[North Korea] The Dear Loser comes into his own.

[Moliere]

How about official confirmation?

[hepcat]

I'm not a fan of North Korea and it's dysfunctional political dynasty, but I tend to take some of these claims with a grain of salt. The sources behind most of these reports are less than reputable in most cases. And they just seem outlandish even for the NK at times.

Unusual Activity at the Kanggon Military Training Area in North Korea: Evidence of Execution by Anti-aircraft Machine Guns?

Circumstantial for sure, but what else is there until you return from your fact finding mission?

I don't know, maybe just a willingness to be skeptical of circumstantial evidence...and headlines that end in a question mark?

How about official confirmation?

Ummm...you are aware that...you know what, never mind.

[Moliere]

North Korea has cured AIDS, the flu, Ebola, and other infectious diseases with a single drug called Kumdang-2.

you should be armed with optimum immuno-competence defensive of all viruses including those that would emerge in new shapes after mutation. This is obtainable only by optimizing the human immunity try use of very strong imimmo-activators and interferon inducers like Kumdang-2 Injection.

It's like the NK version of homeopathy. They just need a few more medical buzz words.

[Holman]

Kumdang-2... is people! IT'S PEOPLE!!

Oh, wait. My mistake. Kumdang-2 is mostly ethanol and food coloring and bullshit.

[Moliere]

Kumdang-2... is people! IT'S PEOPLE!!

You're confusing that with Kumdang-1.

[Rip]

Kumdang-2... is people! IT'S PEOPLE!!

You're confusing that with Kumdang-1.

Just steer clear of the Kumdong.

That stuff is nasty.

[Max Peck]

Kumdang-2... is people! IT'S PEOPLE!!

Oh, wait. My mistake. Kumdang-2 is mostly ethanol and food coloring and bullshit.

OTOH, I wonder how much malware you'd find on a DPRK website...

[Zarathud]

Radioactively fertilized ginseng with sugared additives. Nothing could go wrong; it must be absolutely safe!



I assume it cures AIDs, the flu, Ebola and other infections by letting the population naturally die out.

[Drazzil]

Man it must be great to be king shit in North Korea. I wonder if "Dear Leader" is as much of a prisoner as everyone else.

[Isgrimnur]

We'll make our own time zone!

North Korea announced Friday it was moving its clocks back 30 minutes to create a new "Pyongyang Time" -- breaking from a standard imposed by "wicked" Japanese imperialists more than a century ago.

The change will put the standard time in North Korea at GMT+8:30, 30 minutes behind South Korea which, like Japan, is at GMT+9:00.

North Korea said the time change, approved on Wednesday by its rubber-stamp parliament, would come into effect from August 15, which this year marks the 70th anniversary of the Korean peninsula's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

"The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land," the North's official KCNA news agency said.

Standard time in pre-colonial Korea had run at GMT+8:30 but was changed to Japan standard time in 1912.
...
South Korea had similarly changed its standard time in 1954 -- again to reflect the break from Japanese rule -- but reverted to Japan standard time in 1961 after Park Chung-Hee came to power in a military coup.

Park's rationale was partly that the two major US allies in the region -- South Korea and Japan -- should be grouped in the same time zone to facilitate operational planning.

[Holman]

I'm pretty sure North Korea has always been its own time zone.

[Isgrimnur]

Time warp, I'd give you

[LawBeefaroni]

Bah, they just want to be like Newfoundland.

[Isgrimnur]

Land mines

South Korea's military on Monday threatened retaliation against North Korea after accusing its neighbor of planting land mines inside the Demilitarised Zone border that wounded two soldiers last week.

There was evidence to conclude that soldiers from the North crossed the Military Demarcation Line recently to plant the mines, and Pyongyang would be made to "pay a severe price", the South's military told a news briefing.
...
Later on Monday, as part of its countermeasures, the South Korean military used loudspeakers to blare anti-Pyongyang rhetoric across the border, a defense ministry official said, resuming broadcasts that had been suspended since 2004.

The United Nations Command, headed by the U.S. military and which oversees the armistice, also condemned what it called the North's violation of the truce. It said it would call for a meeting with North Korea's military.

The area around last Tuesday's blast had been swept for mines and the terrain made it impossible for mines planted elsewhere to have drifted due to rain or shifting soil, South Korea's military said.

Fragments from the exploded mines also had paint typically used by the North, it said.

[GreenGoo]

Douchebags.

It's like they're 12, but with explosives.

[Max Peck]

Pyongyang Rocks!

On Wednesday, the Slovenian band Laibach say they became the first western rock group to play inside North Korea. Photographs seem to show that the audience at the Ponghwa Theatre was appreciative, if not completely sure of what to make of the concert.

Laibach describe themselves as "a music and cross-media group" and are known for playing eclectic cover versions of famous songs. The songs were accompanied by images styled from North Korean propaganda posters projected on to a screen, with translations in Korean.

[hitbyambulance]

the BBC article quoted the original lyrics for Opus' "Live is Life"; the Laibach version goes a little differently...

(and if you've never seen the accompanying {brilliant} music video)

great show bill:

[Isgrimnur]

Shots fired:

South Korea said it fired tens of artillery rounds toward North Korea on Thursday after the North launched a shell toward a South Korean loudspeaker that had been blaring anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, as tension escalated on the peninsula.

North Korea did not return fire but later warned Seoul in a letter that it would take military action if the South did not remove the loudspeakers within 48 hours, the South's defense ministry said.

In the letter, North Korea's armed forces called the South's propaganda broadcasts a "major challenge" to the North.

South Korea said its detection equipment had spotted the trajectory of a suspected North Korean projectile launched at around 3:52 p.m. (0652 GMT), which did not appear to have damaged the loudspeaker or caused any injuries.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye told top defense officials to "react firmly" to North Korean provocations, a spokesman quoted her as saying. South Korea's military raised its alert status to the highest level.
...
The suspected North Korean shell landed in an area about 60 km (35 miles) north of Seoul in the western part of the border zone, the defense ministry said. South Korean residents in the area were ordered to evacuate, according to the South's Yonhap news agency.

The projectile appeared to have landed in a mountainous area near a South Korean military base in the town of Yeoncheon, Yonhap said.

The exchange of fire was the first between the two Koreas since last October, when North Korean soldiers approached the military border and did not retreat after the South fired warning shots, the South Korean Defense Ministry said at the time. The North's soldiers fired back in an exchange of gunfire that lasted about 10 minutes, with no casualties.

[GreenGoo]

As a far away guy sitting in a comfortable chair, I'm just going to say "neat".

[Moliere]

As a far away guy sitting in a comfortable chair, I'm just going to say "neat".

Our geographic isolation has always made war an abstract concept.

[GreenGoo]

As a far away guy sitting in a comfortable chair, I'm just going to say "neat".

Our geographic isolation has always made war an abstract concept.

Intellectually I realize lobbing artillery shells at each other is pretty serious business. The whole idea that they are doing this because the neighbour is playing his stereo too loud and we hate the music is fascinating.

[El Guapo]

As a far away guy sitting in a comfortable chair, I'm just going to say "neat".

Our geographic isolation has always made war an abstract concept.

Intellectually I realize lobbing artillery shells at each other is pretty serious business. The whole idea that they are doing this because the neighbour is playing his stereo too loud and we hate the music is fascinating.

Normally it is, and it kind of is here, except that North Korea and South Korea have gone way beyond this before, including the sinking of a South Korean submarine and the killing of 46 seamen attributed to North Korea. Normally I'd be like "shit, this could mean war", but...seems like not in context. Probably because a war would be apocalyptic for both sides.

[GreenGoo]

Yeah, I just meant shelling is serious in the same way that shooting a gun at the junkyard or an improv'd firing range is serious. There is little risk but that bullet is still a serious danger to anything in front of it.

I assume the targets are either safely out of range, unmanned, or somehow not serious targets.

[Isgrimnur]

Quasi-state of war

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un on Friday said his country was in a “quasi-state of war” with South Korea and ordered his military to prepare for battle.

South Korea’s defense minister, Han Minkoo, responded by warning North Korea it will face “searing” consequences if it launches fresh provocation.

"This time, we’ll cut off a vicious circle of North Korean provocation,” he says, according to the Associated Press

The escalating war rhetoric from the secretive, nuclear-armed state comes a day after what some military analysts described as the most serious confrontation between the rival Koreas in years but others said simply reflected a periodic ratcheting up in tensions between the neighboring countries.

On Thursday, South Korea fired dozens of artillery rounds at North Korea in response to what it said were North Korean artillery strikes directed at Seoul.

Pyongyang said it did not fire the shells. No one was injured in the incident.
...
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Friday that Seoul's intelligence agencies detected the movement of vehicles carrying short-range Scud and medium-range Rodong missiles in possible preparation for launches.

"it wasn't me! It was the one-armed man!"

[Max Peck]

As a far away guy sitting in a comfortable chair, I'm just going to say "neat".

Our geographic isolation has always made war an abstract concept.

Intellectually I realize lobbing artillery shells at each other is pretty serious business. The whole idea that they are doing this because the neighbour is playing his stereo too loud and we hate the music is fascinating.

Normally it is, and it kind of is here, except that North Korea and South Korea have gone way beyond this before, including the sinking of a South Korean submarine and the killing of 46 seamen attributed to North Korea. Normally I'd be like "shit, this could mean war", but...seems like not in context. Probably because a war would be apocalyptic for both sides.

The RKOS Cheonan was a corvette, not a submarine.

[GreenGoo]

Then why is it under water? Huh? Think about that.

[Max Peck]

Then why is it under water? Huh? Think about that.

It isn't.



When it was, the reason involved one of these and one of these .

[GreenGoo]

Damn it, foiled again.

[Moliere]

surreal images of NK

[Carpet_pissr]

The whole idea that they are doing this because the neighbour is playing his stereo too loud and we hate the music is fascinating.

Now let's assume said neighbor has set up a stadium concert level speaker system, right on your property line, with a wall of 98 speakers, stacked 30' high, facing your house, and plays a death metalesque diddy called "FUCK YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, GREEN GOO!" over and over again, on volume 11. And there are no police to call in this scenario. WHAT. DO. YOU. DO. ??

[GreenGoo]

The whole idea that they are doing this because the neighbour is playing his stereo too loud and we hate the music is fascinating.

Now let's assume said neighbor has set up a stadium concert level speaker system, right on your property line, with a wall of 98 speakers, stacked 30' high, facing your house, and plays a death metalesque diddy called "FUCK YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, GREEN GOO!" over and over again, on volume 11. And there are no police to call in this scenario. WHAT. DO. YOU. DO. ??

re-evaluate my life choices?

[LawBeefaroni]

Quasi-state of war

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un on Friday said his country was in a “quasi-state of war” with South Korea and ordered his military to prepare for battle.

Well no shit. As a quasi-state, there's no other kind of war for them.

[Isgrimnur]

Mirror

The two Governments finally reached an agreement after marathon talks in the border truce village of Panmunjom.

But rather than credit the diplomacy for the agreement, Kim has instead indicated that he believes his arsenal is responsible for the "landmark" truce.

He said: "[It] was by no means something achieved on the negotiating table but thanks to the tremendous military muscle with the nuclear deterrent for self-defence."
...
The country claims it has has been testing weapons since 2006.

At the meeting Kim also underlined his plans to further developing his programme.

He insisted "top priority efforts" were being put into strengthen North Korea's military capability further.

[GreenGoo]

"it wasn't me! It was the one-armed man!"

"It wasn't me! But if it was me, it was responsible for the truce agreement".

[Moliere]

[Max Peck]

Surfin' DPRK

Forget Namibia, Antarctica or even England's Severn Estuary; is North Korea about to become one of the world's most unusual surf destinations? Starting on Sunday, an eight-day surfing safari will take a group of tourists into North Korea to experience its remote, sandy beaches. The expedition, led by Italian champion surfer Nicola Zanella who also coaches China's national surf team, will explore, map and evaluate surf spots along the east coast.

When Lil' Kim says "Hang ten!" I don't think it's got anything to do with surfing...

[Moliere]

Another "accident"

The sudden death of a high-ranking North Korean official in a dawn traffic accident fits a conspicuous pattern: some of the regime’s top cadres, including the deceased official’s predecessor, have perished in Pyongyang car crashes over the years.

On Wednesday, Kim Jong Un visited the casket of Kim Yang Gon and “looked bitterly sorrowful, when seeing the face of the beloved comrade-in-arms,” according to Pyongyang’s official Korea Central News Agency.

Kim Yang Gon, a secretary of the Central Committee of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party and the regime’s top official on South Korean affairs, died in a traffic accident at 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday, state media reported.

The report immediately sparked suspicions that the 73-year-old official had become North Korea’s highest-ranking victim of a purge since Kim Jong Un executed his uncle two years ago.

[El Guapo]

Kind of weak getting offed in a traffic accident, when "death by artillery fire" is *the* way to get executed by the government.

[Holman]

This thread always makes me want to re-post this oldie: Pyongyang Style!

[Max Peck]

Tremor detected near North Korea nuclear site

A earthquake has been detected in North Korea, close to a site previously used for nuclear tests. China, Japan and South Korea have all said there are indications the tremor was man-made, meaning the North may have carried out a new nuclear test. North Korean state media has said a "special, significant" announcement will be made shortly. South Korean ministers are holding an emergency meeting, the Yonhap state news agency said.

North Korea is believed to have conducted three underground nuclear tests since 2006, all at a site called Punggye-ri. The new tremor was detected about 50km (30 miles) from Punggye-ri at a depth of about 10km, according to the US Geological Survey. The USGS said the quake had a magnitude of 5.1. South Korea's meteorological agency measured it at 4.2. Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said that "considering past cases, there is the possibility that this might be a nuclear test by North Korea".

North Korea 'likely' to have conducted nuclear test-South

North Korea is "likely" to have conducted a nuclear test that caused an earthquake near a known testing site in the isolated country, South Korea's meteorological agency said on Wednesday. The United States Geological Survey reported a 5.1 magnitude quake that South Korea said was 49 km (30 miles) from the Punggye-ri site where the North has conducted nuclear tests in the past. "We suspect a man-made earthquake and are analyzing the scale and epicenter of the quake," a Korea Meteorological Administration official told Reuters by phone.

While the USGS put the depth of the earthquake at 10 km, the South Korean agency said it was near the surface. The earthquake was detected just after 10 a.m. Seoul time (2000 ET). North Korea plans a major announcement later on Wednesday, likely at 2230 ET, South Korean media said. South Korea's presidential office convened an emergency security meeting while Japan's chief government spokesman said the earthquake was likely caused by a nuclear test. The last North Korean nuclear test, in 2013, registered at 5.1 on the U.S.G.S. scale

North Korea announces hydrogen bomb test

The North Korean authorities say they have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb amid reports of a tremor near the main nuclear test site. State media announced the test after monitors detected a 5.1 magnitude quake close to the Punggye-ri site. The North is thought to have conducted three previous underground nuclear tests there since 2006.

A hydrogen bomb uses fusion to create a blast far more powerful than that of a more basic atomic bomb. In a surprise announcement a newsreader on North Korean state TV said: "The republic's first hydrogen bomb test has been successfully performed at 10:00 am on January 6, 2016." Last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Pyongyang had developed a hydrogen bomb, although international experts were sceptical.