Tag: North Korea

Kim Jong-un’s propaganda squad is getting ready for their big performance in South Korea:

North Korea’s art troupe on Wednesday held a rehearsal for its upcoming performances in South Korea, which will celebrate the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

The 140 member-strong Samjiyon Orchestra traveled to the South by ferry Tuesday to perform in Gangneung, a sub-host city of the Feb. 9-25 Winter Games, on Thursday, and in Seoul on Sunday.

It will be the first performance by North Koreans in the South since 2002, when Pyongyang sent a cohort of 30 singers and dancers from several music and performance groups to Seoul for a joint event.

After having lunch in their Mangyongbong-92 ferry, which is docked at the South Korean eastern port of Mukho, the North Koreans showed up at the Gangneung Arts Center, the venue of their first performance, at about 3:40 p.m. on Wednesday in an atmosphere quite different from that of the morning.

They changed to casual attire from the stylish red coats and black fur hats and ankle boots for female members and from black coats and hats for males.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I see that the reason they brought the performers by ferry is because it can serve as a floating jail for them.

The North Korean ship Mangyongbong-92 carrying the North’s 140-member Samjiyon art troupe enters the South Korean eastern port of Mukho on Feb. 6, 2018. The troupe will perform in the Olympic sub-host city of Gangneung and in Seoul to mark the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the South. (Yonhap)

It took 50 years, but crew members of the USS Pueblo that were held hostage and tortured by North Korea back in 1968 have filed a lawsuit against the Kim regime:

More than 100 crew members and relatives have joined a lawsuit, filed this month in a federal court under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which allows victims to sue state sponsors of terrorism for torture, hostage-taking, personal injury or death.

North Korea will almost certainly not respond to the lawsuit, and plaintiffs are unlikely to be able to recover funds directly from Pyongyang, but if successful they will be eligible for relief from a US government fund set up to support victims of terrorism.

US President Donald Trump named North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism in November, after it was removed from the list in 2008 by President George W Bush, re-opening the window to litigation against Pyongyang under the 1976 Act.

“Our clients are seeking to hold North Korea accountable for the unspeakable acts committed against the crew of the USS Pueblo more than 50 years ago and the impact it has had on them and their families since then,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers said in a statement.  [CNN]

I wonder how many sanctions busting demands Kim Yong-nam is going to demand from President Moon?:

President Moon Jae-in is considering having bilateral talks with North Korea’s Kim Yong-nam who will lead a high-profile delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, according to Cheong Wa Dae, Monday.

The meeting, if it takes place, could speed up the thawing of inter-Korean relations which is a result of the North’s participation in the Games. Moon is also expected to try to encourage Washington-Pyongyang talks, as he will also meet with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence who is leading his country’s Olympic delegation.

Cheong Wa Dae welcomed the attendance of Kim, the president of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the nominal head of North Korea according to its Constitution.

“It is Kim’s first visit to South Korea, and he is the highest-ranking North Korean official ever to visit the South,” presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said. “His visit shows North Korea’s wishes to improve inter-Korean relations and for a successful Olympics. We recognize the North is showing a serious and sincere attitude.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the cost so far of paying off the Kim regime to attend the Winter Olympics:

The government had already diverted more than W250 million from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund as of Thursday to help North Korea take part in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang (US$1=W1,072).

That is expected to snowball once all 500 members of a massive cheerleading squad, an orchestra, and a Taekwondo demonstration team arrive here around the time the Olympics open.

The government is not saying what the money has been spent on, despite fears that its support could violate UN and U.S. sanctions against the North Korean regime.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but this is likely just the tip of the iceberg of the money spent on the Kim regime to attend the Winter Olympics to essentially prevent them for causing provocations during the games.

I guess if Apartheid South Africa had moved forward with developing a nuclear program and threatened to nuke everyone they could have not only attended the Olympics, but had the red carpet rolled out for them and had someone else pay to compete in the games.

For me there is absolutely nothing surprising about this news:

North Korea violated United Nations sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports, according to a confidential report by independent U.N. monitors, which also accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Syria and Myanmar.

The report to a U.N. Security Council sanctions committee, seen by Reuters on Friday, said North Korea had shipped coal to ports, including in Russia, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam, mainly using false paperwork that showed countries such as Russia and China as the coal origin, instead of North Korea.

The 15-member council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

“The DPRK (North Korea) is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries and the international banking system,” the U.N. monitors wrote in the 213-page report.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but announcing that North Korea is violating UN sanctions is like saying the sky is blue.

Every Olympic athlete will walk away with a spiffy new Samsung smartphone and some Nike gear—except for N. Korea's athletes, because sanctions. Sad.https://t.co/sYXbsVJhLh

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) February 3, 2018

Feb. 8 expected to be ‘Big Day’ for peace on Korean Peninsula https://t.co/NoEpk3nf4P

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) February 3, 2018

The Korean left wing newspaper of choice, the Hankyoreh is extremely concerned about a US pre-emptive strike on North Korea:

According to Cha’s Washington Post piece, some ultra-hardliners have argued that the risk of endangering the lives of the 230,000 Americans living in South Korea if the bloody nose strategy escalates is worth taking in terms of “long-term interests” and the “safety of Americans living in the continental US.” The fates of 50 million South Koreans don’t even warrant a mention.The reason hardline voices have gotten so much louder in the White House lately has much to do with the discussions occurring between South and North Korea for the Pyeongchang Olympics. It appears to be an attempt to stop a climate of reconciliation from forming on the peninsula.

Given their lack of faith in denuclearization, they seem to believe the North Korean nuclear program will become irreversible if reconciliation occurs at a time of intensifying sanctions. Meanwhile, the Russia scandal is raising the possibility that Trump not only faces a difficult road to re-election but could end up impeached. Depending on how the mid-term elections in November turn out, he could find himself a lame duck.

This raises the troubling question of whether he might consider a strike against North Korea as a way out of his domestic political crisis. Indeed, White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matthew Pottinger reportedly said in a recent closed-door meeting with US experts on Korean Peninsula issues that a limited strike on the North might help in the midterm elections.  [Hankoryeh]

It seems to me the logic of this article does not add up.  If a pre-emptive strike leads to a bloody war with millions of people dead that will not help President Trump in the mid-term elections.  However, if the pre-emptive strike is successful that will help in the mid-term elections.  It almost seems like the Korean left is more concerned that the pre-emptive strategy could work thus boosting President Trump’s political chances, than doing anything to stop North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons.

The diplomatic isolation of North Korea continues:

Jordan has cut diplomatic ties with North Korea amid global efforts to put pressure on Pyongyang to give up its missile and nuclear programs, local media reported Friday.

The decision was disclosed on the Jordanian government’s website after it was approved by a royal decree, according to the reports. AFP earlier reported that it is “in line with the policies of its allies,” apparently including the U.S.

Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also recently cut their diplomatic relations with the North.  [Yonhap]