Tag: North Korea

I would think the Japanese would want the Aegis ships deployed more to collect data on the rocket launch with their radars:

The Japanese government is mulling deploying Aegis destroyers in the East Sea and the East China Sea to intercept a long-range rocket North Korea plans to launch around the 70th anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party on October 10.

Japan’s Sankei Shimbun daily reported on Sunday that Tokyo is considering deploying the destroyers equipped with sea-based missile defenses to the East Sea and the East China Sea to prevent the North’s rocket or its debris from falling on Japanese territory.

The paper said Japan is also considering deploying the Air Self-Defense Forces’ surface-to-air guided Patriot missiles in the area near the capital city and Okinawa.  [KBS World Radio]

And SecState Kerry keeps talking about tougher sanctions…and talking…and no action on NK human rights, etc. https://t.co/ii1dDE2c2Y

— Bruce Klingner (@BruceKlingner) September 26, 2015

I would be surprised if North Korea does not notify the IMO and ICAO of their expected rocket launch because of how they have been wanting to normalize their space program and not link it to their ICBM development program.  This could be a sign that they are not 100% confident that the rocket launch will be ready by October 10th.  I guess we will see what happens:

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said North Korea has not given them any notice regarding a long-range rocket launch.

The Voice of American said on Saturday that the two international bodies confirmed via email that Pyongyang has not given any notice.

North Korea had notified both organizations of its plan prior to its long-range rocket launch in December 2012, informing them of when the launch will take place and where the rocket will fall.

North Korea has suggested the possibility of launching a space rocket around October 10th, the anniversary of the founding of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. North’s Korean Central News Agency carried an interview earlier this month with a key scientist, who discussed the possibility of such a plan.  [KBS World Radio]

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]