South Korea’s top HUMINT agency probes potentially catastrophic data breach

July 29, 2024 by 1 Comment

North South KoreaIN A HIGHLY UNUSUAL move, authorities in Seoul have publicly acknowledged a data leak that may have resulted in the outing of a number of South Korean undercover human intelligence (HUMINT) operatives abroad. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense said on Sunday it was investigating an alleged link of highly sensitive data belonging to the Korea Defense Intelligence Command (KDIC).

Formed under American tutelage in 1946, KDIC is today considered South Korea’s most secretive intelligence agency. It operates under the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which makes it part of the Ministry of National Defense’s chain of command. Unlike DIA’s civilian counterpart, the National Intelligence Service, KDIC rarely surfaces in unclassified news reporting, and it almost never issues press releases. Its operations primarily involve HUMINT activities, thus making it South Korea’s most active HUMINT-focused agency.

Predictably, KDIC’s primary intelligence target is North Korea. The agency gathers much of its intelligence on the North through an extensive network of undercover officers operating with diplomatic credentials. KDIC also handles non-official cover (NOC) operatives, who are located mostly in Asia. There have been periodic claims in the unclassified literature that some KDIC NOCs have operated inside North Korea at times –though such claims remain speculative.

On Saturday, the Seoul-headquartered Yonhap News Agency alleged that classified information relating to KDIC had been “leaked”. According to Yonhap, the leak included personally identifiable information about KDIC official and non-official cover personnel stationed abroad. The report claimed that the leak was discovered by South Korean authorities a month ago, and that the discovery had resulted in the recall of several KDIC undercover operatives serving overseas “due to concerns over their identities being exposed”.

The Yonhap report claimed that, according to an ongoing probe, the leak may have originated from a personal laptop computer belonging to a civilian KDIC employee. The employee has since claimed that the laptop had been hacked, but some investigators believe the suspect may have “intentionally left the laptop vulnerable to hacking by North Koreans”.

According to an official statement released on Sunday by the Ministry of National Defense, the case is “currently under investigation by military authorities”.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 29 July 2024 | Permalink

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Ex-CIA analyst accused of spying for South Korea had prior warnings from FBI, CIA

July 22, 2024 by 3 Comments

NIS South KoreaA FORMER INTELLIGENCE ANALYST for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who is married to a high-profile columnist for The Washington Post, remains under arrest for allegedly spying for South Korea. According to an indictment unsealed last Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, the former CIA analyst is Sue Mi Terry, 54, of New York. Terry is a naturalized American citizen born in Seoul, South Korea, who grew up in Virginia and received a PhD from Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Terry joined the CIA in 2001 but resigned in 2008, allegedly “in lieu of termination” because her employer “had ‘problems’ with her contact with” officers from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). After leaving the CIA, Terry worked briefly for the National Security Council and the National Intelligence Council, before transitioning to academia. Her most recent post was that of a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she became known as an exert on East Asian affairs with a focus on the Korean Peninsula. For over a decade, Terry has made frequent appearances on television and radio, as well as on several podcasts. She is married to the Washington Post columnist Max Boot.

The Department of Justice accuses Terry of failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and deliberately conspiring to violate that law, thus effectively operating as an unregistered agent of a foreign power. The indictment claims that Terry was gradually recruited by the NIS, beginning in 2013, two years after she stopped working for the United States government. Terry allegedly continued to work for the NIS for a decade, during which she was handled by NIS intelligence officers posing as diplomats in South Korea’s Washington embassy and permanent mission to the United Nations in New York.

It is alleged that throughout that time Terry provided her NIS handlers with access to senior US officials, disclosed “nonpublic US government information” to the NIS, and promoted pro-South Korean policy positions in her writings and media appearances. In return, Terry is alleged to have received luxury goods, free dinners at expensive restaurants, and nearly $40,000 in “covert” funding, nominally to operate a public policy program on Korean affairs. It is worth noting that, according to the unsealed indictment, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned Terry that she should be wary of being approached by NIS officers seeking to offer her funding. Read more of this post

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North Korean radio station known for sending coded messages to spies goes silent

January 15, 2024 by 2 Comments

North South KoreaNORTH KOREA APPEARS TO have suspended a long-standing radio station, known for broadcasting content targeted at South Koreans, which also aired encrypted messages intended for North Korean spies abroad. Radio Pyongyang was founded by Korean communist forces in the 1940s. In 1950 it formed part of the North Korean state’s official media propaganda arm.

Throughout the Cold War, Radio Pyongyang aired hundreds of hours of news and cultural content every week. The broadcasts were in various languages and were exclusively aimed at international listeners. However, most of the station’s output was targeted at South Koreans. In 2002, the station was renamed Voice of Korea. Around that time, possibly owing to a temporary rapprochement between North and South Korea, the station curtailed much of its political programming. However, broadcasts featuring political content were resumed in 2016, as relations between the two warring sides began to deteriorate once again.

For much of its existence, the Voice of Korea has also been known to operate as a so-called numbers station. The term denotes shortwave radio stations, usually sponsored by a government entity, that regularly air broadcasts consisting of formatted number sequences. These sequences are widely believed to be encrypted communications addressed to intelligence officers operating abroad. They contain operational instructions and other directives that are typically undecipherable without the use of an encryption protocol. These stations also broadcast certain types of music, which function as codewords and are believed to signal specific directives to spies.

But the Voice of Korea unexpectedly fell silent last week. Its website, which features content in several languages, also appears to have been taken down. The sudden changes occurred days after North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, delivered a key address during the year-end plenum of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang, on December 31. In his speech, which became public on January 6, the North Korean leader declared that the reunification of Korea under communist principles —a longstanding goal of the WPK—had been rendered “impossible” due to widening differences in approach between the two Koreas.

The North Korean strongman also called for “a fundamental change” in the WPK’s policy on inter-Korean affairs. Finally, he discussed a series of steps for the “reorganization of entities” that govern North Korea’s relations with South Korea. Several North Korean government websites focusing on the reunification of Korea, including the Voice of Korea website, have since been taken down. North Korea observers suggest that the daily radio broadcasts of the Voice of Korea appear to be part of the reorganization declared by Kim Jong-UN on December 31.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 15 January 2024 | Permalink

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South Korean president fires nation’s spy chiefs in major intelligence shake-up

November 27, 2023 by 1 Comment

NIS South Korea - IAIN A SURPRISING MOVE that has stirred curiosity across Asia, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has abruptly ousted the entire senior leadership of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), a powerful entity in the country. The announcement came through a statement released on Sunday by the Office of the President, stating that President Yoon had accepted the resignations of the NIS director and two deputy directors. However, it is widely understood that these resignations were not voluntary but rather a result of pressure exerted by the president.

Among those dismissed, Director Kim Kyou-huyn and First Deputy Director Kwon Chun-taek, both considered close to President Yoon, had lengthy backgrounds in South Korea’s diplomatic corps. Kim, a seasoned executive with deep insights into South Korea-United States relations, had served lengthy tours in the South Korean embassy in Washington. Kwon, with experience in the diplomatic corps and roles at the United Nations, also had a strong international background. Yoon had appointed both to lead the NIS soon after assuming the presidency in May 2022. The third ousted NIS executive was Second Deputy Director Kim Soo-youn, appointed by Yoon in June 2022. The second deputy traditionally oversees activities related to North Korea, while the first deputy is responsible for the agency’s global collection operations, counterterrorism, and counterintelligence.

Speculation in Seoul abounds regarding the reasons behind President Yoon’s swift decision to dismiss the NIS leadership. A firebrand politician who is seen as a representative of a new generation of South Korean conservatives, Yoon has pledged a robust security and defense policy in response to perceived North Korean provocations. Recent media reports have hinted at Yoon’s impatience with bureaucratic obstacles within the NIS, particularly regarding personnel management.

South Korean media reports indicate that another seasoned diplomat, Hong Jang-won, has assumed the NIS first deputy directorship, while the former North Korea area chief, Hwang Won-jin, has taken over as the second deputy director. Notably, the director position remains vacant, with Hong temporarily leading the agency until a new director is appointed in the coming weeks.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 27 November 2023 | Permalink

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Senior members of South Korea’s largest trade union charged with espionage

May 12, 2023 by Leave a comment

KCTU South KoreaSOUTH KOREAN PROSECUTORS have charged four senior members of one of the country’s largest trade unions with espionage on behalf of North Korea. The move, which is seen as highly controversial by South Korea’s liberal opposition, has come a few months after the conservative administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol launched what some commentators have described as South Korea’s largest counter-espionage operation in over 30 years.

The operation came to light on January 18, when hundreds of police officers, led by officers of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), conducted search raids at a number of regional offices of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). Founded in the mid-1990s, the KCTU represents over 1.1 million members. Most of its membership consists of supporters of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), a left-of-center liberal coalition that ruled South Korea until last year. Since its establishment in 2014, the DPK has been engaged in a bitter political rivalry with the People Power Party (PPP), a conservative coalition that currently governs South Korea.

On Wednesday, four KCTU officials, all of them men, between the ages of 48 and 54, were charged with several violations of South Korea’s National Security Act, including carrying out espionage on behalf of North Korea and meeting illegally with North Korean intelligence officers. South Korean government prosecutors accuse the four of meeting several times with their alleged North Korean handlers. The alleged meetings too place during overseas trips in Vietnam and Cambodia between 2017 and 2019.

While abroad, the four alleged spies were allegedly trained and given instructions to establish what prosecutors describe as “an underground organization [operating] under the guise of legal union activities”. The four men were allegedly tasked with steering the KCTU toward actions and rhetoric that were against the United States and Japan. They were also asked to helping organize worker rallies against the policies of the PPP. In other instances, the alleged spies photographed American military installations located in South Korea.

The opposition DPK has strongly condemned the charges, calling them politically motivated and describing them as a return to the days of rightwing military rule, which South Korea experienced until 1987. The NIS remains highly controversial among left-of-center South Koreans, many of whom view it as a corrupt state entity that is politically aligned with the conservative PPP. Between 2018 and 2022, the liberal DPK government spearheaded what it described as an “anti-corruption campaign” inside the NIS. As a result of that campaign, three former NIS directors were charged with —and eventually convicted of— secretly diverting funds from the agency’s clandestine budget. The funds were eventually used to aid the re-election campaign of the then-South Korean President, Park Geun-hye. Their apparent goal was to prevent the DPK from coming to power, fearing that the left-of-center party was too close to Pyongyang. President Park also went to prison for accepting financial bribes from the NIS.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 12 May 2023 | Permalink

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Tension mounts as South Korea launches largest anti-spying operation in 30 years

February 14, 2023 by Leave a comment

NIS South KoreaTENSION IS MOUNTING BETWEEN the government and opposition forces in South Korea, as the conservative administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol appears to be behind an effort to probe alleged links between senior liberal political figures and North Korean intelligence. The effort, which some commentators suggest could be the largest counter-espionage operation in the country’s history since 1992, is being led by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The operation came to light on January 18, when hundreds of police officers, led by NIS officers, conducted search raids at a number of regional offices of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). Founded in the mid-1990s, the KCTU is South Korea’s second-largest labor coalition, representing over 1.1 million members. It is politically aligned with the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), a left-of-center liberal coalition which was in government until last year. Since its establishment in 2014, the DPK has been engaged in a bitter political rivalry with the People Power Party (PPP), a conservative coalition that currently governs South Korea.

According to reports, the NIS is investigating charges that members of the KCTU formed “a clandestine organization” that engaged in protests against the United States and organized “various subversive campaigns under instructions from North Korea”. According to the NIS, the clandestine organization was led by a senior KCTU official, who was handled by clandestine operatives of North Korea’s ruling political party, the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK). The NIS claims that the official met repeatedly with WPK operatives during trips to countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, between 2016 and last year.

On January 18, a large police force appeared to be trying to enter the KCTU headquarters in Seoul, in an attempt to arrest the trade union official, who has not been named. Video footage appeared on South Korean social media, which appeared to show a standoff between law enforcement and KCTU officials. The latter attempted to be trying to prevent the police and NIS representatives from entering the building. Eventually, the authorities were able to enter the building, while also attempting to prevent some individuals barricaded inside from leaving. Read more of this post

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South Korea busts alleged North Korean spy ring, handler remains at large

April 29, 2022 by Leave a comment

North and South KoreaSOUTH KOREAN AUTHORITIES HAVE busted an alleed spy ring run by a North Korean handler, who remains at large. Two men have been arrested so far in connection with the ring. One of them, identified only as “Lee”, is reportedly the chief executive of a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. The other man, a Republic of Korea Army officer, is identified as “Captain B.” in court documents.

Lee was arrested on April 2, while Captain B. was arrested on April 15. They are facing charges of violating South Korea’s 1948 National Security Act. Prosecutors alleged that the two men divulged to their North Korean handler the log-in credentials to the online command-and-control portal of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. The men are accused of having received substantial financial compensation in return for their services.

According to the prosecution, Lee was approached in July 2021 by a North Korean intelligence officer, who recruited him to work for North Korean intelligence. In August of the same year, Lee approached Captain B., and recruited as a subcontractor, with the promise of substantial financial compensation in the form of bitcoin. Captain B. then began giving military secrets to Lee, who passed them on to the North Koreans.

Eventually, Lee’s handler allegedly provided him with a miniature camera hidden inside an electronic watch. Lee gave this spy device to Captain B., along with a hacking device hidden inside a flash drive, which is commonly known as a “poison tap”. This device gave the North Korean handler access to the laptop used by the men to access the South Korean military’s command-and-control portal. The two alleged spies were compensated with nearly $600,000 in bitcoin for their services.

South Korean authorities claim that the North Korean handler of the spy ring, as well as a man who worked as a courier between the handler and the two agents, remain at large. Public court documents do not specify the kind of information that was allegedly accessed by the North Koreans as a result of this breach.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 29 April 2022 | Permalink

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Senior American, Japanese and S. Korean spy officials to meet behind closed doors

October 18, 2021 by Leave a comment

Avril HainesTHE INTELLIGENCE CHIEFS OF the United States, Japan and South Korea are to meet behind closed doors this week. The meeting will take place nearly two years after a major diplomatic spat between Japan and South Korea threatened to significantly harm intelligence cooperation between them. In November of 2019, the South Korean government threatened to terminate the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). The agreement was initiated in 2016 under American tutelage, with the aim of facilitating the sharing of intelligence between South Korea and Japan about North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.

As intelNews explained at the time, the agreement fell victim to an escalating tit-for-tat row between the two Asian countries, which was rooted in the use of forced Korean labor by Japanese troops during World War II. The South Korean government demanded financial compensation for the use of slave labor, including sex slaves, by Japanese occupation troops during the annexation of Korea by Japan, which lasted from 1910 until 1945.

Tokyo responded to a mass boycott of Japanese goods in South Korea by limiting the export of electronics for use in South Korea’s ship-building industry. It also removed South Korea from the list of countries that can fast-track their exports to Japan. South Korea responded by threatening to not renew GSOMIA prior to it lapsing. With hours to go before GSOMIA’s expiration deadline, Seoul announced it would prolong the treaty. But the dispute continues to stymie intelligence cooperation between the two Asian nations.

On Saturday, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency cited “a government source” in reporting that the intelligence chiefs of the United States and Japan would travel to Seoul next week, in order to hold a series of meetings with their South Korean counterpart. Thus, United States Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, and Japan’s Director of Cabinet Intelligence, Hiroaki Takizawa, will meet with Park Jie-won, who heads South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

The three officials will meet behind closed doors to discuss “strengthening their trilateral intelligence cooperation”, according to the report. There is renewed hope in Seoul and Tokyo that relations between the two nations can be mended, following the election of a new government in Japan earlier this month, under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The officials are also expected to discuss efforts to re-initiate negotiations with North Korea on a number of issues. Last month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in offered to begin negotiations with North Korea aimed at drafting a formal declaration to officially end the Korean War of 1950-1953.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 October 2021 | Permalink

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North Korean diplomat, related to top regime official, defected to South, say sources

January 25, 2021 by Leave a comment

Kuwait CityA NORTH KOREAN ACTING ambassador, who is believed to be the son of one of the most senior officials of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), reportedly defected with his family to South Korea, according to sources. Two South Korean news outlets, the Yonhap News Agency and the Maeil Business Newspaper, reported the alleged defection on Monday. They both cited sources in the South Korean government.

The alleged defector is Ryu Hyun-Woo, who was serving as acting charge d’affaires at the North Korean embassy in Kuwait City, Kuwait. He assumed his post in October 2017, when the Kuwaiti government expelled the North Korean ambassador from the country. The expulsion was ordered in response to a nuclear test conducted by Pyongyang in September of that year, which was in violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution barring the communist state from carrying out nuclear activities.

The government in Pyongyang attributes major significance to its embassy in Kuwait City, since it constitutes its sole diplomatic presence in the Gulf region. Personnel who serve at the embassy are carefully vetted and come from some the most loyal families in the inner circle of the WPK. However, it appears that Ryu, who headed the embassy after October 2017, defected with his wife and children in September 2019. The family reportedly flew to South Korea, where they requested asylum upon arrival. According to the Maeil Business Newspaper, Ryu said he defected in order “to provide his children with a better future”.

According to the South Korean reports, Ryu is the son-in-law of Jon Il-Chun, who formerly directed the Central Committee Bureau 39 —or Office 39— of the WPK. This is the agency tasked by the North Korean regime with securing highly-sought-after hard foreign currency for use by the ruling family and their closest aides. It has been described as the operational nerve center of the North Korean government. If the reports of Ryu’s defection are correct, they would mark a major incident of disloyalty to the regime by a member of the innermost circle of the ruling elite.

Last October it was reported that Jo Song-gil, North Korea’s ambassador to Italy, who disappeared without trace in 2018, was believed to have resettled in South Korea. If true, that would make him the most senior official to defect from North Korea in over 20 years, and it would make Ryu the second most senior official to defect during that time.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 25 January 2021 | Permalink

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North Korea’s missing ambassador may be most senior defector since 1997

October 8, 2020 by Leave a comment

Jo Song-gil

North Korea’s ambassador to Italy, who disappeared without trace in 2018, is believed to have resettled in South Korea. If true, this would make him the most senior official to defect from North Korea in over 20 years. Jo Song-gil (pictured), 48, a career diplomat who is fluent in Italian, French and English, presented his diplomatic credentials to the Italian government in May of 2015. In October 2017 he became his country’s acting ambassador, after Italian authorities expelled Ambassador Mun Jong-nam from the country.

Jo comes from a high-ranking family of North Korean officials with a long history in the ruling Workers Party of Korea. His father is a retired diplomat and his wife’s father, Lee Do-seop, spent many years as Pyongyang’s envoy in Hong Kong and Thailand. It is believed that Jo had been permitted to take his wife and children with him to Rome, a privilege that is bestowed only to the most loyal of North Korean government official. But in November of 2018, Jo suddenly vanished along with his wife and children. The disappearance occurred a month before Jo was to be replaced as acting ambassador to Italy. At the time of Jo’s disappearance, South Korean media reported that the diplomat and his family “were in a safe place” under the protection of the Italian government, while they negotiated their defection. However, this was never confirmed.

On Tuesday of this week, a social media post by a South Korean parliamentarian claimed that Jo and his wife were living in South Korea under the protection of the government, but provided no evidence of this claim. Yesterday, this information appeared to be confirmed by another South Korean parliamentarian, Jeon Hae-cheol, who chairs the Intelligence Committee of the Korean National Assembly (South Korea’s parliament). Jeon said the North Korean diplomat had been living in South Korea since the summer of 2019. He added that Jo had arrived in South Korea after having “repeatedly expressed his wish to come to South Korea”.

This information has not been officially verified by the South Korean government. Additionally, the South Korean National Intelligence Service has not issued a statement on the matter. If this information is confirmed, it would make Jo the most senior North Korean official to have defected since 1997. That year saw the sensational defection of Hwang Jang-yop, Pyongyang’s primary theorist and the ideological architect of juche, the philosophy of self-reliance, which is North Korea’s officially sanctioned state dogma. Until his death from heart failure in April 2010, Hwang had been living in the South with around-the-clock security protection.

Some reports have suggested that Jo’s teenage daughter refused to follow her parents to South Korea and that she was “repatriated” to North Korea in February of 2019, at her own request. Her whereabouts remain unknown.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 08 October 2020 | Permalink

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South Korean ex-deputy spy chief sentenced to prison for diverting secret funds

September 29, 2020 by Leave a comment

Lee Jong-myeongA former deputy director of South Korea’s spy agency has been given a prison sentence for diverting funds from the agency’s clandestine operations budget, in order to aid South Korea’s disgraced former President, Lee Myung-bak, who has himself been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Lee Jong-myeong served as third deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) under the conservative administration of Lee Myung-bak. In 2013, Lee was succeeded by another conservative president, Park Geun-hye, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for corruption. As intelNews has previously reported, several senior NIS officials, including three of its former directors, have been sentenced to prison for diverting agency funds to psychological operations aimed at preventing the election of liberal politicians.

Now the probe into the NIS’ illegal political activity has expanded to include the organization’s mid-level management, including Lee Jong-myeong. On Monday, the Seoul Central District Court found Lee guilty of spending nearly $500,000 from the NIS’ clandestine operations budget to discredit two liberal former presidents, Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung. The goal of the campaign was to convince the South Korean electorate that a future liberal president would surrender the reigns of the country to North Korea.

These revelations have sparked a major overhaul of South Korea’s intelligence system, which some observers have described as the NIS’ “most dramatic shake-up in decades”. The government reportedly intends to prevent the NIS from having any domestic role, and to limit its operations to foreign targets. But some conservative politicians have accused the current administration of left-of-center president Moon Jae-in of “defanging” the NIS.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 29 September 2020 | Permalink

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South Korea, China, urge caution over rumors of North Korean leader’s death

April 21, 2020 by 1 Comment

Korean DMZOfficials in South Korea and China have cast doubt on rumors circulating in recent days that North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un may be dead or close to dying. The rumors about Kim’s demise began to circulate on April 15, when the North Korean leader failed to participate at an official ceremony held to mark the birthday of his grandfather. Known as the Day of the Sun —a public holiday in North Korea— the annual event commemorates the birth of the country’s founder, Kim il-Sung.

Kim’s absence sparked intense discussion in South Korea. On the same day, April 15, Daily NK and NK News, two South Korean websites that are critical of the North Korean government, claimed that Kim had been taken to hospital on April 11 and had not been seen since. The website, which regularly carries articles by North Korean defectors to the South, claimed that the 36-year-old supreme leader had undergone an emergency procedure to stabilize his cardiovascular system, and was recovering from the surgery.

On Monday the American news network CNN quoted an unnamed US official as saying that the sources of the reports about Kim’s health were “credible”. The official added that Washington was closely assessing reports that Kim’s life was “in grave danger”. But on Tuesday officials in South Korea said the reports about Kim’s imminent demise could not be corroborated. A spokesman at the Office of the President told reporters in Seoul that Kim was probably traveling in the countryside with an entourage of senior North Korean officials. The spokesman added that South Korean intelligence services had detected “no unusual signs” in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

Also on Tuesday, a spokesman with the Department of International Liaisons of the ruling Communist Party of China, said “there was no reason to believe Kim was critically ill” or dead. There was speculation on Monday that Kim may be alive but staying indoors to avoid getting infected by the novel coronavirus. The United States government has not commented officially on the rumors about the state of Kim’s health.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 21 April 2020 | Permalink

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South Korea rejects US pressure to maintain intelligence agreement with Japan

November 22, 2019 by 2 Comments

South Korea JapanSouth Korea appears determined to reject calls from the United States to maintain an intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan, as relations between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington continue to experience tensions. The South Korean government has been issuing warnings since August that it will not renew the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), which is scheduled to lapse on Saturday. The agreement dates to 2016; it facilitates the sharing of intelligence between South Korea and Japan about North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.

The agreement has fallen victim to an escalating tit-for-tat row between the two Asian countries, which is rooted in the use of forced Korean labor by Japan in World War II. South Korea is demanding financial compensation for the use of slave labor, including sex slaves, by Japanese occupation troops during Korea’s annexation by Japan from 1910 until 1945. In July, Tokyo responded to a mass boycott of Japanese goods by South Korean consumers by limiting the export of electronics to be used in South Korea’s ship-building industry. It also removed South Korea from the list of countries with the ability to fast-track their exports to Japan. South Korea responded last summer by threatening to effectively abandon GSOMIA.

Since that time, Washington has been pressuring Seoul to remain in the treaty. The United States is widely seen as the architect of GSOMIA, as it worked closely with Japan and South Korea for over 6 years to convince them to agree to exchange intelligence, despite their deep-rooted mutual animosity. The White House has traditionally viewed GSOMIA as a significant parameter in security cooperation between its allies in the Far East. Back in August, American officials warned that terminating GSOMIA would threaten its ability to monitor North Korean nuclear activity.

But Seoul is not willing to back down. On Thursday, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kang Kyung-wha, said that unless there was “a change in Japan’s attitude, our position is we won’t reconsider”. Kang Gi-jung, Political Affairs Secretary to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, added that Seoul would “not wave a white flag”. Japan’s Minister of Defense, Taro Kono, urged South Korea to “make a sensible decision” and warned that Seoul, not Tokyo, would be the biggest victim of the termination of GSOMIA. Most observers expect that GSOMIA will simply expire come Saturday.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 22 November 2019 | Permalink

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South Korea ends intelligence pact with Japan as bilateral relations enter crisis mode

August 23, 2019 by Leave a comment

Japan South KoreaSouth Korea has formally terminated an intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan, as relations between the two countries have reached their lowest point since they formally recognized each other in 1965. Seoul’s decision is the latest move in a tit-for-tad row sparked by the use of forced Korean labor by Japan in World War II. South Korea is demanding financial compensation for the use of slave labor, including sex slaves, by Japanese occupation troops during Korea’s annexation by Japan from 1910 until 1945. Last month, Tokyo responded to a mass boycott of Japanese goods by South Korean consumers by limiting the export of electronics to be used in South Korea’s ship-building industry. A few days ago, Tokyo also removed South Korea from the list of countries with the ability to fast-track their exports to Japan.

Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan met in China in an attempt to bridge the differences between the two countries. But the negotiations failed. This morning South Korea responded to Japan’s latest move by refusing to renew the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). This treaty between Japan and South Korea, which was due to be renewed today, facilitates the sharing of intelligence about North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs. But the South Korean government announced it would not renew the agreement, following a decision taken by the country’ National Security Council. The country’s President, Moon Jae-in, has agreed with the decision. A South Korean government spokesman said South Korea had determined that maintaining “an agreement we signed with the aim of exchanging military information which is sensitive to security […] would not serve our national interest”.

Japan called South Korea’s decision to scrap GSOMIA “extremely regrettable” and said that it “completely misreads the security situation” in the region. It added that it would continue to cooperate with South Korea “where cooperation is necessary”. Late last night, Tokyo summoned the South Korean ambassador to Japan to voice its disapproval of Seoul’s decision. Meanwhile there has been no response from the United States government, which was the architect of GSOMIA in 2016. Washington worked closely with the two countries for over 6 years to convince them to agree to exchange intelligence, despite their mutual animosity. American observers have warned that the termination of GSOMIA “threatens real-time information sharing between the United States, Japan and South Korea to monitor North Korean nuclear activity”.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 23 August 2019 | Permalink

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South Korean spy agency says North Korean nuclear negotiators were not executed

July 18, 2019 by Leave a comment

Kim Jong-unThe spy agency of South Korea has dismissed media reports that North Korea had several of its top nuclear negotiators executed or sent to labor camps, but has not rejected rumors of a major reshuffle in Pyongyang. In early June, media reports in Seoul claimed that North Korea had executed at least five of its senior nuclear negotiators and imprisoned several others. Prior to these reports, rumors of executions of North Korean nuclear negotiators had circulated in international diplomatic circles since February, but no specific allegations had surfaced in the news media. That changed when Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s highest-circulation newspaper, alleged that at least five executions of nuclear negotiators had taken place in Pyongyang in March.

The paper claimed that the most senior North Korean official to be executed was Kim Hyok-chol, who led the nuclear negotiations with Washington prior to the Vietnam summit. The summit culminated with a —seemingly fruitless— face-to-face meeting between the North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. Citing an “anonymous source” Chosun Ilbo said that Kim had been executed by a firing squad at the Pyongyang East Airfield in Mirim, a suburb of the North Korean capital. Four other Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials were executed at the same time, allegedly for having been “swayed by American imperialists to betray the Supreme Leader”, said the newspaper. Two more senior North Korean nuclear negotiators, Kim Yong-chol and Kim Song-hye, were allegedly stripped of their government posts and sent to labor camps, according to the report.

On Tuesday, however, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) directly contradicted Chosun Ilbo’s account. The spy agency told a closed-door meeting with members of parliament in Seoul that Kim Yong-chol had made recent appearances at senior-level events of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), and that Kim Hyok-chol was still alive. But the NIS did not rule out the possibility of a major reshuffle among the ranks of Pyongyang’s nuclear negotiators and the replacement of some of the top figures with new officials from the ranks of the WPK. Most international observers agree that Kim Jong-un is displeased with the impasse in the nuclear negotiations with Washington and has criticized —in some cases publicly— the performance of his team of negotiators.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 July 2019 | Permalink

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