South Korea's Chosun Ilbo reported on Friday, 20 May 2011 (KST), North Korea and China are poised to start development work on two joint projects in the border areas. A construction project of developing an island called Hwanggumpyong, located a little less than 10 miles east of Dandong, China, on the Yalu River, will start on May 28, and construction of roads connecting Hunchun in China and Rajin-Sonbong in North Korea on May 30. High-ranking officials from both countries will visit Dandong and Rajin-Sonbong to launch the projects. According to a North Korean source, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming and Jang Song-taek, the brother-in-law of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, are likely to attend both events. There is even speculation that Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, widely tipped as the next president, and Vice Premier Wang Qishan will also attend.
I've posted a background paper on the Tuman Area Economic Development Project on this blog in January of 2010, and you can read the full paper here.
Here are also some of the latest news articles on this subject:
N.Korea, China to Launch Joint Economic Projects
N.Korea to Develop Special Economic Zone on Chinese Border
Chinese Businesses Pour into N.Korea's Rajin-Songbong
N.Korea's Cross-Border Business with China Picking Up
On a separate but related news, apparently, according to an Interfax News Agency report, a delegation of Russian officials has agreed to send 50,000 tons of grain to North Korea following wide-ranging discussion on relations between the two countries (I have not been able to locate the actual Interfax report. The Chosun Ilbo is the source of my information here). The Russian delegation, led by Mikhail Fradkov, the director of Russia's intelligence agency, the Foreign Intelligence Service, apparently held a meeting with Kim Jong-il recently during which they discussed not only aid, but also economic projects and North Korea's nuclear weapons. Apparently, the report cites a Russian diplomatic source as saying that the conversation dealt with economic development in the far north of North Korea, notable a train connection (which has been discussed in the past as a part of the Tuman Area Economic Development Project) and the issue of a long-mooted gas pipeline connecting Russia with South Korea.
Friday, May 20, 2011
China gives its "Thumbs Up" to Kim Jong-un?
According to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent son, Kim Jong-un, has been confirmed to be visiting China. The junior Kim arrived in Tumen, in the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin, early in the morning of Friday, 20 May (KST), but his next destination has yet to be confirmed, the source in Tumen told Yonhap News Agency. The source asked not to be identified, citing the issue's sensitivity. Security has been tightened considerably in Tumen and areas linking the Chinese city with North Korean border, the source added. A ranking government official in Seoul said that the North's presumed heir may have certainly arrived in China considering circumstances observed so far, noting he is unlikely to travel to Beijing."We believe that Kim Jong-un arrived in China early this morning, though it will take more time to confirm the visit," said the Seoul official. "It remains to be seen whether he was traveling alone or together with Kim Jong-il. But it is believed thus far that he was visiting China alone. His final destination doesn't appear to be Beijing."This would mark the first confirmed trip to China by Kim Jong-un since he has been named the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission and a four-star general in September 2010. Apparently, this visit has been widely seen as China showing its seal of approval for Kim Jong-un as the next possible leader of North Korea.
Monday, January 3, 2011
North Korea's New Year's Joint Editorial for 2011
The Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) carried this year’s New Year’s Joint Editorial at 9 AM on January 1, 2011 in Korean. The print version of the editorial was carried on Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun, and Chongnyon Jonwi. What is interesting, however, is that the North Korean leadership decided NOT to publish this year’s joint editorial on the front page of these newspapers – the front pages of these newspapers carried large music scores with lyrics instead, and the editorial was carried on the second page. This is the first time North Korea has NOT carried the New Year’s joint editorial on the first page in 50 years.
This departure from the norm is significant since everything is choreographed and planned in North Korea for a change such as this to occur. Given what we have been able to observe lately (for the past 12 months or so), I don't think moving of the Joint Editorial from Page 1 to Page 2 signifies the decrease in the importance of the editorial itself; rather, this change is quite telling in that everything is not business as usual in North Korea. Additionally, given that the songs carried on Page 1 of the three above mentioned newspapers are quite revolutionary in nature, I would venture to assess that this change has something to do with the on-going succession situation in North Korea.
These New Year's editorials tend to be very long-winded, and if you are not into reading the North Korean art in rehtoric, or if you are simply pressed for time, North Korea Leadership Watch has a very nice summary of this year's editorial, which I provided a link to here.
Now then, without further a due, the full text of the joint editorial in English*: Today we are greeting the year 2011, a year filled with hope, a year of new prosperity, after glorifying the stirring first decade of the 21st century as a decade full of great victories.
The last was a decade when we invariably defended the ideas and cause of President Kim Il Sung, a decade full of creations and miracles when we built a solid springboard for achieving the status of a great, prosperous and powerful country. In the crucible of the complicated 21st century, our country has always stood in the limelight of the world, at the forefront of anti-imperialist independence.
Our service personnel and people, who have written a heroic epic of victory after victory under the energetic leadership of General Kim Jong Il, are full of ambition for a brighter future and confidence in sure victory.
Last year 2010 was a year of great changes, when miraculous events that provided a picture of a prosperous tomorrow took place one after another.
Our Party's strategy of the building of a great, prosperous and powerful country is the most scientific and realistic. Our onward march of last year for a great upsurge was propelled as General Kim Jong Il had planned and intended, and came to wonderful fruition as he had visualized. Korea does what it is determined to do this immutable truth was confirmed by the reality.
The promising future and invincibility of our Party and revolution were fully demonstrated through the grand political events of last year noteworthy in the history of our nation.
The Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea that was convened amidst the mounting political enthusiasm of our people and the great interest of the world proved to be a major milestone in the development of our Party eternally into the party of President Kim Il Sung and in the enhancing of its leadership authority to the maximum. That the fundamental guarantee for carrying forward and accomplishing the cause of the Party, the Juche revolutionary cause, was provided is a great glory for our service personnel and people.
The celebrations held on the highest standard and in a characteristic way greeting the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Party vividly demonstrated in front of the eyes of the world the might of the single-minded unity and invincible military strength that reached a new high. Notwithstanding the complicated situation, our public sentiment remained stable on a high level, and the will of the service personnel and people to stoutly follow the long road of revolution under the leadership of the Party grew stronger. There are no party and people in the world as great as ours, which have an ever-victorious history and a highly promising future.
In the crucible of the onward march of last year for a great upsurge, a road was opened definitely for remarkably improving the people's standard of living at an earlier date.
The Party's call for channeling everything into improving the people's standard of living stirred the whole country and brought about thrilling sounds of victory in all the hard-fought projects for a great upsurge. Under the wise leadership of the Party the projects for modernization were promoted dynamically in the industrial sectors related to the people's living, such as light industry, chemical industry and metal industry, opening a bright prospect of mass-producing the Juche-based steel, fibre and fertilizer. Hundreds of major projects including the Taegyedo tideland reclamation and Ryesonggang Youth Power Station No. 2 were brought to completion, and spectacular scenes in the Son gun era unfolded in various parts of the country. The establishment of foundations for realizing the ideals of a great, prosperous and powerful country we have so long desired is a precious achievement made in the onward march for a great upsurge.
Last year witnessed the spirit of Songun Korea dashing toward the world.
World-shaking, brilliant achievements were made in such fields of latest science and technology as information and nuclear technologies through the high-pitched drive to push back the frontiers of science and technology. Kim Il Sung University, Hamhung University of Chemical Engineering and other institutions of training talents were refurbished splendidly as required by the era of the knowledge-based economy. The mass-based culture and art were developed onto a new high stage, and works of art and literature with perfect ideological and artistic qualities, like the light comedy "An Echo among the Hills," were produced one after another. These are a source of great pride to our country, a socialist cultural giant. Infinitely bright is the future of our country as all the people are giving free rein to their thoughts and feelings in a bid to make their great Party and Kim Il Sung's Korea admired by the world.
Last year was a historic year, when the outstanding leadership ability of General Kim Jong Il, who is translating his grand plan for achieving prosperity into reality, was demonstrated on the highest level.
Our drive of last year to build a thriving nation was conducted under extremely tense situation and vicious sanctions of the enemy. Our Party's idea is that of offensive, and its mode of making revolution is also that of offensive. The will of the great General to defend the dignity of the nation to the last in any storm and stress remained steadfast, and his art of leading the whole army and all the people to a dauntless offensive was quite extraordinary and adroit.
Etched in the chronicle of General Kim Jong Il's leadership for a great upsurge in 2010 are on-site guidance trips of forced march beyond human imagination.
During the whole year from its outset, he continuously visited the battlefields for a great upsurge across the country, including the construction site of the Huichon Power Station, rousing Party organizations and officials to action and giving fullest play to the mental strength of service personnel and people.
Following the great General, who continued his field guidance trips day and night, braving the biting cold and sultry weather, heavy rain and snowstorm, the harmonious whole of service personnel and people rose up, kindling raging flames of great innovations and leap forward. Two rounds of his visit to China in the limelight of the world were historic, in that they put the traditional relations of friendship between Korea and China onto a new stage and created an environment favorable for our revolution.
Our cause of building a great, prosperous and powerful country will make steady progress toward the historic milestone set up by the respected General. This is the conviction our service personnel and people etched in their hearts in the worthwhile struggle of last year. The forthcoming decades of the 21st century will continue to shine as decades of great victories of sophisticated and experienced Kim Jong Il's style of politics.
New Year 2011 is a year of general offensive, when a radical turn should be brought about in the building of a thriving nation by kindling more fiercely the flames of great upsurge in improving the people's standard of living.
General Kim Jong Il said: "We should bring earlier the bright future of a thriving nation by making continuous innovations and advance, full of confidence in victory."
Our people's struggle to put up the plate of a powerful nation at the gate of the dignified Kim Il Sung's Korea has entered an important phase.
Next year we will be greeting the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung. President Kim Il Sung is the founding-fat her of socialist Korea and the pioneer of the cause of building a Juche-oriented powerful nation. His lifetime instructions are tantamount to the programs of the Party that must not be contravened to the slightest degree. We should launch an all-out, vigorous offensive for a breakthrough to realize the wish of the President to build a prosperous country, and thus greet the centenary of his birth as the greatest holiday of Kim Il Sung's nation and a great event of humankind.
Ours are a heroic people who carry out without fail whatever they are determined to do, and an indomitable people who never mark time even for a moment in the struggle to realize their lofty ideals. The world is now witnessing what great miracles are being wrought by our service personnel and people who, full of great ambition, are rushing toward the status of a powerful country, invincible and prospering.
This year's general offensive is a continuation of the grand onward march for improving the people's standard of living, and its new, higher stage.
We have already made a big stride in implementing our Party's ambitious strategy for improving the people's standard of living. We are now faced with the urgent task to consolidate and develop the already achieved successes in order to raise the people's standard of living to the level appropriate to a great, prosperous and powerful country. It is a steadfast stand of our Party that the improvement of the people's standard of living should be regarded as the most important issue, the highest goal of its struggle, and carried through to the end. We should make the whole country reverberate with the echoes of continued innovation and advance, echoes of general offensive, for a bright future, when people will enjoy all kinds of blessings to their hearts' content.
"Bring about a decisive turn in the improvement of the people's standard of living and the building of a great, prosperous and powerful country by accelerating the development of light industry once again this year!"?this is the militant slogan we should uphold in speeding up the onward march for a great upsurge in the New Year.
Light industry is the major front in the general offensive of this year.
Now we have built up key industries and a strong force of scientists and technicians that support the revolution in light industry, and we have accumulated valuable experiences of putting light industry on the stage of upturn against all odds. To accelerate the development of light industry is a mature requirement and most pressing task for building the country into an economic giant.
Today the stand on light industry is an important matter directly related with the attitude toward the people and the Party and with the viewpoint of the revolution. We should make sure that this year, a year of light industry, the whole country seethes with efforts to give priority to and concentrate everything on the sector of light industry.
The modern light-industry factories, splendid producers of consumer goods serving as models in the new century, all of which our Party built at great cost, are precious assets for the improvement of the people's standard of living. The sector of light industry should pay first and foremost attention to making the factories and enterprises associated with the Party's warm care keep their production running at a high level. It should focus on the production of primary consumer goods and other necessities widely used in life, and expand and augment the overall production of other consumer goods. Respect for people and patriotism find expression in bringing about a radical improvement in the quality of consumer goods. The sector of light industry should turn out commodities that would be favored by people, immaculate by any standard and competitive on the world market. It is also necessary to increase the kinds of consumer goods to meet people's diverse demands and tastes.
Continuous efforts should be directed to putting the production of consumer goods on a modern, scientific basis. It is our Party's plan to press ahead with the upgrading of light industry, not partially but in an all-round way, not on an ordinary standard but on a standard of cutting edge, and with a sight set far ahead into the future. The upgrading of light industry should be carried on effectively by employing the finish-one-by-one method. Officials and workers in this sector should steadily improve the level of their technical skills so that they can adeptly operate CNC-based and other modern equipment and meet the scientific and technological requirements in their production and business activities.
Local industry has a considerable share in the country's output of consumer goods. Upholding the torch of a revolution in local industry General Kim Jong Il kindled in Changsong, all the people should launch a campaign to bolster up the local-industry factories across the country. It is important to follow the examples of Hoeryong and Kanggye in developing local industry as suited to one' s actual conditions and tapping all the locally available raw and other materials to run local-industry factories at full capacity.
Public and nationwide concern for light industry should be heightened. True to the Party's policy of attaching great importance to light industry, raw and other materials, fuel and funds necessary for this sector should be provided in good time and in sufficient amounts. A great effort should be channeled into putting the production of raw and other materials on a Juche-oriented, domestic basis. The drive for August 3 consumer goods production, which is demonstrating its vitality in making a revolution in light industry, should be more vigorously conducted, and units, as many as possible, should launch a drive to markedly increase the production of daily necessities. A revolution should be brought about in commodity supply and public catering service to make the people-oriented policies of the Party pay off.
The present grand onward march for the improvement of the people's standard of living demands that a full-scale offensive be launched in the overall economic front.
Now our Party expects the officials and working class in the vanguard sectors of the national economy, the sectors of basic industry, to become the starting fire, like the heroic working class of the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex, in making the flames of the great upsurge flare up more fiercely in improving the people's standard of living. Achieve the victory of the great upsurge with the faith, mettle and practical abilities of the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex. This is a call of our Party. Rapid increase in coal production leads to the mass-production of fertilizers, fibres, electricity and steel. The sector of coal-mining industry should concentrate effort on the coal mines with large deposits and favorable mining conditions and develop new coal fields in order to radically increase the output of coal. The whole country should assist the coal-mining sector with a sense of responsibility so as to inspire the coal-miners' morale. The sector of electric-power industry should direct efforts to running the generating facilities at full capacity at all times, and improving and perfecting the system of power transmission and supply. The officials and working class in the sector of metal industry, while consolidating the great victory achieved in perfecting the Juche-based steel-making system, should attain without fail the high target of iron and steel production. Railway transport is the pilot of the national economy. A drive for increased transport should ! be more vigorously conducted to satisfy the growing, overall demand for transport by the national economy, and the whole country should turn out in upgrading railways radically.
A revolution in light industry is just a revolution in chemical industry. The renovated large-scale chemical-industry bases in the Hamhung, Namhung and Sunchon areas should put their production on a normal track, thus turning out more fibers, plastic goods, various kinds of basic chemical goods, fertilizers and agrochemicals indispensable to improving the people's standard of living.
The agricultural front is the lifeline for solving the problem of people's living. We should take bringing about an innovation in agricultural production as the key to giving full play to the advantages of our style of socialism and opening the gates of a thriving country. The agricultural sector should thoroughly implement the Party's policies of seed revolution, double cropping, revolution in potato farming and soybean farming, and actively introduce advanced farming methods and techniques including organic farming. Competition should be vigorously pressed on to drastically boost unit-area grain yield by learning after the model units that are realizing with credit the Party's far-reaching plan of rural construction. Today, our Party appeals for a revolution in aiding the countryside. Upholding the intention of the Party to solve the food problem without fail, state investment in the agricultural sector should be radically increased. All sectors and a! ll units should give priority to the provision of materials necessary for farming in advance of farming processes.
The Songun era of great upsurge is a thrilling age, when monumental structures for people's happiness are being set up in a way larger than ever before. The construction of the Huichon Power Station, the coal gasification project in Hungnam, the construction of 100, 000 flats in Pyongyang and other major construction projects should be accelerated to the maximum for their completion at the earliest date possible. It is essential to ensure the quality of structure on the highest level cherishing the lofty feeling of patriotism to take responsibility for the safety of the projects and guarantee their absolute quality for all eternity. Production of building materials should be radically boosted, and the work of building modern bases for building-materials production vigorously pushed ahead.
An important way to accelerate the speed of the onward march for a great upsurge in the whole of economic construction is to continue to intensify the drive of breaking through the cutting edge.
It is our Party's idea of breaking through the cutting edge that all sectors should surpass in the shortest time the scientific and technical standards the world has reached and stand in the van of the age of knowledge-based economy, on the basis of experience of having secured supremacy in the CNC technology.
It is necessary to actively learn after the Huichon Ryonha General Machine Factory which is rushing forward in the van of the drive to push back the frontiers of science and technology. The intense drive of breaking through the cutting edge should be waged not only in the machine-building industry but in all other industrial sectors and not only in central industry but in local industry. The fields of core, basic technologies and cutting-edge science and technology, including information technology, nano-technology and bioengineering, should be developed radically, and science and technology brought close to production. Strong national self-respect that we will! beat others in the competition of science and technology and self-confidence that we can crush the enemy's blockade of science and technology by dint of the campaign for pushing back the frontiers of science and technology should overflow in our hearts. Scientists and technicians should vigorously wage a campaign of brains, a technological campaign, to produce research findings of great value that are conducive to the revolution in light industry and the development of the national economy, and everyone should take an active part in the mass technical innovation movement.
The principle of self-reliance should be applied thoroughly. Structures built with our own efforts and wisdom are soundly based, highly profitable and surely prospective. We should be persons strong in the spirit of self-reliance, who make a sturdy dash only in reliance on the ir own strength, like the Taegyedo tideland reclaimers who carried out the instructions of President Kim Il Sung despite the shortage of everything. We should develop and harness underground resources abundant in our country as much as we can to secure raw materials and funds needed for the improvement of the people's standard of living and the building of the country into an economic giant.
Improving the economic management becomes more urgent at the moment, when the national economy is put on the trajectory of revitalization. Enterprise management should be undertaken in a scientific and profitable way and in line with the principles of the socialist economic management of our own style, and a strict discipline observed in planning, finance and labor administration in all the units.
Greater efforts should be made to spruce up the overall looks of the country as appropriate to a thriving nation.
Those who transform their sectors and units in a revolutionary way with a broad and innovative vision of looking out over the world while keeping their feet firmly planted on their own land are the genuine builders of a thriving nation.
The sector of education should raise the quality of education and improve the teaching conditions and environment in line with the requirements of the IT era, so as to develop ours into a world-class country of intellectual elite.
The sector of literature and the arts should ensure that many excellent works of the times which are clear in the ideological principle and political stand and are down to earth, which can serve as textbooks for socialist education, are produced. The medical workers should add further brilliance to the advantages of the socialist free medical service by rendering sincere devotion to the care for the people's health and developing the medical science. A hot wind of sports should be raised in all parts of the country to make Songun Korea widely known as a football and sports power.
Boundless devotion to the cause of building a great, prosperous and powerful country is displayed in the undertakings to spruce up the country including land development and city management. The landscaping and afforestation should be done on a long-term basis and in a scientific way, and everyone should turn his or her native place and workplace into a socialist fairyland. Nationwide efforts should be channeled into drastically improving the roads. Cities should be designed and built in our own style as suited to the local characteristics and the global trend of development.
Pyongyang, the capital of the revolution, should be built into a pollution-free city covered with verdure, into a magnificent world-class city.
A decisive guarantee for this year's successful general onward march is in raising the Party's leadership role in every way.
This year will be the first worthwhile year since the Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea.
The spirit of the conference is a spirit of single-hearted unity to invariably defend the centre of unity and leadership despite the passage of time, an indomitable spirit of forced march to brave a multitude of hardships and build a prosperous and powerful nation and a spirit of continuous revolution to accomplish the revolutionary cause under the leadership of the great Party. At present the building and activities of our Party should be conducted with this spirit as a starting point and be consistent with it.
The Party's leadership system should be established more thoroughly in politics, the military, the economy and all other sectors. The entire Party should be built up into an ideologically pure entity and an organizational whole, which shares life and death with the leader to the last and into the ranks of death-defying vanguards who translate the leader's intention into brilliant reality.
Our Party wants all its organizations to be powerful and lively organizations that lead the onward march for improving the people's standard of living in the van. The habit of the Party organization and the administration carrying out revolutionary tasks as a harmonious whole and the principle of conducting all the economic activities in a way of doing political work should be applied thoroughly to Party work. The Party organizations should fully get acquainted with the public sentiment as required by the revolutionary mass line, intensify the work with people accordingly and deal with problems arising in the people's living in a responsible manner.
It is our Party's way of work to conduct ideological work more vigorously when the tasks to be tackled are huge and the enemy's moves become more vicious. The Party organizations at all levels should undertake education in the Juche idea and Songun idea in a consistent and intensive way to make the ideological position of our style of socialism rock-firm. They should train the Party members and other working people to be stalwart revolutionaries in the Songun era who are possessed of the spirit of defending the leader unto death, the spirit of national self-respect, the spirit of self-reliance and the love of and devotion to the future. They should briskly conduct mass-based cultural and artistic activities that are very appealing and refreshing, and continue to conduct the Three-Revolution Red Flag Movement.
We should further strengthen the militant might of the People's Army as we hold fast to our Party's line of the Songun revolution.
At present the Juche-oriented cause of army building is making dynamic progress on a new, high stage.
The People's Army should bring about a fresh radical turn in all military and political work by faithfully supporting the leadership of the great Songun commander Kim Jong Il this year that marks the 20th anniversary of his assumption of the KPA supreme commandership and the 15th anniversary of the launch of the movement of winning the title of O Jung Hup-led Seventh Regiment.
The People's Army should firmly carry forward the precious tradition of absolutely trusting and following the Party and the leader and defending them unto death under the slogan "Let us defend with our very lives the Party Central Committee headed by the great Comrade Kim Jong Il!" We should establish more soundly the monolithic command system of the Supreme Commander in the whole army, and deepen the Party's political work incessantly to defend and add brilliance forever to its revolutionary character as the army of the leader and the Party.
Today's training is a forge that produces tomorrow's war hero. The entire army should conduct intense combat training in an atmosphere of actual battle as required by the tense situation so as to reliably prepare all the officers and men to be all-round officers and a-match-for-a-hundred combatants who support our Party's will of Songun by force of arms.
It is necessary to improve the command and management of units by giving priority to the strengthening of company and amply demonstrate the militant spirit and looks of the revolutionary elite army by enforcing strict military discipline. The entire army should achieve unity between officers and men and combination of military work with political work more thoroughly under the slogan that calls on it to become one comrade, and always take the lead in strengthening unity between army and people in every way. The People's Army should remain highly alert with the Juche-oriented view of war and the fighting spirit with which to annihilate the enemy.
The spirit of the People's Army resemblant to its great Supreme Commander is the Paektu spirit of offensive, and the mode of its counteraction of justice is the prompt, merciless and annihilatory action. It will not in the least pardon those who impair our absolute dignity and socialist system even a bit and violate our airspace, territory and waters even an inch, but discharge at any cost the historic mission it has assumed on behalf of the country and the nation with matchless arms.
When the People's Army rushes forward holding banner a s befits the main force of the revolution, the whole of society will be vibrant with life and seethe with the spirit of great upsurge. It should build monumental structures of lasting value and be a model that leads civilians with the revolutionary soldier spirit, soldier temperament and soldier culture in the major theatres of the campaign to build a great, prosperous and powerful country.
The defense industry is a source of the mightiness of Songun Korea and a reliable guarantee for the improvement of the people's standard of living. The sector of defense industry should continue to admirably perform its mission as a pacemaker in the campaign to break through the cutting edge and a locomotive that leads the overall economy.
It is necessary to radically improve the style and way of work in line with the requirements of the new era of the Songun revolution.
"Fight and create as befit the descendants of President Kim Il Sung!"--this is our motto. We should work optimistically with lofty aims, high ideals and great courage as our President did. We should add luster to each moment of the age of great upsurge with the indomitable disposition to perform without fail even what others say is impossible, the daring spirit of creating world-shaking things and the revolutionary way of work of doing everything perfectly so that it can bring benefits even to the coming generations. Success in the grand onward march for improving the people's standard of living depends on officials, the leading personnel. They should not merely support Party policies but be doers who translate them into reality and fighters who carry out the tasks assigned by the Party most excellently, most sincerely, most faithfully and most perfectly and at the risk of their lives. Like the officials of the March 5 Youth Mine, they should set ambitious, long-term goals and plan every type of work methodologically so as to revolutionize the administration of their respective units. Everyone should realize his or her beautiful ideals to the last with boundless attachment to his or her province, county, village and workplace.
The robust contingent of young people is the main force for national defense and socialist construction. Young people should display mass heroism to the full in every theatre of the campaign for the building of a great, prosperous and powerful nation, flying high the flag of Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League. Young people in the Songun era should burn their hearts with the great ambition and passion to shoulder the heavy burden of the motherland and seize supremacy in the cutting-edge technologies.
The working people's organizations should concentrate their efforts on ideological education for enlisting the mental strength of their members, and intensify a variety of mass movements including socialist emulation and shock-brigade movement.
Last year our nation's movement for the country's reunification made dynamic progress even in the face of the vicious challenges of the separatist forces inside and outside.
The 10th anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration and the 30th anniversary of the proposal for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo were marked significantly in the north, south and abroad, powerfully demonstrating the ardent desire of the nation for reunification. The more time passes by and the more ordeals and hardships crop up, the stronger the fellow countrymen's will to reunify their country independently is growing.
Last year the South Korean conservative authorities revealed their true colors as the minion of war and anti-reunification, confrontation maniac. In collaboration with the outside forces they incessantly hatched anti-DPRK plots and perpetrated north-targeted war moves, scuttling the inter-Korean dialogues and national reconciliation. Their reckless and wild behavior stirred up surging indignation of the whole nation. It is entirely thanks to our Songun politics of love of the country and the nation and our persevering efforts that war was deterred in the Korean peninsula and a series of humanitarian activities were conducted between north and south even under the touch-and-go situation.
The new decade of the 21st century is the years of hope, years of reunification and prosperity, when the tragedy of national division must be brought to an end.
Today there is no more vital task than national reunification for the Korean people. The stand of attaching importance to the nation, the stand toward independent reunification, is the touchstone by which to distinguish patriotism from treachery.
This year we should launch a more determined campaign to improve inter-Korean relations and reunify the country under the slogan, "Let all Koreans in the north, south and abroad join efforts and bring a new phase of independent reunification!" Confrontation between north and south should be defused as early as possible.
The South Korean authorities should scrap the anti-reunification policy of confrontation with the fellow countrymen, which is subjected to unanimous denunciation and rejection at home and abroad, and take the road of respecting and implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration.
They should immediately discontinue the anti-DPRK smear campaign and the crackdown on the patriotic forces aspiring after reunification, which are hindering national reconciliation and unity and which run counter to reunification.
The danger of war should be removed and peace safeguarded in the Korean peninsula.
If a war breaks out on this land, it will bring nothing but a nuclear holocaust. The entire nation should rise up as one in the sacred, just and patriotic struggle against war and for defending peace in the Korean peninsula.
It is imperative to check the north-targeted war exercises and arms buildup of the bellicose forces at home and abroad that seriously threaten national security and peace. Collaboration with outside forces leads to war and national ruin. The entire nation should never tolerate the criminal moves of pro-US war hawks who stake their fate on foreign forces and drive the situation to the brink of war in collusion with them.
Dialogue and cooperation should be promoted proactively.
Active efforts should be made to create an atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation between north and south by placing the common interests of the nation above anything else. Free travel of and exchanges between people from all walks of life should be ensured and cooperation projects encouraged, to contribute to improving inter-Korean relations and to achieving reunification.
The North-South Joint Declaration is a banner of independent reunification which all the fellow countrymen should invariably hold high and a milestone of national prosperity. A rosy future will be in store for our nation when all its members in the north, south and abroad hold fast to the declaration and the ideal of By Our Nation Itself, its basic spirit, as the lifeline of the national reunification movement, and thoroughly implement it.
The developments last year witnessed in the international arena show that the imperialist high-handedness and arbitrariness cannot make sense any longer and nothing can check the current of the times moving along the road of independence. The DPRK is consistent in its stand and will to achieve peace in Northeast Asia and denuclearization of the whole of the Korean peninsula. We will, in the future, too, strive to develop relations of friendship and cooperation with countries that are friendly towards us and achieve global independence under the ideals of independence, peace and friendship.
The cause of our Party that has followed the victorious road generation after generation and century after century is now registering one victory after another with greater vigor and vitality. To review the one-hundred-year history of Kim Il Sung's Korea, there has been no era like today when our nation's dignity is exalted so highly and confidence in the future is so absolute in the hearts of our people.
The gates of final victory are in sight. Our Party's militant appeal for putting spurs after spurs to the general onward march of the revolution is a banner of great innovation to rise up to the world by jumping at one go over the stages which have been followed by others, a banner of patriotic loyalty to realize without fail in our generation President Kim Il Sung's desire for building a thriving nation. We will staunchly advance till the day of final victory by uninterruptedly setting spurs to Chollima in the Songun era for a leap forward and general offensive.
Let us all bring about a decisive turn in the building of a great, prosperous and powerful country in high spirits, firmly rallied around the Party Central Committee headed by General Kim Jong Il.
* This translation taken from the USFK Korea Open Source Digest, Vol. III, Issue 250, 30 Dec 2010 – 03 Jan 2011, a daily publication of US Forces Korea Open Source Intelligence Branch.
This departure from the norm is significant since everything is choreographed and planned in North Korea for a change such as this to occur. Given what we have been able to observe lately (for the past 12 months or so), I don't think moving of the Joint Editorial from Page 1 to Page 2 signifies the decrease in the importance of the editorial itself; rather, this change is quite telling in that everything is not business as usual in North Korea. Additionally, given that the songs carried on Page 1 of the three above mentioned newspapers are quite revolutionary in nature, I would venture to assess that this change has something to do with the on-going succession situation in North Korea.
These New Year's editorials tend to be very long-winded, and if you are not into reading the North Korean art in rehtoric, or if you are simply pressed for time, North Korea Leadership Watch has a very nice summary of this year's editorial, which I provided a link to here.
Now then, without further a due, the full text of the joint editorial in English*: Today we are greeting the year 2011, a year filled with hope, a year of new prosperity, after glorifying the stirring first decade of the 21st century as a decade full of great victories.
The last was a decade when we invariably defended the ideas and cause of President Kim Il Sung, a decade full of creations and miracles when we built a solid springboard for achieving the status of a great, prosperous and powerful country. In the crucible of the complicated 21st century, our country has always stood in the limelight of the world, at the forefront of anti-imperialist independence.
Our service personnel and people, who have written a heroic epic of victory after victory under the energetic leadership of General Kim Jong Il, are full of ambition for a brighter future and confidence in sure victory.
Last year 2010 was a year of great changes, when miraculous events that provided a picture of a prosperous tomorrow took place one after another.
Our Party's strategy of the building of a great, prosperous and powerful country is the most scientific and realistic. Our onward march of last year for a great upsurge was propelled as General Kim Jong Il had planned and intended, and came to wonderful fruition as he had visualized. Korea does what it is determined to do this immutable truth was confirmed by the reality.
The promising future and invincibility of our Party and revolution were fully demonstrated through the grand political events of last year noteworthy in the history of our nation.
The Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea that was convened amidst the mounting political enthusiasm of our people and the great interest of the world proved to be a major milestone in the development of our Party eternally into the party of President Kim Il Sung and in the enhancing of its leadership authority to the maximum. That the fundamental guarantee for carrying forward and accomplishing the cause of the Party, the Juche revolutionary cause, was provided is a great glory for our service personnel and people.
The celebrations held on the highest standard and in a characteristic way greeting the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Party vividly demonstrated in front of the eyes of the world the might of the single-minded unity and invincible military strength that reached a new high. Notwithstanding the complicated situation, our public sentiment remained stable on a high level, and the will of the service personnel and people to stoutly follow the long road of revolution under the leadership of the Party grew stronger. There are no party and people in the world as great as ours, which have an ever-victorious history and a highly promising future.
In the crucible of the onward march of last year for a great upsurge, a road was opened definitely for remarkably improving the people's standard of living at an earlier date.
The Party's call for channeling everything into improving the people's standard of living stirred the whole country and brought about thrilling sounds of victory in all the hard-fought projects for a great upsurge. Under the wise leadership of the Party the projects for modernization were promoted dynamically in the industrial sectors related to the people's living, such as light industry, chemical industry and metal industry, opening a bright prospect of mass-producing the Juche-based steel, fibre and fertilizer. Hundreds of major projects including the Taegyedo tideland reclamation and Ryesonggang Youth Power Station No. 2 were brought to completion, and spectacular scenes in the Son gun era unfolded in various parts of the country. The establishment of foundations for realizing the ideals of a great, prosperous and powerful country we have so long desired is a precious achievement made in the onward march for a great upsurge.
Last year witnessed the spirit of Songun Korea dashing toward the world.
World-shaking, brilliant achievements were made in such fields of latest science and technology as information and nuclear technologies through the high-pitched drive to push back the frontiers of science and technology. Kim Il Sung University, Hamhung University of Chemical Engineering and other institutions of training talents were refurbished splendidly as required by the era of the knowledge-based economy. The mass-based culture and art were developed onto a new high stage, and works of art and literature with perfect ideological and artistic qualities, like the light comedy "An Echo among the Hills," were produced one after another. These are a source of great pride to our country, a socialist cultural giant. Infinitely bright is the future of our country as all the people are giving free rein to their thoughts and feelings in a bid to make their great Party and Kim Il Sung's Korea admired by the world.
Last year was a historic year, when the outstanding leadership ability of General Kim Jong Il, who is translating his grand plan for achieving prosperity into reality, was demonstrated on the highest level.
Our drive of last year to build a thriving nation was conducted under extremely tense situation and vicious sanctions of the enemy. Our Party's idea is that of offensive, and its mode of making revolution is also that of offensive. The will of the great General to defend the dignity of the nation to the last in any storm and stress remained steadfast, and his art of leading the whole army and all the people to a dauntless offensive was quite extraordinary and adroit.
Etched in the chronicle of General Kim Jong Il's leadership for a great upsurge in 2010 are on-site guidance trips of forced march beyond human imagination.
During the whole year from its outset, he continuously visited the battlefields for a great upsurge across the country, including the construction site of the Huichon Power Station, rousing Party organizations and officials to action and giving fullest play to the mental strength of service personnel and people.
Following the great General, who continued his field guidance trips day and night, braving the biting cold and sultry weather, heavy rain and snowstorm, the harmonious whole of service personnel and people rose up, kindling raging flames of great innovations and leap forward. Two rounds of his visit to China in the limelight of the world were historic, in that they put the traditional relations of friendship between Korea and China onto a new stage and created an environment favorable for our revolution.
Our cause of building a great, prosperous and powerful country will make steady progress toward the historic milestone set up by the respected General. This is the conviction our service personnel and people etched in their hearts in the worthwhile struggle of last year. The forthcoming decades of the 21st century will continue to shine as decades of great victories of sophisticated and experienced Kim Jong Il's style of politics.
New Year 2011 is a year of general offensive, when a radical turn should be brought about in the building of a thriving nation by kindling more fiercely the flames of great upsurge in improving the people's standard of living.
General Kim Jong Il said: "We should bring earlier the bright future of a thriving nation by making continuous innovations and advance, full of confidence in victory."
Our people's struggle to put up the plate of a powerful nation at the gate of the dignified Kim Il Sung's Korea has entered an important phase.
Next year we will be greeting the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung. President Kim Il Sung is the founding-fat her of socialist Korea and the pioneer of the cause of building a Juche-oriented powerful nation. His lifetime instructions are tantamount to the programs of the Party that must not be contravened to the slightest degree. We should launch an all-out, vigorous offensive for a breakthrough to realize the wish of the President to build a prosperous country, and thus greet the centenary of his birth as the greatest holiday of Kim Il Sung's nation and a great event of humankind.
Ours are a heroic people who carry out without fail whatever they are determined to do, and an indomitable people who never mark time even for a moment in the struggle to realize their lofty ideals. The world is now witnessing what great miracles are being wrought by our service personnel and people who, full of great ambition, are rushing toward the status of a powerful country, invincible and prospering.
This year's general offensive is a continuation of the grand onward march for improving the people's standard of living, and its new, higher stage.
We have already made a big stride in implementing our Party's ambitious strategy for improving the people's standard of living. We are now faced with the urgent task to consolidate and develop the already achieved successes in order to raise the people's standard of living to the level appropriate to a great, prosperous and powerful country. It is a steadfast stand of our Party that the improvement of the people's standard of living should be regarded as the most important issue, the highest goal of its struggle, and carried through to the end. We should make the whole country reverberate with the echoes of continued innovation and advance, echoes of general offensive, for a bright future, when people will enjoy all kinds of blessings to their hearts' content.
"Bring about a decisive turn in the improvement of the people's standard of living and the building of a great, prosperous and powerful country by accelerating the development of light industry once again this year!"?this is the militant slogan we should uphold in speeding up the onward march for a great upsurge in the New Year.
Light industry is the major front in the general offensive of this year.
Now we have built up key industries and a strong force of scientists and technicians that support the revolution in light industry, and we have accumulated valuable experiences of putting light industry on the stage of upturn against all odds. To accelerate the development of light industry is a mature requirement and most pressing task for building the country into an economic giant.
Today the stand on light industry is an important matter directly related with the attitude toward the people and the Party and with the viewpoint of the revolution. We should make sure that this year, a year of light industry, the whole country seethes with efforts to give priority to and concentrate everything on the sector of light industry.
The modern light-industry factories, splendid producers of consumer goods serving as models in the new century, all of which our Party built at great cost, are precious assets for the improvement of the people's standard of living. The sector of light industry should pay first and foremost attention to making the factories and enterprises associated with the Party's warm care keep their production running at a high level. It should focus on the production of primary consumer goods and other necessities widely used in life, and expand and augment the overall production of other consumer goods. Respect for people and patriotism find expression in bringing about a radical improvement in the quality of consumer goods. The sector of light industry should turn out commodities that would be favored by people, immaculate by any standard and competitive on the world market. It is also necessary to increase the kinds of consumer goods to meet people's diverse demands and tastes.
Continuous efforts should be directed to putting the production of consumer goods on a modern, scientific basis. It is our Party's plan to press ahead with the upgrading of light industry, not partially but in an all-round way, not on an ordinary standard but on a standard of cutting edge, and with a sight set far ahead into the future. The upgrading of light industry should be carried on effectively by employing the finish-one-by-one method. Officials and workers in this sector should steadily improve the level of their technical skills so that they can adeptly operate CNC-based and other modern equipment and meet the scientific and technological requirements in their production and business activities.
Local industry has a considerable share in the country's output of consumer goods. Upholding the torch of a revolution in local industry General Kim Jong Il kindled in Changsong, all the people should launch a campaign to bolster up the local-industry factories across the country. It is important to follow the examples of Hoeryong and Kanggye in developing local industry as suited to one' s actual conditions and tapping all the locally available raw and other materials to run local-industry factories at full capacity.
Public and nationwide concern for light industry should be heightened. True to the Party's policy of attaching great importance to light industry, raw and other materials, fuel and funds necessary for this sector should be provided in good time and in sufficient amounts. A great effort should be channeled into putting the production of raw and other materials on a Juche-oriented, domestic basis. The drive for August 3 consumer goods production, which is demonstrating its vitality in making a revolution in light industry, should be more vigorously conducted, and units, as many as possible, should launch a drive to markedly increase the production of daily necessities. A revolution should be brought about in commodity supply and public catering service to make the people-oriented policies of the Party pay off.
The present grand onward march for the improvement of the people's standard of living demands that a full-scale offensive be launched in the overall economic front.
Now our Party expects the officials and working class in the vanguard sectors of the national economy, the sectors of basic industry, to become the starting fire, like the heroic working class of the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex, in making the flames of the great upsurge flare up more fiercely in improving the people's standard of living. Achieve the victory of the great upsurge with the faith, mettle and practical abilities of the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex. This is a call of our Party. Rapid increase in coal production leads to the mass-production of fertilizers, fibres, electricity and steel. The sector of coal-mining industry should concentrate effort on the coal mines with large deposits and favorable mining conditions and develop new coal fields in order to radically increase the output of coal. The whole country should assist the coal-mining sector with a sense of responsibility so as to inspire the coal-miners' morale. The sector of electric-power industry should direct efforts to running the generating facilities at full capacity at all times, and improving and perfecting the system of power transmission and supply. The officials and working class in the sector of metal industry, while consolidating the great victory achieved in perfecting the Juche-based steel-making system, should attain without fail the high target of iron and steel production. Railway transport is the pilot of the national economy. A drive for increased transport should ! be more vigorously conducted to satisfy the growing, overall demand for transport by the national economy, and the whole country should turn out in upgrading railways radically.
A revolution in light industry is just a revolution in chemical industry. The renovated large-scale chemical-industry bases in the Hamhung, Namhung and Sunchon areas should put their production on a normal track, thus turning out more fibers, plastic goods, various kinds of basic chemical goods, fertilizers and agrochemicals indispensable to improving the people's standard of living.
The agricultural front is the lifeline for solving the problem of people's living. We should take bringing about an innovation in agricultural production as the key to giving full play to the advantages of our style of socialism and opening the gates of a thriving country. The agricultural sector should thoroughly implement the Party's policies of seed revolution, double cropping, revolution in potato farming and soybean farming, and actively introduce advanced farming methods and techniques including organic farming. Competition should be vigorously pressed on to drastically boost unit-area grain yield by learning after the model units that are realizing with credit the Party's far-reaching plan of rural construction. Today, our Party appeals for a revolution in aiding the countryside. Upholding the intention of the Party to solve the food problem without fail, state investment in the agricultural sector should be radically increased. All sectors and a! ll units should give priority to the provision of materials necessary for farming in advance of farming processes.
The Songun era of great upsurge is a thrilling age, when monumental structures for people's happiness are being set up in a way larger than ever before. The construction of the Huichon Power Station, the coal gasification project in Hungnam, the construction of 100, 000 flats in Pyongyang and other major construction projects should be accelerated to the maximum for their completion at the earliest date possible. It is essential to ensure the quality of structure on the highest level cherishing the lofty feeling of patriotism to take responsibility for the safety of the projects and guarantee their absolute quality for all eternity. Production of building materials should be radically boosted, and the work of building modern bases for building-materials production vigorously pushed ahead.
An important way to accelerate the speed of the onward march for a great upsurge in the whole of economic construction is to continue to intensify the drive of breaking through the cutting edge.
It is our Party's idea of breaking through the cutting edge that all sectors should surpass in the shortest time the scientific and technical standards the world has reached and stand in the van of the age of knowledge-based economy, on the basis of experience of having secured supremacy in the CNC technology.
It is necessary to actively learn after the Huichon Ryonha General Machine Factory which is rushing forward in the van of the drive to push back the frontiers of science and technology. The intense drive of breaking through the cutting edge should be waged not only in the machine-building industry but in all other industrial sectors and not only in central industry but in local industry. The fields of core, basic technologies and cutting-edge science and technology, including information technology, nano-technology and bioengineering, should be developed radically, and science and technology brought close to production. Strong national self-respect that we will! beat others in the competition of science and technology and self-confidence that we can crush the enemy's blockade of science and technology by dint of the campaign for pushing back the frontiers of science and technology should overflow in our hearts. Scientists and technicians should vigorously wage a campaign of brains, a technological campaign, to produce research findings of great value that are conducive to the revolution in light industry and the development of the national economy, and everyone should take an active part in the mass technical innovation movement.
The principle of self-reliance should be applied thoroughly. Structures built with our own efforts and wisdom are soundly based, highly profitable and surely prospective. We should be persons strong in the spirit of self-reliance, who make a sturdy dash only in reliance on the ir own strength, like the Taegyedo tideland reclaimers who carried out the instructions of President Kim Il Sung despite the shortage of everything. We should develop and harness underground resources abundant in our country as much as we can to secure raw materials and funds needed for the improvement of the people's standard of living and the building of the country into an economic giant.
Improving the economic management becomes more urgent at the moment, when the national economy is put on the trajectory of revitalization. Enterprise management should be undertaken in a scientific and profitable way and in line with the principles of the socialist economic management of our own style, and a strict discipline observed in planning, finance and labor administration in all the units.
Greater efforts should be made to spruce up the overall looks of the country as appropriate to a thriving nation.
Those who transform their sectors and units in a revolutionary way with a broad and innovative vision of looking out over the world while keeping their feet firmly planted on their own land are the genuine builders of a thriving nation.
The sector of education should raise the quality of education and improve the teaching conditions and environment in line with the requirements of the IT era, so as to develop ours into a world-class country of intellectual elite.
The sector of literature and the arts should ensure that many excellent works of the times which are clear in the ideological principle and political stand and are down to earth, which can serve as textbooks for socialist education, are produced. The medical workers should add further brilliance to the advantages of the socialist free medical service by rendering sincere devotion to the care for the people's health and developing the medical science. A hot wind of sports should be raised in all parts of the country to make Songun Korea widely known as a football and sports power.
Boundless devotion to the cause of building a great, prosperous and powerful country is displayed in the undertakings to spruce up the country including land development and city management. The landscaping and afforestation should be done on a long-term basis and in a scientific way, and everyone should turn his or her native place and workplace into a socialist fairyland. Nationwide efforts should be channeled into drastically improving the roads. Cities should be designed and built in our own style as suited to the local characteristics and the global trend of development.
Pyongyang, the capital of the revolution, should be built into a pollution-free city covered with verdure, into a magnificent world-class city.
A decisive guarantee for this year's successful general onward march is in raising the Party's leadership role in every way.
This year will be the first worthwhile year since the Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea.
The spirit of the conference is a spirit of single-hearted unity to invariably defend the centre of unity and leadership despite the passage of time, an indomitable spirit of forced march to brave a multitude of hardships and build a prosperous and powerful nation and a spirit of continuous revolution to accomplish the revolutionary cause under the leadership of the great Party. At present the building and activities of our Party should be conducted with this spirit as a starting point and be consistent with it.
The Party's leadership system should be established more thoroughly in politics, the military, the economy and all other sectors. The entire Party should be built up into an ideologically pure entity and an organizational whole, which shares life and death with the leader to the last and into the ranks of death-defying vanguards who translate the leader's intention into brilliant reality.
Our Party wants all its organizations to be powerful and lively organizations that lead the onward march for improving the people's standard of living in the van. The habit of the Party organization and the administration carrying out revolutionary tasks as a harmonious whole and the principle of conducting all the economic activities in a way of doing political work should be applied thoroughly to Party work. The Party organizations should fully get acquainted with the public sentiment as required by the revolutionary mass line, intensify the work with people accordingly and deal with problems arising in the people's living in a responsible manner.
It is our Party's way of work to conduct ideological work more vigorously when the tasks to be tackled are huge and the enemy's moves become more vicious. The Party organizations at all levels should undertake education in the Juche idea and Songun idea in a consistent and intensive way to make the ideological position of our style of socialism rock-firm. They should train the Party members and other working people to be stalwart revolutionaries in the Songun era who are possessed of the spirit of defending the leader unto death, the spirit of national self-respect, the spirit of self-reliance and the love of and devotion to the future. They should briskly conduct mass-based cultural and artistic activities that are very appealing and refreshing, and continue to conduct the Three-Revolution Red Flag Movement.
We should further strengthen the militant might of the People's Army as we hold fast to our Party's line of the Songun revolution.
At present the Juche-oriented cause of army building is making dynamic progress on a new, high stage.
The People's Army should bring about a fresh radical turn in all military and political work by faithfully supporting the leadership of the great Songun commander Kim Jong Il this year that marks the 20th anniversary of his assumption of the KPA supreme commandership and the 15th anniversary of the launch of the movement of winning the title of O Jung Hup-led Seventh Regiment.
The People's Army should firmly carry forward the precious tradition of absolutely trusting and following the Party and the leader and defending them unto death under the slogan "Let us defend with our very lives the Party Central Committee headed by the great Comrade Kim Jong Il!" We should establish more soundly the monolithic command system of the Supreme Commander in the whole army, and deepen the Party's political work incessantly to defend and add brilliance forever to its revolutionary character as the army of the leader and the Party.
Today's training is a forge that produces tomorrow's war hero. The entire army should conduct intense combat training in an atmosphere of actual battle as required by the tense situation so as to reliably prepare all the officers and men to be all-round officers and a-match-for-a-hundred combatants who support our Party's will of Songun by force of arms.
It is necessary to improve the command and management of units by giving priority to the strengthening of company and amply demonstrate the militant spirit and looks of the revolutionary elite army by enforcing strict military discipline. The entire army should achieve unity between officers and men and combination of military work with political work more thoroughly under the slogan that calls on it to become one comrade, and always take the lead in strengthening unity between army and people in every way. The People's Army should remain highly alert with the Juche-oriented view of war and the fighting spirit with which to annihilate the enemy.
The spirit of the People's Army resemblant to its great Supreme Commander is the Paektu spirit of offensive, and the mode of its counteraction of justice is the prompt, merciless and annihilatory action. It will not in the least pardon those who impair our absolute dignity and socialist system even a bit and violate our airspace, territory and waters even an inch, but discharge at any cost the historic mission it has assumed on behalf of the country and the nation with matchless arms.
When the People's Army rushes forward holding banner a s befits the main force of the revolution, the whole of society will be vibrant with life and seethe with the spirit of great upsurge. It should build monumental structures of lasting value and be a model that leads civilians with the revolutionary soldier spirit, soldier temperament and soldier culture in the major theatres of the campaign to build a great, prosperous and powerful country.
The defense industry is a source of the mightiness of Songun Korea and a reliable guarantee for the improvement of the people's standard of living. The sector of defense industry should continue to admirably perform its mission as a pacemaker in the campaign to break through the cutting edge and a locomotive that leads the overall economy.
It is necessary to radically improve the style and way of work in line with the requirements of the new era of the Songun revolution.
"Fight and create as befit the descendants of President Kim Il Sung!"--this is our motto. We should work optimistically with lofty aims, high ideals and great courage as our President did. We should add luster to each moment of the age of great upsurge with the indomitable disposition to perform without fail even what others say is impossible, the daring spirit of creating world-shaking things and the revolutionary way of work of doing everything perfectly so that it can bring benefits even to the coming generations. Success in the grand onward march for improving the people's standard of living depends on officials, the leading personnel. They should not merely support Party policies but be doers who translate them into reality and fighters who carry out the tasks assigned by the Party most excellently, most sincerely, most faithfully and most perfectly and at the risk of their lives. Like the officials of the March 5 Youth Mine, they should set ambitious, long-term goals and plan every type of work methodologically so as to revolutionize the administration of their respective units. Everyone should realize his or her beautiful ideals to the last with boundless attachment to his or her province, county, village and workplace.
The robust contingent of young people is the main force for national defense and socialist construction. Young people should display mass heroism to the full in every theatre of the campaign for the building of a great, prosperous and powerful nation, flying high the flag of Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League. Young people in the Songun era should burn their hearts with the great ambition and passion to shoulder the heavy burden of the motherland and seize supremacy in the cutting-edge technologies.
The working people's organizations should concentrate their efforts on ideological education for enlisting the mental strength of their members, and intensify a variety of mass movements including socialist emulation and shock-brigade movement.
Last year our nation's movement for the country's reunification made dynamic progress even in the face of the vicious challenges of the separatist forces inside and outside.
The 10th anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration and the 30th anniversary of the proposal for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo were marked significantly in the north, south and abroad, powerfully demonstrating the ardent desire of the nation for reunification. The more time passes by and the more ordeals and hardships crop up, the stronger the fellow countrymen's will to reunify their country independently is growing.
Last year the South Korean conservative authorities revealed their true colors as the minion of war and anti-reunification, confrontation maniac. In collaboration with the outside forces they incessantly hatched anti-DPRK plots and perpetrated north-targeted war moves, scuttling the inter-Korean dialogues and national reconciliation. Their reckless and wild behavior stirred up surging indignation of the whole nation. It is entirely thanks to our Songun politics of love of the country and the nation and our persevering efforts that war was deterred in the Korean peninsula and a series of humanitarian activities were conducted between north and south even under the touch-and-go situation.
The new decade of the 21st century is the years of hope, years of reunification and prosperity, when the tragedy of national division must be brought to an end.
Today there is no more vital task than national reunification for the Korean people. The stand of attaching importance to the nation, the stand toward independent reunification, is the touchstone by which to distinguish patriotism from treachery.
This year we should launch a more determined campaign to improve inter-Korean relations and reunify the country under the slogan, "Let all Koreans in the north, south and abroad join efforts and bring a new phase of independent reunification!" Confrontation between north and south should be defused as early as possible.
The South Korean authorities should scrap the anti-reunification policy of confrontation with the fellow countrymen, which is subjected to unanimous denunciation and rejection at home and abroad, and take the road of respecting and implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration.
They should immediately discontinue the anti-DPRK smear campaign and the crackdown on the patriotic forces aspiring after reunification, which are hindering national reconciliation and unity and which run counter to reunification.
The danger of war should be removed and peace safeguarded in the Korean peninsula.
If a war breaks out on this land, it will bring nothing but a nuclear holocaust. The entire nation should rise up as one in the sacred, just and patriotic struggle against war and for defending peace in the Korean peninsula.
It is imperative to check the north-targeted war exercises and arms buildup of the bellicose forces at home and abroad that seriously threaten national security and peace. Collaboration with outside forces leads to war and national ruin. The entire nation should never tolerate the criminal moves of pro-US war hawks who stake their fate on foreign forces and drive the situation to the brink of war in collusion with them.
Dialogue and cooperation should be promoted proactively.
Active efforts should be made to create an atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation between north and south by placing the common interests of the nation above anything else. Free travel of and exchanges between people from all walks of life should be ensured and cooperation projects encouraged, to contribute to improving inter-Korean relations and to achieving reunification.
The North-South Joint Declaration is a banner of independent reunification which all the fellow countrymen should invariably hold high and a milestone of national prosperity. A rosy future will be in store for our nation when all its members in the north, south and abroad hold fast to the declaration and the ideal of By Our Nation Itself, its basic spirit, as the lifeline of the national reunification movement, and thoroughly implement it.
The developments last year witnessed in the international arena show that the imperialist high-handedness and arbitrariness cannot make sense any longer and nothing can check the current of the times moving along the road of independence. The DPRK is consistent in its stand and will to achieve peace in Northeast Asia and denuclearization of the whole of the Korean peninsula. We will, in the future, too, strive to develop relations of friendship and cooperation with countries that are friendly towards us and achieve global independence under the ideals of independence, peace and friendship.
The cause of our Party that has followed the victorious road generation after generation and century after century is now registering one victory after another with greater vigor and vitality. To review the one-hundred-year history of Kim Il Sung's Korea, there has been no era like today when our nation's dignity is exalted so highly and confidence in the future is so absolute in the hearts of our people.
The gates of final victory are in sight. Our Party's militant appeal for putting spurs after spurs to the general onward march of the revolution is a banner of great innovation to rise up to the world by jumping at one go over the stages which have been followed by others, a banner of patriotic loyalty to realize without fail in our generation President Kim Il Sung's desire for building a thriving nation. We will staunchly advance till the day of final victory by uninterruptedly setting spurs to Chollima in the Songun era for a leap forward and general offensive.
Let us all bring about a decisive turn in the building of a great, prosperous and powerful country in high spirits, firmly rallied around the Party Central Committee headed by General Kim Jong Il.
* This translation taken from the USFK Korea Open Source Digest, Vol. III, Issue 250, 30 Dec 2010 – 03 Jan 2011, a daily publication of US Forces Korea Open Source Intelligence Branch.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
North Korea Fires Coastal Artillery at South Korean Island of Yeonpyeong
Following Thread from our Friends at KGS Nightwatch
On 23 November (Korean Standard Time), North Korean coastal artillery fired dozens of rounds at a village on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island (aka, Y-P Do). Four South Korean soldiers were wounded and multiple houses were set afire.
South Korean artillery returned fire and scrambled combat aircraft. The armed forces are on high alert and promised to respond strongly to any further shelling, according to the National Defense Ministry.
Comment: The shelling is ex officio an act of war and starts another round of crisis. YP-Do is one of the five South Korean island in the Yellow Sea, northwest of Seoul. It is within easy artillery range from the North Korean coast.
The few facts suggest this is another provocation, like the sinking of the corvette Chonan in March, to show the temerity of the heir apparent. He supposedly was the brilliant mastermind of the sinking, to demonstrate his leadership worthiness. His handlers apparently intend to use these kinds of provocation to be the signature of Kim Jung-un's leadership so that the Allies do not try to take advantage of his youth and inexperience, presumably.
Ironically, earlier during the Watch, news services reported North Korea offered to negotiate the termination of one of its nuclear arms programs, most likely the now terminated plutonium program.
The sequence of three significant developments in 72 hours suggests a plan to switch international attention back to North Korea. The North's behavior during the long nuclear crisis that began in 1993 is punctuated with provocative spikes of this nature. They occurred whenever the leadership judged North Korea was not receiving the attention they thought it deserved and when their initiatives were not generating the cash and aid commitments they expected and which they need for regime survival.
The periods of tension have been of varying duration, but they invariably ended with talks and promises of aid and cooperation. That is the usual patttern.
Occurring just two days after South Korea declared the Sunshine Policy a failure, the shelling also probably is part of the North's response to South Korea's official end of its conciliatory engagement policy and programs. The message is that the North will reciprocate hard-line actions for hard-line actions, which is the customary symmetrical formulation in the North's threats. But in this competition, the North can be annoying, but is too weak in every respect to be a match for South Korea and will not have Chinese backing for any offensive provocations.
Thus at a time when the US has committed to expand the war in Afghanistan and China is busy building is sphere of influence in Southeast Asia, the North has sent reminders about a very different and vastly more lethal war that is still possible in northeast Asia, despite being increasingly pointless.
The risk of large scale fighting remains low because North Korea lacks the energy - human and otherwise - to sustain it. The North can start a conflict and kill lots of people, but has no ability to sustain a war; cannot defend itself or its population from an overwhelming Allied counterattack and will lose everything built by Kim Il sung since 1953 in a war. Most importantly, the highest leaders know it.
However, the risk of more shelling remains high for now. After the shelling stops, meetings with the UN Command at Panmunjom should clarify what the North wants now.
On 23 November (Korean Standard Time), North Korean coastal artillery fired dozens of rounds at a village on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island (aka, Y-P Do). Four South Korean soldiers were wounded and multiple houses were set afire.
South Korean artillery returned fire and scrambled combat aircraft. The armed forces are on high alert and promised to respond strongly to any further shelling, according to the National Defense Ministry.
Comment: The shelling is ex officio an act of war and starts another round of crisis. YP-Do is one of the five South Korean island in the Yellow Sea, northwest of Seoul. It is within easy artillery range from the North Korean coast.
The few facts suggest this is another provocation, like the sinking of the corvette Chonan in March, to show the temerity of the heir apparent. He supposedly was the brilliant mastermind of the sinking, to demonstrate his leadership worthiness. His handlers apparently intend to use these kinds of provocation to be the signature of Kim Jung-un's leadership so that the Allies do not try to take advantage of his youth and inexperience, presumably.
Ironically, earlier during the Watch, news services reported North Korea offered to negotiate the termination of one of its nuclear arms programs, most likely the now terminated plutonium program.
The sequence of three significant developments in 72 hours suggests a plan to switch international attention back to North Korea. The North's behavior during the long nuclear crisis that began in 1993 is punctuated with provocative spikes of this nature. They occurred whenever the leadership judged North Korea was not receiving the attention they thought it deserved and when their initiatives were not generating the cash and aid commitments they expected and which they need for regime survival.
The periods of tension have been of varying duration, but they invariably ended with talks and promises of aid and cooperation. That is the usual patttern.
Occurring just two days after South Korea declared the Sunshine Policy a failure, the shelling also probably is part of the North's response to South Korea's official end of its conciliatory engagement policy and programs. The message is that the North will reciprocate hard-line actions for hard-line actions, which is the customary symmetrical formulation in the North's threats. But in this competition, the North can be annoying, but is too weak in every respect to be a match for South Korea and will not have Chinese backing for any offensive provocations.
Thus at a time when the US has committed to expand the war in Afghanistan and China is busy building is sphere of influence in Southeast Asia, the North has sent reminders about a very different and vastly more lethal war that is still possible in northeast Asia, despite being increasingly pointless.
The risk of large scale fighting remains low because North Korea lacks the energy - human and otherwise - to sustain it. The North can start a conflict and kill lots of people, but has no ability to sustain a war; cannot defend itself or its population from an overwhelming Allied counterattack and will lose everything built by Kim Il sung since 1953 in a war. Most importantly, the highest leaders know it.
However, the risk of more shelling remains high for now. After the shelling stops, meetings with the UN Command at Panmunjom should clarify what the North wants now.
US Nuclear Weapons on South Korean Soil?
Below thread from our friends at KGS Nightwatch.
South Korean National Defense Minister Kim Tae Young said today that South Korea will discuss redeploying U.S. nuclear weapons on its soil with the United States at the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee meeting in December. The context of the statement was the news that North Korea has an industrial scale and operational uranium enrichment plant of 2,000 centrifuges.
The United States does not have immediate plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, a Pentagon spokesman said on 22 November. The United States is consulting international partners to decide how to proceed in light of a report by a US nuclear scientist describing a small, industrial-scale uranium enrichment plant he was shown during a visit to North Korea in November, the spokesman said.
Comment: This is saber rattling. Meanwhile officials in South Korea and the US declared the weekend report about the new North Korean nuclear facilities does not create a crisis because the US and South Korea knew it all along. Japan, a bit more realistically, declared the facility an intolerable threat to security; apparently Japanese officials did not know about this all along.
There is no crisis yet. Most countries that have plutonium processes for making fissile material also have uranium enrichment processes. The original reactor at Yongbyon produced plutonium, but the North has been attempting to build a uranium enrichment cascade, with Pakistani help at one time, for over a decade. The news is that it succeeded pretty much in plain view, according to the US scientists.
There have been two schools of analytical thought about the North's weapons programs. One school holds that the weapons programs may be negotiable if the right package of incentives and sanctions may be found. The other school is that North Korea will never negotiate away its nuclear weapons because it has no other leverage over the US. To date, the hard line school is far ahead of the negotiators. Japan is more aligned with the hard line school of thought and that may be as worrisome as North Korea's antics.
South Korean National Defense Minister Kim Tae Young said today that South Korea will discuss redeploying U.S. nuclear weapons on its soil with the United States at the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee meeting in December. The context of the statement was the news that North Korea has an industrial scale and operational uranium enrichment plant of 2,000 centrifuges.
The United States does not have immediate plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, a Pentagon spokesman said on 22 November. The United States is consulting international partners to decide how to proceed in light of a report by a US nuclear scientist describing a small, industrial-scale uranium enrichment plant he was shown during a visit to North Korea in November, the spokesman said.
Comment: This is saber rattling. Meanwhile officials in South Korea and the US declared the weekend report about the new North Korean nuclear facilities does not create a crisis because the US and South Korea knew it all along. Japan, a bit more realistically, declared the facility an intolerable threat to security; apparently Japanese officials did not know about this all along.
There is no crisis yet. Most countries that have plutonium processes for making fissile material also have uranium enrichment processes. The original reactor at Yongbyon produced plutonium, but the North has been attempting to build a uranium enrichment cascade, with Pakistani help at one time, for over a decade. The news is that it succeeded pretty much in plain view, according to the US scientists.
There have been two schools of analytical thought about the North's weapons programs. One school holds that the weapons programs may be negotiable if the right package of incentives and sanctions may be found. The other school is that North Korea will never negotiate away its nuclear weapons because it has no other leverage over the US. To date, the hard line school is far ahead of the negotiators. Japan is more aligned with the hard line school of thought and that may be as worrisome as North Korea's antics.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Regional Update for 28 October
China/Taiwan-US: Taiwan will ask the United States to postpone the sale of two advanced weapons systems to save money, a senior legislator with ties to the military said on 28 October, Reuters reported.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: A decision to not spend money usually and obviously means that money will be saved. However, the timing of the announcement is propitious because it neutralizes temporarily an issue that might have blemished the US President's visit to India late next week. Taiwan will want something in return.
North Korea-Cuba: Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho, left Pyongyang on 28 October to lead a delegation to Cuba, The Associated Press reported.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: Reports of a close relationship between North Korea and Cuba extend for decades in the past. They include allegations of large North Korean troop deployments to Cuba.
Nothing significant has ever been proven. Still the visits have continued. Cuba and North Korea share the distinction with Vietnam and Laos of being the last surviving Marxist-Leninist states.
China-Pakistan: Chinese Major General Yang Hui, director general of the Intelligence Directorate, visited Chief of Army Staff General Kayani at General Headquarters on 28 October, Associated Press of Pakistan reported. The two discussed matters of professional interest, according to Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: A visit by a Chinese intelligence general to Pakistan usually signifies a problem. The usual problem is that Pakistan is harboring, aiding, training and abetting anti-Han Chinese Islamic terrorists in the 42 terrorist camps that Pakistani intelligence sustains in Pakistani Kashmir.
Chinese intelligence officials seldom visit unless there is a problem. The Chinese do not seem concerned that Pakistani-trained terrorists kill Indians or Americans, but they do object to Pakistan providing or tolerating training of Xinjiang Uighurs who want to kill Han Chinese.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: A decision to not spend money usually and obviously means that money will be saved. However, the timing of the announcement is propitious because it neutralizes temporarily an issue that might have blemished the US President's visit to India late next week. Taiwan will want something in return.
North Korea-Cuba: Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho, left Pyongyang on 28 October to lead a delegation to Cuba, The Associated Press reported.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: Reports of a close relationship between North Korea and Cuba extend for decades in the past. They include allegations of large North Korean troop deployments to Cuba.
Nothing significant has ever been proven. Still the visits have continued. Cuba and North Korea share the distinction with Vietnam and Laos of being the last surviving Marxist-Leninist states.
China-Pakistan: Chinese Major General Yang Hui, director general of the Intelligence Directorate, visited Chief of Army Staff General Kayani at General Headquarters on 28 October, Associated Press of Pakistan reported. The two discussed matters of professional interest, according to Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: A visit by a Chinese intelligence general to Pakistan usually signifies a problem. The usual problem is that Pakistan is harboring, aiding, training and abetting anti-Han Chinese Islamic terrorists in the 42 terrorist camps that Pakistani intelligence sustains in Pakistani Kashmir.
Chinese intelligence officials seldom visit unless there is a problem. The Chinese do not seem concerned that Pakistani-trained terrorists kill Indians or Americans, but they do object to Pakistan providing or tolerating training of Xinjiang Uighurs who want to kill Han Chinese.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Regional Update for 27 October
At a meeting in Kaesong to discuss family reunions on Wednesday, North Korea demanded South Korea provide 500,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer n return for concessions in the reunion program.
"North Korean delegates linked the issue of separated families and the aid, indicating that they could make concessions if rice and fertilizer aid are given," an unidentified South Korea official said. In response to the request for aid, South Korean representatives replied that they were not in a position to give an answer and would refer it to government authorities.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: A reunion event will begin Saturday at the jointly-run Mount Kumgang resort on the North's east coast and will last six days, linking 100 people from each side with long-separated family members. Seoul wants to hold similar reunions once a month between March and November, since many elderly people die before getting a chance for such a meeting.
The North's choice of venue for presenting an enormous demand leaves no doubt that the country has a severe food shortage (so, what else is new?). Moreover it does not anticipate good harvests in 2011 without South Korean aid (again…nothing new here).
Curiously, the North's version of communism stresses a home-grown, mythical notion of self-reliance. The facts are that since the Korean War the North has never been self-reliant in anything Without Soviet and Chinese aid of every kind and South Korean and Japanese trade, the country would have imploded decades ago.
Today's demand made no mention of "chuche," the North's term for self-reliance. The North is desperate for help.
"North Korean delegates linked the issue of separated families and the aid, indicating that they could make concessions if rice and fertilizer aid are given," an unidentified South Korea official said. In response to the request for aid, South Korean representatives replied that they were not in a position to give an answer and would refer it to government authorities.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: A reunion event will begin Saturday at the jointly-run Mount Kumgang resort on the North's east coast and will last six days, linking 100 people from each side with long-separated family members. Seoul wants to hold similar reunions once a month between March and November, since many elderly people die before getting a chance for such a meeting.
The North's choice of venue for presenting an enormous demand leaves no doubt that the country has a severe food shortage (so, what else is new?). Moreover it does not anticipate good harvests in 2011 without South Korean aid (again…nothing new here).
Curiously, the North's version of communism stresses a home-grown, mythical notion of self-reliance. The facts are that since the Korean War the North has never been self-reliant in anything Without Soviet and Chinese aid of every kind and South Korean and Japanese trade, the country would have imploded decades ago.
Today's demand made no mention of "chuche," the North's term for self-reliance. The North is desperate for help.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Regional Update for 26 October
North Korea: Update. The United States will lead the United Nations Command in a round of colonel-level talks with North Korea at the border village of Panmunjom on 27 October, a military source said, Yonhap reported.
China-Japan: Update. Chinese protesters held an anti-Japanese demonstration near the Japanese Consulate in Chongqing, China, on the 26th . A consulate official said between 1,000 and 2,000 people gathered, including onlookers, and consular security was strengthened and plainclothes police were present. Another witness said the protesters chanted slogans about the disputed Senkaku islands.
China-Southeast Asia: Mainichi reported last week that commercial satellite imagery detected one and possibly two Type 093 nuclear-powered attack submarines docked at a Chinese navy base in Sanya, Hainan Island, in the South China Sea. The image was taken in early September.
In 2008, a Type 094 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine was detected at Sanya, but is not assessed to be based there.
Comment by our friends at KGS NightWatch: China is building and basing submarines to enforce its maritime claims in the East and South China Seas. Experts rate the technology in the Type 093 as a generation or more behind the US, but it is better than anything in the navies of the Southeast Asian states that dispute China's sea claims.
China-Japan: Update. Chinese protesters held an anti-Japanese demonstration near the Japanese Consulate in Chongqing, China, on the 26th . A consulate official said between 1,000 and 2,000 people gathered, including onlookers, and consular security was strengthened and plainclothes police were present. Another witness said the protesters chanted slogans about the disputed Senkaku islands.
China-Southeast Asia: Mainichi reported last week that commercial satellite imagery detected one and possibly two Type 093 nuclear-powered attack submarines docked at a Chinese navy base in Sanya, Hainan Island, in the South China Sea. The image was taken in early September.
In 2008, a Type 094 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine was detected at Sanya, but is not assessed to be based there.
Comment by our friends at KGS NightWatch: China is building and basing submarines to enforce its maritime claims in the East and South China Seas. Experts rate the technology in the Type 093 as a generation or more behind the US, but it is better than anything in the navies of the Southeast Asian states that dispute China's sea claims.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Regional Update for 25 October
Japan-China: The Japanese government formally protested to the Chinese government on 25 October the presence of Chinese patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands. Japanese authorities detected two Chinese patrol boats late Sunday in Japan's "contiguous zone" but did not cross into Japanese territorial waters, Kyodo reported, citing Japan's coast guard.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said in the protest message that seeing Chinese patrol boats made his government feel "uncomfortable. He also said that Japan will step up its monitoring activities around the Islands, according to Kyodo.
China's foreign ministry claimed that its boats' patrols are both legal and based on need.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: Mainstream international press did not report the Chinese patrol boat activity nor at least three more anti-Japanese protests and demonstrations over the weekend. The confrontation over the Senkakus continues.
South Korea-US: For the record. A Pentagon spokesman today rejected claims by South Korean media that a planned U.S.-South Korea naval exercise had been postponed due to Chinese protests, Reuters reported. The spokesman told reporters that authorities in Washington and in Seoul were unable to reach a scheduling agreement, adding the exercises were intended to send a message to North Korea and should not be China's concern.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: The comment by the spokesman misses the point that the North has moved closer to China during the succession period than at any time since the government of Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s. The US is much less significant than it was a year ago in North Korea's strategic calculations. Since China agreed to assume overwatch responsibility for the Kim regime this year, the Allies have succeeded in sending no significant "messages" to North Korea.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said in the protest message that seeing Chinese patrol boats made his government feel "uncomfortable. He also said that Japan will step up its monitoring activities around the Islands, according to Kyodo.
China's foreign ministry claimed that its boats' patrols are both legal and based on need.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: Mainstream international press did not report the Chinese patrol boat activity nor at least three more anti-Japanese protests and demonstrations over the weekend. The confrontation over the Senkakus continues.
South Korea-US: For the record. A Pentagon spokesman today rejected claims by South Korean media that a planned U.S.-South Korea naval exercise had been postponed due to Chinese protests, Reuters reported. The spokesman told reporters that authorities in Washington and in Seoul were unable to reach a scheduling agreement, adding the exercises were intended to send a message to North Korea and should not be China's concern.
Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: The comment by the spokesman misses the point that the North has moved closer to China during the succession period than at any time since the government of Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s. The US is much less significant than it was a year ago in North Korea's strategic calculations. Since China agreed to assume overwatch responsibility for the Kim regime this year, the Allies have succeeded in sending no significant "messages" to North Korea.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Regional Update for 24 October
South Korea and the United States have canceled the planned combined naval exercise in the West Sea (Yellow Sea) scheduled for late October, South Korean state-run broadcaster KBS reported on 24 October, citing a senior South Korean official.
The decision was made in order to avoid irritating neighboring countries (really one neighboring country – China) and to improve conditions for the G20 Summit in Seoul on 11 and 12 November, Yonhap reported, citing another unnamed government source. The US aircraft carrier USS George Washington is unlikely to participate in any other combined exercises with South Korea in 2010, and the two allies will also delay the large-scale amphibious landing exercises planned for late October.
Comment (This comment is based exclusively on open source information which always is incomplete.): The cancellation appears to be a gratuitous conciliatory gesture to China to ensure its participation in the economic summit, where it is expected to be generally uncooperative, by some analysts.
The concern is that this is the second major security issue in Asia in which the US appears to have deferred to China's sensibilities, rather than assert the prerogatives of a great power.
This cancellation would appear to negate all the brave language US spokesman have used to assert allied solidarity in confronting North Korea' aggression in sinking the South Korean corvette, Cheonan, in March. In the perception of the international community, the US backed down every time China protested the scheduling of joint exercises aimed at North Korea.
After seven months, North Korea still has gotten away with sinking an Allied patrol ship.
The second issue was the Chinese reaction to Japan's arrest of a Chinese fishing boat and crew in the Senkakus after the Chinese boat rammed a Japanese patrol boat. Only the Secretary of State stood with the Japanese against China. The rest of the US administration did not and has not.
Pro-US leaders in Asia are well advised to remember 2010 as a pivotal year for reassessing the dominant power in Asia.
The decision was made in order to avoid irritating neighboring countries (really one neighboring country – China) and to improve conditions for the G20 Summit in Seoul on 11 and 12 November, Yonhap reported, citing another unnamed government source. The US aircraft carrier USS George Washington is unlikely to participate in any other combined exercises with South Korea in 2010, and the two allies will also delay the large-scale amphibious landing exercises planned for late October.
Comment (This comment is based exclusively on open source information which always is incomplete.): The cancellation appears to be a gratuitous conciliatory gesture to China to ensure its participation in the economic summit, where it is expected to be generally uncooperative, by some analysts.
The concern is that this is the second major security issue in Asia in which the US appears to have deferred to China's sensibilities, rather than assert the prerogatives of a great power.
This cancellation would appear to negate all the brave language US spokesman have used to assert allied solidarity in confronting North Korea' aggression in sinking the South Korean corvette, Cheonan, in March. In the perception of the international community, the US backed down every time China protested the scheduling of joint exercises aimed at North Korea.
After seven months, North Korea still has gotten away with sinking an Allied patrol ship.
The second issue was the Chinese reaction to Japan's arrest of a Chinese fishing boat and crew in the Senkakus after the Chinese boat rammed a Japanese patrol boat. Only the Secretary of State stood with the Japanese against China. The rest of the US administration did not and has not.
Pro-US leaders in Asia are well advised to remember 2010 as a pivotal year for reassessing the dominant power in Asia.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Regional Update for October 22
Following update from our friends at KGS NightWatch
South Korea-North Korea: A report to the UN Secretary General indicated North Korea is in danger of another food crisis this winter because of poor harvests. Nevertheless, a South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman reaffirmed the Lee government policy of not providing large scale food aid to North Korea, regardless of need unless and until the political atmosphere improves.
The government in Seoul will continue to approve private humanitarian relief, such a recent shipment of 5,000 tons of rice and other supplies for flood victims.
Comment from KGS NightWatch: The South still wants the North to apologize for the sinking of its patrol ship last March. Prior to 2008 and the South's election of the hard line Lee administration, the South annually provided 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer to the North.
North Korea-China: For the record. Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Gua Boxiong will lead a delegation of senior Chinese military officers to North Korea on 23 October, according to the Ministry of National Defense, Xinhua reported on 22 October. The delegation will attend activities to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the entry of the Chinese People's Volunteers into the Korean front and meet with the North's military leaders to discuss issues of mutual concern, said Chinese spokesman Geng Yansheng.
China: Update. Tibetan language demonstrations spread in northwestern China, as students in Tsolho and Golog prefectures demanded the right to study in their language, according to Free Tibet and Agence France-Presse. Some 2,000 students marched to the local government building in Chabcha, chanting demands for Tibetan language freedoms. Police and teachers turned them away. The Dawu police restricted movement of local residents following student protests in the area.
Comment from KGS NightWatch: This is a minor outbreak of unrest but it continues to showcase the Han Chinese policy of forced assimilation of minorities.
US-China-India: President Obama will visit India between 6 and 9 November. The forthcoming trip has generated significant unease in China about US strategy in Asia.
Since Thursday, a half dozen or more Chinese newspapers and strategists have complained about the US relationship with India. A National Defense University official wrote, "India's goals of becoming a global power cannot be realized by just following the US. This writer accused the US of "building a strategic fence" with Japan and South Korea as the backbone and a carapace of India, Vietnam and other nations having territorial disputes with China.
This official wrote, "India's politicians should be aware that as the two weaker sides of a triangular relationship, it is very important for India and China to maintain stability to prevent the US from profiting from their disputes….The US fence around China is weak but could become an iron wall if China makes strategic mistakes."
Earlier, a Chinese air force colonel wrote about a crescent ring encircling China from Japan to Afghanistan. A professor at Beijing University's School of International Studies said, "If you look around Asia and see what the US is doing, it is not surprising and difficult to understand America's needs in South Asia."
A Fudan University analyst wrote in the China Daily that India and China are made for each other but must guard against western elements. "Some Indian media raised a hue and cry over so-called 'border invasion' by China last year and the recent suspension of bilateral military exchanges,'' said the commentary."Some Western countries and media are trying to use this to drive a wedge between the two neighbors."
Comment from KGS NightWatch: These two ancient cultures have had no significant interaction until modern times. But for colonial era land disputes, they are not natural enemies. However, their aspirations for world power stature have converted them into at least strategic competitors, sometime rivals and potential enemies.
China's rise to great power stature impedes India's dominance in South Asia. China has developed proxies or allies on every Indian border, which undercuts the credibility of its complaints about encirclement. China has spurred India to look to its strategic space in South Asia and to increase security cooperation with East Asia powers with which it has never had significant interaction … before the rise of China.
It is curious that Chinese international affairs commentators evince so much insecurity, for a country that considers itself the equal in many areas of the United States and has become so aggressive in asserting its right to be the leader of Asia.
Comments from the Author of the Blog: For a country that speaks of peace so often, everything from its official government positions to academic papers its scholars publish, it sure seems that its government, its military, and a significant portion of its academia look upon the world through the lens of realism - the theory where peace could only be achieved by either becoming the dominant power or by balancing against the dominant power...the things that make you go hmmm......
India-Pakistan: Indian Army Chief of the Army Staff General V K Singh said on 22 October that interceptions and border monitoring reports have indicated that there are 500 to 600 militants on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control preparing to infiltrate India's state of Jammu and Kashmir, The Times of India reported.
Intelligence inpurts indicate the leadership of Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Jaish-e-Mohammed have conducted reconnaissance along the Line of Control in advance of infiltration operations. General Singh reported there are teams of eight to nine who are trying to cross the border every day.
Singh also said the anti-India terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan is intact and 42 camps are being run, including newly created camps in Pakistani Kashmir. Infiltration has risen in late summer, as it seasonally does. The Indian Army recorded 10 infiltration incidents in June, six in July and 33 in August.
General Singh judged that about 20-25 infiltration attempts succeeded, which is indicated by the fact that 12 to 15 terrorists were killed in the last 15-20 days. "This shows people have come from somewhere," he said. He concluded that Pakistan perceives Kashmir as an "unfinished agenda.
Comment from KGS NightWatch: Infiltration from Pakistan into Indian Kashmir always increases before winter. The number of Kashmiri militant camps is as high as it has been in the past ten years. This means the progress in reducing the number of camps under Musharraf has been reversed. The camps and the infiltration infrastructure into Kashmir cannot exist without official Pakistani government support.
Even allowing for an anti-Pakistani bias, General Singh's account of conditions along the Line of Control is consistent with autumn conditions in past years. His statements are a reminder that Pakistan remains a state sponsor of terror and continues to use terror as an instrument of state policy against India.
South Korea-North Korea: A report to the UN Secretary General indicated North Korea is in danger of another food crisis this winter because of poor harvests. Nevertheless, a South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman reaffirmed the Lee government policy of not providing large scale food aid to North Korea, regardless of need unless and until the political atmosphere improves.
The government in Seoul will continue to approve private humanitarian relief, such a recent shipment of 5,000 tons of rice and other supplies for flood victims.
Comment from KGS NightWatch: The South still wants the North to apologize for the sinking of its patrol ship last March. Prior to 2008 and the South's election of the hard line Lee administration, the South annually provided 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer to the North.
North Korea-China: For the record. Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Gua Boxiong will lead a delegation of senior Chinese military officers to North Korea on 23 October, according to the Ministry of National Defense, Xinhua reported on 22 October. The delegation will attend activities to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the entry of the Chinese People's Volunteers into the Korean front and meet with the North's military leaders to discuss issues of mutual concern, said Chinese spokesman Geng Yansheng.
China: Update. Tibetan language demonstrations spread in northwestern China, as students in Tsolho and Golog prefectures demanded the right to study in their language, according to Free Tibet and Agence France-Presse. Some 2,000 students marched to the local government building in Chabcha, chanting demands for Tibetan language freedoms. Police and teachers turned them away. The Dawu police restricted movement of local residents following student protests in the area.
Comment from KGS NightWatch: This is a minor outbreak of unrest but it continues to showcase the Han Chinese policy of forced assimilation of minorities.
US-China-India: President Obama will visit India between 6 and 9 November. The forthcoming trip has generated significant unease in China about US strategy in Asia.
Since Thursday, a half dozen or more Chinese newspapers and strategists have complained about the US relationship with India. A National Defense University official wrote, "India's goals of becoming a global power cannot be realized by just following the US. This writer accused the US of "building a strategic fence" with Japan and South Korea as the backbone and a carapace of India, Vietnam and other nations having territorial disputes with China.
This official wrote, "India's politicians should be aware that as the two weaker sides of a triangular relationship, it is very important for India and China to maintain stability to prevent the US from profiting from their disputes….The US fence around China is weak but could become an iron wall if China makes strategic mistakes."
Earlier, a Chinese air force colonel wrote about a crescent ring encircling China from Japan to Afghanistan. A professor at Beijing University's School of International Studies said, "If you look around Asia and see what the US is doing, it is not surprising and difficult to understand America's needs in South Asia."
A Fudan University analyst wrote in the China Daily that India and China are made for each other but must guard against western elements. "Some Indian media raised a hue and cry over so-called 'border invasion' by China last year and the recent suspension of bilateral military exchanges,'' said the commentary."Some Western countries and media are trying to use this to drive a wedge between the two neighbors."
Comment from KGS NightWatch: These two ancient cultures have had no significant interaction until modern times. But for colonial era land disputes, they are not natural enemies. However, their aspirations for world power stature have converted them into at least strategic competitors, sometime rivals and potential enemies.
China's rise to great power stature impedes India's dominance in South Asia. China has developed proxies or allies on every Indian border, which undercuts the credibility of its complaints about encirclement. China has spurred India to look to its strategic space in South Asia and to increase security cooperation with East Asia powers with which it has never had significant interaction … before the rise of China.
It is curious that Chinese international affairs commentators evince so much insecurity, for a country that considers itself the equal in many areas of the United States and has become so aggressive in asserting its right to be the leader of Asia.
Comments from the Author of the Blog: For a country that speaks of peace so often, everything from its official government positions to academic papers its scholars publish, it sure seems that its government, its military, and a significant portion of its academia look upon the world through the lens of realism - the theory where peace could only be achieved by either becoming the dominant power or by balancing against the dominant power...the things that make you go hmmm......
India-Pakistan: Indian Army Chief of the Army Staff General V K Singh said on 22 October that interceptions and border monitoring reports have indicated that there are 500 to 600 militants on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control preparing to infiltrate India's state of Jammu and Kashmir, The Times of India reported.
Intelligence inpurts indicate the leadership of Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Jaish-e-Mohammed have conducted reconnaissance along the Line of Control in advance of infiltration operations. General Singh reported there are teams of eight to nine who are trying to cross the border every day.
Singh also said the anti-India terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan is intact and 42 camps are being run, including newly created camps in Pakistani Kashmir. Infiltration has risen in late summer, as it seasonally does. The Indian Army recorded 10 infiltration incidents in June, six in July and 33 in August.
General Singh judged that about 20-25 infiltration attempts succeeded, which is indicated by the fact that 12 to 15 terrorists were killed in the last 15-20 days. "This shows people have come from somewhere," he said. He concluded that Pakistan perceives Kashmir as an "unfinished agenda.
Comment from KGS NightWatch: Infiltration from Pakistan into Indian Kashmir always increases before winter. The number of Kashmiri militant camps is as high as it has been in the past ten years. This means the progress in reducing the number of camps under Musharraf has been reversed. The camps and the infiltration infrastructure into Kashmir cannot exist without official Pakistani government support.
Even allowing for an anti-Pakistani bias, General Singh's account of conditions along the Line of Control is consistent with autumn conditions in past years. His statements are a reminder that Pakistan remains a state sponsor of terror and continues to use terror as an instrument of state policy against India.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Regional Update for September 13
New Zealand-China: A Chinese naval training ship and a frigate arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on 11 September for a four-day visit, New Zealand and Chinese press reported. Chinese Rear Admiral Leng said the visit was part of efforts to construct a harmonious world and a harmonious ocean. He added that it was also conducive to improving the level of military cooperation between the two countries.
New Zealand is the fourth stop on the Chinese Navy ships' itinerary, which has included calls at Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tonga, and will take them to Australia next.
Japan-China: Update. A Chinese government law enforcement ship on 11 September asked a Japanese coast guard survey ship operating in Japan's exclusive economic zone to stop its activities, according to coast guard officials.
The encounter occurred about 280 kilometers (173 miles) north-northwest off Okinawa Island. The Japanese ship continued surveying operations for nearly two more hours. Japan later delivered an official complaint to China. The Japanese will not back down from the Chinese, with our without US encouragement.
South Korea-North Korea: Update. South Korea announced today , 13 September, that is will provide aid to North Korea, but repeated that the government in Pyongyang was responsible for the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March.
Over the weekend, the North offered to resume reunions of families divided by the Korean War's outcome. None have occurred in over a year.
It also accepted the South Korean Red Cross' offer of $8.3 million in aid, which includes 5,000 tones of rice, 10,000 tons of cement and 3 million packs of instant noodles. Red Cross chief Yoo Chong-ha said the South Korean government is the main financier of the aid.
According to Red Cross figures, about 80,000 elderly South Koreans seek a brief meeting with family left in the North after the war.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The apparent peace offensive is almost certainly camouflage to obscure the North's failure to convene the 3rd Party Conference. The overtures have no significance except to prolong a benign strategic environment, while the North's leaders sort out their next step.
North Korea: The South Korean television channel YTN reported the 3rd Party Conference has been delayed because of the health of leader Kim Jong-il. Unidentified South Korean intelligence officials supposedly told the station that Kim's health worsened after his five-day trip to northeast China late last month.
The station's report said the Conference would likely be held soon since the 68-year-old's health was not bad enough to warrant a cancellation.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Our assessment is that Kim's health has been so poor that he is non compos mentis most of the time, except after dialysis, which well-informed observers say occurs thrice weekly. We also judge he has so many body doubles and it is sometime difficult to distinguish them - presumably the Chinese experts on Korea could identify the real Kim from a double.
The Conference does not seem to have taken place yet, which North and South Korean media blame on the exertions of Kim's trip to China. The subtext is the Chinese are to blame for the Dear Leader's present infirmity. There is no way to know who went to China or what was accomplished. The North has raised its shroud of obscurity and might declare the Conference a success tomorrow!
New Zealand is the fourth stop on the Chinese Navy ships' itinerary, which has included calls at Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tonga, and will take them to Australia next.
Japan-China: Update. A Chinese government law enforcement ship on 11 September asked a Japanese coast guard survey ship operating in Japan's exclusive economic zone to stop its activities, according to coast guard officials.
The encounter occurred about 280 kilometers (173 miles) north-northwest off Okinawa Island. The Japanese ship continued surveying operations for nearly two more hours. Japan later delivered an official complaint to China. The Japanese will not back down from the Chinese, with our without US encouragement.
South Korea-North Korea: Update. South Korea announced today , 13 September, that is will provide aid to North Korea, but repeated that the government in Pyongyang was responsible for the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March.
Over the weekend, the North offered to resume reunions of families divided by the Korean War's outcome. None have occurred in over a year.
It also accepted the South Korean Red Cross' offer of $8.3 million in aid, which includes 5,000 tones of rice, 10,000 tons of cement and 3 million packs of instant noodles. Red Cross chief Yoo Chong-ha said the South Korean government is the main financier of the aid.
According to Red Cross figures, about 80,000 elderly South Koreans seek a brief meeting with family left in the North after the war.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The apparent peace offensive is almost certainly camouflage to obscure the North's failure to convene the 3rd Party Conference. The overtures have no significance except to prolong a benign strategic environment, while the North's leaders sort out their next step.
North Korea: The South Korean television channel YTN reported the 3rd Party Conference has been delayed because of the health of leader Kim Jong-il. Unidentified South Korean intelligence officials supposedly told the station that Kim's health worsened after his five-day trip to northeast China late last month.
The station's report said the Conference would likely be held soon since the 68-year-old's health was not bad enough to warrant a cancellation.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Our assessment is that Kim's health has been so poor that he is non compos mentis most of the time, except after dialysis, which well-informed observers say occurs thrice weekly. We also judge he has so many body doubles and it is sometime difficult to distinguish them - presumably the Chinese experts on Korea could identify the real Kim from a double.
The Conference does not seem to have taken place yet, which North and South Korean media blame on the exertions of Kim's trip to China. The subtext is the Chinese are to blame for the Dear Leader's present infirmity. There is no way to know who went to China or what was accomplished. The North has raised its shroud of obscurity and might declare the Conference a success tomorrow!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Regional Update for September 10
Japan-China: The captain of a Chinese fishing boat was taken to a Japanese court on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture on 10 September. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi demanded the "immediate and unconditional" release of the captain and other crewmembers, according to news relays.
Yang summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa to lodge a third protest with Tokyo over what the Chinese Foreign Ministry described as an "illegal detention." Yang told Niwa that Beijing is determined to defend Chinese sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands, where the ramming incident occurred, and demanded the unconditional release of the boat and crew, according to the ministry
Japan asserts the incident occurred in Japanese territorial waters and that Japan is handling the case in line with domestic law, Niwa told the Chinese. On 10 September a Japanese court ruled that prosecutors can detain the captain of the Chinese fishing boat for 10 days.
In reaction to and protest of the court ruling, the Chinese announced a postponement of a second round of negotiation over disputed island territories. Lest the Japanese miss the point, the Chinese statement described the postponement as a "grave protest."
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Japan and South Korea require little encouragement in standing up to China on territorial or other disputes. In part, this is because they see China's export dependent modern sector as a competitor with their own export-driven economies. Neither Japan nor South Korea is inclined to accommodate China or accept it as a regional leader.
An epochal strategic shift continues to evolve in which Asian States are not only taking responsibility for the security of Asia, they are shaping the nature of the strategic relationships. Japan and South Korea will not roll over for China the way North Korea is doing,with or without US assistance.
South Korea-US: A US Defense Department spokesman announced today, 10 September, that the aircraft carrier USS George Washington will participate with South Korea in war games in international waters of the Yellow Sea off the Korean Peninsula. The US spokesman said the deployment is not aimed at challenging China, but is a warning to North Korea.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: After much hemming and hawing, the US appears to have made a decision in favor of strategic dominance and in favor of US Allies in Asia. Apparently thanks for the extra time to think straight goes to the intervention of a typhoon. The typhoon delayed Allied anti-submarine warfare training in the Yellow Sea and gave the US leadership time to make a decision in favor of American allies and interests.
China-Taiwan: Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) will conduct a maritime rescue drill the week of 13 September with China's Maritime Search and Rescue Center, Taiwanese Central News Agency reported 10 September. The drill will be held in waters off southeastern China, between Taiwan's Kinmen Island and Xiamen, China.
Taiwan's CGA will send nine patrol boats, including a 500-ton patrol vessel, and helicopters to Kinmen. All participating ships and rescue teams will carry flags that symbolize the joint drill, CGA officials said, in an attempt to avoid territorial disputes.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The drill will be the first time the two coastal patrol agencies will have held joint exercises.
Burma (Myanmar)-China: The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has begun construction of China-Myanmar oil and natural gas pipelines, according to Chinese media. The announcement coincided with a ground-breaking ceremony for a 200,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery in Anning city, Yunnan Province, China.
According to the CNPC statement, the company wants to complete the China section of the pipelines, as well as the refinery, by 2013. The oil pipeline, which will have a capacity of 440,000 barrels per day, will wind 771 kilometers (479 miles) through Myanmar, then stretch 1,631 kilometers though China before ending in Chongqing.
The natural gas pipeline will have a 12 billion cubic meter capacity, and will span 793 kilometers in Myanmar and 1,727 kilometers in China before ending in Guangxi region. The company did not disclose whether or when all three projects would receive final approval from China's National Development and Reform Commission, the body in charge of economic planning and pricing.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The significance of this information plus other recent reports about China building a railroad through Burma is that they reinforce the assessment that Chinese leaders see Burma as a gateway for channeling natural resources to China.
This symbolizes the next step in China's economic imperialism by creating a network of vertical and horizontal monopolies on a global scale that gather and ship back to China the resources from concessions in Third World countries that the Chinese already have secured.
By using Chinese-made Burmese ports and infrastructure, natural resources from Africa and the Middle East can reach hubs in southern China and avoid the hazards of transiting the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and the South China Sea.
Yang summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa to lodge a third protest with Tokyo over what the Chinese Foreign Ministry described as an "illegal detention." Yang told Niwa that Beijing is determined to defend Chinese sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands, where the ramming incident occurred, and demanded the unconditional release of the boat and crew, according to the ministry
Japan asserts the incident occurred in Japanese territorial waters and that Japan is handling the case in line with domestic law, Niwa told the Chinese. On 10 September a Japanese court ruled that prosecutors can detain the captain of the Chinese fishing boat for 10 days.
In reaction to and protest of the court ruling, the Chinese announced a postponement of a second round of negotiation over disputed island territories. Lest the Japanese miss the point, the Chinese statement described the postponement as a "grave protest."
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Japan and South Korea require little encouragement in standing up to China on territorial or other disputes. In part, this is because they see China's export dependent modern sector as a competitor with their own export-driven economies. Neither Japan nor South Korea is inclined to accommodate China or accept it as a regional leader.
An epochal strategic shift continues to evolve in which Asian States are not only taking responsibility for the security of Asia, they are shaping the nature of the strategic relationships. Japan and South Korea will not roll over for China the way North Korea is doing,with or without US assistance.
South Korea-US: A US Defense Department spokesman announced today, 10 September, that the aircraft carrier USS George Washington will participate with South Korea in war games in international waters of the Yellow Sea off the Korean Peninsula. The US spokesman said the deployment is not aimed at challenging China, but is a warning to North Korea.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: After much hemming and hawing, the US appears to have made a decision in favor of strategic dominance and in favor of US Allies in Asia. Apparently thanks for the extra time to think straight goes to the intervention of a typhoon. The typhoon delayed Allied anti-submarine warfare training in the Yellow Sea and gave the US leadership time to make a decision in favor of American allies and interests.
China-Taiwan: Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) will conduct a maritime rescue drill the week of 13 September with China's Maritime Search and Rescue Center, Taiwanese Central News Agency reported 10 September. The drill will be held in waters off southeastern China, between Taiwan's Kinmen Island and Xiamen, China.
Taiwan's CGA will send nine patrol boats, including a 500-ton patrol vessel, and helicopters to Kinmen. All participating ships and rescue teams will carry flags that symbolize the joint drill, CGA officials said, in an attempt to avoid territorial disputes.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The drill will be the first time the two coastal patrol agencies will have held joint exercises.
Burma (Myanmar)-China: The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has begun construction of China-Myanmar oil and natural gas pipelines, according to Chinese media. The announcement coincided with a ground-breaking ceremony for a 200,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery in Anning city, Yunnan Province, China.
According to the CNPC statement, the company wants to complete the China section of the pipelines, as well as the refinery, by 2013. The oil pipeline, which will have a capacity of 440,000 barrels per day, will wind 771 kilometers (479 miles) through Myanmar, then stretch 1,631 kilometers though China before ending in Chongqing.
The natural gas pipeline will have a 12 billion cubic meter capacity, and will span 793 kilometers in Myanmar and 1,727 kilometers in China before ending in Guangxi region. The company did not disclose whether or when all three projects would receive final approval from China's National Development and Reform Commission, the body in charge of economic planning and pricing.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The significance of this information plus other recent reports about China building a railroad through Burma is that they reinforce the assessment that Chinese leaders see Burma as a gateway for channeling natural resources to China.
This symbolizes the next step in China's economic imperialism by creating a network of vertical and horizontal monopolies on a global scale that gather and ship back to China the resources from concessions in Third World countries that the Chinese already have secured.
By using Chinese-made Burmese ports and infrastructure, natural resources from Africa and the Middle East can reach hubs in southern China and avoid the hazards of transiting the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and the South China Sea.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Regional Update for September 9
A Foreign Ministry source said Beijing has deployed a "law enforcement ship" to the region in the East China Sea where a Chinese trawler collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels.
The action is an effort to protect Chinese fishermen, the Ministry said.
A ministry spokeswoman called Tokyo's intentions to apply Japanese domestic law to the case of the Chinese trawler that rammed a Japanese coast guard ship absurd and illegal. The spokeswoman suggested the case could have a serious impact on bilateral relations.
A Japanese coast guard spokeswoman said an inspection of the trawler has begun, as well as an interrogation of the 14 fishermen who were on board. The fishing boat is docked off Ishigaki Island in Okinawa prefecture.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Japanese commentaries about the event conclude the Chinese trawler deliberately rammed the Coast Guard ships so as to create an incident. The Chinese reaction seems to reinforce that Japanese conclusion rather than refute it, as might have been expected from an emerging regional leader, as the Chinese describe their nation.
The Chinese have responded with increased law enforcement capabilities instead of a statesmanlike appeal to maintain regional stability. The stationing of one or more law enforcement ships in a disputed maritime region of East Asia matches one of several Chinese tactics for asserting China's claims to the South China Sea up to the limits of the territorial seas of Southeast Asian states.
The action is an effort to protect Chinese fishermen, the Ministry said.
A ministry spokeswoman called Tokyo's intentions to apply Japanese domestic law to the case of the Chinese trawler that rammed a Japanese coast guard ship absurd and illegal. The spokeswoman suggested the case could have a serious impact on bilateral relations.
A Japanese coast guard spokeswoman said an inspection of the trawler has begun, as well as an interrogation of the 14 fishermen who were on board. The fishing boat is docked off Ishigaki Island in Okinawa prefecture.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Japanese commentaries about the event conclude the Chinese trawler deliberately rammed the Coast Guard ships so as to create an incident. The Chinese reaction seems to reinforce that Japanese conclusion rather than refute it, as might have been expected from an emerging regional leader, as the Chinese describe their nation.
The Chinese have responded with increased law enforcement capabilities instead of a statesmanlike appeal to maintain regional stability. The stationing of one or more law enforcement ships in a disputed maritime region of East Asia matches one of several Chinese tactics for asserting China's claims to the South China Sea up to the limits of the territorial seas of Southeast Asian states.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Regional Update for September 8
Premier Choe Yong Rim of North Korea said 8 September that hastening economic growth as a way to improve living standards is of critical importance for North Korea. Speaking at a national assembly marking the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Choe said the public and the army should work to develop agriculture and light industry, as well as metalwork, electricity, coal and railway infrastructure.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The premier's public statement is significant for several reasons. First it suggests the 3rd Party Conference has not begun. More importantly, it is the latest manifestation that Kim Jong-il's government has made a major change in strategic priorities in favor of non-military development. Choe's comments are the most explicit to date in directing that the army should support the civilian sectors in promoting general prosperity.
Old hands will recall that Kim Il-sung, President forever, reached the same conclusion in 1993. Kim Jong-il's Father suspended the seven-year national planning system in December 1993 because it failed. He reprioritized national activity as agriculture-- food production, consumer goods for daily living, goods for export and goods to support the armed forces. This order of effort had no precedent in Korean communism. North Koreans were malnourished in danger of starving.
Kim Jong-il, under threat of a military revolt and for his survival, rejected the legacy of his Father and made military production first, from mid-1994. Sixteen years later and facing death, Kim apparently has had an epiphany about the wisdom of his Father. Once again , under Kim's leadership, North Koreans are malnourished in danger of starving.
The elder Kim recognized that the state and the army could not survive unless the people from whom they are drawn and on whom they depend are healthy. Kim Jong-il is late in reaching that insight.
The message for outsiders is the infrastructure that supports the North's military capabilities is hollow. Kim Jong-il's rule has been a waste of time and resources, repeating mistakes his father made. Nevertheless, the North Korean people will never be permitted to draw those conclusions.
The North's media and sympathetic commentaries in Japan ascribe the new priorities to the third son, Kim Jong-eun. That callow youth has not dealt with the entrenched vice marshals and corps commanders of the Korean Peoples Army. Nor has his mentor and regent Chang Song-taek, who is a party aficionado, not a military man.
Thus Readers might expect the 3rd Party Conference to endorse a new set of strategic priorities in which food production is the highest national priority. That does not mean the Army will follow the Party Conference's lead. More later.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The premier's public statement is significant for several reasons. First it suggests the 3rd Party Conference has not begun. More importantly, it is the latest manifestation that Kim Jong-il's government has made a major change in strategic priorities in favor of non-military development. Choe's comments are the most explicit to date in directing that the army should support the civilian sectors in promoting general prosperity.
Old hands will recall that Kim Il-sung, President forever, reached the same conclusion in 1993. Kim Jong-il's Father suspended the seven-year national planning system in December 1993 because it failed. He reprioritized national activity as agriculture-- food production, consumer goods for daily living, goods for export and goods to support the armed forces. This order of effort had no precedent in Korean communism. North Koreans were malnourished in danger of starving.
Kim Jong-il, under threat of a military revolt and for his survival, rejected the legacy of his Father and made military production first, from mid-1994. Sixteen years later and facing death, Kim apparently has had an epiphany about the wisdom of his Father. Once again , under Kim's leadership, North Koreans are malnourished in danger of starving.
The elder Kim recognized that the state and the army could not survive unless the people from whom they are drawn and on whom they depend are healthy. Kim Jong-il is late in reaching that insight.
The message for outsiders is the infrastructure that supports the North's military capabilities is hollow. Kim Jong-il's rule has been a waste of time and resources, repeating mistakes his father made. Nevertheless, the North Korean people will never be permitted to draw those conclusions.
The North's media and sympathetic commentaries in Japan ascribe the new priorities to the third son, Kim Jong-eun. That callow youth has not dealt with the entrenched vice marshals and corps commanders of the Korean Peoples Army. Nor has his mentor and regent Chang Song-taek, who is a party aficionado, not a military man.
Thus Readers might expect the 3rd Party Conference to endorse a new set of strategic priorities in which food production is the highest national priority. That does not mean the Army will follow the Party Conference's lead. More later.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Regional Update for September 7
China-Burma (Myanmar): China hailed Myanmar as a "friendly neighbor" and warned the world not to meddle in its upcoming election. General Than Shwe, the head of Burma's military junta, arrived in Beijing for a state visit with President Hu Jintao. Than Shwe's visit will last four days during which he will meet all the top officials.
Comments by KGS NightWatch: Today's praise plus warning expose the fundamental difference between the Chinese communist ideas of democracy and those of the West, even taking into account the imperfect nature of Western voting practices. The fact of a vote is important in authoritarian Asian states; they approve of the legitimacy that voting lends authoritarian rule. The idea the outcome might be determined by the electorate, however, is alien to this political philosophy.
Thus the Chinese could with a straight face endorse the already ham-fistedly contrived Burmese elections - what do Burmese generals know about democracy?
In a strategic sense, the Burmese leaders are engaged in a dangerous policing balancing act to retain some freedom of action between India and China. Than Shwe's visit indicates the Burmese junta prefers to tilt towards China more than India.
China-India: Yesterday, 6 September Indian Prime Minister Singh told New Delhi newspaper editors that, ""China would like to have a foothold in South Asia, and we have to reflect on this reality." India had to be aware of this, and also of a "new assertiveness among the Chinese - and it was difficult to tell which way it will go."
Today, 7 September, in an effort to downplay Prime Minister Singh's remarks, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said China is committed to safeguarding peace and stability in Asia, including South Asia. Jiang said China is one of the important members of Asia, and that seeking common development with it, South Asia and other countries is in the common interest of "all of us."
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Several features of the exchange are worth noting. First the Indians are aware of and are monitoring Chinese inroads in the Indian Ocean region, which they claim as their sphere of influence. Second, the Indians describe this as new assertiveness, a term not yet recognized in Western commentaries. Third, the Chinese attempt to assuage Indian concerns is actually a deliberate challenge in which China claims interests in al South Asia, as well as East Asia.
China-Iran: China's Railways Minister Liu Zhijun will visit Tehran on 12 September to sign a contract between Iran and a Chinese company to build a $2 billion rail link to Iran, according to Iranian Transport Minister Hamid Behbahani. Transport ministers from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran are expected to gather in Dushanbe in October to firm up the deal for a 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) route that links China and Iran.
Comments for KGS NightWatch: For more than a decade Chinese leaders have talked about linking Chinese rails with systems in Central Asia at meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Within the past five years, the Chinese have backed their talk with investment.
China has railroad projects in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma and now Iran. It has road and pipeline projects in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
Many of the projects are scheduled to be completed by 2012. Their cumulative effect would be to shift the economic focus of Central Asian states from Moscow to Beijing. The advantage China brings is that the Chinese rails would use standard gauge, making it possible to ship from the Pacific Coast of China to Turkey without changing bogeys or moving containers in order to accommodate different rail gauges.
Until the Chinese projects become operational, all rail traffic from Asia to Europe will continue to rely on Russian gauge railroads and multiple gauge changes in Asia and at the border of European states.
Afghanistan: NATO and Afghan forces hope to clear the Taliban out of Kandahar by the end of November, according to a statement by the commander of international forces in the south of Afghanistan. NATO forces have secured Kandahar city and are now targeting the surrounding districts of Arghandab, Zharai and Panjwai. British Major General Nick Carter said that 15,000 to 17,000 Afghan security forces and 15,000 international troops have numerical superiority over an estimated 1,000 Taliban insurgents in and around the city.
Comments by KGS NightWatch: The only significance of this report it that it is the first open source estimate of the number of Taliban in Kandahar. The force ratio of 30 allied troops for each Taliban continues to favor the Taliban.
Comments by KGS NightWatch: Today's praise plus warning expose the fundamental difference between the Chinese communist ideas of democracy and those of the West, even taking into account the imperfect nature of Western voting practices. The fact of a vote is important in authoritarian Asian states; they approve of the legitimacy that voting lends authoritarian rule. The idea the outcome might be determined by the electorate, however, is alien to this political philosophy.
Thus the Chinese could with a straight face endorse the already ham-fistedly contrived Burmese elections - what do Burmese generals know about democracy?
In a strategic sense, the Burmese leaders are engaged in a dangerous policing balancing act to retain some freedom of action between India and China. Than Shwe's visit indicates the Burmese junta prefers to tilt towards China more than India.
China-India: Yesterday, 6 September Indian Prime Minister Singh told New Delhi newspaper editors that, ""China would like to have a foothold in South Asia, and we have to reflect on this reality." India had to be aware of this, and also of a "new assertiveness among the Chinese - and it was difficult to tell which way it will go."
Today, 7 September, in an effort to downplay Prime Minister Singh's remarks, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said China is committed to safeguarding peace and stability in Asia, including South Asia. Jiang said China is one of the important members of Asia, and that seeking common development with it, South Asia and other countries is in the common interest of "all of us."
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Several features of the exchange are worth noting. First the Indians are aware of and are monitoring Chinese inroads in the Indian Ocean region, which they claim as their sphere of influence. Second, the Indians describe this as new assertiveness, a term not yet recognized in Western commentaries. Third, the Chinese attempt to assuage Indian concerns is actually a deliberate challenge in which China claims interests in al South Asia, as well as East Asia.
China-Iran: China's Railways Minister Liu Zhijun will visit Tehran on 12 September to sign a contract between Iran and a Chinese company to build a $2 billion rail link to Iran, according to Iranian Transport Minister Hamid Behbahani. Transport ministers from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran are expected to gather in Dushanbe in October to firm up the deal for a 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) route that links China and Iran.
Comments for KGS NightWatch: For more than a decade Chinese leaders have talked about linking Chinese rails with systems in Central Asia at meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Within the past five years, the Chinese have backed their talk with investment.
China has railroad projects in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma and now Iran. It has road and pipeline projects in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
Many of the projects are scheduled to be completed by 2012. Their cumulative effect would be to shift the economic focus of Central Asian states from Moscow to Beijing. The advantage China brings is that the Chinese rails would use standard gauge, making it possible to ship from the Pacific Coast of China to Turkey without changing bogeys or moving containers in order to accommodate different rail gauges.
Until the Chinese projects become operational, all rail traffic from Asia to Europe will continue to rely on Russian gauge railroads and multiple gauge changes in Asia and at the border of European states.
Afghanistan: NATO and Afghan forces hope to clear the Taliban out of Kandahar by the end of November, according to a statement by the commander of international forces in the south of Afghanistan. NATO forces have secured Kandahar city and are now targeting the surrounding districts of Arghandab, Zharai and Panjwai. British Major General Nick Carter said that 15,000 to 17,000 Afghan security forces and 15,000 international troops have numerical superiority over an estimated 1,000 Taliban insurgents in and around the city.
Comments by KGS NightWatch: The only significance of this report it that it is the first open source estimate of the number of Taliban in Kandahar. The force ratio of 30 allied troops for each Taliban continues to favor the Taliban.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Regional Update for September 6
South Korea-US: The Allies announced that a typhoon has prompted them to postpone the anti-submarine warfare exercise in the Yellow Sea for safety reasons.
North Korea-South Korea: The Korean Central News Agency said on 6 September that North Korea will release the South Korean fishing boat and its crew which the North captured last month for violating the exclusive economic zone. The announcement described the release as made "from the compatriotic and humanitarian points of view."
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Like the release of the US citizen to former President Carter, this is further confirmation that the North wants no grievances with neighbors and enemies to cast a shadow over the Party Conference - most likely this week - that might be exploited to disrupt it.
North Korea: Party Conference Update. The Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported on 6 September that delegates from the Workers' Party are arriving in Pyongyang for the 3rd Party Conference. The leadership has not announced the date the conference begins or how long it will last. Often for security purposes, the North withholds that information for significant internal events until after they have concluded their work.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: More than 1,300 delegates attended the 1966 conference. Accommodation is a significant burden, but delegates will have been arriving most likely for weeks before now. If the Conference has not already begun, it is likely to this week, based on today's announcement.
Kim Chong-il is not likely to designate in public his third son as his successor. Instead he is likely to appoint him to a post that will point to his succession. Kim's brother-in-law and the youth's uncle, Chang Song-taek, has been promoted to party and government positions that supposedly will enable him to act as regent and tutor for Kim Chong-eun, whom Japanese sources say is only 27.
The public appearance of the third son would be a sign that the speculation about his succession to leadership is accurate.
North Korea-South Korea: The Korean Central News Agency said on 6 September that North Korea will release the South Korean fishing boat and its crew which the North captured last month for violating the exclusive economic zone. The announcement described the release as made "from the compatriotic and humanitarian points of view."
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Like the release of the US citizen to former President Carter, this is further confirmation that the North wants no grievances with neighbors and enemies to cast a shadow over the Party Conference - most likely this week - that might be exploited to disrupt it.
North Korea: Party Conference Update. The Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported on 6 September that delegates from the Workers' Party are arriving in Pyongyang for the 3rd Party Conference. The leadership has not announced the date the conference begins or how long it will last. Often for security purposes, the North withholds that information for significant internal events until after they have concluded their work.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: More than 1,300 delegates attended the 1966 conference. Accommodation is a significant burden, but delegates will have been arriving most likely for weeks before now. If the Conference has not already begun, it is likely to this week, based on today's announcement.
Kim Chong-il is not likely to designate in public his third son as his successor. Instead he is likely to appoint him to a post that will point to his succession. Kim's brother-in-law and the youth's uncle, Chang Song-taek, has been promoted to party and government positions that supposedly will enable him to act as regent and tutor for Kim Chong-eun, whom Japanese sources say is only 27.
The public appearance of the third son would be a sign that the speculation about his succession to leadership is accurate.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
China and North Korea agrees to Open a New Container Shipping Route
* Article from Asahi Shimbun *
N. Korea, China eye shipping route
By Daisuke Nishimura
September 6, 2010 (Japan Standard Time)
China and North Korea have agreed to open a container shipping route from the North's Rason special economic zone, sources close to the Hunchun-based shipping company involved in the deal said. Hunchun is on China's border with Russia and North Korea.
The agreement was reached during the Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Expo, which runs until Monday in Changchun, China.
The new route, which starts at Rajin in North Korea, is expected to open by the end of December at the earliest, the sources said.
It is expected to handle about 300,000 tons of cargo annually, they said.
The envisioned route will link Rajin with foreign ports, such as Busan, but will be limited at its startup. It will begin shipping products into China from Europe and the United States via China's Qingdao.
Cooperation between China and North Korea has accelerated in the northeast amid heavy international sanctions levied against North Korea after the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
In the Tumenjiang river area, other projects are also under way, including repairs to a cross-border bridge in Hunchun.
A private company based in Dalian, Liaoning province, is working to develop a pier at Rajin port. And sources said a company in Jilin province has acquired the right to use a pier at North Korea's Chongjin port, to the south of Rajin.
In a forum at the trade expo, North Korea's vice trade minister expressed hope that his country could make Rason into "a base for world-class processing trade and intermediate trade."
Meanwhile, China's inland Jilin province aims to secure sea routes to the Sea of Japan via North Korea's Rajin and Chongjin ports.
The Chinese government last year designated the Tumenjiang river area, which includes the Yanbian autonomous prefecture, Jilin and Changchun, as a pilot development zone.
N. Korea, China eye shipping route
By Daisuke Nishimura
September 6, 2010 (Japan Standard Time)
China and North Korea have agreed to open a container shipping route from the North's Rason special economic zone, sources close to the Hunchun-based shipping company involved in the deal said. Hunchun is on China's border with Russia and North Korea.
The agreement was reached during the Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Expo, which runs until Monday in Changchun, China.
The new route, which starts at Rajin in North Korea, is expected to open by the end of December at the earliest, the sources said.
It is expected to handle about 300,000 tons of cargo annually, they said.
The envisioned route will link Rajin with foreign ports, such as Busan, but will be limited at its startup. It will begin shipping products into China from Europe and the United States via China's Qingdao.
Cooperation between China and North Korea has accelerated in the northeast amid heavy international sanctions levied against North Korea after the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
In the Tumenjiang river area, other projects are also under way, including repairs to a cross-border bridge in Hunchun.
A private company based in Dalian, Liaoning province, is working to develop a pier at Rajin port. And sources said a company in Jilin province has acquired the right to use a pier at North Korea's Chongjin port, to the south of Rajin.
In a forum at the trade expo, North Korea's vice trade minister expressed hope that his country could make Rason into "a base for world-class processing trade and intermediate trade."
Meanwhile, China's inland Jilin province aims to secure sea routes to the Sea of Japan via North Korea's Rajin and Chongjin ports.
The Chinese government last year designated the Tumenjiang river area, which includes the Yanbian autonomous prefecture, Jilin and Changchun, as a pilot development zone.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Regional Update for September 3
South Korea-US: Update. US Forces Korea today confirmed that South Korea and the United States will hold anti-submarine warfare exercises from 5 to 9 September in the Yellow Sea. The statement said the exercises will send a message of deterrence to North Korea, while improving Allied anti-submarine warfare capabilities. Ten ships will participate including the two U.S. guided-missile destroyers, USS Curtis Wilbur and USS Fitzgerald, and a fast-attack U.S. submarine.
South Korea's Joint Staff announced the South will contribute four destroyers, a submarine, high-speed frigates and P-3C aircraft to practice techniques to cope with infiltration by enemy submarines.
Comment: As of 3 September, neither China nor North Korea has commented in response.
India- South Korea: In Seoul, today, Indian Defence Minister Antony and South Korean National Defense Minister Kim approved two memoranda of understanding that will strengthen force cooperation and defense industrial collaboration under the India-South Korea Defence Agreement.
The first memorandum of understanding (MoU) covers sharing of military expertise; exchanges of visits by military personnel and experts in defense services; education and training, and conduct of military exercises, as well as joint visits by ships and aircraft. It also includes cooperation in humanitarian assistance and international peacekeeping.
The second MoU is far reaching, aimed at identifying futuristic defense technology research and development for co-development and co-production of defense products.
Defence Minister Antony remarked that "We live in a troubled neighborhood. Some call it a fragile region. We have to maintain balance and restraint even in the face of grave challenges to our security."
Comment from KGS NightWatch: This was a high powered delegation that included senior officers from the armed services and from the defense research establishment. The Indians came to create an architecture for doing business and their timing could not have been better.
Serendipitously, the Indian delegation is in Seoul coincident with a powerful Chinese military region commander's visit to Pyongyang as a follow-up to Kim Jong-il's secretive China visit. The Indian visit also almost coincides with the start of the US-South Korean naval exercises in the Yellow Sea.
India-China: India conveyed its concerns to China on 3 September about an increase in the Chinese troop presence and activities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Embassy officials said Indian Ambassador to China S. Jaishankar met China's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Zhang Zhijun in Beijing to discuss India's concerns.
India news papers quoted government sources that 11,000 Chinese have been detected in the Pakistan-controlled section of western Kashmir
In response to the Indian demarche, the Chinese said the soldiers were assisting with flood relief without further explanation.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The Indian press indicates China stonewalled India on this and several other issues, especially those related to Kashmir. While not confirmed, the size of the Chinese contingent equals that of an infantry division. The location could be east of Islamabad … if confirmed. Earlier press reports indicated the Chinese troops were providing security for railroad construction, but the Chinese did not confirm those reports.
China appears to be dropping the nuances in its policy actions of the past ten years as to disputed regions of Asia. In doing so, it is siding openly and unequivocally with longstanding allies. This explains China's open embrace of Kim Jong-il, which matches its equally open tilt to Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir.
China is asserting itself as the Asian hegemon from Northeast Asia, through Southeast Asia to Southwest Asia. This is a strategic challenge to the interests of the US, its allies and friends.
Pakistan: Pakistani Taliban again claimed responsibility for killing at least 43 people and injuring 78 others in a suicide blast at a Shiite procession in Quetta, Pakistan, according to police chief Ghulam Shabir Sheikh. The occasion of the march is al Quds Day, which is an annual protest in solidarity with the Palestinians and to condemn Israel. Al Quds is the Muslim name for the city Jerusalem.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Pakistani Sunni terrorists evidently will not tolerate Pakistani Shiites protesting in support of Sunni causes, namely, the Palestinians. The plight of the Palestinians has no relevance to the goals of the Pakistani Taliban which include creation of a Pakistani Islamic emirate based in Islamabad.
South Korea's Joint Staff announced the South will contribute four destroyers, a submarine, high-speed frigates and P-3C aircraft to practice techniques to cope with infiltration by enemy submarines.
Comment: As of 3 September, neither China nor North Korea has commented in response.
India- South Korea: In Seoul, today, Indian Defence Minister Antony and South Korean National Defense Minister Kim approved two memoranda of understanding that will strengthen force cooperation and defense industrial collaboration under the India-South Korea Defence Agreement.
The first memorandum of understanding (MoU) covers sharing of military expertise; exchanges of visits by military personnel and experts in defense services; education and training, and conduct of military exercises, as well as joint visits by ships and aircraft. It also includes cooperation in humanitarian assistance and international peacekeeping.
The second MoU is far reaching, aimed at identifying futuristic defense technology research and development for co-development and co-production of defense products.
Defence Minister Antony remarked that "We live in a troubled neighborhood. Some call it a fragile region. We have to maintain balance and restraint even in the face of grave challenges to our security."
Comment from KGS NightWatch: This was a high powered delegation that included senior officers from the armed services and from the defense research establishment. The Indians came to create an architecture for doing business and their timing could not have been better.
Serendipitously, the Indian delegation is in Seoul coincident with a powerful Chinese military region commander's visit to Pyongyang as a follow-up to Kim Jong-il's secretive China visit. The Indian visit also almost coincides with the start of the US-South Korean naval exercises in the Yellow Sea.
India-China: India conveyed its concerns to China on 3 September about an increase in the Chinese troop presence and activities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Embassy officials said Indian Ambassador to China S. Jaishankar met China's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Zhang Zhijun in Beijing to discuss India's concerns.
India news papers quoted government sources that 11,000 Chinese have been detected in the Pakistan-controlled section of western Kashmir
In response to the Indian demarche, the Chinese said the soldiers were assisting with flood relief without further explanation.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: The Indian press indicates China stonewalled India on this and several other issues, especially those related to Kashmir. While not confirmed, the size of the Chinese contingent equals that of an infantry division. The location could be east of Islamabad … if confirmed. Earlier press reports indicated the Chinese troops were providing security for railroad construction, but the Chinese did not confirm those reports.
China appears to be dropping the nuances in its policy actions of the past ten years as to disputed regions of Asia. In doing so, it is siding openly and unequivocally with longstanding allies. This explains China's open embrace of Kim Jong-il, which matches its equally open tilt to Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir.
China is asserting itself as the Asian hegemon from Northeast Asia, through Southeast Asia to Southwest Asia. This is a strategic challenge to the interests of the US, its allies and friends.
Pakistan: Pakistani Taliban again claimed responsibility for killing at least 43 people and injuring 78 others in a suicide blast at a Shiite procession in Quetta, Pakistan, according to police chief Ghulam Shabir Sheikh. The occasion of the march is al Quds Day, which is an annual protest in solidarity with the Palestinians and to condemn Israel. Al Quds is the Muslim name for the city Jerusalem.
Comments from KGS NightWatch: Pakistani Sunni terrorists evidently will not tolerate Pakistani Shiites protesting in support of Sunni causes, namely, the Palestinians. The plight of the Palestinians has no relevance to the goals of the Pakistani Taliban which include creation of a Pakistani Islamic emirate based in Islamabad.
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