Category: North Korea

What did Lester Holt expect them to do?  He is on a choreographed tour of the Masik Ski Resort that the Kim regime has been heavily marketing.  The regime clearly wants this resort to be part of a future tour scheme to bring in foreign currency and NBC News is giving them free advertising:

NBC News’ Lester Holt arrived in North Korea over the weekend, broadcasting a segment from a ski resort that will soon host athletes from both North and South Korea training for the upcoming winter Olympics.

Holt is catching some flack for a statement he made during one report that aired on Monday. “We have been treated with respect here,” Holt said.

The statement has been used in promos for the clip.

North Korea notoriously keeps a strict lid on press inside the country, and it’s likely Holt’s broadcast was subject to tight rules and restrictions. Previous reports, like this one from VICE, have noted how certain elements of their trip seemed choreographed.

Holt even says during his broadcast that the ski resort “certainly a part [North Korea] would like us to see.”

The NBC team flew into the country from Beijing, China on North Korea’s state airline, Holt said. The security check at the airport in North Korea was so stringent that they checked novels people brought along to read, and even one crew member’s toothbrush.  [Business Insider]

A typical North Korean gasoline coupon, good for 15 kilos (it’s a long story) at any of the locations listed on the back for one year. Today’s price was $1.8667. pic.twitter.com/a0lb3Iuf3U

— eric talmadge (@EricTalmadge) January 21, 2018

I guess we will see how the South Korea government responds to this demand in order to ensure North Korean participation during the upcoming Winter Olympics:

The North Korean journalists union on Monday called on South Korea to “hold tight control” of its conservative media, warning that negative reports could scupper ongoing DPRK-ROK dialogue.

The commentary, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), is written under the name of Kim Chol Guk, department director of the Central Committee of the Journalists Union of Korea.

Kim said South Korea’s conservative media had “astounded the world” by publishing “disgusting slander which deride and insult the sincerity of the fellow countrymen.”

The South Korean government must place controls over conservative media and should be aware that they “may mess up the great event of the nation,” his article said.

“Tongue may bring calamity and miswritten pen may become a sword beheading oneself,” an English language version of the article reads.

“The South Korean authorities may find the wedding ceremony turning into a mourning ceremony if they fail to hold tight control of media and of their own tongue.”

Conservative South Korean outlets have allegedly described the Pyongyang’s “proposal and sincere efforts for inter-Korean talks as double-dealing tactics,” the article said, without specifying which outlets it was referring to.

“They even admonished the authorities to be vigilant against ‘the north’s trick to impair the South Korea-U.S. alliance.’” [NK News]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the stupidest dispute yet from North Korea with the United States:

North Korea demanded an apology from the United States on Wednesday for what it called “insolent outrageous behavior” in refusing to refer to the country by its official name — the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korean counsellor Ri Song Chol made the demand at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly committee dealing with relations that the United States, calling the Trump administration’s action a serious political issue “related to sovereignty of an independent member state of the United Nations.”

He said the administration is driven by “dishonest and impure motivation to politicize every single protocol issue.”

Ri said his mission made a routine request to the U.S. Mission to renew a tax exemption card for one of its diplomats in early December and was very surprised when a week later the new card came back with the country’s name as “North Korea.” The cards allow U.N. diplomats to make purchases without paying tax.

The mission assumed it was a “technical mistake,” Ri said, but was shocked to hear from the U.S. Mission that the State Department in Washington refused to change the country’s name to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

He quoted a reply from the U.S. Mission saying “our DC office” said names on credentials for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea “indicate North Korea which is the conventional short abbreviation … so the tax card will remain the same.”  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

The first animals I have seen in North Korea's Sepho Tableland Project. pic.twitter.com/o5J8qZmFiC

— Curtis Melvin 커티스 멜빈 (@CurtisMelvin) January 15, 2018

It looks like the Moon administration may allow the Moranbong Band to actually do a performance in South Korea as part of the Olympic festivities:

Drawing keen attention is whether the North would send its famous “Moranbong Band,” an all-female ensemble hand-picked by the North’s leader Kim Jong Un. One of the North Korean delegates to the talks is Hyon Song Wol, the head of the Moranbong Band, the Unification Ministry said.

Since its first stage debut in 2012, the band is hugely popular at home and has been dubbed by outsiders as “North Korea’s only girl group” for its Western-style performances featuring women in mini-skirts and high heels dancing and singing odes to Kim.

The band is one of the ways Kim had tried to project an image of youth and modernity since becoming leader in 2011, though expectations he might be different from his dictator father have faded after he executed top officials including his own uncle in an apparent effort to bolster his grip on power.

“It’s certain the Moranbong Band would come given Hyon Song Wol was among the North Korean delegates,” said analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at South Korea’s private Sejong Institute. “But if they come dressed in military uniforms, that could cause strong resistance. If they put praise of Kim Jong Un or a missile launch scene in the background on stage, that could trigger bigger controversy.”  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but the ROK has to be very careful that they don’t end up singing something praising the Kim regime during the Olympics.  They tried to do that in 2015 during a trip to China and the authorities there found out about it and cancelled the performance.  Will the Moon administration be willing to do the same thing?  If not then it seems wise to not invite them in the first place.

The Daily Beast has an article published that looks back on the childhood of Kim Jong-un as he was attending school in Geneva, Switzerland:

“It’s one of the great mysteries why Kim Jong Nam studied in Geneva and learned French and the other kids who came later were sent to Bern where it’s German-speaking,” says Michael Madden, a North Korea expert affiliated with Johns Hopkins who runs North Korea Leadership Watch. “All I can think is that North Korea is always a little bit on the run. They like to change things up.”

The Kim family began building what Madden calls a “necessary network” in Paris in the 1970s and it maintains a home there to this day.

“You can’t send the kids of a dictator abroad without a network, people and institutions in place to help take care of them,” Madden said. “The Kims started all of this in Paris.”

Last year, Kim Jong Un’s aunt, Ko Yong Suk, told The Washington Post, that she and her husband took care of Kim and his two siblings in Switzerland. Kim Jong Chol arrived in 1992; Kim Jong Un came in 1996, when he was 12.

“We lived in a normal house and acted like a normal family. I acted like their mother,” Ko said about her time in Bern. “I encouraged [Kim Jong Un] to bring his friends home, because we wanted them to live a normal life. I made snacks for the kids. They ate cake and played with Legos.”

During school breaks, Ko and her husband took the kids skiing in the Swiss Alps, swimming on the French Riviera, and to Italy.

In Bern, Kim liked playing with machinery in addition to obsessing about basketball and Michael Jordan.

“He wasn’t a troublemaker, but he was short-tempered and had a lack of tolerance,” Ko recalled. “When his mother tried to tell him off for playing with these things too much and not studying enough, he wouldn’t talk back, but he would protest in other ways, like going on a hunger strike.”

He had begun showing signs of a complicated personality, and he reportedly was caught once with a BDSM porn magazine, it’s not clear how significant that is, if it is true at all.

A local education official confirmed to Reuters that a student known only as Pak Un who was registered as the child of a North Korean embassy worker attended the Steinhoelzli school from 1998 until late 2000. “Pak Un attended a class for non-German speaking pupils but then quickly moved to another class,” said Ueli Studer in a 2011 report.  “He was described as well-integrated, diligent and ambitious. His hobby was basketball.”  [The Daily Beast]

You can read more at the link, but it is clear his love for Dennis Rodman and his development of the ski industry in North Korea came at a young age while in school in Switzerland.

Why #NorthKorea Is Likely Planning a #Satellite Launch in 2018https://t.co/jh18KP5VWu@TheWarOfNow @BuckTurgidson79 @GreatPoppo#space pic.twitter.com/xcIdDq1bkg

— Web Sorber (@WebSorber) January 12, 2018

Here is the least surprising news of the week:

North Korea’s propaganda outlet called for the total suspension of joint military drills between South Korea and the United States on Friday, in response to the allies’ decision to delay them until after the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

The North’s website Uriminzokkiri said that dialogue and a “war rehearsal” cannot go together, calling the exercises the source of catastrophe for the Korean Peninsula.

“They should totally stop the military drills, not just delay them,” it said in a commentary.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but this all goes back to North Korea’s strategy of separating the ROK from the US.  Ending the ROK-US military drills using nuclear coercion is one of the ways they are trying to do this.

After the completion of the Olympics, if the delayed Key Resolve exercise is not cancelled, the Kim regime can then use it as an excuse to start another provocation cycle.  That is why I fully expect there will be another launch in the spring timeframe.  What else that won’t be surprising is that all the usual suspects in the western media will be out blaming President Trump for the return of the provocation cycle.

There has likely been some back channel communications with the Kim regime, but I would be very surprised if President Trump was in direct contact with Kim Jong-un like he appears to be suggesting:

President Donald Trump suggested in an interview Thursday that he has developed a positive relationship with the North Korean leader, but declined to say whether they have spoken.

No sitting U.S. president is known to have spoken with a North Korean leader. The two nations have remained in a state of war and without diplomatic relations since the Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.

“I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal. “I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised.”

Asked if he had spoken with Kim, Trump was evasive: “I’m not saying I have or haven’t. I just don’t want to comment.”  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.