News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs.
1. North Korea to send 'leaflets of punishment' over border as tensions with South rise
2. S. Korea urges N.K. to drop plan to send anti-Seoul leaflets
3. Defector group cancels plan to send bottles containing rice to N.K. amid heightened tensions
4. Defector group says will push ahead with plan to send anti-N.K. leaflets
5. Kim Jong Un's 'Princess' sister is turning into the Terminator
6. U.S. bombers spotted near Korean Peninsula amid heightened tensions
7. Warmbier's mother urges continued pressure on N. Korean regime
8. N. Koreans earn money through Chinese cell phone rentals
9. Top nuke envoys of S. Korea, U.S. share gravity of peninsula situation: source
10. Soldiers celebrate 'breaking the chains' at inaugural Juneteenth celebration at Camp Humphreys
11. Leafleting: decisive propaganda or empty provocation? (Koreas)
12. Kim Jong Un's equally scary sister is spitting venom at South Korea
13. Kim Yo-jong boosts her leadership credentials on the warpath with South Korea
14. N. Korea keeps sending small groups of troops to border sentry posts: source
15. Unification ministry to upgrade computer system to better cope with cyberattacks from N. Korea
16. Trump told Kim in Singapore he was open to lifting UN sanctions: Bolton memoir
17. Naïve mediation (South Korea)
1. North Korea to send 'leaflets of punishment' over border as tensions with South rise
The Guardian · by Reuters · June 20, 2020
A major part of political warfare is ideological warfare and it has been fought for between north and South for the past 7 decades.
2. S. Korea urges N.K. to drop plan to send anti-Seoul leaflets
en.yna.co.kr · by 김승연 · June 20, 2020
Somehow I do not think the regime will act in accordance with this urging.
3. Defector group cancels plan to send bottles containing rice to N.K. amid heightened tensions
en.yna.co.kr · by 고병준 · June 19, 2020
We continue to play right into the regime's hands. Kim is observing that his blackmail diplomacy continues to work for him.
4. Defector group says will push ahead with plan to send anti-N.K. leaflets
en.yna.co.kr · by 최수향 · June 20, 2020
Off again, on again. It would be better if they were able to do with government protection and government blessing.
5. Kim Jong Un's 'Princess' sister is turning into the Terminator
New York Post · by Dana Kennedy · June 20, 2020
6. U.S. bombers spotted near Korean Peninsula amid heightened tensions
en.yna.co.kr · by 고병준 · June 19, 2020
Strategic reassurance and strategic resolve.
7. Warmbier's mother urges continued pressure on N. Korean regime
koreaherald.com · by The Korea Herald · June 20, 2020
I cannot emphasize how impressed I was with Mrs. Warmbier and what she has had to say about North Korea and what she and her husband are personally doing to maintain pressure on Kim Jong-un.
8. N. Koreans earn money through Chinese cell phone rentals
dailynk.com · by Kang Mi Jin · June 18, 2020
A key point from this article. Communications between Koreans living in the north and South Korea is happening through cell phones. Information is getting out of the north. And of course information gets in as well. There are some 6.5 million smart phones in the north and we need to be focused on exploiting that conduit.
9. Top nuke envoys of S. Korea, U.S. share gravity of peninsula situation: source
en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · June 21, 2020
Our envoys would know the gravity. Despite all the friction in the alliance it seems our envoys and their teams have a good relationship.
10. Soldiers celebrate 'breaking the chains' at inaugural Juneteenth celebration at Camp Humphreys
Stars and Stripes ·Matthew Keller · June 20, 2020
Cool ceremony. I like the reading of General Order No. 3 from 1865. USFK leads the way. I wonder how many other military installations held such events.
11. Leafleting: decisive propaganda or empty provocation? (Koreas)
koreaherald.com · by Ahn Sung-mi · June 21, 2020
A useful overview of leaflet operations, the challenges and the perceived effects. Sometimes low tech is useful (and of course they are using a low tech method to get some higher tech capabilities into the north, e.g., USB drives and other electronic media. But we should be using all methods and means, high and low tech, to get information to the Korean people living in the north. And we should keep in mind there are some 6.5. million smart phones in north Korea and many other electronic media. Although these are not networked to the outside work we can get information into this network and we should be aggressively focusing on that.
12. Kim Jong Un's equally scary sister is spitting venom at South Korea
Daily Mail · by Ian Birrell · June 20, 2020
We can expect more and more stories about Kim Yo-jong especially as long as she remains in the limelight and seems to be exercising her own initiative in leadership. But I think we should keep in mind that as long as Kim Jong-un is alive and functioning he is still making all the decisions. The system operates on one man (or woman) rule. She may be the face of decisions and edicts this week but if Kim Jong-un is not incapacitated he is making all the decisions and approving everything she is doing.
13. Kim Yo-jong boosts her leadership credentials on the warpath with South Korea
The Telegraph · by Nicola Smith · June, 21 2020
Again a lot of speculation about Kim Yo-jong. Is she being groomed for succession. Kim Jong-il was groomed for 20 years (1947 through 1994) but it was all beyond the scenes and not focused on external audiences. Kim Jong-un had a much shorter time perhaps from 2009-2011. There was an apparent attempt to create a myth about Kim Jong-un surrounding the Cheonan sinking and Y-P Do shelling but this ended up not becoming part of his permanent legacy (probably because they realized directly tying him to these events as "leading" them would have serious blowback internationally). But since Kim Yo-jong began issuing orders in her name in March and taking these very public actions focused on the South is this an attempt to legitimize her among external audiences in preparation for possible succession.
14. N. Korea keeps sending small groups of troops to border sentry posts: source
en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · June 21, 2020
I think the north is sending the message that it no longer recognizes the Comprehensive Military Agreement of September 19, 2018 which has been touted as one of the major initiatives of the Moon Administration's peace strategy.
15. Unification ministry to upgrade computer system to better cope with cyberattacks from N. Korea
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · June 21, 2020
Cyber attacks are certainly one of the key tools of subversion by the Kim family regime to execute its long term strategy to dominate the peninsula through subversion, coercion/extortion and use of force. It is good to see the MOU defending against the north.
16. Trump told Kim in Singapore he was open to lifting UN sanctions: Bolton memoir
koreaherald.com · by The Korea Herald · June 20, 2020
If this is an accurate recounting we should remember that we have not lifted sanctions and this is one of the most actions we have taken in the last two years. It certainly might explain why Kim is so upset over sanctions. Kim raised expectations that he could play Moon and Trump and get sanctions relief but he has failed to do so for two years and is now under enormous internal pressure for his failure to get sanctions relief. Maybe we should ask who is playing whom?
17. Naïve mediation (South Korea)
The Joongang Ilbo editorial board is using the Bolton book and its allegation that US-north diplomacy was a "creation" of the Moon administration to criticize President Moon and overly optimistic or exaggerated view that Kim Jong-un was willing to denuclearize.
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"A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
- James Madison, from a letter to W.T. Barry, August 4, 1822
"If in taking a native den one thinks chiefly of the market that he will establish there on the morrow, one does not take it in the ordinary way."
- Lyautey: The Colonial Role of the Army, Revue Des Deux Mondes, 15 February 1900
"In a national insurrection the center of gravity to be destroyed lies in the person of the chief leader and in public opinion; against these points the blow must be directed."
- Clausewitz, 1833.The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Land Warfare: An Illustrated World View By Byron Farwell, page 424.