Category: North Korea

Like it has done just about every August in recent memory, the North Koreans are continuing their offensive on the fish in the East Sea:

North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, South Korea’s military said Thursday, in apparent protest against combined South Korea-U.S. military drills.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launches from an area in or around Sunan in Pyongyang between around 11:40 p.m. and 11:50 p.m. Wednesday.

The missiles each flew some 360 kilometers before splashing into the waters, the JCS said, with the allies’ intelligence authorities conducting further analysis.

Yonhap

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It looks like North Korea is going to learn to live with COVID like everyone else:

North Korea on Sunday approved the return of its citizens from abroad after over three years of stringent COVID-19 lockdowns, taking a big step toward aligning with global efforts to “live with the virus,” according to analysts. 

Experts say that the Kim Jong-un regime’s decision is likely driven by an exacerbating food crisis and economic difficulties, although the isolated nation still remains wary of a full-scale reopening of its borders.

Pyongyang’s state media, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), reported Sunday that North Korean citizens who had been staying abroad were recently allowed to return home, marking the first approval of international passenger travel since the reclusive regime shut its borders in January 2020.

Korea Times

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It looks like North Korea will continue to launch these satellites until they figure out how to do it correctly:

North Korea said Thursday its second attempt to launch a spy satellite has ended in a failure, citing “an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight.” 

Pyongyang said it launched the spy satellite, the Malligyong-1, mounted on a new type of rocket named Chollima-1, but an error occurred during the third stage of the launch, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea will once again aim to put a satellite into orbit in October, KCNA said, following its first botched attempt in late May.

Yonhap

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No word yet if the North Koreans were successful at putting their satellite into orbit:

North Korea launched a long-range rocket in a southern direction on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, in the North’s likely second attempt to put a satellite into orbit.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the launch involved what the North called “a space launch vehicle.” It gave no further details.

On Tuesday, Japan’s coast guard said North Korean authorities notified it about a plan to launch a satellite at some time from Aug. 24 through Aug. 30. Coast guard spokesperson Hiromune Kikuchi said the notice didn’t specify the type of satellite, but that he believed it would be similar to a May launch by North Korea.

In late May, a North Korean rocket carrying a spy satellite plunged into the sea soon after liftoff, posing a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to establish a space-based surveillance system to better monitor the U.S. and South Korea. North Korea had since vowed to make a second attempt.

Stars & Stripes

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North Korea must be confident they have fixed whatever issue plagued their last satellite launch and are ready to try again apparently over the next week:

North Korea has notified Japan of its plan to launch a satellite between Thursday and Aug. 31, according to a Japanese news report, as the country seeks to put a spy satellite into orbit following its failure in May.

The North informed Japan’s coast guard of its plan to designate three maritime danger zones — two of which are west of the Korean Peninsula and the other is to the east of the Philippines’ island of Luzon, Japan’s Kyodo News reported Tuesday.

“The plan is believed to be a retry of a military reconnaissance satellite launch North Korea attempted in May, but that ended in failure,” it added.

The North launched its first military spy satellite, the Malligyong-1, mounted on a new type of rocket named the Chollima-1, on May 31. But the rocket crashed into the Yellow Sea after an “abnormal starting” of the second-stage engine, according to the North’s state media.

Yonhap

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Its August which means provocation time from North Korea due to the annual joint exercise between the U.S. and the ROK:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for a “drastic boost” of the country’s missile production capacity, the North’s state media said Monday, as South Korea and the United States plan to stage joint military drills later this month.

Kim made the remarks during a two-day visit to major factories that produce strategic missiles, rocket launchers and other military weapons on Friday and Saturday, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The visit came less than a week after the North Korean leader conducted a “field guidance” of major munitions factories as South Korea and the United States plan to hold their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise later this month, which Pyongyang has denounced as a rehearsal for an invasion of the North.

Yonhap

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Why is the U.N. providing North Korea any aid? I don’t care if it is just tents, the Kim regime has money to build nuclear weapons, ICBMs, submarines, etc., but can’t buy their own tents?:

A U.N. Security Council panel has approved sanctions exemptions for the World Health Organization (WHO) allowing the delivery of tents into North Korea, its website showed Saturday.

On July 20, the U.N. committee overseeing sanctions approved the waiver on the importation of five “multipurpose” tents into the North for humanitarian relief to civilians to help cope with flood, drought and other emergencies, according to the U.N. website.

The exemption will be valid for nine months, the committee said.

It remains unclear when the items will be delivered to the North, as the reclusive country maintains border controls due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.