The diplomatic isolation of North Korea continues:
Jordan has cut diplomatic ties with North Korea amid global efforts to put pressure on Pyongyang to give up its missile and nuclear programs, local media reported Friday.
The decision was disclosed on the Jordanian government’s website after it was approved by a royal decree, according to the reports. AFP earlier reported that it is “in line with the policies of its allies,” apparently including the U.S.
Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also recently cut their diplomatic relations with the North. [Yonhap]
Aww it's very cool to be in my hometown paper this morning. My "first dinner/second dinner" habits are exposed. Thx also @evanasmith for refraining from all the fast food jokes FOR ONCE https://t.co/tgLJQZZNjg
The North Korean national flag (C) is hoisted at the athletes’ village for the PyeongChang Olympics in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, on Feb. 1, 2018. (Yonhap)
Via a reader tip comes Henry Kissinger’s concerns about a preemptive strike against North Korea:
While he said he agrees with the aggressive statements President Trump has fired at North Korea, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned Congress last week against potential military intervention near Russian and Chinese borders without the world’s support.
The Trump administration has signaled that North Korea would be crossing a red line if it developed nuclear capability for its intercontinental ballistic missile program. Yet some policy officials and military experts claim that North Korea has already crossed that line, or is at least very close to attaching nuclear warheads to its missiles.
Kissinger offered his thoughts on the impending “fork in the road,” in which the administration may consider pre-emptive military action or increasingly tighter sanctions against the regime.
“We will hit that fork in the road, and the temptation to deal with it with a pre-emptive attack is strong, and the argument is rational, but I have seen no public statement by any leading official,” Nixon’s secretary of State told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “But in any event, my own thinking, I would be very concerned by any unilateral American war at the borders of China and Russia, in which we are not supported by a significant part of the world, or at least of the Asian world.” [PJ Media]
You can read more at the link, but Kissinger also is concerned that South Korea and Japan will develop their own nuclear weapons stockpiles.
It is pretty amazing how Kim Jong-un has taken over the 2018 Winter Olympics. There is very little in the Korean media about South Korean athletes while the North Korean athletes are surrounded by media attention:
North Korean figure skater Ryom Tae-ok waves as she enters Gangneung Olympic Village in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, on Feb. 1, 2018, to get ready for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Ryom is one of 22 North Korean athletes set to participate in the competition. (Yonhap)
North Korean Olympic athletes checked in to their living quarters for the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Games amid tight security on Thursday.
Pyongyang’s vice sports minister Won Kil-u led a delegation of 32, including 10 athletes, to Gangneung, a sub-host city for all ice events during the Feb. 9-25 Olympic Games. They’d landed at Yangyang International Airport on a South Korean chartered plane earlier Thursday, and traveled about 50 kilometers south to reach Gangneung Olympic Village.
Gangneung’s village, built for those in ice sports, is one of two athletes’ residential areas for the Olympics. PyeongChang Olympic Village will house competitors in snow events.
The 10 athletes that arrived here Thursday are three alpine skiers, three cross-country skiers, two figure skaters and two short track speed skaters.
Ryom Tae-ok, a pairs figure skater, was the center of attention from the moment she appeared at the airport. The petite athlete, who turns 19 on Friday, was one of the few who showed any semblance of emotion, flashing a sheepish grin at cameras as flashbulbs exploded around her both at the airport and the village.
Asked to comment on her visit, Ryom simply said, “I don’t talk before competitions.”
This is how the Kim regime has made the South Korean government pay for their athletes’ travel to the Winter Olympics:
In this Joint Press Corps photo, South Korean skiers wave onboard a plane bound for North Korea on Jan. 31, 2018. (Yonhap)
Ten North Korean Olympic athletes will board a South Korean chartered airplane on Thursday when it carries a South Korean delegation home after two days of joint ski training in the North ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Games, according to South Korean pool reporters on Wednesday.
The South’s 45-member delegation, including two dozen skiers, arrived at the Masikryong Ski Resort in North Korea on the Asiana Airlines jet for the training session.
The aircraft will carry 32 North Koreans, including 10 athletes in the disciplines of alpine and cross-country skiing and figure and short-track skating, when it returns to South Korea on Thursday, officials from the unification ministry said.
A total of 22 North Koreans will compete at the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Twelve ice hockey players have already come to the South.
Earlier in the day, the plane landed at Kalma Airport in the North’s eastern city of Wonsan about one hour after it left Yangyang International Airport in Gangwon Province, according to officials here. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the flight is in violation of sanctions on North Korea, but South Korea was able to get the Trump administration to agree to waive the sanctions as a special exemption.
An ambulance company operator and eight drivers are accused of profiting from the transportation of singers who were running late, police said Thursday.
They are suspected of having carried — with sirens and lights on — two unidentified trot singers to concert venues and airports in Ulsan and surrounding areas dozens of times between June 2015 and November 2017
It is illegal for ambulance drivers to turn on emergency alarms and transport healthy people.They are also suspected of driving the ambulances beyond the designated business area of Ulsan without permission. [Korea Times]
