China (and others) on North Korea

[Randy W]

‘I’ll follow him to the end of the world’: North Korean veteran news anchor thanks Kim for new home

Ri Chun-hee, who has been presenting news for North Korea's state network since 1971, showed off her new riverside flat. She expressed her gratitude to the country's leader.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/1009442806604687/

 

 

 

[Randy W]

The coronavirus has been spreading across North Korea “at an explosive rate,” killing six people and leaving 187,800 people in quarantine, the country’s state media reported. It was also the first time Kim Jong-un was shown on state TV wearing a mask.

from the NY Times on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/5281959998/posts/10152927918904999/

North Korea Says 6 Dead as Covid-19 Spreads ‘Explosively’
The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said 187,800 people were in quarantine, and state TV showed him wearing a mask for the first time.

A TV broadcast in Seoul on Thursday showed North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, wearing a mask after the North confirmed its first Covid-19 outbreak.Credit...Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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The coronavirus has been spreading across North Korea “explosively” since late last month, killing six people and leaving 187,800 people in quarantine, the country’s state media reported on Friday.

Health officials made the rare admission of an emerging public health crisis after the country reported its first outbreak of the virus — after long insisting it had no infections and refusing outside humanitarian aid to fight any spread. The announcement of fatalities came as the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, was visiting the national disease-control headquarters on Thursday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

In a sign of growing urgency, the state-run Central Television for the first time showed Mr. Kim wearing a mask during a Workers’ Party meeting.

Mr. Kim criticized his heath officials, saying that the simultaneous spread of fever, with the capital as a center of the outbreak, “shows that there is a vulnerable point in the epidemic prevention system,” the North Korean news agency said.

Some analysts warned that North Korea could be headed into a major humanitarian crisis unless the international community persuades it to open up for outside aid to fight the virus.

 

 

[Randy W]

 

North Korea’s Covid-19 problem: from zero to millions in a matter of weeks

Covid-19 cases in North Korea have blown up to over 3 million “fevers”. How did North Korea’s Covid-19 problem get out of control? And how long has it really been going on?

From the scmp on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/719927649260901/

[Randy W]

 

North Korea blames Covid-19 outbreak on ‘alien things’ near South Korea border

• In an apparent move to shift blame for a wave of infections, state media cited a soldier and a child, 5, who touched unidentified materials before falling ill
• North Korea reported 4,570 more people with fever symptoms on Friday, for a total of 4.74 million – though it did not specify them as coronavirus cases

from the SCMP

Workers disinfect the interior of Pyongyang International Airport as part of the country’s anti-coronavirus measures. Photo: KCNA via KNS/AFP

I thought this looked familiar - I had previously posted this here - http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/50020-covid-19-in-china/?do=findComment&comment=649589

 

 

[Randy W]

Balloons used to send Covid supplies into North Korea amid threat of ‘strong retaliatory response’

A defector used 20 helium balloons to send Covid-19 supplies into North Korea from a city in the South on September 5.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/1215466122330518/

[Randy W]

 

North Korea shows off nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles in new propaganda posters

Nuclear missiles feature prominently in new propaganda material released by North Korea’s state media.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/478718377228534/

[Randy W]

New US Space Force unit launched in South Korea to counter North’s nuclear and missile threats

The United States has launched a new space force unit at Osan Air Base near the South Korean capital Seoul in a bid to reinforce the allies’ capability of responding to missile threats by North Korea.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/2089205821269690/

from Military.com

'Space Force? Is that Real?' Guardians Still Struggling with an Unconvinced Public

The Space Force currently has around 6,800 Guardians and 6,700 civilian employees. By comparison, the Air Force has around 650,000 personnel. The service began transferring members from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, after focusing the first year on transfers from the Air Force.

 . . . and the Berkeley Political Review

Boots on the Moon: Weighing the Pros and Cons of the Space Force

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Perhaps a less dire drawback would be excessive military bureaucracy and spending. Currently, a large part of the space military is controlled by the Air Force and its leadership does not feel the need to split the Space Force into a different branch. As long as the task of space operations remains manageable to the Air Force, there is no reason to split off and add to an already long bureaucratic process; splitting into a separate branch may complicate and meddle with an already sound system. Secretary Debbie Lee James, the secretary of the Air Force under President Obama argues that the Air Force already invests a significant amount of money and resources into space and several military experts champion the idea of integration within the military instead of establishing several separate branches. 

In light of these trade-offs, it becomes clear that the US needs to have a long and productive conversation about the future of the military. Instead of wasting dollars on an already over-funded military, the US needs to rethink its strategy and prepare itself for a modern world. There are definitive drawbacks to the Space Force, and it should not be unthinkingly or unequivocally championed. However, we must take this idea seriously while considering the technologically-advancing reality that we live in today.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

South Korean military apologises over North’s drone incursion

South Korean military forces' failure to shoot down five North Korean drones that crossed the border has given many of its citizens worry.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/888712232135568/

 

 

South Korean military apologises over North’s drone incursion

South Korean military forces' failure to shoot down five North Korean drones that crossed the border has given many of its citizens worry.

Posted by South China Morning Post on Tuesday, December 27, 2022

South Korea’s $441m plan to upgrade military response after the North’s drone incursion

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol called for a review of the military’s response to objects violating its airspace as the country announced plans to upgrade its defences against drones.

 

 

South Korea’s $441m plan to upgrade military response after the North’s drone incursion

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol called for a review of the military’s response to objects violating its airspace as the country announced plans to upgrade its defences against drones.

Posted by South China Morning Post on Friday, December 30, 2022

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

North Korean capital under 5-day lockdown over unspecified ‘respiratory illness’

The North Korean capital Pyongyang has been ordered to undergo a five-day lockdown due to an unspecified respiratory illness.

I'm not seeing a date on this anywhere, but it apparently IS current (Jan. 26)

 

 

[Randy W]

It's sad to see her choosing sides in the American morass we call "politics".

A North Korean Dissident Defects to the American Right
Yeonmi Park’s account of the horrors of North Korea made her a human rights celebrity. Her new claims that America is on the same path have made her a right-wing media star.

from the NY Times

Quote

 

But in recent years, she has added a new postscript.

“And now,” she told the crowd in Long Island City last weekend, “I see the same thing in America.”

 . . .

Describing her own recent experience as an undergraduate at Columbia University, Ms. Park told the Fox News host Mark Levin in an interview last month that the school’s pedagogy “is exactly what the North Korean regime used to brainwash people.” Left-wing indoctrination in American educational institutions, she said, “is, I think, the biggest threat that our nation, and our civilization is facing.”

She now denounces Hillary Clinton, with whom she once shared a conference stage, as an “absolute faker and liar,” and rails against transgender-oriented marketing campaigns: “Political correctness has erased women,” she wrote recently on Facebook.

 . . .

“And with that promise,” she added, “they took everything, one by one, from us.” The crowd gave her two standing ovations.

Ms. Park’s transformation from celebrity defector to loud critic of liberal identity politics is extraordinarily rare. Very few of the tens of thousands of people who have fled North Korea wade into domestic politics in the countries where they have taken refuge.

But in an American political climate that rewards hyperbole and alarm, Ms. Park, who became a U.S. citizen in 2021, has found a lucrative niche.

Her second book, “While Time Remains,” a self-described “warning for Americans” published in February, has already outpaced the hardcover sales of her best-selling 2015 memoir. She is a regular guest on popular right-leaning TV networks and podcasts, and speaker at conservative universities and think tanks.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

US soldier in North Korea custody ‘after crossing border while laughing’

• Soldier was taking part in a tour to the Joint Security Area, the border village in the DMZ separating the two Koreas, when incident happened, says UN Command
• A South Korean newspaper identifies the man as private Travis King, but then deletes name; witness says man laughed as he ran over border

from the SCMP

Flags of the two Koreas fly between the border area in Paju. File photo: Yonhap via AP
 

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South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo daily, citing South Korea’s army, identified the person as Travis King, a US army soldier with the rank of private second class. The newspaper later deleted the name.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the identity of the person, but two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the soldier had been due to face disciplinary action by the US military.

A third US official said the soldier had crossed into North Korea “wilfully and without authorisation”.

CBS News said that before the incident the soldier was being escorted back to the United States for disciplinary reasons, but after going through airport security somehow returned and managed to join the border tour.

A person who said they were part of the same tour group and witnessed the event told CBS News they were at the site when “this man gives out a loud ‘ha ha ha’ and just runs in between some buildings”.

 

 

[Randy W]

Japan's "Return to Paradise" program. 

Why nearly 100,000 people left Japan to move to North Korea

Between 1959 and 1984, about 94,000 people abandoned their lives in Japan to pursue fresh starts in North Korea. Almost all of them were ethnic Koreans who had ties to a prominent pro-North Korean lobby. Referred to as Zainichi Koreans – a Japanese word for foreign nationals “staying in Japan” – the group faced discrimination in Japan. But does that explain why they chose to move to one of the most repressive countries on Earth? And what did they find when they arrived in North Korea?

Edited September 2, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Hyangsu’s uncle sought 'paradise' in North Korea. It took 20 years to learn what happened to him

Lured by North Korean propaganda, more than 90,000 ethnic Koreans moved to "paradise on Earth" from Japan in search of a better life. Most of them could never leave. Among them was Hyangsu Park’s uncle.

from SBSNews

Published 31 August 2023 5:50am

Updated 31 August 2023 1:31pm

Hyangsu Park (in traditional dress) photographed with her uncle, Seok-geun Do, and three cousins in their home in Wonsan, North Korea, in 1990. Source: Supplied / Hyangsu Park
 

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But for Park, now 50 and living in the South Korean capital Seoul, Chongryon came to mean something more sinister. Besides aligning with the state ideology of one of the most repressive countries in the world, the organisation played a direct role in promoting Pyonyang’s deceptive resettlement campaign, during which more than 90,000 people moved from Japan to North Korea. One of them was Park’s uncle.

It’s been almost 33 years since Park saw him, and 27 years since she saw his wife and three children in North Korea. She understands they died in prison.

“I could not speak out before,” she told SBS Dateline. “The reason why I can do this interview is that I learnt that my family in North Korea are dead. My mother told me: ‘now you can speak out instead of the people who cannot.’”

 . . .

“After one year, my mum got a letter from her brother who asked to send him clothes and other things. In the end, he wrote, ‘Please, send me a hot air balloon.’ Everybody realised that he wanted to come home but he couldn’t write it openly.”

 

 

Edited September 2, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

On 2/20/2019 at 7:32 PM, Randy W said:

the slow train through China . . .

 

from China Daily

 

Sources: Kim to take train to Hanoi, summit at govt guesthouse

 

Kim does it again!

Why did Kim Jong-un travel to Russia by train?

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Russia on September 12, 2023, in his dark green bulletproof train, as seen from video released by Russian officials. Kim has been travelling by train for every state visit since becoming leader in 2011. A former North Korean official explained why Pyongyang’s ruling Kim family is in favour of this slow transport system.

[Randy W]

South Korea says it expressed concern to China for sending North Korean escapees back home

from AP News

FILE - North Korean defectors and human right activists stage a rally demanding Chinese government to release North Korean defectors captured in China, near the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea on Sept. 22, 2023. South Korea on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023 said it had expressed its concerns to China after assessing that it recently returned a “large number” of North Koreans, including escapees, back to their homeland. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
 

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South Korea on Friday said it had expressed its concerns to China after assessing that it recently returned a “large number” of North Koreans, including escapees, back to their homeland.

Koo Byoungsam, spokesperson of South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said Seoul did not have information on the exact number of North Koreans repatriated from northeast China or how many of them were “escapees, medical patients or criminals.”

His comments followed several media reports based on activist sources that alleged China recently returned hundreds of escapees back to North Korea where they would face the risk of persecution and harsh treatment.

“It appears to be true that a large number of North Koreans were repatriated to North Korea from China’s three northeastern provinces,” Koo said. “(Our) government’s position is that there should be no circumstances in which North Koreans living abroad would be forcibly repatriated back home against their will.”

 . . .

Human rights activists had warned that Chinese repatriations of North Korean escapees could increase as North Korea slowly reopens its borders after a prolonged COVID-19 shutdown. Some activist groups believe that the number of North Koreans detained as “illegal immigrants” in China could exceed 2,000.

 . . .

Citing an activist account, the Human Rights Watch in a report on Thursday alleged that China this week used several vehicle convoys to forcibly return more than 500 people who had escaped North Korea. The group said most of the returnees were women and expressed concerns that they were at “grave risk” of being detained in forced labor camps, and potentially face torture and other violence.

 

 

Edited October 13, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)