Home  >  North-South

Category: North-South

March 26, 2010

ROK Navy Ship Sinks Near NLL; Updates: 46 Sailors Missing, ROK Gov’t Downplays Initial Reports of North Korean Attack

Original Post, 26 March 2010, ~0800: This from Yonhap. It’s not clear if the ship is sinking or has already sunk: A South Korean Navy ship with 104 crew members on board was sinking off the Seoul-controlled island of Baengnyeong in the Yellow Sea, near North Korea, Navy officials said Friday. The 1,500-ton ship sank between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. near the island, but the cause of the accident was unknown, the officials said. A rescue operation was underway,...

Categories Cheonan Incident/NK Military/North-South/ROK Military
March 25, 2010

Karmic Justice for Kumgang Investors

North Korea’s threats to confiscate South Korean property at Kumgang are having predictable consequences for its investment climate: In an interview with The Dong-A Ilbo yesterday, Ahn said the head of a conference member company recently died of a heart attack due to severe stress from his business in North Korea. The suspension of the inter-Korean tours caused the late chairman’s company to teeter on the verge of bankruptcy, causing his death at age 55, Ahn said. Ilyeon’s prospects are...

Categories Appeasement/North-South/Sunshine
March 22, 2010

This Kumgang Nonsense, Explained

What is the meaning of North Korea’s sudden spate of demands that South Korea resume tours at Mt. Kumgang, which ended with the 2008 killing of one of the tourists? Most likely, that the sanctions are working, that China’s bailout isn’t expected to arrive in time, and that Kim Jong Il needs the money. Even for North Korea, this sounds a bit desperate: Accusing the south Korean puppet clique of making outcry, asserting the “incident of a tourist in Mt....

Categories NK Economics/North-South/Sunshine
March 20, 2010

North Korea Lures Rajin Investment as It Threatens to Confiscate Kumgang

If you want to understand precisely how Kim Jong Il has managed to lure billions of dollars into a money pit that has delivered little discernible return on billions of dollars in investment, look no further than Kim Young Yun’s recent op-ed in the Joongang Ilbo for an object lesson in how incapable of learning some people are, particularly while under the influence of nationalism: Should we just sit back and watch the port of Rajin being handed over to...

Categories China & Korea/North-South/Sunshine
March 15, 2010

Meet Roh Jeong-Ho: Ex-Millionaire, Symbol of a Failed Policy, and Asshole

Please allow me to introduce Roh Jeong-Ho, ex-millionaire, former role model for the Sunshine Policy, and asshole. How does one achieve such distinction in life? In Roh’s case, this way: Roh was once touted by the South Korean media as one of the young leaders in his early 30s who were expected to lead the post-unification era when he exported 44 km of barbed-wire fences to Rajin-Sonbong in 1995. North Korea had asked Roh to supply the fences to isolate...

Categories Appeasement/NK Economics/Sunshine
January 27, 2010

Bang Bang, Splash Splash

When I first heard that North Korea had declared a no-sail zone off its West Coast, I really wanted to believe that it was because they read this, but I suspected that they’d actually launch some anti-ship missiles from Cho-Do. Instead, we have this: North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire near their disputed sea border on Wednesday, highlighting instability along a heavily armed frontier for the second time in three months. North Korea warned the South that more rounds...

Categories NK Military/North-South/ROK Military
January 25, 2010

New Reports Highlight Failure of U.N., Ban Ki Moon to Address North Korean, Chinese Atrocities

A series of new reports on (the absence of) human rights in North Korea will not, by itself, change much, but they signify that for now, South Korea has stopped ignoring the issue. They may also complicate the State Department’s preferred course of doing the same. On the 20th, Human Rights Watch released its 2010 “World Report,” which brings together a review of all the most important issues in the field of international human rights during 2009. As usual, North...

Categories "United" Nations/Human Rights/North-South
January 20, 2010

South Korea Threatens Preemptive Attack

Uh oh: “We would have to strike (North Korea) right away if we detected that it has a clear intention to attack (South Korea) with nuclear weapons,” Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told a local defense forum. “It would be too late and the damage would be too big if, in the case of a North Korean nuclear strike, we had to cope with the attack. There can be no changes to this principle.” [Yonhap] Let the histrionics commence forthwith!

Categories North-South
January 12, 2010

Peace Through War, as Explained by Christine Ahn

I see Kim Jong Il is broke again: Fifty-seven years after the end of the bloody Korean conflict, always unpredictable North Korea on Monday proposed a peace treaty to formally end the hostilities. The communist state suggested that once a treaty was underway, it would return to the stalled six-party talks to end the regime’s nuclear ambitions. But first, North Korean officials say, they want international sanctions imposed last year to be lifted immediately. The proposal was met with skepticism...

Categories North-South/Sanctions/Useful Idiocy
January 7, 2010

Tanks for Your Money, Suckers

The North Korean Army is holding winter exercises, and the Joongang Ilbo has the tank porn. This cream puff is a Soviet PT-76, or ChiCom clone of one. The PT-76 is no match for a main battle tank — it sacrifices armor protection in exchange for an amphibious capability, and its gun can’t penetrate the armor of any main battle tank. Frankly, I can’t really see why the North Korean army is so fond of these lightly-armored amphibious tanks in...

Categories NK Military/North-South/Sunshine
December 22, 2009

You mean to tell me that seven people got into this open boat, drifted South “accidentally, braved nine-foot waves, and now want to go back to North Korea?

Seven North Koreans expressed their desire to return home after they were found drifting south of the Yellow Sea border, a government source here said Tuesday. The North Koreans were detected by South Korean Coast Guard officers Monday afternoon and have since been under investigation by intelligence and police authorities. “Roughly speaking, they appear to want it (repatriation),” the official, who is well-versed in North Korea-related intelligence, said on condition of anonymity because questioning is still under way. But the...

Categories North-South/Refugees
December 21, 2009

South Korea Clears Mines from the DMZ (and Why I Think That’s a Shrewd Decision)

You say you want reunification? Fine, then. Dig up the mines along the DMZ and open the border. No, I’m not kidding: The South Korean military said Monday it has removed some 1,300 land mines this year from the country’s rural areas bordering North Korea, a reminder of the tense 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce. In the operations that lasted from April to November, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) mobilized 3,300 personnel to remove mines from...

Categories NK Military/North-South/Refugees/ROK Military/Subversion
December 10, 2009

Picture of the Day: ROK Defense Minister Decorates Sailors After Battle with North Korean Ship

The crew of the Chamsuri 325, who fought off a North Korean incursion across the Northern Limit Line, are decorated by the Defense Minister for courage under fire. Here is the vessel’s skipper, Lieutenant Kim Sang-Hun: “I could literally see the shells flying at us. Some skidded off the water and slammed into the side of our boat,” he said, speaking aboard the Chamsuri 325, the very boat that engaged with the North Korean Navy a decade ago. No South...

Categories NK Military/North-South/ROK Military
December 3, 2009

3 December 2009 (Updated)

THE GREAT CONFISCATION CONTINUES. The Wall Street Journal reports that in Pyongyang, the exchange has been “calm and orderly,” at least to the extent foreign observers have been able to tell. Meanwhile, the Daily NK explains who will be hurt most badly by this. If markets are damaged as badly as I suspect they might be, there could be a new flood of food refugees into China this winter. Another effect will be the final collapse of confidence by the...

Categories Anju Links/NK Economics/NK Military/North-South
December 2, 2009

My, How Times Have Changed

During my last last visit to the DMZ, the interpretive displays were all about the 2000 Summit and Kaesong. Not anymore: According to the AP’s caption: A South Korean child watches a television program reporting North Korean prisoners at a unification observation post near the border village of Panmunjom, the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 20, 2009. A key U.N. committee expressed ‘very serious concern’ Thursday at...

Categories North-South/Propaganda/Sunshine
November 13, 2009

North Korea Accuses South of Provoking Naval Clash

As predicted, North Korea’s account of this week’s Yellow Sea battle is jarringly at odds with what the South reports: When the [North Korean] patrol boat was sailing back after confirming the object at about 11: 20 a group of warships of the south Korean forces chased it and perpetrated such a grave provocation as firing at it. The patrol boat of the north side, which has been always combat-ready, lost no time to deal a prompt retaliatory blow at...

Categories NK Military/North-South/ROK Military
November 10, 2009

North Korean Ship “Wrapped in Flames” After Battle; No South Korean Sailors Hurt

The North Korean navy appears to have gotten the worst of it after an apparently calculated provocation along the Northern Limit Line, the Koreas’ maritime boundary in the Yellow Sea: According to Joint Chiefs of Staff officials in Seoul, a North Korean patrol boat crossed the NLL at 11:27 a.m. and attacked a South Korean one after ignoring several warning shots. The South Korean side suffered no casualties in the clash that erupted shortly after the crossing and lasted about...

Categories NK Military/North-South/ROK Military