News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs.
1. The U.S. Military and South Korea Must Train to Deter North Korea
2. South Korea to Pay U.S. More Under New Troop Cost-Sharing Agreement
3. U.S. Commander Skeptical on North Korea’s Claim of New Missile
4. World powers ignoring North Korea crimes against humanity: UN expert
5. Blinken: No Iran Funds from S. Korea Before Nuclear Compliance
6. Wary U.S. to consult allies on North Korean problem
7. Top U.S. Officials to Promote Peace and Security During Visit to Asia
8. Coming Soon: Joe Biden's North Korea Policy
9. Biden's deal with Seoul points to a swift shift on alliances
10. North Korea Will Soon Begin Coronavirus Vaccinations
11. Ministry vows to keep close communication with int'l community on anti-Pyongyang leaflet ban
12. COVID contributed to ‘starvation’, executions in DPR Korea, Rights Council hears
13. Movement for Myanmar democracy forms…in Korea
14. Is there hope for human rights reform in North Korea with Joe Biden as President?
15. Diplomats say U.S.-South Korea relations 'reinvigorated' under Biden
16. A Harvard professor argued that Korean women forced into sex slavery in WWII did so voluntarily. Now he's facing a backlash
17. Blinken's remarks deepen Korea's Iran dilemma
18. Playing games with war games (Korea)
19. Unification minister makes rare visit to wartime command bunker amid military exercise with U.S.
1. The U.S. Military and South Korea Must Train to Deter North Korea
19fortyfive.com · by David Maxwell · March 10, 2021
My latest OpEd attempting to explain ROK/US combined training. The editor at 19FortyFive changed my boring title: "Placing the ROK/U.S. Combined Exercises in the Proper Context."
2. South Korea to Pay U.S. More Under New Troop Cost-Sharing Agreement
WSJ · by Michael R. Gordon
This is what causes confusion. The WSJ gets it wrong. The ROK government will pay the Korean workers who support US forces, It will pay for construction of designated facilities (funds going to Korean construction companies). And it will pay for sustaining facilities (with funds going to utilities companies). The ROK Government is not "paying" the US for US troops. No funds are being transferred from the ROK government to the US Treasury. The ROK government is not paying a "fee" for the stationing of US forces. This is a cost sharing agreement based on the Status of Forces Agreement. One of the reasons why there was such friction and the long stalemate in the SMA negotiations previously is because the US was making demands that were outside the scope of the SOFA and the Korean side rightly balked. This agreement is within the scope of the SOFA and its about cost sharing. We need diplomats in Korea and the US to execute a Public Affairs campaign to correctly explain it and inform the Korea and American people why this is good for them.
3. U.S. Commander Skeptical on North Korea’s Claim of New Missile
Bloomberg · by Anthony Capaccio · March 10, 2021
The commander is right to be skeptical but we should also consider this. The north has surprised us in the past with having more advanced capabilities than we have assessed. The second is Kim may want to respond to this because he is being called out by the commander. He may feel he should show us something in response.
I am sure we have sufficient ISR resources focused on determining these capabilities as well as observing for potential provocations. But we should always keep in mind the regime is masterful at denial and deception.
4. World powers ignoring North Korea crimes against humanity: UN expert
The Korea Times · March 11, 2021
Human rights is a national security issue in addition to being a moral imperative. Note that Tomas Ojea-Quintana wants to refer Kim Jong-un to the International Criminal Court.
But we need to have a human rights upfront approach toward north Korea. We cannot neglect the suffering of the 25 million Koreans in the north. We must understand that Kim remains in power by denying human rights to Koreans in the north.
5. Blinken: No Iran Funds from S. Korea Before Nuclear Compliance
voanews.com · by VOA News
6. Wary U.S. to consult allies on North Korean problem
washingtontimes.com · by Guy Taylor
My comments in the article.
7. Top U.S. Officials to Promote Peace and Security During Visit to Asia
english.chosun.com · March 11, 2021
Excerpts:
“Austin begins his trip on March 13 with a visit to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii. He later visits India for a meeting with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and other top national security officials to discuss "deepening the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership" and ways to achieve a "prosperous and open Indo-Pacific and Western Indian Ocean Region."
Blinken will also emphasize the importance of a free press during the trip, signaling a reversal from former President Donald Trump's frequent outbursts against journalists and press freedoms.
Blinken will host a virtual roundtable with "emerging Japanese journalists" to discuss "the role of a free press in promoting good governance and defending democracy." Blinken also meets virtually with Korean journalists to discuss the importance of the U.S.-Korea alliance in promoting peace worldwide.
Blinken and Austin's visit to Asia comes as the Biden administration has indicated the need to counter China's aggressive actions in the East China Sea and after Blinken said on March 3 that the relationship between the United States and China is the world's "biggest geopolitical test" of the century.
8. Coming Soon: Joe Biden's North Korea Policy
The National Interest · by Ethen Kim Lieser · March 10, 2021
A couple points. I hope there is a strong public affairs campaign to accompany the announcement.
In conjunction with the announcement and explanation of the new policy I would make some personnel announcements (after all personnel is policy).
I would announce four personnel appoints: Special Representative for north Korea, Special Envoy for north Korean Human Rights, the US Ambassador to South Korea, and the next commander of the United Nations Command/ROK/US Combined Forces Command/ Commander of US Forces Korea, and the Senior US military officer in Korea.
I would hope that the new Special Representative, Special Envoy, and US Ambassador are be part of the policy review so they will have intimate knowledge of all the details of the policy and the POTUS' intent and would have provided substantial policy input to the review process.
9. Biden's deal with Seoul points to a swift shift on alliances
AP · by Robert Burns · March 11, 2021
10. North Korea Will Soon Begin Coronavirus Vaccinations
The National Interest · by Stephen Silver · March 10, 2021
Excerpts:
“Most of the COVAX distribution has been of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not yet been approved for use in the United States.
Voice of America reported Wednesday that medical experts are optimistic that the vaccination program will help in North Korea.
“They should be able to distribute AstraZeneca vaccine nationwide, and then maintain the cold chain that's required to protect the vaccine from what we call denaturing or just inactivated,” Dr. Kee Park, a neurosurgeon and the head of the Korean American Medical Association’s North Korea program, told Voice of America.
“So they have the cold chain. So they have the technical know-how and the capacity to distribute at least the AstraZeneca vaccine in a nationwide vaccination campaign,” Park said.
11. Ministry vows to keep close communication with int'l community on anti-Pyongyang leaflet ban
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · March 11, 2021
This is a terrible law:
“The law, scheduled to take effect at the end of this month, prohibits the launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, with violators subject to a maximum prison term of three years or a fine of 30 million won (US$27,400).”
12. COVID contributed to ‘starvation’, executions in DPR Korea, Rights Council hears
news.un.org · March 10, 2021
A useful short summary of the impacts of Kim Jong-un's deliberate policy decisions. He is exploiting COVID 19 to crack down on the population and impose draconian population and resources control measures in the name of COVID mitigation but in reality the measures are designed to keep the Kim family regime in power and mitigate the threats from the public which are more existential than a COVID outbreak.
Kim Jong-un is solely responsible for the suffering of the Korean people living in the north due to his deliberate policy decision.
13. Movement for Myanmar democracy forms…in Korea
asiatimes.com · by Tom Coyner · March 10, 2021
Interesting information here:
“Customarily, Seoul has been reticent about critiquing regimes for human rights abuses. Some critics assert that South Korea has a trade policy but not a foreign policy – and indeed, trade is not handled by the country’s foreign ministry. Economic relations with Myanmar are significant.
According to The Diplomat in 2020, Korea was the sixth-largest foreign investor in Myanmar, with especially heavy outlays in the labor-intensive textiles industry. According to the Myanmar Times, South Korea is the country’s eighth-largest trade partner.
The newspaper reported on December 20, 2020, that 135 Korean companies are investing in the “Korea-Myanmar Industrial Complex” in the Yangon Region. The project has official backing from both Myanmar’s Ministry of Construction and South Korea’s state-owned Land and Housing Corporation.
Even so, South Korea has responded with more oomph than ASEAN.”
14. Is there hope for human rights reform in North Korea with Joe Biden as President?
nkhiddengulag.org · by Jane Kuper
Despite the author's seeming pessimism, I am optimistic that when we see the results of the Biden Korea policy review we will see a human rights upfront approach.
We all hope that the Biden administration will take a hard look at the human rights situation in North Korea. The President has made it clear that he is not interested in legitimizing the regime, so he should also not legitimize the abuse and control of its citizens. The regime may be outwardly hostile by showing its nuclear power, but the only way to mitigate the regime’s threats is to weaken the regime through the source of its power: human rights abuses. As Ambassador Nikki Haley has said, “We continue to think that there is a separation between peace and security and human rights, and there is not” [11]. For a better future, we need to change the U.S. approach to North Korea from being denuclearization-focused to human rights-focused. Ambassador Samatha Power once stated that “this regime has no double” when it comes to human rights abuses. She addressed the regime with, “We are documenting your crimes, and one day you will be judged for them” [17]. Maybe judgement day could come sooner rather than later.
Denuclearization of the north and human rights upfront are not either/or but both/and. The solution to both problems is the same: resolution of the "Korea question:" The only way we are going to see an end to the nuclear program and threats as well as the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity being committed against the Korean people living in the north by the mafia-like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime is through achievement of unification and the establishment of a United Republic of Korea that is secure and stable, non-nuclear, economically vibrant, and unified under a liberal constitutional form of government based on individual liberty, rule of law, and human rights as determined by the Korean people. In short, a United Republic of Korea (UROK).
15. Diplomats say U.S.-South Korea relations 'reinvigorated' under Biden
upi.com · March 10, 2021
There are still many challenges for the alliance.
16. A Harvard professor argued that Korean women forced into sex slavery in WWII did so voluntarily. Now he's facing a backlash
CNN · by Leah Asmelash, CNN
As he should.
Excerpt: “In 2015, multiple historians signed a letter to the editor in the magazine of the American Historical Association, saying that the Japanese government was attempting to suppress statements regarding the women in its history textbooks. In the letter, the historians compared the actions of the Japanese government to those of the US, when school boards attempted to muddle accounts of slavery in textbooks.”
17. Blinken's remarks deepen Korea's Iran dilemma
The Korea Times · by Do Je-hae · March 11, 2021
It is a global Baduk (Go) or chess board. No decision can be made in a vacuum or with consideration of only a single interest.
18. Playing games with war games (Korea)
The Korea Times · by Donald Kirk · March 11, 2021
Don Kirk is much more provocative than me! We disagree on a few points and he illustrates why we need to do a better job of educating the press, pundits, politicos, and people about the nature of training and exercises. But he gets much right about north Korea.
19. Unification minister makes rare visit to wartime command bunker amid military exercise with U.S.
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · March 11, 2021
I do not think he has any business going to the B-1 Bunker unless it is to talk about future plans of the military in support of unification following war or contingencies (which hopefully Minister Lee and his ministry are working on). On the other hand I hope the military can "get his mind right" about combined training and exercises and the existential threat that exists from the north that cannot be appeased by appealing to it to take a "wise, flexible" approach toward training. and exercises.
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“I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy in whatever situation. I may be, for I have also learnt from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances.”
- Martha Washington
“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”
- Plato
“1. Accept everything just the way it is.
2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
5. Be detached from desire your whole life long.
6. Do not regret what you have done.
7. Never be jealous.
8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
11. In all things have no preferences.
12. Be indifferent to where you live.
13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
17. Do not fear death.
18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.
21. Never stray from the Way.”
- Miyamoto Musashi