo of South Korean conservative protesters waving U.S. flags.
Longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon “this morning had an interview with a Korean reporter about the real situation here,” the academic said. “He mentioned that legacy news media are not paying attention to the anti-impeachment or pro-Yoon activity. Legacy media is helping these pro-impeachment groups.”
South Korea’s conservatives rally, rebound in face of martial law, impeachment dramas
Embattled Yoon sees surprise poll uptick; opposition moves blocked in legislature
washingtontimes.com · by Andrew Salmon
By - The Washington Times - Wednesday, January 8, 2025
SEOUL, South Korea — The downfall of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, impeached and stripped of his powers after his shock martial law decree early last month, is suddenly looking less certain.
Two public opinion polls found that the popularity of Mr. Yoon and his People Power Party have rebounded. On Wednesday, the opposition-controlled National Assembly failed to pass bills that would have authorized investigations into Mr. Yoon’s abortive martial law decree and his wife’s suspected illegal activities.
It marks quite a turnaround for a figure many thought was politically finished. The National Assembly voted to impeach Mr. Yoon on Dec. 14 and his successor, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, 13 days later.
On Friday, Mr. Yoon’s presidential security detail prevented police and special investigators from detaining him on insurrection charges, arguing that the detention was illegitimate. That failure humiliated the investigative body during questions in the National Assembly and caused an unseemly spat between the investigators and the police force.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s legal counsel has advised lawmakers to drop an insurrection charge against Mr. Yoon. The counsel said dropping the charge, disputed by the minority People Power Party, would accelerate the Constitutional Court’s impeachment proceedings.
In a country where street politics vies with executive and legislative clashes, even the streets are no longer dominated by forces demanding Yoon’s removal.
The president’s supporters, massed under a coalition of conservative and Christian groups, have mobilized and surrounded the presidential residence while flooding central Seoul’s Gwanghwamun district on weekends. They recorded the scenes with drones so nobody could dispute the size of their gatherings.
The political landscape is starkly different from just a few weeks ago.
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In the second week of December, after the failed coup, Mr. Yoon’s approval ratings plunged to a low of 11%, but a Jan. 3-4 poll by the Korea Public Image Research Institute found his support had shot up to 40%.
The Hankyoreh, a left-wing newspaper, has criticized the institute’s poll for “leading questions” and “bias,” but a Jan. 6 poll by the widely cited Realmeter found that support for Mr. Yoon’s party was 34.4%, up from 30.6% one week earlier.
Realmeter also found that support for the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea stood at 45.2%, ahead of Mr. Yoon’s PPP but well down from the DPK’s 52.4% after the martial law fiasco.
The left has dominated the political debate since Mr. Yoon’s short-lived martial law decree, which many South Koreans said echoed the authoritarian governments that ruled until 1987.
Now, South Korea’s right wing is compelled to stand up and be counted, said Hwang Kyo-ahn, who led the country as acting president when the last conservative president, Park Geun-hye, was impeached and forced from office in 2017.
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“We are in a big crisis right now. We are suppressed by the attacks of the left wing, by disunity among the right wing, and our president is impeached,” Mr. Hwang told foreign reporters on Wednesday. “It’s very tough and serious … but the right wing who were complacent in past years are now rising up.”
Questioning the system
If Mr. Yoon is forced out of office, DPK leader Lee Jae-myung is expected to win a subsequent presidential election and hand control of the legislature and the executive branch to the left. Reluctant conservatives now feel compelled to stand up and give voice to previous taboos, including questioning the integrity of the electoral system.
“When I talked about election fraud, I was treated as a liar. It was treated as a conspiracy,” said Yoon Kyung-byung, a chemistry professor at Seoul’s Sogang University. “I made so many enemies.”
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After the president deployed commandos to seize data from the National Election Commission on the night of martial law, the issue reentered public discourse. Echoing President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters in the U.S., conservative protesters are waving banners emblazoned with the English signage, “Stop the Steal.”
Christian Protestants are stalwarts of South Korea’s conservative bloc. A major mobilizer is the Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon, chairman of the Gwanghwamun Patriots’ Rally.
“We made a USB and sent it to the president. We said half the opposition party lawmakers were voted through a fraudulent election,” Mr. Jun, a fire-and-brimstone preacher with a vast following, told foreign media on Monday. “The National Intelligence Service tried to hack the [National Election Commission] seven times, and they breached it six times. Therefore, President Yoon was sure our election system was rigged.”
Mr. Jun was a ferocious critic of Mr. Yoon’s predecessor, liberal president Moon Jae-in, who left office in 2022. In 2019, he told foreign reporters that Mr. Moon was “worse than Adolf Hitler.” He argued that Hitler was a German patriot while Mr. Moon worked for North Korea.
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Mr. Yoon reversed Mr. Moon’s downgraded relations with Japan, but neither president ended Seoul’s alliance with Washington or broke sanctions on North Korea.
Having published and distributed a book titled “Trump and God” to Korean Americans, Mr. Jun revealed he would attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration in Washington.
Still, even staunch Yoon supporters acknowledge the uncertainty over the election fraud charges.
“We have a few bits of circumstantial evidence for election fraud, but no substantial evidence,” said Kim Chul-hong, who teaches at the Presbyterian University. “We hope that President Yoon has substantial evidence as he sent troops and got some information from the election commission computer servers.”
If data is revealed in upcoming Constitutional Court hearings, “there will be an upheaval to turn round the political geography of Korea,” Mr. Kim said.
Some of the impeached president’s supporters hope the election fraud and “fake news” controversies in South Korea elicit sympathy from the incoming Trump administration.
Elon Musk “is the right arm of Trump and is paying attention to our progress,” said Sogang University’s Mr. Yoon. The billionaire entrepreneur posted “wow” on X in response to a photo of South Korean conservative protesters waving U.S. flags.
Longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon “this morning had an interview with a Korean reporter about the real situation here,” the academic said. “He mentioned that legacy news media are not paying attention to the anti-impeachment or pro-Yoon activity. Legacy media is helping these pro-impeachment groups.”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
Copyright © 2025 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
washingtontimes.com · by Andrew Salmon
5. Yoon's lawyers file for injunction against 2nd detention warrant
Yoon's lawyers file for injunction against 2nd detention warrant | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · January 9, 2025
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol's lawyers said Thursday they have filed for an injunction against a second warrant to detain him over his brief imposition of martial law.
Yun Gap-geun and other members of the impeached president's legal defense team made the remark during a meeting with foreign news outlets, saying the request was filed with the Constitutional Court, along with a request for adjudication on a competence dispute.
The Seoul Western District Court issued the warrant Tuesday after investigators filed for an extension of their initial warrant that expired the previous day.
An attempt to execute the warrant last Friday failed after Yoon's bodyguards blocked investigators from entering the official presidential residence.
A second attempt is expected to be made in the coming days.
"The judge who issued the first and second warrants and the judge who dismissed our objection (to the first warrant) not only made wrong legal interpretations but are making wrong legal applications," Yun said. "There are inferences and exaggerated interpretations of the law that make it highly likely to be illegal."
The legal team took the same steps against the first warrant but the Constitutional Court did not take action on either request before the warrant expired.
Yun relayed some of the president's thoughts as he remains out of the public eye since being impeached by the National Assembly on Dec. 14.
"President Yoon is healthy in appearance and is worrying that his intended aim in declaring martial law will not be achieved," the lawyer said. "He is hoping this too will become an opportunity for the Republic of Korea's development as a part of history."
Asked what Yoon had intended to achieve, Yun said the president "believes the martial law imposition is playing a role in creating the mood for our people to rise to their feet."
On whether Yoon plans to attend the first oral arguments for his impeachment trial next Tuesday, Yun said there are other issues to be resolved first and nothing has been decided yet.
Yun Gap-geun (R) and other members of President Yoon Suk Yeol's legal defense team hold a press conference with foreign news outlets in southern Seoul on Jan. 9, 2025. (Yonhap)
hague@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Haye-ah · January 9, 2025
6. USFK commander stresses need to maintain trilateral cooperation among S. Korea, U.S., Japan
USFK commander stresses need to maintain trilateral cooperation among S. Korea, U.S., Japan | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · January 9, 2025
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Yonhap) -- The top commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on Thursday highlighted the need to maintain trilateral security cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan, the South's military said, amid growing military threats from North Korea.
Gen. Xavier Brunson made the remark as he met Adm. Kim Myung-soo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), at Kim's office in central Seoul, which marked Brunson's first visit of its kind since he took office last month, according to the JCS.
Brunson said that regional stability relies on the growing partnership between the three countries, noting that it is "critical" to maintain the momentum on trilateral exercises, the JCS said in a release.
The three countries have recently stepped up security cooperation through various drills in the face of evolving North Korean threats, highlighted by the North's launch of what it claimed to be a new hypersonic missile on Monday.
During the talks, Kim said that North Korea is likely to undertake "strategic provocations" to set favorable external conditions for itself, calling for close coordination between the two sides to maintain their readiness.
Brunson, who took office on Dec. 20, also serves as the commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command and U.N. Command that oversees the armistice of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Gen. Xavier Brunson (L), commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, and Adm. Kim Myung-soo, chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), salute during a ceremony marking Brunson's visit to the headquarters of the JCS in central Seoul on Jan. 9, 2025. (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · January 9, 2025
7. N. Korea's missile launch this week shows where 'blood' money ends up: Seoul envoy
Blood money: the Korean people in the north are suffering because of the deliberate regime policy decisions of the Kim family regime that prioritizes its own survival and the development of advanced military capabilities over the welfare of the Korean people in the north.
N. Korea's missile launch this week shows where 'blood' money ends up: Seoul envoy | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · January 9, 2025
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's ballistic missile launch this week shows where its "blood" money ends up, South Korea's top envoy to the United Nations said Wednesday, accusing the recalcitrant regime of sacrificing its own people for its nuclear ambitions.
Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook made the remarks during a U.N. Security Council meeting on the North's launch Monday of a claimed intermediate-range hypersonic missile, as he cited Seoul's assessment that the regime has suffered at least 1,100 troop casualties during combat in Ukraine.
"The Jan. 6 missile launch shows exactly where this blood money ends up," Hwang said.
"The DPRK sacrifices its own people to fulfill its nuclear ambitions and further contributes to deaths and destruction in Ukraine," he added. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
South Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Hwang Joon-kook speaks during a U.N. Security Council session, in this undated photo captured from U.N. Web TV. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
Hwang described the North Korean troops, deployed to Russia, as essentially "slaves" to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who he said are "brainwashed" to sacrifice their lives on faraway battlefields to raise money for the Kim regime and secure advanced military technology from Russia.
"This is why I repeatedly emphasize that we need to look at both nuclear and human rights issues of the DPRK simultaneously at the Security Council," he said. "The human rights situation in the DPRK remains intrinsically linked to international peace and security."
The ambassador condemned the North's latest launch "in the strongest possible terms," noting that it followed over 50 ballistic missile launches last year alone.
"(It) constitutes a clear threat to international peace and security," he said. "It is yet another flagrant violation of multiple Security Council resolutions, which explicitly decided that the DPRK should not conduct any launches that use ballistic missile technology."
The North's latest launch marked its first provocation this year ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Song Sang-ho · January 9, 2025
8. Home of ex-security official raided in probe over alleged leak of THAAD-related intelligence (South Korea)
Home of ex-security official raided in probe over alleged leak of THAAD-related intelligence | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Hyun-soo · January 9, 2025
SEOUL/SEONGJU, South Korea, Jan. 9 (Yonhap) -- Prosecutors on Thursday raided the home of a former deputy national security chief, as part of their probe into suspicions of leaking intelligence related to a U.S. missile defense system to delay the formal deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery.
Suh Choo-suk, former first deputy director of the National Security Office under the Moon Jae-in administration, is one of four high-ranking security officials who have been accused of allegedly leaking THAAD-related intelligence to activists.
Suh, former National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong and two other senior officials who served in the preceding government are accused of allegedly attempting to delay the official deployment of the THAAD battery in the county by mandating an environmental evaluation, which takes over a year to complete, while delaying the vetting process.
They are also accused of leaking the plans by U.S. and South Korean forces to replace a THAAD battery missile to activists and China.
This photo, provided by a civic group opposed to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense U.S. missile defense system, shows prosecutors raiding the group's tent in the county of Seongju, 215 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Jan. 9, 2025. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
sookim@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Hyun-soo · January 9, 2025
9. U.S. may weigh nuclear sharing with South Korea under Trump, experts say
U.S. may weigh nuclear sharing with South Korea under Trump, experts say
https://www.chosun.com/english/national-en/2025/01/09/SX7PQTTZ3BA43IMQZWYKYZEPXU/
By Yang Jiho,
Lee Jae-eun
Published 2025.01.09. 11:44
The Brookings Institution, the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy (KRINS), and The Chosunilbo co-hosted an international conference on the U.S.-ROK Alliance in the upcoming Trump administration at the Plaza Hotel in Seoul on Jan. 8. / Go Woon-ho
The incoming Trump administration may consider redeploying tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea and expanding nuclear-sharing arrangements as part of a broader strategy to pressure China, experts said at a conference co-hosted by the Brookings Institution, the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy (KRINS), and The Chosunilbo on Jan. 8.
Ham Hyeongpil, a senior research fellow at the Center for Security and Strategy at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), cited a recent research paper by U.S. Air Force Major David Phillips. “Even active-duty U.S. military personnel have advocated for redeploying non-strategic nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula as the best course of action for ensuring regional stability from a U.S. perspective,” Ham said.
The paper, which earned the U.S. Strategic Command’s 2024 Deterrence Writing Award, estimated that deploying strategic nuclear weapons at the U.S. Air Force 8th Fighter Wing unit at the Kunsan Air Base to enable strike capabilities using F-35A fighter jets would cost approximately $3 billion. Considering the time required to prepare the necessary facilities and equipment for nuclear missions, the study suggested 2031 as a potential deployment timeline.
Andrew Yeo, senior fellow and the SK-Korea Foundation Chair at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies, said Trump might even authorize South Korea to retain nuclear weapons to strengthen its deterrence capabilities against North Korea. Yeo added that such a move could ease public anxiety in South Korea regarding the U.S.-North Korea dialogue.
From left: Ewha Womans University professor Park Won-gon, Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies Korea Chair Andrew Yeo, former South Korean Ambassador to the UN Kim Sook, Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Bruce Bruce Klingner. /Go Woon-ho
However, geopolitical stability in the region remains fragile. Bruce Klingner, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, noted that the South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation, once robust under the Yoon, Biden, and Kishida administrations, has taken a “dark turn” in recent months. KRINS director Han Min-goo echoed these concerns, warning, “Instability in South Korea’s leadership during this critical period when the foreign policy direction of the second Trump administration is being shaped raises concerns about the future of the U.S.-ROK alliance.”
Despite these challenges, experts stressed the importance of maintaining strong trilateral security cooperation and strengthening the U.S.-ROK alliance for regional peace and stability. “When addressing the North Korean nuclear issue under the Trump administration, experts from both countries must prevent the U.S. from unilaterally imposing its stance on South Korea,” said former UN Ambassador Kim Sook.
Klingner also recommended increasing the scale and frequency of joint military exercises involving South Korea, the U.S., and Japan and even considering joint ground force drills.
During his presidential campaign, Trump referred to South Korea as a “money machine” and said the long-time U.S. ally should pay $10 billion annually for defense costs—ten times the amount agreed upon last year. But experts argued that it would be difficult for the U.S. to enforce such a demand given its strategic focus on countering China. “It’s crucial to demonstrate to Trump that South Korea is already contributing sufficiently to defense spending, Yeo said.
Experts were also skeptical about the likelihood of U.S.-North Korea talks this year. Yeo predicted that Trump would prioritize ending conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East while focusing on competition with China in the Indo-Pacific region. “The possibility of U.S.-North Korea dialogue this year seems low,” Yeo said.
Sydney Seiler, a senior adviser and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), added, “North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has little interest in freezing, limiting, or reducing his nuclear arsenal.” Given North Korea’s deepening ties with Russia and its growing nuclear capabilities, Pyongyang has little incentive to return to negotiations.
10. Elbridge Colby and the Return of Republican Realism
No mention of Korea. But not a surprise. Despite his words he is not a supporter of the ROK/US alliance. He reminds me of Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowtiz whoboth said in 2004 that US forces in Korea were a waste. Of course they were talking about the fact they were committed forces to a war plan and thus unavailable to support GWOT operations. Bridge's view is that we must focus on the defense of Taiwan and we should not waste forces in Korea. Korea should defend itself even if that means developing indigenous nuclear weapons and if the alliance does remain ROK forces should be used for the defense of Taiwan as well.
Excerpts:
The day after the Jewish Insider hit-piece, Neal Urwitz, a friend of Colby, pushed back in a response essay for the National Interest titled “In Defense of Elbridge Colby.” In the piece, Urwitz called the criticisms unfair and urged detractors to read Colby’s book as well as “his voluminous tweets.” But the rearguard action by Urwitz and others had a resigned quality to it. For Rapture-ready evangelicals and Iran hawks worried about a realist turn in Republican foreign policy, no amount of careful re-readings of Colby’s tweets will bring them around. The battle against his influence will now be waged within the administration, where the stage has been set for a consequential contest over the limits, uses, and purpose of American power.
It will be woeful if Colby, who has worked on nuclear strategy and arms control, finds his views overwhelmed in this contest, and not just because of the stakes of a disastrous war with Iran. In a time of alarming nuclear tensions, the world would be well served by Colby’s appreciation for the unpredictable logic of nuclear escalation and the terrible power of nuclear weapons.
In Colby’s conversation with Carlson, he lamented the disappearance of the “salutary fear” of nuclear war that once informed U.S. policy. “A lot of the people who are calling for no-fly zones over Ukraine and intervening against the Russians and escalating and allowing U.S. weapons to be overtly used to attack Moscow and Russian strategic forces … that is obviously crazy,” Colby said, describing this as “one of the ‘touch grass’ kind of things.”
Referring to Bob Woodward’s reporting that the Biden administration almost found itself in a nuclear exchange with Russia in 2022, he added: “People who are blithe and insouciant about it, that is incredibly irresponsible. And they should not be near serious decisions.” Wistfully, Colby reminded Carlson that “the biggest thing” Ronald Reagan did was to meet with his Soviet counterparts about nuclear weapons. ”We should be afraid of these things—you know, salutary fear,” he said.
In “Strategy of Denial,” Colby put an even finer point on it. “Peace does not come from some unfocused readiness to be unpeaceful,” he wrote, “but only from a willingness to imagine and consider what a war would actually be like.”
Elbridge Colby and the Return of Republican Realism
The leading theorist of America First foreign policy has his work cut out for him
dropsitenews.com · by Drop Site News
by Alexander Zaitchik
This story is co-published with Drop Site News and Truthdig
Elbridge Colby speaks at the National Conservative Conference in Washington D.C., Tuesday, July 9, 2024 / Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
On November 13, Elbridge Colby appeared on CNN to discuss and defend Donald Trump’s selection of Peter Hegseth to run the Pentagon. The role of explaining the president-elect’s foreign policy ideas had by then become a familiar one for Colby, who served as a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the first Trump administration. Throughout the summer and fall, he was a go-to guest for cable news segments on what an “America First” foreign policy would mean for the world. As he described it to CNBC in July, it did not signify a turn inward, toward isolationism, but backward, toward an older “practical, common-sense approach” to statecraft that included “sparing” use of the military and an Eisenhowerian attunement to the economic costs of security competition. It became a ritual in these appearances for Colby to coyly deflect speculation over his own possible role, fueled by his presence on shortlists for national security advisor and secretary of defense.
Following Trump’s victory, this speculation became aggressive advocacy on the part of Colby’s supporters. On November 10, Tucker Carlson began an in-person interview with the 45-year-old veteran of the Pentagon and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence by describing him as “one of the very few people with deep experience in national security who shares the president's priorities on national security,” and expressed his desire for Colby to play a “big role” in the administration. The Washington Examiner’s Tom Rogan urged the president-elect “to appoint Colby to a senior national security position, perhaps as Secretary of Defense or CIA director.” Sharing the Carlson interview on X, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote: “More than most of the FP appointments, what happens with [Colby] will be a sign of whether the Trump WH is aiming for strategic coherence and an explicit ‘realist’ commitment this time around, as opposed to a more ad hoc team of ideological rivals.”
Within the week, the defense and CIA posts were off the table, as was national security advisor, each handed to figures with less experience and more hawkish records. As the weeks stretched on without the anticipated call from Mar-a-Lago, it seemed possible that a campaign by Iran hardliners to block Colby’s appointment —waged publicly and behind the scenes—was working. All the while, Colby dutifully continued to field booking requests from Christine Amanpour and Piers Morgan, and took to his social media battlements to defend the integrity of Hegseth’s Jerusalem Cross chest tattoo.
Finally, on December 26, Trump brought Colby in from the cold, announcing on Truth Social his appointment as under secretary of defense for policy. The appointment, a plum one straddling strategy and policy, certifies Colby as the GOP’s ideas man; among its duties is overseeing the production of the National Defense Strategy. Colby will be tasked with coalescing a realist foreign policy framework fit for a post-Blob era. To do that, Colby will harken back to older iterations of Republican foreign policy that preceded what he describes as a post-Cold War “primacist alliance” of interventionist liberals and neoconservatives. Primacists “have led us to a situation in which we're overextended, we're on the brink of war in multiple theaters,” Colby told Carlson. “You need peace through strength. But that that term has become cheapened and distorted to become basically an excuse for an aggressive, expansionist approach to foreign policy.”
So What Is Colby’s Worldview?
Rejecting the “absurd hubris” of the primacists, Colby has spent the last eight years attempting to systematize the anti-interventionist themes Trump has espoused. The result is a China-focused, national-interest realism that accepts the need for tradeoffs and limits in the exercise of U.S. power, and rejects adventurism and “democracy promotion” through regime change. Its principles have broad public support and helped Trump defeat a Democratic party that embraced the Cheney family in November.
The question is whether these principles will be allowed to guide the next administration. Not everybody on Trump’s national security council shares Colby’s views, and Trump himself remains a wild card. These ideological fault lines are most visible when it comes to the Middle East, a region that Colby sees through a realist lens as a secondary theater, but that others in Trump World, including his possible boss at the Pentagon, understand as a theater for realizing New Testament prophecy.
In the first Trump administration, Colby devoted a two-year stint as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development to pushing a doctrinal shift away from terrorism and toward China. As the lead writer of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, he also scrapped the longstanding goal of preparing the U.S. military to fight two major wars simultaneously, again placing the focus on China.
Colby expanded on that document’s recommendations for Asia in his 2021 book, “The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict,” which presents a case for “blocking” China’s rise as regional hegemon and argues for a U.S.-led alliance that accepts and prioritizes members based largely on the defensibility of their territory. Although in many ways a traditional academic international relations treatise, “Strategy of Denial” is streaked through with a signature concern of America First realism: reviving the U.S. industrial economy. “If China could establish hegemony over Asia,” he writes:
it could then set up a commercial and trading bloc anchored in the world’s largest market that would privilege its own and subordinates’ economies while disfavoring America’s. The resulting drain on American businesses, large and small, would be most keenly felt by the workers, families, and communities who rely on those businesses for jobs, goods, services, and the other benefits that come with a vibrant economy. The steady erosion of America’s economic power would ultimately weaken the nation’s social vitality and stability.
This concern over the domestic economic impacts of Chinese dominance echo the warnings made 30 years ago by John Mearsheimer, the prominent realist whose criticisms of post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy anticipated and influenced those of Colby. In the 1990s, Mearsheimer warned that the U.S. should not accelerate China’s rise with policies that encouraged the outsourcing of its industrial base to a potential rival. Now that the rivalry is real, Colby believes that only a long-term commitment to a policy of “denial” can give peace a chance. The belief that war can still be avoided puts Colby on the sunnier side of the street from Mearsheimer, for whom the tragic logic of security competition condemns the U.S. and China to fight a hegemonic war. (Despite their differences, Colby has expressed admiration for Mearsheimer, who likewise has been described as a “Colby fan”.)
Although Colby’s version of containment is not as aggressive as some, it’s not a policy of détente, either. One could argue that the belief that the U.S. should be ready to fight a major war to block China from dominating its backyard is its own kind of primacism, one with a soft underbelly of debatable assumptions about the nature of Chinese aggression, ambitions, and the threats they pose to the U.S. A war fought under a realist flag of global stability and national interest comes with the same cost as one fought under a neoconservative flag of freedom and democracy.
“At what point does ‘denial’ become escalatory?” wonders Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “We have to be careful. Building up U.S. military assets in the South China sea and aggressively pursuing bloc formations in China’s sphere of influence may provoke the very confrontation that Colby insists he doesn’t want.” She adds that observers calling for a less interventionist foreign policy are “cautiously optimistic” that Colby is not an ideologue and appears open to debate, including on the subject of how hard to push China. This is a welcome contrast, she says, to American primacists of the left and right who, in recent decades, have treated foreign policy discussions like a “members-only club that shut everyone else out.”
Colby’s tolerance for risk drops precipitously after China’s first island chain. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he has ruffled feathers in what he calls the Imperial Capital by using his frequent media appearances to criticize Washington’s blank-check support for Kiev as an unwise use of U.S. resources and a strategic folly that runs an unacceptable risk of nuclear escalation and a direct NATO-Russia war. In a Politico profile published a year into the Russia-Ukraine war, a GOP senate aide described Colby as “far and away leading the charge” in changing the party’s thinking on NATO and Ukraine, including “historically hawkish senators such as Sen. Marco Rubio.”
Colby versus the hawks
Colby has had less impact on Trump World’s approach to Iran. Although he has publicly praised each of his fellow appointees to national security posts, his realpolitik view of the Middle East contrasts sharply with the Biblical politics of people like Hegseth and Mike Huckabee, as well as the neoconservative records of Michael Waltz and Marco Rubio, Trump’s picks for national security advisor and secretary of state, respectively.
Mearsheimer, who is not constrained by political considerations, is able to deliver the realist’s assessment of Trump’s picks that Colby cannot. “The group of people he has appointed to almost all the most important national security positions are all super hawks on Iran,” Mearsheimer said in late 2024. “John Bolton is ecstatic about the appointments of Waltz, Hegseth, Rubio, because they’re neoconservatives like him.” Some Trump officials are already salivating at the prospect of bombing Iran.
As this team of Iran hawks was being formed, Colby’s enemies did their best to make sure he didn’t ruin the party. On November 13, Jewish Insider reported that a number of “conservative pro-Israel activists” and anonymous “foreign policy experts” were “raising concerns that one potential candidate for a senior national security job could create ideological friction in the incoming administration, particularly on Iran and the broader Middle East.” The article, titled “Rumored for a Trump posting, Elbridge Colby’s dovish views on Iran stand out,” highlighted a 2012 article Colby co-wrote for the National Interest titled “Why Not to Attack Iran.” In the piece, Colby argued “a perpetual-strike campaign” would fail to stop Iran’s nuclear program, as well as fail to provide
a reasonable and plausible answer to the ultimate question Americans want answered before the United States goes to war: How does this end? Stealthy air strikes and massive earth-penetrating bombs are only tools, not answers. The United States cannot responsibly attack Iran and leave it at that, simply hoping for the best. A firm and resolute containment may be costly and risky, but it is a lot better than that. It’s probably best not to start down a road that has no end in sight.
Days before the election, Colby reiterated these points. “The U.S. has every interest in avoiding yet another major war in the Middle East,” he said on X. “How do you propose the U.S. can launch major strikes on Iran and avoid exactly that, especially if Iran retaliates against U.S. forces and other allies and partners, including Israel?” Elsewhere he has criticized U.S. missile attacks on the Houthis, members of the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance,” as wasting resources on “a tertiary target in a tertiary region.”
The day after the Jewish Insider hit-piece, Neal Urwitz, a friend of Colby, pushed back in a response essay for the National Interest titled “In Defense of Elbridge Colby.” In the piece, Urwitz called the criticisms unfair and urged detractors to read Colby’s book as well as “his voluminous tweets.” But the rearguard action by Urwitz and others had a resigned quality to it. For Rapture-ready evangelicals and Iran hawks worried about a realist turn in Republican foreign policy, no amount of careful re-readings of Colby’s tweets will bring them around. The battle against his influence will now be waged within the administration, where the stage has been set for a consequential contest over the limits, uses, and purpose of American power.
It will be woeful if Colby, who has worked on nuclear strategy and arms control, finds his views overwhelmed in this contest, and not just because of the stakes of a disastrous war with Iran. In a time of alarming nuclear tensions, the world would be well served by Colby’s appreciation for the unpredictable logic of nuclear escalation and the terrible power of nuclear weapons.
In Colby’s conversation with Carlson, he lamented the disappearance of the “salutary fear” of nuclear war that once informed U.S. policy. “A lot of the people who are calling for no-fly zones over Ukraine and intervening against the Russians and escalating and allowing U.S. weapons to be overtly used to attack Moscow and Russian strategic forces … that is obviously crazy,” Colby said, describing this as “one of the ‘touch grass’ kind of things.”
Referring to Bob Woodward’s reporting that the Biden administration almost found itself in a nuclear exchange with Russia in 2022, he added: “People who are blithe and insouciant about it, that is incredibly irresponsible. And they should not be near serious decisions.” Wistfully, Colby reminded Carlson that “the biggest thing” Ronald Reagan did was to meet with his Soviet counterparts about nuclear weapons. ”We should be afraid of these things—you know, salutary fear,” he said.
In “Strategy of Denial,” Colby put an even finer point on it. “Peace does not come from some unfocused readiness to be unpeaceful,” he wrote, “but only from a willingness to imagine and consider what a war would actually be like.”
dropsitenews.com · by Drop Site News
11. Editorial: Democratic Party must prioritize governance over election ambitions
This is the heart tof the problem. The Minjoo/DPK is only interested in its own political power and not on effective governance for the good of the nation.
It seems that perhaps the Korean people in the South are beginning to recognize that.
Editorial: Democratic Party must prioritize governance over election ambitions
https://www.chosun.com/english/opinion-en/2025/01/09/ZTN5GCMFSBCINJ4VKFFJPOWQ2Q/
By The Chosunilbo
Published 2025.01.09. 08:59
Democratic Party lawmakers chant slogans on Jan. 8 at the Rotunda Hall steps of the National Assembly in Seoul, condemning the rejection of the re-vote on special investigation bills on insurrection allegations against President Yoon and charges involving first lady Kim Keon-hee. /News1
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, sharply criticized President Yoon Suk-yeol during a party meeting on Jan. 8, stating, “If the rule of law crumbles, the economy and people’s livelihoods will fall apart like a sandcastle.” His remarks were in response to Yoon’s refusal to comply with an arrest warrant. However, Lee himself has faced accusations of hypocrisy for invoking the rule of law, with critics highlighting his own controversial legal maneuvers. Lee has employed so-called “legal shield strategies” to protect himself from legal risks, leveraging the Democratic Party’s majority in the National Assembly. While advocating for an expedited impeachment trial, ostensibly to influence the presidential election timeline, Lee has sought to delay his own trial on charges of election law violations. These actions have drawn allegations of double standards.
The Democratic Party’s recent moves suggest a focus on securing an early presidential election. This was evident in the party’s decision to retract charges of rebellion against Yoon from the impeachment trial, a move widely interpreted as an attempt to accelerate the process. The abrupt withdrawal of such significant charges has left many citizens bewildered. Meanwhile, inflammatory rhetoric from Democratic lawmakers has further escalated tensions. The head of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, a Democratic Party representative, stated, “Yoon will face the death penalty in court over rebellion charges.” Another lawmaker with a prosecutorial background made similarly provocative remarks during a National Assembly session, urging the head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) to show unwavering determination, declaring, “If the Presidential Security Service staff come at you with guns, bare your chest and let them shoot,” and, “Demonstrate the resolve to walk out with a coffin on your shoulders.” On a YouTube program hosted by broadcaster and YouTuber Kim Ou-joon, another Democratic lawmaker suggested extreme measures, including the use of water cannons, armored vehicles, and helicopters, to confront resistance. Kim himself escalated the rhetoric, proposing tactics such as aiming snipers at targets, deploying capsicum spray, and “breaking through by any means necessary.” Such inflammatory remarks risk escalating tensions between state agencies, including the CIO and the Presidential Security Service, and have heightened perceptions that the Democratic Party is prioritizing the early presidential by-election to benefit Lee Jae-myung.
However, public opinion appears to be turning against these aggressive tactics. Recent polls indicate that support for the ruling People Power Party (PPP) has risen for three consecutive weeks, recovering to pre-martial law levels, while backing for the Democratic Party has steadily declined. Some surveys show the gap between the two parties narrowing to within the margin of error. PPP representatives should keep in mind that this shift seems to stem less from genuine approval of President Yoon’s defiance of the arrest warrant or his martial law declaration and more from growing dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party’s polarizing strategies
If both the ruling and opposition parties continue to disregard the principles of the rule of law, the impeachment trial risks exacerbating national divisions. Neither side appears willing to fully accept the outcome, compounding the political crisis. While both parties share responsibility for resolving the current impasse, the Democratic Party, as the legislative majority, bears a greater burden. Restoring constitutional order must take precedence over its ambitions for the snap presidential election. There is still time for the party to prioritize governance and reconsider its election strategy.
12. Troops will not be allowed to help prevent Yoon's arrest, says Defense Ministry
Troops will not be allowed to help prevent Yoon's arrest, says Defense Ministry
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-01-09/national/defense/Troops-will-not-be-allowed-to-help-prevent-Yoons-arrest-says-Defense-Ministry/2219009
Published: 09 Jan. 2025, 16:06
- MICHAEL LEE
- lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr
Acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho leaves a press briefing held at the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Dec. 6, 2024. [NEWS1]
The Defense Ministry will not allow troops from the Army’s Capital Defense Command to help President Yoon Suk Yeol resist arrest, a ministry official told reporters on Thursday.
According to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho told the Presidential Security Service (PSS) that it is “not appropriate to contribute military forces to efforts aimed at preventing the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) from executing its arrest warrant.”
The acting defense minister also told the Capital Defense Command’s 55th Guard Corps that it must “not be involved in any physical altercations with police,” the official said.
Related Article
In response, the PSS told Kim it “understands” his position.
The Defense Ministry official said the 55th Guard Corps would be unlikely to take part in future efforts to prevent Yoon’s arrest following the exchange between Kim and the PSS.
When the CIO attempted to detain Yoon on Jan. 3, service members from the 55th Guard Corps controversially helped PSS agents block investigators from entering the presidential residence.
Under the Presidential Security Act, the 55th Guard Corps falls under the command of the PSS despite being an Army division as its main mission is to secure the area surrounding the presidential residence.
As such, the PSS was able to order the division to prevent CIO investigators from taking Yoon into custody.
BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
13. Trump cabinet and Korea
Trump cabinet and Korea
The Korea Times · January 9, 2025
By John Merrill
John Merill
Uncertainty remains over what President-elect Donald Trump’s policy on Korea will be in his second term. Will he pull U.S. troops out of Korea unless Seoul coughs up billions of dollars annually to pay for them? Will he resume negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un while bypassing Seoul? Or will he decide to maintain strong security ties with Korea as part of an anti-China strategy?
Contrasting clues can be found in his selection of nominees for key national posts. Trump has named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Rep. Mike Waltz from Florida as national security adviser. Both men represent the internationalist wing of the Republican Party and are regarded as strong China hawks and supporters of a defense buildup.
Rubio has dealt with Korean issues as a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has been a harsh critic of North Korea, once calling Kim a “lunatic.” He has lobbied for tougher sanctions on Pyongyang and has sought to raise pressure on its human rights record. Rubio also argued that Washington needs to maintain its defense commitment with Seoul.
Waltz, a Green Beret veteran with several tours in the Middle East and Africa, shares Rubio’s hard-line China stance. He appears likely to endorse a hard line on North Korea as part of a China containment strategy.
But he has also modified some of his views to align with Trump, such as expressing doubts about the U.S. commitment to Ukraine and NATO. Some analysts believe that Waltz would likely back a Trump push for direct engagement with Pyongyang, given his loyalty to the president-elect. This would also reflect his view that Iran, not North Korea, poses the most pressing threat to the U.S.
The deputy national security adviser will be Alex Wong, who was a key player in the State Department on North Korea policy in the first Trump term, including helping arrange Trump’s summit in Singapore with Kim.
John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee to head the CIA, would also seem amenable to resume U.S. talks with North Korea based on his past statements.
While he has described North Korea’s nuclear weapons program as “concerning,” he has also suggested that Pyongyang views the weapons as a deterrent and a means to raise its international status. He has stated that North Korea might be willing to make concessions on its nuclear and missile program in return for sanctions relief and some form of security guarantees.
Two proposed nominees who would more strongly back an engagement policy with North Korea are Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
Both are aligned with the isolationist wing of the Republican Party and have criticized Washington’s “neocons” whom they blame for leading the U.S. into “endless wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hegseth’s views on North Korea have shifted with those of Trump over the years. In 2017, when Trump was warning of “fire and fury” against Pyongyang, Hegseth, as a Fox News host, called for “decisive” military action to end its nuclear activity.
But when Trump began his diplomatic effort with Kim in 2018, Hegseth supported a normalization of ties between Washington and Pyongyang. He has since then appeared to continue supporting Trump’s diplomatic approach as long as it succeeds in reducing North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
Another hint of where Trump might be headed is his selection of Elbridge Colby as undersecretary of defense for policy, a key Pentagon post. He is a China hawk who believes that U.S. troops stationed in Korea should focus more on countering threats from China while Seoul should assume more responsibility for its own defense, including possibly developing a nuclear weapon.
Gabbard has also been a critic of the American military-industrial complex and was an early supporter of Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic Party primary because she shared his noninterventionist views on foreign policy.
Both Hegseth and Gabbard may have a difficult time being approved by the Senate, but even if they are rejected, this is unlikely to deter Trump if he wants to reengage with Kim.
Trump continues to refer favorably to Kim, saying recently that he “got along well” with him and that he was “the only one to have properly dealt” with the North Korean leader.
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law bid and the resulting political turmoil could also encourage Trump to bypass Seoul and engage directly with Pyongyang on a nuclear deal.
Despite Kim’s New Year’s message that Pyongyang will adopt its “toughest” anti-U.S. policy yet, that could just be an opening gambit to push Trump to hold more face-to-face talks.
John Merrill (jmerrill05@gmail.com) is a visiting scholar at the Institute of Korean Studies at George Washington University.
The Korea Times · January 9, 2025
14. Trump's 2nd term personnel include those who are pro-North Korea dialogue... A signal for a new North Korea policy?
Let me just reiterate: If we move to arms control negotiations and abandon denuclearization then Kim will assess that as success for his political warfare strategy and blackmail diplomacy. He will continue to build advanced military capabilities even as he might give up some minor number of nuclear weapons to extract or extort concessions because those capabilities support political warfare and blackmail diplomacy as well as the option to use force to achieve his long term objective (domination in order to survive).
We must remember that the path to denuclearization is through unification, not negotiation (or arms control).
Trump's 2nd term personnel include those who are pro-North Korea dialogue... A signal for a new North Korea policy?
https://www.rfa.org/korean/in_focus/nk_nuclear_talks/trump-second-term-north-korea-policy-new-appointments-01082025152740.html
WASHINGTON-Park Jae-woo parkja@rfa.org
2025.01.08
Former US President Donald Trump and General Secretary Kim Jong Un met for a summit in Singapore in June 2018.
/ Yonhap News
00:00 /02:57
Anchor : As the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump approaches on the 20th , attention is focused on the possibility of implementing a new North Korea policy . This is reporter Park Jae-woo reporting .
President-elect Trump, who will soon take office, has been emphasizing his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his campaign.
[ President Donald Trump ( July )] Kim Jong- un of North Korea has a lot of nuclear weapons . I get along well with him .
President-elect Trump has frequently mentioned North Korea and consistently expressed interest in North Korea-US summit diplomacy.
In an interview with Time magazine published last month, he spoke of the possibility of negotiations, saying, “ I want to reach an agreement, and the only way to reach an agreement is not to give up . ”
In fact, there are assessments that many of the key personnel in his administration were related to North Korea policy .
President-elect Trump recently nominated former Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as his “special envoy for foreign affairs,” saying he would be in charge of North Korea issues . He also named former Deputy Special Representative for North Korea Policy Alex Wong as his deputy national security adviser , emphasizing his track record of helping negotiate between himself and Kim Jong Un .
On the 4th , he appointed William Beau Harris, who led the North American summit, as the Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for White House Operations , and evaluated that “ Harrison played a key role in planning the historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un . ”
US expert: “Trump will meet a completely changed Kim Jong-un” / RFA video
US Department of Defense : “New Administration Will Maintain US Forces in Korea … ROK-US Alliance Ironclad”
US experts : Kim Jong-un's anti-American remarks are a negotiating strategy to Trump
In particular, Elbridge Colby, the nominee for Deputy Secretary of Defense, has been drawing attention for his past media interviews in which he called denuclearization an unrealistic goal and insisted on arms control negotiations with North Korea .
As a result, an agreement has been reached to dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear facility and freeze nuclear material production , and the possibility of easing sanctions on North Korea and even recognizing North Korea's status as a nuclear state is being discussed .
This is an analysis by Shin Beom-cheol, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute in Korea.
[ Senior Researcher Shin Beom-chul, Sejong Institute ] President Trump can receive 'Yongbyon plus alpha' , and Kim Jong-un can make a freeze deal that guarantees his nuclear weapons . After that, no new deal will be made with the Trump administration . What will happen then ? If sanctions are eased , and if sanctions are eased, North Korea will eventually secure the status of a de facto nuclear state .
Meanwhile, Secretary of State nominee Mark Rubio has taken a hard-line stance on North Korea and security issues on the Korean Peninsula , raising the possibility that he may put the brakes on negotiations that do not lead to denuclearization .
However, as President Trump experienced conflicts with his aides during his first term , there is analysis that this second administration is comprised of loyalists who will not oppose his decisions .
The confirmation process for Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Gessault begins on the 14th , followed by the confirmation process for Mark Rubio on the 15th .
Editor Park Jeong-woo, Web Editor Lee Gyeong-ha
15. [Wang Son-taek] ‘Kisses democracy’ will prevail
A strong pro-Lee Jae Myung anti-President Yoon OpEd.
The "KIsses Squad" versus the "Asphalt Elders"
[Wang Son-taek] ‘Kisses democracy’ will prevail
koreaherald.com · by Korea Herald · January 9, 2025
The "Kisses Squad" has come to South Korea. The term refers to young people who have joined rallies in the street to demand the carrying out of the warrant to arrest suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol. Draped in emergency silver foil blankets and resembling a bunch of Hershey's Kisses chocolates, they huddled together in the street in front of the presidential residence for several subzero, snowy nights at the beginning of the new year. They are the protagonists of what are being called the "light stick protests," demanding the full impeachment of President Yoon after he led a self-coup or insurrection under the guise of declaring martial law a month ago. Their image on that snowy night was so powerful that the Korean democracy movement in 2024 and 2025, which was sparked by Yoon Suk Yeol's insurrection, could be called "Kisses democracy."
Although Kisses democracy has strongly demonstrated its resilience to normal democracy in Korea for about a month, this does not necessarily mean that the prospects of Korea are purely bright. Rather, there are some reactionary movements to Yoon's impeachment. Near the scene where the Kisses Squad has called for the enforcement of Yoon's arrest, there are counterdemonstrations by so-called "Asphalt Elders" who sit up all night to block the arrest. At the front door of the presidential residence, some 40 lawmakers from the ruling party showed up and formed a human barricade to block the execution of Yoon's arrest warrant. Above all, Yoon is protesting against legitimate law enforcement by resisting arrest in the presidential residence. He uses a strategy to order the presidential office's bodyguards to block investigators and plead with his supporters to protect him. These moves invite some negative understanding that Korea is in the midst of chaos rather than the fact that Korean democracy will be normalized. Some media outlets deal with the pros and cons of impeaching Yoon as a political conflict. This approach is swayed by superficial phenomena, not the essential reality, and is far from an accurate understanding. While a twisted approach can temporarily gain attention or partially disrupt the situation, it cannot change the fundamental trend. Regarding Yoon, 70 percent of Koreans support his impeachment, so there is no way to prevent it. Even if a few elites claim that there could be a scenario in which they avoid impeachment via sly puns, it does not change the essential reality.
A group of protesters opposed President Yoon's arrest and together with the Kisses Squad, they created a confrontational structure. However, the Asphalt Elders are pitiable people who fell into the trap of a politics based on hate, which has emerged as one of the maladies of Korean politics. This politics of hate focuses on the politicians it hates rather than those it supports. Such people believe their duty is to stop the politicians they hate from taking power. In the process, they regard the problems of the politicians they support as a sort of matador before adversaries and show unquestioning loyalty to embracing their leader. The Asphalt Elders regard main opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung as a demon, and ousting him from the political circle as patriotic. They consider Yoon to be on their team.
Are those of the Kisses Squad, who call for the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, also mired in a politics of hate? No. They are not people who gathered because they support Lee Jae-myung. They support the impeachment and arrest of Yoon because he should be punished appropriately for violating the Constitution and attacking liberal democratic norms and order. The Asphalt Elders are playing a political battle game, but members of the Kisses Squad are participants in a righteous army formed to protect liberal democracy.
Some criticize the situation cynically, stressing that Yoon and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, dispatched to arrest him, are engaged in a legal battle game. In their content on the legal debate over Yoon's arrest, some media reports are biased as they are submerged in the mechanical dogma of neutrality. A court judge issued the arrest warrant. Although there may be controversy over the legal legitimacy of a warrant before it is issued, the judge's issuance has the authority to end the controversy in a democratic society. Although Yoon refuses to comply with the arrest, saying it is an "illegal warrant," he has no right to resist it. Rather, it is just another act of resistance that destroys the foundation of liberal democracy. In a liberal democratic society that guarantees the separation of powers, the judiciary has the authority to dispute various legal controversies. Before resisting arrest based on the claim that the warrant for it was illegal, Yoon should have responded to the CIO's summons to appear for questioning and waited for the judiciary to make a final judgment. The warrant was issued because he refused the CIO's summons. To be precise, the situation is not a close legal battle, but only one in which Yoon unilaterally resists state agencies' normal and legitimate enforcement of the law.
By ignoring essential content and being misled by seemingly vain debate tactics, one cannot grasp the reality or predict the future. It is simply naive to compare the Asphalt Elders protecting a failed politician and falling into a politics of hate with the Kisses Squad, the members of which hope to protect democracy through the night in the snow and cold. It is also a sinister manipulation under the guise of "balance" to see the confrontation between CIO agents trying to execute the arrest via a court-issued warrant and the civil servants of the presidential office, who have turned into Yoon's private bodyguards. Yoon is being isolated and marginalized. The bodyguards who physically protect him could reach their own end for the sake of an ignorant, violent and extremely selfish master and face a total loss if they are punished for obstructing justice. The vast power of the Kisses Squad is backed by justice, truth, common sense and rationality. Lies and sophistry may benefit others temporarily and on a small scale, but they will show their true face and be defeated in the long run. It is simply obvious that Kisses democracy will prevail.
Wang Son-taek
Wang Son-taek is an adjunct professor at Sogang University. He is a former diplomatic correspondent at YTN and a former research associate at Yeosijae. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.
koreaherald.com · by Korea Herald · January 9, 2025
16. “North Korea, Kim Joo-ae’s solo activities may be disclosed for achievements”
Trying to make Kim Ju Ae great!
This is a Google tranlation of an RFA report.
“North Korea, Kim Joo-ae’s solo activities may be disclosed for achievements”
https://www.rfa.org/korean/news_indepth/north-korea-intent-to-break-through-missile-defenses-01082025155907.html
WASHINGTON-Handeok In hand@rfa.org
2025.01.08
North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un toured several completed hotels and auxiliary facilities in the Galma Coastal Tourist Zone (Wonsan City) that were completed on the 29th, the Korean Central News Agency reported on the 31st. The inspection was accompanied by North Korea's newly appointed Prime Minister Pak Tae-song and his daughter Ju-ae.
/Yonhap News
00:00 / 00:00
Anchor : This is 'Looking at the Korean Peninsula' where we look back at news related to North Korea with Yoshihiro Makino, a visiting professor at Hiroshima University in Japan and a foreign affairs reporter for the Asahi Shimbun. This is reporter Han Deok-in, who will be our interviewee as we analyze and forecast the rapidly changing situation on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea launches hypersonic missile with high technology … US-conscious measure
[ Reporter ] Mr. Makino. North Korea launched its first ballistic missile of the year on the 6th. What do you think is the intention behind resuming missile launches about two months after the launch of a short-range ballistic missile on November 5th of last year?
Yoshihiro Makino, Visiting Professor at Hiroshima University, Japan and Foreign Affairs Correspondent for the Asahi Shimbun
[ Makino Yoshihiro ] Yes, North Korea launched a hypersonic missile on the 6th. As you know, there are two types of hypersonic missiles: the glide vehicle (HGV) and the cruise missile (HCM). Looking at the photos reported by the Korean Central News Agency, it seems that what North Korea is developing is the HGV (glide vehicle), which is considered more technically difficult.
The missile's speed is estimated to be around Mach 10 to 15, and in order to maintain this speed and precisely strike the target, special materials that can withstand high temperatures and advanced guidance technology are required. This is a weapon that requires a very high level of technology. North Korea's latest launch appears to be a measure strongly conscious of the United States.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, General Secretary Kim Jong-un emphasized at the launch site that “this is a weapon that cannot be ignored worldwide and can break through any defense barrier.” This statement is interpreted as being conscious of the US missile defense system. In addition, General Secretary Kim made a threatening remark toward the US when he went to the US-North Korea summit in 2018, saying, “There is a nuclear button on my desk.” However, as the talks ultimately broke down, General Secretary Kim likely decided that he had to create a “bigger button.” This can be seen as a strategy to obtain concessions from the US.
Therefore, HGV can be said to be one of the weapon systems that symbolizes the 'bigger button' claimed by North Korea. It is also the means chosen by General Secretary Kim to prove ultra-hardline measures against the United States. This year is the last year of North Korea's five-year defense development plan. During this period, North Korea is expected to focus more on developing weapons that can penetrate the US defense network.
North Korea's Missile General Bureau conducted a test launch of a new type of hypersonic medium- to long-range ballistic missile on the 6th, the Korean Central News Agency reported on the 7th. The agency said Chairman Kim Jong-un observed the launch via a video surveillance system. /Yonhap News
" Kim Joo-ae's solo activities and the possibility of speaking out for her achievements are drawing attention "
[ Reporter ] For the second time this year, General Secretary Kim Jong-un did not visit the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the previous leaders are buried, on New Year's Day, but instead attended a New Year's celebration. The South Korean Ministry of Unification evaluated it as unusual for General Secretary Kim to attend the event with his daughter Kim Ju-ae instead of his wife Ri Sol-ju. What message and symbolic meaning do you think General Secretary Kim intended to convey through this?
[ Makino Yoshihiro ] If we look at General Secretary Kim's actions so far, it seems that it can be evaluated as 'Kim Jong-unism'. The events held at the end of the year and the beginning of the year under the Kim Jong-un era are showing different aspects than in the past. In particular, many questions are being raised about 'why General Secretary Kim did not visit the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun and brought his daughter Kim Ju-ae instead of his wife Ri Sol-ju.' However, due to the lack of information at present, it is difficult to rationally explain the meaning of all his actions.
This is the 13th year-end and New Year’s since General Secretary Kim took power, but compared to his grandfather and father’s era, there is a characteristic lack of consistency in the event schedule. For example, on the night of December 31 last year, a New Year’s celebration was held at the May 1 Stadium, and in 2020, a defense-related celebration performance was held with Kim Kyong-hui in attendance. In this way, General Secretary Kim tends to make autonomous decisions rather than sticking to specific traditions in whether or not to participate in events or how to do so.
In addition, the North Korean calendar released this year has eliminated the existing “Juche era” notation and only uses the solar calendar notation for 2025. It is also noticeable that the expression “legendary rule” is gradually decreasing in North Korean media reports. According to sources from Chongryon in Japan, General Secretary Kim did not send the New Year’s message he used to send to Chongryon every January this year. In addition, a commemorative photo taken by Vice Department Director Kim Yo-jong with students from a Korean school in Japan who attended the Lunar New Year performance was reported. These changes can be interpreted as General Secretary Kim’s intention to reorganize the organization with people close to him while trying a new method for organizing Korean residents in Japan that is different from the era of his grandfather or father.
Taking a picture with General Secretary Kim may be an honorable thing, but at the same time, these students are likely to shoulder the heavy responsibility of playing an important role in the Chongryon in the future. The new idolization of General Secretary Kim has been ongoing since last year, and this can be seen as evidence that he and his associates are feeling anxious about maintaining power. Ultimately, General Secretary Kim seems to be trying to confirm his power in a different way than his grandfather or father's era, through year-end and New Year's events and managing overseas compatriot organizations, in order to relieve this anxiety.
North Korea's General Secretary Kim Jong-un watched the 2024 New Year's Celebration Performance held at the Pyongyang May 1 Stadium, Korean Central TV reported on the 1st. General Secretary Kim is entering the performance venue along the red carpet with his wife Ri Sol-ju and daughter Ju-ae. /Yonhap News
[ Reporter ] On December 29, North Korean media released a photo of General Secretary Kim inspecting the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone with his daughter Kim Ju-ae on December 31. Appearing at an official event for the first time in about two months since October of last year, Kim Ju-ae walked along the beach with General Secretary Kim and toured hotel rooms, restaurants, and swimming pools. In particular, Kim Ju-ae's significantly taller figure in the photo caught the eye. What changes do you foresee in Kim Ju-ae's position this year?
[ Makino Yoshihiro ] I think it is premature to determine Kim Ju-ae’s position or role based solely on her public appearance. I believe that Kim Ju-ae is likely being prepared as a successor, but in order to confirm this, the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Party should first highlight Kim Ju-ae’s achievements. I also think that in the future, Kim Ju-ae may be revealed through her independent activities or statements in order to build the image of an “excellent leader.” However, for now, Kim Ju-ae’s official activities are limited to accompanying General Secretary Kim. The people who can decide whether or not Kim Ju-ae will accompany her are likely General Secretary Kim Jong-un and Madam Ri Sol-ju.
Looking at General Secretary Kim’s past actions, there were several characteristics when he emerged as a successor. For example, North Korea has emphasized the supreme leader as “a person who leads the confrontation with the United States.” Kim Ju-ae’s appearance at the ICBM launch and hypersonic missile test launch can also be interpreted in this context.
On the other hand, there are also cases where General Secretary Kim's love and care for his daughter are emphasized. For example, Kim Ju-ae accompanied him to the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone inspection and the New Year's celebration performance. I think General Secretary Kim tends to accompany Kim Ju-ae when he feels anxious about maintaining power. In particular, when his health is not good or external pressure is severe, it is possible that he was motivated by a desire to show off the existence of a successor.
Therefore, it seems likely that she will continue to appear this year as well, when the confrontational structure with the United States is highlighted or when it is judged that Kim Joo-ae will be able to attract attention as a symbolic figure. In addition, as anxiety about maintaining power grows, it is also possible that Kim Joo-ae will appear repeatedly at official events.
“ The more unstable the Kim Jong-un regime becomes, the more Kim Joo-ae appears ”
[ Reporter ] Meanwhile, there is a possibility that the children who appeared with Vice Director Kim Yo-jong at the New Year's event are his children. On the 3rd, the South Korean National Intelligence Service also stated, "Considering the ages of the children previously identified, we are conducting a detailed analysis with the possibility that they are his children open." There has been no official confirmation of Vice Director Kim Yo-jong's marriage or childbirth, but what do you think about this possibility?
In a video of a New Year's celebration performance aired by North Korea's Korean Central TV on the 1st, Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un, was captured walking with a girl and holding the hand of a boy outside the May 1 Stadium where the performance was being held. /Yonhap News
[ Makino Yoshihiro ] It is known that the South Korean National Intelligence Service is aware of information that Vice Department Director Kim Yo-jong gave birth in 2015 and 2018. When North Korea features people related to the ‘Baekdu Mountain bloodline,’ it tends to thoroughly censor videos and photos. Nevertheless, I believe that the decision to release the video of this event was made after fully anticipating that Western countries would speculate that it could be Kim Yo-jong’s child.
I also think that the children in the video are likely Kim Yo-jong's son and daughter. It is also noteworthy that Kim Yo-jong's husband has not been revealed. It is likely that the husband was not revealed because he is considered to be a side branch and not a member of the "Baekdu Mountain bloodline." Looking at past cases, except for Jang Song-taek, the husband of Kim Kyong-hui, the younger sister of former National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il, the spouses of the supreme leader's family have rarely been revealed. In Jang Song-taek's case, he was able to appear at official events as an exception because he had strong political power as a close associate of former National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il.
The children of Kim Kyong-hui and Jang Song-taek, as well as the sons of Kim Pyong-il, the younger brother of former National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il and former ambassador to the Czech Republic, have not been revealed. These figures are classified as side characters, and the supreme leader has judged that their disclosure will not help his power.
On the other hand, the fact that people believed to be Kim Yo-jong's children appeared at an official event this time shows that General Secretary Kim deeply trusts his younger sister Kim Yo-jong. It is also noteworthy that Kim Yo-jong and her children were not in the same place as Kim Ju-ae to emphasize their contrasting positions.
Among these, the person who is most likely to be concerned is Kim Ju-ae's mother, Ri Sol-ju. Since Kim Ju-ae is still young, if General Secretary Kim encounters a problem, power could potentially shift to Kim Yo-jong's family. It is still too early to tell whether Ri Sol-ju's absence from this New Year's event is related to the appearance of Kim Yo-jong's children, as there is still insufficient information.
North Korea to show cooperative attitude toward China again
[ Reporter ] Recently, it was discovered that the corner commemorating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between North Korea and China has quietly disappeared from the North Korean state-run media website. According to Yonhap News, the “North Korea-China Friendship” corner has disappeared, but the “North Korea-Russia Friendship” corner still remains, suggesting that the North Korea-China relationship will remain bleak in the new year. Meanwhile, in October last year, the South Korean ambassador to China mentioned the possibility of Chinese President Xi Jinping visiting South Korea. What are your outlooks for North Korea-China or South Korea-China relations this year?
[ Makino Yoshihiro ] China has always regarded the Korean Peninsula as a 'yard' within its sphere of influence for over 5,000 years. In this situation, the closeness between North Korea and Russia is something that China cannot tolerate. In particular, the possibility that Russia will send troops to the Korean Peninsula in the event of a similar incident in North Korea could be unpleasant for China.
The fact that there has been no significant movement on the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between North Korea and China can be interpreted as China’s way of expressing its dissatisfaction. North Korea’s recent encouragement of its people to produce flour instead of rice also appears to be an intention to reduce its economic dependence on China and strengthen economic cooperation with Russia. However, China’s GDP is approximately 20 trillion dollars, which is more than 10 times that of Russia. Even if North Korea becomes closer to Russia, it will be difficult for it to completely replace China economically.
Also, one of the reasons why the value of the North Korean currency has plummeted and food prices have skyrocketed is because China is being cautious about accepting North Korean workers, and North Korea’s foreign currency earnings are decreasing due to international sanctions against North Korea. In this situation, the rise in North Korean food prices seems to reflect the effects of the decline in trade with China. Eventually, North Korea will have no choice but to show a cooperative attitude toward China again at some point.
China is also sensitive to the situation in Korea. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has avoided making an official comment on the martial law situation in Korea, saying it is an “internal matter,” but the impeachment of President Yoon Seok-yeol, who has been actively promoting the ROK-US alliance and ROK-US-Japan defense cooperation, may not be a bad situation for China. China is likely to calculate how to strategically utilize South Korea while being aware of the tense relationship with North Korea.
Also, China does not yet allow its citizens to travel to North Korea, but in November last year, it allowed South Koreans to travel to China without a visa. This could bring China and South Korea closer together, and as a result, it could also increase tensions and tensions between North Korea and China.
[ Reporter ] Yes, Mr. Makino. Thank you for speaking with us today. This was Han Deok-in from RFA Free Asia Broadcasting in Washington.
Editor Noh Jeong-min, Web Editor Lee Gyeong-ha
17. Loud, eerie noises from North Korean speakers take a toll on villagers across border
Psychological warfare. We must shy away from conducting our own (but not copying north Korean tactics).
Loud, eerie noises from North Korean speakers take a toll on villagers across border
The spooky sounds are latest volley in the loudspeaker wars between North and South.
https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2025/01/09/north-korea-border-noise-pollution/
By Jamin Anderson for RFA Korean
2025.01.09
An Hyo-cheol, the head of Dangsan-ri, Ganghwa-gun village in Ganghwa county, is pointing towards a North Korean loudspeaker, on the mountain, aimed at South Korea in front of his house. (RFA)
Read a version of this story in Korean
The eerie ghost-like wails make it another restless night in Dangsan-ri, a South Korean village close to the heavily fortified border with North Korea. Frightened children toss and turn as their parents adjust earplugs in vain.
For the past five months, North Korea has been blaring ominous noises -- howling wolves, clanging gongs and other irritating sounds -- from speakers within their half of the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, which separates the two countries. The broadcasts are meant to harass people living in communities on the southern side of the border.
Eerie Noises: A New Tactic from North Korea Residents in South Korea’s border villages endure relentless noise pollution from North Korea’s loud speakers.
“My kids keep waking up when they hear the noise,” Ahn Mi-hee, a mother of two, told RFA Korean. “Yesterday the noise lasted until 3 a.m. They couldn’t sleep deeply and I can’t say how many hours they slept.”
Ahn says the lack of sleep has weakened her children’s immune systems, causing them to develop canker sores and tonsillitis. Other residents complain of vision problems that doctors say may be caused by stress.
A nearby mental health and welfare center has been distributing earplugs and acupressure massage balls, and counselors on staff are helping residents cope.
Residents in another town near the border are even traveling to dormitories a half hour’s drive away so they can sleep better.
Loudspeaker wars
The ominous noises are the latest volley in the loudspeaker wars that have been persisting off and on for decades between North and South Korea.
But whenever the two sides agree to stop, it has been South Korea that starts it up again -- blasting news and recently, catchy K-pop tunes across the border.
South Korea began using loudspeakers to broadcast into North Korea in 1963, and the North set up its own loudspeakers shortly after.
Every day both sides blared their messages across the border until 2004, when they agreed to stop the broadcasts after negotiations.
But the South started them up again in 2015 after South Korean soldiers were injured by a North Korean landmine inside the DMZ.
In 2018, the two countries again agreed to halt the broadcasts after a rare summit between their leaders.
But in June, after a six-year hiatus, Seoul resumed its broadcasts in retaliation for Pyongyang having sent trash-filled balloons to the South in the previous month.
In the past, North Korea’s loudspeakers had blared propaganda, insulting the government in Seoul as a “puppet” of the United States or encouraging South Korean soldiers to defect to the “paradise” in the North.
The eerie, howling sounds, however, are new -- and the noise pollution is taking a toll on the residents’ physical and mental health, they say.
“I just get nervous, and my mind gets irritated,” said one resident among dozens in the waiting room at the town’s health clinic. “It ruins my mood starting each morning… I’m afraid I might get dementia from this.”
The resident, who asked not to be identified because she didn’t want to appear in the media, said the noise is so bad that she envied her deaf neighbor across the street.
‘I’m begging you!"
Ahn, the mother of the two children, said it would be best if South Korea took the lead and stopped their broadcasts. It could then urge North Korea to do the same, she said.
In October, Ahn made an impassioned plea to lawmakers in Seoul, kneeling before them, asking them to shut off the loudspeakers.
“I am begging you! Please!” she exclaimed. “Our kids are here today too and ...” Government officials interrupted, telling her her to return to her seat, saying no change in policy was expected.
When local and national government officials visited Dangsan-ri several times between September and November to assess the situation, many residents urged them to stop the broadcasts, Ahn’s father and the village’s leader Ahn Hyo-chul said.
But the broadcasts from both sides continue every day.
“The answer from the Ministry of Defense was, ‘No. We can’t stop it because our country cannot be outdone by North Korea,’” the elder Ahn said.
“For the sake of each side, we should be first to turn them off, but they keep saying ‘no,’” his daughter said. “It’s an emotional fight.”
Peace and quiet
Ironically, Ahn and her family moved to Dangsan-ri in 2021-- across the street from her father’s house--to get away from noisy neighbors in their apartment building.
They thought moving nearer to his house would give them some peace and quiet. And both North and South Korea had agreed to stop the loudspeaker broadcasts, so they assumed that would continue.
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But the move actually brought them closer to the border, and made the strange noises louder than they would have been if they had stayed in the apartment building.
The elder Ahn said the loudspeakers were located 1.7 kilometers (about 1 mile) from the village, gesturing toward a mountain beyond the Han River, which divides North from South in this part of the country.
A speaker, the white box inside red circle, sis on top of a mountain in North Korea, and is aimed at residents across the border in South Korea. (RFA)
“If you look right there, there’s a white square structure on that mountain,” he said. “If you ask me what the sound is like, how should I answer? It’s strange, peculiar, and it’s not the same every day -- it changes.”
He says that since the noises restarted, he has started seeing double, but an ophthalmologist said there was nothing wrong with his eyes. When he visited the neurology department of a large hospital, they said stress was probably affecting the nerve connecting his eyes to the brain.
Sleep commuting
The noise is so bad that some people have had to find elsewhere to sleep -- they hope temporarily.
The village of Daeseongdong lies within the DMZ, around 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) north of Seoul and just east of the North Korean city of Kaesong. Provincial officials are allowing village residents who can’t bear the noise to sleep in dormitories about a 30-minute drive away.
Residents say it’s worth the hassle -- that they don’t get headaches any more, and that they can get moral support from other residents facing the same predicament.
“When we come here, we can talk and comfort each other,” said one resident, who like all other unnamed sources in this report asked not to be identified. “We feel so much better here and we spend our time watching TV.”
Still, the dormitories are small and spartan. They are typical of student housing, with two desks and two beds, and not much else.
“We have been coming here for more than a month, so I have eye drops and other medicines here,” a second resident said, displaying her various probiotics supplements and collagen facial treatments. “I also brought an ice pack to cool my repressed anger.”
‘Refugees from war’
The first resident said she had to visit a clinic because using earplugs every day caused her ears to discharge.
“We are living the life of refugees from war,” she said.
She said that they have lived in the DMZ for more than 50 years and have experienced many things, from abductions to accidentally crossing the military demarcation line themselves, but this is the first time they have experienced “hell like this.”
The previous round of broadcasts, between 2015 and 2018, though annoying, were not as bad, she said.
The noises in this round “are not even human,” she said. “How can they torture people with noises like that?”
The South Korean broadcasts, not just the North Korean ones, are also making their lives difficult, they said.
“When I’m out of the house, I can hear theirs and ours. It’s a total mess,” the third resident said.
“It would be nice if both sides don’t do it and don’t broadcast,” the first resident said. “But the politics say no.”
Translated by Claire S. Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
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
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