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Thread: North Korea

  1. #21
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    Execution prompts surprise, fear inside North Korea

    Many North Koreans living here in the South are using covert contacts to get information about what is happening back home.

    Their reports suggest a rise in the number of indoctrination sessions across the country, with people being required to write letters pledging their loyalty to the regime and also letters of "self-reflection" examining their own behaviour.

    The sudden execution of the country's second-most senior statesman, North Korean groups here say, has created a considerable amount of "surprise, bafflement" and "fear".

    Jang Jin-sung left North Korea in 2004 and now runs a news website devoted to reporting events inside the country.

    "You can really feel a sense of crisis when you hear people's voices on the phone" Jang Jin-sung said.

    "They seem to really suffer from fear: it resonates in their voices. They say times have changed now that the leader himself is getting directly involved in removing his family members."



    A major event for North Korea's officialdom is 'stand-up night'
    at the Pyongyang People's Comedy Theater



    'Scapegoat'

    The fear inside North Korea may have grown, but there is also a suggestion from some sources that the execution has diminished Kim Jong-un's authority.

    One trader told a contact here in Seoul that "half the public in North Korea believes Chang Song-thaek was a scapegoat - purged to take the blame for the country's economic failures".



    With the aid of a flashlight, the eight residents of Pyongyang who aren't starving scan
    the many pages of North Korea's "People's Daily Crime and Capital Punishment News,"
    to see if they've been informed on by their spouses or children.



    He also said that, away from the public indoctrination sessions, North Koreans were discreetly talking amongst themselves, asking how Kim Jong-un could do this to his uncle?

    A report from another trader seemed to confirm this, saying that the execution showed Kim Jong-un's lack of morality and that attitudes towards him had "turned in a negative direction".

    "The deification of the North Korean leader has completely changed with the purge of Chang Song-thaek," Jang Jin-sung said. "There is no longer a god-like aura around the country's leader."

    North Korea has been keen to project a sense of stability following the execution. Kim Jong-un has continued his regular public appearances - visiting various military and commercial projects.

    And state media has been trumpeting its achievements over the past year - new roads, health-care centres and ski-resorts.



    Kim Jong-Un enlightened his entourage with an impromptu poem comparing stacks of frozen fish to the "vicious dog enemies
    of the great socialist enterprise" whose executions he personally authorized during his first two years in power.



    But South Korea's government is unconvinced by the mask of stability. President Park Geun-hye warned before meeting high-level defence officials on Monday that the execution had left the Korean Peninsula in a "grave and unpredictable" situation.

    It was uncertain which political direction North Korea would move in, she told government officials, and "reckless provocations" by Pyongyang could not be ruled out.

    Military action by North Korea over the coming days could signal disruption within the country, and a need to pull its people together.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25399143

  2. #22
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    Where is Kim Jong-un's wife?

    The wife of Kim Jong-un, Ri Sol-ju, has not been seen in over two months – leading to speculation about her welfare.

    He has already demonstrated his ruthlessness by executing both his uncle and his one-time mistress, not to mention numerous other North Koreans who have incurred his displeasure.

    But could Kim Jong Un, the country's new dictator, have purged even his own wife from his inner circle?

    Speculation as to the fate of Ri Sol-ju, the petite former singer whom he married in 2009, is growing in the aftermath of the sudden death of Kim's uncle, Jang Sung Taek, whose execution for treason was announced by Pyongyang last Thursday.

    The killing of a man until now regarded as a regime stalwart has demonstrated that even family members are not safe – and prompted anxious speculation about the fate of Ms Ri, who regularly appears by her husband's side, but has not been seen in public since October.

    As a recent edition of the Daily North Korean, a Pyongyang-watching newspaper based in neighbouring South Korea, put it earlier this month: "Why Has Ri Been Gone for 48 Days?"

    On Tuesday, video footage was released by North Korean media appearing to show the pair at a memorial service commemorating the second anniversary of the death of father, Kim Jong Il, from whom Kim took over as leader of the world's only hereditary communist republic.

    But many North Korea experts claim the pictures were from a previous memorial service last summer, raising questions as to why there has so far been no live footage.

    "Comrade Ri Sol Ju", who is understood to be in her late 20s, first caught Kim's eye as a singer in the Unhasu Orchestra, one of several musical glamour troupes that serve as in house-bands – and sometimes concubines – to the regime.

    Little more is known about her – even her name is thought to be a pseudonym – although she is believed to harbour a ruthless streak herself.

    Some reports say it was she who requested the recent execution of Kim's former mistress, Hyon Song-wol, who was also a performer in the Unhasu Orchestra.

    Ms Hyon was machine-gunned to death along with eight other members of the Unhasu ensemble in August, allegedly because Ms Ri did not feel comfortable with the idea that Kim might see his one-time lover live on stage.

    The following month, a Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, reported claims from a high-level North Korean defector that the Unhasu Orchestra members had been actually executed for making pornographic films. He further alleged that the execution was designed to cover up Ms Ri's own involvement in such films, and that this might presage her own fall from grace.

    However, Ms Ri reappeared in public shortly after that, prompting more prosaic explanations that her absence from view since then may simply be to illness, or to the fact that she gave birth to Kim's daughter earlier this year. As with so much in the world's most secretive state, official photographs tell only part of the story.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-uns-wife.html

  3. #23
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    I bet he ate her.

  4. #24
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    Dennis Rodman heads to North Korea for basketball visit

    Retired US basketball player Dennis Rodman is heading to North Korea for a five-day visit, where he will train the national basketball team.

    Mr Rodman has previously described his visits as "basketball diplomacy", and called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un his "friend for life".

    The US State Department has stressed that Mr Rodman is not representing the US government on this trip.

    The visit comes weeks after Mr Kim's uncle Chang Song-thaek was executed.

    Analysts described Mr Chang's purge as the biggest political shake-up since the death of former ruler Kim Jong-il two years ago.

    Speaking to reporters in Beijing before heading to North Korea, Mr Rodman said politics had "nothing to do with [him]".

    "I'm just going over there to do a basketball game and have some fun," he told Reuters news agency.

    Organisers of the trip say that Mr Rodman will also arrange a friendship basketball match between North Korea and a group of former NBA players on 8 January, to mark Mr Kim's birthday.

    Mr Rodman remains the most high-profile American to meet Kim Jong-un since the leader took over after his father died in 2011.

    He said that he spent time with Mr Kim and his wife Ri Sol-ju during his last visit in September, and said Mr Kim had a baby daughter called Ju-ae.

    'Brutal regime'

    US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Tuesday: "Dennis Rodman is not a representative of the US government in his trip to North Korea."

    "We need to focus on what's really important here when it comes to North Korea... the brutality of the North Korean regime he's going to meet."

    American Kenneth Bae (known in North Korea as Pae Jun-ho) is detained in North Korea after being arrested in November 2012. He was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour in May.

    Mr Rodman previously rejected calls to lobby for Mr Bae's release.

    "That's not my job to ask about Kenneth Bae,'' he told reporters after his September visit.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25443454

  5. #25
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    Kim Jong-un's nephew 'under police protection' at his exclusive university in France

    Kim Jong-un’s nephew is reportedly under police protection on a French university campus, amid concerns for the North Korean regime’s stability.

    Kim Han-sol, who is studying at the prestigious university Sciences-Po, was spotted by South Korean journalists earlier this week on the Le Havre campus accompanied by police.

    He is the son of the North Korean leader’s half-brother Kim Jong-Nam, who was exiled from the regime in 2001 after attempting to visit Disneyland in Japan with a fake passport.

    South Korean media reported that the teenager was chaperoned to his dormitory by French police officers who banned reporters from taking pictures, while other officers patrolled the campus. He has recently asked for his name to be removed from his campus mail box as part of an attempt to avoid the media glare, the South China Morning Post reported.

    Kim Han-sol is currently in his first year of study on the university’s Europe-Asian Programme. Though taught in English, students must also learn French and one other Asian language, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi or Indonesian. The teenager has also studied in Macau and Bosnia.

    It has been speculated that Kim Han-sol’s willingness to criticize his uncle’s regime is why French police are protecting him. During a 2012 interview with Finnish television, the 18-year-old reportedly referred to the North Korean leader as a “dictator".

    Last Thursday North Korea announced it had executed Kim Jong-un's uncle, Jang Song-thaek, as part of a purge of traitors, branding him “a despicable political careerist and trickster” and “worse than a dog.” Five of the seven officials who walked alongside former leader Kim Jong-il’s hearse in 2011 have also been purged, or sent to labour camps.

    A spokesperson for Sciences Po was unavailable for comment.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/student...e-9013295.html

  6. #26
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    North Korea: "FAX You Too!"

    SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea has threatened to strike South Korea in response to conservatives' anti-Pyongyang rallies here on the second death anniversary of its leader Kim Jong-il earlier this week, a senior military official said Friday.

    The North's powerful National Defense Commission on Thursday sent a fax to South Korea's National Security Council through the western coastal military hotline to threaten to strike the South "without notice,"the official said.

    The latest threat came after several conservative groups and North Korean defectors on Tuesday held rallies in Seoul to protest against North Korea's authoritarian rule and human rights abuse, with some burning Kim Jong-un's photo.

    The North Korean military condemned that the rallies insulted North Korea's "highest dignity," referring to its young leader, who had recently ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song-thaek to consolidate his grip on power.

    The South Korean government immediately replied through the military line, vowing to "sternly react" to any provocations, the official said.

    North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric, regularly threatening strikes against South Korea and the United States, often in response to their joint drills particularly in spring.

    The North Korean military has been carrying out winter drills since early December, but it has not shown unusual movement so far, military officials said.

    The South Korean capital city of Seoul, with more than 10 million people, is within the range of North Korea's conventional artillery positioned along the heavily fortified border.

    Pyongyang severed the communication line in March amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula following the North's third nuclear test and its near-daily war threats. The two Koreas restored the western coastal hotline in September after they agreed to resume their joint industrial park in a North Korean border town of Kaesong.

    Following the shocking execution of North Korea's unofficial No. 2, President Park Geun-hye ordered officials to study ways to revive the secretariat of the National Security Council to cope with the changing security situations on the peninsula.

    http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/nati...01200315F.html

  7. #27
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Stro07's Avatar
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    All relatives of Kim Jong-un's uncle executed too: report

    All relatives of the executed uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, including children and the country's ambassadors to Cuba and Malaysia, have also been put to death at the leader's instruction, Seoul's Yonhap news agency quoted multiple sources as saying Sunday.

    Jang Song-thaek, the once-powerful uncle, was executed last month on charges of attempting to overthrow the regime, including contemplating a military-backed coup. All direct relatives of Jang have also been executed, the sources said.

    "Extensive executions have been carried out for relatives of Jang Song-thaek," one source said on condition of anonymity. "All relatives of Jang have been put to death, including even children."

    The executed relatives include Jang's sister Jang Kye-sun, her husband and Ambassador to Cuba Jon Yong-jin, and Ambassador to Malaysia Jang Yong-chol, who is a nephew of Jang, as well as his two sons, the sources said.

    All of them were recalled to Pyongyang in early December and executed, they said. The sons, daughters and even grandchildren of Jang's two brothers were all executed, they said.

    It was unclear exactly when they were killed, but they are believed to have been put to death after Jang's death on Dec. 12.

    "Some relatives were shot to death by pistol in front of other people if they resisted while being dragged out of their apartment homes," another source said.

    Some relatives by marriage, including the wife of the ambassador to Malaysia, have been spared from executions and sent to remote villages along with their maiden families, according to the sources.

    "The executions of Jang's relatives mean that no traces of him should be left," a source said. "The purge of the Jang Song-thaek people is under way on an extensive scale from relatives and low-level officials."

    http://english.sina.com/world/2014/0125/666777.html

  8. #28
    Sbourne19
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    How can western world stand and watch this fat maniac execute anyone he wants at will whenever he wants

  9. #29
    Jan
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    What do you want to do? Should the USA start another war far away from home? North Korea is a playball between the USA and Russia/China. It shouldnt be the daily business of the western world to go into other countries to bring them 'liberty'.

  10. #30
    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
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    Here we go again:

    North Korea to reportedly execute 200 officials believed loyal to Kim Jong-un uncle

    A South Korean newspaper has reported that the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un will execute 200 high-ranking government officials believed to be loyal to Jang Song-thaek, Kim's once-powerful uncle who was shockingly deposed and executed last December.

    The Chosun Ilbo reported the pending executions Tuesday, citing a source who said that North Korea's State Security Department had conducted a sweep to root out Jang's remaining supporters in the government. Under Pyongyang's brutal "guilty blood" system of criminal sentencing, the Chosun Ilbo's source told the paper that up to 1,000 more people, all family members of the condemned, could be sent to North Korea's infamous prison camps.

    The paper reported that those condemned to be executed would be given their death sentences following closed-door trials that have been authorized by North Korea's highest court, the better to give the appearance that proper procedure has been followed.

    The executions would reportedly be witnessed by "high-ranking [Communist] party, government, and military officials," and are designed to set an example to all who do not show full devotion to Kim's regime, which is in its third year.

    Jang Song-thaek, Kim Jong-un's uncle by marriage, held several top positions in North Korea's government. Among those positions was vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission, considered second in importance only to the dictator himself. Last December, Jang was stripped of his titles, expelled from the Workers' Party, put on trial, and executed for alleged "counterrevolutionary" activities, including plotting Kim Jong-un's overthrow.

    Source here.

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