Category: North Korea

This photo, released by North Korea’s ruling party organ Rodong Sinmun on Sept. 20, 2016, shows a ground test of a new high-power rocket engine being carried out at the country’s Sohae satellite launch site. The (North) Korean Central News Agency reported leader Kim Jong-un supervised the successful test, which provides sufficient carrier capability to launch various kinds of satellites. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

This photo, released by North Korea’s state-run Internet propaganda site Meari on Sept. 19, 2016, shows a poster bearing an image of a mother holding a baby with the phrase “For the future, let’s stop smoking flat.” (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

North Korea bans sarcasm. Really. https://t.co/pAv2bhx55T

— Jieun Baek (@JieunBaek1) September 16, 2016

In triumph for Trudeau, China frees Canadian missionary detained near North Korean border for two years https://t.co/IyHsylEMxK

— James Pearson (@pearswick) September 18, 2016

What concerns is not North Korea’s statement, but where their foreign minister is making the statement from.  This would be a huge provocation against the US if they ever sold any of their increasingly capable missiles to Venezuela that could be pointed at the US.  Considering the current economic crisis in Venezuela this obviously is not a near term concern:

North Korea is ready to launch new attacks, the country’s foreign minister has said, suggesting the communist regime may take further provocative action following North Korea’s recent nuclear test.

“North Korea is ready to launch another attack in defiance of the provocations by the United States,” North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said.

He made the remarks during a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Venezuela on Thursday (local time).

Last week North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test, eight months after its fourth nuclear test.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This just goes to show that even North Koreans can have a sense of humor:

This is satirical political comedy, Pyongyang style.

A recent episode of the snappily named “The stage of optimism that Songun presented — Volume 11,” which airs on state-controlled Korea Central Television (KCTV), lampooned the US leader and “oppressed” South Koreans ahead of the North’s nuclear warhead test this month.  [CNN]

Here is what former US President Bill Clinton thinks in regards to what to do about North Korea:

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said North Korea is a “funny country” that is good at making bombs and missiles, but unable to feed its people, and its leader Kim Jong-un appears to be “more militant than his father and grandfather.”

Clinton made the remark in an interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose Tuesday night, saying he “worked very hard” with former Defense Secretary and North Korea policy coordinator William Perry and then Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili to prevent a nuclear-armed North Korea.

“I worked very hard to avert this when I was president. And my former defense secretary, Bill Perry, and General John Shalikashvili … They went there and said, you know, this can’t happen, and so we worked very hard to avoid it with some success,” Clinton said.

The former president declined to discuss what the North Korea policy of his wife Hillary Clinton would look like, saying he wants her to speak for herself. But he added that the Democratic presidential nominee has suggested that the U.S. should toughen the sanctions and try to get the support of Russia and China.

“North Korea is, it’s a funny country. That is, they’re good at making missiles and bombs, and they can’t bring in a rice crop,” Clinton said. “They believe that you, and the news media, and those of us who are in the political world, all over the world, that all of us, we never think about them unless they misbehave.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

If anyone is wondering, there have been no sign of nuclear fallout landing in South Korea:

South Korea has yet to find any traces of radioactive materials from North Korea’s latest nuclear test, a nuclear safety commission here said Thursday, confirming the country remains safe from nuclear fallout.

“The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission has not found any traces of radionuclides, such as xenon, in its tests of soil, water and air samples following North Korea’s fifth nuclear test,” the commission said in a released statement.

The commission has been testing samples every 12 hours since Monday, two days after the communist North said it successfully conducted its latest nuclear detonation test.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Joel Witt from the US-Korea Institute and a former Clinton Administration official in charge of implementing the failed Agreed Framework with North Korea in the 1990’s, is calling for suspending military exercises and more talks with North Korea:

A successful strategy will have to include a new diplomatic initiative aimed at persuading the North to first stop expanding its arsenal and then to eventually reduce and dismantle its weapons. To persuade the North Koreans to do this, Washington will have to address their security concerns. In the short term, that may mean temporarily suspending or modifying some American-South Korean military exercises. In the longer term, it may mean replacing the armistice in place since the end of the Korean War with a permanent peace agreement.

These initiatives will be met with skepticism not only in the United States — where many people believe that negotiating with North Korea is a waste of time — but also in Pyongyang. As a North Korean official, who believes a new administration will just tear up previous agreements, said to me earlier this year, “It’s easier for us to build nuclear weapons than to be involved with you for decades only to have agreements turn into useless scraps of paper.”

Nevertheless, there are signs that North Korea is interested in dialogue. On July 6, the government issued a pronouncement ostensibly seeking denuclearization talks with the United States, specifically mentioning Kim Jong-un’s name in support of this initiative.

One reason North Korea may be motivated to consider denuclearization is economic. Since taking office in 2011, Mr. Kim has been committed to improving his country’s economy.  [New York Times]

You can read more at the link, but what reason has North Korea given that the US should end military exercises with the ROK?  They are not going to stop their provocations unless they get a deal where they get a lot of free “aid” for little to nothing in return which they can then tear up and demand a new deal later due to some made up reason.  That is how the prior agreements with North Korea have worked, what is different now?

Plus they are never going to give up their nuclear program.  From a regime security perspective why would they?  Also as far economic development, isn’t it in the Kim regime’s interest to keep their people poor so they are easier to control?  Kim just has to keep the ruling elite happy which the regime has showed the ability to mostly do and for those he can’t keep happy he tends to ruthlessly purge.  In my opinion economic incentives for little to nothing in return will only tighten his grip on power with the ruling elite and do little for the common North Korean.

Maybe I am wrong, what does everyone else think?

Wistful Kim Jong-Un Stumbles Onto Childhood Drawings He Made Of Nuclear Attacks On West https://t.co/Picv4UbesN via @TheOnion

— Sokeel Park 박석길 (@Sokeel) September 13, 2016