Tag: North Korea

Via One Free Korea comes this interview with 21 year old North Korean defector Yeonmi Park that explains what life was like for her in the “Socialist Paradise”:

In an interview with the Irish Independent, Yeonmi told how her first memory is of being told by her mother at the age of four “not to even whisper because the birds and mice could hear you”.

“That’s what I learned from my mum and that was really early – so that’s the way she could protect me from that terror,” said Yeonmi.

People are not really “living” there, she says of life in that country. “They are surviving there, and surviving is not that easy actually.”

When she was nine, she was forced to watch her best friend’s mother being executed on the street before her eyes.

Her only crime had been she had watched a James Bond movie and shared the DVDs with neighbours.

Watching her body crumble to the ground was a seismic moment in how Yeonmi viewed the world.

“She was a very nice, gentle mother,” she said.

“Always I knew that in North Korea when they kill the people, they justify themselves by saying these are criminals trying to destroy our socialist paradise.

“But I knew that lady. She was not that bad. She was not going to destroy our country,” she said.

“She was just being killed because she watched the Hollywood movie, James Bond. And that’s why she got killed.”

That same year, Yeonmi’s life changed catastrophically when her father, a mid-ranking civil servant, was arrested and imprisoned for selling precious metals to China on the black market.

Her mother, too, was interrogated and thrown into jail. Yeonmi and her sister, Eunmi were left to fend for themselves, at the age of nine and 11, foraging on the mountainsides for grasses, plants, frogs and even dragonflies to avoid starving to death. “Everything I used to see, I ate them,” she said.  [Irish Independent]

You can read more plus watch a video interview with Yeonmi at the link. Make sure to read One Free Korea’s commentary as this link as well.

Unsurprisingly the North Koreans are blaming the ROK for the latest border clash despite their soldier intentionally violating the MDL:

North Korea has threatened to retaliate against South Korea if the South continues to make a military response against its patrol activities around the heavily armed inter-Korean border, the defense minister said Monday.

In a telephone message, the North denounced the South firing shots against its soldiers after warning broadcasts, claiming its activity around the military demarcation line (MDL) was just patrols, the ministry said.

The North also said it will continue to patrol around the MDL in the future.

The North’s response came after its second straight provocation around the border between Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, about 10 North Korean soldiers who were approaching the MDL near Cheolwon, a central border city of the South, returned to their side after warning shots were fired by the South’s soldiers. On Sunday, other North Korean soldiers advanced toward the MDL near Paju, a city located about 40 kilometers northwest of Seoul to cause warning shots from South Korean soldiers. The North’s soldiers exchanged fire with the South’s soldiers before going back.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but this is just another example of how the North Koreans continuously try and keep tensions high to pressure the South Koreans to make concessions as well as to make international headlines to show the world they are still a threat.  The latest concessions they want is for the ROK to stop the balloon launches and modify the NLL.

North Korea is trying to pressure the Obama administration to give them free money in order to return these remains:

North Korea said Monday that the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War were being neglected and “carried away en masse,” in an apparent effort to pressure Washington to resume recovery efforts that could also lead to much-needed money for the impoverished country.

The United States suspended efforts to recover the remains of thousands of U.S. soldiers who died during the Korean War because of the North’s plans to launch a long-range rocket in 2012. The U.S. at the time was just starting the process of resuming excavation work that had been suspended in 2005 when Washington said security arrangements for its personnel working in the North were insufficient. North Korea would have received millions of dollars in compensation for its support of the work.

About 8,000 U.S. service members are listed as missing from the 1950-53 war, and some 5,300 of the missing are believed to be in North Korea.

On Monday, an unidentified North Korean military spokesman said in a state media dispatch that the remains of American soldiers are “left here and there uncared and carried away en masse” because of building projects, land reorganization and flood damage.  [Fox News]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans know exactly where the bulk of the remains are because the US military buried a large number of casualties in marked cemeteries before evacuating North Korea after the Chinese intervened in the war.

To be able to repatriate these remains to their family members the North Koreans have been demanding inflated prices which just shows how low the Kim regime is willing to go to make money.  The work to recover the remains ended in 2005 and so far does not look like it will begin again any time soon until the North Koreans become more reasonable in their demands.

Meet the men and women who help rule North Korea from the shadows. https://t.co/jDwRnM6Mp1 via @vicenews #NorthKorea #DPRK

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) October 18, 2014

I guess this how you exchange pleasantries on the DMZ:

South and North Korea exchanged fire across the heavily fortified border on Sunday, but there was no report of South Korean casualties.

The incident took around 5:40 p.m. when South Korea fired warning shots against North Korean soldiers who were approaching the military demarcation line in Paju after broadcasting warning messages.

North Korea apparently fired back against South Korea, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, noting two marks from North Korean guns were found in a South Korean guard post.

South Korea also returned fired against North Korea, according to the JCS. [Yonhap]

Same old same old from the North Koreans:

The two Koreas on Wednesday held closed-door high-level military talks in the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom only to find the wide gaps in their views over a set of pending defense issues, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said.

During the talks at the South-controlled Peace House, the two sides failed to bridge the gaps over the issues of heightened tensions surrounding the Northern Limit Line, a de facto sea border, anti-Pyongyang leaflets and other sensitive issues.

After the unfruitful meeting, Seoul’s Unification Ministry announced that it had proposed holding the second round of high-level inter-Korean talks at Tongilgak, a building on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom, on Oct. 30.

The proposal was sent to the North two days earlier, but the North had yet to respond to it. During a surprise visit by the high-level North Korean delegation to the Incheon Asian Games on Oct. 4, the two sides agreed to resume high-level talks, which were last held in February.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans basically want the ROK to stop Park Sang-hak and his crew from launching their propaganda balloons and to give up the NLL for nothing in return.

North Korea takes foreign military attaches from Cuba, Egypt, to a lube factory (via @KCNAWatch) pic.twitter.com/znOLHZ6PVK

— James Pearson (@pearswick) October 15, 2014

So much for all the “coup” talk, Kim Jong-un has reappeared. He was seen walking with a cane which confirms he likely was recovering from a surgery of some kind possibly to his ankles or knees:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made his first public appearance in more than a month, giving a “field guidance” at a newly built housing complex, according to Pyongyang’s state media.

The visit to the Wisong Scientists Residential District marked the first time Kim has appeared in public since he attended a musical concert on Sept. 3.

“Watching the exterior of the apartment houses and public buildings nicely decorated with diverse color tiles, he was very pleased to see them. He said they looked very attractive, presenting fantastic scenery,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency said.

Kim’s prolonged absence from public view, including his failure to show up at important national events, has spurred speculation and rumors ranging from health problems to a military coup, though the U.S. has dimissed rumors of a coup as “false.”  [Yonhap]

I wonder if the next time Kim Jong-un drops out of view for a while the same people will be publishing sensational articles again of a coup?  Unfortunately when it comes to North Korea it seems a lot of people’s wishful thinking is mistaken as analysis.

Yongbyon centrifuge enrichment plant expands while 5 MWe reactor possibly shut down http://t.co/5UqtdDQB8l

— Nautilus Institute (@Nautilus_Inst) October 14, 2014

The ROK military is reporting that the North Koreans have their nuclear reactor up and operating again:

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) believes that North Korea’s five-megawatt nuclear reactor in Yongbyon is in operations.

Cho Bo-keun, chief of the JCS’ national defense intelligence department, presented the assessment Monday in response to lawmakers’ questions during a parliamentary audit of the JCS.  [KBS World]

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear that the North Koreans are eager for some kind of pay day to once again shutdown their nuclear reactor.  The problem the North Koreans have is that no one wants to fall for this trick again and pay them to shutdown their reactor to only have them turn it back on again when they need more money.