Tag: North Korea

I always wonder if these tests are just highly choreographed deception operations to make us think the North Koreans have more capability then they really do?

North Korea appears to have conducted a test of a missile ejection launcher that helps fire missiles from submarines, South Korean military sources said Friday.

The communist North “tested the ejection launcher from the seashore near the Sinpo South Shipyard on Jan. 23 for missiles that can be fired from submarines,” one military source here said, requesting anonymity.

The ejection test last month from the North’s northeast coast simulated the initial stage of boosting a missile out of a submarine launch tube, the source said.

According to South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials, the North has been developing a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in a move to boost its underwater missile strike capabilities after launching a new 2,500-ton submarine last year.

The North’s move appears to be part of its efforts to equip its missiles with miniaturized nuclear bombs, raising further concerns over the North’s evolving missile and nuclear threats, say North Korean watchers.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Let’s hope the Kim regime thugs up in North Korea are not stupid enough to actually try and do this as one of their provocations:

http://img.yonhapnews.co.kr/etc/inner/EN/2015/02/21/AEN20150221000552315_01_i.jpg

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected an artillery and landing exercise by front-line units deployed near the Yellow Sea, Pyongyang’s media reported Saturday.

The drill, joined by artillery forces of the 4th Corp. and island defense units, focused on training for “striking and seizing an island,” said the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The 4th Corp. led the North’s shelling of a South Korean border island, Yeonpyeong, in November 2010, which killed four South Korean marines and civilians and wounded more than a dozen others.

Conducted at the direct instruction of Kim, the main aim of the latest training was to prepare for a fight against the United States, it added.

“The entire army should make their training more intense, as the anti-Japanese guerrillas did in Mount Paektu, to prepare all soldiers as stalwart combatants and turn all units into an iron-willed guards unit and thus bring the anti-U.S. confrontation to the final conclusion by crushing the enemies promptly in case they pounce upon the DPRK,” Kim was quoted as saying. The DPRK is the acronym for the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

North Korean children hold a rally in Pyongyang on Feb. 16, 2015 to celebrate the birth anniversary of the late leader Kim Jong-il. (No sale outside of South Korea) (KCNA-Yonhap)

Here is what the wonks over at the Council for Foreign Relations have to say about North Korea nuclear brinkmanship strategy:

North Korea’s food situation and its overall economy appear to be stable despite increased sanctions on the communist regime — an indication that Pyongyang’s policy of simultaneously pursuing nuclear and economic development is working, a U.S. expert said Wednesday.

Scott Snyder, a senior researcher on Korea at the Council Foreign Relations, cited the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) saying in its latest assessment that the North’s food production is estimated at 5.94 million tons in 2014, compared to the 5.93 million tons in 2013-2014.

That represents the highest level since the North’s economic collapse in the mid-1990s.

Experts on North Korea’s agricultural sector have said that the increase in the country’s food production is attributable to agricultural reform measures that center on allowing farmers to keep at least one third of their harvests.

“The FAO assessment of North Korean food production is consistent with anecdotal reports that North Korea has made productivity improvements in recent years and that the North Korean economy is stable if not growing slowly,” Snyder said in an article on the CFR’s website.

“This means that North Korea’s two-pronged policy of simultaneous economic and nuclear development is showing some modest results on the economic side. The problem is that the nuclear priority remains in place and North Korea’s efforts to develop missile and nuclear programs continue to proceed unchecked,” he said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made the so-called “Byeongjin” policy one of the country’s biggest goals, pledging to rebuild the moribund economy while forging ahead with its nuclear program.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but remember this assessment the next time you hear someone claim North Korea has a food shortage and thus need free money from the international community.

Via a reader tip comes news that Kim Jong-un has a new haircut and some apparently shaved eyebrows as well:

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un debuted a new haircut — and a new … eyebrowcut? — at a politburo meeting on Wednesday. The style is a variation on Kim’s signature shaved sides, but with the top now sculpted into a high, wedge-shaped pompadour that sits atop Kim’s head like a hat, or perhaps a small, dormant woodland creature. The North Korean despot accessorized his new look with partially-shaven eyebrows that now stop just above his pupils.

This new haircut raises a number of important questions for anyone who follows North Korean politics. For instance:

1. What instructions did Kim Jong Un give his barber that resulted in this style?
2. Was it, “Hey, you know trapezoids?”
3. Or perhaps, “You know my main priority is to ensure that my ears do not feel crowded, let’s work on a ‘do that really lets the old face-handles breathe”?  [VOX.com]

You can read more at the link.

Mike Green (@JapanChair) #CSISLive:US should work on getting China to stand together on issue on refoulement of NK refugees @CSISKoreaChair

— Darcie Draudt (@darciedraudt) February 17, 2015

This KCNA photo released on Feb. 10, 2015, introduces a newly completed foodstuff factory in Pyongyang. (No sale outside of South Korea) (KCNA-Yonhap)

North Korean people visit an anti-American education center in South Hwanghae Province, south of Pyongyang, on Feb. 8, 2015. (No sale outside of South Korea) (KCNA-Yonhap)

This Rodong Sinmun photo released on Feb. 11, 2015 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting the construction site of an orphanage in Wonsan on the east coast. (Yonhap)

Why Kim doesn’t love Hitler, and why this matters http://t.co/o7OUQUQFF5

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) February 11, 2015