News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Duncan Moore.
1. Two years after Trump-Kim meeting, little to show for personal diplomacy
2. Trump shouldn't take his eyes off of North Korea
3. N. Korea warns S. Korea of 'regretful and painful' times ahead
4. Two Koreas, two looming crises
5. U.S. rights groups condemn hounding of balloon activists
6. North Korea dropkicks Trump, vows to expand nuclear arms
7. North Korea needs to extort democracies to survive
8. Commentary: COVID-19 is stressing North Korea out
9. Reopening from coronavirus: lessons From South Korea
10. North Korea asks why it should keep 'holding hands' with US amid Trump administration's 'hypocrisy'
11. Korea must be ready for 2nd coronavirus wave
12. Pentagon: S. Korea meets conditions to lift travel restrictions on U.S. troops
13. 'Faded away into a dark nightmare': North Korea says diplomacy with Trump has failed
14. U.S. wants to cut number of U.S. troops in Korea, says Trump loyalist
15. U.S. wants S. Korea to stand by its side against China
1. Two tears After Trump-Kim meeting, little to show for personal diplomacy
The New York Times · by David E. Sanger · June 12, 2020
Surely we can find lots to criticize about our North Korea policy and President Trump. However, all these critics want to do is blame the President and his advisors. What the critics fail to do is to understand and describe the nature of the Kim family regime, and as important, the regime's strategy. The north has never deviated from its strategy to use subversion, coercion, extortion (blackmail diplomacy) and the use of force to dominate the Korean peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State. It seeks to divide to conquer - to divide the ROK/US alliance to conquer the ROK. We can consider President Trump's unconventional, experimental, top-down and pen-pal diplomacy as a test to determine if Kim is willing to change. He has been tested and found wanting.
Regarding sanctions, the critics and pundits misunderstand one aspect. Yes, they focus (rightly) on the regime's ability to evade sanctions and our inability to motivate the international community to aggressively enforce sanctions. Yes, China and Russia are regime enablers. However, even though funds and resources are getting to Kim's royal court economy, the maximum pressure campaign is working in one very important way. Kim's inability to be successful with his "long con" and to play Moon and Trump to get sanctions relief has led to the greatest failure among the "three Kim's" since Kim Il-Sung's failed attempt to unify the peninsula in 1950. Kim is facing enormous internal pressure for this failure. He raised expectations in 2018 that he could manipulate Moon and Trump to get sanctions relief. But this failure has undermined his legitimacy and this is why we have seen him act over the past year with 20+ missile and rocket launches and now with the rhetorical attacks on the South and the US.
The sad irony is that many in the press, many pundits, and many partisan pols would play right into Kim's hands, because they argue that we should lift sanctions to get Kim to the negotiating table. To do so would be to give Kim another success for his playbook of blackmail diplomacy. It would only lead to more tensions and more demands. Criticize Trump (and Moon) all you want, but at least they have not made the catastrophic strategic error of giving in to Kim in his demand that sanctions be lifted.
2. Trump shouldn't take his eyes off of North Korea
The Washington Examiner · by Washington Examiner · June 13, 2020
True, but North Korea is not our only problem. Trump has people to keep on eye on North Korea.
3. N. Korea warns S. Korea of 'regretful and painful' times ahead
Yonhap News Agency · by 이해아 · June 13, 2020
The statements from North Korea this week are a reminder of the regime's colorful use of translations of the English language.
4. Two Koreas, two looming crises
The Hill · by Joseph Bosco · June 12, 2020
One, North Korean intention and potential actions in response to its internal stressors that is putting great pressure on Kim Jong-un and could drive him to conduct some kind of major action.
Second, the friction in the ROK/US alliance could soon reach a crisis stage. (And then there is South Korean domestic politics.)
Joe concludes with a reminder that we need to include a focus on North Korean human rights abuses.
5. U.S. rights groups condemn hounding of balloon activists
The Chosun Ilbo · by Roh Suk-Jo · June 12, 2020
We need to put pressure on the Moon administration. They must protect these escapees and support their work, not arrest them. In effect, the ROK government is preventing human rights work toward North Korea. One of the major human rights abuses of the Korean people in the North by the Kim family regime is the prevention of free and open information flow to the people. President Moon has been described as a human rights lawyer. However, I am unaware of any of his work to protect the human rights of the Korean people in the North. But it is not too late to start and to live up to the description.
6. North Korea dropkicks Trump, vows to expand nuclear arms
The National Memo · by Josh Israel · June 12, 2020
There should be no question in anyone's mind that Kim Jong-un has no intention of giving up his nuclear weapons. They are just too important to him.
7. North Korea needs to extort democracies to survive
Foreign Policy · by Kristine Lee · June 12, 2020
I am happy to see Kristine Lee use two important words in the North Korean context: extortion and playbook.
Extortion (and coercion, subversion, and use of force) is a key element of North Korean strategy. And its playbook is blackmail diplomacy - the use of increased tensions and provocations to obtain political and economic concessions. And I think she makes an excellent point that democracies are the target of North Korea's extortion. But perhaps that is obvious. Does anything think extortion against the authoritarian regimes of China and Russia will pay off?
8. Commentary: COVID-19 is stressing North Korea out
CNA · by Liang Tuang Nah · June 13, 2020
It is only a matter of time before we learn what is really going on inside North Korea. Even if there has not been an outbreak, the regime's actions to prevent it are causing great stress on the entire nation. The halt to all trade (to include smuggling) has had a great negative impact on the market activity, which has long been necessary for the people to survive. The author correctly asks if these current conditions could lead to changes in the North's strategic deterrence and nuclear weapons policy? Unfortunately I think the answer is no it will not.
9. Reopening from coronavirus: lessons from South Korea
Spectrum News · by Rob Wu · June 12, 2020
Yes, we should learn from South Korea. Not only the positive lessons of test, trace, and treat (and isolation and quarantine) but also the negative lessons of potentially opening too early. And most important: the lessons to be learned from recovering from mistakes.
10. North Korea asks why it should keep 'holding hands' with US amid Trump administration's 'hypocrisy'
Vice · by Min Ji Koo · June 12, 2020
It is interesting how different outlets focus on different aspects of North Korean over the top rhetoric. But there is a lot to choose from.
11. Korea must be ready for 2nd coronavirus wave
The Chosun Ilbo · by Editorial · June 12, 2020
And I think it will be. We should watch and learn.
12. Pentagon: S. Korea meets conditions to lift travel restrictions on U.S. troops
The Yonhap News Agency · by Lee Haye-Ah · June 13, 2020
US military endorsement of the good work of South Korea.
13. 'Faded away into a dark nightmare': North Korea says diplomacy with Trump has failed
USA Today · by Kim Hjelmgaard · June 12, 2020
More North Korean hyperbole. There is enough to go around for all the news outlets.
14. U.S. wants to cut number of U.S. troops in Korea, says Trump loyalist
The Dong-A Ilbo · by journair@donga.com & tree624@donga.com · June 13, 2020
I am surprised former Ambassador Grenell's words have not made a bigger splash in Korea.
15. U.S. wants S. Korea to stand by its side against China
The Dong-A Ilbo · June 13, 2020
It sounds like Undersecretary Karch is pledging to defend South Korea against China's economic warfare. He is using very strong language. We failed to help the South defend itself when we stationed THAAD in Korea against Chinese wishes. We must not make the same mistake again. If South Korea stands beside us against North Korea, we have to help defend the South against the economic fallout. These are good words from the Undersecretary.
The editorial board recognizes the South cannot turn its back on its number one trading partner. We must help it navigate this economic and security minefield.
“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”
- James Madison
“So long as we remain amateurs in the critical field of political warfare, the billions of dollars we annually spend on defense and foreign aid will provide us with a diminishing measure of protection.”
- Senator Mundt, 1961
"We finally did bring President Aristide back to power with full American force, which proves how effective we can be when we decide to. The team assigned to keep my sector secure is a small squad of U.S. Special Forces. There are only eleven of them, but they are the most effective eleven humans I've ever encountered. They have Humvees that travel to the next town in fifteen minutes over a bad road that takes a regular Land Cruiser an hour. When the rains wash everything out, they have Zodiacs to cut across the bay and skip the road altogether. They're older than regular army soldiers; they have kids and go to PTA meetings, so they know how to talk to a local mayor with respect and patience and negotiate without screaming or immediately flashing a weapon. Alleviate, not create, tension. But the most important thing they have is autonomy. They don't have to report to echelons above reality for daily operations. They just think it up and do it. They're mobile, highly trained, fully armed American adults with autonomy. That's a hell of a combination. I'd like to travel from mission to mission with a squad of these men and see what we could accomplish"
- From the book Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story From Hell On Earth by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, and Andrew Thomson