DESPERATELY SEEKING MISSILE PARTS: This week, the United States warned companies that North Korean procurement entities are employing “deceptive techniques” to subvert international sanctions aimed at curbing the North’s ballistic missile program.
“North Korea relies on foreign-sourced ballistic missile-related components that it cannot produce domestically. To obtain these components, North Korea uses an extensive overseas network of procurement agents, including officials who operate from North Korean diplomatic missions or trade offices, as well as third-country nationals and foreign companies,” the State Department said in an industry advisory on Tuesday.
“North Korea’s continued efforts to expand its ballistic missile capabilities pose a significant threat to both regional and global stability,” the State Department said. “In 2017, North Korea conducted its inaugural tests of intercontinental ballistic missile systems, and, over the past year, has continued to test launch ballistic missiles in violation of a series of United Nations Security Council Resolutions.”
‘THEY’RE GOING TO HAVE TO NEGOTIATE’: At Wednesday’s State Department briefing, David Stilwell, assistant secretary of East Asia-Pacific Affairs, said the U.S. is determined to stop North Korea’s drive to develop new and improved intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“This administration has gone far further than any other in taking strong actions to let North Korea know that they’re going to have to negotiate,” Stilwell said. “They can’t just sit back and threaten and launch and all the things they’ve been doing. And so this is another step in that direction.”
NEW MISSILE COMING? The warning comes as Korea expert Harry Kazianis at the Center for the National Interest writes that U.S. officials have told him that North Korea may be on the verge of unveiling a new solid-fuel ICBM with the ability to hit the continental U.S.
“A senior White House official, as well as multiple U.S. intelligence officials I have spoken with over the last few days, strongly suspect Pyongyang will unveil a solid-fueled intercontinental-range ballistic missile at its October 10th military parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea,” Kazianis says.
The missile, he says, “would represent a generational shift in Pyongyang’s missile technology,” a major improvement over North Korea’s current long-range mobile ICBMs, the Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15, which use a liquid-based fuel.
“While those ICBMs are mobile, their liquid fuel requires longer preparation times as the weapons cannot normally be left in a fueled state, due to the corrosive and highly combustible nature of the chemicals used,” he says. “Solid-fueled missiles carry the advantage of being able to stay in a fueled and ready-to-strike state. As a result, they are much more reliable and can be launched faster. This would allow Pyongyang’s ICBMs to truly be completely mobile, making them harder to detect and destroy in a military conflict.”
Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Tyler Van Dyke. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense.
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THE SINGLE GREATEST THREAT: Two days after the Pentagon released its report on China’s growing military might, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the communist state is by far “the single greatest threat to the United States.”
“It’s not, frankly, a close call,” he told former Rep. Trey Gowdy on Fox last night. “The Chinese Communist Party is building out its military, it has infiltrated the United States in ways that Russia has not, and its economic might has been used through state-owned enterprises and subsidizing companies to destroy tens of thousands of jobs all across the heartland in America.”
“And then, of course, we’re all suffering even today from the Wuhan virus,” he continued. “The Chinese Communist Party had a chance to slow it down, to stop it, to let the world know what was taking place, and instead of giving us full disclosure, they covered up. This is thousands of lives and billions of dollars of wealth destroyed in the United States and all across the world. This is what authoritarian regimes do.”
BARR SAYS CHINA WORSE THAN RUSSIA: Attorney General William Barr was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN on Wednesday and was asked which of the countries trying to interfere in the U.S. elections is the most assertive, the most aggressive.
“I believe it’s China,” Barr said.
“China more than Russia right now?” Blitzer said. “Why do you say that?
“Because I’ve seen the intelligence. That’s what I’ve concluded,” Barr replied, refusing to give any details. “I’m not going to get into that.”
‘WE’RE NOT ASHAMED OF ANYTHING’: President Trump used his remarks commemorating the end of World War II to condemn violent protests in American cities.
Speaking at a ceremony at the battleship North Carolina, Trump said, “American warriors did not defeat fascism and oppression overseas only to watch our freedoms be trampled by violent mobs here at home.”
Trump criticized governors who have refused his offers to send in federal law enforcement or call up National Guard troops. “We stopped those violent mobs very easily. All they have to do is say, ‘Please, come in, Mr. President.’ We’ll have it done in one hour. ‘Please, come in.’”
“These people only know one thing, and that’s strength. That’s all they know. Strength. And we have strength,” Trump said. “For the sake of all Americans, we must uphold the rule of law and defend the American Dream for every child in our land. We must teach our children that America is a land of heroes. … We’re not ashamed in America. We’re not ashamed of anything.”
TRUMP WANTED NORTH KOREA-STYLE INAUGURAL PARADE: In her just-published book Melania and Me, former friend and adviser to first lady Melania Trump Stephanie Winston Wolkoff says the president wanted his inaugural parade to be modeled on North Korea’s over-the-top military displays.
At a planning meeting in his New York office, he reportedly said, “I don’t want floats. … I want tanks and choppers. Make it look like North Korea.”
“He really wanted goose-stepping troops and armored tanks. That would break tradition and terrify half the country,” she writes. “I walked out of the meeting ruffled and worried. I texted a close friend and colleague, quote: North Korea-style military parade, bad idea?”
The White House says the story is not true.
EDELMAN JOINS JINSA: Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy during the George W. Bush administration, has been appointed counselor of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America’s Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy, where he chairs the center’s policy projects on Iran and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Edelman also served as U.S. ambassador to Finland and Turkey in the Clinton and Bush administrations and was principal deputy assistant to the vice president for national security affairs.
The Gemunder Center says it “performs innovative research and educates on vital U.S. defense, strategic and general national security issues.”
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Pompeo aide warns Putin of ‘substantial consequences’ if Russian forces enter Belarus
Washington Examiner: US blames Russia for Navalny’s Novichok poisoning
Washington Examiner: Esper makes China unspoken threat to international order in V-J Day ceremony
Washington Examiner: Soldier who helped save 70 ISIS hostages to be given Medal of Honor: Report
Stars and Stripes: Military Not Selected To Be Among First Groups To Receive Coronavirus Vaccine
Washington Post: Surveillance program that gathered Americans’ phone data was illegal, court finds
National Interest: White House and U.S. Intelligence Officials Warn North Korea Could Unveil New ICBM Next Month
Agence France Presse: Beijing Pillories Pentagon Report On Chinese Military Ambitions
Breaking Defense: ‘I Don’t Believe China’ Is Serious About Nuke No First Use: DASD Nukes Soofer
Air Force Magazine: Soofer: No New ‘Tactical’ Nukes for USAF
AP: US officials: No new environmental study for nuclear lab
CNN: The U.S. Is Standing Firm With Taiwan, And It’s Making That Point Very Clear
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Sets New Rules On China’s Diplomats
Bloomberg: India Captured Strategic Posts In Stealth Move Against China
Washington Post: The targeted killings that have shaken Afghanistan
Military Times: The Services Have Work To Do When It Comes To Unconscious Bias, SECDEF Says
Air Force Magazine: Lockheed, York Win Contracts for First SDA Satellites
AP: Trump, Biden will both mark 9/11 anniversary in Shanksville
Washington Post: Opinion: Trump promised a 350-ship Navy. China actually built it.
Calendar
THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 3
8:55 a.m. — Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Europe virtual Space Workshop, with the theme “Cybersecurity in and for Space Operations,” with Air Force Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center. https://eu.eventscloud.com/ehome/afceaeuropeworkshop-space2020/programme/
9 a.m. — United States Institute of Peace webinar: “The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Faces the Future: What to Expect from the 27th ASEAN Regional Forum,” with Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell; former Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States Pham Quang Vinh; Mely Caballero-Anthony, professor of international relations at Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Byron Chong, research associate at the National University of Singapore’s Center on Asia and Globalization; Drew Thompson, visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s School of Public Policy; and Brian Harding, senior expert for Southeast Asia at USIP. https://www.usip.org/events/asean-faces-future
10 a.m. — Middle East Institute webinar: “Iran, Israel and the Changing Geopolitics of the Middle East,” with Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Meir Javedanfar, senior research fellow at the Meir Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies; Ksenia Svetlova, senior research analyst at the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policy; and Alex Vatanka, director of the MEI Iran Program. https://www.mei.edu/events
10 a.m. — George Washington University School of International Affairs webinar: “U.S.-Republic of Korea relations and cooperation,” with Republic of Korea Ambassador to the United States Soo Hyuck Lee. https://elliott.gwu.edu/event-calendar
1 p.m. — U.S. Navy Memorial webinar with the Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. John Nowell. https://www.navymemorial.org/new-events
5 p.m. — American Enterprise Institute webinar: “America’s place in the world: How lessons from the past can guide the future of foreign policy,” with Hal Brands, resident scholar, AEI; Francis Gavin, director, Henry Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins University; Kori Schake, Director, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, AEI; Robert Zoellick, senior fellow, Belfer Center, Harvard University. https://www.aei.org/events/webinar-americas-place-in-the-world
7 p.m. — President Trump delivers remarks live at campaign event from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 7
Labor Day — Daily on Defense will not be published as we observe the federal holiday.
MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 14
9 a.m. — Day one of the Air Force Association 2020 Virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference, with Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett; Gen. Timothy Ray, commander, Air Force Global Strike Command; Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander, Pacific Air Forces; Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa. Full agenda at: https://www.afa.org/events/calendar/2020-09-14/air-space-cyber-conference
TUESDAY | SEPTEMBER 15
9 a.m. — Day two of the Air Force Association 2020 Virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference, with Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond; Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics; and others. Full agenda at: https://www.afa.org/events/calendar/2020-09-14/air-space-cyber-conference
MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 21
12 p.m. — Day one of New America and Arizona State University Future Security Forum, a four-day virtual event reimagining national security in the age of COVID-19, with retired Gen. Joseph Votel, former U.S. Central Commander; Michèle Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense for policy; Bonnie Jenkins, founder and president, Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation; Helene Gayle, MD, member, Committee on Equitable Allocation of Vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus, National Academies; Michael Osterholm, director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota. https://www.newamerica.org/conference/future-security-forum-2020/
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The United States’s commitment to the world today is the same one we made to the freedom-loving people of the world in 1941: that we will remain ready to fight any foe and defend any friend and that we will safeguard our values and all that we hold dear, at every turn, in any place.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in remarks at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, commemorating the end of World War II.
