Tag: North Korea

This is a huge amount of stolen money for a country as poor as North Korea to acquire:

U.N. experts say they are investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks between 2017 and 2023 valued at approximately $3 billion, with the money reportedly being used to help fund its development of weapons of mass destruction. And the high volume of cyberattacks by North Korean hacking groups who report to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s primary foreign intelligence organization, is reportedly continuing, the panel of experts said in the executive summary of a new report to the U.N. Security Council obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

The report covering the period from July 2023 to January 2024 and reflecting contributions from unidentified U.N. member nations and other sources, was sent to the 15-member council as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has raised tensions in the region. He is threatening to annihilate South Korea if provoked and escalating weapons demonstrations. In response, the United States, South Korea and Japan have strengthened their combined military exercises.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Now the Russians are making nuclear threats on behalf of the Kim regime:

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, greets North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui in a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on Jan. 16. [AP/YONHAP]

Russia’s top envoy to Pyongyang said that North Korea may decide to conduct a seventh nuclear test if the United States continues taking “provocative steps” in the region. 
  
“I think whether or not there will be another nuclear experiment in North Korea depends on how the military-political situation on the peninsula will unfold,” Russian Ambassador to North Korea Aleksandr Matsegora said in an interview with Russia’s state-controlled TASS news agency Wednesday.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Some expert believe all the war rhetoric directed at South Korea from Kim Jong-un may be because of pressure he is facing domestically from millenials:

The group of people who believe fear-driven barking is more convincing than the war scenario highlights North Korea’s internal factors as a source of Kim’s belligerent behavior. They argue that such behavior serves to deflect attention from domestic issues and challenges. Inside this school of thought, views are divided. Some argue that economic frustration is a key driver of North Korea’s escalating saber-rattling.

Others argue that the primary driver behind North Korea’s increasing saber-rattling is not just a food shortage but a more fundamental concern. According to this perspective, Kim Jong-un is deeply troubled by South Korea’s cultural influence, which has become widespread, especially among teenagers and millennials in their 20s and 30s. This group, often referred to as the “Jangmadang Generation,” grew up experiencing elements of capitalism through their parents’ involvement in markets to make ends meet. They believe that if not adequately controlled, this cultural influence could pose a serious threat to the regime.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but uncontrolled access to outside information has always been a major threat to the Kim regime. Keeping the North Korean people isolated and indoctrinated with only regime propaganda is a must to maintain the current system of power.

The South Korean public understands what I have been saying for years, U.S. North Korea policy is at odds with reality because North Korea is never going to give up their nuclear weapons. The best that can be done is probably a deal that limits the amount of nuclear weapons they have and possibly eliminated their ICBM program:

Nine out of ten South Koreans are skeptical about the possibility of North Korea abandoning its nuclear program, a survey showed Monday, as the reclusive country continues to advance its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

According to the Gallup Korea poll of 1,043 adults, commissioned by the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies, 91 percent replied that the North’s denuclearization was “impossible.”

Of them, 41.4 percent considered denuclearization to be “not possible at all,” while 49.7 percent said it was not possible.

In last year’s poll, 77.6 percent of the respondents said they believed North’s denuclearization was impossible.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Could North Korea come up with any more adjectives to describe their cruise missile?:

North Korea said Saturday it conducted what it calls a “cruise missile super-large warhead power test” and test-fired a new type of anti-aircraft missile the previous day.

The tests in the Yellow Sea were carried out for the “rapid development of the technologies in various aspects, such as function, performance and operation of new-type weapon systems” and were part of “normal activities,” the North’s Missile Administration said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

It did not give further details, such as how many missiles were launched or how far they flew.

Photos released by the KCNA showed a cruise missile flying at a low altitude, striking a building and exploding.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

With elections in South Korea and the United States coming up this year there is little incentive for North Korea to behave and return to talks:

This photo, taken on Jan. 18, 2024, shows U.S. Senior Official for North Korea Jung Pak attending a trilateral meeting with her South Korea and Japanese counterparts at the foreign ministry in Seoul. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

The United States has not detected indications of “direct” North Korean military action, its top nuclear envoy has said, pledging to make “relentless” efforts to deter and constrain evolving threats from the recalcitrant regime.

In an online interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday, U.S. Senior Official for North Korea Jung Pak made the remarks as the North’s pugnacious rhetoric and its continued weapons tests have deepened worries about the possibility of major provocations by the North and even of an armed clash on the Korean Peninsula.

Despite an escalation of threats, the envoy expressed her hopes for Pyongyang to further reopen its border to pave the way for diplomacy, while stressing Washington’s “sincerity” in its repeated yet unanswered dialogue overtures.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here are the latest comments from President Yoon on North Korea:

 President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that the North Korean regime is an “irrational group” that has legalized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons and will likely carry out multiple provocations to interfere with South Korea’s April parliamentary elections.

Yoon’s remark came as North Korea has ratcheted up tensions on the Korean Peninsula with a series of weapons tests since the start of the year, including back-to-back cruise missile launches last Wednesday, Sunday and Tuesday. (…..)

“Such actions themselves are anti-national and anti-unification, and provocations and threats that run counter to history,” Yoon said while presiding over the annual central integrated defense council meeting at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae.

“The North Korean regime is an irrational group that has legalized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons as the only (country) in the world to do so. If it was a sensible regime, it would abandon its nuclear weapons and search for a way for its people to live, but the North Korean regime is bent only on maintaining its hereditary, totalitarian regime,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I think what President Yoon gets wrong is that the Kim regime is rationale from their perspective. It makes sense for them to continue to conduct weapons tests and maintain their status as a global threat to be taken seriously. Why would the U.S. make any serious concessions to North Korea during any potential negotiations if North Korea did not have proven ICBM and nuclear capabilities? These capabilities have also become a source of national pride for North Korea, a country that has little to be proud of.

It also makes sense that the Kim regime is going to continue to conduct provocations before April’s parliamentary elections. To get to any potential negotations where concessions favorable to North Korea are made they need to get Yoon and other conservatives out of office. The parlimentary elections are the first step to politically neutering ROK conservatives and set conditions for another Korean leftist to become the next President.

North Korea ultimately wants to get sanctions dropped while giving up little to nothing in return. They almost got this deal during the Moon administration and South Korea and the Trump administration in the U.S.

This would be a big development if true, however with the decrepit state of its submarine fleet it is doubtful this is a real functional wartime capability for the Kim regime:

This photo, carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 29, 2024, shows the North’s firing of submarine-launched cruise missiles the previous day.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has overseen the test-fire of submarine-launched cruise missiles and reviewed a project to build a nuclear-powered submarine, state media reported Monday.

The new Pulhwasal-3-31 strategic cruise missile precisely hit an island target after flying over the East Sea for 7,421 seconds and 7,445 seconds, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, suggesting the test involved two missiles.

The flight time translates to two hours, three minutes and 41 seconds, and two hours, four minutes and five seconds, respectively. The KCNA did not give further details, including whether the missiles were launched from a submarine or a barge and how far they flew.

Yonhap

Kim Jong-un made sure to throw in the word “nuclear” to get the media’s attention:

Kim stressed Sunday that “the nuclear weaponization of the navy is an urgent task of the times and a core requirement for building the state nuclear strategic force,” the KCNA said.

“He set forth the important tasks arising in realizing the nuclear weaponization of the navy and expanding the sphere of operation of the state nuclear deterrence in a diversified way,” it said.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday it is weighing the possibility that North Korea might have “exaggerated” information on the missile’s flight time, adding that it is analyzing details of the launch platform.

The latest launch came as North Korea has been diversifying missile launch platforms to deliver nuclear weapons in a bid to bolster its capabilities to stage a surprise attack and evade the existing missile defense system.

You can read more at the link, but the ROK is probably right that this test is exagerated. However, it is clear what they are working towards because a submarine with cruise missiles would pose a challenge to missile defenses because you don’t know where it is to direct your missile defense radars against.