North Korea News Podcast by NK News - North Korea’s new naval base, Seoul’s pro-nuke defense chief and trash balloons

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently inspected a site for a new naval base, revealing plans to construct a port capable of operating “large, modern surface and underwater vessels” as he pushes to revitalize the country’s navy. NK News Seoul Correspondent Ifang Bremer joins the podcast to discuss Kim’s weekend activities, as well as […]

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and visit careerriskgroup.com today. dot com today Hello, listeners and welcome to the NK News podcast. I'm your host, Jacko's Wetsuit and this episode is a short one. It's recorded on Monday, the 9th of September 2024. Joining me here in the studio is Yifang Bremer. Welcome, Yifang. Welcome back on the show. Yeah, thank you for having me. And you've been covering the news this weekend.

So you're up to date with all the latest. Where shall we start? What's the news in the North Korea beat? Well, what we do on the weekend, on the weekend, we also check state media. So one of us will wake up early to check the Noryongshimun, the state newspaper. And most of the time, it's not that much interesting happening on a weekend, but every now and then we need to cover something. And this Sunday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was very active. He inspected a site for a new naval base.

Also inspected a shipbuilding facility and a facility where they build, well, we presume, missiles. Yeah. And then he also visited a academy for artillery officers. So a very military related week for Kim Jong-un. Yeah. So he wasn't out there giving advice on agriculture or building residential buildings, it was a lot of military stuff. Yeah.

So the last couple of weeks, Kim Jong-un was, was was a lot of military stuff. Yeah, so the last couple of weeks, Kim Jong-un was seen a couple of times. He was most prominent in his visits to the flood areas, but it seems that the focus has now, again, shifted towards military affairs. He also visited, North Korea also showed his new suicide drone, as they call it recently. But yeah, this weekend, the focus was mainly North Korea's Navy.

Yeah, tell us about this Navy shipbuilding facility that he visited. Well, North Korea's Navy is always lagging behind a little bit on its ground forces. And one of Kim Jong-un's goals is to really update the Navy, make it a modern Navy that's compatible and that's to be feared, so to say. So as part of those plans, he inspected a site for a new naval base. They didn't mention yet where this base is, although it did include a couple of pictures. And the purpose of this new naval base is that it should be able to, capable of operating a large modern surface and underwater vessel. So a very comprehensive base that should be able to get any ship to enter and to be based there. I remember a few years ago, he went to a submarine building facility and stood inside the tube of a

submarine that was under construction. Right. And yeah, so as part of that, we don't know where this ship, where the naval base is. And then after he or before they didn't really specify the dates, Kim visited a ship building facility. So. Oh, okay. So there's a base and with the docking facility and then also a shipbuilding facility. Yeah, yeah. Right. So that was quite interesting in the sense that Kim Jong Un really seems to want to emphasize updating the Navy. Mm-hmm. Getting new ships and getting new spots for those ships to be based. To berth in, yeah. And when he goes, he usually takes along some officials from the military, right?

Some senior people. And you can often see them in the background writing notes in notebooks about what he's saying. He's giving on-the-spot guidance like his father and grandfather did. Exactly. You will see him point at where he thinks new things should be built. And photos in the Nodon Shimon always include officials, but also this time we saw officials with blurred faces. Blurred faces, okay. Yeah, so...

They were used to blurred maps. Yes. Or blurred pieces of weaponry, but blurred faces is unusual. It's not that unusual, actually. It happens more often, and what I presume is that these are the engineers, the people actually designing the weaponry and North Korea might want to keep their identity hidden. I wonder why. And he also went to an officer's training school.

Yes, that's correct. Right. And what, what was that all about? So this is the OGN, Artillery Officers Training School. He visited there September 6. And this is an elite artillery officer school where he called on instructors to ensure full combat readiness. And he also praised the instructors

for giving the students really practical knowledge. So the Nodok Shimon describes how students are actively discussing different tactics. So I thought that's quite interesting. It gives a little bit of a peek into what a elite military education looks like. It seems to be very interactive. And you also see Kim Jong-un in these photos as we're used to pointing at maps. And we can't really see,

we always try to see what is depicted on those maps. Right. Because in the past, those maps have sometimes shown Seoul or US military bases. This time it was a bit too difficult to geolocate where he was pointing at. Was it a blurred map? Yes, of course, they were blurred maps.

Okay, all right. Also there's some photographs of Kim Jong-un looking at a new transport director launcher for a new design of intercontinental ballistic missile. Yeah, so North Korea seems to have revealed a new larger intercontinental ballistic missile, at least the vehicle for it. So my call in Collins Worker was very sharp to see that the TEL, Transporter Erector Launcher Vehicle, on the picture in the Noryongshimun this Sunday had 12 axles. So that's more than the largest currently known tail for the Hwasong 17, which has 11 axles.

So it's a very subtle way of launching, you know, showing like, hey, we're building new stuff. Please be aware. And that the Hwasong 18 solid fuel, the ICBM has a nine axle tail that drives along. Have you reached the stage yet, Yifeng, where when you look at a vehicle in a photograph, you automatically, just your eye immediately starts to count the number of wheels? Not yet, maybe I'm not yet at Colin's

level of expertise. That's definitely mad skills there, so thanks Colin for pointing that out. Yeah, I certainly am useless at picking that kind of detail too. Yeah. Okay. So we may be looking at a whole new kind of missile that hasn't yet been tested and it's intercontinental. So in theory, it could reach North America or Europe or any other continent, right? Yeah. So Kim, he has vowed to produce his ICBM with a reach of 15,000 kilometers. That's quite far. And that would be able to reach all of the U S basically most parts of the world, except a couple of bits of South America before the end of 2025. We don't know yet if this new tell is related to that goal, but yeah, that could be the case.

And that was a visit that Kim made to the March 16th factory in Pyeongseong, which is a city not far from Pyongyang, known as the science city of North Korea. I went there once in 2019. And we would take it to a school there where all the children said their dream was to become nuclear rocket scientists. So they could fight off the imperialist enemies. Wow, yeah. Yeah, okay. So this is definitely going on there. When was the...

Okay, I'm putting you on the spot here, Yi-Feng, but when was the last test of a new type of missile that North Korea did? Oh, gosh. At this point, I don't know. But it feels like it's been a good couple of weeks at least, right? It's been a long while. We've seen these 240mm rockets that have been tested recently. We haven't really seen a proper missile test as we used to see a lot in, for example, 2022. Right, and the Hwasong 18 was tested in April July and December last year right

So an ICBM missile, I don't remember the last time they tested one of that I think it's not like it might even have been last year. Yes. It's definitely been a while There are a couple of theories on why North Korea might not be so active testing missiles Go on could be related to that This missile stock is simply a bit down because as we know, North Korea has been providing Russia with missiles. Maybe they just don't feel the need. They will be waiting for a better opportunity

at the same time. At least internationally, a missile test is not really that new anymore. And therefore it's also very costly affair because obviously every time you shoot one up, you got to add one back in production. So yeah, perhaps there could be many explanations for that. And we're about two months before the US presidential election.

So nothing happens in a vacuum and timing is always important. And so North Korea may be waiting to do something, doing something now but perhaps something closer to the time of the election. Yeah I've already heard so many speculations a what is it seventh nuclear test mm-hmm all kinds of things yeah. Yeah that either of those things could be in a an October surprise let's see if it happens. Yes. North Korea never ceases to surprise. This is true. Okay. Now, this week, what is it? Very recently, already it's last week, I think, South Korea has a new defense minister and he's made a statement. Yeah, that's a new defense minister, Kim Young-hyun. He's briefly served as the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff Chief of Operations.

And in his inaugural... That was back in 2015 to 2017. So that's sort of at the tail end of Park Geun-hye and the beginning of the Moon Jae-in administration. Correct. And yeah, he recently made his inaugural speech in which he said that if the enemy provokes us, I'll make sure they pay a gruesome price. And obviously we've heard this rhetoric from all the top rock officials before. Yeah.

But yeah, this new minister is also an advocate for South Korea going nuclear. Oh, I see. Okay, yeah. Right, and we know that there's been more and more, you know, here and there people popping up with that kind of opinion, right? Yes. Yes. Yeah. It's really a hot topic, at least in Seoul, a lot of forums being organized to discuss the possibility of a South Korean nuclear weapon and beyond the nuclear arms, the US nuclear umbrella.

So that's a very, yeah, hot topic at the moment. Yes, and going back to Kim Jong-un's statement about what might happen if North Korea provokes South Korea, it's basically, he's basically saying that if North Korea provokes us, the regime will face its doom. So that's the end, the end of the North Korean government, which is not your standard level rhetoric,

it's a little bit extra, right? It's a little bit, we're gonna end you if you do something. Yeah, correct. And he doesn't, at least I haven't read the whole speech, but in the quote that you've got in your article here, he doesn't say, or rather, Jong-Win Kim and Jun-Ha Park, our colleagues at the medical, doesn't say what level of provocation,

he just says, if the enemy provokes us, they'll pay a gruesome price and that'll be the end of the leadership. Yeah, well we've heard that before. Oh, by the way, I should correct myself. To be precise, new minister Kim has expressed that he's open to all options should the US nuclear umbrella assurance fail to protect ROK citizens. So perhaps not as explicitly as I suggested before. Okay, but he's not against South Korea nuclearizing. failed to protect our citizens. So perhaps not as explicitly as I suggested before. Okay. But...

But he's not against South Korea nuclearizing. No, and with the way things are going at the moment, it seems that a lot of very senior officials are heading in that direction. And that's, to me, if I can just... Yeah, I think that might also be a reason why a nuclear test... I'm going to make some bald connection here. Here we go. I think that might also be a reason why a nuclear test, I'm gonna make some bold prediction here. A new nuclear test by North Korea

in the short term might not be so likely. I don't know, because I feel that that would only advance this debate in South Korea for a South Korean domestic nuclear weapon. That would really give it the boost that the people in favor of that need. So I don't know. But at the same time, yeah, others have suggested that Kim Jong-un also wants to perhaps test

these tactical nuclear arms. Right. The small nukes, the so-called battlefield nuclear weapons. Yeah, because Kim has vowed to arm the frontline units with nuclear arms, right? Right, right, and those 250 launches we saw recently that were being sent to the frontline units, they could potentially hold a nuclear warhead

on those missiles, which I think are 600 millimeter. Correct, yeah. Okay, so we've got some strong rhetoric from the new Defense Minister of South Korea. North Korea, meanwhile, over the weekend has once again sent some balloons or maybe more than once again. But anyway, I've received several notifications on Saturday and Sunday that balloons are coming across from North Korea.

South Korea has had these loudspeakers on for the last few weeks pumping propaganda over the flat earth into North Korea's farmlands. Now, I certainly was worried about the possibility of North Korea perhaps shooting at those and maybe accidentally hitting some South Korean farmers. That hasn't happened yet, has it? It has not happened yet. I'm not sure if they will, if that's really worth it. At the same time, North Korea is starting to become a very regular affair. Like I'm getting notifications on my phone here all the time of these balloons coming over the border. And lawmakers in South Korea have also now requested data on how much damage

these balloons already have caused. I know that my colleague Jung Min was working on a piece about that today. So that will be up later in the day. So yeah, there's definitely unease at the same time. If I ask my friends here, what do you think about these balloons? And most people don't really care much, I guess, unless you're the unlucky person to get a balloon through your windshield,

but it seems to be quite rare still. Wow. Okay. So we are at a tense time and a time of uncertainty. Two months from the US presidential election. Who knows what will happen? Listeners, stay tuned to NK News because all the news is right here. Thanks again, Yifeng, for coming on the show and telling us the latest.

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