Tag: North Korea

It is interesting that Kim Jong-un is showing off his daughter now to the world. Was it take your kids to work day in North Korea? 😉

North Korea revealed leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter for the first time Saturday in photos showing them attending the test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) the previous day.

The North’s state media reported that Kim inspected the launch of a Hwasong-17, the country’s largest ballistic missile, at Pyongyang International Airport on Friday. 

He was present at the scene “together with his beloved daughter and wife,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

Photos released by the news agency showed his daughter in a white winter jacket and black pants standing and walking together with Kim in front of the missile that sat on a launch truck. 

The daughter apparently in her tweens was also seen along with her mother, Ri Sol-ju, watching her father as he instructed military officials.

It marked her first official appearance in state media.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Kim Jong-un is believed to have two daughters and one son.

Chongryon has long been a pro-Kim regime organization in Japan affiliated with organized crime and North Korea propaganda:

North Korea warned Wednesday that Japan will “pay a high price” if it continues to unduly persecute and oppress a group of pro-Pyongyang ethnic Koreans in Japan, mentioning its firing in October of a ballistic missile over the neighboring country.

North Korea regarded “persecution and oppression” against the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, also known as Chongryon, and North Koreans living in Japan as a challenge to its dignity and sovereignty, according to a commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“We’ve solemnly stated that the Oct. 4 firing of a new type of a ground-to-ground intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a warning to our enemies over instability on the Korean Peninsula,” the KCNA said, referring to the North’s launch of the Hwasong-12 ballistic missile over Japan.

“Whether this warning will lead to actual results will depend on attitudes of hostile forces, including Japan,” it said, warning Japan will “pay a high price” against anti-North Korea acts.

The commentary appears to refer to an increase in hate crimes reported against students at schools for ethnic Koreans in Japan.

Chongryon is the largest organization of pro-Pyongyang ethnic Koreans in Japan that was established in 1955.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Chinese President Emperor Xi appears uninterested in helping South Korea reign in North Korea’s provocations which shows China has probably green lighted them to do them:

President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday showed subtle differences in their perceptions toward North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. 

During the first Seoul-Beijing summit held in nearly three years, President Yoon called for China to play an “active and constructive role” in reining in North Korea to stop its provocations amid its continued launches of various missiles, despite international condemnation. 

In response, the Chinese leader urged South Korea to find its role and do as much as it can in order to get inter-Korean relations back on the right track.

According to South Korea’s presidential office, Yoon and Xi sat down for talks for 25 minutes on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting was first of its kind since Dec. 23, 2019, when Yoon’s predecessor Moon Jae-in and Xi met on the sidelines of a trilateral summit between South Korea, China and Japan in Beijing.

During the summit, Yoon voiced worries that North Korea is waging unprecedented provocations with its missile launches and being set for another nuclear test, and asked China, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a neighboring country, to play an “active and constructive role.”

In response, Xi said that both South Korea and China have “common interests on the issues of the Korean Peninsula” and he hopes South Korea will do its part to improve inter-Korean relations actively.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The real story here is why would a major underwear company want to work with the Kim regime to smuggle money into North Korea? What did they get in return? Was anyone in the Gyeongi-do government in on this? Are other so called NGOs doing the same thing to circumvent sanctions? That’s what I want to know:

Prosecution took into custody a man suspected of colluding with Ssangbangwool Group to smuggle huge sums of foreign currency into North Korea about three years ago, according to judicial sources.

The Suwon District Prosecutors Office apprehended the chief of the Asia Pacific Exchange Association, a Seoul-based nongovernmental organization, at an unidentified place in Seoul where he was hiding out, on charges of violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.

Prosecutors have been investigating allegations that Ssangbangwool, South Korea’s leading underwear company, secretly sent millions of US dollars to China in 2019 and that the money was sent to North Korea.

They allege that dozens of Ssangbangwool executives and employees took part in the alleged currency smuggling by hiding dollars inside books on their trips to China to deliver them to North Korea.

Prosecutors suspect the man, only identified by his surname An, played a role in the crime.

Ssangbangwool and the NGO are suspected of handing $1.5 million and US$500,000, respectively, to the North.

Prosecutors are also looking into possibility that support funds the NGO received from Gyeonggi Province were part of the money sent to the North.

The province surrounding Seoul provided about 2 billion won ($1.46 million) to the NGO on two occasions between 2018-19 for an event where North Korean officials attended, and delivered flour and saplings to the North.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

If the North Koreans really wanted to send the U.S. a message on a election day they could have launched an ICBM. The fact they launched a lone short range missile is a pretty small reaction to the U.S. election:

North Korea launched one short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) toward the East Sea on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from an area in or around Sukchon, South Pyongan Province, at around 3:31 p.m.

The North’s latest provocation came as ballots are being counted in the U.S. mid-term elections. The South’s military has been staging computer-simulated Taegeuk drills since Monday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.