It is amazing how gullible people keep falling for these fake news stories they see pop up in their social media feeds and don’t bother to read the article. This recent example of a false news story saying Kim Jong-un was killed by a suicide bomber even impacted the Korean stock market:
A false news story that claimed Kim Jong Un was assassinated caused tremors in South Korea’s foreign exchange market on Friday.
The story published on fake news outlet East Asia Tribune alleged the North Korean leader was attacked by a female suicide bomber and killed in an explosion in Pyongyang.
The article also claimed the report was from Pyongyang’s state television network KCTV.
While the report was quickly dismissed on social media, on Friday morning in Seoul the story affected movements in the currency market, local news service Financial News reported.
The exchange rate for the South Korean won spiked to 1178 won to the U.S. dollar, before closing at 1172.7 won.
Defense stocks also rose momentarily on Friday but once rumors were dispelled trading resumed normal levels, according to local press. [UPI]
I wonder what burger joint Trump would hold this proposed summit at? Would Dennis Rodman be invited?:
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday he would “accept” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the United States and hold nuclear negotiations with him while eating hamburgers, according to news reports.
“If he came here, I’d accept him,” Trump said during campaigning in Atlanta, reaffirming his willingness to meet with the North’s leader, according to reports. “Who the hell cares? I’ll talk to anybody.”
Trump first expressed his willingness to meet with Kim in an interview last month, drawing criticism not only from critics, but also from his own party that such a meeting would end up bolstering the dictator.
But while Trump has insisted on his willingness to speak to the North’s leader, but said he won’t go to the North for such talks.
Should Kim visit the U.S., Trump said he won’t throw him a state dinner.
“I wouldn’t give him a state dinner like China or all these other nations who are ripping us off,” Trump was quoted as saying. “We should be eating a hamburger on a conference table and making better deals.”
Trump said he will only “make a good deal” if he were to hold talks with the North’s leader.
The real-estate tycoon was also quoted as saying that there’s a “10 percent or 20 percent chance” he could talk Kim out of developing nuclear weapons. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I think Donald Trump is over estimating his negotiating skills if he thinks he has up to a 20% chance of talking Kim out of developing nuclear weapons. The only deal I can see that would convince the Kim regime of stopping their nuclear weapons development would be to allow them to conquer South Korea. This is obviously something the US would never agree to so what deal does Trump have in mind that would convince them?
It is ironic that this complaint is coming from the same people who have boasted of turning Seoul into a “sea of fire” and threatened attacks against the US mainland:
North Korea‘s foreign ministry spokesman said he has information on precision strike operations the United States is planning as part of its “blatant war of aggression” against the country.
Pyongyang’s state-controlled news agency KCNA reported the spokesman has evidence Washington is openly discussing air strikes against North Korea’s nuclear facilities.
“The fact that the United States is openly discussing ‘precision strike operations’ is a sign it is on the brink of taking an extremely reckless step,” the spokesman said. “The fact the operation was made public ahead of the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise, that dangerous ‘scenario of war’ taking place in August, cannot be overlooked.”
The spokesman added the alleged U.S. policy justifies Pyongyang’s policy of “Byungjin,” or pursuing economic development alongside the development of nuclear weapons. [UPI]
You can read the rest at the link, If anything I would hope US military planners do have an on-the-shelf plan to bomb North Korean nuclear facilities if the situation arose.
It was reportedly bulldozed because Kim Jong-un said it reminded him of his executed uncle Jang Song-taek. Like many anonymous reports out of North Korea who knows?
The Kim regime appears to be hoping that a future Trump presidency would in fact withdraw US troops from South Korea:
North Korean state media has praised US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, describing him as a “wise politician” and “far-sighted candidate” who could help unify the Korean peninsula.
An editorial in DPRK Today, an official media outlet, welcomed the Republican presidential candidate’s proposal to hold direct talks with Kim Jong-un, saying he could help bring about Pyongyang’s “Yankee go home” policy.
“There are many positive aspects to Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies’,” wrote Han Yong-mook, who described himself as a Chinese North Korean scholar.
“Trump said he will not get involved in the war between the South and the North, isn’t this fortunate from North Korea’ perspective?”
Analysts said that although the editorial was not officially from Pyongyang, it was sure to reflect thinking inside the regime.
“This is very striking,” said Aidan Foster-Carter of the University of Leeds. “Admittedly it is not exactly Pyongyang speaking, or at least not the DPRK government in an official capacity. But it is certainly Pyongyang flying a kite, or testing the waters.
“For the rest of us, this is a timely reminder – if it were needed – of just how completely Trump plans to tear up established US policy in the region.”
The editorial referred to Trump’s speech in March, in which he suggested he would withdraw US military forces from Seoul if South Korea did not increase spending on defence.
“Yes do it, now … Who knew that the slogan ‘Yankee Go Home’ would come true like this? The day when the ‘Yankee Go Home’ slogan becomes real would be the day of Korean Unification.”
The article urged Seoul not to increase defence spending so as to prompt a US withdrawal, and urged American voters not to choose the Democratic hopeful, Hillary Clinton. [The Guardian]
This is why classified information is not stored on an unclassified network because it is so easy for hackers to get access to it:
Hours after police revealed that North Korea gained access to a host of defense-related documents during a hacking attack in February, the South Korean military asserted that no military secrets were included in the leaked documents.
A military official said on Monday that most of the 42-thousand documents stolen from South Korea’s SK Networks and Korean Air by the North are already open to the public.
The leaked documents reportedly include the design map of the wing of the U.S. F-15 fighter jet and photos of parts of a medium altitude unmanned surveillance vehicle.
The compromised data of the U.S. F-15 fighter jet is said to be simple specifications of the jet’s external design such as its length and width, and has no relevance to South Korea’s F-15K. The military said that the core part of the design of the medium altitude unmanned surveillance vehicle was not leaked. [KBS World Radio]
North Korea is using the 14th anniversary of the tragic 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident to bash the United States and call for a withdrawal of US troops from Korea:
Site of 2002 armored vehicle accident.
North Korean media urged South Koreans to turn toward anti-American sentiment and repel U.S. troops from South Korea, and mentioned the 2002 deaths of two schoolgirls crushed by a U.S. military vehicle.
The Yangju highway incident in South Korea, which happened 14 years ago today, was a tragic accident in which a U.S. military vehicle hit and crushed two Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun, both 14, while they walked beside a narrow country road on their way to a birthday party.
“Fourteen years ago today, two South Korean schoolgirls at the age of 14 were struck and killed by devilish homicidal American imperialists’ Caterpillar truck,” wrote state newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Monday, calling the incident “only one of many incidents in which American invaders have crushed the dignity and sovereignty of South Koreans.”
Pyongyang’s other publications also described the incident, and urged South Koreans to repel U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula.
“This evilest deed of all evil deeds is only capable of being carried out by the soldiers of an evil empire, which was built on the skulls and blood of Native Americans …” wrote state medial portal Uriminzokkiri. [NK News]
ROK Drop favorite Andrei Lankov has an opinion piece in the Korea Times that explains how China’s supposed harsh line with North Korea was merely a short term fluctuation and things are back to normal between the two countries:
For a brief while, South Korean diplomats were in a rather celebratory mood: it looked like China, for a change, had joined the ROK and the U.S. in their efforts to subject North Korea to the toughest sanctions ever. Indeed, in early March the Chinese representative in the U.N. Security Council voted for Resolution 2270 which introduced such measures, and for a while the united front looked like a reality.
Frankly, for yours truly, it was a surprise: the harsh position Beijing had seemingly committed itself to was unprecedented, and China’s switch happened quite suddenly. However, now it seems that this change was merely a short-term fluctuation.
There are many signs of a warming of relations between China and North Korea. In early June, Ri Su-yong, the former North Korean foreign minister who currently is the Korean Workers’ Party vice-chairman responsible for foreign relations, visited Beijing. It is the first time since 2013 that a North Korean official of such high rank has appeared in the Chinese capital. Among other things, Ri was granted an audience with President Xi Jinping. It lasted merely 20 minutes and therefore was, first and foremost, a formality, but it still had much symbolic meaning. It is equally important that the Chinese media devoted much space to describing the visit.
Simultaneously, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman expressed dissatisfaction with the new U.S. policy initiative ― unilateral sanctions, targeting banks that deal with North Korea. On the other hand, the U.S. authorities subpoenaed Huawei, a massive Chinese telecommunication company, for its alleged deals with North Korea. There is also a growing body of evidence that China is not being as strict with sanctions’ enforcement as many had hoped for.
There is nothing surprising about all this. Like it or not, when it comes to the Korean Peninsula, Chinese interests are seriously different from those of the United States. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but like I have always said China is never going to take a position that would risk the stability of the Kim regime. As bad as the regime is, to the Chinese government it is better than the alternative of regime collapse and the unification of the peninsula under South Korean rule backed with US troops.
