News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Duncan Moore.
1. Joint Statement on the Human Rights Situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
2. U.S. human rights commissioner expresses concern about leaflet ban
3. On Otto Warmbier's birthday, his legacy lives on
4. Will Trump continue his bromance with Kim Jong Un?
5. Ministry says ban on anti-Pyongyang leaflets 'least possible measure' to protect people in border regions
6. Pompeo says N. Korea a greater threat than Russia in cyber security
7. Assembly passes bill on banning cross-border launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets
8. New law cuts NIS out of domestic politics for good
9. Biden administration advised to recognize Singapore statement
10. New virus infections under 1,000 on fewer tests; efforts extended to find more potential cases
11. Joe Biden can build on Donald Trump's North Korea strategy
12. How US sanctions are pushing Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea closer together
13. What is more important: sending anti-North Korea leaflets or providing food and medical supplies for hungry children?
1. Joint Statement on the Human Rights Situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
United States Mission to the United Nations · December 11, 2020
It is very disappointing that South Korea did not sign onto this statement. Everyone, to include especially the ROK, needs to take a human rights up front approach. Avoiding discussion of human rights is not going to change North Korean behavior and cooperate on North-South engagement or conduct substantive denuclearization negotiations.
2. U.S. human rights commissioner expresses concern about leaflet ban
Dong-A Ilbo · lightee@donga.com · December 11, 2020
I think the ROK government is making a huge mistake in trying to pass this law. One of the major human rights abuses identified in the UN Commission of Inquiry in 2014 is the lack of information allowed to reach the Korean people living in the North. But this is wrong on multiple levels. First it is morally outrageous. The escapees from the North risked their lives to escape to a free and democratic country and their right to expression and to help their suffering brothers and sisters will be suppressed if this law is passed. Second the ROK government is succumbing to Kim Yo-Jong's obvious blackmail diplomacy. This makes the ROK government appear weak and will undermine all future negotiating and engagement efforts
This will not improve relations whatsoever. The regime will interpret this as ROK weakness and an example of successful execution of the regime's political warfare strategy that includes blackmail diplomacy (the use of increased tension and provocations to gain political and economic concessions). We should keep in mind why the regime wants to prevent outside information from getting to the Korean people in the North. The regime's greatest fear is not a military attack from the ROK/US alliance but resistance from within. The greatest threat to the regime is the Korean people in the North, armed with information—in particular, information about the superiority of the South, economically, politically, culturally, and militarily. The regime must prevent this kind of information from reaching the people and it is has deigned its entire society and system of rule to isolate the Korean people and keep them as ignorant as possible, preventing them from learning the truth not only about the outside world, their plight, and the human rights they are entitled to but are denied by the regime for the sole reason of keeping itself in power.
It is naive to believe that this law will improve relations with the North. It is based on the misguided and erroneous assumption that Kim Jong-Un somehow shares the Moon administration's vision of peace and reconciliation. Nothing could be further from the truth and it is this assumption that actually puts the Korean people of the South and the ROK/US alliance in danger. This action can only be described by one word that has always led to failure in national security and international relations: appeasement.
The Korean people in the South need to raise their voices and tell the Moon administration to stop contributing to the human rights abuses of the Korean people in the North, and the ROK government (and international community) must take all possible actions to get information into North Korea.
3. On Otto Warmbier's birthday, his legacy lives on
Fox News · Eric Shawn · December 13, 2020
Never forget the Kim family regime murdered Otto Warmbier.
4. Will Trump continue his bromance with Kim Jong Un?
Daily Beast · Donald Kirk · December 14, 2020
5. Ministry says ban on anti-Pyongyang leaflets 'least possible measure' to protect people in border regions
Yonhap News Agency · 고병준 · December 14, 2020
This is BS. You do not sacrifice your values or deny the basic rights of your citizens or stop helping the suffering people of the North because of North Korean threats. You institute better defense and protect your people and also make it known to the regime that any attack on South Korea will be met with a decisive response.
Appeasement does not work, and this law is an action of appeasement that will harm the Korean people of both South and North Korea.
6. Pompeo says N. Korea a greater threat than Russia in cyber security
Yonhap News Agency · 변덕근 · December 15, 2020
But Russia just conducted one of the largest cyber-attacks against US government agencies…? All our adversaries are significant cyber threats and we minimize or ignore them at our peril.
7. Assembly passes bill on banning cross-border launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets
Yonhap News Agency · 김수연 · December 14, 2020
Very disappointing.
8. New law cuts NIS out of domestic politics for good
Korea Joong Ang Daily · Shim Kyu-Seok · December 14, 2020
Yes, the National Intelligence Service should have no role in domestic politics.
9. Biden administration advised to recognize Singapore statement
Korea Times · Kang Seung-woo · December 10, 2020
And not just the Singapore statement but also the Panmunjom declaration for peace between North and South, which called for the implementation of all previous agreements, the two most important being the ones from 1991-1992 below.
Here are the four points of the Singapore Statement:
1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
We need to understand how the regime views the Singapore statement and how it has been trying to exploit it to support its political warfare strategy and long con to get sanctions relief and keep the nuclear program in some form.
Key “agreement” (from the perspective of the North): denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
1. Change relationship - Declaration of the end of the war (end of hostile US policy - i.e., Peace regime)
2. Sanctions relief (permanent removal)
3. Denuclearization of the South (end of alliance, removal of troops, end of nuclear umbrella over ROK and Japan)
4. Then negotiate dismantlement of the North’s and ICBM programs
In Short:
NK: change relationship, build trust , denuclearize
US: denuclearize, build trust, change relationship
1992 Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
10. New virus infections under 1,000 on fewer tests; efforts extended to find more potential cases
Yonhap News Agency · 강윤승 · December 14, 2020
Ah.. the old reduce the number of cases by reducing the number of tests method.
11. Joe Biden can build on Donald Trump's North Korea strategy
National Interest · Doug Bandow · December 13, 2020
The Biden administration is going to move forward, not backward, on North Korea. Trump changed the conditions and the landscape, and the Biden team can build on that.
12. How US sanctions are pushing Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea closer together
Diplomat · Jason Bartlett & Emily Jin · December 12, 2020
We have said we would provide COVID aid to North Korea back in March. POTUS and SECSTATE have both made statements offering help. Kim Jong-un has chosen not to accept it.
The problem with the proposal in this article is it does not take into account either the nature of these regimes or their political warfare strategies. It also overlooks the fact that we care more about the humanitarian suffering of affected people than these regimes do. Lastly, even if they were to accept COVID aid, it would not lead to better relations or changed behavior by these regimes. It is just not in their nature.
13. What is more important: sending anti-North Korea leaflets or providing food and medical supplies for hungry children?
Korea Herald · December 13, 2020
They are not mutually exclusive. This is a false equivalency. With all due respect to Representative Song, this argument does not take into account the nature and objectives of the Kim family regime.
"The arms are fair, when the intent of bearing them is just."
- William Shakespeare
"Three men behind the enemy are worth 50 in front of him."
- Frederick the Great
"Writing is done by writing and the way to begin to write is to begin to write. Lousy writing is better than no writing because the one can be improved but the other does not exist. Of course, it is your privilege, if you wish, to become a fourth-rate premature has-been, looking no man in the eye and creeping shame-faced about the academic gutter, ridden by guilt and perfectionism, humiliating your old parents, disappointing your supporters, embarrassing your friends, a once promising scholar now gutless and defeated. However, do not let me pressure you."
- John King Fairbank in a letter to his doctoral students, 1970s