| September 8. | - The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspends North Korea
until the end of 2022.
|
| September 9. | - North Korea
celebrates the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
|
| September 13. |
- North Korea’s Academy of National Defense Science
test-fires a new long-range cruise missile on September
11-12.
･ “(The North) developed the long-range cruise
missile, a strategic weapon of great significance in meeting
the key target of the five-year plan for the development of
defense science and the weapon system set forth at the 8th
Congress of the Party.”
･ “The test provides
strategic significance of possessing another effective means
of deterrence for more reliably guaranteeing the security of
our state and strongly containing the military maneuvers of
the forces hostile to the DPRK.”
･ “The launched
long-range cruise missiles travelled for 7,580 seconds along
oval and figure-8 flight orbits in the air above the
territorial land and waters of the DPRK and hit targets
1,500km away.
･ “Comrade Pak Jong Chon, upon
authorization of the Party Central Committee, conveyed warm
congratulations and thanks to the defense scientists and the
munitions workers for succeeding in the development of the
long-range cruise missiles.” |
| September 13-14. | - ROK,
US, and Japanese chief negotiators on the North Korean
nuclear issue hold a meeting in Tokyo.
|
| September 14. | - The
Amendment to the Rules on Humanitarian Assistance and
Cooperation Programs for North Korea takes effect.
･
Local governments (17 upper-level and 226 lower-level local
governments) shall be collectively designated as the
operators of aid programs for North Korea, and no
application procedures shall be required. They may obtain
funding for their aid programs for North Korea from the
Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund if necessary. As for the
programs that are partly funded by local government
subsidies, the Minister of Unification shall notify the head
of an appropriate administrative agency within seven days
from the date when a report on shipments is received.
|
| September 14-15. | - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits
Seoul, holds a meeting with his South Korean counterpart,
and makes a courtesy call on the ROK President.
|
| September 15. |
- North Korea fires two ballistic missiles into the East
Sea.
|
| September 15. |
- President Moon Jae-in watches the
test firing of the ROK military’s first SLBM at a local test
center of the Agency for Defense Development (ADD).
･
“We conducted the SLBM test as scheduled in accordance with
the military’s plan for bolstering its missile arsenal, not
as a response to the North’s latest provocation.” “However,
our enhanced missile power can be a sure-fire deterrent to
North Korea’s provocations.” “The successful testing of the
SLBM and other missiles on the day has demonstrated that
South Korea has sufficient deterrent to counter any North
Korean provocation at any time.” “I ask ADD officials to
continue to beef up South Korea’s defense capabilities,
including the development of various missiles to overwhelm
North Korea’s asymmetric force.” |
| September 15. | - Kim Yo
Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of
the Workers’ Party of Korea, issues a statement criticizing
the ROK President.
･ “South Korean President Moon Jae
reportedly made an improper remark that ‘South Korea’s
missile power is enough to contain provocations from the
North,’ when watching a missile test-launch.”
･ “If
the slip of tongue reportedly made by the president is true,
it is too stupid to be fit for the president of a state.”
･ “We express
very great regret over his thoughtless utterance of the word
‘provocation’ which might be fitting for hack
journalists.”
･ “We are not aiming to make
‘provocations’ against anybody at a certain time as presumed
by South Korea. What we did is part of normal and
self-defensive action to carry out the key task for the
first year of the five-year plan for the development of
defense science and the weapon system in order to implement
the decisions made at our Party Congress.”
･
“Explicitly speaking, it is nothing different from the
midterm defense plan of South Korea.”
･ “If the South
acknowledges that its midterm defense plan is not desirable
in that it is aimed at specific people and heightens
tensions on the Korean Peninsula, we will take it for
granted that the South finds fault with our plan and
relevant activities.”
･ “We express great regret about
Seoul’s illogical attitude that describes their similar
behavior as a legitimate action to support peace, and ours
as a threat to peace, and we cannot help but worry about
future development of North-South relations.”
･ “If
even the president supports the act of faulting and hurting
the dialogue partner, it will naturally result in a
corresponding action and then the North-South relations will
be pushed toward complete destruction.” “We do not want
that.”
･ “Every word and act must be made with deep
thought.” |
| September 16. |
- North Korea’s railway-borne
missile regiment holds a firing drill.
･ Pak Jong
Chon, member of the Presidium of the Politburo and secretary
of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
(WPK), directed a railway-borne missile regiment’s firing
drill.
･ Officials of the Department of Political
Leadership over Military Affairs and the Department of
Munitions Industry of the WPK Central Committee, the General
Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), and officials in
defense science research observed the firing drill by the
railway-borne missile regiment.
･ The railway-borne
missile regiment was created to enhance capabilities to deal
a multi-concurrent blow to threat-posing forces and to
respond to various threats more effectively according to the
decisions made at the 8th Party Congress.
･ The
test-firing confirmed the practicality of the railway-borne
missile system deployed for the first time.
･ The
North accurately struck the target area 800 kilometers away
from its location.
･ The railway-borne missile system
serves as an efficient counter-strike means capable of
dealing a harsh multi-concurrent blow to the threat-posing
forces through separate performances of firepower duty in
different parts of the country. (Pak) emphasized the
importance of devising strategies to correctly use the
system in line with the country’s topography and situation.
･ They discussed plans to expand the railway-borne
missile regiment to a brigade-size force in the near future
and to conduct training to gain operational experience for
actual war.
･ Comrade Pak Jong Chon declared that the
deployment of the railway-borne missile system for action in
accordance with the line and policies on modernizing the
army set forth at the 8th Congress of our Party holds very
great significance in increasing the war deterrence of the
country. |
| September 17. |
- South and North Korea mark the
30th anniversary of their simultaneous admission into the
United Nations.
|
| September
20. | - Jang Chang Ha, president
of the Academy of National Defense Science, issues a press
statement regarding the ROK military’s SLBM test-firing.
･ “President of the Academy of National Defense
Science Jang Chang Ha released the following article ‘Clumsy
SLBM Launch of South Korea’ on September 20.”
･
“South Korea must have wanted to relieve the increasing
security uneasiness in the face of the continued news about
missile development by the DPRK, and let the public at home
and abroad know that it also became a powerful advanced
defense technology possessor.”
･ “The missile in the
picture looked somewhat like a poor weapon without all its
shape and far from an underwater weapon.”
･ “If what
South Korea opened to the public and trumpeted so much is an
SLBM, it is just in the elementary stage.”
･ “The
missile South Korea revealed to be an SLBM of its own
technology cannot be an effective military means of attack
in a war.” |
| September
19-23. | - ROK President Moon
Jae-in visits the U.S. for the UN General Assembly and a
joint repatriation ceremony for Korean War remains.
[ Keynote Speech at 76th Session of United Nations
General Assembly (September 21) ]
･ To ensure
complete, lasting peace will begin taking firm root on the
Korean Peninsula. Korea remains fully committed to doing its
part. Envisioning a de-nuclearized, co-prosperous Korean
Peninsula, the government of the Republic of Korea has
steadfastly carried forward the Korean Peninsula peace
process, and with the support of the international
community, achieved historic milestones – the Panmunjeom
Declaration, Pyeongyang Joint Declaration of September 2018,
and military agreement resulting from the inter-Korean
Summit, as well as the Singapore Declaration from the
US-North Korea Summit.
･ Peace on the Korean
Peninsula begins always with dialogue and cooperation. I
call for speedy resumption of dialogue between the two
Koreas and between the United States and North Korea. I hope
to see that the Korean Peninsula will prove the power of
dialogue and cooperation in fostering peace.
･ Two
years ago in this very place, I declared zero tolerance for
war, mutual security guarantee, and co-prosperity as the
three principles in resolving issues related to the Korean
Peninsula. Last year, I proposed a declaration to ending the
War on the Korean Peninsula. More than anything, an
end-of-war declaration will mark a pivotal point of
departure in creating a new order of ‘reconciliation and
cooperation’ on the Korean Peninsula. Today, I once again
urge the community of nations to mobilize its strengths for
the end-of-war declaration on the Korean Peninsula and
propose that three parties of the two Koreas and the US, or
four parties of the two Koreas, the US, and China come
together and declare that the War on the Korean Peninsula is
over. When the parties involved in the Korean War stand
together and proclaim an end to the War, I believe we can
make irreversible progress in denuclearization and usher in
an era of complete peace.
･ In fact, this year marks
a meaningful 30th anniversary of the simultaneous admission
of South and North Korea into the United Nations. With the
joint accession to the UN, the two Koreas both recognized
that they were two separate nations, different in systems
and ideologies. However, such was never meant to perpetuate
the division. For when we acknowledged and respected each
other, only then could we set out on a path to exchange,
reconciliation, and unification.
･ When the two
Koreas and the surrounding nations work together, peace will
be firmly established on the Korean Peninsula and prosperity
fostered across all of Northeast Asia. That will go down as
a Korean Peninsula Model in which peace is attained through
cooperation.
･ North Korea, for its part, must brace
for changes that befit the era of the global community. I
expect that the international community, together with
Korea, remain always ready and willing to reach out to North
Korea in a cooperative spirit. Heeding the yearnings of the
separated families, already advanced in age, we must lose no
time in pressing ahead with their reunions.
･ When
South and North Korea are engaged together in regional
platforms such as the Northeast Asia Cooperation for Health
Security, a more effective response to infectious diseases
and natural disasters will become feasible. As a community
bound by common destiny on the Korean Peninsula, and as the
members of the global community, the South and the North, I
hope, will come together to join forces. Towards building a
Korean Peninsula that promotes shared prosperity and
cooperation, I will make ceaseless efforts until my very
last day in office.
[ Joint Repatriation
Ceremony for Korean War Remains (September 22) ]
･
“The declaration of an end to the War will become a source
of new hope and courage to all of those beyond the Korean
Peninsula who aspire to peace.” |
| September 24. | - Ri Thae
Song, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, issues a
statement regarding the end-of-war declaration.
･ “It
holds symbolic meaning in that it is a political declaration
for the termination of the ceasefire that the Korean
Peninsula has been in so far.” “And it is clear that the
termination of the war is something which has to be dealt
with, once and for all, for the establishment of
peace-keeping mechanism on the Peninsula in the future.”
･ “What we see in reality is that the adoption of the
declaration of the termination of the war is something
premature.”
･ “The U.S. forces and a huge number of
its latest war assets which have already been deployed or
are in movement on the Korean Peninsula and in its vicinity,
including the ground, sea, air, and underwater, and war
drills annually held with various codenames all point to the
U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK, which is getting more
vicious day by day.”
･ “The DPRK’s just measures to
bolster up the national defensive capability to cope with
the U.S. military threat to bring us down by force are
railed at as ‘provocations’ while the arms buildup escalated
by the U.S. and its vassal forces to threaten the DPRK is
embellished as ‘deterrent.’ Such American-style
double-dealing attitude is also a product of the hostile
policy toward the DPRK.”
･ “As long as there remains
the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK, the biggest
stumbling block to the end of the war, the termination of
the war will merely be nominal even though it is declared.”
･ “It should be clearly understood that the
declaration of the termination of the war is of no help at
all to stabilizing the situation of the Korean Peninsula at
the moment but can rather be misused as a smokescreen to
cover up the U.S. hostile policy.”
･ “We have already
clarified our official stand that the declaration of the
termination of the war is not an ‘offering’ to somebody and
that it can become a mere scrap of paper in a moment,
depending on the changes in situations.”
･ “The U.S.
withdrawal of its double-standard and hostile policy is a
top priority in stabilizing the situation on the Korean
Peninsula and ensuring its peace.” |
| September 24. | - South
Korea holds the 322nd session of the Inter-Korean Exchange
and Cooperation Promotion Council.
･ Render funds of
less than KRW 10 billion for nutrition and health
cooperation programs in North Korea; render funds of less
than KRW 1.17093 billion for land compensation for the
railway restoration project in the south section of the
Gyeongwon Line; and render funds of less than KRW 720
million for the road renovation project in the Goseong
section of the DMZ Peace Trails. |
| September 24. | - Kim Yo
Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of
the Workers’ Party of Korea, issues a statement.
･
“The declaration of the termination of the war is an
interesting and an admirable idea.” “There is nothing wrong
in the declaration of the termination of the war itself.”
･ “For the termination of the war to be declared,
respect for each other should be maintained and prejudiced
viewpoint, inveterate hostile policy, and unequal double
standards must be removed first.”
･ “What needs to be
dropped is the double-dealing attitude, illogical prejudice,
bad habits, and hostile stand of justifying their own acts
while faulting our just exercise of the right to
self-defense.” “Only when such a precondition is met would
it be possible to sit face to face and declare the
significant termination of war and discuss the issue of
North-South relations and the future of the Korean
Peninsula.”
･ “We have willingness to keep our close
contacts with the South again and have constructive
discussion with it about the restoration and development of
the bilateral relations if it is careful about its future
language and not hostile toward us after breaking with the
past when it often provoked us and made far-fetched
assertions to find fault with anything done by us out of
double-dealing standards.” |
| September 25. | - Kim Yo
Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of
the Workers’ Party of Korea, issues a statement.
･ “I
felt that the atmosphere of the South Korean public desiring
to restore the inter-Korean relations from a deadlock and
achieve peaceful stability as soon as possible is
irresistibly strong. We, too, have the same desire. There is
no need for the North and the South to waste time faulting
each other and engaging in a war of words at present.”
･ “I make it clear again that we cannot tolerate the
double standards.”
･ “I only hope that the South
Korean authorities’ moves to remove the tinderbox holding
double standards bereft of impartiality, the hostile policy
toward the DPRK, all the prejudices and hostile remarks
undermining trust are shown in visible practice.”
･
“I think that only when impartiality and the attitude of
respecting each other are maintained can there be smooth
understanding between the North and the South….can several
issues for improving relations including the
re-establishment of the North-South joint liaison office and
the North-South summit, to say nothing of the timely
declaration of the significant termination of the war, see
meaningful and successful solution one by one at an early
date through constructive discussions.”
･ “But I
would like to make it clear that this is my personal view.”
･ “I already recommended in August that the South
make the correct choice.” |
| September 27. | - Kim Song,
Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea to the United Nations gives a speech at the General
Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General
Assembly.
･ “If the U.S. is really desirous of peace
and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, it should take
the first step towards giving up its hostile policy against
the DPRK by stopping permanently the joint military
exercises and the deployment of all kinds of strategic
weapons which are levelled at the DPRK in and around the
Korean Peninsula.”
･ “The U.S. is still ignoring the
reality that the Korean war has not ended for over 70 years.
The Korean Peninsula is still in a vicious cycle of
ever-looming aggravation of tension and confrontation. Its
main root cause lies in the hostile policy towards the
DPRK.” “The current U.S. administration should prove its
policy stand that ‘they have no hostile intent towards the
DPRK’ by practical actions instead of words.”
･ “It
should also remove the double standards towards the DPRK. If
the U.S. shows its bold decision to give up its hostile
policy, we are also prepared to respond willingly at any
time.” “But it is our judgment that there is no prospect, at
the present stage, for the U.S. to really withdraw its
hostile policy towards the DPRK.”
･ “Nevertheless, we
would not implore the U.S. to abandon its hostility towards
us.” “If the U.S. continues to commit such acts to threaten
us.…depending on the legacy of the cold war like the
military alliance, it would really turn out to be
unfavorable for them.”
･ “The U.S. has stationed
troops in South Korea, maintaining a war posture to take
military action against the DPRK at any moment.” “Recently,
the South Korean authorities are hell-bent on developing
ultra-modern weapons under the tacit approval and patronage
of the U.S., and numerous units of war equipment have been
shipped into South Korea. These are all too dangerous moves
that break the balance of military power on the Korean
Peninsula.”
･ “Powerful offensive means are, of
course, included in our war deterrent.” “What we mean by the
war deterrent is literally the righteous right to
self-defense that can deter aggressive war and enable us to
defend ourselves. However, we do not want to use those means
aimed at anybody.” “When it comes to the nuclear issue, it
is not that the DPRK possesses nukes that the U.S. became
hostile towards us. On the contrary, we have traversed an
inevitable course of history as the U.S., the biggest
nuclear power in the world, has been posing nuclear threats,
antagonizing the DPRK.” “We would never violate nor endanger
the security of the U.S., South Korea, or our neighboring
countries.” |
| September 28. |
- North Korea launches a
short-range missile into the East Sea at 06:40.
|
| September 29. |
- North Korea’s Academy of National Defense Science
test-fires the newly developed hypersonic missile Hwasong-8.
･ “The development of the hypersonic missile, one of
the five top-priority tasks in the field of strategic
weapons of the five-year plan for the development of defense
science and the weapon system set forth at the 8th Congress
of the Party, has been pushed forward according to a
sequential, scientific, and reliable development process.”
･ “In the first test launch, national defense
scientists confirmed the navigational control and stability
of the missile in the active section and also its technical
specifications, including the guiding maneuverability and
the gliding flight characteristics of the detached
hypersonic gliding warhead.” “They also confirmed the
stability of the engine as well as of missile fuel ampoule
that has been introduced for the first time.”
|
| September 29. |
- At the 5th Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly
of the DPRK, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says that the
North is willing to restore the inter-Korean communication
line in early October.
･ “It is our unchanging
demand, which we continue to ask, that we guarantee respect
for each other and first withdraw the biased perspective
towards the other party, the unfair double standards, and
the hostile perspective and policies, before we declare the
end of war. This is an important task we must first resolve
in order to restore inter-Korean relations and advance
toward a bright path.”
･ “It is important for the
South Korean authorities to change their confrontational and
habitual attitude toward our Republic, hold on to the stand
of national independence through practices, not with words,
deal with inter-Korean relations with a view to settling
essential matters, and give weight to and sincerely
implement North-South declarations.”
･ “As an effort
to meet and fulfill the expectations and aspirations of the
Korean people, who wish to restore the currently frozen
inter-Korean relations as soon as possible and firmly
establish peace on the Korean Peninsula, let us first
restore the inter-Korean communication line, which was
severed due to deterioration in relations, in early
October.”
･ “As the actions of the last eight months
following the inauguration of the new U.S. administration
clearly show, U.S. military threats and hostile policies
against us have not changed at all. In fact, the form of its
expression and
methods are becoming more cunning.”0 |
