The gulag system in North Korea has two purposes, fear of going to one of these camps helps to keep the population in line and they provide slave labor for the state.  So you have a regime that has implemented modern day slavery and yet the North Koreans are welcomed in international events such as the Olympics.  Why aren’t the North Koreans completely shunned from international events like South Africa was during the Apartheid era for its human rights abuses?:

The brutal treatment meted out to North Korea’s political prisoners has been well-
documented, but a new report coming out Thursday, based on satellite images, portrays the extensive network of “reeducation” camps for less severe violations of Pyongyang’s penal code.

These camps are situated throughout the country, both on the outskirts of cities and in huge compounds in the mountains. Conditions are severe but come with the possibility of release.

The camps are run not by the secret police, who operate a separate system for political prisoners, but by the Ministry of Public Security. They are an important pillar of the regime of Kim Jong Un, a means by which the North Korean population is kept permanently cowed.

The world is transfixed with the nuclear threat from Kim’s regime, but it is ordinary North Koreans who suffer every day, said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, which compiled the report.  [Washington Post]

You can read more at the link, but this is why I have a hard time taking the ROK’s criticisms of forced labor in Imperial Japan over 70 years ago seriously when it will not condemn the forced labor of Koreans happening today.  North Korean human rights should not be an issue that is forgotten for political expediency.

Furthering the discussion of North Korea's probable UDMH production, 38 North analysts suggest three additional facilities where this is likely taking place. https://t.co/LGhR8WXyWE

— 38 North (@38NorthNK) October 25, 2017

USS Ronald Reagan leaves South Korea’s southeastern port of Busan on Oct. 26, 2017. The aircraft carrier entered the port on Oct. 21 in the wake of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test. (Yonhap)

I don’t get what the supposed smart people in the diplomatic community are getting excited about after these comments from a North Korean official.  Basically the official said that if the US backs off and gives the Kim regime everything they want then there may be an exit from the current nuclear crisis.  Does anyone think President Trump is willing to settle this current crisis by signing some agreement that leaves Pyongyang with nuclear tipped ICBMs pointed at the United States?:

Choe Son-hui, the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s North American affairs bureau chief, recently said there “may be an exit” from the North Korean nuclear crisis if the US “makes the right choice to abandon its hostile policies and co-exist with North Korea as a nuclear state,” it was reported on Oct. 24.

The message is being interpreted as suggesting Pyongyang is leaving the possibility of dialogue open.  Choe’s remarks were made during a closed-door session on “Detente on the Korean Peninsula” at the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference on Oct. 21, a South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs official reported.

When asked what was specifically meant by the US “abandoning its hostile policies,” Choe reportedly replied, “For a diplomatic and peaceful resolution to happen, the right atmosphere must be formed, but North Korea cannot sit down at the negotiating table when there are threatening tweets from President [Donald] Trump every day.”“North Korea will not move an inch if the US’s policies of pressure with military and nuclear threats and economic sanctions continue,” she was also quoted as saying.“We will not be bound by the Sept. 19 Joint Statement [of 2005] stipulating denuclearization, nor will we return to the Six-Party [Talks] framework.”

Choe’s remarks differ little from Pyongyang’s other recent statements of principle on the international stage. But her use of the terms “exit” and “right atmosphere” are drawing notice, as they could be seen as a signal that Pyongyang may pursue negotiations.“Choe’s remarks could be taken a signal that [North Korea] is starting to negotiate,” said University of North Korean Studies (UNKS) professor Koo Kap-woo.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest expert, Michael Green from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to weight in with his opinion on what to do with North Korea:

A preventive military strike by the United States would not remove all of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, a renowned American expert on the North Korean issue has said, while proposing economic sanctions as the most viable tool to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

“A preventive military strike would not destroy all of North Korea’s capabilities. It would risk a wider war that would inflame South Korea and Japan and potentially cause millions of casualties,” Michael Green, vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said last week in Washington, D.C. in his meeting with South Korean journalists.

Previously, he served as a senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council under former U.S. President George W. Bush.

“It would also threaten the U.S. because North Korea has an ability even without ballistic missiles to transfer nuclear weapons to terrorist groups, so a preventive military strike would not get all of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and would risk an unacceptable war,” Green noted.

Diplomatic negotiations with Pyongyang would also not warrant resolution of North Korea’s nuclear problem, given the country’s track record of breaking previous agreements, he said.

“We shouldn’t end sanctions or military exercises in order to have dialogue with Pyongyang because then we will prove there’s no cost to North Korea for the path it’s on,” Green said, suggesting that the U.S. build “infrastructure of sustained consequence” for North Korea to facilitate diplomacy work with the regime. “We now have to restore deterrence and restore credibility if we have any chance in medium to long run diplomacy.”

Getting China to exert its influence in North Korea is crucial in the long run, he also highlighted.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but basically what he is advocating for is arguably what prior administrations have done and all it has lead to is the slow motion acquisition of North Korean nuclear weapons that will soon be mounted on ICBMs pointed at the US.

It will be interesting to see what the North Koreans have to say about this visit and messaging by US Secretary Defense James Mattis:

South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo said Monday he and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis plan to use military uniforms for a joint warning message to North Korea this week, when they meet in South Korea for bilateral annual talks.

Song proposed that Mattis wear a Marine Corps combat uniform, instead of a suit, in meeting with the allies’ troops on the peninsula together. The Pentagon chief is a retired Marine Corps general.

Song, a former Navy admiral and chief of staff, will be dressed in a Navy combat uniform as well.

“I offered that to Secretary of Defense Mattis and he responded positively without hesitation,” the minister told reporters during a visit to Clark, the Philippines, for a regional security forum hosted by Southeast Asian countries.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

In Japan, “pigs protect pigs” so women, no matter how brave, feel they have no recourse, writes @jakeadelstein https://t.co/LHhNCl7wtX

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) October 25, 2017

A U.S. veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War salutes in front of the graves of deceased fellow soldiers at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan, 453 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Oct. 24, 2017, the 72nd United Nations Day. A total of 2,300 people are interred at the cemetery that honors U.N.-led coalition forces who fought with the South in the conflict. (Yonhap)

This prank video was pretty funny, but what amazed me the most was how many people thought this was the actual Kim Jong-un.  It just goes to show despite all the headlines how little people still know about North Korea to think he would just pop up in New York and walk around with a one-man escort.  However, doing this again with Dennis Rodman walking with him would be hilarious!:

Like I have said before I have little sympathy for these companies that lose money conducting business with North Korea.  Good luck trying to get this money back:

 

Sweden reminds North Korea twice every year about its 43-year-old debt to the publicly-funded Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN), a government agency serving as credit insurer for company’s trade deals.

Back in 1974 North Korea began importing equipment from Western industrialized countries to expand its access to foreign capital and technology. The country promised to pay their creditors either with future production or mining products, but it soon became clear the regime had no intention of honouring its debts.

An original order of 1,000 Volvo 144 model and other mechanical equipment from Swedish companies worth the equivalent of $73 million has been left unpaid and over the last four decades has quadrupled to around $330 million.

North Korea is the biggest debtor to the Swedish agency, as the EKN end of year 2016 report show. EKN says it has has agreements with all 13 countries that have outstanding claims, with the exception of Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

“During the year the countries with which there are agreements have paid under these. The exception is North Korea, where interest has been capitalised for many years but practically no payments have been made,” the report reads.  [Newsweek]

You can read more at the link.

Still going strong. One of the Volvo's from yr 1974 still unpaid for by DPRK. Running as taxi in Chongjin w almost half million km on odo! pic.twitter.com/2FaMpnPow7

— Sweden in Pyongyang (@SweEmbassyinNK) October 21, 2016