In light of the recent defection at the JSA, I’d like to shed light on this odd moment in history: an attempt by a Russian citizen to cross the border in 1984 (I was also there). https://t.co/QXRS7TSM1u
Here is something that continues to be a rare occurrence:
Wounded North Korean soldier who defected across the DMZ is rushed to the hospital. [Korea Times]A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea through the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the Demilitarized Zone, Monday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
He received gunshot wounds to the shoulder and elbow from North Korean forces while defecting. The soldier was airlifted by a United Nations Command helicopter to a hospital for treatment after arriving in South Korea, the military said.
“A North Korean soldier defected from a guard post on the North Korean side of the JSA toward our side at 3:31 p.m.,” according to a military official.
After hearing several rounds of gunfire, the South Korean military found him fallen and bleeding on the southern side of the JSA, 25 minutes later, according to the military. He was unarmed and wearing a combat uniform for a low rank, with his identity yet to be found, the military also said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but North Korean soldiers stationed at the Joint Security Area are chosen for their family’s loyalty to the regime. Assuredly this soldier’s family will be the ones that pay the consequences for his defection.
Here is the latest Presidential Twitter drama involving North Korea:
President Donald Trump is exchanging school yard taunts with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
In a response to North Korea calling Trump’s speech in South Korea “reckless remarks by an old lunatic,” Trump tweeted from Hanoi on Sunday morning: “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?'”
Trump goes on to say sarcastically, “Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend — and maybe someday that will happen!” [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but President Trump has called Kim Jong-un a “little Rocket Man” in the past.
It appears the Kim regime got a taste of its own medicine from a hacker that took over one of its shortwave radio stations:
A hacker has hijacked North Korea’s short-wave station, playing “The Final Countdown” by the Swedish rock band “Europe.”
An unknown hacker has allegedly hijacked North Korean short-wave radio station, 6400kHz, and is broadcasting the 1986 hit song from ’80s Swedish rock band Europe, “The Final Countdown.”
News of the incident was posted on Twitter by vigilante hacker, “The Jester,” who has in the past gained fame by hacking jihadist websites, and who in October 2016 defaced the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the message, “Stop attacking Americans.”
“A god among us has hijacked 6400kHz (North Korean station) and is playing the Final Countdown,” said The Jester on Twitter on Nov. 9, and posted a link to a recording of the broadcast.
The 6400kHz station is based in Kanggye close to the North Korean border with China, and is used by North Korean radio station Pyongyang Broadcasting Station (Pyongyang BS), which also broadcasts on the 621, 1053, and 3250 frequencies.
The North Korean communist regime has in the past used the 6400kHz radio station to broadcast coded messages. Strategic Sentinel, a Washington-based nonpartisan geostrategic consulting company, noted that North Korea often broadcasts messages on the station ahead of provocations. [Epoch Times]
The lesson I’ve learned from this and other, similar episodes is that one should be cautious before believing any highly publicized case of China enforcing sanctions against Pyongyang or applying economic pressure to it. I’ve seen this show enough times to suspect that China has a deliberate media manipulation strategy of making a big deal of enforcing sanctions until reporters lose interest. (……)
Take the coal export cap under UNSCR 2321, which later became a coal ban in UNSCR 2371. Remember August, when China announced that it was halting coal imports from North Korea? We’ve since learned that this is yet another case of China initially complying with an obligation, only to resume its cheating as soon as reporters looked the other way. The flaw in this strategy is that nowadays, too many reporters don’t look the other way for long. The sharp-eyed crew at NK News has been especially diligent about spotting North Korean bulk carriers at Chinese coal terminals, but this time, I’ll credit VOA. [One Free Korea]
You can read the rest at the link, but the Chinese are not even trying to hide their cheating considering they imported 509,000 tons of coal last month. It is pretty clear the Chinese government feels they will not be held accountable for cheating on the coal ban and they are probably right.
The fact that Europe is within ICBM range means that any NATO country that to comes to the aid of South Korea during a crisis puts them at risk of nuclear retaliation. Will any NATO countries risk nuclear retaliation to help the ROK?:
North Korea responded Wednesday to European concerns about being in the path of Pyongyang’s potentially nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by assuring the leader of Western military alliance NATO that such weapons were only intended for the U.S.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said during an interview last week with Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun that “Europe has also entered the [North Korean] missile range, and NATO member states are already in danger.” North Korea’s ruling party-run Rodong Shinmun newspaper countered these claims, calling Stoltenberg’s remarks “false and groundless” because, although European states are indeed in North Korea’s missile range, Pyongyang has no intention of pulling the trigger.
“The DPRK’s ballistic rockets are for deterring the U.S. nuclear war hysterics and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the region. They are not for threatening Europe and the world,” the commentary read, according to the official Korea Central News Agency, referring to the country’s official title: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. [Newsweek]
You can read more at the link, but this is just another example of how their nuclear and ICBM programs are about more than regime survival. They also are being developed to isolate the ROK from its allies and ultimately separate the ROK from the US.
What a waste of time if these CNN journalists thought their “man-on-the-street” interviews in Pyongyang were going to reveal anything different than the Kim regime’s propaganda talking points:
Ri Won Gil, an editor, told CNN Trump “knows nothing” about life in North Korea.
US President Donald Trump had already flown to China by the time ordinary North Koreans heard he’d addressed South Korea’s National Assembly.
In a damning speech on Wednesday, Trump called the isolated communist country “a hell that no person deserves.” The rebuttal from North Koreans was equally harsh.
One woman CNN spoke to on the streets of Pyongyang called Trump’s assertion “foolish,” “absurd” and another word CNN cannot print. “The reality here is very different. We’re leading a happy life,” Ri Yong Hui, a house wife in Pyongyang, told CNN.
North Korean state media reported that Trump had spoken on Thursday, but did not include concrete details of his speech, in which the President slammed Pyongyang’s human rights abuses.
The North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun characterized Trump’s words as “garbage spewing like gunpowder out of Trump’s snout like garbage that reeks of gun powder to ignite war.”
Coverage on state television and in newspapers focused on a small number of protesters outside the National Assembly, despite the fact that they were outnumbered by those rallying in support of the US President.
CNN’s government minders allowed us to reveal the actual contents of what Trump said to citizens on the streets of Pyongyang, agreeing to take us down to a busy street corner and interview citizens.
We approached several people. Most were unwilling to speak to us, but not Ri.
“Trump has no right to talk about human rights,” Ri said, as the government minders translated for her. “He’s a simple war maniac.” [CNN]
You can read the rest at the link, but everyone interviewed said the same thing. It is pretty clear the only people talking to the journalists were those cleared by the Kim regime to speak to CNN to push the government’s anti-Trump talking points. If these CNN journalists thought anyone in Pyongyang was going to tell a bunch of foreigners surrounded by government minders and say anything negative about North Korea they are absolute fools. If they are not fools that means they knew full well they would receive government propaganda and they went ahead and published it any way likely because it was anti-Trump.
Like I have always said these North Korean defector accounts should be taken with some skepticism since they are impossible to confirm. However, there undoubtedly negative effects happening around the Punggye-ri nuclear test site:
North Korea’s nuclear test site in Kilju, North Hamgyong Province is turning into a wasteland after six underground nuclear tests, according to witness accounts.
North Koreans who defected from the region said 80 percent of trees that are planted die, underground wells have run dry and babies are being born with defects.
The Research Association of Vision of North Korea, which includes North Korean defectors, interviewed 21 defectors who used to live in Kilju in the last couple of years.
“I heard from a relative in Kilju that deformed babies were born in hospitals there,” one defector said. Another said people in Kilju drink water that comes down from Mt. Mantap in Punggye-ri, where the nuclear test site is located, and they are worried about contamination from radiation.
Another said, “I spoke on the phone with family members I left behind there and they told me that all of the underground wells dried up after the sixth nuclear test.”
Suh Kyun-ryul, a professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University, said, “Due to the collapsed ground layer, fissures must have formed underneath, leading to contamination of the underground layer and water supply. [Chosun Ilbo]
