NEVER FORGET

Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners

Quotes of the Day:

“Change your opinions, keep to your principles, change your leaves, keep intact your roots.”

–Victor Hugo

“Being against evil doesn’t make you good.”

– Ernest Hemingway

"In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign.... Secondly, a just cause.... Thirdly... a rightful intention."

– St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

1. Unification education guidebooks published to highlight government's liberal democracy unification vision

2. Kim Yo Jong says ROK resumed border drills to distract from Yoon’s unpopularity

3. China rejects calls to protect North Korean refugees in UN human rights review

4. S. Korea, U.S. to hold 5th round of defense cost-sharing talks this week

5. Military completes deployment of new special operations walkie-talkies

6. N. Korea extols Kim Jong-un's achievements on state founder's 30th death anniv.

7. N.K. leader's sister slams S. Korea's resumption of live-fire drills as 'suicidal hysteria'

8. Russian envoy voices hope for better relations with S. Korea despite soured ties

9. Korea-China-Japan should set up security hotline: ex-envoy to Japan

10. N.K. leader visits mausoleum to mark late grandfather's death anniversary

11. North Korean Defector NGO Leaders to testify on Operation Truth and North Korea’s current internal situation and the regime’s strategy to maintain power

12. Secret Meetings, Private Threats and a Massive Arms Race: How the World is Preparing for Trump

13. North Korean troops could be sent to Ukraine due to their sheer numbers, not their effectiveness, experts say

14. ROK takes up leadership role in US-led naval exercise with eye on North Korea

15. Exclusive: South Korea's Yoon to discuss Pyongyang's 'distinct threat' to Europe at NATO

1. Unification education guidebooks published to highlight government's liberal democracy unification vision

While in our discussions yesterday in Mongolia one academic from Russia said South Korea's democracy is not a model for the north. South Korea has too many problems with democracy.

I am reminded of Winston's Churchill's famous quote: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."

But I commend the Yoon administration for being serious about unification.

Unification education guidebooks published to highlight government's liberal democracy unification vision | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · July 8, 2024

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- An institute affiliated with the unification ministry published new unification education guidebooks Monday that highlight the Yoon Suk Yeol government's liberal democracy-based unification vision and North Korea's increased threats against South Korea.

The National Institute for Unification Education released two books used as the basic guidelines for unification education. Since 2000, the institute has annually published such guidebooks to help people better understand the government's unification vision and North Korea's situations.

This year's guidebooks laid out the Yoon government's policy on unification and North Korea, including efforts to craft a new unification vision based on the principle of liberal democracy.

In particular, they omitted details about the 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement that was fully suspended by the government in June in response to North Korea's massive sending of trash-carrying balloons into South Korea.

The accord, signed under the former liberal Moon Jae-in government, calls for setting up buffer zones along land and maritime borders, and creating no-fly zones along the border in a bid to prevent accidental clashes.

At a year-end party meeting in December, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other" and said there is no point of seeking reconciliation and unification with South Korea.

This March 1, 2024, file photo shows President Yoon Suk Yeol delivering a speech to mark the 105th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement against Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · July 8, 2024

2. Kim Yo Jong says ROK resumed border drills to distract from Yoon’s unpopularity

Ironic mirror imaging. It is Kim Jong Un and Kim Yo Jong and their Propaganda and Agitation department that must create the perception of an external threat to justify the suffering and sacrifice of the Korean people as Kim prioritizes nuclear weapons over the welfare of the people.

Kim Yo Jong says ROK resumed border drills to distract from Yoon’s unpopularity

https://www.nknews.org/2024/07/kim-yo-jong-says-rok-resumed-border-drills-to-distract-from-yoons-unpopularity/

North Korean leader’s sister slams artillery live fire as ‘suicidal hysteria,’ threatening nuclear response

Jeongmin Kim July 8, 2024

South Korea conducts a live-fire drill on the northwestern islands near the NLL using K9 self-propelled howitzers (background), Kim Yo Jong delivering a speech | Image: ROK marine corps (June 26, 2024), KCTV (Aug. 11, 2022), edited by NK News

South Korea has resumed live-fire drills on North Korea’s doorstep to distract people from calls to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol, Kim Yo Jong claimed on Sunday, condemning the military exercises near the inter-Korean border.

In a statement, the DPRK leader’s powerful sister warned that North Korea’s armed forces will carry out their constitutional “mission and duty” — codewords for the use of nuclear weapons — if Pyongyang concludes that the ROK has violated its sovereignty through the drills.

“I affirm that such an undisguised war game being staged by the enemy near the border of the DPRK is just an inexcusable and explicit provocation that aggravates the situation,” she wrote.

Kim Yo Jong’s statement, which was also published in the domestic-facing party daily Rodong Sinmun, came after South Korea recently resumed full-scale maritime live-fire drills near border islands in the Yellow Sea and live-fire artillery drills just three miles from the land border, both for the first time in six years.

She also cited the inaugural U.S.-ROK-Japan Freedom Edge joint exercises last month as proof that “the U.S. and other hostile forces’ rash maneuvers for military hegemony in the region have crossed the red line.”

Kim Yo Jong’s statement was carried both by externally-facing Korean Central News Agency and the domestic party daily (top left) | Image: Rodong Sinmun (July 8, 2024)

South Korea’s border drills directly followed its suspension of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement last month, under which the two Koreas had agreed to cease most military activity within a buffer zone around the border.

Seoul justified the suspension and exercises as a response to North Korean military threats, including its launches of missiles, satellites and trash-carrying balloons.

But Kim Yo Jong maintained that South Korea actually resumed the border drills to distract ROK citizens from Yoon’s unpopularity by generating a security crisis, arguing this explains why he kicked off exercises that amount to “suicidal hysteria.”

“Yoon and his group, plunged into the worst ruling crisis, are attempting an emergency escape through the platform of ever-escalating tensions,” she wrote.

As evidence, Kim referenced a recent online petition in which more than 1.3 million South Koreans called for Yoon’s impeachment, though it appears highly unlikely it will lead to the president’s removal.

The petition about the impeachment proposal expires on July 20, 2024 | Image: ROK National Assembly Online Petition website (Accessed July 8, 2024)

Experts told NK News that Kim Yo Jong is referencing sensational-sounding ROK domestic news in a bid to undermine the Yoon administration’s standing.

“The target audience is both the South Korean people and North Korean residents. For the former, it’s to incite further social division within the ROK. For the latter, it’s to show how superior the DPRK system is to the ROK’s,” said Professor Yang Moo-jin, the president of Seoul’s University of North Korea Studies.

He said the goal is to portray Yoon as deeply unpopular, while presenting Kim Jong Un as someone loved and supported by the North Korean people.

Oh Gyeong-seob, a research fellow in the North Korea Research Division at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), assessed that Kim Yo Jong’s statement appears aimed at actively “agitating” ROK society, using propaganda to “egg” South Koreans to oppose Yoon.

“She is telling South Koreans to join in the move to impeach President Yoon” by stressing how dangerous the peninsula has become under his rule, Oh said. “It’s a good example of what’s called an influence operation.”

A spokesperson for Seoul’s unification ministry expressed regrets on Monday about Kim Yo Jong’s statement, calling it inappropriate for North Korea to “intervene in domestic affairs.

“While North Korea declared that South Korea is a foreign, separate, belligerent enemy state earlier this year, it does not mean Pyongyang does not aim at influencing South Korean politics anymore,” Oh of KINU added.

“That ‘separate states’ policy told the domestic North Korean audience to stop envying the South, seeking to get a stronger control over the DPRK society. But externally, that policy also makes space for Pyongyang to more boldly intervene in South Korean politics” to destabilize its enemy’s leadership.

Joon Ha Park contributed reporting to this article. Edited by Bryan Betts

3. China rejects calls to protect North Korean refugees in UN human rights review

China remains complicit in north Korean human rights abuses. We must keep up the pressure on CHina. This has to be a line of effort in the human rights up front approach.

China rejects calls to protect North Korean refugees in UN human rights review

ROK and Czech Republic recommended China refrain from forcibly repatriating defectors following reports of deportations

https://www.nknews.org/2024/07/china-rejects-calls-to-protect-north-korean-refugees-in-un-human-rights-review/

Ifang Bremer July 8, 2024

GIFT THIS ARTICLESHARE PRINT

North Koreans boarding a train | Image: NK News (Oct. 2016)

China has rejected recommendations that it protect North Korean refugees and refrain from forcibly repatriating them, following a comprehensive U.N. review of Beijing’s human rights record.

The recommendations by South Korea and the Czech Republic were part of China’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which concluded last Thursday.

The U.N. carries out UPRs every four to five years to examine member states’ human rights records, and as part of the examination, U.N. bodies, other nations and civil society groups can make recommendations to the state under review.

The Czech Republic called on China to “refrain from the forcible repatriation of North Korean refugees to the DPRK,” while South Korea recommended that China protect escapees from the DPRK and “respect relevant international norms such as the principle of non-refoulement.”

China rejected the recommendations in a terse statement.

“The persons from the DPRK who illegally enter China for economic reasons are not refugees,” Beijing stated, repeating its long-held stance that North Korean defectors are economic migrants.

In response to China’s rejection, a spokesperson for South Korea’s unification ministry stressed the government’s position is “North Korean defectors residing overseas should under no circumstances be forcibly repatriated against their will.”

“We will strengthen pan-governmental efforts to prevent North Korean defectors residing overseas from being forcibly repatriated,” the spokesperson added.

According to U.N. estimates, China has detained some 2,000 North Koreans in recent years for likely forced repatriation to the DPRK, where they “would be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment and other serious human rights violations … and even execution.”

In October last year, China reportedly deported some 600 North Koreans after the DPRK eased COVID-19 border controls.

Since then, there have been more reports of forced repatriations: China forcibly repatriated at least 260 more North Koreans in late April, according to two South Korean human rights groups.

China considers undocumented North Koreans within its borders as economic migrants who do not require protection under the principles of non-refoulement, despite the assessment of 18 U.N. special rapporteurs that “there are substantiated grounds for believing” that repatriated North Koreans are at risk of being tortured.

It’s unclear how many North Koreans still remain in Chinese detention facilities.

China received 428 recommendations in this UPR, accepting 290, partially accepting eight, “noting” 32 and rejecting 98 — including the recommendations to protect North Koreans on Chinese soil.

South Korea first raised its UPR recommendations to China in January.

At the time, Ethan Hee-seok Shin of the Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group — a nongovernmental organization that submitted recommendations as part of China’s periodic review — called South Korea’s UPR recommendation to China “significant.”

He also praised the Czech Republic, Uruguay and Afghanistan for recommending that China observe the principle of non-refoulement.

“This was a departure from South Korea’s statement at the General Assembly last October when it cited China’s mass deportation of North Korean refugees but blamed ‘a third state,’ instead of China, for it,” Shin said.

Edited by Bryan Betts

4. S. Korea, U.S. to hold 5th round of defense cost-sharing talks this week

Let's get it done.

S. Korea, U.S. to hold 5th round of defense cost-sharing talks this week | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Yoon-seung · July 8, 2024

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States will hold their fifth round of negotiations this week on sharing the costs for stationing the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), the foreign ministry said Monday.

The latest round of talks on the Special Measures Agreement will take place in Seoul from Wednesday to Friday, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The fourth round of talks was held in late June.

The allies launched the negotiations in April, earlier than expected, amid speculation that Seoul wants an early deal to avoid tough bargaining with Washington in case former President Donald Trump returns to the White House.

"The government plans to participate in the talks under the position that the cost sharing should be at a reasonable level in order to maintain a stable environment for the stationing of the USFK and to bolster the combined defense posture," a foreign ministry official said.

South Korean and U.S. officials leading the negotiations on defense cost sharing hold their second round of talks at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis in Seoul on May 21, 2024, in this file photo provided by the foreign ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

colin@yna.co.kr

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en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Yoon-seung · July 8, 2024

5. Military completes deployment of new special operations walkie-talkies

Message to Yonhap: When was the last time you heard anyone in the military use "walkie-talkies?"

This is good news. But any communications upgrades are good news.

Military completes deployment of new special operations walkie-talkies | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · July 8, 2024

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- The state arms procurement agency said Monday it has completed the deployment of new handheld transceivers for special operations forces to allow communications even in underground facilities.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) recently wrapped up the 12.8 billion-won (US$9.3 million) project to locally purchase the devices to enhance operational capabilities of special forces.

The new device is able to function as a mutual repeater to extend range, enabling communications in situations where radio waves are obstructed, such as underground, according to DAPA.

"(The device) is expected to greatly contribute to reinforcing special forces' capabilities against North Korean threats," a DAPA official said in a release.

This image, provided by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration on July 8, 2024, shows the operational concept of new handheld transceivers deployed for special operations forces. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr

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en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · July 8, 2024

6. N. Korea extols Kim Jong-un's achievements on state founder's 30th death anniv.

Kim Jong Un and the Propaganda and Agitation Department are taking advantage of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung to try to enhance KJU's image. He needs all the help he can get because he is under enormous internal pressure.

I heard a former Ambassador to north Korea describe Kim's travels- He apparently has never traveled to the northeast of Korea.

Recall how we have defined regime collapse - the party can no longer govern all the territory in the north from Pyongyang combined with the loss of coherency and support of the military. In short, the loss of the ability to centrally govern combined with the loss coherency and support of the military,

N. Korea extols Kim Jong-un's achievements on state founder's 30th death anniv. | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · July 8, 2024

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's state media highlighted the country's leader Kim Jong-un's major military achievements Monday, the 30th anniversary of the death of state founder Kim Il-sung, in a move seen aimed at intensifying the personality cult for the current leader.

There have been no media reports of Kim Jong-un visiting the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the embalmed bodies of the current leader's father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, lie in state.

Since taking office in late 2011, the North's leader Kim has visited the mausoleum every time on the death anniversaries of the national founder, except in 2018. Kim Il-sung died of heart failure on July 8, 1994, at age 82, opening the way for his son, Kim Jong-il, to take over in communism's first hereditary succession of power.

This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on July 5, 2024, shows the North holding a meeting, attended by the labor class and workers, to commemorate the national founder, Kim Il-sung, ahead of the 30th anniversary of his death. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, carried reports commemorating Kim Il-sung's death on its front and other pages. But it also lauded Kim Jong-un's major military accomplishments, saying he has succeeded in bolstering the "self-reliant military capability," a feat that had not been achieved under the former leaders.

Kim Il-sung is long known as the role model for Kim Jong-un, whose hair and fashion style were reminiscent of those of his grandfather.

But North Korea appears to be reinforcing the personality cult for the current leader in recent months as a sole ruler warranting people's respect.

A pin featuring the solitary portrait of Kim Jong-un was officially seen for the first time on June 30, when it was attached to the suit jackets of all North Korean officials attending a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party.

The portraits of the North's incumbent leader were seen hung side by side with those of his two late predecessors on the wall of a classroom at a newly built school for party officials in May.

This year, North Korea also began referring to Kim Il-sung's birthday as just "4·15" instead of the Day of the Sun in an apparent move to refrain from excessively extolling the late state founder.

Kim Il-sung's birthday, April 15, has been revered as the Day of the Sun in North Korea since 1997 and celebrated as one of the country's most important national holidays, along with the birthday of his late son and successor Kim Jong-il in February.

South Korea's unification ministry said North Korea held a five-day mourning period in 1994, when the national founder died. Since then, the country has held mourning events at various social levels around the anniversaries.

Last year, North Korea's state media carried reports of Kim Jong-un's visit to the mausoleum to pay his respect to his late grandfather but did not release any related photos or footage in a rare move.

This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on July 5, 2024, shows the North holding a meeting of youths to commemorate late national founder Kim Il-sung ahead of the 30th anniversary of his death. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · July 8, 2024

7. N.K. leader's sister slams S. Korea's resumption of live-fire drills as 'suicidal hysteria'

Kim Yo Jong is hyperbolic. I hope she has medication to keep her calm.

(3rd LD) N.K. leader's sister slams S. Korea's resumption of live-fire drills as 'suicidal hysteria' | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · July 8, 2024

(ATTN: ADDS JCS chairman's inspection in last 2 paras)

By Kim Soo-yeon and Lee Minji

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday denounced South Korea's resumption of live-fire artillery drills near the border as "suicidal hysteria" and warned of possible military actions against such acts.

Kim Yo-jong, vice department director at the ruling Workers' Party, claimed President Yoon Suk Yeol has been accelerating tensions on the Korean Peninsula with what she calls war drills in a bid to use them as a means of escaping from his political crisis.

Kim's warning came as the South has conducted live-fire artillery exercises near the land and sea borders in recent weeks after fully suspending an inter-Korean 2018 military tension reduction agreement in June that bans such maneuvers and other acts deemed hostile against each other.

"The question is why the enemy kicked off such war drills near the border, suicidal hysteria, for which they will have to sustain terrible disaster," Kim said in a statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

This file image, captured from footage aired by North Korea's state-run Korean Central Television on July 31, 2023, shows Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, making a speech on July 28. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

Calling the security environment on the peninsula a "touch-and-go" situation, she denounced the live-fire exercises as an "inexcusable and explicit provocation" against North Korea.

Kim claimed that South Korea has been destabilizing the regional security situation, as President Yoon is attempting an "emergency escape" out of "the worst ruling crisis."

In what would be an attempt to drive a wedge in South Korea, she pointed out that the number of South Koreans demanding the National Assembly propose a bill on the impeachment of Yoon has surpassed the 1 million mark on parliament's petition website.

"Anyone cannot but acknowledge that the president, elected by people, has made the fate of the ROK hang by a thread," she said, using the acronym of South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

"In case it is judged according to our criteria that they violated the sovereignty of the DPRK and committed an act tantamount to a declaration of war, our armed forces will immediately carry out its mission and duty assigned by the DPRK Constitution," Kim warned.

The DPRK stands for North Korea's full name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

South Korea's unification ministry said it is "very regrettable" that North Korea has criticized President Yoon and is seeking to intervene in South Korea's internal affairs.

"We are making it clear that North Korea's attempt to drive a wedge in our society will never work," Koo Byoung-sam, spokesperson at the ministry, told a press briefing.

South Korea's defense ministry stressed the live-fire drills were "normally" conducted under prearranged plans.

"Our military conducted normal firing drills within our jurisdiction," Jeon Ha-kyou, the defense ministry's spokesperson, said in a regular press briefing. "Going forward, we will continue to conduct them in accordance with our plans."

In a parliamentary meeting in January, Kim Jong-un warned if South Korea violates "even 0.001 millimeters" of the country's territorial land, air and waters, it will be considered a war provocation.

North Korea is expected to revise the constitution at the next parliamentary meeting to define South Korea as the North's "primary foe" and clarify its territorial boundaries, including the maritime border.

On Monday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo visited a missile defense unit in the greater Seoul area and called for a firm response in the event of North Korea's provocation.

"All servicemen should sternly understand the current situation and immediately respond, without hesitation, should the enemy stage air provocations," Kim said during the visit to the Air Force unit.

South Korean Marines on the northwestern border island of Yeonpyeong fire a Spike anti-tank missile into waters off the island on June 26, 2024. (Yonhap)

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

mil@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · July 8, 2024

8. Russian envoy voices hope for better relations with S. Korea despite soured ties

We will see what happens if South Korea determines that it is in its interests to provide lethal aid to Ukraine.

Russian envoy voices hope for better relations with S. Korea despite soured ties | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · July 8, 2024

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- Russia hopes to maintain "safe lines" in its bilateral relations with South Korea and work to improve ties despite the current chill, its top envoy to Seoul said Monday.

Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev made the remarks at a Seoul event marking the two countries' shared history, throughout which he noted Russia has been a neighbor that has worked to act in consideration of South Korea's interests.

"Our country was a constructive force genuinely interested in Korea's autonomy and independence. Russia continuously pursued this line after establishing de facto diplomatic relations," Zinoviev said at the opening ceremony of an exhibition marking the 140th anniversary of the signing of the first bilateral treaty.

"Russia did not act against Korea's interests, instead it tried to defend them in every possible way," he said.

Zinoviev's remarks came at a time when Seoul-Moscow relations remain frayed over Moscow's tightening relationship with North Korea, with a focus on military cooperation.

The bilateral ties further chilled after Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent visit to Pyongyang last month for talks with the North's leader Kim Jong-un, during which they signed a treaty pledging mutual military assistance in case of an armed attack on either of them.

Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of an exhibition marking the 140th anniversary of the signing of the first bilateral treaty between Korea and Russia, at the Appenzeller Noble Memorial Museum in central Seoul on July 8, 2024. (Yonhap)

"We hope that our relations will maintain the safe lines and develop in a better direction," he said, adding that he is making every effort to create positive momentum.

Zinoviev accused the West of "discrediting" his country in the wrong way, as they have been so in history, calling for an "objective" view of the present for the future of the bilateral ties.

"We witness attempts to discredit Russia, present its actions in a false light," he said, confirming afterwards that he meant the Western media and politicians.

"Sometime in the future, we could see more an objective view on Russia's actions, both in the past and in the present," Zinoviev said.

The exhibition, co-hosted by the Russian Embassy in Seoul, features historical materials and archives related to Korea-Russia relations between the late 19th and early 20th century, including reproduced paintings by Jang Seung-eop, a renowned Korean painter from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

The two paintings, unveiled to the public for the first time, are part of his artwork that Joseon's King Gojong presented to then Russian Emperor Nicholas II for his coronation in 1896.

The exhibition will run from July 8 to Aug. 31 at the Appenzeller Noble Memorial Museum in central Seoul.

Visitors look at paintings by Jang Seung-eop, a renowned Korean painter from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), at the opening ceremony of an exhibition marking the 140th anniversary of the signing of the first bilateral treaty between Korea and Russia, at the Appenzeller Noble Memorial Museum in central Seoul on July 8, 2024. (Yonhap)

elly@yna.co.kr

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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · July 8, 2024

9. Korea-China-Japan should set up security hotline: ex-envoy to Japan

I asked some members of the Chinese delegation why China doesn't like hotlines or communications in general and they seemed to be at a loss and could not explain it to us. Of course there are academics and think tank people and had no military experience so I provided them with the American view that such communications in a crisis can help prevent miscalculation and misunderstanding.

Korea-China-Japan should set up security hotline: ex-envoy to Japan

The Korea Times · July 8, 2024

Shin Kak-soo, former Korean ambassador to Japan, delivers a keynote speech during the 6th NEAR Korea-China-Japan Seoul Process at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry building in Seoul, Monday. Newsis

Forum addresses ways to deepen cooperation following revival of trilateral summit

By Lee Hyo-jin

Korea, China and Japan should set up security dialogues and hotlines to advance cooperation in the domain of security, an area where they currently lag, former Korean Ambassador to Japan Shin Kak-soo said, Monday.

“It is true that cooperation in political and security fields (between Korea, China and Japan) lags far behind those in other fields such as economy, the environment, culture and people-to-people exchanges,” Shin said in his keynote speech during the NEAR Korea-China-Japan Seoul Process forum.

"We should nurture a culture of dialogue and seek an avenue for the peaceful settlement of disputes," he said.

On that point, the former envoy proposed that the three countries should launch security dialogue channels as well as hotlines to alleviate mistrust and prevent accidental flare-ups. He also suggested opening communication channels among top military leaders, with a platform of retired generals as its prelude.

"We should start low-level confidence-building measures and move on to higher-level confidence-building measures depending on the progress made," Shin added.

The forum, organized by the NEAR Foundation, a Seoul-based private think tank specializing in Northeast Asia, brought together pundits from the three countries. This was the sixth edition since its launch in 2016 and the first in-person meeting in four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Held under the theme “A Roadmap for Sustainable Peace and Prosperity in Northeast Asia,” this year’s event focused on ways to deepen cooperation by leveraging the momentum from the recentSeoul-Beijing-Tokyo trilateral summit held in Seoul on May 27.

Participants attend the 6th NEAR Korea-China-Japan Seoul Process at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry building in Seoul, Monday. Newsis

The summit, held after a four-and-a-half-year hiatus, signaled a revival of long-stalled dialogue between the three Asian neighbors. However, it failed to differing stances on security issues, such as Pyongyang’s military threats and tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

During Monday's forum, Justin Yifu Lin, dean of Peking University's Institute of New Structural Economics and former vice president of the World Bank, asserted that the U.S. is adopting a military strategy in its "pivot to the Asia Pacific." He claimed this strategy aims to build a military alliance to encircle China, thereby stirring up tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

“The U.S. also uses ideology to encourage countries to take sides and break ties with China,” Lin said, stressing that such actions create an unfavorable regional environment for Korea and Japan as well.

On the economic front, experts called for a swift launch of discussions to resume the second stage of the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, as agreed at the May 27 summit.

Ijuin Atsushi, lead economist at the Japan Center for Economic Research, believes that the trade pact among the three Asian nations should exceed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in scope and quality. RCEP is an FTA among 15 Asia-Pacific nations, including Korea, China and Japan.

“Considering that we already have RCEP, which includes Japan, China, and Korea, a three-way FTA will not carry significant meaning unless it involves deeper-level trade agreements," Ijuin said.

He added, "FTA negotiations often involve conflicting economic interests, so I don't expect the process to be smooth. But I believe these issues can be addressed through a series of high-level meetings involving leaders and senior officials.”

The Korea Times · July 8, 2024

10. N.K. leader visits mausoleum to mark late grandfather's death anniversary

I wonder if KJU is removing his father and grandfather from the leadership roles they continued to hold after their death. That will be the ultimate indication that he is cementing his rule.

(LEAD) N.K. leader visits mausoleum to mark late grandfather's death anniversary | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Yoon-seung · July 8, 2024

(ATTN: UPDATES with N. Korean leader's mausoleum visit in first 4 paras; CHANGES headline)

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a mausoleum dedicated to his late grandfather, Kim Il-sung, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death Monday, state media reported.

Kim paid tribute at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where his father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, are laid to rest, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Accompanying Kim were senior officials, including Premier Kim Tok-hun and Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, state media added.

The same-day coverage of the event contrasts with North Korean media's usual practice of reporting such visits a day later.

North Korea's state media, meanwhile, also highlighted Kim Jong-un's major military achievements, in a move seen as aimed at intensifying the personality cult of the current leader.

Kim Il-sung is long known as the role model for Kim Jong-un, whose hair and fashion style were reminiscent of those of his grandfather.

But North Korea appears to be reinforcing the personality cult for the current leader in recent months as a sole ruler warranting people's respect.

The portraits of the North's incumbent leader were seen hung side by side with those of his two late predecessors on the wall of a classroom at a newly built school for party officials in May.

This year, North Korea also began referring to Kim Il-sung's birthday as just "4·15" instead of the Day of the Sun in an apparent move to refrain from excessively extolling the late state founder.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Yoon-seung · July 8, 2024

11. North Korean Defector NGO Leaders to testify on Operation Truth and North Korea’s current internal situation and the regime’s strategy to maintain power

This will be some powerful testimony. A preview below from a number of escapees.

North Korean Defector NGO Leaders to testify on Operation Truth and North Korea’s current internal situation and the regime’s strategy to maintain power

NKFW - Delegation

nkfw.org

Delegation

North Korean Defector NGO Leaders to testify on Operation Truth and North Korea’s current internal situation and the regime’s strategy to maintain power

Choi Jeong-hun

North Korean People’s Liberation Front

Upon landing in South Korea in December 2006, his work focused on informing the public of security issues regarding North Korea. He also has been sharing outside information with the people, especially the North Korean military. He believes that the collapse of the North Korean society may be imminent, if the international community continues to support the defectors’ activism. Born in 1971, he was raised in Hyesan, Yangang Province. He served as the platoon sergeant at the Mirim University security platoon. Kim graduated from Kim Il Sung Politics College and was assigned as a political officer at the 144th battalion. After being discharge from the miliary, he studied at a provincial party training center to become a member of the Workers’ Party and served as a junior party secretary at a construction company in Hyesan. Choi asserts that the end of North Korean system, which is dominated by North Korea’s market generation, is imminent. He believes that the broad expansion of human rights efforts will lead to the downfall of the North Korean regime. He will call for the end of the Chinese government’s forcible repatriation of North Korean refugees.

Huh Kwang-il

Committee for Democratization of North Korea

Hu Kang-il has been leading the Committee for Democratization of North Korea, one of the first organizations founded by North Korean defectors, since 2014. He emphasizes the importance of cooperation between the international community and North Korean defector organizations. He asserts that Kim Jong Un’s ever-growing aggression demonstrates that the international community must strengthen its sanctions on the regime. He believes that humanitarian aid to North Korea does not contribute to efforts to advance freedom and human rights. He also participates in the information campaign through radio broadcasting and rice bottle launches. Born in Kimchaek, he studied at Cheongjin College of Shipbuilding Industry. Hu worked at Cheongjin dockyard as a North Korean Democratic Youth League’s party cell secretary. He was dispatched to Russia in 1986 as a DPRK forestry representative. He escaped in 1993 and took two years to reach. His career in technology management continues as he works for the Korea Electric Power Corporation in Seoul. Hu wishes to emphasize the significance of transmitting outside information into North Korea for the people’s right to information. To facilitate such efforts, he strives to re-establish a system of informants in North Korea, so he could circulate outside information through them.

Jang Sei-ul

Korean Unification Solidarity

Jang Sei-ul entered South Korea in 2008 when he realized that there was no future for him as a military officer in North Korea. He aspired to live in freedom. Jang’s ultimate goal is to end the Kim regime and liberate the people from human rights abuses by sending outside information into the country through rice bottle launches. Further, he believes that it is imperative to honor the freedom fighters in North Korea who sacrificed themselves for freedom. Through his testimony, he wishes to give hope to North Koreans who operate as informants sending information to the outside world. Born in 1969, Jang will focus on the importance of remembering and honoring the freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives by communicating their stories within North Korea. He further seeks to highlight the importance of the flow of information into North Korea to encourage an understanding of the values of a democratic society.

Kim Heung-kwang

North Korea Intellectual Solidarity

Since his defection in 2004, Kim has been actively engaged in informing the outside world about North Korea and supporting the defector community. Since 2009, he has been leading the North Korea Intellectual Solidarity to focus on receiving new information from North Korea and to analyze its domestic and foreign policy. He asserts that Kim Jong Un’s oppressive and disruptive behaviors have become more blatant, and his border security directives for the military to install electric fences and landmines have increased his control over people and worsened poverty in North Korea. He seeks to expose the Kim family’s atrocities against his own people. He was born in 1960 in Hamheung, South Hamgyong Province. He was educated at Kimchaek University of Technology, and taught as a professor at Hamheung College of Computer Technology and Hamheung University of Communism. He was also a censorship officer and oversee foreign content criticizing socialism. He recalls that when he first encountered South Korean content, he was shocked. After he shared his honest opinion with his superiors, he was labeled as a traitor and sent to a labor camp. Through the process, he witnessed the cruel oppression of North Koreans and decided to defect to South Korea for freedom. Kim will assess approaches to advance human rights and unification of the two Koreas to allow North Koreans to pursue happiness. He wishes to expose the generations of Kim’s atrocities and share his views on the current human rights situation.

Kim Jung-geum

North Korean Writers-in-Exile PEN Literature

Reaching South Korea in 2005, she worked as a Free North Korea Radio reporter. Currently, she is a central committee member of the Korea Writers’ Association, chair and publisher of the North Korean Writers-in-Exile PEN Literature. Born in 1968 in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, she was a literature counselor for North Hamgyong Writers’ Alliance under North Korea Central Writers’ Alliance. She participated in various composition contests at national and provincial levels. She also served as a propaganda agitator of the North Hamgyong Political Officers storm troop squad. She had been a vice chair and lecturer for the Chongjin Sunam first district women’s alliance committee. Kim Jung-geum plans to express her gratitude to those in the United States fighting for human rights of North Koreans and hopes to encourage active participation among the international community to improve human rights.

Kim Ji-young

Free North Korea Radio

Born in 1982 in Hyesan, Yanggang Province, she was raised in an elite family but defected to South Korea in 2012. Both of her parents were Workers’ Party members, and her grandfather was recognized as a national hero. She studied at Kim Il Sung University. Although she could have become a government official like her parents, Kim Il Sung’s death and the Arduous March changed her outlook. Women in the jangmadang market, who had been persecuted as “betrayers of Communism”, began to create and expand the capitalist economy in North Korea, while their husbands were still forced to work daily. As she realized the power of money in North Korea, Kim helped her aunt run a business when she was a college student. Soon after her graduation, she opened a restaurant which became so successful that she started another branch. Kim’s story displays how North Korean society has been transformed by women striving for survival. Kim will describe the process that led to the creation of the market in North Korea and how outside information slowly but decidedly influenced the minds of youth despite the Kim regime’s surveillance and control. She believes that the growth of jangmadang market economy is not because of the regime but has become a crucial and important asset of the people and was built especially by the strength of women. She affirms that, while the Kim Jong Un regime has recently intensified ideological indoctrination and demands loyalty from the youth, the market generation's loyalty is merely a survival tactic, unlike the boundless loyalty of the previous generations. She wishes to explain how overseas North Korean laborers contribute to the further development of North Korean understanding of the outside reality.

Lee So-ra

Korea of All

Since defecting to South Korea in 2008, she has been the secretary-general of the Korea of All. She wishes to discuss her organization’s goal to rescue Japanese abductees from the North Korean government. Further, she seeks to expose the reality of the Japanese abductees and their suffering of human rights violations. She was born in 1970 in Hamheung, South Hamgyong Province. After graduating from a mechanical engineering college, she was employed as an engineer for a manufacturing firm in North Korea. She also participated in the jangmadang market to provide for her family during the Arduous March. Lee So-ra aims to reveal the reality of Japanese abductees and Japanese-Koreans lured by the North Korean regime and the human rights abuses they suffered.

Lee Sun-ok

Korean Unification Solidarity and Former Informant

Lee currently works for the Korean Unification Solidarity after defecting to reach South Korea in 2014. Born in 1980 in Musan, North Hamgyong Province, she was an informant for Free North Korea Radio getting information to the outside world. After the State Security Ministry discovered her actions, she was imprisoned, tortured, and investigated for nearly twenty months. Her main motivation, at the time, was to simply provide for her family, not necessarily to promote democracy. The State Security Ministry forged documents to torture her and falsely accused her of being a spy. Before her defection, she provided for her family by smuggling. Lee wishes to testify about the espionage investigation tactics by the State Security Ministry, the impact of outside radio broadcasts on the people, and the lives of North Korean women.

Park Jung-oh

Kuensaem

Park Jung-oh defected with his five family members in 1998. Park established Kuensaem Education Center, an after-school education center for North Korean defector children. He continues to support North Korean defector students’ settlement and remedial education. Moreover, he has been active in disseminating outside information with North Koreans through rice bottle launches. He was born in 1968 at Hyesan, Yanggang Province. Upon completing Communication College, Park was employed at a radio wave surveillance station from 1993 to 1998 as a supervisor. He continued his education at Yangang University majoring in agriculture and graduated in 1998. Park Jung-oh will underscore the importance of getting information into North Korea and its role in advancing knowledge and the perception of the outside world.

Park Sang-hak

Fighters for Free North Korea

Park Sang-hak focuses on sending information into North Korea through balloons as a leader of the Fighters for Free North Korea. Since his defection in 2000, he has been sending leaflets to North Korea, hoping to open hearts and minds of the people. He believes that the leaflet launches are every North Korea defector’s duty. He was born in 1968 at Hyesan, Yanggangdo and graduated from Kimchaek Institute of Technology. He served as the propaganda unit officer until he defected. Park Sang-hak will discuss how the leaflet launch constitutes a labor of love among North Korean defectors to expose the Kim Jong Un regime’s corruption and share the values of democracy. Further, he insists that the leaflets must be continuously sent to North Korea, for the Kim regime abhors them. By dispatching leaflets to North Korea, he trusts that the messages from the outside world could enlighten and transform North Koreans.

Special Witnesses for NKFW 2024

Bae Gwang-min

Free North Korea Radio

After arriving in South Korea in 2008, he works as a reporter for Free North Korea Radio. He also started his own food business. Born in 1973 in Hyesan, Yanggang Province, he graduated from Light Industry School. He worked as a train station announcer for Hyesan station, and participated in the jangmadang market. As a railroad worker who experienced the development of the market as a result of the Arduous March, he will describe the reality of the jangmadang system, along with the corruption and the executions among the elites. Testifying about the ways of smuggling South Korean contents into North Korea, he will share stories about the growth of the market, spread of the Hallyu contents, and various facets of life to inform the international community about the state of human rights in North Korea.

Bae YOO-Jin

Market Participant and Distributor of South Korean Content

Bae Yoo-Jin was a singer for the Yanggang Art Group and a laborer of the Yanggang Trade Management Department before she joined the market system to feed her family after the North Korean government stopped providing food rations and salaries during the Arduous March. As the Jangmadang started to expand, Chinese goods started to be smuggled into each region in North Korea through the border area. She either smuggled the Chinese goods in or worked with the customs to distribute her goods to each region in North Korea. In early 2000, as the South Korean culture started to spread out, North Koreans’ interest in South Korean dramas became strong. She smuggled in South Korean dramas on CDs from China, copied the CDs at home, and distributed them across North Korea. As the distribution of South Korean dramas became a profitable market, the surveillance and control of prosecutors became more intensified. So, she started to distribute South Korean dramas with other goods to cover up her South Korean drama distribution business. Publicly, she was a wholesale businesswoman, but in reality, she contributed to the spread of South Korean culture throughout North Korea.

Ji Hannah

Survivor of Forcible Repatriation and Mother

Following her forced repatriation to North Korea from China twice, she successfully defected to South Korea in 2015 on her third defection attempt. She then managed to save enough money and risked her life to return to China to save her two sons in 2019. Born in 1964 in Shingwa, Yanggang Province, she is a survivor of the North Korean political prison camps and the Chinese detention centers. While she believes that the only crime she committed was to go to China to earn money, the Kim regime imprisoned and tortured her, treating her like a serious criminal. She was also an entrepreneur who lost everything during the currency reform in North Korea. Ji wants to testify about what it means for North Korean women to be forcefully repatriated to North Korea from China.

Kim Yi-hyeok

Defector of Nine-Family-Members by Boat

After successfully leading his nine-member family’s defection to South Korea on a boat in 2023, he has been studying to become a commercial mariner. Before he defected, he picked up rice bottles floating on the sea that were sent as part of Operation Truth. Born in 1992 in Haeju, Hwanghae Province, he worked as a fisherman. His grandparents were originally from South Korea which allowed him to understand the true nature of the North Korean regime. Although his father was an ordinary laborer, he was an honest and brave man from whom he learned alot. Because he worked so hard, Kim became the youngest person to become a regional boat captain for a reputable fishery facility in North Korea. While he sufficiently provided for his family, he desired to offer a better future for his children. He decided to defect to South Korea with his entire family on a boat. Kim will explain how South Korean cultural contents influence North Koreans; how the Kim regime controls the populace including the fishery industry; and how those who pick up the rice bottles including the Bibles from the sea begin to change their perspectives. He also wishes to recount his sea experience crossing the Northern Limit Line to escape and the stark reality of what the North Korean people are facing today under the Kim Jong Un regime.

Lee Byeong-rim

Former Trafficking and Repatriation Victim and Mother

Born in 1957 in Kimhyungjik, Yanggang Province, Lee reached South Korea in 2010. She was in charge of a district food supply facility in her hometown. During the Arduous March, she was trafficked and sent to China. She experienced forcible repatriation to North Korea from China. Then, she lost everything during the currency reform in North Korea in December 2009 which made her realize that she could not trust the Kim regime. Her son was forcibly returned to North Korea from China and is now in a political prison camp. She learned about her son’s repatriation following her arrival in Thailand. As of now, she is not aware of her son’s whereabouts. She has decided to dedicate her life to liberate North Koreans from the Kim regime’s human rights atrocities. Lee Byeong-rim will testify about the dangers of forced repatriation, human rights abuses against women, political prison camps, and the importance of information inflow into the society.

Pak Shin-hyeok

Defected by Boat

Arriving in South Korea on June 2, 2008 by boat after a 28 hour boat ride, Pak traveled through a route near Baengnyeong Island. Born in Hinam-ri, Yeonan County, South Hwanghae Province, he lived in the coastal village of Bungye where loudspeakers to counter South Korean loudspeakers were installed on the hills toward his village and South Korea: Two loudspeakers were hung fifty meters apart along the barbed wire near his village. As a child, he once observed a drastic contrast between the two Koreas and had his first inkling about the idea of South Korea. In his youth, he witnessed both Koreas sending leaflets to the other side. Since his hometown was a coastal city, the North Korean regime’s jamming of South Korean radio broadcasts sometimes did not function as a result of frequent power outages. He was thus able to listen to South Korean broadcasts occasionally. During his military service and participation in foreign currency earning business, he frequently listened to South Korean radio broadcasts. Eventually, he was disillusioned enough with the three-generation hereditary dictatorship that he started to develop a desire to be in South Korea. Pak will explain the impact of leaflets, foreign radio broadcasts, and rice bottles on the people on North Korea. More than eighty years have passed since the Kim dynasty’s dictatorship. North Korea is still struggling with hunger because the leader has failed to solve even the most basic issue of providing food for the people. He believes that the people of North Korea live a life without any freedoms and are treated like animals.

North Korea Freedom Coalition Hosts and NKFC A Team

Suzanne Scholte and Kim Seong Min, NKFW Chairs

Johnny Park (USA), Kim Ji-Young and Jang Sei-ul, (ROK) NKFW Delegation Coordinators

Jason West, NKFC Vice Chair

with

Esther Kim

Euni Evensen

Jacqueline Pak

Kenji Sawai

Lisa Orme

Mariam and March Bell

Nancy Purcell

Oh Chang-hwa and Family

Pam Davidson

Richard Kim

Star Lee

nkfw.org

12. Secret Meetings, Private Threats and a Massive Arms Race: How the World is Preparing for Trump

I bet more of our friends, partners, and allies, as well as our adversaries, have studied Project 2025 in greater detail than even the pundits in DC.

Secret Meetings, Private Threats and a Massive Arms Race: How the World is Preparing for Trump

America’s NATO allies are ramping up weapons production, consulting Donald Trump’s advisers and holding secret meetings with each other to feverishly lay the groundwork for his return.

By PAUL MCLEARY, CHRISTOPH SCHILTZ, STEFANIE BOLZEN, JACOPO BARIGAZZI and PHILIPP FRITZ

07/07/2024 05:00 AM EDT

Politico

In 2016, no one in the world was ready for President Trump. America’s NATO allies aren’t making the same mistake this time.

Illustration by Jade Cuevas/POLITICO (source images via AP and iStock)

By Paul McLeary, Christoph Schiltz, Stefanie Bolzen, Jacopo Barigazzi and Philipp Fritz

07/07/2024 05:00 AM EDT

In Brussels, NATO officials have devised a plan to lock in long-term military support for Ukraine so that a possible Trump administration can’t get in the way.

In Ankara, Turkish officials have reviewed the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy road map for clues into Donald Trump’s designs on Syria.

In Atlanta, Austin and Lincoln, Nebraska, top ministers from Germany and Canada have met with Republican governors to shore up relations on the American right.

And in Washington, Trump’s return is the dominant topic at monthly breakfast meetings of ambassadors from European countries. At one of those meetings, the top envoy from one country asked his colleagues whether they were engaged in a fool’s errand.

“Can we really prepare for Trump?” this person asked, according to another top diplomat. “Or do we rather have to wait and see what the new reality would look like?”

Folly or not, the preparations are underway.

More than six months before the next American president takes office, there is already an extraordinarily advanced effort across the NATO alliance, and far beyond, to manage a potential transfer of power in America. With President Joe Biden listing badly in his bid for reelection, many allies anticipate that at this time next year they will be dealing with a new Trump administration — one defined by skepticism toward Europe, a strident strain of right-wing isolationism and a hard resolve to put confronting China above other global priorities.

In the run-up to this week’s NATO summit in Washington, POLITICO and the German newspaper Welt embarked together on a reporting project to assess how the world is preparing for Trump’s possible return to the White House; reporters for both publications interviewed more than 50 diplomats, lawmakers, experts and political strategists in NATO nations and elsewhere. Many of those people were granted anonymity to speak about sensitive matters of diplomacy and international security.

What emerged from this reporting was a picture of a world already bending to Trump’s will and scrambling to inoculate itself against the disruptions and crises that he might instigate.

In many respects NATO member states feel far more confident of their ability to handle Trump than they did when he first came to power seven and a half years ago as a total amateur on the world stage. That is in part because these countries are laying the groundwork now to manage his political resurrection.

Their preparations fall into three categories.

First, there is extensive personal outreach to Trump and his advisers, in the hope of building relationships that will help minimize conflict.

Second, there are policy shifts aimed at pleasing Trump and his political coalition, chiefly by soothing Trump’s complaints about inadequate European defense spending.

Third, there are creative diplomatic and legal measures in the works to armor NATO priorities against tampering by a Trump administration.

Taken together, it starts to look like a plausible strategy for managing the turbulence of a Trump-led world. Still, even the NATO leaders driving this approach acknowledge that much of this project may ultimately be at the mercy of Trump’s individual whims.

“Of course, the biggest challenge is we don’t know — and I think nobody knows, exactly — what he will do,” said one diplomat from a NATO country.

When Trump first came to office, the West was in a state of relative calm, and U.S. allies mostly hoped that they could wait out an American political meltdown for four years. Their thinking is different this time, now that it is clear that Trumpism is no passing fad — and the NATO alliance is confronting far more immediate threats to European security.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is no widespread panic this time about Trump withdrawing the U.S. from NATO, as he has threatened in the past. But if allies do not see that as a likely scenario, the alliance is still in an anxious mood — a state of trepidation only sharpened by the rising power of right-wing NATO skeptics in France and elsewhere on the continent.

Camille Grand, a former NATO assistant secretary general and French defense official, said the alliance was approaching Trump far differently now than it did in 2017.

“Last time, it was much easier because there was no war,” said Grand, who is aligned with French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition. “Now, we are in an environment where the conversation is really, really different.”

Trump Politics is Personal

A scant two weeks before NATO’s leaders were set to descend on Washington for the summit, a rumor tore through the diplomatic world: Trump had a plan to bring peace to Ukraine.

The art of this deal was said to rest on a brazen threat: If Vladimir Putin refused to negotiate an end to the war, the U.S. would flood Ukraine with even more weapons. And if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to sit at a negotiating table with Russia, the U.S. would withdraw its copious military support.

There was one big problem. The plan was being pitched not by Trump himself, but by several of his many allies and self-described surrogates circulating through political and diplomatic circles — each purporting to speak for the former president, and in turn advertising a direct line back to him. Upon closer scrutiny, it became clear that there was no secret, Trump-approved blueprint to end the war.

As the election has approached, it has become a full-time mission for U.S. allies to parse who is an authentic Trump emissary and who is a pretender. One embassy staffer confirmed that they had been in contact with several people claiming to speak for Trump, “but it’s not always clear how close they are to him.”

But, the staffer said, “we need to take the meetings.”

The result has been a frantic quest for access to the people closest to Trump — and to Trump himself.

“It’s a race to be the last person to speak to him before he makes a decision,” said one European defense official.

One lesson that American allies drew from the first Trump administration is that personal relationships are paramount with the former president and the people closest to him. Trump formed warm bonds as president with an eclectic range of leaders, from Shinzo Abe and Jair Bolsonaro to Boris Johnson and Kim Jong Un, all of whom used that direct personal link to their own advantage.

Since Trump locked up the Republican nomination, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, and Japan’s former prime minister, Taro Aso, have paid respects to him in person. So has David Cameron, the former British foreign secretary and prime minister, who used a visit to Mar-a-Lago to make the case to Trump for supporting the war effort in Ukraine.

Overtures are underway to other quarters of the Republican Party: François-Philippe Champagne, a Canadian minister helping lead preparation for the U.S. election, has met with Republican governors including Henry McMaster of South Carolina and Jim Pillen of Nebraska, emphasizing international stability as a shared concern, according to a person briefed on the meetings. Last fall, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Texas to meet with Gov. Greg Abbott, a powerful Trump supporter, making a friendly overture but also airing her stark disagreement with Abbott on abortion rights.

In recent weeks, several diplomats from NATO member states quietly traveled to Washington to meet with conservative academics and people associated with think tanks that they believed could have some influence on Trump’s policy. The meetings seemed to be productive, said one ambassador. But there is an air of contingency around them.

“We don’t know if the people we meet will actually still be there if Trump is elected president,” said one NATO official during a conversation at headquarters in Brussels.

Perhaps the most ostentatious outreach to Trump and the MAGA coalition came this spring from David Lammy, Britain’s shadow foreign secretary at the time, who was appointed the U.K.’s top diplomat last week after elections there. During a visit to Washington in May, Lammy met with Trump allies and MAGA luminaries, including Sens. Lindsey Graham and J.D. Vance. In public remarks, Lammy said Trump’s criticism of NATO had often been “misunderstood,” and that the former president mainly wanted Europe to spend more on defense.

This was a dramatic U-turn for Lammy, who previously described Trump as a racist and a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath.” But his Washington tour seemed to have a clear purpose: to open the way for a relationship with Trump in government — and to make sure British voters knew he was doing it.

His meeting with the Trump campaign emerged from quiet, persistent outreach, and Chris LaCivita, Trump’s senior campaign adviser, rearranged his schedule to meet with Lammy at the offices of the RNC.

It was a breezy conversation, according to people familiar with the exchange. Lammy explained his role as shadow foreign secretary, a position with no equivalent in the American system, and talked about how he has family ties to the United States. LaCivita briefed him on the state of the Trump campaign.

Minutes after the meeting concluded, stories about it hit the London Times and the Daily Mail, startling the Trump campaign.

One Trump adviser, recognizing the point of the conversation was for the Brits to be able to say they had the conversation, marveled that Labour had leaked the news before Lammy even left the building: “They had this whole thing pre-written.”

Lammy’s MAGA-friendly tour frustrated some center-left leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, including in the White House. One British diplomatic figure said there were senior Democrats who were “very, very upset with David,” particularly given his warm relationships with Democrats including Barack Obama. Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said the Biden White House had been unconcerned.

This British diplomat said Lammy’s trip was, on its own terms, a mission accomplished.

“In the world of the embassy and Foreign Office, Lammy was seen to have done a good job, and that it was a smart move for Labour to hedge their bets in case they have to deal with a Trump administration in six months or so,” the diplomat said.

Money, Money, Money

If much of Trump’s transatlantic agenda seems fluid and impulse-driven, he has been entirely consistent on one point: He wants European countries to spend far, far more on their own defense.

Increasingly, Trump is getting his way.

Europe has good reasons to increase defense spending that have nothing to do with Trump. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 shattered the illusion in many European capitals that Putin could be treated as a quasi-friend, or that his imperial ambitions could be contained to Crimea and a few marginal precincts of Eastern Europe.

But the Russian threat is all the more terrifying for Europe because of Trump’s ambivalence about NATO’s commitments to collective security. The former president has railed openly against defense-spending laggards in Europe and elsewhere, venting frustration that so much of the world counts on American taxpayers to foot the bill for foreign security needs. Earlier this year, Trump said he would give Russia free rein to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that do not meet their defense-spending obligations.

In a June speech, Trump deplored the ongoing stream of American money into the war effort in Ukraine. “It never ends,” he railed.

Much of the NATO alliance has shifted toward making defense investments aimed simultaneously at deterring Russia and pleasing Trump. Twenty-three of the 32 NATO member states are assessed to spend 2 percent or more of their GDP on defense, meeting a goal outlined for the alliance in 2014.

Jens Stoltenberg, the outgoing secretary general, boasted of these figures at a meeting in Washington weeks before the summit, and is expected to make the same point prominently at the gathering. According to several NATO officials involved in internal discussions, the alliance’s strategy is to provide Trump with a message to his own voters letting himself take credit for making the alliance fairer and more effective.

Some countries have recently outlined newly ambitious plans to expand their military capacity. In April, Norway unveiled a 12-year plan to spend $152 billion on defense, much of it focused on production of rockets and artillery.

Romania, which signed a $4 billion deal to acquire Patriot missiles under the Trump administration, is helping expand what will soon become NATO’s largest military base in Europe. (A return of Trump is “not on the list of … major concerns” for the country, a Romanian official said.)

In Poland, which spends more than 4 percent of its GDP on defense, the most of any NATO country, some officials are pressing the rest of Europe to keep up. Duda, the right-wing president who is friendly with Trump, has called on alliance members to hit a 3 percent spending target.

Pawel Kowal, chair of the Polish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said in an interview that the most important preparation for his country and others was these investments.

“Without question, Europe must take care of its own security, finally take the Russian threat seriously, help Ukraine and arm itself, including developing a common air defense,” said Kowal, who is also the Polish government’s Ukraine envoy.

“Vladimir Putin must think at least three times before he weighs an attack on NATO,” Kowal said. “If Europe is stronger, there is a good chance that we will also get along better with Trump.”

Not all American allies have responded with similar enthusiasm to the demands of the moment, however.

Two of the wealthiest countries in the NATO alliance, Italy and Canada, are far from meeting the 2 percent threshold even as the security demands on NATO continue to increase. So are several smaller allies, including Spain, Portugal and Belgium.

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced an unusually open and bipartisan reproach from the United States in May when two dozen Republican and Democratic senators wrote him a letter saying they were “profoundly disappointed” that Canada was going to “fail to meet its obligations” to NATO. Trudeau acknowledged there was “more to do” for Canada’s defense, but for years has made no major policy shift in that direction.

The political pressure on these countries and others is likely to grow in the coming months, not just from Trump but also from their neighbors. Riho Terras, a former commander of the Estonian Defense Forces who is now a center-right member of the European Parliament, put it bluntly.

“I am not afraid of Trump withdrawing from Europe,” Terras said. “I am afraid that Europe is not willing to spend more money on defense.”

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, speaking to POLITICO at the end of an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg, said Europe could not sway the American election — but it could make itself “a very attractive partner to the United States.”

“We should certainly constantly concentrate on issues where we do have influence and that is building our own defense and deterrence as strongly as possible,” Valtonen said, adding: “And that’s, I guess, what also Mr. Trump has been calling for.”

Trump-Proof vs. Trump-Compatible

At a mid-June meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, members of the alliance agreed in principle on a plan to shift control of NATO’s support for Ukraine. Up to this point, the United States has taken the lead in organizing military aid through a 300-person unit known as the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, housed at an American military office in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Stoltenberg proposed an alternative configuration: transferring responsibility for aid management to NATO itself, and especially to European partner states. In theory, this would make the administration of aid “Trump-proof,” as some diplomats say. The final decision is expected at the NATO summit in Washington.

If implemented, this plan would gradually shift control of aid to a group of 200 NATO soldiers in the Belgian city of Mons — a group that would continue working with the United States, but under the NATO flag.

Schemes like this one, devised to blunt the impact of Trump’s edicts on shared NATO priorities, might be sorely tested if Trump were to come back to power.

There are others like it, not just in Europe but also in Asia and even in Washington, where last December a bipartisan majority in the House and Senate voted to make it impossible for a president to withdraw from NATO without strong support from Congress. It was a measure plainly aimed at handcuffing Trump or a future president who shares his views.

The State Department recently acknowledged that another American ally, South Korea, was pressing for an early renewal of a deal that helps pay for the 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in the country. The current deal does not expire until 2025, but renegotiating it with Trump could be much more difficult, given his frequent complaints about the cost of American support for South Korea.

Harry Harris, the retired admiral and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said the country appeared to be “hedging against a possible Trump 2 administration — they’ve seen this movie and it was very painful.”

But it is not clear how much these formal arrangements might really serve to limit Trump if he were wielding the power of the presidency.

For all the determination in some European capitals to approach a second Trump presidency with relative optimism, it is also impossible to escape the plain reality that no one on the continent really knows how chaotic a second Trump term might be.

He is unlikely to be tempered by defense secretaries and cabinet officials similar to those who served during his first term — Cold War traditionalists and military veterans such as Mike Pompeo, H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis and John Kelly — who had spent their careers working within traditional foreign policy structure alongside allies.

Some Trump advisers have unnerved Europe by speaking with ambivalence about America’s commitment to defending NATO allies with its full military might. Elbridge Colby, a former top Pentagon official who is seen as a contender to lead the National Security Council in a second Trump administration, has rattled allies repeatedly by saying that the U.S. cannot overextend itself in Europe at the expense of countering China.

In an interview, Colby indicated there were limits to what the U.S. might do to counter certain kinds of Russian aggression, like an attack on the Baltic states.

“The NATO treaty does not oblige us to send our whole military. Henry Kissinger supposedly once said that alliances are not suicide contracts,” Colby said, adding that he was concerned about leaving the U.S. “vulnerable to a knockout blow by China.”

Hannah Neumann, a member of the European Parliament representing Germany’s Green Party, said Europeans also should keep in mind that Trump would be in his last term as president if he were reelected — and could be even more volatile the second time around. Neumann, who sits on a subcommittee governing security and defense, suggested that Europe could not take the risk of complacency.

“He has announced 100,000 foolish things. He is a loose cannon,” Neumann said of Trump. “It would be naive not to think about scenarios and prepare for some things lying ahead of us, in case Trump were to weaken or even leave NATO.”

During a spring visit to Washington, one Trump adviser offered a preview of what the smash-it-up approach might look like, delivering a blistering tirade about European defense to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister and NATO secretary general, and Fabrice Pothier, the CEO of Rasmussen’s international consulting firm.

On a phone call, Pothier recalled, this person uncorked “a kind of Trumpian rant about the European allies not spending enough,” naming specific countries that were slacking on defense.

“That person kept asking Anders: How will you punish them? How will you punish them?” Pothier recalled, adding: “International relations don’t really work like that.”

Then, he acknowledged they might work that way soon enough — and allies had to adapt to that reality.

“In one line, I would say: Don’t try to Trump-proof yourself, but try to make yourself Trump-compatible,” Pothier advised. “I’m not buying the Trump-proof approach, which I think worked relatively well the first time. I think today we are facing a different kind of Trump.”

Jonathan Martin, Alexander Burns, Alex Ward, Rosa Prince, Eli Stokols, Carolina Druten, Stefan Boscia and Phelim Kine contributed to this report.

Politico

13. North Korean troops could be sent to Ukraine due to their sheer numbers, not their effectiveness, experts say

So Russia just wants cannon fodder.

North Korean troops could be sent to Ukraine due to their sheer numbers, not their effectiveness, experts say

Business Insider · by Thibault Spirlet

Military & Defense

Thibault Spirlet

2024-07-07T10:23:02Z

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a military demonstration in North Korea, in this picture released on March 16, 2024. KCNA via REUTERS

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? .

North Korea deepened its defense ties with Russia through a new security pact last month.
The Pentagon said it would "keep an eye" on North Korea potentially sending forces to Russia.
If troops were sent it would be due to their numbers, not their effectiveness, experts told BI.

Speculation has been growing that North Korea could send troops to Ukraine.

Last month, Russia and North Korea signed a pact agreeing to give each other military assistance if the other is attacked.

As part of the pact, South Korea's TV Chosun reported, citing an unnamed South Korean government official, North Korea plans to send construction and engineering forces to occupied Ukraine later this month for rebuilding efforts.

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.

No official confirmation has been made so far, but speculation heightened during a Pentagon press briefing late last month when a journalist said that North Korea's Central Military Commission had announced that North Korea would join forces with the Russian military.

(The Institute for the Study of War questioned the reporter's claim, saying that it had found no such statement made by North Korea.)

In response, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder described North Korea potentially sending military forces to Russia as "certainly something to keep an eye on."

As of now, the prospect of North Korean soldiers being deployed to Ukraine is speculative and unlikely, experts told Business Insider.

But if it did happen, the main advantage Russia would take from it would be North Korea's sheer number of soldiers — not their effectiveness, they said.

"North Korea has a large military of 1.3 million," Edward Howell, Korea Foundation Fellow with Chatham House's Asia-Pacific Programme, told BI.

"Yet, the quality of North Korean conventional weapons, arms, and the soldiers themselves is far weaker," he said.

John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that even if the reports were true, he doubted the deployment of North Korean troops would have a "significant" impact on the battlefield in Ukraine.

One of the largest militaries but not the most effective

North Korea has the world's fourth-largest army, with estimates putting its troop numbers at about 1.2 million personnel.

But while it is "well trained" and "highly motivated," the Korean People's Army has not had any real-world combat experience in decades, said Evans Revere, senior advisor with the global advisory firm Albright Stonebridge Group.

The last time they really fought was during the Korean War, where fighting ended in 1953.

Revere, who served as the acting assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs during the George W. Bush administration, said this raised questions about how its troops would perform in combat against the "agile, determined, experienced, and tough Ukrainian military."

Deployment should not be completely ruled out

According to Benjamin Young, assistant professor of homeland security and emergency preparedness at Virginia Commonwealth University, Kim would not send troops "thousands of miles to Europe in order to die meaningless deaths on the front lines for a different country."

Young, the author of "Guns, Guerillas, & the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World," said that, if they were sent, "the North Korean troops will most likely play an auxiliary role in terms of building fortifications and structures."

"They may also help repair tanks, weapons systems, and other armaments," he added.

Hardie, from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said we should "wait and see" if the report is true and an actual deployment takes place.

But if it does, he added that North Korean soldiers may "simply" be helping rebuild a destroyed city like Mariupol.

Other experts, however, had a different view.

Bennett, from RAND, said he thinks it is "fairly likely" that North Korea will send troops to Ukraine, without elaborating further.

Howell, meanwhile, said we should not rule out the possibility of some transfer of individuals — whether troops or support personnel — given the recent increase in defense ties between Russia and North Korea.

But we "must remember that, at present, these rumors are merely speculative," he added.

Russia Ukraine North Korea

More...

Business Insider · by Thibault Spirlet

14. ROK takes up leadership role in US-led naval exercise with eye on North Korea

ROK takes up leadership role in US-led naval exercise with eye on North Korea

Multinational RIMPAC drills come as Yoon prepares to visit US, warning of global threat posed by DPRK-Russia ties

https://www.nknews.org/2024/07/rok-takes-up-leadership-role-in-us-led-naval-exercise-with-eye-on-north-korea/

Joon Ha Park July 8, 2024

The ROK navy's Aegis-equipped destroyer ROKS Yulgok Yi I leaves to participate in the RIMPAC exercise in Hawaii | Image: ROK Navy (June 7, 2024)

The South Korean navy is serving as deputy commander for a large-scale U.S.-led multinational maritime exercise near Hawaii for the first time, a move that one expert said aims to broadcast the strength of the U.S.-ROK alliance to North Korea.

The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) drills involve nearly 30 countries and are taking place as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol prepares to visit the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) overseeing the training on Tuesday, seeking to emphasize military ties and highlight the threat the DPRK poses to not only Asia but also Europe.

“President Yoon’s visit marks the first by a South Korean leader since the command was renamed from PACOM to INDOPACOM in 2018,” according to a presidential office press release. “The visit underscores South Korea’s commitment to showcasing the robust alliance with the United States and advancing bilateral cooperation aimed at promoting peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.”

This year’s RIMPAC drills kicked off on June 26 and are slated to run until Aug. 2, with 29 countries from around the world joining the 29th iteration of the biennial exercise. Participating nations from Asia include India, Indonesia, Japan and Thailand, while participants from Europe include France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the U.K.

The ROK navy sent some 840 personnel and assets for the drills, including the Aegis-equipped destroyer ROKS Yulgok Yi I, the ROKS Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin destroyer, the tank landing ship ROKS Cheon Ja Bong and the ROKS Lee Beom Seok submarine, according to the navy.

Other participating assets include P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, a LYNX maritime operations helicopter and six KAAV amphibious assault vehicles.

“The successful completion of RIMPAC tasks will not only demonstrate our strong naval capabilities but also reinforce South Korea’s status as a maritime power,” Colonel Moon Jong-hwa, the ROK navy’s RIMPAC Task Force Commander, said in a press release on Monday.

Shin Seung-ki, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, told NK News that the South Korean navy’s new role as deputy commander of the Combined Naval Component Command sends a clear message to North Korea about increased cohesion between the ROK and U.S.

“Given the recent comprehensive strategic partnership between North Korea and Russia, which borders on a military alliance, South Korea’s role in RIMPAC with the U.S. serves as a counterbalance,” he said.

He added that the RIMPAC maritime exercises can reassure countries in the Asia-Pacific region that feel threatened by Russia and North Korea, seeking to demonstrate strengthened military cooperation and unity.

North Korea denounced the ROK’s participation in the RIMPAC drills in 2022, claiming that such exercises destabilize the Korean Peninsula and heighten the risk of military conflict.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol during a visit to the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier on June 25, 2024 | Image: ROK Presidential Office

The RIMPAC maritime exercises come as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol prepares to visit the Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii on Tuesday before attending the NATO Summit on Thursday in Washington.

In an interview with Reuters published in advance of his departure on Monday, Yoon described the burgeoning alliance between North Korea and Russia as a “distinct threat and grave challenge to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in Europe,” labeling the DPRK a clear “menace to the international community.”

The president said that South Korean support for Ukraine will hinge on the extent of military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow. Seoul has provided some assistance to Kyiv but has so far refrained from sending lethal arms.

According to the presidential office, Yoon also emphasized the importance of joint U.S.-ROK efforts to deter North Korea through the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) formed last year.

His remarks come after multiple members of South Korea’s ruling People Power Party endorsed either ROK nuclearization or the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to the peninsula, despite repeated efforts by Washington to reassure Seoul of its commitment to South Korea’s defense.

Jeongmin Kim contributed reporting to this article. Edited by Alannah Hill and Bryan Betts

15. Exclusive: South Korea's Yoon to discuss Pyongyang's 'distinct threat' to Europe at NATO

Sort of a counter to the Foreign Affairs article saying NATO should stay out of the Asia Pacific.

Exclusive: South Korea's Yoon to discuss Pyongyang's 'distinct threat' to Europe at NATO

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-koreas-yoon-discuss-pyongyangs-distinct-threat-europe-nato-2024-07-08/

By Ju-min Park and Jack Kim

July 8, 20244:44 PM GMT+8Updated 6 hours ago

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at a recent meeting in the Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, 27 May 2024. JEON HEON-KYUN/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

SEOUL, July 8 (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he would discuss with NATO leaders the distinct threat North Korea poses to Europe by deepening military ties with Russia, warning that Moscow must choose between the two Koreas where its true interests lie.

It "depends entirely" on Russia where it wants to take future ties with South Korea, Yoon said, adding that Seoul would make a decision on weapons support for Ukraine based on how a new military pact between Moscow and Pyongyang plays out.

"Military co-operation between Russia and North Korea poses a distinct threat and grave challenge to the peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in Europe," Yoon told Reuters.

The remarks came in a written response to Reuters' questions ahead of a visit to Washington for a NATO summit.

Yoon, who became the first South Korean leader to attend a NATO summit in 2022, is set to depart on Monday for the Washington event, his third time attending such a meeting.

Together with Australia, Japan and New Zealand, South Korea makes up the four Asia-Pacific partners joining in the talks on July 10 and 11.

Relations between South Korea and Russia have soured as Moscow receives shipments of ballistic missiles and artillery from Pyongyang for its war against Ukraine. Both Russia and North Korea deny such deals.

Russia has called South Korea "the most friendly among unfriendly countries", with President Vladimir Putin saying it would be making "a big mistake" if it decided to supply arms to Ukraine.

South Korea protested when Putin visited Pyongyang in June and signed a treaty with leader Kim Jong Un that covers mutual defence.

"North Korea is clearly a menace to the international society," Yoon said in his comments. "I hope that Russia will sensibly decide which side - the South or the North - is more important and necessary for its own interests."

He added, "The future of ROK-Russia relations depends entirely on Russia's actions," referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.

Yoon has pushed for greater security ties with Europe and other U.S. allies to deter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

At the same time, he has looked to boost the South's role in global security, on issues such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and rivalry between China and the United States.

ARMS FOR UKRAINE

When asked if he would authorise weapons for Ukraine, Yoon said South Korea would look at "the level and substance of military co-operation between Russia and North Korea".

That would include areas such as arms dealing, transfers of military technology and assistance with strategic materials, he added.

Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council which approved sanctions resolutions until 2017, has engaged in an "illegal" military partnership with North Korea, Yoon said, adding that it was troubling to consider what help it might be giving Pyongyang in return.

There will be a clear "negative" impact on South Korea's ties with Russia if it continues to violate U.N. resolutions, he added.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, it was South Korea's fifth-largest export destination, while Russia was a key supplier of energy to South Korea, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies says.

South Korea will take its partnership with NATO to a new level in September, through a cyber defence exercise in which it plans to host NATO member states, organised by the country's intelligence agency, Yoon said.

Leaders are gathering in Washington for the summit of the the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that will also celebrate the 75th anniversary of the military alliance.

Yoon declined to comment on possible changes to U.S. policies if Donald Trump becomes president a second time in November elections, but pointed to unwavering bipartisan support for the U.S.-South Korea alliance over the past 70 years.

"The alliance will stay strong going forward," Yoon added.

Trump's allies are assuring officials in Japan and South Korea he will support a Biden-era effort to deepen three-way ties aimed at countering China and North Korea, Reuters has reported.

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Reporting by Ju-min Park, Jack Kim, Josh Smith, Hyonhee Shin, Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

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

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

Access NSS HERE

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