All Things North Korea Thread

[Bang]

Trade of what?

What does North Korea have that china needs?

Even if NK wants anything, what do they have to pay for it?

~Bang

Edited April 18, 2013 by Bang

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/18/us-korea-north-idUSBRE93H02Y20130418

North Korea demands end of sanctions if U.S. wants dialogue

North Korea demanded on Thursday the removal of U.N. sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests and a U.S. pledge not to engage in "nuclear war practice" with South Korea if Washington truly sought dialogue.

"If the United States and the puppet South have the slightest desire to avoid the sledge-hammer blow of our army and the people ... and truly wish dialogue and negotiations, they must make the resolute decision," the North's National Defense Commission said in a statement.

"Firstly, the sanctions resolutions by the U.N. Security Council that were fabricated with unjust reasons must be withdrawn," the North's top military body said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

It would be weird if people went around in public talking like North Korea does with their constant threats and bull****.

Edited April 18, 2013 by visionary

[RansomthePasserby]

Trade of what?

What does North Korea have that china needs?

Even if NK wants anything, what do they have to pay for it?

~Bang

Women?

[SWFLSkins]

Trade of what?

What does North Korea have that china needs?

Even if NK wants anything, what do they have to pay for it?

~Bang

a narrow street lined with Korean restaurants and massage parlors.

Cheaper food and hoers?

[Elessar78]

Reuters (UK)-Inside sources in Pyongyang have stated that aggressive actions by Kim Jong Un are because feels he is disrespected. On one of the few computers in North Korea that can access the worldwide web, Un discovered that even over a year after his father's death he still cannot get a thread on an American football message board with his name on it. Unnamed sources claim he was seen stomping around the presidential palace screaming, "I am NEW dear leader." repeatedly.

[RVAbrendan]

Trade of what?

What does North Korea have that china needs?

Even if NK wants anything, what do they have to pay for it?

~Bang

According to wiki:

Minerals, metallurgical products, manufactures (including armaments), textiles, agricultural and fishery products, coal, iron ore, limestone, graphite, copper, zinc, and lead.

[Bang]

Arms manufacturing is a laugh, unless china is planning on seriously upgrading the NK capability and technology.

Seems to me the NKs would using coal to heat at least a little bit of their own country.

Minerals and ores and raw materials make the most sense, but hell, China's own land is plenty rich in these things.. there's no need to provide charity trade.

~Bang

[RVAbrendan]

Arms manufacturing is a laugh, unless china is planning on seriously upgrading the NK capability and technology.

Seems to me the NKs would using coal to heat at least a little bit of their own country.

Minerals and ores and raw materials make the most sense, but hell, China's own land is plenty rich in these things.. there's no need to provide charity trade.

~Bang

My thoughts exactly. Maybe they are engaging in trade because there is more margin in the NK materials due to their wages being likely a 1/10 of SK and China. It's sad... a defector said that farm animals in South Korea are treated better than the population of North Korea.

I've mentioned a photo journalist that I follow on instagram to is currently in North Korea. He uploaded a picture of a pizza parlor in Pyongyang. There is wine too. This must be for the super elite/those tied to the government/military. Kind of wild. Pizza in Pyongyang...sounds like a Ramones song...

[pjfootballer]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/18/us-korea-north-idUSBRE93H02Y20130418

It would be weird if people went around in public talking like North Korea does with their constant threats and bull****.

That's cute that they think they are in charge and calling the shots.

[Bang]

i looked at that instagram page.. it always strikes me how empty everything is.

~Bang

[ixcuincle]

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/05/20135224636174632.html?utm_content=automate&utm_campaign=Trial6&utm_source=NewSocialFlow&utm_term=plustweets&utm_medium=MasterAccount

North Korea sentences US citizen to jail

North Korea has sentenced a US citizen to 15 years of prison labour for "hostile acts" against the government, the official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday.

Pae Jun-Ho, known in the United States as Kenneth Bae, was arrested in November as he entered the northeastern port city of Rason.

"The Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years of compulsory labour for this crime," KCNA said.

Pyongyang has not specified the basis of the crimes allegedly committed by Bae, who is believed to be a Korean-American tour operator.

KCNA said on Saturday when announcing his trial that Bae had "admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]".

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia-pacific/2013/05/201352225742993202.html

US urges Pyongyang to free Korean-American

The United States is calling on North Korea to immediately release one of its citizens, who was convicted to 15 years of hard labour in the communist state.

But the case of Korean-American Kenneth Bae comes amid tensions between the two countries, and a solution may not be easy to reach.

Analysts say North Korea could be trying to use Bae to prove to its people that it can gain concessions from Washington DC.

[Jumbo]

Did they ever attack yet? No? Well, hell. Let's keep playing anyway.

The thinking behind NK's policy decisions reminds me of some of the posts going on in the conspiracy thread. People share similarities even across significant ethnic, cultural, and geographic gulfs. :pfft:

[visionary]

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/07/dennis_rodman_calls_on_kim_jong_un_to_release_american_detainee#.UYlCTqr3ZKs.twitter

Dennis Rodman calls on Kim Jong Un to do him 'a solid' and release American detainee

Over the weekend, North Korea insisted that it would not use Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for committing "hostile acts" against the government, as a bargaining chip, despite its track record of only releasing American prisoners after visits by luminaries such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Pyongyang "has no plan to invite anyone of the U.S. as regards the issue," a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry declared.

But how about if Dennis Rodman tweets at Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and asks his new pal to do him "a solid?" On Tuesday, the former NBA star, fresh off his wild trip to North Korea, got into the bargaining game on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/dennisrodman

I'm calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea or as I call him "Kim", to do me a solid and cut Kenneth Bae loose.

1:41 PM

Edited May 7, 2013 by visionary

[China]

N. Korea asks China to hire idled Kaesong workers

SHENYANG, China--North Korean authorities asked their Chinese counterparts to hire North Korean workers withdrawn from the symbolic inter-Korean joint venture in the Kaesong industrial complex, according to a local government source here.

It is believed that cash-strapped Pyongyang sought to maintain a valuable source of hard currency by switching partners to China, which, as it turned out, declined the proposal, according to the source.

Click on the link for the full article

[No_Pressure]

Its nice to see the Chinese seem content to let the North Koreans stew in the crap they've been stirring up. The Bank of China cut off their business with the North Koreans just a few days ago.

Edited May 9, 2013 by No_Pressure

[Bang]

Maybe fathead ought to threaten Beijing

~Bang

[Skin'emAlive]

Maybe fathead ought to threaten Beijing

~Bang

I'd rather them not, since like Beijing is within earshot NK. Even if they have no capabilities to target. There aint no way to get out of this place should something happen.

[China]

Maybe fathead ought to threaten Beijing

~Bang

Somehow I think you could make an awesome Bang cartoon about N. Korea.

[visionary]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/19/18355373-north-korea-fires-projectile-into-eastern-waters?lite=

North Korea fires projectile into eastern waters

North Korea fired a projectile into waters off its eastern coast Sunday, a day after launching three short-range missiles in the same area, officials said.

North Korea routinely test-launches short-range missiles. But the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing recent tension, including near-daily threats by North Korea to attack South Korea and the U.S. earlier this year. North Korea protested annual joint military drills by Seoul and Washington and U.N. sanctions imposed over its February nuclear test.

The fourth launch occurred Sunday afternoon, according to officials at Seoul's Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing department rules, refused to say whether it was a missile or artillery round.

[Bang]

Most likely lil' pumpkinhead told his people that he stopped an American invasion fleet with one shot.

~Bang

[visionary]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/20/18371122-north-korea-fires-more-missiles-condemns-us-and-south-for-war-measures?lite

North Korea fires more missiles, condemns US and South for 'war measures'

North Korea fired two short-range missiles on Monday, making six launches in three days, and condemned South Korea for criticizing what Pyongyang said were legitimate military drills.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said North Korea had fired one missile on Monday morning and a second one in the afternoon. Both were fired into the sea off North Korea's east coast, a ministry official said.

The launches come hard on the heels of more than two months of threats from North Korea that it would wage a nuclear war against South Korea and the United States if it were attacked.

The North condemned joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises that ended in late April, as a rehearsal for an attack on its territory.

[China]

China asks NKorea to release fishing boat, crew

BEIJING (AP) — China is urging North Korea to release a Chinese fishing boat whose owner says it was seized by gun-toting North Koreans earlier this month and held for ransom, in the latest irritant in relations between the neighboring allies.

Boat owner Yu Xuejun, who wasn't aboard, first publicized the seizure on his microblog late Saturday, and on Monday posted that his terrified captain had communicated to him a new deadline to pay a ransom.

"My captain gave me the phone. His voice was trembling. Could feel he was very afraid. Told me no later than 5 p.m. today," Yu wrote on a verified Tencent Weibo account. The tweet was accompanied by photos of the captain and 15 sailors.

Yu wrote over the weekend that North Koreans seized his boat May 5 in what he maintained were Chinese waters, and that they demanded a 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom. Yu was quoted by the Southern Metropolis on Sunday as saying the North Korean side had first asked for the ransom to be paid by noon Sunday to a company in Dandong, a city in northeastern China on the North Korean border, or that they would confiscate the boat and repatriate the crew.

Yu wrote Monday that he suspects his crew had been mistreated.

The seizure of the Liaoning-based boat adds to China's frustration with North Korea over its recent tests of nuclear and rocket technologies in defiance of international efforts to curb the country's nuclear ambitions.

In addition, the Chinese government is under intense pressure domestically to ensure the safety of citizens who venture abroad or out to sea to seek their livelihoods. Another abduction by North Koreans of Chinese fishermen about a year ago — along with allegations they were beaten — sparked furious criticism among Chinese online.

"Whatever you call North Korea — rogue state or whatever — these kind of cases just keep happening," a Liaoning Maritime and Fishery Administration official who identified himself only by his surname, Liu, said Monday. "We had such cases last year and the year before. There's very little we can do to prevent them."

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

North and South Korea, unable to agree on attendees, put off planned talks

 

SEOUL — North and South Korea called off talks a day before their scheduled start, South Korean officials said Tuesday, after the two sides failed to agree on who should attend.
                        

The planned dialogue had sparked hopes for a thaw in relations on the Korean Peninsula, but the 11th-hour cancellation after North Korea withdrew highlighted the extent to which even small differences keep Seoul and Pyongyang apart.

 

...

 

The spokesman, Kim Hyung-suk, said the North was “responsible” for backing out, having rejected Seoul’s proposed delegation. But he also described a convoluted series of proposals and counterproposals, unfolding over the past two days, in which each side managed to offend the other.

 

Initially, South Korea had hoped for a summit between ministers — Ryoo Kihl-jae leading the South and Kim Yang Gon leading the North. But the North refused, deeming Kim too powerful to be paired with Ryoo. Some analysts in Seoul say they understand the North’s reasoning: Ryoo, the unification minister, is responsible for the South’s policy toward the North, but Kim, head of the United Front Department in the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, oversees a wider area of foreign policy.

 

“Kim’s position suggests he has stronger power than the unification minister,” Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea researcher at Seoul’s Sejong Institute, wrote in an e-mailed opinion briefing on the talks.

 

After North Korea indicated it would not send Kim to Seoul, the South decided its delegation would not include Ryoo. Tuesday afternoon, the two countries exchanged lists of proposed negotiators — five for each side. The South’s was headed by Ryoo’s lieutenant, Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-sik. The North then threatened to call off the meeting unless Ryoo was included, the
Unification Ministry spokesman said.

 

Click on the link for the full article