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Giving confirmation to what had long been assumed, South Korean Minister of Defense Han Min-koo admits that there is an official government plan to assassinate Kim Jong-un in the case of a legitimate nuclear threat.
Sep 12, 2016The UN may call for new sanctions, but unless the Chinese cut off airspace and ports, close the border, stop the North Koreans from using the Chinese financial system… the sanctions aren’t going to work.
↩︎ Quartz
The U.S.'s immediate response to North Korea's fifth and largest successful nuclear test has been its usual one: threatening stricter sanctions, but a 2014 study published by George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs found that sanctions have little effect on the growth of North Korea's nuclear program, and in some cases have helped it grow.
Additionally, a UN panel found in February that many nations that sign on to UN sanctions of North Korea fail to follow through with them, most notably China, where a recent ABC News investigation found that security along the 870-mile-long border between the two countries is "minimal" and allows hundreds of trucks to pass through to North Korea unsearched.
Aid organizations allowed to operate in North Korea are making public pleas for international assistance after at least 100,000 people were left homeless by floods brought on by Typhoon Lionrock near the border with China.
Pyongyang put the number dead at 133 and missing at 395, but the head of the local chapter of the International Federation of the Red Cross told the Washington Post he believes those statistics are underestimates. The North Korean government is expected to join the aid organizations in making appeals for help, days after successfully launching its most powerful nuclear weapon yet and firing three ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
"Perhaps there is a distant hope that given the scale of the disaster, maybe the international community might respond," said Bradley Williams, a professor of international relations at City University of Hong Kong. "But these hopes are undermined by their recent nuclear test—it's hard to pinpoint the psychology behind it."
The government is also shifting the focus of a just-launched 200-day mandatory "loyalty campaign" to cement support for Kim Jong-Un to one of mandatory support of the recovery and rebuilding effort. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, shelters for over 40,000 people and health care services for nearly 160,000 are immediately necessary in the region that was hit.
Sep 13, 2016The United States cannot rely on China for North Korea. China is closer to North Korea than the United States.
↩︎ The New York Times
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense issued a statement saying that it is preparing "for the worst case scenario" after North Korea tested its most powerful nuclear weapon yet last week—its fifth successful nuclear test, and second this year—and fired three ballistic missiles that flew over 600 miles and crashed into the Sea of Japan today as world leaders met at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Vientiane, Laos.
The missile tests swiftly earned the unanimous condemnation of the UN Security Council, including China. According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the missiles tested were likely ER Scud, which have the ability to reach a US naval base in Japan. It has long been a goal of the North Korean nuclear program to achieve "survivable nuclear capability," or the ability to quickly launch missiles from submarines and launchpads to thwart any pre-emptive attack.
The language of North Korea's statement regarding the tests suggests it is approaching that capability, saying that it had "standardized" nuclear warheads. As of last month, according to the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan organization started by former defense and military officials in the '70s, North Korea's nuclear capabilities still lag far behind those of other nuclear states, with just eight total warheads, compared with the second-lowest amount, Israel's 80.
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