Tag: North Korea

North Korea Believed to Have Hacked Human Rights Activists Computer

| May 2, 2016

Over the years I have had a number of technical problems keeping the site up, but I don’t think they were caused by the North Koreans though stories like this one make me wonder:

A prominent U.S. human rights activist claimed Friday that North Korea hacked into his computer last week which contained a document on cooperation between North Korea and Syria.

Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said that when he woke up at a hotel during his recent visit to Latin America, he found that his computer had been “compromised and remotely accessed.”

The Washington-based non-governmental organization has focused on shedding light on North Korea’s human rights violations and improving the North’s rights records.

“Only one document was opened. That document contains some material that I had received from Syrian human rights defenders regarding Syria-North Korea cooperation,” Scarlatoiu told Yonhap News Agency on the sidelines of a forum in Seoul.

“There is only one suspect here,” he said, referring to North Korea.

Scarlatoiu said that cyber security experts whom he has contacted said that “most likely the attack came from North Korea,” though he has no hard evidence for that. His claim has yet to be independently verified.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

Why North Korea is Trying To Develop a Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile

| May 1, 2016

I wonder how much of North Korea’s submarine launched ballistic missile technology is a charade to make the outside world think they have advanced their technology more than they really have?:

North Korea’s new sea-launched, nuclear-capable ballistic missile and the submarine that fires it are both technologically backward, unreliable, and wickedly unsafe for the unfortunate souls tasked with operating them.In short, Pyongyang’s new undersea nuke—which the hermit regime test-launched off the country’s eastern coast on April 23—is a dud by any normal standard.

But that doesn’t matter, because normal standards of atomic safety and effectiveness don’t apply to North Korea’s totalitarian regime. Pyongyang has nuclear weapons plus at least one submarine that, however unreliably, can launch them. That rudimentary atomic capability is probably all the regime needs to deter the rest of the world… while also bending the international system’s rules for its own benefit.  (……)

The submarine in question, apparently built in secrecy some time before 2010, appears to be a modified version of a Yugoslavian sub design from the mid-1970s.Approximately 220 feet long and displacing around 1,500 tons of water, the North Korean vessel is ancient and tiny compared to the latest U.S. and Russian ballistic-missile submarines, which can stretch 500 feet or more from bow to stern and displace 18,000 tons of water.

And the North Korean Pongdae-class sub—named for the boiler plant that serves as the official cover for the shipyard that reportedly built the vessel—is surely no less accident-prone than Pyongyang’s other submarines, one of which went missing and presumably sank while on patrol in early March.“I certainly wouldn’t want to be on a North Korean submarine,” Eric Wertheim, an independent U.S. naval analyst and author of Combat Fleets of the World, told The Daily Beast. “They’re not the safest of underwater platforms.”  [The Daily Beast]

You can read the rest at the link.

 

North Korea Builds Blue House Replica to Target with Artillery

| April 30, 2016

Here is another example of the strategic messaging the North Koreans are sending towards the ROK that they can target and destroy Seoul:

Satellite imagery of a replica of the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae that North Korea has set up in preparations for a large-scale artillery assault exercise.

North Korea is preparing to launch a large-scale artillery assault drill on a replica of the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in a move to fan cross-border tensions in the runup to a rare congress of its ruling party, the military here said Wednesday.

About 30 artillery pieces have been brought to a training range just outside of Pyongyang where a replica of Cheong Wa Dae, about half its actual size, was set up in early April, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said.

The types of artillery cannot be identified because they are covered up, he said, citing satellite surveillance results.

“The North is likely to conduct an actual exercise in the near future,” according to the official.

The move is intended to instill animosity among North Koreans toward Seoul’s leadership and to tighten internal unity ahead of the congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea set to start on May 6, he noted.

In a string of warlike rhetoric, the North has repeatedly threatened to launch strikes on the presidential office and South Korean state agencies.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

North Korea Now 0 for 3 With Their Musudan Launches

| April 29, 2016

I would not want to be part of the North Korean engineer team responsible for the production of the Musudan right now.  It is pretty embarrassing for the Kim regime that three of these Musudans have now failed right after launch:

North Korea fired off a second Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) after it failed in its first attempt on Thursday, but this latest launch also seems to have ended in failure, South Korea’s military said.

“North Korea fired off what appears to be another Musudan missile at about 7:26 p.m. in Wonsan, Kangwon Province, but this also ended in failure,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Earlier in the day, the North launched the same type of missile from the vicinity of Wonsan but it is known to have crashed a few seconds later.

The second attempt marks the third time that Pyongyang test fired its intermediate-range ballistic missile in less than two weeks. The first time it tested the missile was on April 15, but that launch ended in what experts called a catastrophic failure.  [Yonhap]

North Korea’s Second Musudan Launch Reportedly Ends In Failure

| April 29, 2016

It appears that whatever issues the North Koreans had with their first Musudan launch they have not been able to identify because the missile has reportedly once again blown up shortly after launch.  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.  These failed tests also calls into question their other road mobile missile technology such as the KN-08 which they claim can target the US mainland with nuclear weapons:

North Korea fired off what appeared to be its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) early Thursday, but the launch seems to have ended in failure, a military official said.

The missile appears to be the same model that North Korea tried to launch on April 15, according to the insider.

“The missile, presumed to be a Musudan, was fired around 6:40 a.m. from the vicinity of Wonsan, but it appears to have crashed a few seconds later,” the official said.

“It is highly likely that the launch failed. With that in mind, South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed assessment,” he said.

Others said the missile seems to have plunged into the coastal area, and the failed launch was caught by a U.S. surveillance satellite.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: How to Get A Gig at North Korea’s Political Convention

| April 28, 2016

Picture of the Day: North Korean Missile Wreckage

| April 28, 2016

N. Korean missile wreckage

Seen here is wreckage retrieved by the South Korean Navy of a turbo pump from a long-range rocket that North Korea launched over South Korean territorial waters on Feb. 7, 2016. South Korea’s defense ministry made it public on April 27, 2016, saying the launch was for a ballistic missile test. The North claimed at that time it launched not a missile, but a satellite. The ministry provided this photo. (Yonhap)

Kim Jong-un Announces Date of First North Korean Political Convention in 36 Years

| April 28, 2016

Kim Jong-un has announced the date for his big political convention in an effort to bolster his grip on power in North Korea:

Facing mounting international pressure over its nuclear and missile ambitions, North Korea has set a date for its biggest political convention in decades next week that is expected to bolster young dictator Kim Jong Un’s grip on power.

The ruling Workers’ Party, led by Kim, will open its 7th congress in Pyongyang on May 6, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

It will be the first time the congress, the highest-level decision-making party organ, will be held since 1980, when Kim’s late father Kim Jong Il was awarded a slew of top jobs in a confirmation that he was in line to succeed his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.  (……..)

South Korea’s spy service said Wednesday it expects Kim to use the congress to try to strengthen and prolong his authoritarian leadership. The National Intelligence Service said the convention would handle personnel reshuffles, review state projects and revise party regulations, according to lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo, who attended the private NIS briefing.

Kim has orchestrated a series of high-profile executions, purgings and demotions in what outside analysts say was an attempt to remove potential rivals or show he’s an absolute ruler.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

North Korea Reportedly Ready to Conduct Another Musudan Missile Test

| April 27, 2016

It looks like North Korea must have some confidence that they figured out what happened that caused the destruction of their last Musudan missile launch a couple of weeks ago because they are reportedly ready to try again:

North Korea appears to be readying to test-launch another intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) after the country botched its first attempt earlier in the month, government sources said Tuesday.

North Korea was initially detected to have loaded one or two IRBMs, known as Musudan, on the transporter erector launcher, near the country’s eastern port city of Wonsan, earlier in the month.

On April 15, one of the missiles was test-fired but reportedly blew up only a few seconds after lifting off.

“Signs have been detected that North Korea is trying to launch another Musudan missile after their failed launch that took place earlier on the birthday of (North Korean founder) Kim Il-sung,” one government source said.

“The remaining missile appears to be standing by for launch,” the source noted.

Another source added, “The military is picking up signs which indicate North Korea will likely launch the Musudan missile in the near future, and they are keeping close tabs on that.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: North Korean Labor Unrest in the Middle East

| April 26, 2016