North Korea

[KimJongUn]

Google's Eric Schmidt: 'NK's Internet Accessibility Worst in the World'

Cho Jong Ik | 2015-04-28 17:18

At BoxDev, a developer event held in San Francisco on April 22nd, Google CEO Eric Schmidt referred to North Korea as having “the worst Internet accessibility in the world," reported Washington D.C.-based Voice of America [VOA] on April 28th.

Schmidt visited North Korea in January of 2012 to survey the country’s internet system and determined that “the North Korean regime stringently blocks people’s access to the Internet." He added, "Even the North's intranet, a computer network that is used only domestically and partially permitted, is thoroughly regulated."

University students, if allowed to access the internet at all, are assigned to monitor each other’s activity. He went on to highlight the importance of providing residents with access to the Internet, asserting that the North Korean regime systematically keeps its citizens in the dark by isolating them from the external world.

As a final question, Box CEO Aaron Levie asked Schmidt about the prospect of cloud sharing services coming to North Korea, to which he responded that such a move would be highly illegal under current regulations.

*Translated by Jihae Lee

 

[AnonOps]

South Korea urges North to release four of its citizens including two 'spies'

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 05 May, 2015, 12:40am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 05 May, 2015, 12:40am

Reuters in Seoul and Washington

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides field guidance at the newly built National Space Development General Satellite Control and Command Centre earlier this month. Photo: Reuters

South Korea yesterday urged Pyongyang to release four of its citizens being held by the North, including two men who told CNN they spied for the South, and a 21-year-old New York University student.

Two men arrested by North Korea in March said in interviews with CNN that they spied for South Korea's intelligence agency, but the cable television news network said it could not verify their accounts.

North Korea said Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil were South Korean nationals working as spies for Seoul's National Intelligence Service from the Chinese border city of Dandong . North Korean state media accused one of them of running an "underground church" and spreading foreign information on USB sticks and SD memory cards in the country.

South Korea has called the allegations "groundless".

On Saturday, Pyongyang said it had arrested a South Korean man with a US green card who was a student at New York University. Joo Won-moon, 21, was detained on April 22 crossing from the Chinese side of the Yalu River, according to North Korea's KCNA news agency.

"As North Korea repeatedly commits anti-humanitarian acts, it will draw stronger criticism from South Koreans and the international community," South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol told reporters yesterday.

In late March, the South sent a message to the isolated North proposing a meeting to discuss the detentions of Choe and Kim, but the North declined to accept it, Lim said.

On Sunday, Choe told CNN he had been a businessman and worked as a spy for three years. He said he was arrested trying to obtain boxes of materials from North Korea related to military operations. Kim said he was a missionary and worked as a spy for nine years.

 

[KimJongUn]

South Korean student detained after crossing into North Korea says he 'wanted to be arrested'

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 06 May, 2015, 7:06am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 06 May, 2015, 7:06am

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

A screen grab from Joo Won-moon's interview with CNN from Pyongyang on Tuesday. Photo: CNN

A South Korean student held in North Korea for illegal entry has told CNN in an interview from Pyongyang that he wanted to be arrested. Joo Won-Moon, 21, who attends New York University and has permanent US residency, said he had hoped to create an "event" that could improve relations between North and South Korea.

It was unclear whether he was speaking freely or had been told by North Korean authorities what to say.

"I wanted to be arrested," Joo told a CNN reporter, looking relaxed and even smiling as he walked into a conference room at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel for the interview.

Joo was arrested after crossing the Yalu River into the North from the Chinese border city of Dandong on April 22, Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency said on Saturday.

He said he crossed two barbed wire fences and walked through farmland until he reached a river, which he followed until soldiers arrested him.

"I thought that by my entrance to the DPRK [North Korea], illegally I acknowledge, I thought that some great event could happen and hopefully that event could have a good effect on the relations between the North and [South Korea]," Joo said.

"I hope that I will be able to tell the world how an ordinary college student entered the DPRK illegally but however with the generous treatment of the DPRK that I will be able to return home."

Joo was born in Seoul, moved to Wisconsin with his family in 2001 and then moved again to Rhode Island. He said he understood that his parents were worried about him but he was being well treated.

He told CNN he had not yet been informed what charges he might face but was being held in very comfortable conditions.

KCNA said Joo had admitted that his illegal entry was a "serious violation" and added that his case was under investigation.

South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said it was "extremely regrettable" the North had detained Joo and called for his immediate repatriation.

 

[singveld]

 

[KimJongUn]

North Korea's new missile 'ready sooner than expected and takes threat to new level'

Leader Kim Jong-un hails test of 'world-level strategic weapon', which worried analysts say will up credibility of its retaliatory measures

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 10 May, 2015, 12:07am
UPDATED : Sunday, 10 May, 2015, 1:57am

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

Kim Jong-un called the test an 'eye-opening success'.File photo: KCNA

North Korea claimed to have successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) yesterday - a technology that worried analysts said has arrived sooner than anticipated and could eventually offer the nuclear-armed state a survivable second-strike capability.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who personally oversaw the test, hailed the newly developed missile as a "world-level strategic weapon", according to the official KCNA news agency.

There was no immediate independent confirmation of the test, which would violate UN sanctions banning Pyongyang from using ballistic missile technology. Hours after the announcement, South Korean officials said the North fired three anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea off its east coast.

Photo provided by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) appears to show shows the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) successfully test-fired a strategic ballistic missile from an underwater submarine. Photo: KCNA

Experts in Seoul say the North's military demonstrations and hostile rhetoric are attempts at wresting concessions from the United States and South Korea, whose officials have recently talked about the possibility of holding preliminary talks with the North to test its commitment to denuclearisation.

A fully-developed SLBM capability would take the North Korean nuclear threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and the potential to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack.

Satellite images earlier this year had shown the conning tower of a new North Korean submarine, which US analysts said appeared to house one or two vertical launch tubes for either ballistic or cruise missiles.

The same analysts from the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said at the time that developing an operational SLBM capability would be extremely costly and likely take North Korea "years" to achieve.

"If this is what North Korea claims it is, then it has come much sooner than anyone expected," said Dan Pinkston, Korea expert at the International Crisis Group in Seoul. "An SLBM capability would certainly increase the credibility of the North's retaliatory threat, but I'd like to see what foreign intel says about this test,"

The KCNA report said the test was carried out by a submarine that dived to launch depth on the sounding of a combat alarm.

North Korea has been known to doctor military photos, and the validity of the KCNA pictures of the apparent test could not immediately be verified.

Kim said the test was an "eye-opening success" on a par with North Korea's successful launch of a satellite into orbit in 2012.

The satellite launch was condemned by the international community as a disguised ballistic missile test and resulted in a tightening of UN sanctions.

While there is no doubt the North has been running an active ballistic missile development programme, expert opinion is split on just how much progress it has made.

The North has yet to conduct a test showing it has mastered the re-entry technology required for an effective intercontinental ballistic missile. There are also competing opinions on whether the North has the ability to miniaturise a nuclear device that would fit onto a delivery missile.

 

[KimJongUn]

North Korea’s defence chief ‘executed with anti-aircraft gun for treason’

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 13 May, 2015, 12:15pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 13 May, 2015, 6:54pm

Reuters in Seoul

North Korean Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol (right) with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Kumsusan Palace in Pyongyang on February 16. Photo: AFP

North Korea has executed its defence chief on treason charges by putting him in front of an anti-aircraft gun at a firing range, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers.

Hyon Yong-chol, 66, who headed the isolated country’s military, was purged late last month for disobeying Kim Jong-un and falling asleep during a meeting at which North Korea’s young leader was present, according to South Korean lawmakers briefed in a closed-door meeting with the spy agency on Wednesday.

His execution, the latest of a series of high-level purges since Kim took power in 2011, was watched by hundreds of people, they said.

It was not clear how the NIS received the information and it is not possible to independently verify such reports from within secretive North Korea.

Hyon, last known to have spoken publicly at a security conference in Moscow in April, was said to have shown disrespect to Kim by dozing off at a military event, the Seoul lawmakers said, citing the agency briefing.

A ZPU-4 anti-aircraft machine-gun, the type said to have been used to kill Hyon Yong-chol. Photo: Wikipedia

Hyon Yong-chol attends the 4th Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) in Moscow on April 16. Photo: Reuters

Hyon was believed to have voiced complaints against Kim Jong-un and had not followed his orders several times, according to the lawmakers. He was arrested late last month and executed three days later without legal proceedings, the NIS said.

The reported execution comes after South Korea’s spy agency said late last month that Kim ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year as punishment for challenging his authority.

In all, around 70 officials have been executed since Kim took over after his father’s death, Yonhap news agency cited the NIS as saying.

“North Korean internal politics is very volatile these days. Internally, there does not seem to be any respect for Kim Jong-un within the core and middle levels of the North Korean leadership,” said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership and contributor to the 38 North think tank.

“There is no clear or present danger to Kim Jong-un’s leadership or stability in North Korea, but if this continues to happen into next year, then we would seriously have to start looking at a contingency plan for the Korean peninsula.”

This photo taken on April 26 shows North Korean Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol (far left) during a speech by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (right) at an unspecified party meeting in Pyongyang. Phto: AFP

The lawmakers said Hyon was executed at a firing range at the Kanggon Military Training Area, 22 km north of Pyongyang.

The US-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said last month that, according to satellite images, the range was likely used for an execution by ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns in October. The target was just 30 metres away from the weapons, which have a range of 8,000 metres, it said.

“The gut-wrenching viciousness of such an act would make ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ sound like a gross understatement,” the group said on its website.

“Given reports of past executions this is tragic, but unfortunately plausible in the twisted world of Kim Jong-un’s North Korea.”

An undated picture released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North Korean ruling Workers Party, on January 27 shows North Korean Defense Minister Hyon Yong-chol at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Photo: EPA

In 2013, Kim purged and executed his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, once considered the second-most powerful man in Pyongyang’s leadership circle, for corruption and committing crimes damaging to the economy, along with a group of officials close to him.

Pyongyang’s military leadership has been in a state of perpetual reshuffle since Kim Jong-un took power.

Kim, who is in his early thirties, has changed his armed forces chief four times since coming to power. His father Kim Jong-il, who ruled over the isolated nuclear-capable country for almost two decades, replaced his chief just three times.

Hyon, a little-known general, was promoted within the military at the same time as Kim Jong-un in 2010. He later became a vice-marshal of the North Korean army in 2012.

The South Korean spy agency told lawmakers that Ma Won-chun, known as North Korea’s chief architect of new infrastructure under Kim, was also purged.

Ma had also once served as vice director of the secretive Finance and Accounting Department in the ruling Workers’ Party and, up until recently, was effectively the regime’s money man.

 

[Microsoft]

wah piang...falling asleep so jialat meh? in sinkieland we always fall asleep boh taichi leh...

 

[KimJongUn]

Why the latest report about North Korea savagely executing a general is probably true

PAMELA ENGEL MILITARY & DEFENSE MAY. 14, 2015, 3:16 AM

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) pays his respects to North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and his father Kim Jong Il at Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, in this January 1, 2015 photo.

It’s hard to know how much of the crazy news that comes out of North Korea is true, and reports of brutal executions have been proven false in the past.

But the latest report about a top-ranking general being executed with an anti-aircraft gun for falling asleep during a meeting may just be accurate.

First, the latest rumors about the top-ranking military official, Gen. Hyon Yong-chol, come from South Korean intelligence officials to the country’s lawmakers.

The New York Times reports that information from South Korean intelligence is generally considered to be reliable. (The Times adds the caveat that South Korea’s spy agency “has in the past been accused of leaking shocking news about their isolated and secretive neighbor to unsettle its government or divert attention from domestic scandals.”)

The spy agency said Hyon was executed in front of hundreds of people for being a “traitor.”

Adding credence to the South Korean spies in this case: The Washington Post reported earlier this month that new satellite imagery appears to show people standing in front of anti-aircraft machine guns, waiting to be executed.

The images are from October, taken at a military training area near Pyongyang, but North Korea has long been rumored to execute people in this manner. Experts have questioned this supposed method of execution, but the satellites images from U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea lend more credence to the reports.

The human rights report notes that vehicles present at the small-arms firing range where the supposed execution took place in October suggest that senior North Korean officers were present at the facility, which would be unlikely if it were just a training exercise. And the ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns lined up at the facility wouldn’t typically be seen in exercises at a small-arms range.

From the report:

The most plausible explanation of the scene captured in the October 7th satellite image is a gruesome public execution. Anyone who has witnessed the damage one single U.S. .50 caliber round does to the human body will shudder just trying to imagine a battery of 24 heavy machine guns being fired at human beings. Bodies would be nearly pulverized. The gut-wrenching viciousness of such an act would make “cruel and unusual punishment” sound like a gross understatement.

Here’s the satellite image from the report:

U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

The Times notes that recently, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “is believed to have been terrorizing North Korea’s elites with executions and purges as he has struggled to establish his authority” after his father, the previous and much-feared dictator Kim Jong Il, died in 2011.

South Korean officials have asserted that Kim Jong Un has executed dozens of senior North Korean officials in the past few years for questioning his decisions or failing to follow orders, according to the Times. One of the men rumored to be executed was Kim’s uncle, who was reportedly accused of plotting a coup.

So while it’s hard to know what’s really going on in the Hermit kingdom, the latest savage execution is probably true.

 

[KimJongUn]

North Korea 'photoshopped' Kim Jong-un sub missile pictures

Date May 21, 2015 - 6:59AM
Andrew Marszal

German experts suspect this photo of Kim Jong-un has been altered. Photo: KCNA

Photographs showing Kim Jong-un proudly watching as a North Korean missile was launched from an underwater submarine were manipulated by state propagandists, experts claimed on Tuesday.

German aerospace experts said photos of the launch were "strongly modified", including reflections of the missile exhaust flame in the water which did not line up with the missile itself.

"Considering the track record of North Korean deceptions, it seems sensible to assume that any North Korean SLBM [submarine-launched ballistic missile] capability is still a very long time in the future, if it will ever surface," Markus Schiller and Robert Schmucker, of Schmucker Technologie, told Reuters.

A photo on state TV showed a missile high in the sky leaving a trail of white smoke, whereas other photos from state media showed no white smoke, suggesting the two photos were of different missiles with different propulsion systems, Mr Schiller and Mr Schmucker said.

James Winnefeld, a US navy admiral, on Tuesday said the country's "clever video editors and spinmeisters" had disguised the fact that Pyongyang is still "many years" from developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

He told an audience at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington that the isolated country may still be years away from developing the technology.

"They have not gotten as far as their clever video editors and spinmeisters would have us believe," he added.

It's not the first time North Korea has been caught out with poorly Photoshopped images.

In March 2013, photographs were doctored in an apparent attempt to double the number of hovercraft in a military exercise.

The pictured showed vessels with the same give-away shine on the front, moving at an identical angle and throwing up spray that had been clumsily altered.

The suspect photo from North Korea in 2013.

North Korea, heavily sanctioned by the United States and United Nations for its missile and nuclear tests, said on May 8 it had successfully conducted an underwater test-fire which, if true, would indicate progress in its pursuit of building missile-equipped submarines.

It published photographs of Kim Jong-un watching as missiles were apparently fired from a submarine beneath the ocean surface.

But North Korea, which regularly threatens to destroy the United States, had a track record of offering faked proof to claim significant advances in missile technology, Mr Schiller Mr and Schmucker said, such as poorly built mock-ups of missiles on display at military parades in 2012 and 2013.

The North's National Defence Commission, the main ruling body headed by leader Kim Jong-un, said on Wednesday the submarine-based missile launch was "yet a higher level of accomplishment in the development of strategic attack means".

Pyongyang warned Washington boasted of its ability to miniaturise nuclear warheads, a claim it has made before and which has been widely questioned by experts and never verified.

It said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency said it has "long entered the stage of miniaturising and diversifying our means of nuclear strike," likely in reference to its effort to miniaturise a nuclear warhead for missiles.

Telegraph, London, with Reuters

 

[KimJongUn]

North Korea says it can mount nuclear warheads on missiles

Date May 21, 2015 - 5:31AM
Andrew Davis

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un smiles while observing what his government said was an underwater test-fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile at an undisclosed location at sea. Photo: AFP

Hong Kong: North Korea said it has developed the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile, signalling the country may now have the ability to launch a nuclear attack against the United States.

South Korea and the US military have been divided over whether North Korea could shrink a warhead sufficiently to fit it on a nuclear-tipped missile. A spokesman at the National Defence Commission in Pyongyang said the military has mastered the engineering and will diversify its nuclear weapons, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday.

North Korea has successfully detonated three nuclear devices at a test site and has been improving the range of its ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations sanctions over its weapons program. The US, China and South Korea have been unable to convince the Kim Jong-un regime to return to disarmament talks, and there are signs that North Korea is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal.

The announcement comes weeks after the country released video of Mr Kim watching what the official media said was the launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine. US and South Korean officials have questioned the veracity of the test, with Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min Seok saying on May 11 that the North was still likely years away from being able to master a submarine missile launch.

South Korea has also questioned whether its rival can miniaturise a warhead, with Kim Min Seok saying in February there was no evidence that the government in Pyongyang has the ability to tip a missile with a nuclear warhead.

That assessment contrasts with the position of William Gortney, the head of the US Northern Command, who said April 7 that North Korea does have the technology and has also managed to deploy a road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile - the KN-08 - capable of reaching the US.

"Our assessment is that they have the ability to put a nuclear weapon on a KN-08 and shoot it at the homeland," Admiral Gortney said. "We have not seen them do that" and "we haven't seen them test the KN-08."

North Korea last tested a nuclear device in February 2013; just how many warheads North Korea has been able to build remains a mystery. Top Chinese nuclear weapons experts have increased their estimates of North Korean warhead production beyond most previous US projections, the Wall Street Journal reported on April 23.

The Kim regime has 20 warheads and has the capacity to produce enough weapons-grade uranium to double its arsenal by next year, the paper reported, citing people briefed on the matter. That compares with the estimate of 10 to 16 warheads released in February by US researcher Joel Wit.

Bloomberg

 

[KimJongUn]

North Korea thinks Ban Ki-moon visit ‘not worth it’, say analysts after UN chief’s trip to Kaesong scrapped

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 21 May, 2015, 3:15pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 21 May, 2015, 5:09pm

Associated Press in Seoul

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said it was 'deeply regrettable' that Pyongyang cancelled his trip to a joint industrial zone of the two Koreas. Photo: Reuters

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said yesterday that North Korea has cancelled an invitation for him to visit a factory park in the country that is the last major cooperation project between the rival Koreas.

The decision comes after Ban this week urged Pyongyang to avoid any actions that might escalate military tensions, after it claimed to have successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile.


Ban had previously said that he wanted to go today to the Kaesong industrial park just north of the heavily fortified Korean border to help improve ties between North and South Korea, which jointly run the complex but have seen their always-tense ties worsen in recent weeks.

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, would have been the first UN chief to visit the factory park, which opened in 2004 and is a rare legitimate source of foreign currency for the impoverished North.

He also would have been the first UN head to visit North Korea since Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1993.

North Korea gave no reason when it told the UN of its decision to cancel his trip, Ban told a forum in Seoul yesterday.

Analysts had said Ban’s trip wouldn’t likely bring any major breakthrough in ties between the Koreas, and some have calculated that North Korea made a last-minute decision to cancel because it was unlikely to get much out of such a visit.

North Korea's Kaesong joint industrial complex is seen from a South Korean observation post in Paju. Photo: AFP

“This decision by Pyongyang is deeply regrettable,” Ban said, adding that he will spare no effort to encourage North Korea to work with the international community for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond.

Relations between the Koreas are strained over North Korean missile and other weapon tests that South Korea views as provocations.

There are also worries after South Korea’s spy agency said last week that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had his defence chief executed by anti-aircraft gunfire in late April.

Lim Byeong-cheol, a spokesman for Seoul’s Unification Ministry, expressed regret over the North’s decision, saying the country must accept offers for dialogue and cooperation by the UN and other members of the international community instead of isolating itself.

North Korea has sometimes invited high-profile figures such as former US President Jimmy Carter under the expectation that those people would listen to its concerns and then mediate in various stand-offs with the outside world, including allegations of human rights abuses and its pursuit of nuclear armed missiles that could hit the US mainland.

But North Korea appears to have determined that Ban would only back the views of Seoul and Washington during his trip, said Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Kyungnam University.

North Korea likely didn’t want to see Ban “delivering a peace message ... and asking them to come back to six-nation nuclear talks without any preconditions and to talk to South Korea to improve ties”, Lim said.

“I think North Korea has concluded Ban’s visit won’t be helpful for them.”

The Kaesong park opened during a period of warming ties between the Koreas and has been considered a test case for unification, pairing cheap local labour with South Korean know-how and technology.

It has survived periods of animosity, including North Korea’s artillery bombardment of a South Korean island in 2010, while other cross-border projects, such as tours to a scenic North Korean mountain, remain deadlocked.

However, the park’s operations were halted for five months in 2013 after North Korea withdrew its 53,000 workers amid tension over a torrent of threats by the North to launch nuclear attacks on Seoul and Washington.

The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

With additional reporting from Agence France-Presse

 

[KimJongUn]

Bugged phones and double barbed wire - far fewer North Koreans defect

Reuters
May 22, 2015, 7:04 am

North Korean soldiers stand guard at a sentry on the Yalu River near the North Korean city of Hyesan, Ryanggang province, opposite the Chinese border city of Linjiang, in this September 21, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Stringer/Files

By Ju-min Park and James Pearson

SEOUL (Reuters) - It's much more dangerous, and twice as expensive, to defect from North Korea since Kim Jong Un took power in Pyongyang three and a half years ago, refugees and experts say, and far fewer people are escaping from the repressive and impoverished country.

With barbed-wire fencing erected on both sides of the Tumen River that marks the border with China, more guard posts and closer monitoring of cross-border phone calls, the number of North Koreans coming annually to the South via China has halved since 2011.

Most defections are arranged through brokers, usually Chinese citizens who are ethnically Korean, and their charges have doubled to about $8,000 per person, beyond the reach of most North Koreans - and that gets them only as far as China.

"Intelligence has stepped up monitoring (of phone calls) on border passages, dampening brokers' activities," said Han Dong-ho, a research fellow at the government-run Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, who regularly interviews defectors.

"The more dangerous, the more expensive. Many connections with brokers, which North Koreans call 'lines', have been lost."

The crackdown on defections under Kim has come even as his government has eased restrictions on economic activity, resulting in a slight improvement in livelihoods for many, and providing less reason to escape.

The hundreds of miles of barbed wire strung across T-shaped concrete pillars on the banks of the Tumen were put in place in 2012, according to residents on the Chinese side and historical satellite imagery.

On the North Korean side, guard posts, dogs and shabby concrete watch towers dot the banks of the river, where locals said children from both sides once played together on the winter ice.

"Since Kim Jong Un came in, there have been times where local brokers have refused to go to certain areas on the Chinese side because of the increased security risk," said Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), which works with defectors.

There are 27,810 North Koreans resettled in South Korea, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.

The annual number of defections rose steadily from the late 1990s, according to South Korean government data, when a devastating famine sent desperate North Koreans into China in search of food. It peaked in 2009, when 2,914 North Koreans arrived in the South - the greatest influx since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

But in Kim Jong Un's first year in power in 2012, just 1,502 North Koreans made it to the South - a 44 percent decrease on the previous year. Last year, the number was 1,396.

DISGUISES AND SECRET CODES

From his smoke-filled office in Seoul, human rights activist and defector middleman Kim Yong-hwa manages secret hideouts in China for North Korean refugees, sending them South Korean clothes for disguise and secret codes to communicate with brokers.

"There are still many people who want to cross over to China and to South Korea, but the reality has changed," said Kim, who is himself a defector and heads the NK Refugees Human Rights Association of Korea.

Kim connects North Koreans hiding in China with brokers there, asking the defectors to get new mobile phones or wipe their contacts to keep traceable calls to a minimum.

Tighter border controls, however, have significantly increased the risk - and therefore the cost - of defecting.

Kim, who says he has helped thousands of North Koreans flee the country over the last decade, has considered closing his business this year due to his network of willing brokers dwindling to 20 from about 60 in the past.

"They demand advance payments now, given the risks they have in China," Kim said, adding that he has resources to help only half of the 40 or 50 North Koreans who call him every month.

The overwhelming majority of defectors are female, and come from just two neighbouring provinces in the northeast of the country, far from the capital Pyongyang, in an area bordering China where North Koreans considered disloyal under the country's political class system have traditionally been sent.

Unlike men, who tend to have obligations to the state and workplace, North Korean women often have more flexibility and are freer to trade, smuggle, or secretly flee. Women accounted for a record-high 83 percent of the 292 defections to South Korea in the first three months of 2015.

Those who make the illegal crossing risk being shot, or repatriated and possibly tortured, according to a United Nations report last year.

But beyond the danger of getting caught at the border, an improvement in living conditions in some parts of North Korea may affect anyone's resolve to leave the country. Economically, North Korea has changed since the famine years of the nineties, and a burgeoning market economy means food is easily obtained.

"All things being equal, an improving economy in North Korea, especially in the northeast provinces, would also lead to a decline in defector numbers," said Park of LiNK.

But a gradual improvement in living standards cannot account for the 44 percent drop in defections under Kim Jong Un, Park said, pointing to the ramped-up border security.

"Compared to 10 years ago the primary motivation for defection has gone from food, to freedom," he said.

(Editing by Tony Munroe and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

 

[Michu]

wah piang...falling asleep so jialat meh? in sinkieland we always fall asleep boh taichi leh...

Who are "We" ?

 

[KimJongUn]

Kim Jong-Un's Brother Seen At Eric Clapton Gig

Wearing a leather jacket and shades, Kim Jong-Chul is seen clapping and singing along at the rock legend's show in London.

10:59, Friday 22 May 2015

The brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un has been spotted in London after flying in to attend an Eric Clapton gig.

Concert-goers described Kim Jong-Chul enthusiastically clapping and singing along to the hit Cocaine at the end of the 70-year-old rock legend's set.

Mr Kim, wearing a blue T-shirt, black leather jacket and sunglasses was met by a Japanese media scrum as he left the Royal Albert Hall.

According to Japanese broadcaster TBS, he ignored questions about his relationship with his brother and North Korea's political stability.

Kim was filmed without his shades before the gig

Minders shoved their hands in the lenses of at least one camera, while Mr Kim's female companion walked just behind him.

They were accompanied to the gig by North Korea's ambassador to the UK, Hyon Hak Bong, who in March told Sky News' defence correspondent Alistair Bunkall that his country had nuclear weapons and would use them if it felt threatened.

He also called defectors from North Korea "animals" and "human scum", and insisted the country's rulers were "peace-loving people".

The Clapton show is believed to be the first public sighting of 33-year-old Mr Kim since his younger brother took over as North Korea's supreme leader in December 2011.

He was last seen in September 2011 - at another Eric Clapton concert in Singapore, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Kim Jong-Un and Kim Jong-Chul have the same mother - Kim Jong-Huo, who was said to be their father Kim Jong-Il's favourite consort.

According to Kenji Fujimoto, the pseudonym of a sushi chef who spent 13 years cooking for Kim Jong-Il, Kim Jong-Chul was passed over for succeeding his father, who thought he was "no good because he is like a little girl".

Like his brother, Kim Jong-Chul was reportedly educated at an international school in Switzerland.

He is thought to be the best English speaker among members of North Korea's ruling dynasty and is said to have worked in the secretive state's propaganda department.

Last year, a Maltese diplomat told Sky News Kim Jong-Chul had spent time studying in Malta.

It is not known when he was there or what he was studying, although it is believed he was trying to improve his English.

His trip to London came as it emerged that a crackdown on defections has seen the number of North Koreans escaping the repressive country halved since Kim Jong-Un came to power.

 

[KimJongUn]

'I've missed my parents a lot': North Korean ex-POW who left for better life abroad yearns to visit homeland

Former North Korean soldiers who chose to live abroad after the Korean War are trying to get permission to enter country after almost 60 years

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 30 May, 2015, 11:25pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 30 May, 2015, 11:25pm

Associated Press in Seoul

South Korean movie director Cho Kyeong-duk looks at a video showing Kim Myeong Bok, a former North Korean prisoner of war held in South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. Photo: AP

After the Korean War ended in 1953, Kim Myeong Bok and 75 other North Korean prisoners of war detained in South Korea opted to live abroad rather than risk hostile welcomes in either half of their homeland. Now he wants to return home, although he may find little more than rejection and suspicion.

Amid the two Koreas' intense Cold War rivalry, they were labelled traitors, opportunists or fence-sitters. The fates of several North Korean POWs who voluntarily returned home are unknown. Many others have died abroad and now less than a dozen are believed to be alive.

Kim, now 79 and living in Brazil, is trying to return to his North Korean hometown, at the arrangement of a movie director who is making a documentary on him and his fellow ex-POWs.

He does not have the North's approval yet and may never get it, though he will at least visit the South. He knows it is probably his last chance to try to go home.

"I've missed my parents a lot, particularly my mother, who took me to a church and told me to believe in Jesus Christ," Kim said, from the remote Brazilian city of Cuiaba where he settled in 1956 as a farmer.

He lowered his head, wiping away tears when he said his mother often came to mind when he faced difficulties in life.

Kim and most of the other POWs who left the Korean Peninsula settled in South America.

None could have expected their homeland would remain so bitterly divided for so long. With an armistice signed but no peace treaty, the peninsula remains technically at war, with combat troops still facing each other along the world's most heavily fortified border.

The POWs left for many reasons - to avoid the North's harsh systems, to enjoy religious freedom, to build up professional careers. They also feared execution in the North for having been held captive in the South.

Many believed their family members must have died in the chaos of the three-year war, which killed millions. They chose not to stay on in the South, worried about living with the label of ex-North Korean soldiers in a country where they had no relatives or friends.

Kim said he surrendered himself to the South's military only 11/2 months after being conscripted into the North's army in 1950.

He did not want to return to the North, where authorities suppressed Christians and severe poverty forced his family to eat porridge made of soybean residue three times a day. But life in a South Korean island prison camp was also harrowing, he said.

During and after the war, the American-led UN forces repatriated more than 83,000 Chinese and North Korean POWs while the North turned back over 13,000 South Korean and UN troops. Tens of thousands stayed in the countries they once fought against; the two Koreas accuse each other of keeping some POWs against their will.

In 1954, 76 North Korean and 12 Chinese soldiers who chose third countries were first sent to India as a stopover before being moved to countries where they hoped to resettle.

Under the itinerary of the movie tentatively titled Return Home, analyst Cho Sung-hun at the South Korean state-run Institute for Military History and his crew will join Kim as he meets other POWs in Brazil and Argentina and flies to India before going to South Korea around June 25, the 75th anniversary of the start of the Korean War.

Cho and Kim have met both North and South Korean diplomats in Brazil several times but have not had the approval from either government.

UN Command spokesman Captain Frederick Agee said it only considers for approval border-crossing requests that are officially presented by both Koreas. The command and North Korea jointly oversee the 4km Demilitarised Zone that bisects the peninsula.

 

[KimJongUn]

Office 39 implicated in pine mushroom smuggling operation

Kang Soo Jeong, intern | 2015-05-29 15:29

An investigation launched by Japanese police has revealed that Office 39, a special department charged with raising funds for Kim Jong Un’s use, is involved in illegal operation exporting pine mushrooms to Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese daily, reported on May 27th.

During a police raid on the home Ho Jong Man, the son of the head the pro-North General Association of Korean Residents in Japan [Chongryon], the authorities uncovered documents revealing correspondence between the group and Office 39, revealing that North Korea has been exporting pine mushrooms to Japan in conjunction with Chosun Specialty Sales, an affiliate of Chongryon.

An official with the investigation said it was the first time documents explicitly stating “Office 39” have come to light, leading police to push ahead with the investigation and assert the shadowy agency’s direct involvement in the illicit operation.

Both Huh and Kim Yong Jak, head of Chosun Specialty Sales, were arrested on May 12th for violating laws administration of foreign currency. Police investigations revealed that these two men had imported approximately 1,800 kg of pine mushrooms from North Korea in September of 2010--a clear violation of Japan’s ban on trading with North Korea, implemented after North Korea’s second nuclear test in 2009.

Meanwhile, Washington D.C.-based Voice of America, quoting Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun, that Office 39, Huh, and Chosun Specialty Sales were all involved in the pine mushroom smuggling ring, dividing the profits among the involved parties.

*Translated by Jihae Lee

 

[KimJongUn]

N. Korea releases satirical video calling President Park ‘mentally ill’

Video has very different tone to usual invective directed at South Korean president

May 29th, 2015
Leo Byrne

North Korean state media outlet Urimizokkiri on Friday released an unusually satirical video insulting South Korea’s president.

While insults directed at Park are not uncommon in the DPRK media, the tone of the video is markedly different from the usual invective North Korea reserves for President Park Geun-hye, complete with a pleasant tone and jaunty introduction jingle.

The light-hearted feel of the video however belies the content, which claims the South Korean president is mentally ill and should be isolated from society.

“All South Korean citizens say that President Park’s mental illness has gotten worse recently. What illness does she bear? It is the mental illness that makes one to ‘talk bad of one’s own people,’” the video begins.

After calling Cheongwadae (the Blue House, the South Korean presidential residence) a “dark and deep place filled with fungus,” the video continues its satirical approach by drawing up a ‘prescription’ for the supposed illness.

The narrator says Park’s suffers from an incurable “schizophrenia originating from defiance (toward the DPRK and its people),” with hereditary symptoms including talking “gibberish to anyone about picking on the dignity of same race.”

With the supposedly “incurable” nature of her illness, the so-called prescription recommends Park, along with the ruling Saenuri Party, be isolated from the population and blocked from society.

According the to the NK News KCNA Watch data tool, the Korean Central News Agency mentions Park numerous times on a weekly basis.

Source: KCNA Watch

Recently, however, the North Korean media appears to have upped the severity of its rhetoric against the South Korean president.

However, last week it was noticed that the DPRK media had published an article that was inflammatory even by North Korean standards.

“How can a mouth that licks the stinking crotch of her American master speak the upright words this requires and our nation expects?” the Korean version of the article reads.


Featured Image: Korea_President_Park_EastSideGallery_08 by KOREA.NET - Official page of the Republic of Korea on 2014-03-27 17:27:00

 

[KimJongUn]

Kim Yo Jong reappears after 47-day absence

Absence of Kim’s sister supports rumor of her pregnancy

May 29th, 2015
John G. Grisafi

Kim Jong Un’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong made her first public appearance in 47 days, the North’s state media revealed Friday. Kim Yo Jong accompanied Kim Jong Un on an inspection of a tree nursery reported by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Data from the NK Leadership Tracker shows that Kim’s last public appearance was on April 12 when she accompanied her brother to an inspection of the ongoing construction of the new Terminal 2 at Pyongyang-Sunan International Airport.

The nearly 50-day absence of Kim Yo Jong supports, but does not confirm, the claim by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service that Kim has been pregnant and was expected to give birth by the end of this month.

The limited information available has made it difficult to verify whether or not Kim was pregnant, though some evidence does seem to fit that explanation.

After being shown fairly prominently and close to her brother in state media photographs throughout most of 2014, in late 2014 and early 2015 Kim Yo Jong was often mentioned without being photographed, shown only in the background at a distance, or shown while wearing a loose-fitting coat. All of these factors make it more difficult to determine if she is pregnant or not based on photographs, the release of which is entirely controlled by the North Korean regime.

In January, rumors emerged that Kim had gotten married sometime in 2014, either to Choe Song – son of Choe Ryong Hae – or to the nephew (name unknown) of North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong. Kim was also seen wearing a ring which looks like a wedding band on her left-hand ring finger in photographs on January 2.

Pyongyang rarely makes public announcements regarding internal family matters of the ruling Kim family. The North made no formal announcement of Kim Jong Un’s marriage to Ri Sol Ju, but simply began referring to her as Kim’s wife sometime after she had already publicly appeared. Pyongyang has also made no mention of the birth of Kim Jong Un and Ri Sol Ju’s child.

Featured image: Rodong Sinmun

 

[KimJongUn]

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[KimJongUn]

New images of Kim Jong-un raise fears for his health

Analysts fear instability if overweight North Korean dictator taken seriously ill

Mr Kim wearing a panama hat and standing with his jacket undone amid crops at Farm No. 1116 outside Pyongyang Photo: Rodong Sinmun/EPA

By Julian Ryall, Tokyo
3:25PM BST 02 Jun 2015

Kim Jong-un appears to be losing his personal battle of the bulge, with new photos released by state media showing the North Korean dictator straining the seams of a pinstripe suit as he offers "field guidance" on a state farm.
Images released on Monday by the Korea Central News Agency show the portly Mr Kim wearing a panama hat and standing with his jacket undone amid crops at Farm No. 1116 outside Pyongyang. He was also photographed striding down a track at the farm, accompanied by military officials, and commenting on crops displayed in the research centre.

Mr Kim, who is believed to be 32 years old, has put on a significant amount of weight since he inherited North Korea after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.

There have also been bouts of ill-health during his rule. Mr Kim disappeared from public view for several weeks from early September last year, while he was walking with a cane and a pronounced limp when he attended a special session of the North Korean parliament in July.

As well as the country, Mr Kim appears to also have inherited his father's health problems linked to his diet. Kim Jong-il's sudden death was put down to high blood pressure and diabetes linked to his appreciation of expensive French brandy and fine cuisine.

Kim Jong-un visiting a nursery and orphanage in Wonsan (EPA)

On Monday, the United Nations warned that a drought in North Korea could lead to severe food shortages later this year. The lowest rainfall in three decades will have an impact on crops, with soldiers working on collective farms already forced to plant rice seedlings in paddy fields with no water.

Seventy percent of the 24.6 million people in North Korean are already classified as "food insecure", according to the UN.

The health of Mr Kim needs to be carefully monitored, according to analysts, as if he is perceived to be physically ailing then a faction with designs on the regime might consider the time ripe for an uprising.

"We know that his health is not so good and, in the future, if he is taken seriously ill then there is the possibility of instability or even a coup by elements of the military", Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and an authority on North Korean affairs, told The Telegraph.

"And because the Kim family bloodline is so important in North Korean society, they may very well look to Kim's older brother, Kim Jong-nam, to be a figurehead for the new regime".