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by Wage Slave » Fri Dec 27, 2013 9:02 am
Russell wrote:An army with its own fishing grounds...
Sounds like a cool concept.
by gaijinpunch » Fri Dec 27, 2013 9:09 am
by Russell » Fri Dec 27, 2013 10:57 pm
gaijinpunch wrote:Never knew they had natural resources. The US can invade them now.
by Coligny » Sat Dec 28, 2013 1:13 am
Wage Slave wrote:Russell wrote:An army with its own fishing grounds...
Sounds like a cool concept.
More like an army with its own country I reckon. I still think it is military dictatorship that has chosen, for convenience, fatboy as a figurehead and Nationalistic Communism as a cloaking ideology.
by yanpa » Sat Dec 28, 2013 1:15 am
Russell wrote:gaijinpunch wrote:Never knew they had natural resources. The US can invade them now.
Do you think the US is interested to catch craps in Best Korea waters?!?
by Russell » Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:30 pm
More North Korean defectors are returning to their reclusive homeland, causing embarrassment for the South Korean government.
This trend could create a negative impression about living conditions here in the minds of the North Korean public, dampening their desire to seek alternatives to the dictatorial and hereditary leadership of Kim Jong-un.
Last week, North Korean media released an interview with a woman who returned home after defecting to South Korea in which she expressed contempt for her two-year stay here.
The Ministry of Unification, in charge of handling inter-Korean policies, confirmed that 64-year-old Choi was a former defector who arrived here in 2011 but left earlier this month.
Choi stated in the interview that the minute she stepped foot in the South she was treated as “subhuman” and that South Korea is a “cold-blooded” society that doesn’t have any sense of human affection. She also accused the Seoul government of engaging in criminal activities such as kidnapping and other human rights violations.
This latest is the fifth interview of a defector who returned North by Pyongyang’s media this year.
A total of 13 such interviews have been broadcast by North Korean media.
According to data provided by the unification ministry, of 25,000 North Korean defectors known to be here, around 800 of them are currently unaccounted for.
Insiders say they have either fled to China or countries in Southeast Asia, intending to return to the North.
Besides the well-known route of passing through third nations, some defectors attempt to return directly from South Korea.
Earlier this month, police arrested a 55-year-old defector surnamed Kim who allegedly tried to re-enter the North via Incheon Port, the closest harbor to the North.
Pyongyang uses former defectors as propaganda to highlight the purported superiority of its socialist system over that in the South. Seoul has come under criticism for not adequately looking after defectors in a proper manner.
Many defectors become disenchanted with their lives in the South and demanded more action to be taken by the Seoul government.
Experts say the reason behind the increasing number of North Koreans behaving this way is the fact that defectors have a hard time adapting and settling in the South.
Reports say the government has been slowly cutting down the standard amount of money provided for defectors when they initially come here, while increasing the incentive money provided when they become ready to be assimilated into the South Korean society through employment or earning state-registered licenses.
Experts say defectors, especially the elderly, are finding the incentive system challenging because many of them are not mentally or physically fit to satisfy the requirements.
“It is hard to point out a single reason behind North Korean defectors who return home,” said a government official, Monday. “Government cannot resolve all the problems but will try hard to supplement the current system for them to better settle in here.”
Some pointed to the government’s structural inefficiency in tackling the issue.
“Too many government bodies including the unification ministry, the National Intelligence Service and the Police Agency are taking part in supporting the defectors, resulting in inefficiency,” said Rep. Moon Dae-sung, a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. “There must be a single ministry in charge of the whole process.”
Link
by Russell » Tue Dec 31, 2013 12:24 am
by Coligny » Tue Dec 31, 2013 5:26 am
by Russell » Tue Dec 31, 2013 8:59 am
Coligny wrote:Mig21... As long as you can get old kettles and farming tractors engines you can keep them flying...
Your fixashiun with DPRK is weird... Wasun't there a forum member with relatives to-from there ?
Was it youze ?
by Taro Toporific » Tue Dec 31, 2013 12:37 pm
by Russell » Tue Dec 31, 2013 1:15 pm
by Taro Toporific » Wed Jan 01, 2014 10:42 am
by Mike Oxlong » Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:33 am
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's powerful uncle was stripped naked, thrown into a cage, and eaten alive by a pack of ravenous dogs, according to a newspaper with close ties to China's ruling Communist Party.
The report could not be independently confirmed by NBC News on Friday.
Jang Song Thaek, who had been considered Kim's second-in-command, was executed last month after being found guilty of "attempting to overthrow the state," North Korea’s state-run news agency reported.
The official North Korean account on Dec. 12 did not specify how Jang was put to death.
Hong Kong-based pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po reported that Jang and his five closest aides were set upon by 120 hunting hounds which had been starved for five days.
Kim and his brother Kim Jong Chol supervised the one-hour ordeal along with 300 other officials, according to Wen Wei Po. The newspaper added that Jang and other aides were "completely eaten up."
The newspaper has acted as a mouthpiece for China's Communist Party. The report may be a sign of the struggle between those in the party who want to remain engaged with North Korea and those who would like to distance themselves from Kim's regime...
by Coligny » Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:40 am
by Russell » Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:54 am
Dogs eating a Korean. Irony?
by matsuki » Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:58 am
Russell wrote:I like the first reader's comment of the news report:Dogs eating a Korean. Irony?
by Taro Toporific » Sat Jan 04, 2014 11:46 am
Funloving Kim missed the a prime opportunity to sell this as a pay-for-view. However, you gotta wonder when is the Blueray and DVD coming out.Kim Jong Un's executed uncle was eaten alive by 120 hungry dogs: reportNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un's powerful uncle was stripped naked, thrown into a cage, and eaten alive by a pack of ravenous dogs...
...Kim and his brother Kim Jong Chol supervised the one-hour ordeal along with 300 other officials, according to Wen Wei Po. The newspaper added that Jang and other aides were "completely eaten up."...
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014 ... ogs-report?
by Russell » Sat Jan 04, 2014 1:27 pm
by matsuki » Sat Jan 04, 2014 1:39 pm
by Russell » Sat Jan 04, 2014 2:53 pm
by Taro Toporific » Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:18 am
Russell wrote:Some doubts have been cast on the news report, the argument being that the South Korean press did not run it, because the story was too sensational even by North Korean standards. The source (somewhere in China) also seems suspect...
by Taro Toporific » Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:17 am
by Russell » Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:09 am
Prices of houses traded on North Korea's black market are dropping precariously, causing panic among dwellers, according to sources inside the country.
Houses in impoverished North Korea are fully owned by the government and trading on them is forbidden. But some dwellers "sell" their homes illegally with the approval of corrupt officials to cash in on the acute shortage of homes.
Sources in provinces along North Korea's border with China told RFA's Korean Service that the value of their home transactions had fallen by as high as 85 percent from last summer.
"Housing prices in Gilju-gun, North Hamgyong province dropped to around U.S. 500 from what was U.S. 3,300 last summer," a source from the province told RFA's Korean Service on condition of anonymity.
He said that in North Hamgyong's Cheongjin city, the trading price for a two-bedroom home had plummeted to around U.S. 3,300 from U.S. 8,300 in the summer last year, and yet no buyers were showing any interest.
Another source from Yanggang said housing prices in his province had been similarly affected in the last several months.
"I was barely able to afford my house near the Yalu River [separating North Korea from China] at around U.S. 3,300 early last year," he said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The trading price of my house, which was still U.S. 3,300 in August last year, has now dropped to about U.S. 990."
The Yanggang source said the housing crash began in the fall in the capital Pyongyang and had led to widespread unease because the cause of the depreciation remained unknown.
He added that it was impossible to guess how far prices would drop.
Other sources said that the market crash had led to increased tension in the affected areas.
"A person who bought a home in Hyesan city, Yanggang province was involved in a dispute with the seller as he wanted to cancel his contract [when the home began to lose value] and suffered a bad head injury during a fight," a second Yanggang-based source said.
"He was hospitalized at the Hyesan University Hospital for two weeks, but remains in a coma."
A second source in North Hamgyong province said that housing prices appeared to be linked to North Korea's local unofficial marketplaces, or "jangmadang."
"The overall cost of products at the jangmadang also declined around the middle of last month while house prices were falling," the source said, adding that "a recent brouhaha was linked to merchants complaining about the severe losses they had incurred."
"In recent years, the housing prices and prices at the jangmadang had [simultaneously] skyrocketed ... I think the increasing prices of houses slowed demand for housing and led to the housing price collapse."
Thriving trade
In North Korea, private ownership of homes is illegal but sources have said it is no longer strange to hear about "sales" of government properties between individuals.
Based on trading on the virtual housing market, the country's most expensive homes are located in Sinuiju, with Hyesan city in northern Yanggang province next in cost and Pyongyang in third.
A single family home or large apartment in what is deemed a good location in Sinuiju was known to fetch around U.S. 30,000 as recently as May last year, while those in the suburbs of Pyongyang and other border cities are priced less.
While houses are being built everyday in Pyongyang to supply a growing demand, it is difficult to find new homes in other cities, leading to a rise in the cost of real estate.
Homes in cities near the border with China command the highest prices on the black market because they provide access to Chinese money and infrastructure, like mobile phone signals.
Sources told RFA that the North Korean government has warned that the practice of housing transactions is an "offence against the system of North Korea."
But attempts to stamp out the trend have repeatedly failed as those involved in the sales include untouchable high-ranking officials and because the practice is too far reaching.
by TennoChinko » Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:51 am
by Russell » Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:32 pm
Speculation over the fate of the aunt of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, took a new twist on Thursday as intelligence sources in Seoul and Washington claimed that Kim Kyong-hui is in a vegetative state after undergoing surgery for a brain tumour late last year.
The reports come just days after South Korean media reported that Ms Kim, 67, was dead and may have committed suicide.
The only daughter of Kim Il-sung, the revered founder of North Korea, Ms Kim was the estranged wife of Jang Song-taek before he was executed in December for a litany of crimes against the state.
Ms Kim was last seen in public attending a musical performance by the North Korean People's Army with Kim Jong-un on September 10, but has been notably absent from the ceremony on December 17 to mark the second anniversary of the death of her brother, Kim Jong-il. An empty chair was placed on the podium alongside Kim Jong-un for the duration of the event.
A report in the JoongAng Daily quoted an intelligence official in the United States that Ms Kim has been in a vegetative state since she underwent brain surgery in Paris.
In the aftermath of the operation, her weight dropped to just 35 kg (77 pounds).
An official in the South Korean government told Yonhap News that Ms Kim is in "a critical condition" as a result of complications stemming from a heart problem.
Ms Kim is also believed to have undergone treatment for cancer in the past, with her health problems worsened by long-standing alcoholism and depression brought on by the suicide of her daughter in Paris in September 2006.
Her health will undoubtedly have been affected by the public purging of her husband, who she was reportedly ordered to divorce the day before he was arrested. US intelligence sources claim she gave her approval for the arrest and execution of Jang.
"There has been a lot of information about her health problems and she has not looked well in the most recent photos and footage that have been released, so I have no reason to disbelieve these reports," Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst with The International Crisis Group in Seoul, told The Daily Telegraph.
"Dictators suffer from the curse of dictators," he said. "They have lots of privileges and all the benefits, but also all the stresses and pressures of their positions. They are only human and it is inevitable that they will suffer health problems."
Kim Jong-il was similarly reported to suffer from a number of debilitating illnesses before his sudden death of a heart attack in December 2011 at the age of 70. The Dear Leader suffered from diabetes, epilepsy and heart complaints and suffered a stroke in 2008 that was nearly fatal.
But Mr Pinkston played down the impact any serious ailment in Ms Kim will have on her nephew's regime.
"There has been a generational shift over the last two years and Mr Kim has been very active in consolidating his powers in that time," he said.
North Korea has announced that it will hold an election for deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly on March 9, an election that analysts believe will be used by Mr Kim to bring in a new generation of younger supporters for his agenda.
Link
by Russell » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:15 am
British diplomats have unveiled their secret weapon in the battle to win over North Korea and bring the impoverished dictatorship into line with more enlightened nations... The Teletubbies.
The children’s television show is among several classic series being considered for export to North Korea, which has little exposure to western culture and is ruled with an iron fist by tyrant Kim Jong-Un.
Foreign Office experts are said to be helping BBC Worldwide – the corporation’s commercial arm – choose suitable, inoffensive programmes to sell to its state broadcaster.
The Teletubbies are in the running because the four characters – Dipsy, La-La, Tinky Winky and Po – do not have any dialogue.
If successful, such a move could perhaps open the door to shows from other British broadcasters, such as ITV’s Mr Bean, starring Rowan Atkinson.
[...]
He added: ‘I have always believed that what brought down the Berlin Wall was not highbrow diplomacy but Dallas and Dynasty.
'Programmes sent to North Korea would have to be something that isn’t offensive, like Mr Bean, EastEnders, Miss Marple or Poirot.
'You couldn’t send Dad’s Army, as it is about war.
‘But Teletubbies could be an option, or The Good Life, with a bit of gardening and squabbling in the kitchen.’
More
by Taro Toporific » Tue Jan 14, 2014 5:06 pm
by Russell » Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:19 am
THE STATE News Agency of North Korea has confirmed today that the country has become the first in the world to ever land a man on the sun.
It reported that astronaut Hung Il Gong left for the sun on a specially designed rocket ship at approximately 3am this morning.
Hung, who traveled alone, reached his destination some four hours later, landing his craft on the far side of the lonely star.
“We are very delighted to announce a successful mission to put a man on the sun.” a North Korean central news anchor man said on a live broadcast earlier. “North Korea has beaten every other country in the world to the sun. Hung Il Gong is a hero and deserves a hero’s welcome when he returns home later this evening.”
The specially trained astronaut is expected to return back to earth at 9pm tonight, where he will meet his uncle and supreme leader Kim Jong-un.
It is understood that the 17-year-old ‘space explorer’ traveled at night to avoid being engulfed by the suns rays, and that this genius approach has brought the [...] state to the top of the global space rankings.
While on the sun, Mr. Hung collected sun spot samples to bring back to his supreme leader as a present.
The 18 hour mission is already being called the ‘greatest human achievement of our time’ by the North Korean central news agency.
Link
by wagyl » Sat Jan 25, 2014 12:30 pm
Russell wrote:Best Korea Lands First Ever Man On The Sun
by Russell » Sat Jan 25, 2014 12:42 pm
[...]
Where the joke originated: Did North Korea really claim to put a man on the Sun or do people just like making Kim Jong-un look like a super-duper extra sillypants?
Despite outlandish North Korean propaganda like Kim Jong-il's vaunted all-time golf scoring record and the supposed discovery of a unicorn lair in Pyongyang, this one would already be sending up red flags even if it wasn't easy to track down the original source. This article originally appeared on the Waterford Whisper News, a satirical Irish site (think The Onion)...
[...]
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