Tag: North Korea

Tweet of the Day: Intranet TV Arrives in North Korea

| August 27, 2016

Tweet of the Day: How I Became A North Korean

| August 26, 2016

Uzbekistan Shuts Down North Korean Embassy

| August 25, 2016

Another one bites the dust:

north korea nuke

North Korea shut down its embassy in Uzbekistan early this month.

Embassy staff returned to North Korea late last month, while the building in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent was sold along with the official cars and other assets.

The Uzbek government demanded the closure as part of international sanctions against North Korea in response to the North’s latest nuclear test in January.

A diplomatic source in Uzbekistan said, “Diplomatic relations have not been severed, but North Korean diplomats were virtually evicted by the Uzbek government rather than voluntarily closing down the mission due to financial problems.”

The Tashkent embassy was the North’s sole remaining diplomatic mission in Central Asia after the embassy in Kazakhstan was shut down in 1998.   [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but considering how these North Korean embassies are primarily used for illicit activity to bring in foreign currency to the Kim regime who would want one of these in their backyard?

Tweet of the Day: Non-Profit Wants to Treat TB In NK

| August 24, 2016

North Korea Plants Landmines Near Bridge of No Return

| August 24, 2016

Via a reader tip comes this news that the North Koreans decided to do their part and begin a provocation cycle during the UFG16 military exercise by planting landmines at the Panmunjom peace village:

DMZ image

The American-led U.N. Command in South Korea on Tuesday accused North Korea of planting land mines near a truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.

Much of the border, one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints, is strewn with land mines and laced with barbed wire. But South Korean media said no land mines had been planted in the area of the truce village of Panmunjom until North Korea placed an unspecified number there last week.

The U.N. Command said in a statement that it “strongly condemns” any North Korean action that jeopardizes the safety of personnel in the DMZ.

It said it wouldn’t speculate on why North Korea placed the mines there. Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean government official, said the North apparently planted the mines to prevent front-line North Korean soldiers from defecting to South Korea via Panmunjom.  [Seattle Times]

You can read more at the link, but it would be surprising to see a North Korean soldier defect at Panmunjom because of how specially selected they are for that mission.  Anyway according to the Joong Ang Ilbo the mines were planted near the Bridge of No Return:


Image of the Bridge of No Return via the DMZ webpage.

“The South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities detected last week that the North Korean soldiers were planting multiple mines north of the Bridge of No Return near Panmunjom,” the source said. “It is the first time that they witnessed the North’s land mine placement in that area since the Armistice Agreement was signed in July 1953.”

The Bridge of No Return is located inside the truce village, west of the Joint Security Area. The bridge crosses the military demarcation line between the two Koreas, and it was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the Korean War. The name came from the final ultimatum given to the prisoners of war before their repatriation, because they would never be allowed to return once they cross the bridge to return to their homeland.

“Under the regulations governing the truce, planting land mines is forbidden in the areas near the Panmunjom,” said a South Korean government official. “The guards are banned from carrying heavy weapons. The United Nations Command strongly protested to the North about the move.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but keep in mind that the Bridge of No Return was the location of the 1976 DMZ Axe Murder Incident.  August 18th was the 40 year anniversary of this incident which leads me to believe the planting of the landmines was a North Korean jab at the US in regards to the anniversary of this incident.

Stephen Haggard Sees Recent Defections As Sign of Possible Regime Collapse

| August 23, 2016

It would be interesting to know if the recent defection of a North Korean diplomat also included the confiscation of regime funds:

Defection by North Korean diplomats who have access to foreign currency holdings would make it harder for North Korea to bring in money from abroad which can eventually hasten the communist regime’s collapse in the event of a financial crisis, a renowned U.S. scholar said Monday.

The analysis by Stephen Haggard, professor at the University of California San Diego, reflects the speculation of growing instability in North Korea, as seen by recent defections of North Korean overseas workers who had played a part in repatriating hard currency to the cash-strapped regime.

Last week, the South Korean government confirmed that a London-based senior North Korean diplomat defected to the South with his family, which can be viewed as another sign of cracks in the North’s ability to keep its key people in check.

Seoul did not confirm whether the diplomat, Thae Yong-ho, brought foreign currency with him, but news reports said his escape may have dealt a blow to North Korea’s overseas earnings because he reportedly may have had knowledge of the foreign exchange operations of the Kim Jong-un regime in Europe.

In April, a group of 13 North Korean employees working at a North Korean state-run restaurant in China defected to South Korea en mass, spawning speculations that the sanctions-squeezed North Korean elite were feeling the pinch of United Nations’ sanctions on the communist country and opting to bolt.

“Historically, I’ve never thought of the collapse of North Korea in terms of political collapse, but I believe in the scenario … with respect to the possibility of financial crisis,” the professor said in a seminar arranged by the East Asia Foundation in Seoul.

North Korea’s thinning foreign currency income, caused by UN-imposed trade bans and the shutdown of its inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, left the country vulnerable to the possibility of a “sudden” financial crisis that can lead to a subsequent regime collapse, he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but as Mr. Haggard points out in the article as long as China continues to not impose UN sanctions on North Korea the Kim regime will likely continue to survive.

Tweet of the Day: Kim Jong-un Visits Hog Farm

| August 23, 2016

Tweet of the Day: Concerns of North Korean Assassination Squads

| August 22, 2016

Kim Regime Claims Diplomat Defector was A Child Rapist Criminal

| August 22, 2016

Yesterday the regime was claiming their diplomat was coerced into defecting and today they are claiming he is a criminal:

nk defector image

In its first official response to the high-profile defection, the North accused the South of launching an “anti-DPRK (North Korea) smear campaign and confrontation.”

“The Park Geun-hye group of traitors in South Korea carried out an operation to bring to South Korea a DPRK’s diplomat who fled his mission in London with his family for fear of legal punishment for his crimes,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English dispatch monitored in Seoul.

The KCNA did not identify Thae by his name but claimed the fugitive “was instructed to return home in June last for questioning as regards the embezzlement of huge amount of state funds, leakage of state secrets for money and rape of a minor.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Differences In Provocations

| August 21, 2016