On the Korean Peninsula

How is that Singapore thing working out?:

North Korea is building a massive underground facility on Mayang Island off Sinpo in South Hamgyong Province to deploy a new 3,000-ton submarine capable of carrying three to four ballistic missiles, the government here said Sunday.

"We've detected recent construction of an underground facility at the submarine base," a military spokesman here said. "The project seems to improve capacity to accommodate subs and defend the base."

The shipyard in Sinpo develops and builds the subs, while Mayang Island could become the largest submarine base in the North. It seems that the North is preparing for the launch of a new sub.

Also - oh, I'm sure:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday boasted that he alone protected his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in from war with North Korea. "If I weren't president you would be in a war with North Korea right now," Trump told reporters with Moon sitting next to him.

The two presidents met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, and Moon expressed hopes of another summit between the U.S. and North Korea. Trump claimed that he has "good relationship with [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un," and added, "There's been no nuclear testing at all."

Prodded about North Korea's frantic short-range missile launches in recent months, Trump reiterated that they are insignificant. "We didn't have an agreement on short-range missiles. And a lot of people and a lot of countries test short-range missiles," he said. "There's nothing spectacular about that."

Asked about the possibility of another meeting with Kim, Trump said, "Right now people like to see that happen. I want to know what is going to be coming out of it. We can know a lot before the summit takes place."

 

Perhaps this one of the reasons for Moon's unpopularity:

Meanwhile North Korea conducted 10 tests of new missiles this year alone, two of them launched near the border. Kim said they were "warnings to South Korea" and there is no doubt that he meant it. Yet the Defense Ministry, as if responsible for defending the North, claims that Pyongyang "did not violate a single agreement." A North Korean version of the Russian Iskander-type missile is difficult to intercept, making it crucial to identify them first. The assistant U.S. secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs said Wednesday that North Korea still appears to be producing nuclear weapons. And just at this crucial juncture, the government wants to scrap an intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan. The basic principle of controlling defense costs is to decrease the number of offensive weapons while boosting reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities. Will the Moon Jae-in administration take the blame if its failure to observe this basic principle leads to catastrophe?

 

It will because - as has often been said - one cannot reason or deal with a communist:

Even after Moon came into office with an explicit agenda of being as nice as possible to North Korea, Pyongyang kept behaving in this deranged manner by linking the defections of some North Korean waitresses in China to the reunions, in flagrant violation of agreements with South Korea. But no, Moon says South Korea must take part of the blame. What exactly does he think Seoul has done wrong? Not bend to every insane demand from the North?

It may of course have been nothing but conciliatory blather. "Mistakes were made on both sides" is a classic negotiation opener, even when it is perfectly obvious that they were made by only one. But it seems totally misplaced here. Moon is so desperate for another photo op with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that he will say anything, even though he must know that it only encourages the North to behave badly, and that it despises him all the more for it. How much longer must we endure the monumental diplomatic incompetence of this government?