Category: North Korea

I wonder if Kim Jong-un will follow these new regulations?:

North Korea has held a rare meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly to adopt an anti-smoking law, state media reported Thursday, amid questions whether leader Kim Jong-un, known as a heavy smoker, would kick the habit.

The plenary meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), held Wednesday, adopted the Tobacco-Prohibition Law and Revising and Supplementing the Law on Enterprises, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The tobacco-prohibition law “stipulates the rules which all the institutions, organizations and citizens must follow in protecting the lives and health of the people and providing more cultured and hygienic living environments by tightening the legal and social controls on the production and sale of cigarettes and on smoking as required by the state tobacco-prohibition policy,” the KCNA said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I doubt we will see public photos of Kim Jong-un smoking again.

These landmines could just as easily be used to keep people in than keeping people out:

North Korea has taken extreme measures to fend off the coronavirus, including laying landmines in border areas with China, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers Tuesday.

During a closed-door session at the Intelligence Committee of the National Assembly, the spy agency said North Korea fears the spread of COVID-19 could bring catastrophic results to the country due to its poor medical infrastructure, according to Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the main opposition People Power Party.

“Since there is no physical or technical means to deal with the coronavirus, there is something like coronavirus trauma in North Korea,” Ha quoted the NIS as saying.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is what China expects BTS to do:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the cemetery of Chinese soldiers who fell during the 1950-53 Korean War to mark the anniversary of their participation in the conflict, state media said Thursday.

It appears be in line with Kim’s push to further strengthen bilateral ties with China at a time when the North is in need of support from the ally amid stagnant economic growth and stalled nuclear negotiations with the United States. 

Kim visited “the martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) in Hoechang County, South Pyongan Province, and paid a high tribute to them on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the entry of the Chinese People’s Volunteers into the Korean front,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the new missile that debuted at a North Korean military parade last week:

A new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that North Korea unveiled last week is believed to be labeled “Pukguksong-4ㅅ,” featuring a Korean letter, not “Pukguksong-4A,” which indicates that it is a sea-based system.

On Saturday, the communist country unveiled a new SLBM during a massive military parade held in Pyongyang to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its Workers’ Party, along with a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and other advanced conventional weaponry.

Asked about the military’s analysis of the new system, Navy Chief of Staff Boo Suk-jong said that the name inscribed on the missile includes “ㅅ,” a consonant of the Korean alphabet, rather than the English letter “A,” to mark that it is designed to be launched from the water.

In Korean, the word meaning “for use in water,” starts with that character.

North Korea has three types of Pukguksong missiles — Pukgukson-1, 2, 3, and Pukguksong-2 is a ground-based one, not an SLBM. As the upgraded version of the Pukguksong-1, the Pukguksong-3 SLBM is believed to have a flight range of 2,000 kilometers or longer, and the regime last carried out a flight test of the weapon in October 2019.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.