(North Korea) Election Intervention: A Question of Loyalty

Some good analysis below.  Of course the north will try to influence the election.  But I certainly hope the South Korean people realize what Moon's election might mean for north Korea.  The Sunshine Policy of 1997-2007 did nothing for South Korea.  Regime behavior did not change, the nuclear and missile programs continued unabated, provocations continued (some deadly), and all the South did was to fund the regime and save it from the internal pressures of its inability to feed its people.  The north's support of Moon should be a powerful signal to true patriots in South Korea that his election will mean more of the same from the north and an increasing burden on the South to keep the north afloat with a renewed Sunshine Policy.

Some good analysis below.  Of course the north will try to influence the election.  But I certainly hope the South Korean people realize what Moon's election might mean for north Korea.  The Sunshine Policy of 1997-2007 did nothing for South Korea.  Regime behavior did not change, the nuclear and missile programs continued unabated, provocations continued (some deadly), and all the South did was to fund the regime and save it from the internal pressures of its inability to feed its people.  The north's support of Moon should be a powerful signal to true patriots in South Korea that his election will mean more of the same from the north and an increasing burden on the South to keep the north afloat with a renewed Sunshine Policy.

V/R

Dave

Election Intervention: A Question of Loyalty

By Jeong Jae Sung [2012-11-22 18:39 ]

As expected, North Korea has mobilized its United Front Department this election season to try and  generate an ‘anti-Park Geun Hye’ movement in the South, but it has had little effect. Indeed, it is having  the opposite impact. The reason is, of course, because the South Korean people can no longer be moved by North Korea’s  “do you want war or peace” claims, while Pyongyang’s attempts to boost opposition candidates do little  more than arouse hostility, if they arouse anything at all. For example, this time around it was Park Geun  Hye who got a ratings boost when North Korea attempted to raise tensions over the Northern Limit Line  in the West Sea. Kim Young Hwan, a researcher with NKnet, commented on a recent TV show, “The North Korea variable  will not have such a big impact this year. The idea that North Korea is on the opposition candidate’s side  now rouses antipathy in the South Korean people. Eventually, it puts Park in a favorable position.” In other words, although, months after the Cheonan sinking of March 2010, North Korea raised the  “war or peace?” choice once again, causing young centrists to lean towards the progressives in regional  elections, the effect North Korea can have on major elections is seemingly far less significant. http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00400&num=10072 (Continued at the link above)

Rice Thievery Hitting Civ-Mil Relations (north Korea)

It is not unusual for the military to "requisition" rice and other resources from the civilian population.  Mostly though I think that is done in a more direct manner.  As noted in the conclusion this appears to be increasingly conducted by individual Soldiers. This could be significant if the military chain of command cannot control its Soldiers.  In addition, it is also an indication of the potential break down of the chain of command if the common Soldier is selling things on the black-market.  

V/R

Dave

Rice Thievery Hitting Civ-Mil Relations

By Choi Song Min [2012-11-24 06:46 ]

A source inside North Korea has revealed growing tension between some Chosun People's Army units  and the cooperative farms that surround them. The source, who hails from rural Onsung County in North Hamkyung Province, told Daily NK on the  22nd, “There is growing conflict between these military units and the farm management committees,  and that is because soldiers are forever going onto the farms in the middle of the night and cutting the  ears off rice plants.” The political sections of the accused military bases have reportedly promised to work with the local  National Security Agency to deal with the problem, but this has not occurred in any meaningful way,  the source added. http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=10076 (Continued at the link above)

PAP’s quiet counter-insurgency (Singapore)

Interesting perspective on media, propaganda, and 'counter-insurgency" conducted via the internet in Singapore.

V/R

Dave

PAP’s quiet counter-insurgency

INSIGHT: DOWN SOUTH By SEAH CHIANG NEE
cnseah05@hotmail.com

The ruling party’s digital initiative is to defend itself or go on the offensive against online critics, which include Opposition representatives.

MORE details have emerged from one of the world’s most unusual government operations which involve sending teams of agents into cyberspace to take on its critics.

It was launched by the People’s Action Party (PAP) five years ago under Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and several top MPs to counter a rising tide of anti-establishment postings.

It formed a new media committee, which included what The Straits Times described in 2007 as “a quiet PAP counter-insurgency” group. It would send teams of members anonymously into various message boards to rebut anti-government criticisms.

A PAP activist was quoted then as saying that his job was to track popular blogs and forums to “see if there is anything we can clarify” on controversial issues such as the impending hike in the Goods and Services Tax.

Then on Oct 11, a blog threw more light on the operation allegedly with information supplied by a former agent. It also promised more reports. (Five days later the movement posted an offer to buy Internet user IDs from account holders, paying each a few hundred dollars or more. The longer they had been used, the higher the value.)

http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?col=insightdownsouth&file=/2012/11/24/columnists/insightdownsouth/12360876&sec=Insight%20Down%20South

(Continued at link above)

Shall we pivot? A dance of giants

In the Malaysian press.  Author: Devadas Krishnadas is the director of Future-Moves, a foresight consultancy based in Singapore. He is a Fulbright scholar.

Some critical commentary highlighted by the subheadings:

MERELY REINTERPRETED
CHINA: THE NEW “OTHER”
ARMED CONFLICT BY 2020s?
THE CRITICAL UNCERTAINTY: US LEADERSHIP

But this is a very interesting assessment:

The second is the notion of a global war on terrorism (GWOT). As conceptualised under the Bush doctrine, the idea was a perversion of the Kennedy commitment to support freedom at any price.

V/R

Dave

Shall we pivot? A dance of giants — Devadas Krishnadas

November 23, 2012

NOV 23 — It has become routine for American presidents to visit key allies after an election to affirm relations.

Hitherto this has meant travel to the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. It is a matter of significance that President Barack Obama has chosen to make his very first international trip following his re-election to Asia. Much has been made of what this could signify. The fashionable descriptive word is “pivot”.

Pivot connotes a shifting of concentration of mind and will to Asia. This would suggest a shifting away from something else. What is this something else, and is there really a shift taking place?

This somewhere else could be said to be a composite of two ideas.

The first is historical, which is America’s focus on Europe. After a near century of engagement with and in Europe in hot and cold wars, it is taking the view that the power balance is more counter-weighted by an ascendant Asia than by a stagnating Europe.

The second is the notion of a global war on terrorism (GWOT). As conceptualised under the Bush doctrine, the idea was a perversion of the Kennedy commitment to support freedom at any price.

But rather than be in support of an ideal, it had the goal of defending the homeland by perpetrating violence on perceived threats from non-state actors anywhere in the world.

It could be argued that the GWOT was consistent with the Kennedy doctrine of supporting freedom, save that it limited itself to an exclusive concern over the freedom of Americans.

MERELY REINTERPRETED

On closer inspection, neither of the above truly constitutes shift.

America is not going to disengage from Europe. Its historical ties are profound and bathed in blood both literally and figuratively — the former through two world wars and the latter by virtue of the bitter contest of political ideas during a half-century Cold War.

Its relationship with Europe has also become intertwined with GWOT. Over the past 10 years, the notion has been seated that terrorism perpetrated by Islamic extremists has, as its general target, the West within which the United States is merely the most prominent target.

The attacks in London and Madrid are only the most obvious manifestation of this conception. Less obviously are the many terrorist operations which have been disrupted by intelligence and police services in Europe, often (though not always) as a result of intelligence sharing with US agencies.

In so far as American involvement is concerned, the war in Iraq is effectively over while that in Afghanistan will soon be too. However, this does not mean that America’s commitment to disrupt and, where possible, destroy terrorist groups which target it or its European allies will be diminished.

What it does mean is that these interdictions will henceforth more likely take the form of covert action than all-out warfare.

So, there is no lessening of commitment to America’s interest in Europe as a strategic geo-political geography and nor a reduction in focus on the threat from terrorism. Both are merely being reinterpreted, and not for the first or last time.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/shall-we-pivot-a-dance-of-giants-devadas-krishnadas

(Continued at the link above)

Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT) – Same Song, New Melody?

From this Open Source Intelligence blog (which has this pithy motto in its banner: “THE REAL INTELLIGENCE HERO IS SHERLOCK HOLMES, NOT JAMES BOND.”)

V/R

Dave

Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT) – Same Song, New Melody?

Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT)

Without setting the schmaltzy pride of belated parents aside, David Omand, Jamie Bartlett and Carl Miller – as an online first article in Taylor & Francis’ well-established periodical ‘Intelligence and National Security‘ – are ‘Introducing Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT)‘. What the world needed, was yet another INT, and here it is. Of course, despite the claim of its authors, SOCMINT is nothing new at all in the OSINT domain, but merely a rebranding of one specific range of its application. Thematically rather related is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) latest publication ‘The Use of the Internet for Terrorist Purposes‘, also a “first of its kind” according to UNODC (maybe a first for them, but probably not for academia, think tanks, security services etc.). So let’s have a quick look at both.

Introducing Social Media Intelligence

The peg on which the authors hang their paper are the intelligence lessons to be learned from the 2011 England riots, and it seems like one prime source of their findings is the admittedly excellent account of the Guardian’s collaborative ‘Reading the Riots‘ project (make sure to check out the pieces on ‘How the English rioters used social media’, ‘Twitter traffic during the riots’, and ‘The England ‘riot commute’ mapped’). Now using social media information for law enforcement purposes is something rather common, although far from being based on a coherent methodological and ethical framework which the authors strive to deliver. Two German examples that come to mind are Hannover police successfully using (or, due to legal unclarities, having used) Facebook to crowd-source hints for manhunts, and the 2011 eviction of Berlin’s Liebgigstr. 14 where Twitter has played a key operational role for dozens of left-wing activists mobilizing hundreds of demonstrators, and directing their – partly violent – response to the ongoing police operation.

In the following, SOCMINT is described – in my words, not the authors’ – as technical law enforcement intelligence, both open or non-open. In our model that would equate to OSINT/TECHINT or NOSINT/TECHINT with the slight difference that we usually focus on national security intelligence requirements.

http://osintblog.org/?p=1462

(Continued at the link above)

In North Korea, Chinese Maoists find the land of their dreams

Interesting comparison of China and north Korea from a Chinese tourist point of view.  Excerpt:

“I love [North] Korea!” exclaimed one of the tourists, who teaches physical education at a school in the central province of Hubei. “It is like a pure maiden, while China is like a heavily made-up young wife,” he went on, to murmurs of approval from others as they drove through Pyongyang’s grim streets. The teacher jokingly asked an accompanying guide how he could emigrate to North Korea. 

A retired official from a state-owned oil firm praised the “purity” of North Koreans compared with the Chinese, whose hearts were “filled with black-and-white cats”; a reference to Deng Xiaoping’s famously pragmatic dismissal of ideology, that it doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.

V/R

Dave

Chinese Maoists in North Korea

Paradise lost

In North Korea, Chinese Maoists find the land of their dreams

Nov 24th 2012 | HOECHANG, PANMUNJOM, PYONGYANG AND SHENYANG | from the print edition

Those were the days

AFTER a long drive up a narrow dirt track through hills east of Pyongyang, a North Korean tour bus dropped the Chinese tourists near a wooded graveyard. In front of it, on a concrete pedestal, stood a bronze bust of Mao Anying, the eldest son of Mao Zedong. This was their holy grail. One by one they laid wreaths and bowed in reverence (see picture). One man kowtowed. Several wept as they delivered speeches in honour of the younger Mao, who died during the Korean war. “We must clean China up and turn it a brilliant red,” said one. Another led the group in chants of “Socialism will be victorious!”

For most members of the group of 15 tourists (except one who was there to report for The Economist) the visit to North Korea was a welcome relief after a grim year. As die-hard Maoists, they believe that China’s leaders are betraying the ideals of the communist country’s founder and leading it to enslavement by the West and perdition. The past few months have seen the purging of their idol, a Mao-quoting member of the Politburo, Bo Xilai, and the closure by the Chinese government of some of their most outspoken websites.

Many of China’s new middle class regard the Maoists as members of a nutty fringe. But to the poor and marginalised, as well as a few idealistic intellectuals, their views are appealing. During their four days in North Korea in October, the Maoists found a country that appeared to be following the right path: one that, in their view, Mao had started down but which his diminutive successor, Deng Xiaoping, had abandoned. “Dwarf Deng destroyed the lives of peasants,” says one member of the group, staring from the bus at new two-storey houses in the countryside on the way to Mao Anying’s memorial in Hoechang county. The suspicions of Potemkinism that constantly prey on the minds of foreign tourists in North Korea appeared not to trouble them.

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21567131-north-korea-chinese-maoists-find-land-their-dreams-paradise-lost/print

(Continued at the link above)

(north Korean Propaganda) Little Nina is looking at a revolutionary country

This is interesting.  Forwarded from a friend. Apparently this was just established last month.

This seems to be an interesting new propaganda effort by the Kim Family Regime (new to me as I have not noticed such an effort before).  Not a bad idea as it is apparently an attempt to give a look inside of north Korea through the eyes of a young child through photographs taken by what would be assumed to be her mother.  I think the propagandists believe this format (note it is on a wordpress blog) of using personal "family" photos would appeal to target audiences outside north Korea.  Of course the photos appear to put the north into a positive light but if you study the photos there is much to note about what is wrong with north Korea (e.g., only the north Korean elite are featured in the photos with very empty backgrounds and those that are not part of the regime elite in the easy to recognize – note things such as the staged "traffic jam in Pyongyang or the "advanced" double wing aircraft at the very modern airport!) .  But this is a fascinating propaganda effort.

V/R

Dave

Nina looking at things

Little Nina is looking at a revolutionary country

http://ninalookingatthings.wordpress.com/

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Nina is an always happy baby who will show you the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and its capital city Pyongyang through her eyes.

Nina wishes the people of the whole world being friendly and respectful to each other, no matter whether they come from east or west, from north or south.

Enjoy Nina’s looking at the things around her and get some insight into the DPRK’s daily life, like nobody on the web ever got before.