The State Dep't's official view = North Korea has not supported acts of terrorism since 1987. Discuss.https://t.co/gwdsIEXtQZ via @nbcnews
— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 7, 2017
A set of photos carried by the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s main newspaper, on May 5, 2017, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting military detachments on two islets in waters off the country’s southwest front. (Yonhap)
So what else does North Korea have to do to the ROK to gain primary enemy status?:
Yoo: “Is North Korea our primary enemy?”
Moon: “Such a designation must not be made by president. If you become president, Mr. Yoo, you yourself would also have to solve inter-Korean problems.”
Yoo: “This is nonsense the commander in chief cannot call North Korea our primary enemy.”Bareun Party candidate Yoo Seong-min asked Democratic Party’s Moon Jae-in if North Korea is the primary enemy.
Moon responded that presidents should not label the North as such as the job requires solving inter-Korean problems.
As Moon avoided answering the question, Yoo said it was nonsense that a candidate for commander in chief cannot identify North Korea as an enemy. [KBS World Radio]
You can read more at the link.
It will be interesting to see if this fire was started intentionally to threaten the THAAD site in South Korea:
Another fire broke out late on Sunday near the site where the U.S. is installing the controversial anti-missile system called THAAD. It started at around 7:30 p.m. near the top of a mountain located closely to the golf course picked for the THAAD deployment in the country’s southern town of Seongju.
Firefighters are working to bring the fire under control but are having trouble in doing so due to darkness. The exact cause of the fire has not been confirmed yet. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
North Korea continues to build up their collection of bargaining chips and human shields in response to any potential negotiations or conflict with the US overs its nuclear program:
North Korea detained a U.S. citizen tied to a Christian-backed university in Pyongyang, state media said, just two weeks after arresting one of his colleagues.
The arrest on Saturday of Kim Hak-song for committing “hostile acts” brings the number of known U.S. citizens detained in North Korea to four, adding another twist to troubled relations between Washington and Pyongyang as the U.S. seeks ways to slow the North’s nuclear and missile program.
According to the report on Sunday by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, Mr. Kim works for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, a university founded in 2010 by James Kim, a Korean-American Christian businessman. [Wall Street Journal]
You can read more at the link, but it is just incredible to me that despite all these Americans being taken hostage in North Korea Americans keep going there.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
#NKorea's coal exports declined sharply in March 2017 – only 6,300 tons of US$570,000 value exported @YonhapNews https://t.co/vDzaKLxyrh
— CSIS Korea Chair (@CSISKoreaChair) May 5, 2017
This photo provided by KT Sat, a satellite service arm of KT Corp., on May 5, 2017, shows South Korea’s fourth telecommunications satellite, named the Mugunghwa-7, being launched from the Guiana Space Center at Kourou in French Guiana. (Yonhap)
I am wondering if these claims and rhetoric from the Kim regime is being used to set conditions for a terrorist attack within South Korea in response to any future measures the US may take against North Korea?:
North Korea threatened Friday to launch an anti-terrorist attack against the intelligence agencies of South Korea and the United States as it accused them of plotting to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea’s Ministry of State Security claimed that a terrorists’ group supported by the CIA and South Korea’s intelligence agency infiltrated North Korea to stage a terrorist attack against the North Korean leader by using a bio-chemical substance.
“We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one the terrorists of the U.S. CIA” and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service “targeting the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership,” North Korea’s Ministry of State Security said in an English-language statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
It has been a while since there has been a large wildfire in Gangwon-do, but it seems this is the area where they tend to happen the most at:
The Gangneung city government said more than 2,500 residents were ordered to flee Saturday as a wind-fed forest fire spread in the eastern city.
About 300 residents are known to have fled from their homes after the blaze started on a hill near Daegwallyeong, a mountain pass close to the east coast, at around 3:30 p.m., according to city officials.
A total of 30 private houses were damaged by the fire as of 10 p.m., but no casualties have been reported, they said.
The residents took shelter at nearby schools and other public facilities, officials said.
Traffic along some parts of a nearby expressway was temporarily restricted but returned to normal at 10 p.m.
About 2,700 people, including hundreds of firefighters, soldiers, police officers and government officials, have been dispatched to fight the fire, but they are struggling to extinguish it, the officials said. [Yonhap]
