Category: North Korea

Good luck New York City trying to get this money out of North Korea:

As if the U.S. and North Korea hadn’t had enough bilateral tensions, outstanding parking fines from North Korea’s diplomatic mission to the U.N. add insult to injury. According to NBC New York, the mission owes as much as $156,000 to the city of New York for more than 1,300 unpaid tickets that date back to the 1990s.

Jong Jo, identified as secretary of North Korea’s U.N. mission, came to his country’s defense. “It is false,” Jong told NBC New York. “Whenever we have a ticket, we pay. Because, you know, if we have three tickets the city does not allow us to renew their permission.”

In fact, a 2002 Memorandum of Understanding between the State Department and New York does allow the city to deny a diplomatic parking decal from vehicles that have three or more unpaid parking tickets, NBC New York reported. Even though the majority of tickets accrued by the diplomatic mission occurred after 2002, the city said that debt from parking tickets prior to that year still has to be paid.  [Newsweek]

You can read more at the link.

Here is an excerpt from article forwarded to me that speculates how the Kim regime may try and use their missiles to launch provocations against the United States to cause a split in the US-ROK alliance:

You can read the rest at the link.  However, I don’t think the Kim regime would use their missiles to launch a provocation against the United States because the South Koreans would have to back US retaliations as part of the US-ROK alliance.  However, where things muddier is what if he launched a missile provocation against Japan?  Would the South Korean government be willing to back retaliation in support of Japan?

The US Just Announced Sanctions Against Basically Anyone Trading With North Korea https://t.co/F10jju4QV7

— KingSejong (@KingSejong) September 21, 2017

I doubt this will be the only response from North Korea after President Trump’s very blunt address given towards North Korea at the UN this week:

North Korea has ridiculed President Donald Trump’s threats over its missile program, comparing his comments during his maiden speech to the United Nations to the sound of a “barking dog.”

Speaking on Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. would “have no choice but to totally destroy” North Korea and earlier this week on Twitter referred to Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man.”

North Korea’s delegation left the hall in New York ahead of Trump’s speech, but the country’s foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, compared Trump’s remarks to the sound of a dog barking in televized remarks to the press in New York.

“There is a saying that goes: ‘Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on’,” Ri said, quoted in Reuters. “If [Trump] was thinking about surprising us with dog-barking sounds then he is clearly dreaming.”

When asked about the “Rocket Man” remarks, Ri quipped “I feel sorry for his aides,” a perceptive comment given the now viral image on social media showing Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly covering his eyes in apparent dismay at the president’s speech.  [Newsweek]

You can read more at the link.

A ROK Drop favorite Dr. Andrei Lankov has an article published in NK News that once again advocates for a “freeze deal” with North Korea:

Of course, it is politically impossible to be excessively frank about such a plan, as the admission that North Korea is a de facto nuclear state would damage international non-proliferation efforts and bring about a tidal wave of virtue signaling behavior from U.S. hard-liners, including many legislators.

To cushion these problems, a freeze deal will have to be presented as merely the “first step on the long and winding road to North Korea’s denuclearization” which will surely happen at some point in a rather distant future.

So far, the idea of a freeze, while widely discussed among the mid-level officials, remains a taboo at the higher levels of the U.S. bureaucracy. This is vital: this is exactly the levels where such decisions have to be made.

This author is skeptical about the immediate prospects of a freeze. It will take some time (probably, years) before U.S. decision makers get over their natural tendency to deny the unpleasant truth. Nonetheless, serious discussion of a freeze as a theoretical possibility has already begun, and numerous opponents of this idea have already made good arguments about what is problematic about such a plan.

Unfortunately, in spite of being a long-time proponent of the freeze idea, I cannot help but admit that many of their arguments are correct, but on balance, there are still valid reasons to accept the freeze solution as a deal which, while flawed and imperfect, is still better than its alternatives.  [NK News]

You can read more at the link, but as I have said before I think any freeze deal should include robust inspections and the risk of a retaliatory bombing strike if it is not complied with.  The risk of war on the peninsula by noncompliance by the Kim regime would give motivation to the Chinese to make sure the Kim regime is complying with the deal.

In fairness to Trump, he did not coin #Rocketman. The @Economist used term for Kim Jong Il, father of N Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in 2006 pic.twitter.com/qSvsR90q1z

— Demetri Sevastopulo (@Dimi) September 19, 2017

I don’t know why any country would want a North Korea ambassador in the first place considering the rampant criminal enterprises conducted out of North Korean embassies:

On Monday, Spain asked the North Korean ambassador in Madrid to leave the country by the end of September, the first European country to expel a North Korean diplomatic envoy.

The move follows similar steps by Mexico, Peru and Kuwait earlier this month. It also comes as the international community steps up its efforts to heighten sanctions against the nuclear-weapons seeking state.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2375 last week, which put a cap on the country’s crude oil imports and a ban on its textile exports.

The United States has called on other countries to cut diplomatic and trade ties with the North in a bid to further isolate the Kim Jong-un regime.

“Today, the North Korean ambassador was summoned and was told of the decision to consider him persona non grata, therefore he must stop working and leave the country before Sept. 30,” the Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement, according to Reuters.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like no more Youtube for the Kim regime:

Experts who study North Korea say that Google dealt them a “crippling blow” recently by shutting down two YouTube channels that broadcast the Hermit Kingdom’s propaganda, but a source inside the tech giant says the company’s “hands were tied” by U.S. sanctions.

The first channel to disappear on September 8 was Uriminzokkiri, which many analysts believe is a state-run operation out of China. A short message on YouTube says it was “terminated due to a legal complaint.” The second channel, Tonpomail, believed to be controlled by ethnic Koreans based in Japan, was finally taken down on September 12 “for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”

Publicly, Google has cited violations of its community guidelines and terms of service. Privately, sources at Google and YouTube who were briefed on the takedowns told VICE News the move was related to sanctions imposed by the U.S. government.  [VICE News]

You can read more at the link, but according to the article open source analysts are not happy with the shutdown because it removes a window into North Korea for them to look at.  North Korea has found ways to get around many other sanctions, I am sure they will find a way to get around Youtube.

community who thinks NK is 'begging for war.' Good grief. If they wanted that, they could have started 1 long ago when they might have won.

— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) September 4, 2017

Kim Jong-un may actually like the nickname Donald Trump has come up for him:

Donald Trump has referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “rocket man” in a tweet about a conversation with the South Korean President.

The US leader tweeted that he had been speaking with Moon Jae-in about the situation with the secretive communist state, which has launched a series of ballistic missiles in recent weeks and conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date.

“I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night,” Mr Trump wrote. “Asked him how Rocket Man is doing.”

He added that long petrol lines has been forming in North Korea, which he said was “too bad”.  [The Independent]

You can read more at the link, but I doubt whatever long gas lines there are, are effecting anyone in the regime elite.

I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2017