Category: Kim Jong Un

North Korea is expanding missile base with eye toward U.S., experts warn

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North Korea is expanding an important missile base that would be one of the most likely sites for deploying intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States, two experts on the North’s missile programs said Thursday, citing new research based on satellite imagery.

The activities at the Yeongjeo-dong missile base near North Korea’s border with China and the expansion of a new suspected missile facility seven miles away are the latest indications that North Korea is continuing to improve its missile capabilities, said Jeffrey Lewis and David Schmerler of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California.

“The base is located in the interior of North Korea, backed up against the Chinese border,” they said. “It is this location that leads us to believe that the general area is a strong candidate for the deployment of future missiles that can strike the United States.” Military planners in Seoul and Washington have long suspected that North Korea would deploy its intercontinental ballistic missiles as close to China as possible to reduce the likelihood of pre-emptive strikes from the United States.

Using satellite imagery, they located tunnels in Yeongjeo-dong that might be used for storing missiles and the construction of a new headquarters, as well as a pair of drive-through shelters in Hoejung-ni suitable for large ballistic missiles and “an extremely large underground facility” under construction further up a narrow valley.

A series of United Nations resolutions require North Korea to give up its ballistic missile program. But the country has never signed any agreement to curtail or disclose its missile capabilities. Following his June summit meeting in Singapore with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, Mr. Trump claimed that there was “no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.”

[New York Times]

North Korea offers little resistance to latest soldier defecting

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Relations have begun to warm between the two Koreas, so when a North Korean soldier defected across the militarized border dividing the nations on Saturday, there was little fanfare. So North Korea’s lack of formal reaction to the incident may actually bolster hopes for continued peace talks between the two states.

Last year (November 2017) when another North Korean soldier, Oh Chong Song, made a dash across the border into South Korea, he was shot five times by fellow soldiers as he made his break. UN and South Korean troops had to low crawl to his position under threat of North Korean gunfire to drag him to safety before placing him aboard a UN helicopter to be flown to the nearest hospital for treatment.

As dangerous as that crossing proved to be for Oh, the response from North Korean troops proved an even larger cause for concern. North Korean soldiers, aware that they would be held responsible for permitting Oh’s defection, briefly crossed the border into South Korean territory during their pursuit, and even fired rounds over the border that hit structures on the South Korean side of the dividing line. South Korea chose to respond with stern warnings at the time, choosing not to escalate the already tense situation.

Soon thereafter, it was reported that the troops stationed at the border had all been transferred elsewhere in favor of a new staff of border guards. The presumption at the time was that the transfer was punitive, as a result of their failure to prevent the defection, rather than their violation of the demilitarized zone.

Last weekend’s defection, on the other hand, could be described as mundane, by comparison. According to reports, the soldier that defected was found walking across the eastern sector of the Demilitarized Zone. He was escorted into custody where he’ll undergo a debriefing aimed at determining his reasons for defection. There were no unusual troop movements reported along the North Korean side of the border following the defection, nor did any soldiers apparently pursue this latest defector as he made his escape.

The North Korean soldiers opting not to aggressively pursue the defector could send a dangerous message to other North Koreans. However, it sends an equally strong message to South Korea — seemingly demonstrating a new approach to relations between the two states; potentially one that no longer sees the “other” Korea as a mortal enemy.

[Read full NewsRep article]

Trump says next meeting with Kim Jong Un likely in early 2019

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President Trump said a second summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will likely take place in January or February.

“We’re getting along very well,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One during the return trip from the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “We have a good relationship with Kim.”

The first Trump-Kim summit took place in June in Singapore but Trump has said the next meeting will probably take place at a new location. The two countries are considering three sites for the potential summit, Trump said.

When asked if Kim would come to the US for a visit apart from the second summit, Trump said “at some point” he will.

Speaking to reporters onboard a flight following the G20, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said Trump had asked him to pass a message to Kim, should the North Korean leader visit Seoul this year. Moon said on Sunday that Trump told him he had a “very amicable view” of Kim and that he wanted to “implement the rest of the agreement.”

Last month, Vice President Mike Pence said the US will not require North Korea to provide a full list of its nuclear and missile sites before Trump meets Kim again. Rather than requiring a declaration of nuclear weapons sites as a prerequisite to a second meeting with Trump, Pence told NBC News that the administration will insist on developing a “verifiable plan” to disclose those sites while the two leaders are in the same room.

[CNN]

The beginning of the end of the Korean War

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In a sense, Donald Trump’s campaign to denuclearize North Korea is bearing fruit: The Korean War is beginning to end. Seoul and Pyongyang have been dismantling guard posts, designating no-fly zones, and disarming what was once the most volatile place on the peninsula. Indeed, by the estimation of the South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh, North and South Korea have already fully implemented about one third of the more than two dozen reconciliation agreements they reached in a pair of summits between the nations’ leaders in April and September.

The Koreas have suspended certain military exercises near the military demarcation line (MDL) separating the countries, cleared hundreds of land mines in the area (millions remain), and linked a road as part of an effort to excavate the remains of soldiers who died during the Korean War. They have covered up coastal artillery and warship-mounted guns and established a no-fly zone in the vicinity of the border. They are now exploring ways to jointly secure the iconic border village of Panmunjom and allow unarmed guards, civilians, and foreign tourists to move about on either side of the MDL there for the first time in more than 40 years.

While it’s hard to overstate what’s at stake in these seemingly minor developments, several of the meatiest measures require U.S. consent and are on hold. North and South Korea, for example, can’t collaborate on economic and tourism projects or actually get inter-Korean roads and railways up and running until international sanctions against North Korea are eased. They’ve also encountered resistance in calling for the leaders of the two Koreas, the United States, and perhaps China to formally declare an end to the Korean War, which came to a halt in an armistice in 1953.

But where Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have freer rein and have arguably made the greatest advances is in enacting various accords to cease military hostilities between their countries. The progress, though still modest and tentative, is all the more remarkable given the comparatively sluggish pace at the moment of nuclear negotiations between the United States and North Korea.

[The Atlantic]

Defectors in China repatriated to North Korean

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Several North Korean defectors have recently been arrested in Dandong, China, by Chinese police and almost immediately repatriated back to North Korea, according to sources close to the matter.

“Two laborers who were working at a metalworks company in Sinuiju were arrested by Chinese police. They were repatriated back to North Korea over the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge the day after they were questioned by the Chinese,” a source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on November 20.

A source with knowledge of the incident in China said, “In the past, many defectors could avoid being caught if they hid from the police for a couple of days, but these days the Chinese police have strengthened their patrols and there are now fewer defections.”

Another similar incident occurred said a separate source in China. “A defector hid in a reed field near the mouth of the Yalu River for three days before trying to swim across to Langtou Port to reach Chinese territory, but was arrested by Chinese police in the process,” he said, adding that the man was sent back across the Sino-Korean Friendship bridge soon after being questioned by Chinese authorities.

The Chinese have strengthened patrols along the Sino-DPRK border and installed more surveillance equipment, which has made it more difficult for North Koreans to defect, the source said. Chinese authorities began installing high-quality surveillance cameras on the Sino-DPRK border several years ago and have used thermal imaging cameras to crack down on defections and smuggling activities at night. The advanced surveillance equipment has been used to track the movements of North Koreans near the border and arrest those who try to defect into Chinese territory.

“Boats are used in the river for smuggling and these activities are not easy for Chinese authorities to track,” said the source. “By comparison, the authorities can relatively easily track movements of people coming over the border [..] The use of hundreds of cameras that can read very small print from 2 km away means that North Koreans have little chance of successfully defecting across the border.”

There are growing concerns about the safety of North Koreans trying to defect to China. “The Kim Jong Un regime may severely punish those attempting to cross over into China, so China’s moves to repatriate defectors back to North Korea can be seen as a crime against humanity,” one North Korean analyst told Daily NK on condition of anonymity. “The international community must call for the end of these repatriations.”

[Daily NK]

North Korea defector: next generation have no loyalty to Kim Jong-un

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Oh Chong Song, the North Korean soldier who defected to the South in a hail of bullets last year says most Northerners of his age have no loyalty to Kim Jong-un, according to a Japanese newspaper.

The 25-year-old Oh is the son of a major-general, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported. But despite his privileged birth – he described himself as “upper class” – he felt no allegiance to the North’s leadership.

“Inside the North, people, and especially the younger generation, are indifferent to each other, politics, and their leaders, and there is no sense of loyalty.”

He was “indifferent” to the rule of Kim Jong-un, the third generation of the Kim family to lead the North, and had no interest in how his friends felt about it.

“Probably 80 percent of my generation is indifferent and has no loyalty,” he was quoted as saying.

[Sankei Shimbun]

North Korean defectors see uncertain future in Korean reconciliation

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As living examples of some of North Korea’s worst abuses, defectors have long been the public face of campaigns to pressure Pyongyang to change its ways. But amid international efforts to improve ties with North Korea, many of the 32,000 North Korean refugees in South Korea say they feel like political pawns, suddenly discarded.

One veteran journalist at the Chosun Ilbo, a major South Korean newspaper, was last month denied access by the South Korean government to cover a round of negotiations with North Korea because he was a defector. An official at the newspaper referred to an editorial saying the ban on the journalist was part of the government’s censorship and maltreatment of defectors for the sake of the inter-Korean thaw.

And the South Korean government has cracked down on defector groups who use balloons to send contraband and anti-Kim leaflets into North Korea.

And Choi Sung-guk, a defector who now draws cartoons about the life in North Korea, said he was asked to leave a radio show at TBS, a Seoul City-owned network supportive of the Moon administration, less than five minutes after criticizing Kim Jong-un.

“They asked how I felt about Kim coming to the South, and I said we should not be deceived by him because I don’t think he has changed,” Choi said. “But then my air-time was suddenly cut to one first sentence from what would have been a regular one hour otherwise.”

“The Moon administration is … unfortunately, cutting support for these marginalized groups and even trying to censor their voices,” said Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, who met dozens of defectors during a visit to Seoul last month.

Another defector, Heo Seong-il, sought asylum in the United States in August, after facing years of what he says was harassment by the South Korean government, including a three-year jail term on espionage charges he says were false. Heo had hoped for a better life after Moon was sworn in, only to realize things would get worse for defectors as the president pushed for peace with the North.

“When I was in the North, the South was my emotional support. I didn’t know it is a country where the government… can completely ignore a citizen’s life,” Heo, 36, told Reuters from the United States. “I would rather live like a hobo here [in the USA]. I don’t see a future in South Korea.”

[Reuters]

Lest we forget: Some scary statements about war with North Korea

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President Donald Trump just basically admitted that the US was very close to going to war with North Korea last year, during his Sunday interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace.

Trump’s statements show how seriously the president considered Pyongyang a threat last year. When Wallace asked Trump about the biggest decision he’s had to make as president, he referred to his discussion on North Korea because “we were very close.”

When he says “we were very close,” it’s fairly clear he’s referencing attacking the country to punish it over improving its nuclear arsenal, and he’s made references to how close the US and North Korea came to blows before.

That was seriously considered: Former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster advocated for military options within the White House, including a limited attack to deter Pyongyang from building more nuclear bombs. But instead, the Trump administration chose another way — the current diplomatic push between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — in part because Kim wants to reduce US-imposed economic pressure on his country.

It’s good news that both Washington and Pyongyang are currently talking instead of making imminent war plans. But while it’s comforting to know war is off the table for now, it’s not comforting to know that Trump had to think hard about that option.

And should diplomacy with North Korea not go as planned, it’s possible Trump will be faced with the same choice.

And here’s the bad news: Diplomacy with North Korea isn’t going well.

[Vox]

North Korean defector: ‘If you don’t have money or power, you die in a ditch’

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The North Korean soldier who was caught on tape making a dramatic escape through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to South Korea late last year has given some startling insights into life in the North, including the suggestion that the majority of young people there have no loyalty to Kim Jong Un.

Giving his first interview since his defection last November, Oh Chong-song told Japanese and South Korean media that he’s a “new person with a new name” in South Korea, and that one of the first things he remembers following his emergency life-saving surgery, was seeing the South Korean flag.

The then-24-year-old was shot around five times by his fellow North Korean soldiers as he made his daring escape across the line that divides North and South Korea. Riddled with bullets, he was dragged to safety by South Korean soldiers and hovered close to death during the 25-minute airlift to hospital. The South Korean military doctor who operated on him called him “a broken jar. We couldn’t put enough blood into him.”

He told Japanese newspaper Sankei, that the soldiers who shot him were his friends, but that he understood their position. “If they don’t shoot, they will be severely punished. If I were in their position I would have shot me too.” He said “trouble” with his army friends led to his decision to flee, but declined to elaborate.

He said he was hospitalized until February, and still goes to hospital regularly. He said the nerves in his arm were removed, so he “can’t feel it” when he pinches it.

Oh was born into a relatively well-off military family. He joined the military in 2010, becoming a middle-ranking officer who was working as a driver for a senior officer stationed in the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the DMZ.

Nevertheless, he said that hunger remained a big part of life in the impoverished country.  “If you don’t have money or power, you die in a ditch,” he said.

He added that widespread shortages of food and goods had led to a general apathy towards the leadership and an “indifference” towards leader Kim Jong Un. “People my age, about 80% of them are indifferent and they don’t feel loyal towards (Kim). Not being able to feed the people properly, but the hereditary succession keeps going on — that results in indifference and no loyalty.”

Oh, who was found to be infested with parasites when he underwent medical examination in the South, attributed to the use of human feces as fertilizer for the problem — saying that “most people have parasites” in the country.

[CNN]

What ever happened to the top level North Korean defector Thae Yong Ho, former North Korean deputy envoy to the UK?

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Thae Yong Ho, one of the highest profile North Koreans to defect in recent years, had hoped to visit New York last month to speak on a United Nations panel, meet U.S. envoys, and discuss human rights in the reclusive Asian nation.

A year ago, Thae testified before a Congressional committee. This time, however, Thae said the Americans told him they would not provide him with the security protection he was provided in the past, prompting him to cancel the trip.

“I just wanted to talk about the human rights issues, which are being neglected in the face of North Korea’s charm offensive,” Thae told Reuters. Human rights have been almost completely absent from this year’s flurry of diplomatic negotiations between North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and leaders in South Korea and the United States.

An activist involved in planning Thae’s aborted New York trip said it was a political decision. “If Thae goes there, Kim Jong-un’s image would surely get tarnished, and that will most likely come back to Trump who said he trusts Kim.”

Thae was North Korea’s deputy envoy to the United Kingdom and, after his high-profile defection in 2016, South Korea’s intelligence agency gave him a job at its affiliated think tank. But as Seoul pushed for a thaw in ties with the North, Thae left the think tank in May, saying he did not want to be a “burden”.

Soon after, Thae criticized Kim Jong Un during a press conference at the National Assembly, prompting Pyongyang to cancel high-level talks and blast the South for allowing “human scum” to speak.

[Reuters]