News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs.
1. N. Korea seeking to defeat U.S. missile defenses: CRS report
2. U.N. rapporteurs send letter to S. Korea voicing concerns over anti-Pyongyang leafleting ban
3. Seoul: Peace declaration ending Korean War under U.S. review
4. NK founder’s controversial autobiography published in South Korea
5. Court Rules Wartime Sex Slaves Cannot Sue Japan
6. Biden remarks pour cold water on Seoul’s ‘vaccine swap’ idea
7. S. Korea looks to Russia’s Sputnik V amid vaccine shortage
8. US focused on vaccinating Americans, but may help others later: Price
9. South Korea joins global top 10 economies
10. North Korea tightening up ties with communist nations
11. The Taiwan risk gorilla kicks Kim to Asia's sidelines
12. There are growing signs that official trade will soon begin between China and North Korea
13. Detention facilities in Dandong are "full" of defectors
14. Coercion or Compassion: How Should the U.S. Strategize North Korea’s COVID-19 Crisis?
15. Afghanistan and South Korea
1. N. Korea seeking to defeat U.S. missile defenses: CRS report
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · April 22, 2021
Here is the link to the short 2 page CRS report this article references.
2. U.N. rapporteurs send letter to S. Korea voicing concerns over anti-Pyongyang leafleting ban
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · April 22, 2021
The South has not protected its moral high ground. Its own goal or self-inflicted wound caused by the anti-leaflet law is harming its international stature.
3. Seoul: Peace declaration ending Korean War under U.S. review
upi.com · by Elizabeth Shim · April 21, 2021
Again, I want peace on the Korean peninsula but I have to ask to what end? How is simply declaring an end of the war going to help advance peace given the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime. If there is a declaration of the end of the war we can expect north Korea, supported by China and Russia, to make a concerted effort to use the end of war declaration as rationale for ending the ROK/US alliance, removing US troops. and ending extended deterrence over the ROK and Japan. And if an end of war declaration is enacted without any reduction in the offensively postured nKPA force there will be no security for the ROK. And that is one key question that should be answered: How will an end of war declaration enhance the security of South Korea.
4. NK founder’s controversial autobiography published in South Korea
koreaherald.com · by Ko Jun-tae · April 22, 2021
I would normally applaud something like this. People need to know and understand the leadership of the north. I would like to see this be accompanied by a scholarly assessment of the work to help readers understand the propaganda that is being published.
But I think this must be in violation of the ROK national security law, the spirit if not the letter.
This makes the Moon administration look bad, as if it somehow sympathizes with the north. And of course the ROK government passed a law to prevent information going into north Korea yet allows the publication of propaganda from the north. And then I wonder if there will be any kind of monetary benefit for the north? While Im Jong Seok be collecting royalties for the regime as he does with north Korean news that is used for broadcast by South Korean media outlets?
5. Court Rules Wartime Sex Slaves Cannot Sue Japan
english.chosun.com · April 22, 2021
6. Biden remarks pour cold water on Seoul’s ‘vaccine swap’ idea
koreaherald.com · by Ahn Sung-mi · April 22, 2021
Yet there are reports that the US is soon going to have a surplus (because of vaccine hesitancy and those who refuse to get vaccinated for various reasons from religious, political , conspiracy and personal choice reasons).
7. S. Korea looks to Russia’s Sputnik V amid vaccine shortage
koreaherald.com · by Shim Woo-hyun · April 22, 2021
Is it effective? What if it is not?
8. US focused on vaccinating Americans, but may help others later: Price
koreaherald.com · by The Korea Herald · April 22, 2021
9. South Korea joins global top 10 economies
donga.com · April 22, 2021
10. North Korea tightening up ties with communist nations
The Korea Times · April 22, 2021
It's only friends?
11. The Taiwan risk gorilla kicks Kim to Asia's sidelines
asia.nikkei.com · by William Pesek · April 21, 2021
But I fear that this could also drive Kim Jong-un to become a "spoiler" in great power competition. There is some historical irony here. It was Kim Il-sung and his decision to attack the South that prevented Mao from executing his plans to unify China in1950. Will the Taiwan security situation now take precedence over the Korean security situation? Of course it cannot be either/or.
12. There are growing signs that official trade will soon begin between China and North Korea
dailynk.com · by Seulkee Jang · April 22, 2021
Again, is China about to provide the safety relief valve for the regime?
13. Detention facilities in Dandong are "full" of defectors
dailynk.com · by Mun Dong Hui · April 22, 2021
Another indication that China is complicit in north Korea's human rights abuses.
Excerpts: “The North Korean authorities have been investing higher-than-usual amounts of manpower and equipment in the border region, where they began installing concrete barriers and high-voltage wires in March. The authorities are also adding more barriers to existing barbed wire fences with the goal of preventing defections.
Meanwhile, the North Korean authorities have reportedly claimed that COVID-19 prevention is the reason why they continue to refuse China’s request to extradite North Korean defectors.
“Even though the Chinese government is trying to transfer the North Koreans [back to North Korea], the North Korean authorities are not accepting the request because of COVID-19,” the source said. “It appears that North Korean defectors will stay in detention until COVID-19 dies down.”
In addition to refusing to accept extradited defectors, North Korean authorities have also delayed the return of North Koreans working in China due to concerns about the influx of COVID-19.
14. Coercion or Compassion: How Should the U.S. Strategize North Korea’s COVID-19 Crisis?
The National Interest · by Timo Kivimäki · April 21, 2021
All our compassion for the suffering of the Korean people in the north will not matter one bit if Kim Jong-un does not share that same compassion. The international community has long been willing to help. But it is the decision making of Kim Jong-un that both causes the suffering and prevents relief of the suffering. It is not sanctions, COVID, or natural disasters that are causing the suffering. The root cause of the suffering is Kim's policy decision making that prioritizes resources for the nuclear and missile programs, the military, and the elite over the welfare of the Korean people.
Lastly, we should keep in mind that offering to provide humanitarian assistance to the people will not cause Kim to either change his behavior or bring him to the negotiating table.
15. Afghanistan and South Korea
The Korea Times · by Donald Kirk · April 22, 2021
My first thought is that Afghanistan and Korea are apples and oranges. As Don notes we have heard no talk from the Biden administration about reducing US forces in Korea.
But I can see how Koreans might think this could be an indication of future decision making. Koreans were very worried when the decision was made to withdraw troops from Syria (which is even more different from Korean than is the Afghanistan situation).
And I am reminded whenever someone invokes the Vietnam model for north Korea that it is not the economic model that north Korea wants but the diplomatic, security and informational model that Kim desires: He would welcome a peace agreement that leads to US withdrawal and then when he attacks the South the US decides not to return to Korea to help it despite previous security "guarantees." That is the Vietnam "model" Kim would sign up for.
Hopefully such thinking will be alleviated when the new administration policy is published.
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“And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers.”
- Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson
“You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order --or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path.”
- Ronald Reagan
“Democracy is a poor system; the only thing that can be said for it is that it's eight times as good as any other method.”
- Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land