Korea News Roundup 12-21-22

[TomSea]

Japanese President Prime Minister Abe actually was just in Iran on a visit.

Japan's Abe discusses Iran, NKorea in call with Trump: report
 [AFP]  AFP•December 21, 2019


Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) talked about his meeting in Tokyo with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) in a phone call with US President Donald Trump, Kyodo News reported (AFP Photo/Du Xiaoyi)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday discussed events in Iran and North Korea with US President Donald Trump in a lengthy phone call, the Kyodo news agency reported.

The phone conversation, which Abe told reporters took place at Trump's request, came on the same day that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wrapped up his two-day visit to Japan.

Rouhani's trip came after deadly protests over fuel price hikes in Iran, where the economy has been hit by US sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme.

Read more at: https://news.yahoo.com/japans-abe-discusses-iran-nkorea-call-trump-report-173334182.html

Some more sensational reporting might say, we are currently a bit worried over North Korea and that Japan's leader was consulted about this too.

Korean Think Tank Does Not Believe that North Korea Will Test an ICBM
GIKorea | December 21, 2019 | North Korea | No Comments

Here is what one Korean think tank thinks will not happen this New Year:

North Korea is unlikely to test-fire a long-range missile as widely feared because the move would leave Pyongyang without many options and could force the United States to switch to a hard-line approach to the communist nation, a state-run think tank said Wednesday.

The assessment by the Korea Institute for National Unification came amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the North warning of an unwanted “Christmas gift” to the United States in case Washington fails to come up with a new proposal by year’s end.

Read more at: https://www.rokdrop.net/2019/12/korean-think-tank-does-not-believe-that-north-korea-will-test-an-icbm/

NY Times, I thought there are article was a bit biased: U.S. Braces for Major North Korean Weapons Test as Trump’s Diplomacy Fizzles and unduly pessimistic but we will see.

[TomSea]

South China Morning Post (Hong Kong):

As Seoul loses faith in Trump on North Korea, China steps in
Park Chan-kyong Published: 7:00am, 22 Dec, 2019Updated: 11:04am, 22 Dec, 2019

Trump scored political points in Washington earlier this year by saying “no deal” was better than a “bad deal” after his summit with North Korean leader, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University

There is a “mismatch” between North Korean and US interests, Koh said, with Pyongyang setting a year-end deadline for concessions to be made ahead of full denuclearisation, while Washington has said there is not time limit to resolve the issue.

“The ‘no deadline’ message is the kind of thing that sounds good in Washington and looks like we’re keeping up good faith, but to Pyongyang, it’s another sign that the US isn’t feeling the heat of their ‘maximum pressure’ campaign – and so the pressure will rise,” said Ankit Panda of the Federation of American Scientists.

Read more at: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3043080/seoul-loses-faith-trumps-approach-north-korea-china-may-be

The Atlantic:

Inside the Collapse of Trump’s Korea Policy
Uri Friedman
Updated at 11:30 a.m. ET on December 19, 2019.

Earlier this month, at a NATO summit in London, Donald Trump declared that “we have peace” with North Korea and that he had a better “personal relationship” with Kim Jong Un than the dictator had with possibly anyone else “in the world.”

Hours later, I stood in a hotel ballroom in Washington, D.C., with U.S. and South Korean officials and North Korea experts at a reception hosted by the Korea Foundation, a public-diplomacy organization affiliated with the South Korean government. The president’s North Korea envoy, Stephen Biegun, spoke in subdued tones about how he felt the “weight” of the past year on his “own shoulders,” his actual slouched shoulders completing the picture of a diplomat repeatedly spurned. “Obviously we have not made as much progress as we would have hoped at this point, but let me be absolutely clear: We have not given up,” he stated, the platitude seeming to belie the message.

As Biegun made a beeline for the bar, attendees dining on potatoes au gratin and deviled eggs speculated not about peace in our time but rather about what sort of provocation Kim was plotting. A North Korean official had just threatened to deliver a “Christmas gift” to the United States if the U.S. doesn’t assume a more flexible position in nuclear negotiations by the end of the year. As far as punitive gift-giving goes, North Korea tends to favor demonstrations of fearsome weapons over lumps of coal.

Read more at: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/12/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-diplomacy-denuclearization/603748/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

What can one say? Both are gloomy in outlook, it might be gloomier if Bolton was still in charge.  So, with about 9 days left in 2019, we will monitor this.