Tag: North Korea

Here is an article that provides a reminder of how difficult the life for many North Korean defectors has been before finding refuge:

Back in my home country, I was charged with trying to escape North Korea and sent to a jail where a dozen male and female, young and old prisoners were squeezed into a room no bigger than a metre square. There was only one toilet in the corner of the room and no privacy.
Like other inmates, I was treated as an enemy of the state and forced to do hard labour, clearing the hills of trees so that crops could be planted. I became so malnourished that my skin turned black and my body was skeletal. I lost big clumps of hair and felt utter despair. But the greatest pain was in my heart. I couldn’t bear being separated from my child. On days I thought about death, the thought of seeing my son again was all that kept me going.We were not allowed to wear shoes in the prison, in case we tried to run away. Slowly the skin on my feet became broken and calloused from the rough stones on the ground. My wounds became infected until finally gangrene set in. It was desperately painful, but what I didn’t realise was this would be my passport to freedom. The prison doctor told me that the United Nations had intervened to condemn the conditions in North Korea’s prisons, and he persuaded the guards that I needed rest.

Thanks to him, I was sent to a prison for children where I was to stay until I was well enough to return to finish my two-year sentence. But after two months, when I was able to walk with a limp, I begged the guards to let me leave. My father had passed away just after I left for China, and I told them I wanted to visit his grave. In a rare moment of generosity, they agreed to let me go and, the minute I was out, I headed for the Chinese border again. I had no money, and I knew the only hope of seeing my son again was to approach another trafficker on the North Korean side and tell him I wanted to be sold again into marriage. Once inside China, I managed to escape.  [Yahoo News]

You can read much more at the link, but this North Korean defector went through a lot before getting to England.  This article is also a reminder of the modern day comfort woman trade that the Chinese government indirectly sponsors with North Korean refuge women in China.

I would think the Chinese would not be too happy with the North Koreans trying to draw attention away from the G-20 Summit they are currently hosting, but obviously the Kim regime cares little about what the Chinese think:

North Korea on Monday fired three medium-range missiles that traveled about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) and landed near Japan in an apparent show of force timed to coincide with the Group of 20 economic summit in China, South Korean officials said.

North Korea has staged a series of recent missile tests with increasing range, part of a program that aims to eventually build long-range nuclear missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland.

Such tests are fairly common when international attention is turned to Northeast Asia, and this one came as world leaders gathered in eastern China for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies. China is North Korea’s only major ally, but ties between the neighbors have frayed amid a string of North Korean nuclear and missile tests and what many outsiders see as other provocations in recent years.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the three ballistic missiles, all believed to be Rodongs, were launched from the western North Korean town of Hwangju and flew across the country before splashing into the sea.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but all these missile launches do is further justify South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s decision to deploy the THAAD missile defense system to the ROK against Chinese objections.

As North Korea continues to develop its Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) capability South Korea is definitely going to need to acquire this technology in response:

The South Korean military may buy four cutting-edge antisubmarine patrol aircraft in the wake of the successful test-firing of a submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) by North Korea last week, a senior government official told the JoongAng Ilbo Tuesday.

The advanced maritime surveillance aircraft being considered by the military is a Boeing P-8 Poseidon, which costs between 250 billion and 300 billion won ($223 – 268 million) per jet. The U.S. Navy has such aircraft, as do the Indian and Australian navies.

“North Korea is preparing a number of strategic ways to attack the South using its submarine fleet on top of the SLBM development,” said the official, “We are discussing whether to purchase the latest maritime patrol aircraft to detect North Korean submarines to prevent surprise attacks from under water.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It seems to me North Korea abducting an American from Yunnan province seems pretty far fetched considering the large distance the province is from North Korea.  It would have been far easier for them to abduct someone from a Chinese province bordering China if they were looking for an American to kidnap:

A US student who supposedly died in China in 2004 has reportedly turned up alive in North Korea after being kidnapped to serve as Kim Jong Un’s personal tutor.

David Sneddon of Brigham Young University disappeared in Yunnan Province aged 24, in what Chinese police said was probably a hiking accident.

But the reality, according to Choi Sung-yong, head of South Korea’s Abductees’ Family Union, is that he was kidnapped to be an English tutor to the then-heir to North Korea Yahoo News Japan reported Wednesday.

Sneddon is now living in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, where he teaches English to children and has a wife and two children, Choi said.

The news comes as relief – but little surprise – to Sneddon’s parents, Roy and Kathleen, who have long doubted the official story of their son’s disappearance.

‘We just knew in our heart that he was alive, so we had to keep fighting,’ said Kathleen Sneddon.

Their suspicion was based in part on the fact that Sneddon’s body was never found after he was believed to have died in Tiger Leaping Gorge, a canyon on Yunnan’s Jinsha River that is highly popular with tourists.  [Daily Mail via a reader link]

You can read more at the link, but other than a statement from a North Korean defector there is no evidence to support the claim in the article.  It seems the family is maintaining a healthy bit of skepticism as well about the claim.

Reports like this make think this could just be disinformation coming out of North Korea:

North Korea is building intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch pads on trains, the U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) said Wednesday.

“Technicians from the second economic committee have been building a mobile ICBM launch pad since May,” a North Korean citizen living in Gangwon Province said. “The factory makes six freight trains a month and will be used as ICBM mobile launch pads.”

The trains were customized to withstand missile launches, the source said. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

In-depth @csmonitor piece on how 2013 #ChongChonGang bust helped UN, US etc unveil #NKorea's shell ops more widely: https://t.co/3QE2ezmZv9

— Aidan Foster-Carter (@fcaidan) August 29, 2016

There is probably more to this story in regards to why Kim Jong-un would order his execution that has more to do with his bad posture at meetings:

North Korea has carried out the execution of a vice premier and punished two senior officials, a Seoul official said Wednesday, as the North’s leader is seeking to further strengthen his reign of terror.

The official said North Korea executed the 63-year-old Kim Yong-jin by firing squad last month after being branded as an “anti-party and anti-revolutionary element.”

He was investigated by the North’s intelligence agency due to his sitting posture shown at a key parliamentary meeting held in late June.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who took power in late 2011, is believed to have executed more than 100 government and military officials, including his once-powerful uncle Jang Song-thaek, as he seeks to consolidate his oppressive rule.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

New documentary about NKorean defector artist, I AM SUN MU, now available on iTunes: https://t.co/HJ2H4tqo7d pic.twitter.com/SQJAhF4sOd

— Sokeel Park 박석길 (@Sokeel) August 24, 2016

Repackaging identity? South Korean matchmaking service ad promotes 1,000 North marriageable Korean defector women. pic.twitter.com/PmH4tfmaoD

— Elizabeth Shim (@GlobalAsianista) August 22, 2016

North Korea’s submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), “Pukguksong,” is being transported to be loaded onto a sub in this photo released by the (North) Korean Central TV on Aug. 25, 2016. The North claimed full success in the test firing of Pukguksong carried out a day earlier. The missile flew about 500 kilometers toward Japan, according to the South Korean military.  (Yonhap)