The sad Cold War era tale of Charles Robert Jenkins has come to an end:
This file photo taken on October 12, 2005 shows U.S. army deserter Charles Jenkins, who spent 40 years in North Korea, showing off his new book “To Tell the Truth,” which was published in Japanese last week, at a press conference in Tokyo. Charles Jenkins, a U.S. Army deserter who spent four decades in communist North Korea and married a Japanese woman abducted by Pyongyang, has died at the age of 77, officials said on December 12, 2017. / AFP-Yonhap
Charles Jenkins, a U.S. soldier who defected to North Korea and became a movie star there, has died in Japan, according to reports on Tuesday. He was 77.
The former U.S. sergeant died on Sado island on Monday, where he was living with his wife Hitomi Soga, also a former prisoner of North Korea.
He was among four U.S. soldiers who defected to the North in 1965 and was the only one who was released. The others reportedly died in the isolated state, including James Dresnok, who was said to have died of a stroke in 2016.
According to the BBC, Jenkins collapsed outside his home and died of heart problems in hospital. His wife said in a statement that she was “very surprised” by his death and “cannot think of anything,” according to AFP. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but what is interesting about this death is that back in August 2017 Jenkins said in an interview that the North Koreans wanted him dead:
Then there was the apparent assassination of Kim Jong Nam — Kim Jong Un’s half-brother — in a Malaysian airport in March. Two women ambushed Kim with VX nerve agent, one of the world’s most toxic substances. To Jenkins, it was a reminder that Pyongyang’s brutality knows no bounds — and no one is immune.
“I worry about my daughters more than anything,” he said as he drove his Subaru along the coast. He has forbidden them to comply if Japanese police should attempt to pull them over while driving. Anyone could be a North Korean agent.
“North Korea give them enough money, you don’t know what they’ll do,” he said. “North Korea wants me dead.”
Jenkins’ death is probably just a coincidence, but it is kind of eerie how he died so soon after making that statement. Jenkins was a heavy smoker so heart problems from his smoking is definitely plausible.
RFA notes KCNA accidentally aired footage of a NK soldier being burned to death by Hwasong-15's exhaust flames during Nov 30th launch. The footage was edited out for subsequent broadcasts but NK residents in Yangkang province insist they saw him in flames.https://t.co/cX2GVeCLMd
It looks like the North Korean women’s soccer team does not need to be concerned with being sent to a reeducation labor camp after beating South Korea:
North Korea women’s national football team players (in red) celebrate after scoring a goal against South Korea at the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Football Championship at Soga Sports Park in Chiba, Japan, on Dec. 11, 2017. (Yonhap)
North Korea beat South Korea 1-0 in a women’s inter-Korean football match in Chiba on Monday.
Kim Yun-mi scored the only goal of the match as North Korea collected their second straight victory at the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Football Championship at Soga Sports Park in Chiba, Japan.
North Korea, two-time defending champions of the regional women’s competition, beat China 2-0 to open their tournament last Friday. South Korea, however, suffered their second straight loss, having lost their first match to hosts Japan by 3-2.
The two losses mean South Korea can’t win the four-nation tournament. Yoon Duk-yeo’s side was looking to win the regional crown for the first time since 2005. They will try to close out the tournament on a high note against China on Friday, also in Chiba.
There were more than 300 North Korea fans gathered at the stadium on Monday, compared to about 10 people in the South Korean supporters section. [Yonhap]
That last sentence is probably the most amazing thing to me about this game, that South Korea only had 10 fans show up to the game.
It looks like the Kim regime knows a naval blockade would greatly affect them and thus are letting people know early on they will respond militarily if one is implemented:
North Korea lashed out at the United States on Sunday over the possible use of a naval blockade in the wake of its recent missile provocation, warning that it would consider such a move as a “declaration of war.”
The condemnation came after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently mentioned the “right to interdict maritime traffic transporting goods” to and from the North after its Nov. 29 test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking anywhere on the U.S. mainland.
“We will regard the naval blockade of the United States and its followers as an act of violence against the sacred sovereignty and dignity of the Republic of Korea and as another public declaration of war,” the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s ruling communist party newspaper, said in a commentary.
The paper added, “If we see a small movement to put the maritime containment into practice, we must be prepared to follow our immediate and ruthless self-defensive response.”
The Korean Central News Agency, the North’s official newswire service, filed a similar report in English on Friday saying, “The U.S. moves for sea blockade can never be tolerated as they constitute a wanton violation of the sovereignty and dignity of an independent state.” [Yonhap]
It looks like the North Korean fishermen who are not washing up on Japanese shores dead have become thieves instead:
Japanese police on Saturday arrested three North Korean crew members for suspected theft, a spokesman said, amid a fresh wave of North Korean “ghost ship” fishing vessels washing up in Japanese waters.
The three were among the 10 North Korean “fishermen” spotted aboard a tiny wooden boat struggling in bad weather off the northern island of Hokkaido late last month.
The 45-year-old captain and two other crew members, who all identified themselves as North Korean nationals, were arrested on suspicion of stealing a power generator, a Hokkaido Police Department spokesman said.
The arrest came after some of them reportedly admitted to “taking out” some electronic products from a remote Japanese island where they landed briefly to take refuge.
Soon after the group left, officials noticed items — TV sets, fridges, a washing machine, a motorbike, an electric saw — had vanished from buildings on the island, local media said. [Korea Herald]
North Korea claimed itself to be a bastion of human rights in a white paper released Saturday, defying international criticism of its long-standing abuses.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), monitored in Seoul, reported that the Human Rights Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences issued a white paper Saturday that attempts to “clarify who has defended human rights and who has violated them.” DPRK is short for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
According to the KCNA’s English-language report, the white paper states: “The DPRK is a country where genuine human rights are firmly protected and successfully put into practice as the working masses’ democratic freedom and rights are most thoroughly defended and most brilliantly realized.”
The report said the white paper also slammed the United States for “styling itself a human rights judge” while finding fault with human rights records in other nations and accused Washington of trying to justify its own human rights violations. [Yonhap]
Most of the world and the IOC fought to keep Apartheid South Africa out of the Olympics, but North Korea a country with a far worse human rights record and a threat to world peace has South Korea and the IOC literally begging them to participate:
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is seeking to visit North Korea to discuss its participation in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, South Korean government sources said Friday.
“The IOC is believed to be discussing with North Korea a possible trip by President Bach to Pyongyang for talks on the country’s participation in the PyeongChang Olympics,” a source said.
The IOC is seeking the visit based on close consultation with the South Korean government.
It remains to be seen, however, whether the North would accept Bach’s visit despite heightened tensions over its nuclear and missile tests. The North last week test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that appeared capable of reaching Washington DC.
“There is no guarantee that the visit will take place. But if it does happen, it could be interpreted as a positive sign for North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Olympics,” another government source said, adding that there was a possibility of a lower level official of the IOC making the trip instead of Bach. [Korea Herald]
Even the North Koreans have decided to join in and bash the US for announcing that the US embassy would be moved to Jerusalem:
North Korea has lambasted US President Donald Trump for recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, renewing its description of him as a “dotard” in a statement released Saturday on state media.
Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un have traded threats of war and personal insults in recent months as tensions remain high over the North’s missile and nuclear threats.
Now the hermit state has joined near-universal condemnation of the US president’s decision on Jerusalem, calling it a “reckless, wicked act”.
“Considering the fact that the mentally deranged dotard openly called for a total destruction of a sovereign state at the UN, this action is not so surprising”, a foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the state-run KCNA news agency.
“But this move clearly shows to the whole world who is the destroyer of world peace and security, pariah and rogue in the international community”, he said, using epithets usually reserved for the North. [AFP]
You can read more at the link, but last I checked President Trump was not the one causing violence in the Middle East instead Palestinian rioters were.
A ceremony to mark the production of trucks and tractors is underway at Kimilsung Square in Pyongyang on Dec. 7, 2017, in this photo released by the (North) Korean Central News Agency on Dec. 8. (Yonhap)
