News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Duncan Moore.
1. Pompeo asks for S. Korea's understanding over postponed trip to Seoul
2. Trump's virus infection - Pompeo cancels visit to South Korea
3. Defense minister, US ambassador vow to strengthen alliance
4. N.K. paper lauds leader Kim's care for people ahead of party founding anniv.
5. N. Korea ignores demands for joint investigation of official's death
6. Saying sorry goes a long way
7. North Korea's cyber warfare capabilities are just getting started
8. How fast can you build 1,000 houses in North Korea?
9. University students seen practicing for mass parade in Hyesan
10. South Korea minimized the damage from Covid-19. North Korea maximized it.
11. 36 service members at Army unit test positive for new coronavirus (South Korea)
12. N. Korean paper carries article on Iran's new weapons
13. How much North Korean aggression is South Korea willing to tolerate?
14. Moon vows S. Korea to play role in global fight against infectious diseases
15. Japan to restart business travel with Korea: Nikkei
16. Suga refuses to visit Korea until asset seizure order lifted
17. Reports about North Korea shooting a South Korean official may have exposed intelligence gathering techniques
18. Stop-and-frisk and bus walls remind us of dictatorship
1. Pompeo asks for S. Korea's understanding over postponed trip to Seoul
Yonhap News Agency · [email protected] · October 5, 2020
Intellectually and professionally South Korea understands. Emotionally not so much. Some will interpret this as a snub especially because he is still going to Japan.
2. Trump's virus infection - Pompeo cancels visit to South Korea
Korea Times · Editorial · October 4, 2020
South Korea is concerned. Excellent recommendation here.
3. Defense minister, US ambassador vow to strengthen alliance
Korea Herald · Yonhap · October 5, 2020
Necessary now more than ever.
4. N.K. paper lauds leader Kim's care for people ahead of party founding anniv.
Yonhap News Agency · [email protected] · October 5, 2020
The great benevolent one. Propaganda is spinning up in preparation for October 10th. But I just can't figure out the message the propagandists are trying to send with the photo below. Why the single file march? Are they marching through a former minefield and they have to stick to the cleared path?
5. N. Korea ignores demands for joint investigation of official's death
Chosun Ilbo · Kim Eun-Joong · October 5, 2020
It is right for South Korea to press for this sort of thing, but no one should be under any illusion the North would agree to a joint investigation. First, the regime is in the wrong and any investigation would show it. Second, it would reveal capabilities, vulnerabilities, and weaknesses of the military and regime. Third, this investigation would expose the regime as the human rights abuser that it is. And finally, because they were in the wrong, it would be an unbearable embarrassment for the regime. So, the regime has many incentives to not participate in a joint investigation.
6. Saying sorry goes a long way
Business Day · Christian Science Monitor · October 4, 2020
I recall from a famous novel and film that "love means never having to say you are sorry." But, I am sorry, Christian Science Monitor: North Korea did not say it is sorry. It was a non-apology apology. Perhaps that means it really loves the South, but I think not.
7. North Korea's cyber warfare capabilities are just getting started
National Interest · Michael Raska · October 4, 2020
They have been getting started for longer than most people think: since the 1990s, as the author notes. The "all-purpose sword" is more practical than its "treasured sword" and it provides many capabilities and benefits for the regime. We ignore it at our peril.
8. How fast can you build 1,000 houses in North Korea?
North Korea Economy Watch · Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein · October 4, 2020
Fast, good, cheap. You can only pick two. North Korea chose fast and cheap, as it always does. Of course, another option is this is just propaganda and they have not completed 88% of the houses.
9. University students seen practicing for mass parade in Hyesan
Daily NK · Jeong Tae Joo · October 5, 2020
This is the priority for the regime's best and brightest (though the real best and the brightest are the students at a couple of universities in Pyongyang).
10. South Korea minimized the damage from Covid-19. North Korea maximized it.
CSIS · Sue Mi Terry · October 5, 2020
11. 36 service members at Army unit test positive for new coronavirus (South Korea)
Yonhap News Agency · [email protected] · October 5, 2020
12. N. Korean paper carries article on Iran's new weapons
Yonhap News Agency · [email protected] · October 5, 2020
I will leave this to North Korea proliferation experts like Dr. Bruce Becthol to assess. Does this telegraph a new strategic weapon on October 10th? I am skeptical.
13. How much North Korean aggression is South Korea willing to tolerate?
Peninsula Report · Gabriela Bernal · September 29, 2020
A great question from the author. When is enough, enough? As I have mentioned many times, the Moon administration needs to re-examine its strategic assumptions, the most important being the assumption that Kim Jong-Un shares Moon's vision for peace, prosperity, and co-existence on the Korean peninsula. Kim has not given up his objective to dominate the peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State. The Moon administration needs to recognize this and adjust its policies and strategy accordingly.
14. Moon vows S. Korea to play role in global fight against infectious diseases
Korea Herald · Yonhap · October 5, 2020
15. Japan to restart business travel with Korea: Nikkei
Korea Times · October 5, 2020
Some good news.
16. Suga refuses to visit Korea until asset seizure order lifted
Chosun Ilbo · Lee Ha-Won · October 5, 2020
And some not so good news. But it should not be unexpected.
17. Reports about North Korea shooting a South Korean official may have exposed intelligence gathering techniques
CNN · Yoonjung Seo & James Griffiths · October 5, 2020
18. Stop-and-frisk and bus walls remind us of dictatorship
Dong-A Ilbo · Editions · October 5, 2020
The Moon administration has a civil liberties problem.
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- Fisher Howe, special assistant to Gen. William Donovan
“... insurgency and counterinsurgency... have enjoyed a level of military, academic, and journalistic notice unseen since the mid-1960s. Scholars and practitioners have recently reexamined 19th- and 20th-century counterinsurgency campaigns waged by the United States and the European colonial powers, much as their predecessors during the Kennedy administration mined the past relentlessly in the hope of uncovering the secrets of revolutionary guerrilla warfare. The professional military literature is awash with articles on how the armed services should prepare for what the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) refers to as “irregular warfare,” and scholars, after a long hiatus, have sought to deepen our understanding of the roles that insurgency, terrorism, and related forms of political violence play in the international security environment.”
--William Rosenau, “Subversion and Terrorism: Understanding and Countering the Threat” (2006)