Korea

Mystery CIA Officer Thrust Into Spotlight as Korea Summit Looms

The lightning diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea before next week’s historic summit has thrust a little-known CIA officer into an uncomfortably public role as a key intermediary in talks between the two adversaries.

After years working on North Korea at the Central Intelligence Agency, Andrew Kim has been thrust into the spotlight accompanying Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in key meetings with Pyongyang officials. He took part in President Donald Trump’s Oval Office meeting with a senior North Korean envoy last week and has helped prepare the president for his June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

The unusual public role has given Kim, who was raised in South Korea, extraordinary influence over the administration’s approach to the summit and the North Korean nuclear threat more broadly. Just as Pompeo has become Trump’s right-hand man on the Korean talks, twice meeting with Kim Jong Un this year, Andrew Kim has found himself in a similar role for the secretary of state.

Korea

A Window into North Korea

The original route of the Koryo Saram, the Korean people who migrated to the Russian Far East over 155 years ago from the province of Hamgyong in the very north of then-unified Korea, now stretches from the modern states of North Korea into the Russian Federation.

Both the symbolic and de facto border separating the Choson dynasty-run Korea from the neighboring Qing dynasty-dominated China and the Russian Empire back then was (and still is) the Tumen river or Tumangangin Korean.

Leaving Tumangang behind and carrying out this historical one-way crossing – never to return back again – became the physical and philosophical countdown for Koryo Saram as a diaspora and the cornerstone of their self-identification as overseas Koreans based in the former Soviet Union and originating from the Far Eastern Russia.  

Nonetheless, this subconscious longing for Korea runs through the genes of the Koryo Saram and manifests in an acute curiosity toward the present-day DPRK, where their ancestors originally came from. As a researcher of the overseas Korean diasporas and the descendant of the Koryo Saram myself, this was a personal journey.

This particular voyage was a first for foreign tourists: boarding a regular North Korean passenger train all the way from Pyongyang to Vladivostok, crossing the present-day DPRK-Russia border over the Tumen river in the actual North Korean town of Tumangang and arriving at Khasan.

We traveled the DPRK for a week, first from west to east – from Pyongyang to Hamhung – and then all the way up north along the coastline and to the very edge of the East Korea Bay – past the towns and fishing villages of South and North Hamgyong – to Kimchaek and Chongjin as well as the free economic area of Rason located on the present-day tri-border over the Tumen river.

Korea

The inter-Korean agreement and Pyongyang's offer to Trump

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stepped up his peace offensive, playing a familiar game with his own particular flair. This week, South Korean presidential envoys returned to Seoul with news of having reached a six-point agreement with Pyongyang. South Korean national security advisor Chung Eui-yong then delivered the message to President Donald Trump that Kim Jong-un hopes to meet him soon—an invitation Trump accepted. The New York Times reported Thursday that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Trump would “meet with Kim Jong Un at a place and time to be determined. We look forward to the denuclearization of North Korea. In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain.”

It is certainly good news that the first-ever US-North Korea summit could take place this year. But the future remains uncertain and highly complicated because of their fundamentally opposed positions on the nuclear issue and many intertwined and complex regional issues.

Pyongyang’s latest overtures show that Kim wants to portray himself as a bold leader of a normal, peace-loving nuclear power who is willing to deal only with Washington—not Seoul—on the nuclear issue. 

Korea

Kim Jong Un Becomes First North Korean Leader To Cross DMZ Into South Korea

Kim Jong Un became the first North Korean leader to cross the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone into South Korea on Friday morning.
Kim was met by South Korean President Moon Jae-in ahead of the historic inter-Korean summit set to take place throughout the day. The two leaders are expected to discuss the potential denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and efforts to forge a peace treaty between their countries.
Experts, however, remain skeptical about the meeting, with some warning that the North will not give up its nuclear arms easily.
As Kim crossed into the South, he shook hands with Moon before bringing his counterpart back over the border to the North for another handshake. They then held hands and crossed back into the South, where Kim was met with an honor guard.

Korea

What North Korea Tells Its People

If Donald Trump manages to stride into North Korea and meet Kim Jong-un, for once his tweets and non sequiturs at rallies in Rust Belt states will not precede him – at least for the North Korean public. In a country with miniscule rates of international internet access and some of the tightest censorship controls in the contemporary world, what the North Korean people see and read is different in the extreme from our dominant narratives.

How have North Koreans been encouraged by their state to perceive the developments of the last 10 weeks? As of writing, the country’s media is keeping silent on the prospect of a Kim-Trump summit, a tactic that is not all that surprising given the sheer amount of sensitive work there is to do behind the scenes. An examination of North Korean public media since the beginning of 2018 nevertheless has its benefits. It reveals a few aspects of what Kim is ultimately looking for with the overall charm offensive that has been ongoing since the beginning of 2018, and how North Korea looks to manage its information strategies relative to diplomacy and internal control in the months ahead.

Korea

North Korea offers talks with United States on curbing nuclear program

North Korea suggested it was open to talks with the United States that could include steps to curb the North’s nuclear program, a top South Korean envoy said Tuesday after landmark meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

There was no immediate word from Washington on the prospects for such outreach with the North.

But the offer, apparently endorsed by Kim himself, would mark a significant turnabout after years of nuclear tests and advances in missile technology that apparently puts the U.S. mainland within range.

Previously, the Trump administration has said it would consider talks with North Korea if it conceded to “denuclearization.”

Korea

Trump threatens North Korea of rough day, amid new sanctions

On Friday, as the Trump administration in the U.S. slapped more sanctions against North Korea, Trump issued a threat against the reclusive regime, warning it of a "very rough day.”

The Trump administration issued harsh new sanctions against the rogue state, hitting over 50 vessels, shipping companies and trade businesses with sanctions.

The sanctions were the latest action by the U.S., and were slapped in a bid to turn up the pressure on North Korea over its nuclear program, a senior administration official said.

Meanwhile, addressing reporters, Trump spoke about the danger of the North Korean regime's program and threatened dire consequences if the country did not end its nuclear provocations.

Trump said, "Phase two may be a very rough day. Maybe very, very unfortunate for the world."

For over two years now, North Korea has been developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

As North Korea led several provocative nuclear missile tests, Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchanged taunts that have raised fears of war on the Korean peninsula.

Korea

Former SecDef Hagel: North Korea bloody nose strike a ‘gamble’ he wouldn’t make

Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel calls the option of a unilateral first strike on North Korea a “gamble” with millions of lives — one that he would urge the Trump administration against.

“Let’s be smarter,” he said in an exclusive interview with Defense News.

“If you want to bet that if you are going to attack North Korea, however you going to do that, and think that Kim Jong Un and the North Koreans are not going to retaliate — it’s a pretty big gamble,” Hagel said. “I wouldn’t want to take that gamble.”

“I wouldn’t do it. I don’t think you can do that,” added Hagel.

The question of a “bloody nose” strike — where the U.S. would be able to strike militarily against the regime of Kim Jong Un to send a message, without triggering a full-scale war — has risen to the forefront of the North Korean crisis in recent weeks. Proponents argue that such a move would deter Pyongyang from further missile tests, while opponents believe it would trigger a devastating, expansive conflict.

Korea

How the intelligence agencies wildly underestimated North Korea's nuclear capabilities: Trump was told he had YEARS before there would be a missile capable of hitting the US

American intelligence agencies initially believed that North Korea was still years away from developing a missile that could reach the United States - but may have gotten their predictions wrong, a new report claims.

When President Donald Trump first took office almost a year ago, intelligence agencies told the new administration that they had at least four years to come up with a plan to slow or stop North Korea's development of an atomic bomb that was capable of striking US soil, the New York Times reports.

Agency officials believed the East Asia country's leader Kim Jong un faced a wide range of issues that would give Trump and his administration more than enough time to negotiate or look into countermeasures.  

Korea

US May Be Preparing Preemptive Strike Against North Korean Nuclear Sites

It’s no secret that the US military has been gradually amassing firepower on the Korean Peninsula since Pyongyang began testing a range of ballistic missiles in April, triggering a US military buildup across the border in South Korea. Now, it appears the Pentagon is preparing its forces there for a potential nuclear strike against North Korea.

The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber, the two planes comprising the "air leg" of the US' nuclear triad, have both been deployed to the Korean Peninsula. Furthermore, Business Insider reported that the B-2s may soon be equipped with modified B-61 nuclear bombs.

The B-61 thermonuclear gravity bomb has been the US' low yield strategic and tactical nuclear bomb of choice since the 1960s. Its compact design was recently modified to increase its penetrative potential so that it can better strike at underground targets — where most of North Korea's nuclear arsenal is believed to be.

Korea

The Intelligence Community Is Not Solely to Blame for North Korea

The Kim regime got this far, so the narrative goes, because the intelligence community was working on outdated and stale assumptions about the technology the North Koreans were using and underestimated Kim Jong-un’s devotion to developing an operational nuclear weapons arsenal. The Timesplaces the blame on the backs of the analysts, supervisors and collectors of Washington’s vast intelligence bureaucracy.

But what about the policymakers responsible for resolving the North Korea problem before it got out of control? They too deserve a healthy dose of critique—it is the policymakers, not the spooks, who run U.S. foreign policy. Pointing the finger at the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency for not connecting the proverbial dots, while a favorite Washington tradition (see: Iraq and weapons of mass destruction), lets the men and women who craft policy off the hook too easily.

If the spies and analysts at Langley and Fort Meade were unable to pick up red flags at critical junctures of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development, the policymakers were unable to think outside the box. The lack of imagination on North Korea in the policy world is stunning.

Korea

Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, attended secret meeting on North Korea

During the meeting, the group discussed the newly-resumed communications between North Korea and South Korea. They also agreed that these renewed communications – and agreement for North Korea to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea next month -- are diversions and have no effect on North Korea leader Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons program, the sources said.

All sides agreed on the need to increase pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear program.

Last month, during a speaking appearance in California, McMaster said the possibility of war with North Korea increases every day the problem over its nuclear program isn’t solved.

Korea

Koreas agree military talks to defuse border tension

North and South Korea have agreed to hold military talks to defuse border tension, after their first high-level meeting in two years.

The North will also send a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games taking place in South Korea in February.

Agreement was also reached to reinstate a military hotline suspended two years ago, the South's government said.

However, the North's delegation was negative on the subject of denuclearisation, the South added.

The United States gave a cautious welcome to the meeting.

The state department said the US remained in close consultations with South Korean officials who would ensure the North's participation in the Winter Olympics did not violate UN sanctions.

Korea

North Korea's other weapons: Expert warns nukes aren't biggest concern

North Korea’s nuclear program has long triggered condemnation – including the U.N. Security Council’s recent decision to apply some of the toughest sanctions in history – but is something far more lethal lurking in the Hermit Kingdom’s arsenal?

"They have a large stockpile of chemical weapons, but the one that gets the least attention, and that I worry most about, is their biological weapons program," said Andrew Weber, the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Chemical and Biological Defense Programs from 2009-2014.

When it comes to biological weapons, Weber said, just a tiny amount can bring incredibly lethal results. "Ounces or pounds would be enough. You can have millions of lethal doses of anthrax in a several-pound quantity... With smallpox, maybe just a few grams."

One of the biggest concerns when it comes to chemical or biological warfare - a concern that Weber and the White House seem to share - is the fact that these incredibly lethal attacks can easily be "cloaked in deniability," and difficult to trace back to the perpetrator. Weber pointed out that “it takes just one or two people to covertly deliver a strategic biological weapons attack.”

Korea

North Korea declares sanctions ‘ACT OF WAR’ and vows to bolster terrifying nuclear arsenal

The rogue state accused the international body’s moves as “tantamount to complete an economic blockade”.

North Korea’s foreign ministry said: "We define this 'sanctions resolution' rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region and categorically reject the 'resolution'.

“North Korea's nuclear weapons are a self-defensive deterrence not in contradiction of international law.

"We will further consolidate our self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at fundamentally eradicating the US nuclear threats, blackmail and hostile moves by establishing the practical balance of force with the US.

Korea

Kim Jong-un has nuclear chief executed for test delays and tunnel collapse, according to reports

North Korea may have executed the official in charge of its nuclear test site facilities, in the second reported execution of a high-ranking party apparatchik in the space of a week.

Park In-young was the head of North Korea’s Bureau 131, a division of the ruling party’s Central Committee tasked with the supervision of military facilities such as the Punggye-ri underground nuclear test facility and the Sohae Satellite Launching Station.

Citing a defector, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported that he may have been punished over delays to the sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3. It was reportedly originally planned for the spring but was postponed due to delays in the tunnel construction.

Korea

N. Korea: Trump taking dangerous step to nuclear war by seeking naval blockade

US President Donald Trump is taking an "extremely dangerous" and "big step" towards nuclear war by seeking a naval blockade, North Korea has stated, according to the official KCNA news agency.

Pyonyang also said it will take "merciless self-defensive" measures against any blockade, as it would consider such a move an "act of war." The North Korean government also believes any blockade would be a "wanton violation" of its sovereignty and dignity, KCNA reported, citing a foreign ministry spokesman. 

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson previously mentioned the "right to interdict maritime traffic transporting goods" to and from the North, following Pyongyang's latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test on November 29. 

Pyongyang also lashed out at the possible US move in a commentary on Sunday in the communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun.

Earlier on Thursday, Russia's President Vladimir Putin warned that North Korea now finds itself in a position where it "doesn't see any other way for self-protection rather than developing weapons of mass destruction and missile technologies." Having reiterated that Moscow in no way supports Pyongyang's nuclear program, the Russian leader stressed that the Kremlin calls for steps by all sides towards a peaceful solution.

Korea

Here’s why North Korea’s economy is able to survive sanction after sanction

The Trump administration has sought to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program by passing tougher and tougher sanctions designed to punish its economy. A new study shows why that isn’t working.

A whopping 49 countries have violated UN Security Council sanctions imposed on North Korea between March 2014 and September 2017, according to a report from the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonpartisan Washington think tank focused on nuclear non-proliferation.

Drawing from UN data, the study found that countries ranging from poor and isolated nations like Angola to wealthier global powers like Germany have ignored a wide variety of measures banning economic activity and military ties with the hermit kingdom.

It’s already difficult for the US to pass harsh sanctions against Pyongyang at the UN because China and, to a lesser extent, Russia, have watered down or vetoed Security Council sanctions because they want to prevent North Korea from becoming too unstable or collapsing.

Korea

Engaging North Korea II: Evidence from the Clinton Administration

The Clinton administration made plans for war against North Korea during the 1994 nuclear crisis.  While U.S. officials believed they could “undoubtedly win,” however, they also understood “war involves many casualties,” according to documents posted today by the George Washington University-based National Security Archive.

President Bill Clinton’s negotiators took a tough stance in meetings with North Korean leaders, including warning of “serious, negative consequences” if Pyongyang  continued to pursue its “unacceptable” missile program.  At the same time, the administration decided flexibility was critical given the unpredictability of events, including the prospect that a “starving North Korea” might create a “dangerously chaotic situation.”

Today’s posting features declassified cables, background papers, and reports of meetings involving former Defense Secretary William Perry, other senior Americans, and North and South Korean officials.  Together, the documents describe key moments and thinking during the course of the complex negotiations of the 1990s.  Perry and others had hopes the incoming Bush team would carry the effort forward (as Colin Powell indicated they would), but President Bush quickly informed President Kim he would be terminating all talks with the North.

Korea

Tyres, triumph and threats follow N Korea missile test

Responding to joint US-South Korean military exercises this week, a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country said "insane President Trump is running wild... stunned by North Korea completing the state nuclear force".

The military drills will be followed by "merciless retaliation", the spokesman said.

Another KCNA report refers to "the greatest glory of Kim Jong-un who frightened old lunatic Trump and his stooges" over his completion of North Korea's nuclear force.

These statements are echoed by Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry, which said on Saturday that "the Trump team is begging for nuclear war", claiming the its missile programme exists to "maintain an effective balance of force" between the US and North Korea.

With North Korea in a celebratory mood following its "victory", the world's eye are now on how the United States responds to this increased level of threat and insult.