In recent years, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen a massive buildup in Pyongyang’s ballistic missile program, with dozens of tests in a year, including long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles that could in theory reach the United States mainland.

International sanctions and UN investigations into North Korea’s illegal weapons program have previously been backed by Russia. But relations between Moscow and the West are at a historic low over the war unleashed on Ukraine. Facing increased international ostracism – and acute ammunition shortages – Russian President Vladimir Putin has grown more reliant on North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un.

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Source: https://us.cnn.com/2024/03/29/asia/russia-veto-un-sanctions-north-korea-intl-hnk/index.html

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The North’s 14th known weapons test this year comes days before the South’s new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, takes office on May 10. North Korea’s last test, on April 16, involved a new tactical guided weapon aimed at boosting its nuclear capability.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch at about noon in the Sunan area of the North’s capital of Pyongyang, home to an international airport and the area from which the North said it had fired its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Hwasong-17, on March 24.

The missile flew about 470 km (292 miles) to a maximum altitude of 780 km (485 miles), the JCS said.

“A recent series of North Korea’s ballistic missile launches poses a grave threat to the peace and stability of not only the Korean peninsula but also the international community,” the JCS said in a statement, urging the North to immediately stop such actions.

The offices of both outgoing and incoming South Korean presidents strongly condemned the launch, with Yoon’s team vowing to strictly respond to such actions and devise “more fundamental deterrent measures”.

The United States also condemned the test and repeated calls on Pyongyang to return to dialogue over its nuclear and missile programmes.

“Like the DPRK’s recent tests of at least three intercontinental ballistic missiles, this launch is a clear violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions,” a State Department spokesperson said.

Referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name, it said the launch showed the threat the weapons programmes pose to the country’s neighbours and the region.

The U.S. military urged Pyongyang to refrain from further destabilizing actions. “While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or that of our allies, we will continue to monitor the situation,” it said in a statement.

In Seoul, officials and experts said it was too early to say if the latest test involved another ICBM.

Lee Jong-sup, Yoon’s pick for defense minister, told his confirmation hearing it “might be an ICBM or something with a shorter range.”

Japanese deputy defense minister Makoto Oniki put the missile’s range at 500 km (311 miles) and its maximum altitude at 800 km (497 miles). He said the ministry was still analyzing the data to determine its type.

A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-metre tower in North Korea’s propaganda village of Gijungdong, in this picture taken from the Tae Sung freedom village near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), in Paju

“North Korea’s recent action, including frequent missile launches, cannot be tolerated, as it poses a threat to the security and safety of the region and international community,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters, adding that Japan had logged a protest against North Korea.

ANOTHER TEST OF SPY SATELLITE?
When he oversaw a huge military parade last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to hasten development of the country’s nuclear arsenal amid stalled denuclearization talks with the United States.

In its March 24 test, the North’s first full-capability launch since 2017, a missile flew 1,080 km (671 miles) to an altitude of 6,200 km (3,900 miles), with a flight time of 71 minutes, the JCS said.

Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy expert at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the launch possibly involved technology for satellite reconnaissance systems, which the North tested in February and March.

Cheong Seong-chang, a specialist on North Korea at the Sejong Institute think tank in Seoul, agreed.

“Today’s range and maximum altitude was similar to those recorded in the two previous tests, but showed progress in its capability,” Cheong said.

Wednesday’s test came as South Korean and Japanese nuclear envoys held talks in Seoul, urging the North to stop escalating tensions and return to diplomacy, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.

China’s nuclear negotiator, Liu Xiaoming, also met Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun, who called for Beijing’s constructive role in stabilizing the situation, the ministry said.

Ahead of Yoon’s inauguration, he is mapping out a foreign policy agenda after signaling a tough line against Pyongyang, while leaving open the door for dialogue.

Lee, a retired former deputy chairman of JCS, told the hearing he would beef up South Korea’s deterrent capability to “sternly” respond to the North’s nuclear and missile threats.

After breaking its 2017 moratorium on long-range missile testing, North Korea may also soon resume nuclear tests, officials in Seoul and Washington say.

Asked at the hearing about a potential new nuclear test, Lee said preparations seemed to be under way, possibly for a smaller, tactical nuclear weapon.

Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi and Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo and David Brunnstrom and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Gerry Doyle and Paul Simao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkorea-fires-projectile-towards-sea-off-east-coast-says-skorea-2022-05-04/

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The early-morning launch came as the United Nations Security Council met in New York to discuss last week’s test of what Pyongyang called a hypersonic missile, although Seoul has cast doubt on that claim.

After an emergency meeting, South Korea’s national security council expressed “strong regret over the launch,” according to a statement from the president’s office.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters it was “extremely regrettable that North Korea continues to launch missiles.”

The United States Indo-Pacific Command issued a brief statement identical to the one it issued in response to last week’s launch.

Tuesday’s statement said in part that, “While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies, the missile launch highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s illicit weapons program. The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad.”

There were no immediate reports of damage to Japanese aircraft or vessels, according to Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno.

“(The suspected missile) is estimated to have flown approximately up to 700 kilometers (435 miles) and landed outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone,” he said.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had been fired from land at around 7:27 a.m. local time Tuesday (5:27 p.m. EST on Monday).

Pyongyang didn’t issue any immediate claims about its latest test.

The second one in a week came after six countries, including the United States and Japan, urged North Korea Monday to cease “destabilizing actions” ahead of a U.N. Security Council closed-door meeting. France, Britain, Ireland and Albania joined the call for North Korea to “engage in meaningful dialogue towards our shared goal of complete denuclearization.”

CBS News’ Pamela Falk at the U.N. said the six nations’ joint statement, delivered by U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, condemned North Korea for the latest missile test, which it said demonstrated the isolated nation’s “determination to expand its unlawful weapons capabilities,” which in turn heighten the “risk of miscalculation and escalation and pose a significant threat to regional stability.”

Analysts said Pyongyang had likely planned the latest launch to coincide with the U.N. meeting.

“North Korea continues testing to diversify its nuclear arsenal, but it timed the launch on the day of the UNSC meeting to maximize its political impact,” Shin Beom-chul, a researcher at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, told AFP.

The frequency of testing indicated Pyongyang could be fitting in the launches ahead of the Beijing Olympics next month, said Park Won-gon, a professor at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

North Korea has been barred from the Beijing Winter Olympics after skipping the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games over COVID-19 concerns, a move Pyongyang has blamed on “hostile forces.”

In the decade since leader Kim Jong Un took power, North Korea has seen rapid progress in its military technology at the cost of international sanctions.

In 2021, nuclear-armed North Korea said it had successfully tested a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile, a long-range cruise missile, a train-launched weapon, and what it described as a hypersonic warhead.

South Korea has cast doubts over Pyongyang’s hypersonic claims, saying last week’s test represented limited progress on the regime’s existing ballistic missiles.

A second hypersonic test so soon could indicate last week’s launch was actually a failure, said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

“It’s hard to understand why they would carry out another test less than a week after they announced a success,” he added.

The Associated Press cited some experts as saying the latest test may have been Pyongyang’s reaction to Seoul downplaying last week’s test.

Hypersonic missiles move far faster and are more agile than standard ones, making them much harder for missile defense systems — on which the United States is spending billions — to intercept.

They were listed among the “top priority” tasks for strategic weapons in North Korea’s current five-year plan, and it announced its first test – of the Hwasong-8 – last September.

The tests come as North Korea has refused to respond to U.S. appeals for talks.

At a key meeting of North Korea’s ruling party last month, Kim vowed to continue building up the country’s defense capabilities, without mentioning America.

Instead of policy positions on diplomacy, for which Kim’s New Year statements are closely watched, he focused on food security and economic development.

Dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang remains stalled and the country is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The impoverished nation has also been under a rigid self-imposed coronavirus blockade that has hammered its economy.

CBS News’ Lucy Craft says the regime’s work on even more advanced rockets, including harder-to-intercept, trajectory-shifting hypersonic glide missiles, have caused particular alarm in Tokyo.

Japan’s so-called “peace constitution,” written in the wake of its defeat in World War II, restricts its armed forces to self-defense only. But as North Korea accelerates its weapons development, Japan has announced that it’s considering a fundamental shift in its governing document that would grant its military the ability to strike enemy targets, including missile sites.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-ballistic-missile-launch-second-week/

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More than a dozen tear gas canisters and stun grenades landed in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, as police and protesters faced off inside the walled compound that surrounds it, said an Associated Press photographer at the scene. Smoke rose in front of the mosque and the iconic golden-domed shrine on the site, and rocks littered the nearby plaza. Inside one area of the compound, shoes and debris lay scattered over ornate carpets.

Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.CREDIT: AP

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A South Korean delegation left for Iran on Thursday to negotiate the early release of an oil tanker and its crew seized in strategic Gulf waters this week.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps troops on Monday stormed the South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi as it navigated the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and forced the vessel to a nearby Iranian port.

Iranian officials said the vessel was seized for violating maritime environmental laws as it was carrying 7,200 tons of “oil chemical products.”

The Guards said they arrested crew were from South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Myanmar.

“I plan to meet my counterpart at the Iranian Foreign Ministry and will meet others through various routes if it will help efforts to resolve the issue of the ship’s seizure,” Koh Kyung-sok, the chief delegate, and the director-general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s Middle Eastern affairs department, was quoted as saying before boarding the plane to Tehran.

The strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman

Tensions spiral in the Gulf

Iran’s seizure of the tanker came after Tehran had urged Seoul to release the $7 billion (€5.7 billion) of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea under US sanctions.

The money was frozen in South Korean banks after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from a multilateral agreement which limited Tehran’s nuclear enrichment activities in exchange for a relaxation of international economic and financial sanctions.

President Trump then slapped unilateral trade and financial sanctions on Iran.

The US had initially provided South Korea with a waiver to avoid implementing the new sanctions, but those lapsed, essentially forcing Seoul to freeze the Iranian assets.

Iran’s move to seize the vessel also coincides with Tehran’s announcement that it will increase the level of uranium enrichment at its Fordo nuclear facility to 20%, well above that agreed to with several countries, including the US, until Trump’s withdrawal from the deal in 2018. Uranium enriched to 90% is required to fuel nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes.

Meanwhile, January 2 marked the one-year anniversary of the assassination of General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, in a US drone attack.

Tension between the Islamic Republic and the United States has been running high in recent weeks, as Tehran marked the assassination, and Washington deployed military assets to the region, including the return of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and repeated sorties of pairs of strategic B-52 bombers over the Persian Gulf.

Concerns over the potential for a military confrontation between the US and Iran have been voiced from several quarters over the past few weeks. President Trump threatened Iran over a rocket attack by Tehran-backed Iraqi militants near the US Embassy in Baghdad on Christmas Eve.

Iran has responded to the US military moves, with its Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accusing Trump of manufacturing a pretext to attack Iran in the waning hours of his administration.

The crisis also follows the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on November 27, an attack still shrouded in mystery.

Washington has deployed more military assets to the Persian Gulf, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz

A lot of uncertainty

All this adds up to a lot of moving parts and a lot of uncertainty, says Cheong Wook-sik of the South Korean NGO PeaceNetwork. Like most observers, Cheong places little credence on the validity of Iran’s “pollution” justification for seizing the oil tanker.

He suggests the move is more likely designed to generate leverage over the US in terms of a potential return to the Iranian nuclear agreement (formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA), initially negotiated when incoming US President Joe Biden was vice-president, and a supporter of the deal concluded under President Barack Obama.

“For South Korea to release the $7 billion in Iranian funds held in South Korean banks it would require some type of waiver from implementing the US sanctions, or for the US to return to the JCPOA,” Cheong told DW, adding: “The Iranian government also hopes the South Korean government will ask the new incoming Biden administration to lift the economic sanctions against Iran.”

Although there is significant concern frequently voiced in the public sphere over the potential for Trump to initiate a crisis in his last days in office, the incoming Biden administration provides hope for a significant drawdown of tension, said Cheong.

Changes in US policy will be required, he pointed out.

“In order to revive the Iranian nuclear deal, the United States, especially the new administration, should lift economic sanctions and return to the Iranian nuclear deal. At the same time, Iran should stop the enrichment of uranium fuel to 20% at the Fordo facilities,” he said. “These two things should be done simultaneously. If so, the Iranian frozen assets issue can be resolved, and the seized South Korean ship returned.”

A mediating role?

South Korea may represent a perfect intermediary between the US and Iran. South Korea had imported a significant portion of its oil from Iran prior to United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed before negotiating the JCPOA deal. Also, historically, Seoul has had good diplomatic relations with Tehran for decades. Cheong views the ship seizure very much through the lens of geopolitical strategy.

“The Iranian government wants to send a message to the United States, that if the United States does not lift economic sanctions, the Iranian government can exact revenge on US allies such as South Korea. At the same time, South Korea can play some kind of mediating role between Iran and the United States on these issues.”

Still, the risk of a military flare-up is there. The seizure, the enrichment, and the anniversary, says Cheong, “can trigger reactions from Israel and the United States.”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has argued for a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, suggesting the increase in enrichment provides evidence Iran is seeking nukes and not nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes.

Although South Korea said it is committed to resolving the ship seizure issue diplomatically, that resolution will likely require the involvement of Washington and the next US administration.

“I hope that the Biden team sends some message — officially or unofficially — after its inauguration on January 20 … to seek dialogue with the Iranian government for resolving the current issues peacefully, such a message would weaken the hardliners in Iran, Israel, and the United States and strengthen the doves,” said the PeaceNetwork director.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/south-korea-iran-oil-tanker-sanctions/a-56156528

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BEIJING (REUTERS) – The leaders of Japan and South Korea will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday (Dec 23), amid heightened concern that North Korea may be about to return to confrontation with Washington.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Mr. Xi separately before going to the south-western city of Chengdu for a trilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Though various economic matters will also be on the agenda – as well as tensions between Seoul and Tokyo – North Korea appears likely to dominate the agenda.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a meeting of top military officials to discuss boosting the country’s military capability, state news agency reported on Sunday.

North Korea has set a year-end deadline for the United States to change what it says is a policy of hostility amid a stalemate in efforts to make progress on their pledge to end the North’s nuclear programme and establish lasting peace.

Mr. Kim and US President Donald Trump have met three times since June 2018, but there has been no substantive progress in dialogue while the North demanded crushing international sanctions be lifted first.

On Saturday, the state media said the US would “pay dearly” for taking issue with the North’s human rights record, and said Washington’s “malicious words” would only aggravate tensions on the Korean peninsula.

US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun met two senior Chinese diplomats during his two-day visit to Beijing last week, following similar meetings in South Korea and Japan days earlier, as diplomats made last-ditch attempts to prevent a new confrontation.

Beijing, jointly with Russia, proposed last week that the United Nations Security Council lift some sanctions in what it calls an attempt to break the current deadlock and seek to build support.

But it is unclear whether Beijing can convince Seoul and Tokyo to break ranks from Washington, which has made its opposition clear and can veto any resolution.

Though South Korea sees China as instrumental in reviving negotiations, it has so far sidestepped questions on whether it supports the new proposal by Beijing and Moscow. Japan, which has historically been a staunch supporter of sanctions against North Korea, has also refrained from commenting on the proposal.

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/chinese-president-xi-jinping-to-meet-japan-south-korea-leaders-as-north-korea

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The meeting between the two leaders – which follows their Singapore summit last June – is scheduled to be held in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on Feb 27 and 28.

Attention has been focused on whether the American team will offer to lift some economic sanctions on North Korea, in return for the Pyongyang regime taking concrete steps towards denuclearisation.

“It is time for us to tighten our shoe strings and run fast, looking for a higher goal as we face this decisive moment,” the Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial.

“Our country is facing a significant, historic turning point,” it added, without explicitly referencing the summit.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump tweeted that North Korea will become a “great economic powerhouse” under Mr Kim. “He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him and fully understand how capable he is,” said Mr Trump.

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We know who our friends are. Source: DPA

Donald Trump is making an intolerable show of himself in Europe. Not only has he cast doubt on America’s commitment to mutual defense under NATO; the US president has also unilaterally withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany and the European Union.

Since then, the Trump administration has unilaterally imposed an embargo on goods deliveries to Iran from any third country, including the other signatories of the agreement. Foreign firms that continue to conduct business in Iran now face the threat of sanctions, and banks that process transactions risk losing access to the US financial system.

Meanwhile, the US has been threatening similar action with respect to the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that will run from Russia to Germany. Congress is considering legislation that allows the Trump administration to impose sanctions on European firms taking part in the project, even though these companies are contractually obliged to see the work through. And, according to Gerhard Schröder, a former German chancellor who now chairs the pipeline project, the US ambassador to Germany has been acting more like an “occupation officer” than like a diplomat.

All told, the Trump administration’s disruptive behavior has left the French and German governments furious. But, beyond fueling anger, Trump’s attacks on other countries’ sovereignty are adding momentum to a new push for European political unification.

Vassals? Not us

It is no secret that Europe is in the midst of an internal economic crisis — a result of the euro saddling southern euro-zone countries with high inflation prior to the 2008 financial crash, which severely reduced their competitiveness within the euro system. These problems have led to the emergence of Euroskeptic nationalist parties and movements across the continent. More recently, the European project has been weakened further by the United Kingdom’s decision to withdraw from the EU.

Against this backdrop, Trump’s actions are actually something of a godsend, because they have forced Europeans to accept that they must stand together in defense of their sovereignty and prosperity. A union of almost 450 million people (after Brexit) cannot allow a country two-thirds its size to treat it like a group of vassal states.

Accordingly, both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared this month that they support the need to create a joint European army. The best way to understand this effort, said German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen, is as an answer to Trump’s demand that Europeans spend more on defense.

Of course, von der Leyen knows that the formation of an independent European force isn’t really what the US president had in mind. But the German establishment credibly maintains that a European army is meant to supplement and strengthen NATO. The trans-Atlantic alliance will be no less necessary than it was before, nor will European citizens regard their American counterparts with any less sympathy and fellow feeling. The deep historical ties between the US and Europe remain unchanged; everybody knows there will be an America after Trump.

Political union to the fore

Better yet, Europe is once again pursuing political unification with vigor and a sense of collective purpose, and that is how it should be. The European project has long suffered from giving economic integration pride of place while pushing political unification to the backburner. Indeed, France, Italy, the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), and Germany had agreed to form a European army as early as 1952 under the Framework of the European Defense Community. But the French National Assembly never ratified that treaty, so it never entered into force.

Then came the Maastricht Treaty, which offered a second chance for a political union. Yet France stood in the way once again. The French supported membership of the euro, because they wanted the Mediterranean countries, including themselves, to be able to borrow at the same low rates as Germany on the capital markets. But they successfully resisted the creation of a political union, which is predicated on a central state with a joint army and monopoly on the use of military force.

If France is now serious about merging national armies into a joint defense force under a central EU command — rather than just an intervention force for its former African colonies — Macron could well secure his place in the history books. There is much work to be done. But if it happens, he will have Trump to thank.

Source: https://global.handelsblatt.com/opinion/europe-military-force-hans-werner-sinn-983056

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