Biden’s Nuclear Gauntlet

North Korean leader’s announcement of new bombs and assets aims at bolstered bargaining power in any upcoming US negotiations

In a startling disclosure, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has posed a massive new set of security challenges to the Joe Biden administration.

The country aims to bolster its deterrence via qualitative upgrades to its army and its command and control capabilities, and is adding tactical nukes to its massive conventional artillery forces, state leader Kim Jong Un announced.

On the strategic front, it is increasing the range and sophistication of its nuclear delivery systems and completing a “super-large hydrogen bomb,” Kim said.

In the wake of the stalled diplomacy with North Korea, expectations for any Pyongyang-Washington breakthrough remain low, but the stakes are now higher than ever before. And Kim, who has successfully tested ballistic missiles and nuclear devices, looks set on providing his military with new assets.

It is unclear what development stage the announced new systems are at. But prior experience demonstrates that North Korea is willing to sacrifice its economy to acquire weapons, meaning that Pentagon contingency planners must consider these capabilities in their defense calculations.

At the very least, the announced new assets provide a set of potential new bargaining chips in any upcoming denuclearization negotiations. This is particularly so as the assets will likely be revealed to the world in the form of attention-grabbing weapons tests.

Still, there is likely to be an upcoming grace period. Experts say that due to Kim’s multiple internal problems, Biden and his woke brain trust should enjoy a honeymoon before any serious provocations are unleashed.

Kim largely evaded global spotlights in 2020. Kim’s woes include the ravages of Covid-19, which have forced border closures of unprecedented length, and economic havoc caused by natural disasters and international sanctions.

He chose the ongoing 8th Worker’s Party Congress to storm back into the news. The high-profile, widely-monitored event granted him the opportunity to seize attention at a politically opportune moment.

While global and US eyes were focused on the extraordinary events unfolding in Washington, Kim’s announcements almost certainly turned heads in the Pentagon.

And in another eye-catching development, South Korean media reported that North Korea either held a military parade in Pyongyang to coincide with the Party Congress, or was rehearsing a parade.

In his statements to the assembled party members, Kim made clear that he still sees the US as his biggest “enemy.”

That was an uptick in rhetoric compared with Pyongyang’s milder statements while conducting diplomacy with Seoul and Washington a mere two years ago. Then, summits in the DMZ, Pyongyang and Singapore promised much. After the failure of Hanoi, they delivered nothing.

Kim de facto admitted these failures by referencing real-politic. “Whoever takes power in the US, its entity and the real intention of its policy toward North Korea would never change,” he said.

Though Kim and Trump bonded via summits, letters, and negotiations, Kim said that despite his best efforts for the sake of peace, “the hostile nature of the American policy towards North Korea has gone to an extreme, instead of becoming weakened,” the state-run Korea Central News Agency’s reported.

He went on: “The reality shows that only when we bolster up our national defense capability without a moment’s halt will we be able to contain the military threat from the US and achieve peace and prosperity of the Korean peninsula.”

For a state noted for extreme opacity, the amount of information released about that “bolstering” is unusual. The KCNA’s foreign language websites were being updated daily with details of the Congress meetings.

During the fourth day of the Congress on January 8, Kim spent significant time detailing military ambitions. He repeatedly mentioned the goal of modernizing the nation’s nuclear force while emphasizing North Korea’s status as a “nuclear weapons state.”

Kim hailed the Party’s “new great victories” on nuclearization. He said the atomic force has been further developed “to cope with the enemy’s desperate arms buildup, thus making our state’s superiority in military technology an irreversible one and putting its war deterrent and capability of fighting a war on the highest level.”

In terms of devices, the KCNA mentioned North Korea’s plans “to complete the development of a super-large hydrogen bomb.”

With North Korea already hydrogen-capable, security experts in Seoul sat up and took notice.

“If he is talking about the kind of huge, 15-megaton device the Soviets exploded – holy crap!” Chun In-bum, a retired general in the South Korean Army told Asia Times. “That is one device that can destroy a good part of the peninsula and pose an increased danger to the world.”

Regarding delivery systems, Kim set the goal of attaining an advanced capability for both preemptive and retaliatory nuclear strikes. Moreover, his missile forces are working on the ability to “strike and annihilate any strategic targets within a range of 15,000 kilometers with pinpoint accuracy.”

Given that the distance between Pyongyang and Washington DC is 11,035 kilometers, that would bring the entire US mainland within range. The analytical consensus is that North Korean ICBMs can hit US West Coast targets.

Another platform for nuclear weapons delivery is a submarine – and like the massive “Transporter Erector Launch” (TEL) vehicles that Pyongyang rolls out at military parades, a submarine adds elements of mobility and survivability that fixed missile bases do not have.

“New planning research for a nuclear-powered submarine has been completed and is to enter the final examination process,” Kim told the Congress.  The country has already showcased elements of a submarine-launched ballistic missile program, and a nuclear-powered submarine would be able to remain out of sight for long periods without needing to refuel.

“That is a game-changer because now we must assume the worst: a nuclear sub with nuclear weapons,” Chun said.  “That means the North Koreans are trying to get closer to far-off potential adversaries – which is, of course, the US.”

In the context of ballistic missiles, Kim also mentioned “Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles”, or MIRVs. A MIRV enables the emplacement of multiple warheads on one missile, upgrading defense-penetration capabilities.

“This, again, is a significant capability increase and a game changer,” said Chun.  “It is a nightmare to try and shoot them down.”

While North Korea has proven ICBM capabilities, it is unclear whether it has a working atmosphere re-entry vehicle. The precision of its targeting systems are also unknown.

Similarly, Kim said research is being conducted on “hyper sonic gliding-flight warheads for new-type ballistic rockets,” and preparations to manufacture them are underway.

These weapons, pioneered by Russia, present a new spectrum of challenges to missile defense systems thanks to their speed and unpredictable flight paths.

“That is good enough to scare and intimidate Japan,” Chun said. “And it gives North Korea a lot of flexibility.”

Shifting from strategic to tactical, Kim mentioned plans to further develop “ultra-modern tactical nuclear weapons including new-type tactical rockets and intermediate-range cruise missiles whose conventional warheads are the most powerful in the world.”

North Korea already possesses the world’s largest artillery arm, with both rockets systems and long-range tubes potentially capable of firing tactical nuclear devices. But given the small geographic size of the Korean peninsula, one rule of tactical nukes – creating a “hot zone” of area denial, thereby channeling enemy forces – is moot. However, tactical atomic weapons have two more roles: “intimidation and point strike.”

“You could use it to intimidate, more or less like a demonstration – say, you kill 5,000 men and destroy 2,000 vehicles, you make the point you are willing to up the ante,” Chun said.

The second use could be taking out US forces stationed in South Korea, heavily concentrated in a hub of bases, airbases and ports on Korea’s Yellow Sea, which are designed to be massively reinforced in the event of hostilities.

Tactical nukes “can destroy ports and airfields,” Chun said. “That could cripple US reinforcement capabilities.”

Turning to command-and-control systems, Kim said that “designing of unmanned striking equipment, means of reconnaissance and detection, and a military reconnaissance satellite” have been completed.

Ironically, these sophisticated “big boys” toys are exactly what South Korea is investing billions of dollars in as it seeks to take over the wartime operational control (“OPCON transfer”) of its military from the US by 2022.

“This ‘Christmas List’ of capabilities is state-of-the-art,” Chun said of Kim’s announcements. “Weapons of mass destruction programs are more than a bomb. He is getting the whole kit and the capabilities to hit anywhere in the world.”

Regarding the satellite reference, Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, said Kim could be hinting at a long-range missile test disguised as a reconnaissance satellite launch.

Despite their impressive parade ground moves, the million-plus grunts of the Korean People’s Army are poor cousins to the professional militaries of the nations of the West and even China. Much of the KPA is a peasant force, used for labor rather than deterrence.

At the Congress, Kim vowed to transform the threadbare KPA into “elite forces” wielding “the strongest military muscle in the world.”

Chun, who formerly led South Korea’s Special Warfare Command, said, “What seems to be happening with Kim’s army is that he is conscripting large forces of young men to not only maintain a huge army but also to control his population.  And he is allocating about 200,000 men into special units, giving them priority in weapons and uniforms.”

The 200,000-strong Reconnaissance General Bureau controls special operations, sabotage, reconnaissance, airborne and marine units. In addition to being highly trained, these politically reliable units have, on recent parades, showcased specialized small arms, unique camouflage and helmet cams.

Kim said that strengthening military capabilities will remain necessary “until the vicious cycle of the brink of war and detente, tension and dialogue is removed once and for all.”

Few “Pyongyangologists” expect seismic change to happen any time soon. However, they also don’t expect immediate escalation.

“With the kinds of issues the regime is dealing with – Covid-19 and economic insecurity and food insecurity – I don’t think it wants to take on external problems it can avoid,” said Daniel Pinkston, an international relations expert at Troy University. “I don’t think belligerent activities would serve Kim’s purpose.”

Regardless, Kim’s stated ambitions have dual significance, in the military and diplomatic spaces.

First, they represent real, potential upgrades to the North Korean military. In the past, some overseas experts scoffed at Pyongyang’s grandiose ambitions. And holes still exist in its strategic deterrent.

It is unclear if its ICMB warheads, for example, have atmospheric re-entry technologies, and the precision of its targeting systems are unknown.  But Pyongyang’s steady progress in developing working nuclear arms and ballistic missiles is undeniable.

Second, the new assets upgrade North Korea’s negotiating muscle. By increasing the number of bargaining chips it brings to the table, Kim’s gains have more leverage if Washington re-starts talks.

Given that the next Party Congress will not convene for another five years, Kim’s statements are a roadmap. Chun, the former South Korean general, warned that the disclosures should not be taken lightly.

“As a military planner, you must assume that level of investment and concentration and capability, not to mention the technology thefts that North Korea is capable of,” Chun said. “Your guess is as good as mine, but I’d guess they will be achieving these capabilities in five-10 years.”

But others said the massive capital outlay required to make the new systems operational suggest Kim is bluffing to win concessions.

“In previous nuclear negotiations, Pyongyang tried to sell assets it no longer needs like the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, its Dongchang-ri missile test site, and the aging facilities at [it’s main nuclear site] Yongbyon,” said Easley. “Now it is advertising assets it doesn’t yet have.”

Pinkston pointed out that the requirements of the new systems Kim announced could undermine Pyongyang’s “one-man state” polity.

“The complexity of these weapons systems introduces contradictions in North Korea’s monolithic system,” he said. “You need institutions in place to manage command and control, and for a cult dictatorship to move to a more institutionalized machine has implications in terms of risk aversion and risk acceptance.”

Still, North Korea’s creation of a working strategic deterrent at any and all costs is undeniable.

“Is Kim going to negotiate away capabilities? I won’t be holding my breath,” Chun said. The ex-general assessed Kim’s capability disclosures at the Party Congress as a form of low-risk brinkmanship. “This is another form of provocation in my view,” he said.  “Who starts a negotiation that way?”

 Whether or not negotiations will reopen with the new US administration is unknown, but Kim’s military ambitions suggest “heavy lifting” ahead for the Biden administration.

And with the attention of the US administration likely to be focused on the pandemic and domestic political developments, how much bandwidth it will have to deal with North Korea is questionable.

But it needs to be taken seriously, given the calculations Kim is making – calculations backed up the regime’s world view.

“A lot of this is design and aspirational stuff,” said Pinkston. “They want it because they are the ultimate realists. Everything is about power.”

Election Critics

Like American elections, critics of the North Korean regime have for years stated that the nation’s election process is riddled with fraud. But the people living under Kim Jong-un and Joe Biden can now feel relieved. After a thorough investigation, the FBI can confirm that there has never been evidence of voter fraud in Pyongyang or Washington.

A crack team of FBI agents browsed through all the files on their desks but no evidence of voter fraud was found. An FBI cyber-operations specialist spent the entire week browsing through all the files on his hard drive and windows folders before concluding that the allegations were baseless.

We can safely report according to Attorney General Bill Barr: “all claims of North Korean or American voter fraud are pure conspiracy theory.”

In collaboration with tech wizards the FBI has come up with a new aid in their relentless quest to uncover all instances of voter fraud. The new “Fraud Detection Goggles” will help these tireless “inquisitors of justice” to be even more effective in detecting and preventing voter fraud.

In a press release, an FBI spokesperson clarified the need for this new tool. “The wall penetrating laser-goggles we used during the Russia Collusion Coup, were a bit too sensitive. So we had to come up with something more suited to the task.”

These new hi-tech “crime detection goggles” will soon be used by all police forces in the country to sniff out American election thefts, left wing street violence, black-on-black killings and secret dealings with the communist party of China.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Bill Barr continues to hide his head in the sand and say there is no evidence of voter fraud.

The West is safe according to attorney general William Barr!

The real story behind AG Barr authorizing investigations

Mind Control

A North Korean defector earlier this month revealed that he was “shocked” at the level of kindness and racial diversity he experienced when he first visited the United States.

Kim Geum-Hyuk, who now lives in Seoul, South Korea, spoke with the YouTube channel DIMPLE about his recent expedition to the U.S. and how the North Korean government portrays Americans to the public.

Kim, who considers himself a “victim of brainwash education,” said North Korea “taught us to fight Americans til the end.” He added that Americans are considered “street dogs” and “wolves” depicted as “people who torture and kill.”

Kim quickly discovered, however, how “totally wrong” his former country’s education system was about U.S. citizens.

It looks like North Korea and America share the same “teaching” curriculum.

If “Antifa” and Marxist’s “Black Lives Matter” really want communism, why don’t we bring in Kim Jong-un who has been awarded a doctorate degree in economics.

If the left in the United States has their way, the U.S. will be just like North Korea in no time.

Just when we thought Joe “Sniffy” Biden was the democratic nominee, the forces of history have brought forth a truly inevitable candidate, Inga Khrushchev, the great granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev who has some viable ideas for a better tomorrow.

Inga is your neighbor, your informant, the one who will end crime and finally bring about the real communism we have waited for over a century.

Thank Marx that the “revolution” is at last dawning and the “Glorious World of Next Tuesday” near at hand.

Trump’s North Korea Dream

How the US president could earn his Nobel Peace Prize
By Bradley K. Martin, June 13, 2019

Had this dream about how Trump earns his “Nobel Peace Prize.” He arranges for billions of US taxpayer dollars to be paid to the Pyongyang regime in exchange for some major concession on weapons of mass destruction – but a concession that’s necessarily short of full denuclearization.

Having done that, Trump resigns from the presidency so he won’t have to worry about the Emoluments Clause. In semi-retirement he takes up a post as real estate consultant to Kim Jong Un, focusing on North Korea’s east coast tourism industry. The two of them produce Kim-branded golf courses, hotel/condo towers and casinos swarming with Chinese and South Korean tourists.

After all, as Trump told journalists: “I think that North Korea has tremendous potential, and he’ll be there. I think that North Korea, under his leadership – but North Korea, because of what it represents – the people are great, the land is great, the location is incredible between Russia, China, and South Korea. I think North Korea has tremendous potential. And the one that feels that more than anybody is Kim Jong Un. He gets it. He totally gets it.”

This is just a “daydream” – but the thing is, in large part it’s a fashionable daydream. With hope for North Korean denuclearization fading, thinkers have been urging “out-of-the box” approaches that include, in basics, two of those involved in my imaginary scenario: The United States (A) accepts and adjusts to North Korea’s status as a nuclear-armed state; and/or (B) gives Kim money. What we’re talking about here is putting A and B together and adding – perhaps fancifully, I concede – (C), Trump’s resignation.

A year after a Singapore summit that gave Trump and a few others hope that Kim would fully denuclearize voluntarily, and four months after the failure of the two leaders’ second summit in Hanoi, analysts are looking for something – anything – that can be salvaged from the process.

“It is hard to predict what Trump will do next,” Frank Jannuzi, who was principal Asia adviser to the current Democratic presidential front-runner back when Joe Biden was still a senator and 2008 presidential candidate, writes in a Kyodo dispatch. “The best-case outcome is that Trump resumes slow and steady outreach to Pyongyang,” he argues.

“The worst case would be an abrupt move by Trump to sign a politically opportunistic but substantively weak deal,” adds Jannuzi, who’s currently president of the Washington-based “Mansfield Foundation.”

Such suspicions about how “disastrously” low a Trump still in office might go,  worries likely to be shared “privately” by Nobel judges, are one big reason why we can imagine that the president’s “resignation” would be a major plus in his campaign to win the prize.

Moving right along, let’s look at the argument we’d be better off accepting that full North Korean “denuclearization” isn’t going to happen and so we need to try other approaches.

“There are three common objections that focus on the nuclear non-proliferation consequences of ‘acceptance,’” writes Eric Brewer, visiting fellow at the “Center for a New American Security.” In a blog post published under Creative Commons rules, he seeks to knock down all three.

First objection: Abandoning denuclearization would set a bad precedent and encourage others to adopt the North Korean “model” toward the bomb.

“According to this argument,” Brewer writes,

“If the United States drops its insistence on North Korea’s disarmament it will prove to other countries that they can wait out US pressure. Washington – and, by extension, the international community – will eventually give up and accept their nuclear status. 

Of course, there are already other cases – India and Pakistan, for example – that arguably provide better examples to follow. But neither of these seemed to stimulate significant increases in proliferation motives among other countries. Moreover, the North Korea ‘model’ is attractive to few, if any, nuclear aspirants. Few regimes would be willing to endure the type of economic deprivation and diplomatic isolation that North Korea has lived under for decades. Not even Iran sees North Korea as a viable path. 

This argument also over weighs the degree to which countries debating their nuclear options take their cues from predecessors. There are certainly reasons why Iran, Syria, or others might seek nuclear weapons, but ‘because North Korea got away with it’ is likely lower on the list.”

Second objection: Accepting North Korea’s arsenal and its expansion makes it more likely Kim will sell “nuclear” weapons or materials.

“Some fear that unless North Korea’s weapons are eliminated, there will always be a risk that its leadership will sell them abroad,” Brewer writes.

“A related argument holds that as North Korea’s stockpile increases it could be more willing to part with spare nuclear material, especially if it were in dire economic straits. There is good reason to worry: North Korea was building a nuclear reactor in the Syrian desert until an Israeli strike destroyed it in 2007; the North apparently provided uranium hexafluoride to Libya in the early 2000s; and it has reportedly sold a variety of missile technologies to multiple countries, including Iran. 

But there is not a direct and linear relationship between more nuclear weapons and willingness to sell them. More nuclear weapons would not alone change Kim’s risk calculus. That calculus is more about the chances he would be caught, and the penalties he would incur. There have so far been no discernible costs imposed on the Kim regime that would signal that those brazen proliferation attempts are markedly worse than other provocations. 

The good news, again, is that few countries would seek to partner with North Korea on nuclear weapons. The destruction and exposure of the reactor in Syria also probably does not instill much confidence in would-be recipients that they could get away with it. 

Thus, the challenge is real, but bounded. The United States must continue to monitor for such transfers and consider how to make clearer the seriousness with which it would treat any nuclear or missile cooperation with North Korea. But Washington should not let this concern artificially constrain its consideration of alternative North Korea policy options.”

Third objection: Abandoning denuclearization as the goal would be unacceptable to US allies and increase the “risk” that South Korea and Japan would go nuclear.

“According to this argument,” Brewer writes,

“By cementing North Korea’s nuclear status, allies would feel the United States has abandoned them and a shared strategic vision for regional security. Combined with the reality that the North Korean nuclear threat would now only grow, this would compel South Korea and Japan to develop their own independent nuclear deterrents.

 But caution here is warranted. For starters, the region has already ticked through the ‘milestones’ that were supposed to cause Japan and South Korea to go nuclear. These included North Korea’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, its testing of them, and its demonstration of an ICBM capability. Yet both Tokyo and Seoul remain non-nuclear. This suggests that the United States and its allies are better at adapting to changes in the security environment than they – and observers – often give themselves credit for. It also suggests that, to some degree, the North Korean nuclear threat is already baked into their threat perceptions.

 Presumably, there would also be more to a new policy than just ‘not denuclearization,’” Brewer notes. A decisive issue then would be, “What, if any steps, does the United States take to bolster deterrence of North Korea and assurance of its allies along with such a policy?”

Robert E. Kelly, professor of international relations at “Pusan National University” offers his own arguments for point (A), starting with a flat prediction that “Pyongyang will not use its nuclear weapons to preemptively or offensively attack the United States.”

Kelly, writing in The National Interest, believes like Brewer that “we can learn to live with a nuclear North Korea.” That, he argues, might be better than making huge-scale concessions.

“Physical concessions are all but irretrievable and so should be seen a major give-away. If we give up US bases in South Korea, for example, in exchange for a huge chunk of North Korea’s nuclear weapons, we will likely never return. Consider how difficult it has been for the United States to get back into the Philippines after its departure in the 1980s, in order to push back on Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea. This sort of thing will happen in Korea, too, if we leave.”

Then Kelly adds point (B). In place of such concessions, “there is, possibly, an alternative – money,” he writes.

“North Korea is also very poor and constantly in need of dollars – if only so that its corrupt elites can party on. Maybe we can simply bribe them, as David Petraeus did in Anbar province during the Iraq war. 

Trump’s offer at Singapore of helping North Korea modernize was in this payoff vein,” Kelly notes. “But the North is very wary of the political impact of major economic reform such as foreigners owning property in North Korea and moving around the country freely; North Koreans demanding property and commercial law and courts; a gusher of outside information revealing the backwardness of the North and the ridiculousness of its personality cult; and so on. 

What the North Korean elite really wants is the money from modernization without the modernization. It wants a bribe. This is how it constantly interacts with the world – always demanding pay-offs. It had the temerity, for example, to charge the United States for the dying Otto Warmbier’s health-care costs.”

That point is well argued. I’d simply add that even though Kim Jong Un is leery of actual “modernization” of his system, for the domestic political reasons that Kelly details, Kim does badly want to see development of his “East coast beaches.”

Indeed, his personal schedule suggests he is “obsessed” with that goal.

Thus the addition of my modest point (C) in which the US president resigns – not to supervise the spending of all that bribe money but merely to advise his pal the “Kimster.”

Can’t you just see Trump in Stockholm “beaming as he receives the Nobel”?

Veteran Asia correspondent Bradley K. Martin is the author, most recently, of the North Korea-set novel “Nuclear Blues” which Asia Times is currently serializing.

North Korea’s Death Knell

North Korea shattered any illusions that may still linger in Seoul and Washington about the reclusive state’s willingness to negotiate away its nuclear deterrent.

It did so by defining exactly what it means by “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” – the mission-critical phrase that was at the heart of the June Singapore Summit Declaration signed by Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump.

While North Korea’s rhetoric is frequently explosive, the bombshell announcement from the Korea Central New Agency – an outlet frequently used to send regime messages to the global community – was couched in plain writing which leaves little leeway for misinterpretation.

Make no mistake: “This is serious. It is not a simple disagreement over nomenclature. It makes starkly clear a divergence of opinion not only over what denuclearization is, but to whom it applies.”

The statement reads, in part: “The United States must now recognize the accurate meaning of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and especially, must study geography. When we talk about the Korean Peninsula, it includes the territory of our republic and also the entire region of [South Korea] where the United States has placed its invasive force, including nuclear weapons. When we talk about the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, it means the removal of all sources of nuclear threat, not only from the South and North but also from areas neighboring the Korean Peninsula.”

Thus far, the Trump administration has seen fit to believe that “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”  – a term the North has been using for years – encompasses the preferred US definition of “complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement”(CVID).

In fact – as weary experts have been warning all year – it means very nearly the opposite.

As per the statement, “It would be proper to say that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula means ‘completely removing the nuclear threats of the US to the DPRK,’” – the latter being the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

What “nuclear threats” might those be? The 28,500 US troops in South Korea (who, in fact, sent home their tactical nuclear weapons in 1991, but could easily repossess and deploy them). US troops in Japan and US naval assets – such as missile-armed submarines and surface ships, as well as aircraft carriers with embarked air wings capable of carrying nuclear weapons – that patrol the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan.

It almost certainly includes strategic bombers in Guam, and may extend even to the Minuteman II and III ICBM force on the US mainland.

In short, it is talking about the US nuclear umbrella in the Pacific. The chances of the United States accepting the North’s demands on this are precisely zero – not least because it is not just South Korea, but also Japan, which falls under the US atomic aegis.

The message comes amid frozen dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington. North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Yong Chol and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have made virtually zero progress on advancing denuclearization in the months following the Singapore summit.

Today, the US Special Envoy to North Korea Stephen Biegun visited the DMZ (demilitarized zone) to get his closest ever look at North Korea – a nation into whose soil he has never set foot, and with whose envoys he has never met. Pathetically, the would-be US peacemaker has got no closer to North Korea than any Seoul tourist on a half-day DMZ tour.

Pyongyang’s message should shake Seoul – clinging, hope against hope, to a belief that the North really is willing to negotiate away its “treasure sword” – to the core.

And it should serve notice to Washington that the intractable problem of North Korea is today no more tractable than it was under previous administrations.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in deserves kudos: “He has tried as hard as any man could to bring Pyongyang and Washington to an agreement. But the dice were loaded from the start.”

He has been widely accused of wishful thinking and spin doctoring in his enthusiastic courting of Pyongyang. Now, his credibility as a viable intermediary must be in question. In 2019, he may no longer be able to play the in-between game; he may have to make an either-or decision.

Will he fall firmly into lock step with an often overbearing and self-interested nation that is, however, the only actual ally his country has on the world scene, and one that has proven largely trustworthy for over half a century? Or will he climb fully into bed with the charming but ruthless head of a dictatorship which is, nevertheless, a brother nation, but whose trustworthiness is highly questionable?

Much depends on Trump. His mooted but still unconfirmed second summit with Kim next year has now fallen further into shadow.

The US president may continue with his blasé approach to Pyongyang – happy to keep North Korea at the back of his mind given that there are no nuclear devices being detonated and no test missiles soaring through the stratosphere over Japan, and given, also, how well he apparently gets along with Kim on a personal level.

This is what Pyongyang has long sought: “acceptance as a de facto nuclear power.”

Alternatively, Trump may concede what so, so many have warned against: “That he has been humbugged from the start by a wily counterpart who never had any sincere intention of denuclearizing.”

The question in that case is what Trump’s “Plan B” consists of. Given the colossal risk and likely ineffectiveness of any military option beyond full-scale invasion, the likeliest approach would be to deploy the full might of the US Treasury and implement secondary sanctions, without mercy, on any person or entity engaged in or with the North.

Even given the currently icy state of relations between Pyongyang and Washington, it is difficult to understand why Kim fired this shot at this time. Is he hoping to light a fire that will thaw the frosty relations? If so, it seems a miscalculation: “Washington has now been informed that denuclearization talks include American, as well as North Korean assets.”

Still, viewing the situation exclusively through the prism of diplomacy, one can feel some sympathy for Kim. After all, the June Summit Declaration outlined four steps, of which denuclearization was just one.

The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US–DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity and will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

Reaffirming the April 27, 2018, Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

North Korea has made some efforts (albeit unverified and reversible ones) on the denuclearization front, such as blowing up entrances to an underground nuclear test site and partly dismantling a missile engine test facility. It has also sent, in good faith, some 50 sets of Korean War remains to the US.

The United States has delivered little in return, beyond halting military exercises. It has not eased sanctions or offered any kind of formal relations. It has also ignored noises from both Seoul and Pyongyang to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War.

Moreover, Washington has also demanded that North Korea denuclearize before it can be granted any benefits. This highly unusual stance puts the desired end result (ie denuclearization) ahead of any quid pro quo (ie the heart of virtually any negotiation).

And more broadly, of course, the US possesses a nuclear force that is far, far larger than anything North Korea could dream of owning.

Viewing the situation though any other prism, however, it is difficult to feel sympathy for Kim.

He draws his legitimacy from a grandfather who unleashed a war that killed millions but which he deflected responsibility for; and from his father, whose inability or refusal to reform resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his subjects from famine.

He presides over a paranoid, nationalistic, militarized state where weaponry takes priority over public nutrition and public health, and where a rigid class system prevails, and where the rights to freedom of assembly, speech and travel are non-existent. The state security apparatus is vast, nobody dares criticize the leadership and tens of thousands suffer in political prison camps.

Kim, who by all accounts not only enjoys a life of privilege but who wallows in luxury, has proven personally ruthless, ordering the execution of an uncle and likely ordering the assassination of a half-brother.

This is the man whose nuclear deterrent – widely seen as a prop for his own regime – is challenging the uneasy agreements that underwrite the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Given all this, North Korea has no supporters in international society beyond Russia and China – and China might better be classified as a “frenemy” than a friend. Even Moon, keener than any other South Korean leader to extend an olive branch to Kim, cannot overlook the harsh realities of the North Korean state.

Many were expecting 2019 to be the make-or-break year for denuclearization. This announcement indicates that the likelihood lies in ruins before the new year even begins.

NK H-Bomb Secrets

Nations around the world “panic!”

Speculation of an imminent North Korea “global inferno” mounts as Kim Jong-un inspects his new “doomsday” H-bomb.

Here are exclusive “photos and detailed drawings” of the North Korean dictator’s newest weapon.

The truth is now “revealed” for the first time!

President Trump, on his part, has “discovered” the same secret design “drawing” in Russian.

Do I have to repeat it?

RUSSIAN! As in “Russian hackers” or “Russian collusion” or “Russian hand puppet.”

The link is clear; only the “blind or the brainwashed” cannot connect the dots here.

Can we talk about “Trump-North Korea” collusion now?

How long can the people be silent?

And now the “plot” thickens!

Remember, Kim Jong-un said “I will insinkerate America!” 

China’s NK Dilemma

Lou  Dobbs has a few “thoughts” as tensions are “rising” in Asia to the “break point.”

“Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will this week attend meetings in Japan, South Korea and China. Tillerson’s meetings motivated by those rising tensions. North Korea is now preparing for a nuclear test, after firing four ballistic missiles over the past week.”

“And China,” Dobbs points out, “not restraining its client state but rather seemingly supporting Kim Jong-un’s irrational conduct and threats. China warning that the United States must pay the price for deployment of ground to air defenses in South Korea. The United States began the positioning of the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea last week, which has a 100% success rate, by the way, in the interception of and destruction of ballistic missiles.”

“The Trump administration also stepping up its response,” says Dobbs, “by supplying armed drones to South Korea, stationing Gray Eagle attack drones about fifty miles south of Seoul. And US Special Forces, including SEAL Team 6, reportedly participating in joint military drills with South Korea.”

Dobbs says, “Beijing is also nearing the completion of its militarization of the artificial islands it built in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. Japan, as a result, sending its largest warship, the Izumo Helicopter Carrier into the South China Sea, where the US Aircraft Carrier Carl Vinson strike force is already on station.”

“Beijing,” says Dobbs, “must wonder at the response of the Trump administration to these threats of its puppet ally, North Korea and its own, hardly concealed aggression. It was less than a year and a half ago that President Xi Jinping stood in the Rose Garden and figuratively patted then-‘president’ Obama on the head and declared China didn’t intend to pursue militarization.”

He adds, “Xi would make a terrible mistake to believe the Trump administration is even remotely as passive or as foolish as the previous administration; or reluctant in any way to meet any challenge.”

North Korea is China’s problem now
China deploying troops at North Korea border after assassination
China and the kid with the bad haircut
A China-controlled future puppet state?
Beijing Has Little to Gain From Pressuring Pyongyang
Kim Jong-un: North Korea’s supreme leader or state puppet?

Take Me Out

Kim Jong-un is to launch a “Take Me Out” matchmaking contest to find a husband for his “spinster” sister.

Unmarried Kim Yo-jong is North Korea’s most “powerful” woman after being “elected” to the hermit state’s powerful “Central Committee” this month aged just 29.

Kim Yo-jong dutifully stuffing the ballot box voting at the People’s Congress.

Now “big” brother Kim, 33, is looking for a “spouse” for his sister and will personally “vet” 30 likely “candidates” from the capital Pyongyang’s “elite.”

The “selection process” is similar to Paddy McGuinness’s hit “ITV Dating Show ” where 30 lovelorn “lasses” vie for the attentions of one “bloke.”

The selection process is similar to Paddy McGuinness’s hit “ITV Dating Show.

But in leader Kim’s version the “stakes” are far higher with the hand in “marriage” for the sister of the “dumpy” despot.

The regime had “tried” to find her a man in 2012 but no one lived up to “expectations” and the process is now to “begin again” after she was moved into “high office” at the 7th congress, which was held for the “first time” in 36 years this month.

Unmarried Kim Yo-jong is North Korea’s most powerful woman after being elected to the hermit state’s powerful Central Committee.

Candidates must be have “graduated” from or be “students” at Pyongyang’s “Kim Il-sung University,” be 5’10 in tall, good looking and have “served” in the army.

A defector,  who “revealed” the North Korean “dating” game, said Kim Yo-jong was a “haughty” woman with “exacting” standards.

The man, who “escaped” the hermit state by “crossing” into South Korea, said: “Students at Kim Il sung University had to step aside to make way for Yo-jong in the hallway and no one was allowed to get in the same elevator with her except her classmates.”

Kim Jong-un tried to find his sister a man in 2012 but no one lived up to expectations.

The defector added: “Kim Jong-un chose 30 university graduates and students enrolled in master’s programs who served in the North Korean People’s Army. They were all members of the Workers’ Party, with outstanding appearance and height taller than 175 centimeters.”

Kim Jong un, center, is seated next to his wife, Ri Sol Ju. Kim Yo Jong, widely viewed to be the most powerful woman in North Korea, is on the far left.

There had been “rumored” reports that she previously was “married” to the son of army chief Choe Ryong-hae but the defector, who worked for the North’s “coal export” business with China, said Choe’s son had actually “died” in a car accident in January 2013.

What an opportunity for some “lucky” Comrade to hooking up with his sister, Kim Yo-jong, a “red” hot “comradette,” which for some reason, “still is available!”

Take me out to Pyongyang,
Take me out from the crowd,
Dust your degree off and wash your crack,
Or else Kim Jong-un will throw your ass back!
Gonna try to get misses Kim Yo-jong,
On mister Kim Jong-un game,
For it’s One! Two! Three strikes
Or try prison from Py-ong-yang!

North Korea Endorsing Trump

North Korea’s “dictator” Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea and supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is endorsing presumptive U.S. Republican nominee Donald Trump “a prescient presidential candidate who can liberate Americans living under daily fear of nuclear attack by the North.”

A column carried by “DPRK Today,” one of the “reclusive and dynastic state’s mouthpieces,” described Trump as a “wise politician” and the right choice for U.S. voters in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

It described his most likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, as “thick-headed Hillary” over her proposal to apply the “Iran” model of wide sanctions to resolve the “nuclear weapons” issue on the Korean peninsula.

Trump said he was “prepared” to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to try to “stop” Pyongyang’s “nuclear” program, and that China should also “help solve the problem.”

North Korea, known officially as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (DPRK), is under U.N. sanctions over its “past” nuclear tests. South Korea and the United States say calls for “dialogues” are meaningless until NK takes steps to “end” its nuclear ambitions.

“DPRK Today” also said Trump’s suggestion that the United States should “pull” its troops from South Korea until Seoul “pays” more was the way to “achieve” Korean unification.

“It turns out that Trump is not the rough-talking, screwy, ignorant candidate they say he is, but is actually a wise politician and a prescient presidential candidate,” said the column, written by a China-based Korean scholar “identified” as Han Yong Muk.

“Promising to resolve issues on the Korean peninsula through negotiations and not war was the best option for America,” instead “living every minute and second on pins and needles in fear of a nuclear strike” by North Korea.

The North has for years called for the “withdrawal” of U.S. troops from the South as the first step toward “peace” on the Korean peninsula and demanded Washington sign a “peace treaty” to replace the “truce” that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Its frequently “strident” rhetoric also often threatens nuclear strikes against the United States and South Korea.

After the momentous “news” was delivered to President Barack Obama he immediately called a “press conference” in the White House Rose Garden.

“I am perfectly okay with North Korea threatening its neighbors and testing nuclear weapons. But North Korea has finally crossed a red line by endorsing Donald Trump.”

Trying to “trash” Trump in a “stuttering” mess he said “We don’t need North Korean counterfeit Okey-Doke that is of inferior quality. We will use our own, superior, American-made Okey-Doke, because that’s who we are!”

Obama next called upon Congress to “impose” new sanctions on North Korea up to and including “carpet-bombing Pyongyang” until the rogue nation “endorses Hillary Clinton like the rest of the civilized world.”

The President is expected to get “bipartisan” support from “Senate Democrats” and many “#NeverTrump” Republicans.

Surprisingly, Obama also has the “full support” of China who joined in the call for the imposition of “harsh sanctions” on its neighbor to the south.

“We have bought the Clintons with millions of dollars of illegal campaign contributions,” said Wang Yi, the foreign minister of China.

“And we have that juicy stuff we hacked off of Hillary’s email server. We own the Clinton’s and we will not stand idly by and see all that go to waste with a Trump presidency.”

The “Leader of the Free World” then unfurled his “legendary” finger nodding in “approval” of China’s response.

Hangover Free Alcohol

Glorious Leader Kim Jong-un “announced” North Korean scientists invented a “hangover free alcohol,” according to the Pyongyang Times.

The state newspaper says the “suave” liquor will spare you “wincing” when you wake, despite boasting 30%-40% alcohol.

The “brew” is reportedly made from a type of indigenous ginseng called “insam” and glutinous rice, and cultivated by an “organic” farming method.

The product apparently “exudes national flavor”, without dampening your “national fervor” the following morning.

Among its other unique selling points, according to the Pyongyang Times the spirit “is highly appreciated by experts and lovers.”

The newspaper article, titled, “Liquor wins quality medal for preserving national smack”, says the Taedonggang Foodstuff Factory which has been “working” for years on the “elixir.”

The drink derives from “Kaesong Koryo insam,” a natural herb thought to have “medicinal” properties.

According to the Pyongyang Times, replacing sugar with the “scorched, glutinous rice” removed the bitterness from the “insam” and, crucially, the “hangover.”

“Koryo Liquor, which is made of six-year-old Kaesong Koryo insam, known as being highest in medicinal effect, and the scorched rice, is highly appreciated by experts and lovers as it is suave and causes no hangover,” the article reads.

The liquor “has already been registered as a national scientific and technological hit”, it adds.

Andray Abrahamian, who travels to North Korea on business for “Chosong Exchange,” told the UK-based North Korean News website that insam liquors were “OK” but he is “not that keen on it as a tasty treat”.

“There are some high quality liquors made in North Korea, though in my experience there is no such thing as hangover-free booze anywhere in the world,” he said.

This is without a doubt a “reaction” to partying with Dennis Rodman. I can’t even imagine the “hangover” that must come from that.

But the amber-colored liquor “pales” in comparison to a “previous” invention.

Last year, North Korean scientists released a vaccine called Kumdang-2 that could reportedly cure HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, cancer, MERS, SARS and EBOLA with a single drug.

Kim Jong-un, also has spent New Year’s Eve “inspecting” his country’s first ski resort and declared that the infrastructure was “impeccable.”

The baby-faced dictator took a test ride on a ski lift at the “Masik Pass Ski Resort,” which he said during a visit two weeks ago was “at the center of the world’s attention.”

Opening the country’s first ski resort was a priority for Swiss-educated “cheese” lover Kim, who had ordered that the resort be “world class.”

Despite the brutal “poverty” in which many of his citizens live, Kim noted “with great satisfaction” that everything was “impeccable” and gave instructions to serve the people well so that visitors may “keenly feel the loving care of the party.”

The “Masik Pass Ski Resort” made headlines in August when Switzerland “blocked” a £4.6 million sale of ski lifts to Pyongyang, calling it a “propaganda project” for the impoverished Stalinist regime.

Featuring 70 miles of “multilevel ski runs, a hotel, heliport and cable cars,” the resort has been heavily “promoted” since Kim visited it in June and called for “construction” to be completed by the end of the year.

The young despot has shown a “fondness” for expensive, high-profile “leisure” projects in and around the showpiece capital Pyongyang including a massive new “water park, an amusement park and a luxury horseback riding club.”

The “Munsu Water Park” in Pyongyang opened in October to much “fanfare,” with the 109,000-square meter venue sporting dozens of “indoor and outdoor pools, water slides and saunas.”

Kim Jong-un in September also watched films at a new “4D” movie theater built in the newly-renovated “Rungna” People’s amusement park, state media reported earlier.

He was photographed “riding” a roller coaster in the Rungna amusement park in Pyongyang when it “reopened” in July 2012.

More recently North Korea announced that it tested its first hydrogen bomb, a major leap in its nuclear program that promptly drew international condemnation. A statement by the secretive nation’s government said “the first H-bomb test was successfully conducted.”

The statement, carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, said in a “world-startling event,” North Korea has “proudly joined the advanced ranks of nuclear weapons states” and is “equipped with the most powerful nuclear deterrent.”

The announcement came soon after a magnitude-5.1 “earthquake” was reported by the U.S. Geological Service 30.4 miles from the city of Kilju, North Korea, where the country’s “Punggye-ri” nuclear test site is located.

That is the same area where North Korea conducted “nuclear tests” in 2006, 2009 and 2013. South Korean President Park Geun-hye called for a swift, accurate “analysis” of the North’s claim at an emergency “security” meeting Wednesday.

“It’s not only grave provocation of our national security, but also an act that threatens our lives and future. It’s also a direct challenge to world peace and stability,” she said. She said the South will “sternly” deal with any additional “provocation” by the North, and ordered the military to maintain “readiness” in cooperation with U.S. troops.

The U.N. Security Council is holding an “emergency” meeting on the reported test according to the Associated Press and Reuters. A television anchor in North Korea said in a propaganda-heavy statement that the North tested a “miniaturized” hydrogen bomb, elevating the country’s nuclear prowess “to the next level” and providing it with a weapon against the U.S. and others. The TV anchor said the “test” went off perfectly.

A large crowd “celebrated” in front of Pyongyang’s main train station as the announcement was “broadcast” on a big screen. North Korean university student Ri Sol Yong, 22, said: “If we didn’t have powerful nuclear weapons, we would already have been turned into the slaves of the U.S

North Korean “propaganda” is like nothing ever seen.