Category: North Korea

Another day and another strange story involving North Korea; this time two doctors strangely killed in Cambodia:

Even by the standards of news about North Korea, this story is bizarre: Two North Korean doctors working in Cambodia died over the weekend, apparently after they got so drunk that their wives, also doctors, injected them with some mystery liquid to counteract the alcohol. Both men then had heart attacks, according to a report in the Phnom Penh Post.  [Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link.

Jangmiwon, a newly opened rose-themed luxury spa in Pyongyang https://t.co/gvx7d9zIbl pic.twitter.com/txOhXDuF1z

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) December 29, 2015

Here is a look at North Korea’s computer operating system for their Intranet software.  It looks like the NSA will have a very difficult time ever snooping on the North Koreans based on how their Intranet and Red Star software is designed:

North Korea’s homegrown computer operating system mirrors its political one, according to two German researchers who have delved into the code: a go-it-alone approach, a high degree of paranoia and invasive snooping on users.

Their research, the deepest yet into the secretive state’s Red Star OS, illustrates the challenges Pyongyang faces in trying to embrace the benefits of computing and the internet while keeping a tight grip on ideas and culture.

The researchers, Florian Grunow and Niklaus Schiess of German IT security company ERNW GmbH, spoke to Reuters before presenting their findings to the Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg on Sunday, a gathering of hackers and security researchers.

The operating system is not just the pale copy of western ones that many have assumed, they concluded after downloading the software from a website outside North Korea and exploring the code in detail,

“(Late leader) Kim Jong Il said North Korea should develop a system of their own,” said Grunow. “This is what they’ve done.”

North Korea, whose rudimentary intranet system does not connect to the outside internet but allows access to state media and some officially approved websites, has been developing its own operating system for more than a decade.

This latest version, written around 2013, is based on a version of Linux called Fedora and has eschewed the previous version’s Windows XP feel for Apple’s OSX — perhaps a nod to leader Kim Jong Un, who like his father has been photographed near Macs.

But under the hood there’s a lot that’s unique, including its own version of encrypting files. “This is a full blown operation system where they control most of the code,” said Grunow.

This, the researchers say, suggests North Korea wants to avoid any code that might be compromised by intelligence agencies.

“Maybe this is a bit fear-driven,” said Grunow. “They may want to be independent of other operating systems because they fear back doors” which might allow others to spy on them.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes the below news that a close aid of Kim Jong-un has died in a car accident.  Considering Kim Jong-il’s recent track record it makes me wonder if this was really an accident or not?  However, the North Korean state media “closest comrade-in-arms and steadfast revolutionary comrade” and he was given a state funeral.  If Kim Jong-un wanted Kim Yang-gon dead maybe he is now doing it in a way that doesn’t bring negative international media attention?  Either that or it really was just a car accident:

 A senior North Korean ruling party official and a top aide to leader Kim Jong Un has died in a car accident, the state news agency reported on Wednesday, in the latest event to hit the close circle of deputies of the country’s leader.

Kim Yang Gon, who was a secretary of the Workers’ Party and the head of its United Front Department, the unit that handles the North’s ties with South Korea, was Kim Jong Un’s “closest comrade, a solid revolutionary partner,” KCNA said.

Kim as the top official managing ties with the South was part of a high-level delegation that held talks in August after the rival states exchanged artillery fire, raising tensions to one of its highest points in recent years.

Those talks produced an agreement that ended the standoff and for the two sides to work to hold more discussions to improve ties.

KCNA said Kim died on Tuesday in an automobile accident at the age of 73. It gave no details of the accident.  [Reuters]

You can read the rest at the link.

The North Koreans continue to tinker with their road mobile ICBM which is their primary strategic deterrent against the United States:

Design changes to a North Korean missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland should increase its reliability but are likely to delay deployment for at least five years, according to a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

The KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile, which was publicly displayed during an October military parade, has been shortened and simplified, according to 38 North, a website run by Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies that monitors North Korean activities. A blunt warhead that is more likely to survive re-entry replaces a narrow, pointed design, and the missile’s three stages have been reduced to two.

“The underlying technology is mostly the same — a blend of North Korean engineering and Cold War leftovers from the Soviet Union — but the structural design has been substantially improved,” the report said Tuesday. “There is reason to suspect that the new structural technology was illicitly obtained from Ukrainian sources.”

The new KN-08 would have a range similar to its predecessor — about 5,600 miles, enough to reach the U.S. West Coast — with an estimated success rate of 50 percent to 60 percent, the report said. The previous model’s rate was estimated at 30 percent to 40 percent.

“The new design is simpler and more reliable, and thus a more credible threat,” 38 North said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

Does a 90% tax on a $100 a month salary make someone a slave?:

More than 2,500 North Korean workers have been forced to work in Mongolia and Poland under poor working conditions with their human rights being violated, a South Korean civic group said Wednesday.

About 1,800 North Korean workers are being forced to work mainly in Mongolia’s construction sector or in sewing factories while around 800 North Koreans are employed in Poland in the shipbuilding and construction sectors, according to the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights.

Marzuki Darusman, U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea, said in his report that more than 50,000 North Koreans have been forced to work abroad, mainly in China and Russia, as the North seeks to earn hard currency.

The civic group said Mongolia has had close ties with North Korea for a long time and a distinctive geographical location bordering Russia and China where thousands of North Koreans are forced to labor.

Poland had friendly relations with North Korea during the era of the former Soviet Union and it is known as one of two European Union nations including Malta that has hired North Korean workers.

The agency said that North Korean workers in the two countries have repatriated about 90 percent of their salary to North Korea while earning less than $100 per month while working around 12 hours per day.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

Kim Jong Un Visits Ku’msusan to Mark KJI Death Anniversary https://t.co/FRTVAAjEXm pic.twitter.com/EHa0pQAggE

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) December 17, 2015

North Korean Olympic weightlifting champion fails doping test https://t.co/Pc3OJJzH7M pic.twitter.com/JJX7Eh1gcl

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) December 17, 2015

Apparently when Chinese authorities saw a rehearsal of Kim Jong-un’s girl band they immediately decided to cancel the concert due to the propaganda they saw.  What did they expect with inviting Kim Jong-un’s girl band to China?:

 

The mysterious cancellation of a Beijing concert by North Korea’s Moranbong Band on Saturday appears to be linked with the girl group’s program, which included adulations of leader Kim Jong-un and possibly boasts about the country’s nuclear tests, which China’s government was against.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers that it believes Chinese authorities, after watching a rehearsal on Friday, balked at the propaganda-filled program.  [Joong Ang llbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

Like I have said for all of these detainment cases, I feel for the families effected by this, but if you willing travel into North Korea this is the risk you are taking.  No one else should be expected to get you out of trouble when things go wrong.  This is why I have advocated for no one to travel to North Korea because not only are you supporting the Kim regime with hard currency, but you are also giving the regime bargaining chips they can use for future use if they feel they need them:

North Korea sentenced a detained Canadian pastor to life imprisonment with hard labor 10 months after taking him into custody.

Pyongyang’s state-controlled KCNA reported, “The trial of Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim, who undertook a special plot to overthrow the state, took place before the Supreme Court on Dec. 16.”

North Korea said the defendant received a life sentence with hard labor and was found guilty of violating Pyongyang’s Criminal Law Article 60, or conspiring to overthrow the Kim Jong Un regime. Pyongyang added there were “witnesses” who had evidence of Lim’s wrongdoing.

Speaking on behalf of the defendant, 60, North Korea said Lim had admitted to his wrongdoing: adopting South Korea’s anti-Pyongyang hostile actions by “insulting [North Korea’s] highest dignity and its system with vicious slander” and “harboring ill will and attempting to take down [North Korea].”  [UPI]

You can read the rest at the link.