This is interesting because it is very rare for a North Korean Soldiers to defect across the DMZ like this. It causing officials to wonder if Seoul’s newly started propaganda broadcasts might be having an effect:
A North Korean soldier crossed the border into South Korea early Tuesday in the latest defection amid Seoul’s propaganda campaign in response to Pyongyang’s s repeated launches of trash-carrying balloons.
The South Korean military detected the soldier from north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas in the eastern section of the border and conducted an operation to help him arrive in the South.
The North Korean, wearing a military uniform, is believed to have walked southward through a path located near the Donghae road along the east coast — one of the two rare roads connecting the two Koreas where the North has installed mines and removed street lights. (….)
The defection came just 12 days after a North Korean resident defected to the South by crossing the neutral zone of the Han River estuary located west of the inter-Korean land border.
It also came as South Korea has been conducting full-scale anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, including news and K-pop music, daily through its border loudspeakers since mid-July in response to the North’s repeated launches of trash-carrying balloons.
Here is what President Yoon recently had to say about North Korea’s gray zone attacks:
President Yoon Suk Yeol called for bolstering readiness against North Korea’s “gray zone” provocations and hybrid warfare as South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual joint exercise on Monday. (…….)
Yoon warned that the North might seek to create social instability through violence, propaganda and agitation at the early stages of a conflict.
Goats may be one of the few things that Russia sends to North Korea that doesn’t violate UN sanctions, not that they care about UN sanctions in the first place:
Russia’s agriculture safety watchdog has approved the shipment of 447 goats to North Korea after reviewing related veterinary and sanitary conditions, according to its website, amid deepening cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
After veterinary inspection, 432 female and 15 male goats were sent to a North Korean trading company in the first batch of exports of live animals to the North, according to a statement posted on the website of Russia’s Rosselkhoznadzor on Friday.
The shipment was intended to be delivered from Russia’s Leningrad region to North Korea’s border city of Rason, it said.
It is pretty clear if Kim Jong-un wants something he will get it despite the sanctions on North Korea:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to be using a new model of a Mercedes-Benz SUV in a move snubbing international sanctions banning North Korea’s imports of luxury items.
Photos carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Saturday showed a black Mercedes-Benz SUV on a special train that Kim used to visit flood-hit areas of Uiju County in the northwestern province of North Phyongan last week.
The SUV is presumed to be the top-class model of the face-lifted Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 4MATIC that was launched in April in South Korea. The price tag started at 279 million won (US$204,000).
This is a low cost provocation that North Korea could probably keep doing indefinitely to keep the pressure on the Yoon administration over the propaganda balloon launches:
North Korea launched balloons presumed to be carrying trash toward South Korea again Saturday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, marking a resumption after more than two weeks.
The JCS said it detected the launches, noting the possibility of the balloons traveling toward the northern part of Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul despite winds blowing in northern and northeastern directions.
It warned the public of falling objects and not to touch the balloons if discovered, requesting they report them to the military or police.
North Korea has launched more than 3,600 trash balloons since May 28 in a tit-for-tat move against balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets flown by North Korean defectors and activists in South Korea. Pyongyang last sent the balloons on July 24.
This should not be really surprising that North Korea has rejected international flood aid. The international community should not have been offering it anyway because if North Korea has money to build nuclear weapons and ICBMs they can provide their own disaster relief:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has pledged to bring victims of recent heavy downpours to the capital city of Pyongyang to take care of them without outside help, state media said Saturday.
Kim made a two-day trip on Thursday and Friday to Uiju County in the northwestern province of North Pyongan to meet flood victims staying at a temporary shelter and offered support, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
He announced “an emergency system” to bring children, the elderly, disabled soldiers and mothers in North Pyongan, Jagang and Ryanggang provinces to Pyongyang to provide support in the next two to three months until the reconstruction and repair of their homes are completed, saying about 15,400 people could be brought to the capital city.
N. Korea’s new tactical ballistic missile weapon system A ceremony transferring a new tactical ballistic missile weapon system to front-line units takes place in Pyongyang on Aug. 4, 2024, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his daughter, Ju-ae, in attendance, in this photo provided by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
N. Korean areas before, after flood This composite image shows Wihwa Island on the Yalu River in northern North Korea before and after a flood hit it on July 29, 2024, in this photo provided by Seoul’s unification ministry on Aug. 1. The yellow rectangle (top) indicates a place where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s train stopped for inspection. (Yonhap)
North Korea has enough money to build nuclear weapons, ICBMs, and a space program; I am sure they can find funding if they wanted to provide aid to these flood victims. Additionally if the ROK did provide aid how could they monitor it is actually going to the flood victims and not the military?:
South Korea on Thursday proposed providing humanitarian aid to North Korea over damage from the recent downpours in its northern border areas along the Amnok River, as the North is believed to have sustained huge casualties.
The unification ministry said it is willing to urgently support the North Korean flood victims with the necessary supplies from a humanitarian and fraternal perspective through the Korean Red Cross.
“We are ready to discuss the items, scale and method of support with the North Korean counterpart. We expect North Korea’s swift response,” said Park Jong-sul, secretary general of the Korean Red Cross, expressing his “deep sympathy” for the victims.
The Kim regime will definitely do something around the Presidential election time period, but a nuclear test seems pretty high on the provocation meter for them to use:
South Korea is not ruling out the possibility of North Korea conducting a nuclear test before or after the U.S. presidential election in November to bolster its leverage, Seoul’s defense chief said in a media interview published Monday.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg in Tokyo on Sunday as he was in the Japanese capital for a trilateral meeting with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Minoru Kihara.
“North Korea has completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test when a decision is made,” Shin said. “We cannot rule out the possibility of that decisive moment being right before or after the U.S. presidential election to raise its leverage against the U.S.”
