Tag: North Korea

You have to hand it to the North Koreans for being creative here and showing how to take money from people and then claim it to be a Social Security program like we do here in the US:

North Korea has notified South Korea of its unilateral decision to raise the minimum wage for its workers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex by 5.18 percent, the unification ministry said Thursday.

In a fax message sent Tuesday, the North said it would increase the minimum wage from $70.35 to $74 starting on March 1, a ministry official told reporters.

In addition, the North announced that it would collect 15 percent of their basic wage plus overtime payments as “social security,” he said. Currently, the South’s firms pay 15 percent of the basic wage alone.

The North Korean workers’ average wage amounted to $141.4 per month in 2014, according to the ministry’s data.

Under Pyongyang’s plan, South Korean firms will have to pay $164 on average for a North Korean worker a month, up 5.53 percent from the current $155, said the official.

He stressed that the South’s government can’t accept the North’s move.

“The two sides are supposed to set wages for workers at the complex and other working conditions through mutual consultations,” he said. “The government will advise our firms to pay the current level of wages until the issue is settled through consultations between the related authorities of the two sides.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Some people are thinking just that:

U.S. defense authorities are said to be concerned about the possibility of North Korean provocations during joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises beginning next month. Following the North’s anti-ship missile drills last week, Washington is not ruling out the possibility that Pyongyang could fire some of its new missiles to raise tension during the annual exercises in the South.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.

Report: Diplomatic sources in Washington said Monday that U.S. defense authorities are concerned about possible localized provocations by North Korea during South Korean and U.S.’ military exercises next month.

Concerns emerged as North Korea test-fired a new high-precision anti-ship rocket in the East Sea in early February. And weeks later, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un staged a massive military exercise, firing again what it called new and cutting-edge anti-ship missiles.

During the highly publicized drill last week, the North Korean military simulated an attack and landing on South Korean islands in the Yellow Sea.

Experts like Thomas Karako of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) assessed earlier this month that the new battery indeed appears to be a more advanced weapon.  [KBS World]

You can read more at the link, but one of the theories the CSIS is throwing around is that the anti-ship missile could be tested during the exercise in the highly contested western maritime border area.

Mongolia will ship 25,000 tons of coal to North Korea’s Rajin port: http://t.co/A16xo7gPDb

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) February 25, 2015

NSA chief says Sony attack traced to North Korea http://t.co/OPUbo9JjLe via @thomsonreuters

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) February 21, 2015

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