Gist of S. Korea's unification, foreign, defense policies for 2015

Good  talking points summery of the key policies of the ROK.

Gist of S. Korea's unification, foreign, defense policies for 2015

http://m.yna.co.kr/mob2/en/contents_en.jsp?domain=3&ctype=A&site=0100000000&cid=AEN20150116006200315&mobile

2015-01-19 10:00

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   The following is the gist of South Korea's major inter-Korean, foreign and defense policies for 2015 unveiled jointly Monday by the Ministry of Unification, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense.


Inter-Korean relations
   -- Propose the blueprint for a unified peninsula in order to drum up public support for unification.

   -- Step up education for young students to better prepare them for future unification.

   -- Push for joint inter-Korean projects: a joint commemorative event marking the 70th anniversary of Koreas' independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule and a trial-run of a train line linking the two Koreas.

   -- Push to set up Korean cultural centers in Seoul and Pyongyang and to jointly publish a handbook for Korean culture and living.

   -- Plan to advance the Kaesong Industrial Complex for further mutual benefits and build joint economic infrastructure for future unification.


Foreign affairs
   -- Strengthen strategic coordination to move forward N. Korea's nuclear and human rights issues.

   -- Push proactively for mini-lateral diplomacy within region.

   -- Make efforts to accelerate the realization of President Park Geun-hye's two visions for regional cooperation -- "the Northeast Asia Peace Cooperation Initiative" and "the Eurasia Initiative."

   -- Be actively engaged in diplomacy with the United Nations to improve situations on the peninsula to spearhead efforts to bring changes to geopolitical situations on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

   -- Promote international cooperation to ease pains resulting from the inter-Korean division.

   -- Pursue humanitarian diplomacy toward peaceful unification.

   -- Strengthen economic diplomacy that can contribute to inter-Korean unification.

   -- Broaden diplomatic networks with like-minded countries to help advance inter-Korean unification.

   -- Expand public diplomacy for unification.


Defense
   -- Maintain firm military readiness posture to guarantee strong foundation for national defense.

   -- Conduct practical-level education and training for service personnel.

   -- Improve welfare for servicemembers and reform barracks culture.

   -- Push for "creative national defense" to be fully prepared to meet future challenges.

   -- Strengthen defense capabilities to usher in the era of national reunification.

   SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Yonhap)

A 90 minute talk by Dr. Rich Hooker on American Grand Strategy with students from Georgetown University's Security Studies Program.  It is based on his monograph published at NDU last fall.  It is at this link and I commend it.  http://inss.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/Books/grand-strategy-us.pdf

However, his talk goes beyond it and in the Q&A he discusses Grand Strategy in today's context to include in Syria and Iraq.  He makes some very thought provoking remarks on a wide range of strategic issues.

"American Grand Strategy" with Dr. Richard Hooker

Georgetown University Center for Security Studies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axJMO6UX6hA&feature=youtu.be

Published on Jan 16, 2015

Dr. Richard Hooker, Director of the Institute for National Security Studies at the National Defense University discusses the grand strategy of the United States at the CSS lunchtime series.

Seems like people are beginning to take notice of the importance of being able to counter unconventional warfare being conducted by our adversaries.  The practice of unconventional and political warfare is growing.  Revolutions, resistance, and insurgency (RRI) and the strategies that underpin them are not going away and major state and non-state actors are going to continue to exploit the conditions of RRI to serve their own ends.

I do not have a subscription to CQ.com so if anyone has access to the additional articles mentioned and wants to share them I am happy to receive them and forward them to my various distribution lists.

These remain my key talking points:

1. The future is characterized (not exclusively of course) by states and non-state actors conducting UW and thus there is a requirement to conduct Counter-UW. SOF is organized, educated, trained, equipped and optimized for both (but does not conduct them unilaterally or in a vacuum but as one element of the means in support of a joint campaign and national strategy)
2. We have the greatest Surgical Strike capability in the world but we need to prioritize and resource correctly (but not necessarily equally) our Special Warfare capabilities. 
3. We need Strategists and Policy Makers who have a deep (or at least sufficient) understanding of and value the strategic options of  offered by UW and Counter-UW. 
4. Effective Special Warfare (which includes UW and counter-UW) is counter-intuitively characterized by slow and deliberate employment - long duration actions and activities, relationship establishment, development, and sustainment.
5. SOF will have always have a role in hybrid conflict and major combat operations.

This remains my thesis:

     Policy Makers and strategists do not have a deep appreciation for or understanding of the strategic value of the full range of options that SOF can provide in the realm of Irregular Warfare or more specifically Unconventional Warfare, Political Warfare, or Unconventional Statecraft.
Alternatively stated:  Policy Makers and strategists must have a deep appreciation for and understanding of the strategic value of the full range of SOF options to effectively support US national security objectives in the future uncertain operating environment that can be characterized as few existential threats facing the US but a wide range of irregular, unconventional, and political warfare threats against our friends, partners and allies.

New House Armed Services Chairman Plans Focus on Unconventional Warfare

http://blogs.rollcall.com/five-by-five/new-house-armed-services-chairman-plans-focus-on-unconventional-warfare/?dcz=

By Tim StarksPosted at 7 a.m. Jan. 14, 2015

0

©Reprints

Thornberry at a 2013 hearing. (Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call)

In an interview with CQ Roll Call, new House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said he planned to focus the committee on unconventional warfare by the likes of China, Russia and others.

As part of a larger talk on his agenda and philosophy, Thornberry said he would hold hearings on that subject.

“Another difficult topic I think we need to explore is, what are Russia, China, others doing in the way of unconventional warfare?” Thornberry said Tuesday. “Not troops in uniforms marching in formation across borders, but the subversion and other sorts of influence attempts.”

Thornberry said some of the hearings might be in public, while some might have to be briefings behind closed doors. He said the committee was still working through what can be talked about in the open and what has to be discussed in a classified setting.

“There have been several things written – and it’s not just Russia – but the way they have caused trouble in Ukraine, with the early stage where they didn’t have clear uniforms,” he said. “But you could probably broaden it too much. How does Hezbollah work with the Iranians, for instance, in broadening their interests? What kinds of things are happening around the world that are not the conventional military approaches that we think of, and are we equipped and situated to meet those things?”

“It’s not just the terrorists that are using these unconventional threats,” Thornberry said. “State actors are as well. I think it’s something we need to dig more into.”

CQ.com subscribers can read additional stories from the interview Wednesday.

The South seeks unification by integration and consensus.  We should keep in mind that the north seeks unification by force and domination.

I would recommend that the ROK pursue this as an end state as part of its overt strategy but of course even this would be unacceptable to the Kim Family Regime:

• A stable, secure, peaceful, economically vibrant, non-nuclear peninsula, reunified under a liberal constitutional form of government determined by the Korean people.

S. Korea does not seek unification by absorption: official

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2015/01/13/41/0401000000AEN20150113005700315F.html

2015/01/13 14:13

SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has no intention of absorbing North Korea as a way to unify the two Koreas, but it will seek to achieve unification peacefully and in a step-by-step manner, a Seoul official said Tuesday.

The remark by the official of the Ministry of Unification, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, was made in response to the North's repeated criticisms of President Park Geun-hye's unification policy.

Last Thursday, the North's National Defense Commission demanded the South come up with a clear stance on unification, asking whether Seoul is willing to have a peaceful unification or stick to ideological confrontations.

"Our government is not seeking unification by abortion as the North claims," the ministry official said. "The incumbent government is on the same line of previous governments' unification policy, which seeks unification (of the Koreas) in a gradual and step-by-step manner, based on autonomy, peace and democracy," the official noted.

The government's stance is that the two Koreas should first built trust through dialogue and cooperation for the phase-in of unification because the South and the North currently suffer a lack of trust and dialogue, the official added.

Since President Park's inauguration in 2013, she has highlighted efforts to expedite preparations for unification, with the North accusing Park of advocating unification through the absorption of the communist country into the capitalist system.

The official also repeated the ministry's intention to intervene in a local activist group's provocative campaign to send DVDs of an anti-Pyongyang film in balloons across the border. The U.S. comedy "The Interview" revolves around a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The local group is planning to launch balloons carrying the DVDs to the North in a campaign meant to spread dissenting messages in the reclusive country later in the month.

"We plan to ask them to make a wise choice (to stop) to prevent any risks that can be posed on the life and property of citizens at the border area," the official said.

The North has previously threatened to retaliate against anti-North campaigns.

pbr@yna.co.kr

(END)

FOLLOW-UP COMMENTS U.S. takes aim at North Korea's remaining financial links

As expected I received these comments from one of our Korea Watchers who knows a lot about north Korean finances and illicit activities, Dr. Bruce Bechtol who clarifies the article and asks the all important question:

Notice this piece talks about what the US government CAN DO.  Not what they HAVE DONE.  This opens the door for the Obama administration to truly go after North Korean financial networks and the front companies that support them.

The question is, and this is an important question…

Will the Obama administration actually use the power these new sanctions authorize?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Maxwell <David.Maxwell@georgetown.edu>
Date: Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 5:07 PM
Subject: U.S. takes aim at North Korea's remaining financial links
To:

Seems like we are embarking on a path to try to achieve Banco Delta Asia-like effects.  This seems like good news.  I look forward to hearing the analysis of the Korea hands on this.

Excerpt:

New sanctions announced by President Barack Obama on Jan 2. provided "a tremendous amount of flexibility" and the goal was to identity remaining financial institutions that allowed North Korea access to the global system, which could face sanction themselves, Glaser told a House of Representatives briefing.

"We could target any North Korean government agency; we could target any North Korean government official ... we could apply sanctions with respect to any individual or entity who is providing them, in turn, material support," he said.

U.S. takes aim at North Korea's remaining financial links

BY DAVID BRUNNSTROM

WASHINGTON Tue Jan 13, 2015 4:26pm EST

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/13/us-northkorea-usa-idUSKBN0KM2AO20150113

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives field guidance to the newly-built Pyongyang City Mushroom Farm in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang January 10, 2015.

CREDIT: REUTERS/KCNA

(Reuters) - The United States aims to use new sanctions imposed on North Korea over the cyber attack on Sony Pictures to cut off the country's remaining links to the international financial system, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Tuesday.

Daniel Glaser, assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the U.S. Treasury Department, said past sanctions had already discouraged "hundreds" of overseas banks, including China's major commercial banks, from doing business with North Korea.

New sanctions announced by President Barack Obama on Jan 2. provided "a tremendous amount of flexibility" and the goal was to identity remaining financial institutions that allowed North Korea access to the global system, which could face sanction themselves, Glaser told a House of Representatives briefing.

"We could target any North Korean government agency; we could target any North Korean government official ... we could apply sanctions with respect to any individual or entity who is providing them, in turn, material support," he said.

Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called for use of the full scope of the new sanctions announced after U.S. authorities said North Korea was behind the Sony attack. North Korea has denied involvement.

"The significance of this new Executive Order may come from the broad power it gives the president to target anyone who is a part of the North Korean government, or is assisting them in any way … that is if the administration chooses to use it to its full advantage," he told the briefing.

"We need to step up and target those financial institutions in Asia and beyond that are supporting the brutal and dangerous North Korean regime."

When challenged by Royce about "a number of small banks" still doing business with North Korea and the need to choke off the country's access to hard currency, Glaser replied: "That's exactly what we are trying to do."

Royce said he hoped a bipartisan bill he sponsored that would label North Korea "a primary money laundering concern" would be passed by the Senate this year.

    Long-standing international sanctions have sought to push North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program, but while they have slowed the program, they have not stopped it.

North Korea's main economic ties are with China and, according U.S. government reports, the country's tiny economy has supported itself with money-making scams ranging from counterfeiting $100 bills to illicit arms sales and drug smuggling.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; editing by Gunna Dickson)

The north is putting the charm offensive in full swing. Notice they are responding to the US rejection of their offer without responding to President Park's overtures.  We should always keep in mind two things.  One of the keys to the north's strategy is to always try to split the ROK/US Alliance.  Second, the north believes it is superior to the South and that by dealing directly with the US its own legitimacy is enhanced.   It does not want to give the appearance that it treats the South as an equal.

N. Korea offers to meet U.S. on rejected nuclear test proposal

BY MICHELLE NICHOLS

UNITED NATIONS Wed Jan 14, 2015 5:00am IST

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/01/13/northkorea-usa-un-idINKBN0KM2GJ20150113

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South Korean soldiers take part in an anti-terror drill in Seoul August 18, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/KIM HONG-JI/FILES

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(Reuters) - North Korea offered on Tuesday to meet directly with the United States in a bid to sway Washington after it rejected Pyongyang's proposal to suspend nuclear tests if annual U.S. military drills with South Korea were shelved.

North Korea's Deputy U.N. Ambassador An Myong Hun told a news conference at the United Nations that if Pyongyang's proposal was accepted then "many things will be possible this year on the Korean Peninsula." He did not elaborate.

On Saturday, the U.S. State Department called the offer by North Korea a veiled threat that inappropriately linked nuclear tests and the joint military exercises that have been carried out for decades.

"The government of the DPRK (North Korea) is ready to explain its intention behind this proposal directly to the United States. We're ready for that if the United States wants additional explanation about our proposal," An told reporters.

An said the "meaningful and significant proposal" was made on Friday through "appropriate channels."

"By refusing to accept our proposal ... the United States has shown once again that they will continue to increase attack military capabilities in South Korea while requesting us not to have our own national defense capabilities. This is absolutely unacceptable and cannot be justified by anything," he said.

North Korea is under an array of United Nations, U.S. and other national sanctions for repeated nuclear and ballistic missile tests since 2006 in defiance of international demands to stop.

It often promises to call off nuclear and missile tests in return for comparable steps by Washington to ease tensions. It reached such a deal in February 2012 with the United States for an arms tests moratorium only to scrap it two months later.

The United States and South Korea have said the annual military drills are purely defensive, aimed at testing the allies' readiness to confront any North Korean aggression.

Earlier on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel said the United States has no problem talking with North Korea.

"But talking is not negotiating. And our insistence is that North Korea come to the table prepared to honor its obligations and commitments, prepared to take meaningful steps that constitute credible and authentic negotiations," he said.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by David Gregorio)

Kim Jong-un ordered a plan for a 7-day asymmetric war: officials

Very interesting.  I wonder if this information has been vetted and found to be accurate.  I am not surprised that Kim would order something like this and that his Generals would develop a plan for this. I would be surprised if any military professional in the north or South (or in the US) thought that this could be successful.  We have always known that the north believes that it has to win quickly before the US can reinforce the Peninsula - it has to rapidly cross the Han river and then get to Pusan.  It is not at all unreasonable that the north would devote its "asymmetric capabilities" to achieve success before the US can adequately respond.

However, the real danger is not that it would work (because it won't)  but that Kim might miscalculate and order execution.  If the plan exists it could get executed especially if Kim is faced with threats (internal or external).  And with his inexperience and what I suspect is a mindset that is both arrogant and militarily uninformed he may resort to executing such a plan long before his father or grandfather would have.  The uncertainty of Kim Jong-un's military leadership and decision making (based on advice from sycophantic generals who only hope to survive in style)  is what worries me.

Kim Jong-un ordered a plan for a 7-day asymmetric war: officials

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2999392&cloc=joongangdaily%7Chome%7Cnewslist1

Jan 08,2015

	North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversees a tactical missile-firing drill of western front-line troops in July 2014. [Rodong Sinmun]

North Korea has a new war plan to complete a Southern invasion within a week using asymmetric capabilities including nuclear weapons, a high-profile defector and South Korean government officials told the JoongAng Ilbo.

The war plan was created less than a year after Kim Jong-un assumed power, a South Korean official told the JoongAng Ilbo quoting a defector who used to serve in a senior position in the North Korean military.

According to the official, Kim Jong-un hosted a top military-party meeting in Wonsan on Aug. 25, 2012, and approved the new war plan. The young ruler became the supreme commander of the North’s Korean People’s Army on Dec. 30, 2011, shortly after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.

“In addition to Kim Jong-un, all members of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party and the top brass of the military who command a unit larger than a corps attended the meeting,” the former senior official of the North Korean military was quoted as saying.

“At the meeting, a larger framework of the operations plan created by the [General Staff Department of the] Korean People’s Army was determined. Kim then ordered that each commander of a corps create detailed operations plans for their units based on the war plan and conduct exercises.”

South Korean intelligence authorities confirmed the creation of the new war plan by the North.

Following the Wonsan meeting, Kim held three more similar conferences to check on the progress and frequently visited military commands and units to have site inspections, sources from the intelligence communities said.

“We received similar intelligence in the past,” said another senior government official. “Recently, we obtained credible information and we are at the final stages of analysis.”

According to government sources, the South Korean military is coming up with an updated operations plan that reflects the North’s new war plan. The South has a Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command basic war plan, known as OPLAN 5027. It guarantees U.S. reinforcements for the South in the event of an external armed attack, primarily from the North. The war plan has gone through several modifications over the decades.

Sources told the JoongAng Ilbo that the new North Korean war plan can be summarized as a “seven-day war.” Should the North start an invasion or should a localized battle become an all-out war on the peninsula, the North intends to occupy the entire South Korean territory within seven days before U.S. reinforcements arrive.

It also contains a plan to conclude the war within 15 days at most if the North cannot end the war within a week due to resistance by the South and U.S. Forces Korea.

Under the new war plan, the North plans to use asymmetric capabilities including nuclear weapons and missiles to forestall South Korean and U.S. troops in the early stage of war. Special operations forces, which were increased from 80,000 to 200,000 in the last few years, will be mobilized next and conventional weapons such as tanks, artilleries, fighter jets and ground forces will be used later to conclude the war, according to the plan.

Sources said Kim ordered the military to complete preparations for a war by 2013, but the deadline was extended one year. This year was declared as the “year of a great war for unification,” the sources said.

“After Kim took power, the North conducted a series of long-range missile firings and carried out its third nuclear test. It also developed new weapons and reinforced military drills,” a government official said. “While Kim Jong-il mobilized the military to rebuild the economy, Kim Jong-un ordered massive military drills frequently and bolstered arms capabilities because of this new war plan.”

North Korea’s third nuclear test was in February 2013, and last year it carried out 18 test firings of 108 missiles. A military exercise also took place to prepare all front-line units to occupy the South’s guard posts at the border. An airborne drill was carried out with 12,000 special forces and an AN-2 low-altitude parachute drop aircraft.

The latest Defense White Paper by the South, released on Tuesday, also illustrated the North’s concentrated investments in asymmetric capabilities.

Military and intelligence officials said the young ruler in Pyongyang has concluded that his impoverished Communist country cannot win a war against the advanced capabilities of the South-U.S. Combined Forces with conventional troops.

“An arms race became impossible for the North since the mid-1990s due to its perennial economic hardships,” a senior South Korean military official said. “It turned to a strategy of beefing up its asymmetric capabilities because they are less costly, but far much more effective.”

Another intelligence official told the JoongAng Ilbo that the new war plan was an outcome of analyzing the latest U.S. military operations. “The North did thorough analyses of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the source said. “It concluded that it won’t have a chance if a war drags on. To end it quickly, Pyongyang reached a decision that asymmetric warfare is the only answer, despite the pressures and condemnations of the international community.”

The young ruler’s aggressive investment in asymmetric capabilities may have a domestic purpose, other experts said.

“As a new leader, Kim is trying to boost the morale of the people,” said Shin In-kyun, head of the private think tank Korea Defense Network. “By showing off nuclear weapons and missiles, he probably intended to present a rosy picture to the people that the North can stop a U.S. invasion.”

BY JEONG YONG-SOO, SER MYO-JA [myoja@joongang.co.kr]