North Korea Denies Artillery Firing and Mocks South Korea's Detection Capabilities

(AA)
(AA)
TT

North Korea Denies Artillery Firing and Mocks South Korea's Detection Capabilities

(AA)
(AA)

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un mocked South Korea’s ability to detect weapons launches by the North on Sunday, as she denied Seoul’s claim that North Korea fired artillery shells into the sea the previous day.
South Korea’s military quickly dismissed her statement as “a low-level psychological warfare” and warned that it will make a stern response to any provocations by North Korea.
South Korea’s military earlier said North Korea fired shells near the rivals’ disputed western sea boundary for a second consecutive day on Saturday. The military said North Korea fired more than 60 rounds on Saturday, a day after launching more than 200 shells, The Associated Press reported.
North Korea acknowledged it performed artillery firings on Friday but said it didn’t fire a single round on Saturday.
Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, said Sunday that North Korea only detonated blasting powder simulating the sound of its coastal artillery at the seashore to test the South Korean military’s detection capabilities.
“The result was clear as we expected. They misjudged the blasting sound as the sound of gunfire and conjectured it as a provocation. And they even made a false and impudent statement that the shells dropped north” of the sea boundary, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.
“I cannot but say that (South Korean) people are very pitiful as they entrust security to such blind persons and offer huge taxes to them,” she said. “It is better 10 times to entrust security to a dog with a developed sense of hearing and smell.”
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff responded in a statement that it closely monitors North Korean military activities. It said North Korea must stop acts that escalate tensions, saying it will “overwhelmingly” react if North Korea launches provocations.
Animosities between the two Koreas are running high because North Korea has conducted a barrage of missile tests since 2022 while South Korea has expanded its military training with the United States in a tit-for-tat cycle.
North Korea’s artillery firings Friday prompted South Korea to carry out its own firing exercises. The shells launched by the two Koreas fell at a maritime buffer zone they had established under a 2018 military agreement meant to ease front-line military tensions.
The agreement was meant to halt live-fire exercises, aerial surveillance and other hostile acts along their tense border, but the deal is now in danger of collapsing because the two Koreas have taken measures in breach of the accord.
Experts say North Korea is likely to ramp up weapons tests and escalate its trademark fiery rhetoric against its rivals ahead of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April and the US presidential elections in November. They say Kim Jong Un likely thinks a bolstered weapons arsenal would allow him to wrest greater US concessions when diplomacy resumes.
In her statement Sunday, Kim Yo Jong called South Korea’s military “gangsters” and “clowns in military uniforms.” She also suggested South Korea’s possible future miscalculation of North Korean moves could cause an accidental clash between the rivals, jeopardizing the safety of Seoul, a city of 10 million people which is only an hour’s drive from the land border.
On Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong issued a statement calling South Korean conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol “foolishly brave” but his liberal predecessor Moon Jae-in “very smart." South Korean analysts say she was attempting to help muster those opposing Yoon's tougher policy on North Korea ahead of the April elections.



Trump Says He Will Nominate Fox News Host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary

Pete Hegseth walks to an elevator for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, Dec. 15, 2016. (AP)
Pete Hegseth walks to an elevator for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, Dec. 15, 2016. (AP)
TT

Trump Says He Will Nominate Fox News Host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary

Pete Hegseth walks to an elevator for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, Dec. 15, 2016. (AP)
Pete Hegseth walks to an elevator for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, Dec. 15, 2016. (AP)

US President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has picked as his secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and veteran who has expressed disdain for the so-called "woke" policies of Pentagon leaders including its top military officer.

Hegseth, if confirmed by the US Senate, could make good on Trump's campaign promises to rid the US military of generals who he accuses of pursuing progressive policies on diversity in the ranks that conservatives have rallied against.

It could also set up a collision course between Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, a former fighter pilot with command experience in the Pacific and the Middle East, who Hegseth accused of "pursuing the radical positions of left-wing politicians."

The 44-year-old NATO-skeptic is perhaps Trump's most surprising pick as he fills out his cabinet ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration, and the decision drew swift condemnation from some of Trump's opponents.

"The job of Secretary of Defense should not be an entry-level position," Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said on X.

Trump, announcing his decision, praised Hegseth, who is an Army National Guard veteran and according to his website served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First," Trump said in a statement. "With Pete at the helm, America's enemies are on notice - Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down."

While Hegseth has articulated only limited policy positions in the past, he has railed against NATO allies for being weak and said that China is on the verge of dominating its neighbors.

Hegseth has said he left the military in 2021 after being sidelined for his political and religious views by an Army that didn't want him anymore.

"The feeling was mutual - I didn't want this Army anymore either," Hegseth said in his book "The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free."

There is already anxiety in the Pentagon that Trump aims to root out military officers and career civil servants he perceives to be disloyal.

Culture war issues could be a trigger for firings.

Trump told Fox News in June he would fire generals he described as "woke," a term for those focused on racial and social justice but which is used by conservatives to disparage progressive policies.

Hegseth could be an advocate for such firings.

"The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired," he wrote in his book.

Hegseth also took aim at Brown in particular, asking whether he would have gotten the job if he were not Black.

"Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We'll never know, but always doubt - which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn't really much matter," he wrote.

Trump's former US generals and defense secretaries are among his fiercest critics, with some declaring him unfit for office. Trump has suggested that his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, could be executed for treason.

Hegseth has also slammed Milley for failing to execute Trump's policies dutifully when in office and accusing him of being "a partisan to the end" to aid Democrats.

'SELF-RIGHTEOUS AND IMPOTENT' ALLIES

Hegseth has been sharply critical of America's European allies and his selection could fuel even greater anxiety in NATO about what a Trump administration will mean for the alliance.

"Outdated, outgunned, invaded, and impotent. Why should America, the European 'emergency contact number' for the past century, listen to self-righteous and impotent nations asking us to honor outdated and one-sided defense arrangements they no longer live up to?" Hegseth wrote in his book.

"Maybe if NATO countries actually ponied up for their own defense — but they don't. They just yell about the rules while gutting their militaries and yelling at America for help."

In appearances on podcasts and television he has said China is building a military "specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America."

"They have a full spectrum long-term view of not just regional but global domination," Hegseth said on a podcast last week.

Trump has been critical of President Joe Biden's assistance for Ukraine, fueling concern about the future of support for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government under a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and possibly House of Representatives.

"If Ukraine can defend themselves... great, but I don't want American intervention driving deep into Europe and making (Russian President Vladimir Putin) feel like he's so much on his heels," Hegseth said.