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Ongoing topic - click for Most Recent Post from the Global Times Political stability in N.Korea benefits all Television monitors displayed at the Yongsan electronic market in Seoul Friday show Jang Song-thaek’s last appearance at the tribunal before his execution. Photo: AFP

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--iGtEQzuD--/c_fit,fl_progressive,w_636/olcpw4v5uobez1qafyho.jpg North Korea remains a grim enigma — a lone totalitarian state that few outsiders manage to visit. We glimpse military parades and marvel at the colorful propaganda, but we seldom get much of a sense of what it's like to live there. But these Instagram photos give a remarkably vivid look at ordinary life in North Korea. http://distilleryimage0.ak.instagram.com/a0071032827311e2979d22000aaa0925_7.jpg Students in coats and gloves, working at computer connected to the local Intranet in The Grand People's Study House, Pyongyang, January 2013 http://distilleryimage2.ak.instagram.com/8331d1f47b0c11e2902122000a9e5160_7.jpg A doctor and a bank of video monitors inside a Pyongyang hospital, February 2013 http://distilleryimage3.ak.instagram.com/60d0c128235a11e39c2922000a9e48da_7.jpg North Korean men work to fix a public trolly bus in Pyongyang. On the street is a grid of painted white dots used to mark the marching steps during mass parades on Kim Il Sung Square, September 2013 http://distilleryimage6.ak.instagram.com/26e0a1982d7011e38c3f22000ae800af_8.jpg Three North Korean soldiers on a motorcycle with sidecar, October 2013 http://distilleryimage5.ak.instagram.com/6de18084368b11e3949722000a1f90e1_8.jpg In a factory, Pyongyang, October 2013 MORE: http://io9.com/instagram-photos-give-a-rare-look-at-life-inside-north-1551825373

The whole world hoped this summit would bring peace to this troubled area since the end of World War 2. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-calls-off-meeting-north-koreas-kim-135250907.html

Making fun of Kim shows lack of taste

in the SCMP (also posted at http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/46367-china-on-north-korea/?p=638405) North Korea’s nuclear test site has collapsed ... and that may be why Kim Jong-un suspended tests The mountain’s collapse after five blasts may be reason behind North Korean leader’s declaration that he would freeze tests and shut down the site

from the SCMP 32 Chinese tourists dead in North Korea coach crash Chinese state TV broadcasts images of the crash site but offers few details https://youtu.be/P6m0BRJGY7g

I can't imagine why anyone would want to go there in the 1st place. http://www.journal-news.com/news/national/sources-ban-americans-travel-korea/EFIWOfpuql1JQEMUWBotXP/

Both from the U.S. to South Korea, and China to North Korea! K-pop band sent home from LAX not sex worker suspects, just lacked work visas: reportImmigration official quoted as denying claim by agent for South Korean girl band Oh My Girl that they were apparently detained as suspected sex workers, instead saying they lacked performance visas for show http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/images/methode/2015/12/14/452ad9aa-a20a-11e5-9340-91203134f877_486x.jpg?itok=l5kTcgZT North Korea's Spice Girls leave China without singing a note: Kim Jong-un's favourite girl band cancel 'due to communciation problems'

Not in China - in North Korea. It's actually a reversion to what was in effect before the "wicked Japanese imperialists" forced Japan time on the Korean peninsula over 100 years ago. DPRK Sets up Its Own Time Zone by Turning Clocks back by 30 Minutes The new time (GMT +8.30) is 1/2 hour ahead of China time (GMT +8), and 1/2 hour behind South Korea and Japan time (GMT +9).

North Korea: China is a ‘Turncoat and our Enemy’

Chinese traders backing off North Korea as sanctions bite Global Times

. China needs to adhere to NK policy Global Times: and again from the Global Times (today) China needs to find right way to punish NK

from the People's Daily North Korea's top leader named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012 http://english.people.com.cn/mediafile/201211/27/F201211271114517176214725.jpg

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...ttoWhatsNewsTop I found this an interesting article dealing with all the china bashers. While attempting to appease a long list of utterly unappeasable foes—Iran, North Korea, Hamas, Hezbollah, and even Hugo Chávez—today the U.S. treats China, perhaps our most crucial economic partner, as an adversary because it defies us on global warming, dollar devaluation, and Internet policy. It started last June in Beijing when U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner lectured Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who recoiled like a man cornered by a crank at a cocktail party. Mr. Geithner was haranguing the Chinese on two highly questionable themes, neither arguably in the interests of either country: the need to suppress energy output in the name of global warming—a subject on which Mr. Geithner has no expertise—and the need for a Chinese dollar devaluation, on which one can scarcely imagine that he can persuade Chinese holders of a trillion dollars of reserves. This week in a meeting with Senate Democrats, President Obama continued to fret about the dollar being too strong against the yuan at a time when most of the world's investors fear that the Chinese will act on his words and crash the dollar. More......

Since this was a "hot topic" last spring, I thought I'd post this....from CNN.COM Chinadave Koizumi shrine visit reopens wound Thursday, January 1, 2004 Posted: 3:59 AM EST (0859 GMT) TOKYO, Japan -- Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has again risked upsetting neighbors China and the Koreas by paying a surprise New Year's visit to a controversial war shrine honoring the country's war dead. Koizumi made the visit to the Yasukuni Shrine Thursday, his fourth such visit since coming to power. Each earlier visit has drawn condemnation and protests from Japan's neighbors who still hold bitter memories of Japanese wartime atrocities and feel Tokyo has yet to fully atone for its militaristic past. The Yasukuni Shrine honors about 2.5 million Japanese war dead since 1853, including convicted criminals such as World War II-era prime minister Hideki Tojo. Koizumi arrived at the shrine amid a crowd of New Year's revelers -- his first visit to the shrine on New Year's Day. Dressed in the long pleated trousers of a traditional, formal Japanese costume, a solemn Koizumi climbed the steps of Yasukuni shrine led by a white-robed Shinto priest. Koizumi said he had decided on the visit to pray for peace. "I went with various feelings, including wishes for Japan's peace and prosperity," Koizumi told reporters after his visit.. "Japan does not rest solely upon the efforts of people living now ... Japan stands upon the sacrifices of others in the past." Asked if he worried about the response from China and North Korea, wartime victims of Japanese aggression, the prime minister replied: "One does not comment about another country's respect of its history, traditions or customs," Reuters reported. The visit comes at a tense diplomatic time for Japan ahead of an expected second round of six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear program and the imminent deployment of combat troops to Iraq. North Korea is objecting to Japan's presence at the talks but the United States is holding firm, insisting Japan take a place at the table. Huang Xingyuan, spokesman of the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo, was quoted as expressing strong dissatisfaction over Koizumi's visit. According to China's Xinhua news agency, Huang urged Japan to stop activities that could harm "the feelings of the Chinese people" as well as Sino-Japanese relations. Japan has also upset China recently over the behavior of a group of 400 businessmen who organized an orgy involving 500 Chinese prostitutes at a five-star hotel in the coastal city of Zhuhai in Guangdong province in September. The orgy sparked fury in China as the incident ended on September 18 -- the 72nd anniversary of the start of Japan's occupation of China's northeast. Several Chinese have been jailed for their role in the sex party, including two for life. (Full story) Another recent bone of contention has been the discovery of 770 barrels of chemical weapons left by Japan in China after World War II. One person died and 42 were injured in August after barrels of abandoned Japanese mustard gas were accidentally dug up at a construction site in Qiqihar and began leaking. Japan has begun making compensation payments for injuries and death caused by the chemicals, but resentment still lingers.

Hi all - I am going to assume that this ok to post since it comes from a web site that can be accessed in China, and therefore does not constitute priveledged information. Of course, if it is harmful to anyones' interests, delete it! Dave N. Korean jets intercept U.S. plane Tuesday, March 4, 2003 Posted: 0028 GMT ( 8:28 AM HKT) The U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance jet is based on the Boeing 707 airliner. WASHINGTON -- The United States military has confirmed four armed North Korean jets intercepted a U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan, but did not engage in hostile behavior. At least two of the planes were MiG 29s while the two other fighters were thought to be MiG 23s. All of the fighters were armed, U.S. military sources said. The Bush administration says it plans to formally protest the interception, saying it represents a "a higher level provocation than what we have been seeing". At one stage the North Korean jets came to within less than 16 meters (50 feet) of the U.S. RC-135 -- an aircraft based on a Boeing 707 -- in an action that is believed to have been designed to "send a message" to the U.S. The incident occurred Sunday when the U.S. plane was flying a routine reconnaissance mission about 240 kilometers (150 miles) off the coast of the Korean Peninsula. The Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, area where the plane was flying was well within international airspace. North Korea has in the past repeatedly complained about U.S. surveillance flights near its borders. The North Koreans flew alongside the U.S. craft for about 20 minutes and at one stage a MiG locked its targeting radar on the plane in what is considered an intimidatory gesture. The U.S. Air Force plane returned to its base in Okinawa, Japan, without incident. The United States says the incident could convince China and Russia to be more open to U.S. requests to apply pressure on Pyongyang. "As they look at the facts of what happened here, it will be hard for Russia and China not to conclude, 'OK, now North Korea has gone too far,'" a senior administration official told CNN. The official said the forum for lodging a formal protest had not been settled on, but that possible venues included communications with North Korean diplomats at the United Nations. Consultations are now under way with Japan and South Korea on the best approach, this and other officials said. "There is no question this is a higher level provocation than what we have been seeing," the senior official said. "This is a type of situation where one miscalculation and people lose their lives, and then there is the risk of some counter response where more people can lose their lives." U.S. officials say it was the first time a U.S. plane has been intercepted by North Korean aircraft in over 30 years. The last previous occasion occurred in 1969 when a North Korean fighter shot down a U.S. EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing more than 30 U.S. airmen, according to a Pentagon official. The latest North Korean action comes as tension builds over the North's suspected nuclear missile ambitions, and looming joint war games on the Korean Peninsula between the U.S. and South Korea. Pyongyang has accused the U.S. and Japan of using an alleged threat posed by North Korean missiles as pretense to launch an attack. In a statement made on North Korea's state-run KCNA on Monday, Pyongyang said it had the right to develop and deploy ballistic missiles as a form of self-defense. "The development and deployment of missiles is a sovereign right and is aimed at strengthening self-defense capabilities," the KCNA, a mouthpiece for the North Korean regime, said. North Korea last week launched an anti-ship missile into the sea off its east coast. KCNA said Washington and Tokyo "are trying to make an excuse for staging a pre-emptive attack." Monday's accusation followed North Korea's starkest warning since its nuclear standoff with the U.S. began in October. North Korea on Sunday said that if the U.S. ignited a war on the Korean Peninsula, the world "will suffer horrifying nuclear disasters." ('Disaster' warning) Pyongyang has issued several warnings through its government-controlled media in recent weeks that the United States is preparing to launch a large-scale attack on the peninsula. The Bush administration has said it has no plans to strike North Korea despite concerns over the restarting of the Yongbyon nuclear reprocessing facility. -- CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr and Producer Mike Mount contributed to this report

This is getting too close to home. The North's state-run Central Radio said the world was watching the Pyongyang-Washington standoff "with sweating hands," and vowed that the Stalinist state would maintain its "mighty army-first policy." "The victory in the nuclear conflict is ours, and the red flag of the army-first policy will flutter ever more vigorously," said the broadcast, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. Washington and its allies are pressuring North Korea to abandon its suspected nuclear weapon programs. The North has insisted on direct talks first with the United States, from which it wants a nonaggression treaty. The bluster from the North came as South Korea's outgoing president warned that Pyongyang's production of atomic weapons could force his country and Japan to built nuclear bombs as well. "If North Korea has nuclear weapons, South Korea could possess such weapons ... and Japan could arm with nuclear weapons. This is what a lot of people worry about. This cannot be tolerated," Kim Dae-jung (news - web sites) told tourism officials. Kim, whose term ends Feb. 25, did not clarify whether he thought North Korea already has such a weapon. Prime Minister Kim Suk-soo has said he believed Pyongyang does not have nuclear weapons. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld has said that North Korea has one or two nuclear weapons and could extract enough plutonium within months to make six to eight more. North Korea had never admitted or denied having nuclear weapons, but has said it has the right to develop nuclear weapons. Pyongyang's declaration of ultimate victory in the nuclear standoff came a day after it hosted national celebrations for reclusive leader Kim Jong Il's 61st birthday on Sunday. Kim rules the communist country as supreme commander of the nation's 1.1 million-member armed forces, and state-run media marked his birthday with anti-U.S. diatribe and hyperbolic praise of his pro-military policy. In his comments to tourism officials, Kim Dae-jung who has championed a policy of engagement with North Korea said he believes there is "no possibility" of U.S. military action against Pyongyang, and called for talks. "North Korea-U.S. talks are important because the problem can only be solved there," he said. The U.S. military said Monday it will conduct two joint military exercises with South Korea next month, but said the annual maneuvers are not related to the North Korean nuclear dispute. There are 37,000 American troops in South Korea. The joint drills are "defense-oriented" and designed to improve the joint U.S.-South Korea forces' ability to defend South Korea against "external aggression," the U.S. military command in Seoul said in a statement. North Korea had no immediate response to the upcoming exercises, but the communist country has routinely denounced past joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises as preparations for an invasion. Last week, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency referred the issue to the U.N. Security Council. The council could consider economic sanctions against North Korea. The North has said it would consider any sanctions a declaration of war. The crisis began in October when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted having a covert nuclear program. Washington and its allies suspended fuel shipments, and the North retaliated by expelling U.N. monitors, taking steps to restart frozen nuclear facilities and withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

I keep thinking that this is just a lot of blustering but it seems to get worse every day......it seems like the North Koreans are trying to provoke the US into an attack....Naturally its proximity to China is an additional reason for concern. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea has an untested ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States, top U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday. While testifying at a Senate committee hearing in Washington, CIA Director George Tenet was asked whether North Korea had a ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. West Coast. Before answering, Tenet turned to very quickly consult with aides sitting behind him. "I think the declassified answer, is yes, they can do that," Tenet said. Defense Intelligence Agency Director Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, also testifying at the hearing, said outside the hearing room that the North Korean missile has not yet been flight tested, according to The Associated Press. Moments earlier Tenet said it was likely that North Korea had been able to produce as many as two plutonium-based nuclear weapons. The estimate is not new -- it was laid out in an unclassified CIA document in December 2001-- but Tenet is the most senior U.S. official to say so publicly. The 2001 report said North Korea's Taepo Dong 2 missile may be capable of hitting the West Coast of the United States, as well Alaska and Hawaii. The revelation came shortly after the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency declared North Korea in breach of international nuclear agreements and sent the issue to the U.N. Security Council. (Full story) The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation executive board voted 31-0 to cite Pyongyang for being in breach of U.N. safeguards. Two countries, Russia and Cuba, abstained. Russia had expressed concern over sending the matter to the Security Council, fearing it could push North Korea into further defiance. Sudan was not allowed to vote because it has not paid its dues, and another nation was not present. Some officials have said there are moves to create a package for North Korea that would try to achieve a diplomatic solution. But the Security Council also could impose sanctions on Pyongyang in an attempt to persuade the North to drop its nuclear plans. North Korea has said such a move would amount to a declaration of war. The decision to send the matter to the Security Council comes at the same time that body has been dealing with weapons inspections in Iraq and whether Baghdad has been in compliance with U.N. Resolution 1441, which calls on Iraq to disarm. Friday, the two top U.N. weapons inspectors report back to the council on their latest findings within Iraq. European Union international policy chief Javier Solana -- who spent the last two days in meetings in South Korea -- said earlier Wednesday that now is not the time to impose sanctions on North Korea. "I don't think this is the moment to do sanctions, and I do think the sanctions may contribute to the opposite that we want to obtain, which is defusing of the crisis," Solana said before the IAEA vote. During his visit to Seoul, Solana has met with top South Korean officials, including President Kim Dae-jung, President-elect Roh Moo-hyun, the foreign minister and the minister of defense. Solana also may travel to North Korea in the coming weeks to discuss ways to defuse the nuclear impasse. He said he would base the timing of any mission to Pyongyang on the wishes of North Korea's neighbors. "All of them have told me 'the sooner, the better,' so we will do it the sooner, the better, Solana said. Tensions have mounted on the Korean peninsula since last October when the United States said North Korea admitted to secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 deal. Pyongyang, which denies the U.S. claim, responded by backing out of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty earlier this year, kicking out U.N. nuclear monitors and restarting a mothballed nuclear power plant in a move it says will compensate for an energy shortfall.