The photo, released on July 25, 2016, by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, shows one of the stamps that the North’s State Stamp Bureau has issued to feature a congress of the North’s ruling party held May 5-9. (Yonhap)
This is actually a pretty good idea which also makes me wonder if it can also help deter North Korean submarine activity as well in the area?:
North Korea on Monday condemned the artificial reef structures being placed in the West Sea by South Korea to control Chinese illegal fishing activities, calling it part of Seoul’s military provocations against Pyongyang’s maritime demarcation line.
In March, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) said it will set up a total of eight artificial reef structures in the eastern waters off Baengnyeongdo, Daecheongdo and Socheongdo, all located south of the northern limit line (NLL), to prevent Chinese fishing vessels from intruding into the South Korean waters.
Drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the NLL is the de facto sea border between the two Koreas, although the North has not recognized it as such.
According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the West Sea Fleet of the Navy of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) said South Korea’s new artificial structures can only be seen a encroachments on its waters.
“The fish-breeding reef, structure weighing dozens of tons, is being set up in the sensitive waters which witnessed three skirmishes in the past, a fact clearly showing the provocative nature,” KCNA said.
Such provocative acts have revealed Seoul’s “sinister intention” to spark a military conflict in the world’s most dangerous waters, the North’s state-run media outlet claimed. [Yonhap]
It is a bit ironic that the technology that the Chinese government worked so hard to steal from the US and other countries is now being stolen from them by the North Koreans:
North Korean authorities are increasingly sending information and communication technology workers abroad to steal advanced technology from China that the isolated country cannot develop on its own, sources inside North Korea said.
“The cutting-edge technology data collected overseas by North Korea’s State Security Department and Military Reconnaissance General Bureau has helped the country to rapidly develop scientific technology,” a source in the capital Pyongyang told RFA’s Korea Service.
“[Leader] Kim Jong Un has emphasized that this is the example that information and communication technology (ICT) workers should follow,” he said.
Kim Jong Un has encouraged ICT workers to steal advanced technology because he believes that North Koreans cannot develop it on its own even in 10 years, the source said.
“He told top executives that this was an expansion of a secret operation to introduce new cutting-edge technologies that were brought in from advanced nations,” he said.
The scheme includes roughly 1,000 North Korean ICT specialists who currently reside in China, he said. Kim Jong Un praises them as “patriots.” [Radio Free Asia]
You can read more at the link.
Just another example of how serious the North Koreans are about fully developing their SLBM technology:
North Korea is in the midst of building a new naval base on the east coast to accommodate submarines capable of firing submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), a British military media agency said Sunday.
According to the report by IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, North Korea is currently building the new military facility at a location some 2.25 kilometers from Sinpo Shipyard, the homeport of North Korea’s ballistic missile submarine program, in South Hamgyong Province.
The existing shipyard currently houses 2,000-ton Sinpo-class submarines, which have been used by North Korea to test-fire SLBMs.
The purpose of the new naval base is presumed to be housing submarines larger than the Sinpo-class, the report added.
Sources earlier said Pyongyang is known to be developing a 3,000-ton submarine that can carry more than three SLBMs. The existing Sinpo-class submarine can hold only one SLBM at a time. [Yonhap]
As I have said before, North Korea developing SLBMs is a game changer because it complicates missile defenses. Missile defense batteries have to point their radars in the direction of where the threat is coming from. Right now with North Korea it is easy because their missiles are all launched from a northerly direction from South Korea. With SLBMs they could come from any direction if the submarines are not properly tracked.
A ROK Drop favorite Bruce Klingner has an article published which provides his response to critics of the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea:
South Korea critics claim fears of radiation risks from the missile shield’s radar, saying it would kill bees and irradiate melons. The U.S. invited South Korean media to the missile shield’s deployment site on Guam for independent tests. Measured levels of the electromagnetic waves emanating from the radar revealed the system operates at an intensity far safer than required by Korean law, i.e. the radar emitted only 0.007 percent of the 10 watts per square meter allowed under Korean standards. Rep. Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, told South Korean reporters that there have been no signs of environmental impact nor any noise complaints from the defense system’s deployment on the island.
Critics fail to understand that North Korea will continue to develop nuclear-tipped missiles regardless of whether the advanced defense system is deployed or not. If THAAD were to intercept even one North Korean nuclear missile, it would save hundreds of thousands of South Korean and U.S. lives. [The Daily Signal]
You can read more at the link, but Mr. Klingner is absolutely correct that North Korea is going to continue to develop their nuclear and missile programs regardless of what happens with the THAAD issue.
https://twitter.com/freekorea_us/status/755905514748407808
Adjusted angle image of map, map from table in-front of KJU from the other days DPRK three missile tests. pic.twitter.com/rz6X6JqOh1
— Nathan J Hunt (@ISNJH) July 21, 2016
This photo, captured from China’s top social networking service Weibo on July 22, 2016, shows a North Korean Air Koryo jet bound for Beijing from Pyongyang parked on the tarmac of an airport in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang after making an emergency landing there due to a fire. (Yonhap)
Vital update on Kim Jong-un's pants. (During Youth League guidance, effectively endorsing the 1946 model.) pic.twitter.com/Di6mve1FF4
— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) July 18, 2016
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (2nd from L) watches a soldier holding a 1-meter-long drone during a recent visit to an army science and technology museum, in this photo released by a North Korean TV station on July 18, 2016. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
