US-DPRK: Mine's Bigger than Yours

(Source- Channel A News Top Ten, 5.9)

North Korea has fired two more guided missiles from a launch site inland near Sino Ri, North Pyongyan Province. The flight paths carried the missiles eastward toward the Sea of Japan/East Sea. The first launch at 4:30 pm Seoul time was estimated as a 420 to 430 km flight. The second launch at 4:50 pm was estimated at 270 km. The prior guided missile flight from the Hodo peninsula on April 4, was 240 km.

The US announced on April 9 that it had seized a North Korean coal freighter Wise Honest on or about April 2. The US also fired another Minuteman III ICBM in a second exercise on April 9, the missile was targeted at the Kwajalein range in the Marshal Islands. This was the second Minuteman III test launch in just over a week. It is believed that the US Minuteman ICBM launch on the 9th was almost contemporaneous with the two North Korean Sino Ri launches. Reportedly the Vandenburg launch took place ten minutes after the first North Korean launch. The claim that this second Minuteman launch was a routine exercise launch seems disingenuous. The USS Rhode Island test fired a Trident SLBM off the Florida east coast April 9, a few hours later. The headlines appear to be trying to relate this Navy launch to the North Korean situation to get the most mileage out of it.

(Source- KBS 24 youtube podcast April 26) Panmunjeom Declaration, one year special edition discussion. Pak Ji Won, Democratic Peace Party representive; Jeong Se Hyun, former Unification Minister; Moon Chung In, President's special adviser for unification policy, foreign relations, and national security.


Stephen Biegun is in Seoul purportedly to discuss negotiating approaches to North Korea. South Korea intends to carry out humanitarian food aid to North Korea. The White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the US would not oppose it. I have the distinct impression from listening to an open discussion among the three "wise men" of South Korea concerning unification policies, April 26, calling for more courage from the Moon Administration in a difficult situation, that the humanitarian aid would go ahead whether the US consented or not. The wise men also called for South Korea to draw up a road map for denuclearization with each step delineated on a schedule with tangible actions for North Korea and tangible reciprocal measures by the US including easing of sanctions incrementally as progress is made along the way. Why the US hasn't done this yet reflects on the character of its "negotiating" effort.