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

Kim Jong-un's reign of terror resumed this week as South Korea's spy agency reported the North Korean dictator ordered more executions.

According to the report, North Korea executed five senior officials using anti-aircraft guns because they made false reports that “enraged” leader Kim Jong-un, South Korea’s spy agency said Monday.

The comments by the National Intelligence Service in a private briefing to lawmakers come as Malaysia investigates the poisoning death of Kim’s estranged elder half-brother, Kim Jong-nam.

That investigation is still going on, but South Korea says it believes Kim Jong-un ordered the assassination, which took place February 13 at Kuala Lumpur’s airport.

Kim Jong-nam died within 20 minutes of poisoning

The spy agency told lawmakers that five North Korean officials in the department of recently purged state security chief Kim Won-hong were executed by anti-aircraft guns because of the false reports to Kim, South Korean lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo said. It’s not clear what false reports they allegedly made, and the NIS didn’t say how it got its information.

South Korean spies have a spotty record when reporting about high-level events in authoritarian, cloistered North Korea.

North Korea fired Kim Won-hong in January, presumably over corruption, abuse of power and torture committed by his agency, Seoul said earlier this month. The fallen minister had been seen as close to Kim Jong Un. North Korea has not publicly said anything about Kim Won Hong or about the alleged executions in his department.

Lee also cited the NIS as saying that Kim Won-hong’s dismissal was linked to those false reports, which “enraged” Kim Jong-un when they were discovered.

Since taking power in late 2011, Kim Jong-un has reportedly executed or purged a large number of high-level government officials in what rival Seoul has called a “reign of terror.”

On March 07 2017 13:51 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/838958490588590080

This isn't good...

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/838966382725214208

BEIJING — China tried unsuccessfully to calm newly volatile tensions on the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday, proposing that North Korea freeze nuclear and missile programs in exchange for a halt to major military exercises by American and South Korean forces. The proposal was rejected hours later by the United States and South Korea.

“We have to see some sort of positive action by North Korea before we can take them seriously,” Nikki R. Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters after a Security Council meeting in New York on the escalating Korea crisis. Standing beside her, Cho Tae-yul, the South Korean ambassador, said, “This is not the time for us to talk about freezing or dialogue with North Korea.”

The statements by Ms. Haley and her South Korean counterpart came hours after China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, proposed the suspensions during a Beijing news conference, describing them as a way to create the basis for talks that would end North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

The alternative to talks, he said, would be an increasingly perilous standoff that threatened the entire region.

“The two sides are like two accelerating trains coming toward each other, and neither side is willing to give way,” Mr. Wang said. “The question is: Are both sides really prepared for a head-on collision?”

But in what appeared to be a hardening American position on North Korea, Ms. Haley said the United States was re-evaluating its approach to the country and its unpredictable young leader, Kim Jong-un, whom she described as “not rational.”

“I can tell you we’re not ruling anything out, and we’re considering every option,” Ms. Haley said after the Security Council meeting, flanked by Mr. Cho and the Japanese ambassador to the United Nations, Koro Bessho.

At the same time, Ms. Haley sought to reassure China publicly that the United States meant no harm by moving ahead with the deployment of a defensive missile shield system in South Korea, after North Korea’s latest missile launch on Monday. China has condemned the missile shield as a military provocation by the Americans that risked a new arms race in the region.

Developments this week have abruptly escalated regional tensions over the isolated North’s nuclear arms development.

At the same time, the North is in a diplomatic standoff with another Asian country, Malaysia, from the Feb. 13 killing of Kim Jong-nam, the North Korean leader’s estranged half brother, in Kuala Lumpur. On Tuesday, Pyongyang — angered by a police investigation that has named several North Koreans as suspects — said that no Malaysians living in North Korea would be allowed to leave the country, and Malaysia quickly responded in kind.

On Wednesday, Mr. Wang said the priority in the dispute over North Korea’s nuclear program was now “to flash the red light and apply brakes.” China’s “suspension for suspension” proposal “can help us break out of the security dilemma and bring the parties back to the negotiating table,” he said.

Doubts that the idea would gain traction were not surprising. North Korea made a similar offer in 2015 that went nowhere.

Mr. Wang’s proposal was China’s latest attempt to regain the initiative on the nuclear issue, which has bedeviled Beijing’s efforts to stay friends with both North and South Korea and prove itself a mature regional power broker.

“The current situation is a challenge for the Chinese government’s diplomacy,” said Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor at Renmin University in Beijing who specializes in North Korea. “The situation in the East Asian region is increasingly complicated, and the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the nuclear missile issue is increasingly slim,” he said, referring to North Korea’s nuclear arms program.

Reining in North Korea has also become a focus for the Trump administration’s dealings with China. Starting next week, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson is to visit Japan, South Korea and China for talks that will focus on “the advancing nuclear and missile threat” from North Korea, the State Department said.

On March 08 2017 14:17 LegalLord wrote:

China has been slowly but surely moving in the direction of "NK cannot continue to exist as a separate entity" since that artillery attack 6 years ago.

On March 19 2017 19:05 riotjune wrote:
Quick, somebody fire a bullet. Doesn't have to be Korean or American, just do it. In the event a war breaks out, I'm not gonna be fighting in it, but will be watching it on TV *clap clap*

On March 20 2017 00:06 Dan HH wrote:
Time to liberate North Korea with trebuchets then?

On March 20 2017 02:06 KwarK wrote:

If you know of a better way to launch a 90kg projectile over 300m I'd like to hear it.

A North Korean missile fired Wednesday exploded "within seconds of launch," according to US Pacific Command.

US officials confirmed North Korea had attempted to launch a missile near Kalma, on the country's east coast, but early reports suggest it failed.

"South Korea and the US are aware of the missile launch and to their knowledge North Korea's missile was not successfully launched," South Korea's Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Neither the US nor South Korea have released information on what type of missile was fired, or why it failed. The US Pacific Command said it was working with partners to assess it further.

At a daily press briefing Wednesday, China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying again called on all parties on the Korean Peninsula, including South Korea and the United States, to "exercise restraint."

"The current situation on the peninsula is extremely tense -- 'everyone with his dagger drawn' would be a fair description," she said.

The attempted launch comes four days after the North Korea announced it had tested a new rocket engine, describing it as a "great leap forward" in their missile program.

US defense officials told CNN the engine could be used for a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile.