| August
2. | - North Korea test-fires two
short-range projectiles from Youngheung, South Hamgyeong
Province.
|
| August 2. |
- The ROK government gives a briefing
on the outcome of the meeting between appropriate ministers
regarding the North’s test-firing.
- The ROK
government “expressed its concern about the North’s
test-firing and called on the North to desist from further
such acts that are not conducive to the efforts to ease the
military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.” |
| August 3. | - A
spokesperson for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a
statement, states, “The countries which were so impudent as
to take the lead in convening a closed-door meeting of the
UN Security Council against the DPRK should realize before
it is too late that their recent stupid words and deeds
wouldn’t reduce the tensions on the Korean Peninsula but
serve as a catalyst for escalation.”
- *The UN
Security Council will meet behind closed doors to discuss
North Korea’s ballistic missiles (reported on August 1 by
Reuters and Russia’s TASS news agency). |
| August 5. |
- President Moon Jae-in, in a meeting with senior
presidential aides, states that “If the South and the North
realize a peace economy through economic cooperation, we can
catch up with Japan. If the two Koreas work together with
confidence that the peace economy is our future that no
other country can have, we can establish peace on the Korean
Peninsula along with denuclearization and then achieve
common prosperity based on the peace.”
|
| August 5. | - The US
announces that travelers who have visited North Korea since
March 1, 2011 no longer qualify for the U.S. Visa Waiver
Program.
|
| August 5. |
- The ROK National Assembly adopts a
resolution condemning North Korea’s development of nuclear
weapons and missile provocations and urges the North to
prevent any recurrence.
|
| August 5-20. | - The ROK and
the US conduct a joint military exercise.
|
| August 6. | - North
Korea test-fires two short-range ballistic missiles
(presumed) from near Gwail, South Hwanghae Province.
|
| August 6. | - A spokesperson for the DPRK Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, in a statement, argues that “(The ROK-US
joint military exercises) are an act of blatant disregard
and an obvious violation of the June 12 DPRK-US Joint
Statement, the Panmunjeom Declaration, and the Pyeongyang
Joint Declaration of September 2018.”
|
| August 6. | - The ROK
government gives a briefing on the outcome of the meeting
between appropriate ministers regarding the North’s
test-firing.
- “The ROK government recognized that the
situation is serious and plans to step up monitoring and
readiness while keeping an eye on the situation in close
cooperation with the US.” |
| August 8. | - The
Reunification and Agitation Department of the Committee for
the Peaceful Reunification of the Country (CPRC) of the
DPRK, in an open letter, denounces the ROK government by
declaring that “The ROK government has carried out the war
drills aimed at invading the North, which violates the
spirit of the inter-Korean agreements, and has persistently
schemed to bring in latest war equipment.” o August 10. The
ROK government opens the Paju section of the DMZ Peace
Trails.
- *The opening ceremony for the Paju section
was held on August 9. |
| August
10. | - North Korea test-fires two
short-range ballistic missiles (presumed) from Hamheung,
South Hamgyeong Province.
|
| August 10. | - The ROK
government gives a briefing on the outcome of the meeting
between appropriate ministers regarding the North’s
test-firing.
- The ROK government “called on North
Korea to stop firing projectiles because a series of
test-firings may escalate the military tensions on the
Korean Peninsula.”
- It will “confirm the strong
posture of combined defense readiness through the ROK-US
joint military exercises so that it can respond to any
possible military situation.” |
| August 11. | - Kwon Jong
Gun, director general of the Department of American Affairs
at the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement,
condemns the ROK-US joint military exercises for the second
half of this year, held from August 11 to 20.
- “It
would behoove the South to know that even if we engage in
dialogue, the dialogue will be held between the DPRK and the
US, not between the North and the South.”
- “The South
considers us the enemy in the military drills. It is
difficult for the North and the South to meet before the
South stops the military exercises or gives us plausible
explanations.” |
| August 14. |
- The South notifies the North that
it would deliver a body (presumed to be North Korean) found
in the Imjin River on July 31.
|
| August 15. | - President
Moon Jae-in, in his speech marking the 74th National
Liberation Day, says,
- “We aim to establish a peace
economy in which prosperity is achieved through peace and
also complete our liberation through the unification of the
Peninsula. The peace economy begins with the efforts to
continue dialogue and cooperation so that North Korea can
choose economic prosperity over nuclear weapons upon the
foundation of complete denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula.”
- “The two Koreas and the United States
have engaged in dialogue for the past 20 months. In spite of
a series of worrying actions recently taken by North Korea,
the momentum for dialogue remains unshaken - which is a
significant result of my government’s peace process on the
Korean Peninsula.” |
| August
16. | - A spokesperson for the
Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country
(CPRC) of the DPRK, in a statement, states, “We have nothing
to talk about any more with the South Korean authorities.
Nor do we have any intention of sitting with them
again.”
|
| August 16. |
- North Korea test-fires two
short-range projectiles from Tongcheon, Gangwon
Province.
|
| August 16. |
- The ROK government releases the
outcome of the Standing Committee of the National Security
Council. - The ROK government “called on North Korea to stop
firing projectiles because doing so may escalate the
military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”
|
| August 19. |
- President Moon Jae-in, in a meeting with senior
presidential aides, states, - “What’s important is that the
dialogue between South and North Korea and the US has begun
and is progressing.”
- “We need to take a step forward
carefully, just as if we were handling glassware. Mutual
efforts are required to make the dialogue success.”
|
| August 19. | - The ROK Ministry of Unification begins
issuing an online certificate of approval of visit to North
Korea so that Koreans who have traveled to North Korea can
gain approval for US visas.
- *The US announced on
August 5 that travelers who have visited North Korea since
March 1, 2011 no longer qualify for the U.S. Visa Waiver
Program. |
| August 22. |
- A spokesperson for the DPRK Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, in a statement, says, “Our position of
addressing issues peacefully through dialogue and
negotiations has not changed, but we have no interest in the
dialogue accompanied by military threats.”
|
| August 23. | - North
Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, in a statement, states,
“We are prepared for both dialogue and confrontation. If the
US attempts to stand against us with sanctions without
abandoning its confrontational posture, it would be a
miscalculation.”
|
| August
24. | - North Korea test-fires two
short-range ballistic missiles (presumed) from Seondeok,
South Hamgyeong Province.
|
| August 24. | - The ROK
government holds an emergency meeting of the NSC Standing
Committee. - The ROK government “expressed its concern about
a series of test-firings by the North and called on North
Korea to stop firing any more projectiles because doing so
may escalate the military tensions on the Korean
Peninsula.”
|
| August 29. |
- North Korea holds the second
session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA).
-
Partially supplementing and modifying the Socialist
Constitution and replacing the vice-chairman of the
Presidium of the SPA. |
| August
30. | - The U.S. Treasury imposes
further sanctions on individuals and shipping companies for
their involvement in illegal transshipment of North Korean
refined oil products.
- *Two Taiwanese persons, two
Taiwanese and one Hong Kong shipping companies, and one
vessel. |
| August 31. |
- North Korean First Vice Foreign
Minister Choe Son Hui, in a statement, states that North
Korea’s expectations of talks with the United States are
gradually disappearing and the country is being pushed to
reexamine all measures.
|
