It has already been 5 years since North Korea’s deadly artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong Island which the Kim regime has never taken responsibility for:
South Korea’s Marine Corps held a live-fire drill in the Yellow Sea on Monday, as the country marked the fifth anniversary of North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.
The live-fire exercise, which mobilized K-9 self-propelled artillery launchers, was held despite warnings from North Korea on Sunday that it would react “mercilessly” if the South pushed ahead with the scheduled drill near the tense maritime border.
Monday marked the fifth anniversary of the Yeonpyeong Island shelling, which was North Korea’s first attack on South Korean soil since the 1950-53 Korean War. The bombardment of shells left two Marines and two civilians dead and further froze inter-Korean relations under the Lee Myung-bak government, which had accused the North of torpedoing the Cheonan warship in the Yellow Sea eight months earlier. The North denies responsibility for the sinking, which killed 46 sailors. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Considering that the North Koreans will never fully denuclearize this is why they will never back away from demanding a peace treaty with the US first:
North Korea criticized the top U.S. nuclear envoy Friday for urging it again to denuclearize first for a peace treaty.
The North’s foreign ministry reiterated a call for immediate talks on replacing the 1953 Armistice Agreement with a peace treaty.
It was countering remarks by Sung Kim, special representative for North Korea policy, earlier this week at a Washington forum.
Speaking on the North’s demand for a peace treaty, Kim accused Pyongyang of having “the order wrong.”
“Before we can get to a peace mechanism to replace the armistice, I think we need to make significant progress on the central issue of denuclearization,” he said. [Yonhap]
I am not sure how much effect these sanctions will have on an individual or company from the Kim regime who is unlikely to own any assets in the US. However, it should create a chilling effect on banks wanting to do business with these individuals and companies if the Treasury Department threatens these banks with losing access to the US banking system:
The United States imposed sanctions on North Korea’s ambassador to Myanmar on Friday for involvement in Pyongyang’s weapons proliferation efforts, the first time a sitting North Korean ambassador has been sanctioned.
The Treasury Department said it has added Amb. Kim Sok-chol to its Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN), along with three other North Koreans, Hwang Su-man, Kim Kwang-hyok and Ri Chong-chol, all of them linked to Korea Mining Development Trading Corp.(KOMID), accused of weapons proliferation.
The envoy operates as a KOMID facilitator, the department said.
“Today’s action is designed to counter North Korea’s attempts to circumvent U.S. and United Nations (UN) sanctions, as well as maintain the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions on individuals and entities that are linked to the North Korean Government’s weapons of mass destruction procurement network,” the department said.
Under the sanctions, any property or interest in property of the designated persons in the possession of U.S. persons or within U.S. jurisdiction must be frozen and transactions by U.S. persons involving the designated persons are generally prohibited, the department said.
“North Korea’s continued violation of international law and its commitment to the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction pose a serious threat to the United States and to global peace and security,” Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam J. Szubin said in the statement.
“Today’s designations underscore our ongoing efforts to obstruct the flow of funds used to augment North Korea’s nuclear capabilities,” he said.
In addition to the four individuals, the U.S. also sanctioned EKO Development and Investment Co., a North Korean government entity located in Egypt, for helping KOMID market North Korean weapons systems to foreign countries, the department said. [Yonhap]
Since this report is coming from South Korean intelligence sources they tend to actually be pretty reliable. The real question that hasn’t been answered is why is he being re-educated?:
Choe Ryong-hae
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sent his key confidant to the country’s top school for re-education, South Korea’s intelligence officials said Thursday, in an apparent lenient punishment that could set the stage for his political comeback in the coming months, if not years.
“Choe Ryong-hae is receiving education at Kim Il Sung Higher Party School,” an official said, referring to the top institution named after the country’s founder, Kim’s late grandfather.
The school in Pyongyang is the top institution where party officials are trained.
Choe, a senior secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, visited China a couple of times and is widely seen as North Korea’s point man on China.
In 2013, Choe met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing as Kim’s envoy. In September, Choe also visited Beijing for China’s massive military parade.
Choe’s whereabouts have been under the intense spotlight among officials and analysts in South Korea and other regional powers as he was not named as a member of a funeral committee of a senior military official who died last Saturday.
Choe also did not show up for the state funeral ceremony of Ri Ul-sol, marshal of North Korea’s military, who died of lung cancer at the age of 94.
Choe’s conspicuous absence sparked speculation among some analysts that he might have been ousted from the party’s key post.
Still, the South Korean intelligence officials believe that Choe was not purged, though he is undergoing education at the Kim Il Sung Higher Party School for unspecified reasons. [Yonhap]
All the information is coming from any anonymous source so who knows how true this claim is? If it is true it should come as no surprise considering how badly people are treated by the Kim regime much less animals in a zoo:
Exotic animals, including Persian leopards that North Koreareceived from Russia as a gift, are languishing at Pyongyang Central Zoo, according to a source on the country.
A breakdown in ventilation or air-conditioning facilities, most likely due to frequent power outages in North Korea, has contributed to the suffocation of some of the animals, in addition to poor zoo management, South Korean news network Channel A reported Wednesday.
Pyongyang Central Zoo was one of many North Korean institutions that had received special instructions from Kim Jong Un ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers’ Party.
But a source, speaking to South Korea media on the condition of anonymity, said that the “self-designed” ventilation facilities devised by North Korean engineers were not suitable for the purposes of animal husbandry, and new construction could not be completed on deadline. Dozens of animals also suffocated when air-conditioning recently stopped running for four hours, the source said.
Aquatic animals scheduled to perform on Oct. 10, the Workers’ Party anniversary, also perished. Casualties included the zoo’s sea lions, seals and dolphins, according to the source.
The gift of animals from Russia to North Korea, delivered in May, included the leopards, African lions, striped hyenas and long-tailed parakeets and were sent to commemorate the North Korean anniversary. [UPI]
