Category: North Korea

It seems in a society with so many old male military figures that Kim Jong-un’s daughter would have a hard time consolidating power if Kim Jong-un was to die within the next 10-20 years:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Ju-ae, is being groomed to succeed her father, though the selection is not final and he could ultimately choose someone else, two lawmakers quoted South Korea’s spy agency as saying Monday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) made the report to the parliamentary intelligence committee, saying North Korea has suggested Ju-ae is a strong candidate to succeed her father by adjusting the frequency of her public appearances to gauge public sentiment, Rep. Lee Seong-kweun of the ruling People Power Party and Rep. Park Sun-won of the main opposition Democratic Party said during a press briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

North Korea’s statement is not entirely true because Trump and Kim’s personal relationship ushered in an era where there was far less provocations and antagonism compared to prior years:

North Korea on Tuesday dismissed former US President Donald Trump’s repeated boasts about his close relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a “lingering desire,” stating that their personal bond did not bring about “any substantial positive change.”

The statement, delivered through the state-run Korean Central News Agency, which is tailored more to external audiences than domestic ones, marked Pyongyang’s first official reaction to Trump’s campaign trail remarks. (…..)

“It is true that Trump, when he was president, tried to reflect the special personal relations between the heads of states in the relations between states, but he did not bring about any substantial positive change,” the commentary read.

“The foreign policy of a state and personal feelings must be strictly distinguished,” it added.

Pyongyang reiterated its stance that the ball is in the US court, urging the US to abandon what it labeled as a “hostile policy” toward North Korea in the commentary. Pyongyang considers the US extended deterrence commitment to South Korea in response to mounting threats from North Korea, such as the deployment of US strategic assets to the peninsula, as part of the hostile policy.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I think the fact that President Yoon is in power instead of the prior left wing administration has more to do with the increase in defections than COVID lockdowns:

Scores of North Koreans staying abroad, such as diplomats and overseas workers, have attempted to defect to South Korea since North Korea began undoing its COVID-19 border closure last year, a former North Korean diplomat said Tuesday.

Ri Il-gyu, a former counselor of political affairs at the North Korean embassy in Cuba, said there have been more successful defections, but many people were also brutally brought back to North Korea, citing the example of a North Korean woman and her son who were caught during their botched attempt to flee Russia.

“As signs of North Korea’s border reopening were detected from March and April last year, many thought it was time to decide whether to return (to the North) or flee it,” Ri said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency, eight months after defecting to South Korea with his family.

South Korea’s unification ministry said the number of North Korean defectors coming to South Korea reached 196 in 2023, and among them, the number of people with so-called elite backgrounds, such as diplomatic and trade officials, came to around 10, the highest since 2017.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

North Korea is opening up tourism to these college students from Japan. I wonder if they are just a bunch of Chosen Soren kids? Maybe Kim Jong-un can invite some of the protesting kids from our US college campuses as well so they can experience the wonders of communism they seem to idolize so much:

North Korea has reportedly approved the visit of about 140 students from Korea Universityin Japan and allowed Korean students to visit as well.

On July 21, the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a special permit for Korea University students to visit at the end of August. The newspaper stated, “It is known that North Korea has explained that students with South Korean nationality can also visit.”

Since the global outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, North Korea has implemented a border lockdown for over three years. The newspaper noted that this group visit is the first since the pandemic began.

Mainichi Shimbun reported, “The visitors will be fourth-year students from Korea University, divided into several groups to stay in North Korea for about a month from August to November.” It also noted that “when using North Korea’s Air Koryo from Beijing, each individual is allowed to bring up to 50kg of luggage.”

MSN

You can read more at the link.

This report is sourced from one anonymous South Korean government official so who knows how true this claim is:

North Korea executed around 30 middle school students for watching South Korean dramas, as shown in a report from TV Chosun. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

North Korea has reportedly executed around 30 teenage students for watching South Korean dramas.  
  
Citing a South Korean government official, local cable channel TV Chosun reported on Thursday that the North Korean authorities publicly shot the middle school students last week for allegedly watching South Korean dramas stored on USBs. 
  
These USBs allegedly had been sent via balloons by North Korean defector groups from Seoul last month.

Joong Ang Ilbo

What has been confirmed is that North Korea does harshly punish those who are caught watching South Korean dramas:

The North’s Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act, enacted in December 2020, mandates the death penalty for those distributing South Korean media and up to 15 years in prison for viewers.  
  
The law also targets books, songs and photos, with a clause that imposes up to two years of forced labor for using South Korean speech or singing styles. 
  
Last month, to curb the spread of South Korean culture within their borders, North Korean authorities sentenced some 30 teenagers, around 17 years old, to life imprisonment and death. 

You can read more at the link.

The NIS must have helped with defection considering he defected by taking a flight to South Korea:

This March 19, 2024, file photo shows the North Korean Embassy in Cuba. (Yonhap)

A North Korean diplomat who had been stationed in Cuba defected to South Korea last year, South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday, the latest in a small but growing number of defections by North Koreans in elite groups.

The National Intelligence Service confirmed a media report that Ri Il-gyu, who had served as the counselor of political affairs at the North’s embassy in Cuba, entered South Korea in November with his family. It did not provide further details.

The defection came as efforts were under way for South Korea to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. In February, the two countries forged formal ties in a surprise move widely seen as a setback to North Korea, which has long boasted about its brotherly ties with the Caribbean country.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If North Korea’s trash balloons are considered soft terrorism, than is the South Korean activists who send balloons into North Korea also soft terrorists?:

North Korea’s obnoxious sending of trash-filled balloons to South Korea is a “form of soft terrorism,” a U.S. think tank report said Tuesday, stressing it should not be taken lightly though it reflects the recalcitrant regime’s “weakness” and “insecurity.”

Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Andy Lim, an associate fellow with the CSIS Korea Chair, released the report that analyzed Pyongyang’s campaign involving garbage-filled balloons in a question-and-answer format.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

There has been reports of North Korea sending troops to Ukraine, but NK News is reporting this has not been verified and currently just misinformation:

North Korea has not announced that it will dispatch troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine within a month, despite multiple news reports that have made this claim this week.

Picking up on comments made during a U.S. government briefing, the British tabloid Daily Express, Ukrainian website Kyiv Post and other outlets have reported as fact that Pyongyang stated it would send engineers to Russian-occupied Donetsk to rebuild the war-torn city. 

The reports come after Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense treaty last week and as North Korea has allegedly been sending artillery and ballistic missiles to Russia in support of its invasion.

While this possibility cannot be ruled out completely, neither North Korea nor Russia has made any such announcements so far. 

The unconfirmed rumors of deployment instead spread through a combination of anonymized single-source reports and multiple levels of misinterpretation as those reports spread globally, a familiar pattern for DPRK-related misinformation.

NK News

You can read more at the link.