North Korean Sabre Rattling 2013 We Nuclear Baby!

[Fievel]

-_O What?

With a name like Kenneth they're clearly a woman.

[brozy]

The exact nature of his alleged crimes has not been disclosed, but North Korea accuses Bae, described as a tour operator, of seeking to overthrow North Korea's leadership.

yep, clearly a chick

[Niiro]

Ok idk why but for some reason I thought it was a woman too by the end of the article, I guess because they only used the full name once and "Bae" for the rest which just kind of rings feminine.

Anyway, since November? I know Bill's been busy lately but it's not like Dubya's gonna be charming any political prisoners out of custody.

[Salodin]

My bad! I assumed it was a woman cause a real american man wouldnt get captured by such people.

[Waraji]

Salt being the exception, I have not seen one female come up as any documentarian, or leaker of photographs of North Korea if since Forever ago.

[Ragnus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22377678

He's been sentenced to 15 years hard labor.

North Korea says it has sentenced a US citizen to 15 years of hard labour.

The announcement, from state news agency KCNA, said Pae Jun-ho, known in the US as Kenneth Bae, was tried on 30 April.

He was held last year after entering North Korea as a tourist. Pyongyang said he was accused of anti-government crimes.

The move comes amid high tensions between North Korea and the US, after Pyongyang's third nuclear test.

North Korean media said last week that Mr Pae had admitted charges of crimes against North Korea, including attempting to overthrow the government.

"The Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years of compulsory labour for this crime," KCNA said.

Mr Pae, 44, was arrested in November as he entered the northeastern port city of Rason, a special economic zone near North Korea's border with China.

He is believed to be a tour operator of Korean descent. The Associated Press news agency also reports that he is described by friends as a devout Christian.

South Korean activists say Mr Pae may have been arrested for taking photos of starving children in North Korea.

"We call on the DPRK [North Korea] to release Kenneth Bae immediately on humanitarian grounds," US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said on Monday.

Diplomats from Sweden, which represents the US in North Korea in the absence of diplomatic ties, had been providing counsel to Mr Pae, reports said. The US State Department was working with the Swedish embassy to confirm the report of the sentencing, AP reported.

Nuclear tensions
North Korea has arrested several US citizens in recent years, including journalists and Christians accused of proselytism.

They were released after intervention from high-profile American figures, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, both of whom went to Pyongyang.

In 2009, Mr Clinton negotiated the release of two US journalists accused of entering North Korea illegally, Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

Held after North Korea's second nuclear test, both had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labour before they were released.

Observers suggest Pyongyang could be using the jailed American as leverage, amid a very tense situation on the Korean peninsula.

The UN expanded sanctions against the communist state in March, in the wake of its 12 February nuclear test and December long-range rocket launch.

Pyongyang reacted angrily both to the measures and annual US-South Korea military exercises which saw high-profile displays of US military hardware.

It threatened to attack US military bases around the region and cut key hotlines with South Korea.

It also withdrew its workers from the North-South joint industrial zone at Kaesong, and prevented South Korean workers from crossing the border into the zone.

The North then rejected South Korea's call for talks, prompting Seoul to pull its staff out for the first time since the project was launched a decade ago.

A total of 125 South Koreans left the Kaesong complex on Saturday, and another 43 withdrew on Monday.

Only seven South Koreans remain at Kaesong, a complex just inside North Korea where more than 120 South Korean firms operate using North Korea workers.

Seoul says they are negotiating final wage payments and should be returning South soon.

The South Korean government has pledged 300bn won ($273m, £175m) in emergency loans for firms hit by the suspension at Kaesong.

[Waraji]

What would you say the likely hood of High Profile Visit vs High Profile Bombing is over this?

[Pirian]

Does this mean we'll get to see him in any new Thriller vidoes in the near future?

Spoiler: show

[Helm]

Philippines, but still loool.

[Buffy]

At least those inmates will have a new career in being backups dancers when they get out. Career training?

[Stanislaw]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/18/world/...html?hpt=hp_t2

Report: North Korea launches short-range missiles

(CNN) -- North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast Saturday, South Korea's semi-official news agency Yonhap cited the South Korean Defense Ministry as saying.

The ministry said it had detected two launches in the morning, followed by another in the afternoon, Yonhap reported.

It said the country has beefed up monitoring on North Korea and is maintaining a high-level of readiness to deal with any risky developments.

According to the Arms Control Association, a U.S.-based organization, short-range guided missiles are generally classified as those traveling less than 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles.)

Tensions in the region had eased in recent days since a fraught period last month that included near daily North Korean threats of war.

U.S. and South Korean officials feared at that time that Kim Jong Un's regime was planning to carry out a test launch of longer-range ballistic missiles, believed to be Musudans. The South Korean government says they have a maximum range of 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles).

The tensions flared after the North's long-range rocket launch in December and underground nuclear test in February, both of which were widely condemned.

Pyongyang's fiery rhetoric intensified in March as the U.N. Security Council voted to tighten sanctions on the regime following the nuclear test.

Annual U.S.-South Korean military drills in South Korea also fueled the North's anger, especially when the United States carried out displays of strength that included nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers.

Strange timing.

[Tekki]

North and South Korea Agree to First Dialogue in Years

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/wo...l?pagewanted=2

SEOUL, South Korea — North and South Korea on Thursday agreed to hold their first government dialogue in years, raising hopes that they were moving toward a thaw in relations after a prolonged standoff marked by military provocations from the North and retaliatory economic penalties from the South.

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The development came after North Korea made a surprise overture on Thursday, proposing official negotiations with the South to discuss reopening two shuttered joint economic projects as well as humanitarian projects. South Korea, which has demanded such talks in recent months, quickly accepted the offer, proposing that the two sides hold a cabinet minister-level meeting in the South Korean capital, Seoul, next Wednesday.

The quick sequence was a dramatic turn of events on the divided Korean Peninsula, and it comes a day before President Obama is to meet in California with President Xi Jinping of China, North Korea’s main ally, where the North’s behavior was expected to be a main topic.

The two Koreas had cut off official dialogue soon after North Korean soldiers shot and killed a South Korean tourist in 2008 and the South’s government retaliated by suspending tours to a North Korean mountain resort.

Tensions peaked this year after North Korea launched another long-range rocket in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February, both in violation of United Nations resolutions. The North then threatened nuclear strikes at Washington and Seoul after the tightening of United Nations sanctions.

“Our position has been consistent for promoting the reconciliation and solidarity of the nation and achieving reunification and peaceful prosperity,” said a statement Thursday from North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. “The South’s authorities should not miss this opportunity if they really want to build trust and improve North-South relations.”

North Korea proposed that the two Koreas discuss reopening the Kaesong joint industrial complex just north of the Demilitarized Zone separating the countries. The eight-year-old complex, a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, was shuttered after North Korea cut cross-border communications and pulled out all its 53,000 workers in April.

North Korea also proposed resuming the cross-border tours suspended since 2008, as well as reviving Red Cross programs for arranging the temporary reunions of aging Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

The South’s Unification Ministry accepted the North Korean overture as a “positive” sign. Until Thursday, North Korea had rejected the South’s repeated call for official dialogue to discuss the fate of the Kaesong factory park.

“We hope the government-to-government talks will become an opportunity to build trust between the South and North,” it said in a statement.

China has grown increasingly frustrated with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions but remains concerned that applying more pressure on the country — an approach championed by Washington and Seoul — raised the risk of destabilizing the paranoid regime in the North and the region. Instead, it sought to bring the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia back into six-nation talks aimed at ending the North’s nuclear weapons program.

When a special envoy of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, met Mr. Xi in Beijing in late May, official Chinese media reported that North Korea promised to “accept the suggestion of the Chinese side and launch dialogue with all relevant parties.” Until then, North Korea had said it was no longer interested in the six-nation talks.

“North Korea is trying to strengthen Xi’s hand in his upcoming talks with Obama,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “It is trying to shift the international focus from applying sanctions and pressure on the North to starting dialogue with it.”

The North Korean proposal on Thursday for talks was far broader in scale than the limited inter-Korean dialogue the government of President Park Geun-hye in Seoul had proposed to help South Korean factory owners bring out finished goods from the shuttered Kaesong factory complex.

Analysts said the North Korean proposal could force Ms. Park to decide whether to revive the inter-Korean projects without any progress in denuclearizing North Korea. South Korea said the date and agenda for the talks with North Korea would be announced later, once the North restored cross-border communication lines, as it said on Thursday it would.

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Analysts said the North was seeking a return to the level of inter-Korean economic cooperation that had prevailed on the peninsula for a decade until 2008. Family reunions, the fate of the Kaesong complex and the tourism program in the North’s Diamond Mountain were among the best-known joint projects from that era.

North Korea’s overture comes as it pursues a double-barreled goal of reviving its moribund economy while simultaneously expanding its nuclear arsenal. It recently unveiled a new set of incentives designed to raise productivity in farms and factories.

In her Memorial Day speech on Thursday, Ms. Park, who is scheduled to meet Mr. Xi in late June, reiterated her criticism of North Korea's aggressive policies. She said they would "never work and would only isolate it" and that North Korea needed to give up nuclear weapons and open the way for the international community to ease sanctions and help it with its economy.

Despite the development, some analysts were skeptical. As the two Koreas moved toward official dialogue, "there is no fundamental change in their positions," said Dong Yong-seung, a North Korea specialist at the Samsung Economic Research Institute. “Denuclearization remains a stumbling block.”

For decades, North Korea has been trying to force Washington to start a dialogue to sign a peace treaty with it. But the United States had in recent years wanted to deal with the North mainly within the framework of the six-nation talks on denuclearization, which were last held in 2008.

After years of engagement, North Korea still did not end its nuclear programs, leaving Washington now reluctant to resume those talks unless North Korea shows sincerity in giving up its nuclear weapons. Washington also wants North Korea to improve ties with South Korea first.

The North Korean proposal on Thursday indicated that the North was embracing at least part of Washington’s demands.

[Tarage]

I cannot keep up with these bipolar kids.

[dejet]

I just can not follow this anymore. Really, you say you want to blow someone up and a month later change your mind? WTF

[Kerberoz]

Mood swings. Maybe Kim's pregnant. Or ate a pregnant chick.

[archibaldcrane]

It's like BG just discovered North Korea.

[Waraji]

YES, WE'RE BACK. North Korea, the herpes of international news.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — A North Korean ship carrying weapons system parts buried under sacks of sugar was seized as it tried to cross the Panama Canal on its way from Cuba to its home country, which is barred by United Nations sanctions from importing sophisticated weapons or missiles, Panamanian officials said Tuesday.

A private defense analysis firm that examined a photograph of the find said the ship appeared to be transporting a radar-control system for a Soviet-era surface-to-air missile system, and Cuba later called the equipment on the boat "obsolete defensive weapons" from the mid-20th century.

A statement from Cuba's Foreign Ministry late Tuesday acknowledged that the military equipment belonged to the Caribbean nation, but said it had been shipped out to be repaired and returned to the island.

It said the 240 metric tons of weaponry consisted of two Volga and Pechora anti-aircraft missile systems, nine missiles "in parts and spares," two Mig-21 Bis and 15 engines for those airplanes.

"The agreements subscribed by Cuba in this field are supported by the need to maintain our defensive capacity in order to preserve national sovereignty," the statement read.

It concluded by saying that Havana remains "unwavering" in its commitment to international law, peace and nuclear disarmament.

Earlier, Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli said the ship identified as the 14,000-ton Chong Chon Gang was carrying missiles and other arms "hidden in containers underneath the cargo of sugar."

Martinelli tweeted a photo showing a green tube that appears to be a horizontal antenna for the SNR-75 "Fan Song" radar, which used to guide missiles fired by the SA-2 air-defense system found in former Warsaw Pact and Soviet-allied nations, said Neil Ashdown, an analyst for IHS Jane's Intelligence.

"It is possible that this could be being sent to North Korea to update its high-altitude air-defense capabilities," Ashdown said. Jane's also said the equipment could be headed to North Korea to be upgraded.

Panamanian authorities said one container buried under sugar sacks contained radar equipment that appears to be designed for use with air-to-air or surface-to-air missiles, said Belsio Gonzalez, director of Panama's National Aeronautics and Ocean Administration. An Associated Press journalist who gained access to the rusting ship saw green shipping containers that had been covered by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of white sacks marked "Cuban Raw Sugar."

The U.N. Security Council has imposed four rounds of increasingly tougher sanctions against North Korea since its first nuclear test on Oct. 9, 2006.

Under current sanctions, all U.N. member states are prohibited from directly or indirectly supplying, selling or transferring all arms, missiles or missile systems and the equipment and technology to make them to North Korea, with the exception of small arms and light weapons.

The most recent resolution, approved in March after Pyongyang's latest nuclear test, authorizes all countries to inspect cargo in or transiting through their territory that originated in North Korea, or is destined to North Korea if a state has credible information the cargo could violate Security Council resolutions.

"Panama obviously has an important responsibility to ensure that the Panama Canal is utilized for safe and legal commerce," said Acting U.S. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo, who is the current Security Council president. "Shipments of arms or related material to or from Korea would violate Security Council resolutions, three of them as a matter of fact."

Panamanian authorities believe the ship was returning from Havana on its way to North Korea, Panamanian Public Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino told The Associated Press. Based on unspecified intelligence, authorities suspected it could be carrying contraband and tried to communicate with the crew, who didn't respond. Martinelli said Panama originally suspected drugs could be aboard.

The 35 North Koreans on the boat were arrested after resisting police efforts to intercept the ship in Panamanian waters on Thursday as it moved toward the canal and take it to the Caribbean port of Manzanillo, Martinelli told private RPC radio station. The captain had a heart attack and also tried to commit suicide during the operation, Martinelli said.

Panamanian officials were finally able to board the ship to begin searching it Monday, pulling out hundreds of sacks of sugar.

Luis Eduardo Camacho, a spokesman for Martinelli, said authorities had only searched one of the ship's five container sections, and the inspection of all the cargo will take at least a week. Panama has requested help from United Nations inspectors, along with Colombia and the UK, said Javier Carballo, the country's top narcotics prosecutor.

"Panama being a neutral country, a country in peace, that doesn't like war, we feel very worried about this military material," Martinelli said.

North Korea's government made no public comment on the case.

In early July, a top North Korean general, Kim Kyok Sik, visited Cuba and met with his island counterparts. Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma said he was also received by President Raul Castro, and the two had an "exchange about the historical ties that unite the two nations and the common will to continue strengthening them."

The meetings were held behind closed doors, and there has been no detailed account of their discussions.

"After this incident there should be renewed focus on North Korean-Cuban links," said Hugh Griffiths, an arms trafficking expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Griffiths said his institute told the U.N. this year that it had uncovered evidence of a flight from Cuba to North Korea that travelled via central Africa.

"Given the history of North Korea, Cuban military cooperation and now this latest seizure, we find this flight more interesting," he said. "

The Chong Chon Gang has a history of being detained on suspicion of trafficking drugs and ammunition, Griffiths said. Lloyd's List Intelligence said the 34-year-old ship, which is registered to the Pyongyang-based Chongchongang Shipping Company, "has a long history of detentions for safety deficiencies and other undeclared reasons."

Satellite tracking records show it left the Pacific Coast of Russia on April 12 with a stated destination of Havana, then crossed the Pacific and the Panama Canal on its way to the Caribbean. It disappeared from satellite tracking until it showed up again on the Caribbean side of the canal, on July 10, Lloyd's said.

The disappearance from satellite tracking indicates that the crew may have switched off a device that automatically transmits the ship's location after it moved into the Caribbean, Lloyd's said.

Mulino, the Panamanian public security minister, said the ship crossed the Panama Canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean last month carrying a cargo of sheet metal that was inspected by Panamanian authorities.

Griffiths said the Chong Chon Gang was stopped in 2010 in the Ukraine and was attacked by pirates 400 miles off the coast of Somalia in 2009.

Griffiths' institute has also been interested in the ship because of a 2009 stop it made in Tartus — a Syrian port city hosting a Russian naval base.

Somehow, I don't think importing Space Race Age technology from Cuba is the best way to upgrade ones military defense program. Although, seeing as they are still currently running World War II tech, this wouldn't have been so bad.

[Nephlite]

Somehow, I don't think importing Space Race Age technology from Cuba is the best way to upgrade ones military defense program. Although, seeing as they are still currently running World War II tech, this wouldn't have been so bad.

This is usually where it starts. Why start from scratch when you can just grab something (albeit a bit outdated) and upgrade?

I read somewhere that advancements in technology isn't necessarily tech getting better, it just gets smaller or more compact. Handheld supercomputers (smart phones) doing things a million times faster and more economical than a 1950's era supercomputer that took up several football fields goes hand-in-hand with a massive radar targeting device that, when upgraded with current tech, does what present day laser targeting systems do. Just depends on who's plans they stole or what information is leaked from enemies who spent decades building those devices and replacing systems here and there as they get more compact and more sophisticated. That's why it's so important during war or during de-mobilization efforts you destroy anything and everything that could potentially fall in to an enemies hands so they don't get a jump-start on their own military surplus.

[Brill Weave]

When Cuba is saying your shit is obsolete you got problems.

[archibaldcrane]

Captain had a heart attack, attempted suicide, and still survived.

Who knew Unbreakable was Korean?