Tag: North Korea

Yeonmi Park who is a well known North Korean human rights activist has recently just published a book about her experiences growing up in North Korea titled In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom.  A good portion of the book is highlighted in this Telegraph article which has little nuggets like this about growing up in North Korea:

One of the main problems in North Korea was a fertiliser shortage. When the economy collapsed in the 1990s the Soviet Union stopped sending fertiliser to us, and our own factories stopped producing it. This led to crop failures that made the famine even worse.

So the government came up with a campaign to fill the fertiliser gap with a local and renewable source: human and animal waste. Every worker and schoolchild had a quota to fill. You can imagine what kind of problems this created for our families. Every member of the household had a daily assignment, so when we got up in the morning, it was like a war.

My aunts were the most competitive. ‘Remember not to poop in school,’ my aunt in Kowon told me every day. ‘Wait to do it here.’ Whenever my aunt in Songnam-ri travelled away from home and had to poop somewhere else, she loudly complained that she didn’t have a plastic bag with her to save it.

‘Next time I’ll remember,’ she would say. Some people would lock up their outhouses to keep the poop thieves away. At school the teachers would send us out into the streets to find dog mess and carry it back to class. This is not something you see every day in the West.  [The Telegraph]

The whole article is worth a read.

https://twitter.com/freekorea_us/status/647846997534318592

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) inspects the northern free-trade city of Rason, which has been devastated by a flood, in this photo provided by North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun on Sept. 18, 2015. Typhoon Goni soaked the northern part of North Korea, particularly hitting Rason. The flood is known to have left at least 40 people dead and about 1,420 families homeless. Kim ordered the completion of flood recovery works in the city before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea on Oct. 10. (Yonhap)

Via One Free Korea comes this news that the Kim regime has supposedly up their detection capability of Chinese cell phone signals originating within North Korea by using German technology:

According to local sources, North Korean authorities have recently begun carrying small, German manufactured radar detectors when patrolling near the Chinese border for the purpose of monitoring international phone calls made on Chinese-made cell phones.

These intensified measures follow a proliferation of stationary detectors installed in North Hamgyong Province in conjunction with enhanced wiretapping technology, as previously reported by Daily NK. [Daily NK]

You can read more at the link to include over at One Free Korea who has good commentary about this issue.  Considering all the shell companies the North Koreans have it would probably be very difficult for German companies to prevent the cell of such devices, but it definitely should be investigated.

Activity detected at the launch pad at #NorthKorea's Sohae launch facility, but its purpose is unclear http://t.co/oKADTmD1WW

— 38 North (@38NorthNK) September 24, 2015

https://twitter.com/RimjingangNK/status/646262347191861248

Here is the latest special warfare unit being established by the ROK military:

The South Korean Army’s Special Warfare Command plans to form a commando unit to destroy North Korean strategic weapons facilities.

The special operations command on Wednesday presented the plan in its report to the parliamentary defense committee.

A military official said that the command is looking to set up a special unit to infiltrate enemy territory and strike its key strategic facilities.

The official said that key strategic facilities refer to facilities for long-range missiles and nuclear weapons, mobile missile launchers and weapons of mass destruction.

The official said that the military made the decision to adapt to modern warfare as the North is bolstering asymmetric warfare capabilities.

The command said it also plans to form its own aviation forces for special operations to enhance infiltration capabilities.   [KBS World Radio]

China probably is not being invited to this big North Korean anniversary because of the criticism their government has given towards the prospect of a North Korean nuclear test or rocket launch next month:

China is not among nations invited to attend North Korea’s key national anniversary next month, a diplomatic source said Monday, reflecting strained political ties between the allies.

North Korea has indicated that it may launch a long-range rocket on or around Oct. 10 to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of its Workers’ Party. Any launch will spark international condemnation as a disguised ballistic missile test, which is banned under U.N. resolutions.

North Korea sent invitations to some nations in Africa and South America, but China, the North’s economic lifeline and diplomatic backer, has not been invited to attend the Oct. 10 ceremony, the source said on the condition of anonymity.

“To my knowledge, China has not been invited to take part in the Oct. 10 ceremony,” the source said.   [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

For Pyongyang, a gesture of peace is often a prelude to a provocation: http://t.co/IbKMmCQpTX pic.twitter.com/xCeX8DtfKS

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) September 20, 2015

That is what the commandant of the US Coast Guard had to say recently:

The United States Coast Guard maintains “a significant force package” as part of a war plan for North Korea under which all vessels and servicemembers would be deployed, the commandant of the U.S. body said Wednesday.

“We have a campaign plan that addresses North Korea and what forces do we need to bring to bear in the advance,” Adm. Paul Zukunft of the U.S. Coast Guard said in an interview with a small group of reporters in Seoul.

“I cannot elaborate, but I will state that the Coast Guard has a significant force package, ships and coastguardsmen on our part of the campaign plan, which will augment the overall force for a campaign with North Korea,” the four-star commander said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.