News Story: USS Carl Vinson to leave Korea - Navy

SEOUL, May 31 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. naval strike group, led by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, will end its month-long mission near the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday night, the South Korean Navy said.

The Vinson, a nuclear-powered flattop based in San Diego, arrived in the East Sea in late April as a warning to North Korea over its continued provocations.

The Vinson and some accompanying warships had joint drills with the South's Navy, while operating here.

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News Story: Moon says missile defense probe not aimed to reverse deployment

SEOUL, May 31 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday South Korea's ongoing probe of the delivery of a U.S. missile defense system is not intended to reverse the deployment agreement between the two countries but to conduct it with appropriate domestic procedures, according to the presidential office.

Moon ordered a probe on Tuesday into the "undisclosed" delivery of four additional launchers of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system after the defense ministry failed to report it to the presidential policy advisory panel in a recent briefing.

The presidential office plans to question Defense Minister Han Min-koo and Kim Kwan-jin, former chief of South Korea's National Security Office, over what the presidential office said was an intentional omission.

During a meeting with visiting U.S. Senate Democratic whip Dick Durbin, Moon said South Korea will continue to host the THAAD under the correct domestic procedures.

"Procedures over THAAD are entirely domestic ones; we do not intend to change the existing decision or send a different message to the U.S.," Moon told Durbin at the presidential office, according to presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun.

Seoul and Washington deployed the THAAD battery in a southeastern county amid heightened tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

The decision was made last year by then South Korean President Park Geun-hye, though there was no public consensus on the key security issue that pits South Korea against its largest trading partner, China.

China has repeatedly expressed opposition against the U.S. anti-missile system out of concern that the deployment could hurt its security interests.

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News Story: S. Korea needs to persuade China over THAAD row - expert

SEJONG, May 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea should convince China to accept the ongoing deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense shield on its soil instead of trying to reverse the move, which could send the wrong signals to both Washington and Beijing, a scholar has said.

The installation of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery has been under way at a former golf course in southeastern South Korea since early March.

Seoul and Washington say the move is aimed at better countering missile threats from North Korea, while China insists that it will hurt its strategic security interests and has taken what appear to be retaliatory steps against South Korean businesses.

In its May report on the North Korean economy, the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI) carried the scholar's claim made during a recent forum on South Korea's strategy to deal with the changing order in East Asia.

"The cancellation of the THAAD deployment could make China believe that South Korea is susceptible to outside pressure. It could send Washington a message that Seoul may not stand by it in a crunch," said Lee Sang-hyun, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute in Seoul.

"South Korea has no choice but to take its time and persuade China over the need for the THAAD installment. It also needs to review Beijing's possible demands in order to help resolve the issue."

Specifically, Seoul and Washington should convince China that the allies will not push for an additional deployment of THAAD equipment, and that it is unrelated to America's broader missile defense system, Lee said.

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News Story: Poll shows 60 pct of S. Koreans negative about China's influence

SEOUL, May 31 (Yonhap) -- Six in 10 South Koreans have a negative viewpoint of China's influence on their country, according to a poll released Wednesday.

In the poll of 758 adult South Koreans organized jointly by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and several foreign institutions early this year, 60 percent negatively evaluated China's influence on South Korea, while those with neutral and positive opinions amounted to 25 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

Institute officials noted that the ratio of negative perspective toward China nearly tripled from a similar survey taken two years ago. In the 2015 poll, the ratios of positive, neutral and negative opinions were tallied at 47 percent, 32 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

The survey was carried by global opinion research firm Ipsos from Feb. 23 to March 19 at the request of six institutions in five Asia-Pacific countries, including the Asan institute and the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points, with a 95 percent confidence level.

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News Story: Moon's policy planning panel calls for sweeping reform of spy agency

SEOUL, May 31 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in's policy planning advisory panel on Wednesday called for a wholesale reform of the country's spy agency long suspected of meddling in politics to support the ruling elites.

The State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee received a policy briefing from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), during which it stressed the need to revamp the agency's overall operations, including its management of budgets, personnel and policy divisions.

"Today, we will strongly call for reform and keep on checking it," Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the ruling Democratic Party, a senior member of the committee's subpanel in charge of security affairs, told reporters.

"There are more than 100 things such as personnel, organizational structure and budgets ... We will check each and every one of them," he added.

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News Story: Moon vows to build stronger maritime nation

President Moon Jae-in (File Photo)

SEOUL, May 31 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday vowed to build a stronger maritime nation by bolstering its economic and military powers at sea.

As part of the efforts, he promised to establish a public corporation to provide financial assistance to the nation's ailing shipping and shipbuilding industries, and revive their global competitiveness. He also vowed to sternly deal with foreign fishing boats' illegal operation in sovereign waters.

Moon made the remark during a ceremony marking Day of the Seas, saying the waters surrounding the peninsula hold the key to the country's national security, economy and public livelihoods.

"The new government will consolidate our status as a maritime leader based on strong maritime economic power and naval forces," he said in an address at the Saemangeum land reclamation site in Gunsan, 274 kilometers south of Seoul. "We will defend our maritime sovereignty at all cost."

   In particular, the president pledged to increase investment in the naval forces as part of the administration's goal to raise the defense budget to 3 percent of the gross domestic product.

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News Story: Afghan Govt, U.S Slams Wednesday’s Truck Bombing

The presidential palace said in statement Wednesday that the deadly truck bombing that ripped through Kabul during rush hour traffic was carried out by people who do not know the values of Islam.

President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack and called on all hospitals and health institutions to make sure the wounded got the best treatment possible.

He passed on his condolences to the families of all those killed in the attack.

At least 85 people were killed and about 400 wounded in the truck bombing during rush hour in Kabul city on Wednesday morning.            

The Afghan ministry of foreign affairs also slammed the attack and said that by creating such carnage, the perpetrators will not reach their “ugly goals”.

Former president Hamid Karzai also condemned the attack and said this act was carried out by enemies of peace and stability in Afghanistan and this act is against all Islamic values and humanity.

The U.S ambassador Hugo Llorens said in a statement: “The terrorists, and those who provide them support in any form, deserve the utter scorn of all civilized people around the world.”

He went on to say the U.S’s commitment to Afghanistan is unwavering; “we stand with the Afghan people and the government of national unity as they strive to build a brighter, safer tomorrow for the people of this great nation.”

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News Story: Petition Calls For War Crime Trials In The Hague

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (File Photo)

By Samim Faramarz

A petition has been filed by families of cvil war victims, who have pointed fingers at certain factions, including Gulbuddin Hekmatyar-led Hizb-e-Islami, for their involvement in war crimes and called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague to prosecute offenders.

They called on the ICC to launch an investigation into the crimes committed by warring factions during the civil war in the country.

In a petition to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in Kabul, they requested justice for the victims of crimes allegedly committed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar-led Hizb-e-Islam group during the civil conflict.

UNAMA has said that the petition is being reviewed, said a member of Green Trend Movement who prepared the petition.

In response, Hizb-e-Islami has said that the petition was prepared by those who are opposed to peace in the country.

“If a transparent international institution acceptable to all is formed for the assessment of these issues, Hizb-e-Islami is prepared to give answers to the nation,” said Hizb-e-Islami spokesman Nadir Afghan.

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News Story: US, China could decide this week on North Korea sanctions

The United States and China are discussing next steps in response to North Korea's missile tests and could reach a decision on new sanctions this week, Washington's UN envoy Nikki Haley said Tuesday.

China is pushing Pyongyang through back channels to change its behavior and discussing with the United States the timing of a possible new sanctions resolution, Haley told reporters.

"It's about at what point do we do the resolution... at what test model do we say now is the time to go forward," she said.

"We do think they are trying to counter what is happening now and they have the lay of the land," Haley said of the Chinese government.

"We are going to keep the pressure on China but we will continue to work with them ... and I think we will decide this week on what that looks like."

North Korea has carried out three missile tests in less than three weeks, defying UN warnings that it faces new sanctions.

On Monday, Pyongyang test-fired a short-range missile that fell provocatively close to Japan.

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News Story: S. Korea military 'hid missile launchers from president'

South Korean military officials deliberately withheld information from the president about the arrival of new launchers for a controversial US anti-missile system, his office said Wednesday.

Documents submitted to Moon Jae-In shortly after he came to office this month were redacted to remove mention of four new rocket launchers for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

The South agreed last year to deploy the missile interceptor system to guard against threats from nuclear-armed North Korea, despite angry opposition from China, which believes THAAD could undermine its own military capability.

Two missile launchers were already in place in the southern county of Seongju, and the existence of four more had widely been suspected but not announced.

However, top brass who briefed Moon's national security adviser last week deliberately excised references to any new launchers, or to the total number in-country, Moon's spokesman said.

"These parts... were included in the original briefing report written by a working-level official but later deleted by his supervisors," Yoon Young-Chan told reporters.

All military officials involved in the production of the report admitted these key parts were removed in the editing process, Yoon added.

Read the full story at SpaceDaily