Hopefully the headlines these guys are making does not encourage others to go to North Korea to try and do the same thing:
Brisbane lads Evan Shay and Morgan Ruig have attracted a few admirers after their whirlwind golfing tour that fooled North Korean authorities into believing they were top golfers. Picture: Nigel Hallett
FURIOUS North Korea has demanded Aussie larrikins Morgan Ruig and Evan Shay return to Pyongyang and apologise for their prank appearance in a golf tournament in the communist state.
Ruig and Shay, both 28, created worldwide headlines after pretending to be members of the Australian golf team and fooling North Korean authorities into letting them play in a two-day international tournament in Pyongyang last month.
The pair, who had been playing polo in China when they decided to email organisers for an invitation, even had fake green golf jackets made up with Australian badges.
But neither Ruig nor Shay plays golf and performed so badly their North Korean caddie told them they had brought shame on their families.
The stunt has brought the lads international fame and they were mobbed by fans on a visit to the Gold Coast yesterday.
Ruig said outraged North Korean officials had now demanded an apology. [Courier Mail]
You can read more at the link, but I would feel no pity for these guys if they ended getting arrested in North Korea if their prank was discovered. I am just concerned the headlines these guys are making will encourage other random people to try and get their 15 minutes of fame by trying something like this in North Korea again. What I also don’t like is that some random official in North Korea is probably going to be held responsible for allowing these guys into the country in the first place. Should a North Korean official’s livelihood be put at stake just because a couple of random people want their 15 minutes of fame?
This provided photo shows Kim Jeong-ah (L), leader of Tongil Mom, a group comprised of North Korean refugee women working to be reunited with their children, holding a rally in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington on Oct. 31, 2016, to urge China not to deport North Korean defectors. (Yonhap)
North Korea, getting money's worth over South Korean political scandal, reprints pics of guillotine erected in central Seoul this weekend. pic.twitter.com/N3O5vhCKdD
I can only imagine the fate that awaits the prior ambassador that was recalled from the UK back to North Korea due to the embarrassing defection:
North Korea has named Choe Il as its new ambassador to Britain, Pyongyang’s state media said Thursday, following the latest defection to South Korea by a top diplomat stationed in London.
Choe has been appointed Pyongyang’s envoy to Britain, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a short dispatch, replacing his predecessor Hyon Hak-bong.
Choe’s background remains largely murky, but a handful of reports and documents that contain his name indicate that his work was associated with the U.S. and the United Nations.
In reports by Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA) in 2009, his name appeared on the list of visitors to the U.S. as vice chairman of the Korea-America Private Exchange Society (KAPES), an organization that liaises with US-based non-governmental groups.
In 2006, he participated in the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) as a researcher of the Institute of Disarmament and Peace. NEACE is a multilateral forum involving high-level policymakers, defense ministry officials, military officers and researchers from the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
In March 2013, his name again appeared in the list of U.N. diplomats as a councilor of the North Korean mission.
The report came amid speculation that North Korea recalled Hyon to hold him responsible for the defection to Seoul of Thae Yong-ho, a former minister at its embassy in the British capital. [Yonhap]
With the embarrassment of multiple test failures the Kim regime is probably eager to at least get one more successful launch of its Musudan missile conducted:
North Korea is getting ready to launch yet another Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile in the next three days, a U.S. news report said Tuesday.
Fox Business News cited two unidentified U.S. officials “with knowledge of this assessment” as saying that the North is preparing to conduct a launch “in the next 24 to 72 hours.” It said the potential launch would be the ninth test of the Musudan missile this year.
The Department of Defense declined to confirm the report. [Yonhap]
It was only a matter of time before the North Koreans began to pile on to the bizarre Choi Soon-sil political scandal rocking South Korean politics:
North Korea is joyfully jumping into a bizarre political scandal rocking Seoul, calling it the inevitable result of a corrupt regime and saying the administration of South Korean President Park Geun-hye is “the most deformed, abnormal and stupid in contemporary society.”
Pyongyang, while allowing none of its media the freedom to point criticism at its own leadership, has wasted no opportunity to lambaste Park in the harshest ways it can.
The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Monday called the scandal a “hideous power-backed corruption case unprecedented in South Korean history.”
Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North’s ruling party, added the “deformed, abnormal and stupid” characterization and, just for good measure, called Park a “colonial stooge.” [Washington Post]
That is what Kim Jong-un is thinking after having 7 of his past 8 Musudan missile launches end in failure:
North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un has ordered a full-blown investigation into the recent missile launch failures, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing a North Korean defectors’ group. The test firing of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles, or Musudan, ended in failure about two weeks ago.
The investigation will reportedly include all those who were involved in the making of the missiles amid suspicion of a sabotage by the US and South Korea. (………….)
“Officials and workers who engaged in the launches of the missiles are now banned from travelling and their mobiles phones are confiscated to check their conversation records,” he added.
The North Korean leader believes spies from the US and South Korea were responsible for the Musudan missile failures, he said. North Korean authorities believe the spies could have meddled with the missile parts that were imported from foreign countries, leading to the launch failure, [IBT via reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but I guess we will see if they try and scapegoat someone for these missile launch failures and claim they were working for the US.
That is what some North Korean watchers are thinking considering that she has been out of the public spotlight for the past 7 months:
Ri Sol-ju, the wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has not shown up at public events for over seven months, an analysis of the North’s media reports showed Sunday.
Ri’s public activity was last reported by the North’s media on March 28, 2016, when she accompanied Kim on his visit to a newly built commercial district and health complex in Pyongyang. At that time, Kim and Ri met with officials and employees at the Mirae Shop and the health complex.
Earlier, Ri accompanied Kim 18 times in 2012, 22 times in 2013 and 15 times in 2014. But the number fell sharply to seven last year and three this year, according to the analysis.
“Ri showed up at public events every two months last year but has not appeared in public for over seven months this year. That’s quite extraordinary,” said a North Korea watcher. “Some sources speculate Ri’s disappearance may be linked to a check on her activities by Kim’s younger sister Kim Yo-jong.”
Other watchers are raising speculation about a possible pregnancy or marital rift. [Korea Times]
