North Korean school children are told about the importance of washing their hands on Oct. 17, 2016, as the country marked Global Handwashing Day in this photo from the North’s Korean Central News Agency. (Yonhap)
Could you imagine the uproar if an American zoo had a chimp doing this? Also so much for the anti-smoking campaign that was launched in North Korea:
Pyongyang’s newly opened zoo has a new star: Azalea, the smoking chimpanzee.
According to officials at the newly renovated zoo, which has become a favorite leisure spot in the North Korean capital since it re-opened in July, the 19-year-old female chimpanzee, whose name in Korean is “Dallae,” smokes about a pack a day. Dallae is short for azalea.
They insist, however, she doesn’t inhale.
Thrown a lighter by a zoo trainer, the chimpanzee lights her own cigarettes. If a lighter isn’t available, she can light up from lit cigarette if one is tossed her way.
Though such a sight would draw outrage in many other locales, it seemed to delight visitors who roared with laughter on Wednesday as the chimpanzee, one of two at the zoo, sat puffing away as her trainer egged her on. The trainer also prompted her to touch her nose, bow thank you and do a simple dance.
The zoo is pulling in thousands of visitors a day with a slew of attractions ranging from such typical fare as elephants, giraffes, penguins and monkeys to a high-tech natural history museum with displays showing the origins of the solar system and the evolution of life on Earth. [Associated Press via a reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if according to North Korea the evolution of life on Earth all began in North Korea?
So far the North Korean’s are 1 for 8 when it comes to the successful testing of their Musudan missile:
North Korea launched what was presumed to be a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), Thursday, which exploded soon after liftoff, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The launch took place at 7 a.m. near an airbase in Kusong, North Pyongan Province, soon after top defense and foreign affairs officials from South Korea and the United States wrapped up their high-level talks in Washington.
Experts say that the North was apparently attempting to show off its capability of striking U.S. military bases in Guam, though this failed, in response to the allies’ agreement to strengthen the U.S. “extended deterrence” protection of South Korea.
“The latest launch was seen as the North’s armed protest to show its willingness not to lose out to the allies’ plan to enhance extended deterrence,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University.
Extended deterrence refers to Washington’s stated commitment to defend its ally by mobilizing all military capabilities ― nuclear and conventional ― to cope with the North’s aggression and provocations.
The Musudan, which can be fired from a mobile launcher, is believed to have a range of 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers and is in theory capable of reaching U.S. naval and air bases in Guam.
The U.S. Strategic Command also confirmed that it detected what it assessed was a failed North Korean missile launch, noting that the missile was presumed to be a Musudan.
It was the North’s eighth launch of an IRBM ― the seventh took place on Oct. 17 near the airbase as well, while six previous launches were conducted near the eastern port city of Wonsan.
Among them, only the sixth launch conducted on June 22 was considered successful. The Korean Central News Agency at the time claimed that the missile reached a maximum altitude of 1,413.6 kilometers and fell precisely onto a designated target 400 kilometers away at sea. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it is interesting that the North Koreans are not able to replicate the success they had with their sixth Musudan test.
I am glad the Korean authorities caught these two because I can’t stand people who steal or leave graffiti everywhere:
Police have arrested two Russians for allegedly vandalizing subway cars in Daegu and stealing clothes from department stores in Seoul and Busan.
Daegu Dongbu Police Station said on Monday that the two men, 22 and 20, allegedly painted the word “ONAS” — meaning “we” in Russian — on two subway cars at a depot in the city’s Dong-gu district around 1:40 a.m. on Oct. 16.
A Daegu department store employee reported the men to police.
After analyzing CCTV footage, police discovered that the graffiti suspects were wanted by Busan Jungbu Police Station on a charge of stealing clothes worth 7.5 million won ($6,620) from department stores in Seoul and Busan on Oct. 11 and 12, respectively.
According to Daegu police, the Russians stole the clothes and vandalized the subway cars “for fun.” [Korea Times]
A left wing rally in the Philippines outside the US embassy has turned violent:
A Philippine police van rammed into protesters, leaving several bloodied, as an anti-U.S. rally turned violent Wednesday at the American embassy in Manila.
At least three student activists had to be taken to a hospital after they were run over by the van driven by a police officer, protest leader Renato Reyes said.
AP Television footage showed the van repeatedly ramming the protesters as it drove wildly back and forth after protesters had surrounded and started hitting the van with wooden batons they had seized from the police.
Police later arrested 23 protesters, who broke into a line of riot police and hurled red paint at the policemen and a U.S. government seal at the seaside embassy.
“There was absolutely no justification for it,” Reyes said of the violent police dispersal of about 1,000 protesters. “Even as the president vowed an independent foreign policy, Philippine police forces still act as running dogs of the U.S.”
The violence happened as the protesters gathered to demand an end to the presence of U.S. troops in the country and to support a call by President Rodrigo Duterte for a foreign policy not dependent on the U.S., the country’s longtime treaty ally.
Duterte was on a state visit to China, where he is seeking to repair relations strained under his predecessor over territorial conflicts in the South China Sea. Duterte is also seeking to expand two-way trade and investments and seek financing for badly needed infrastructure projects. [Associated Press]
According to ABC News this who the protesters were:
The protesters, consisting of students, workers and tribespeople, were demanding an end to the presence of visiting U.S. troops in the Philippines and to support a call by President Rodrigo Duterte for a foreign policy not dependent on the U.S., the country’s longtime treaty ally.
The activists came from the largest left-wing umbrella group called Bayan (Nation), which has organized regular anti-U.S. protests in front of the embassy for decades, most of which are peaceful. [ABC News]
The left wing protesters also claim that they don’t want to be dictated to by China:
Amid an uneasy relationship with the U.S., Duterte has tried to reach out to China and Russia, bringing uncertainty to his country’s long alliance with America.
But the protesters also opposed the president’s effort to lean toward China. “The Philippines will not be dictated on, whether by the U.S. or China,” they said in a statement.
These people obviously live in a fantasy world. What has the US supposedly “dictated” to them? The nearly $200 million in aid dollars or the immediate disaster response relief the US has given the Philippines in the past?
Who is currently dictating to them is the Chinese who are forcibly seizing actual territory from the Philippines. I find it interesting that this group of left wing protesters could not find the time to go and violently protest the seizing of Filipino territory in front of the Chinese embassy.
North Korea hosts a sports contest for foreign diplomats in the country at the Rungna People’s Sports Park in Pyongyang in this photo released by the North’s Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 16, 2016. Seen on the table are soft drinks, including Coca-Cola that appear to have come from China. The event, held from Oct. 11-16, was the fourth of its kind. (Yonhap)
I doubt the young woman in question is the first politically connected person to receive favorable treatment in admissions to a Korean university. So why are people making a big deal about it now?:
Ewha Womans University President Choi Kyung-hee answers reporters’ questions before a meeting with professors and university staff held Monday. [PARK JONG-GEUN]After recent allegation that a granddaughter of President Park Geun-hye’s close mentor was granted admissions to Ewha Womans University unfairly, professors will hold a rally Wednesday to demand the university president step down, taking up a cause students have been championing for some 80 days.“Ewha Womans University, which has been under fire for its plans to build a college of continuing education, is now mired in a political issue,” said an emergency planning committee of Ewha professors in an official statement. “University President Choi Kyung-hee and the board of directors are handling the issues at the school dictatorially and failing to communicate with the university staff and students. It is high time that professors take up the cause.”
Professors will hold a rally in front of the main hall of the university, which has been occupied by students since July 28. It is the first time since the university’s establishment in 1886 that professors of the university have called for the ouster of the president.
The allegations concern Choi Soon-sil, daughter of Choi Tae-min, who was President Park Geun-hye’s mentor. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but the young woman in question won a gold medal in the Asian Games for an equestrian event and the university added winning a gold medal in equestrian as an additional selection criteria the year Choi applied to the university. She also supposedly misses classes and turns in homework late and still gets good grades. To me this is all hearsay and who knows if it is true.
A rescuer works to get an inebriated woman out of a claw crane for dolls in the city of Incheon, west of Seoul, on Oct. 17, 2016, in this photo released by firefighters. She crawled into the game machine’s exit following frustration over her failure to get any dolls from it. (Yonhap)
Rescuers have removed an inebriated woman from a claw crane game for dolls after she crawled into the game machine’s exit following frustration over her failure to get any dolls from it, firefighters said Tuesday.
The woman, 20, got herself confined inside the machine in the city of Incheon, west of Seoul, around 4:00 a.m. on Monday before being rescued. Rescuers, who were mobilized to the scene after receiving a tip from one of her acquaintances, cut through the machine’s cabinet with a motor drill.
After failing to pick up a doll in several attempts, she managed to enter the machine through its opening with a length and width of just 30 centimeters, but was unable to get back out, they said. [Yonhap]
Here is a really odd story of a gunfight in Seoul with a criminal using six homemade guns. This just goes to show that if a criminal really wants a gun they can get one:
A police officer was killed in a gunfight with a criminal suspect in northern Seoul and the suspect involved in the shooting has been apprehended, law enforcement authorities said Wednesday.
In the gunfight that began at around 6:30 p.m. in front of a tunnel near Beon-dong in northern Seoul, the 45-year-old suspect, identified only by his family name Seong, opened fire with a privately manufactured gun, according to the police.
The police responded to a report that the suspect had attacked his neighbor with a blunt object. He ran into the tunnel after he spotted the police and was carrying six guns, all made of wood, when he was apprehended, a police officer said.
The suspect is presumed to have made the wooden guns based on manufacturing methods available from the Internet.
The suspect cut off an electronic monitoring bracelet that he was wearing due to previous involvement in a sexual offense before he began to run towards the tunnel, the officer said.
A police officer, 54, was shot in the gunfight and was rushed to the hospital for treatment, but died during surgery. The neighbor who was attacked, who also turns out to be the suspect’s landlord, is undergoing treatment for his wounds.
The landlord and the tenant were engaged in an argument before he became violent. The police have begun an investigation into what caused the verbal fight. [Yonhap via a reader tip]
![Ewha Womans University President Choi Kyung-hee answers reporters’ questions before a meeting with professors and university staff held Monday. [PARK JONG-GEUN]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/jmnet/koreajoongangdaily/_data/photo/2016/10/17202702.jpg?resize=610%2C394)
