North Korea Watch Thread

[Yuli Ban]

Everyone's favorite totalitarian madhouse.
Still always going to remember August-September 2017 so dearly, that time North Korea tested a hydrogen bomb, threatened Guam, shot a missile over Japan, and """best""" of all was in a pissmatch with Donald Trump.
I used to think that the tensions back in 2015 were extreme. I was seriously concerned they were actually going to do it at the time. But 2017 took the cake. And I mean it really did— Trump was actually gonna do it. They and Venezuela were going to get flattened. More than just about any point in the past 15 years with any other flashpoint, we came outrageously close to disaster. I don't think even the Ukraine crisis this past year was so close to devastation as we were with North Korea in the summer of 2017.


I await the first time they test Biden, but I think it's going to be disappointing because they know Biden's just a more senile version of Obama. Plus they watched what went down in Ukraine for some extra information.

North Korea hits out after U.S. okayed South to build more powerful missiles

North Korea said Monday the U.S. allowing South Korea to build more powerful missiles was an example of the U.S.’s hostile policy against the North, warning that it could lead to an “acute and instable situation” on the Korean Peninsula.

It’s North Korea’s first response to the May 21 summit between the leaders of the United States and South Korea, during which the U.S. ended decades-long restrictions that capped South Korea’s missile development and allowed its ally to develop weapons with unlimited ranges.

The accusation of U.S. policy being hostile to North Korea matters because it said it won’t return to talks and would enlarge its nuclear arsenal as long as U.S. hostility persists. But the latest statement was still attributed to an individual commentator, not a government body, suggesting North Korea may still want to leave room for potential diplomacy with the Biden administration.

[Yuli Ban]

U.S. came ‘much closer’ to war with North Korea in 2017 than the public knew, Trump told Woodward

Jim Mattis slept in his gym clothes when he was President Trump's secretary of defense so that he could more quickly join a top-secret conference call whenever he received an alert that a North Korean missile had been launched or was on the launchpad. A flashing light was installed in his home’s bathroom so he would know immediately, if such an alert came while he was showering. A bell would also ring in the bedroom and kitchen.

This happened several times during the summer of 2017, according to Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward’s new book.

The coverage of “Rage” has focused on Trump willfully downplaying the seriousness of the novel coronavirus during the early stages of the pandemic. But perhaps the most chilling revelation in the book, which went on sale Tuesday, is just how real the danger of a nuclear confrontation with North Korea seemed to the leaders of the U.S. government three summers ago.

The schoolyard taunts from that time received plenty of attention. Kim Jong Un called Trump a “dotard.” Trump referred to Kim as “little rocket man” and promised to rain down “fire and fury” if provoked. But there were also a series of missile launches and significant tactical escalations by both sides, including a simulated air attack by the U.S. Air Force, that registered little domestic attention.

In one of 17 on-the-record interviews for the book, Trump told Woodward that war with Pyongyang was “much closer than anyone would know.” The president argued that conflict was averted because of his flattering letters to and three face-to-face meetings with the 30-something totalitarian leader. Trump said Kim was “totally prepared” for war. “And he expected to go,” the president said. “But we met.”

And people wonder why I'm so gung-ho about developing artificial general intelligence. We NEED some way to keep knowledge and information safe and a vastly better way to use it than relying on humans should anything go wrong. In other words, we need a backup for civilization, and my belief is AGI is such a backup. Because things can go very, very wrong at a moment's notice.

[weatheriscool]

North Korea’s Kim calls food situation ‘tense’ as reports of shortages mount

By Simon Denyer
June 16, 2021 at 3:05 a.m. EDT

TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called the country's food situation "tense," state media reported Wednesday, amid mounting reports of shortages.

Opening a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s central committee, Kim claimed the economy had improved this year, with industrial production up 25 percent from a year earlier, and he generally struck a more upbeat tone than in February, when he had admitted the country’s economic plan had “failed tremendously.”

Nevertheless, Kim’s admission about food shortages speaks of a problem that can’t be glossed over.

Last year, North Korea faced its worst slump in more than two decades, experts say, largely due to the self-imposed closure of the border with China, a measure designed to keep the coronavirus pandemic at bay. There were reports of acute power cuts and factory closures, with coal and fertilizer production hit by electricity shortages and lack of spare parts.

{snip}


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as ... story.html

[caltrek]

Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to North Korea
June 23, 2021

https://www.federalregister.gov/documen ... orth-korea

Extract:

(Federal Register) The existence and risk of the proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the Government of North Korea continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. For this reason, the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13466, expanded in scope in Executive Order 13551, addressed further in Executive Order 13570, further expanded in scope in Executive Order 13687, and under which additional steps were taken in Executive Order 13722 and Executive Order 13810, must continue in effect beyond June 26, 2021. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13466 with respect to North Korea.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

Signed by President J.R. Biden

[weatheriscool]

Kim Jong-un: North Korea sees 'grave incident' after Covid lapses

Published 6 hours ago

Kim Jong-un has berated top officials over lapses which caused a "grave incident" related to Covid-19, North Korean state media report.

It was a rare sign of the pandemic's severity in North Korea, which previously insisted it had no Covid cases - a claim doubted by experts.

The country has closed its borders to keep out the virus.

But coupled with international sanctions, this has led to food shortages and a worsening economy.

Mr Kim previously admitted there was a "tense" food situation and told citizens to prepare for the "worst-ever" outcome, invoking comparisons to the country's deadly 1990s famine.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57661653

[weatheriscool]

North Korea food shortage turns into new Asia humanitarian crisis
Source: Nikki Asia

North Korea's food shortages have reached crisis levels, and inequalities have sharply widened ever since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the country to close its borders in January last year.

The reclusive nation will be short by about 860,000 tons of food this year, or about two months of normal demand, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimated in a recent report.

The government has been trying to get the population to supply their own food but with little success. News agencies with sources inside the country are reporting starvation deaths as well as an increase in the number of children and elderly who have resorted to begging.

Jiro Ishimaru of AsiaPress said North Korea's current food shortage is quickly shaping up to be the worst humanitarian crisis in Asia. In a column earlier this month, he said it was "frustrating that the reality of the situation has not been conveyed to the world."

Read more: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/N-Kor ... ian-crisis

[caltrek]

Kim Jong Un’s Decade in Power: Starvation, Repression and Brutal Rule
by Sung-Yoon Lee

https://theconversation.com/kim-jong-un ... her-173809

Introduction:

(The Conversation) By the grim metric of fatalities in the first 10 years of a dictator’s rule, Kim Jong Un has yet to match the records set by his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, or father, Kim Jong Il – the two tyrants who reigned by terror in North Korea before him.

For now, the number of people Kim Jong Un has personally ordered killed – such as his uncle in 2013 and half-brother in 2017 – is likely to number in the hundreds.

But his decade in power, which began after his father’s death on Dec. 17, 2011, has proved a disaster for people living in the communist nation. The isolationist state has become even more so, as the northern border to China closed during the coronavirus pandemic – cutting off an escape route for those desperate to flee. Meanwhile, food insecurity means that “an entire generation of children” are undernourished, as the United Nations has reported.

Concrete numbers of how many have died from starvation and malnourishment-related conditions such as diarrhea and pneumonia under Kim are difficult to come by. But as a scholar of Korean history, I believe the young dictator – who turns 38 next January – has the capacity to surpass even the ghastly death tolls of his two familial predecessors.

Conclusion:

What is different under Kim Jong Un is that he has built the capacity to inflict much more carnage on the outside world, including the U.S.

[caltrek]

North Korea’s Goals in 2022: Internal Stability and Nuclear Development
by Duyeon Kim
January 13, 2022

https://thebulletin.org/2022/01/north-k ... velopment/

Introduction:

(Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) When North Korean state media reported that the Workers Party’s convened a plenary meeting of its 8th Central Committee on December 27, it signaled that Kim Jong Un might not deliver a New Year’s Day address this year. Sure enough, state media instead reported on the results of the five-day plenum in place of a grand speech on January 1. The first time Kim replaced his New Year’s Address with a readout of a Party Plenum in the final days of the previous year was in 2020 when he ordered his people to “tighten our [sic] belts” to “defeat imperialism.” Last year, Kim skipped his New Year’s Day address, and in its place, state media delivered a report of his 8th Workers’ Party Congress, which was held from January 5 to 7.

There now seems to be a pattern developing of North Korean leaders forgoing new year’s messages, apparently indicating harsh times or a reflection of a decisive moment for the future of the regime, as seen in 1957, 1987, 2020, and 2021.

The latest year-end Party Plenum assessed and praised the first of a five-year plan that Kim Jong Un unveiled at his 8th Party Congress in January 2021. That was when Kim reiterated his top priority of economic recovery (from a triple crisis of international sanctions, flood damage, and the coronavirus pandemic) and disclosed an ambitious wish list of modern, strategic weapons. Those weapons include tactical nuclear weapons, missiles capable of carrying multiple warheads, military reconnaissance satellites, and “hypersonic gliding flight warheads in a short period.” Sure enough, Pyongyang had a busy year of missile testing that included cruise missiles (March); a KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles from a train (September); a long-range cruise missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead (September); its first Hwasong-8 hypersonic missile (September); and a new mini submarine-launched ballistic missile (October). Pyongyang also held its first “Self-Defense 2021” expo in October, showing off weapons it has tested or will test in the future.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

North Korea: Covid outbreak a great disaster, says Kim Jong-un

5 hours ago

North Korea's rapidly spreading Covid-19 outbreak is a "great disaster" for the country, its leader Kim Jong-un has said, according to state media.

Mr Kim called for an all-out battle to tackle the spread of the virus during an emergency meeting on Saturday.

[...]

And on Saturday, state media reported that there had been half a million cases of unexplained fever in recent weeks. The country has limited testing capabilities so most Covid cases are not confirmed.

That figure marked a major increase on the numbers given on both Friday and Thursday, potentially providing some indication of the scale of North Korea's outbreak.

"The spread of the malignant epidemic is [the greatest] turmoil to fall on our country since the founding," the official KCNA news agency quoted Mr Kim as saying.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-61446907

[Time_Traveller]

North Korea: Kim Jong Un orders military boost to 'overwhelm any hostile forces'

Friday 24 June 2022

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to strengthen the country's defence capabilities, state media has reported.

He "examined and approved an important issue of providing a military guarantee for further strengthening the country's war deterrent", the North's official news agency KCNA said.

The announcement came at the end of a three-day meeting that was being closely watched by the West due to concerns the country could launch its first nuclear test in five years.

US and South Korean officials have warned it could happen at "any time".

"(Kim) stressed the need for the entire army to... consolidate in every way the powerful self-defence capabilities
for overwhelming any hostile forces," KCNA said.

It added that Ri Pyong Chol, who has been leading missile development for North Korea, had been chosen as vice-chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission.

https://news.sky.com/story/north-korea- ... s-12639444

[weatheriscool]

North Korea facing worst food shortage since '90s famine, report says
Source: United Press International

North Korea is undergoing the worst period of food insecurity it has faced since a mass famine devastated the country almost 30 years ago, reports the U.S.-based monitoring website 38 North.

Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News ... 674204663/

[weatheriscool]

Kim Jong Un abruptly reappears after 36 days out of the spotlight; orders N Korea to prepare for war
Source: Business Insider, via Yahoo! News

Business Insider

Kim Jong Un abruptly reappears after 36 days out of the spotlight and orders North Korea to 'prepare for war'

Sophia Ankel
Tue, February 7, 2023 at 7:16 AM EST · 2 min read

-- Kim Jong Un had not been seen in public for 36 days, fueling speculation about his health.

-- But North Korea's leader attended a meeting with military officials on Monday, reports said.

-- He was discussing war strategies as tensions rise around the Korean peninsula, the reports said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un abruptly reappeared after 36 days out of the spotlight as he ordered his country to "prepare for war," according to multiple reports.

Kim was photographed presiding over a meeting of the central military commission of the ruling Workers' Party on Monday, Reuters reported. ... His presence marked the first time he was back in the public eye after more than a month for reasons that have not been made public.

His disappearance raised questions about his health from multiple news outlets. Kim's Jong Un's longest-ever break from the spotlight was in 2014, when he was not seen for 40 days.

{snip}

Before reappearing on Monday, Kim was last seen in another government meeting on January 2, where it was announced that a top military official, Pak Jong Chon, had been fired and replaced, Reuters reported at the time.

Read the original article on Business Insider

https://www.businessinsider.com/north-k ... tus-2023-2

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

North Korea: Rare footage shows teens sentenced to hard labour over K-drama

4 hours ago

Rare footage obtained by BBC Korean shows North Korea publicly sentencing two teenage boys to 12 years of hard labour for watching K-dramas.

The footage, which appears to have been filmed in 2022, shows two 16-year-old boys handcuffed in front of hundreds of students at an outdoor stadium.

It also shows uniformed officers reprimanding the boys for not "deeply reflecting on their mistakes".

South Korean entertainment, including TV, is banned in the North.

Despite that, some are prepared to risk severe punishment to access K-dramas, which have a huge global audience.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68015652

[wjfox]

First North Korea spy satellite is ‘alive’ and being controlled, experts say

Thu 29 Feb 2024 01.38 GMT

North Korea’s first spy satellite is “alive”, space experts have said, after detecting changes in its orbit that suggested Pyongyang was successfully controlling the spacecraft – although its capabilities remain unknown.

After two fiery failures, North Korea successfully launched the Malligyong-1 satellite into orbit in November. Pyongyang’s state media claimed it has photographed sensitive military and political sites in South Korea, the US and elsewhere, but has not released any imagery. Independent radio trackers have not detected signals from the satellite.

“But now we can definitely say the satellite is alive,” Marco Langbroek, a satellite expert at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

From 19-24 February, the satellite conducted manoeuvres to raise its perigee, or the lowest point in its orbit, to 497 km from 488 km (308.8 miles from 303.2 miles), Langbroek said, citing data from the US-led Combined Space Operations Center.

“The manoeuvre proves that Malligyong-1 is not dead, and that North-Korea has control over the satellite – something that was disputed,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... ing-in-use

[Time_Traveller]

Images show North Korea sealing its border with China

3 hours ago



North Korea has used the Covid-19 pandemic to seal up its northern border with China, new images from a leading human rights group show.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) describes a situation which has seen "intensifying repression", with "drastically reduced" cross-border movement and trade.

In the research, North Koreans spoke of the increasingly restrictive measures.

UN member states should "immediately address" North Korea's isolation and humanitarian crisis, HRW stresses.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reinforced a crackdown on border security in recent years, coinciding with the pandemic.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68499975

[weatheriscool]

North Korea launches multiple ballistic missiles after Kim vowed to bolster war readiness

Source: AP

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG
Updated 8:01 PM CDT, September 11, 2024

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to put his nuclear force fully ready for battle with its rivals.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the missiles launched from North Korea’s capital flying 360 kilometers (about 220 miles) before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed officials to ensure the safety of ships and aircraft, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The reported fight distances suggest the missiles were designed to attack targets in South Korea. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff condemned the launches as a provocation that poses a serious threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The launches were North Korea’s first public weapons firing activities in more than two months. On July 1, North Korea claimed to have tested a new tactical weapon capable of delivering a “super-large” 4.5 ton-class warhead.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/north-korea- ... 9e1599f57d

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]