Category: North Korea

I have to give the Kim regime points for creativity on this latest provocation because this is definitely a new one:

 North Korea has sent more than 150 balloons carrying trash across the inter-Korean border, Seoul’s military said Wednesday, after the North warned of “tit-for-tat action” against anti-Pyongyang leaflets flown by the South’s activists.

Since Tuesday night, the balloons have crossed the border to fall in various locations across the country, reaching as far as the southeastern province of South Gyeongsang, and scatter waste as they fell to the ground, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The fallen balloons appeared to have carried various pieces of trash, such as plastic bottles, batteries, shoe parts and even manure, a JCS official said, with military officials collecting the objects for a detailed analysis.

Yonhap

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I hope the Russian rocket technology has a warranty the North Koreans can cash in on after this latest launch failure:

North Korea said Tuesday that its latest attempt to launch a new rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure due to the midair explosion of the rocket during the first-stage flight this week.

The vice general director of the North’s National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) said the rocket carrying the satellite, the Malligyong-1-1, exploded after it lifted off from the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on the country’s northwest coast on Monday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The launch came just hours after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang held a trilateral summit in Seoul and reaffirmed their commitment to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Yonhap

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This really shouldn’t be very surprising to anyone that North Korea would take some kind of provocation prior to the U.S. election:

U.S. officials are bracing for North Korea to potentially take its “most provocative” military action in a decade ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, possibly at the urging of Russian President Vladimir Putin, NBC News reported Friday.

Citing six senior U.S. officials, the broadcaster also said that the United States has contingency plans to respond in the event of Pyongyang taking aggressive action in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, or shelling South Korean border islands — belligerence unseen since 2010.

“We have no doubt that North Korea will be provocative this year. It’s just a matter of how escalatory it is,” a U.S. intelligence official was quoted by NBC News as saying.

It said that the U.S. officials believe the timing of the North’s provocation could be designed to “create turmoil in yet another part of the world,” as the presidential race is set to be a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Anyone believe Kim Yo-jong’s claim:

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again denied Friday that her country has exported any weapons to Russia, as she labeled outside speculation on North Korea-Russian arms dealings as “the most absurd paradox.” The U.S., South Korea and others have steadfastly accused North Korea of supplying artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for advanced military technologies and economic aid.

Both North Korea and Russia have repeatedly dismissed that. Foreign experts believe North Korea’s recent series of artillery and short-range missile tests were meant to examine or advertise the weapons it was planning to sell to Russia. Kim Yo Jong called outside assessments on the North Korean-Russian dealings “the most absurd paradox which is not worth making any evaluation or interpretation.”

Stars & Stripes

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If anyone is looking for someone to do remote work for them, closely check their documents because they could in fact be North Koreans:

The United States offered Thursday to provide a reward of up to US$5 million for information on three North Korean IT workers and their manager who were engaged in a scheme enabling the workers to get illicit telework employment with false identities belonging to U.S. citizens.

The State Department announced the reward for the workers using the aliases Han Jiho, Jun Chunji and Xu Haoran and their manager Zhonghua who were involved in the scheme that it said generated at least $6.8 million for the North Korean regime.

From October 2020 through October 2023, Christina Chapman, a U.S. national, helped the workers obtain work as remote software and applications developers with companies in a range of sectors and industries, it said. They used false identifies belonging to more than 60 real U.S. people.

The workers also made a failed attempt to gain similar employment at two U.S. government agencies, according to the department.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Kim Jong-un has something else to celebrate other than weapons tests:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his “beloved daughter” Ju-ae attended a ceremony marking a newly built street at the north gateway of Pyongyang, the North’s state media reported Wednesday. 

It was the first time in about two months that Ju-ae made a public appearance since she visited a military unit on March 15. Kim and his daughter attended the ceremony on Tuesday, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The KCNA described the street as “clear proof of validity and vitality of the WPK’s ideology of valuing the youth and a striking demonstration of invincibility of the revolutionary cause of Juche.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.