Tag: North Korea

This should not be really surprising that North Korea has rejected international flood aid. The international community should not have been offering it anyway because if North Korea has money to build nuclear weapons and ICBMs they can provide their own disaster relief:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has pledged to bring victims of recent heavy downpours to the capital city of Pyongyang to take care of them without outside help, state media said Saturday.

Kim made a two-day trip on Thursday and Friday to Uiju County in the northwestern province of North Pyongan to meet flood victims staying at a temporary shelter and offered support, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. 

He announced “an emergency system” to bring children, the elderly, disabled soldiers and mothers in North Pyongan, Jagang and Ryanggang provinces to Pyongyang to provide support in the next two to three months until the reconstruction and repair of their homes are completed, saying about 15,400 people could be brought to the capital city.

Yonhap

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North Korea has enough money to build nuclear weapons, ICBMs, and a space program; I am sure they can find funding if they wanted to provide aid to these flood victims. Additionally if the ROK did provide aid how could they monitor it is actually going to the flood victims and not the military?:

South Korea on Thursday proposed providing humanitarian aid to North Korea over damage from the recent downpours in its northern border areas along the Amnok River, as the North is believed to have sustained huge casualties.

The unification ministry said it is willing to urgently support the North Korean flood victims with the necessary supplies from a humanitarian and fraternal perspective through the Korean Red Cross.

“We are ready to discuss the items, scale and method of support with the North Korean counterpart. We expect North Korea’s swift response,” said Park Jong-sul, secretary general of the Korean Red Cross, expressing his “deep sympathy” for the victims.

Yonhap

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The Kim regime will definitely do something around the Presidential election time period, but a nuclear test seems pretty high on the provocation meter for them to use:

South Korea is not ruling out the possibility of North Korea conducting a nuclear test before or after the U.S. presidential election in November to bolster its leverage, Seoul’s defense chief said in a media interview published Monday.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg in Tokyo on Sunday as he was in the Japanese capital for a trilateral meeting with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Minoru Kihara.

“North Korea has completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test when a decision is made,” Shin said. “We cannot rule out the possibility of that decisive moment being right before or after the U.S. presidential election to raise its leverage against the U.S.”

Yonhap

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Incheon International Airport has always been a major vulnerability for South Korea and here is another example of that:

North Korea’s recent campaign of launching trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea has disrupted operations of Incheon International Airport, the South’s main gateway, on 12 occasions, a lawmaker said Tuesday, citing government data.

According to data from the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration submitted to Rep. Yang Bu-nam of the main opposition Democratic Party, runways at the airport have been shut down for a total of 265 minutes across 12 occasions due to the balloons sent from North Korea.

The first disruption incident occurred from 10:48 p.m. to 11:42 p.m. on June 1, four days after North Korea first began launching the balloons. The most severe disruption occurred on June 26, when runways were shut down on eight occasions, resulting in 166 minutes of halted takeoffs and landings.

Yonhap

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It seems in a society with so many old male military figures that Kim Jong-un’s daughter would have a hard time consolidating power if Kim Jong-un was to die within the next 10-20 years:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Ju-ae, is being groomed to succeed her father, though the selection is not final and he could ultimately choose someone else, two lawmakers quoted South Korea’s spy agency as saying Monday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) made the report to the parliamentary intelligence committee, saying North Korea has suggested Ju-ae is a strong candidate to succeed her father by adjusting the frequency of her public appearances to gauge public sentiment, Rep. Lee Seong-kweun of the ruling People Power Party and Rep. Park Sun-won of the main opposition Democratic Party said during a press briefing.

Yonhap

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I am not sure how someone would be able to catch this guy as long as he remains in North Korea:

 The United States offered Thursday to provide a reward of up to US$10 million for information on a North Korean cyber actor targeting America’s critical infrastructure, as it strives to prevent Pyongyang’s ability to generate revenue through illicit means to fund its weapons programs.

The State Department announced the reward, accusing Rim Jong-hyok — a North Korean national associated with a cyber group known as Andariel — and others of being involved in malicious cyberactivities targeting U.S. hospitals, government entities, defense contractors and others.

U.S. law enforcement investigators have documented that Andariel actors victimized five healthcare providers, four U.S.-based defense contractors, two U.S. Air Force bases and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, according to the department.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.