North Korea says/does surprising and alarming thing - Page…

On February 04 2015 15:03 Howie_Dewitt wrote:
Isn't Cuba communist, too? Are they trying to make a super thing? (Disclaimer: I am in high school and know next to nothing about politics or any of that)

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, already known for his unique hairdo, has updated his look.

Kim's new hairstyle remains cropped on the sides and heavy on top, but he appears to have grown his hair out and had it sculpted into a trapezoidal shape. And, for good measure, it seems as if he's had his eyebrows trimmed

North Korea, angered by drills, fires short-range missiles off coast

(Reuters) - North Korea fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on Monday, the South Korean military said, a move seen as a protest against annual military exercises between South Korea and the United States that were due to start hours later.

The missiles hit the sea early on Monday morning after traveling for about 490 km (305 miles), according to South Korea's defence ministry.

The firing came on the day when the U.S.-South Korean military exercises were scheduled to begin. The secretive North denounces the drills as a preparation for war.

South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said North Korea fired the missiles without designating any no-sail zones, which was regarded as a provocation.

"If North Korea takes provocative actions, our military will react firmly and strongly so North Korea will regret it in its bones," Kim told a news briefing.

Pyongyang has escalated its rhetoric against the drills, with a spokesman for its army general staff saying Washington and Seoul "should be dealt with only by merciless strikes".

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N. Korea threatens missile attack on anti-Pyongyang leaflets

SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea threatened Monday to fire cannons or missiles at anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from South Korea, amid growing military tension on the peninsula over ongoing joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.

"(North Korea) will aim at and attack any balloons or unmanned drones carrying leaflets," said North Korea's propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri. "We don't hide that the (future) response could be not just a few shots of gunfire but it could be cannons or missiles."

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Earlier in the day, the North fired two short-range missiles into the East Sea in protest against the start of the joint Key Resolve-Foal Eagle military exercises.

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"Leaflet scattering is a clear war aggression in the international law," Uriminzokkiri said, threatening that all the responsibility for such campaigns will be taken by the South.

Despite prolonged inter-Korean feuding over the leaflet issue, the South Korean government has largely remained inactive, saying that the campaign is part of the activists' right to free speech.

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(3rd LD) N. Korea's defense chief executed: S. Korea intel

SEOUL, May 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has executed its defense chief on charges of treason, South Korea's spy agency said Wednesday, in the latest sign of a reign of terror by leader Kim Jong-un.

Hyon Yong-chol, the chief of North Korea's People's Armed Forces, was executed by firing squad using an anti-aircraft gun at a military school in Pyongyang around April 30, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said.

Hyon, 66, was seen dozing off during a military event and did not carry out Kim's instructions, a senior official of the agency told a group of reporters.

The spy agency also gave a similar briefing to lawmakers in a closed-door parliamentary session on Wednesday.

Hyon's execution is the latest in a series of public executions in the communist country.

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The NIS said that given available information, Hyon seemed to be purged not because he sought a rebellion but because he was "disrespectful" to the young leader.

Over the past six months, Kim punished other key senior officials including Ma Won-chun, director of the Designing Department at the North's powerful National Defense Commission.

"As key officials have voiced more complaints, Kim has deepened a reign of terror by purging them in negligence of proper procedure," the official said. "We believe that there are growing doubts about Kim's leadership among North Korean ranking officials."

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North Korea Defence Chief Hyon Yong-chol 'executed'

North Korea's Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol has been executed for showing disloyalty to Kim Jong-il, South Korea's spy agency has told parliament.

MPs were told Mr Hyon was killed on 30 April by anti-aircraft fire in front of an audience of hundreds, the Yonhap news agency reports.

It said Mr Hyon had fallen asleep during an event attended by Kim Jong-un and had not carried out instructions.
Reports from North Korea are impossible to independently confirm. Analysts told the BBC that while reshuffling of officials happens often in North Korea, the execution of a figure so close to Mr Kim was surprising and cause for concern about the country's stability.

Analysis site NK News said Mr Hyon had last appeared in state media a day before the alleged execution date.

Hyon Yong-Chol, as defence minister, was as close to Kim Jong-un as it is possible to get. Such a public and brutal method of execution as obliteration by anti-aircraft gun would emphasise the cost of disloyalty. Intelligence reports always have to be treated with scepticism but, in this case, the claims of the South Korean spy agency will be easy to verify. If they are not true, the defence minister would appear again in public.

Earlier, the South Korean agency said that senior officials were being executed at the rate of one a week. It all adds up to a picture of a leader in Pyongyang who feels very insecure and who is dangerous in his insecurity.

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On May 13 2015 16:42 maartendq wrote:
Who needs Game of Thrones when you can just read news on North Korea?

On May 13 2015 16:43 puerk wrote:

but where is the sex?

On May 13 2015 22:34 Zdrastochye wrote:
It's just silly how much of a Napoleonic complex North Korea has further developed with Kim Jong-Un at the helm, it makes me wonder if their proto-typical "death to anyone who forces us to change our view of the world" will wear thin on the rest of the world. I'm guessing there's plenty of powerful countries that are fine with NK being a psychotic totalitarian state since they are unaffected by their antics, but the inability of the country to actually follow through on its death threats seem so laughable. Could you imagine how quickly a war would be over between the US and NK? Especially a nuclear war that NK appears to be clamoring for? I feel reasonably comfortable saying that the US has learned from their past and will hopefully not ever deploy nuclear weapons against another country, but I can't imagine NK finishing on the upper-hand if any war-like scenario did play out.

On May 14 2015 02:38 ZasZ. wrote:


It would be easier to ignore Kim Jong-Un and North Korea as a whole if it didn't have a population of 25 million people living in squalor. The human rights violations alone make them worth paying attention to, and is also a good reason why we can't just bomb them and be done with it. One would hope that if Kim Jong-Un is overthrown a more reasonable government could replace him, but that is unlikely and would take time even if they have the best of intentions.

On May 13 2015 21:35 ahswtini wrote:
i can't find myself feeling sorry when senior members of totalitarian regimes meet these grisly ends, since they probably facilitated these kinds of executions on other people. kinda like how lavrentiy beria had his predecessor murdered, then later met a similar fate. what goes around comes around i guess

On May 14 2015 04:35 RCMDVA wrote:
Anti-aircraft execution perspective...

The fastest MLB fastball.. 100mph would be right at 100 ft/lbs of energy.

Run of the mill .45 caliber pistol round... 200 grains at 900fps is 360 ft/lbs of energy.

Run of the mill .300 WIN Mag hunting cartridge... 200 grains at 3,000fps is 4,000 ft/lbs of energy.

30mm AA shell... 3/4ths of a pound would be 5,250 grains at 3500fps is 143,000 ft/lbs of energy.