News

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

1. N. Korea no longer pursues unification through revolution in S. Korea

2. Kim Jong Un gets new second-in-command in major changes to North Korea's ruling party

3. N.K. leader's powerful sister likely to fill new 'first secretary' post in case of emergency: expert

4. Appointment of U.S. point man on N. Korea signals readiness for dialogue with Pyongyang: Sherman

5. Student activists again burn Japanese flag in Seoul over Dokdo

6. Meet the new No. 2 in North Korea

7. Ex-USFK chief Brooks hasn't been offered ambassador post in S. Korea: aide

8. North Korea acquired two new oil tankers last year, report says

9. Lifting of missile guidelines leads to no change in U.S. defense commitment: Pentagon

10. Korea's role in infrastructure investment for stronger Indo-Pacific

11. S. Korea unveils homegrown space rocket for first time

12. The Real North Korea Foreign Policy Joe Biden Needs to Implement

13. Long Overdue Compensation for Korean War Veterans

14. Foreign Ministry summons senior Japanese ambassador to protest ‘Dokdo provocations’

15. Korea's business leaders call on Moon to free jailed Samsung boss Lee

16. Summit - step toward strategic clarity?

 

1. N. Korea no longer pursues unification through revolution in S. Korea

Hani

Perfect. Political Warfare with Juche characteristics. So much to unpack here.

This is already having the regime's desired effect on Twitter and among Korea watchers. It is almost as if the regime is reading our writings and our. criticism of the regime's nature, objectives, and strategy and i deliberately trying to undermine our legitimacy! Already the comments are that the north has changed its spots. It is no longer a scorpion and has in fact changed its nature!  

This plays right into Moon's vision for his peace agenda and is designed to drive a wedge in the alliance by supporting the Moon administration's naive view that Kim Jong-un supports his vision of peace and reconciliation against the Biden administration's realistic view of the existential threat the regime poses to South Korea and the global threat the regime poses from its nuclear weapons and missiles, to it cyber capabilities, to its global illicit activities. 

This may be designed to make the Biden administration policy dead on arrival but trying to take away ROK support for the new policy by giving the appearance the regime has given up its revolutionary unification objective and strategy.

The omission of these concepts and the shift from military first politics to a so-called focus on the people is excellent political warfare. It is creating a perception of a change in the behavior and outlook of the regime (a regime change! :-)) that supports the (naive) belief that the regime seeks to negotiate in good faith and act as a responsible member of the international community.

Before I accept the regime is no longer the scorpion and has been able to change its nature, I would like to see the nK Constitution changed to reflect the north is no longer a revolutionary state that seeks to complete the revolution by unifying the peninsula and ridding it of foreign influence. And if the regime is really jettisoning these concepts I want to see them purged from the 80 years worth of documents, books, memoirs, speeches, etc. This is tantamount to an admission that everything the regime has pursued for the last 80 years was wrong. Hard to believe the regime would ever admit it was wrong.

The bottom line is we should not be duped by the regime's political warfare. I have to admit that this is an excellent psychological operation and is designed to appeal to specific target audiences who will (and already are) swallow this hook, line, and sinker. I can already hear the personal attacks of "I told you so." "See north Korea is good afterall." "It is just US policy that has been the problem." 

 

2. Kim Jong Un gets new second-in-command in major changes to North Korea's ruling party

CNN · by Yoonjung Seo and Joshua Berlinger

CNN is focusing on the new "2IC" but does mention the change to the party rules and the omission of revolution and the shift to a "people-first" policy (or politics? - We should know that despite the words Songun or Military First Politics will never be abandoned.

 

3. N.K. leader's powerful sister likely to fill new 'first secretary' post in case of emergency: expert

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · June 2, 2021

It has been about a year since we have talked about succession in north Korea (recall all the rumors of KJU's demise during the front end of the COVID pandemic when he was out of sight for some time). Notice the comment on the "Paektu bloodline" below.

But there are other reports (to include from Yonhap)that this position has been filled. Bradley Martin profiles Jo Yong Won (with the caveat if reports get it right). 

Excerpt: “Jo Yong-won, a close aide to Kim who was speculated to have been elected to the post, is unlikely to take up the position because he is not part of the Kim family or the "Paekdu bloodline," according to Lee.

"We cannot completely rule out the possibility of Jo, but the deputy post appears to be aimed more at securing regime stability for the successor," he said.

 

4. Appointment of U.S. point man on N. Korea signals readiness for dialogue with Pyongyang: Sherman

en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · June 2, 2021

Personnel is policy. And in this case the Ambassador was most likely at the center of the policy review and surely had a large hand in crafting the policy. He has the experience, the credibility and the reputation and he has engaged with north Korea to include in preparation for and during the Singapore summit. He is probably the only one in the current administration who was part of the Singapore summit. (and note he participated in the coordination for the summit - to include travel to Pyongyang - while he was the Ambassador to the Philippines. So he should not have any issue multi-tasking in his current roles. And we should also know he is backed up by a strong Korea team of professionals.) 

But the key point is the Biden administration is ready to talk. It is up to KJU.

 

5. Student activists again burn Japanese flag in Seoul over Dokdo

en.yna.co.kr · by 유청모 · June 2, 2021

The challenge continues. History and emotion trumps national security and national prosperity for some.

 

6.  Meet the new No. 2 in North Korea

asiatimes.com · by Bradley K. Martin · June 1, 2021

A useful profile from Bradley Martin. Note his caveat - "if reports are correct." What is the shelf-life for a No. 2 in north Korea? Not a job I would want to have.

 

7. Ex-USFK chief Brooks hasn't been offered ambassador post in S. Korea: aide

koreaherald.com · by The Korea Herald · June 2, 2021

In normal times I would say General Brooks would be an excellent choice. He not only has the knowledge, he has first hand experience, and he is very well respected in Korea.

But given the friction in civil-military relations and the current administration's views on military personnel in civilian positions (SECDEF is the exception to the administration's possibly unspoken policy of not putting too many former military personnel in political appointee positions). I don't think we will see a former military leader tapped for an ambassador job.

I also think that appointing a former general would send a message the Biden administration would not want to send. it might be (mis)interpreted by some as a "militarization" of our Korea policy.

But if I were asked for a recommendation, and if we were not going to appoint a career Foreign Service Officer as ambassador, I would offer General Tilelli for the Ambassador to the ROK based on his decades of experience and the high esteem in which Koreans hold him.

 

8. North Korea acquired two new oil tankers last year, report says

UPI · by Thomas Maresca · June 2, 2021

Excerpts: “North Korea uses a variety of methods to receive illicit supplies, including ship-to-ship transfers and disguising the identities of its vessels through swapped profiles or manipulation of automatic identification system transmissions, the U.N. Panel said.

Two of the three new tankers were previously owned by South Korean companies, according to the CSIS report. The ships, called the Sin Phyong 5 and Kwang Chon 2, made their way from South Korean brokers to individuals or companies in China, the report said.

The third, the Wol Bong San, had previously been sailing under a Sierra Leone flag and was transferred via Hong Kong-based Baili Shipping and Trading. The company has been tied to North Korea's illicit weapons trade as well as its coal and oil smuggling networks.

 

9. Lifting of missile guidelines leads to no change in U.S. defense commitment: Pentagon

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · June 2, 2021

I concur with the headline in that the termination of the missile guidelines will in no way lessen the US commitment to the defense of Korea.

But this article is based on an unusual or confusing exchange in yesterday's press conference. Based on the wording in the question I assume the journalist was from the Korean media. I think the law he or she must have been referring to is likely the NDAA which established a floor of 28,500 US troops stationed in Korea.

Q: Thank you, John. I have a question about the United States defensive law for the South Korea. How will you do the end of missile lines on the South Korea fact that the U.S. defense law for the South Korea? Will there be any change to the U.S. law (inaudible)?

MR. KIRBY: I'm not aware of any changes. The – nothing about this changes the alliance between South Korea and the United States or our commitments to that alliance, which as you know, is a defensive alliance.

Q: But any -- you have any schedule to reduce the defense role for the South Korea because of you lifted missile guidelines and taken –

MR. KIRBY: I know of no such changes in the offing.

 

10.  Korea's role in infrastructure investment for stronger Indo-Pacific

The Korea Times · Song Kyung-jin · June 1, 2021

Indications of alignment of the US INDOPACIFIC Strategy and the ROK New Southern Policy. 

Note the comments on the AIIB. I will leave it to the economic, financial, and development experts to comment.

Excerpts: “Korea is a democracy with a fairly recent development success story, and it respects the rules-based international order. It thus can relate with the developing Indo-Pacific better than its western counterparts.

Also, it was Korea that brought development into the multilateral G20 agenda in 2010 with nine pillars including infrastructure and governance, and so on. So, it was dubbed a "Korea initiative" or the "Seoul Development Initiative" then. While the objectives of NPS built on the Seoul initiative are laudable, it failed to succeed multilateralism enshrined in it. Going bilateral with limited resources is difficult to sustain; therefore, it should diversify into pluri-lateral and multilateral programs with like-minded partners. The same is true of Korea's other ASEAN initiatives.

ASEAN has become critically important on Korea's economic and diplomatic fronts in its endeavor to reduce its dependence on China. As a consequence, ASEAN now is Korea's second largest trading partner with a trading volume of $153.4 billion as of 2019, only next to China. It is Korea's third largest investment destination next to the US and EU, with $9.54 billion in 2019. It is also Korea's largest overseas construction market, growing to $8 billion in total orders in 2019.

Pension funds with deep pockets can set a good example as a long-term investor.

 There is a lack of long-term investors, public or private, in the region due to various reasons, such as the regional savings invested elsewhere including in the US Treasuries and the regulatory constraints. Korea's National Pension Fund, world's third largest, can and should make more and bolder investments in infrastructure bilaterally and multilaterally. Multilateral development banks such as the ADB, the World Bank and even the AIIB are good partners to work with. Alarmists may instantly flash a yellow card to the idea of inviting the AIIB. But they should not forget that the region needs to pool resources available as far as possible and that the AIIB is not China-owned but a multilateral organization run by experts of diverse nationalities.

 

11. S. Korea unveils homegrown space rocket for first time

en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · June 1, 2021

Can the South Korea put communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit over the peninsula to support military command and control? 

 

12. The Real North Korea Foreign Policy Joe Biden Needs to Implement

The National Interest · by Doug Bandow · June 1, 2021

I do not think the Biden administration treats diplomatic relations as a reward.  

For the Biden administration diplomacy is at the heart of foreign policy and alliances are at the heart of diplomacy.

I think the Biden administration would support diplomatic relations with the north (and I would too for myriad reasons to include potential increased access and influence). But I seriously doubt the regime is ready for diplomatic relations or even establishing liaison offices in Pyongyang and Washington. It would bring too much access to outside information that would be a threat to the regime. But by all means put it on the agenda and see how KJU reacts.

I also think the Biden administration is willing to provide humanitarian assistance to the neediest Koreans in the north. But we should be under no illusion that such assistance is a carrot for the regime. At best it removes some burden from the regime to divert resources to the lower classes of north Korean society. At worst the regime is able to divert and exploit international aid for uses other than caring for the people. Kim is not really concerned with the welfare of the Korean people in the north expect to the point where it may help thwart resistance to the regime.

As an aside, one thing Mr. Bandow does not mention is north Korean human rights. I think the Biden administration is going to have a central focus on human rights (not only in north Korea but globally). So any discussion of diplomatic relations must include a focus on human rights. And of course that is a threat to the regime. But we cannot neglect human rights based on the fantasy that doing so will bring about negotiations toward denuclearization.

 

13. Long Overdue Compensation for Korean War Veterans

keia.org · May 21, 2021

This is for all those who study special operations in Korea. This report is discussing Korean partisans who fought under the UN flag and were never compensated for their service.

 

14. Foreign Ministry summons senior Japanese ambassador to protest ‘Dokdo provocations’

donga.com · June 1, 2021

Unless President Moon (and his successor) and Prime Minister Suga (and his successor) decide to prioritize national security and national prosperity while pledging to manage the historic issues in good faith we are never going to see effective trilateral corporation and relations.

 

15. Korea's business leaders call on Moon to free jailed Samsung boss Lee

nationalpost.com

 

16. Summit - step toward strategic clarity?

The Korea Times · by Ahn Ho-young  · June 1, 2021

Important analysis from our good friend Ambassador Ahn.

He provides a note of caution here:

“The ministers were totally silent on Korea's commitment to a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, which made quite a few commentators wonder out loud if the Korean government had already started to water down the importance of the commitment it made in Washington, D.C. just a short while ago.

I hope this is not the case. Trust is a much appreciated commodity in any relationship, especially between security partners. I have long argued that the so-called strategic ambiguity, meaning frequently shifting position depending upon issues and the calculation of short-term interests, is not sustainable, because it will only deepen the impression that Korea is the weakest link in the Asia-Pacific and make Korea lose credibility with both the U.S. and China.

Whatever the motivation may have been, the recent Moon-Biden joint statement shows that the government made the right choice in clarifying its position on the Korea-U.S. alliance. Receding from the choice is not an option.”

 

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“Your first task as a strategist is to widen your concept of the enemy, to include in that group those who are working against you, thwarting you, even in subtle ways.”

- Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies Of War

 

“Anyone who has ever studied the history of American diplomacy, especially military diplomacy, knows that you might start in a war with certain things on your mind as a purpose of what you are doing, but in the end, you found yourself fighting for entirely different things that you had never thought of before ... In other words, war has a momentum of its own and it carries you away from all thoughtful intentions when you get into it. Today, if we went into Iraq, like the president would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end.”

- George F. Kennan

 

“If you hate a person, then you’re defeated by them.“ 

- Confucius

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

1. Remarks by President Biden at the 153rd National Memorial Day Observance

2.  A Siege, a Supply Run and a Descent Into a Decade-Old Battle

3. Public swarms Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day for the first time since the pandemic

4. US special forces to train Taiwan soldiers after annual war-games

5. The U.S. Air Force Wants to Mothball Over 200 Aircraft. We Have the List.

6. QAnon conspiracy theories infect American churches

7. Former Trump advisor Michael Flynn said the US should have a coup like Myanmar, where the military overthrew the democratically elected government

8. The Future of Afghanistan Hinges on American Dollars, Not Troops

9. The Necessary Art of Talking to Other Nations By Max Hastings

10. Three Big Questions Biden’s National Security Strategy Has to Answer

11. Time for a ‘Semi-Quad’ Alliance

12. Biden’s US foreign policy commitment to democracy called into question

13. Facebook says U.S. is the top target of disinformation campaigns

14. Huawei ex-exec on trial, accused of spying for China

15. #Reviewing Exercise of Power (Book by Robert Gates, Review by Daniel Scheeringa)

16.  USSOCOM contracts Palantir for enterprise data management software

17. Sibling Rivalry: Military Services in High-Stakes Tussle Over Long-Range Fires

18. Kamala Harris' Navy

 

1. Remarks by President Biden at the 153rd National Memorial Day Observance

Office of the President · May 31, 2021

Powerful remarks on democracy by the President.  

 

2. A Siege, a Supply Run and a Descent Into a Decade-Old Battle

The New York Times · by Thomas Gibbons-Neff · May 31, 2021

More powerful reporting form TM Gibbons-Neff.

 

3. Public swarms Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day for the first time since the pandemic

The Washington Post · by Tara Bahrampour and Annie Linskey · May 31, 2021

 

4. US special forces to train Taiwan soldiers after annual war-games

19fortyfive.com · by Ryan Pickrell · May 31, 2021

We should observe for the CCP propaganda (or other) response, if any.

 

6. QAnon conspiracy theories infect American churches

Axios · by Mike Allen

This is an unbelievable statistic. It is incredible that 15% of Americans agree with this QAnon belief. The revisionist and rogue powers cannot believe the effects of propaganda on such a large number of Americans. This simply emboldens them to even more aggressively execute influence operations.

That stunning window into the country's congregations followed a major poll, out last week: 15% of Americans, the poll found, agree with the QAnon contention that "the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation."

 

7. Former Trump advisor Michael Flynn said the US should have a coup like Myanmar, where the military overthrew the democratically elected government

Business Insider · by Kelsey Vlamis

I have no words.

Former Trump advisor Michael Flynn said the US should have a coup like Myanmar, where the military overthrew the democratically elected government

 

8. The Future of Afghanistan Hinges on American Dollars, Not Troops

warontherocks.com · by Dominic Tierney · June 1, 2021

All about the benjamins?

Conclusion: “A U.S. aid program to Afghanistan of around $4–5 billion per year is affordable — even indefinitely so. The figure equates to less than one percent of the U.S. defense budget. Indeed, to put the number in perspective, Washington spends over $300 million every year just on military bands. The aid program is also much cheaper than deploying U.S. troops. Washington can pay for around 50 to 100 Afghan soldiers for the same cost as stationing a single American soldier there (about $1 million per year). The aid program is only a tiny fraction of the expenditure in Afghanistan a decade ago.

Continuing aid to Afghanistan does not guarantee success, but curtailing aid guarantees failure. $4 billion is a lot of money. But it buys Washington a reasonable chance at creating military deadlock in Afghanistan, forcing the Taliban to make peace, and avoiding a repeat of Saigon 1975, with all the associated trauma and recrimination.

 

9. The Necessary Art of Talking to Other Nations By Max Hastings

Bloomberg · by Max Hastings · May 30, 2021

Excerpts: “A huge problem for big-power diplomacy is that, for it to work, the main actors must accept a stated dispensation as legitimate. Instead, in today’s Middle East, Iran seeks to achieve a regional hegemony which the U.S. and other Western nations find unacceptable. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is bent on forging a Greater Israel at the expense of the Palestinians, which only the U.S., among major powers, has (until this month, at least) appeared content to indulge. Meanwhile, China seeks to assert a supremacy in the Indo-Pacific to which few of its neighbors, never mind Washington, are prepared to acquiesce.

But the talking must happen, the attempts be made to find common ground even on lesser issues if the big ones are intractable. I once met a diplomat who spent much of the 1960s representing Britain at international arms-control talks in Geneva. He argued that, while superficially the interminable meetings were futile, with the Soviets churning out position papers that never seemed to change, the very fact of the meetings helped to avert war.

I think he was right — the isolationists who seek simply to build walls and hide behind them put at risk any advance or even stability in human affairs. Fear has been the dominant motive in foreign affairs since the beginning of time. Dialogue — diplomacy — has a critical role to play in managing and dispelling it.

 

10. Three Big Questions Biden’s National Security Strategy Has to Answer

The National Interest · by James Jay Carafano · May 29, 2021

The three questions:

How to Handle Economic Relations with China?

How to Do Battle in the Gray Zones?

How to Balance Hard- and Soft Power?

 

11. Time for a ‘Semi-Quad’ Alliance

thediplomat.com · by Che-Jen Wang · May 28, 2021

"Semi-Quad"? Hope that is not the equivalent of "semi-pro" in international relations. (apologies for the attempt at humor).

Excerpts: “Therefore, it is clear that the U.S. government alone cannot stop China from advancing its semiconductor industry. Given the small portion of semiconductors made in the United States, the current U.S. policy neither limits China from the acquisition of high-sensitive chips and technology, nor outweighs Xi Jinping’s call for technology autonomy in semiconductor production. The governments of the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea must coordinate efforts to respond to aggressive tactics from China.

Given that different semiconductor technologies are scattered among the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, and the degree of technology protection among manufacturers may differ, it is difficult to fully prevent advanced semiconductor technology from entering China. If the Biden administration wants to fully contain the high-speed progress of semiconductor technology in China, further containment policies and multi-country coordination are needed. Unless the U.S. can form a “semi-Quad” alliance, a mechanism like Quad or Five Eyes, and coordinate policies with Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, fair competition and resilient trade in semiconductors will be difficult to realize.

 

12. Biden’s US foreign policy commitment to democracy called into question

Financial Times · by Katrina Manson · May 30, 2021

This was published before his Memorial Day address.

 

13. Facebook says U.S. is the top target of disinformation campaigns

Axios · by Sara Fischer

No surprise. The US must be the easiest targets in the world for disinformation campaigns.

Graphic at the link

 

14. Huawei ex-exec on trial, accused of spying for China

AP · by Monica Scislowska     

Excerpts: “The Pole is suspected of helping him establish contacts and providing him with documents. Some observers say the documents were public and not classified.

The trial is expected to take months and there is no date yet for the final verdict.

Huawei declined to comment because the case was ongoing. It has repeatedly denied the U.S. allegations but since the pair’s arrest, Huawei’s fortunes in Europe have tumbled because of the U.S. campaign. Countries such as Britain, Sweden and Bulgaria h ave banned Huawei equipment from their networks and others such as France say they favor homegrown rivals like Ericsson and Nokia for security reasons.

Huawei gear, which has been effectively blocked by the U.S. since 2012, has also been shunned by Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

 

15. #Reviewing Exercise of Power (Book by Robert Gates, Review by Daniel Scheeringa)

thestrategybridge.org · by Daniel Scheeringa · June 1, 2021

Another book for the "to read pile."

Conclusion: Gates does an excellent job of examining the ways America can exercise power around the world, some coercive, most non-coercive. That examination forms the basis of Gates' desire to see America compete with China and Russia through non-coercive means such as strategic communications and economic development aid. It is a common lament that America lacks a grand strategy, or even the capacity to form such a strategy. However, any strategy, no matter how brilliant, is only as effective as the means used to implement it. Whatever ends America chooses to pursue in the future, its leaders and strategists will be well served by reading Gates' book.

 

16. USSOCOM contracts Palantir for enterprise data management software

army-technology.com

Excerpts: “Our partnership with USSOCOM was one of our first in the US military, and we are honoured to keep providing technology that gets the job done while we partner on the future of what is possible.”

The company’s technology enables real-time collaboration across USSOCOM and its allies.

It gives commanders a global scale situational awareness, bringing AI technology to the battlefield operations.

The technology also enhances the ability to respond to ‘near-peer threats’.

Palantir’s software is used from planning phase, to review coordination and approval stage, and runs through battle tracking of the execution of the actual mission.

Last November, the US Army chose Palantir Technologies to provide one of two prototype contracts for the Common Data Fabric and Data Security solution.

 

17. Sibling Rivalry: Military Services in High-Stakes Tussle Over Long-Range Fires

nationaldefensemagazine.org · by Jon Harper

If multiple services are developing long range precision fires it would seem we need a joint warfighting concept sooner rather than later. There would appear to be so many questions to ask about targeting, de-confliction, ISR capabilities for targeting - should various components and task forces or services have independent capabilities or should long range precision fires be under the control of a single operational HQ and authority (e.g., the JFACC/CFACC)? In my view long range precision fires will probably be among the most important concepts in conventional warfighting for the foreseeable future.

Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten said it would be premature to conduct a review now.

“We’ll have the fruition of the Joint Warfighting Concept in the next decade. And then once we know how to do that and we’ve demonstrated that, we may not be organized correctly, we may not have the right roles and responsibilities,” he said in February during an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But why the heck would you stop and try to figure that out when you actually don’t know the answer?”

 

18. Kamala Harris' Navy

Washington Examiner · by Byron York · May 31, 2021

Strong criticism. I think most of the media focused on the joke that did not land in her speech rather than the substance.

Excerpts: “But Harris paid particular attention to "a very real threat to our national security" — climate change. "You are ocean engineers who will help navigate ships through thinning ice," Harris said in her only acknowledgment that the Navy has any sort of relationship with the world's oceans. "You are mechanical engineers who will help reinforce sinking bases. You are electrical engineers who will soon help convert solar and wind energy into power, convert solar and wind energy into combat power. And just ask any Marine today, would she rather carry 20 pounds of batteries or a rolled-up solar panel? And I am positive she will tell you a solar panel, and so would he."

Left almost entirely undiscussed was the more basic mission of the Navy and the Marines. They fight wars. Heavily armed, they protect U.S. interests and shipping and project America's power at sea and around the world. They have done it, with great valor and sometimes at enormous personal sacrifice for sailors and Marines, for more than 200 years. Harris mostly left the war-fighting core of the Navy and Marine mission out of her speech.

...

And so on. Biden and Pence framed their speeches differently, but each showed a deep appreciation for what the Navy and Marines do. Harris described a much different Navy and Marines, with missions in which fighting is done mostly in a figurative sense, against a threat like climate change. "Ms. Harris' visit was meant to signal that the current White House's relationship with the military had changed since the Trump era," the New York Times reported after the vice president's speech. Indeed it has.

 

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"And on this Memorial Day, we honor their legacy and their sacrifice. Duty, honor, country — they lived for it, they died for it. And we, as a nation, are eternally grateful. You know, America has been forged in the battle and the fires of war. Our freedom and the freedom of innumerable others has been secured by young men and women who answered the call of history and gave everything in the service of an idea: the idea of America. It’s the greatest idea in the long history of humankind. An idea that we’re all created equal in the image of Almighty God. That we’re all entitled to dignity, as my father would say, and respect, decency, and honor. Love of neighbor. They’re not empty words, but the vital, beating heart of our nation. And that democracy must be defended at all costs, for democracy makes all this possible. Democracy — that’s the soul of America, and I believe it’s a soul worth fighting for, and so do you; a soul worth dying for. Heroes who lie in eternal peace in this beautiful place, this sacred place, they believed that too. The soul of America is animated by the perennial battle between our worst instincts — which we’ve seen of late — and our better angels. Between “Me first” and “We the People.” Between greed and generosity, cruelty and kindness, captivity and freedom."

-President Joseph Biden, Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Day 2021

 

“By and large, strategy comes into play where there is actual or potential conflict, when interests collide and forms of resolution are required. This is why a strategy is much more than a plan. A plan supposes a sequence of events that allows one to move with confidence from one state of affairs to another. Strategy is required when one might frustrate those plans.”

- Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

 

“Without a word this uniform also whispers of freezing troops, injured bodies, and Americans left forever in foreign fields. It documents every serviceman’s courage, who by accepting this uniform, promises the one gift he truly has to give: his life. I wear my uniform for the heritage of sacrifice it represents and more. I wear my uniform with pride, for it represents the greatest nation of free people in the world.”

– Captain Karen Dorman Kimmel

 

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

1. U.S. aware of N. Korean criticism, remains committed to diplomacy: State Dept.

2. South Korea Under Moon Jae In Rejects Value-oriented Diplomacy

3. Unification minister reiterates 'unwavering commitment' to Mount Kumgang tourism project

4. Moon Is Emptying Korea's Coffers Like There's No Tomorrow

5. Tizzard Translates Thae: The Arrival of the “Pleasure Squad” (기쁨조)

6. N. Korea creates 'first secretary' post in revised party rules

7. N. Korea slams countries for piling up excessive supply of vaccines amid shortage

8. S. Korea's intelligence chief to return home after weeklong trip to U.S.: sources

9. Tracking changes at North Korea's Camp 14 through satellite imagery

10. Seventh General Bureau official publicly executed for engaging in "corrupt construction practices"

11. Korean firms ramp up spending on lobbying in US

12. Using and buying consumer electronics in North Korea

13. South Korea says vaccine shipment to North Korea from Covax delayed again

14. Biden’s North Korea Policy: Has ‘Strategic Patience’ Returned? – Analysis

15. Kim Jong Un's Plan to Make North Korea Great Again

16. South Korea’s New Aircraft Carrier Is Joining the Asian Naval Race

17. Air Force weather squadron supporting Army in South Korea adds ‘combat’ to its name

 

1. U.S. aware of N. Korean criticism, remains committed to diplomacy: State Dept.

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · June 1, 2021

Normal behavior for the Kim family regime so our State department is not surprised.  And the essence of our practical and principled diplomacy is to provide Kim Jong-un the opportunity to act as a responsible member of the international community. 

Excerpt: "Our policy toward the DPRK calls for a calibrated, practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with the DPRK to make practical progress that increases the security of the United States, our allies, and our deployed forces," the State Department spokesman said.

 

2. South Korea Under Moon Jae In Rejects Value-oriented Diplomacy

japan-forward.com · by Tsutomu Nishioka · May 30, 2021

A view from Japan.

While the author's thesis is plausible I do not think it can be backed up by the Biden-Moon summit and the joint statement.  Maybe the joint statement was not sufficiently well translated into Japanese.

The summit, joint statement, and fact sheet all seem to focus on democratic values.   This statement from the fact sheet seems to indicate a values based diplomacy approach.

“The unbreakable U.S.-ROK alliance is grounded in our shared democratic values, is comprehensive in nature, and poised to tackle the most urgent issues of the 21st Century.  We pledge to continue to work together to create a free, safe, prosperous, and dynamic Indo-Pacific region and reinforce the ASEAN-led regional architecture through cooperation between the ROK’s New Southern Policy and the United States’ priorities in the region.  The United States and the ROK commit to expanding our partnership in cybersecurity, development assistance, human rights and democracy promotion, health, and climate change.  People-to-people ties between our two countries are a central pillar of the enduring friendship of our people, which has spanned generations and will continue for generations to come. 

And regarding "missing" human rights (which were mentioned four times in the joint statement and four times in the fact sheet) the author must not have read the fact sheet to accompany the joint statement which has this:

“Announce the U.S.-ROK Democracy and Governance Consultations (DGC), which will serve as a mechanism for coordination on human rights and democracy promotion efforts at home and abroad.  The DGC will be an opportunity for both sides to share best practices and cooperate to promote and strengthen democratic resilience, good governance, and democratic institutions.”

 

3. Unification minister reiterates 'unwavering commitment' to Mount Kumgang tourism project

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · June 1, 2021

Another way the headline can be read - Unification Minister's unwavering commitment to transferring funds to KJU's royal court economy.  Tourism and these proposed projects solely benefit the Kim family regime.

 

4. Moon Is Emptying Korea's Coffers Like There's No Tomorrow

english.chosun.com

The populist movement.

Conclusion: According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, 27 out of 61 public funds have suffered annual deficits over the last five years, and five more are apparently at risk of bleeding money by 2024. The national health insurance fund, which used to post a surplus each year, ended up in a deficit since 2018 as a result of Moon's expanded coverage of medical expenses. State-run companies suffered a record W545-trillion deficit in 2020, while the wages of their staff grew by W8 trillion. The public is reeling under the wanton spending practices of a populist president.

 

5. Tizzard Translates Thae: The Arrival of the “Pleasure Squad” (기쁨조)

tizzardtranslatesthae.wordpress.com · by David Tizzard · May 31, 2021

Although the headline may be considered clickbait, this translated excerpt from Thae Yong-ho's book provides more insight than just the "pleasure squad."  This short excerpt actually covers a lot of ground about the post-Cold War situation, relations with western countries, the nuclear issue in the early 1990s and how the north Korean economy and industry works or is controlled (particularly gold production).

Thanks to David Tizzard for translating and sharing this excerpt.  I hope Thae's entire book will soon be translated into English.

 

6. N. Korea creates 'first secretary' post in revised party rules

 en.yna.co.kr · by 고병준 · June 1, 2021

The most dangerous title to be given in north Korea is to be named "number 2."

We should also be very careful about interpreting ("positively") the removal of Songun (which is actually military first "politics" and we should be under no illusion about the continued influence and power of the military) and about the fight to "speed up the unification of the fatherland."  We should understand these possible changes in terms of the regime's political warfare strategy and supporting influence operations.  Note these have only been removed from the preamble.  We need to assess the remainder of the document.  Also I have seen no reports that these concepts have been removed from the Constitution or other party documents.  But perhaps the regime is responding to our constant harping on understanding the regime's nature, objectives, and strategy,  Maybe this is an attempt to play down its soingun nature, its unification objectives, and its political warfare strategy.  Again I would see this as simply a continuation of the political warfare strategy and a supporting attempted influence operation.  We should not be duped.

Excerpts: “Previously, only five standing members of the party's politburo, including Kim, were entitled to preside over party meetings. Given that the title carries the word "first," the position appears to carry the No. 2 status in the North.

Jo Yong-won, a close aide to Kim and current standing member of the politburo, appears to have been elected to the post, sources said.

Meanwhile, North Korea dropped the word "songun," or military-first policy, in the preamble of the revised party rules, the sources said. Songun was the main policy that was pursued by Kim Jong-il, the late father of current leader Kim.

The North also deleted the expression that the party members "must actively fight to speed up the unification of the fatherland" as it elaborated on their duties.

Some see the change as suggesting that North Korea has given up its long-held push for the unification of the two Koreas and is now pursuing co-existence of two different states on the Korean Peninsula.

 

7. N. Korea slams countries for piling up excessive supply of vaccines amid shortage

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · June 1, 2021

But north Korea has done so well in preventing any COVID outbreak in the north according to their reporting.

Excerpts: “North Korea also criticized countries for engaging in "national egoism with the vaccine and making bottleneck for the mass production of it by seeking only for the profit."

It then called on WHO to make an effort "for a thorough consideration in the moral and ethical phase of the health work to save the human life and for a removal of the global inequality."

North Korea was initially expected to receive around 1.7 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 by May through the COVAX Facility program.

COVAX Facility, however, earlier announced a delay in providing the North with 1.704 million vaccines manufactured by AstraZeneca.

 

8. S. Korea's intelligence chief to return home after weeklong trip to U.S.: sources

en.yna.co.kr · by 고병준 · June 1, 2021

I hope it was a productive visit.  Hopefully the sharing of intelligence has resulted in a common understanding of the Kim Family regime's nature, objectives, and strategy.  Intelligence is crucial to inform policy and strategy.  It is also crucial to making sound strategy assumptions.  Will this trip help the ROK and US to gain sufficient alignment in the strategic assumptions about the north.  To me the contradictory views (strategic assumptions) about north Korea by the ROK and US are the single most critical point of disagreement and friction within the alliance.

 

9. Tracking changes at North Korea's Camp 14 through satellite imagery

dailynk.com · June 1, 2021

Imagery at the link.

 

10. Seventh General Bureau official publicly executed for engaging in "corrupt construction practices"

dailynk.com · by Ha Yoon Ah · June 1, 2021

Excerpts: “According to the source, the Discipline Inspection Department said the “satisfaction of self-interest” by a construction official “at the lead of the Supreme Leader’s politics of love” through abuse of his power “with no sense of duty or self-consciousness” represented a problem in his ideology. Accordingly, the department publicly tried and executed Ryu to make an example of him.

 

11. Korean firms ramp up spending on lobbying in US

The Korea Times  · by Baek Byung-yeul · June 1, 2021

Excerpts: “An industry official here gave a comment on Korean firms spending more to further their influence and expanding their presence the U.S.

"To do business in the U.S., there will be lobbying to the extent permitted by law. As the size of the business grows, it will naturally increase. When considering the size of the U.S. market, it is a natural thing that Korean firms are increasing spending on lobbying," the official said. "Companies can also help develop local communities through lobbying activities."

 

12. Using and buying consumer electronics in North Korea

The Korea Times · by Jon Dunbar · June 1, 2021

Good tradecraft by the author regarding his personal electronics (and even pocket litter!)

Some interesting insights on north Korean electronics.

 

13. South Korea says vaccine shipment to North Korea from Covax delayed again

Strait Times

 

14. Biden’s North Korea Policy: Has ‘Strategic Patience’ Returned? – Analysis

eurasiareview.com · by IPCS · June 1, 2021

 

15.  Kim Jong Un's Plan to Make North Korea Great Again

19fortyfive.com · by ByEli Fuhrman · May 31, 2021

Party and ideology: The answer to every problem in north Korea.

Excerpts: “Such a spirit is necessary, according to Kim, if the country is to overcome the many challenges facing it at present.

Recently, Kim Jong Un has referred to those challenges, which spring from the combined effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as international sanctions, as necessitating the waging of another Arduous March, a reference to the deadly famine that ravaged the country during the 1990s.

In his letter, Kim also called on the GFTUK to increase the frequency of party-related activities and the intensity of ideological instruction and study sessions in order to avoid what he described as “politico-ideological degeneration” among its membership. Kim Jong Un has recently emphasized the need to eliminate “non-socialist” behaviors and activities, including in another letter written to attendees of the Tenth Congress of the country’s Youth League.

Kim has also placed a major emphasis on preventing the spread of foreign media into the country. Late last year, North Korea passed a law spelling out harsher penalties for those caught in possession of or distributing foreign content. The advent of new technologies, such as cell phone networks, have allowed for the development of new networks and means of sharing materials among North Koreans, even as the regime has attempted to coopt those networks for its own uses.

Kim Jong Un also appears intent on strengthening the role of the Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK) and its control over the North Korea populace. Propaganda signs in various parts of the country have been altered to emphasize the party as opposed to Kim himself. During the WPK’s eighth party congress held earlier this year, the role of the party was strengthened further though a requirement that such congresses now be held every five years and a revision of party rules that, among other things, strengthened the role of the party’s Politburo in policy and personnel decisions.

 

16. South Korea’s New Aircraft Carrier Is Joining the Asian Naval Race

The National Interest · by Peter Suciu · June 1, 2021

I would rather see this funded than the pursuit of a nuclear powered submarine.

Excerpts: “The light carrier could carry as many as twenty combat aircraft and eight maritime helicopters. South Korea has already expressed interest in the Lockheed Martin F-35B, the VSTOL variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, which would be ideally suited to such a new warship.

At issue however remains the cost. In addition to the investments in building the warship, which could exceed $1.8 billion, it has been reported that maintenance and operation of the fleet could cost around $180 million annually. However, the force projection and the ability to counter threats from North Korea are certainly worth every penny.

 

17.  Air Force weather squadron supporting Army in South Korea adds ‘combat’ to its name

Stars and Stripes · by David Choi · June 1, 2021

I could see some themes, messages, and memes that could come of this: e.g., The US wants to employ the weather for combat operations. The US is harnessing weather and climate change for military operations.  The north Korean Propaganda and Agitation Department could exploit this. :-) (if they do it will be entertaining!)

And then the commander's name is Bourne - is he a relative of Jason?

All attempts at humor aside, I have worked with a lot of weather detachments and their forecasting has always been critical in support of operations.  I have great respect for the combat weather teams (and the special operations weather teams).

 

 

----------------

 

 

"And on this Memorial Day, we honor their legacy and their sacrifice. Duty, honor, country — they lived for it, they died for it. And we, as a nation, are eternally grateful. You know, America has been forged in the battle and the fires of war. Our freedom and the freedom of innumerable others has been secured by young men and women who answered the call of history and gave everything in the service of an idea: the idea of America. It’s the greatest idea in the long history of humankind. An idea that we’re all created equal in the image of Almighty God. That we’re all entitled to dignity, as my father would say, and respect, decency, and honor. Love of neighbor. They’re not empty words, but the vital, beating heart of our nation. And that democracy must be defended at all costs, for democracy makes all this possible. Democracy — that’s the soul of America, and I believe it’s a soul worth fighting for, and so do you; a soul worth dying for. Heroes who lie in eternal peace in this beautiful place, this sacred place, they believed that too. The soul of America is animated by the perennial battle between our worst instincts — which we’ve seen of late — and our better angels. Between “Me first” and “We the People.” Between greed and generosity, cruelty and kindness, captivity and freedom."

-President Joseph Biden, Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Day 2021

 

“By and large, strategy comes into play where there is actual or potential conflict, when interests collide and forms of resolution are required. This is why a strategy is much more than a plan. A plan supposes a sequence of events that allows one to move with confidence from one state of affairs to another. Strategy is required when one might frustrate those plans.”

- Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

 

“Without a word this uniform also whispers of freezing troops, injured bodies, and Americans left forever in foreign fields. It documents every serviceman’s courage, who by accepting this uniform, promises the one gift he truly has to give: his life. I wear my uniform for the heritage of sacrifice it represents and more. I wear my uniform with pride, for it represents the greatest nation of free people in the world.”

– Captain Karen Dorman Kimmel

An interview with Admiral (Retired) James Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman

"What would a conflict with China look like? How will irregular warfare fit into a conflict before and during large-scale combat operations? Retired Admiral James Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman join this episode of the Irregular Warfare Podcast to discuss the theme of escalation to large-scale conflict, which they explore in their New York Times best seller 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. In answering those questions, they emphasize the nature of human behavior in conflict and how escalation can get out of control.

The novel follows the escalation of the next world war, beginning in the South China Sea. In the episode, the authors explain several key contributions that special operations forces would make in the type of conflict their novel imagines. They argue that a crucial advantage the United States has is its close relationships with partners and allies in the region—relationships that special operations forces foster before conflict—and that these forces’ direct-action capabilities will be invaluable during conflict. While both guests make clear that the book is a work of fiction, it is a cautionary tale for policymakers on how escalation could lead to a nuclear conflict."

https://mwi.usma.edu/irregular-warfare-in-the-next-world-war/

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

1. Poll: Biden Gets High Marks for Foreign Policy

2. Toward a New Naval Statecraft (INDOPACIFIC)

3. DOD Lifts Mask Mandate for Fully Vaccinated Personnel

4. MQ-9 Reaper: The only option for SOCOM’s ‘armed overwatch’ role

5. Off the rails: Trump’s failed 11th-hour military withdrawal campaign

6. America’s return to ‘Clash of Civilizations’

7. Will the cyber mission force soon receive more personnel?

8. Taiwan at the Nexus of Technology and Geopolitics

9. Population-Centric Cybersecurity: Lessons from Counterinsurgency

10. Urgent: Replacing the Inherited US National Defence ‘Strategy’

11. America’s Maoist Maritime Strategy To Beat China in a War

12. ‘No More Fruit’ In Army’s Budget Tree: McConville

13. SOFWERX Exploring New Arctic Tech for Commandos

14.  The Pentagon Inches Toward Letting AI Control Weapons

15. FDD | What We’re Learning About China’s Use of Social Media for Propaganda

16. China’s Land Grab in Bhutan Is the New Face of War

17. JBLM unit’s new night-vision equipment generating buzz online for otherworldly images

18. Dirty Little Wars – America's Long History of Fighting Asymmetrical Conflicts

19. Why the suspicion on China's Wuhan lab virus is growing. Read these new analyses

20. 'Quad should morph into economic NATO to counter China coercion'

21. How Much Do Navy SEALs and Other Special Ops Make?

22. ‘The Indispensables’ Review: Washington’s Marbleheaders

 

1. Poll: Biden Gets High Marks for Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy · May 14, 2021

While this sounds good note the disparity between IR scholars and the public.  This makes those scholars and the academy suspect and appear biased in the minds of many in the public.  We should keep in mind that one of the talking points of the administration is a foreign policy for the people - "a middle class foreign policy."

Excerpts: “After nearly four months in office, U.S. President Joe Biden already enjoys strong public approval ratings for his handling of foreign policy. So far, international relations (IR) experts agree: In fact, the president’s approval remains higher among scholars than among the larger U.S. public.

...

Taken together, these results suggest that IR experts are optimistic that Biden can be a consequential foreign-policy president if he is able to build on his early initiatives. In his first 100 days, he has focused on issues in which he has unilateral authority, but he has begun work on a number of foreign-policy initiatives that may need cooperation from Congress. The larger partisan divides among the public remind us that polarization will likely constrain Biden’s ability to deliver on these efforts and build to a durable foreign-policy legacy.

Poll: Biden Gets High Marks for Foreign Policy

A survey of academics shows early and overwhelming support for the U.S. president, but he will be tested by China, Russia, and national security issues.

 

2. Toward a New Naval Statecraft (INDOPACIFIC)

defenseone.com · by Brent D. Sadler

Conclusion: “All said, the dangers in maritime Asia are no longer a distant concern; they are here today, and very real. Both the outgoing and current Indo-Pacific commanders, Admirals Davidson and Aquilino, recently testified as much, commenting on the likelihood of China triggering a conflict in the next six years.

To deter the growing Chinese armada arrayed against us requires more than matching numbers in arsenals and fleets. We must grow our fleet while also rethinking naval operations in a wider diplomatic and economic context. We need a new naval statecraft: one that leverages and enables naval presence while demonstrating the economic benefits for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

 

3.  DOD Lifts Mask Mandate for Fully Vaccinated Personnel

defenseone.com · by Elizabeth Howe

 

4. MQ-9 Reaper: The only option for SOCOM’s ‘armed overwatch’ role

militarytimes.com · by Dr. Michael Vickers · May 15, 2021

Excerpts: “The MQ-9 Reaper — a name that strikes fear into the hearts of America’s enemies because it is always there, always watching, and always ready — has been the armed overwatch platform of choice in every challenge it has faced: Afghanistan. Iraq. Syria, Libya, and other areas of armed conflict. Commanders using MQ-9s in Libya reported that 70 percent of Reaper strikes were “danger-close” CAS missions requiring precise targeting and limited collateral damage for shots as close as 25 meters to friendly forces.

The MQ-9 is tailor-made for SOCOM’s Armed Overwatch role. With nearly 7 million hours in operation, most of them in combat supporting U.S. and allied forces around the world, the aircraft proved themselves long ago. Their utility and reliability grows with each new upgrade and modification, ensuring they’ll continue to be lethal and relevant for many years more.

The MQ-9 is a well-established, existing line of aircraft. That means no need for a costly, complex new program aimed at developing a separate, less capable Armed Overwatch aircraft that must rely on aerial refueling and a bit of luck to guarantee success.

 

5. Off the rails: Trump’s failed 11th-hour military withdrawal campaign

Axios · by Jonathan Swan,Zachary Basu

An incredible story.  I wonder if this is accurate.

 

6. America’s return to ‘Clash of Civilizations’

militarytimes.com · by Ryan Ashley and Alex Barker · May 15, 2021

I remember being in CGSC in 1994-1995 and the two articles I think all students had to read were Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" and Kaplan's "Coming Anarchy."  We debated the theses of both articles often in various classes.

Excerpts: “Professional Military Education (PME) must play a role in developing more nuanced, diverse perspectives on China among senior staff. We are receptive to arguments that PME must do more than teach military history, and believe that officers should be exposed to the culture and politics of our adversaries on forums other than cable news. Our experiences show us that while teaching culture, avoiding generalized statements by using imperfect but rigorous models like Geert Hofstede’s Six Dimensions of Culture improves both dialogue and student outcomes.

Whether in the 1980s towards Japan or today towards China, culturally essentialist commentary has the dual distinction of being both stereotypical and unhelpful. Those who study China should seek out holistic perspectives on China, including those on Chinese culture. However, the resurgence of Orientalism masquerading as informed analysis has dangerous repercussions. It is no accident that a rise in racism directed at Asian Americans over the past year has come at the same time as anti-Asian rhetoric in American politics. Racist violence towards Americans is tragic, morally repugnant, and a stain on America’s reputation at a critical geopolitical moment. For reasons of morality, accuracy, and effectiveness, commentators must do better than reheat old racist stereotypes when analyzing China.

 

7. Will the cyber mission force soon receive more personnel?

c4isrnet.com · by Mark Pomerleau · May 14, 2021

Will more personnel improve our cyber capabilities?  Interesting comments about the Space Force and Cyber.

Excerpts: “The creation of the Space Force and Space Command adds more ground for Cyber Command to cover. The way the cyber force is staffed within the DoD is that each of the services are responsible for providing a set number of teams — offensive, defensive and intelligence/support teams — to the joint cyber mission force.

In turn, these teams are led by a Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber, which are headed by each of the service cyber component commanders, who them plan, synchronize and conduct operations for the combatant commands to which they’re assigned. The 16th Air Force and its Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber component takes responsibility for Space Command, which is in the process of creating its own Joint Cyber Center to create a tighter linkage with Cyber Command.

While all the services provide an allotted number of forces to Cyber Command through the cyber mission force, officials to date have said there are no plans for Space Force to provide cyber mission force contributions. Instead, officials have noted that they need specialized, serviced-retained cyber personnel to defend their critical assets, such as ground stations, from cyberattacks.

Adversaries are now using cyberspace in ways that weren’t necessarily imagined when the force was initially conceived. Namely, they’ve discovered they can conduct operations below the threshold of war to undermine U.S. national security and not draw a significant response.

“We have to have that balance of not only, what we are going to support our fellow combatant commands if conflict was to break out, but also if our adversaries are operating below the level of armed conflict every single day, what type of force do we need to be able to ensure that we can counteract that,” Nakasone said.

 

8. Taiwan at the Nexus of Technology and Geopolitics

thediplomat.com · by Ian Bremmer · May 14, 2021

Excerpts: “China has certainly been willing to incur widespread diplomatic opprobrium in the defense of its declared national interests; witness its mass internment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and its suppression of pro-democracy activism in Hong Kong. An attack on Taiwan would risk vastly more, including massive military damage and punishing economic sanctions – not to mention significant technological setbacks, as a U.S.-China armed conflict would imperil TSMC’s operations.

The tightening nexus of geopolitics and geotechnology will constrain Taiwan’s freedom of maneuver and make U.S.-China competition increasingly fraught. But Taipei’s core challenge is not a near-term crisis. Its central imperative instead lies in resisting a conclusion that China would prefer to impress upon it without a fight: namely, that its de facto reabsorption into Beijing is merely a matter of time.

 

9. Population-Centric Cybersecurity: Lessons from Counterinsurgency

mwi.usma.edu · by Emma Schroeder · May 17, 2021

The title has antibodies and will cause many to not read this.  It harkens to a time when insurgency was everything and the misguided belief among some that COIN was the answer to every security problem.

But set that aside and read this thought provoking essay.

Conclusion: “However, the United States can succeed in the cyber domain. To do so, it should accept the operational dynamics of the domain and engage to compete more effectively with adversaries. Emphasis should be placed on finding ways to encourage cooperation and codify relationships between the private and public sectors. Research and development efforts should focus on continuous innovation and rapid deployment of tactical countermeasures to shift the cyber landscape in favor of the defense, denying adversaries the ability to operate on their own terms. Organizations should rethink how they prioritize protecting their assets by first identifying and securing the assets of highest value to the adversary and then focusing resources on defending assets of internal value to the organization. And when a breach does, inevitably, occur, organizations should be quick to detect, remediate, and adapt systems to prevent similar security failures in the future. Failure is inevitable and obvious when it happens, but success in the cyber domain is incremental and less visible. To succeed, the United States should embrace failure as a growth concept and fully accept that defenses are not ubiquitous. Failing enables organizations to adapt their mitigation efforts to better manage risk by focusing on vulnerable points of strategic value to the adversary. Developing a cyber strategy that is more informed by the theoretical tenets of counterinsurgency is a step toward an operationally sound and adaptive approach to cybersecurity.

 

10. Urgent: Replacing the Inherited US National Defence ‘Strategy’

rusi.org · May 13, 2021

Quite a critique of the 2018 NDS.  

A very thought provoking essay, especially the discussion of the character and nature of war and "perpetual" great power competition as zero sum.  Note the author's positive treatment of alliances in the NDS.

A serious question: Have any NSS or NDS in the past three to four decades ever really by a strategy in the truest sense - e.g. with assumptions, ends, ways, and means, prioritization of resources, and risk assessment.  Almost all have been more like aspirational "vision" documents.

 

11. America’s Maoist Maritime Strategy To Beat China in a War

19fortyfive.com · by James Holmes · May 15, 2021

A very interesting essay from Professor Holmes.

Excerpts: “There is a wrinkle here, though. What happens when you pit Maoists against Maoists—when, in other words, both combatants join the fray assuming they’re outmatched? This is a real possibility, and one Mao Zedong says little if anything about. Considering its statement of fealty in China’s Military Strategy, the PLA will probably remain true to its Maoist active-defense strategy. The allies will do the same if they heed the counsel compiled here. A cumulative-on-cumulative struggle would probably place a premium on guile, deception, and maneuver as each force sought to arrange local actions in which it held the tactical advantage. A mêlée of some sort would convulse the China seas and Western Pacific.

That might seem to imply that the competitors will pursue symmetrical campaigns against each other, but that need not be the case. There are many varieties of cumulative operations. Plus, maritime warfare is a three-dimensional, intensely joint, multidomain endeavor nowadays. Dueling Maoists might concentrate their cumulative efforts in areas where they hold an competitive advantage, in hopes their efforts will yield outsized impact on the foe. At a guess the allies would put the accent on undersea and irregular combat along the first island chain, where plugging up straits and blocking east-west movement between Chinese home waters and the high seas would assume top priority. The PLA might well reply mainly in the aerospace domain, using shore-based missiles and aircraft to pummel allied surface forces and ground troops.

In short, a Maoist-on-Maoist war might be a asymmetric affair involving asymmetrical methods, platforms, and weaponry. One imagines wargamers in military and civilian think tanks would profit from probing the likely dynamics of such a conflict.

 

12.‘No More Fruit’ In Army’s Budget Tree: McConville

breakingdefense.com · by Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.

Excerpts: “Those top two categories – about 65 programs, 11 percent of the Army total — get half the equipping budget, Pasquarette said. The enduring and legacy programs – over 500 of them – have to split the other 50 percent.

“Those are sometimes called the ‘unloved,’” he said. (In the 2022 budget, he said, the split is more like 47% vs. 53%, but it shifts to exactly 50:50 over time). “[They’re] in a very precarious position…. We’ve taken schwacks at them three years in a row in some instances, and they are not sexy, they’re not a hypersonic missile that flies thousands of kilometers.”

 

13. SOFWERX Exploring New Arctic Tech for Commandos

nationaldefensemagazine.org · by Jon Harper · May 17, 2021

The right equipment is critical in cold weather environments.

 

14. The Pentagon Inches Toward Letting AI Control Weapons

Wired · by Will Knight

This will certainly cause controversy.

 

15. FDD | What We’re Learning About China’s Use of Social Media for Propaganda

fdd.org · by Thomas Joscelyn · May 14, 2021

Excerpts: “The CCP’s diplomatic assault on Twitter is relatively new. Most of the diplomats’ accounts were registered in the past two years. This development is part of the CCP’s aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy, which seeks to harass and intimidate Beijing’s opponents. The CCP is likely experimenting with Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms to see what it can accomplish without serious repercussions. For example, the Oxford Internet Institute produced a separate case study on China’s experimentation with accounts targeting the UK.

And a separate study published by ProPublica last year documented how the CCP has created an army of fake accounts, some of which were hacked and hijacked from real users, to spread propaganda online. The messaging dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, protests in Hong Kong and other topics Beijing finds to be politically sensitive.

We are still in the early stages of understanding how disinformation and propaganda are spread in the era of social media. So, this is one of those topics that will require careful, ongoing analysis. We know this: The CCP is analyzing and experimenting with social media in the West, looking for ways to influence opinions.

 

16. China’s Land Grab in Bhutan Is the New Face of War

Bloomberg · by Hal Brands · May 16, 2021

Excerpts: “And make no mistake: Russia and China do not like being hemmed in by American alliances and military power. That’s why they’ve been developing capabilities that might give them a good shot at defeating the U.S. military in the Baltic region, the Black Sea or the Taiwan Strait.

What keeps the world relatively orderly is not the absence of malign intentions but fear of the consequences that aggressive action will bring. The increase of gray-zone expansion by China and Russia indicates that this fear is slowly ebbing.

Land grabs in Ukraine, the South China Sea or even the Himalayas are troubling in their own right. They are more worrying still for what they reveal about an international order that is fraying at the edges.

 

17. JBLM unit’s new night-vision equipment generating buzz online for otherworldly images

News Tribune · Abbie Shull

A fascinating video at the link.

 

18.  Dirty Little Wars – America's Long History of Fighting Asymmetrical Conflicts

militaryhistorynow.com · May 17, 2021

I think we need to be reminded of this from time to time.

 

19.  Why the suspicion on China's Wuhan lab virus is growing. Read these new analyses

theprint.in · May 17, 2021

I previously forwarded the Bulletin with the referenced article.

 

20. 'Quad should morph into economic NATO to counter China coercion'

in.news.yahoo.com  · May 16, 2021

Everyone wants a "NATO."  But such a security organization is highly unlikely in Asia. I agree the focus needs to be on the economic instrument of power among the like minded nations and protecting the rules-based international order.

 

21. How Much Do Navy SEALs and Other Special Ops Make?

In.finance.yahoo.com · by Nicole Spector

Somehow I do not think these guys do it for the money.

 

22. ‘The Indispensables’ Review: Washington’s Marbleheaders

WSJ · by Mark G. Spencer

A new book from my fellow OSS Society board member.  He is a prolific author who writes some great American history.

 

23. Op-Ed: 'Grand strategy' has a bad rep. To fix it, get beyond hard power and traditional statecraft

Los Angeles Times  · Christopher McKnight Nichols and David Greenberg · May 16, 2021

And competitive statecraft.

 

--------------

 

“As authority increases, however, so does self-consciousness. With more people watching, practice becomes performance. Reputations now matter, narrowing the freedom to be flexible. Leaders who’ve reached the top…can become prisoners of their own preeminence: they lock themselves into roles from which they can’t escape.” 

- John Lewis Gaddis, On Grand Strategy

 

“Understand: your mind is weaker than your emotions. But you become aware of this weakness only in moments of adversity--precisely the time when you need strength. What best equips you to cope with tthe heat of battle is neither more knowledge nor more intellect. What makes your mind stronger, and more able to control your emotions, is internal discipline and toughness.No one can teach you this skill; you cannot learn it by reading about it. Like any discipline, it can come only through practice, experience, even a little suffering. The first step in building up presence of mind is to see the need for ii -- to want it badly enough to be willing to work for it.”

- Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War

 

For whoever habitually suppresses the truth in the interests of tact will produce a deformity from the womb of his thought.

-Sir Basil H. Liddel-Hart (Strategy, 1954)

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

1. North Korean document reveals that Kim never aimed to denuclearize

2.  Leaked Document on North Korea's Nuclear Policy

3. South Korea's President Moon Jae-in's successes on the North issue

4. Moon says COVID-19 vaccine issue to be addressed in his upcoming U.S. visit

5. USFK offers to provide COVID-19 vaccines to S. Korea: sources

6. N. Korea's food situation isn't as bad as it appears: expert

7. N. Korean authorities emphasize "reporting of illegal behavior" to prevent spread of external information

8. North Korea moves forward with two-phased construction plan for border fences, barriers

9. Foreign ministry revs up preparations to launch S. Korea-China cooperation panel

10. Foreign ministry denies report linking S. Korea-Japan ties to U.S. policy on N.K.

11. Hyundai to Make Electric Cars in U.S.

12. Moon has $35 billion investment package for Biden

13. With Biden's help, Korea and Japan make nicer

14. Gyeonggi to crack down on flying anti-Pyongyang leaflets

15. Expectations grow on Korea-US summit

16. Seoul wants Washington to reaffirm Singapore agreement during summit

17. US-China row pressing Korean firms on investment

 

1.  North Korean document reveals that Kim never aimed to denuclearize

onekoreanetwork.com · May 16, 2021

Although this is not the first report of this document, this is the first English translation of the document and it was translated by an escapee who is a good friend and whom I trust, Hyun Seong Lee. See the document here (and I will send via separate message as well).

Excerpt: “The Voice of America earlier reported on some parts of the document in June 2019, and this attracted media attention in both the United States and South Korea. At that time, a State Department spokesperson told VOA that “President Trump remains committed to the goals the two leaders set out at the Singapore summit of transformed U.S.-North Korea relations, building lasting peace, and complete denuclearization.” The spokesperson continued, “As President Trump has said, he believes Chairman Kim will fulfill his commitment to denuclearize.”

 

It is not without controversy and there are skeptics. 

In South Korea, there were slightly different reactions to the report at that time. South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it was aware of the report but that its authenticity needed to be verified. Kim Yeon-chul, South Korean Unification Minister in 2019, said that “the government is reviewing how much we can trust the purpose of the document, but this process is not easy.”

Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, argued that the document was missing key elements and that the format of the date is also “non-standard.” He said some similar lecture documents he obtained had “internal only” printed on the first page, but that the document reported by the VOA was missing this wording.

He also argued that the People’s Army Publishing Company is the one that typically publishes such lecture documents, instead of the Korean Workers’ Party Publishing Company. “Considering how North Korea behaved in the denuclearization negotiation ahead of the Hanoi summit, the contents of the document could be true,” he said. “However, there were many fake lecture documents reported by the media, so the authenticity needs to be verified carefully.”

Lee Hyun-seung, regional director of the One Korea Network, who closely examined the document prior to the VOA’s first report in 2019, said that debating its authenticity is meaningless, if not ridiculous. “Internal documents used during lectures are collected by senior party officials or are incinerated afterward,” he said. In this case, it is certain that “(o)ne of the people who participated in the lecture at that time copied photos of the document and took them with him outside.”

Lee defected from North Korea in 2014 and now lives in the United States. He had previously worked in a trading business owned by the North Korean government and lived for a time in Dalian, China. His father is Ri Jong-ho, who worked for North Korea’s Office 39, the Workers’ Party operation known for raising money for Kim through illicit activities. Ri said he attended training lectures similar to the ones mentioned in the document, and that the fact that the document was published by the Korean Workers’ Party means that it directly reflects Kim Jong-un’s thoughts and the ideology of the party.

“It makes no sense that someone would try to make some 10 page long [fake] document,” Lee Hyun-seung said. “I have seen many other propaganda materials, including North Korea’s internal documents talking about becoming a nuclear state and striking a final deal.”

 

2. Leaked Document on North Korea's Nuclear Policy

onekoreanetwork.com · May 16, 2021

Here is the translated document.

 

3. South Korea's President Moon Jae-in's successes on the North issue

The Strait Times

A positive summary.  

But I would argue this "success" is also one of Kim Jong-un's strategic errors and it is really an inflection point in north-South relations.

- Becoming the first-ever South Korean leader to address a North Korean audience of 150,000 in a packed stadium in Pyongyang in September 2018. He called for a complete end to 70 years of hostility, permanent removal of nuclear weapons, and reunification.

“Moon's speech was well received by the 150,000 Koreans in the north. This speech may have done the most damage to north-South engagement. This is because the people who heard Moon resak realized the real man was nothing like the caricature manufactured by the. Propaganda and Agitation Department. He appeared smart, a sophisticated man with integrity and passion about Korea and reconciliation. The Korean people in the north realized he could be trusted and believed that KJU could deal with him and improve the lives of the Korean people and solve the security and economic issues. But this was not KJU's intention at all. As we can see since September 2018 in Pyongyang north-South relations steadily declined and Kim Jong-un and his sister Kim Yo-jong have treated President Moon with great disrespect. President Moon has never been able to put north-South engagement back on track because Kim Jong-un does not want to reconcile. His sole objective is to dominate the peninsula under his rule. Unfortunately this does not fit in with the Moon administration narrative and the legacy President Moon is trying to leave behind. South Korea must understand and accept the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime and deal with it as it really is and not as it would wish it to be.”

 

4. Moon says COVID-19 vaccine issue to be addressed in his upcoming U.S. visit

en.yna.co.kr · by 이치동 · May 17, 2021

This is probably the most important agenda item for President Moon. He must return from the summit with some kind of substantive agreement on COVID vaccines with the US.

 

5. USFK offers to provide COVID-19 vaccines to S. Korea: sources

en.yna.co.kr · by 오석민 · May 17, 2021

A positive initiative ahead of the summit.

 

6. N. Korea's food situation isn't as bad as it appears: expert

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · May 17, 2021

Conflicting reporting and analysis. The real point is just how difficult it is to know what is really going on inside north Korea.

 

7. N. Korean authorities emphasize "reporting of illegal behavior" to prevent spread of external information

dailynk.com · by Mun Dong Hui · May 17, 2021

The priority is always control of the population. The regime is deathly afraid of the Korean people living in the north.

 

8. North Korea moves forward with two-phased construction plan for border fences, barriers

dailynk.com · by Ha Yoon Ah · May 17, 2021

"Tear down this wall." The USSR (and unlike the US border "wall") this is designed to keep people in as much as it is to keep people out. 

 

9. Foreign ministry revs up preparations to launch S. Korea-China cooperation panel

en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · May 17, 2021

Will this prevent China from executing economic warfare against South Korea if the ROK decides to join the Quad?

 

10. Foreign ministry denies report linking S. Korea-Japan ties to U.S. policy on N.K.

en.yna.co.kr · by 김승연 · May 17, 2021

Are there those who think the Singapore agreement is really the foundation for an agreement that can be reached with north Korea? It is an agreement that provides a path forward for the regime's political warfare strategy. 

 

11. Hyundai to Make Electric Cars in U.S.

english.chosun.com

Good timing for this announcement ahead of the summit.

 

12. Moon has $35 billion investment package for Biden

Koreanjoongangdaily.joins.com · by Jin Eun-soo and Park Eun-Jee · May 17, 2021

 

13. With Biden's help, Korea and Japan make nicer

Koreanjoongangdaily.joins.com · by Lee Young-hee, Park Hyun-Ju, and Sarah Kim · May 17, 2021

We need strong trilateral coordination for our mutual security interests in Northeast Asia and throughout the INDOPACIFIC.

 

14. Gyeonggi to crack down on flying anti-Pyongyang leaflets

Koreanjoongangdaily.joins.com · by Michael Lee · May 17, 2021

A sad development.  The Moon administration must get this law rescinded.

 

15.  Expectations grow on Korea-US summit

The Korea Times · by Ahn Ho-young  · May 17, 2021

Articles from Ambassador Ahn Ho-young: "Combined deterrence needed to tackle NK nuclear threats" and presidential advisor Moon Chung-in: "Allies can find new breakthrough to stalled peace process."

I will stand with Ambassador Ahn. He is a strong proponent for the alliance and has a realistic understanding of the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime. Moon Chung-un is no friend of the alliance and he has an unrealistic but dangerous view of the Kim family regime.

 

16. Seoul wants Washington to reaffirm Singapore agreement during summit

The Korea Times · by Nam Hyun-woo · May 17, 2021

If we do use the Singapore summit we need to make some adjustments and ensure there is an understanding of the step by step and/or simultaneous action requirements. We must understand how Kim Jong-un has interpreted the Singapore summit agreement and how he uses it to support his political warfare strategy. We need to execute a superior form of political warfare. Beware the effects of the end of war declaration. If we do enter into some kind of agreement there must be a commitment to reducing the north Korea threat to protect the security of the ROK (e.g., the tyranny of proximity and the offensive posture of north Korean forces).

 

17. US-China row pressing Korean firms on investment

The Korea Times · by Yi Whan-woo · May 17, 2021

 

--------------

 

“As authority increases, however, so does self-consciousness. With more people watching, practice becomes performance. Reputations now matter, narrowing the freedom to be flexible. Leaders who’ve reached the top…can become prisoners of their own preeminence: they lock themselves into roles from which they can’t escape.” 

- John Lewis Gaddis, On Grand Strategy

 

“Understand: your mind is weaker than your emotions. But you become aware of this weakness only in moments of adversity--precisely the time when you need strength. What best equips you to cope with the heat of battle is neither more knowledge nor more intellect. What makes your mind stronger, and more able to control your emotions, is internal discipline and toughness.No one can teach you this skill; you cannot learn it by reading about it. Like any discipline, it can come only through practice, experience, even a little suffering. The first step in building up presence of mind is to see the need for ii -- to want it badly enough to be willing to work for it.”

- Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War

 

For whoever habitually suppresses the truth in the interests of tact will produce a deformity from the womb of his thought.

-Sir Basil H. Liddel-Hart (Strategy, 1954)

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

1. Spy Agencies Seek New Afghan Allies as U.S. Withdraws

2. Space Force CO Who Got Holiday Call from Trump Fired Over Comments Decrying Marxism in the Military

3. New report from the FBI and DHS says deaths from domestic extremists motivated by race are on the rise

4. Is Taiwan really the world's most dangerous place?

5. If Taiwan is on borrowed time, why do Taiwanese keep calm and carry on?

6. Finding the Right Words: Ending the Confusion on What “Information Operations” Actually Means

7. Special Operations Forces Bracing for Arctic Missions

8. New memorial dedicated to soldiers who died on secret mission to Vietnam

9. Opinion | How Many ‘Special Envoys’ Does Joe Biden Need?

10. Congress eyes hack reporting law after pipeline disruption

11. Before Jihadi John, There Was George Blake

12. He went from NYC to Vietnam to deliver beer during a war — now his story is coming to the big screen

13. #NextWar: A Fictional Cautionary Tale

 

1. Spy Agencies Seek New Afghan Allies as U.S. Withdraws

The New York Times · by Julian E. Barnes · May 14, 2021

More excellent reporting from Thomas Gibbons-Neff. Again, he is writing the first draft of our last chapter leaving Afghanistan.

Excerpts: “The appeal of building ties with Mr. Massoud and other regional power brokers is obvious: Western governments distrust the Taliban’s lukewarm commitments to keep terrorist groups out of the country in the years ahead and fear that the Afghan government might fracture if no peace settlement is reached. The Second Resistance, as Mr. Massoud now calls his armed uprising force, is a network that is opposed to the Taliban, Al Qaeda or any extremist group that rises in their shadow.

Top C.I.A. officials, including William J. Burns, the agency’s director, have acknowledged that they are looking for new ways to collect information in Afghanistan once American forces are withdrawn, and their ability to gather information on terrorist activity is diminished.

But Mr. Massoud’s organization is in its infancy, desperate for support, and legitimacy. It is backed by a dozen or so militia commanders who fought the Taliban and the Soviets in the past, and a few thousand fighters located in the north. Mr. Massoud says his ranks are filled by those slighted by the government and, much like the Taliban, he thinks that Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, has overstayed his welcome.

 

2. Space Force CO Who Got Holiday Call from Trump Fired Over Comments Decrying Marxism in the Military

military.com · by Oriana Pawlyk · May 15, 2021

Just another illustration of the two extremes of the tribes in our country - one side says the other wants to bring Marxist/communist ideology through critical race theory and diversity and inclusion, etc. and the other side says their opponents want to ensure a white majority remains in control of America. What if both sides are wrong about the other?

On the other hand why did this fighter pilot go from flying F-15s to the Space Force to detect ballistic missile launches? What made him want to do that especially when we face a shortage of fighter pilots?

 

3. New report from the FBI and DHS says deaths from domestic extremists motivated by race are on the rise

insider.com · by Kelsey Vlamis

Data is data. The 40 page report can be downloaded here. 

 

4. Is Taiwan really the world's most dangerous place?

The Hill · by Harlan Ullman · May 15, 2021

Excerpts: “China has many other, non-forceful options vis-a-vis Taiwan, including economic and political intimidation and working from within Taiwan to install a regime that would accept unification. And the PLA is well aware that Operation Causeway to retake Formosa from the Japanese in 1944, never implemented, called for a force of 4,000 ships and 400,000 soldiers and marines (larger than the Normandy invasion that same year) and a capability China never will attain.

Since the end of World War II, the U.S often overly militarized responses to perceived threats. Vietnam and non-existent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction are the two most disastrous examples. China may become the world’s largest economy and perhaps field an even more powerful military.

But, as Ike assembled Project Solarium in 1953 to conduct a deep analysis of America’s strategic options vis-a-vis the Soviet Union, the same needs to be done before we rush to ill-informed conclusions about China.

 

5. If Taiwan is on borrowed time, why do Taiwanese keep calm and carry on?

SCMP · by William Han · May 17, 2021

 

6. Finding the Right Words: Ending the Confusion on What “Information Operations” Actually Means

Small Wars Journal · by Daniel Dewitt and Salil Puri

Conclusion: “The reigning confusion within the Defense Department over the meaning of “information operations” is setting the United States up for failure as it prepares for an era of burgeoning great power competition. Far from a semantic matter of definitions between services, this issue directly affects the ability of the armed forces to effectively counter hostile influence efforts and shape the global operating environment in ways favorable to the United States. Achieving a doctrinal change of the magnitude that this article calls for is not a small endeavor, but without a clear understanding of the varied ways that the military engages with information functions, commanders in the field will struggle to adequately employ each set of capabilities in its proper context. Clearly, an overemphasis on preparation for large-scale combat operations will hinder effective action in the competition for influence below the threshold of war. By the same token, an excessive focus on shaping the battlespace via influence operations will leave U.S. forces unprepared should deterrence fail and major combat operations become necessary. Clarifying joint doctrine so as to distinguish between these two fields, and then integrating the change into joint exercises, is a necessary step to force commanders to engage with the full range of operations, from influencing foreign perceptions to command-and-control warfare.

 

7. Special Operations Forces Bracing for Arctic Missions

nationaldefensemagazine.org · by Jon Harper

Heat is uncomfortable. Cold is painful.

 

8. New memorial dedicated to soldiers who died on secret mission to Vietnam

q13fox.com · by Megan Ziegler

But still a mystery. Not only what happened to these Americans but what was their mission?

 

9. Opinion | How Many ‘Special Envoys’ Does Joe Biden Need?

Politico · by Brett Bruen and Adam Ereli

Perhaps this is why we may not see a Special Representative for north Korea. However, Congress requires a Special Envoy for north Korean human rights.

 

10. Congress eyes hack reporting law after pipeline disruption

Politico

Excerpts: “Lawmakers have tried before to impose cybersecurity rules on critical U.S. companies. In 2012, Collins co-sponsored such a bill with former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill, calling it overly burdensome on the private sector, and Republicans lined up against it, sinking its chances.

Congress passed a modest law in 2015 that encouraged voluntary reporting in exchange for limited immunity. However, lawmakers of both parties now concede the measure hasn’t worked as intended and didn’t go far enough.

Collins said increased congressional and public awareness about cyber threats and the panic of the past week could be what is needed to get it done this time.

The pipeline attack, with its quick impact on gas supplies and prices, “really brings it home to the American people,” she said in an interview.

Congress is running out of time to prepare the nation for a truly catastrophic cyberattack, according to Wales.

“My sense,” he said, “is that the likelihood is increasing almost every day.”

 

11. Before Jihadi John, There Was George Blake

Foreign Policy · by Simon Kuper · May 16, 2021

Some interesting Sunday history.

 

12. He went from NYC to Vietnam to deliver beer during a war — now his story is coming to the big screen

militarytimes.com · by J.D. Simkins · May 6, 2021

This should be quite a movie and will probably inspire future "beer runs" to try to top it.

 

13. #NextWar: A Fictional Cautionary Tale

angrystaffofficer.com · by David Dixon · May 16, 2021

As the title says. Some fictional thinking about future war. A fascinating read. Probably more accurate about the future on so many levels than any of the future operating environments authored by the military or think tanks. This should resonate.

 

----------------

 

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist.” 

- British economist John Maynard Keynes

 

 “...the [constitutional] power to wage war is the power to wage war successfully.”

- Charles Evans Hughes

“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”

- Lord Melbourne (1779-1848),

 

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

1. N.K. propaganda outlet slams S. Korea's biennial integrated defense drill

2.Vaccine, chips, North Korea on agenda for Seoul-Washington summit

3. Seoul, Tokyo likely to form consultative body on Fukushima wastewater release

4. N. Korea’s Zoom-type app Rakwon gains traction

5. (South Korea) 1st hearing held on election meddling; Suspicions cannot be buried for good

6. New U.S. policy toward North Korea builds partly on 2018 agreement

7. South Korea is pushing America for new talks with the North

8. Aussie cyber experts fight back against North Korea

9. N. Korea deployed anti-aircraft guns in apparent protest to anti-Pyongyang leaflets, S. Korean government detected

10. (South Korea) Lifting of military ban on mobiles leads to surge in tip-offs about poor conditions

11. The Blue House Releases An Official Statement About The Petition To Cancel Upcoming K-Drama "Snowdrop"

 

1. N.K. propaganda outlet slams S. Korea's biennial integrated defense drill

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · May 16, 2021

Do we issue protests over the north Korea Winter and Summer  Training Cycles?

But this kind of propaganda works on certain factions in the ROK and the US who construct the "logical" argument that all we have to do is end training in South Korea and north Korea will come to the negotiating table, participate in north-South engagement and denuclearize.  But such logic could not be more wrong given the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime.

Excerpts: "(South Korea's) move for military buildup and drills are strictly based on its plan to preemptively strike our Republic and is a factor that further aggravates the already critical tension on the Korean Peninsula," Tongil Voice said.

It also blamed South Korea for being "the very country that destroys peace and stability" and warned that it will result in "stabbing itself in the eyes with its bare hands" by confronting the North.

 

2. Vaccine, chips, North Korea on agenda for Seoul-Washington summit

The Korea Times · May 16, 2021

Also the Quad +, China, and trilateral ROK, Japan, and  US cooperation. Will the US raise north Korean human rights and the South's anti-leaflet law?

 

3. Seoul, Tokyo likely to form consultative body on Fukushima wastewater release

koreaherald.com · by Ahn Sung-mi  · May 16, 2021

Hopefully a positive step forward.

 

4. N. Korea’s Zoom-type app Rakwon gains traction

koreaherald.com · by Ko Jun-tae · May 16, 2021

Maybe we can eventually conduct "Zoom diplomacy" with the regime.

 

5. (South Korea) 1st hearing held on election meddling; Suspicions cannot be buried for good

koreaherald.com · by The Korea Herald · May 12, 2021

Korean domestic politics and election integrity.

 

6. New U.S. policy toward North Korea builds partly on 2018 agreement

english.kyodonews.net ·

Consider the regime's views:

north Korea Negotiating Strategy

(post Panmunjom, Singapore, Pyongyang Summits)

Key “agreement:” denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula

Change relationship - Declaration of the end of the war  (end of hostile US policy - i.e., Peace regime)
Sanctions relief (permanent removal)
Denuclearization of the South (end of alliance, removal of troops, end of nuclear umbrella over ROK and Japan)
Then negotiate dismantlement of the north’s and ICBM programs
In Short:
nK: change relationship, build trust , denuclearize
US: denuclearize, build trust, change relationship

 

Some thoughts on the end of war declaration and a peace 'regime."

 

Peace Declaration – Peace Treaty History, Issues, and Perspective

 

- We should consider the history and who are/were the belligerents in the Korean Civil War - with emphasis on civil war between north and South.  a review of the UN Security Council resolutions of 1950 (82-85) shows that the United Nations clearly identified the north as the hostile aggressor who attacked South Korea.  The UN called on member nations to come to the defense of South Korea.  It established the UN Command and designated the United States as executive agent for the UN Command which included designating the commander.

 

- The United States did not declare war on the north.  It intervened under UN authority and fought under the UN command.  President Rhee placed the remnants of the Korean forces under the command of the UNC.  The Chinese did not officially intervene in the war.  It sent "volunteers"- The Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) to defend the north. The 1953 Armistice was signed by military representatives the UN Command and the north Korean People's Army (nKPA)and then later by the Chinese People's Volunteers and the Commander in Chief of the nKPA.

 

- The logical end to the Korean Civil War and adoption of a peace treaty must be brokered between the two designated belligerents (the north and South). The US and PRC could provide security guarantees but they should not be parties to the peace treaty and the US should not try to have a separate peace treaty with the north (which is exactly what the north has demanded for years and what also worries Koreans in the South who fear a separate peace that would abandon the South).

 

- The only correct way for the US to change the relationship with north Korea is to normalize relations and establish diplomatic relations.  

 

- The other problem with a peace treaty between north and South is their current constitutions.  Both countries do not recognize the existence of the other and in fact both claim sovereignty over the entire Korean peninsula and Korean population.  A peace treaty would undermine both constitutions because signing a peace treaty would mean recognizing the existence of two Koreas

 

Thoughts on the way ahead:

 

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).

 

A New Durable Acceptable Political Arrangement (“end state”) for consideration:

            “A stable, secure, peaceful, economically vibrant, non-nuclear peninsula, reunified under a liberal constitutional form of government determined by the Korean people. ”

United Republic of Korea (UROK)

 

1. Number one priority: Development and execution of information/psychological preparation of the environment – a sophisticated and aggressive information and influence activities campaign
2. Development of an overt policy and strategy that states peaceful unification and not external regime change is the desired end.
3. Development of a classified policy and strategy.
4. Coping, Containment, and Management. 

• Planning is the hardest and most complex
• All peaceful planning will have application in all scenarios
• Peaceful unification planning is the practical and morally right course

1. War – fastest way – blood and treasure - deter
2. Regime collapse - conflict, mother of all humanitarian disasters, could lead to war
3. Internal resistance – emerging new leadership

 

7. South Korea is pushing America for new talks with the North

The Economist · May 15, 2021

My recommendation is that President Biden should never met with KimJong-un until working level negotiations hammer out substantive agreement they can bring to the two leaders to sign.

On the other hand I doubt that Kim Jng-un can afford to meet with President Biden unless he first has as a minimum guarantees that sanctions will be lifted before the regime takes any substantive action.

 

8. Aussie cyber experts fight back against North Korea

afr.com · May 14, 2021

Kim Jong-un's all purpose sword is a global threat.

 

9. N. Korea deployed anti-aircraft guns in apparent protest to anti-Pyongyang leaflets, S. Korean government detected

Hani · by Kim Ji-eun · May 14, 2021

This is the partial justification for the South's anti-leaflet law. It is about preventing a north Korean response to the leaflets that could cause a threat to Koreans in the South.  We should keep in mind that no Korean in the South have ever been harmed by a north Korean response to balloon launches.

The leftist/progressive Hankyoreh of course supports the anti-leaflet law.  I have not seen a similar report in the South Korean conservative or more mainstream media.

On the other hand if this report is accurate it is another indication the regime feels information is an existential threat.  We should consider that as we hopefully are devising a new comprehensive and sophisticated information and influence activities campaign.

 

10.  Lifting of military ban on mobiles leads to surge in tip-offs about poor conditions

koreanjoongangdaily.joins.com · by Michael Lee · May 16, 2021

 

11.  The Blue House Releases An Official Statement About The Petition To Cancel Upcoming K-Drama "Snowdrop"

koreaboo.com · May 15, 2021

Does the Blue House doth protest too much?  Does this mean "Snowdrop" will romanticize the Democratic movement and disparage spies?

Excerpt: “It is not a drama that disparages the Democratic Movement or romanticizes spies. 

The Blue House Releases An Official Statement About The Petition To Cancel Upcoming K-Drama "Snowdrop"

 

----------------

 

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist.” 

- British economist John Maynard Keynes

 

 “...the [constitutional] power to wage war is the power to wage war successfully.”

- Charles Evans Hughes

“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”

- Lord Melbourne (1779-1848),

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

1. A City Under Siege: What the War Looks Like on Afghanistan’s Front Line

2. Activists and Ex-Spy Said to Have Plotted to Discredit Trump ‘Enemies’ in Government

3. Pentagon Surveilling Americans Without a Warrant, Senator Reveals

4. The 2018 Strategy Is Unworkable. We Need a Fundamental Defense Rethink

5.  We Should Not Underestimate China’s Military Ambitions

6.  FDD | The United States Has a Data Broker Problem

7. Israel’s Iron Dome Advantage

8. Opinion | The United Nations doesn’t practice the democracy it preaches

9. One soldier’s missing pay could be sticking point for Army secretary nomination

10. The Military Revolt Against Joe Biden

11. Military Officers Should Stay Out of Politics

12. Big Cyberattacks Should Be Handled by Nations, Not Lawyers

13. Pandemic untamed in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

14. Tokyo-based Ospreys with guns visible draw more complaints from anti-base group

15. As US pulls out of Afghanistan, China sees opportunities -- and potential for chaos

16. Senator ‘baffled’ by DoD testimony on sexual assault incident visibility at unit level

17. Army’s Cybersecurity ‘Greatly Concerns’ Wormuth After Pipeline Attack

18. How Should the US Respond to Provocations in the Grey Zone?

19. In this Army vs. Navy contest, the Army risks being sidelined by the Marines

20. Former CISA chief says Biden order on cybersecurity is "dramatic game change"

21. China tries online activists who saved censored coronavirus posts on Github

22. China Vows Retaliation Against Journalists Unless U.S. Relents

23.  The Reality Behind the Dream of Total Freedom

 

1. A City Under Siege: What the War Looks Like on Afghanistan’s Front Line

The New York Times · by Thomas Gibbons-Neff · May 13, 2021

Great reporting from Thomas Gibbons-Neff. He is giving us a front row seat while he chronicles the events of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the effects on our Afghan allies. He is writing the first draft of our last chapter in Afghanistan. Pay attention to his reporting.

 

2. Activists and Ex-Spy Said to Have Plotted to Discredit Trump ‘Enemies’ in Government

The New York Times · by Mark Mazzetti · May 13, 2021

Another truth is stranger than fiction story. If someone presented this as a proposal for a screenplay or novel it would get rejected as too farfetched.

 

3. Pentagon Surveilling Americans Without a Warrant, Senator Reveals

Vice · by Joseph Cox

We are really seeing some interesting and unusual reporting of late.  

 

4. The 2018 Strategy Is Unworkable. We Need a Fundamental Defense Rethink

defenseone.com · by Dave Oliver and Anand Toprani

What is missing from this discussion is the irregular warfare aspect of our National Defense Strategy. I would ask the authors if they think we need to keep, jettison, or change the irregular warfare elements of the NDS?

 

5.  We Should Not Underestimate China’s Military Ambitions

thedispatch.com · by Bradley Bowman

Sun Tzu: "Never assume the enemy will not attack. Make yourself invincible."

Excerpts: “Some may dismiss such warnings, arguing that serious and systemic domestic political and economic challenges would dissuade the CCP from seeking military conflict with the United States. There are at least two major problems with such reasoning. First, history is riddled with examples in which nations stumble into conflicts they did not want. Second, the very domestic challenges some say reduce the relative power of Beijing and make the CCP less likely to seek military conflict with the United States may actually have the opposite effect. The CCP does not enjoy the credibility that comes from free and fair elections and instead relies significantly on a growing economy to retain the support of the Chinese people. A serious economic downturn in China, for example, might encourage the CCP to manufacture a military conflict with the United States to consolidate domestic power and shift the attention of the Chinese people away from the regime’s failings.

This analysis is not a call for “self-doubt,” and it does not seek to portray the Chinese military as 10 feet tall. Americans, indeed, should be confident in our ability to compete as free people against authoritarian adversaries—if we are willing to be honest about the nature and severity of the threat from China, assemble a bipartisan strategy to respond, and then muster sufficient defense resources.

That mixture of confidence, candor, and urgent action represents the best hope of protecting American interests and avoiding military conflict with China.

 

6. FDD | The United States Has a Data Broker Problem

fdd.org · by Trevor Logan · May 13, 2021

Conclusion: For too long, there has been a mismatch between the amount of data that U.S. citizens generate and the amount of effort the U.S. government and companies put into governing and securing that data. Congress and the Biden administration must act to prevent the transfer of data to U.S. adversaries.

 

7. Israel’s Iron Dome Advantage

WSJ · by The Editorial Board

Excerpts: “Iron Dome saves Israeli lives and property, but it also changes the propaganda calculus for Israel’s adversaries. The high rate of missile interceptions gives Israel’s leaders more flexibility in how they respond to the attacks.

Fewer Israeli casualties means there’s less political pressure for a full-scale invasion of Gaza or for indiscriminate air attacks that could kill civilians. Palestinian casualties are a propaganda coup for terrorists, and Israeli restraint saves lives and extends the window for its defense forces to act before they come under opportunistic condemnation from abroad.

 

8. Opinion | The United Nations doesn’t practice the democracy it preaches

The Washington Post · by  Josh Rogin · May 13, 2021

Tough and important critique from Josh Rogin: “Even if Arora’s candidacy were unlikely to succeed, the least the U.N. could do is allow more candidates to participate, especially those from underrepresented groups. But as of now, the organization that’s supposed to represent the entire world in a democratic and equitable way is not even close to doing so inside its own house.

By rubber-stamping a second term for Guterres, the United Nations would be bypassing a free and fair democratic process and undermining its own supposed commitment to promote gender equality and youth inclusiveness. The depressing message this would send is that U.N. politics will remain with the old guard and that the U.N. will drift further away from the modernization and reforms it so badly needs.

 

9. One soldier’s missing pay could be sticking point for Army secretary nomination

armytimes.com · by Davis Winkie · May 13, 2021

Sounds like a TDY processing problem. I wonder if this is DTS issue. Imagine if every service member goes to their congressman for their DTS issues. Maybe DTS would be improved.

Excerpts: “We can’t have situations where we’re not paying our soldiers the money that they earn for ten months,” said Wormuth. “From my understanding…there isn’t a good reason why this happened.”

Cramer set a June 1 deadline for the soldier to receive his backpay, which Wormuth thinks the Army is on track to meet.

Cramer, though, won’t be convinced until the money is in the affected soldier’s bank account.

“That’s the answer that I’m looking for, and I trust you with it, but I don’t yet trust the Army. I might have eight months ago,” said the senator.

 

10. The Military Revolt Against Joe Biden

Foreign Policy · by Peter Feaver · May 12, 2021

It will be interesting to see how much influence these 120 GOFOs have. Certainly there are some factions within the partisan tribes and even within the active and retired military who will be emboldened by their letter. 

 

11. Military Officers Should Stay Out of Politics

thebulwark.com · by Jim Golby · May 13, 2021

The subtitle says it all, Persuade with facts and logic, not rank.

 

12.  Big Cyberattacks Should Be Handled by Nations, Not Lawyers

Bloomberg · by Noah Feldman · May 13, 2021

I have wondered if we should declare the internet and the cyber domain critical as a kind of national security infrastructure? It is now critical to every aspect of national security, commerce, and individual life. Should it be protected by some kind of national strategy?

 

13. Pandemic untamed in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

asiatimes.com · by Andrew Salmon · May 14, 2021

Complacency kills?

... All three are lagging behind the norm for developing nations in terms of vaccination programs.

While the situation in the three countries is nowhere near as dire as in carnage-wracked India, matters are increasingly worrying for Japan – and the world – as it prepares to host the Olympics despite the ongoing failure of pandemic containment efforts.

 

14. Tokyo-based Ospreys with guns visible draw more complaints from anti-base group

Stars and Stripes

One of the challenges of basing in Japan.

 

15. As US pulls out of Afghanistan, China sees opportunities -- and potential for chaos

CNN · by James Griffiths and Nectar Gan

The question is can China exploit any of these opportunities?

 

16.  Senator ‘baffled’ by DoD testimony on sexual assault incident visibility at unit level

militarytimes.com · by Karen Jowers · May 13, 2021

A self-inflicted wound by Ms Van Winkle?

Van Winkle said Pentagon officials haven’t had a clear picture of what’s going on within units in terms of how sexual assault and harassment are being addressed.

“We’re looking at all aspects of these issues to shed light where we previously didn’t have visibility,” said Van Winkle, executive director of DoD’s Office of Force Resiliency, in her testimony before the subcommittee. If officials don’t have that visibility at the unit and installation level, Van Winkle said, “then we simply don’t have a good sense of whether our initiatives are getting to where they need to be.”

Gillibrand said she was “exasperated” by that statement, noting that commanders have had this authority at the unit level. “So for you to state there’s no visibility there, is an absurd statement. You have visibility because you have unit commanders,” she said.

“You’ve had testimony from survivors in the last eight years I’ve been working on this that when they are sexually harassed, 66 percent of the time it comes from their unit commander. So you’ve had plenty of visibility onto this issue. …

...

Gillibrand said the military has more data about these incidents than any district attorney’s office has, because the services conduct annual surveys, and have reporting requirements. “This is supposed to be something the command has taken seriously, with zero tolerance for the last decade,” she said.

“It’s not lack of visibility. It’s not lack of information,” she said.

“It’s lack of will.”

Gillibrand asked Van Winkle to “rework your testimony. What you’ve said here is unbelievable.”

 

17.  Army’s Cybersecurity ‘Greatly Concerns’ Wormuth After Pipeline Attack

defenseone.com · by Caitlin M. Kenney

It is not just the Army that we must be concerned about.

Excerpts: “Wormuth told senators Thursday she agrees with the Army’s assessment that long-range precision fires are still the service’s top priority, not only because of their importance in the Indo-Pacific theater, but in Europe as well.

“It’s the highest priority in my view because of the need to address the anti-access area denial challenges that we face in both Europe and Indo-Pacific. And given the quite sophisticated integrated air defenses that we’ll likely be facing, I think it behooves us to develop capabilities that allow us to strike targets from very long distances,” she said.

Air Force Gen. Timothy Ray, the leader of Air Force Global Strike Command, recently called the Army’s pursuit of this long-range weapon capability a “stupid idea,” expensive, and redundant, since the Air Force already has that capability.

However, Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in response that the Pentagon’s new joint warfighting concept emphasizes that every military service will need to be able to defeat an enemy’s long-range missiles.

“This means you want each service to bring those long-range fires; so, the joint warfighting concept succeeds if all of the force can apply fires wherever they happen to be, wherever the target is, whatever the lines of conflict, that is the joint warfighting concept,” Hyten told Defense One in April.

Research and analysis are still needed to determine whether the Army’s long-range fires will be economically feasible once the concept becomes reality, Hyten said.

 

18. How Should the US Respond to Provocations in the Grey Zone?

military.com · by Joseph V. Micallef · May 13, 2021

Wisely and decisively and in accordance with American values.

Excerpts: “The topic has garnered considerable attention and has been extensively discussed among military strategists.

Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov, the current chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia and first deputy defense minister, has written extensively on the utility of combining military, technological, informational, diplomatic, economic, cultural and other tactics for the purpose of achieving strategic goals. His comments were termed "The Gerasimov Doctrine," although whether this is actually an operational strategy of the Russian government remains hotly debated.

The Chinese version of hybrid warfare was outlined in a seminal book, published in 1999, by Cols. Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui called "Unrestricted Warfare: Two Air Force Senior Colonels on Scenarios for War and the Operational Art in an Era of Globalization." The book examines how China can overcome a technologically superior adversary by avoiding direct military confrontation and relying instead on a combination of legal means, termed "lawfare," as well as using economic, political, diplomatic and mass media tools to obtain leverage over an opponent and eliminate the need for direct military confrontation.

Closer to home, military theorist David Kilcullen, in his book "Dragons and Snakes: How The Rest learned to Fight the West," points out that Western dominance over a very particular, narrowly defined form of warfare forces adversaries to adapt in ways that present serious new challenges to America and its allies.

Kilcullen notes that state and non-state threats have increasingly come to resemble each other, with states adopting non-state techniques and non-state actors now able to access levels of precision and lethal weapon systems once available only to governments.

 

19. In this Army vs. Navy contest, the Army risks being sidelined by the Marines

Washington Examiner · by Jamie McIntyre · May 14, 2021

:-). The Marines are doing some great and innovative things but the Marine Corps is not the Army.

 

20. Former CISA chief says Biden order on cybersecurity is "dramatic game change"

CBS News · by Grace Segers

Professional national security practitioners such as Christopher Krebs can offer critical critiques and positive evaluations without partisan influence.

 

21. China tries online activists who saved censored coronavirus posts on Github

americanmilitarynews.com · by Radio Free Asia · May 14, 2021

The nature of the CCP.

 

22. China Vows Retaliation Against Journalists Unless U.S. Relents

Bloomberg · by Bloomberg News · May 14, 2021

I think we are making a mistake. We should allow Chinese journalists to report as journalists like all journalists in the US. We should not be afraid of their reporting. We should hold the moral high ground to allow freedom of the press even if it is abused by our adversaries. We can overcome their propaganda with superior messaging and by exposing their propaganda. But now we are in a position for us to do the right thing for our democratic principles we will appear to be giving in to the CCP's blackmail diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.

 

23. The Reality Behind the Dream of Total Freedom

WSJ · by Sebastian Junger

A thought provoking essay from Sebastian Junger.

Excerpts: “For most of human history, freedom had to be at least suffered for, if not died for, and that raised its value to something almost sacred. In modern democracies, however, an ethos of public sacrifice is rarely needed because freedom and survival are more or less guaranteed. That is a great blessing of the modern era, but it also allows people to believe that any sacrifice at all—rationing water during a drought, for example—is a form of government tyranny. That’s no worse a form of tyranny than rationing water on a lifeboat. The idea that we can enjoy the benefits of society while owing nothing in return, not even a minor sacrifice, is literally infantile. Only children owe nothing.

To be fair, it’s hard to feel loyalty to a society that is so huge it hardly even knows we’re here and yet makes sure we are completely dependent on it. That’s not a strong bargaining position to be in. Wealth is supposed to liberate us from the dangers of dependency but quickly becomes a dependency in its own right. The wealthier we are, the higher our standard of living and the more we depend on society for our safety and comfort.

 

----------------

 

“Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal”

-Jeane Kirkpatrick

 

“A society without the means to detect lies and theft soon squanders its liberty and freedom.”

- Chris Hedges

 

“Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression...”

- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

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

1. Moon Wants a Legacy on North Korea That Isn’t Coming

2.  President Moon's remarks aimed at North Korea warfare, concerns about "burden on Biden's administration" in Washington

3. U.S. alliance with S. Korea key deterrent to N. Korean threats: defense official

4. Blinken says U.S., Australia share commitment to UNSC resolutions on N. Korea

5. N. Korea forms new foreign ministry organization focused on analyzing US intentions

6. Joint Press Statement for the 19th Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue

7. [Newsmaker] Court rejects injunction on sales of Kim Il-sung memoir

8. Moon Lets Down Citizens by Crawling Before N.Korea

9. N. Korean authorities continue efforts to prevent information leaks

10. North Korea Orders Border City to Keep the Lights on at Night to Hide Economic Difficulties

11. China supplied 587 tons of refined oil to N. Korea in March: U.N. report

12. U.S. vows to tackle human rights violations in the North

13. S. Korea, US seek talks with Japan amid new NK policy

14. Introducing nuclear weapons not ideal against North Korea's nukes

15. Abrams says solid military alliance is 'single greatest deterrent' against North Korea's threats

16. North Korea's hackers rival CIA & are 'world's biggest bank robbers'

17. How North Korea's cyber-attackers are wreaking havoc

18. Why Is Japan Hesitant to Improve Relations with South Korea?

19. North Korean university links with foreign lecturers for live Internet seminars

20. South Korea Is Unprepared for Flashpoints in the Asia-Pacific Region

21. Why the Singapore Statement still matters for Seoul

 

1. Moon Wants a Legacy on North Korea That Isn’t Coming

Foreign Policy · by Donald Kirk · May 13, 2021

My comments in the article.

 

2. President Moon's remarks aimed at North Korea warfare, concerns about "burden on Biden's administration" in Washington

VOA Korea · by Bae Sung-won · May 14, 2021

Below is a google translation of a VOA article in which a number of us make some very critical comments about the anti-leaflet law and human rights.

 

3. U.S. alliance with S. Korea key deterrent to N. Korean threats: defense official

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · May 13, 2021

deterrence, (and defense, defeat).

 

4. Blinken says U.S., Australia share commitment to UNSC resolutions on N. Korea

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · May 14, 2021

Again, I think implementation of all relevant UNSC resolutions toward north Korea is going to be a foundational line of effort for the new administration north Korea policy.

 

5. N. Korea forms new foreign ministry organization focused on analyzing US intentions

dailynk.com · by Seulkee Jang · May 14, 2021

Hmmm.... I wonder if they will be reaching out to US and ROK think tanks? :-)

When Kim Yo-jong has us all figured out I hope when will let us know.

 

6.  Joint Press Statement for the 19th Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue

defense.gov · May 13, 2021

This was released last evening. I have not seen any significant reporting on the KIDD (one article picking up on the. trilateral cooperation comment).. Reading between the lines it seems like many issues beyond what is specifically listed in the statement were likely covered but not specifically included in the statement. (THAAD situation, access to live fire training ranges, etc),

 

7. [Newsmaker] Court rejects injunction on sales of Kim Il-sung memoir

koreaherald.com · by Kim So-hyun · May 14, 2021

This is one area where I have long disagreed with my Korean friends. While I acknowledge the importance of the national security law I have long thought it a mistake to prevent publication of information about and from north Korea. I think this memoir should be published (though there should be no compensation provided to north Korea through the Im Jong-seok line). I am not worried about the Korean people in the South reading this memoir and becoming radicalized in support of the Juche ideology. In fact if more Koreans in the South read about the north the more they would be opposed to its rule (and existence). It is the prevention of the distribution of the books that "will infringe on Constitutional rights to human dignity and harm the basic order of a free democracy." The free flow of ALL information, pro and con, is necessary for a thriving democracy, even information that is hostile to the nation. I am glad the judge rejected the request. He is supporting the ROK's democratic principles. 

Excerpts: “Individuals and NGOs such as the New Paradigm of Korea filed for an injunction last month, saying the sales and distribution of the books will infringe on Constitutional rights to human dignity and harm the basic order of a free democracy.

The Seoul Western District Court dismissed their request, saying their claims and materials submitted were not enough to issue an injunction as the sales and distribution of the memoir do not infringe on the applicants’ rights to human dignity.

 

8. Moon Lets Down Citizens by Crawling Before N.Korea

english.chosun.com

Wow. The Chosun Ilbo pulls no punches here.

 

9. N. Korean authorities continue efforts to prevent information leaks

dailynk.com · by Mun Dong Hui · May 14, 2021

Important point: Is Kim preparing for a trip to China? We have also seen speculation that his villa and one of his yachts in Wonsan may be prepared for use. Some press have speculated he may be visiting Wonsan and his visit may include observing a missile test.

But this crackdown on information "leaks" and the use of cell phones is just another indicator on how hard the regime is trying to control the population. Perhaps if the regime is worried about potential resistance among the population we should be concerned as well.

 

10. North Korea Orders Border City to Keep the Lights on at Night to Hide Economic Difficulties

rfa.org · by Jieun Kim

Do north Korean authorities think this really fools the Chinese? So the regime thinks it should "waste" electricity" just to support a narrative that the Chinese surely can see right through? This is an example of the deliberate policy decisions the regime makes that contribute to the suffering of the Korean people living in the north. 

 

11. China supplied 587 tons of refined oil to N. Korea in March: U.N. report

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · May 14, 2021

Interesting data point here: 1%

Excerpt: “Since its last report in September last year, China had skipped disclosing its monthly oil exports.

The March figure represents about 1 percent of the volume of refined oil it can supply to the North in a year.”

 

12. U.S. vows to tackle human rights violations in the North

donga.com · May 14, 2021

A human rights upfront approach is necessary. We must not make the excuse that any focus on human rights will prevent a denuclearization agreement.

 

13. S. Korea, US seek talks with Japan amid new NK policy

koreaherald.com · by Choi Si-young · May 14, 2021

One outcome of the US-Korean Integrated Defense Dialogue.

 

14.  Introducing nuclear weapons not ideal against North Korea's nukes

The Korea Times · May 14, 2021

Personally I do not think South Korean nuclear weapons would have any significant deterrent effect on Kim Jong-un. I think if the South did field nuclear weapons (or even if the US redeployed nuclear weapons to the peninsula) Kim Jong-un would double down on his political warfare strategy, his long con, and his blackmail diplomacy. South Korea's possession of nuclear weapons would not achieve the desired effects.

 

15. Abrams says solid military alliance is 'single greatest deterrent' against North Korea's threats

The Korea Times · May 13, 2021

 

16. North Korea's hackers rival CIA & are 'world's biggest bank robbers'

the-sun.com · by Felix Allen · May 13, 2021

Hyperbole in the headline? Perhaps but we must also consider the importance of the all purpose sword to the survival of the regime.

 

17. How North Korea's cyber-attackers are wreaking havoc

Daily Mail · by Tom Leonard · May 12, 2021

More on the north's all purpose sword. We must take it seriously and we must consider what should be our response and how proactively we should be acting to defend ourselves from attack by the north Korean hacker army.

 

18. Why Is Japan Hesitant to Improve Relations with South Korea?

thediplomat.com · by Kawashima Shin · May 13, 2021

Politics and history. What else is there?

 

19. North Korean university links with foreign lecturers for live Internet seminars

northkoreatech.org · by Martyn Williams · May 13, 2021

Very interesting development. Is there potential for exploitation here?

 

20. South Korea Is Unprepared for Flashpoints in the Asia-Pacific Region

The National Interest · by Kris Osborn · May 13, 2021

South Korea has to find its place in the world as a strong middle power. However, it cannot detract from its necessary deterrence and defense capabilities for on peninsula operations.

 

21. Why the Singapore Statement still matters for Seoul

eastasiaforum.org · by Minseon Ku · May 14, 2021

Interesting analysis here: “That the Singapore Joint Statement was signed by Trump and Kim made more salient questions regarding the importance of US–DPRK talks to US national interests. This makes it unlikely that the Biden administration will welcome Moon’s suggestion to carry through the principles in the statement.

Moon will leave office in 2022 and the Singapore Joint Statement could be shredded and forgotten. But North Korea’s nuclear weapons will remain and dominate US–South Korea relations. The Biden administration would be wise to seriously confront the challenge of denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula sooner rather than later. The Singapore Statement is the best jumping-off point to get that process started.

 

----------------

 

“Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal”

-Jeane Kirkpatrick

 

“A society without the means to detect lies and theft soon squanders its liberty and freedom.”

- Chris Hedges

 

 

“Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression...”

- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty