All Things North Korea Thread

[China]

North Korean troops use TOY PLANES to prepare for battle in bizarre propaganda clip

 

The country's soldiers are armed with cardboard cutouts of military machinery in the weird footage

 

This baffling footage shows North Korean troops preparing for battle using TOY PLANES.

 

The weird clip features groups of soldiers armed with cardboard cutouts of military machinery on sticks.

 

Some of the recruits hold miniature plastic planes which they ‘fly’ up and down by hand while walking over a giant map.

 

It is thought that the exercise is a cheap way of testing out manoeuvres without having to send expensive equipment into the skies.

 

In the background, the country’s leader Kim Jong-un can be seen smoking and laughing at the tactical display.

 

Click on the link for the video and full article

Edited May 2, 2016 by China

[BornaSkinsFan83]

Watching this documentary about North Korea on Netflix...

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt4206218/

"The Propaganda Game"

It came out just last year. It's not perfect but it's def worth the watch if you're interested in NK. Nice look into the mindset of North Koreans. I recommend it.

The reason for this post though...the filmmakers are Spanish (like literally Spanish, from Spain). They got their access through the only foreigner in the North Korea government, fellow Spaniard

Alejandro Cao de Benós de Les y Pérez

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Cao_de_Ben%C3%B3s_de_Les_y_P%C3%A9rez

He is profiled and interviewed extensively throughout the film. I have watched thousands of documentaries in my life. Neonazis, terrorists, rapists, pedophiles, etc etc etc. Never before have a felt such an intense urge to crawl through the screen and beat someone to death with a brick like I did for that fat corrupt ****tard loser. He found the one place on Earth where he wouldn't be a nobody loser and he sold his soul to get there. Just ugh. The system and the people are so great you ****ing **** then why don't you learn the ****ing language?!?!?! You've only been jerking off their leaders and living there for the last 20 ****ing years. Seriously, I dare anyone to watch it and not want to murder him.

Sorry. Had to vent.

Edit: one last thing, the documentary is worth a watch just for when they go to the fake Catholic Church that the government has set up in Pyongyang for propaganda purposes. Hadn't seen anything about that before.

Edited May 5, 2016 by BornaSkinsFan83

[mcsluggo]

beijing has (or at least had) "state-owned-catholic-churches".   there was a big drawn out brouhaha on just how catholic priests and bishops get appointed/approved in China.   and (for a while at least) the GoC just said **** it, and appointed their own.

 

surprisingly the Vatican didn't really like this.  

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-congress-idUSKCN0XZ0UX

North Korea congress adopts decision to further boost nuclear capability

 

North Korea said it would further strengthen self-defensive nuclear weapons capability "in quality and quantity" in a decision adopted at a rare Workers' Party congress, its KCNA news agency reported on Monday.

 

The decision was adopted after a review of the work of the party's Central Committee on day three of the congress on Sunday, KCNA said.

 

The congress is the first to be held in 36 years amid anticipation by the South Korean government and experts that leader Kim Jong Un would use it to further consolidate power. Kim became leader in 2011 after his father's sudden death.

 

The congress also adopted in the decision to disavow the use of nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is first infringed by others with nuclear arms, as Kim laid out in an address on Saturday.

 

"We will consistently take hold on the strategic line of simultaneously pushing forward the economic construction and the building of nuclear force and boost self-defensive nuclear force both in quality and quantity as long as the imperialists persist in their nuclear threat and arbitrary practices," it said.

 

North Korea came under the latest U.N. sanctions in March after its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch the next month, but it has defied international pressure with more activities under its nuclear and missile programs.

Edited May 8, 2016 by visionary

[China]

Inside North Korea's surreal restaurant empire

 

Their posture is immaculate. Their teeth are like pearls, gleaming behind well-rehearsed smiles. When speaking, their voices are demure. When singing, they produce operatic melodies in perfect harmony.

 

In short, they are the feminine ideal as imagined by the North Korean state.

 

With one exception, that is. Each night, these agents of Pyongyang grab the hands of paying customers — yes, even "imperialist" Americans and South Koreans — and twirl about the room. All the while, they sing songs like John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “My Heart Will Go On,” the schmaltzy theme from "Titanic."

 

These odd scenes play out inside North Korea’s network of restaurants, which are scattered from Dubai to Moscow to Hanoi. Each franchise is part restaurant, part performance hall. The star attraction: singing waitresses imported from Pyongyang.

 

“Musically speaking, they are highly trained,” said professor Sung-Yoon Lee, an expert on North Korea at Tufts University in Boston. “They are people who would be very competitive music students at a leading conservatory in Boston or New York.”

 

Instead, the woman are stuck in 100-odd restaurants across Asia to entertain men as they slurp down noodles. Most customers order “raengmyon,” North Korea’s signature dish of cold noodles in a beefy broth. They can wash it down with rice liquor flavored with acorns.

 

North Korea’s foreign-deployed waitresses hail from trusted families with ties to the regime, Lee said. Despite their status, they’re only permitted to send a small amount of money home. Most of the earnings are funneled back to Pyongyang, now starved of cash thanks to crushing U.S. sanctions.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[zoony]

I want to eat at one of these NK restaurants.

It has to be shocking for them to see the outside world. They must all have babies in Pyongyang state "nurseries"

[SkinInsite]

**** up and we kill you, your family, friends and any known associates.

 

 

That's a good motivation for being a great waitress.

[Passepartout]

If you all think that the father was bad, thank goodness however he is gone. The son takes it up a notch or two and beyond. Pure evil indeed!

[zoony]

If you all think that the father was bad, thank goodness however he is gone. The son takes it up a notch or two and beyond. Pure evil indeed!

I think the son is dangerous not because he is evil but because he is trying to prove himself within the DPRK. He's actually quite benign having grown up in Switzerland and according to those who knew him in his formative years

His grip on power is more tenuous than is being portrayed

I do think it's interesting that he is giving speeches. His father had a bad stammer and never spoke publically. Must be a big change for the NK people

[China]

N. Korean families plead for return of restaurant workers who defected

 

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN)In April, news of a spectacular defection rippled through the media.

Most of the serving staff of a North Korean restaurant in Ningbo, China, had defected en masse.

 

Twelve young North Korean women who worked at the restaurant and a male restaurant manager arrived in the South Korean capital.

For Seoul, it was a propaganda bonanza; for Pyongyang, a huge embarrassment.

 

The North Korean Red Cross was quick to challenge South Korea's version of events, calling the defections instead "a mass abduction."

 

On the CNN crew's last day in Pyongyang after covering the recent Workers' Party congress, authorities here brought family members of three restaurant employees who went to Seoul in front of the network's cameras.

 

It was a highly orchestrated event.

 

We were told once arriving in North Korea that "special exclusive coverage" was planned for us, but there was no hint about what it would be until two hours before the interview.

 

North Korean authorities have told the families that their daughters and sisters are being kept in solitary confinement and have been cut off from outside information.

 

The young women have purportedly become sick after a hunger strike demanding they be returned home, but Pyongyang hasn't disclosed how it acquired such reports.

 

South Korea's Ministry of Unification told CNN that allegations that the girls are in solitary confinement or conducting a hunger strike are "completely untrue."

 

It said the girls will stay in government custody for several months while adjusting to life in South Korea.

 

But Ri Bun sobbed as she told us how she believes her sister is being treated.

 

"Even now my sister is suffering in the accursed South Korea, starving and unconscious. When I think of that I lie awake frightened and cannot sleep.

 

"Those South Korean puppet criminals, I want to tear them to pieces!"

 

These families cannot comprehend how someone they know so well could run away to the hated South.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

North Korea congress: Kim Jong-un's sister given key post

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister has been given a key post at the country's rare ruling party congress.

Kim Yo-jong, believed to be in her 20s, joins the ruling committee.

 

The country's first Workers' Party Congress in 36 years ended on Monday, with Kim Jong-un becoming party chairman and cementing his rule.

 

One of those given several new posts is Ri Yong-gi. South Korean intelligence said earlier this year he had been purged and executed for corruption.

 

Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans joined a rally in Pyongyang to mark the end of the congress.

 

The Korean Central News Agency, the North's state media, said Kim Yo-jong had been elected to the Workers' Party of Korea's Central Committee.

 

Yo-jong was seen in the background in this March 2015 picture of her brother touring a military unit

 

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/25/the-north-korean-born-sons-of-an-american-defector-speak-in-korean/?postshare=8131464221410029&tid=ss_tw-bottom

An American GI defected to North Korea. Now his sons are propaganda stars.

 

Their names are Ted and James, and they look like the kinds of men you might bump into on the streets of Richmond, Va., where their father was born.

 

But they’re speaking perfect North Korean and wearing badges of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the first two leaders of North Korea, over their hearts. Oh, and the younger one, James, is a captain in the North Korean army.

 

They’re the Pyongyang-born sons of James Joseph Dresnok, the former American GI who defected to North Korea in 1962 when he was stationed in South Korea after the war.

 

And they’ve just appeared in an extraordinary video published online by Minjok Tongshin, a pro-Pyongyang news service based in the United States that runs the kind of stories that wouldn’t look out of place in North Korea’s official media.

Edited May 26, 2016 by visionary

[visionary]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/27/479760450/north-korea-linked-to-81-million-bangladesh-bank-heist?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

North Korea Linked To $81 Million Bangladesh Bank Heist

 

As if an $81-million-dollar bank heist wasn't spectacular enough, it now appears that the crime may mark the first time one country has used malicious code to steal money from another country.

 

The link to North Korea was made by security researchers at the firm Symantec. In looking into the attack on the bank in Bangladesh, the researchers found a rare piece of code that has only ever been found in two other hacker attacks: Sony Pictures in December 2014, and media companies in South Korea in 2013. The FBI has said North Korea was responsible for the Sony Pictures attack.

Edited May 28, 2016 by visionary

[visionary]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3613759/North-Korean-leaders-aunt-runs-dry-cleaning-store-New-York-W-Post.html

North Korean leader's aunt runs dry-cleaning store in New York: W.Post

 

The aunt of North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-Un lives anonymously in New York, where she runs a dry-cleaning business after having defected in 1998, The Washington Post reported Friday.

 

Ko Yong-suk -- who lives with her husband Ri Gang and their three children under assumed names -- was the sister of Ko Yong Hui, one of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s wives and mother of Kim Jong-Un.

 

The couple was sent to Switzerland to look after members of the ruling family studying there, including Kim Jong Un.

 

"He wasn’t a troublemaker but he was short-tempered and had a lack of tolerance," Ko said of Kim. "When his mother tried to tell him off for playing with these things too much and not studying enough, he wouldn't talk back but he would protest in other ways, like going on a hunger strike."

 

Ko said Kim was born in 1984, meaning he was merely 27 when he took over from his father Kim Il Jong in 2011, not 33 or 34 at the time as previously believed.

Ko's own son was born the same year and the two boys would play together.

 

"He and my son were playmates from birth," she told the Post. "I changed both of their diapers."

 

Kim's main interest was basketball, Ko said.

 

"He started playing basketball, and he became obsessed with it," she said, adding that he even slept with a basketball.

[BornaSkinsFan83]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/25/the-north-korean-born-sons-of-an-american-defector-speak-in-korean/?postshare=8131464221410029&tid=ss_tw-bottom

There's a documentary about this defector on Netflix. Can't remember the name of it though. He's just some dip**** who kept getting into trouble in the military. He was stationed in South Korea and iirc he stayed out too late getting **** faced or with some chick or something so rather than report in and get in trouble again he just defected. It's actually kind of u interesting

Edit: Ahh my bad, now I see they addressed the doc at the link (WP articles were used up for the month. Had to go incognito). Anyway here's the trailer for it...

Edited May 28, 2016 by BornaSkinsFan83

[visionary]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/victory-for-south-korea-after-north-loses-uganda-as-a-military-ally-1464573717

Victory for South Korea After North Loses Uganda as a Military Ally

 

Uganda, one of North Korea’s closest allies in Africa, said it would halt all military cooperation with Pyongyang following a summit meeting with South Korea’s president.

 

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered his prime minister to ensure that relevant government departments sever all police and military ties with North Korea, deputy government spokesman Shaban Bantariza said.

Edited May 30, 2016 by visionary

[mcsluggo]

meanwhile,  back in North Korea......

 

 

 

 

 

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-treasury-idUSKCN0YN4TM?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

U.S. takes more steps to block North Korea's access to financial system

 

The United States on Wednesday declared North Korea a "primary money laundering concern," and moved to further block its ability to use the U.S. and world financial systems to fund its weapons programs.

 

The U.S. Treasury Department called for a prohibition on certain U.S. financial institutions opening or maintaining correspondent accounts, which are established to receive deposits from or make payments on behalf of a foreign institution, with North Korean financial institutions.

 

Crucially, Treasury also prohibited the use of third parties' U.S. correspondent accounts to process transactions for North Korean financial institutions.

 

The announcement came days after the latest failed missile launch by the isolated state. Tensions in the region have been high since January when North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and then followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles.

 

Those efforts have all fueled calls in Washington, and abroad, for a clampdown on Pyongyang.

 

U.S. law already generally prohibited U.S. financial institutions from engaging in transactions with North Korean institutions, but Treasury's latest actions would impose additional controls, especially the prohibitions on the use of third-country banks' U.S. accounts to process transactions for North Korea.

 

"This is meaningful," said Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This is designating the entire country, which means essentially that any entity that is interested in interacting with U.S. financial institutions should no longer have any business with North Korea."

 

"Most, if not all, entities, if faced with the choice of having access to the U.S. financial system or doing business with North Korea, are going to make the obvious choice," Cha added.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-usa-exclusive-idUSKCN0YT2I1?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

Exclusive: North Korea restarts plutonium production for nuclear bombs - U.S. official

 

North Korea has restarted production of plutonium fuel, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday, showing that it plans to pursue its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international sanctions.

 

The U.S. assessment came a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog said it had “indications” that Pyongyang has reactivated a plant to recover plutonium from spent reactor fuel at Yongbyon, its main nuclear complex.

 

The latest developments suggest North Korea's reclusive communist government is working to ensure a steady supply of materials for its drive to build warheads, despite tightened international sanctions after its fourth nuclear test in January.

 

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Washington is worried by the new plutonium reprocessing effort, but he offered no explicit word on any U.S. response.

 

“Everything in North Korea is a cause for concern,” the official told Reuters.

 

“They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that’s where they’ve obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process," the official said. "That’s what they’re doing.”

 

Pyongyang vowed in 2013 to restart all nuclear facilities, including the main reactor and the smaller plant at Yongbyon, which was shut down in 2007 as part of an international disarmament-for-aid deal that later collapsed.

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has no access to North Korea and mainly monitors its activities by satellite, said last year it had seen signs of a resumption of activity at Yongbyon.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-sanctions-report-idUSKCN0ZM1O3?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29

U.S. sanctions North Korean leader, others, over rights abuses

 

The United States sanctioned top North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, on Wednesday for what it said were "notorious abuses of human rights."

 

It was the first time the United States had identified the North Korean leader as a direct target for sanctions, and diplomats say the decision will incense the nuclear-armed country, where the leader is considered infallible.

 

The sanctions, which target property and other assets within U.S. jurisdiction, extend to 10 other individuals and five entities, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

 

"Under Kim Jong Un, North Korea continues to inflict intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and torture," Acting Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam J. Szubin said in the statement.

 

A report by the U.S. State Department to Congress seen by Reuters listed those responsible for the commission of serious human rights abuses and censorship in North Korea.

 

The North Korean leader topped the list.

Edited July 6, 2016 by visionary

[zoony]

What is there left to sanction? Good Lord

[Jumbo]

It occurs to me that if Don is elected pres, we immediately have much more in common with North Korea and that may bring us closer together.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/world/asia/south-korea-and-us-agree-to-deploy-missile-defense-system.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur

South Korea and U.S. Agree to Deploy Missile Defense System

 

South Korea and the United States announced on Friday that they have decided to deploy an advanced American missile defense system in the South, despite strong protests from China, which sees it as a threat to its own security.

 

The two allies agreed to the deployment of the so-called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or Thaad, to better protect South Korea and the United States military in the region from North Korea’s growing nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, a senior Defense Ministry official, Ryu Jae-seung, said at a news conference.

 

Seoul and Washington have been in talks for months about implementing the new system. Mr. Ryu said that officials from both nations were in the final stage of recommending a site for a Thaad base to their defense chiefs.

 

In a swift and sharp reaction against the deployment, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the decision would change the strategic balance in the region and undermine China’s security interests.

 

“The Chinese side hereby expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition,” the statement said. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, had spent considerable political capital trying to convince President Park Geun-hye of South Korea to reject the push by the Obama administration for the missile system.

 

The new system was also likely to face resistance from residents in whatever part of South Korea is selected for the base. Villagers and politicians from towns that have been mentioned as possible sites have said they will oppose it, fearing that strong electronic signals from the radar might be harmful to residents’ health, and that their towns would become an early target for North Korean missiles should war break out.

 

“This is an important R.O.K-U.S. decision,” Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the top commander of the American military in South Korea, said in a statement, using the acronym for the South’s formal name, the Republic of Korea. “North Korea’s continued development of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction require the alliance to take this prudent, protective measure to bolster our layered and effective missile defense.”

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-usa-thaad-china-idUSKCN0ZO07I?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

China urges U.S., South Korea to stop deployment of missile system

 

China's foreign ministry said on Friday it was strongly opposed to the United States deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea and urged the two countries to put a stop to it.

 

The missiles' deployment is not beneficial to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and will seriously harm the security of countries including China, the ministry said.

 

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/751309300232953856

BREAKING: Russia warns of 'irreparable consequences' over US missiles in S.Korea
2:57 AM

Edited July 8, 2016 by visionary

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/751614186292187136

BREAKING: North Korea test-fires submarine-launched ballistic missile, South's military reports - Yonhap
11:09 PM

[visionary]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-us-crossed-red-line-declared-war/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab8a&linkId=27061807

North Korea: U.S. "crossed the red line," effectively declared war

 

North Korea's top diplomat for U.S. affairs told The Associated Press on Thursday that Washington "crossed the red line" and effectively declared war by putting leader Kim Jong Un on its list of sanctioned individuals, and said a vicious showdown could erupt if the U.S. and South Korea hold annual war games as planned next month.

 

Han Song Ryol, director-general of the U.S. affairs department at the North's Foreign Ministry, said in an interview that recent U.S. actions have put the situation on the Korean Peninsula on a war footing.

 

The United States and South Korea regularly conduct joint military exercises south of the Demilitarized Zone, and Pyongyang typically responds to them with tough talk and threats of retaliation.

 

Han said North Korea believes the nature of the maneuvers has become openly aggressive because they reportedly now include training designed to prepare troops for the invasion of the North's capital and "decapitation strikes" aimed at killing its top leadership.

Edited July 29, 2016 by visionary