Tag: North Korea

I would think that as long as the Kim regime is making money off of this they would ensure the quality of the water is high.  However, regardless of the quality no one should buy this water which only provides more foreign currency to sustain the Kim regime:

Of all the options for bottled water in the world, South Korea accepted a shipment from North Korea.

Not just one, but ten full cargo containers arrived at the southeastern port city of Busan on Sunday.

Keep in mind that the two countries are technically still in a state of war that dates back to the 1950s.

But besides those minor details, the South and North agreed to team up with Russia to develop a reliable transportation system.

The end goal?

To move 120,000 tons of Eastern European coal down through the peninsula and into the possession of South Korea. Russia successfully moved 40,500 tons of the projected goal back in November of 2014.

The bottled water acts as merely a symbol rather than a burgeoning industry for the North.  [The Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

North Korea 'declares war' on deforestation at Paris climate talks https://t.co/cIp6vQ6BEE

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) December 7, 2015

A documentary aired on Dec. 3, 2015, by the North’s Korean Central Broadcast TV shows Kim Rak-gyom (circled), commander of strategic forces, bearing a shoulder insignia with four stars, indicating he has been promoted to general. The strategic forces, upgraded at the end of 2013 from the strategic rocket forces, commands and controls missile units. Kim was promoted to colonel general, equivalent to lieutenant general, in February last year, and his fast rise suggests he was rewarded for his achievements in rocket development. (Yonhap)

Senior North Korean official missing for three weeks shows up at Kim Jong Un’s visit to tree nursery. pic.twitter.com/5yF9WGZ3xE

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) December 2, 2015

When it comes to these anonymous sources from North Korea it is best to keep some skepticism of what is claimed:

Explosives found at North Korea’s refurbished Kalma International Airport at Wonsan in October caused the cancellation of leader Kim Jong-un’s planned inspection of the site, according to a U.S.-based nonprofit international broadcaster, Friday.

Citing a source in Pyongyang, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that 100 devices, each weighing 200 grams, were found in the ceiling of an interior counter of the airport on Oct. 6 by security staff, one day ahead of Kim’s visit. The explosives are normally used to create tunnels.

At the time, Kim was conducting a series of inspections of buildings and sites constructed to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party that fell on Oct. 10.

Citing another source, the report said that security staff are still investigating the case. [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

It seems like every few months we hear a report of the North Koreans getting ready for a nuclear test so no one really knows for sure:

North Korea is believed to be excavating a new tunnel at its nuclear test site located in Punggye-ri, according to a U.S. research center that specializes in North Korea affairs, Wednesday.

The conclusions reached by the center’s analysis have prompted speculation that Pyongyang is preparing for a forth nuclear test.

Citing satellite imagery taken from October to November, 38 North have said that Pyongyang is excavating a new tunnel in a new area of the site in addition to the three others where the repressive state has either conducted nuclear tests or excavated tunnels in the past.

“While there are no indications that a nuclear test is imminent, the new tunnel adds to North Korea’s ability to conduct additional detonations at Punggye-ri in the coming years if it chooses to do so,” said the institute. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

You would think she should just be happy she has refuge in the United States after being part of the Kim regime’s inner circle and would want to keep a low profile:

The US-based aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un filed a defamation suit in South Korea on Wednesday against three defectors from her reclusive homeland.

Ko Yong-Suk, who looked after Kim for years when he was at school in Switzerland, said the three defectors, who escaped the North and settled in South Korea in the 1990s, were guilty of repeatedly “spreading false information” about her and her family.

Ko took asylum in the United States in 1998 with her husband, and the suit was filed on her behalf by her Seoul-based lawyer, Kang Yong-Seok.

The younger sister of Kim’s mother, who died in France in 2004, Ko is seeking a total of 60 million won ($51,900) for remarks the defectors made on South Korean TV talk shows between 2013 and 2014.

Kang said the defamation allegations covered claims that Ko once managed a secret fund for Kim’s late father, Kim Jong-Il, that her father collaborated during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula and that she had plastic surgery after defecting to the US.

“The defectors made groundless remarks without really knowing about her life,” the lawyer told AFP.  [AFP via reader tip]

You can read the rest at the link.

https://twitter.com/freekorea_us/status/671150640698155008

Can you imagine a whole country of people with Kim Jong-un haircuts?  Well that is reportedly what the Kim regime is trying to do:

North Korean officials are ordering young men to keep their hair short and are enforcing their tonsorial diktat if they find anyone who fails to comply.

A source in Pyongyang last week said authorities have issued an order requiring men to keep their hair no longer than 2 cm, while women are required to keep their hair bobbed. “University student monitors are walking around with scissors and cutting off the hair of offenders,” the source said.

Young men have been told to model their hairstyle on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whose eccentric hairdo is known in the North as the “ambitious” style, where the sides and back of the head are almost clean shaven and only the top is left. [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

This really should not come as much of a surprise since the vast majority of North Korean defectors are women and when they arrive in the South they have few job skills to make a living with.  Turning towards prostitution to make ends meet is something that women with financial issues have done for centuries.  Additionally many of these North Korean women had to turn to prostitution while refugees in China in order to make money to get to South Korea in the first place:

A considerable number of female defectors from North Korea have become sex workers here after experiencing difficulties adjusting to life in the South, according to media reports.

KBS, a state-run broadcaster, aired a program on Sunday night about the plight of some 40 to 50 female defectors who work at “ticket dabangs,” coffee shops that illegally sell sex, in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. Some of these places are owned by North Korean defectors.

The women are usually in their late 30s to mid 40s. The clients, mostly in their 50s to 70s, are not only residents of Hwaseong, but travel to the town from other regions.

The women spend time with clients in karaoke and go to motel rooms with them as well as delivering coffee, which is the ostensible business activity.

A female defector told the program that each client pays 25,000 won ($22) per hour for singing together in karaoke rooms. Another woman asked for a more than 100,000 won to provide sexual services when a member of the production crew disguised as a client contacted her.

It was already known that ticket dabangs recruiting female North Korean defectors are also prevalent in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

The women said that they used to work at normal companies or work as waitresses in restaurants after they defected, but their monthly salaries of some 1.3 to 1.7 million won was not enough to maintain their livelihood and support their family members left behind in the North. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.