This incident involving a Chinese fishing boat shows the very dangerous situation that could have materialized along the inter-Korean Northern Limit Line (NLL) because the Chinese government absolutely refuses to control their fishermen:
Incheon Coast Guard chase a Chinese fishing vessel to seize it for violating South Korea’s territorial waters off Yeonpyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea, on Saturday. The Chinese vessel blockaded its wheelhouse and tried to flee by sailing north with South Korean Coast Guard officials still on board. [NEWSIS]A Chinese vessel illegally fishing off Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea was seized by Incheon Coast Guard – but not before trying to flee with Korean officers still on board.
A 50-ton Chinese boat illegally caught some 45 kilograms (99 pounds) of crab and small fish in waters 8.6 kilometers (5.3 miles) to the south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas, at around 4:40 p.m. Saturday afternoon, according to the Incheon Coast Guard Sunday. This was in violation of Korea’s exclusive economic zone.
During the raid, 14 Korean Coast Guard officers boarded the Chinese fishing vessel to seize it.
But Chinese sailors blockaded the wheelhouse and tried to take off with the Coast Guard officers still on board. They managed to sail around 1 kilometer to the north before control was seized.
This led to the arrest of all seven Chinese sailors on board, who were transported to Incheon.
Had the South Korean Coast Guard crossed over into North Korean waters, it could have given Pyongyang a pretext for some form of retaliation. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if the Chinese government puts out some statement trying to put blame on the Korean Coast Guard for the incident. I have always believed that these fishermen need to be jailed and their boats auctioned off as a deterrent to this activity. These Chinese fishermen have not only injured and murdered Korean Coast Guard personnel in the past, but now they are even threatening to start a war with North Korea.
It just makes me wonder where all the money is coming from for the Kim regime to build up their nuclear, ballistic missile and conventional military strength like this? Here may be the most important modernization that did not require any money to get:
Joseph S. Bermudez, an expert on North Korea’s military, told The Washington Post: “I get a sense that when Kim Jong Un came to power, he looked around and said, ‘We have all these old guys running things who haven’t been in the field for 15 or 20 years. We need people who know what they’re talking about.'”
“Before, you had leaders of special forces who couldn’t run a mile. Now, we see artillery division commanders that actually have an artillery background,” Bermudez continued. [Business Insider]
The Joong Ang Ilbo has an article published that shows some of the details of the foreign tourism industry in North Korea. Like I have always said I encourage people to not travel to North Korea because the money is used to subsidize the Kim regime and not some misguided sense of engagement some may think their travel to North Korea is offering. I will travel to North Korea one day when the Kim regime is gone and the Korea’s are reunited:
Canadian businessman Michael Spavor, who hosts sporting exchanges with North Korea.
The eyes of the world were upon Pyongyang when the former NBA player, Dennis Rodman, visited the city with the Harlem Globetrotters, an American exhibition basketball team, on Feb. 26, 2013. The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un personally threw a welcoming party for the American athletes.
Another visit was made by retired Japanese wrestler-cum-lawmaker Kanji Inoki, more widely known by his ring name, Antonio Inoki, who appeared at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport with his fellow wrestlers in August 2014. An international competition was held in Ryugyong Chung Ju-yung Gymnasium, built by the South’s Hyundai Group in an effort to initiate inter-Korean sports events. The event signaled the return of pro-wrestling to North Korea for the first time in 18 years.
Behind both these events was Michael Spavor, the head of Paektu Cultural Exchange, a “non-profit organization that facilitates cultural exchanges and business with North Korea,” according to its website. The Canadian enterpriser maintains a close connection with Kim, hosting not only sports exchanges, but investment briefings for foreigners, as well.
As inter-Korean relations experience a chill, foreign influence is rapidly squeezing through the gap, pervading cultural, political, economic and social domains, helping define the country’s change under Kim Jong-un’s leadership. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Members of the North’s Korean Children’s Union (KCU) enjoy free time at a water park in Pyongyang in this photo released by the Korean Central News Agency, the country’s state media, on June 8, 2016. The report said the young children took a tour of the capital city as they celebrated the 70th founding anniversary of the KCU. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
I am a bit surprised that it has taken this long for a North Korean defector to serve in the ROK military:
A North Korean defector recently completed his mandatory military service in South Korea, according to Korea Hana Foundation, a state-funded organization helping defectors, Thursday.
Kim Ji-hwan, 22, was discharged on Feb. 23 after serving two years as an Air Force sergeant in the 8th Fighter Wing in Wonju, Gangwon Province.
Kim is the first North Korean defector to have completed military service here, according to the Military Manpower Administration (MMA).
All able-bodied South Korean men aged between 19 and 37 are subject to compulsory military duty. But those who escaped from North Korea can legally refuse the draft under the Conscription Law, the MMA said.
Despite this, Kim applied for service in the Air Force. There are no other North Korean defectors serving in the military.
Kim fled to South Korea with his family in 2005. [Korea Times]
Considering the few friends Pyongyang has this is a big diplomatic win by South Korea by getting Uganda to enforce the United Nations sanctions against North Korea:
Uganda has told North Korean military and police personnel stationed there to go home, according to multiple diplomatic sources.
One diplomatic source told the JoongAng Ilbo that President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda asked about 10 North Korean military training officials and another group of 40 police personnel stationed there to leave the country. No deadline was specified by the source.
Another source said Museveni had diplomatically told the North Koreans that his government no longer required their aid and cooperation in the field of national security and military strategy. Both sources asked not to be named, given the classified nature of the information.
If true, Museveni’s decision to drive North Koreans out of his country comes just a week after he promised visiting South Korean President Park Geun-hye that he would honor UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea approved in March, which bars Pyongyang from having any military links with foreign countries, including weapons trade and training deals. The South Korean government estimates about 50 North Korean military and police training officials were staying in Uganda as of February 2016. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
In honor of the passing of Muhammad Ali I figured I would share this story about the trip the legendary boxer made to North Korea. Muhammad Ali joined a group of professional wrestlers on a friendship tour to North Korea in 1995 at the invitation of famous Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki. One thing you can always count in life is that pro-wrestlers will tell it the way it is and that is what Ric Flair does about his 1995 trip to North Korea in his book, Ric Flair: To Be the Man:
The second we arrived in Pyongyang, our passports were confiscated. Then each of us was assigned a “cultural attache” to follow us everywhere; these guys even sat in the dressing room while we went over our matches. In the dining room where the wrestlers ate, there was a camera in each corner, monitoring every movement. When Scott Norton called his wife and said, “This place sucks,” his phone line suddenly went dead.
Here is my favorite line from the book where Muhammad Ali also tell things the way it is:
Muhammad Ali (right) and Antonio Inoki (left) enjoy the 1995 Pyongyang Festival
Because of the ravages of Parkinson’s disease, it was difficult to understand Muhammad Ali when he spoke. But at one function, we were sitting at a big, round table with a group of North Korean luminaries when one of the guys started rambling on about the moral superiority of North Korea, and how they could take out the United States or Japan any time they wanted. Suddenly, Ali piped up, clear as a bell, “No wonder we hate these motherf*ckers.”
I wonder how the North Korean translators translated that. Probably the same way they translated this:
Before we left North Korea, our handlers requested that I make a speech at the airport. They even had specific points that they expected me to articulate — things like North Korea being a worker’s paradise, and that America sucked. I looked at Bischoff and told him, “I can’t say this.” The last thing I wanted was to be quoted in the American press making statements that I didn’t mean. So I just spouted some generic comments and thanked everyone for their hospitality.
This is how I was quoted by the official North Korean press agency: “Before I leave this beautiful and peaceful country, I would like to make a tribute to the great leader, Mr. Kim Il Sung (the late father of the current dictator), who devoted his life to the Korean people’s happiness, prosperity, and Korean unification. His Excellency, Kim Il Sung, will always be with us.”
Muhammad Ali probably should have never went on the trip, but at least he did not fall for the propaganda like so many other foreigners like Dennis Rodman did when they traveled to North Korea.
The first reported bank robbery has happened in North Korea. This is something pretty audacious to try in North Korea. It looks like the bank employees are in big trouble:
Staffs work at a North Korean bank. / Courtesy of dprk360.com
North Korea has now suffered its first bank robbery.
The unknown robbers infiltrated the Shinam branch of the Central Bank of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the city of Cheongjin, North Hamgyong Province, on Apr 4, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday citing a source from the province.
The robbers broke into the bank’s main entrance and stole an unspecified amount of cash, the source said. The bank is currently out of service. The provincial police assumed there was an accomplice inside the bank.
After the incident at the branch, other branches of the bank beefed up security by bringing in more security personnel. Shinam branch took care of many customers compared with other branches because it mainly brokered trades. [Korea Times]
