Tag: North Korea

I hope the Russian rocket technology has a warranty the North Koreans can cash in on after this latest launch failure:

North Korea said Tuesday that its latest attempt to launch a new rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure due to the midair explosion of the rocket during the first-stage flight this week.

The vice general director of the North’s National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) said the rocket carrying the satellite, the Malligyong-1-1, exploded after it lifted off from the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on the country’s northwest coast on Monday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The launch came just hours after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang held a trilateral summit in Seoul and reaffirmed their commitment to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This really shouldn’t be very surprising to anyone that North Korea would take some kind of provocation prior to the U.S. election:

U.S. officials are bracing for North Korea to potentially take its “most provocative” military action in a decade ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, possibly at the urging of Russian President Vladimir Putin, NBC News reported Friday.

Citing six senior U.S. officials, the broadcaster also said that the United States has contingency plans to respond in the event of Pyongyang taking aggressive action in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, or shelling South Korean border islands — belligerence unseen since 2010.

“We have no doubt that North Korea will be provocative this year. It’s just a matter of how escalatory it is,” a U.S. intelligence official was quoted by NBC News as saying.

It said that the U.S. officials believe the timing of the North’s provocation could be designed to “create turmoil in yet another part of the world,” as the presidential race is set to be a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Anyone believe Kim Yo-jong’s claim:

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again denied Friday that her country has exported any weapons to Russia, as she labeled outside speculation on North Korea-Russian arms dealings as “the most absurd paradox.” The U.S., South Korea and others have steadfastly accused North Korea of supplying artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for advanced military technologies and economic aid.

Both North Korea and Russia have repeatedly dismissed that. Foreign experts believe North Korea’s recent series of artillery and short-range missile tests were meant to examine or advertise the weapons it was planning to sell to Russia. Kim Yo Jong called outside assessments on the North Korean-Russian dealings “the most absurd paradox which is not worth making any evaluation or interpretation.”

Stars & Stripes

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I don’t know why anyone would want to visit North Korea other than for morbid curiosity. Ever dollar spent there is helping to fund the regime:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on tourist exchanges between Moscow and Pyongyang and preparations for his visit to North Korea are underway, the Kremlin has said.

The Russian news agency TASS on Saturday (local time) quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, “Preparations for the visit are proceeding at their own pace.”

Putin has not visited North Korea since July 2000.

TASS also reported that Alexander Kozlov, the environment minister for Moscow, who is leading an intergovernmental commission on cooperation with North Korea, touted the growing popularity of tourist exchanges between the two countries during his meeting with Putin earlier Saturday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If anyone is looking for someone to do remote work for them, closely check their documents because they could in fact be North Koreans:

The United States offered Thursday to provide a reward of up to US$5 million for information on three North Korean IT workers and their manager who were engaged in a scheme enabling the workers to get illicit telework employment with false identities belonging to U.S. citizens.

The State Department announced the reward for the workers using the aliases Han Jiho, Jun Chunji and Xu Haoran and their manager Zhonghua who were involved in the scheme that it said generated at least $6.8 million for the North Korean regime.

From October 2020 through October 2023, Christina Chapman, a U.S. national, helped the workers obtain work as remote software and applications developers with companies in a range of sectors and industries, it said. They used false identifies belonging to more than 60 real U.S. people.

The workers also made a failed attempt to gain similar employment at two U.S. government agencies, according to the department.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Kim Jong-un has something else to celebrate other than weapons tests:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his “beloved daughter” Ju-ae attended a ceremony marking a newly built street at the north gateway of Pyongyang, the North’s state media reported Wednesday. 

It was the first time in about two months that Ju-ae made a public appearance since she visited a military unit on March 15. Kim and his daughter attended the ceremony on Tuesday, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The KCNA described the street as “clear proof of validity and vitality of the WPK’s ideology of valuing the youth and a striking demonstration of invincibility of the revolutionary cause of Juche.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

When it comes to claims from defectors I give the usual caveat of who knows how true this actually is. With that said I would not be surprised if Kim Jong-un didn’t have his own pleasure squad as the defector claims:

사진 확대Kim Jong-un (left) and North Korean defector Park Yeon-mi [Photo source = Yonhap News, Mirror]

A North Korean woman claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is selecting a “joy group” for pleasure like his father Kim Jong-il.

On the 30th of last month (local time), the British Mirror published an article titled “Kim Jong-un picks 25 maidens every year to entertain him in the creepy pleasure class.”

The Mirror wrote an article based on the argument of Park Yeon-mi, a North Korean defector. Park introduced when Joyjo appeared and which women were selected.

He claimed that he was a twice-nominated candidate but was not chosen because of his family’s status.

Park explained that the Joyjo idea was devised by Kim Jong Il in the 1970s. He said he picked a few pretty women and took them to the resort where his father, Kim Il-sung, was going.

Kim Jong-il created a second Joyjo for himself in 1983, Park claimed.

“The three men have different preferences for women, so the team composition has changed,” he said. “Kim Jong-il prefers women who are shorter than 160cm but not too tall, and Kim Jong-un prefers slim and Western women.”

Park claimed that the Joy group consisted of three groups each responsible for massage, performance, and sexual activity.

Maiel Kyeongchae

You can read more at the link.