Tag: Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un Threatens To Attack Bases of “American Bastards” In the Pacific

| June 24, 2016

I would like to see him try because Japan and Okinawa already have Patriot and Aegis missile defenses while THAAD was deployed to Guam specifically to defend against the Musudan missile threat.  I will be more concerned if they successfully develop an submarine launched ballistic missile capability:

Leader Kim Jong-Un threatened US military bases across the Pacific after North Korea’s test of a powerful new missile triggered emergency UN Security Council talks on curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Kim, who personally monitored Wednesday’s Musudan missile test, applauded a “great event” that significantly bolstered the North’s pre-emptive nuclear attack capability, the official KCNA news agency reported.

“We have the sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theatre,” Kim was quoted as saying.

A Korean-language version of the same report had Kim referring to “the American bastards.”

The Musudan has a theoretical range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometres (1,550 to 2,500 miles), with the upper estimate covering US military bases as far away as Guam.

After a string of failures in recent months, North Korea tested two Musudans on Wednesday, one of which flew 400 kilometres into the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

KCNA said the missile had been fired at a high angle to simulate its full range, and had reached a maximum height of more than 1,400 kilometres.

The test “marked an important occasion in further strengthening the nuclear attack capacity of our state,” Kim said.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but this picture released by North Korea shows how much Kim Jong-un had invested in the successful development of the Musudan:

North Korea’s top leader Kim Jong-un (R) and Ri Pyong-chol, a member of the ruling Workers’ Party central committee, hug each other in joy after the North’s self-claimed successful launch of its ballistic missile Hwasong-10 on June 22, 2016. Ri is a former chief of the North’s air force and had accompanied the leader on most of the previous missile tests. This and other photos released by the party’s newspaper Rodong Sinmun on June 23 showed that Gen. Kim Rak-gyom was still the head commander of the North Korean military strategic forces in charge of missile operations. He was rumored to have been demoted for failed previous launches. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution)

These two looked happier than Lebron James winning the NBA Championship.

False News Story About Kim Jong-un Death Causes Impact of Korean Stock Market

| June 19, 2016

It is amazing how gullible people keep falling for these fake news stories they see pop up in their social media feeds and don’t bother to read the article.  This recent example of a false news story saying Kim Jong-un was killed by a suicide bomber even impacted the Korean stock market:

A false news story that claimed Kim Jong Un was assassinated caused tremors in South Korea’s foreign exchange market on Friday.

The story published on fake news outlet East Asia Tribune alleged the North Korean leader was attacked by a female suicide bomber and killed in an explosion in Pyongyang.

The article also claimed the report was from Pyongyang’s state television network KCTV.

While the report was quickly dismissed on social media, on Friday morning in Seoul the story affected movements in the currency market, local news service Financial News reported.

The exchange rate for the South Korean won spiked to 1178 won to the U.S. dollar, before closing at 1172.7 won.

Defense stocks also rose momentarily on Friday but once rumors were dispelled trading resumed normal levels, according to local press.  [UPI]

You can read the rest at the link.

Is North Korea Building Up Its Conventional Military Strength?

| June 12, 2016

It just makes me wonder where all the money is coming from for the Kim regime to build up their nuclear, ballistic missile and conventional military strength like this?  Here may be the most important modernization that did not require any money to get:

Additionally, there is reason to believe that Kim Jung Un has had some success in revitalizing the military by instituting new military leadershipafter a rash of executions removed some of the old brass.

Joseph S. Bermudez, an expert on North Korea’s military, told The Washington Post: “I get a sense that when Kim Jong Un came to power, he looked around and said, ‘We have all these old guys running things who haven’t been in the field for 15 or 20 years. We need people who know what they’re talking about.'”

“Before, you had leaders of special forces who couldn’t run a mile. Now, we see artillery division commanders that actually have an artillery background,” Bermudez continued.  [Business Insider]

You can read more at the link.

South Korean Defense Minister Calls Kim Jong-un Young and Impulsive

| June 7, 2016

South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo had some unsurprising things to say about Kim Jong-un:

Young, rash and impulsive.

A frank assessment of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by South Korean Defense Minister Han Minkoo.
Speaking exclusively to CNN on the sidelines of a defense forum in Singapore, Han says it’s a combination that concerns him greatly.
“Kim Jong Un was just 28 when he came to power with very little time to prepare. Add to that, he is very young, he lacks experience.”
Kim certainly seems to be in a rush to perfect his nuclear and missile capabilities, the intensity of testing this year alone is unusual even for North Korea.
“If you look at his father, Kim Jong Il, during his 18 year reign, there were about 18 missile tests. During Kim Jong Un’s four year reign there (have been) 25 missile tests,” says Han.
Han is not convinced North Korea can miniaturize nuclear weapons or fit a nuclear warhead onto a missile, as claimed by Pyongyang, but acknowledges that practice makes perfect.
“If they continue to progress with the miniaturization technology, we think it may be possible to deliver it in other ways such as an artillery shell or in the form of a nuclear mine.”  [CNN]
You can read much more of this interview at the link to include his commentary on why South Korea needs the THAAD missile defense system.

Kim Jong-un Photographed Holding A Cigarette Despite North Korean Anti-Smoking Campaign

| June 6, 2016

It looks like Kim Jong-un is not setting a very good example for North Korea’s recent anti-smoking campaign:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) holding a cigarette with his right hand in a photo released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 4, 2016. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution.) (Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who is known to be a heavy smoker, has held a cigarette for the first time in months in public, a photo released by the North’s mouthpiece newspaper showed Saturday.

A snapshot of him smoking at the remodeled Mangyongdae Children’s Camp in Pyongyang was published in Rodong Sinmun. Kim was there to promote “Pyongyang Speed,” a term referring to the North’s rapid industrialization, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

He was last seen smoking more than 80 days ago at a test evaluating the heat stability of a homegrown North Korean rocket.

Experts speculated that Kim may have refrained from smoking in front of cameras because the North’s media have been campaigning against that behavior. Rodong Sinmun, in fact, published several stories reiterating the harmful effects of cigarettes between April and May. At one point, local women appeared on the Korean Central Television to denounce smokers as “imbeciles who upset their surroundings.”  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

Kim Jong-un’s Defector Aunt, Ko Yong Suk Speaks Out About Life In the United States

| May 28, 2016

The aunt of Kim Jong-un who defected nearly two decades ago to the United States has conducted an extensive interview with the Washington Post for the first time.  What I found most interesting was that she operates a dry cleaning business just like so many other Korean immigrants to the US do:

Wandering through Times Square, past the Naked Cowboy and the Elmos and the ticket touts, she could be any immigrant trying to live the American Dream.

A 60-year-old Korean woman with a soft perm and conservative clothes, she’s taking a weekend off from pressing shirts and hemming pants at the dry-cleaning business she runs with her husband.

But she’s not just any immigrant. She’s an aunt to Kim Jong Un, the young North Korean leader who has threatened to wipe out New York with a hydrogen bomb.

And for the past 18 years, since defecting from North Korea into the waiting arms of the CIA, she has been living an anonymous life here in the United States, with her husband and three children.

“My friends here tell me I’m so lucky, that I have everything,” Ko Yong Suk, as she was known when she was part of North Korea’s royal family, told The Washington Post on a recent weekend. “My kids went to great schools and they’re successful, and I have my husband, who can fix anything. There’s nothing we can envy.”

Her husband, previously known as Ri Gang, chimes in, laughing: “I think we have achieved the American Dream.”

This is the story of how one family went from the top of North Korea to middle America.

Breaking their silence in the United States, Ko and Ri spent almost 20 hours talking to two Washington Post reporters in New York City and then at their home several hours’ drive away. They were nervous about emerging from their anonymity; after all, there are Americans who analyze North Korea for a living and do not even know that the couple are here.  [Washington Post]

I highly recommend reading the whole thing at the link.  It is an interesting inside look at Kim Jong-un’s early years growing up considering that Ko Yong Suk helped to raise Kim Jong-il’s kids while they were attending school in Switzerland.  She says from an early age that Kim Jong-un had a fascination with finding out how things like boats and airplanes work.  He also had a short temper and if you can believe it he actually one time went on a hunger strike!  These personality traits are still evident today.

Amazingly they are speaking out now to stop rumors spread about them by the South Korean media.  Additionally her husband actually wants to travel to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong-un and act as an intermediary between the US and North Korea.  Good luck with that.