This has been one of the cyber crime areas that North Korea has been using to raise revenue:
South Korea and the United States have agreed to strengthen their cooperation in combating North Korea’s stealing of virtual assets, the presidential office here said Thursday.
According to the office, Wang Yun-jong, the third deputy national security adviser, visited Washington from Monday to Wednesday and discussed the issue with Anne Neuberger, the U.S. deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies.
Their talks also covered internet of things security and maritime cybersecurity.
Wang also attended the fourth round of meetings by the Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI) for in-depth discussions on responding to ransomware and bolstering international cooperation in that area.
Via a reader tip comes news that North Korea has supposedly expanded the number of laws they can execute you for. I think all foreign tourists contemplating visiting North Korea need to keep this in mind:
North Korea is expanding its list of crimes punishable by death, according to reports.
Supreme leader Kim Jong Un’s regime expanded the list of offenses warranting the death penalty from 11 to 16 via revisions of criminal law, according to Yonhap News Agency.
New offenses warranting execution as a punishment include: anti-state propaganda and agitation acts, illegal manufacturing, and the illicit use of weapons are included in the new codes.
“We found that North Korean people rely much more on the market now today than they do on government handouts. The market has caused them to have a little bit more freedom of thought," says @victordcha.
We have China firing ICBMs before the U.S. election and North Korea highlighting its expanding nuclear capabiliites as well. Who is going to be the next bad actor conduct a provocation before the U.S. election?:
South Korea’s spy agency considers North Korea publicizing leader Kim Jong-un’s visit to a previously undeclared uranium enrichment facility earlier this month to be a “US election-conscious move,” Rep. Lee Seong-kweon of the National Assembly intelligence committee said Thursday.
“Kim’s visits to facilities related to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program are rarely ever disclosed this way. The spy agency said the US presidential election was likely the factor behind the decision to publicize this particular visit,” the lawmaker told reporters after a closed-door briefing by the spy agency.
If anyone cares, Kim Yo-jong is out make nuclear threats again:
Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, vowed Tuesday to “continuously and limitlessly” bolster the North’s nuclear war deterrent against what it called U.S. threats, denouncing the arrival of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine in South Korea.
The remark came a day after the 7,800-ton USS Vermont entered a major naval base in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to replenish supplies and provide rest for crew members.
“The DPRK’s nuclear war deterrent to cope with and contain various threats from outside is bound to be bolstered up both in quality and quantity continuously and limitlessly as the security of the state is constantly exposed to the U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail,” Kim said in a statement carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
N. Korean garbage balloon at gov’t complex South Korean soldiers retrieve the remnants of a garbage-carrying balloon sent by North Korea at the parking lot of the government complex in Seoul on Sept. 20, 2024. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
The ROK military claims stern measures will be taken if North Korea’s trash balloons start causing fires:
South Korea’s military on Monday vowed to take “stern” military measures should North Korea “cross the line” with its ongoing trash balloon campaign or inflict serious damage to the South Korean people.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) made the remark in a statement in response to the North’s repeated launch of trash-carrying balloons across the border, including those attached with timer devices that could potentially cause fires.
You can read more at the link, but it sounds like an empty threat to me. Really what is the ROK going to do in response, launch their own balloons that start fires in North Korea?
Basically what this ruling is telling everyone is that if you are a service member in USFK and are charged with child porn, just defect to North Korea and the charges will be dropped if you make it back:
Pvt. Travis King on Friday was sentenced to one year in prison after pleading guilty to deserting to North Korea. But he walked out of the courtroom a free man. “With time already served and credit for good behavior, Travis is now free and will return home,” said Frank Rosenblatt, an attorney for the soldier. Military Judge Lt. Col. Rick Mathew also sentenced King to reduction in rank to E-1 and a dishonorable discharge in a court-martial that lasted most of the day.
During the trial, King, 24, sat in his dress uniform between his attorneys and said it was his decision on July 18, 2023, to join a tour of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and then bolt into North Korea. The soldier did so because he was “dissatisfied with work,” he told the judge. King also pleaded guilty to three counts of disobeying an officer on Oct. 7, 2023, and another charge of assaulting a noncommissioned officer the following day.
He pleaded not guilty to additional charges related to child sexual abuse material and making false statements. The judge dismissed the remaining charges.
You can read more at the link, but King played the predictable race card saying everyone in the Army is racist. I have seen people in the Army get more jail time for doing far less than what King did and yet prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that let King walk free after less than a year in jail.
