05/12/2021 News & Commentary – Korea

News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs.

1. S. Korea, U.S. to hold regular defense talks on N. Korea, OPCON transfer

2. Spy chiefs of S. Korea, Japan meet to discuss N. Korea, bilateral issues: reports

3.  Unification minister planning to visit Washington next month: official

4. North Korea: Biden and Moon Should Focus on Complete, Verifiable, and Irreversible ‘Action’ by Patrick M. Cronin

5. Biden must tell Kim: Begin denuclearization, end dehumanization of North Koreans

6. North Korea Leaves Room to Renew Dialogue with the US

7. N. Korea leaves out photos of inter-Korean summit from album of leader's diplomatic activities

8. Biden Shouldn’t Pressure Seoul into ‘Strategic Clarity’

9. N. Korean authorities mobilize inminban leaders to crackdown on street vendors

10. North Korea imports COVID-19 vaccine samples from China and Russia

11. North Korea Orders Youth League Reshuffle for More Effective Self-Criticism Sessions

12. North Korea Orders Farmers to Collect Urine for Fertilizer Amid Shortage

13. North Korea unlikely to respond to US vaccine offer

14. Moody's warns Korea about rising debt, stalled peace talks

15. [EXCLUSIVE] Moderna plans to build manufacturing facilities in Korea

1. S. Korea, U.S. to hold regular defense talks on N. Korea, OPCON transfer

en.yna.co.kr · by 오석민 · May 12, 2021

This should be an interesting discussion.

2. Spy chiefs of S. Korea, Japan meet to discuss N. Korea, bilateral issues: reports

en.yna.co.kr · by 고병준 · May 12, 2021

Diplomats, military personnel, and intelligence officers - a lot of meetings - to include trilateral meetings  - are being held which indicate the importance the US is putting on alliances for national security.

Excerpts: “Park Jie-won, head of South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), met with Hiroaki Takizawa, Japan's cabinet intelligence director, on Tuesday, according to JNN and Kyodo News. Park is in Tokyo for trilateral talks with Takizawa and U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

Meanwhile, Haines will likely travel to South Korea on Wednesday after attending the trilateral spy chiefs' meeting, according to Japanese media reports.

3. Unification minister planning to visit Washington next month: official

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · May 11, 2021

Who is the Unification Minister going to meet? He has no counterpart in the US.

4. North Korea: Biden and Moon Should Focus on Complete, Verifiable, and Irreversible ‘Action’ by Patrick M. Cronin

The National Interest · by Patrick M. Cronin · May 10, 2021

Excerpts: “Yet, CVIA may open the door to expert discussion about practical, step-by-step actions that improve security without rewarding North Korea’s unlawful behavior. Based on past results, this baby-step approach may well fail to produce satisfactory results. But that’s the beauty of Biden’s flexibility: even if negotiations fail, the allies can preserve stability. Indeed, crisis-management mechanisms should continue to be on the agenda for the two allies and Northeast Asian neighbors. That buys time for working on other pressing matters on the international agenda—from the pandemic and climate change to supply chain security and high-tech competition.

Diplomacy is mainly about moving forward in the right direction, even if the path is longer than most like. So, it may be closer to strategic patience than the all-or-nothing attitude that some ascribed to the failed Hanoi summit; even so, the focus is on diplomacy, not conflict.

North Korea: Biden and Moon Should Focus on Complete, Verifiable, and Irreversible ‘Action’

It doesn’t matter that President Moon’s domestic ratings are flagging as he embarks on his fifth and final year in the Blue House. President Biden knows what he wants to do, and he understands that alliances represent ‘force multipliers’ for getting things done. 

5.  Biden must tell Kim: Begin denuclearization, end dehumanization of North Koreans

The Hill · by Joseph Bosco · May 11, 2021

Human rights is a moral imperative and a national security issue.  Kim denies the human rights of the Korean people living in the north in order to remain in power.

The root of all problems in Korea is the existence of the most evil mafia- like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime that has the objective of dominating the Korean Peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State. 

Bottom Line: 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).

Excerpts: “Yet, the third element of Trump’s pressure campaign — the prospect of threatening to encourage regime change, as Trump did in three major speeches in 2017 and 2018 and in hosting North Korean victims of Kim’s crimes against humanity — is a natural instrument of choice for the Biden administration given its professed emphasis on human rights.

Unlike Trump, Biden speaks passionately and empathetically about human rights and the human suffering that occurs when they are denied. He should tell Kim directly (but in a private conversation at first) that if North Korea conducts any further nuclear tests or ballistic missile launches, the United States will do a launch of its own — a sustained global shaming campaign that will pick up where Trump left off.

It will provide the gruesome details of North Korea’s gulag system and the daily horrors that even people not in those camps are forced to endure, making the point that the entire country is one giant concentration camp. The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) has been working on these issues for 20 years. HRNK facilitated Trump’s White House-hosting of North Korean victims and his spotlighting of Ji Seong-ho, the disabled North Korean defector who tearfully waved his crutch is defiance of Kim’s brutal tyranny during the 2018 State of the Union.

But, even if Kim finds this a private offer he can’t refuse and continues to exercise his own strategic patience on nuclear and missile tests, Biden should demand a full accounting of those programs, to be followed by the kind of phased denuclearization Psaki reported he is contemplating. The step-by-step approach should be merged with the methodical dismantling of North Korea’s hideous camps. Denuclearization must proceed as dehumanization of the North Korean people ends.

6. North Korea Leaves Room to Renew Dialogue with the US

thediplomat.com · by Mitch Shin · May 11, 2021

The question is whether the regime is desperate and can't take the internally generated pressure for Kim's failure to effectively play Trump and Moon and get sanctions relief while keeping his nuclear program. Or does Kim think he is effectively shaping the conditions around the new policy to successfully demand sanctions relief in return for a promise to talk?

7. N. Korea leaves out photos of inter-Korean summit from album of leader's diplomatic activities

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · May 12, 2021

This seems to be a significant indicator. Kim Jong-un realized he made a huge strategic mistake in September 2018 when he allowed Moon Jae-in to make a speech in Pyongyang.  Although it was criticized by the conservatives in the South as being too "pro-north.'' The speech actually undermined all the regime's propaganda about the South.  The response from the Korean people living in the north was very positive. Rather than an American puppet they observed a smart and compassionate leader with whom they believed the Kim family regime should be able to work with.  This undermined Kim Jong-un's legitimacy because people are asking why Kim could not make a deal with Moon and thus make their lives better. As we assess the regime's actions since September 2018 we can see a steady decline in north-South engagement and relations.  Kim has had to institute a strong anti-Moon and anti-South propaganda effort to be able to justify his failure to get a deal with Moon.   This may be the reason why all photos of the north-South summits are missing from the official record.

It is also an obvious statement that the regime has no respect for the South and its place on the international stage.  

8. Biden Shouldn’t Pressure Seoul into ‘Strategic Clarity’

The National Interest · by James Park · May 11, 2021

If we try to force the South to choose there will be blowback.  We need to help South Korea see what it is in terms of national security and national prosperity interests. It must come to the conclusion on its own that its best interests are served by standing with those who want to ensure a rules based international order and share the values of freedom and individual liberty, liberal democracy, free market economies, rule of law, and human rights for all.  We, and the members of the Quad and like minded democracies, must be prepared to come to the defense of the South when China initiates its economic warfare campaign against the South when it makes the right decision.

9. N. Korean authorities mobilize inminban leaders to crackdown on street vendors

dailynk.com · by · May 12, 2021

It seems like the regime wants to eliminate any of the relief valves and safety mechanisms which have made the Korean people resilient since the Arduous March of 1994-1996.  This market activity has been the saving grace for many Korean is in the north.  This is another indication that Kim fears the Korean people more than he fears the US and the outside world.  He is trying to increase control over the population to a level that could surpass his father and grandfather (though he is certainly employing all their best practices while he devises new ones. 

10. North Korea imports COVID-19 vaccine samples from China and Russia

dailynk.com · by Seulkee Jang · May 12, 2021

The regime will use its all purpose sword.

Excerpts: “As a part of their attempts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine domestically, North Korean authorities have reportedly utilized the newly-established Bureau 325. Bureau 325, an organization within the Reconnaissance General Bureau, has allegedly carried out continuous cyberattacks to steal data from Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines.

The authorities reportedly dispatched professional hackers involved in these attacks to North Korean research facilities so they could deliver the stolen data and allow scientists to begin their analyses immediately.

Within North Korea, the authorities claim that they have all of the technology needed to produce vaccines domestically. However, it is not likely that North Koreans scientists have the capacity to perform high-quality research.

11. North Korea Orders Youth League Reshuffle for More Effective Self-Criticism Sessions

rfa.org · by Hyemin Son

Another population and resources control measure to further oppress the Korean people in the north.  KimJong-un fears the Korean people more than the US.

12. North Korea Orders Farmers to Collect Urine for Fertilizer Amid Shortage

rfa.org · by Jeong Yon Park

I cannot make light of the desperation inside north Korea.  But Korean themselves can.

Excerpts: “Farms in North Hamgyong had been complaining about fertilizer shortages ahead of the busy planting season, but the authorities left the solution to the problem to the farm workers themselves, according to the source.

“In some of the cooperative farms, the workers are forced to bring two liters of urine per person per day to mix into the compost pile until the production goal is achieved,” the source said. Two liters is about four-tenths of a gallon.

“They have to keep track of their donated urine in a record book, so if they do not donate enough, they will be criticized by their work group,” added the source.

“The Farm Management Committee is urging the farmers to produce the compost to carry out the plans laid out during the Eighth Party Congress in January, calling it a compost battle,” the source said, referring to the rare meeting of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party, during which leader Kim Jong Un leaned hard into the country’s founding Juche self-reliance ideology.

But as much as authorities try to frame the project as a revolutionary struggle, the farmers think the situation is ridiculous.

13. North Korea unlikely to respond to US vaccine offer

The Korea Times · by Nam Hyun-woo · May 12, 2021

We must offer vaccines from a purely humanitarian perspective (do the right thing because it is the right thing to do) and not as a concession to entice talks because they will not cause a change in regime behavior.  But I think it is very likely the regime would not accept direct vaccine aid from the US.

14. Moody's warns Korea about rising debt, stalled peace talks

The Korea Times · by Park Jae-hyuk · May 12, 2021

But there has never really been any substantive progress toward peace and denuclearization.

Excerpts: “He also mentioned that "susceptibility to event risk" remains as the overall constraining factor, saying that geopolitical risk is still weakening Korea's credit profile.

"Early progress towards denuclearization and economic cooperation has stalled," he said. "There is also some uncertainty with regards to the upcoming presidential election that is scheduled for next May. The Moon administration will likely seek to rekindle the peace talks, but the prospects for meaningful progress remain slim."

The global ratings agency, however, expressed an optimistic outlook about the potential of the Korean

15. [EXCLUSIVE] Moderna plans to build manufacturing facilities in Korea

The Korea Times · by Baek Byung-yeul · May 12, 2021

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