American actress Jennifer Lawrence, who stars in the new movie “Passengers,” poses during a press meeting at a Seoul theater on Dec. 16, 2016. She visited Seoul to promote the sci-fi adventure film that will hit local screens on Jan. 4. (Yonhap)
You would think the regime would want to keep these scientists alive to advance their nuclear program instead of continuously shuffling through scientists as they get sick and die if this defector’s story is true:
A North Korean nuclear plant is seen before the demolition of a cooling tower in Yongbyon. Photo: Reuters
Lee’s husband had the mind of a boy, constantly craved food, she said, was sexually dysfunctional and had suffered some sort of mental problem that had diminished his memory. He also became violent towards his wife.
“We have heard of many cases of women forced into marriages with men who were put to work on the North’s nuclear programmes becoming the victims of domestic violence,” said Lee Ae-ran (above), president of the NGO.
Other women described life with these men as “torture” because the men they had been forced to marry “were monsters, not human beings”.
“We hear that many nuclear scientists in the North die or become disabled before the age of 40 as a result of their exposure to radiation,” she added. [South China Morning Post]
I think this is an accurate assessment of why the Chinese stole the US Navy glider earlier this week:
As mentioned above, this incident does leave one thinking of the 2001 Hainan and 2009 USS Impeccableincidents as tests by China of an incoming administration. Indeed, Donald Trump’s recent moves on China — including his call to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and repeated criticism of Chinese economic and security practices, including in the South China Sea — may well have caught Chinese policymakers off-guard. Trump’s flirting with a revision to the U.S. “one China” policy in particular has raised particular concern in Beijing, which regards U.S. compliance with its “one China” principle as a sine qua non for diplomatic relations.
Deriving Chinese intentions from the glider-seizure is but an exercise in speculation at this point, but it isn’t unthinkable that Beijing, recognizing Trump’s highly unusual diplomatic style, is choosing to test his rhetorical response thresholds at least before he enters office. [The Diplomat]
You can read more at the link, but I like the idea of sailing a US Navy ship on a freedom of navigation patrol right through their 12 mile territorial limit around one of their artificial islands. The islands have been declared illegal by an international court so the Chinese would have no legal standing to complain. It will be interesting to see how the Obama administration responds to this; they may not want an international crisis on their hands shortly before leaving the White House.
These photos from the North’s Korean Central News Agency on Dec. 15, 2016, shows the country’s top leader Kim Jong-un visiting a military fish farm. Kim was reported to have visited other military “fish stations” twice last month, such visits accompanied by remarks that they have exceeded their goals for this year’s catch. (Yonhap)
It seems the ROK should just bring the fishermen to Panmunjom and let them cross over the border there even if the North Koreans don’t communicate back to them:
Eight North Korean fishermen spent weeks lost at sea. Now they’re adrift in a diplomatic limbo.
The fishermen all said they wanted to go home after being rescued by South Korean maritime police earlier this week, but Seoul has been unable to reach the other side to arrange their return, officials said.
The case offers an unusual glimpse into the communication methods used between the two enemies, which are divided by the world’s most heavily fortified border and remain technically at war.
When the North Koreans didn’t pick up the phone, the South resorted to a form of shouting: broadcasting the request across the Demilitarized Zone via loudspeakers. [Stars & Stripes]
This looks like something the Chinese had planned as a provocation since they shadowed the US ship waited for the drones to emerge from the water and then snatched one. They also made sure to snatch a drone that did not have sensitive US military technology which could have really increased the scale of a possible US response to this action:
This file picture shows the Chinese Navy frigate Daqing 576 approaching the waterfront in San Diego, Calif., with a U.S. aircraft carrier on the North Island base in the background in December. The Three People’s Liberation Army (Navy) ships were visiting San Diego as part of a routine port visit. [USA Today]
China “unlawfully” seized an unmanned US naval probe in international waters in the South China Sea, the Pentagon said Friday, a move sure to heighten tensions around Beijing’s military presence in the disputed area.
The underwater vehicle was taken around 50 nautical miles (90 kilometers) northwest off Subic Bay in the Philippines late Thursday in a non-violent incident, said Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
The event unfolded as the civilian-crewed USNS Bowditch was retrieving a pair of “naval gliders” that routinely collect information on water temperatures, salinity and sea clarity.
A Chinese Dalang-III class submarine rescue ship then stopped within 500 yards (meters) of the Bowditch and snatched one of the probes. The Americans safely hoisted the other one back onto their ship.
Davis said he could not recall another time when something like this has happened, and the Pentagon issued a statement calling on Beijing to “immediately” return the probe that it had “unlawfully seized.”
The US personnel “were asking over bridge-to-bridge radio to please leave it there,” Davis said.
Other than a brief acknowledgment that it had received the message, the Chinese ship did not respond.
“The only thing they said after they were sailing off into the distance was: ‘We are returning to normal operations,'” Davis said.
Washington has issued a formal request through diplomatic channels to ask for the probe back.
“It is ours. It is clearly marked as ours. We would like it back, and we would like this not to happen again,” Davis said.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said China had acted unlawfully.
“The UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle) is a sovereign immune vessel of the United States. We call upon China to return our UUV immediately, and to comply with all of its obligations under international law,” Cook said in a statement. [AFP]
Here is what they stole:
Davis said the seized vessel is off-the-shelf technology that is commercially available for about $150,000. Data it gathers are unclassified and can be used to help submarines navigate and determine sonar ranges in murky waters.
You can read the rest at the link, but here is what Donald Trump had to say:
China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters – rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act.
Beijing hit back in the diplomatic spat over its seizure of a US Navy drone in the South China Sea after Donald Trump claimed in a message on Twitter that China has stolen the device.
Chinese officials had earlier indicated there would be a “smooth” resolution of the diplomatic incident, but after the President-elect’s tweet, they accused Washington of “hyping up” the issue. [UK Independent]
Stealing seems pretty accurate to me, did the Chinese want him to say they are borrowing the drone?
The AP prints the headline “Army says some misconduct trends are increasing” and then you read the article and it was just nearly 50 senior Army leaders in the entire force that got in trouble:
Sexual misconduct and harassment allegations against senior Army leaders increased this year and more were substantiated than in 2015, according to a closely held report by the Army Inspector General.
The memo obtained by The Associated Press also said the most frequent charge lodged against senior officers on active duty, in the National Guard, Reserves and senior executive service in the past budget year was reprisal, with nearly 50 such allegations as of Sept. 30.
The total number of cases is small, but they represent some of the more serious misconduct concerns faced by the military. And they underscore the fact that transgressions are occurring in the higher ranks, not rooted simply in the younger enlisted force. [Associated Press]
Here is where most of the minute transgressions are coming from:
Most of this year’s cases involved charges against senior Army National Guard officials. There were eight allegations of sexual misconduct or harassment against National Guard members, four of them substantiated. In the regular Army, there were three allegations of sexual misconduct. The number substantiated was not provided.
You can read the rest at the link, but this article could have been titled, “Report Shows Very Few Senior Army Leaders Commit Misconduct”.
I think anyone equating Park Geun-hye to Kim Jong-un is a complete idiot. They are as stupid as the people equating Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. With that said this is another example of how Korea’s defamation laws do put limits on freedom of speech:
This photo, provided by local pop artist Lee Byeong-ha, shows leaflets satirizing President Park Geun-hye and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the exit of a subway station in Seoul on Dec. 17, 2013. (Yonhap)
A South Korean appeals court on Friday confirmed a monetary penalty for a 48-year-old pop artist and his 38-year-old collaborator who distributed leaflets critical of President Park Geun-hye across the country.
Upholding the previous ruling, the Seoul Central District Court said the act of spreading the leaflets should be distinct from freedom of expression or freedom of art.
The court ordered the artist, Lee Byeong-ha, to pay 2 million won (US$1,700) in fines. Lee, who goes by the stage name Leeha, distributed a total of some 18,000 leaflets in Seoul and other major cities between 2014 and 2015.
A 38-year-old actor, identified only by his surname Han, was also ordered to pay 200,000 won for collaborating with Lee in May last year.
“The defendants said it was a fair expression of their political views, but considering the amount, the location and how the leaflets were spread, their actions cannot be justified,” the court said in the previous ruling. [Yonhap]
