Category: North Korea

The real question is why isn’t she already sanctioned considering how she is a key regime figure?:

The South Korean government is considering blacklisting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister. The unification ministry said on Monday, 7 November, that it was “carefully” reviewing adding Kim Yo-jong to its list of unilateral sanctions imposed against the reclusive state, following its fifth nuclear test in September.

Seoul has already blacklisted many Pyongyang officials after the country engaged in frequent missile tests earlier in the year, in addition to a nuclear test in January. However, the North Korean leader and his younger sister were not in the list, Yonhap news agency reported.  [IB Times]

You can read more at the link.

Scenic mountains are an oasis of natural beauty in the heart of Korea’s factory belt The city of Ulsan is skirted… https://t.co/E8fjShj4N4

— Seoul Selection (@SeoulSelection) November 5, 2016

Whoever wins the next US Presidential election will apparently receive a fireworks show from the North Koreans:

North Korea may launch a intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) around the time U.S. citizens go to the polls to pick their new president, a local military source said Sunday.

According to the official source, the military is carefully checking developments taking place in the reclusive country and monitoring the movement of the Musudan missiles that are mounted on mobile launchers.

The U.S. presidential election takes place on Tuesday, with the Democratic and Republican candidates locked in a close race according to many surveys.

The Musudan or BM-35 missile is a IRBM with a reported range of some 3,500 kilometers, which is enough to allow it to target the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. The island is home to many strategic assets that can support South Korean and U.S. forces in the event of a conflict breaking out on the Korean Peninsula.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Who knows if this report out of North Korea is true or not, but it is North Korea so anything is possible:

More senior citizens in North Korea are being pressured to kill themselves because of intergenerational conflicts and the skyrocketing cost of medicine.

Elderly North Koreans who can no longer depend on the country’s welfare system must also cope with their children who are sometimes apathetic to their needs, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday.

A source in North Hamgyong Province told RFA on Tuesday it is a common sight at parks or train stations to see senior citizens gathered together, even as temperatures continue to drop in some of the coldest parts of the country.

“[Korean War] veterans are among their numbers; it is heartbreaking to see them there,” the source said.

The elderly, who are no longer employable, leave their homes during the day to avoid friction with their children. They shiver in the cold outdoors until the sun sets, the source said.

The financial burden they impose on their adult children who also struggle to make ends meet has led to family crises, where it is the children who are asking their aging parents to commit suicide, said another source in North Hamgyong Province.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully the headlines these guys are making does not encourage others to go to North Korea to try and do the same thing:

Ruig and Shay, both 28, created worldwide headlines after pretending to be members of the Australian golf team and fooling North Korean authorities into letting them play in a two-day international tournament in Pyongyang last month.

The pair, who had been playing polo in China when they decided to email organisers for an invitation, even had fake green golf jackets made up with Australian badges.

But neither Ruig nor Shay plays golf and performed so badly their North Korean caddie told them they had brought shame on their families.

The stunt has brought the lads international fame and they were mobbed by fans on a visit to the Gold Coast yesterday.

Ruig said outraged North Korean officials had now demanded an apology.  [Courier Mail]

You can read more at the link, but I would feel no pity for these guys if they ended getting arrested in North Korea if their prank was discovered.  I am just concerned the headlines these guys are making will encourage other random people to try and get their 15 minutes of fame by trying something like this in North Korea again.  What I also don’t like is that some random official in North Korea is probably going to be held responsible for allowing these guys into the country in the first place.  Should a North Korean official’s livelihood be put at stake just because a couple of random people want their 15 minutes of fame?

North Korea, getting money's worth over South Korean political scandal, reprints pics of guillotine erected in central Seoul this weekend. pic.twitter.com/N3O5vhCKdD

— James Pearson (@pearswick) November 2, 2016

I can only imagine the fate that awaits the prior ambassador that was recalled from the UK back to North Korea due to the embarrassing defection:

North Korea has named Choe Il as its new ambassador to Britain, Pyongyang’s state media said Thursday, following the latest defection to South Korea by a top diplomat stationed in London.

Choe has been appointed Pyongyang’s envoy to Britain, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a short dispatch, replacing his predecessor Hyon Hak-bong.

Choe’s background remains largely murky, but a handful of reports and documents that contain his name indicate that his work was associated with the U.S. and the United Nations.

In reports by Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA) in 2009, his name appeared on the list of visitors to the U.S. as vice chairman of the Korea-America Private Exchange Society (KAPES), an organization that liaises with US-based non-governmental groups.

In 2006, he participated in the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) as a researcher of the Institute of Disarmament and Peace. NEACE is a multilateral forum involving high-level policymakers, defense ministry officials, military officers and researchers from the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

In March 2013, his name again appeared in the list of U.N. diplomats as a councilor of the North Korean mission.

The report came amid speculation that North Korea recalled Hyon to hold him responsible for the defection to Seoul of Thae Yong-ho, a former minister at its embassy in the British capital.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Satellite photos show flood devastation in North Korea: https://t.co/6m0RyTVPdY via @vicenews @keegan_hamilton pic.twitter.com/r9sKOuLIr9

— Sokeel Park (@Sokeel) November 3, 2016

Meanwhile, in North Korea, kids play tug of war with a cardboard cutout of a U.S. soldier wearing a noose around his neck. pic.twitter.com/gurveYus1N

— James Pearson (@pearswick) November 1, 2016

With the embarrassment of multiple test failures the Kim regime is probably eager to at least get one more successful launch of its Musudan missile conducted:

North Korea is getting ready to launch yet another Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile in the next three days, a U.S. news report said Tuesday.

Fox Business News cited two unidentified U.S. officials “with knowledge of this assessment” as saying that the North is preparing to conduct a launch “in the next 24 to 72 hours.” It said the potential launch would be the ninth test of the Musudan missile this year.

The Department of Defense declined to confirm the report.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.