Category: North Korea

In this March 26, 2015 photo, taken by Google Earth, a 550-meter-long, 15-meter-wide runway for light planes lies parallel to an existing train station for only North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’ s use, located near his cottage in Wonsan on the North’s east coast. The Washington-based Radio Free Asia reported on May 8, 2015, that the runway’s construction has been completed. (Yonhap)

That is what this Voice of America article brings up:

South Korean officials Monday outlined their worries about North Korea’s first test missile launch from a submarine. Although the test does not immediately change the military status quo on the Korean peninsula, it shows Pyongyang is working on a difficult-to-detect missile system that could become capable of threatening countries around the world.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok confirmed that North Korea did test-fire an underwater ballistic missile on May 8. He called the test a serious and great concern and urged Pyongyang to immediately stop further development of this weapon. But the defense ministry spokesman also said the test indicates North Korea is years away from deploying this enhanced capability.

He said the ministry’s view is that North Korea’s test-fire this time shows it is in the early stage of development of a submarine launched ballistic missile program. According to the cases of advanced countries, he said, it takes about four to five years after the underwater test to complete the development of the system.

Still, the fact that Pyongyang is on a trajectory to develop a submarine based missile system means it could develop the capability to strike anywhere in the world, including the mainland of the United States.

This new capability would make less effective South Korea’s current Kill Chain missile system, intended to target and destroy North Korean missile launch sites.

The increased North Korean threat could trigger a new arms race on the Korean peninsula. It could also be used to justify the deployment of the United States anti-ballistic missile system called THAAD. Seoul had been reluctant to accept THAAD in part because China opposes its deployment.  [Voice of America]

You can read more at the link, but since the development of an actual working missile launched from a submarine is years away I don’t think this gives the ROK the cover it needs to allow the US to deploy THAAD to Korea against China’s wishes.

It looks like the Kim regime has found another way to bring in hard currency:

A Chinese province bordering North Korea will kick off its first four-day train tour to the reclusive state later this month, according to China’s state media on Saturday, joining other border regions that have begun train tours to the North.

The tour will take Chinese tourists to North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang from the Chinese border city of Dandong on May 26, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported, citing a tour agency in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning.

The report is the latest sign that North Korea has approved more cross-border tours for Chinese tourists to earn hard currency since it lifted travel restrictions imposed due to concerns over the Ebola virus.

During the four-day tour, Chinese tourists will also visit the southern border city of Kaesong, Mt. Myohyang and the truce village of Panmunjom, which sits in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, according to the report.

The trip costs from 2,000 yuan (US$321.90) to 3,000 yuan, the report said, without elaborating.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I think it is safe to say that the North Koreans will not be detaining or shooting these tourists.

This image released by North Korea’s Rodong Shinmun shows what Pyeongyang claims to be a ballistic missile being launched from a submarine in waters near the northeast coast of Sinpo on May 9, 2015. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the North’s state media, said the communist state successfully test-fired the submarine missile. (Yonhap)

Like any of these reports from anonymous sources, treated them with a healthy dose of skepticism because who knows if they are true:

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has demanded that officials “go to South Korea if they have to” to arrest those who defected on his birthday, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).

The non-profit news outlet quoted internal sources as saying Kim was furious when told that 16 North Koreans defected on February 16.

“During Kim’s birthday, the nation was under a special warning period for defecting, and when reported by his officials, Kim ordered them to send out an arrest squad to catch the ‘fleed family,'” the source was quoted as saying.

The source also said officials were threatened with punishment if they failed to bring back the defectors from North Hamgyong Province.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like North Korea has its very own Amazon like online shopping service now with likely few people to use it:

Online shopping has arrived in North Korea, though it is as isolated from the rest of the world as the country itself, and the vast majority of North Koreans lack the technology to use it.

The website Okryu, aimed primarily at smartphone users, offers products from North Korean companies including women’s clothing, bags, shoes, medicine, cosmetics, furniture and food. Payment, in local currency only, is taken from the main North Korean debit card system.

To keep it all hermetically sealed, the site works not on the World Wide Web but on North Korea’s own intranet, a self-contained version of the Internet set up and maintained strictly for domestic use.

North Koreans call it the “domestic web” and it’s been around for years, but not used very much, largely because very few North Koreans have personal-use computers that can go online at all.

Smartphone use, however, is growing, and Okryu’s presence suggests that the government does not consider the technology to be a threat to the country’s rigid social order.  (…………..)

Okryu is managed by the General Bureau of Public Service, a government organization that oversees shops, restaurants and producers of consumer goods. Bureau official Jong Sol Hwa recently confirmed the online shopping site, announced with much pride by state media last month, is up and running.

It is impossible to say how popular the new site is or if the average North Korean shopper is even aware of it. The site’s managers have not announced statistics about page views, unique users or sales volume.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It seems to me that this “Silk Road” initiative is an attempt by the Chinese to put infrastructure in place in neighboring countries so that they become more dependent on Chinese trade and thus can be more easily controlled by Beijing:

China has told North Korea that its ambitious Silk Road project aimed at reviving the ancient trade route between Asia and Europe would bring a “historic” opportunity to advance bilateral cooperation between the two nations.

The Chinese ambassador to North Korea, Li Jinjun, made the remarks at a meeting with the North’s Vice Foreign Minister Ri Gil-song on Monday, the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang said in a statement.

It was the second time in less than two weeks that the Chinese ambassador publicly briefed North Korea on Beijing’s Silk Road project.

With a US$40 billion fund, China has aggressively pushed for the so-called “One Belt, One Road” initiative aimed at building ports, expressways, railways and other infrastructure with its neighboring countries.

“China is pushing ahead with the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative that will bring new and historic opportunities for bilateral and regional cooperation,” the Chinese ambassador was quoted as telling the North Korean official.

On April 23, the Chinese ambassador met North Korea’s Minister of Foreign Trade, Ri Ryong-nam, and expressed hope for the North to join the Silk Road project.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Without high resolution imagery I don’t think this image is a smoking gun in regards to reported mass executions in North Korea.  For all we know these could just be wooden targets they put up for training purposes:

A U.S. civic group has released satellite images of North Korea that appear to show a public execution.

Radio Free Asia reported Thursday that the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea published an analysis of photos taken last October from above a military training area near Pyongyang.

Analysts identified six anti-aircraft machineguns lined up across from some blurry objects, with distinct shadows that appear to be people, also lined up side-by-side on a firing range.

Whatever or whoever was in the images was no longer there in another picture taken nine days later.

The committee says the most plausible explanation is that a public execution took place there.  [Chosun Ilbo]

Whether or not he illegally entered North Korea doesn’t matter to me because this is the chance anyone visiting North Korea takes for going there in the first place:

South Korea confirmed on Sunday that North Korea detained a South Korean student of New York University, but said it was still unclear whether the 21-year-old New Jersey resident attempted to enter the North illegally.

An official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with North Korea, said his department was still trying to gather information on Won Moon Joo’s travels and the circumstances of his arrest.

“Our judgment is that Joo is being held in North Korea, but we are still trying to confirm the details of how he got arrested,” he said on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday that Joo was arrested on April 22 after trying to illegally enter North Korea by crossing the Amnok River from the Chinese border town of Dandong.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Kim Jong-un got cold feet and decided not to travel to Russia after all:

South Korea sees no abnormal signs in North Korea which might have caused its leader, Kim Jong-un, to cancel his planned trip to Russia next week, a Defense Ministry official said Friday.

On Thursday, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters that the North Korean leader will not visit Moscow for a celebration to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, saying that the decision “is related to internal Korean affairs.”

South Korean and Russian officials had expected the leader of the reclusive nation to attend a military parade and hold a bilateral meeting with Putin. It would have been his first foreign trip since taking office in 2011 upon the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.

“We don’t believe that any notable internal affairs are taking place in North Korea (that are) serious enough to cause Kim not to attend the event,” the official said, requesting anonymity.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but experts think that Kim Jong-un decided not to go because he is not ready to share the stage with many other national leaders.