The State Dep't's official view = North Korea has not supported acts of terrorism since 1987. Discuss.https://t.co/gwdsIEXtQZ via @nbcnews
— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 7, 2017
A set of photos carried by the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s main newspaper, on May 5, 2017, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting military detachments on two islets in waters off the country’s southwest front. (Yonhap)
So what else does North Korea have to do to the ROK to gain primary enemy status?:
Yoo: “Is North Korea our primary enemy?”
Moon: “Such a designation must not be made by president. If you become president, Mr. Yoo, you yourself would also have to solve inter-Korean problems.”
Yoo: “This is nonsense the commander in chief cannot call North Korea our primary enemy.”Bareun Party candidate Yoo Seong-min asked Democratic Party’s Moon Jae-in if North Korea is the primary enemy.
Moon responded that presidents should not label the North as such as the job requires solving inter-Korean problems.
As Moon avoided answering the question, Yoo said it was nonsense that a candidate for commander in chief cannot identify North Korea as an enemy. [KBS World Radio]
You can read more at the link.
North Korea continues to build up their collection of bargaining chips and human shields in response to any potential negotiations or conflict with the US overs its nuclear program:
North Korea detained a U.S. citizen tied to a Christian-backed university in Pyongyang, state media said, just two weeks after arresting one of his colleagues.
The arrest on Saturday of Kim Hak-song for committing “hostile acts” brings the number of known U.S. citizens detained in North Korea to four, adding another twist to troubled relations between Washington and Pyongyang as the U.S. seeks ways to slow the North’s nuclear and missile program.
According to the report on Sunday by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, Mr. Kim works for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, a university founded in 2010 by James Kim, a Korean-American Christian businessman. [Wall Street Journal]
You can read more at the link, but it is just incredible to me that despite all these Americans being taken hostage in North Korea Americans keep going there.
#NKorea's coal exports declined sharply in March 2017 – only 6,300 tons of US$570,000 value exported @YonhapNews https://t.co/vDzaKLxyrh
— CSIS Korea Chair (@CSISKoreaChair) May 5, 2017
I am wondering if these claims and rhetoric from the Kim regime is being used to set conditions for a terrorist attack within South Korea in response to any future measures the US may take against North Korea?:
North Korea threatened Friday to launch an anti-terrorist attack against the intelligence agencies of South Korea and the United States as it accused them of plotting to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea’s Ministry of State Security claimed that a terrorists’ group supported by the CIA and South Korea’s intelligence agency infiltrated North Korea to stage a terrorist attack against the North Korean leader by using a bio-chemical substance.
“We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one the terrorists of the U.S. CIA” and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service “targeting the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership,” North Korea’s Ministry of State Security said in an English-language statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
We will see how long China keeps the pressure on the Kim regime to abandon their nuclear weapons:
Cracks in the alliance between North Korea and China widened Thursday as Pyongyang labeled its longtime communist ally a traitor, while Beijing expressed skepticism about renewing a 56-year old friendship and mutual assistance treaty.
The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency issued a commentary on Wednesday that included a rare and blunt attack on China. The commentary said China had violently crossed a “red line” in their relationship. “It is a “disloyal and betraying act,” it said.
The North “will never beg for the maintenance of friendship with China, risking its nuclear program which is as precious as its own life, no matter how valuable the friendship is,” the commentary also said.
In an attempt to avoid a formal diplomatic feud, the North issued the commentary in the name of a private citizen, Kim Chol, rather than having it come from a government official or entity. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link.
This sounds like more lies from the Kim regime which is probably more directed to their domestic audience because the CIA killing Kim does not solve the nuke problem:
North Korea on Friday accused the CIA of plotting with South Korea to assassinate leader Kim Jong-Un, amid soaring tensions in the flashpoint region.
The CIA and Seoul’s Intelligence Services have “hatched a vicious plot” involving unspecified “biochemical substances” to kill the hermit state’s young leader during public ceremonial events in Pyongyang, the Ministry of State Security said.
For the CIA “assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target, their lethal results will appear after six or twelve months,” the Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.
The accusation comes as Pyongyang issues increasingly belligerent rhetoric in a tense stand off with the administration of US President Donald Trump over its rogue weapons program. [AFP]
You can read more at the link, but it seems like if anyone wanted to kill Kim Jong-un it would be the Chinese who would likely have the influence to install their own strongman that would cause less international headaches than the current Kim regime.
It appears that along with the submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test capability currently developed on North Korea’s east coast, the Kim regime is busy trying to develop this same test capability on its West Coast as well:
Recent satellite images show North Korea may be steadily building up its submarine-launched ballistic missile program.
The commercial satellite imagery published by 38 North, a Johns HopkinsUniversity website dedicated to North Korea issues, show a second test stand barge for Pyongyang’s SLBMs.
The images from April 19 are aerial shots of Nampo Naval Shipyard, on the western coast of North Korea, writes Joseph S. Bermudez Jr.
The barge is “identical” in size and layout to the original barge that was first identified in 2014, according to the analyst.
The first barge was found at Sinpo South Shipyard on the east coast where as many as six SLBM launches took place since 2014. [UPI]
You can read more at the link.
new #map of pop. density in northeast China – home to 140 mil people – note proximity of densest areas to #northkorea – by @PeterWood_PDW pic.twitter.com/DEizNu4mmM
— China Brief (@ChinaBriefJT) May 1, 2017
