Canada "will commit assets to help monitor North Korean sanctions enforcement, providing maritime patrol craft to combined efforts to monitor the DPRK’s smuggling operations."https://t.co/jHNGZgpcLX
— The Korea Society (@koreasociety) June 4, 2019
It appears that the North Korean uranium enrichment facility has never slowed down operations during the recent peace initiative:
North Korea’s main nuclear complex shows continued activity around its uranium enrichment facility, indicating ongoing operations at the plant, a U.S. monitor said Wednesday.
Yonhap
38 North, a project run by the Stimson Center think tank, said recent commercial satellite imagery shows the movement of vehicles, equipment and personnel near the uranium facility at Yongbyon.
“Our observation, that periodic material transport (e.g., possibly to deliver liquid nitrogen) has continued at the Uranium Enrichment Complex over time, provides a new indicator that the complex is operational, and therefore that it is also most likely producing enriched uranium,” 38 North said on its website, citing satellite imagery from past months up to May 28.
“However, we do not have any definitive means to determine either the actual levels of enrichment or the total production throughput of the ~4000 centrifuges at this time,” it added.
North Korea has built nuclear weapons from both plutonium and uranium, with some estimating that the regime now holds an arsenal of 20 to 30 nuclear weapons.
You can read more at the link, but the original 38 North article can be read at this link.
I can still remember the days when the North Korean apologists were all saying that former President Bush was lying about North Korea having a uranium program. Now many of these same people are still giving advice about North Korea.
In a fight with North Korea this gun will probably see more action supporting ground troops than shooting down aircraft:
South Korea successfully developed a 30-mm wheel-type anti-aircraft gun system that has a longer range and better mobility than the previous model, the arms procurement agency said Wednesday.
Yonhap
Under the 55-billion won (US$46.58 million) project launched in June, 2015, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and Hanwha Defense Co. developed the anti-aircraft gun wheeled vehicle system, and final tests and evaluations proved that it met all the military requirements.
As a system designed to ward off low-altitude attacks by enemy aircraft, the new weapon has an effective range of 3 kilometers, some 1.6 times longer than the 20mm Vulcan anti-aircraft guns, and its latest targeting systems allow it to have automatic tracking and self-targeting capabilities, according to the DAPA.
The adoption of the wheeled platform also enabled it to provide active mobile and localized support for troops, it added.
As I have long said when the Kim regime decides to return to launching long range missiles they will conduct a space launch first and claim they have the right to a peaceful space program:
A North Korean newspaper Wednesday published an analysis of satellite programs in China, Russia and Europe, prompting suspicions that Pyongyang is considering an intercontinental ballistic missile launch ahead of the U.S. president’s visit to South Korea this month.
Joong Ang Ilbo
The Rodong Sinmun, an official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party, ran a report entitled, “Fierce Competition to Operate own Navigation Satellite System” that discussed satellite development programs in China, Russia and European nations. The report was similar to an analysis published on May 6 discussing China’s successful launch of its 44th satellite.
Analysts wondered if Pyongyang was sending a message to Washington before U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip to South Korea later this month. He will visit Korea as a part of an Asian tour to attend a Group of 20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 28 and 29.
You can read more at the link, but after they conduct the space launch they will then use the U.S. response, whatever that may be, as an excuse to launch longer range missile systems if a deal isn’t reached.
Kim Jong-un had previously said he was giving negotiations with the U.S. until the end of the year to reach a deal. I always figured this timeline was related to the U.S. presidential election cycle to where the regime may think President Trump does not want a provocation cycle to occur during his reelection campaign.
If Kim starts a provocation cycle before then, I think it may mean he is under tremendous pressure domestically to force the U.S. to reach a deal and the regime may think a space launch is way to pressure the U.S. to comply with their “pretend denuclearization” demands.
Seoul City Mayor spends budget like water for populist policy, including "free cash" to youths, & raises taxes. So does Gyeonggi governor Lee Jae-myeong. So does Moon Jae-in. Why do they so doggedly pursue what Maduro has done in Venezuela? https://t.co/VEF5EdT6aV
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) May 26, 2019
A trip to Jeju that a man took to visit his daughter at his ex-wife’s house did not go very well:
Police have arrested a woman who allegedly murdered her ex-husband on Jeju Island and mutilated his body before discarding it in at least three locations across the nation.
Korea Times
Ko Yoo-jung, 36, was apprehended at her house last Saturday in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province.
The victim, surnamed Kang, 36, was meeting Ko on Jeju to see their six-year-old son for the first time in two years since she took custody after their divorce. Kang’s family reported him missing after he didn’t return.
Ko traveled to Wando from Jeju on a ferry three days after the alleged murder. She was caught on surveillance camera footage throwing a plastic bag into the ocean during her trip.
She had purchased 30 trash bags and a suitcase from a supermarket about two hours before she left Jeju.
Police suspected that she threw away a similar plastic bag near her father’s house in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. She returned to her house on May 31.
If Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong was supposedly disciplined, it sure didn’t last very long because she is back in the spotlight:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful younger sister has appeared in public for the first time in 53 days, contradicting rumors that she was disciplined in the wake of the leader’s embarrassing no-deal summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Korea Times
Kim Yo-jong attended North Korea’s propaganda group gymnastics and artist performance called “The Land of the People” held in Pyongyang’s May Day Stadium on Monday, along with leader Kim, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
It marked the first time that Kim Yo-jong has appeared in public since she was last seen in North Korean media during the Supreme People’s Assembly in April. Until then, she played the role of a personal secretary for the leader, and was seen holding an ashtray when he was having a cigarette break at a Chinese train station on his way to Vietnam for the summit with Trump.
The report came after rumors of a purge spiked following a news report that leader Kim had carried out a massive punishment of officials responsible for the breakdown of the Trump summit and that Kim Yo-jong was disciplined.
You can read more at the link.
Bodies from the recent boat sinking in Hungary continue to be found:
The five bodies found in the Danube River in the last two days were all confirmed to be South Koreans missing in last week’s deadly sinking of a sightseeing boat in Hungary, officials said Wednesday.
Yonhap
That puts the death toll of last Wednesday’s tragedy in central Budapest at 12 Koreans, with 14 others still unaccounted for. Two Hungarian crew members also remain missing. Seven other Korean passengers were rescued right after the accident.
You can read more at the link.
