Category: DPRK Government

Pyongyang claims US planning surprise nuclear attack

Posted on by

The US is planning to mount a surprise nuclear attack on North Korea when it stages a joint military exercise with South Korea in the coming days, Pyongyang has claimed. The drills are set to begin on 22 August.

The North pledged the country would launch a “merciless retaliatory counteraction” against the US-South Korean forces. With tensions in the Korean peninsula constantly escalating, Pyongyang has yet again stepped up its rhetoric against the US, leading to a further deterioration of the situation. The North’s comments are sharply aimed at Washington’s recent decision to deploy sophisticated B-2 Spirit nuclear-capable bombers in the US territory of Guam.

Pyongyang has constantly dubbed the joint US–South Korean military exercises as a rehearsal for an actual attack on its country. But the US and South Korea have maintained they are necessary defensive measures undertaken to combat the emerging threats from the North.

[International Business Times]

Despite international sanctions, North Korea keeps food and fuel prices stable

Posted on by

The prices of food staples and fuel are reported to have remained steady in North Korea despite coming under international pressure over Kim Jong-un’s nuclear and missile programs.

A rare set of data from the country shows that so far the UN-mandated sanctions have not hurt its ordinary people as both the prices and currency have been stable. This is seen as a contrast to the economic situation under his father Kim Jong II’s leadership.

The stability is attributed to the younger Kim’s decision to introduce a booming system of jangmadang, which translates to North Korean markets that are semi-legal but regulated. The system permits wholesalers and retailers to buy and sell imported and privately-produced goods. The number of stalls in the jangmadang has reportedly grown by hundreds, according to defectors who work for Daily NK.

“Since Kim Jong-un came to power, there has been no control or crackdown on the jangmadang,” Reuters reported Kang Mi-jin, a North Korean defector as saying. “Keeping the markets open has had a positive effect on the people. He had no other option. He can’t feed the people, and he can’t completely shut the markets down.”

The prices of rice, corn, petrol and diesel largely remained steady over the last year. The market is said to be making up for the shortfall in sales made through the country’s centrally-planned rationing system, which reportedly has not recovered from the 1990s famine that struck the North. According to a recent World Food Programme report, the state has handed out only 360gms of rations per person per day, the lowest quantity in five years.

[International Business Times]

Bangladesh expels North Korean diplomat over smuggled goods

Posted on by

Bangladesh has kicked out a North Korean diplomat after he was caught smuggling more than one million cigarettes as well as electronics into the country in a shipping container, Dhaka officials said on Monday.

Han Son Ik, the first secretary of the North Korean embassy in Dhaka, has been ordered to leave the country after failing to declare the goods worth nearly half a million dollars to customs.

“We have asked North Korea to take him back for violating diplomatic norms,” Bangladesh foreign secretary Shahidul Haque told AFP, declining to give details. The goods were suspected destined for the blackmarket.

A senior customs official told AFP the North Korean used his diplomatic immunity earlier this month to import

In March last year, another North Korean diplomat was forced to apologize after he was caught at Dhaka airport trying to smuggle nearly 27 kilogrammes (60 pounds) of gold, worth $1.7 million, into the country.

Last year, a North Korean restaurant in Dhaka was shut down after officials found it was selling wine and drugs such as Viagra without permission.

[AFP]

A summary of East Asia regional politics and tensions

Posted on by

Hawkish Tomomi Inada, just installed as Japan’s defense minister, will be watched closely by China and South Korea, where Japan’s legacy of military aggression before and during World War Two remains an open wound.

Japan has already said it is upgrading its missile defenses in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games to counter more advanced North Korean weapons, part of increased military spending in the region that reflects worsening ties.

China is North Korea’s main ally, although Beijing disapproves of Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Japan, and Inada, may reach out to China and others as they seek to neutralize the threat to security posed by North Korea.

Japan and China both claim jurisdiction over islands in the East China Sea. Rather than confront China directly by sailing warships past its man-made island bases in the sea, Japan is providing equipment and training to the Southeast Asian nations, including the Philippines and Vietnam, which are most opposed to China’s territorial ambitions.

Lastly, Beijing’s most powerful adversary in Asia is the United States, with its Seventh Fleet operating from bases in Japan and South Korea.

[Reuters]

North Korea, slave state of the 21st Century

Posted on by

The U.S. Republican Party adopted its new policy platform, calling North Korea a ‘slave state’, on July 18, the opening day of the party’s national convention. Indeed, the majority of the people in the communist country live like slaves owned by the Kim family without fundamental rights as human beings.

I experienced the life of a [North Korean] slave when I was working in Kuwait as a foreign worker, so I welcome the recent designation, albeit belated. … I worked on a residential construction site in Umm al Hayman, where an abandoned two-story school was used as lodging for North Korean workers. There were just about 20 shabby beds in each classroom and everything was in poor condition. The lodging was surrounded by a 2m-high barbed-wire fence, which was erected at the request of North Korean authorities to prevent any runaway.

We were forced to work 15 hours a day from 7 a.m. to midnight, excluding lunch and dinner breaks, under direct sunlight of the desert and with searchlight at light. What kept me going in the harsh work conditions, though, was beef soup offered with steamed rice two or three times a week. Bread was offered for lunch and noodles were offered for dinner, but the amount was not sufficient. Beef was a highly valuable food for ordinary people in North Korea, so we felt that we were privileged to eat beef soup.

We worked hard, expecting to earn $120 of the promised monthly pay and send it to family members at home. However, we could not receive any money even after a few months of labor. The manager responded to the angry workers by saying “The company is in financial trouble” or “There is no order from the party to give you a pay”. Upset, the workers criticized the ‘company’, but no one blamed the ‘Workers Party’ of Pyongyang. They did not and could not dispraise the party, because they knew that the party was equal to the supreme leader and they were also afraid of further trouble.

[Read Rim Il’s full OpEdNews article]

5 points of tension between North Korea and US

Posted on by

Five points of tensions between North Korea and the U.S. as shared by Pyongyang’s top diplomat for U.S. affairs, in an AP interview on Thursday:

  • Kim Jong Un on a list of sanctioned individuals – Han Song Ryol, director-general of the U.S. affairs department at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, emphasized the authoritarian country’s anger over Washington’s July 6 announcement putting leader Kim Jong Un on a list of sanctioned individuals in connection with alleged human rights abuses documented by the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Pyongyang denies the allegations. “The United States has crossed the red line in our showdown,” he said. “We regard this thrice-cursed crime as a declaration of war.”
  • War Games – Han warned against planned U.S.-South Korean war games next month. “By doing these kinds of vicious and hostile acts toward the DPRK, the U.S. has already declared war against the DPRK. So it is our self-defensive right and justifiable action to respond in a very hard way,” he said.
  • US Diplomat’s flight – Han castigated Mark Lippert, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, for a July 12 flight on a U.S. Air Force F-16 based in South Korea. He called it an action “unfit for a diplomat.”
  • Differences in stance on nuclear weapons – North Korea has been hit with several rounds of international sanctions over its continued development of nuclear weapons and missiles, but Han contended the U.S. is to blame. “It is the United States that first developed nuclear weapons, who first deployed them and who first used them against humankind,” he said.
  • North Korea won’t give up nukes – As North Korea has many times before, Han dismissed calls for Pyongyang to defuse tensions by agreeing to abandon its nuclear program. “We … are very proud of the fact, that we have very strong nuclear deterrent forces not only to cope with the United States’ nuclear blackmail but also to neutralize the nuclear blackmail of the United States,” Han said.

[Associated Press]

North Korea calls United States ‘heinous violator of human rights’

Posted on by

North Korea denounced the United States as a “heinous violator of human rights” on Wednesday.

A Pyongyang foreign ministry spokesman told state news agency KCNA: “The United States has proved once again it is the source of trouble, sweeping the world with acts of terror and human rights violations.”

“An atrocious nation of war criminals, violator of human rights, the United States needs to undergo a rigorous judgment of rights abuses and yet goes around pretending to be an ‘international judge,’ meddling in other countries’ affairs,” the statement read.

The North Korean spokesman also said the United States had attacked the country’s “highest dignity,” which is an “unforgivable crime.”

The verbal attack on Washington seems to be part of a series of reactions from Pyongyang regarding the U.S. decision to sanction Kim Jong Un for human rights abuses.

[UPI]

North Korea willing to talk denuclearization

Posted on by

North Korea has said it was willing to talk denuclearization (but no one noticed).

On July 6 the U.S. Department of Treasury announced it had designated Kim Jong-un by name on a new list of individuals sanctioned for human rights violations.

In the dance of jubilation, few had the time or inclination to pay attention to a DPRK government spokesman’s statement released earlier the same day. That statement made clear what the North Koreans have been hinting at for some time—yes, they were willing to talk about denuclearization.

It is important to pay attention to the vehicle Pyongyang used to convey the latest position—a DPRK Government spokesman’s statement, among the highest on the North’s ladder of authority. Statements at this level are generally used to signal important new policies.

[Read full article, published on a blog of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS]

North Korea will have America’s most advanced missile system in its backyard

Posted on by
1

The most advanced missile system on the planet, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), can hunt and blast incoming missiles right out of the sky with a reportedly 100% success rate — and it appears to be headed to North Korea’s backyard.

“North Korea’s continued development of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction require the alliance to take this prudent, protective measure to bolster our layered and effective missile defense,” US Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of US forces in South Korea, said in a statement.

“Oh, it’s going to happen. It’s a necessary thing,” US Defense Secretary Ash Carter had earlier said during a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Meanwhile, satellite imagery indicates a high-level of activity at North Korea’s nuclear test site to ensure the facility is always ready for use on any orders from Pyongyang, a US think-tank said. The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said images from July 7 of the Punggye-ri site show what appear to be supplies and/or equipment stacked next to the North Portal where the North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January.

“Based on imagery alone, it is not possible to determine whether this activity is for maintenance, excavation or preparation for a fifth nuclear test”, it said Monday on its website 38 North. “Nevertheless, it is clear that North Korea is ensuring that the facility is in a state of readiness that would allow the conduct of future nuclear tests should the order come from Pyongyang,” it added.

[Yahoo News]

North Korea says it will treat U.S. detainees under ‘wartime law’

Posted on by

North Korea said on Monday it has told the United States it will sever the only channel of communication between them, at the United Nations in New York, after Washington blacklisted leader Kim Jong Un last week for human rights abuses.

All matters related to the United States, including the handling of American citizens detained by Pyongyang, will be conducted under its “wartime law,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said.

Two Americans known to be detained in North Korea include Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March for trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan, according to North Korean state media. The other, Korean-American Kim Dong Chul, is serving a 10 year sentence for espionage, state media said.

The move is the latest escalation of tension with the isolated country, which earlier on Monday threatened a “physical response” after the United States and South Korea said they would deploy the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.

Pyongyang  said, “The Republic will handle all matters arising between us and the United States from now on under our wartime laws, and the matters of Americans detained are no exception to this.” It was not clear how “wartime laws” would affect the handling of the two Americans detained. But North Korea has indicated in the past that wartime laws would mean that detainees will not be released on humanitarian grounds.

The North and the United States remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Washington sided with the South, ended only with a truce.

[Reuters]