She reiterated her country’s opposition to the joint military exercises – which North Korea describes as preparations for invasion – saying: “The South Korean government yet again chose the ‘March of War’, the ‘March of Crisis’.”

Donald Trump’s high-profile meetings with Kim Jong-un failed to break the diplomatic deadlock – Getty Images

---

Many of us in Seoul have been expecting this. North Korea usually reacts when South Korea and the US carry out joint military exercises. Sometimes that is in the form of a missile test. On other occasions, such as this one, it responds to the so-called “war games” with a string of angry words.

Kim Yo-jong has been her brother’s favoured attack dog for a while and this statement is no exception. She aims at two targets in her remarks: the joint drills and the visit to Seoul by US secretary of state and the defence chief.

It at least lets Washington and Seoul know Pyongyang is watching and listening, despite not responding to the recent back-channel attempts by the White House.

Kim Yo-jong didn’t elaborate on exactly what North Korea would do if it didn’t like what it heard during these meetings. But she is saying – you have been warned.

North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are expected to be high on the agenda during this week’s visits to South Korea and Japan by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Mr Biden has already announced a policy review on North Korea, which is expected to be unveiled next month.

During the election campaign he called Mr Kim “a thug” and said North Korean nuclear disarmament had to happen before US and UN economic sanctions could be relaxed.

Relations between the US and North Korea plummeted in 2017, when the North tested long-range missiles capable of hitting American cities.

Tensions eased as President Donald Trump sought to develop a personal rapport with Mr Kim.

But much-trumpeted meetings – including summits in Singapore and Vietnam – failed to break the impasse over nuclear disarmament and sanctions.

---

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56410625

[Disclaimer]

The post North Korea: Kim Jong-un’s sister warns US not to ’cause a stink’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Seoul is being cautious while not taking changes given North Korea’s recent threats.

In response to North Korea blowing up an inter-Korean liaison building on Tuesday, South Korea’s military deployed tanks and other heavy equipped to the border and warned they would “strongly respond” if necessary. Since the beginning of June, North Korea has made a number of provocative threats including severing all contact with South Korea, and now South Korean President Moon Jae-in has shown a robust readiness to deter any further offensive action from the North.

“The government expresses strong regret over North Korea’s unilateral detonation of the inter-Korean liaison office building,” South Korea’s deputy director of the national security office, Kim You-geun told western media. “We sternly warn that we will strongly respond to it if North Korea takes any action.”

Seoul had spent $8.6 million to refurbish the joint liaison office, which had been used to help the two sides communicate even as North and South Korea have technically remained at a state of war since 1950.

After this latest setback, South Korea’s military has reportedly deployed tanks near the demilitarized zone—which stretches across the entire peninsula. While the exact type of tanks and armored vehicles—or even the total numbers—haven’t been stated, it is likely that these could include the domestically-produced K2 Black Panther, which is built and sold by Hyundai Rotem, an affiliate of the Hyundai Motor Group.

The Korean armored vehicles have been considered to rival other western-produced main battle tanks (MBT) and have been exported to partner nations including Poland. The tank, which has a crew of three including the commander, gunner, and driver, is equipped with an auto-target detection and tracking system, as well as a hunter-killer function.

Its main armament is a 120mm L/55 smoothbore gun with automatic loader, which ensures the loading of projectiles even when the tank is moving on uneven surfaces. It has a reported rate of fire of about 10 rounds per minute. Secondary armament of the K2 includes a 12.7 heavy machine gun and a 7.62mm machine gun.

The K2 MBT has a nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) protection system, while it is fitted with Composite Amor and Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA). The tanks active protection system was designed to address anti-tank rockets and missiles and includes soft and hard-kill systems. In addition, the tank’s compartment is equipped with a blow-off panel that is meant to protect the crew from the explosion of ammunition.

Mass production of the Black Panther began in 2013 and the first K2s were deployed with the Republic of South Korea’s military in June 2014. Currently, South Korea fields about 100 of the K2 tanks, while 106 are in production with an additional 54 planned.

While that would seem to be a reasonable amount of tanks for a nation the size of South Korea, given the political situation the country’s military still has a large force of K1A2 MBTs as well—and earlier this year the Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced plans to further improve the performance of those tanks. Those updates and improvements of the domestically-built tank began in 2014 and had been scheduled to continue until 2026.

South Korea operates 480 K1A2 MBTs, which were also built by Hyundai Rotem. Those tanks are armed with a 120mm, KM256 Smoothbore (L44) along with a coaxial 7.62mm machine, and a 7.62mm MG and .50-caliber MG on the top of the turret.

In addition to its domestically-built tanks, South Korea also operates more advanced Russian tanks than does the North Korean military. As The National Interest previously reported, “This situation came about in the 1990s after Russia inherited a $1.5 billion debt to South Korea. A deal was made: Russia would give many items of then top-of-the-line military equipment, in exchange for South Korea canceling 50 percent of Russia’s debt. Interestingly, this included the T-80U Main Battle Tank.”

While the T-80U lags behind the Korean-made tanks and has been kept in a relatively stock configuration, it was the most advanced tank on the Korean Peninsula when it first arrived. The 33 T-80U and two T-80UK tanks are being phased out—but should actual fighting commence on the peninsula it is likely those tanks will be sent to the front line to join the more modern South Korean built MBTs.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

Image: Reuters

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/south-korea-sends-tanks-and-troops-dmz-162966

The post South Korea Sends Tanks and Troops to DMZ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Despite a possible coronavirus outbreak in North Korea, the country has fired missiles off its east coast from the ground as well as fighter jets on Tuesday, according to South Korea’s military.

The back-to-back launches were reportedly fired as a show of force on the eve of North Korea’s late founder, Kim Il Sung’s 108th birthday, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un and parliamentary elections in the South.

During the first barrage, North Korean troops in Munchonto fired what were presumed to be cruise missiles, according to a statement by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. They flew roughly 93 miles off the coast, per a South Korean defense official.

North Korea has carried out short-range missile and weapons tests in recent weeks amid stalled nuclear talks with the U.S. Most of the weapons tested, however, were ballistic missiles or long-range artillery shells.

People watch a TV screen airing reports about North Korea’s firing missiles with file images of missiles at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 14, 2020. South Korea says North Korean fighter jets have fired missiles off the North’s east coast. \(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

The use of that type of projectile is unusual considering the country reportedly possesses just two known cruise missiles purposed for anti-ship operations, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.

If confirmed, it would be the North’s first cruise missile launch since June 2017, per the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Later on Tuesday, North Korea launched fighter jets which fired an unspecified number of air-to-surface missiles towards the same waters, the official added. Military drills had previously been scaled back in the North due to the coronavirus outbreak.

A test of a missile capable of reaching the U.S. homeland would end North Korea’s self-imposed moratorium on major weapons tests and likely completely derail nuclear diplomacy with the United States.

A photo distributed on Aug. 30, 2017, by the North Korean government shows what was said to be the test launch of a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

The post North Korea has fired suspected cruise missiles, South Korea says first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

President Moon Jae-in finished off his second year with his lowest approval rating yet. The fall is due to continuing economic hardship, growing concerns over the pace of reconciliation with North Korea and allegations of organized plots by Cheong Wa Dae to illegally monitor private civilians.

The approval rating of the President retreated by 1.2 percentage points to 45.9 percent, last week, according to the poll conducted by Realmeter of 2,011 people across the country. The result was released on Monday.

The polling results followed after a tumultuous year in which the President has tried hard to encourage a rapid reconciliation with North Korea, paying less attention to economic-related issues that have served to exacerbate divisions in the country.

The local pollster said the steady decline was mostly due to allegations that Cheong Wa Dae was operating special teams to “illegally collect” information on ranking government officials and high-profile executives at private companies. Moon’s office flatly denied the allegations by saying Kim Tae-woo, a former investigator who initially brought the issue to light, used the allegations to cover up his personal wrongdoings.

Moon’s popularity briefly hovered near 80 percent in May this year powered by his landmark summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

In this April 27, 2018, file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, and President Moon Jae-in cross the border line at the border village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). AP-Yonhap

At that time, the North’s leader vowed to dismantle his nuclear program, though the agreement made was vague and more symbolic.

Moon, who acted as a facilitator and negotiator in talks aimed at dismantling the North, persuaded Washington and Pyongyang to have their in-person meeting. While Trump did meet with Kim Jong-un in June this year, no substantial progress over the issue has been made since then.

As the denuclearization talks were stalled, the support rate declined to 53.1 percent in the second week of September hit by the worsening economic data. Moon’s popularity bounced back weeks later thanks to his meeting with Kim in Pyongyang but the rating has seen a decline since then.

The poll had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points and a 95 percent confidence level.

Source: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/12/356_261253.html

The post Moon ends 2018 with lowest approval rating first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

PYONGYANG PRESS CORPS POOL

South Korea is proposing that the United States hold off on a demand for an inventory of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and accept the verified closure of a key North Korean nuclear facility as a next step in the negotiations, Seoul’s top diplomat said in an interview with The Washington Post.

The plan is designed to break the impasse between North Korea and the United States as President Trump comes under mounting pressure to demonstrate progress on the denuclearization talks. It will be one of the options available to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he arrives in North Korea on Sunday to restart negotiations.

In exchange for the verified dismantlement of the Yongbyon nuclear facility, the United States would declare an end to the Korean War, a key demand of Pyongyang that U.S. officials have been reluctant to make absent a major concession by North Korea.

“What North Korea has indicated is they will permanently dismantle their nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, which is a very big part of their nuclear program,” South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said during a discussion at the South Korean mission to the United Nations. “If they do that in return for America’s corresponding measures, such as the end-of-war declaration, I think that’s a huge step forward for denuclearization.”

Sustained fighting in the Korean War ended with a truce in 1953, but a formal peace treaty has never been signed. In recent weeks, North Korea has demanded almost daily that the United States sign an end-of-war declaration.

U.S. negotiators have tried to get North Korea to provide a list of nuclear facilities and weapons they want dismantled but failed to secure an agreement even after Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore and three trips to North Korea by Pompeo.

On Tuesday, North Korea’s state-run broadcaster again called the demands for a nuclear inventory “rubbish.”

Kang said demanding a list at the outset risks bogging down the negotiations in a subsequent dispute over verification. As an example, she cited the deterioration of negotiations between North Korea and the George W. Bush administration after Pyongyang handed over thousands of pages of documents on its main plutonium-related facilities in 2008.

“The past experience shows that the list and the verification about the list takes a lot of back and forth, and I think the last time things broke down precisely as we were working out a detailed protocol on verification after we had gotten the list . . . We want to take a different approach” she said.

Stressing the importance of stopping the further production of nuclear materials at the Yongbyon facility, she added: “We will have to see an inventory at some point, but that some point can be reached more expeditiously by action and corresponding measures that give the two sides sufficient trust.”

Whether Seoul can persuade Washington to take up the proposed bargain remains to be seen. The State Department declined to comment on its willingness to delay demands for an inventory or declare an end to the Korean War.

related articles

S. Korean official estimates that N. Korea’s nuclear arsenal has 20-60 bombs

Pompeo backs away from denuclearization goal for North Korea

Hawks inside the Trump administration, in particular national security adviser John Bolton, remain skeptical of signing such a declaration out of fear that it will give North Korea and China justification to demand the removal of the 28,500 U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, people close to Bolton said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

Kang downplayed concerns about the declaration, emphasizing that it would be a purely “political” document and “not a legally binding treaty.”

Trump, according to diplomats familiar with the negotiations, is open to signing the declaration and may not be bothered by ensuing demands about U.S. forces given his long-standing complaint that the United States pays far too much to station troops in East Asia.

Analysts briefed on South Korea’s proposal offered mixed assessments.

“If the Yongbyon shutdown proves to be the first bite of the apple, it might be an OK starting point, but if it proves to be the only bite of the apple, it will be deeply unsatisfying – and totally reversible,” said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Duyeon Kim, a Korea expert with the Center for a New American Security, said the closure of Yongbyon would be a “welcome” and “tangible” step but noted that North Korea would still be able to expand its nuclear arsenal and fissile material production at covert facilities elsewhere in the country.

“It’s unrealistic to expect a comprehensive, completely accurate list from the get-go, but the administration should still insist that Pyongyang at least disclose all fuel-cycle-related facilities anywhere in the country,” she said.

On Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo would arrive in North Korea on Sunday but gave few details about the status of the negotiations. “Obviously these conversations are going in the right direction and we feel confident enough to hop on a plane to head there to continue the conversations,” she said.

The U.S. outlook on the negotiations has been difficult to surmise as Trump hails major accomplishments going on behind closed doors, while Pyongyang falls short of key U.S. demands, including providing its understanding of denuclearization and the number of weapons and amount of bomb fuel it has.

“If you saw what’s going on behind the scenes, I think you’d be very impressed,” Trump said last week. “I’ve received two letters from Chairman Kim . . . They’re letters that are magnificent in the sense of his feeling for wanting to get this done.”

North Korea has already signaled that it may drive a hard bargain during Pompeo’s fourth visit. Despite calling for the end-of-war declaration, the Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that the document “can never be a bargaining chip for getting the DPRK denuclearized” and that the United States must ease economic sanctions before North Korea takes steps.

“If the U.S. doesn’t want the end of war, the DPRK will also not particularly hope for it,” the news agency said in a commentary.

The North has also given Pompeo’s new special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, the cold shoulder, said U.S. officials, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. Last month, Pompeo publicly invited Pyongyang to meet with Biegun in Vienna at the “earliest opportunity,” but the request went unanswered and the North has yet to name a counterpart for Biegun, they said.

Kang, South Korea’s first female foreign minister, is trying to build momentum behind the U.S.-North Korea talks despite international skepticism that Kim is willing to surrender his nuclear arsenal.

In the process, she and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have fended off allegations of naivete from Japanese and American counterparts who say their belief in dialogue blinds them to Kim’s deceptive nature.

Kang said her government has no illusions about the nature of the Kim dynasty, a fact that guides her thinking on negotiating tactics.

“We know North Korea better than any party in this process,” she said. “We are as keen and perhaps as committed as anybody on getting to complete denuclearization . . . Naivete is certainly not something that would characterize my government’s approach to North Korea.”

Moon, a former human rights lawyer, and Kang, a former U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, have both come under pressure to underscore human rights violations in North Korea, which is accused of incarcerating tens of thousands of citizens in labor camps dedicated to political crimes among many other abuses.

Kang said Seoul supports efforts by the international community to advance human rights in North Korea but acknowledged that denuclearization is the most paramount concern for her country.

“The North Korean human rights situation is a global issue, and we are part of the global discussions,” she said. “There are times to raise these issues. Certainly not at this time, when we very much need to move forward on the denuclearization issue.”

Trump, whose advisers initially sought a quick deal with North Korea, told reporters last week he’s in no “rush.”

Kang said the remarks reflect the complexity of the negotiations. “I think there is a lot more understanding and appreciation of the difficulty of the issue,” she said. “This is a very advanced program, so you can’t just dismantle it or do away with it in a matter of a short period.”

Source: https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/south-korea-reveals-plan-to-break-stalemate-in-us-north-korea-talks-1.550274

The post South Korea reveals plan to break stalemate in US-North Korea talks first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.