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North Korea’s star newsreader back to announce nuclear test success AFP, Pyongyang | Updated: Sep 09, 2016 14:20 IST North Korea deployed its most trusted newsreader on Friday to herald the success of its fifth nuclear test on state television. The special broadcast was aired at around 1:00 pm Pyongyang time (0430 GMT) without prior notice, coming a few hours after South Korea said its neighbour had conducted another nuclear test. Wearing her trademark pink and black traditional Korean dress, veteran announcer Ri Chun-Hee smiled as she told viewers of KCTV — and the world — that the latest test...

North Korea's Kim Jong-un has banned sarcasm because he fears people only agree with him ironically, according to reports. Government officials were apparently warned they will "not be forgiven" if they are heard being sarcastic. Mass meetings were organised across the country to spread the word about the new order. “One state security official personally organised a meeting to alert local residents to potential ‘hostile actions’ by internal rebellious elements," Radio Free Asia's Korean Services quoted a source as saying. “The main point of the lecture was ‘keep your mouths shut’.” One of the banned phases is “this is all...

South Korean officials said that they had detected an “artificial” tremor emanating from North Korea on Friday morning, indicating that the country has conducted its fifth nuclear test despite threats of more sanctions from Washington ... A statement from the South Korean military also said that an artificial tremor, registered as magnitude 5.0, had originated from Punggye-ri in northeastern North Korea, where the North has conducted its four previous underground nuclear tests. North Korea last tested a nuclear device on Jan. 6. In April, President Park Guen-hye of South Korea warned that the North might be preparing for another underground...

(URGENT) Artificial earthquake detected in N. Korea: weather service

Did North Korea abduct missing U.S. student David Sneddon? By KJ Kwon and Ben Westcott, CNN Updated 2223 GMT (0623 HKT) September 2, 2016 (CNN) — If true, it could be one of the most astonishing stories to ever emerge from North Korea. A media report on Friday repeated claims that a 24-year-old American man was kidnapped in China in 2004 and taken to Pyongyang to work as an English tutor for current leader Kim Jong Un. However, the US State Department says there is no evidence to confirm reports that missionary David Sneddon was seized while hiking in China's...

China could have provided N. Korea with submarine missile China could have provided North Korea with the submarine-launched ballistic missile that the regime in Pyongyang successfully test-fired last week, a U.S. expert claimed Thursday. Bruce Bechtol, a North Korea expert at Angelo State University in Texas, made the remark during an interview with the John Batchelor Show radio news program, calling the North's SLBM, known as KN-11, a "carbon copy" of China's JL-1 submarine missile. "The missile that the North Koreans launched looks like it's a two-stage missile just like the JL-1. It looks like it's a solid-fuel missile just...

At approximately 5:30 AM local time on August 24, 2016, North Korea conducted what appears to be a successful test of a Bukkeukseong-1 (Polaris-1, KN-11) submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). The missile was launched from the country’s sole GORAE-class experimental ballistic missile submarine that was submerged off the port city of Sinpo and reportedly flew approximately 500 km before impacting the East Sea (Sea of Japan)—within Japan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). This was the third test of the KN-11 this year alone and the most successful test to date.

N. Korea lays land mines near border to prevent defection by soldiers: sources 2016/08/23 16:45 SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea was seen laying anti-personnel mines along its side of the inter-Korean border, presumably to block potential defection by its own soldiers, a government source said Tuesday. "The North Korean military was witnessed burying land mines on the northern side of a bridge in Panmunjeom last week," the source said. The small bridge known as the Bridge of No Return is located within the truce village and spans the military demarcation line between the two Koreas. It was the...

North Korea Confiscates Olympic Athletes' Free Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Games Edition 13 August 2016, 11:21 am EDT By Horia Ungureanu Tech Times North Korea has confiscated the complimentary Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Games Edition smartphones meant for its Olympians, making sure none of its athletes got their gift. Samsung, one of the main sponsors of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games, wanted no athlete participating in the competition to go home empty-handed. That is why the OEM crafted a limited edition of Olympic Galaxy S7 edge handsets, with 12,500 units in total reserved for Olympians. The smartphones...

(LEAD) N.K. publicly executes some 60 people this year: source 2016/08/12 12:20 (ATTN: ADDS more info, backgrounds from para 7) SEOUL, Aug. 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has publicly executed some 60 people so far this year as the reclusive country's leader Kim Jong-un strengthens his reign of terror, a source said Friday. The move comes as more ordinary North Koreans are expressing dissatisfaction as Pyongyang has been forcing people to work longer hours and pay money to the regime in the face of economic hardships stemming from international sanctions, according to an insider familiar with the matter. "As of...

North Korea 'feeding workers crystal meth' to speed up skyscraper project By James Rothwell 10 August 2016 • 10:42am North Korean workers are being given a methamphetamine-based drug in the hope it will speed up a major construction project, according to reports. Project managers in the city's capital of Pyongyang are said to be under so much pressure to finish the job on time that they have resorted to openly providing builders with the drug. Nicknamed "ice," it is a form of the powerful stimulant methamphetamine, which is also known as crystal meth. When snorted or inhaled, crystal meth gives...

China Produces Fake N.Korean Defectors China is rolling out fake North Korean defectors who then apply for asylum overseas and reap medical and other benefits from foreign governments. The ruse is another feather in the cap of China's burgeoning industry in fakes and knockoffs that covers everything from electronics to toxic frozen peas. A source on Tuesday said there are a couple of private academies in Beijing's Wangjing district, which is home to a large ethnic Korean population, that help Chinese citizens fake documents to pose as North Korean defectors. The main clients are ethnic Koreans from northeastern China who...

North Korea's new satellite mission aims for the moon, and beyond The North has asserted that international sanctions cannot stop Pyongyang's satellite programme to put its flag on the moon. By Nandini Krishnamoorthy August 4, 2016 12:10 BST North Korea is now reportedly hoping to see its flag fly up on the moon in a decade's time. The space officials in the Kim Jong-un ruled nation are said to be working on a five-year plan to put more advanced satellites into orbit by 2020. Aiming for the moon and beyond, a senior official at the North's version of NASA told...

Latest North Korea missile launch lands near Japan waters, alarms Tokyo SEOUL | By Ju-min Park and James Pearson North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Wednesday that landed in or near Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions. The main body of the missile landed in Japan's economic exclusion zone, a Japanese defence official said, escalating regional tensions that were already high after a series of missile launches this year and the decision by the United States to place a sophisticated...

Lam Hang-chi Aug 1, 2016 3:25pm Business with Beijing can’t make Seoul feel safe, but THAAD can All the developments following the international tribunal’s ruling in the Hague that disavowed Beijing’s “historical right” to disputed waters and islands in the South China Sea have actually affirmed Beijing’s accusation that Washington is behind all this. As tensions rise in the region, US Vice President Joe Biden has kept himself busy with a high-profile trip to the Asia-Pacific. After a meeting with Japanese and Korean deputy foreign ministers during a brief layover in Hawaii, he visited Australia and New Zealand and delivered...

[Exclusive] N. Korean General Defects Seeking Political Asylum Write : 2016-07-29 08:54:16 Update : 2016-07-29 14:15:08 Anchor: A general who was in charge of managing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's overseas slush funds is said to be in China after escaping from his country, and is seeking political asylum with two other North Koreans in a country other than South Korea. A source said that the three were separated from a diplomat from Pyongyang, who is seeking his own defection to another country. Here is Kim Bum-soo with KBS' exclusive report. Report: It has been made known that a general...

Welcome to Asia’s Latest Organic Retreat: North Korea Charlie Campbell / Dandong and Beijing July 29, 2016 For many Chinese, much of North Korea's allure is its resemblance to a simpler China, harking back to a time before mass industrialization and commercialization New Yorkers flock to ashrams in the Appalachian Mountains, Europeans to refurbished hermitages in the Umbrian countryside, but where do Asians go to get away from it all? Sure, there are Balinese yoga retreats and meditation centers run by Nepali beekeepers. But for a growing number of Chinese, the ultimate escape is the ultimate in oppression: North Korea....

N. Korea diplomats threaten African news outlets By Lee Han-soo North Korean diplomats are threatening media outlets in Africa that exposed the country's illegal activities, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA), a broadcasting agency operated by the U.S. government, Friday. "We will never tolerate such dirty articles criticizing our supreme leader who is our nation's destiny and future," wrote Kim Chang Ryop, the North Korean ambassador to South Africa, to the Daily Maverick, a South African newspaper. The Daily Maverick had published an article on July 12 that said North Korean diplomats have been implicated in the smuggling of rhino...

North Korea accuses Seoul of 'cunning plot' to release snakes over border Soldiers sceptical after unseasonably high numbers of reptiles lead Pyongyang to suspect South Korean infiltration Kang Mi-jin for DK News, part of the North Korea network Wednesday 27 July 2016 06.00 BST North Korean border patrol guards have been ordered to capture snakes apparently released by South Korea to wreak havoc in its northern neighbour, sources have claimed. Pyongyang is said to have told the military that Seoul’s spy agency is behind the unseasonably high number of snakes in Ryanggang province, which borders China. “Earlier this month, border...

N. Korea sends agents abroad to launch terrorist attacks against S. Koreans 2016/07/26 17:52 SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has sent its agents to China and Southeast Asian countries to launch terrorists attacks against South Koreans in retaliation for what it claims is the kidnapping of 13 North Korean restaurant workers in April, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The 12 female waitresses and male manager had defected en masse from a North Korean-run restaurant in China to South Korea. Pyongyang claimed that the South forcefully abducted its citizens, an assertion rejected by Seoul. "North Korean leader...