Tag: North Korea

Tweet of the Day: North Korea Planning Terrorist Attacks?

| February 20, 2016

Documents Reveal Kaesong Industrial Park Infiltrated With North Korean Spies

| February 20, 2016

I hope no one is shocked by this news that the North Koreans sent undercover agents into the Kaesong Industrial complex to monitor workers and steal technology.  I would be more surprised if they did not.  It will be interesting to see how much the North Koreans have learned over the past ten years to see if they can run this industrial park by themselves:

Internal North Korean documents exclusively obtained by KBS have revealed that the communist state may have prepared for freezing assets of South Korean businesses at the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex from the early stages of the cross-border project.

Papers from organizations of North Korea’s Workers’ Party in 2006 show directives to Pyongyang officials to learn and acquire the South’s “advanced” technologies at the Gaeseong industrial park.

While calling South Korea the “enemy,” the orders also stress that the North’s officials must be able to manage and run the factory facilities without the South’s help.

Another exclusively obtained document suggests that the North Korean regime also set up a surveillance unit to monitor workers at the factory park. Circumstantial evidence has also been revealed to suggest that North Korean soldiers could have been employed at the industrial complex as undercover agents.

Papers from North Korea’s Sixth Infantry Division also show authorities there had aimed to minimize the consumption and intake of South Korean products and “capitalist” culture.  [KBS World]

You can read more at the link.

South Korea Asks Its Citizens to Not Eat at North Korean Restaurants

| February 19, 2016

South Koreans are asking their citizens to not eat at North Korean sponsored restaurants overseas to cut hard currency going to the Kim regime.  Should the US government takes this mentality a step forward and ban travel to North Korea by its citizens to also cut hard currency going to the regime, not to mention stopping the constant trickle of American detainee issues that have to be dealt with:

South Koreans’ stomachs are the latest front in the standoff with North Korea.

South Koreans have been told not to eat at North Korea’s restaurants around the world, although such visits aren’t illegal, the South’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Most of the restaurants are in China, and Chinese and other nationalities frequent them more than South Koreans do, so analysts see little impact. But the move is symbolic of a tougher stance from the South since North Korea’s nuclear test last month and its recent rocket launch, which many outsiders see as a banned test of ballistic missile technology.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

Picture of the Day: Celebration of A Dictator

| February 19, 2016

Celebration of former N.K. leader's birthday

North Korean synchronized swimmers put on a show in Pyongyang on Feb. 15, 2016, to mark the birthday a day later of the country’s former leader Kim Jong-il in this photo released by the North’s state media, the Korean Central News Agency. Kim is the son of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung and the father of the current leader, Kim Jong-un. (For use in S. Korea only. No redistribution) (Yonhap)

Tweet of the Day: The Moranbong Band is Back

| February 18, 2016

Tweet of the Day: The Fall of Ri Yong-gil

| February 17, 2016

Could Kim Jong-nam Be Beijing’s Future Man In Pyongyang?

| February 17, 2016

Dennis Halpin at NK News has a long article about how the Chinese could turn to Kim Jong-un’s half brother, Kim Jong-nam to lead North Korea if they tire of Jong-un’s antics.  It is a good read about Kim Jong-nam if you don’t know much about him, but it seems installing him with a palace coup would be tough to do in North Korea:

Kim Jong Nam, despite a globetrotting playboy image which has seen him periodically surface in Southeast Asian watering holes in Indonesia and Malaysia, has voiced criticisms of his younger brother similar to those espoused by his own student son. Kim Jong Nam reportedly emailed a Japanese journalist in 2012 a prediction that “the Kim Jong Un regime will not last long.” He has also voiced support for economic restructuring, stating that “without reforms, North Korea will collapse,” which would be music to the ears of the leadership in Beijing. Kim Jong Nam’s close familial ties to his purged uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was widely seen as Beijing’s point man in Pyongyang, would also likely earn him kudos among the Chinese leadership facing a quandary of what to do about North Korea. The question is how to preserve a reliable buffer state against American influence in South Korea while curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs which increasingly threaten regional stability. Kim Jong Nam, despite his bad boy image, would likely prove far more pliant than his disagreeable and defiant little brother.  [NK News]

You can read the rest at the link, but I look at Kim Jong-nam more likely taking power if a regime collapse scenario was to happen and the Chinese intervened and needed to get a new leader quickly in place.  Kim Jong-nam could then open up the country following the Chinese model becuase Kim Jong-nam does not have any human rights violation, crimes against humanity, or any other excess baggage hanging over his head if he decides to open up the country and the reality of the North Korean gulags becomes public.  He can blame it all on the old regime and vow that he is working on fixing the problems the old regime created.  This may be enough to get world leaders to except him and work to drop sanctions and offer financial assistance in exchange for ending their nuclear program.

Those are just some quick thoughts I have, does anyone else see any other scenario that Kim Jong-nam could take power?

Tweet of the Day: “North Korea Core Security Issue of Our Time”

| February 16, 2016

Tweet of the Day: “We Will Be Done If Chinese Sanctions Reinforced”

| February 16, 2016

South Korea Raises Warning of North Korean Cyberattacks

| February 16, 2016

It looks like ROK intelligence must have had some chatter warning them of a possible upcoming cyberattack:

interkorean flag

South Korea has upgraded its military information surveillance status in response to growing threats of North Korean cyber attacks, a military official said Sunday.

“We believe there’s a larger possibility that North Korea may launch cyber attacks on the South, and recently upgraded our Information Operation Condition,” the official said, without elaborating further.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.