North Korea... :-(

[mlurp]

Quite a lot going on in N. Korea of late.

..Asia News Headlines..

N. Korea names new army vice marshal: state media AFP - 15 mins ago
North Korea has named Hyon Yong-Chol to the post of vice marshal of the army, state media said Tuesday, a day after it emerged that the country's army chief had been … More »N. Korea names new army vice marshal: state media


Military mentor to NKorean leader dismissed HYUNG-JIN KIM - AP - 17 mins ago
Seven months ago, he was the guardian figure always at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's side, a top military official whose experience and position lent the young new … More »Military mentor to NKorean leader dismissed


KCNA: North Korea names new military chief AP - 33 mins ago
The official Korean Central News Agency says North Korea has named a new military chief. More »


N. Korea accuses South of attempting to destroy statues AFP - 1 hr 28 mins ago
North Korea accused South Korea and the United States Monday of using defectors for an alleged subversive mission to destroy statues and monuments dedicated to its late … More »

US Hyundai car supplies tight amid Korea labor worries AFP - 3 hrs ago
Hyundai is facing vehicle shortages in the United States after a blistering 10 percent sales increase in the first half of 2012, the company's chief executive for the … More »



Ukraine jails two N. Koreans for missile spying AFP - 4 hrs ago
Ukraine has jailed two North Koreans for eight years on charges of trying to obtain sensitive missile production data, a law enforcement official said on Monday. More »

Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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These are the major links for Asia and the Middle East.. As well as other regions.


Middle East News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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These are links to other regions worth watching...

Latin America News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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My to each reader..

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This and other important news out of N.Korea.

N.Korea threatens to attack S.Korea ships

May 27, 2010 | From afp.com .. Posted 20 July 2012 ............

North Korea vowed Thursday to attack any South Korean ships which violate their disputed border and Seoul's navy staged its own show of strength amid continuing high tension over the sinking of a warship.

Pyongyang's military general staff also scrapped a pact which guards against accidental naval clashes at the flashpoint border, and repeated threats to shut down a joint business project.

Elsewhere in the Yellow Sea, South Korea's navy staged an anti-submarine exercise, its first since Seoul publicly accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its warships on March 26 with the loss of 46 lives.

In Seoul, an estimated 10,000 protesters shouted "Kill our enemy!" and whacked images of the North's leader Kim Jong-Il with wooden bars.

Investigators from five countries said last week they found overwhelming evidence that a torpedo attack by a North Korean submarine sank the Cheonan near the border.

The South has announced a series of reprisals including a halt to trade. The North, which denies involvement, has responded with angry rhetoric and an announcement that it is cutting all ties with its neighbour.

Blasting the South's "confrontation maniacs, sycophants and quislings", the North's military said agreements on forestalling accidental conflicts would be declared "completely null and void".

The border was the scene of deadly clashes in 1999 and 2002 and of a firefight in November last year. The South's military believes the Cheonan was sunk in revenge for the firefight.

The general staff said it was also scrapping military safety guarantees for South Koreans crossing the land border, and would consider a complete block on access to the Kaesong joint industrial estate in its territory.

It repeated a threat to attack loudspeakers if Seoul goes ahead with its plan to resume cross-border propaganda broadcasts as part of reprisals.

Some 42,000 North Koreans work in 110 South Korean factories at Kaesong, which was developed as a symbol of reconciliation.

"We are watching whether North Korea will take action to cripple the operations of the Kaesong estate, or will close it," said unification ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo.

Off the west coast, far away from the border, eight South Korean warships launched a drill to destroy mock North Korean patrol boats and submarines, firing cannon and dropping depth charges.

Officials quoted by Yonhap news agency said South Korea's military and the 28,500 US troops in the South had raised their alert level and stepped up aerial surveillance of the North.

South Korea and the United States have launched a diplomatic drive to punish the North with United Nations Security Council sanctions. China, wielding veto power in the council, has so far held back from condemning its ally the North.

The North says the South faked evidence of its involvement in the sinking to fuel confrontation and threatens "all-out war" against any punitive moves.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Seoul Wednesday in a show of support and said the world had a duty to respond to the North's attack.

A US diplomat travelling with her told reporters Beijing would carefully move closer to Seoul's position. A visit Friday to South Korea by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao could mark the start of the change, the official said.

Russia, which also has a Security Council veto, said it would send experts to Seoul to study the findings of the investigation into the sinking.

Moscow said it would not support efforts to punish the North until it is fully convinced of its guilt.

"We need to receive 100 percent proof of North Korea's role in the sinking of the corvette," said foreign ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov.

"Our specialists are currently studying the materials of the investigation. We need to draw our own conclusions about what happened."

Analysts said a full-scale war was unlikely but clashes cannot be ruled out.

The two Koreas appear to be on a collision course and to have "neither the will nor a strategy to exit from this extremely difficult phase," said Yang Moo-Jin, of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

Only the United States and China could end the crisis, he said.

N.Korea threatens to attack S.Korea ships - North Korea's Nuclear Testing - Zimbio

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Shakeup in N. Korea - Page 2 - The Tree Of Liberty
The Tree Of Liberty > Public > Committees of Correspondence: Shakeup in N. Korea ... cannot rule out the possibility that Ri was injured or even killed in the firefight ...

KUNA : Gun battle in N. Korea kill 20-30 soldiers - Military ...
Gun battle in N. Korea kill 20-30 soldiers ... "The firefight has still not been 100 percent confirmed, and it may take some time ...

Search to Resume for MIAs in N. Korea - 60 years after ...
[Mar 8, 2012] Search to Resume for MIAs in N. Korea 60 years after conflict, US hunts remains of ... restricted areas include two likely plane crash locations and the site of a firefight ...

FIRE FIGHT WITH MUSLIMS AT DMZ IN KOREA - YouTube
this is an excercise drills not a real firefight footage ... 0:27 Watch Later Error Crossing into N. Korea from S. Korea by numberjunky ...

List of border incidents involving North Korea - Wikipedia ...
1950s|1960s|1970s|1980s
November 1984: Three North Korean soldiers and one South Korean soldier die, and one American soldier is wounded during the firefight that erupted when a North Korean ...

Fire Fight in N.Korea - Yahoo! Search Results

And this is page one of ten.

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Not much news from this Nation sense there was some fighting.

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Well like taking out the forests to keep warm (which is all these poor people have as their govt., has to live like kings and spends like they have plenty, not giving a squat about their own people) like places here and abroad have learned.

Is not wise when the rains come.

.N. Korea floods kill 88, leave thousands homeless

AFP – 9 hrs ago. 28 July 2012 ............

Flooding across impoverished North Korea this month has killed 88 people, left tens of thousands homeless and devastated swathes of farmland, state media said Saturday.

A week of floods "caused by typhoon and downpour... claimed big human and material losses", Pyongyang's official news agency said. The new death toll was a dramatic increase from the figure of eight reported Wednesday.

A total of 134 people were injured and almost 63,000 people were left homeless by the floods, which started on July 18, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, with thousands of houses damaged or destroyed.

The biggest loss of human life was in two counties of South Pyongan province, which were hit by torrential rains on Monday and Tuesday, it said.

More than 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of land for growing crops was "washed away and buried" or "submerged", KCNA said, a potential blow for a state that is beset by persistent severe food shortages.

With rugged terrain and outmoded agricultural practices, the country faces serious difficulties in feeding its 24 million people. Hundreds of thousands died during a famine in the mid to late-1990s.

UN agencies, after a visit to the North, estimated last November that three million people would need food aid in 2012.

Some 300 public buildings and 60 factories were damaged in the floods, as well as large stretches of road, KCNA said.

State media reported earlier this week that 60 flood victims were rescued thanks to a helicopter urgently sent by leader Kim Jong-Un.

The victims, including children and women, were trapped Monday on a hillock in the northwest of the country after a river flooded due to heavy rain, the official news agency said.

"Isolated incommunicado, they did not find a way out, in panic at rising water. At that time a helicopter appeared," it said.

"After receiving an urgent report, the dear respected Kim Jong-Un issued an emergency sortie order to a unit of the Air Force of the Korean People's Army."

After decades of deforestation, the impoverished North Korea is particularly vulnerable to flooding.

And why wern't they ready, both the citizens and the Army?

Dozens were killed or injured by a storm and torrential rain in the North in June and July last year. Thousands were also made homeless and large areas of farmland were flooded.

The United States reached a deal on February 29 this year to offer North Korea badly needed food aid in return for a freeze on nuclear and missile tests.

But it rescinded the plan after the North's failed rocket launch in April, seen by the United States and its allies as an attempted ballistic missile test.

The North has been developing nuclear weapons for decades and staged two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

N. Korea floods kill 88, leave thousands homeless - Yahoo! News

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A bit unspected for them to allow UN possible American's into their country to help with the flood, which opens the door to the landscape & possibley some of the regular people.

.UN heads for flood-hit areas in North Korea

AFP – 2 hrs 52 mins ago. 31 July 2012 .........................

United Nations teams were heading for flood-hit areas of North Korea to assess possible aid, a UN official said Tuesday, after Pyongyang reported scores dead and tens of thousands homeless.

The country's official news agency published photographs which appeared to show large swathes of submerged land and people wading through thigh-high water or taking refuge on rooftops.

UN officials already based in the North will visit the two worst-affected counties "to see what help if any the UN country team can provide", said UNICEF's Bangkok-based regional spokesman Christopher de Bono by email.

The teams have left Pyongyang, one heading for South Pyongan province in the west of the country and another for Kangwon province in the east, he said.

The flooding represents a challenge for Kim Jong-Un, new leader of a country which has grappled with severe food shortages since a famine in the 1990s killed hundreds of thousands.

Following an inspection visit last autumn, UN agencies estimated that three million people would need food aid this year even before the deluge.

Widespread deforestation, to collect firewood or clear land for crops, has made the impoverished nation increasingly prone to serious flooding which disrupts agriculture.

On Saturday the official news agency said a week-long flood earlier in July had left 88 dead, injured 134, and made almost 63,000 people homeless.

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UN heads for flood-hit areas in North Korea - Yahoo! News

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This is the last Nation any person would want to try out for the Olympic Games if they knew the results if you don't win. And yet they each might know already.

.North Korea's Key to Olympic Medals: Refrigerators For Winners, Labor Camp Threat for Losers.

By JOOHEE CHO | ABC News – 10 hrs ago. 3 August 2012 ............

North Korea's Olympic athletes are thrilling their countrymen with surprising success in winning medals and they are attributing their success to their Dear Leader Kim Jong Un.

But others, including former North Korean athletes who have defected, suggest the success of the country's small contingent of athletes at the games may be the result of a policy of training them from a very young age at specialized schools, backed up by rewards like cars and refrigerators for winners and the threat of labor camps for losers.

North Korea ranks 14th in the overall medal count, but fifth in terms of the number of gold medals with four.

The country won two golds in men's weightlifting, one in women's weightlifting and one in women's judo. It also captured a bronze medal in women's weightlifting.

The communist nation has 56 athletes competing in 11 sports. Its hopes for additional medals lie in boxing, wrestling, diving, table tennis, judo, and archery. The best Olympic result in the past was four gold medals and five bronzes in Barcelona 1992.

Joyful residents in North Korea gather to watch the games on huge outdoor screens and public places with television connection.

"After witnessing the gold medal at the Olympics, my heart is unutterably happy and my pride (in our nation) is growing," an unidentified woman said on state television news.

That pride is exactly what the country's new 28 year-old leader Kim Jong Un is looking for. He has taken control of the impoverished nation of 25 million after his father Kim Jong Il passed away last December. Decades of famine have left many North Koreans bitter and analysts say this Olympic Games' fever is a perfect opportunity to generate loyalty and devotion among his subjects.

Gold medalist Kim Un-Guk, who set an Olympic record in 62-kilogram weightlifting, dutifully attributed his triumph to their leader Kim Jong Un.

"I won first place because the shining Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un gave me power and courage," he told reporters in London.

An Kum-Ae, who won her gold in the women's judo 52-kilogram division, said, "I cannot be any happier than right now for I can give my gold medal to our great leader, Kim Jong Un."

Woo-Young Lee, a professor at University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, says, "Athletes in North Korean society are revered as elites and they are managed, trained, and supported on a national level."

Hand-picked by the Communist Party's Sports Committee, the athletes are trained at very young ages and registered at specialized schools which provide "daily meals and spending money at times," said Gu-Kyeong Bang, a defector living in South Korea.



Secret to North Korea's Olympic Success

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North Korea's Key to Olympic Medals: Refrigerators For Winners, Labor Camp Threat for Losers - Yahoo! News

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I haven't noticed much but this bit of so called news. Yet I might have missed something.

Asia News Headlines

N. Korea's first lady displays Dior-style handbag AFP - 7 hrs ago
North Korea's young first lady has been pictured sporting what appears to be a Christian Dior handbag, in stark contrast to widespread shortages elsewhere in the impoverished … More »

Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Use the links for more news... all

Like after so long keeping it's citizen down and in a state of hunger they think they can develop much of anything? Yet

.North Korean leader's uncle heads to China for talks: KCNA

AFP – 1 hr 42 mins ago. 13 August 2012 ........................

The uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un headed to China on Monday for talks on the joint development of two special economic zones, the North's state media reported.

Jang Song-Thaek is leading a North Korean delegation for a third round of talks on the Rason Economic Trade Zone and the Hwanggumphyong and Wihwado Economic Zone, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Jang -- the husband of former leader Kim Jong-il's sister Kim Kyong-hui -- is also vice chairman of the North's National Defence Commission, according to the South's Yonhap news agency.

North Korea and China are jointly developing the Hwanggumphyong and Wihwado zone on two islands in the estuary of the Yalu river that marks their border. Ground was broken in December.

North Korea announced in June that foreigners would be allowed visa-free access to the new economic zone near its west coast, along with tax breaks.

Yonhap said in February that China would invest about $3 billion (2.4 billion euros) in developing a free trade zone around the northeast port of Rason bordering China and Russia.

The impoverished communist country is striving to revitalise its economy through foreign investment in its economic zones.

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North Korean leader's uncle heads to China for talks: KCNA - Yahoo! News

With one comment thats direct.

[mlurp]

Without being political I have seen recently a lot of info that I would consider still National Security on TV, later on in the evening. On one I hears abvout one of our major diplomat who spoke with one of theirs.

And their major reasoning for having nukes is Saddam Hussain didn't have any so he was taken out! And this is why they want some themselves, so simple yet very stupid!

Yet if you look with their top leaders eyes it make sense to them, even if China & Russia who backed them in the Korean War, still has treaties with them. Cause once they join the nuke club countries have to deal with them and they can make stronger terms...

Aww the nightmare from places which helped this world grow so much in the 1800's. More from China and Persia than most of the other countries.

Yet industry was a western thought and growth for a better life ahead. Yet both of these countries did give the west new abilities for early growth thru math and science.

And yet with all the evidence pointing toward the wests way of life being so much better. Even in this time of financial troubles.

.N.Korea may complete reactor next year: think tank

AFP – 1 hr 44 mins ago. 14 August 2012 .................

North Korea may finish work by late 2013 on a light-water reactor that could be used to support its nuclear weapons program, a US think tank said Tuesday.

The Institute for Science and International Security published satellite images taken in May and June of the Yongbyon nuclear complex showing cranes and metal beams that could be used to bring heavy components into the reactor.

An expert who reviewed the photographs "estimated that the reactor could be completed in the second half of 2013," the Washington-based think tank said in a report.

Most major external work appears to be complete except for covering the reactor with a dome, which has been seen lying next to the site since November, the think tank said.

A separate assessment of earlier satellite imagery, released in May by Johns Hopkins University's US-Korea Institute, also described advances but doubted the facility would be operational before 2014 or 2015.

North Korea first disclosed in 2010 to visiting US scientists that it was working on a new light-water reactor, ostensibly for civilian purposes. The impoverished nation desperately needs energy, but the reactor could also be run to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The reclusive regime has based its nuclear weapons program on plutonium and has tested two nuclear bombs since 2006, triggering repeated international crises.

Pyongyang has also said that it is building a uranium enrichment plant to produce low-enriched fuel for the new reactor. Scientists believe the accompanying site could be converted to produce highly enriched uranium, giving North Korea a second way to make nuclear weapons.

Young leader Kim Jong-Un's regime said it would suspend nuclear and missile tests along with uranium enrichment under a February 29 deal with the United States in return for badly needed food assistance.

But the agreement quickly collapsed after North Korea launched a rocket on April 13 in what US officials believe was a disguised, albeit unsuccessful, missile test.

N.Korea may complete reactor next year: think tank - Yahoo! News