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Quotes of the Day:
"The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
"I'd rather have a young lieutenant with enough guts to disobey a direct order than a colonel too regimented to think and act for himself."
– William J. Donovan
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives."
– Abba Eban
1. David Maxwell on “The Next U.S. President Needs a New North Korea Policy”
2. ICKS Annual Conference: Security and Human Rights Challenges on the Korean Peninsula in 2024 and Trilateral Cooperation
3. Yoon visits front-line military unit on Chuseok fall harvest holiday
4. Seoul-bound traffic clogged on 4th day of Chuseok holiday
5. North Korea sends 500 workers to China in violation of sanctions
6. IAEA General Assembly Opens: “North Korea Continues Nuclear Activities… Violates UN Resolutions”
7. US hopes to revive N. Korea dialogue through Swedish diplomats
8. North Korea sends top envoy to Russia as it girds for friction with Seoul
9. North Korean parents vie to support mobilized students in disaster zone
10. North Korean cybercriminals steal $22M from Indonesian crypto exchange
11. Guards held guns over soldiers to protect Kim Jong Un in sign of security fears
12. WHO receives sanctions exemption to send vaccine equipment to North Korea
13. 22 years since N.Korea admitted to abducting Japanese nationals at summit
14. ‘Your heart feels crushed’: South Koreans mourn loss of family ties more than 70 years since the Korean War
15. ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ Is More Than Just Harrowing
1. David Maxwell on “The Next U.S. President Needs a New North Korea Policy”
David Maxwell on “The Next U.S. President Needs a New North Korea Policy”
by Charlie Dunlap, J.D. · 16 September 2024
https://sites.duke.edu/lawfire/2024/09/16/david-maxwell-on-the-next-u-s-president-needs-a-new-north-korea-policy/
I am pleased to tell you that today’s post marks the return of David Maxwell to Lawfire®. Dave is one of the nation’s top authorities on North Korea, and he has fresh ideas for the next president (regardless of who that might be) about what is one of the most serious threats facing not just the U.S., but also our friends and allies around the globe.
The Next U.S. President Needs a New North Korea Policy
By David Maxwell
In my recent essay I argue that the next U.S. president should implement a new North Korea policy focusing on human rights, public diplomacy and information, and the pursuit of a free and unified Korea.
The failure of past policies to denuclearize North Korea necessitates this shift. By aligning with South Korea’s 8.15 Unification Doctrine, the U.S. can support an approach that addresses national security interests, supports the Korean people, and advances human rights globally.
Key Points:
1. Policy Shift: The next U.S. president should adopt a policy that centers on human rights, information, and the unification of Korea, moving away from the ineffective strategies of the past. At the same time, the ROK/U.S. Alliance must sustain a foundation of deterrence and defense until unification is achieved.
2. Past Policy Failures: Over the past 40 years, U.S. policy has failed to denuclearize North Korea, with the Kim regime continuing to develop its nuclear and missile programs.
3. Human Rights Overlooked: Previous U.S. policies have neglected the human rights situation. in North Korea. Kim Jong Un must deny the human rights of the Korean people in the north to remain in power and support his nuclear weapons and missile programs.
4. Human Rights-Centered Approach: A focus on human rights is essential for any strategy aimed at transforming North Korea, helping citizens understand and demand their rights including especially the universal right to self-determination of government.
5. Public Diplomacy: The U.S. should lead a public diplomacy campaign to inform Koreans in the north about human rights abuses and encourage internal resistance.
6. Unification as a Solution: The path to denuclearization is intertwined with Korean unification, which would lead to a peaceful, democratic state and reduce regional threats.
7. 8.15 Unification Doctrine: South Korea’s 8.15 Unification Doctrine, which emphasizes freedom, democracy, and human rights, provides a roadmap for unification that the U.S. should support.
8. Strategic Benefits: Supporting a unified Korea aligns with U.S. national security interests by pressuring the Kim regime and fostering a favorable environment for denuclearization.
9. Moral Responsibility: The U.S. has a moral imperative to stand with the North Korean people against one of the most oppressive regimes in modern history.
10. Opportunity for Change: The next U.S. president has a historic chance to reshape policy towards North Korea, offering a path to peace and stability in Northeast Asia.
Strategy for U.S. Support to the Republic of Korea’s 8.15 Unification Doctrine
Overview: The next president should issue a strategic directive modeled after President Reagan’s National Security Decision Directive 32, National Security Strategy (NSDD-32), emphasizing a human-rights-centered approach, the role of information and public diplomacy, supporting internal change by the Korean the Korean people in the north, and the overall objective of supporting the Republic of Korea’s (ROK) 8.15 Unification Doctrine.
The U.S. will assist in shaping the environment for a unified Korean Peninsula through trilateral cooperation, leveraging U.S.-ROK-Japan relations, and fostering conditions that advance the doctrine’s goals.
The strategic directive should direct the National Security Council to develop a political-military implementation plan modeled on President Clinton’s Presidential Decision Directive 56 (Management of Complex Contingency Operations) to support the Republic of Korea in the pursuit of a free and unified Korea.
Conclusion
The next U.S. president has a unique opportunity to change the course of U.S. policy towards North Korea.
By prioritizing human rights and supporting a free and unified Korea, the U.S. can promote lasting peace and stability in the region. This approach aligns with the values of democracy and human rights, offering a way forward beyond the Kim family regime and towards a unified, democratic Korea.
About the Author
David Maxwell is a retired US Army Special Forces Colonel and has spent more than 30 years in the Asia Pacific region (primarily Korea, Japan, and the Philippines) as a practitioner and specializes in Northeast Asian Security Affairs and irregular, unconventional, and political warfare. He is the Vice President of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy and a Senior Fellow at the Global Peace Foundation (where he focuses on a free and unified Korea). Following military retirement, he was the Associate Director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. He is a member of the board of directors of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the OSS Society and is a contributing editor to Small Wars Journal.
The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect my views or those of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, or Duke University (see also here).
Remember what we like to say on Lawfire®: gather the facts, examine the law, evaluate the arguments – and then decide for yourself!
2. ICKS Annual Conference: Security and Human Rights Challenges on the Korean Peninsula in 2024 and Trilateral Cooperation
An excellent conference that I am sorry that I will miss (I will be in korea at two other conferences)
RSVP at this link: https://hrnk.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=31e4000202f97251f48421c63&id=fe8ee0dc21&e=e1b101a2aa
The Annual Conference of the International Council on Korean Studies
jointly with
The Hudson Institute, The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), Pacific Forum, New Institute
cordially invite you to:
ICKS Annual Conference
Security and Human Rights Challenges on the Korean Peninsula in 2024 and Trilateral Cooperation
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
8:15 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
The Hudson Institute
1201 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Suite 400 Washington, D.C. 20004
The event will be held in person at The Hudson Institute.
Please RSVP by clicking on this link or the button below.
RSVP
3. Yoon visits front-line military unit on Chuseok fall harvest holiday
Yoon visits front-line military unit on Chuseok fall harvest holiday | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Han-joo · September 17, 2024
SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a front-line military unit Tuesday to encourage officers serving during the Chuseok fall harvest holiday, according to his office.
Yoon visited the border unit of the 15th Infantry Division, where he pledged full support to ensure that soldiers could take pride in their service, presidential spokesperson Jeong Hye-jeon said.
"I will do my best as the commander-in-chief to improve your working conditions so that you can focus on your duties without worry and feel proud to wear the military uniform," Yoon was quoted by Jeong as saying.
Yoon emphasized the importance of maintaining a strong state of readiness in response to increasing threats from North Korea amid the recent sending of balloons filled with trash across the border and GPS jamming attacks.
Yoon also highlighted the 15th Division's critical role in a key battle in Gangwon Province during the 1950-53 Korean War, noting that he feels reassured by the unit's current state of readiness.
During the visit, Yoon took a photo with approximately 500 military officers, including RM of the K-pop supergroup BTS. RM, who enlisted in December of last year, is currently serving with the division's military band.
This photo, provided by the presidential office, shows President Yoon Suk Yeol (C) with officers of the border unit of the 15th Infantry Division on Sept. 17, 2024. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
khj@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Han-joo · September 17, 2024
4. Seoul-bound traffic clogged on 4th day of Chuseok holiday
This is why these are slow news days from Korean news outlets.
Seoul-bound traffic clogged on 4th day of Chuseok holiday | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Choi Kyong-ae · September 17, 2024
SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Yonhap) -- Seoul-bound traffic on major expressways is clogged Tuesday, the fourth day of the extended Chuseok holiday, with traffic jams expected to be ease the following day, according to the expressway operator.
This year's Chuseok, the Korean fall harvest celebration, falls on Tuesday, and the extended holiday runs from Saturday until Wednesday.
As of 8 a.m., the estimated travel time from the southwestern city of Mokpo to Seoul was seven hours and 50 minutes, six hours and 30 minutes from the southeastern city of Busan, and five hours and 30 minutes from the southeastern city of Daegu, according to the Korea Expressway Corp. (KEC).
The KEC said 6.69 million vehicles are expected to hit the roads Tuesday, including 490,000 traveling from the capital region to the provinces and 510,000 traveling from the provinces to the capital area.
Outbound traffic from Seoul was normal with no congestion, the KEC said, expecting inbound traffic to the capital city will ease around 3 to 4 a.m. on Wednesday.
Long lines of vehicles jam the Gyeongbu Expressway in Seocho Ward, southern Seoul, on Sept. 17, 2024, the fourth day of the extended Chuseok holiday. (Yonhap)
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Choi Kyong-ae · September 17, 2024
5. North Korea sends 500 workers to China in violation of sanctions
Just another example of China thumbing its nose at the rules based international order.
North Korea sends 500 workers to China in violation of sanctions
This is the first time North Korea has dispatched workers since the start of the pandemic.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/north-korea-dispatched-workers-china-sanctions-09162024170815.html
By Kim Jieun for RFA Korean
2024.09.16
North Korean workers make soccer shoes inside a temporary factory at a rural village on the edge of Dandong, China, October 24, 2012.
REUTERS/Aly Song
North Korea has dispatched 500 workers to China – a violation of international sanctions – in the first such deployment since the pandemic, residents in China told Radio Free Asia.
The 500 workers were sent at the end of August. Prior to the pandemic, North Korea routinely sent workers abroad to countries like Russia and China to earn foreign currency for its cash-strapped government.
All of that was supposed to have ended in late 2019, when UN Security Council Resolution 2397 – aimed at pressuring North Korea to end its nuclear program – kicked in, saying that all North Korean workers were to return home and no new work visas for North Koreans were to be issued.
But when the pandemic hit and North Korea shuttered all its borders, many of the overseas workers became stranded abroad.
According to a report by the U.N. North Korea Sanctions Panel of Experts published earlier this year, approximately 100,000 North Korean workers are still earning foreign currency in some 40 countries, including China and Russia.
Though Pyongyang ordered many of those workers home, this is the first time since the pandemic that it is sending out new workers.
On Aug 28 and 29, the workers arrived by bus in the city of Hunchun, just across the Tumen river from North Korea’s North Hamgyong province, a Chinese citizen of Korean descent told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“A clothing company in the garment industrial park … hired 150 of the dispatched workers,” the resident said. “The company is run by local Chinese people. North Korea will start sending workers on a large scale starting from now.”
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According to the resident, among the 3,000 or so workers who returned from China to North Korea since 2022, most were recalled because they got sick or showed signs of mental illness.
“They also repatriated those who caused problems during group living in China,” he said. “They withdrew workers who could no longer earn party funds and sent new workers to China starting at the end of August.”
‘Huge demand’
But many who have been there since before the pandemic are going to stay and work for the companies they are already contracted with, he said.
“Currently, North Korean workers are dispatched to some companies here in Jilin Province, but it seems that they will gradually be dispatched throughout China,” the resident said. “There is a huge demand in China for young workers who can live and work inside factories and increase productivity indefinitely.”
A resident of the Chinese city of Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River from North Korea’s Sinuiju, told RFA that the 500 workers will be working in three different companies in Hunchun.
“There are several clothing processing companies in Hunchun, including the Border Economic Cooperation Zone,” he said. “About 200 North Korean workers were dispatched to Hunchun Rabboni Garment Co., Ltd. on August 29.”
Companies in China that utilize North Korean labor are relieved at the news, he said. They had been worried that once the workers return home, North Korea would not send new ones to replace them, but the new deployment is reassuring.
“North Korea workers are initially dispatched to the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, but they are expected to expand to many companies in all three northeastern provinces in the future,” he said, referring to Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces, often referred to as China’s Rust Belt due to recent decline of population and economic growth in what had been China’s most vibrant industrial region.
According to the Dandong resident, the region’s manufacturing sector is experiencing a serious shortage of workers, as many young Chinese avoid employment in rural areas and factories. North Koreans cost less and can pick up the slack, he said.
Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
6. IAEA General Assembly Opens: “North Korea Continues Nuclear Activities… Violates UN Resolutions”
IAEA General Assembly Opens: “North Korea Continues Nuclear Activities… Violates UN Resolutions”
https://www.rfa.org/korean/in_focus/nk_nuclear_talks/iaea_opening-09162024151004.html
WASHINGTON-Cho Jin-woo choj@rfa.org
2024.09.16
The opening ceremony of the 68th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held in Vienna, Austria on the 16th.
/Yonhap News
00:00 / 00:00
Anchor : The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Assembly has opened . With South Korea elected as the General Assembly Chair , it has been pointed out that North Korea is continuing its nuclear activities and violating UN Security Council resolutions . Reporter Cho Jin-woo reports .
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on the 16th regarding North Korea's nuclear issue, " We have observed several activities indicating that North Korea is continuing to develop its illegal nuclear program , and we deeply regret that this is a clear violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions . "
Director General Grossi made this announcement in a statement at the 68th IAEA General Conference held in Vienna, Austria, and urged North Korea to comply with UN Security Council resolutions .
He also expressed his hope to cooperate promptly with the Organization for the full and effective implementation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement .
In particular, he urged that outstanding issues be resolved, including those that arose while IAEA inspectors were away from North Korea .
He also stressed that “ IAEA continues to maintain an enhanced readiness posture to play an essential role in verifying North Korea’s nuclear program . ”
The 68th IAEA General Conference will be held until the 20th, with representatives from 178 member states, including the United States, attending .
On this day, Korea was elected as the chairman of the General Assembly and presided over the meeting, and global security issues such as the North Korean nuclear issue, Ukraine's nuclear safety and security , the Iranian nuclear issue , the Middle East issue , and cooperation on the AUKUS nuclear -powered submarine are expected to be major topics of discussion .
IAEA: “North Korea further develops nuclear program”
IAEA: “Regretful that North Korea’s continued nuclear activities violate UN Security Council resolutions”
Minister of Science and ICT Yoo Sang-im, who attended as South Korea's representative, condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, saying, "They pose a grave threat to the international nonproliferation regime and regional and global security . "
[ Minister Yoo Sang-im ] The Republic of Korea strongly condemns North Korea’s continued nuclear and missile programs, which violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions. We urge North Korea to immediately cease its provocations, fully comply with IAEA safeguards and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) , and accept our offer to engage in dialogue without preconditions .
The European Union (EU) also expressed serious concern about North Korea's continued development of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in a statement released that day .
He then said, “ We urge North Korea to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) unconditionally and without delay ,” emphasizing that “ North Korea cannot have the status of a nuclear-weapon state under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , and will never have it in the future . ”
The European Union also expressed “ serious concerns ” about military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, saying it “ undermines the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and blatantly violates several UN Security Council resolutions . ”
In addition, representatives from France and Norway condemned North Korea's development of nuclear and ballistic missile programs at the general meeting that day.
Editor Park Jeong-woo, Web Editor Kim Sang-il
7. US hopes to revive N. Korea dialogue through Swedish diplomats
Wishful thinking?
US hopes to revive N. Korea dialogue through Swedish diplomats
The Korea Times · September 17, 2024
The building that houses the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, North Korea, is seen in this March 22, 2019, photo. AP-Yonhap
The United States said Monday it hoped to "reinvigorate dialogue" with North Korea through Swedish diplomats who have just re-established a diplomatic mission there following a pandemic shutdown.
In the absence of diplomatic relations between Washington and Pyongyang, Sweden represents U.S. interests in North Korea, but its diplomats were forced to leave when the country closed its borders in 2020.
A Swedish diplomatic team returned to North Korea, Sept. 13, and "can now work on resuming the embassy's regular activities," the foreign ministry in Stockholm said in a statement.
Washington welcomed the move, with State Department spokesman Matthew Miller calling Sweden "our protecting power" in North Korea (DPRK).
"We support the return of foreign diplomats to Pyongyang and hope that it will reinvigorate dialogue, diplomacy and other forms of constructive engagement with the DPRK," he told a news conference.
"We also hope that the DPRK will open its borders to international humanitarian workers whose aid efforts have been hindered by the DPRK's border closures."
Sweden has missions in Seoul, Pyongyang and in the demilitarised zone separating the two states, where it serves as a member of the supervisory commission that regulates a 1953 armistice between them. (AFP)
The Korea Times · September 17, 2024
8. North Korea sends top envoy to Russia as it girds for friction with Seoul
North Korea sends top envoy to Russia as it girds for friction with Seoul
koreaherald.com · by Yonhap · September 17, 2024
By Yonhap
Published : Sept. 17, 2024 - 14:27
Captured image from Telegram of Russian Embassy in Pyongyang. North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui (left) left Pyongyang on Monday to attend the 4th Eurasian Women's Forum and the BRICS Women's Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang said on its Telegram channel. (Yonhap)
North Korea sent its foreign minister to Russia for her second trip in less than a year to the major backer of Kim Jong-un’s regime. The move comes as Pyongyang readies for a parliamentary meeting that will likely approve measures that raise tensions with South Korea.
Choe Son-hui led a delegation taking part in women’s conferences, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday in a two-sentence dispatch. The foreign minister who rarely travels abroad last went to Moscow in January, where she held talks with President Vladimir Putin for a meeting the US and its partners saw as facilitating arms shipments from North Korea to aid the Kremlin’s assault on Ukraine.
Her visit comes after Russia last week dispatched Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu to Pyongyang for talks with leader Kim. It was Shoigu’s second trip to North Korea in a little more than a year. As Russia’s then defense minister, Shoigu met Kim in July of 2023 and was given a tour of North Korea’s latest weapons, which included ballistic missiles that Ukraine and others said made their way to the battlefield a few months later.
The exchange of high-level delegations is a sign of the deepening cooperation between the neighbors who have moved closer as Putin and Kim have been increasingly isolated by leading democracies. The US and South Korea have accused Kim of sending millions of rounds of artillery shells and scores of ballistic missiles to Putin, in exchange for aid propping up North Korea’s economy and advancing its weapons systems.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief has said supplies of North Korean ammunition to Moscow have been causing major headaches for his country’s defense, as Russia’s full-scale invasion grinds through its third year.
The support from Russia has coincided with Kim taking a tougher stance toward Seoul and Washington. This has included stating his intention to remove the concept of peaceful reunification from the constitution, asserting authority over a contested Yellow Sea maritime border and boasting he has the legal right to annihilate his neighbor on the divided peninsula.
North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament, known as the Supreme People’s Assembly, will convene on October 7, KCNA reported this week. At the meeting, it is expected to formalize changes to its constitution, after Kim at the last SPA session in January called for removing the concept of “peaceful reunification” with South Korea.
He also sought clearly drawing boundaries at places including the Northern Limit Line. The NLL was set unilaterally by US-led forces after the Korean War, and waters around the area have been the site of clashes, including a 2010 incident in which South Korea claimed North Korea torpedoed one of its warships south of the line, killing 46 sailors.
The area around the Yellow Sea islands have been one of the few places to have seen armed conflict between the two Koreas since the end of their 1950-1953 war, raising worries about an exchange of fire that could quickly escalate.
North Korea may also be considering a nuclear test near the time the US presidential election is held to raise its profile, a top South Korean official said in July, as Kim rolls out new warheads capable of striking the US and its allies in Asia. (Bloomberg)
koreaherald.com · by Yonhap · September 17, 2024
9. North Korean parents vie to support mobilized students in disaster zone
Some much to unpack here. The desperation of parents whose children are being effectively used as slave labor all due to the bankrupt policies of the Kim family regime.
North Korean parents vie to support mobilized students in disaster zone - Daily NK English
"One struggling mother took out loans to buy various supplies and even brought a pig she'd been raising," a source told The Daily NK
By Seon Hwa - September 17, 2024
dailynk.com · by Seon Hwa · September 17, 2024
Construction workers from the North Korean military are seen working to rebuild after severe flooding in Uiju county, North Pyongan province. (Screenshot from Chinese e-commerce platform Kuaishou)
North Korean students from Kim Il Sung University of Politics have been mobilized for flood-recovery work in North Pyongan province’s Uiju county since early August. The students, set to graduate next spring, remain engaged in reconstruction efforts.
In response, parents have initiated an unusual competition, rushing to visit their children at the construction site. They arrive bearing supplies, each hoping to demonstrate that their offspring are faring well amid the demanding recovery work.
“Some mobilized students have openly asked their parents for help so that they don’t look poor in front of their peers, and other parents have taken it upon themselves to bring supplies to ensure that their children stand out,” a source in North Pyongan province told The Daily NK recently. “An increasing number of parents are visiting their children at the Kim Il Sung University of Politics who are assigned to the flood relief work.”
The ruling Workers’ Party of Korea declared flood-recovery work to be a top priority at a party meeting in late July.
As a result, the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army assigned students of the graduating class of Kim Il Sung University of Politics to the flood-relief work in Soho village, Uiju county, North Pyongan province. The mobilized students are expected to bring all their personal belongings, including work clothes, the source said.
“The students of the university are more used to studying in the classroom, so they are asking their parents for daily necessities, money and visits now that they’re working in the field. Their parents also feel sorry for their children and eagerly visit their work sites to provide financial support,” the source said.
One mother takes out loans to provide gifts to her child
The source said that at first it was mostly parents of students from nearby areas, such as Uiju county and Sinuiju, who visited to bring personal items and work supplies. But other jealous students began calling their own parents, and this month even parents from distant parts of the country have been visiting in what has apparently become a highly competitive atmosphere.
“One day we had visits from three different families. One struggling mother took out loans to buy various supplies and even brought a pig she’d been raising. But she left feeling disappointed because her gifts were the least impressive of the lot,” the source said.
The Kim Il Sung University of Politics is responsible for training top political leaders in the North Korean military. Graduates of the university are given key positions in the North Korean military.
“Parents consider it a great honor for their family to have a child studying at the Kim Il Sung University of Politics. That’s why they use all their resources and go beyond their means to buy materials for the construction site,” the source said. “These parents don’t want their children to fall behind and to make a good impression on others while they’re being mobilized for a task the party considers important.”
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
dailynk.com · by Seon Hwa · September 17, 2024
10. North Korean cybercriminals steal $22M from Indonesian crypto exchange
The regime's all purpose sword continues to be effective.
North Korean cybercriminals steal $22M from Indonesian crypto exchange
Researchers say Lazarus Group used over 150 virtual transactions to launder funds and obscure extent of breach
https://www.nknews.org/2024/09/north-korean-cybercriminals-steal-22m-from-indonesian-crypto-exchange/
Shreyas Reddy September 17, 2024
An illustration of a network of transactions between interlinked cryptocurrency wallets | Image: NK News
North Korean cybercriminals stole more than $20 million in cryptocurrency from a leading Indonesian exchange last week, according to Indonesian state media, engineering more than a hundred virtual transactions to stealthily move the illicit funds.
Oscar Darmawan, the chief executive officer of the Indodax exchange, said in a statement that the attackers took advantage of apparent security lapses to potentially steal “several hundred billions of [Indonesian] rupiahs,” national news agency Antara reported on Saturday.
“An analysis conducted by a crypto security agency helping us right now indicated that the attack was [perpetrated] by an actor affiliated to the DPRK,” the statement read.
Darmawan said users’ virtual funds are safe despite the attack, but added that the exchange will need more time to restore the system before they can access their assets.
Indodax is reportedly working with the Indonesian police’s Criminal Investigation Agency, the Financial Services Authority and the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency to resolve the incident.
Indodax retains assets worth over $350 million despite the heist, according to the cryptocurrency price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.
Israel-based Web3 security company Cyvers first flagged the breach on Wednesday after detecting over 150 suspicious transactions involving multiple Indodax wallets on different networks, but did not identify a perpetrator.
Yosi Hammer, Cyvers’ artificial intelligence head, subsequently told cryptocurrency news website BSC News that “the attack’s speed and complexity, the pattern and the characteristics” resembled the tactics of North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
China-based blockchain security firm SlowMist estimated that the attackers stole cryptocurrency worth almost $22 million in total from hot wallets, referring to cryptocurrency wallets that are connected to the internet and store private keys online.
The stolen virtual currency tokens included bitcoin, TRON, ethereum, polygon and optimism, an ethereum extension.
Many cryptocurrency services use hot wallets because they facilitate transactions more quickly and conveniently than cold wallets, which use physical devices to store keys offline.
However, the connected nature of hot wallets carries security risks as attackers can potentially gain unauthorized access.
SlowMist concluded after further analysis that the hot wallets were not compromised in this case and suggested the attackers may have hacked the withdrawal system.
The analysis showed that the attackers moved the stolen funds around in a series of complex transactions involving multiple withdrawals from Indodax’s own hot wallet and some regular accounts by transferring whole number values like one bitcoin or three bitcoins.
As part of the same transaction, the perpetrators withdrew small amounts to other addresses as change and then deposited the virtual funds back into Indodax wallets.
They followed the same process with withdrawals from some regular accounts to funnel some assets to their own wallet addresses while sending some change back to the Indodax exchange.
Dennis Desmond, a lecturer in cybersecurity at the University of the Sunshine Coast, said the complex web of transactions involving partial transfers back to Indodax may have been aimed at delaying the discovery of the attack.
“By giving back some coins, the hackers may create confusion about how much was actually stolen, buying themselves more time before the full scope is realized,” he told NK News.
He added that the resulting uncertainty over whether it was a malicious breach or an accidental exploit could slow down or complicate the investigation, and possibly even raise false doubts about “ethical” behavior such as ransomware gangs returning part of their illicit funds to appear responsible.
The expert said he has not previously seen reports of North Korean attackers returning funds to the targeted exchange, but noted that mapping out the full range of wallet transfers can help shed light on “a more complex laundering strategy.”
“It may allow the hacker to create new transaction paths that make the remaining stolen funds harder to trace,” he said.
Desmond said the attackers’s next steps could involve moving the stolen assets through additional wallets and across other blockchains, using cryptocurrency mixers to obscure the funds’ movement and eventually consolidating the funds into “easily exchangeable tokens” before converting to hard currency.
Edited by Alannah Hill
11.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you. Kim fears his own military and own people more than he fears the ROK/US military.
There is likely a "Mr. X" assassin somewhere in north Korea.
Analysis
Guards held guns over soldiers to protect Kim Jong Un in sign of security fears
SWAT-like personnel at live-fire special ops drill suggest North Korean leader boosted security in case of rogue attack
https://www.nknews.org/2024/09/guards-held-guns-over-soldiers-to-protect-kim-jong-un-in-sign-of-security-fears/
Colin Zwirko September 17, 2024
Kim and his bodyguards hold rifles while standing over special ops troops as they conduct target practice | Image: KCNA (Sept. 13, 2024)
Kim Jong Un’s bodyguards held rifles at the ready to protect him from special operations forces armed with live weapons at drills last week, in the latest example of increasing personal security for the North Korean leader.
NK News analysis of Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) photos published last Friday show a line of Kim’s bodyguards standing over soldiers during rifle shooting exercises, suggesting security was increased due to the potential for a rogue agent to make an attempt on Kim’s life.
The display in state media appears to indicate Kim is growing more concerned about internal discontent or even the possibility of an assassination operation by an external enemy.
Kim and his bodyguards hold rifles while standing over special ops troops as they conduct target practice | Image: KCNA (Sept. 13, 2024)
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On the other hand, he may be trying to project to foreign and domestic enemies that his power is unchallengeable, as he has otherwise shown concern about the potential for foreign cultural influence to erode the DPRK’s carefully crafted system of enforced total obedience to authority.
It is unusual to see the leader’s bodyguards armed with rifles these days, though they sometimes appeared in the background of state media coverage holding guns and in full battle uniform in the early years of his rule.
Kim has increased his personal security since a reported wake-up call in 2019, when a reporter secretly filmed him with a long lens while he was having a smoke break at a train station in China on his way to the Hanoi Summit.
The trend has grown in the last year, as it is now common to see dozens of bodyguards lining streets to prevent North Koreans from charging his motorcade or getting too close to him during public appearances.
His bodyguards even incorporated special briefcases that can instantly unfold into bulletproof shields in 2023, after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated.
The bodyguards at the recent event held North Korean Type-88 rifles with extended folding stocks and wore full black SWAT team-like combat gear, with helmets emblazoned with a circular red and gold Korean People’s Army (KPA) emblem.
Special Operations Forces soldiers also appeared to conduct target practice shooting drills with similar Type-88 rifles.
Kim’s bodyguards protect him from a mob of shirtless troops | Image: KCNA (Sept. 13, 2024)
The bodyguards surrounded Kim while he watched the shirtless soldiers perform drills | Image: KCNA (Sept. 13, 2024)
The bodyguard unit also surrounded Kim to protect him from a dense mob of half-naked special operations soldiers during a traditional North Korean sendoff for the leader, where people are expected to repeatedly scream oaths of loyalty while trying to touch him.
The bodyguard unit appears to the Supreme Affairs Commission (SAC) Guard Department, arguably the leader’s top unit, based on NK News analysis showing that many of the bodyguards previously worked with the unit at past events, including during Kim’s Sept. 2023 trip to Russia.
The head of this department, Kim Chol Gyu, appeared beside Kim at a rifle firing drill in March this year, where a group of bodyguards dressed in black SWAT-style uniforms similarly stood over other soldiers as they fired.
The uniforms were different from the ones seen last week, however, and their helmets appeared to feature the larger shield-shaped emblem of the Ministry of People’s Security, previously seen during military parades.
Kim’s bodyguards appeared less on guard in this shot than in the most recent drills last week, with most not holding their rifles as they watch soldiers shoot | Image: KCTV (March 7, 2024)
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Most of the bodyguards also were not shown holding their rifles while standing over the soldiers at that event, further suggesting that Kim chose to heighten security protocols for unknown reasons last week.
Kim attended another shooting drill later in March, where his bodyguards appeared wearing bulletproof vests over camo uniforms — another unusual sight that suggested they were specially prepared to take a bullet for the leader in case an armed soldier took a shot.
One narrow photo from state media coverage also showed a line of legs of bodyguards standing over soldiers as they fired in similar fashion to the other two examples, but it’s unclear if they were holding their guns.
Kim’s top bodyguard Kim Chol Gyu appears in a black jacket in the background talking to others in his guard unit wearing bulletproof vests. One guard on the right holds a bulletproof briefcase while a flag-bearer on the left holds a box of bullets, a sign of tight management of lethal weapons around the leader. | Image: KCNA (March 16, 2024)
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Kim tests out a newly designed assault rifle | Image: KCNA (Sept. 13, 2024)
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He has not been surrounded by bodyguards in the same way when visiting with unarmed infantry or in the presence of larger weapons at drills that don’t pose a personal threat like missiles and artillery.
Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un appeared holding new domestically manufactured rifle models while sitting in a folding chair and surrounded by guards at the Sept. 11 drills.
They included a sniper rifle based on a Russian model and the first clear look at a new assault rifle that one expert previously told NK News is likely designed to use NATO-caliber ammunition.
Edited by Bryan Betts
12. WHO receives sanctions exemption to send vaccine equipment to North Korea
The ROK and the international community should make health in north Korea a priority because the health of the Korean people in the north is very important for the unification process.
WHO receives sanctions exemption to send vaccine equipment to North Korea
Approval of $43K shipment comes as UN agency supports new DPRK campaign to vaccinate over 1M people
https://www.nknews.org/2024/09/who-receives-sanctions-exemption-to-send-vaccine-equipment-to-north-korea/
Ifang Bremer September 17, 2024
Laboratory assistants in a maternity hospital in Pyongyang | Image: Eric Lafforgue (Sept. 2008)
The World Health Organization (WHO) has received a sanctions exemption to ship laboratory equipment for vaccines to North Korea, as the U.N. agency supports a new campaign to vaccinate over 1 million people in the country.
The U.N. Security Council’s 1718 Sanctions Committee has granted the WHO an exemption until Aug. 25, 2025 to send centrifuges, shakers, microscopes and other lab gear to the DPRK. The equipment will be shipped to either Nampho or Sinuiju on Feb. 1, 2025, according to the notice.
The materials are “aimed at controlling and preventing vaccine preventable diseases, as well as equipping the National Laboratory to support quality diagnosis and management of diseases for the civilian population,” the sanctions committee wrote.
The total value of the equipment WHO plans to send to North Korea is some $43,000. Earlier this year, WHO received an exemption to ship medical supplies to the DPRK.
The exemption for vaccine equipment comes after UNICEF announced earlier this month that North Korea launched a new campaign to vaccinate more than 800,000 children and 120,000 pregnant women with U.N. support.
WHO stated in April that over 75% of North Korean children missed key vaccinations in recent years.
Meanwhile, international organizations are still unable to reenter North Korea more than three years after withdrawing staff during the pandemic, according to World Food Program DPRK country director Anthea Webb last week.
Jerome Sauvage, a former U.N. aid coordinator in North Korea, previously assessed that the DPRK government might “push their luck” to get aid remotely delivered without international staff in North Korea, which he said raises the question of whether aid delivery without on-site monitoring by international staff is “acceptable.”
It remains unclear if WHO will be allowed to send staff to monitor distribution of the latest vaccine equipment.
Meanwhile, in August, the U.N. 1718 Committee also extended a sanctions exemption for the Korea Sharing Movement (KSM) to send equipment to the DPRK to refurbish the “Gaepung Tree Nursery.”
The South Korean nongovernmental organization first received the exemption, and it has been extended every year since.
KSM previously told NK News that the South Korean government has repeatedly rejected its requests to contact DPRK partners “since July last year” amid worries that Pyongyang will “exploit” inter-Korean exchange.
Edited by Bryan Betts
13. 22 years since N.Korea admitted to abducting Japanese nationals at summit
Video at the link: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240917_03/
22 years since N.Korea admitted to abducting Japanese nationals at summit | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
www3.nhk.or.jp
Twenty-two years have passed since North Korea admitted to the abductions of Japanese nationals at a landmark summit. Families of abductees are reiterating their calls for Japan's government to do more to bring them all back home.
The first summit between the two countries, in Pyongyang on September 17, 2002, resulted in the return of five abductees from North Korea. But still 12 of the 17 Japanese nationals whom Japan's government says were abducted by North Korean agents remain unaccounted for.
Over the past 22 years, eight parents of the officially recognized abductees have died, and only two are still alive: the 88-year-old mother of abductee Yokota Megumi, and the 96-year-old father of Arimoto Keiko.
The families of abductees are demanding that their loved ones be returned while the remaining parents are alive.
Megumi's younger brother, Yokota Takuya, talked to NHK. He heads a group of Japanese abductees' families.
Yokota said there must be a lot of frustration among the abductees themselves. He said that's why any stalemate in politics is unacceptable. He said politicians should put more energy into the efforts to resolve the problem.
Yokota also urged North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to make a bold decision. He said that, as a father and the leader of a country, Kim must not leave this human rights issue unresolved.
www3.nhk.or.jp
14. ‘Your heart feels crushed’: South Koreans mourn loss of family ties more than 70 years since the Korean War
‘Your heart feels crushed’: South Koreans mourn loss of family ties more than 70 years since the Korean War
One 92-year-old left his home in North Korea at the age of 18 for military training and never saw his family again.
channelnewsasia.com
Lim Yun Suk
@YunSukCNA
Jalelah Abu Baker
@JalelahCNA
17 Sep 2024 02:52PM
(Updated: 17 Sep 2024 03:16PM)
GANGWON, South Korea: When he was 18 years old, Mr Kim Sang-ho left his home for military training. He promised his mother he would return to their home in North Korea soon.
More than 70 years later, he still has not been able to keep his word.
They were separated just before the Korean War broke out in 1950, and Mr Kim has been left stranded in South Korea ever since.
Now, at the age of 92, he is left with just memories of her.
"She had an average height and was very cheerful. My father had died, and so my mother had a difficult time,” he told CNA.
“I miss her a lot, but I won’t be able to see her anymore. Maybe I'll see her again when I’m dead." He also left behind two brothers and two sisters, and does not know if they are still alive.
The North was previously occupied by the Soviet Union, which established the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a communist state in 1948.
The Korean War was a result of the North invading the South in an attempt to unite the peninsula by force.
However, the war ended in 1953 with the signing of an armistice, leaving the country still divided and families torn apart.
South Korea observes the Day of Separated Families on the 13th day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar, which fell on Sunday (Sep 15) this year.
KOREA DIVIDED
Mr Kim said the war began during his military training, leaving him no choice but to join the North’s Korean People’s Army.
He was sent to the capital Pyongyang and later to Kaesong in the country's south, where he served as a sentry.
During the war the North Korean forces made their way all the way to the South but were later was pushed back into retreat. Mr Kim then found himself separated from the rest of the army and stranded alone. Needing to survive, he was forced to go up against his comrades in the North as a South Korean soldier.
"They (the South Korean military) sent me to the front lines. I had no idea where I was being sent, but I ended up being deployed to Hwacheon," he said.
When the war ended with the two Koreas divided, there was no chance he could go back home to Pyongan-buk-do – a province located in the west of North Korea.
All alone in the South, he worked tirelessly to survive.
Because of its location just a few kilometres south of the North Korean border, many of Hwacheon's 25,000 residents are soldiers and their family members.
He married, had two sons and now lives in Hwacheon – just a few kilometres south of the North Korean border.
Because of its location, many of the county’s 25,000 residents are soldiers and their family members.
Mr Kim still harbours the desire to go home, although it could be in vain.
"I do want to go back home. I have travelled to different places, but not home,” he said.
“But even if I did now, I don’t think there will be anyone for me to meet. All those close to me are probably dead by now.”
SLIM CHANCES OF REUNION
With no cross-border contact and communication allowed, the rare reunion events are the only times when families get to meet.
Only 21 reunions have been held since 2000, when the inaugural event took place. Such state-arranged reunions to briefly bring some of these families together have stopped since 2018 due to cross-border tensions.
Out of more than 132,000 South Koreans who signed up for a chance to meet their families, only about 40,000 are still alive.
One way South Koreans can get a glimpse into life on the other side is via a cable car service in Hwacheon that opened in late 2022.
For those waiting, one way they get a glimpse into life on the other side is via a cable car service in Hwacheon that opened in late 2022. It allows South Koreans to pass through the so-called Civilian Control Line – an additional buffer zone to the demilitarised zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas.
About 1,000 South Koreans ride the cable car every month to reach Baegamsan mountain. At the summit, visitors can peer through the free, mounted binoculars on the observation deck and see the surrounding areas.
On a clear day, visitors can see North Korea’s Imnam Dam and Mount Kumgang – about 53 km away from where the cable car operates.
Hwacheon mayor Choi Moon-soon said South Korean visitors often feel deeply affected by the view across the border.
South Koreans yearn for the reunification of the two Koreans, she said.
“The North is very close and yet very far from us. And so when you look at North Korea from our best vantage point, our desire for reunification between South and North Korea deepens, and when you think about that, your heart feels crushed,” she said.
One South Korean who rode on the cable car said: "When I go up there, it reminds me of the pain of (the two Koreas) being divided.”
channelnewsasia.com
15. ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ Is More Than Just Harrowing
I often think about who is writing "The Gulag Archipelago" in north Korea.
Excerpts:
Yes, we are called to bear witness as Solzhenitsyn prosecutes his case against one of the most monstrous tyrannies in human history. We are called to observe “the special process of the narrowing of the intellectual and spiritual horizon of a human being, the reduction of a human being to an animal and the process of dying alive.” We must not look away. But Solzhenitsyn’s genius in this book is that he calls us to take the stand. The “experiment” that is Gulag Archipelago is full of horror, indignation, drama, courage, and humility. He calls us to wonder about our own inclinations and temptations as questions are put to us. How would our conduct measure up? Which turn would we have taken at the great fork of camp life?
These are dreadful but needful questions. Solzhenitsyn reminds us in his foreword to the one-volume abridgement of Gulag: “Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth.” It’s a difficult lesson, but one that readers must continue to take away from this uncategorizable and astonishing book.
‘The Gulag Archipelago’ Is More Than Just Harrowing
Published in English 50 years ago, the book remains a monumental work of history, politics, and literature.
thedispatch.com · by Flagg Taylor · September 14, 2024
Can there be a duty to read a work of literature?
Most people I’ve met who are at least aware of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s masterwork The Gulag Archipelago know that they should read the book. They know of the book’s historical importance and of Solzhenitsyn’s stature as one of the great Soviet dissidents and writers of the 20th century. They know the book is a kind of prison memoir, full of suffering but worth the difficult journey.
But this knowledge does not prepare them for the book as it is. Indeed, it may even prevent them from encountering The Gulag Archipelago in its proper shape. Yes, the book is often harrowing in its portrayal of the reality of the Gulag system. And it is a central work in the story of the Soviet Union—and perhaps in hastening its decline. But it’s also much more and perhaps something wholly other than that.
This has been a problem since the work’s initial publication in English 50 years ago. In an early review, no less a figure than George Kennan—the diplomat and advocate of containment against the Soviet Union—characterized Gulag as “the most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever to be levied in modern times.” This is probably correct, yet Kennan himself goes on to explain that the book is also something more than a political indictment. Solzhenitsyn cautions readers in the fourth chapter of Part 1: “So let the reader who expects this book to be a political exposé slam its covers shut right now.”
Solzhenitsyn undertook the work out of a kind of duty—duty to the truth and duty to his fellow zeks (a slang term for prisoners). Although he started working on it in 1958 by collecting relevant materials, the pace would pick up significantly in 1962 after the official publication of his novella One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Solzhenitsyn was flooded with letters from former zeks thanking him for his work and sharing their experiences. Up to this point he had had doubts about his capacity to undertake such a work. As he remarks in the Afterword to Gulag, “But when, in addition to what I had collected, prisoners’ letters converged on me from all over the country, I realized that since all this had been given to me, I had a duty.”
Given his post-Ivan Denisovich prominence and the Soviet regime’s realization that it had made an enormous mistake in permitting its publication, Solzhenitsyn was closely monitored and hounded by the KGB until his expulsion from the Soviet Union in February 1974. He would require the assistance of more than 100 “invisible allies”(the title of his book about most of these intriguing figures) in order to bring Gulag into being while drawing on the direct accounts of 257 former zeks. That the book even exists is a kind of miracle. In the middle of Part 3 of Gulag, he notes, “I do not expect to see it in print anywhere with my own eyes; and I have little hope that those who managed to drag their bones out of the Archipelago will ever read it; and I do not believe that it will explain the truth of our history in time for anything to be corrected.”
Solzhenitsyn worked tirelessly in two hyper-productive spurts at a remote barn in Estonia over the course of two winters to complete the bulk of the book. As he notes in a chapter devoted to his Estonian friends in Invisible Allies,
During those 146 days at the Hiding Place, I worked as I never have in my whole life. It seemed as if it was no longer I who was writing; rather, I was swept along, my hand was being moved by an outside force, and I was only the firing pin attached to a spring that had been compressed for half a century and was now uncoiling.
And later in Invisible Allies, differentiating Gulag from his other works, he says, “this work had shaped itself; it had not emerged from the workshops of art, but remained oblivious to any of art’s commandments, heedless of a single rule.” Not enough attention has been paid to the work’s subtitle: “An Experiment in Literary Investigation.” The work is extremely varied both in terms of its modes of analysis and the kinds of questions it addresses.
In an early chapter from Part 1, Solzhenitsyn chronicles the many waves of arrests that sent millions into the “corrective labor” system. Here he intends to combat the idea that the camps were purely a phenomenon of the Stalin era and the particular wave rooted in Stalin’s Great Terror is the only one worth remembering. The early chapters of Part 3 chronicle the origins and development of the system. We see the institution of concentration camps for class enemies as the Red Terror was unleashed in 1918; then the birth of the “Northern Special Purpose Camps” in the late 1920s in a former monastery on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea; and the explosion of the system into the Kazakh steppe and the tundra of the Kolyma region of Eastern Siberia in the 1930s and 1940s.
Solzhenitsyn the investigative historian uncovers the hidden logic underlying the transformation of the system and introduces readers to the key players such as Naftaly Frenkel. In one particularly powerful chapter, Solzhenitsyn describes the zeks’ construction of the Belomor Canal, connecting the White and Baltic seas, with little more than handmade picks and wheelbarrows. “That’s what our gas execution van consisted of,” Solzhenitsyn notes dryly. “We didn’t have any gas for the gas chamber.”
Solzhenitsyn the political and philosophic analyst shows that the Gulag was not an ancillary phenomenon rooted in the deranged appetites of a single tyrant, but a project intrinsically related to the Bolshevik vision, and even to Marx and Engels’ philosophy of labor. Camps were understood as a “torch of progress,” necessary to the punishment of class enemies. Consciousness could be reforged through productive labor. The Party also seized on all of this forced labor to fuel its grand economic ambitions. Solzhenitsyn sees the intersection of these two necessities—the theoretical and economic—as revealing the camps to be “not merely the ‘dark side’ of our postrevolutionary life but very nearly the very liver of events.”
Readers are given a tour of the system’s constituent parts from arrest to interrogation to first cell to transport to transit prison and finally to camp itself. Solzhenitsyn provides a portrait of the women’s camps, the fate of camp children, the relations between ordinary criminals and the “politicals,” and the camp guards and other personnel necessary to run the system.
Now, if The Gulag Archipelago solely comprised these elements—the historical-developmental narrative, the political-philosophic analysis, and the functional-diagnostic portrait (all of which comprises a chapter of Part 1, all of Part 2, and most of Part 3)—it would still be monumental work. But he gives readers much, much more.
In Gulag we find Solzhenitsyn to be an expert in literary portraiture. Early in the work Solzhenitsyn introduces readers to Anatoly Fastenko, one of his cellmates in Lubyanka, who had known Lenin personally. He calls Fastenko a “keeper of the old Russian prison traditions” and a “living history of Russian Revolutions.” Georgi Tenno, a former sailor and circus performer, is the “committed escaper”—whose discipline, tirelessness, and innovation Solzhenitsyn chronicles with genuine astonishment. Arnold Susi, an Estonian lawyer, started Solzhenitsyn on his journey of thinking about politics in a new way. “To understand the Russian Revolution I had long since required nothing beyond Marxism. I cut myself off from everything else that came up and turned my back on it. And now fate brought me together with Susi. He breathed a completely different sort of air.” Fascinating figures like this populate the pages of Gulag, giving the book vitality and humanity one finds primarily in novels.
In Part 4, “The Soul and Barbed Wire,” readers are faced with questions that cut to the very core of human responsibility and freedom. This is Solzhenitsyn at his most philosophic, even theological. He finds true freedom by letting go of the philosophy that he calls “the result is what counts.” He must face the question of what he would do in camp to ensure his own survival. If guided by the ethic that undergirds the Soviet system, the answer is anything. This is the “great fork of camp life.” Solzhenitsyn discovers that genuine human freedom, moral freedom, is nurtured through self-limitation. We human beings are not the mere product of our environment or the incentives which surround us. We have the capacity to respond to an inner calculus. And by this discovery Solzhenitsyn rejoins the great human family. He finds patience, forgiveness, and genuine human friendship.
Yet there is not a hint of personal triumphalism in the book. The possibility of the soul’s “Ascent”—the title of the chapter just described—is followed by a counter-argument for the near necessity of the soul’s corruption in camp. Solzhenitsyn engages other writers like Varlam Shalamov, an inhabitant of Kolyma, on this question of ascent or corruption. In an early chapter from Part 1, “The Bluecaps,” Solzhenitsyn explores the psychology of the interrogators and meditates on how such people were led to undertake such evil work. He reminds his readers that this “wolf-tribe” is not some alien group which has descended from elsewhere. He prods readers to ask themselves this: “‘If my life had turned out differently, might I myself not have become just such an executioner?’ It is a dreadful question if one really answers it honestly.”
Yes, we are called to bear witness as Solzhenitsyn prosecutes his case against one of the most monstrous tyrannies in human history. We are called to observe “the special process of the narrowing of the intellectual and spiritual horizon of a human being, the reduction of a human being to an animal and the process of dying alive.” We must not look away. But Solzhenitsyn’s genius in this book is that he calls us to take the stand. The “experiment” that is Gulag Archipelago is full of horror, indignation, drama, courage, and humility. He calls us to wonder about our own inclinations and temptations as questions are put to us. How would our conduct measure up? Which turn would we have taken at the great fork of camp life?
These are dreadful but needful questions. Solzhenitsyn reminds us in his foreword to the one-volume abridgement of Gulag: “Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth.” It’s a difficult lesson, but one that readers must continue to take away from this uncategorizable and astonishing book.
thedispatch.com · by Flagg Taylor · September 14, 2024
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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