Author: GIKorea

That is something the Chosun Ilbo was able to figure out due to last week’s Inter-Korean Summit:

Which brings us to the shoes. Historically, height is thought to be a bone of contention for the Kim dynasty. Some Western sources say that Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, was 5 feet 2 inches tall and wore lifts in his shoes to make himself appear taller. The younger Kim is commonly listed as being around 5 feet 7, though it is not clear where this figure comes from.

Chosun Ilbo, one of South Korea’s most popular newspapers, decided to investigate the mystery. The paper gave footage of Kim meeting Moon to seven experts, who spent hours poring over the footage to see what it could say about the North Korean leader’s physical features.

Perhaps the biggest revelation was in Kim’s footwear. In videos and photographs, they found that Kim appeared to be less than an inch shorter than Moon, who is recorded as being a little over 5 feet 6 inches tall. But they noticed something strange with his shoes: a high slope on the front of the shoe seemed to suggest that Kim was wearing insoles that were pushing his feet upward. One expert suggested that this meant the height difference between the Korean leaders was actually nearly 2 inches and possibly more, making Kim only 5-foot-4.  [Seattle Times]

You can read more at the link, but Kim’s true height means that his body mass index is around 45.  Someone is considered obese at BMI 30.

Nonviolent free speech is not the problem. People who answer nonviolent free speech with threats & violence are the problem. A people who can't comprehend this won't stay free for long.https://t.co/4Dg4YTmQJo

— (((Joshua))) Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 4, 2018

This photo, taken May 5 2018, shows vehicles stuck in a traffic jam on one side of the Gyeongbu Expressway, which links Seoul with southern areas, as travelers leave the city to celebrate Children’s Day. (Yonhap)

So why would North Korea care about removing a purely defensive weapon system that is of no threat to them?  The only reason they would want the THAAD battery gone is so they can more easily target South Korean cities with their ballistic missiles.  That seems contrary to supposedly seeking peace on the peninsula:

North Korea on Thursday urged South Korea and the U.S. to lift sanctions, withdraw the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery in southwestern Korea, and stop mentioning human rights abuses in the North.

The demands came after the recent inter-Korean summit and ahead of a summit with the U.S.

“The American plot against human rights practices is a provocative racket that poses an obstacle to the trend towards dialogue and peace,” the official Rodong Sinmun daily said. “We’re doubtful of America’s sincerity whether it really has the intention to have dialogue.”

The Uriminzokkiri propaganda website complained about remarks by U.S. officials in favor of keeping up maximum pressure on the North, calling them “an affront and insult to our sincere efforts towards peace.”

State media also said there is “no longer is any justification or excuse” for the presence of the THAAD battery. Propaganda outlet Meari said, “The THAAD battery is an ill-intentioned act running counter to the inter-Korean relations. The battery should be withdrawn immediately.”  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but here is where things are getting even more interesting; the White House and Beijing are supposedly negotiating a withdrawal of THAAD from Korea if North Korea denuclearizes:

The U.S. and China are discussing a possible withdrawal of a U.S. missile defense system from South Korea as part of a grand bargain over North Korea’s nuclear program, multiple sources familiar with the talks said.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, deployed in South Korea last year, has been a bone of contention with China. China has doubted U.S. claims that the system has the sole purpose of destroying missiles from North Korea, insisting its covert mission is to spy on Chinese airspace.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the White House denies this report, but this could be another one of these trial balloons put out by the Trump administration to judge Chinese reactions.

This article below sounds like something right out of a South Korean action movie:

It has been reported that a man identified as Mr. Kang (Senior Colonel, late 50s), the head of the Foreign Counter-Espionage office in charge of North-Eastern China for the Ministry of State Security (MSS) fled overseas in February. He is also known for having a connection to Kim Il Sung’s Mother, Kang Pan Sok.

In a conversation with a source in China close to North Korean affairs, it was revealed that “Mr. Kang was residing at the Chilbosan Hotel (now Zhongpu International Hotel) in China, overseeing operations at the foreign counter-espionage office for Russia, China, and Southeast Asia, before he suddenly disappeared on February 25. He was reported to have taken a machine capable of printing American dollars and a lot of foreign currency with him.”

According to the source, Mr. Kang was a significantly important individual, often being called the “Troika” of the Foreign Counter-Espionage Office. He was in charge of directing intelligence and ground operations in Russia and China, and supervised the development of essential talent for North Korea’s nuclear program by covertly arranging exchanges between Russian and Chinese scientists.  (…….)

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Workplace protest, Japanese style:
Bus drivers are striking by continuing to drive but refusing to take fares from passengers. https://t.co/ig11yuqSyj pic.twitter.com/3EYXiENqWY

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) May 3, 2018

Students of Dongseo University’s nursing college in Busan, southeast of Seoul, take the Nightingale Pledge on May 3, 2018. The students usually take the pledge in their third year at school before they go out into the field for on-site training. (Yonhap)

I feel really bad for the parents of Otto Warmbier who have been stuck watching all this adulation given to Kim Jong-un like he is some kind of beacon hope and statesman when the fact of the matter is he is simply a thug ruling a Soprano State.  What was done to Otto Warmbier is just a recent example of this:

Her voice cracking with emotion, the mother of college student Otto Warmbier who was sent home from North Korea in a coma and died soon after said Thursday her family will keep speaking out about the country’s human rights violations to “rub their noses” in what they did and embarrass Kim Jong Un’s government.

Cindy Warmbier told a U.N. symposium on the human rights situation in North Korea: “I can’t let Otto die in vain. … We’re not special, but we’re Americans and we know what freedom’s like, and we have to stand up for this. We have to.”

Her comments came at a sensitive time, as Kim and President Donald Trump are planning a historic meeting, and a day after the U.S. leader hinted at the imminent release of American prisoners being held in North Korea.

A week ago, Cindy and her husband Fred Warmbier filed a wrongful death lawsuit against North Korea, saying its government tortured and killed their son. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks compensation for the death of their 22-year-old son in June 2017.

Otto Warmbier, who was a student at University of Virginia, was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor.

His plight compounded tense U.S.-North Korean relations. His parents made clear Thursday that while they were silenced by fear of what North Korea might do to Otto after his arrest, they were not going to be quiet any longer.

“We woke up and we realized that North Korea wants us to lock ourselves in a room and do nothing, and we think that’s a bad idea,” Fred Warmbier said.

Fred said he and Cindy are now focusing on the events that occurred “while they had Otto hostage and they were using him as a pawn.”

“We are trying to build a pathway that leads directly to Kim and his regime to force them to be answerable for their actions,” he said.

Cindy Warmbier said Otto was brain dead at four months of captivity, and anyone who had a heart would have said, “Well, we screwed up, let’s get him some medical care.”

But instead, she said, the North Koreans left him in a horrible place with no care to vegetate, and then acted “like we’re doing the world a favor” and released him saying he had botulism — which U.S. doctors never confirmed.

“So we can’t be quiet can we?” Cindy said. “People say why are you doing this? How can I not? How can I not? How can anybody be quiet when this is going on?”

“The only thing we can do is rub their noses in this. It embarrasses them. They don’t like the world to think that they aren’t trying to be a member of the world, and they like to act like a victim, like they’ve been treated poorly,” she said.

Is this the latest example of “fake news” the US President often derides?:

The President’s request of the Defense Department comes ahead of his highly anticipated sit-down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, expected to take place along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas.

North and South Korea recently held their own historic summit, which included an agreement on holding talks over denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and bringing a formal conclusion to the Korean War.

If the peace talks continue among countries, it could decrease the need for a US presence in the region, officials told the newspaper.

National security adviser John Bolton on Friday disputed the Times’ report, calling it “utter nonsense.”