A thick blanket of fog seeps over the forested hills on this late-winter morning as I stand, searching the horizon for birds, on the bank of the Imjin River just north of Cheolwon, South Korea. The DMZ, a 155-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide strip of land that has been virtually untouched by humans for more than seven decades. This strip of land became an unintentional wildlife sanctuary when the two Koreas pulled back from the area after an armistice was signed in their 1950-53 war. The DMZ is fortified with tall, barbed-wire fences, riddled with land mines and heavily guarded by the respective countries' militaries, keeping all human disturbances to a minimum. After people left the area, plants and wildlife were able to grow unrestrained. But with increasing goodwill between North and South Korea, peace seeker and environmentalist like I fear that the protected nature of the area is changing and may lead to detrimental effects on the wildlife. I can't help but worry that this area will face a serious threat. If we had preserved the region because we had agreed it's peace and environmentally valuable, then it can be kept intact regardless of political circumstances. But this region was preserved because of the presence of military forces. Once the military tension disappears, it may naturally follow that people feel a strong urge to transform the area. Even with tentative overtures toward peace, the two Koreas appear to be far from a place where the DMZ would disappear completely. Talks of a peace agreement have come up in the past, like a peace declaration made in 2000, but progress has been slow.  According to South Korea's Ministry of Environment, more than 5,000 species of plants and animals have been identified in the area, including more than 100 that are protected. Vulnerable, near-threatened and endangered animals in the DMZ include the Siberian musk deer, white-naped crane, red-crowned crane, Asiatic black bear, cinereous vulture and long-tailed goral — a species of wild goat. If we only preserve the DMZ proper, the variety of birds that come here will be curtailed. Small forest birds can both find enough food and inside the DMZ, but bigger birds come out here for food and go back in the DMZ just to sleep. I do think the nature can provide answers to the problems humankind suffers from. We have to protect it — force it, if necessary — because it's an important asset for the futures. Our objective is for the entire DMZ to be designated as a "Global Peace Zone" by the UN and a "Biosphere Reserve" by UNESCO, which will ultimately maintain harmony and peace between the North and South of the Korean Peninsula.  2024.12.31 (Photo by KMHPF)

Government soldiers erect a roadblock on a street leading to downtown Gwangju, South Korea, with citizens looking on, on May 26, 1980.File/AP For many people outside of South Korea, President Yoon Suk Yeol's decision to declare martial law earlier this week was a sudden and astonishing development. But inside the country, it was a frightening reminder of past turmoil and lives lost on the path to democracy. Yoon's order on Tuesday was not the first time martial law has been declared in the country's nearly 80-year history. Since its founding in 1948, South Korea has seen numerous political clashes in which martial law was decreed — including a pivotal episode in 1980 that left scores dead and a nation in shock. The country has faced a turbulent political history that saw authoritarian rule starting from its founding after gaining independence from Japanese colonialism all the way to the 1980s, according to Charles Kim, a professor of Korean studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. "This is a period in which there was a lot of political suppression, repression of the media, political violence against dissidents," Kim said. In all, martial law has been declared in South Korea at least 16 times, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). It has been decreed during times of war — including the Korean War — but it has also been issued by South Korean leaders who were seeking to stay in power in the face of protests, Kim said. Martial law was first decreed in South Korea in 1948 by then-President Syngman Rhee after government forces faced a communist-led military rebellion. Rhee, who was president for 12 years, would impose it again in 1952. The Gwangju uprising Before Tuesday, martial law was last declared in South Korea by Chun Doo-hwan, a general who rose to power in a coup following the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-hee — a former general who had also declared martial law while in power to crack down on dissent. The day after Chun declared martial law in May 1980, students in opposition to the order took to the streets, staging demonstrations against military dictatorship in the southwestern city of Gwangju. Chun responded with a violent crackdown, sending in the military to beat back the protest. Captured protesters with hands up are led away by government forces on May 27, 1980, in Gwangju, South Korea. AP By the time it was all over, roughly 200 people had been killed, according to official estimates, but families of the survivors have said the true death toll from what became known as the Gwangju uprising is far higher. The uprising would mark an important turning point in South Korea's path away from authoritarian rule. While the country would not formally transition to democracy until 1987, the shock caused by the violence in Gwangju was seen as a pivotal catalyst for change that helped make Chun the nation's last dictator. The events of 1980 left scars on South Korean society. Above, riot police beat back student demonstrators wielding iron bars who rushed out of side alleys in November 1995 to try to attack the home of former president Chun Doo-hwan, whom the students accused of ordering the 1980 Kwangju massacre. AFP via Getty Images A different time Today, South Korea's constitution still allows a president to declare martial law as a "response to war, incidents, or other national emergencies," according to CSIS. However, the constitution also gives the National Assembly the ability to overturn a martial law declaration with a majority vote. Kim from the University of Wisconsin-Madison said that Yoon made a "huge miscalculation" with his decision to declare martial law, noting that there is a difference from when it was decreed by previous leaders. Soldiers try to enter the National Assembly building in Seoul earlier this week after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law.AFP via Getty Images "Under these dictators in the past, they could count on the support of the parliament because they were much more aligned with the president," he said. The president could count on the National Assembly "to not try to reverse the martial law decree in the authoritarian age." He added that the National Assembly's decision to annul the decree within hours of Yoon's declaration — along with the mass protests that broke out in response to it – sends a powerful message to Yoon and future leaders: "This is not gonna work, that this is a very different time and a painful reminder to the president that he doesn't have the mandate of the people."  2024.12.05 NPR ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   *** • 2024.12.03, 10:30 PM: The president of South Korea proclaims emergency martial law. • 2024.12.04, 01:00 AM: National Assembly Resolution to End Emergency Martial Law. • 2024.12.04, 04:30 AM: Revocation within six hours of the South Korean president declaring martial law in an emergency

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk during a farewell ceremony upon Putin's departure at the Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang on June 19. AFP via Getty Images This week saw North Korea and Russia sign a major treaty, as their forces joined in battle against Ukrainian troops. The developments are seen by analysts and government officials as widening Russia's war with Ukraine, strengthening the link between conflicts on two continents, and setting a possible precedent for deeper North Korean involvement in this and other conflicts. Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed the treaty in June in Pyongyang, and they each signed it into law in recent days.   The Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership says that if either country is invaded, the other one must provide military and other assistance. Initially, "it was Russia that actually invaded Ukraine. So there wasn't enough of an excuse for North Korea to be involved," says Choi Yonghwan, a senior researcher with the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), a think tank affiliated with South Korea's intelligence agency. "But then Ukraine invaded Kursk, and that's when North Korean and Russian parliaments started to move together," he says, to ratify the treaty. A TV screen shows an image of soldiers believed to be from North Korea standing in line to receive supplies from Russia during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. AP North Korean troops join Russian counteroffensive The U.S., Ukraine and South Korea say that some 10,000 North Korean troops are already in Russia, mostly in the Kursk region, helping Russia to drive out Ukrainian troops who occupied territory in Kursk in August. The North Korean troops include special forces units, and are believed to be young, inexperienced and lightly armed, or as Ukraine puts it, cannon fodder. The North Koreans are targets not only of Ukrainian bullets, but also propaganda from North Koreans who defected to the South, including some who served in the North's military. They've sent the troops a poem, about a North Korean mother, whose son has been sent to fight Russia. She begs him to desert. "You are now at a crossroads between true freedom and death. Do not hesitate on the path to true freedom out of guilt or a sense of duty toward your parents in your hometown," the mother pleads in an anguished voice. "If my son can enjoy the freedom that I could not have, or protect for you, your mom will shed tears of happiness," she says. The defectors delivered the propaganda, along with information about South Korean welfare benefits available to defectors, to the Ukrainian Embassy in Seoul, to be relayed to North Korean troops. North Korean deployment marks major foreign policy shift In 2019, Kim Jong Un tried to cut a deal with then-President Donald Trump. At a summit in Vietnam, he offered to scrap part of his nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and the lifting of some sanctions. But the talks collapsed, and since then, North Korea has decided to try to get what it needs from Russia and China, not the U.S. Kim Jong Un has named Russia as his country's top foreign policy priority.   Park Hyeong-jung, an emeritus researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, believes that Moscow and Pyongyang probably signed a deal, by which North Korea sent munitions and laborers to Russia, prior to the troop deployment. He believes Russia's compensation has gone to upgrade North Korean weapons and consumer goods factories, which Kim Jong Un has instructed to ramp up production. But he says Russia may have difficulty paying in the future. "As Russia's economy deteriorates and its foreign exchange situation gets worse, I think Russia will try to compensate North Korea with military technology, rather than cash." Jonah Leff, executive director at Conflict Armament Research (CAR), shows pictures of debris from armaments used by Russia, found in Ukraine, during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters on June 28, 2024. CAR's findings indicate the weapons were made in North Korea. AP North Korea revives Cold War rhetoric To explain his country's shift in policy, Kim Jong Un has described the Korean Peninsula as the front line in a new Cold War, and Pyongyang as a key player in a revived Cold War axis that includes Moscow and Beijing. In a September 2023 speech, Kim Jong Un argued that "the structure of the 'new Cold War' is being materialized on a global scale and the existence of sovereign states and the right to existence of their people are seriously threatened by the reactionary imperialist forces," requiring North Korea to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself. Linked to this effort is Kim's redefinition of South Korea not as part of a divided Korean nation, destined to eventually be reunified, but as an implacable foe. The North has blown up roads and a liaison office to sever all ties with South, and amended its constitution to label the South a hostile state. The problem with this narrative is that North Korea's traditional main ally China does not want to be lumped into this retro trio, and frequently admonishes the U.S. to abandon its Cold War mentality and alliances intended to contain Beijing. On the other hand, North Korea has a record of sending troops to aid its communist brethren, including the dispatch of fighter pilots to help North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.   North Korea's Russia deployment could also pave the way for a North Korean role in potential future conflicts. "If there's a contingency in the Taiwan Strait, North Korea has implied that, by taking action in the Ukraine war, it could also be really helpful to the Chinese cause," argues Choo Jaewoo, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Kyung Hee University outside Seoul. China sees Taiwan as part of its territory, and has not ruled out taking it by force. North Korea and China still have a mutual defense treaty dating back to 1961. Factoring in a new U.S. administration For now, a more pressing concern is the incoming second administration of Donald Trump, who claimed in July that he could settle the Ukraine conflict in one day.   INSS researcher Choi Yonghwan says North Korea must have factored that into their timing. "When the war is over, North Korea's value to Russia will be completely different from when the war is still going on, so I think that's why North Korea decided to send troops quickly," in advance of the U.S. elections, he argues. Trump has also suggested he could solve the North Korean nuclear issue. But North Korea appears to have given up on talks with the U.S., and some experts believe it has invested too much in ties with Russia to turn back.   2024.11.15  NPR

When you take on the role of the world’s policeman, don’t be surprised when countries who cannot fight their own wars call “911.” That is exactly what is happening to the United States on two fronts, and it is bankrupting our country, depleting the military that should serve our own national interest, and threatening to drag the US into World War III. Last week, Ukraine’s “president” Vladimir Zelensky publicly presented his “Victory Plan.” It was delusional: immediate NATO Membership for Ukraine, NATO strikes against incoming Russian missiles, and permission to use Western long-range missiles for strikes deep into Russia including Moscow and St. Petersburg. The real intent was not hard to understand. Ukraine is on the verge of losing its war with Russia and is desperate to draw the United States military into the fight. There were numerous opportunities to avoid this bloody war but at every step the Ukrainian leadership listened to western neocons (like Boris Johnson) and decided to keep fighting Russia down to the last Ukrainian. But now that they are nearly down to the last Ukrainian, they are calling on us to step in and fight the country with the most nuclear weapons on earth -Russia – in a battle that could not be more unrelated to our actual interests. Washington’s answer should be simple but firm: “No more weapons, no more money. You’re on your own. Make peace.” Would the US be mortally wounded if the people in Eastern Ukraine were allowed to secede from Kiev and join Russia? Would anyone except the Russia-obsessed neocons in DC think tanks even notice? Likewise with Israel. Tel Aviv has, in response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, launched a war to annihilate Palestinians from Gaza, invade and occupy southern Lebanon, degrade the military of Iraq and Syria, and take on Iran. But the Israeli military has nowhere near the capacity to fight so many wars on so many fronts, so it has increasingly demanded US involvement in the conflicts. Already the US has provided some $23 billion in additional military aid to Israel and has employed US military assets in the region to shoot down missiles and provide increased weapons and intelligence. But it’s still not enough for Israel. To fight Iran, with its significant military capabilities, Israel appears desperate to drag the US military into the battle. The stationing of one or perhaps two THAAD air defense systems, each with 100 US troops to operate them, is part of that effort. These 100-200 US troops are illegally engaged in combat, but what’s worse is that they are being used as a tripwire. US and Israeli leaders understand that they will be considered legitimate targets for any additional Iranian missile attack, but as soon as American troops start getting killed in Israel there will be a massive push for further US involvement. Imagine the mainstream media war propaganda if such a terrible thing happens. That is no way to use members of the US armed services. It is the opposite of supporting our troops. Washington’s response to Israel trying to drag us into its war with Iran should be just like with Ukraine: “No more weapons, no more money. You’re on your own. Make peace.” That is what a pro-America foreign policy looks like. Our Founders understood it very well and wrote about it often. It’s called “non-intervention.” RP Institute 2024.10.22

An astronaut captured a striking image of the Korean Peninsula from the International Space Station, revealing the stark contrast in nighttime illumination between North and South Korea. South Korea, with its brightly lit cities, including the sprawling Seoul metropolitan area, contrasts sharply with the near darkness of North Korea, aside from a few small clusters of light around Pyongyang and Yangdŏk. This photo highlights the differences in urban development and population between the two nations and reflects the broader economic disparities, with South Korea being one of Asia’s leading economies. Nighttime Lights Over Korea An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photo of the Korean Peninsula showing the distribution of nighttime light. North Korea (extending beyond the top of this image) lies on the upper part of the peninsula and is almost devoid of nighttime lights. In contrast, South Korea lies on the lower part of the peninsula and exhibits nightlights from many cities of different sizes. The seas on either side of the peninsula appear dark in nighttime images, although cloudy areas reflect some light. The largest and brightest cluster of urban lights is in Seoul, the capital of South Korea (population 9.67 million), located on the coast of the Yellow Sea. Only two small clusters of lights are easily visible in North Korea: the capital, Pyongyang (population 3.16 million), and Yangdŏk in the country’s center. The DMZ’s Light Line Just north of Seoul, a thin line of lights crosses the peninsula from the Yellow Sea to the Sea of Japan, marking the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. The DMZ border, established in 1953 by the United Nations, is about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide and 250 kilometers (155 miles) long. Economic Contrasts Revealed by City Lights Differences in the brightness and expanse of city lights illustrate the distinction between the population sizes — South Korea with about 52 million people and North Korea with about 26 million — and between the extent of urban development in the two countries. Images of nighttime lights have also been used to study the gross domestic product (GDP). Because of its dynamic industrial growth since the 1960s, South Korea has been termed one of Asia’s four "economic tigers," along with Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Astronaut photograph ISS070-E-80670 was acquired on January 24, 2024, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 24 millimeters. The ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center, provide it. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 70 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the most incredible value to scientists and the public and to make those images freely available on the Internet.  (Sep. 15, 2024)

North Korea offered a rare glimpse into a secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium as state media reported Friday that leader Kim Jong Un visited the area and called for more vigorous efforts to "exponentially" increase its number of nuclear weapons. It's unclear whether the site is at North Korea's main Yongbyon nuclear complex. Still, it's the North's first disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American scholars in 2010. While the latest unveiling is likely an attempt to apply more pressure on the U.S. and its allies, the images released by North Korean media of the area could provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the number of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced. During a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the facility producing weapons-grade nuclear materials, Kim expressed “great satisfaction repeatedly over the wonderful technical force of the nuclear power field” held by North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. KCNA said Kim went around the control room of the uranium enrichment facility and a construction site that would expand its capacity for producing nuclear weapons. North Korean state media photos showed Kim being briefed by scientists while walking along long lines of centrifuges. KCNA didn’t say when Kim visited the facilities or where they are located. KCNA said Kim stressed the need to augment the number of centrifuges further to “exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defense,” a goal he has repeatedly stated in recent years. It said Kim ordered officials to push forward the introduction of a new type of centrifuge. Kim said North Korea needs more excellent defense and preemptive attack capabilities because “anti- (North Korea) nuclear threats perpetrated by the U.S. imperialists-led vassal forces have become more undisguised and crossed the red line,” KCNA said. South Korea’s Unification Ministry strongly condemned North Korea’s push to boost its nuclear capability. A ministry statement said North Korea’s “illegal” pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of U.N. prohibitions is a severe threat to international peace. It said North Korea must realize it cannot win anything with its atomic program. North Korea first showed the outside world a uranium enrichment site in Yongbyon in November 2010, when it allowed a visiting delegation of Stanford University scholars led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker to tour its centrifuges. North Korean officials reportedly told Hecker that 2,000 centrifuges were installed and running at Yongbyon. Satellite images in recent years have indicated that North Korea is expanding a uranium enrichment plant at Yongbyon. Nuclear weapons can be built using either highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has facilities to produce both at Yongbyon. Some U.S. and South Korean experts believe North Korea is covertly running at least one other uranium enrichment plant. It’s not clear exactly how much weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium have been produced at Yongbyon and elsewhere. In 2018, a top South Korean official told parliament that North Korea was estimated to have already manufactured 20-60 nuclear weapons, but some experts say the North likely has more than 100. Estimates of how many nuclear bombs North Korea can add every year vary, ranging from six to as many as 18. “For analysts outside the country, the released images will provide a valuable source of information for rectifying our assumptions about how much material North Korea may have amassed to date,” said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Overall, we should not assume North Korea will be as constrained as it once was by fissile material limitations. This is especially true for highly enriched uranium, where North Korea is significantly less constrained in its ability to scale up than it is with plutonium,” Panda said. In 2018, Hecker and Stanford University scholars estimated North Korea's highly enriched uranium inventory was 250 to 500 kilograms (550 to 1,100 pounds), sufficient for 25 to 30 nuclear devices. The North Korean photos released Friday showed about 1,000 centrifuges. When operated year-round, they would be able to produce around 20 to 25 kilograms (44 to 55 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, which would be enough to create a single bomb, according to Yang UK, a security expert at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies. The new-type centrifuge Kim wants to introduce is likely an advanced carbon fiber-based one that could allow North Korea to produce five to 10 times more highly enriched uranium than its existing ones, said Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute. Since 2022, North Korea has sharply ramped up its weapons testing activities to expand and modernize its arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the U.S. and South Korea. Analysts say North Korea could conduct a nuclear test explosion or long-range missile test ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November with the intent of influencing the outcome and increasing its leverage in future dealings with the Americans. “Overall, the message they are trying to send is that their nuclear capability is not just an empty threat, but that they are continuing to produce (bomb fuel),” Yang said. “And who are they speaking to? It could be South Korea but also certainly the U.S." Kim’s recent nuclear drive comes as North Korea is deepening its military cooperation with Russia. The U.S. and South Korea have accused North Korea of supplying badly needed conventional arms to support Russia’s war in Ukraine in return for military and economic aid. On Friday, Russian media reported that a Russian delegation led by the country’s Security Council secretary, Sergei Shoigu, traveled to North Korea and met Kim for talks on bilateral and international issues. In July 2023, Shoigu, then defense minister, visited North Korea and met Kim. (AP, 2024.9.13)

North Korea on Thursday accused the United States and its South Korean ally of maximizing regional tensions by conducting provocative military drills, warning they would have to "pay a dear price." US and Ally announced major military exercises with an eye on Kim’s North Korea. The U.S.-South Korea alliance has conducted two military exercises since August 19. The first was Ulchi Freedom Shield 24, which ended on August 29, while Ssang Yong 24 was held from August 26 to Saturday. Both exercises were aimed at strengthening the alliance's combined defensive posture. The North Korean defense ministry warned that its armed forces will never tolerate any military moves by the U.S. and South Korea threatening regional security. "The hostile forces can never evade the heavy responsibility for escalating tension and will have to pay a dear price," it said in a statement. The ministry claimed that the U.S. and South Korean militaries staged all sorts of what it called "provocative" war exercises for the past two months, targeting the country on the ground, sea, and air, which included an infiltration drill by special operations forces. South Korean Marines take positions after landing on the beach during the combined military amphibious landing exercise between South Korea and the U.S., called the Ssang Yong Exercise, in Pohang, South Korea. "The U.S. and its followers are seriously threatening regional peace and stability while getting hellbent on unilateral military provocations." the statement reads. It said the Korean Peninsula was exposed to constant instability because of "confrontational entities and destroyers of peace." "The U.S. and the ROK [Republic of Korea] are staging provocative joint military drills one after another, maximizing the military tension in the region of the Korean Peninsula." The statement uses the official name of South Korea. Ulchi Freedom Shield 24 reflected realistic threats such as North Korea's missile capabilities, GPS jamming, and cyberattacks, along with lessons learned from recent conflicts, hinting at both the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war that involved Washington's allies and partners. Meanwhile, Ssang Yong 24 focused on enhancing the alliance's capability to conduct a combined-joint forcible entry operation, including amphibious and land-based operations, in which coalition forces would swiftly neutralize key enemy facilities to terminate a hypothetical conflict scenario. South Korean army soldiers conduct an anti-terror drill in Seoul, South Korea, as part of the Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise between the U.S. and South Korea. Land, naval, marine, air, and space forces from the two militaries took part in these two exercises, according to the statements released by the U.S. military. The first exercise involved 19,000 troops from the two allies while over 200 aircraft of various types conducted 2,000 sorties in five days.   The second exercise, which was amphibious-oriented, included over 13,000 personnel from South Korea, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, and the United Kingdom Commando Force. More than 20 naval vessels, including two amphibious assault warships, were featured in the exercise. South Korean anti-war protesters stage a rally in Pohang, South Korea, during the Ssang Yong exercise, a combined military amphibious landing exercise between South Korea and the U.S. In a separate news story, trash-carrying balloons from the North flew into the South for the second consecutive day. Approximately 480 trash balloons were detected since late Wednesday, the South Korean military said on Thursday, with 100 landing in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province.   The trash balloons are North Korea's tit-for-tat response to anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by defectors and activists in South Korea. Thousands of balloons have been launched since late May. The South's unification ministry condemned the North's move as "senseless and vulgar." (Newsweek, 2024.9.5)

Lim Jong-hoon of South Korea takes a selfie with North Korean silver medalists Kim Kum-yong and Ri Jong-sik, center, with Chinese gold medalists Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha flanking South Korean Shin Yu-bin.   Their two nations are famously divided. But ping-pong diplomacy is strong — and so it unfolded that after competing in table tennis at the Paris Olympics, athletes from North Korea and South Korea chatted and smiled as they posed for a selfie together. China’s team joined, rounding out the photo. In a moment that has gone viral, the players had just received their medals for the mixed doubles competition in the South Paris Arena when one of the South Korean athletes produced a cellphone for a modern Olympic tradition: a group photo at the podium.  The image was posted to the Olympics' official Korean-language account; a video of the athletes posing and smiling also became a sensation. North Korea’s duo of Kim Kum-yong and Ri Jong-sik had plenty to celebrate. The No. 16 seed earned silver after dealing upsets to highly ranked teams from Japan and Hong Kong and earning a spot in the final against top-ranked China, which won gold. This is North Korea’s first Olympics since Rio in 2016, having sat out the pandemic-delayed games in Tokyo. The North Koreans never faced South Korea’s team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, who were relegated to the bronze medal match after losing to China’s formidable Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha on the opposite side of the bracket. It’s the first table tennis medal for South Korea since the London Games in 2012. Then they all came together for a selfie, a document of friendly celebration at the podium. The scene is being hailed as a very human moment that transcends borders and governments, an example of the Olympics’ power to unite people through sport. And in the case of these two countries, it’s also a reminder that while the demilitarized zone divides the north and south, it did not sever centuries’ worth of Koreans’ shared family ties and culture. For Lim, the Olympic medal brings a notable fringe benefit. Under South Korean law, he is granted an exemption from his mandatory 18-month military service — a term that was set to begin weeks after he returned from the Olympics, as The Korea Herald reports. The athletes’ moment of selfie diplomacy came days after what had been an unfortunate start to the South Korean delegation’s visit to the Paris Olympics. During the opening ceremonies’ parade of athletes, an announcer mistakenly hailed them as representing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — a.k.a., North Korea.   2024.07.31 NPR News

Ari Shapiro speaks with Ambassador Robert Gallucci, chairman of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins, about North Korea's invitation to a meeting with President Trump. Gallucci was chief negotiator during the North Korean nuclear crisis in 1994 and has been involved in informal talks with North Korean officials. Robert Gallucci, a distinguished professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and chief U.S. negotiator during the 1994 North Korean nuclear crisis ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: It's been decades since a U.S. administration entertained high-level, one-on-one talks with North Korea. The leaders of the two countries have never met. Robert Gallucci is a professor at Georgetown University and a veteran diplomat. Ambassador Gallucci led bilateral talks with North Korea in 1994. They produced what's called The Agreed Framework, a plan to freeze nuclear production to eliminate all nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula eventually. That agreement came apart two years later. Ambassador Gallucci met more recently with North Korean diplomats in the fall of 2016. And he joins us now. Welcome. ROBERT GALLUCCI: Thank you very much. SHAPIRO: You've spent more time across the table from North Korean negotiators than most people. A meeting of these two world leaders is different from a meeting of professional negotiators. But what advice would you offer going into this? GALLUCCI: I would advise anybody involved in any of this to keep your expectations modest. Keep your patience intact here. Look at this as a long-term process. Look at engagement as something that will continue for a while. And always remember that - you know, to keep the eye on the ball. We're looking for a material change in the situation. Material change means the capability of North Korea directly to do damage to the United States of America or its allies, explicitly concerning nuclear weapons. If you focus on that, you can end up in the right place. SHAPIRO: Many people have asked whether anything the North Koreans say can be trusted. Given your experience negotiating with them, what do you think? GALLUCCI: I think talking about trust in international affairs is a very iffy proposition, particularly between states that have either - experienced war - as we have with North Korea - are generally considered to be belligerents, one to the other, as we are with North Korea. We, I think, freely have ever since the late, late '90s talked about North Korea as something of an enemy. So I think to be looking for trust at this point is a tad bit outrageous, and that what we really ought to be thinking about are agreements that can be verified, arrangements that can be useful and be built upon with always expecting that the substance of those arrangements if there are to be relied upon, must be relied upon only to the extent that they can be verified. SHAPIRO: Do you worry about the absence of lower-level people who would have been holding senior positions at the State Department if they had been nominated and confirmed, but there are now vacancies? GALLUCCI: I generally worry about the Department of State and its capacity to do what I think most of us have understood has been the job of the Department forever. They are significantly understaffed. Staffing up for negotiations isn't that difficult. Under most circumstances, I think there are those that the Trump administration could recruit who could step up to the challenge of conducting negotiations over a protracted period. So, I think the staffing issue with this administration is nontrivial, but I think it's manageable. SHAPIRO: Diplomacy involves important thorny issues and also just person-to-person relations. Are there aspects of working with the North Koreans different from other countries you've negotiated with? GALLUCCI: I think the first thing for me to note is that it's been a long time since I represented the United States of America in a negotiation with the North Koreans. And when I did a quarter of a century ago, the North Koreans were not, I would say, experts at international engagement. They did not interact like an average team would. Their tactics were, at times, I would say, even crude. SHAPIRO: What do you mean by that? Can you give us an example? GALLUCCI: I can think of a - more than one occasion sitting in their mission in Geneva and having my opposite member, Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju, yell, and then having his somewhat diminutive interpreter mimic his yelling as he translated it into English. And the combination of the two is surreal for me. The point I want to make is that it was long ago. When I met the North Koreans in Kuala Lumpur, I would say they have come a long way. They were much smoother and more polished. And I don't think there was anything hugely different between talking to a delegation from North Korea and a delegation from any other country. SHAPIRO: Ambassador Gallucci, thank you for joining us. GALLUCCI: Thank you for having me. SHAPIRO: Robert Gallucci is chairman of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. NPR, Edit: KMHPF

As Robert Higgs noted in his 1994 speech, “War and the Leviathan State,” World War II acted as one of the most pervasive changes to the psyche of the average American regarding foreign policy. Not only this but unlike previous wars, World War II did not see a return to a peacetime constitution like in earlier conflicts. In many ways, it was the birth of the Military-Industrial Complex, leading our politicians into continuous, seemingly never-ending government involvement in foreign conflicts. One such foreign conflict was Korea, a war that never was. The Bridge of No Return Often remembered as the Forgotten War, the American psyche around Korea is the opposite of that surrounding the Second World War. Despite this, Korea is one of the most critical points in the birth of Post-War America. The mentality that came out of World War II, which viewed any non-interventionism as the sort of “isolationism” that eventually led to U.S. involvement, would finally be tested. The MIC would truly become ingrained into American politics. As shown, Korea was the final blow in returning to the foreign policy that made America great, instead turning it into a global occupier eager to maintain an empire abroad. Before the conflict, Korea was divided along the 38th Parallel by the Soviets and the United States. This was due to the previous Japanese occupation of the peninsula during the Second World War, when both sides had the understanding that, at some point, the two Koreas would need to be united. However, as could’ve been predicted by any previous observer, this would be a disastrous idea. Each side had its own “democratic” government ruled by its influencer’s chosen strongman, Syngman Rhee and Kim Il-Sung, and both quickly became an area of focus for the two burgeoning superpowers. However, during this period, the relationship between the Soviets and the Americans was still up in the air, as highlighted by Paul Pierpaoli, Jr. Between 1945 and 1950, the United States often struggled to formulate a consistent, coherent foreign policy to keep the Soviet threat at bay, protect vital national interests, and expand liberal, free-market capitalism.  Although the Truman administration had decided to “contain” communism even before the concept was articulated and later expanded upon by George Kennan in 1946 and 1947, the United States adhered to this containment mechanism – until war broke out in Korea in 1950. Before the Korean War, initiatives such as the IMF, the Marshall Plan, GATT, and even NATO would feature economic and political – rather than military – containment of the Soviet Union. In essence, while an underlying idea existed that America needed to be the antisocialist bulwark, in practice, the way that the United States was to achieve this was completely unknown. The Soviets, too, were in a similar situation. Before the conflict in 1950, Stalin had been providing weapons and ammunition to communist groups in China. With the victory of the Chinese Communist Party, military intervention was not necessarily the top priority of the Soviet Union. Instead, it seems to be the case that the Soviet Union had little involvement in the start of the war. While the actual reasoning for the beginning of the conflict is shrouded in mystery like most things involving North Korea, what is known is that many around Stalin and Kim seem to suggest that Stalin was unaware of the conflict before it occurred. In Khrushchev’s memoirs, he says, “I must stress that the war wasn’t Stalin’s idea, but Kim I1-Sung’s. Kim was the initiator. Stalin, of course, didn’t try to dissuade him.” This is also the narrative held by a close advisor to Kim Il-Sung by the name of Lim Un, who revealed that Stalin would not backfill the United States even if they got directly involved in the war. This continues to be a reappearing narrative. Before American involvement, Korea should have been thought of as more of a country on the verge of civil war. Robert Simmons concludes that the start of the war was most likely due to nationalism that surrounded both sides and a political struggle between Kim Il-Sung and Pak Hon-Yong, the head of the Communist Party of South Korea, before Syngman Rhee banned it. Since both were in a rush to see who could unite the peninsula first, it seems that the power struggle led one of the two to start the war eventually. However, it should be noted that South Korea also bears responsibility, as pointed out by Karunakar Gupta, “While the United Nations Commission on Korea heard the North Korean broadcast on 25 June 1950 alleging the South Korean attack on Haeju, it simply brushed aside that complaint without any inquiry and accepted South Korea’s complaint of an unprovoked aggression to be true.” He suggests that the border skirmishes started by the Rhee administration also helped to provoke the invasion, which would seem to back up the view that the war in Korea was more akin to an inevitable civil war than any Soviet invasion. Soviet and Communist Chinese intervention seemed limited even after the start of the war, and the Soviets seemed unprepared for the conflict. For instance, the Soviets weren’t present at the United Nations vote for intervention in the conflict. Chinese support for the war was also somewhat limited, with much of it being a response to the success of UN forces and fear of having an American puppet right on their border. The idea that Chinese hordes primarily fought the war was mostly a myth, and most Chinese forces were out of the peninsula before the end of the war. China was more focused on its interior than on the conflict abroad, which is one of the main reasons Kim received few Chinese armaments before the war started. However, this was not the perspective of the United States. Once the war officially started, McCarthyism came into full swing, with Korea becoming the first domino in the Domino Theory. From here, there was no turning back. During the Korean Conflict, America permanently entered its modern situation. The Truman administration controversially passed NSC-68, which saw military expenditure increase from $13 Bil. in 1950 to $50 Bil. by the end of 1951. Most importantly, much of this was marketed not for the Korean War but instead acted as the nexus for the continuation of the military-industrial complex, along with the Marshall Plan being shifted to focus on rearmament during this period instead of economic growth. Pierpaoli notes, “The decision to mobilize for the long haul of the Cold War meant that balanced federal budgets in America were no longer sacrosanct. The limited social Keynesianism that had guided American economic thinking since the late 1930s was to be wedded to the military Keynesianism of the World War II era.” The effects of Truman’s policies were unpopular, acting as one of the greatest power grabs for the president's office. Unlike previous administrations, the Truman administration launched no formal declaration of war. Despite saying the United States' policy was that of containment, the US crossed north of the 38th parallel to unite the entire peninsula, which, as highlighted earlier, acted as the catalyst for Chinese involvement and directly increased the scale of the conflict. This decision by Truman would lead to unprecedented human casualties. As Charles Armstrong notes, The number of Koreans dead, injured, or missing by the war’s end approached three million, ten percent of the overall population. The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South. However, the DPRK does not have official figures; possibly twelve to fifteen percent of the population was killed in the war, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens who died in World War II. Much of this was due in part to the indiscriminate bombing campaign of the United States, which dropped more bombs in the span of the Korean Conflict than the entire Pacific theater during World War II. In the end, this resulted in the death of over a million civilians in the North alone, leading to a psychological fear of the United States that persists to this very day. It is believed that the Korean Conflict was one of the primary reasons for the Democratic defeat in 1952. However, the Eisenhower administration failed to reduce the scope of the federal government during his presidency. Instead, Truman’s precedent would come to influence American foreign policy in Vietnam, and his “limited aggression” would majorly influence Henry Kissinger's foreign policy. Of course, despite all this bad, I imagine those out there still think the conflict was worth it. I would instead suggest that this is not the case at all. America essentially traded away its freedom for a massive military base in Asia and used American and Korean lives to pay for it. However, that is not the complete scope of the tragedy. The consistent military training directly on the North Korean border can be attributed to much of the nation’s continuation of Stalinism and has led to repeated human travesties. It also cannot be said that America brought freedom to the country. For decades, the American puppets Syngman Rhee and Park Chung Hee ruled the South with brutality that caused the North to have a larger economy than the South until the mid-1980s. Only later, with the assassination of Park Chung Hee and the protest that followed, was South Korea’s current, more pleasant government founded in 1987.   On the other hand, the result could not have been determined if America had stayed out of the Korean affair. What is known, however, is that the DPRK could not rely on its unending nationalist cause of reunification to empower the regime, nor could it fall back on fear of foreign invasion to justify the Kim family’s rule. These reasons are primarily what caused North Korea to reject unification after the fall of the Soviet Union and remain in the situation it is now. However, by looking at other dictatorships like Ceausescu’s Romania or China after the death of Mao, it seems clear that without these causes, the eternal communism held today by the nation could not continue to exist without a true outside threat to “the people’s way of life.” At best, Korea could have ended up a united and prosperous post-soviet state like East Germany and, at worst, ended up in a similar situation to Vietnam or China. Still, it seems unlikely that the Juche regime could persist forever. In conclusion, Korea should not forget about the war. Instead, it should be remembered as the war the state used to increase its power on pretense significantly. Korea permanently ingrained the Military-Industrial Complex into our society and began the policy of domino theory. It also saw the end of the constitutional war, with the President able to deploy the US military globally wherever he wanted. During the Great Depression and World War II, the federal government increased to an unprecedented size, as desired by the despotic nature of FDR. However, his successor, Harry Truman, ended any hope of returning to peace, and Korea acted as the point of no return. (2024.2)

An American surveillance aircraft performed a full sweep of the Korean Peninsula's heavily armed demilitarized zone last week on the same day North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was said to have overseen the test of new ballistic missile technology.   Aircraft signals received by the website Flightradar24, a favorite among plane spotters, showed a U.S. Air Force RC-135U Combat Sent flying a nearly nine-hour sortie on May 17, cutting across the peninsula from the East China Sea to the Sea of Japan—known in both Koreas as the East Sea.   The long-endurance reconnaissance platform equipped to gather electronic intelligence flew out of Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, the Western Pacific island that hosts about two-thirds of the 50,000 or so U.S. troops stationed in Japan.   Newsweek's map traces the Combat Sent's hours-long mission across Northeast Asia on Friday. According to rough estimates, the journey covered at least 2,300 miles, or about half its stated operational range.   At about noon that day, the spy plane reached the Sea of Japan/East Sea and doubled back at least once before returning to Okinawa.   The same aircraft has deployed to the Chinese coast several times this month. The Combat Sent, which the Air Force says collects signals from foreign military hardware for analysis, was about 40 miles south of the de facto inter-Korean border, according to Flightradar24, or 100 miles south of Wonsan, the North Korean port city and naval base where Pyongyang's latest test was conducted. This photograph, released by KCNA on May 18, shows a ballistic missile test fired the previous day. KCNA said the launch verified the "accuracy and reliability" of a new navigation system. North Korea Reacts to 'Nuclear Threat' From US South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff first reported the launch of short-range ballistic missiles from Wonsan toward the Sea of Japan on Friday, but the test fire was not acknowledged by the North until a day later. Pyongyang's state-owned Korean Central News Agency said on Saturday that Kim had overseen a "tactical ballistic missile" test that verified a "new autonomous navigation system." "The test fire is part of the regular activities of the administration and its affiliated defense science institutes for rapid technological development of weapon systems," KCNA said. This U.S. Air Force image dated June 18, 2004, shows an RC-135U Combat Sent aircraft in a training mission from Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base U.S. AIR FORCE The U.S. Defense Department does not comment on specific operations. It was, therefore, unclear whether the Combat Sent's sortie along the DMZ was related to the launch event. North Korea's embassy in Beijing did not immediately return a written request for comment. On Friday, KCNA reported Kim's visit to a manufacturer of missile launcher vehicles, which North Korea's state media linked to the regime's "nuclear war deterrent."   North Korea's enemies, Kim was quoted as saying, "would grow dreadful and dare not to play with fire only when they witness the nuclear combat posture of our state," in language that has typified the recent months of high tensions on the peninsula.   Newsweek 2024.05.21.

A TV screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in South Korea on April 22, 2024. North Korea fired multiple suspected short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters on Monday, South Korea's military said. AP Photo North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised salvo launches of the country's "super-large" multiple rocket launchers that simulated a nuclear counterattack against enemy targets, state media said Tuesday, adding to tests and threats that have raised tensions in the region.   The report by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the North firing what they suspected were multiple short-range ballistic missiles from a region near its capital, Pyongyang, toward its eastern seas.   Analysts say North Korea's large-sized artillery rockets blur the boundary between artillery systems and ballistic missiles because they can create their thrust and are guided during delivery. The North has described some of these systems, including the 600mm multiple rocket launchers that were tested Monday, as capable of delivering tactical nuclear warheads. KCNA said Monday's launches represented the first demonstration of the country's nuclear weapons management and control system called "Haekbangashoe," or "nuclear trigger." The report described the drill as aimed at demonstrating the strength and diverse attack means of North Korea's nuclear forces amid deepening tensions with the United States and South Korea, which it portrayed as "warmongers" raising tensions in the region with their combined military exercises.   North Korea fires short-range missiles into the sea in its latest weapons test State media photos showed at least four rockets being fired from launch vehicles. The missiles flew 352 kilometers (218 miles) before accurately hitting an island target. The drill verified the reliability of the "system of command, management, control, and operation of the whole nuclear force." KCNA said Kim expressed satisfaction, saying that the multiple rocket launchers were as accurate as a "sniper's rifle." He said the drill was crucial for "preparing our nuclear force to be able to rapidly and correctly carry out their important mission of deterring a war and taking the initiative in a war in any time and any sudden situation." The comments reflected North Korea's escalatory nuclear doctrine, which authorizes the military to launch preemptive nuclear strikes against enemies if it perceives the leadership as under threat. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapons from Monday's launches flew about 300 kilometers (185 miles) before crashing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The ranges suggested the weapons would likely target sites in South Korea. The latest launches came as South and the United States conducted a two-week combined aerial exercise that continues through Friday to sharpen their response capabilities against North Korean threats.   Are North and South Korea Coming Closer to War? When asked about the North Korean claims, Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it remains unclear whether the North perfected the designs for small, battlefield nuclear weapons that could fit on its rockets. He insisted the North was likely exaggerating the accuracy of its multiple rocket launcher systems and that South Korea would be able to detect and intercept such weapons without elaborating on specific missile defense capabilities. Lee said the North might have used the drill to test the multiple rocket launchers it potentially plans to export to Russia as the countries expand their military cooperation in the face of separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States. The U.S. and South Korea have accused North Korea of transferring artillery shells, missiles, and other munitions to Russia to help extend its warfighting in Ukraine. A head of resident community, Kim Jeoung-hee opens up a shelter on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Jan. 8, 2024. North Korea, in recent months, has maintained an accelerated pace in weapons testing as it continues to expand its military capabilities. At the same time, diplomacy with the United States and South Korea remained stalled. Outside officials and analysts say Kim's goal is to eventually pressure the United States into accepting the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength. In response to North Korea's evolving nuclear threats, the United States and South Korea have been strengthening their bilateral military drills and trilateral exercises with Japan. The countries are also sharpening their nuclear deterrence strategies built around strategic U.S. assets. North Korea launches ballistic missile, thought capable of hitting distant US bases In past years, North Korea has test-fired nuclear-capable missiles designed to strike sites in South Korea, Japan, and the mainland U.S. Many experts say North Korea already possesses nuclear missiles that can reach all of South Korea and Japan. Still, it has yet to develop functioning intercontinental ballistic missiles that can travel to the continental U.S. The latest launches came days after North Korea announced Saturday it tested a "super-large" cruise missile warhead and a new anti-aircraft missile in a western coastal area earlier last week. In early April, North Korea also test-launched what it called a solid-fuel intermediate-range missile with hypersonic warhead capabilities. Experts say this weapon is meant to attack remote targets in the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam and beyond. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, inspects as he tours munitions factories in North Korea on Jan. 8-9, 2024.

The tiny village of Taesung sits deep in the heart of Korea’s Demilitarised Zone – the strip of no-man’s land separating North and South Korea. The community of South Koreans, many in their 80s and 90s, live mere metres from North Korea, meaning they must be guarded day and night by hundreds of soldiers. The village was established at the end of the Korean War as a symbol of peace, but 70 years later, the Korean Peninsula is still divided, and over the past year tensions between the two countries have flared. The BBC’s Seoul correspondent Jean Mackenzie has secured rare access to the village, the people who live there and the soldiers who guard them. The hidden village just metres from North Korea | BBC News Filmed and edited by Hosu Lee Living Between Enemy Lines A rare insight into a village which sits within Korea's Demilitarised Zone.

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea is one of the most notorious borders in the world. With tensions between the two countries continuously very high, this border can be dangerous. Despite this, joining a tour and visiting the DMZ is something we could not miss during our time in Korea. It is so important to us that we learn both the history and the ongoing issues that North Korea and South Korea face, both individually as countries and together as countries who share a border, a history, and a people.   You cannot visit the DMZ without joining a tour that escorts you through the military checkpoint and walks through the DMZ area with you. Despite the environment being lush and beautiful, it's hard to forget you are at a contentious border because of all the barbed wire, military presence, and security cameras at every turn. Learning about the history of North and South Korea is the goal of the tour groups, and we learned so much from our tour guide.   The Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 until Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945. After Japan's surrender, the peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel into two zones of occupation: the Soviet-controlled North and the American-controlled South. This division established two governments, each claiming to be the legitimate authority over the entire peninsula. In 1950, North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea, leading to the Korean War. The war ended in 1953 with a ceasefire.   Our tour's main message was one of peace. South Korea is eager to see peace restored between the two nations. Part of this is because many South Koreans have loved ones in North Korea who are unable to leave, and South Koreans are not able to go in.   The first stop on our tour was Imjingak Park, a Park in South Korea created as a memorial. It serves as a place of respect for those who died during the Korean War and as a place where people can go to grieve and mourn their family and friends who are on the other side of the border and, therefore, completely out of reach.   Next, we went to the Third Infiltration Tunnel to get as close as possible to North Korea without entering the country. These tunnels were dug from North Korea to South Korea, but South Korea found them before they reached beyond the DMZ. Being underground and getting this close to North Korea was an experience we never thought we'd have!   The last stop of the day was the Dora Observatory. From here, we can see North Korea with our bare eyes. We found it hard to grasp how different life is for people on the other side of the border.   Our whole trip to the DMZ taught us so much more about North and South Korea and the heartbreak that continues to happen here. It was a sad experience, but travel isn't always happy. We felt like our visit to Korea would not be complete without seeing the DMZ to understand this country's past and present, and we are so glad we went. What It's Like Visiting the North Korea Border (DMZ Tour)

Smoke from an explosion rises as part of the dismantling of a South Korean guard post in DMZ,as a North Korean guard post sits high in the upper left. 2018.11 (AP) North Korean soldiers install their guard posts in the DMZ. 2024.1 (AP) North Korea is restoring front-line guard posts that it had dismantled during a previous period of inter-Korean rapprochement, South Korea’s military said Monday, after animosities spiked between the rivals over the North’s recent spy satellite launch. The two Koreas previously dismantled or disarmed 11 of their guard posts inside their heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarized Zone, under a 2018 deal meant to ease front-line military confrontations. However, the current state of this deal is precarious. Both Koreas have openly threatened to breach it, which could potentially lead to a complete breakdown of the agreement and a return to heightened tensions. The 2018 agreement required the two Koreas to halt aerial surveillance and live-fire exercises at no-fly and buffer zones that they established along the DMZ, remove some of their front-line guard posts and land mines, and leave South Korea with 50 board guard posts and North Korea with 150.

Civil War – Approximately 620,000 Americans died. The Union lost almost 365,000 troops and the Confederacy about 260,000. More than half of these deaths were caused by disease. World War I – 116,516 Americans died, more than half from disease. World War II – 405,399 Americans died. Korean War – 36,574 Americans died. Vietnam Conflict – 58,220 Americans died. Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm – 382 service members died. Operation Iraqi Freedom – 4,418 service members died. Operation New Dawn – 74 service members died. Operation Enduring Freedom – 2,350 service members died. Operation Freedom’s Sentinel – 109 service members died. Operation Inherent Resolve – 113 service members have died as of May 2024. The Korean War Memorial It memorializes those who served in the Korean War (1950–1953). The national memorial was dedicated in 1995. It includes 19 statues representing U.S. military personnel in action. Korean War Garden Statue (Washington DC) Korean War Veterans Memorial (Washington DC) The Wall, Korean War Memorial (Washington DC) Floral Clock – Korean War Memorial (St Louis) Korean War Memorial (Atlantic City, NJ) New Jersey Korean War Veterans Memorial (Atlantic City)

North Korea's developing military tech with AI capabilities creates a dangerous threat North Korea has been developing artificial intelligence across various sectors, including in military technology and programs that safeguard nuclear reactors, which could create international threats, according to a new report. The authoritarian regime has used AI to develop wargame simulations and has collaborated with Chinese tech researchers, according to a report by 38 North, a publication for policy and technical analysis of North Korean affairs. The AI advancements (https://www.foxnews.com/tech/fox-news-ai-newsletter-americas-role-ukraines-unbelievable-ai-military-development)and foreign collaboration could lead to sanction violations and leaked information, the report stated.  North Korea has been rapidly developing artificial intelligence for a myriad of civilian and military uses, according to a new report. (Getty Images) "North Korea’s recent endeavors in AI/[machine learning] development signify a strategic investment to bolster its digital economy," Hyuk Kim of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California wrote in the Jan. 23 report, which cited open-source information from state media and scientific journals. "This commitment is underscored by constitutional amendments fostering the digitization and informatization of its socialist economy, coupled with institutional reforms to address competing self-interest across government offices."    More recently, North Korea applied artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a model for evaluating proper mask use during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.  PENTAGON ALARMED BY CHINESE RUSH FOR ‘INTELLIGENTIZED’ WARFARE, BUT EXPERTS WARN ABOUT OVER-RELIANCE ON AI(https://www.foxnews.com/world/pentagon-alarmed-chinese-rush-intelligentized-warfare-experts-warn-reliance-ai) But Kim said the nation's most recent AI developments are concerning.   "North Korea’s pursuit of a wargaming simulation program using [machine learning] reveals intentions to comprehend operational environments against potential adversaries better," Kim wrote. "Furthermore, North Korea’s ongoing collaborations with foreign scholars pose concerns for the sanctions regime." North Korean researchers have also published studies about using AI to maintain nuclear reactors' safety, according to Kim. The studies were aimed at mitigating the risk of nuclear accidents and making reactors more effective. (2024.01.31)

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit Kim Jong Un soon, North Korean (https://www.cnn.com/world/asia/north-korea?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_msn)state media reported Sunday, the latest sign of increasing cooperation between the two authoritarian leaders as war rages in Ukraine and military tensions increase in East Asia. Putin thanked Kim for an invitation to visit Pyongyang and pledged to go there “at an early date,” the report from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands during their meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, on April 25, 2019. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the dates for Putin’s visit to North Korea were still being discussed through diplomatic channels and would be announced later, Russian state-run news agency TASS reported. Last Tuesday, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow to discuss issues regarding the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia, and international peace and security, according to TASS. At that meeting the two sides expressed a “strong will to strengthen further strategic and tactical cooperation in defending the core interests of the two countries,” KCNA said. A Putin visit to Pyongyang would reciprocate one Kim made last September, when the North Korean leader traveled in his armored train to Russia’s far eastern region, visiting a factory that produces fighter jets and a rocket-launch facility among other stops. During that visit, Kim praised Russia for standing up to “hegemonic forces” with its war in Ukraine, while Putin signaled a willingness to assist North Korea in developing its space and satellite programs. Signs of increasing Russian-North Korean cooperation have been seen in Ukraine. According to the US Defense Department, Russia has twice in the past month fired North Korean-made missiles at targets in Ukraine. And South Korean intelligence has reported that Pyongyang has supplied Moscow with more than 1 million artillery shells that could be used in the invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Western analysts say Russia could be a source of technology and expertise for Kim as he refines a nuclear-capable missile program that could threaten not only his neighbors in East Asia, but possibly the mainland United States with intercontinental ballistic missiles. Kim has been drawing an increasingly harder line against South Korea in recent weeks, saying the North will no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with the South and instructing the country’s army, munitions industry, nuclear weapons and civil defense sectors to accelerate war preparations in response to “confrontation moves” by the US. Last week, in a speech to a Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) meeting in Pyongyang, Kim called the South the North’s “primary foe and invariable principal enemy” and said a reunification monument in the North Korean capital was an “eyesore” that should be demolished. (2024.01.24)

The Arch of Reunification – built in 2000 after a landmark inter-Korean summit – has disappeared from satellite imagery North Korea (https://www.theguardian.com/world/north-korea)has demolished a monument that symbolized hope for reconciliation with the South, days after the regime’s leader, Kim Jong-un,(https://www.theguardian.com/world/kim-jong-un) said the peaceful reunification of the two Koreas was no longer possible.(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/16/unification-with-south-korea-no-longer-possible-says-kim-jong-un) In the latest sign of rising tensions on the peninsula, the Arch of Reunification – built in 2000 after a landmark inter-Korean summit (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/13/northkorea1)– has disappeared from satellite imagery, according to the NK News website. It was not immediately clear when or how it had been taken down, NK News said. Kim, whose tone has become markedly belligerent in recent weeks, described the concrete arch – which shows two women, one each from the North and South, holding an emblem of the outline of the Korean peninsula – as an “eyesore” at a speech this month to the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North’s rubber-stamp parliament. He added that the North’s constitution should be amended to reflect South Korea’s new status as his country’s “principal enemy” – effectively ending decades of official policy that stressed the eventual reunification (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/15/korean-peninsula-will-be-united-by-2045-says-seoul-amid-japan-row)of the autocratic North with the democratic South. The 30-meter arch, formally known as the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification, symbolized self-reliance, peace, and national cooperation, according to South Korean government records. Located on the Reunification Highway, which connects Pyongyang to the heavily armed border with the South, it was reportedly erected to commemorate plans for reunification put forward by Kim’s grandfather and North Korean founder Kim Il-sung. While purely symbolic, its reported removal will add to fears that North Korea has taken a more provocative course in its relations with the South and its allies, months before the US presidential elections. The regime claimed it had launched its first spy satellite (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/22/north-korea-spy-satellite-malligyong-1-pyongyang-kim-jong-un)in November, and last week said it had test-fired (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/15/north-korea-hypersonic-missile-claims-solid-fuel-pyongyang)a new ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic maneuverable warhead. On Wednesday, South Korea’s military said the North had launched several cruise missiles into the sea, a fortnight after it fired artillery rounds near the countries’ disputed maritime border. The North has used missile launches to protest joint military exercises by South Korean and US forces, which the regime considers a rehearsal for an invasion. Asked if the provocative tone of recent North Korean announcements – including one in which it said it was “preparing for nuclear war” – was cause for concern, White House spokesperson John Kirby said: “We’re watching this very, very closely.” He added: “I would just tell you that we remain confident that the defensive posture that we’re maintaining on the peninsula is appropriate to the risk.” There is little prospect of a return to the era of cross-border rapprochement symbolized by the monument. Under its conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea has taken a harder line against Pyongyang, vowing immediate and tough responses to North Korean provocations. In response, the North has vowed to “wipe out” its neighbor if attacked by South Korean and US forces. Late last year, Pyongyang said a 2018 agreement with the South designed to de-escalate military tensions was no longer valid. The Supreme People’s Assembly last week abolished government agencies that had overseen engagement with the South. (2024.01.23)