Panetta Says U.S. Unwavering in Support of South Korea

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2011 – Officials across government have collectively conveyed America’s unwavering commitment to South Korea, Defense Department officials said today.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin about the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il in a 15-minute telephone call this morning, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said.

“The secretary conveyed to Mr. Kim the strong commitment of the United States to peninsular stability and to our alliance,” he said. “He made it clear that the United States stands with Korea in this time of uncertainty.”

Little stressed there has been no increase in force protection for U.S. forces in Korea and that there is “no truth” to rumors that U.S. families would be evacuated.

No unusual military movements connected with the death of Kim Jong-il have been detected, Little said. There are 36,000 U.S. service members based in South Korea.

The two defense leaders agreed that it is critical for both countries to remain prudent with respect to all matters related to the security posture on the peninsula. Both promised to consult often in the days and weeks ahead.

U.S. officials would not comment on an announcement from North Korean officials that Kim’s son, Kim Jong-eun, will take over the isolated country.

“I wouldn’t comment on the particulars of succession at this stage,” Little said. “Obviously, we are closely monitoring the succession process. The North Koreans are in a period of mourning at this point, and that being said, the military does exercise a prominent role in North Korea, but I wouldn’t want to speculate at this stage.”

U.S. and South Korean officials believe that a North Korean missile test conducted earlier today was pre-planned and not connected to Kim’s death, a senior Pentagon official said on background.

Panetta was briefed on Kim’s death immediately after word reached the outside world last weekend, Little said.

“He has been closely monitoring the situation ever since,” the press secretary said. “He has been in contact with senior officials here in the department.”

Kim Jong Il is Dead

Kim Jong Il with Vladimir Putin

By Zach Foster

 

The North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il was announced to have died of a heart attack on a train outside of Pyongyang.  The announcement was mournfully made on North Korean state television.  His son Kim Jong Un, an armchair general in the Korean People’s Army and a senior member of the Workers Party, was announced as his successor in the same broadcast.

 

Kim Jong Il was born in 1941 or 1942 in Siberia while his father and dictatorial predecessor, Kim Il Sung, led guerrilla troops in the Red Army and Korean Liberation Army against the Japanese in Manchuria and the northern Korean Peninsula.  His political grooming began in the late 1970s and early 1980s as his father was aging.  When Kim Il Sung died in 1994, Jong Il became the official successor and held all the highest offices in the land.  The combination of the North Korean socialist command economy and his military-first economic policy created a famine that killed over 2 million Koreans.  The 2000s were marked by North Korea’s weapons testing and withdrawal from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, as well occasional surprise attacks against South Korean troops that undid any progress made in the Inter-Korean Summit meetings.

 

The funeral is scheduled to be on December 28^th in Pyongyang.

Photo courtesy of the Kremlin (www.kremlin.ru)

Zach Foster's Thanksgiving 2011 Message

Thanksgiving 2008 at Baharia, Iraq.
Photo by the U.S. Navy

This is a very special day in the United States, and I hope the traditions we celebrate here today will soon spread throughout the world.  The very first Thanksgiving in North America was a day when two clashing civilizations were able to set aside their differences as one helped the other not to starve, and they sat together as brothers and gave thanks to the Almighty.

 

Today, I have many reasons to give thanks to God, though Thanksgiving Day is by no means the only day I’m truly thankful.  I have a strong faith in God, a wonderful family, loyal friends, a comfortable job, and even further, I’ve been given the privilege of I living free in an exceptional Constitutional republic, of serving my state and country as a reservist, and to attend an excellent university.  I see the Almighty working in the world every day, guiding us all to make improvements in our lives and the way we get along with others.

 

I’m also incredibly thankful and fortunate for everyone reading this message.  It’s the readers of the Political Spectrum as well as the other Political Spectrum Publishing blogs that make this venture so worth it!  Every day hundreds of people stop by to get the latest news and commentary on the political and economic arenas, and among all the mainstream media and junk media available, I’m glad that those readers came here.  Thank you all!

 

So far we’ve all met many of Political Spectrum Publishing’s New Year’s goals:

·         We have more than doubled the combined readership of the blogs

·         My political Facebook account has over 1,500 friends (500 more than our goal by December 31, 2011)

·         We have over 300 loyal followers on Twitter, many of whom mention and re-tweet @PublishPolitics

·         Thousands of people have viewed Political Spectrum Publishing videos on YouTube (channel PoliSpecPublishing)

·         Political Spectrum Publishing has published several books and is merely waiting for the best time to release them to the market!

·         Readers continue to submit articles, op-eds, and comments which are great!  (If you have a submission, send it to politicalspectrumpublishing@gmail.com or politicalzachfoster@gmail.com)

 

May every one of you have an amazing day with your families, friends, or improvised families and have a warm time of togetherness to reflect all you’re thankful for.  I send my warmest greetings and best wishes to all troops overseas, from Japan and South Korea to Belgium and Germany, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Kuwait and North Africa.  Stay safe, brothers and sisters!

 

If you’re not with loved ones right now and won’t be with loved ones today, go out right now!  Find someone who’s hanging out all alone and invite them to have a Thanksgiving dinner with you, whether it’s beef jerky in the park or a large meal at your home or a restaurant.  Make new friends that will stick with you through thick and thin!

 

Because of the fact that the original thanks givers were able to set their differences aside like adults, despite radically differing faiths, cultures, languages, and systems of ethics, I have hope for the future of mankind.  I have hope that the Palestinian will soon be able to sit and dine with the Israeli, that the Shi’ite will be able to sit with the Sunni, the North Korean with the South Korean, the Christian with the Muslim, that angry and estranged brothers in the United States will forgive and embrace each other again, and that Almighty God will warm the hearts of human beings through knowledge and understanding.

 

Have a happy Thanksgiving.  God bless you.

Remarks on North Korea

Remarks by Kurt M. Campbell

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs

Seoul, South Korea

June 10, 2011

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL:  In all of our meetings we urged China to make best efforts to encourage North Korea to improve relations with South Korea. I think it would be fair to say that the Chinese interlocutors were concerned by the disruptions in talks and a little surprised and very much want to see improvement in a dialogue between the North and the South and we've encouraged that process as well.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL: I think we have to recall that it is South Korea that has experienced the tragedies of the sinking of the Cheonan and the shelling of the island, and it is South Korea that has responded with dignity and we have enormous respect and support.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL:  We are still reviewing a substantial amount of data, we did very clearly communicate to South Korean friends that no decision has been taken and that under any circumstances, we will coordinate closely in advance with South Korea as we go forward.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL:  It would be fair to say that the Chinese interlocutors were concerned by the disruptions in talks and a little surprised and very much want to see improvement in a dialogue between the North and the South and we've encouraged that process as well.

Breaking the Cycle of North Korean Provocations

Stephen W. Bosworth

Special Representative for North Korea Policy

Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Chairman Kerry, Senator Lugar, and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today on Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The North Korea issue is one of the most important foreign policy challenges of our time. North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile program and proliferation activity pose an acute threat to a region of enormous economic vitality as well as to our global nonproliferation efforts and to our security interests more generally.

North Korea has repeatedly reneged on its commitments under the September 2005 Joint Statement made in the context of the Six-Party Talks. It has also failed to comply with a number of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) obligations. At the beginning of his administration, President Obama expressed a willingness to engage North Korea. It responded by conducting missile tests, expelling IAEA inspectors, announcing a nuclear test, disclosing its uranium enrichment program, and stating that the Six-Party Talks were “dead.” It also expelled the U.S. personnel delivering food aid to the North Korean people. The United States has been a leader of a unified international response to these North Korean provocations. The UN Security Council adopted UNSCRs 1718 and 1874, calling on North Korea to immediately cease its nuclear activities and provocative actions.

North Korea’s provocative actions have continued this past year, with its sinking of the Republic of Korea (ROK) corvette Cheonan in March and its artillery attack of South Korean Yeonpyong Island in November. The United Nations Security Council issued a strong statement condemning the attack which lead to the sinking of the Cheonan.

Following the attack on Yeonpyong Island, President Obama reaffirmed our commitment to the defense of the ROK and emphasized that we will stand “shoulder to shoulder” with our ally. The United States continues to demonstrate our commitment to deter North Korean provocations through joint military exercises with the ROK. For instance, the ROK participated in the November 27-30 USS George Washington Carrier Group exercises. We also continue to strengthen our non-proliferation efforts with regard to North Korea, including the adoption of new unilateral sanctions targeting DPRK illicit activities.

We strongly believe that North-South dialogue that takes meaningful steps toward reducing inter-Korean tensions and improving relations should precede a resumption of the Six-Party Talks. We believe North-South talks are an important opportunity for North Korea to demonstrate its sincerity and willingness to engage in dialogue. Ultimately, if North Korea fulfills its denuclearization commitments, the Five Parties are prepared to provide economic assistance and help to integrate North Korea into the international community.

In November, North Korea disclosed a uranium enrichment program and claimed that it was building a light-water nuclear reactor. These activities clearly violate North Korea’s commitments under the 2005 Joint Statement and its obligations under UNSCRs 1718 and 1874. The United States is working with Japan, South Korea and the UNSC to make clear that its Uranium Enrichment Program is prohibited by its commitments and obligations to UNSC resolutions 17818 and 1874 and the 2005 Joint Statement.

Looking into the future, we continue to firmly believe that a dual-track approach to North Korea offers the best prospects for achieving denuclearization and a stable region. We are open to meaningful engagement but will continue to pursue the full and transparent implementation of sanctions. We are looking for demonstrable steps by North Korea that it is prepared to meet its international obligations and commitments to achieve the goal of the 2005 Joint Statement: the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.

In the meantime, the United States is continuing to consult closely with our partners in the Six-Party process. President Obama and Secretary Clinton have been at the forefront of this effort, reaching out to leaders in Japan, South Korea, China, and Russia. In early January, I led an interagency delegation to the Republic of Korea, China, and Japan. In all three capitals, I met with senior government officials to discuss next steps on the Korean Peninsula. I was accompanied by Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks Sung Kim, who coordinates U.S. efforts on the Six-Party Talks and leads day-to-day engagement with Six-Party partners.

During a mid-January visit to the United States by PRC President Hu Jintao, we made progress on greater cooperation with the Chinese on North Korea issues. In a Joint Statement issued during the visit, both sides agreed that the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains our paramount goal. The United States and China also jointly “expressed concern regarding the DPRK’s claimed uranium enrichment program,” “opposed all activities inconsistent with the 2005 Joint Statement and relevant international obligations and commitments,” and “called for the necessary steps that would allow for the early resumption of the Six-Party Talks process to address this and other relevant issues.”

Immediately following this visit in late January, Deputy Secretary Steinberg led a mission to Seoul, Tokyo, and Beijing to further coordinate our approach to the Korean Peninsula.

In addition, we have further solidified our alliances with the ROK and Japan and have improved trilateral cooperation among the three countries in responding to the DPRK’s provocative and belligerent behavior. For example, at the December 6, 2010 U.S.-Japan-ROK Trilateral Ministerial meeting, Secretary Clinton, Japanese Foreign Minister Maehara, and ROK Foreign Minister Kim affirmed unity among the three nations and declared that the DPRK’s provocative and belligerent behavior threatens all three countries and will be met with solidarity from all three countries.

In the meantime, the United States continues to improve the implementation of unilateral and international sanctions on North Korea to constrain its nuclear and missile programs. On August 30, the President signed Executive Order (E.O.) 13551, giving the U.S. government new authorities to target North Korea’s conventional arms proliferation and illicit activities. The new E.O. designated one North Korean individual and five North Korean entities. The Departments of State and Treasury also recently designated five additional entities and three individuals under existing E.O. 13382, which targets North Korean WMD-related proliferation activities. We continue to urge the international community to implement UNSCRs 1718 and 1874 fully and transparently. At the same time, we have stated unequivocally that we will not lift sanctions on the DPRK just for their returning to talks.

In March 2009, the DPRK terminated the U.S. food aid program, ordering our humanitarian personnel out of the country and requiring that they leave behind 20,000 metric tons of undelivered U.S. food items. The United States remains deeply concerned about the well-being of the North Korean people, particularly in light of continuing reports of chronic food shortages. The U.S. government policy on humanitarian assistance and food aid is based on three factors: (1) level of need; (2) competing needs in other countries; and (3) our ability to ensure that aid is reliably reaching the people in need. This policy is consistent with our long-standing goal of providing emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of countries around the world where there are legitimate humanitarian needs. However, consistent with our practices worldwide, the United States will not provide food aid without a thorough assessment of actual needs and adequate program management, monitoring, and access provisions to ensure that food aid is not diverted or misused.

We work closely with the United Nations, including the Human Rights Council, other international and non-governmental organizations, and other governments to try to improve the human rights situation in North Korea. The State Department’s 2009 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for North Korea reports that the DPRK government continued to commit numerous serious abuses. Advancing human rights is a top U.S. priority in our North Korea policy. Any long-term improvement in U.S.-DPRK relations will be contingent, among several factors, on the DPRK making a serious effort to address human rights issues. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Robert King traveled to South Korea in early February to meet with South Korean government officials, as well as North Korean defectors, civil society groups, and North Korea experts. Ambassador King reports from his meetings that North Korea’s human rights and humanitarian situation continues to worsen.

We are also working closely with the UN and other organizations to protect North Korean refugees. The United States has urged China to adhere to its international obligations as a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, including by not expelling or refouling North Koreans protected under those treaties and undertaking to co-operate with UNHCR in the exercise of its functions. Although the vast majority of North Korean refugees choose resettlement in the ROK, the United States will consider resettling eligible North Korean refugees who express an interest in resettlement to the U.S. directly to U.S. embassies and consulates or through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We support increasing the flow of balanced information into the DPRK through independent broadcasters based in the ROK and in collaboration with the Broadcasting Board of Governors and its partners Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. The United States considers remains recovery operations to be an important humanitarian mission. We remain committed to achieving the fullest possible accounting for U.S. POW/MIAs from the Korean War, as well as from other conflicts.We are also carefully watching internal developments in North Korea, particularly as they relate to leadership succession and the promotion of heir apparent Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of Kim Jong-il, to key regime positions. In conclusion, we continue to work closely with our Six-Party partners in an effort to promote peace and stability on the Peninsula and achieve the goals of the 2005 Six-Party Joint Statement. We believe we can make progress in cooperation with our partners in Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, and Seoul. We are also working with our partners and the United Nations to advance human rights in North Korea, protect the status of North Korean refugees, and monitor the need for humanitarian assistance in North Korea. The door is open to Pyongyang to join and benefit from such an effort but only if it abandons the misguided notion that violence, threats, and provocation are the path toward achievement of its goals.

We face enormous challenges when dealing with North Korea. The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will not be easy to achieve, but we cannot abandon the goal. Through a strategy that combines openness to dialogue with a continuation of bilateral and multilateral sanctions, we believe we have an opportunity to bring about important improvements to the global nonproliferation regime and to regional and global security. We believe that our partners in the Six-Party process share this assessment and we will continue to work closely with them as we move forward.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I welcome any questions you may have.

Barack Obama and Hu Jintao

By Zach Foster

Many are puzzled and astonished by the flurry of information and rumors surrounding the President’s visits with Hu Jintao, President of the People’s Republic of China.  Democrats seem to be openly praising the President as a peace maker, while Republicans are very wary of this political courtship.  Some may evenly be using the President’s cross-visits with Hu Jintao as yet another convenient building block to further support their theory that the President is a Marxist-Leninist.

People are wary that Obama and Hu are trading military technologies and other sorts of things that make pacifists and gung-ho nationalists alike cringe.  However, no one seems to be taking in the big picture.  The President’s dialogue with the PRC continues a tradition dating back to President Nixon’s visit to Red China in 1972.  If Americans can manage to look past the ludicrous episode that was the Watergate scandal, they can remember that Nixon had some of the best foreign policy in American history.  The re-establishment of relations with Red China ensured that there would not be any further armed conflict between the United States and the PRC (Remember the U.S. had fought them in the Korean War, and Mao’s willingness to send his troops into the meat grinder is the only reason North Korea exists today).  It also further isolated the Soviet Union in the charade of Communist Internationalism, helping to bring about the eventual demise of the evil empire.

Yet, let us go back to those two words guaranteed to raise emotions: North Korea.  Yes, it’s old news that they sank the South Korean ship; yes, it’s old news that they shelled Yeonpyong Island and killed two ROK Marines and civilians.  Yes, it’s old news that the Red Dynasty in Korea has introduced its new leader Kim Jong Un.  This may come as a surprise to some, but alas, the North Korean leaders are thugs!  Though they are small, like an angry Chihuahua that keeps biting fingers and hands, they are a rabid dog that can cause damage even to the bigger dog that destroys it.  If we can look back to 1950-1953 and put two and two together to make four, we can come to the conclusion that the PRC hold’s North Korea’s leash.  The North Koreans know that if they lose the Chinese, they lose any assurance of survival.  Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un know they have the friendship of Hu Jintao, but now, so does Barack Obama.  If the President can get the Chinese to continue holding North Korea’s leash, then by all means, let the President carry on in the tradition of Nixonian foreign policy.

Actions to Judge Dictatorial Regime Called for in S. Korea

Here's one for irony!  A press release from the [North] Korean Central News Agency

Pyongyang, December 22 (KCNA) -- The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) of south Korea called for launching a nation-wide movement to judge the puppet dictatorial regime on December 16.

The DLP accused the "Grand National Party" and the "government" of railroading the budget for the new year through the "National Assembly" and turning it into a theater of rowdyism.

It made it clear that their rash actions once again clearly indicated their intention to head for dictatorship, trying no longer to reach an understanding with the people.

The DLP underscored the need to form a pan-national movement organization and launch strong and sustainable actions to judge the Lee Myung Bak regime in solidarity with the people of all circles including political parties, civic and public and religious organizations except the GNP.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism

Kevin D Williamson (Author)

"Stalin’s gulag, impoverished North Korea, collapsing Cuba...it’s hard to name a dogma that has failed as spectacularly as socialism. And yet leaders around the world continue to subject millions of people to this dysfunctional, violence-prone ideology.

In The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to Socialism, Kevin Williamson reveals the fatal flaw of socialism—that efficient, complex economies simply can’t be centrally planned. But even in America, that hasn’t stopped politicians and bureaucrats from planning, to various extents, the most vital sectors of our economy: public education, energy, and the most arrogant central–planning effort of them all, Obama’s healthcare plan.

In this provocative book, Williamson unfolds the grim history of socialism, showing how the ideology has spawned crushing poverty, devastating famines, and horrific wars. Lumbering from one crisis to the next, leaving a trail of economic devastation and environmental catastrophe, socialism has wreaked more havoc, caused more deaths, and impoverished more people than any other ideology in history—especially when you include the victims of fascism, which Williamson notes is simply a variant of socialism.

Williamson further demonstrates:

-Why, contrary to popular belief, socialism in theory is no better than socialism in practice

-Why socialism can’t exist without capitalism

-How the energy powerhouse of Venezuela, under socialism, has become an economic basket case subject to rationing and blackouts

-How socialism, not British colonialism, plunged the bountiful economy of India into stagnation and dysfunction—and how capitalism is rescuing it

-Why socialism is inextricably linked to communism

If you thought socialism went into the dustbin of history with the collapse of the Soviet Union, think again. Socialism is alive and kicking, and it’s already spread further than you know.

What’s the central characteristic of socialism? That’s easy—it’s failure.

From North Korea to the American public education system, from Venezuelan oil companies to ObamaCare, the reports of socialism’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Although the Soviet Union collapsed in ignominy, the central planning impulse that guided it endures in countless industries and government policies throughout the world. As Kevin Williamson explains in this myth–busting book, socialism never works because it can’t work. It assumes the authorities have all–knowing planning abilities that human beings don’t possess—and can’t possess. This central flaw has resulted in crushing poverty, devastating famine, and even mass murder. And yet the socialist “dream” is spreading—including here in America."

West Wing Week: "It's Alive!"

West Wing Week is your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Walk step by step with the President as he visits Afghanistan to celebrate the holidays with our men and women in uniform, announces a free trade agreement with South Korea, attends a series of meetings at the White House and holds a press conference to answer questions about the tax cut compromise, signs the Claims Resolution Act of 2010, and more.

Watch the West Wing Week video.