Tag: North Korea

The United States has announced more financial sanctions will be implemented on North Korea:

The United States on Wednesday designated North Korea a “primary money laundering concern,” its newest way of freezing it out of the international financial system to curb its nuclear and missile programs.

South Korea quickly lauded the move, predicting it will have a more “far-reaching effect” than previous financial sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury Department prohibited certain U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts with North Korean financial institutions. It also prohibited the use of third-country U.S. correspondent bank accounts to process transactions for North Korean financial institutions working on behalf of the Kim Jong-un government and state-controlled corporations.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but according to ROK Drop favorite One Free Korea these sanctions are “the single most powerful sanction the United States has ever imposed on North Korea.”  That is the good news, but it does make me wonder why did it take this long to finally implement them on North Korea?  For those looking for the details on how these sanctions will be implemented I highly recommend reading One Free Korea’s posting.  Hopefully these financial sanctions are vigorously enforced considering how skilled North Korea is at avoid past sanctions.  If so these sanctions really could hit the Kim regime hard.

Not exactly a slam-dunk for bilateral relations. North Korea accused of cheating at basketball games with China https://t.co/w9Le0Ek6qb

— Elizabeth Shim (@GlobalAsianista) May 31, 2016

Ri Su-yong, a vice chairman of the central committee under North Korea’s ruling Workers Party of Korea, is seen inside a car after arriving at Beijing’s international airport on May 31, 2016, in this photo released by Kyodo News. (Yonhap)

#DPRK vs. #ROK in the air. https://t.co/BH3qXtuCCl

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 30, 2016

This most recent failure officially makes North Korea O for 4 for their road mobile Musudan Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) test launches:

North Korea apparently failed with an attempted missile launch Tuesday, the latest in a series of setbacks for a ballistic weapons programme that aspires to threaten the US mainland.

South Korea’s defence ministry detected the dawn launch effort, which Japan condemned as an unacceptable and “provocative” act.

The ministry declined to speculate on the missile type, but military sources cited by local media said it was a powerful, medium-range “Musudan” that has already undergone three failed launches this year.

UN resolutions ban North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, although it regularly fires short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast.

Tuesday’s effort came with tensions still running high on the divided Korean peninsula following the North’s fourth nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch a month later.

“We believe that it was a failure,” said Jeon Ha-Gyu, spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“As to why and how it failed, we are in the process of analysing that,” Jeon told a press briefing.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but the AFP article did not state what happened with the launch.  The South Korean media on the other hand is reporting that the missile once again blew up on the launch pad:

Anchor: North Korea has again sought to fire a ballistic missile but the launch ended in failure. Sources have suggested that the missile exploded at a mobile launch pad immediately after the order for the launch was given. As it marked the fourth failed attempt in a row to launch the ballistic missile, the South Korean military is suspecting an engine defect.
Our Kim Bum-soo reports.

Report: North Korea has test-fired another ballistic missile but the launch ended in failure.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said that the North Korean military fired a projectile off its east coast near the Wonsan region at around 5:20 a.m on Tuesday.

JCS officials said that the launch was unsuccessful. Other sources suggested the possibility that the missile exploded on its mobile launcher immediately after a fire button was pressed.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link, but the South Korean military believes their is a structural defect with the Russian BM-25 engine they modified for their Musudans.  Also according to the article it is believed that North Korea has 50 Musdudan missiles in their inventory.  At this rate they are going to blow them all up testing them.

What is even more significant about these failures is that their road mobile KN-08 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) could also be considered to be of low capability since it has never been tested.  The KN-08 is North Korea’s main weapon they use to threaten the United States with nuclear destruction.  If they cannot get their road mobile Musudan IRBM technology to work what are the chances that their road mobile ICBM works to threaten the US with?

Front page news in Uganda is pleasant reading for South Korea's president. https://t.co/5nLkwTr4dA pic.twitter.com/GgbsNYnA4n

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) May 30, 2016

After failing spectacularly at three prior Musudan missile launches the North Koreans are apparently going to try and fire a fourth one:

Japan put its military on alert on Monday for a possible North Korean ballistic missile firing, while South Korea also said it had detected evidence of launch preparations, officials from Japan and South Korea said.

Tension in the region has been high since North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles.

Japan ordered naval destroyers and anti-ballistic missile Patriot batteries to be ready to shoot down any projectile heading for Japan, Japan’s NHK state broadcaster said.

A Japanese official, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the order. A spokesmen for Japan’s defense ministry declined to comment.

A Patriot missile battery on the grounds of Japan’s Ministry of Defense had its missile tubes elevated to a firing position.

The South Korean defense official declined to comment on what type of missile might be launched but South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said officials believe it would be an intermediate-range Musudan missile.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but what is significant about this is that the Musudan is the missile that the North Koreans have developed to specifically target the US territory of Guam and threaten US forces there with a nuclear strike.  As it is now Kim Jong-un might just be happy if his Musudan gets up in the air much less reaching Guam.

Graduation celebrations in NK? No. Rather, think "general agricultural mobilization" of university students. https://t.co/Ialb5yKbcU

— Richard Horgan (@LiberateLaura) May 27, 2016

I once had the opportunity to talk to a North Korean defector and this is very similar to what the defector told the group I was with in regards to why people believe what they do in North Korea:

How serious is the brainwashing in North Korea?
When Kim Il Sung died in 1994, I was shocked — I never expected him to die. Because we truly believed he was a god, who didn’t smoke, drink alcohol or go to the bathroom, or [have sex] with women.

Some people criticize North Koreans and ask, Are they stupid? How can they believe those ridiculous things? But I say, It doesn’t matter if you’re smart, if you were born in North Korea you would be exactly like us. We don’t know what freedom is. We have never enjoyed it. We don’t know what democracy is or capitalism. We are completely blocked. Not only from the outside world, but also domestically as it’s not easy to travel around inside North Korea unless you have a travel certificate from the regime. You only have one TV channel — it’s a propaganda channel. We believed that’s utopia because we cannot compare.  [TIME]

You can read much more of this interview with Hyeonseo Lee at the link such as how she strongly agrees with the increased sanctions on the Kim regime.

As I've said before, NK is a gerontocracy headed by a juvenile! https://t.co/mhlWNuRHb0

— Aidan Foster-Carter (@fcaidan) May 24, 2016