Tag: Korean Peninsula

A New NK Wrinkle

Keeping with the ‘nuke’ meme of the day.

We are always hearing about the the NK missiles and nuke tests and now there is a new wrinkle in the North Korean arsenal…..an underwater nuke drone……

North Korea claimed Friday to have tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone designed to generate a gigantic “radioactive tsunami” that would destroy naval strike groups and ports. Analysts were skeptical that the device presents a major new threat, but the test underlines the North’s commitment to raising nuclear threats, the AP reports. The testing of the purported “nuclear underwater attack drone” was part of a three-day exercise that simulated nuclear attacks on unspecified South Korean targets, which also included cruise missile launches on Wednesday. The tests came as the United States reportedly planned to deploy aircraft carrier strike groups and other advanced assets to waters off the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said the new weapon, which can be deployed from the coast or towed by surface ships, is built to “stealthily infiltrate into operational waters and make a super-scale radioactive tsunami through an underwater explosion to destroy naval strike groups and major operational ports of the enemy.” The North Korean report came hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged to make North Korea pay for its “reckless provocations” as he attended a remembrance service honoring 55 South Korean troops killed during major clashes with the North near their western sea border in past years.

KCNA said that the drills were supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who condemned US-South Korean drills that finished Thursday as invasion rehearsals and vowed to make his rivals “plunge into despair.” The drone is named “Haeil,” a Korean word meaning tidal waves or tsunami. KCNA said the North’s latest tests were aimed at alerting the United States and South Korea of a brewing “nuclear crisis” as they continue with their “intentional, persistent and provocative war drills.” KCNA said North Korea’s latest drills verified the operational reliability of the drone, which it said the North has been developing since 2012 and tested more 50 times in the past two years, although the weapon was never mentioned in state media until Friday.

This ought to help fund more adventurism in the Korean Peninsula…..

This is worth a watch for future military commitments from the US.

Let’s see if this news gets as much attention as the Russian nukes in Belarus.  (Any bets?)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That North/South Thing Again

It seems that the animosities between North and South Korea are heating up once again….this has little to do with the recent missile fired over Japan that got them worried….this time it is in the waters off the peninsula.

North and South Korea exchanged warning shots Monday along their disputed western sea boundary—a scene of past bloodshed and naval battles—in a development that raises worry of possible clashes after North Korea’s recent barrage of weapons tests. South Korea’s navy broadcast warnings and fired warning shots to repel a North Korean merchant ship that violated the sea boundary at 3:42am, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. North Korea’s military said its coastal defense units responded by firing 10 rounds of artillery warning shots toward its territorial waters, where “naval enemy movement was detected.” It accused a South Korean naval ship of intruding into North Korean waters on the pretext of cracking down on an unidentified ship, the AP reports.

There were no reports of fighting, but the sea boundary off the Korean Peninsula’s west coast is a source of long-running animosities. The American-led UN command drew a boundary at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, but North Korea insists upon a boundary that encroaches deeply into waters controlled by the South. Among the deadly events that have happened in the area are the North’s shelling of a South Korean island and its alleged torpedoing of a South Korean navy ship, both in 2010. The two attacks killed 50 South Koreans. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean artillery firings Monday breached a 2018 inter-Korean accord on reducing military animosities and undermines stability on the Korean Peninsula. It said the North Korean shells didn’t land in South Korean waters but South Korea is boosting its military readiness.

 

 

Analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea said North Korea had likely intentionally plotted its ship incursion because it would be “unimaginable” for a North Korean merchant ship to cross the boundary that early in a day without the permission of the South’s military. The General Staff of the North’s Korean People’s Army accused South Korea of provoking animosities near their land border as well with its own artillery tests and propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts. South Korea has already confirmed it performed artillery firings last week as part of its regular military exercises, but denied that it resumed the loudspeaker broadcasts that both Koreas halted under the 2018 agreement.

Oh goody!

What will this cost the over-stretched American taxpayer to hep South Korea ‘protect’ itself from the aggression of the North?

Biden will promise them more aid, no doubt….like he always does.

This is such crap!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

North Korea–A Year Of Chaos

With the brouhaha going on in DC over whether to impeach or not the news from around the world gets very little attention….like the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

So much has happened while you were otherwise diverted…..https://lobotero.com/2019/11/20/north-korea-has-lost-that-loving-feeling/

More has happened in the last couple of weeks…..

The North and the South have been pushing agsainst one another….

Following South Korea opening fire on a North Korean merchant ship to chase it out of contested waters, North Korea has test fired its rocket launchers again on the east cost, firing two projectiles into the sea.

North Korea has repeatedly test fired their multiple rocket launcher system in recent months, though this is the first such test in November. South Korea condemned the test, saying they are stoking military tensions.

The test comes just a little over a month before the deadline between US and North Korea to get negotiations going again, and is likely to be seen as a reminder of that fact. New talks are seen as unlikely, with the US refusing to entertain new positions where North Korea gets anything in return for disarmament.

The US has so far not objected to the tests of rockets, with President Trump saying he doesn’t consider it a problem at all. North Korea has a massive amount of artillery to retaliate in the case of a US-South Korean attack, and has been trying to add rockets to that arsenal.

(antiwar.com)

Then the news came out that North Korea will soon deploy a “super missile launcher”…..

North Korean state media reported on the most recent test-firing of its “super-large” multiple rocket launcher, saying it was the “final review.” Since it was apparently successful it is expected there will be a deployment soon.

South Korea expressed ‘strong regret’ over the test, but doesn’t appear to be intent on doing anything beyond that. President Trump has not commented, but in the past expressed ambivalence about tests of short-range rockets.

North Korea has established its deterrence to attack around massive amounts of artillery aimed at South Korea, and the rocket launchers will even further add to their ability to project strikes if a fight begins.

Japanese PM Abe Shinzo condemned the North Korean tests, leading North Korea to mock him as “the most stupid man ever known in history” who can’t tell the difference between rocket systems and a missile.

Abe was complaining about ballistic missile tests, which North Korea hasn’t done in some time. The North Korean statement warned that “Abe may seewhat a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future and under his nose.”
(antiwar.com)

I have said many times that as a trained analyst I do not see whatever policies it is that Trump has in mind for the Korean Peninsula….all I see is chaos but just in case there is some sort of policy lurking just below the BS I think time is ran out for the implementation…..

North Korea has said the US has until the end of the year to come up with a new proposal to revive stalled diplomatic engagement between the two nations. US officials have similarly warned North Korea that time is running out, albeit without specific deadlines.

As a practical matter, these deadlines are all artificial and arbitrary, and the nations could engage whenever they want to. At the same time, many months have gone by without any progress, and the process is plainly growing stale for it.

It isn’t even that there are a slew of disagreements holding things up. Rather, there is a very specific issue: North Korea wants something in return for denuclearization, and the US just keeps demanding they denuclearize unconditionally, with hints they might get something in return eventually.

This had led to months of reiterating this position, boiling down to North Korea saying the US needs to offer a new approach, and no sign the US is even considering anything of the sort.

Again, the US could come forward with a proposal at any time, but the longer they ignore this one straightforward obstacle, the more it gives the appearance that the administration is content to let North Korea talks die on the vine, or would rather do that than make any concessions.

(antiwar.com)

The end of the year is quickly approaching…..what will the New one bring us in the form of the situation on the Peninsula?

Japan braces for the possibility of a rocket attack……

the North insisted it was testing a “super-large multiple-rocket launcher”.

On Saturday, state media said Japan “may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future”.

North Korea is banned from firing ballistic missiles under UN Security Council resolutions.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50613051

The chaos of 2019 will not be any better in 2020…..

“Imagine another two months of North Korean refusal to talk twinned with escalating insults directed at the president. Then an ICBM launch, with hints of more to come. At which point the president feels betrayed. Having personally embraced Kim, the president then personally feels the latter’s rejection. So Trump pens the opposite of a love letter to the Supreme Leader, with threats rather than concessions offered. To further increase the pressure, the North schedules a nuclear test. Democrats erupt with brutal criticism of the president, arguing that his weakness has triggered the latest crisis.”

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/2020-could-bring-us-north-korea-crisis-here-how-it-could-unfold-100102

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Now South Korea Is Angry

First NK is pissed and now we, the White House, have managed to piss off the South……

I have written that North Korea’s Kim has stated that he is finished with Trump and his brand to stupid (my term)……but Trump and the amateurs he hires have also pissed off the South Koreans…..

The huge $920 million annual fee South Korea has already agreed to pay the US for keeping troops in their country didn’t last long, as President Trump quickly upped the demand to an unprecedented level, approaching $5 billion.

On Monday, the US negotiator was upbeat to start talks, expecting a compromise to be reached. Tuesday the talks fell apart in a matter of minutes, as the US walked out as soon as South Korean officials resisted the massive increase.

This $5 billion annually is believed to be considerably more than the troops actually cost, and the Pentagon has defended the number publicly only on the grounds that South Korea could afford to pay it. Privately, the suggestion is that Trump came up with the number off the top of his head, and it became policy.

South Korean officials aren’t too happy, especially with how quickly the US walked out of the talks, and US officials are now saying they’re giving them time to “reconsider” the demands. South Korean officials warned the move shows signs of eroding trust.

There is also a sense among South Korean officials that this whole thing is a bluff by the US, noting that there has been no suggestion that the US might reduce troop levels or withdraw if they don’t get their way.

(antiwar.com)

Since they, South Korea, cannot make a deal with the US…their next logical step….CHINA.

The defence ministers of South Korea and China have agreed to develop their security ties to ensure stability in north-east Asia, the latest indication that Washington’s long-standing alliances in the region are fraying.

On the sidelines of regional security talks in Bangkok on Sunday, Jeong Kyeong-doo, the South Korean minister of defence, and his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, agreed to set up more military hotlines and to push ahead with a visit by Mr Jeong to China next year to “foster bilateral exchanges and cooperation in defence”, South Korea’s defence ministry said.

Seoul’s announcement coincided with growing resentment at the $5 billion (£3.9bn) annual fee that Washington is demanding to keep 28,500 US troops in South Korea.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-signs-defence-agreement-south-140554626.html

Trump may punish South Korea by removing some US troops from the nation….

South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper, quoting an unnamed US diplomatic source, says that President Trump is considering withdrawing 4,000 US troops from South Korea, and suggested the possibility of pulling out entirely, if South Korea doesn’t pay massive cost-sharing increases that Trump is demanding.

The US and South Korea agreed to a $920 million annual cost-sharing payment earlier this year, but Trump is now demanding $4.7 billion. South Korean officials have balked at that, and this week’s talks ended almost immediately with the US delegation leaving.

South Korean officials had previously downplayed the seriousness of the US demands, saying there was no sign the US was actually going to leave. It’s unsurprising, then, that US officials are leaking to South Korea’s press things that would benefit US negotiations.

US special representative to North Korea Stephen Biegun also bolstered this position, saying that he wants US troops to stay in South Korea but that “that doesn’t mean anybody gets a free ride.”

All of this suggests the US is going to push for Trump’s full $4.7 billion demand, though with South Korea having made defense agreements with China in recent days, the South Koreans are probably viewing US demands as less and less vital.

(antiwar.com)

Just another massive screw up by the amateur in the White House and the Toadies he hires.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

North Korea–Missiles And Other Stuff

For about a month now the North Koreans have rained missiles down into the Sea of Japan…..and yet our Supreme Leader tells us there is nothing to worry about or to see with these actions.

https://lobotero.com/2019/08/02/north-korea-a-missile-too-far/

https://lobotero.com/2019/08/13/north-korea-missiles-everywhere/

And yet again just a couple of days ago…..

The latest in a flurry of such test fires in recent months, both Japan and South Korea have reported that North Korea has fired a pair of rockets off their east coast on Saturday morning. The rockets landed in the sea, outside of Japan’s territorial water, and did no damage to anything.

Despite noting that nothing landed in their territorial waters, Japan was quick to caution ships to stay well clear of any debris from the rockets. The South Korean government would only say they are monitoring for additional launches.

These reports, and the fact that the rockets landed short of Japan, point to yet more short-range rocket testing. That has been virtually the entirety of North Korea’s recent tests, and US officials have shrugged them off as largely immaterial.

(antiwar.com)

His Majesty gets “beautiful letters” from Kim and yet Trump’s right hand Pompeo is not so popular with the North Koreans…..

North Korea’s foreign minister on Friday called US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a “poisonous plant of American diplomacy” and vowed to “shutter the absurd dream” that sanctions will force a change in Pyongyang. The North’s blistering rhetoric may dim the prospect for an early resumption of nuclear negotiations between the countries, the AP reports. A senior US diplomat said earlier this week that Washington was ready to restart the talks, a day after US and South Korean militaries ended routine drills that Pyongyang called an invasion rehearsal. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho made the comments to protest Pompeo’s remark in an interview with the Washington Examiner earlier this week that Washington will maintain crippling sanctions on North Korea unless it denuclearizes.

Ri said Pompeo is a “brazen” man because he “had begged for” North Korean denuclearization and improved bilateral ties when he visited Pyongyang and met leader Kim Jong Un several times. In April, North Korea demanded President Trump remove Pompeo from the nuclear negotiations. Ri said North Korea is ready for both dialogue and confrontation, but he warned that North Korea will try to remain “America’s biggest threat” if the US continues to confront the North with sanctions. South Korea, meanwhile, said it is terminating an intelligence-sharing deal with Japan that focused on classified information about North Korea, a surprise announcement that is likely to set back US efforts to bolster security cooperation in the region. Seoul attributed the decision to its bitter trade dispute with Japan.

Poison Plant?  Is that like a Noxious Weed?

There is other news from the Korean Peninsula than just the North Koreans…..

Appears the Japan is following in Trump’s demented shadow on trade….

South Korea said Thursday it is canceling an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan amid a bitter trade dispute, a surprise announcement that is likely to set back US efforts to bolster mutual security cooperation with two of its most important allies in the Asian region, per the AP. South Korea’s decision will further aggravate its relations with Japan, which are already at their lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1965. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Many experts had predicted that South Korea would be unlikely to spike the 3-year-old intelligence-sharing deal for the sake of its relations with the United States. As the New York Times notes, the US pushed for the deal partly to keep a better eye on North Korea’s military activity.

Neither Japan nor the US has responded to the move. South Korea’s presidential office said it decided to terminate the intelligence deal because Japan’s recent decision to downgrade South Korea’s trade status caused a “grave” change in security cooperation between the countries. In recent weeks, Japan has imposed stricter controls on exports to South Korea of three chemicals essential for manufacturing semiconductors and display screens—key export items for South Korea—and decided to remove South Korea from a list of countries granted preferential trade status. South Korea accuses Japan of weaponizing trade to punish it over a separate dispute linked to Japan’s brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Japan denies that, saying its steps were taken because of unspecified security concerns.

Has our president started a new “age of mercantilism”?  (Do I need to explain the term?)

 

Korea–WTF?

Over the weekend our Beloved Supreme Leader went to South Korea after the G20 meeting…..he even said something about a Nrth Korean visit while visiting in the South…..

President Trump is set to fly back to the US Sunday after attending the G20 summit in Japan, but he’s got one more thing on his list he’d like to do before he leaves: have a meet and greet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in the Demilitarized Zone. Reuters reports that the president first extended the invite to Kim in a Thursday tweet: “While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!” It’s unclear if such a meeting, which would be Trump and Kim’s third get-together in just over a year, is actually taking place, with a North Korean foreign ministry official calling it a “very interesting” idea, per the AP.

Let’s be honest….if Trump said there was a possibility then there will be a meeting…..and there was…..

With grins and handshakes, President Trump welcomed North Korea’s Kim Jong Un at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone Sunday, seeking to revive talks on the pariah nation’s nuclear program in a bid for a legacy-defining accord. Trump then became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea. “I was proud to step over the line,” Trump told Kim as they met in a building known as “Freedom House” on the South Korean side of the Panmunjom truce village. “It is a great day for the world.” Kim hailed the moment, saying of Trump, “I believe this is an expression of his willingness to eliminate all the unfortunate past and open a new future.” He added that he was “surprised” by Trump’s invitation in a tweet on Saturday.

As he stood beside Kim, Trump told reporters he would invite the North Korean leader to the United States, potentially even to the White House. “I would invite him right now,” Trump said. Kim, speaking through a translator, reciprocated that it would be an “honor” to invite Trump to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang “at the right time.” The photo-op, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two technically warring nations, marks a return to face-to-face contact between the leaders since talks broke down during a summit in Vietnam in February, the AP reports. But it does little to erase significant doubts that remain about the future of the negotiations and the North’s willingness to give up its stockpile of nuclear weapons.

I have one question…..these meetings are for what?  For North Korea to give up their nukes?  That will NOT happen….it is what keeps Kim in power at this point.

One more question…Trump is friendly with Kim who has nukes but is hostile to Iran that does not have nukes…this is moronic diplomacy.  He will not talk to Iran but will kiss the ass of a nation that has nukes and are looking for a delivery mechanism.

This is what we get when we give a person of low IQ the reins of power……confusion and obstruction…..and diplomacy is by photo op…….

Trump got what he needed….a win…..this photo op looks like he is a genius in foreign policy when it is NOTHING but a PR stunt.

007 North Korean Style

As usual there is always something in the news about Kim and North Korea and this week is no different…..

First, Kim and his Gang are getting antsy about their diplomacy with the Trump Gang……

North Korean state media has issued a new statement on Tuesday, reiterating the call for the US to “withdraw its hostile policy” toward North Korea and come up with new negotiation efforts.

The media has been pushing this increasingly in the past few weeks, as the one-year anniversary of the first Kim-Trump summit approaches. That summit went exceedingly well, though a failed Hanoi Summit in February has stalled the process since then.

With no progress in months, North Korean state media are increasingly emphasizing the need for a new approach, and warn that the US can’t continue its “arrogant and unilateral” policies and expect to get anywhere.

(antiwar.com)

Sanctions on North Korea…..56 nations are violating the sanctions according to the UN…….

The United Nations Panel of Experts on North Korea (or Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)), established pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1874 (2009), reports annually its findings and recommendations on the implementation of Security Council resolutions on North Korea. These reports list in detail cases of proven or alleged sanctions violations of the ten UN resolutions on North Korea that have been passed by the Security Council since 2006. This year’s report, covering the period February 2018-February 2019, mentions over a hundred new, continuing, or unresolved proven or alleged violations involving 56 countries, territories, and entities.2 Thirty-one of the 56 states listed in this report were allegedly responsible for multiple sanctions violations. Using data and findings from another Institute study, the Peddling Peril Index for 2019 (PPI 2019), which ranks all 200 countries, territories, and entities according to the effectiveness of their strategic trade controls, we also consider these 56 countries in terms of 1) their overall score under the index, and 2) the comprehensiveness of their export control legislation, which allows for a clearer picture of the weaknesses of those involved in or caught up in alleged North Korean sanctions violations.

The 56 countries involved in alleged violations during the reporting period, listed in alphabetical order, were:

Algeria*, Belize, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, China, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic of), Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, France, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, New Zealand*, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore*, South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Yemen (Houthi faction), and Zambia.

http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/56-countries-involved-in-violating-unsc-resolutions-on-north-korea-during-t

Now the spy novel stuff……

It seems that Kim’s half brother was an CIA asset….

Assassinated in February 2017 at a Malaysian airport, Kim Jong Un’s half-brother Kim Jong Nam has been revealed in new reports to have been a CIA informant, and had flown to the airport to meet with his CIA contact.

Once considered the heir apparent for Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Nam fell out of favor decades ago, with controversies centered around him trying to use a fake passport to sneak into Japan and visit Tokyo Disneyland. He had been living mostly in China since then.

While he was definitely a CIA asset, it was believed he had ties to several other countries’ spy agencies, including China. China never confirmed this, nor as of yet has anyone else.

How useful of an informant he would have been is less clear, however, as he was many years removed from being in North Korea, ad no noteworthy power base there, and was considered unlikely to have much information on the country’s inner workings.

(antiwar.com)

Finally, it is being reported that Kim used flesh eating fish to kill a general that had fallen out of favor……

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un borrowed an execution technique from a James Bond movie to rid himself of a top general, according to British media.

In the James Bond film, ‘You Only Live Twice’, antagonist Ernst Stavro Blofeld famously removes any opposition by releasing a trapdoor over a piranha-filled pool, causing the unfortunate victim to fall to a gruesome end.

Several British media outlets, including the Sun and the Star on Sunday, reported over the weekend that one of North Korea’s top generals suffered such a fate after displeasing Kim Jong Un, being thrown into a piranha-filled pool after having his torso and arms slashed with knives.

The general, not named by media sources, was reported to have been punished for plotting a coup. 

https://www.jpost.com/OMG/Kim-executes-James-Bond-style-punishment-for-General-592016

This is NOT verified….and if we wait long enough the general may well show up later as did the ones said to be dead by the MSM……https://lobotero.com/2019/06/03/the-purge/

Plus there is little accurate in the JPost…they just assist the West in the propaganda machine…….

Then more news reports on the DPRK……

The name of the report is an ominous-sounding one: “Mapping the Fate of the Dead.” And the contents of the report issued Tuesday by the Transitional Justice Working Group, a South Korean NGO, don’t belie its morbid title, detailing research dedicated to human rights violations in North Korea, including killings and burials. Among the findings: the identification of nearly 320 sites used for public executions that were often witnessed by upward of a thousand people, sometimes including young children of the people put to death, the BBC reports. The identification of the sites—which included prisons and labor camps, as well as locations near schools, markets, and sports sites—was based on interviews with more than 600 defectors. The executions, which stretched back decades, were prompted by everything from murder and attempted murder to more minor infractions like stealing copper and cows.

And while one person interviewed described a cheerier atmosphere at an execution witnessed in the ’60s, complete with a “festival” vibe and upbeat music, more recent state-sanctioned killings have served as a “core method of inciting fear and deterring citizens from engaging in activities deemed undesirable by the regime,” per the report. Most of the executions happened by firing squads, with some of those interviewed noting that the executioners appeared to be intoxicated. “Public executions are to remind people of particular policy positions that the state has,” Sarah A. Son, TJWG’s research director, tells the Guardian and Reuters, which couldn’t independently verify the report’s accounts. “But the second and more powerful reason is it instills a culture of fear among ordinary people.”

How accurate is this?  Or is this just another unverified piece of gossip?  This is all so silly at this point….what does all this unverified BS actually accomplish?

Stay Tune!

Turn The Page!

North Korea In The News!

I realize that our Beloved Supreme Leader has said that he trust Kim and that Kim would not break his word to Trump….and yet Kim has done just that…..

North Korea fired at least one unidentified projectile from the country’s western area on Thursday, South Korea’s military says. It was the second such launch in the last five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks could be in danger, the AP reports. The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had no other immediate details, and it wasn’t clear what the North had fired. But some analysts have said that if the North returns to the kind of longer-range banned weapons that it tested in 2017, when many feared a Washington-Pyongyang standoff could end in war, it will be a strong sign that a frustrated North Korea is turning away from diplomacy.

A summit earlier this year between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended in failure. North Korea wants widespread sanctions relief in return for disarmament steps that the United States has apparently seen as insufficient. Longer-range ballistic missile tests, banned by the United Nations and seen as threatening by surrounding countries, would likely result in more sanctions. The launch came hours after the North, through its state media, described its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile on Saturday as a regular and defensive military exercise and ridiculed South Korea for criticizing the launches.

Apparently North Korea has done what it does the best….Lie to American presidents…..and Trump is no different and may be the most gullible of the bunch…..

North Korea on Saturday tested a new short-range missile system and a multiple-rocket launch system, marking the regime’s first missile launches since November 2017. The tests reflect Kim Jong Un’s continued adherence to the regime’s longtime strategy of blackmail diplomacy, which seeks to secure sanctions relief without making meaningful concessions of its own.

The projectiles “landed in the water east of North Korea and didn’t present a threat to the United States or South Korea or Japan,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday. At the same time, he said, the United States remained committed to reaching a deal with Pyongyang to achieve its “final and fully verified denuclearization.”

The tested short-range missile is a new system (based on the Russian Iskander) for North Korea’s military. Both the missile system and the rocket system can now target major U.S. military bases in South Korea, namely the newly built Camp Humphreys and Osan Air Base and beyond.

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/policy_briefs/2019/05/07/north-korea-short-range-missile-test-reveal-kims-true-intent/

On another side of this situation…the US has walked out of the negotiations on the Korean War remains……

In a new sign of troubled relations with North Korea, the Pentagon said Wednesday it has suspended its efforts to arrange negotiations on recovering additional remains of US service members killed in the North during the Korean War. In a statement Wednesday, the Pentagon’s Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency said it has had no communication with North Korean authorities since the Hanoi summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un in February. That meeting focused on the North’s nuclear weapons and followed a June 2018 summit at which Kim committed to permitting a resumption of US remains recovery, which had been suspended by the US in 2005.

“As a result, our effort to communicate with the Korean People’s Army regarding the possible resumption of joint recovery operation for 2019 has been suspended,” the agency said. “We have reached the point where we can no longer effectively plan, coordinate, and conduct field operations in the DPRK during this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, 2019.” The agency had hoped to arrange for recovery operations this spring, but the North never agreed to face-to-face negotiations to work out details such as payments required for the provision of support services by the North Korean army, reports the AP. Last summer the North turned over 55 boxes of what it said were the remains of an undetermined number of US service members. Thus far, three American service members have been identified from those remains.

After writing this draft news broke that the US had confiscated NK’s 2nd largest cargo ship for sanctions violations…..

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48221507

I recall something that was used in the military and has now become mainstream……..the North Korea situation is…..SNAFU!  (the “F” does not stand for “Fouled”)

Denuclearization–Here And Now

Back in June Our Dear Leader met with Kim of North Korea and after a couple of hours we were told of the deal and desire to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

But first let’s tell everyone what the Hell the term means and to make it easier we have a short vid that will fill in the gaps……

The problem is that the two major parties may be using two different definitions to the term…..

With each passing day, the impending Trump-Kim summit takes another dip toward disaster.

In just a month or so, President Donald Trump will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, an unprecedented event of great risk and opportunity. Yet Trump, who leapt at the offer of a meeting with unstudied speed and enthusiasm, shows no signs of deciding what he wants from these talks—and seems unaware of what Kim’s quite clear objectives are.

As has been clear from the moment the subject came up, one obstacle to a successful summit is that both leaders are going into it with conflicting premises. Kim thinks Trump is caving to the reality of a North Korean nuclear arsenal; Trump thinks Kim is caving to the pressure of U.S. sanctions and threats. Both are probably right to some degree, but it’s hard to see how the talks can produce a lasting peace if each man thinks that he has the upper hand at the outset and that, therefore, any deal must be struck on his terms.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/trump-and-north-korea-are-using-different-definitions-of-denuclearization.html

It seems that the denucleariztion is not as important as it was in a speech given by Trump in June of this year.

In the latest twist in Donald Trump’s shifting strategy on North Korea, the U.S. president on Wednesday backed off a set timetable for Pyongyang to denuclearize, ahead of a planned visit next month to the North Korean capital by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“I think we’re really going to do something that’s going to be very important, but we’re not playing the time game” with North Korea, Trump said during a televised news conference in New York. “If it takes two years, three years or five months — doesn’t matter.”

Trump’s comments marked a stark contrast with a claim a week ago by Pompeo, who said that negotiations would lead to the “rapid denuclearization of North Korea, to be completed by January 2021,” before the end of Trump’s first term.

The administration had earlier given the North a one-year deadline to relinquish its nuclear arsenal.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/09/27/asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/trump-backs-off-timetable-north-korean-denuclearization-top-u-s-diplomat-announces-trip-pyongyang-next-month/#.W60GSPm1uM8

I have been watching this for awhile and do not see any progress….of course I am not privy to  the totality of the negotiations….but as far as I can see it is not going as planned.

Does anyone really think Kim will go it alone?

Speaking at the UN on Saturday, North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho warns that North Korea has taken significant goodwill measures toward disarmament in the past year, but does not see any corresponding moves by the US. That’s fueling mistrust.

That’s a problem, and Ri warns that there is no way North Korea is going to go through the entire disarmament process unilaterally without any trust in reciprocation. In particular, he warned there was concern about the US resistance to a phased process.

The US is not only resisting any efforts to offer any reciprocal goodwill efforts, and publicly saying they’ll do nothing until North Korea totally completes denuclearization. They are also pushing for increasing sanctions against North Korea, while other nations seek UN sanctions relief.

US officials argue that the sanctions are what got the process going in the first place, and more sanctions mean more progress. North Korean officials, however, are increasingly seeing this as not a give-and-take diplomatic effort, but just the US issuing increasing demands and giving nothing in return.

(antiwar.com)

Over the months the two, Kim and Trump, have fallen in love.  (Trump’s words not mine)

Above All–Peace

I have always heard people say that the US was the “purveyor of peace”….of course it is total bullsh*t for if a nation was truly dedicated to peace it would not go around the planet looking for a fight.

Recently Our Dear Leader held a “summit”(I think the idea that this meeting was a stretch of the use of the term) with North Korea’s Kim and has proclaimed that NK will get rid of all their nukes and the Peninsula will become a haven for peace…..

How true is that statement?

South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived on Tuesday in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang for the third summit of the year between the two Koreans. While the other visits were highly aspirational, this summit has a more direct goal – reaching a peace treaty.

Moon was very frank about this, saying “what I want to achieve is peace. Not a tentative change which could be volatile dependent on international situation, but irreversible, permanent, and unwavering peace, regardless of what might happen on the global area.”

That’s likely to be difficult, with the Trump Administration having made clear repeatedly in recent months that they aren’t willing to reach a peace deal yet, and are intending to hold that out as something North Korea can only get after years of additional concessions.

North Korea has resisted giving up any more without being certain they’ll get a peace deal, ending the Korean War that began in 1950. Likewise, South Korea’s President Moon has set himself up as wanting such a deal, with or without US endorsement.

This risks a split between the US and South Korea, as the two sides have seen differences shaping up in the past several months on how to approach North Korea diplomacy, and the US has increasingly chosen to negotiate independent of the wishes of its long-time allies in South Korea.

(antiwar.com)

This is where I am on this….any peace should be between the two Koreas….the US should facilitate but any peace agreement should be between the two Asian nations.

The M-IC will not allow a peace deal….after all a war footing makes for good business…..there is no profit in peace.

Turn The Page!

After writing this draft more news from the Korean Peninsula has broken…..

The leaders of the two Koreas have signed what President Trump calls a “very exciting” agreement on the second day of a three-day summit in Pyongyang. South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced in a joint press conference with Kim Jong Un that they had agreed to turn the peninsula into a “land of peace without nuclear weapons,” the Guardian reports. Moon said Kim had agreed to permanently close the Tongchang-ri missile launch facility in the presence of international experts, reports the BBC. The Yongbyon nuclear site could also be closed, depending on “reciprocal action” from the US. The leaders also agreed to file a joint bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics.

Trump praised the agreement in a tweet. Kim has “agreed to allow Nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts,” he said. “In the meantime there will be no Rocket or Nuclear testing. Hero remains to continue being returned home to the United States.” Analysts described the agreement as a small step in the right direction. “Remember that North Korea is still taking baby steps,” Melissa Hanham at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies tells Reuters. “We don’t have a timeline, and we also don’t have any guarantees about the larger nuclear and missile programs.”

Looks like the 2 Koreas are making head way……how long before the US craps on this progress?