Free Republic

N. Korea ready for 4th nuclear test, yet no imminent sign: Seoul 2013/11/15 13:58 By Kim Eun-jung SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test, but no imminent sign has been detected at its main site in the northeastern tip, South Korea's defense ministry said Friday. South Korea's vice defense minister Baek Seung-joo briefed lawmakers of the ruling Saenuri Party on the condition of the Punggye-ri test site in its northeastern region during a meeting of the special security committee on North Korea's nuclear weapons amid rising speculation over another test. The southern tunnel...

Mongolian leader to N. Korea: 'No tyranny lasts forever' BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, at the end of his rare visit to North Korea late last month, encouraged the North to let its people "live free" and emulate Mongolia's model of transformation, saying, "No tyranny lasts forever," according to a transcript of Elbegdorj's speech on Friday. Elbegdorj gave the speech at the Kim Il Sung University on Oct. 31 or before wrapping up his four-day visit to North Korea, the Mongolian leader's office said in the transcript. It marked the first visit by a head of...

In an apparent attempt to bring North Korea's all-powerful military to heel, the country's young leader Kim Jong-un has reshuffled all the top brass over the last two years. Hardline officers who were purged or replaced include the military Politburo chief, the Army chief, the director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau and the minister of the People's Armed Forces. In April last year, Kim appointed Choe Ryong-hae, who has no military background, as Politburo chief and replaced the military, security and intelligence chiefs several times. Several lower-ranking officers have also been demoted and then restored to their original posts, which...

South Korea's spy agency said Monday that North Korea was using Russian technology to develop electromagnetic pulse weapons aimed at paralysing military electronic equipment south of the border. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to parliament that the North had purchased Russian electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weaponry to develop its own versions.

SNIPPET: "North Korea appears to have been digging two new tunnels at a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province since May, sparking fears that it is preparing for another nuclear test." SNIPPET: "Specialist website 38 North, which is run by Johns Hopkins University, said it discovered two new tunnel entrances and a mound of earth while analyzing satellite pictures of the test site taken on Wednesday."

North Korea's national carrier Air Koryo, which has the lowest airline rating on Skytrax, has discovered the Internet. The state-owned company -- regarded by some as the "world's worst airline" -- recently launched a bilingual website (www.airkoryo.com.kp) to provide travelers with "easier, quicker, reliable booking and ticketing services," according to Air Koryo. Air Koryo's new ticket booking system reinforces the company's less-than-brilliant reputation. After multiple trials to book a one-way ticket from Shengyang to Pyongyang, we failed to secure any reservation. Instead, we ended up with this message day after day: “We cannot find any flights for your flight schedule....

The disappearance of some 20,000 prisoners of conscience, and possibly many more, from North Korea’s Camp 22–a massive concentration camp neighboring Hoeryong city which was geographically larger than Los Angeles and thought to have once held between 30,000 and 50,000 captives–cannot represent anything less than a Srebrenica-level massacre of an already enslaved and frightfully brutalized population. Satellite photographs indicate that guard posts, interrogation and detention facilities at the camp had been razed last year; by which time those groundlessly accused and exploited had all of a sudden been reduced to about 3,000. [more at link]

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has replaced officials holding almost half of the nation's key posts in an attempt to strengthen his control over the country, a South Korean report showed on Tuesday. Kim has changed the officials filling 97 out of 218 military, party and government posts since he took over the communist dynasty in December 2011, the South's Unification Ministry said in a report. He has often used a "demotion and reinstatement" process in reshuffling military posts in an attempt to tighten control over the military, the ministry said. "This means Kim has completed the dynastic succession...

North Korea puts army on alert, warns U.S. of 'horrible disaster' 7:42pm EDT SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Tuesday its military would be put on high alert and be ready to launch operations, stepping up tension after weeks of rhetoric directed against the United States and South Korea, who it accuses of instigating hostility. Reclusive North Korea has often issued threats to attack the South and the United States but has rarely turned them into action. Such hostile rhetoric is widely seen as a means to perpetuate its domestic and international political agenda. In the latest outburst, a...

US experts: NKorea can likely build key nuke parts Posted: Sep 24, 2013 12:06 AM Updated: Sep 24, 2013 12:06 AM By FOSTER KLUG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean scientists are able to build crucial equipment for uranium-based nuclear bombs on their own, cutting the need for imports that had been one of the few ways outsiders could monitor the country's secretive atomic work, according to evidence gathered by two American experts.

September 20, 2013, 12:00 AM Pyongyang Orders Diplomats’ Children Home By Alexander Martin Biography Worried about possible threats to regime stability from North Korean children educated abroad, Pyongyang has ordered its diplomats and state trading company officials stationed overseas to send their children back to the North, an expert on the secretive regime says. Kansai University Prof. Lee Young Hwa said the order was the first of its kind passed under the North’s young leader Kim Jong Un, according to information he received from a North Korean trading official in China. The order, with a deadline set for the end...

Kim Jong Un orders 9 executed to protect wife from scandal September 21, 2013 By YOSHIHIRO MAKINO/ Correspondent North Korea executed nine music group performers in an apparent attempt to squelch rumors leaking that the wife of leader Kim Jong Un might once have led a provocative lifestyle. The information comes from a high-ranking North Korean government official who recently defected. According to sources, both the Japanese and South Korean governments have confirmed the veracity of the report. Kim's wife, Ri Sol Ju, was a singer with the Unhasu Orchestra before she married him in June 2012. The scandal involves...

Russian diplomat warns that North Korea faces 'man-made disaster' after satellite images show it has restarted ageing nuclear reactor The Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea was closed in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement Its five megawatt reactor can produce plutonium for weapons and bombs New satellite images have captured steam rising from the complex This suggests the nuclear reactor has been restarted, according to a U.S. research institute By Sophie Jane Evans PUBLISHED: 10:26 GMT, 12 September 2013 | UPDATED: 00:54 GMT, 13 September 2013 ....................................... But a senior Russian diplomat has claimed that the outdated...

Choi Sung-yung of the Abductees' Family Union said Friday that 68-year-old Jeon Wook-pyo escaped last month and returned to South Korea in early September. Choi said Jeon was one of 25 crewmen on board two boats captured by North Korea in the Yellow Sea in 1972. ... South Korea estimates that more than 500 South Koreans have been kidnapped and detained by North Korea since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

<p>The five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear facility was shut down in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement. Pyongyang announced plans in April to restart it amid a litany of threats toward the US and South Korea after it faced tougher international censure over its latest nuclear and rocket tests.</p>

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that North Korea has a "tremendous" amount of chemical weapons. He added he recently discussed "at length" possible responses with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin. Since 2000, North Korea's chemical weapons have largely been hidden in the shadow of the country's nuclear weapons program. But even until the 1990s, the most feared of the North's weapons of mass destruction were its chemical ones. North Korea began developing chemical weapons in 1961, building manufacturing and storage facilities across the North. The Defense Ministry here estimated in its...

Chinese Correspondent Baffled by Pyonyang High Life The Xinhua correspondent in Pyongyang is perhaps the most prominent foreign journalist to wonder how a swish new shopping mall there selling Western and South Korean luxury brands stays in business. Dubai Yu in a piece for the state-run biweekly Globe said it is a "mystery" how people in the impoverished country can afford lifestyles reminiscent of the upper class in Beijing and Shanghai. Yu has been reporting from the North Korean capital for about a year now. According to the magazine, the Haedanghwa mall contains not only a high-end shopping center but...

Kim Jong-un's Ex-Girlfriend 'Shot by Firing Squad' Kim Jong-un's ex-girlfriend was among a dozen well-known North Korean performers who were executed by firing squad on Aug. 20, reports said Wednesday. Sources in China said singer Hyon Song-wol as well as Mun Kyong-jin, head of the Unhasu Orchestra, were arrested on Aug. 17 for violating North Korean laws against pornography and were executed in public three days later. The victims of the atrocity were members of the Unhasu Orchestra as well as singers, musicians and dancers with the Wangjaesan Light Music Band. They were accused of videotaping themselves having sex...

The grandson of Kim Jong-il to study at Paris Institute of Political Studies By Lucile Quillet Posted on 17:40, 26/08/2013 Kim Han-sol, 18 year-old grand-son of North Korea's late dictator Kim Jong-il, will resume his study at Sciences Po Paris (Paris Institute of Political Studies,) Havre campus, according to the l'Express. /end my excerpts

North Korea objects to sanctions ban on ski resort equipment SEOUL | Sat Aug 24, 2013 2:23am EDT (Reuters) - North Korea objected on Saturday to a ban on imports of equipment for a luxury ski resort mainly for the ruling elite, indicating toughened U.N. sanctions are impacting the impoverished state. Under the leadership of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who studied in the Swiss capital Berne and is believed to have enjoyed skiing in the Alps, the reclusive North has carried out work on the "Masik Pass" ski project since last year, in rivalry with South Korea which is...