A mass demonstration in Pyongyang on 9 September 2021 to mark 73 years since the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Kim Won-jin/AFP via Getty Images)

North Korea is again following its old playbook, alternating between extending an olive branch or thorns, diplomacy or missile tests, all with the aim to extract concessions from the United States and South Korea.

After South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in proposed to declare an end to the Korean War in his address at the United Nations General Assembly, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un, praised Moon’s offer as an “admirable idea”. However, just four days later, the North tested a new hypersonic missile that experts deem could evade existing missile defence shields and need much less preparation time. North Korea then conducted a new anti-aircraft missile test, even though Kim Jong-un then kept his pledge of engagement by restoring the inter-Korean hotlines cut in August.

Pyongyang is indicating to Biden that there is a window of opportunity for engagement, but he needs to act fast before it closes.

Although Pyongyang has increased the intensity of its missile tests in the past two weeks, it still abides by the moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests reached with the United States under former president Donald Trump, leaving the diplomatic route open. There are many reasons behind North Korea’s mixed signals, including advancing its missile technology in an arms race with the South, putting pressure on Seoul to persuade the Biden administration to lift sanctions, and consolidating its status as a nuclear power.

Another overlooked factor behind Pyongyang’s moves has to do with the Biden administration’s lack of detail and lukewarm diplomatic bid to engage North Korea. Via its mixed signals, Pyongyang is indicating to Biden that there is a window of opportunity for engagement, but he needs to act fast before it closes, especially when the South Korean presidential election is just around the corner.

Despite Biden’s willingness to engage the North diplomatically without preconditions, his administration has not come up with any concrete offers to back up its own olive branch. Since the release of the administration’s North Korea review in April, US officials have given the same response to all of North Korea’s provocations, that Washington condemns the actions but remains open to dialogue. The United States has prioritized caution over an elaboration of its North Korea policy and has often reluctantly followed Seoul’s initiatives rather than coming up with its own.

Joe Biden must decide whether he will adopt Obama’s approach of strategic patience towards North Korea or Trump’s all-out diplomacy (Cameron Smith/White House)

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TOKYO – US Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday (Nov 13) reaffirmed the need to work with Japan to maintain the sanctions campaign on North Korea until its denuclearisation, while also keeping up pressure on Tokyo to reduce its trade surplus with the United States.

The Vice President’s remarks on North Korea, made in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe beside him, came a day after a report by a US think-tank, Center for Strategic and International Studies, showed that Pyongyang was secretly moving ahead with its ballistic missile program with 16 hidden bases.

South Korea’s presidential office on Tuesday sought to play down the think-tank’s report, saying that the information was “not new” and that the New York Times had gone too far in labelling the North’s continued activity as a “great deception”.

“The sanctions will remain in full force until we achieve the final, fully-verified denuclearisation of North Korea,” Mr Pence said. “The United States, Japan and the world will accept nothing less.”

The denuclearisation process is at a crossroads amid pushback from China, Russia and South Korea on the question of sanctions. All three have now called for a gradual easing of sanctions, saying they are not constructive towards denuclearisation since US President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June.

A planned meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials in New York on Nov 8  was cancelled without any given reason. South Korea’s unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon departed Seoul on Tuesday for a five-day visit to the US.

Mr Abe, on his part, said: “North Korea has its own abundant resources and diligent workforce, and its denuclearisation will herald the dawn of a bright future. And on the premise of resolving the various problems, Japan and the US will continue to work together.”

Japan was Mr Pence’s first stop on a four-country tour of the region, which also takes him to Singapore and Papua New Guinea where he, along with Mr Abe, will attend multilateral meetings held in conjunction with the Asean and Apec summits.

The two leaders will also make a brief stopover in Australia after the Singapore leg.

On the issue of trade, Mr Pence said the US was looking forward to ironing out a bilateral deal with Japan, with an eye on slashing Japan’s trade surplus of US$68.9 billion ($95.3b). Talks are due to begin in January.

“The US has had a trade imbalance with Japan for too long,” Mr Pence said. “American products and services too often face barriers to compete fairly in Japanese markets. The best opportunity for free, fair and reciprocal trade will come in a bilateral trade agreement.”

Japan has said that the new Trade Agreement on Goods will be limited in scope, and that it will not consider any terms that are “detrimental to national interest”, nor any terms that go beyond what was agreed under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal that Mr Trump abandoned in his first act in office.

Mr Abe, speaking before Mr Pence, told the news conference that Japan will work with the US to “further expand bilateral trade and investment in a mutually beneficial manner.”

He also said he discussed the outcomes of his landmark visit to Beijing last month with Mr Pence, and that Japan and the US will cooperate to ensure constructive dialogue with China.

Meanwhile, the two leaders pledged to uphold their vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, which Mr Abe described as one “where big and small countries can participate and all countries can flourish”.

The US, Japan, along with Australia, are reportedly teaming up to finance infrastructure in such areas as energy and digital connectivity, from liquefied natural gas terminals to undersea cables.

The US and Japan on Tuesday pledged to jointly earmark up to US$70 billion in support of the endeavour, which Mr Abe said showed their joint commitment to the “economic development of the Indo-Pacific region that is free, open and based on fair rules”.

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North Korea has joined Iran, Sudan and Syria on America’s terror blacklist, a largely symbolic step as the administration already has the authority to impose virtually any sanctions it wants on Kim Jong Un’s government over its nuclear weapons development.

As part of its “maximum pressure” campaign, President Donald Trump said the Treasury Department would impose more sanctions on North Korea and “related persons” starting Tuesday, without hinting who or what would be targeted. The move is part of rolling effort to deprive Pyongyang of funds for its nuclear and missile programs and leave it internationally isolated.

“It will be the highest level of sanctions by the time it’s finished over a two-week period,” Trump said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday the pressure campaign was starting to bite in Pyongyang, which is already facing unprecedented U.N.-mandated sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Tillerson said anecdotal evidence and intelligence suggests the North is now suffering fuel shortages, with queues at gas stations, and its revenues are down.

The United States has been applying sanctions of its own as well.

In Tokyo, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed the move, telling reporters Japan supports the step as a way to increase pressure on North Korea. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang expressed concern.

Lu said Tuesday that the situation is “highly sensitive” and that it would be “helpful to bring all parties back to the negotiation table instead of doing the opposite.”

Da Zhigang, a North Korea expert at the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said the move “will arouse diplomatic reactions and hatred toward the U.S. from North Korea” and could even prompt the North to resume missile tests.

An editorial Tuesday in North Korea’s ruling party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, called Trump a “heinous criminal” who had insulted the dignity of the country’s supreme leadership and its socialist system during his recent visit to South Korea. The editorial, carried by the state-run news agency, threatened “merciless punishment.” It did not mention the terror designation.

In September, Trump opened the way for the U.S. to punish foreign companies dealing with North Korea. He issued an executive order expanding the Treasury Department’s ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with the North, and to ban them from interacting with the U.S. financial system.

Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow on Northeast Asia at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Treasury could be preparing more designations against North Korean entities related to the terrorism listing, or possibly Chinese or other companies violating the September order.

A potential target would be Chinese banks that serve as North Korea’s conduit to the international system. Such a move would irk Beijing, whose help Trump is counting on to put an economic squeeze on Pyongyang. China recently sent its highest-level envoy to North Korea in two years to discuss the tense state of affairs on the Korean Peninsula.

Tillerson urged China, which accounts for 90 percent of North Korea’s external trade, to take unilateral steps to cut fuel supplies to its wayward neighbor. China, which is calling for dialogue to ease the nuclear tensions, is reluctant to exert economic pressure that could destabilize the North.

Tillerson acknowledged a two-month pause in the North’s rapid tempo of nuclear and missile tests and said there was still hope for diplomacy. With tougher sanctions in the offing, he warned Kim, “This is only going to get worse until you’re ready to come and talk.”

The terror designation, however, is likely to exacerbate sour relations between Washington and Pyongyang that have turned uglier with name-calling between Trump and Kim. North Korea shows no interest in talks aimed at getting it to give up its nukes.

North Korea has been on and off the terror list over the years. It was designated for two decades because of its involvement in international terror attacks in the 1980s, then taken off in 2008 to smooth the way for nuclear talks that soon failed.

Source: https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/htonow/us-readies-new-sanctions-against-north-korea-individuals/article_d80c25d2-cede-11e7-954a-470066acde3a.html

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Merkel, whose conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDP) is currently leading in polls ahead of the national election on Sept. 24, listed a strong economy, low unemployment, and the introduction of a mandatory minimum wage as some of her administration’s achievements.

But she stressed that Germany is “at a crossroads now” especially in digital development and technological progress.

“We don’t want Germany to end in the museum of technology,” she told lawmakers , referring to the Berlin museum housing historical artifacts. The rest of the world “doesn’t sleep” when it comes to digitalization, she warned.

Pitching herself as the one who can deal with future challenges, she promised that if re-elected as chancellor, she would invest more money into research so that Germany would not fall behind on technological development.

Turning her attention to international affairs, Merkel condemned North Korea’s latest nuclear test as a “flagrant violation” of international conventions, but also said there can only be a “diplomatic and peaceful solution” of the crisis.

Merkel spoke by telephone Monday night with US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, expressing Germany’s support for tougher sanctions on North Korea, according to her office.

Turning to the issue of migration, Merkel said a summit between Europe and several African nations will be held later in the year, aimed at finding solutions to stem the flow of refugees by better addressing the causes that force people to flee.

Her speech came two days after the only televised live debate between Merkel and main challenger Martin Schulz of the center-left Social Democrats.

Merkel has been governing Germany in a coalition with the Social Democrats for the last four years. Both candidates have run lackluster campaigns, and Sunday’s debate was widely criticized because the two were seen as not being aggressive enough.

During the debate, both candidates refused to rule out continuing their current coalition at the national level after the election.

Source: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1156216/world

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