Tag: North Korea

North Korea And Nukes

While the mindless are focused on the so-called “Squad of Four” the world continues to suck….but that is alright we can start a new mindless chant.

We have all sorts of “good” news on North Korea at least according to Our Own Beloved Supreme Leader…..the most important thing that the Trump admin is thumping its chest over is the possibility that DPRK is that the nukes may soon be a thing of the past…….

The assumption that North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons, no matter the security guarantees or economic incentives, may finally be put to the test according to a report that the Trump administration is considering a groundbreaking diplomatic proposal to end its decades-long commitment to maximum pressure.

Based on comments from an unidentified source in the White House close to the diplomatic effort, Yeonhap News reported on July 11 that the Trump administration is considering an offer of 12-18 months of sanctions relief on critical coal and textile industries in return for North Korea dismantling its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon and a continued freeze on nuclear weapons development. The administration is also said to be considering a declaration ending the Korean War if Kim Jong-un’s government agrees to this proposal.

Why North Korea May Relinquish Its Nukes

But Not So Fast!

Seems the rhetoric is the same.

North Korea on Tuesday suggested it might call off its 20-month suspension of nuclear and missile tests because of summertime US-South Korean military drills that the North calls preparation for an eventual invasion, the AP reports. The statement by the North’s Foreign Ministry comes during a general deadlock in nuclear talks, but after an extraordinary meeting of the US and North Korean leaders at the Korean border that raised hopes that negotiations would soon resume. The comments ramp up pressure on the United States ahead of any new talks. “It is crystal clear that it is an actual drill and a rehearsal of war aimed at militarily occupying our Republic by surprise attack and rapid dispatch of large-scale reinforcements,” the foreign ministry of North Korea said, per Business Insider.

North Korea has had longstanding antipathy toward US-South Korean military cooperation, which the allies call defensive and routine but the North sees as hostile. At the dramatic June 30 meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump, the leaders agreed to resume nuclear diplomacy that had been stalled since their failed second summit in Vietnam in February. Despite the seeming mini-breakthrough, there has been little public progress since. North Korea wants widespread relief from harsh US-led sanctions in return for pledging to give up parts of its weapons program, but the US is demanding greater steps toward disarmament before it agrees to relinquish the leverage provided by the sanctions.

NK’s new constitution seems to refute the notion that they would give up their nukes….

North Korea released an amended version of its constitution last Thursday, in which the preface continues to identify the country as a nuclear weapons state. This language indicates that Kim Jong Un’s true intent for nuclear negotiations is to preserve his nuclear arsenal despite U.S. demands for verifiable denuclearization.

North Korea’s legislature, the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), revised the constitution when it met in April, yet Pyongyang did not release the full text of the revised document until last week. One notable change to the constitution is Kim Jong Un’s new status as North Korea’s official head of state, a position previously held by a figurehead. The SPA also deleted multiple references to the Songun, or “military-first,” policy of Kim’s father, former leader Kim Jong Il. This may point toward a stronger emphasis in Pyongyang on economic reforms and strengthening the nation’s science and technology sectors. It would be a mistake, however, to infer that Kim Jong Un is shifting his objectives away from national militarization.

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2019/07/15/amended-north-korean-constitution-reaffirms-kim-jong-uns-steadfast-faith-in-his-nuclear-arsenal/

Looks like Kim is trying to play Trump ….again.

It could work because this situation, the nukes and DPRK, is the only thing that he, Trump, has to offer the world as far as foreign policy goes.

The three key actors in the Korean Peninsula crisis are demonstrating why a solution should be anchored in an international coalition and international institutions. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un shows signs that he is ready to trade nuclear and ICBM capabilities for security and economic development. US President Donald Trump appears prepared to make a deal, but his advisors and political party oppose UN sanctions relief. And South Korean President Moon Jae-in has so far been unwilling to articulate and promote a deal that would attract Trump and Kim.

Time to internationalise diplomacy with North Korea

What Trump is doing with NK is not diplomacy but rather an ego trip…if it works I will be surprised and will give credit where credit is due.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

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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.

June 25, 1950

Closing Thought–25Jun19

That is the date when the North Koreans rushed South of the border….the day the Korean War began.

The Korean War? Some say that it was the first battle against communism (I disagree)…….a quick simple look at the war……

Though the Korean War started on this day 65 years ago—June 25, 1950—when North Korean tanks crossed the 38th parallel, the boundary with South Korea, TIME’s reporting from the following week reveals it took several days for the United States to realize the scope of what had happened.

It was early Sunday morning in Korea, the middle of Saturday afternoon in Independence, Mo. In the former, TIME reported, “North Korean radio broadcast war whoops” as “past terraced hills, green with newly transplanted rice, rumbled tanks.” In the latter, U.S. President Harry Truman was visiting with friends and supporters in his home state when he received a telephone call from Secretary of State Dean Acheson.

http://time.com/3915803/korean-war-1950-history/

https://www.history.com/topics/korea/korean-war

If reading is too difficult then this short video can help……

https://youtu.be/yxaegqvl4aE

My look into the past and the Korean War was made possible by something that I read (I am always finding something for I read a lot)……

North Korea already has China watching their back but it may be that North Korea will once again embrace Russia as it did in the early days of the Korean War……

Both Moscow and Pyongyang have common grievances with Washington and may work together to evade sanctions

It seems almost inevitable that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin at some point in the near future, possibly in the port city of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East.

The United States should be concerned.

Since this would be the first meeting between the two leaders since Kim came to power in 2011, the summit provides an important opportunity for both Russia and North Korea to advance their interests.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/will-cold-war-allies-russia-and-north-korea-be-reunited-50747

This is something I hope those “experts” on the Asia situations will keep this in their reports and intel…..but with this president I would not bet on anything at all.

Rush To Condemn

By that I am talking about the West’s belief in anything said about North Korea…..and then the lack of correction by the media after they make a false report….for instance….recently it was reported that North Korea’s Kim had executed his negotiator on nukes because of the failure of the Hanoi “summit”….and then the person in question was spotted a week later very much alive,,,,and that false report was not corrected by most of the MSM.

I have often question some of the claims by the government and their propaganda arm, the Mainstream Media….

Why do we so easily believe the false reports? Have we been programed to do so?

The American Conservative answers this question……

Perhaps the greatest bottleneck in creating a stable and self-sustaining peace regime on the Korean Peninsula isn’t North Korea’s nuclear weapons or missiles but something much simpler: making peace with what we feel in our hearts is “evil.”

Case in point: last week, a right-leaning South Korean publication, The Chosun Ilbo, published a bombshell story that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had “purged” Kim Hyok-chol, Pyongyang’s lead negotiator in working level talks leading up to the Hanoi summit, executing him a month later. Another even more senior official close to Kim himself, Kim Yong-chol, was “sent to a labor and reeducation camp.”

That’s big news. And from there it gets even more interesting. Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, had “not been spotted in public since the Hanoi summit” some 50 days ago, said a South Korean government official. She was reportedly ordered to “lay low.”

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-our-obsession-with-evil-north-korea-fed-fake-news/
 
Americans are easy to rush to condemnation…..they have had years even decades of programming to get the society pleasingly numb to reality.
 
The real story is the “Squid Wars”……this is a battle for squid harvest in the Sea of Japan…..
The Japanese coast guard says its patrol boats have been pushing back hundreds of North Korean boats trying to poach in fishing grounds rich with squid off Japan’s northern coast. Coast Guard officials say they have forced more than 300 North Korean boats out of Japan’s exclusive economic zone near Yamatotai since May, the AP reports. The patrol boats used water cannons on 50 North Korean boats that ignored warnings. Coast Guard footage obtained Tuesday showed North Korean crewmen on a wooden boat abandon a fishing rope after being sprayed with water. Japanese authorities have stepped up patrols in the area as North Korean poaching has surged in recent years. Experts say Pyongyang’s campaign to boost fish harvests has increased poaching by North Korean boats.
Have you ever smelled dried squid?

That “Beautiful” Letter

Love Letters In The Sushi….or More News From the Korean BBQ

As a person who worked as an analyst in the government I find the statements by this president as simplistic and probably bullshit.

I do not understand Trump’s warm feelings for Kim of the DPRK (North Korea)……my years working in DC I never heard anyone refer to a letter sent by a leader as “beautiful”……and yet it seems that most of Kim’s letters are just that…..

John Bolton told the Wall Street Journal that North Korea had not complied with the deal reached with the US during last year’s Singapore summit. President Trump spoke hours later, however, defending Kim Jong Un, and insisting that he had “kept his word.”

“He kept his word. There’s no nuclear testing. There’s no large, there’s no long-range missiles going up,” Trump insisted. He added that all North Korea had done was very short-term, short-range tests, and that he considers those a “whole different deal.”

Trump also reported that he had received a “beautiful” letter from Kim, calling it “very warm” and expressing confidence that the two sides would eventually be able to reach an agreement.

Trump and Kim had a very positive meeting in Singapore last year, but the February Hanoi Summit ended in failure. Since then, there has been no visible progress on talks, and North Korean state media has expressed growing impatience, calling on the US to try a new approach.

The big obstacle has been that North Korea’s commitment to eliminate its nuclear arsenal is expected to take quite some time, but the US has so far ruled out any easing of sanctions or international hostility toward the North Koreans until the entire process is completed. Since the US has continued to increase sanctions in this time, many in North Korea are doubting if the US is approaching this with honorable intentions.

(antiwar.com)

Then he made another silly statement….he said that he would not use a family member as a CIA asset….seriously?  There is NO better source of accurate intel than from a family member…but not to Trump…..

President Trump has responded to reports earlier this week that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un’s slain half-brother Kim Jong Nam had worked as a CIA informant before his 2017 murder, saying he would never allow that to happen while he is in office.

Trump told reports on the South Lawn that when he speaks to Kim “I would tell him that would not happen under my auspices, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices.”

Technically, it already did. Kim Jong Nam was killed in Malaysia in February 2017, after Trump took office, and it is believed he flew to Malaysia to meet with his CIA contact. While the CIA’s use of him started before Trump took over, it clearly didn’t end with his election.

In reality, Trump likely believes that disavowing this tactic against Kim would be a way to try to gain his favor in future talks. Diplomatic progress with North Korea in 2018 was significant, but has all but halted in 2019. Trump has remained confident he will make more progress with Kim, with whom he seems to have quite the rapport.

(antiwar.com)

This is amazing…..I have talked with friends that handled Asia in the past and they cannot comment any further than to shake their heads in disbelief.

Does Trump have any idea what the CIA does for a living? 

What is in it for Trump to treat Kim like a ally?  Who will make the cash off this relationship?

This is all too damn silly for words…or it would be if it were not so damn pathetic.

Not to worry….this docu-drama is not over yet.

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!

The Purge

This is not a belated movie review….no this time it is the news that Kim of North Korea is purging his people that have failed him…..again!

North Korea executed its nuclear envoy to the United States as part of a purge of officials who steered negotiations for a failed summit between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, a South Korean newspaper said on Friday.

Kim Hyok Chol was executed in March at Mirim Airport in Pyongyang, along with four foreign ministry officials after they were charged with spying for the United States, the Chosun Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified source with knowledge of the situation.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-purge/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-carrying-out-purge-after-hanoi-summit-collapse-chosun-ilbo-idUSKCN1T02PD

This is a typical move for the North Korean leader, right?

How many times have we heard about such a move from the Supreme Leader of North Korea?

Is this good solid reporting or just another hit piece?

A South Korean newspaper reported Friday that North Korea executed a senior envoy involved in nuclear negotiations with the U.S. as well as four other high-level officials. But as ever with North Korea, a country that closely guards its secrets, there are reasons to be cautious about the purported purge.

While North Korea hasn’t used its propaganda services to comment, the report in the conservative Chosun Ilbo daily could be true. North Korea has previously executed scapegoats to atone for high-profile political flops, and the most recent summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump ended in failure, leaving Kim embarrassed on the world stage.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amid-reports-of-north-korean-envoy-purge-south-koreas-spotty-scoop-record-raises-caution-2019-05-31

I have often said that some of the claims about North Korea were not completely accurate…at least in my mind.

I am not siding with North Korea…just saying that not all that is reported is as good as it should be…..after years of doing analysis of international situations I have learned that all that is reported is not necessarily as accurate as it should be.

Here is why I say this……

A senior North Korean official who had been reported as purged over the failed nuclear summit with Washington was shown in state media on Monday enjoying a concert alongside leader Kim Jong Un. North Korean publications on Monday showed Kim Yong Chol sitting near a clapping Kim Jong Un and other top officials during a musical performance by the wives of Korean People’s Army officers, the AP reports.

Is this true or is it wishful thinking?

Why report a report that cannot be verified if not to be used as a propaganda tool?