North Korea

KimJongUn · Oct 24, 2014

North Korea to shut borders to all foreign tourists amid Ebola fears

News comes decades after large-scale border closures during Sars; travel agency official reports some prospective tourists were asked for health checks

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 23 October, 2014, 5:34pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 23 October, 2014, 6:51pm

Kristine Servando [email protected]

Tourists leaving after paying homage to a giant portrait of Kim Il-Sung. Photo: AFP

North Korea is sealing off all its borders in response to the global Ebola threat, two China-based travel agencies specialising in North Korea tours said on Thursday.

Nick Bonner, from Beijing-based North Korea travel specialists Koryo Tours, said they received “panicked” phone calls at around 3.30pm on Thursday from their partners in the state-run Korean International Travel Company, saying: “The country’s closed”

He said all the socialist state’s borders, especially Dandong across Siniujiu, would be closed to all flights, cars and trains. “All borders will be totally sealed,” he told the South China Morning Post.

Gareth Johnson, founder of Xian-based Young Pioneer Tours (YPT) which specialises in budget tours to North Korea, said they had been informed of the closure of the country’s borders this morning from their North Korean partners in northeastern China, who said: “starting from tomorrow, no tourists will be allowed into the country”.

“We have since then confirmed this with our partners in both Beijing and Pyongyang. We understand that this will be for the time being and we don’t know just how long this will be in force,” he told the South China Morning Post.

“Two days ago, we were told that if we had people visiting North Korea, who’d been to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone that they would have to have a health check to prove that they didn’t have Ebola and it’s escalated [from there] over the past two days,” he said.

Johnson said it was unclear whether business travellers would be affected. “We believe it is all foreigners, not just tourists,” he said.

He said they had also confirmed the news from KITC and the Rason International Travel Agency.

A hawker sells North Korean souvenirs beside the Yalu River Bridge at the border city of Dandong. Photo: AFP

Chinese travellers, a significant and lucrative segment for North Korean tourism, are also affected, some tour agents based in Dandong said on Thursday.

"We received a notice today [that the closure] starts tomorrow [Friday]. We're not sure how many people will be affected because it's the low season right now," said one agent for an agency called NK Holidays.

It was, however, unclear whether Chinese business travellers would be affected as well. Beijing approved North Korea as a destination for its citizens in June 2008, and a memorandum of understanding was signed in October 2009

Koryo and YPT said they did not receive any official warnings from the state prior to this announcement.

But Johnson said, “We can assume that it is related to the announcement of the first [suspected] case of a Chinese patient getting Ebola.”

Forty-three patients monitored for the virus had been given the all clear by Guangdong’s health authorities on Wednesday.

Bonner noted that the last time there was a border closure of this scale was in 2003, during the spread of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).

In April 2003, the state TV station even announced one suspected case of Sars - a male patient in Pyongyang - and issued an alert for all hospitals throughout North Korea.

Johnson said that last year, North Korea cancelled all tourist flights from Shanghai over concerns about avian flu.

The companies, meanwhile, may stand to lose valuable business if the ban on foreign travel lasts for several weeks. Koryo’s one-week group tours cost around 2,000 euros, while YPT tours cost around 900 euros.

Koryo said it currently has two guests in North Korea travelling on an independent tour, whom Bonner said would be allowed safely out.

Another 150 tourists under Koryo are scheduled to visit the country between now and December. The agency will give a full refund if the tours are cancelled owing to the closure, Bonner said.

Johnson, meanwhile, said up to 100 tourists’ plans could be affected during that period, including one group supposedly set to depart in three days.

Statistics on Chinese and foreign tourists to North Korea are sparse. The China National Tourism Administration told the Post last year that 237,400 Chinese travelled to North Korea in 2012, 22.5 per cent more than in 2011. A North Korean tourism official has claimed in previous reports that as many as 700,000 came in 2010-11.

With additional reporting from Yifei Chen

Sephiroth · Oct 25, 2014

South Korea dismantles 'Christmas tree' tower at centre of row with North

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 23 October, 2014, 3:59am
UPDATED : Thursday, 23 October, 2014, 3:59am

Associated Press in Seoul

South Korean Christians sing carols by the tower in 2010.

South Korean Christians sing carols by the tower in 2010.South Korea said yesterday it had dismantled a Christmas tree-shaped tower near the border with North Korea which had previously been used for a seasonal lights show that drew angry protests from the atheist regime in Pyongyang.

North Korea has repeatedly demanded the destruction of the 20-metre high steel tower on top of a military-controlled hill just 3km from the heavily-fortified border.

In the past, it has even threatened to shell the tower, which the South has allowed civilian groups to decorate with lights, including a giant illuminated cross at the top, over the Christmas season.

The defence ministry said it was dismantled for the sole reason that the 43-year-old structure had become unsafe.

"The decision was unrelated to inter-Korean relations. Safety was the main reason," a ministry spokesman said, adding that work to remove the tower had begun in August.

"There is no plan to replace it with a new one," he said.

The South switched off the tree under a 2004 deal to halt official cross-border propaganda.

The deal was scrapped in 2010 after the sinking of a South Korean warship that Seoul blamed on a North Korean submarine.

In 2011 the tower was not illuminated in the wake of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death and it stayed dark over Christmas last year when military tensions were running high.

The North has always condemned the Christmas lights show as psychological warfare.

The dismantling of the tower comes after an agreement reached during a surprise visit to the South by a top-ranking North Korean delegation earlier this month.

Subotic · Oct 25, 2014

North Korea calls balloon launch a declaration of war

Scheduled anti-Pyongyang balloon launches also criticised by defectors

October 24th, 2014
Robert Lauler

North Korea has threatened that a balloon launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets scheduled for Saturday will be a declaration of war.

Unusually, the proposed balloon launch is also coming under fire from other defector groups and politicians within the South Korean conservative camp.

The group planning the launch, the Citizens’ Alliance for Sending North Korean Leaflets (CASNL), has promised to send 100,000 leaflets into North Korea on Saturday, October 25.

The group, which is headed by Busan University Professor Chae Uwon, could not be reached for comment.

CASNL’s plan has outraged progressive politicians and residents living near the planned launch site, who even threatened to stop the launch themselves.

But in an unusual turn of events, they have been joined by conservative politicians and even other defector activists who have launched balloons in the past.

A SCAM

This unusual opposition was jointly expressed when conservative lawmaker Ha Taekyung held a press conference today with Lee Minbok, a defector well known for his night time balloon launches, saying they categorically oppose the upcoming launch.

“The actions of the organization planning to launch leaflets on October 25 are, in short, a scam,” they said, pointing out further that the winds forecasted for the launch day were unfavorable.

The two men accused CASNL of simply aiming to promote their own group by announcing the launch more than 10 days before the launch date.

They further argued that launches could only be decided 36 hours prior to the event, as wind conditions could not be accurately predicted before this time.

Other members of the defector community here also have expressed opposition to the event.

“The launch planned for October 25 should not happen. It’s just a show. Nobody knows how the wind will blow, so I oppose the launch,” said Ahn Myung-chul, a defector and head of NK Watch, a Seoul-based human rights organization.

CROSSWINDS

Ha and Lee also emphasized that the launches be made without alerting the press to avoid “unneeded conflict” with North and South Korean residents on the border.

While emphasizing that they believed sending the leaflets was important to open the “eyes and ears” of the North Korean people, they also argued it is wrong to completely ignore sentiment on the South Korean side.

This stance appears to conflict with other members of the defector balloon launching community. Park Sanghak, the head of Fighters for Free North Korea, has become well known for staging daytime launches replete with full press coverage.

In an interview today with Yonhap, Park said his group would participate in the balloon launches tomorrow. He also expressed opposition to Lee’s contention that the launch would be “meaningless” and said such comments were “lies”

that “hurt the feelings” of those conducting the launch.

Lee Minbok and his group, Campaign for Helping North Korean in Direct Way (sic), in contrast, is better known for launching his balloons at night with little or no press coverage.

Neither Lee or Park could not be reached for comment.

EFFECTIVENESS QUESTIONED

Regardless of favorable winds, some members of the defector community have expressed concern over the overall effectiveness of balloon launches.

“They are using balloons that are very basic in structure and that cannot go very far into North Korea,” said NK Watch’s Ahn. “Not only can these balloons not make it to Pyongyang, they typically fall to the ground 30 to 50 kilometers

into the country. But that area is just full of frontline military units.”

Ahn also questioned the effectiveness of the leaflet content on the hearts and minds of North Koreans.

“A lot of the leaflets have really extreme stuff like ‘Topple the dictatorship of the Kims!’” Ahn continued. He argued that the leaflets should speak in more positive terms, such as showing how well South Koreans live better to their northern brethren.

“North Koreans seeing the extreme stuff will probably just look at it as South Korean propaganda aimed at badmouthing the country,” Ahn said.

Subotic · Oct 25, 2014

US rules out apologising to Pyongyang to secure release of prisoners

John Kerry rules out apologising to secure release of two prisoners, suggesting North Korea should build goodwill by letting them go

PUBLISHED : Friday, 24 October, 2014, 11:04pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 25 October, 2014, 3:45am

Associated Press in Pyongyang

Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller. Photos: AP

US Secretary of State John Kerry has ruled out an apology to North Korea to secure the release of two detained Americans.

Kerry said North Korea should free Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae because they are being held "inappropriately".

On Tuesday, North Korea released another American, Jeffrey Fowle, who had been held for six months after he was arrested for leaving a Bible in a nightclub.

Kerry said the US was delighted that Fowle was back home, and hoped North Korea would recognise that it could build goodwill and "open up a diplomatic track" between Washington and Pyongyang by releasing the other two.

He was speaking after a joint meeting of the top diplomats and defence officials of close US ally, South Korea.

Kerry's announcement came as least one North Korean legal expert suggested Washington formally apologise to Pyongyang. The suggestion by Sok Chol-won, a professor of international law, may appear ludicrous to outsiders in democracies, but it highlights how autocratic North Korea assumes that a government is responsible for its citizens' actions.

"In order to return the prisoners to their country, the United States must make an official apology and request their release," Sok, who teaches at Pyongyang's Academy of Social Sciences, said.

There are other examples of North Korea expecting foreign governments to control their society.

Earlier this year, it threatened retaliation if Washington didn't ban an upcoming Hollywood movie featuring Seth Rogen that portrays Kim Jong-un as the villain.

It also regularly insists that Seoul keep its media from reporting negatively about the North Korean leadership and block activists from floating anti-North Korea propaganda in balloons across the border.

North Korea closely regulates its academics, media and intellectuals, so Sok's comments can also be seen as a reflection of how the leadership wants to resolve the cases of Matthew Miller, who is serving a six-year jail term on charges of espionage, and Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary who was sentenced to 15 years in jail for alleged anti-government activities.

Sok's advice also fits into North Korea's version of diplomacy and propaganda that aims to get a big power like the US - seen as an imperialist bully - to bow to a proud nation and say sorry for its perceived faults. "It's not a matter of individuals. It's between countries," said Ri Kyong-chol, another law professor at the academy.

"Between the US and our country there is no political channel ... If there were diplomatic relations between our two countries this kind of problem wouldn't happen."

At a time when it faces growing outside criticism over its alleged human rights abuses, North Korea would see a US apology as showing the outside world that it was justified in arresting the Americans, said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies.

Chang said North Korea would also use the apology to bolster what it says is its struggle against US hostility. Fowle was arrested for leaving a Bible in a nightclub in the city of Chongjin, where he was visiting with a foreign tour group.

North Korean state media said that Fowle was released after Kim granted him a special pardon following "repeated requests" from President Barack Obama.

Both Miller and Bae have said they believe their only chance of release is the intervention of a high-ranking government official or a senior US statesman.

In the past, former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have travelled to Pyongyang to bring detainees back home.

Guile · Oct 29, 2014

Solved: it was a cyst that floored North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

South Korean spy agency says ankle operation was behind six-week absence of North's leader

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 28 October, 2014, 10:46pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 28 October, 2014, 10:52pm

Associated Press in Seoul

Kim Jong-un walks with a cane this month. Photo: EPA

South Korea's spy agency said it has solved the mystery of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's six-week public absence, which set off a frenzy of speculation.

The National Intelligence Service told legislators that a foreign doctor operated on Kim in September or October to remove a cyst from his right ankle, according to Park Byeong-seok, an aide for opposition lawmaker Shin Kyung-min. The aide said the spy agency also told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that the cyst could recur because of Kim's obesity, smoking and heavy public schedule.

The South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo reported earlier this month that a French surgeon operated on Kim's ankles and the leader was recovering at a private estate north of Pyongyang.

In September, North Korean authorities, in a rare display of openness about their leader's health, admitted Kim was suffering from an "uncomfortable physical condition'.

After last being seen in state media on September 3, Kim reappeared on October 14 hobbling with a cane, but smiling and looking thinner.

The speculation during his absence was particularly intense because of the Kim family's importance to impoverished, nuclear-armed North Korea. The family has ruled the country since its founding in 1948.

It was not immediately clear how the information was obtained by the spy agency, which has a spotty track record of analysing developments in opaque North Korea.

The agency also said North Korea had expanded five of its political prisoner camps, including the Yodok camp, which was moved to the northwestern city of Kilchu, according to Lim Dae-seong, an aide to ruling party lawmaker Lee Cheol-woo, who also attended the briefing. The agency believed the camps held about 100,000 prisoners, Lim said.

He said the agency also believed that North Korea recently used a firing squad to execute several people who had been close to Kim Jong-un's uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who was considered the country's No2 before his sudden purge last December.

In an intelligence success, South Korea's spy agency correctly said that Jang had likely been dismissed from his posts before North Korea officially announced his arrest.

However, it received heavy criticism when its director acknowledged that it had ignored intelligence indicating North Korea's impending shelling of a South Korean island in 2010. It also came under fire because of reports that it only learned of the 2011 death of then leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un's father, when state media announced it.

Additional reporting by Kyodo

KimJongUn · Oct 29, 2014

NK Requests Assistance from SK Red Cross for Contagious Disease Prevention

Koo Jun Hoe | 2014-10-28 14:15

Mounting concerns over the Ebola virus has prompted North Korea to request help from South Korea in its efforts to prevent the contagion from entering and spreading within the country.

During a government audit of the Health and Welfare Committee on October 27th, Kim Sung Joo, head of the Korean National Red Cross, stated, “North Korea has requested medical supplies to prevent the spread of contagious diseases.”

Ruling Saenuri Party representative Shin Kyung Rim responded by inquiring, “Do we know it's true that Ebola was the trigger for North Korea's request for quarantine and medical supplies?" Kim replied that it was indeed the truth and that the full details would be divulged at a later time.

Considering this fact, Rep. Shin remarked that according to China’s Hwangu News Agency, North Korea has forbidden foreigners from entering the country to prevent the virus from spreading, and noted, “if a contagious virus enters an area with a weak health care system like that of North Korea, it will quickly become an epidemic.”

While North Korean state media has not officially confirmed the closure, it did state, “At present, information activities and strict border quarantine are being conducted in the country. Foreign travelers and foreigners are subjected to a rigorous quarantine with advanced facilities," in a Rodong Sinmun article published on October 24th.

The article, titled, “Anti-Ebola Campaign Brisk in DPRK” declared that efforts were being made to “develop preventive medicine against Ebola with regular hygienic and anti-epidemic work” and provide the residents with “even better medical conditions.”

Another article appeared prior to this in the same publication, outlining general information about the disease and featuring a number of photos of efforts to combat its spread in West Africa.

KimJongUn · Oct 29, 2014

Talks on Japanese Abductions Start in Pyongyang

Koo Jun Hoe | 2014-10-28 17:42

Japanese and North Korean officials started two days of talks in Pyongyang on October 28th to assess progress in North Korea’s investigation into Japanese citizens who were thought to have been abducted by North Korean agents in the 70s and 80s.

Japan will have 12 officials at the talks, with eight from North Korea attending, including Kang Song Nam, who is charged with heading the North’s special investigatory committee on the abductees.

According to a Kyodo News report, Japan's chief delegate Junichi Ihara announced on the previous day, “The issue of the abductees is a high-priority issue for Japan.”

“This is the right choice for North Korea and Japan to reach an agreement,” Ihara stated regarding Japan’s choice to go to Pyongyang.

This is the first time in 10 years--the last being November 2004-- that a Japanese delegation has visited North Korea to discuss the issue of the abductees.

Japanese negotiator Junichi Ihara and his North Korean counterpart, Song Il Ho, held a day of talks in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang last month on the 29th, during which the North Korean Foreign Minister stated, “Send a delegation so that they can hear about the status of the investigation themselves.”

At the end of May 2014, high-level talks between North Korea and Japan in Stockholm, Sweden led to a subsequent meeting in July where after North Korea’s special investigatory committee launched a probe into the whereabouts of the Japanese abductees; Japan lifted some of its unilateral sanctions against North Korea in response.

KimJongUn · Oct 29, 2014

SK Spy Agency, “Kim Jong Eun Received Surgery on Left Ankle Sept.-Oct.”

Lee Sang Yong | 2014-10-28 19:29

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Eun sustained an injury to a muscle in his left ankle in May and had a cyst surgically removed some time in September or October by a specialist flown in from overseas, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service [NIS] on Tuesday.

The statement came during an inspection of government offices conducted by the National Assembly’s intelligence committee. “Due to his extreme obesity and excessive public appearances, there are possibilities of lingering side effects and recurrences,” ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo and opposition lawmaker Shin Kyoung Min said in briefing, relaying information provided by the NIS.

“To prepare for a potential recurrence, North Korean doctors are currently said to be in Europe to study in the field,” the lawmakers said.

According to the lawmakers, the spy agency also said Kim Jong Eun is carrying out a second purge of any officials that still remain from the clout of Jang Song Thaek, who was executed by the current leader.

“Kim Jong Eun’s leadership is working to erase any traces [of Jang],” the assemblymen told reporters, adding, “Party cadre members are on their toes because of this.”

The NIS also told the committee that “North Korea is carrying out more executions and expanding the operation of political prison camps,” adding, “some 10 Party cadre members were executed for receiving bribes, womanizing, and watching South Korean TV dramas.”

Meanwhile, the spy agency also told the committee that Kim demoted a military corps commander and all related Party members by two ranks for having poor performance in artillery targeting.

KimJongUn · Oct 29, 2014

KimJongUn · Oct 29, 2014

PressForNirvana · Oct 30, 2014

Japan wants 12 abductees’ fates prioritized

Delegation from Japanese government travels to Pyongyang to discuss investigation progress

October 29th, 2014
Rob York

Japan wants North Korea to prioritize finding out what happened to the 12 Japanese abductees who may still be alive, it said Tuesday.

A Japanese delegation – led by Junichiro Ihara, director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Asian and Oceanic Affairs Bureau – traveled to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean officials to discuss progress on the investigation into what happened to the abductees.

During a meeting Tuesday in the North Korean capital, marking the start of two days of talks, Ihara told the North Korean side that revealing the fate of 12 abductees should be the highest priority in the investigation.

The leader of the North Korean delegation meeting the Japanese was So Tae Ha, vice minister of state security and member of the National Defense Commission. So said during the meeting that the Japanese government had made the right choice sending its delegation to Pyongyang, demonstrating its intent to implement their earlier agreement.

Under the deal reached in May, North Korea agreed to reopen its investigation into the fate of those abducted from 1977 to 1983 in return for Japan lifting some of its sanctions on the North. North Korea’s late leader Kim Jong Il admitted in 2002 that the North had abducted 13 Japanese civilians, but Japan officially lists the North as being behind 17 abductions and suspects their involvement in even more cases.

Experts have said that the North could not realistically have lost track of what happened to abducted Japanese citizens in its territory, making the investigation less about locating them than finding a way to save face while lifting Japanese sanctions.

PressForNirvana · Oct 30, 2014

Hope Dwindles for Oct.30th Inter-Korean Talks

Lee Sang Yong | 2014-10-29 16:39

North Korea's National Defense Commission sent a fax message to South Korea’s Blue House through a military hotline on October 29th, reiterating its protest against the launch of leaflets by private South Korean organizations condemning the North Korean regime, according to Seoul's unification ministry.

“The South let the leaflets launch on a legal basis; it has no interest in creating the proper atmosphere, which is the prerequisite for improving relations and opening dialogue, and is headed in the direction of these talks being cancelled,” the message from the North read, suggesting that hopes that the two Koreas would hold a second round of high-level talks on October 30th are effectively dead.

North Korea went on to convey in the message that the decision to hold the talks is contingent on the South and whether or not the government will continue to adhere to its policies of non-intervention regarding the leaflets.

The date for the meeting was suggested by the South Korean government after both sides agreed to a second round of high-level talks following the surprise visit of three top-ranking North Korean officials on October 4th. However, the North did not respond to the invitation, and sent messages condemning the South for its failure to halt the launch of balloons containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets on October 25th.

“We express regret that it has become difficult to open high-level talks on October 30th as we proposed due to North Korea’s position," Lim Byeong Cheol, the ministry's spokesman, stated at a press briefing. He went on to express doubts over Pyongyang’s will to improve inter-Korean relations but remarked that the agreement to hold the talks still “holds true.”

“We must stress again that the South Korean government cannot intervene in the flying of these leaflets as North Korea has demanded,” Lim pointed out. “Our stance has consistently been that we sit down with North Korea and resolve pending issues through dialogue, but we will not accept unreasonable demands.”

PressForNirvana · Oct 30, 2014

Munsu Saturated While Homes Run Dry

Lee Sang Yong | 2014-10-30 16:53

Despite the severe water shortage in North Korea from the spring drought that has even suspended operations at major power plants, the country has been busy supplying water to Pyongyang’s Munsu Waterpark and other leisure facilities rather than to its people, according to a local source. The Munsu Waterpark and Neungra Theme Park are venues widely promoted by the state as “legacies” of its leader Kim Jong Eun.

“We’re not simply talking about your average household, the central district apartments have not even been able to receive a proper supply of water,” a Pyongyang-based source told the Daily NK on Wednesday. “The water from the Taedong River is being supplied first to the theme park or waterpark.”

The severe drought this spring crippled North Korea’s water supply, even disrupting train services. Pyongyang, known as the “revolutionary capital,” which always receives priority when it comes to public resources, has also been struggling with a lag in power and water, according to the source.

This has led to criticism that the state only focuses on promoting Kim Jong Eun’s projects, instead of improving the lives of its people as it vowed the waterpark would help achieve. Since assuming power, Kim has ordered construction of multiple leisure facilities in his effort to build up a “people-friendly” image.

“As the weather gets colder, no one is even visiting these waterparks, but the water supply is the same as in the summer,” the source said. “Summertime operations aside, more people these days are questioning why the park is open at a time like this.”

“Some have even suggested residents should have priority over the water that goes to those places [waterpark, theme park],” he asserted.

As this situation continues, more Party cadres who live in apartments in the central districts of Pyongyang are actively raising questions: they may have won the rights of residency in the affluent, central area using their privileges as a Party member, but without the proper water supply, living there becomes more of an inconvenience.

“The cadres that tried so hard to move into these new buildings have been taken aback since they can’t get water,” the source explained. “Some have even said they would rather move to the outskirts of Pyongyang instead of live in the apartments, where it’s hard to even get your own water.”

In terms of electricity, the source reported, “[On Pyongyang’s outskirts] there was no power all last month, except for Chuseok [the traditional harvest festival of the Korean people] and September 9th [National Foundation Day]. This month, we’ve have a spotty supply following Party Foundation Day [10th].” He added, “Even in the central area of Pyongyang, the power isn’t running consistently, so there are times when the entire city is just blanketed in darkness.”

KimJongUn · Nov 1, 2014

South Korea activists launch 1 million balloons carrying anti-North leaflets on border

Bags slung under tall gas-filled balloons launched near the border contain one US dollar notes, radios, DVDs and leaflets condemning North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un

PUBLISHED : Friday, 31 October, 2014, 12:36pm
UPDATED : Friday, 31 October, 2014, 12:36pm

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

South Korean activists release balloons carrying anti-North Korea leaflets at a park near the inter-Korea border in Paju, north of Seoul. Photo: AFP

South Korean activists said they launched more than one million anti-North Korea leaflets across the border on Friday, a move likely to infuriate Pyongyang, which has demanded Seoul ban such exercises.

The leaflets were in bundles attached to 24 gas-filled balloons that a North Korean defector group floated over the heavily-militarised frontier shortly after midnight, around 60 kilometres north of Seoul.

As well as messages condemning the North’s ruling Kim dynasty, the packages contained one dollar US notes, small radios and DVDs, group leader Lee Min-bok told reporters.

North Korea says the South’s refusal to ban the balloon launches has jeopardised an agreement to resume high-level talks.

Two weeks ago, North Korean border guards attempted to shoot down some balloons launched by Lee’s group, triggering a brief exchange of heavy machine gun fire across the border.

“We staged a quiet operation today because excessive publicity is not good for our humanitarian mission to help our North Korean brothers,” Lee said.

South Korea has asked activist groups to show restraint at what it is a sensitive time, but insists it is unable to prohibit the launches.

“They are a matter related to the freedom of expression, so we have no legal grounds to control or restrict them,” Defence Ministry spokesman Wi Yong-seob told reporters.

The two Koreas had decided earlier this month to restart high-level talks by early November, and South Korea had proposed meeting on Thursday at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

But the North said the refusal to ban the balloon launches had soured the atmosphere and threatened the whole future of the talks agreement.

eatshitndie · Nov 1, 2014

the dear leader loves the kindergarten for elites' children. it cums with an indoor pond for boating. he may wish to enroll as a kiddie student again.

PressForNirvana · Nov 4, 2014

North Korea denies role in smartphone hacking in South

PUBLISHED : Monday, 03 November, 2014, 9:50pm
UPDATED : Monday, 03 November, 2014, 9:50pm

Bank clerks tend an ATM after a cyber attack in Seoul in 2013. Photo: AP

North Korea's state media yesterday blasted South Korea's spy agency for alleging Pyongyang hacked tens of thousands of smartphones in the South using malware disguised in mobile gaming apps.

The South's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to parliament last week that North Korea attempted to hack more than 20,000 South Korean smartphones from May to September.

The agency said it had worked with the owners of South Korean websites and government officials to remove the applications.

Pyongyang's official internet news provider Uriminzokkiri accused the NIS of fabricating the report to distract public attention from a stand-off over South Korean activists sending leaflets critical of the North's regime across the border in balloons.

"It's [the] usual tactic used by South Korean authorities to fan anti-Pyongyang sentiment whenever they face a political crisis," it said.

The two Koreas had decided recently to restart high-level talks by early this month. South Korea had proposed meeting last week, but the North said the refusal to ban the balloon launches had soured the atmosphere and threatened any future meeting.

The North is believed to run an elite cyberwar unit of at least 3,000 personnel, but it has denied any involvement and accuses Seoul of fabricating the incidents to fan cross-border tensions.

Agence France-Presse

PressForNirvana · Nov 4, 2014

Academics try to get North and South Korea to speak same language

When one word has come to mean both 'lady' and 'feudal slave', the task facing academics in compiling a unified dictionary seems daunting

PUBLISHED : Monday, 03 November, 2014, 9:49pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 04 November, 2014, 1:27am

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

Academics try to get North and South Korea to speak same language

North and South Korea have never found dialogue easy, but academics from both sides now meeting in Pyongyang are trying to steer things in the right direction by at least getting them to speak the same language.

A 25-year effort to produce a unified Korean-language dictionary is, its compilers say, entering the home stretch in its bid to bridge a growing gap in vocabulary, if not ideology.

Last week, a group of South Korean linguists and lexicographers involved in the dictionary project left for their first meeting in North Korea for five years.

"It's important work," said chief editor Han Young-un, who believes a growing divergence in Korean usage risks becoming as big a barrier to eventual North-South unification as the heavily militarised border dividing the peninsula.

Han said the problem was especially pronounced in the language used by professionals like doctors and lawyers. "It's so marked that architects from each side would probably have difficulty building a house together," he added.

After the 1910-1945 Japanese occupation of Korea - during which Korean was banned in schools and government - both sides of the newly divided peninsula put a priority on the language and literacy.

But more than six decades of almost total separation have seen their common language split almost as radically as their economies and politics.

Some common words have polarised meanings, such as
agassi which means "young lady" in South Korea, but "slave of feudal society" in the North.

The real problem is the far larger number of words that have exclusively entered each country's lexicon and are mutually unintelligible.

Han estimates such differences now extend to one third of the words spoken on the streets of Seoul and Pyongyang, and up to two thirds in business and official settings. "At the moment there is still no problem in basic communication, but the language rift will become unbridgeable if left unchecked," Han said.

The dictionary's target is 330,000 entries and the committee has so far managed to come up with concrete definitions for 55,000 words.

The work was slow at first as the two sides got to know each other, but soon picked up pace and Han said he was confident a 2019 completion target could be met if the committee could go about its work uninterrupted.

Unfortunately, even the peaceful work of lexicography is not immune to the volatile nature of relations between North and South Korea, who have remained technically at war since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean conflict.

One factor behind the divergence in the two versions of Korean was the North's decision to "purify" the language by eliminating the many words of Chinese origin and coining new "native" terms to replace them.

In South Korea, Sino-Korean words still comprise more than half of the vocabulary.

At the same time, the North incorporated Russian loanwords - such as
gommuna for "community" - while the South borrowed heavily from English to coin terms like "eye-shopping", meaning browsing.

North Korean defectors such as Park Kun-ha, who fled in 2005, say the prevalence of English loanwords is a major obstacle to adapting to life in the South.

"It's incredibly frustrating. They are everywhere, and it's essentially like learning a foreign language," said Park.

Area51 · Nov 6, 2014

North Korea ‘could double nuclear capacity’ with new nuclear plant

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 05 November, 2014, 11:35am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 05 November, 2014, 1:56pm

Reuters in Seoul

North Korea told US scientists that its Yongbyon nuclear facility contained 2,000 centrifuges. Photo: Reuters

North Korea is operating a new nuclear facility that could double its known capacity to produce uranium-enriched fuel for nuclear weapons, a South Korean news report said on Wednesday.

The move, if true, would be a further step in defiance of international pressure on Pyongyang to end its nuclear programme in the form of layers of UN sanctions.

The new facility sits right next to a plant where in 2010 the North allowed a team of US nuclear experts to tour what one described as a sophisticated and “industrial-scale” uranium enrichment facility.

“We’ve discovered the plant has recently been completed and is now in operation,” South Korea’s Joongang newspaper, a mainstream daily, quoted a government official who handles intelligence on North Korea as saying.

Images taken by US intelligence authorities with cameras mounted with heat sensors revealed indicators pointing to the operation of centrifuges inside the plant, the official was quoted as saying.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, which is involved in the monitoring and negotiations over the North’s nuclear activities, did not immediately comment.

The plant, if operational and producing weapons-grade uranium, could sharply boost the North’s ability to build nuclear arms by way of a second route to obtain fissile material in addition to its stockpile of plutonium.
READ: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un can walk without a stick, new photos show

The North is believed to have made advances in trying to build an atomic bomb, with three test detonations of nuclear devices, but is still believed to be working on the technology to miniaturise a nuclear warhead to mount on a delivery system.

The commander of the US military in South Korea has said he believed the North has the capability to build a nuclear warhead that can be mounted on a ballistic missile although there was no test or evidence that it had taken that step.

North Korea took a team led by Siegfried Hecker, Stanford University professor and a former head of the US Los Alamos National Laboratory, to its Yongbyon nuclear site and showed them a facility its officials said contained 2,000 centrifuges.

Hecker said he had no way of verifying that number or whether the equipment was working but said it was likely the North was capable of running the facility as it claimed.

He estimated the North had enough plutonium left for four to eight weapons. It was possible it had mastered the technology for both the plutonium and highly enriched uranium bombs, he said.

Area51 · Nov 6, 2014

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un can walk without a stick, new photos show

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 05 November, 2014, 11:21am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 05 November, 2014, 1:07pm

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

A picture combo released by the North Korean Central News Agency shows Kim Jong-un attending an event with military commanders in Pyongyang, on Tuesday while walking without a cane. Photo: EPA

North Korea’s top newspaper carried pictures on Wednesday of leader Kim Jong-un walking without a stick, apparently showing he has recovered from either an injury or surgery to his leg.

Rodong, the official daily newspaper of the state’s ruling Korean Workers Party, carried a photo of a smiling Kim walking without the cane he was seen using last month.

The picture shows Kim walking to a chair in front of a crowd of soldiers for a photo opportunity. Another picture showed Kim standing and clapping his hands.

Following an extended absence from the pubic eye, Kim resurfaced with a walking stick in mid-October.

His nearly six-week absence triggered a frenzy of speculation about his health and grip on power.

North Korea’s state television at the time carried still photos of Kim walking with a black cane but aired no matching video footage.

Before his prolonged absence, state television had shown an overweight Kim walking with a pronounced limp.

Since assuming power after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in 2011, Kim Jong-un has cut a very public figure, with state media showing him engaged in a seemingly endless series of trips to military units and factories across the country where he gives what is officially known as “field guidance”.

His sudden disappearance, which began in early September, quickly became a source of rumour and speculation.

This went into overdrive after he missed two noteworthy political events he would normally have been expected to attend.

Some reports even suggested he had been ousted in a coup.

PressForNirvana · Nov 8, 2014

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un walks with limp in latest television footage

PUBLISHED : Friday, 07 November, 2014, 10:53am
UPDATED : Friday, 07 November, 2014, 1:01pm

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

Kim was seen limping on Thursday as he walked past a crowd of soldiers for a photo opportunity but North Korean television footage avoided showing his legs. Photo: Xinhua

North Korean state television has aired footage of Kim Jong-un for the first time in more than two months, showing the leader walking without a stick but with a pronounced limp.

The video footage, aired late on Thursday by the North’s Chosun Chungang TV, showed Kim on stage at a meeting of military commanders in Pyongyang that took place on Monday and Tuesday.

Following an extended absence from the public eye, Kim re-surfaced with a walking stick in mid-October. His nearly six-week absence triggered a frenzy of speculation about his health and grip on power.

In the footage shown on Thursday, Kim was seen limping as he walked past a crowd of soldiers for a photo opportunity but avoided showing his legs.

The South Korean intelligence agency has said that Kim had surgery on his left ankle due to complications from a cyst.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CbnLff1z6bo?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The video footage was released a day after the North’s top newspaper Rodong carried still images of Kim walking without a stick at the same meeting.

Before his prolonged absence, state television had shown Kim walking with a limp.

Since assuming power after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in 2011, Kim Jong-un has cut a very public figure, with state media showing him engaged in a seemingly endless series of trips to military units and factories across the country where he gives what is officially known as “field guidance”.

His sudden disappearance, which began in early September, quickly became a source of rumour and speculation.

This went into overdrive after he missed two noteworthy political events he would normally have been expected to attend, with some reports even suggesting he had been ousted in a coup.

North Korea

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