The New York Times has a very good article published that shows who are the various scientists in North Korea that have made Kim Jong-un’s nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions so successful:
From left to right, Jang Cha-ha (scientist), Jon Il-ho (scientist), Kim Rak-gyom (commander of rocket forces), Yu Jin (munitions industry official).
“We have never heard of him killing scientists,” said Choi Hyun-kyoo, a senior researcher in South Korea who runs NK Tech, a database of North Korean scientific publications. “He is someone who understands that trial and error are part of doing science.”
Analysts are still trying to explain how North Korea managed to overcome decades of international sanctions and make so much progress so quickly. But it is clear the nation has accumulated a significant scientific foundation despite its backward image.
Its new ICBM is a feat of physics and engineering that has stunned the world, and each of its six nuclear tests has been more powerful than the last, boosting Mr. Kim’s stature at home and his leverage abroad. [New York Times]
Also if you are wondering how the North Koreans have been so successful so quick with their nuclear and missile programs, this may explain it:
North Korea has also recruited scientists from the former Soviet Union, offering salaries as high as $10,000 per month, according to Lee Yun-keol, a defector who runs the North Korea Strategic Information Service Center in Seoul and has studied the history of the North’s nuclear program.
In 1992, a plane carrying 64 rocket scientists from Moscow was stopped before departing for North Korea. It is not clear how many, if any, former Soviet scientists made it to North Korea in the decades since.
Theodore A. Postol, a professor emeritus of science, technology and international security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the North has “this fantastic record for flying rockets the first time and having them succeed.”
“We think it’s because they had rocket motors and designs that were basically Russian designs, and they had the expertise of Russian engineers who knew how to solve the problems,” he said.
In this undated photo provided on Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a local tire factory in Chagang Province, North Korea. Kim thanked workers at a factory that built the tires for a huge vehicle used to transport a new intercontinental ballistic missile that was test-launched this week. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY/KOREA NEWS SERVICE VIA AP
As much as I don’t like Kim Jong-un I don’t think it is fair to blame him for a parasite epidemic when it wasn’t too long ago when South Koreans were doing the same thing and having the same problems:
The hermit nation’s leader issued an instruction to farmers in 2014 telling them to use human faeces with animal waste and organic compost on their fields. With a lack of livestock to provide animal fertilizer, agriculturists poured the human excrement, also known as “night soil”, on their fields.
Kim’s pronouncement further precipitated the falsehood in North Korea that human waste was the best fertilizer for crops despite the dangerous parasites and worms found within in it, Reuters reported.
The nutrition and widespread health problems that blight North Korea have been highlighted by one North Korean soldier who has recently defected to the south. The army sergeant was found to have dozens of flesh colored parasites in his digestive tract, one of which measured 10.6 inches in length. [Newsweek]
You can read the rest at the link, but I can remember about 20 years ago I was out near the Imjim River in South Korea during a military training exercise. From my Bradley Fight Vehicle we could see this old Korean woman in the distance walk into a rice paddy pull her pants down, squat, and take a dump right there in the field. And no she did not wipe afterwards. Seeing that made me laugh nearly as hard as when I was flashed by a Korean transvestite while driving in a HMMWV in Dongducheon.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un drives a tractor while touring a factory. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the story on Nov. 15, 2017, without elaborating on the timing of the visit. (Yonhap)
Released by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 4, 2017, this composite photo shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting the March 16 Factory, a truck manufacturing plant, with officials. (Yonhap)
If President Trump did want to meet with Kim Jong-un I hope it is not in North Korea where it would be a propaganda bonanza for the regime. Instead the meeting should be at the United Nations which was the organization that officially fought the Korean War. Forcing Kim to come to New York would mitigate any propaganda value of a meeting and show how serious the regime is about talks in my opinion:
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would “certainly be open” to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as he embarked on his first trip to Asia last week.
In an interview aired Sunday, Trump was asked on U.S. news program “Full Measure” whether he would sit down with a dictator.
“I would sit with anybody I feel,” the president said. “I don’t think it’s strength or weakness. I think sitting down with people is not a bad thing. So I would certainly be open to doing that.”
He made no commitment, though, saying, “But we’ll see where it goes. I think we’re far too early.” [Yonhap]
Chinese police arrested several North Koreans dispatched to Beijing on suspicion of plotting to murder Kim Jong Un’s 22-year-old nephew, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.
Two of seven North Korean agents were arrested over the alleged plot to kill Kim Han Sol, whose father Kim Jong Nam was assassinated in Malaysia earlier this year, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified person familiar with North Korean issues.
Some agents are being interrogated in special facilities on the outskirts of Beijing, the paper said, without elaborating on whether the other five were arrested. China’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. [Bloomberg]
You can read more at the link, but if this plot was broken up in China it leads me to believe that Kim Han-sol must be in hiding in China under Chinese protection.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory in this photo released by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 29, 2017. (Yonhap)
