North Korea

Despite Trump-Kim Summit Collapse, Diplomacy Is Still The Only Path

March 2, 2019 By Simone Chun & Kevin Martin, Truthout Educate! Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un, North Korea

The second summit meeting between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, inspired hope for real progress in negotiations with North Korea, and an agreement on concrete steps toward denuclearization that has thus far proven elusive. While the talks ended with no agreement, diplomacy is still the only way forward. There are troubling reports that U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton may have played a negative role in scuttling a potential deal by inserting an eleventh-hour demand to address North Korea’s biological and chemical weapons. However, U.S. positions on sanctions relief, humanitarian exemptions to sanctions, denuclearization, and steps toward inter-Korean reconciliation have been far too rigid since last year’s Singapore Summit.

US Military Greater Threat To Hawaii Than North Korea

February 9, 2019 Ann Wright, Consortiumnews.com Educate! Hawaii, North Korea, US military

US Military Fuel Tanks Threaten Aquifer in Hawaii, Should Have Been Shut Down After Major Spill of Jet Fuel in 2014 The North Korean missile scare in Hawaii a year ago was alarming. But that fear has abated. Once again the greatest perceived threat to the island of Oahu comes from our own U.S. military. A massive complex of 20 U.S. military storage tanks is buried in a bluff called Red Hill that overlooks Honolulu’s primary drinking water supply, 100 feet below. The walls on the 75-year-old jet fuel tanks are now so thin that the edge of a dime is thicker. Each of the underground tanks holds 12.5 million gallons of jet fuel; 225,000,000 gallons in total.

South Korea No Longer Calls North Korea ‘The Enemy’ In Defense Ministry White Paper

February 4, 2019 Yoo Kang-moon, English.hani.co.kr Create! North Korea, Regime Change, South Korea

The first defense white paper released during the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in deleted a phrase about the North Korean regime and military being the “enemy” of South Korea. The white paper placed new emphasis on South and North Korea pursuing military confidence-building, meaningful arms control and incremental arms reduction. The 2018 Defense White Paper was published on Jan. 15 by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense (MND). “The Republic of Korea’s armed forces regard any forces that threaten and encroach upon our sovereignty, territory, people and assets as our enemies,” the defense white paper stated.

Kim Jong Un Annual Address Opens Door To Successful Negotiations With US

January 5, 2019 Robert Carlin, 38north.org Educate! Diplomacy, North Korea, South Korea, US Imperialism

In his January 1st New Year’s speech, Kim Jong Un was almost relentlessly positive in discussing DPRK-US relations, a topic that took up an unusually large portion of the entire address. Rather than reprise the complaints about the negotiations with the US that had been the focus of numerous Pyongyang commentaries in recent months—almost all of them aimed at the external audience and not replayed on domestic media—Kim instead recounted his upbeat personal experience and almost unalloyed expectations as a result of the June 2018 Singapore summit. By doing so, he has deliberately left himself and President Trump maximum space for conducting negotiations leading up to a second summit...

In North Korea, Verifying Requires Reconciling

December 30, 2018 By Leon V. Sigal, 38 North Educate! Denuclearization, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons

During the Bush years, as it had done previously, Pyongyang showed some willingness to accept verification when it saw Washington moving away from enmity but balked when it did not. In September 2005, a US commitment to reconciliation with the DPRK would open the way to verification—only to be stalled by US failure to follow through. Any attempt to secure access to its nuclear facilities, not to mention its nuclear materials and weapons, will require a sustained US effort to end enmity with North Korea. The message from Pyongyang seems clear: no verification without reconciliation.

President Moon Lays Out Five-Year Plan for Inter-Korean Cooperation

December 18, 2018 Zoom In Korea Educate! North Korea, South Korea

South Korea unveiled a five-year master plan for developing inter-Korean relations on December 3. The third of its kind, the plan lays out the objectives and direction of the government’s policy on inter-Korean relations for 2018-2022 and will replace the 2013 plan drawn up by the impeached president Park Geun-hye. The plan outlines a two-track strategy of improving inter-Korean relations while simultaneously resolving the North Korea nuclear issue.

North Korea Critical Of US Inaction, And Waiting

December 18, 2018 Robert Carlin, 38north.org Educate! North Korea, United States, US Imperialism

After a lengthy, six-week silence, Pyongyang finally weighed in again with extended criticism of Washington’s stance regarding US-DPRK talks, using what appears to be an authoritative-level article, written under the name of Jong Hyon and carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The article appeared only three days after the Treasury Department announced sanctions against Choe Ryong Hae—Korean Worker’s Party vice chairman, Politburo Presidium member, and vice chairman of the State Affairs Commission, which DPRK officials say is in charge of negotiations with the US. Though the Jong Hyon article did not mention this latest development, it surely rankled Pyongyang...

Two Koreas Begin Verifying Removal Of DMZ Guard Posts: Defense Ministry

December 15, 2018 By Dagyum Ji, Nknews.org Create! Demilitarization, Korea, North Korea, South Korea

North and South Korea began a mutual on-site verification of the trial withdrawal and disarmament of 22 guard posts (GPs) along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on Wednesday, the ROK Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced the same day. The verification process follows the completed demolition by November 30 of 10 GPs on either side of the DMZ as part of the two Koreas’ implementation of September’s joint military agreement. Seoul and Pyongyang originally agreed to destroy a total of 22 GPs from the area, but after withdrawing firearms, equipment, and all personnel decided to leave two standing for historic purposes.

The New York Times’ Misleading Story On North Korean Missiles

November 14, 2018 By Leon V. Sigal, 38north.org Educate! New York Times (NYT), North Korea, Propaganda, weapons

That is the ominous lede of a story by David Sanger and William Broad in The New York Times on Monday, November 12. Substituting tendentious hyperbole for sound reporting may convince editors to feature a story on page one, but it is a disservice to readers. The United States and North Korea have yet to conclude an agreement that inhibits deployment of missiles by Pyongyang, never mind requiring their dismantlement. Nor has Washington yet offered the necessary reciprocal steps that might make such a deal possible. A negotiated suspension of missile deployment and production should follow a halt to fissile material production and take precedence in talks over a complete declaration of North Korea’s inventory of nuclear and missile assets.

North And South Korea Continue To Move Toward Peace And Integration, Despite US

October 19, 2018 Staff, Zoominkorea.org Educate! Diplomacy, North Korea, South Korea

North and South Korea held high-level talks at Panmunjom on October 15 and adopted a joint statement on implementing the Pyongyang Joint Declaration signed at the inter-Korean summit on September 19, 2018. They discussed a timetable for the inter-Korean road and railway project and agreed to break ground to connect the North and South Korean roads and railways in “late November or early December.” The accelerated timetable may reflect both sides’ desire to break ground prior to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s expected return to Seoul before the year’s end. Before the groundbreaking, the two sides agreed to conduct joint surveys of the northern stretch of the Gyeongui line “in late October” and the East Sea line “in early November.”

Diplomatic Deadlock: Can U.S.-North Korea Diplomacy Survive Maximum Pressure?

October 17, 2018 Gregory Elich, Counterpunch.org Educate! Diplomacy, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, North Korea, United States

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s meeting with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un on September 18-20 culminated in the signing of the Pyongyang Declaration, which marked a significant advance towards peace and heralded a welcome warming in relations. Since that time, however, contradictions within the Trump administration’s North Korea policy threaten to forestall further progress and test the patience of its South Korean ally. Among the measures outlined in the Pyongyang Declaration, the two sides agreed to “expand the cessation of military hostility in regions of confrontation such as the DMZ,” with the goal of removing the danger of war “across the entire Korean Peninsula.”

Koreas Agreed To Disarm Border Village

September 28, 2018 Staff, Newsinfo.inquirer.net Create! Diplomacy, North Korea, South Korea

Pyongyang, North Korea — North and South Korea have agreed to disarm a jointly controlled border village, starting with the removal of landmines. A joint statement signed by the countries’ military chiefs on Wednesday said the Koreas will aim to remove the mines in the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the truce village of Panmunjom within October and also remove guard posts from the area. The statement said the Koreas agreed to jointly verify the results of such steps and also allow tourists and observers to move freely within the JSA.

North and South Korea Steer Toward Peace Despite Heavy US Foot On The Brakes

September 24, 2018 By Elliott Gabriel, Mintpress News Educate! Donald Trump, North Korea, South Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his counterpart from the South, President Moon Jae-in, made a powerful show of unity with the signing of the Pyongyang Declaration on Wednesday, underscoring their pursuit of “mutual reciprocity, common good and shared prosperity,” a cessation of tension, and an explicit call for “Korean autonomy and the principle of self-determination.” The document seems intended to send a clear message to the United States.

How Grassroots Activists Made Peace With North Korea Possible

September 22, 2018 Sarah Freeman-Woolpert, Wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Activists, North Korea, Peace

The leaders of North and South Korea are meeting in Pyongyang this week to discuss the possibility of a peace treaty to end the decades-long conflict dividing the Korean Peninsula. This marks the third meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in since April, when the leaders famously shook hands across the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, separating the two countries. After a swell of global optimism at warming relations between Kim and Moon, attention shifted to Donald Trump’s June meeting with Kim in Singapore. Despite the peace community’s hope for increased diplomacy following the summit’s vague yet optimistic outcome, many voices on both sides of the aisle in Congress, as well as within Trump’s own administration, have since disparaged the possibility for peace.

“All Take, No Give” Won’t Work With North Korea

September 2, 2018 Leon V. Sigal, 38 North. Educate! North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, Trump

The United States cannot get some of what it wants without giving North Korea some of what it wants. Yet that is precisely what Washington has been trying to do—and predictably getting nowhere, as President Trump acknowledged by postponing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s latest mission to Pyongyang. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis tried to increase pressure on the North by announcing, “We have no plans at this time to suspend any more exercises.” While he clarified that no decision had yet been made, he also noted, “We are going to see how the negotiations go...

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