Tag: North Korea

In an effort to probably save face after their failed Musudan test the North Koreans have now launched an submarine launched ballistic missile that may have failed as well.  Unlike the Musudan test though that may have blown up at the launch site this test did at least go 30 kilometers before possibly failing, so they did get some data from the launch to continue to improve the missile.  An SLBM is particularly dangerous because a submarine can appear anywhere and launch which makes missile defense especially challenging:

North Korea launched what appeared to be a ballistic missile from a submarine in the East Sea Saturday, the South Korean military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said North Korea fired a projectile that it believes was a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) around 6:30 p.m. The JCS said it is keeping close tabs on the North Korean military while maintaining its readiness posture.

The JCS added that the missile flew for only about 30 kilometers, well short of the minimum SLBM range of 300 km.

Separately, a South Korean government source said the SLBM’s engine ignited after it was ejected from a 2,000-ton Sinpo-class submarine but it only traveled a short distance.

“This projectile, which is believed to be an SLBM, was airborne for a couple of minutes,” the source added.

Last month, a U.S. news report claimed that North Korea had conducted a ground test of an SLBM, the KN-11. The Washington Free Beacon said the test on March 16 involved an ejection test of the KN-11 from a canister at Sinpo shipyard on the North’s eastern coast.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This makes the missile test failure even worse for the North Koreans if true:

North Korea’s failed launch of its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile last week sparked a huge fireball that damaged the launcher and could have also injured or killed missile technicians on the ground, a news report said Wednesday.

The missile blew up about 300 feet above the ground, shortly after Friday’s launch, and U.S. strategic defense surveillance systems, both airborne and space-based, videotaped the explosion, the Washington Free Beacon reported, citing U.S. defense officials.

Two road-mobile Musudan launchers were set up for the test, but the second was not fired after the explosion, the report said. It also cited a diplomatic source as saying that the likely cause of the explosion was a faulty fuel system or turbo pump failure.

The Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile is an indigenous variant of the Russian SS-N-6 submarine-launched ballistic missile, known by Moscow as the R-27, which the North obtained covertly from Russia sometime in the 1990s, the report said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The Kim regime must be pretty embarrassed by the recent mass defection of 13 overseas restaurant workers because they are continuing to make the claim that they were all kidnapped:

In the video, the North Koreans are seen demanding the immediate repatriation of the defectors.

The defections are being labeled as an operation of the “treasonous clique of [South Korean President] Park Geun-hye,” and the two videos feature various North Koreans: restaurant workers, a student and a party cadre.

One interviewee condemned the South Korean puppets for “kidnapping our people 10 at a time,” adding “the [South Korean] presidential Blue House, the devil’s lair, should be destroyed and our people delivered as soon as possible.”

On April 7, North Koreans – a man and 12 women – had arrived in the South after they sought asylum at Seoul’s embassy in Bangkok.

North Korea has slammed Seoul, claiming South Korea “dragged” the North Koreans to a “Southeast Asian country.”  [UPI]

You can read more at the link.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/721633900913557504

Like many things with North Korea who knows if this is true, but I would not be surprised if it was:

North Korea has embarked on a nationwide crackdown on residents who wear Western clothing or have Western hairstyles. This includes wearing jeans and having piercings.

According to Japan’s Asia Press, the country is placing tight controls ahead of its 7th Congress of the Workers’ Party in May. The clampdown is mainly focused on North Hamgyong province and Yanggang province which are close to China.  [IB Times]

And look at this, Kim Jong-un even has his own “brownshirts” to carry out his edicts:

It is believed that ‘inspection units’ comprising teenagers dedicated to Kim, are on the streets looking for those who dare to break the new dress code. “They target supposed capitalist tendencies such as length of skirts, the shape of shoes, T-shirts, hairstyles and clothes,” Rimjin-Gang reported.

The North Korean Youth Union which is made up of volunteers who sign up once they reach 15 years old. They are tasked with preventing “the corruption of public morals.” The volunteers also target unmarried women who carry out business in marketplaces as this is forbidden.

You can read the rest at the link.

It looks like President Park must have put some pressure on the Mexican government to go ahead and seize the North Korean ship they detained two years ago when it ran aground on a reef and the North Korean government refused to pay fees for its release:

Mexico has confiscated a North Korean commercial ship affiliated with a North Korean firm blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council for suspicions of shipping weapons of mass destruction, an official notice revealed Friday.

In an official gazette, the Mexican prosecution said it has decided to seize the 6,700-ton Mu Du Bong, adding the decision will immediately take effect.

The prosecution said the decision was largely based on consideration for government expenses such as mooring fees, which North Korea has been refusing, or unable, to pay.

However, decision also comes after the Mexican president, in a meeting with his South Korean counterpart earlier in the month, said his country will handle the North Korean ship in a manner that faithfully carries out its obligation as a member of the United Nations.

The North Korean freighter had been detained at Mexico’s Tuxpan port since July 2014 when it was rescued after becoming aground on a reef off the Mexican city. The ship was later determined to be affiliated with a North Korean firm blacklisted under U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at punishing the communist North for its military provocations.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I maintain that the US should pursue sanctions that not only allow the seizing of North Korean ships conducting illicit activity, but also the selling of them to pay reparations to the victims of the Kim regime’s various terrorist attacks and deadly provocations over the decades.

For NKorean defectors, the USB is mightier than the nuke. https://t.co/XOAqZnMj9g w/ @AlastairGale pic.twitter.com/35HNoh4OsK

— Sokeel Park 박석길 (@Sokeel) April 14, 2016

This undated photo shows a passport and Chinese documents held by one of the 13 North Korean restaurant workers stationed in China who participated in a successful group defection to South Korea last week. The photo, taken and kept by the restaurant operator, shows that the passport is marked as being for official use, as is commonly issued to North Koreans sent abroad to work. The document shows a foreigner’s registration of resident address in China. China’s foreign ministry had said that the defectors left the country carrying valid passports. (Yonhap)

If North Korea was to conduct an above ground nuclear test it would be interesting to see what the Chinese reaction to it would be since they would be affected by the fallout:

A Japanese daily says North Korea could go ahead with a nuclear test in the atmosphere as its final means of a threat to hold direct talks with the United States.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said in a Thursday column that there are skeptical views of North Korea conducting an anachronistic atmospheric nuclear test. However, it noted the North’s past behavior such as the shelling of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island, torpedoing of the South’s Cheonan vessel and infiltration of special forces into the South using a submarine.

The paper argued the North will find it necessary to bring forth something even more shocking to draw U.S. attention, and quoted expert opinions that the possibility of an atmospheric nuke test can no longer be excluded.

At atmospheric nuclear explosion causes radioactive fallout in all directions and poses a devastating impact on the environment.

No country in the world has conducted such a test since China in 1980.  [KBS World Radio]

The North Koreans recently test for the first time their Musudan missile which has the potential range of targeting the US island of Guam:

North Korea conducted its first test-launch of the medium-range ballistic missile Musudan early Friday from its east coast, but the launch ended in failure, officials said.

“North Korea seems to have tried a missile launch from the East Sea area in the early morning today, but it is presumed to have failed,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Sources said the launched missile was the Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), also known as the BM-25.

The missile lifted off at 5:30 a.m. but deviated from a “normal” trajectory, a JCS official told reporters.

After their joint assessment, South Korea and the United States concluded the launch as a failure, he added without elaborating further.

One military official said the IRBM disappeared from the South Korean side’s surveillance radar shortly after liftoff.

“It is highly likely that it may have exploded in the air. A further analysis is under way,” according to the official.

It was North Korea’s first test-launch of a Musudan missile, which the North is believed to have deployed against South Korea and other countries since 2007. The North has reportedly deployed some 30 Musudan missiles.  [Yonhap]

Reuters is reporting that it blew up on the launch pad which seems to contradict the ROK military saying that it fell off of their radar screens shortly after launch:

A U.S. government source told Reuters on Friday the missile never got off the launch pad, instead bursting into flames on the ground. It was not yet clear what caused the failure but further tests are expected, said the source, who asked not to be named.  [Reuters]

Whatever the failure was, this does not mean the North Koreans did not receive valuable data from this launch.  So hopefully people are not too quick to dismiss the North’s Musudan missile threat because of this one test.  It took them multiple launches to perfect their Taepodong-2 rocket technology which has had two straight successful launches putting objects into space.  If they continue to test the Musudan which I would think they will likely do, they are bound to figure out the errors that occurred in this test and perfect the technology.