North Korea Crisis Live Thread - Latest NK Updates

[TomSea]

Report: China Moves 300,000 Troops Closer to North Korean Border
by Frances Martel5 Feb 20181,254

The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo cited Radio Free Asia (RFA) in a report Monday, stating that RFA had compiled evidence that China had “late last year deployed another missile defense battery at an armored division in Helong, west of Longjing in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.”

The “North Korean source in China” speaking to RFA also noted that Pyongyang had observed the movement of 300,000 troops closer to the North Korean border and ...

Continued at: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/02/05/report-china-moves-300000-troops-closer-north-korean-border/

[TomSea]

North Korea Invites South’s Leader to Pyongyang—and Creates a Dilemma for Allies
Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, conveyed the invitation to President Moon Jae-in

 By Jonathan Cheng and
Andrew Jeong
Updated Feb. 10, 2018 2:56 p.m. ET

SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited his South Korean counterpart for a summit in Pyongyang, presenting Seoul with a quandary: accept, and risk heightening differences with the U.S. over how to rein in the North’s nuclear program, or decline, and risk a chance to build on a thaw in cross-border relations.

Wall Street Journal paywall, so that was the first paragraph:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korean-leader-invites-south-korean-president-to-pyongyang-1518245274

Surely, details can be found elsewhere.

[TomSea]

This is from antiwar.com so rather than calling them leftists, I'd say they are a bit like the Ron Paul view of things, still, if an Admiral said this, this is just reporting the news but separate the real news from editorial comment:

Top US Admiral: North Korea Plots to ‘Reunify’ Korean Peninsula
Dismisses Idea North Korea Got Nukes to Deter Attack
Jason Ditz Posted on February 14, 2018Categories NewsTags North Korea, Pentagon   

US Pacific Commander Admiral Harry Harris, testifying Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee, accused North Korea of making its recent military advances exclusively with an eye toward forcibly unifying the Korean Peninsula “under a single communist system.”
Reunification Monument, Pyongyang, North Korea

Admiral Harris scorned the idea that North Korea had gotten nuclear arms to try to protect North Korea from a US-imposed regime change, saying he believes Kim’s ambitions are to “blackmail the South and other countries in the region, and us.”

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/02/14/top-us-admiral-north-korea-plots-to-reunify-korean-peninsula/

Antiwar.com also has some extreme hater types commenting, Unpatriotic and Russian troll types and the like.

[verga]

Bookmark

[TomSea]

April 23rd, 2018 article from "The Drive War Zone":

North Korea Shows Zero Signs It Is Willing To Consider Denuclearization
Tyler Rogoway
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/20344/kim-jong-un-international-man-in-demand

4 days ago, so we will see. This already looks a bit out-of-date.

[TomSea]

Basically, they are saying because China is NK's biggest trading partner, 63% of all trade. And to me, that also says, because North Korea depends on China so much.

Why Does North Korea Have No Choice but to Suspend Nuclear Tests?
By Sunny Chao, Epoch Times

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced on April 20 that the country will suspend nuclear tests and missile launches. Why did the dictator suddenly decide to submit to international demands to denuclearize after increased nuclear testing throughout the past year?

A longtime Chinese blogger who frequently comments on domestic economic news, with the pseudonym Manzu Yongshi, penned an article on April 23, explaining that the regime’s about-face may have to do with its rapidly declining trade with China as a result of international pressure, threatening its survival.

China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner. According to data from the Bank of Korea, North Korea’s trade with China made up 63 percent of its total trade in 2007. By 2013, that percentage grew to 89.1 percent. Despite sanctions from the international community, China increased its trade with the regime, the blogger noted. Many necessities such as petroleum and medicine is imported from China, while the North Korean regime primarily exports its coal to China.

After 2013, due to North Korea’s continued nuclear tests, the United States and other countries strengthened their sanctions on North Korea. Thus, trade between China and North Korea decreased slightly, but still remained at the scale of $5.06 billion until the end of 2017, according to China’s official customs data.

Read more at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/why-does-north-korea-have-no-choice-but-to-suspend-nuclear-tests_2505073.html

[TomSea]

World News

North Korea to align with South's time zone as first practical step toward reconciliation

North Korea will shift its time zone 30 minutes earlier to align with South Korea starting May 5 "as a first practical step for national reconciliation and unity," the North's state media said Monday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-southkorea/north-korea-to-align-with-souths-time-zone-as-first-practical-step-toward-reconciliation-idUSKBN1I1040

[TomSea]

“As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem, not mine,” Trump said.

-----------------

Saw this "joke" at a conservative website, "Biased BBC": https://biasedbbc.org/blog/2018/05/03/on-trump/   , has to be a joke, maybe it was actually said but I doubt it....pretty funny.

[ABX]

This is starting to sound like the Iran Deal Part 2.

The US would be "prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on the par with our South Korean friends", he told reporters on Friday.
Mr Pompeo, who has just returned from Pyongyang, said he had "good" talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un......

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44091279

[truth_seeker]

If the result is similar the Marshall Plan, it would be worth it.

If N. Korea becomes a member of the peaceful, modern world it will be the benefit of a very long cold war.

BMW now makes vehicles in the former East Germany (Leipzig).

[INVAR]

If the result is similar the Marshall Plan, it would be worth it.

You pay for it then out of your own pocket - the rest of us are broke and in debt to the tune of trillions hoisted upon our grandchildren not even yet born.

Let them make their own economy work, we can barely keep ours afloat in the sea of red it exists in.

[Cyber Liberty]

What's wrong with allowing South Korea to pay for it?  They stand to benefit the most.

[Chosen Daughter]

What's wrong with allowing South Korea to pay for it?  They stand to benefit the most.

Amen

I have a question.  Probably one that most people have.  What does North Korea have to offer in a global market?  How can you promise such a thing? 

[Cyber Liberty]

Amen

I have a question.  Probably one that most people have.  What does North Korea have to offer in a global market?  How can you promise such a thing?

My understanding is they are rich in mineral resources.

[TomSea]

It's my tax payers money, I'll gladly give. We've been paying North Korea for who knows for how long? Heckuva lot better than a war.

[TomSea]

My understanding is they are rich in mineral resources.

That's right, they have some sort of very rare mineral, I forget which, surely, it can be googled quickly.

[Suppressed]

That's right, they have some sort of very rare mineral, I forget which, surely, it can be googled quickly.

Britholite and associated minerals, for their rare-earth metals like cerium, lanthanum, praseodymium, etc.

[Chosen Daughter]

My understanding is they are rich in mineral resources.

 Yes they have, could be trillions in minerals.  So being that Trump wanted to take the oil from Iraq I am sure he is expecting as much back and more for helping.

[Cyber Liberty]

Britholite and associated minerals, for their rare-earth metals like cerium, lanthanum, praseodymium, etc.

I was hoping one of the Geologists would check in...thanks!  I think I read up to $6 Trillion worth.  They have it, then know it, but they can't get at it.  Of course, so does Venezuela....

[Suppressed]

I was hoping one of the Geologists would check in...thanks!  I think I read up to $6 Trillion worth.  They have it, then know it, but they can't get at it.  Of course, so does Venezuela....

China has a near monopoly on these materials.  It will be very interesting to see how they will try to keep control over the market. 

[LauraTXNM]

China has a near monopoly on these materials.  It will be very interesting to see how they will try to keep control over the market.

Exactly, @Suppressed.  I think China is also interested in Pakistan and Afghanistan partly for the same reason.  I don't think the US will want to entirely abandon either region.  Especially since we're giving China carte blanche in East Africa.

[Suppressed]

Exactly, @Suppressed.  I think China is also interested in Pakistan and Afghanistan partly for the same reason.  I don't think the US will want to entirely abandon either region.  Especially since we're giving China carte blanche in East Africa.

You're right.

Actually, all throughout Africa.  Mineral rich areas like the Congo predominantly go to China.

[TomSea]

As I said in the other thread and I will just make this much shorter (no pun),

Kim Jong Un has done such terrible things, I mean killing people. I think it will be somewhat problematic to economically aid that country without him stepping down. It probably can be done.

[TomSea]

This is funny per Mike Pompeo via Soledad O'Brien's twitter:

Soledad O'Brien
‏Verified account @soledadobrien

Soledad O'Brien Retweeted Lucas Tomlinson

Wow. This is a pretty crazy thing to say anout the North Korean dictator.

Soledad O'Brien added,

Lucas Tomlinson
Verified account @LucasFoxNews
Pompeo: “I think Chairman Kim [Jong Un] shares the objectives with the American people, I am convinced  of that,” secretary of state says on @FoxNewsSunday

11:11 AM - 13 May 2018

https://twitter.com/soledadobrien/status/995728267540946947

No credit to the CNNers and exCNNers like I guess Soledad is, humor is humor.

And actually, the statement can make sense, it just sounds strange, Kim may want peace and prosperity, just like most of us want as well.

[Smokin Joe]

China has a near monopoly on these materials.  It will be very interesting to see how they will try to keep control over the market.

Not so much a monopoly on the materials, but they will produce them without being encumbered by everyone from the 'preserve the pretty piece of nowhere we never would see from the ground' to the 'save the three winged butterfly' crowds.

Lawsuits by such obstructionists here make it virtually impossible to develop such resources.

In the absence of environmental group concerns and, for that matter HSE considerations in general, along with a government which will make that production happen, they have the supply of materials pretty much sewed up. I have little doubt that other regions may have significant reserves of Rare Earth minerals, but other geoplolitical considerations apply.