Category: North Korea

I wonder if this a sanction violation, though I doubt the Russians really care:

North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong Un was filmed riding through the snow on a white stallion last year, has spent tens of thousands of dollars on 12 purebred horses from Russia, according to Russian customs data.

Accompanied by senior North Korean figures, Kim took two well-publicized rides on the snowy slopes of the sacred Paektu Mountain in October and December.

State media heralded the jaunts as important displays of strength in the face of international pressure and the photos of Kim astride a galloping white steed were seen around the world.

North Korea has a long history of buying pricey horses from Russia and customs data first reported by Seoul-based NK News suggests that North Korea may have bolstered its herd in October.

According to customs data reviewed by Reuters, Russia exported 12 horses worth a total of $75,509 to North Korea last year.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.

Publicly bringing out his aunt after six years may mean that Kim Jong-un is trying to solidify support behind his upcoming policies from those who may still be supportive of his aunt’s husband Jang Song-taek who he executed:

Kim Kyong-hui, the aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a once-influential figure in the country’s leadership, has made her first public appearance in six years, quashing rumors that she had been killed or sent into exile. She had been out of the public eye since her husband Jang Song-thaek was executed in December 2013.

According to North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, Sunday, the North Korean leader had attended a Lunar New Year performance the day before at the Samjiyon Theater in Pyongyang with his family members and high-ranking officials including his wife Ri Sol-ju, aunt Kim Kyong-hui, sister Kim Yo-jong, the country’s de facto second-in-command Choe Ryong-hae and other top officials Ri Il-hwan, Jo Yong-won and Hyon Song-wol. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is the most obvious analysis of the day:

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday that North Korea is “clearly” trying to build a nuclear-tipped long-range missile as Washington continues to pursue denuclearization talks with the regime.

Esper made the comment when asked to assess the extent of the threat posed by the “new strategic weapon” North Korea has threatened to unveil amid stalled denuclearization talks with the U.S.

“They have an aggressive R&D program and a test program, to say the least,” the Pentagon chief said during a seminar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We’re conscious of what they’re trying to do. Clearly, they are trying to build a long-range ballistic missile with the ability to carry a nuclear warhead, if you will, on top of it. So it’s something we are watching very closely.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I guess we will see if this declaration is a prelude to any kind of provocation that the North Koreans may be thinking of in the near term:

North Korea declared Tuesday on the global stage that it will no longer adhere to its moratorium on nuclear and missile tests, citing “brutal and inhumane” sanctions led by the United States on its regime.

“We found no reason to be unilaterally bound any longer by the commitment that the other party fails to honour,” Ju Yong-chol, a counsellor at North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva, reportedly said during the U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament. 

He accused Washington of applying “the most brutal and inhumane sanctions” against Pyongyang.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I kind of figured that they would wait to see how the whole Iran situation played out before making in provocative moves.

The Australian student who was detained in North Korea last year is now telling his story on what happened to him:

An Australian student who was briefly detained in North Korea last year over spy charges said he had been kidnapped by secret police and forced to make a false confession, according to an article written by him and seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Alek Sigley was held for nine days from June 25 while studying for a postgraduate degree in modern Korean literature at the prestigious Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

He was expelled from the country after Swedish officials helped broker his release.

North Korean state media KCNA said he had admitted his “spying acts” including passing data and photos he collected by utilizing his status as a foreign student to “anti-state” media outlets.

Beyond denying that he was a spy and saying he was sad to have lost access to North Korea, Sigley has not previously publicized details of his detention.

In his first-hand account carried by a South Korea magazine, Sigley said that what appeared to be agents from the Stasi-like State Security Department, known as bowibu, “kidnapped” him from his dorm at the university.

“I was innocent but they filed false charges against me,” he wrote, without elaborating.

“They endlessly tried to teach me some kind of lessons by forcing me to make a written confession which was a concoction of fabricated evidence and crimes and illogical legal reasonings.”

Reuters

You can read more at the link, but at least he wasn’t tortured and is alive to tell about what happened unlike other former detainees in North Korea.

Like I have always said, people should not be visiting or investing in North Korea and helping to fund the Kim regime. Mr. Sigley has unfortunately found this out the hard way.