Tag: North Korea

This probably isn’t too surprising to most people:

For the fourth year in a row, North Korea’s Air Koryo has claimed the dubious honor of being ranked the worst carrier in the world.

But Air Koryo may not be that bad, according to online reviews.  (……..)

Among the features that raised concerns among reviewers was the onboard meal of hamburgers made of a “mystery meat,” safety demonstrations that often were skipped, entertainment that consisted of propaganda films played in a loop and overhead luggage racks with no doors to keep bags from falling down on fliers during turbulence.  [LA Times]

You can read more at the link.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/764016048366424066

What Korea looks like…according to @KoreanCentralTV1 pic.twitter.com/mZ8MJunQHj

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) August 10, 2016

In the least surprising news of the day North Korean soldiers are reportedly malnourished:

North Korean soldiers suffering from malnutrition are beginning to channel their grievances against the repressive regime, even blaming the inability of the military’s top political official, U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) said Wednesday.

A North Korean resident in Jagang Province told RFA that he was shocked by the news that his son, who entered the army in March, was suffering from malnutrition.

He said the rations given to ordinary soldiers are so poor that most are in a serious state of undernourishment.

The North Korean informant said that since his son went to the army, he ate only boiled corn with a soup of salted wild greens.

Another military source in Ryanggang Province said in the units he knew, the military food supply is not so bad as to cause malnutrition, but added that troops are starving due to deep-rooted corruption and greed for private profits by officers.

More often than not, army commanders embezzle food and even kitchen oil from the military, forcing soldiers into extreme undernourishment, the source said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but it has been speculated before that the malnourishment of North Korean soldiers may be why some of them have gone on crime sprees across the border in China.

https://twitter.com/GlobalAsianista/status/762699465530552320

Inside North Korea’s Songdowon International Children's Camp https://t.co/pQTjKK9TVJ via @qz

— Sokeel Park 박석길 (@Sokeel) August 10, 2016

If true this is all the more reason why South Koreans should want the THAAD battery if the intent of the Chinese missiles is to target US troops reinforcing the ROK during a crisis:

China is maintaining ballistic missile bases in its northeastern territories, all equipped with missiles capable of reaching U.S. bases in the Pacific including Okinawa, according to a report posted on the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) website.

The bases may explain Beijing’s strident opposition to the deployment of a U.S.-made anti-missile defense system in South Korea, as its presence could hamper China’s missile striking capabilities if conflict broke out on the Korean Peninsula.

The presence of the U.S.-operated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system in South Korea could thwart Beijing’s attempt to attack U.S. ships ferrying soldiers to the peninsula with long-range ballistic missiles, analysts say.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

After North Korea fired a missile last week that landed in their EEZ I wondered if they were going to take measures to prevent this in the future.  It looks like they will:

Japan has ordered its Self-Defense Forces to intercept and destroy incoming flying objects after North Korea fired a ballistic missile last week that landed in Tokyo’s exclusive economic zone. The command issued on Monday is to apply to all incoming projectiles, South Korean news service Newsis reported. The directive is to be in effect for the next three months. But according to Japanese press reports the command is to be updated every three months, signifying the policy is more than a temporary measure designed to respond to North Korea provocations.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link, but to defend water the Japanese would have to rely on their Aegis ships equipped with SM-3 missiles which would mean ensuring always having one out at sea to support a missile defense mission.  That is likely why after three months this decision will be reviewed because there is probably better things these sailors could be doing than sailing in circles for three months if the North Koreans are no longer firing into their EEZ.

Over at One Free Korea there is a good article posted about the legal “lawfare” being used by leftists in South Korea against North Korea defectors:

I wish I could say that South Korea’s hard left, most prominently represented these days by the lawyers’ group Minbyun, had also lost its faith in Kim Jong-un. Sadly for South Korean history, Minbyun is no fringe group; it has already produced one South Korean president and one presidential candidate. Once, it defended human rights against right-wing South Korean dictators, but since then, it has lost its way. Today, Minbyun wages lawfare for North Korean dictators. It fraudulently represents itself as a human rights group while abusing the law to deny North Korean refugees their human rights. It has taken to doing this by bullying 12 young North Korean women who had the courage to flee the from a restaurant in China, where their government had effectively impressed them into forced labor.

Minbyun has demanded the right to interrogate the women — publicly, before the eyes of the North Korean authorities who hold their loved ones as hostages — about their intentions to defect. This would be in flagrant violation of a refugee’s absolute right to confidentiality, a right the U.N. High Commission for Refugees has long affirmed. When the judge correctly dismissed Minbyun’s petition, Minbyun demanded that the judge be removed from the case. Since then, an appellate court has refused to remove the judge. 

The justification for Minbyun’s legally frivolous petition is North Korea’s factually absurd claim that the South Korean intelligence service kidnapped the women.   [One Free Korea]

I recommend reading the whole article at the link, but I would not be surprised if there were Pyongyang agents working in conjunction with the Minbyun group some how.

Via a reader tip comes this article about a guy that clearly has some mental issues if he thinks Pyongyang is country worth emulating:

North Korea may be isolated in the international community but it now has a modest ally on the Spanish coast — the Pyongyang Cafe, a small bar founded to support Kim Jong-Un’s strongman rule.

Located in the Mediterranean city of Tarragona where Roman ruins vie for attention, the establishment sports a huge North Korean flag behind the bar, where tea typical from the country and Asian beers are served.

Socialist propaganda posters brought all the way from Pyongyang adorn the walls of the modern bar, and in a corner stands a bookshelf full of works by leaders of the Kim dynasty that has ruled North Korea since 1948, translated into Spanish.

“North Korea is the world’s big unknown,” says Alejandro Cao de Benos, founder of the bar that opened mid-July and also president of the Korean Friendship Association, which has delegates in more than 30 countries and is officially recognised by Pyongyang.

While North Korean restaurants complete with traditional food and dancing have popped up across Asia, the 41-year-old says this is the only such Western establishment.

A restaurant opened in Amsterdam in 2012, but closed several months later.

“We want to break with all the myths, manipulation. And as not many people can go to Korea, because it’s complicated and far, they can come to our cafe,” says Cao de Benos.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but Benos claims to be a communist; you would think he would have realized by now that North Korea is not a communist regime.  It is an authoritarian dictatorship that rules with a personality cult.