ROK and Inter-Korean relations
March 2013
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DPRK at 'state of war' against South Korea
China.org.cn, March 30, 2013
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday that it had entered a "state of war" with South Korea, the official KCNA news agency reported.
All matters between the two Koreas will be handled according to wartime condition, the DPRK said in a statement.
The long-standing condition of the Korean peninsula of being neither peace nor war is finally over, said the statement carried by KCNA.
The statement, issued jointly by the DPRK government, party and other organizations, warned that any military provocation near the land or sea border of the two sides would result "in a full-scale conflict and a nuclear war".
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NK agent sentenced to jail for military espionage
2013-03-30 12:47
The district court in Suwan, Gyeonggi Province, on Friday sentenced a 59-year-old Jang to four years in prison for undergoing intelligence training to provide information to North Korea.
A 56-year-old woman, Yoo, was also sentenced to three-and-a-half-year in jail for on a similar conviction.
The court said the two convicts have been working with North Korean agents, delivering contents of closed circuit television (CCTV) at locations like the guard post along the east coast.
However, the sentence was reduced in consideration of the fact that they have been involved in various unification projects.
The two made more than 30 trips to China from 2007 to make contact with North Korean agents and even delivered a signed document praising the works of North Korea founder Kim Il-sung.
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Big names join hands for unification
Mar 27,2013
A group of literary, media and political heavyweights celebrate the launch of private charity group, 1090 Peace and Unification Campaign, yesterday at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul. The organization is dedicated to providing humanitarian aid for North Korea and education programs on unification. In the front row are the group’s three co-executives Lee Young-sun (fourth from left), Lee Bae-yong (center), Baek Young-chul (fourth from right) and the JoongAng Ilbo Chairman Hong Seok-hyun (far right). By Park Jong-keun
A group of high-profile figures yesterday launched a nonprofit organization, 1090 Peace and Unification Campaign, to initiate projects aimed at providing humanitarian aid and promoting cultural exchange programs with North Korea.
Under the mission of raising awareness about the Korean Peninsula’s peace and unification in a wide range of age groups from teens to those in their 90s, the group will be led by Chairman Lee Young-sun, former dean of Hallym University in Gangwon and co-executive Baek Young-chul, professor emeritus at Konkuk University.
“Although tensions are high between the Koreas, it is meaningful to launch a private group dedicated to advocating unification at the time of transition and change,” said Lee during an event held at the Korea Press Center in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul.
[Engagement] [SK NK policy]
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This Is No Time to Promote Investment in N.Korea
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday that his ministry wants to renew talks and exchanges with North Korea and bring foreign investment to the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex.
It is well known that the Park administration has placed a high priority on resuming dialogue with North Korea, and the Unification Ministry is well within its rights to work to increase exchanges and dialogue. But the ministry sorely lacks common sense.
[Park Geun-hye] SK NK policy]
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N.Korea Severs Military Hotline
North Korea on Wednesday severed a military hotline with South Korea used to ensure the safety of personnel commuting to and from the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex.
The move came as the South Korean government proposed inviting international investment to the Kaesong complex as part of efforts to build trust with North Korea.
The North's official KCNA news agency said Pyongyang sent a message to the Seoul at 11:20 a.m., quoting the head of the North Korean delegation to the cross-border military talks as saying, "I, upon authorization, inform the South side that the North-South military communications will be cut off and the members of the North side at the military communications liaison office in the zone under the control of the North and the South in the west coastal area will stop their activities from this moment."
That severs all military communication between Seoul and Pyongyang.
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Park's Approval Rating Slumps Further
President Park Geun-hye's approval rating has slumped further to a lukewarm 44 percent after her first month in office, putting her way behind her predecessors, a Gallup Korea poll shows.
Presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung both enjoyed 71 percent around this time in their tenure, Roh Moo-hyun 60 percent and Lee Myung-bak 52 percent.
Pollsters say past presidents enjoyed high approval ratings early in their tenure because even voters who had not supported them had high expectations at the start of a new government, but now it seems few left-leaning voters could be persuaded to cheer Park on.
[Park Geun-hye
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Park government making plans to deal with NK nuclear program
Posted on : Mar.28,2013 16:26 KSTModified on : Mar.28,2013 16:40 KST
New administration planning to continue the two-track strategy of putting pressure on the North while seeking dialogue
By Park Byong-su, staff reporter and Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
The Park Geun-hye administration’s approach to North Korea that was disclosed in the joint briefing by the Ministry of Unification and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Mar. 27 can be summarized as a plan to continue the two-track strategy of putting pressure on the North while seeking dialogue. In addition, the ministries said in their reports that they would also pursue humanitarian aid to the North and inter-Korean talks in order to get the trust process for the Korean peninsula off the ground.[Park Geun-hye] [{SK NK policy]
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Park administration’s N. Korea policy announced
Posted on : Mar.28,2013 16:31 KSTModified on : Mar.28,2013 16:40 KST
Ministry of Unification says it will focus on small-scale measures to build trust, leading to inter-Korea talks
By Seok Jin-hwan, staff reporter
On Mar. 27, Park Geun-hye gave her position on her administration’s North Korea policy. “We must not try to rush things, but instead seek to develop inter-Korean relations gradually, on the basis of trust, moving one step at a time. We must build a sustainable peace.”
Park was receiving work reports from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Unification in the guesthouse at the Blue House that morning. “The orientation of this administration’s policies on foreign affairs and North Korea is to lay a foundation for establishing peace and reunifying the peninsula by building and restoring trust between the Koreas on a basis of firm security,” Park said.
The previous day, at the memorial service for the third anniversary of the sinking of the Cheonan warship, Park had called for South Koreans to stay firmly focused on national security and asked for change from North Korea. The following day, she emphasized the establishment of peace through restoring trust between the Koreas after being briefed by the ministries responsible for foreign affairs and reunification.
[SK NK policy]
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Seoul may untie NK aid from nuke disarmament
By Kim Tae-gyu
The Park Geun-hye administration may offer humanitarian aid and push for socio-economic cooperation with North Korea even before the regime there abandons its nuclear ambitions, according to sources Wednesday.
The South is also considering making efforts to resume various inter-Korean projects including tours to Mt. Geumgang and enabling reunions of families separated by the Korean War (1950-53).
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Women's Urgent Call for the Prevention of War
and Making Peace on the Korean Peninsula
A Press Release from Seoul* | March 13, 2013
U.S. B52 bombers simulate nuclear strike against North Korea as part of the 2013 Foal
Eagle joint war exercises. U.S. Embassy, Seoul, tweet, 3/20/13.
Stop the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula and start a dialogue for peace!
We women are deeply concerned about the crisis of war. Since North Korea's rocket launch last December, a vicious circle of sanctions and armed protests has continued unabated. Particularly, South Korea and the US governments recently conducted the Key Resolve military exercise, which included a nuclear-powered carrier, and North Korea responded by claiming that it would rescind the armistice agreement and cancel the non-aggression pact between North and South Korea, and threatened a nuclear strike.
[Peace effort]
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Have We Learned the Lesson from the Cheonan Sinking?
President Park Geun-hye spoke at a memorial service at the National Cemetery in Daejeon on Tuesday honoring the 46 sailors who were killed when North Korea sank the Navy corvette Cheonan in 2010 and urged Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear weapons if it wishes to continue surviving as a nation.
"Giving up nuclear arms, missiles, provocations and threats to become a responsible member of the world is the only way to guarantee its survival," she said.
On the contrary, North Korea is increasingly clinging to its nuclear weapons and missiles as if they were their tickets to survival. The North Korean Army's Supreme Command said in a statement on Tuesday, "From this moment, the Supreme Command puts all of its field artillery including strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units into the No. 1 combat ready posture."
The North's artillery units are targeting the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and Guam and other U.S. military bases in the Pacific as well as South Korea, it claimed. The renegade country’s 29-year-old leader Kim Jong-un has been rallying soldiers by visiting military bases 11 times this month. Even as South Korea mourns the death of 46 sailors, North Korea is assessing its weak points and looking for the best ways to attack.
The sinking of the Cheonan left a deep scar. Not only did it cause the loss of 46 young sailors, it also fermented deep division and conflict in society when some leftwing politicians and pro-North Korean groups refused to accept evidence collected by an international team of investigators that pointed to North Korea as the culprit. That is exactly what Pyongyang wanted.
[Cheonan] [Coverup]
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N.Korea Ratchets Up War Threats Against South
North Korea on Tuesday protested against a South Korean plan to strike statues of nation founder Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il in major cities if the regime launches a provocation.
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Websites Crash on Cheonan Sinking Anniversary
Computer networks at 24-hour news channel YTN as well as South Korean websites of anti-North Korea organizations crashed simultaneously on Tuesday, the third anniversary of the North's sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan.
It was the second cyber attack in six days here.
That the crash affected the websites of Daily NK, Free North Korea Radio and National Action Campaign for Freedom and Democracy in North Korea, which have been the most vocal critics of the North, suggests Pyongyang was behind the attack.
The YTN websites crashed at around 11 a.m. and were inaccessible for about an hour.
[Hacking]
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Trust-building for the Koreas, three years after the Cheonan sinking
Posted on : Mar.26,2013 16:57 KSTModified on : Mar.26,2013 17:30 KST
The mysterious warship sinking in 2010 caused a chill in relations that still hasn’t healed
By Park Byong-su and Kim Kyu-won, staff reporters
It was a Friday night on March 26, 2010, when the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan warship choked off inter-Korean relations. They had already been worsening throughout the Lee Myung-bak presidency. Hostility was growing between South and North, with no further opportunities for reconciliation. Two months after the incident, Seoul came out with the so-called “May 24 measures”, which restricted economic cooperation, exchange, and human contact between the two Koreas. In November, North Korea launched an artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island.
[Cheonan] [Sanctions]
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Seoul to Mark 3rd Anniversary of Cheonan Sinking
A child kisses a tombstone at the tomb of his uncle, who died when North Korea sank the Navy corvette Cheonan, at the National Cemetery in Daejeon on Saturday. A child kisses a tombstone at the tomb of his uncle, who died when North Korea sank the Navy corvette Cheonan, at the National Cemetery in Daejeon on Saturday.
President Park Geun-hye is to preside on Tuesday over a ceremony at the National Cemetery in Daejeon marking the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan in 2010.
It will be attended by the families of 46 South Korean sailors who died in the attack, as well as the widow of Navy Warrant Officer Han Joo-ho, who drowned during the search for survivors.
[Cheonan]
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Will Seoul engage N. Korea soon?
Trucks loaded with flour as relief aid to North Korea pass a checkpoint on a bridge over the Imjin River in the South Korean border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, in this Sept. 21, 2012, file photo. The Seoul government sent 500 tons of flour to the impoverished North in one of the lastest aid supplies under the previous Lee Myung-bak administration. / Korea Times
By Chung Min-uck
The government last week approved a shipment of humanitarian aid to North Korea, the first aid package approved under President Park Geun-hye, who took office on Feb. 25.
Under the approval, the Eugene Bell Foundation, a South Korean charity group, will ship tuberculosis medicine worth 678 million won (US $605,454) to eight tuberculosis clinics run by the South Korean group in North Korea as early as next month.
The latest gesture comes at a time when inter-Korean relations have hit rock bottom with the North threatening to use its nuclear weapons against South Korea and the United States, and in response, the two allies’ militaries signing a combined operational plan to raise deterrence against possible military threats by the North.
[Park Geun-hye] [SK NK policy]
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Three years later, the Cheonan sinking is still a divisive issue
Posted on : Mar.25,2013 15:29 KSTModified on : Mar.25,2013 15:40 KST
Some experts pushing for re-experimentation to determine the cause of the sinking and settle the debate
By Kim Bo-geun, director of the Hankyoreh Peace Institute
March 26 marks the third anniversary of the sinking of ROKS Cheonan warship. Despite the time that has passed, the sinking still affects inter-Korean relations and still causes political uneasiness in Northeast Asia. The reason for this is that the Joint Civilian-Military Investigation Group (JIG) lead by the South Korean government concluded that the sinking of ROKS Cheonan was by caused explosion, but there is still no international or domestic consensus on the cause of the sinking.
To end any argument, both sides must admit their own mistakes. If they continue to insist on their own versions of the truth, no agreement will be reached. In the case of the Cheonan sinking, the South is blaming the North, while the North insists that it is innocent. Even South Korean citizens are unable to agree on one perspective. Within this climate, it is hard to find an ingenious plan that satisfies both countries where ‘the North does not see it as an apology while the South sees it as an apology’.
[Cheonan] [Coverup]
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President Park pledges to maintain inter-Korean trust building process
Posted on : Mar.25,2013 15:17 KST
Despite current tensions on the peninsula, Park intends to keep trust building measures separate from security situation
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
Even amid the dire state of affairs on the Korean Peninsula, South Korean President Park Geun-hye has taken great pains to keep her campaign pledge about the “trust building process for the Korean peninsula” in the month since her inauguration. Considering the various demands and pressures she has faced from within and without, it is clear that she really intends to carry out her pledge.
But now, observers are interested to see whether Park will make the first move to really get the trust process off the ground. It is only by devising a concrete policy and demonstrating her commitment to carrying it out that there is any hope for achieving a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations
[Park Geun-hye] [SK NK policy]
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DMZ bicycle tour
Posted on : Mar.25,2013 14:48 KST
Citizens follow the Imjin River path on a bike tour of military-controlled zone near the DMZ in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Mar. 24. The tours of the area’s natural ecology will be held the fourth Sunday of every month until November. (by Kim Jeong-hyo, staff photographer)
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Former NIS chief barred from fleeing the country
Posted on : Mar.25,2013 15:19 KST
A citizen displays a tablet PC image of former NIS chief Won Sei-hoon in front of a departures gate at Incheon International Airport, Mar. 24. Groups of citizens gathered at the airport in an attempt to prevent Won from fleeing to the US. (by Park Jong-shik, staff photographer)
Citizens stake out the airport and an exit ban is issued to keep embattled Won Sei-hoon in the country
By Jung Hwan-bong and Choi Yu-bin, staff reporters
An unusual spectacle unfolded on Mar. 24 as a group of people staked out Incheon International Airport to prevent former National Intelligence Service chief Won Sei-hoon from leaving the country.
The attempted flight by the recently retired NIS chief was unusual in itself, but the airport posse organizing to stop him was unprecedented.
Word spread the previous evening that the Ministry of Justice had barred Won from leaving the country after a Hankyoreh report that the embattled former NIS chief, who allegedly ordered employees of the organization to wage a campaign to influence last December’s presidential election, was planning to leave for the US.
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[Editorial] Inter-Korean trust building process must be both creative and realistic
Posted on : Mar.13,2013 12:51 KSTModified on : Mar.13,2013 13:01 KST
On Mar. 12, White House national security advisor Thomas Donilon, said, “The United States is prepared to sit down with North Korea to negotiate and to implement the commitments that they and the United States have made.” This implies that the US is willing to move forward with real negotiations as long as the North takes meaningful measures.
At the new South Korean government’s first cabinet meeting on Mar. 11, President Park Geun-hye emphasized that “We must not make spare any effort to activate the trust-building process for the Korean peninsula.”
[SK NK policy]
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NK leader uses wooden boat for security reasons
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects a live shell firing drill targeting South Korea’s western border islands — Yeonpyeong and Baekryong, according to the Rodong Sinmun, the daily newspaper of the North’s Workers’ Party, Thursday. / Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
A recent official North Korean photo shows its leader Kim Jong-un arriving aboard a rickety wooden boat to visit a border military unit with soldiers jump into the water to give him a huge round of applause
Pyongyang watchers say the boat was an inevitable option for his security.
“Kim’s use of a small wooden boat is aimed at avoiding our military’s radar surveillance,” said Shin In-kyun, president of the Korea Defense Network.
South Korea and the United States began their Key Resolve exercise, Monday, strengthening radar surveillance on the North.
“A naval ship or a motorboat can expose his location, but a wooden one helps him stay off the radar and avoid detection.”
Shin Beom-chul, director of North Korea military studies at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said that a geographical reason led Kim to choose the wooden boat.
“There is no sizable dock for a naval ship near border units on the West Sea coast,” he said.
A North Korean defector was quoted as saying in the Daily NK, a website monitoring the North, that the shallow water prevents naval ships from approaching the military camps, while motorboats are vulnerable to strong waves in the West Sea.
“The visit is an elaborated scheme to promote his leader in terms of uniting his people,” said Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor at Korea University.
“By visiting the border units, Kim is trying to show off his courage to the military and public to gain their support.”
He added that the North is using the propaganda aimed at describing him as being friendly and soft because it works well in terms of boosting people’s loyalty.
[Military balance]
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Hope for dialogue underlies NK's rhetoric
PM on Yeonpyeong: Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, right, looks at areas in
North Korea during a visit to Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea, Thursday. The North shelled the island in November 2010, killing two marines and two civilians. Yonhap
By Chung Min-uck
North Korea, while stepping up its bellicose rhetoric has shown no signs of follow through, raising questions about its motives.
Experts believe the Stalinist regime is still hoping for the new South Korean administration to shift the current hard-line North Korea policies from the previous government.
“Pyongyang is creating a sense of crisis by verbally threatening to launch a military attack,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, Thursday. “However, it refrained from directly mentioning the name of the South Korean president, meaning it is also expecting a policy shift to engagement.”
North Korea took its first official verbal swipe at President Park Geun-hye, Wednesday, saying her “venomous skirt swish” is making South Korean officials engage in "warmongering."
The derogatory Korean-language term is often used to describe mothers who get overly involved in their children’s activities.
The criticism apparently targeted Park but is considered minor since no names were mentioned.
[Park Geun-hye]
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Funny video explains what South Koreans think about the North
Posted by Max Fisher on March 14, 2013 at 2:18 pm
Eat Your Kimchi is a very popular blog written by two Canadians who moved to South Korea about five years ago and have been documenting their experiences ever since. Their videos began as observations about Korean pop culture from the outside, but, over time, have gradually taken on more of an insider’s perspective.
Simon and Martina Stawski, the married couple behind the blog, are close enough to South Korean pop culture that they seem to know it well, but distant enough that they’re good at explaining it to fellow Westerners. Their perspective makes the above video on how North Korea is perceived in the South particularly valuable. (It’s also pretty entertaining.) As you watch it, I would follow their advice to not take it as geopolitical analysis, but rather as a window into the popular attitude among the South Korean youth whom Simon and Martina channel so well.
Their argument is basically that South Koreans are just not as worried about the North as outsiders, namely Westerners, often believe them to be. They’re accustomed to the threats, to the demilitarized zone, to the fact that the Korean war never officially ended. And they don’t really worry about it.
This tracks with what I’ve been told over the years by residents and observers of the Korean peninsula. So does – and I mean no offense to the Eat Your Kimchi team here, whose work I enjoy – their belief that North Korea’s threat is overblown by the media and actually not that big of a deal. A nuclear-armed rogue state that periodically attacks its neighbor without provocation, destabilizes one of the most heavily militarized regions in the world and increases the odds of an unwanted military conflict is most definitely a big deal, and I can say with some certainty that the media is not “trying to sell newspapers” by keeping track of it.
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N.Korea's Insidious Campaign of Sowing Dissent
As the dust settles after a massive cyber attack on major broadcasters and banks in South Korea on Wednesday, intelligence officials here say North Korea's persistent online subversion and propaganda pose a more fundamental threat.
North Korean spy agencies have been launching concerted activities to spread propaganda and foment dissent and subversion in South Korea by using 84 directly operated websites as well as hundreds of accounts on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Their aim is to influence South Korean public sentiment in favor of the North and to split the population along ideological lines.
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North Korean Video Depicts Invasion of South Korea
North Korea has released a video depicting an invasion of South Korea.
VOA News
March 22, 2013
North Korea has produced another provocative video on its official website, Uriminzokkiri, this one showing how its troops could invade South Korea and capture Americans.
The video, entitled “A Short, Three-Day War,” is filled with images of North Korean military forces engaged in battle, including barrages of artillery, armored movements and infantry charges. During the four-minute production, a narrator describes how "crack storm troops will occupy Seoul and other cities and take 150,000 U.S. citizens as hostages."
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N.Korean Threats Paralyze Yeonpyeong Island
Dozens of fishing boats lay at anchor and activity was low at Yeonpyeong Island piers on Wednesday, although this is the high season for sea bass. Military jeeps were frequently passing dreary village roads and tourists had been replaced by reporters.
North Korea's recent threats have completely transformed the islanders' life. Of the 1,700 residents, more than 1,000 depend on the sea for their livelihood, but going fishing has become a high risk.
As soldiers are on alert and hardly leave their compound, local businesses are even more affected. A restaurant owner said his takings dwindled over 70 percent. "Tourists aren't coming any more, and amid the emergency situation, military officers don't go out for meals."
Worse still, it has become hard to recruit workers from outside the island ahead of the crab season, which begins in April.
But most residents are staying. According to the district office, 308 residents left the island from March 5 until Monday but 350 came back from elsewhere.
At a residents' meeting on Wednesday, people said they are worried that they have never properly practiced evacuation drills. "If North Korea opens fire, many would be at a loss to find shelters," one said.
But the mayor of Incheon, which has jurisdiction over the island, said there are no signs of a North Korean provocation yet. He pleaded with residents to understand how complicated the situation is, adding that creating a siege mentality could be harmful to the tourism industry and the local economy.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Chung Hong-won is scheduled to visit Yeonpyeong and Baeknyeong islands on Thursday.
[NLL] [Media]
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N.Korea Attacks Park
North Korea on Wednesday added an imaginative twist to its bellicose rhetoric by attacking the "venomous swish" of President Park Geun-hye's skirt.
The statement read, "The lunatic behavior by warmongers in the puppet regime comes from the venomous swish of the skirt of the person who reclaimed the central room of Cheong Wa Dae," according to North Korea's Central News Agency.
It was an apparent allusion to Park's role as first lady to her father, strongman Park Chung-hee, after her mother's death more than 30 years ago.
The statement went on, "Unpropitious malediction keeps coming out of the central room at Cheong Wa Dae, which contradicts itself by calling for 'national security' while saying at the same time that a country cannot defend itself with weapons alone, and a country that focuses only on military power including nuclear weapons will destroy itself."
Park told military officers on March 8, "Any country that focuses only on military power including nuclear weapons while its people are starving is bound to face self-destruction."
[Park Geun-hye]
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North Korea refers to President Park as a “venomous swish of skirt”
Posted on : Mar.14,2013 14:31 KSTModified on : Mar.14,2013 14:39 KST
First criticism made of Park Geun-hye since she became president
By Park Byong-su, staff reporter
North Korea has issued its first criticism of Park Geun-hye since she was elected president of South Korea in Dec. 2012, though she was not named directly.
On Mar. 13, with military tensions already high between the two Koreas, North Korea’s Ministry of People’s Armed Forces released a statement by a spokesperson that appeared to indirectly criticize Park, saying, “This frenzy kicked up by the South Korean warmongers is in no way irrelevant with the venomous swish of skirt made by the one who again occupies the Blue House.” Pyongyang had not criticized Park since Dec. 2012, when she was still a presidential candidate for the Saenuri Party (NFP). At the time, the North challenged her North Korean policy in the form of open questions posed to Park.
[Park Geun-hye]
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Armed Forces Ministry Blasts S. Korean Warmongers
Pyongyang, March 13 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces of the DPRK National Defence Commission issued the following statement Wednesday:
The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army on March 5 stated to the world the resolute determination of the army and people of the DPRK in the face of the anti-DPRK hostile acts that have become all the more undisguised on the part of the U.S. and other hostile forces.
The south Korean military warmongers have not yet come to their senses and are still going reckless.
On March 6, the puppet Joint Chiefs of Staff let the chief of its operation headquarters call for "punishing" even "commanding forces", to say nothing of "bases" and "reinforcements" by mobilizing military means if the DPRK commences actions.
On March 8, the puppet Ministry of Defense also got its spokesman to dare hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the north and bluster that "it would remove the north's regime from the the earth in reflection of the will of mankind" if the nuclear-armed north launches an all-out action.
Defense Minister nominee Kim Pyong Gwan, who will replace military hooligan Kim Kwan Jin, also said that they will counter the north's all-out action with "regime change or toppling of its regime including psychological warfare".
This frenzy kicked up by the south Korean warmongers is no way irrelevant with the swish of skirt made by the owner of Chongwadae.
[Park Geun-hye]
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Kim Jong-un Visits Frontline with Army Top Brass
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a military unit on the western coast, where he ordered soldiers to "drive the enemy into a fire pit if so ordered," the North's state press reported on Tuesday.
The Rodong Sinmun daily said Kim visited a defense unit on Wolnae Island on the western coast on Monday, the first day of joint annual South Korea-U.S. military exercises, accompanied by military top brass.
His entourage included army chief Choe Ryong-hae, Minister of the People's Armed Forces Kim Kyok-sik and Kim Yong-chol, the director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau.
The army unit is tasked with striking Baeknyeong Island, one of South Korea's five northwesternmost islands in the West Sea. Wolnae Island lies about 11 km from Baeknyeong.
[NLL]
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S. Korean activist jailed for 4 years over trip to N. Korea
Feb 8, 2013 11:51 Moscow Time
A Seoul court has sentenced a leftist South Korean activist to four years behind bars for an illegal visit to the North.
Last year, No Su-hui crossed into North Korea through China to attend a ceremony commemorating the 100th day anniversary since the death of Kim Jong-il. He was arrested on return.
The court ruling said a severe punishment was unavoidable because No Su-hui went to North Korea illegally and took part in social events there knowing his participation could be used for propaganda.
Seoul didn’t send any official representatives to Kim Jong-il’s funeral but allowed two private delegations to honour the death of the North Korean leader.
[Human rights]
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President goes 2-track on NK
President Park Geun-hye pays her respects to the national flag along with Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, right, and other Cabinet members ahead of her first Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday.
/ Korea Times photo by Koh Young-kwon
'No mercy on misdeeds; trust process to go on'
By Kim Tae-gyu
President Park Geun-hye pledged a stern reaction to any provocations from North Korea, Monday, but at the same time stressed the need of keeping a “trust process” on track during her first Cabinet meeting.
“The new government’s core policy is the establishment of the foundation for peace and unification. We must sternly deal with North Korea’s provocations, but we should not stop our efforts to keep the trust process operational,” Park said.
[SK NK policy] [Park Guen-hye]
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Seoul Vows to Counter Any N.Korean Missile Launch
Cheong Wa Dae has vowed to retaliate if North Korea were to fire a missile near the de-facto border even if it does no damage.
"It seems likely that the North will target waters near the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea if it launches an armed provocation," a Cheong Wa Dae official said Sunday. He pledged the government will take "appropriate measures" in response.
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How N.Korea Uses S.Koreans as Propaganda Tools
The North Korean regime is using South Korean organizations and individuals as a propaganda tool.
A picture from a textbook for North Korean kindergarteners shows a U.S. solider killing a woman with an axe. /AP-Newsis A picture from a textbook for North Korean kindergarteners shows a U.S. solider killing a woman with an axe. /AP-Newsis
The regime selectively chooses and edits scenes from anti-U.S. demonstrations and anti-war rallies in South Korea and shows them on state TV to give the impression of widespread discontent with capitalism and a yearning for reunification with the socialist paradise.
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North and South Korea exchanging most heated rhetoric yet
Posted on : Mar.9,2013 12:34 KST
Pyongyang residents attend a Mar. 7 rally in Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang. The sign reads, “If you dare to invade, only death will be waiting for you!” (AP/Newsis)
South Korean government responds to peace agreement nullification threat by saying North Korea will “perish from the earth”
By Park Byong-su and Seok Jin-hwan, staff reporters
North Korea responded to UN Security Council sanctions with some of its most aggressive actions and rhetoric yet.
With Pyongyang declaring the inter-Korean nonaggression agreement null and the hotline at Panmunjeom severed on one side, and Seoul vowing a "forceful response to North Korea's provocations" on the other, tensions on the peninsula are rapidly reaching new heights. Now many observers are expressing concern that things could unwittingly escalate into a large-scale military clash.
[Conditionality]
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Seoul pledges retaliation to North Korea’s threat to cancel armistice agreement
Posted on : Mar.7,2013 15:33 KST Modified on : Mar.7,2013 15:38 KST
Joint Chiefs of Staff Operational Director Kim Yong-hyun announces South Korea’s plans to respond to North Korea’s plans to nullify the Korean War armistice agreement at a press conference at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul’s Yongsan district, Mar. 6. (Yonhap News)
Next week, with military exercises going on all over the peninsula, there are worries that war could break out
By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) opened up something of a can of worms on Mar. 6 by stating it would “retaliate against the commanding forces” in response to a statement by the (North) Korean People’s Army (KPA) Supreme Command that pledged to nullify the 1953 armistice agreement that halted the Korean War.
With its statement, it raised the possibility of a limited military clash between North and South Korea escalating into all-out war. A problem is, the JSC did not clearly define what “commanding forces” would entail.
Also unusual is the fact that the vow to retaliate to any provocations came with President Park Geun-hye’s stamp of approval.
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Seoul Vows 'Stern' Response to N.Korean Provocation
The South Korean military on Wednesday vowed to respond firmly to any North Korean provocation.
"If North Korea pushes ahead with provocations that would threaten the lives and safety of our citizens, our military will strongly and sternly punish the provocations' starting point, its supporting forces and command," said Maj. Gen. Kim Kim Yong-hyun, the head of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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'NK won't use nukes against South Korea'
Gregg lauds President’s 'Trustpolitik’
By Chung Min-uck
Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to Seoul, said Tuesday that North Korea won’t target South Korea or the United States with nuclear weapons for fear of the consequences.
In an interview with The Korea Times, Gregg also praised President Park Geun-hye’s attempt to build trust with Pyongyang.
“The North is moving toward becoming a nuclear power but it is not going to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. or South Korea. If it did, it knows it would be devastated,” said Gregg. “I think Kim Jong-un is consolidating his position domestically by moving toward building nuclear capacity.”
[SK NK Policy] [Park Geun-hye]
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N.Korea Readies for Massive Military Drill
North Korea has apparently re-deployed semi-submersible vessels along the de facto maritime border with the South and is priming coastal artillery for a major military drill.
A military source here on Sunday said commanders of North Korean frontline units along the Northern Limit Line have bolstered combat readiness activities centering on artillery units. "Artillery aimed at the South in Haeju and Kangryong has been primed and is undergoing constant readiness checks," the source added.
Another high-ranking military officer here said, "The entire North Korean military is preparing for drills and it looks like a big exercise is about to take place early this month." The officer warned North Korea could repeat GPS jamming operations soon against South Korean civilian aircraft and ships.
The North is preparing to hold the drill at the same time as joint U.S.-South Korean exercises, which started earlier this month and continue until the end of April. This has never happened before, the officer said.
[Joint US military] [Inversion] [Heading]
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NK expected to make additional provocations
By Kang Seung-woo
North Korea is likely to make another provocative act to test the combat readiness of the South’s new government, a high-ranking military official said Sunday.
“The North is expected to opt for a nuclear test, a missile launch or a localized attack to see if the new government has established military capabilities and deterrence against it,” the official said.
[Joint US military] [Inversion]
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Experts call for Seoul to take the lead in inter-Korean relations
Posted on : Feb.28,2013 15:08 KST
Seoul could have more sway on the Korean peninsula than in the past and is capable of leading an improvement in relations
By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter
Experts attending a debate called for Seoul to take the initiative in improving relations with Pyongyang and stressed the importance of establishing trust domestically.
They also said the new administration under Park Geun-hye stands a better chance of improving relations than the outgoing Lee Myung-bak government did.
Inje University professor Kim Yeon-chul stressed the role of the South Korean government in a presentation on foreign affairs and national security in the third session of the Park Geun-hye Administration Governance Task Emergency Assessment Debate, a Feb. 27 event organized by the Hankyoreh Institute for Social Policy.
[Park Geun-hye] [SK NK policy]
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