This is actually pretty tame rhetoric compared to the racist and sexists remarks they have made before:

North Korea has challenged the entire US Congress to come and inspect a bio-tech institute in Pyongyang that US experts have suggested is a facility for mass-producing anthrax for the military.

A spokesman for the powerful National Defence Commission angrily stressed that the facility in Pyongyang was solely dedicated to the manufacture of pesticides, after a report published last week on the website of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University suggested otherwise.

“A thousand pairs of ears cannot match a pair of eyes,” the spokesman said, accusing the US government of spreading wild rumours about the North’s biological weapons programme.

“Come here right now, with all the 535 members of the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the imbecile secretaries and deputy secretaries of the government who have made their voices hoarse screaming for new sanctions,” the spokesman said.

“Then they can behold the awe-inspiring sight of the Pyongyang Bio-technical Institute,” he added.  [AFP]

You can read the rest at the link.

I guess we will see if this inter-Korean project will end up just like all the other ones, as a negotiating chip to increase the wealth of the Kim regime while doing little to nothing for average North Koreans:

South Korea’s unification minister expressed hope on Sunday that the reconnection of the railway linking Seoul and the North Korean city of Wonsan will be a “starting point” for inter-Korean cooperation down the road.

The 223.7-km-long railway was built in 1914 and served as a major supply route from Seoul to Wonsan before it was severed during the 1950-53 Korean War.

The Seoul government earlier said that it will start construction of the 11.7-km-long section of the railway running through Gangwon Province next month in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of its independence from Japan.

“I want to see the railways between the two Koreas be reconnected as quickly as possible,” Unification Minister Hong was quoted as saying during his visit to the area. “I want it to be a major starting point.”

“Railways are actual linking channels for the two Koreas and I wish to discuss many other issues and cooperative projects based on this railway reconnection business,” he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

Ethiopia is not a name you hear much of when it comes to the Korean War, but 122 Ethiopian soldiers died in the defense of Korea:

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se says the sacrifices made by Ethiopian war veterans contributed greatly to the democratization and economic advancement of South Korea.

Minister Yun, who is in Addis Ababa to attend the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development, made the remark while visiting the Korean War veterans memorial park at the Ethiopian capital.

In front of Korean War veterans on Monday, Yun expressed thanks for the deployment of elite troops to the conflict such as members of the Imperial Guard at the time.

The minister also participated in the burning of incense and a moment of silence for 122 fallen soldiers of the war.  [KBS World Radio]

https://twitter.com/Max_Fisher/status/621019725464739840

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn (C) and a group soldiers raise their fists in a gesture of solidarity as the prime minister visits a Marine Corps unit on Yeonpyeong, a western border island near North Korea, on July 10, 2015. (Yonhap)

The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) definitely has the best intelligence within North Korea because they confirmed this two months ago:

Kim Jong Un is an impatient autocrat who single-handedly decided to execute North Korean Defense Minister Hyon Yong Chol, according to Seoul’s spy agency on Tuesday.

South Korean lawmakers said National Intelligence chief Lee Byung-ho made the statements at a briefing before the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, Yonhap reported.

Kim also was the executive decision maker behind the undeleted footage of Hyon in the weeks that followed after his disappearance.

According to Seoul’s spy chief, North Korean television continued to run past footage of Hyon under Kim’s orders.

Kim, Lee said, believed the international community could use conspicuous deletions against Pyongyang because the erasure would serve as evidence of Hyon’s execution.

South Korean newspaper Donga Ilbo reported Hyon was executed at the artillery range at Pyongyang’s Kang Kon Military Academy.

Hundreds watched the execution, according to the NIS, and Kim forced top-ranking military officers to attend.

Kim may have executed other military personnel if they were loyal to Hyon or held grievances against Kim, Lee said, according to South Korean lawmaker Shin Kyung-min.

Shin said Kim had labeled Hyon as “anti-Workers’ Party, and a counter-revolutionary.”  [UPI]

You can read the rest at the link, but according to the article Kim Jong-un is trying to weaken the power of the military in North Korea.

Here is what I think it going on.  I have said this before that I do not believe that Kim Jong-un has the absolute power that many people believe him to have.  I believe that his grandfather Kim Il-sung had absolute power, but when his son Kim Jong-il took over that the absolute power was diluted between the ruling Kim inner circle, the Worker’s Party, and the North Korean military.  These three sectors competed for power with the military ultimately becoming the most powerful bureaucracy in North Korea under Kim Jong-il.  These sectors of power in North Korea though likely ruled by consensus and when consensus could not be reached Kim Jong-il was likely the deciding vote which was heavily influenced by his backing of the North Korean military.

After Kim Jong-il’s death these sectors of North Korean power likely competed for influence again after Kim Jong-un took over.  Kim Jong-un’s uncle Jang Song-taek appeared to be trying to challenge the status quo by increasing the power of the Worker’s Party.  With the power of the Worker’s Party increasing, the military may have felt like their power was decreasing too much and took action to get rid of Jang to put the status quo back to where it was.  However, the status quo likely meant Kim Jong-un has less power than his father did after the execution of Jang and the following purge of Party officials loyal to him.

His recent purge of military officials shows that Kim Jong-un understands this and is trying to re-establish absolute power for himself like his grandfather had.  His grandfather had to rely on a number of purges to gain the power he had.  Kim Jong-un first focused on purging the Worker’s Party of people that he perceived as a possible challenge to his authority.  Now he is focusing on the North Korean military.  After the military is purged that leaves Kim and his family inner circle as the biggest power brokers in North Korea.  It is a dangerous game he is playing, but we will see over the years how well it works.

I feel bad for the guy that died trying to stop one of these suicides from happening, but I do think there was probably more going on with these two that killed themselves considering the corruption probe that is happening:

Failure to meet deadlines and pay contractors on time may have contributed to the deaths this past spring of three South Koreans working on the U.S. Army’s massive expansion of Camp Humphreys, according to local police.

Two South Korean workers committed suicide in separate incidents in May, while a third man died from injuries after trying to intervene in one of the deaths.

The head of a subcontracting company set himself on fire May 8 at a Humphreys work site and died at a hospital 10 days later. The man, surnamed Han, claimed to be nearly $1.8 million in debt, police said. Media reports said that Han may not have been paid by the contracting company that hired his firm and may have been unable to pay his company’s taxes.

Another man who tried to save, Han died May 22, police said.

The third man, an employee of Samsung C&T Corp. surnamed Kim, hanged himself May 7 in an off-post dormitory for Samsung employees, a Pyeongtaek police official said.

Kim had been overseeing the base hospital’s construction but failed to meet building deadlines and was demoted to head of construction for the dental clinic, the officer said. Kim killed himself because he was upset over the demotion, police said.

Suicide in South Korea is the fourth-leading cause of death overall, after cancer, stroke and heart disease, according to the World Health Organization.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

A ROK Drop favorite Andrew Salmon recently had his great book about the British and Australian forces that served in the Korean War translated into Korean:

British Ambassador Charles Hay welcomed the release of the Korean translation of “Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950” on Friday at the British Embassy in Jung District, central Seoul, expressing optimism that the book will help boost public awareness here and in the United Kingdom of a battle he suggests is being forgotten.

“When we look back over the relationship of the U.K. and Korea since the establishment of diplomatic relations, one of the most important events is the U.K. contribution in the [1950-53] Korean War,” said Hay.

“Unfortunately, as global history developed, the Korean War tends to be largely overlooked in the U.K.,” continued Hay, adding that the phenomenon seems “very strange” to witness from a country where it is deemed such an important part of history.

Hay, who served for five years in the British Army, commended the author of the 735-page book for bringing the war “alive” through personal interviews with British and Australian soldiers who took part in the three-year battle, saying the record of those memories seemed to have “captured the reality.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but if you haven’t already I highly recommend reading Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950. It is great that Korean readers will now have an opportunity to learn more about the British and Australians that fought in the Korean War like I did.

http://img.yonhapnews.co.kr/etc/inner/EN/2015/07/13/AEN20150713007200320_01_i.jpg

Lee Min-ji, a vocal music graduate of Sungshin Women’s University, struts down the runway during an annual beauty pageant in Seoul on July 10, 2015, to select the 2015 Miss Korea. Lee, from Gyeonggi Province, won the beauty contest. (Yonhap)