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North Korea Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 19, 2017 21 Comments
College student Otto Warmbier, who spent 17 months imprisoned in North Korea, has died. From Fox News:
“It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home,” Fred and Cindy Warmbier wrote in a statement. “Surrounded by his loving family, Otto died today at 2:20 pm.” “It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost - future time that won't be spent with a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds. But we choose to focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person. You can tell from the outpouring of emotion from the communities that he touched - Wyoming, Ohio and the University of Virginia to name just two - that the love for Otto went well beyond his immediate family.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 31, 2017 10 Comments
America recently marked the 40th anniversary of the debut of the blockbuster movie, Star Wars. In 1983, in homage to the movie's popularity, Ronald Reagan's "Strategic Defense Initiative" was rechristened "Star Wars". While the original goal of the program was to build a network of ground-based and space-based systems to shield the country from a massive intercontinental ballistic missile attack, Reagan's successors have scaled back on his original plans substantially. Since President Donald Trump took office, North Korea has launched 9 separate test ballistic missiles, with the goal of developing one that could reach the United States with a nuclear payload.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 14, 2017 6 Comments
Upon taking the oath of office a few days ago, South Korea's new president, Moon Jae-in, indicated the he is willing to visit the nuclear-armed North.
Moon, who was declared the winner on Tuesday of the presidential election, said he will "sincerely negotiate" with the United States, South Korea's chief ally, and China, South Korea's top trading partner, over the contentious deployment of the US anti-missile system THAAD.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 10, 2017 10 Comments
Back in March, South Korea's Constitutional Court removed President Park Geun-hye due to numerous scandals that surrounded her. Authorities arrested her three weeks later and authorities claimed she "abused the mighty power and position as President to take bribes from companies and infringed upon the freedom of corporate management and leaked important confidential official information." Well, Park was friendly with the U.S. and agreed with our officials on North Korea. Her ouster led to an opportunity for more liberal officials to rise to power who want to take a softer approach on North Korea. That's exactly what happened. Democratic candidate Moon Jae-in won the election yesterday, which may "mean an overhaul for Seoul's policy on North Korea. He even said that he would "visit rival North Korea under the right conditions."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 07, 2017 6 Comments
Last week, Mary wrote about North Korea detaining a third American, and today we learn that they have detained a fourth American citizen. Fox News reports:
 North Korea announced Sunday that it detained a fourth American citizen over unspecified hostile acts against the country and amid worsening tensions with the U.S. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim Hak Song had worked for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology before he was held on Saturday.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 05, 2017 7 Comments
Move over, North Korea! Californians who were awake early Wednesday morning were treated to the site of a test launch by the US Air Force of an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile.
Air Force Global Strike Command spokesman Joe Thomas told AFP from California that the test was routine and not meant to be a show of force in the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile program. The Minuteman III missile blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 0702 GMT, the strike command said in a statement.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 29, 2017 15 Comments
North Korea launched another missile, and according to both the U.S. and South Korea, their latest attempt was a failure. Moments after taking off, the missile exploded. The failed launch occurred shortly after Secretary of State Tillerson urged the UN to levy more economic sanctions against North Korea.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 25, 2017 20 Comments
President Donald Trump will host the entire U.S. Senate on Wednesday for a briefing on the situation with North Korea. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis will join the senators along with Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. It will take place at 3PM ET. Press Secretary Sean Spicer told the media that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for the meeting. The Senate usually holds these meetings at a secure location on Capitol Hill, but Trump offered to host the meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 23, 2017 40 Comments
Officials in North Korea have detained an American citizen this weekend. The communist kingdom now has three Americans behind bars. Reuters reported:
Korean-American Tony Kim had spent a month teaching an accounting course at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), the university's chancellor, Chan-Mo Park, told Reuters on Sunday.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 21, 2017 4 Comments
I've chronicled China's opposition to the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the U.S. missile-defense system in South Korea. The Chinese government has denied retaliating against the system, but one American cybersecurity firm told The Wall Street Journal that it found evidence that Beijing has used hackers to target THAAD. The firm FireEye discovered that "two cyberespionage groups that the firm linked to Beijing’s military and intelligence agencies have launched a variety of attacks against South Korea’s government, military, defense companies and a big conglomerate."

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 17, 2017 6 Comments
As tension rise between America and North Korea, it appears that Russian state TV has decided to side with dictator Kim Jong Un. According to Bloomberg, the Kremlin's top TV guy Dmitry Kiselyov made this proclamation after calling President Donald Trump "just the kind of leader the world needed" a few weeks ago. Bloomberg reported:
In the latest sign of the Kremlin’s abrupt about-face on its erstwhile American hero, Kiselyov pronounced Trump “more dangerous” than his North Korean counterpart. “Trump is more impulsive and unpredictable than Kim Jong Un,” he told viewers of his prime-time Sunday “Vesti Nedelyi” program, which earlier this year carried paeans to Trump for his pledge to warm up relations with Russia.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 15, 2017 25 Comments
(Updates placed at the end of the post.) US military officials are reporting that North Korea attempt to launch a missile along its east coast, but it blew up almost immediately.
...It’s unclear why it failed. The missile was launched from Sinpo, on its east coast. The Yonhap news agency in South Korea first reported the failed launch, citing the South Korean military. “The North attempted to launch an unidentified missile from near the Sinpo region this morning but it is suspected to have failed,” the South’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 12, 2017 23 Comments
Last weekend President Donald Trump and China’s president Xi Jinping met at Mar-a-Lago. The state dinner featured a side of tactical bombing of Syrian airstrips and a bit of Sound of Music diplomacy from the First Daughter. Knowing the room would be tense, she deployed her charming children to serenade the Chinese President and his wife...in Chinese.
Ivanka assumed, or rightly knew, that there is nothing like having the children or grandchildren of a host put on a cute performance to cut down tensions in a room full of VIPs with competing agendas.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 17, 2017 17 Comments
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned North Korea that the U.S. will not rule out military action or tougher sanctions against the communist kingdom. From Fox News:
“We’re exchanging views,” Tillerson said, while standing a few feet within what is technically North Korean territory inside what is known as the Joint Security Area. “Nothing has been taken off the table,” he said, when asked whether he would rule out nuclearization of the peninsula, during the interview with Fox News.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 14, 2017 14 Comments
North Korea has threatened America with "merciless" attacks due to the continued drills between our military and South Korea. From Reuters:
North Korea said the arrival of the U.S. strike group in the seas off the east of the Korean peninsula was part of a "reckless scheme" to attack it. "If they infringe on the DPRK's sovereignty and dignity even a bit, its army will launch merciless ultra-precision strikes from ground, air, sea and underwater," the North's state news agency KCNA said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 10, 2017 1 Comment
South Korea's Constitutional Court has officially removed President Park Geun-hye from office. The country will hold a snap election on May 9. Scandals have plagued Park, including one alleging Park helped a close friend receive "bribes from Samsung and other South Korean conglomerates." Legislators impeached Park back in December, with a vote of 234-56, including many from her own party. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn took over, even though Park fired him in November as a way to salvage her presidency. When no one could agree on a replacement, he maintained his position.
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