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North Korea threatens to scrap military deal with South
 by Staff Writers
 Seoul (AFP) June 4, 2020

US military's South Korean civilian staff to go back to work
Seoul (AFP) June 3, 2020 - Thousands of South Koreans working at US military bases in the country, furloughed in a row over funding for the American presence on the peninsula, will go back to work this month after Seoul offered to pay their wages.

Washington has around 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea to defend it against the nuclear-armed North and protect US interests in north-east Asia.

But the security allies' relationship has been strained by the Trump administration's demands that the South pay billions of dollars more towards the cost of their presence after the previous funding pact expired last year.

Around 4,000 local civilian employees of US Forces Korea (USFK) were put on unpaid leave in April after funds to pay their salaries ran out with talks stalled on cost-sharing.

A full new deal has yet to be struck, but Seoul offered more than $200 million to fund the cost of the civilian employees for the rest of the year, which the US Department of Defense accepted.

They will return to work "no later than mid-June", officials said.

USFK Commander Robert Abrams called the decision "another positive sign of the power of our Alliance".

But it was only a "short term solution" for labour cost sharing, he acknowledged in a statement, adding it "highlights the need for an overall Special Measures Agreement for the long term".

South Korea's defence ministry also welcomed Washington's decision to end the furloughs -- which affected nearly half USFK's civilian South Korean staff -- saying the two sides will try to reach a cost-sharing agreement "at an early date".

The Trump administration initially insisted on $5 billion a year -- a more than fivefold increase.

South Korean media reports say it has dropped its demand to $1.3 billion per year, a near 50 percent increase from last year, while Seoul insists its best offer is a 13 percent rise.

North Korea threatened Thursday to scrap a military agreement with the South and close down a cross-border liaison office unless Seoul stops activists from flying anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border.

The statement issued by the powerful younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un comes amid a deep freeze in inter-Korean ties, despite three summits between Kim and the South's President Moon Jae-in in 2018.

North Korean defectors and other activists have long flown balloons across the border carrying leaflets that criticise Kim over human rights abuses and his nuclear ambitions.

"The South Korean authorities will be forced to pay a dear price if they let this situation go on while making all sort of excuses," Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

Calling the defectors "human scum" and "rubbish-like mongrel dogs" who betrayed their homeland, she said it was "time to bring their owners to account" in a reference to the South Korean government.

She threatened to scrap a military pact signed during Moon's visit to Pyongyang in 2018 aimed at easing border tensions, and shut down a cross-border liaison office.

But most of the deals agreed at that meeting have not been acted on, with Pyongyang largely cutting off contact with Seoul following the collapse of a summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi last year that left nuclear talks at a standstill.

Operations at the liaison office have already been suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the North has carried out dozens of weapons tests since the military agreement was signed.

Kim Yo Jong also threatened to pull out permanently from joint projects with the South including the Kaesong Industrial Park and Mount Kumgang tours -- both of them money-spinners for the North that have been suspended for years due to sanctions over its weapons programmes.


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NUKEWARS
US indicts NKoreans, Chinese over $2.5 bn network to dodge sanctions
 Washington (AFP) May 28, 2020
 The US Justice Department indicted 28 North Koreans and five Chinese on Thursday for operating a money laundering ring that moved billions of dollars through global banks to avoid nuclear sanctions on Pyongyang. The network processed more than $2.5 billion through over 250 front companies across Thailand, Libya, Austria, Russia, China and Kuwait to evade sanctions, buy goods needed by North Korea and to enrich the suspects, according to an indictment filed in federal district court in Washington. ... read more
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