Tag: North Korea

According to the article the ship was transporting rice from North Korea’s west coast to its east coast.  I wonder if there was anything else was on the ship?:

The Japanese Coast Guard (JCG) went to the rescue after receiving a distress signal from the ship, which had run into difficulties off Japan’s Kyushu Prefecture, 38 miles (61 kilometers) southwest of the Goto Islands, a spokesman said.

The crew members spent a short time in Japanese custody before being collected by a tanker to take them back to North Korea.  [CNN]

CNN has a good article published where various pictures recently taken in North Korea are commented on by North Korean defectors.  Here is my favorite comment:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sits on the bed during a visit to a silk factory in Pyongyang, his second public outing of the year, in this photo taken from the North’s Central TV Broadcasting Station on Jan. 8, 2017. (Yonhap)

It may not be legal to purchase or smoke marijuana in North Korea, but the North Koreans are well known for smuggling drugs into other countries to raise foreign currency.

North Korea has been getting some pretty high praise lately from the stoner world.

Marijuana news outlets including High Times, Merry Jane and Green Rush — along with British tabloids, which always love a good yarn — are hailing the North as a pothead paradise and maybe even the next Amsterdam of pot tourism. They’ve reported North Korean marijuana to be legal, abundant and mind-blowingly cheap, sold openly to Chinese and Russian tourists at a major market on the North’s border for about $3 a pound.

But seriously, North Korea? Baked?

The claim that marijuana is legal in North Korea is not true: The penal code lists it as a controlled substance in the same category as cocaine and heroin. And the person who would likely help any American charged with a crime in North Korea emphatically rejects the idea that the ban is not enforced.

“There should be no doubt that drugs, including marijuana, are illegal here,” said Torkel Stiernlof, the Swedish ambassador. The United States has no diplomatic relations with the North, so Sweden’s embassy acts as a middleman when U.S. citizens run afoul of North Korean laws.

“One can’t buy it legally and it would be a criminal offense to smoke it,” Stiernlof said. He said that if a foreigner caught violating drug laws in North Korea happened to be an American citizen, he or she could “expect no leniency whatsoever.”  [ABC News]

You can read more at the link.

US ability to shoot down North Korean missile not guaranteed, report says | https://t.co/xRWoBTGJTy

— DPRK Watch (@dprkwatch) January 10, 2017

Here is another example of how North Korea is really a “Soprano State” and why every country should be hesitant to have a DPRK embassy in their country:

Bangladesh authorities have seized a luxury Rolls-Royce Ghost car illegally brought into the country for a former North Korean diplomat expelled for smuggling.

Customs intelligence chief Moinul Khan said Han Son Ik intended to bring in the car without paying duty due to his diplomatic status and sell it on to a local buyer. Officials said the luxury car would have been liable for import duties of more than 800 percent had it been brought in legally.

Han was first secretary of the North Korean embassy in Dhaka until he was expelled in August after being accused of smuggling more than a million cigarettes as well as electronics worth half a million dollars.

“We had intelligence that Han made a deal with a local buyer to bring the person a Rolls-Royce with Han’s diplomatic immunity, therefore he attempted to evade customs tax,” Khan told AFP. “Han has been marked as a frequent offender.” AFP was unable to contact the North Korean embassy for comment.

In March 2015 a North Korean diplomat was forced to apologise after he was caught at Dhaka airport trying to smuggle nearly 27 kilograms (60 pounds) of gold worth $1.7 million into the country. A North Korean restaurant in Dhaka was shut down the same year after officials found it was selling wine and drugs such as Viagra without permission.  [The Indian Express]

One Free Korea makes a great recommendation in this Tweet:

We should print pictures of this diplomat's Rolls-Royce on leaflets & shower N. Korea with them. https://t.co/1BjrM4EC1R via @IndianExpress

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) January 10, 2017

It seems like this same question has to be answered every time North Korea threatens to fire a long range missile.  According to the article the US military will not shoot down the missile unless it threatens an area protected by US missile defenses.  North Korea has historically fired their long range missiles on test trajectories out into the ocean.  These tests allow intelligence agencies to collect information on the Kim regime’s progress in developing their missiles:

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday that if launches do not pose a risk to the US or an ally, “it may be more to our advantage… to gather intelligence from the flight.”

*Rare glimpse* of life in secretive North Korea revealed in pictures @pearswick https://t.co/9NFQOfvvYF

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) January 9, 2017

This photo, captured from North Korea’s Central TV Station on Jan. 8, 2017, shows a newscaster reading a warning from the North’s foreign ministry that Pyongyang may launch its long-range ballistic missile at anytime and anywhere its leaders choose. (Yonhap)

Considering how President-Elect Trump tweeted that he would stop a North Korean rocket launch, I would be totally surprised if the Kim regime does not launch something in the near term just to call his bluff.  The challenge for the North Koreans will be ensuring that the missile doesn’t blow up after launch which is what their track record for long range missiles has been lately:

North Korea on Sunday said it may launch its long-range missile at any time and anywhere its leaders choose, possibly hinting at its mobile capabilities while also asserting its right to do so.

In an interview carried by the North’s official Korean Central Television, a spokesman from the North’s foreign ministry also claimed his country has already developed standardized nuclear warheads.

“The United States continues to denounce our just preparations to launch rockets as a provocation and talk about sanctions as if a thief wields a stick,” the unidentified spokesman said.

In his New Year speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country was in the final stage of preparing to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.