Tag: United States

How China Uses the Comfort Women Issue As Part of Their Disinformation Strategy Against the US

| March 26, 2018

The Chinese government has long sought to break up the US-ROK and US-Japan military alliances that maintains the current security framework in Northeast Asia.  The THAAD issue is a perfect example of how they have created tension in the US-ROK alliance with disinformation.  The comfort women issue is another issue that Beijing has weaponized to create tension between the US, Korea, and Japan:

The “comfort women” issue appears, on the surface, to be a bilateral problem between South Korea and Japan. In reality, it is deeper. The key player is increasingly not South Korea, but China, and the ultimate target is not Japan, but the United States, as the comfort women are co-opted by Beijing in its anti-American information war.

China has been waging this war since Beijing realized after the First Gulf War that it would likely be unable to the United States on the battlefield. As the document Unrestricted Warfare, published by two high-ranking Chinese military officials, makes clear, the Chinese have chosen to fight the US, and particularly the US-Japan alliance, using desinformatsiya rather than hardware and troops.  (…)

Overseas Chinese groups have also pressed hard on the comfort women and Nanjing issues in the US and Canada: In San Francisco, Superior Court judges Julie Tang and Lillian Sing retired from the bench in order to co-found the Comfort Women Justice Coalition, which was ultimately successful in bringing a comfort woman statue to San Francisco. Chinese-American San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee was himself a vocal proponent of the comfort woman statue.  [Asia Times]

You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if Beijing isn’t fanning the flames of the anti-base sentiment in Okinawa as well to create further tension between the US and Japan.

President Moon Says Three Way Summit Between US, ROK, and North Korea Possible

| March 22, 2018

If the US-North Korea summit is held at Panmunjom it would make sense to have President Moon attend as well:

President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday that North Korea’s separate summits with the South and the U.S. could possibly lead to a three-way meeting of the countries.

Moon said, “Depending on the venue, the summits may be more dramatic. Depending on the circumstances, they could lead to a three-way summit between North and South Korea and the U.S.”

He made the remarks at the summit preparation committee’s second meeting at Cheong Wa Dae.

The inter-Korean summit will take place at the truce village of Panmunjeom in late April. The venue for the Pyongyang-Washington summit has not yet been decided, but Panmunjeom is one feasible candidate. Moon was implying if the summit was held there, South Korea could join without much difficulty, enabling a three-way meeting.

“Through the upcoming summits and those that will follow, we must put an end to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula,” the President said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Swedish Foreign Minister Says Release of US Detainees Should Not Be Precondition For North Korea-US Talks

| March 21, 2018

It appears the Kim regime plans to use these three Americans as bargaining chips as part of the upcoming negotiations before the Kim-Trump summit:

The release of three U.S. citizens held in North Korea should not be a condition for the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Monday.

The United States has no embassy in Pyongyang and relies on Sweden, the so-called U.S. protecting power there, to do consular work, especially to help Americans in trouble.

Asked about the three Americans, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said: “I don’t want to have those elements involved in all of this … this is not a time to put up a lot of conditions and preconditions.”

The State Department’s recently retired envoy for North Korea said on Thursday he had urged North Korea to send a positive signal by releasing Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Kim Sang-duk before the summit.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link.

Will China Support A Nuclear Deal Between the US and North Korea?

| March 13, 2018

North Korea has definitely been the bright shining object of US foreign policy for decades in the Pacific region.  China would definitely not benefit if North Korea suddenly was not a major preoccupation for the United States:

Picture this: thanks to a combination of diplomatic ingenuity, unique personalities and a historic willingness to see tensions in Northeast Asia disappear, President Donald J. Trump convinces North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to do the unthinkable and give up his nuclear weapons.

While we are a long way from even a meeting between the two taking place, let alone the ending of Kim’s nuclear weapons program, we can stargaze a little. If the Trump administration can somehow land the ultimate of deals, the geopolitical map would instantly be reset. America’s security, and that of its allies in Asia, would be enhanced dramatically, ridding our planet of one of its greatest security risks.  Not only would President Trump deserve the Nobel Prize, but his place in history would be secure—forever.

And nothing would terrify China more. The reason, if you think about it, is obvious. The instability that Pyongyang brings to U.S. foreign policy presents to China a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve many of its goals throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Remove the North Korea crisis from Asia and Washington has the economic, diplomatic, political and, most of all, military bandwidth to contain Beijing’s aspirations across Asia—and indeed, around the world.  [Fox News]

You can read more at the link, but the author believes that if the North Korea crisis is resolved than that will allow the US to focus more on China’s activities in the region such as their island building campaign in the South China Sea.

North Korean State Controlled Media Continues Hardline Stance Against US Despite Summit Agreement

| March 11, 2018

Supposedly peace in our time is about to break out on the Korean peninsula with the announcement of a US-DPRK summit, but you would not know that if you only read the North Korean media:

Even after a historic announcement that U.S. President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the first time as a sitting president, Pyongyang continued Saturday to denounce the U.S. for its sanctions and vowed never to bow to the pressure.

In an opinion piece attributed to an individual writer, North Korea’s state newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Saturday that the regime won’t bow to “military power, sanctions or blockade.”

“We won’t let Americans determine good and evil according to their own ruler and trample upon justice and truth,” it argued.

It denounced the latest sanctions and secondary boycott by the U.S. and said they violated international law and infringed on sovereignty. It also called those disciplinary actions “very dangerous” and said they “might provoke a war.”

Neither the paper nor other North Korean media mentioned that South Korean envoys extended an invitation from Kim Jong-un to President Trump Thursday (local time) in Washington to meet to discuss the regime’s nuclear weapons programs and that Trump accepted it.  [Yonhap]

This likely means that the state controlled media in North Korea will continue to take a hardline against the US until it is clear that the upcoming summit is going to lead to the concessions they want.

ROK Defense Minister Hints at Scaling Down Upcoming Joint Exercises

| March 9, 2018

This could be a trial balloon by the ROK government to see what the US reaction would be to scaling down the upcoming joint exercises:

South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo (R) talks with U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift in Seoul on March 8, 2018. (Yonhap)

South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo “jokingly” said Thursday the United States does not need to send a nuclear submarine and other strategic assets to Korea for the upcoming joint military drills.

He made the remark during a meeting with visiting Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift amid speculation that Seoul hopes to scale down this year’s Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises in order to maintain the mood of inter-Korean reconciliation spurred by the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

“Lots of changes are expected in South-North relations and (security conditions) surrounding the Korean Peninsula going forward,” the minister told the admiral, who is retiring in a few months.

In particular, Song added, the two Koreas plan to hold their third summit talks in late April with South Korea and the U.S. scheduled to stage the annual exercises.

He asked Swift to keep doing his best for a firm defense posture through his retirement, reportedly slated for May.

“You need not deploy (defense assets) like nuclear submarines during the remainder of your tenure as commander,” the minister said with a slight smile in front of TV cameras.

Swift briefly replied that his troops will stay ready for deployment in case of an order from national leaders.

Ministry officials later played down Song’s remark as a joke.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.