Tag: North Korea

This photo released by Rodong Sinmun on Dec. 5, 2014, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting the North Korean military’s Unit 1313 to inspect its winter training. (Yonhap)

Reports are stating that Sony has linked North Korea to the cyberattack against their company:

A Sony Pictures internal investigation has identified North Korea as the source of a devastating computer attack, and the studio is deliberating whether to announce the findings publicly, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

The company’s investigation has linked the hackers that stole a major holiday film release and unleashed a destructive computer worm to a North Korean group known as DarkSeoul, which was responsible for similar attacks on South Korean banks and television studios last year, a second person familiar with the investigation said.  [Stars & Stripes]

I don’t think there is much Sony can do about this other than they need to improve their network security from these attacks.  If North Korea was able to do this imagine what the Russians or Chinese could do with their advanced hacking operations? Companies need to make network security a top priority.

KCNA ridicules "EU’s Bat-blind Behavior" on human rights http://t.co/EYyM6AoHU7

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) December 3, 2014

Two months ago the infamous DMZ Christmas tree was pulled down and now for whatever reason the Defense Ministry has decided to allow a Christian group to construct a new one:

A North Korean religious association slammed a South Korean Christian group’s plan to light a big Christmas tree in the Aegibong Peak Observatory in Gimpo, south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

It said Friday that the lighting is, “an act of madness and it is unacceptable.”

“The Christian Council of Korea (CCK) attempts to use religion as a means to spur confrontation between the people of the two sides. It should realize that the malicious plan could lead to a military action from the North,” the North’s association said.

The reaction came weeks after the CCK unveiled a plan to set up a big Christmas tree in the observatory and light it on Dec. 23. The tree will be dressed in Christmas lights for two weeks until Jan. 6, the group said.

The Ministry of National Defense approved the plan.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the tree is used by the ROK military as a psychological warfare weapon.  The North Koreans can look across the border and see the lights of South Korea to include this Christmas tree which stands in stark contrast to the regular power outages they face in North Korea.

An event marking World AIDS Day is underway at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on Dec. 1, 2014. (No sale outside of South Korea) (KCNA-Yonhap)

Reading between the lines here this Chinese General appears to be signaling to the North Koreans that they will not save the Kim regime if they do something foolish like start a war.  However, I see nothing in here that says they will not get involved to stabilize a post-Kim regime North Korea after they do something foolish:

China would not help save North Korea even if the neighboring North’s regime collapses, a former general of China’s military said Tuesday, in rare explicit comments that possibly reflect Beijing’s growing frustration with its unpredictable ally.

“China is not a savior,” Wang Hongguang, former deputy commander of the Nanjing military region of the People’s Liberation Army, wrote in an op-ed published by the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties with China’s ruling Communist Party.

“If North Korea really collapses, even China can’t save it,” Wang said.

The comments by Wang were in response to a recent contribution by another Chinese expert, who urged Beijing not to “abandon” North Korea.  [Yonhap]

Here is more of what Wang had to say from the South China Morning Post:

Wang said China would not get involved in any new war on the Korean peninsula.

“China cannot influence the situation on the Korean peninsula … China has no need to light a fire and get burnt. Whoever provokes a conflagration bears responsibility,” he wrote. “Now there is no more ’socialist camp’. It is not necessary for China’s younger generation to fight a war for another country.”

Wang criticised the North for its nuclear development, using it as an example of how the country’s interests can differ from China’s and saying it had “already brought about the serious threat of nuclear contamination in China’s border area”.

But he also slammed Western countries for “demonising” North Korea and interfering in its internal affairs in the name of human rights. “China absolutely does not meddle,” he wrote.

Beijing will “support what should be supported and oppose what should be opposed” regarding the North, Wang said, indicating that China was not ready to completely give up on its troublesome neighbour.

China will neither “court” nor “abandon” North Korea, he wrote. “This should be China’s basic attitude.” [South China Morning Post]

You can read more at the link.

10 years later, North Korea might have finally gotten revenge for Team America: World Police http://t.co/pAAYKiEK0O pic.twitter.com/S7ca5mSfXY

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) December 3, 2014

For people in North Korea that were unlucky enough to be named “Jong-un” when they were born, they now have to change their name:

North Korea has ordered its people not to use the name “Kim Jong-un” in a bid to protect the supreme authority of the current leader, according to Pyongyang’s official document confirmed Wednesday.

In January 2011, then leader Kim Jong-il issued a decree urging people with the same name to change it “voluntarily.” As North Korea is regarded as a totalitarian state, it is unclear whether the decree was actually voluntary.

The North has also prohibited parents from registering their newborn babies with the current leader’s name, according to the document titled “a task to achieve.” The use of the given name “Jong-un” is also banned.

While unthinkable in most other countries, the rules are not new in the state long ruled by the Kim family.  [Yonhap]

North Korea has reportedly began their routine winter training cycle with Kim Jong-un giving tips to an artillery unit:

The North Korean military has kicked off a winter exercise at the instruction of leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang’s state media reported Tuesday.

All troops of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) started “the new year combat and political drill,” said the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The North’s military routinely holds such training from December through March.

The North’s leader chose an artillery unit for his first “field guidance” during the defense exercise season.

He inspected “the Artillery Company under KPA Unit 963,” teaching ways to make the company “one of the crack shots by conducting the drill suited to the nature of its combat duty,” according to the KCNA.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Like with most things from North Korea who knows if this is true or not:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the country’s senior officials not to smoke foreign cigarettes, saying it is a matter of patriotism, a source said Tuesday.

Kim, who is apparently a habitual smoker himself, said he sees no need for foreign cigarettes in his country as domestic ones have good quality as well, according to the source involved in trade with North Korea.

Kim said smoking foreign cigarettes means a lack of patriotism, added the source based in China.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.