410개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Sensational Triumph of the North Korean Bio-tech!!
While the reactionary int'l media and its masters still conjecture if the person left of the Dear Leader is his third son Kim Jong-un, aka the "Youth Captain" ("This is Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un!", Mainichi Shimbun/"The photo is not of Kim Jong-un", SK's Ministry of Unification said according to Yonhap etc.)...
...well-informed sources from the DPRK disclosed y'day the secret: "It's just the triumphal success by our bio-scientists, guided by the invincible Juche Idea and the Dear Leader's Songun Policy! This is solely the Eternal President, the Great Leader Kim Il-sung recently successful cloned!"
The conclusive proof:
Mosaic in P.Y,. depicting Kim Il-sung's Homecoming (1945)
1953, Kim Il-sung signs the Korean War armistice agreement
Last Sunday, on the eve of the "Nuclear Security Summit" in Washington, Rodong Shinmun's editorial detected that "the danger of a nuclear war is increasing on the Korean Peninsula day by day", as KCNA reported:
S. Korea Urged to Stop War Aggression against North
The chief executive of south Korea was recently reported to have kicked up war
atmosphere, instructing the warmongers of the military to "get fully ready for any
event." His minions let loose a whole string of dangerous war outbursts,
trumpeting about the non-existent "threat" and "provocation" from someone.
The above-said outpourings of the south Korean ruling quarters are
unpardonable acts of treachery as they threaten the destiny of the nation and
disturb peace of the country and rash acts of going against the trend of the times
towards independent reunification, peace and prosperity.
The danger of a nuclear war is increasing on the Korean Peninsula day by day
and the inter-Korean relations are inching close to an unpredictable collapse due
to the reckless moves of the group of traitors to provoke a war.
The south Korean ruling quarters are persistently rushing headlong into the
moves for a war of aggression against the north, challenging the ardent desire of
the Koreans for peaceful reunification. This is absolutely intolerable as it is the
greatest treason of letting the country and the nation fall victim to a nuclear war to
be started by foreign forces.
Their reckless remarks are nothing but a replica of the call for achieving
"unification by prevailing over communism" made by the successive anti-
reunification elements of south Korea. The present ruling quarters of south
Korea are getting frantic in the moves to escalate the confrontation and ignite a
war, retrieving the dregs of history which had been thrown into its dumping
ground after being cursed and denounced by the whole nation.
This is a blatant challenge of the outdated forces intended to block the advance
of the June 15 era of reunification and bring back the last era of confrontation in
a bid to prolong their remaining days.
The anti-reunification conservative forces are now going mad with the moves to
start a war of aggression against the north in collusion with outsiders, but this is nothing but the last-ditch effort of those who have lived out their days.
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201004/news11/20100411-07ee.html
Enjoy(??) the weekend reading!!
North Korea on the Road to Ruin
By Aidan Foster-Carter
Last year saw two spectacular own goals. Missile and nuclear tests were a weird way to greet a new US president ready to reach out to old foes. The predictable outcome was condemnation by the UN Security Council, plus sanctions on arms exports that are biting.
Domestic policy is just as disastrous. December’s currency ‘reform’ beggars belief. Did Kim Jong-il really not grasp that redenomination would not cure inflation, but worsen it? Or that brazenly stealing people’s savings – beyond a paltry minimum, citizens only got 10 per cent of their money back – would finally goad his long-suffering subjects into anger and rioting? Forced to retreat, officials even apologised. One scapegoat was sacked – and possibly shot.
By his own admission Kim does not do economics. In a speech in 1996, when famine was starting to bite, the Dear Leader whined defensively that his late father, Kim Il-sung, had told him ‘not to get involved in economic work, but just concentrate on the military and the party.’
That awful advice explains much. Incredibly, North Korea was once richer than the South. In today’s world, this is the contest that counts. ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ is no mere slogan but a law of social science.
Having taken an early lead, Kim senior threw it all away. He built the world’s fourth largest army, crippling an economy which he refused to reform, viewing liberalisation as betrayal. His own personality cult was and is a literally monumental weight of unproductive spending.
Used to milking Moscow and Beijing, in the 1970s North Korea borrowed from Western banks – and promptly defaulted. That was not smart; it has had to pay cash up front ever since.
Pyongyang also resorts to less orthodox financing. In 1976 the Nordic nations expelled a dozen DPRK diplomats for trafficking cigarettes and booze. In December, a Swedish court jailed two for smuggling cigarettes. More than 100 busts worldwide over 30 years, of everything from ivory and heroin to ‘supernotes’ (fake US$100 bills), leave scant doubt that this is policy.
Yet morality aside, it is stupid policy. Pariahs stay poor. North Korea could earn far more by going straight. The Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), where South Korean SMEs employ Northern workers to make a range of goods, shows that win-win can work. Yet Pyongyang keeps harassing it: imposing arbitrary border restrictions and demanding absurd wage hikes.
Now it threatens to seize US$370 million of South Korean assets at Mount Kumgang, a tourist zone idle since a Southern tourist was shot dead in 2008 and the North refused a proper investigation. Even before that, Pyongyang’s greed in extorting inflated fees from Hyundai ensured that no other chaebol has ventured North. Contrast how China has gained Taiwanese investment.
In this catalogue of crassness, the nadir came in 1991 when the dying Soviet Union abruptly pulled the plug on its clients. All suffered, but most adapted. Cuba went for tourism; Vietnam tried cautious reform; Mongolia sold minerals. Only North Korea, bizarrely, did nothing – except watch its old system crumble. GDP plunged by half, and hunger killed up to a million. Now famine again stalks the land. The state cannot provide, yet still it seeks to suppress markets.
All this is as puzzling as it is terrible. China and Vietnam show how Asian communist states can morph towards capitalism and thrive. Kim Jong-il may fear the fate of the Soviet Union if he follows suit. True, his regime has survived – even if many of its people did not. Yet the path he is on is patently a dead end. Kim’s own ill-health, and a belated opaque bid to install his unknown third son as dauphin, only heighten uncertainty. Militant mendicancy over the nuclear issue – demanding to be paid for every tiny step towards a distant disarmament, then backsliding and trying the same trick again – will no longer wash. North Korea has run out of road; the game is finally up.
What now? A soft landing, with Kim Jong-il embracing peace abroad and reform at home, remains the best outcome. But if Kim obdurately refuses change, we need a plan B. The US and South Korea have contingency plans for the North’s collapse. So does China, separately. Tacit coordination is urgent, lest future chaos be compounded by a clash of rival powers – as in the 1890s. Koreans have a rueful proverb: when whales fight, the shrimp’s back is broken.
But Beijing will not let it come to that. China is quietly moving into North Korea, buying up mines and ports. Some in Seoul cry colonialism, but it was they who created this vacuum by short-sightedly ditching the past decade’s ‘sunshine’ policy of patient outreach. President Lee Myung-bak may have gained the G-20 chairmanship, but he has lost North Korea.
Nor will Kim Jong-il nuzzle docile under China’s wing, though his son might. As ever North Korea will take others’ money and do its own thing. In early 2010 new fake ‘super-yuan’ of high quality, very hard to detect, started appearing in China. They wouldn’t, would they?
http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2010/04/01/north-korea-on-the-road-to-ruin
Related articles:
☞ The trap of drawing a picture of N.Korea (Hankyoreh, 4.02)
☞ Chinese Financial Support of N. Korea Questioned (VoA, 3.31)
☞ North Korea Strains Under New Pressures (WSJ, 3.30)
☞ N. Korea faces likelihood of widespread upheaval (HonululuAdvertiser, 3.28)
Pyongyang's "rulers" are very well-known for their special sense of perfect - mostly very empathic - timing for the release of statements, threatening the rest of the world...
Yesterday, while the (S. Korean) "public angst was building at the lack of success in rescuing missing sailors from a sunken patrol ship" (Yonhap), it was KPA's turn to scare the S.K. public(*), as KCNA(3.29) reported:
KPA Warns Any Act of Disturbing Security and Order in DMZ
These days witness a lot of serious developments in the area along the Military Demarcation Line where huge armed forces are standing in acute confrontation for which the south Korean military authorities are to blame. They may drive the present touch-and-go situation to a more dangerous phase.
A spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army issued a statement on Monday in this regard:
The south Korean military warmongers have been busy staging an anti-DPRK psychological warfare in the Demilitarized Zone with agents specializing in this warfare and other riff-raffs involved since the mid-February under the signboards of "visit," "tour" and "observance".
It is a well-known fact that the south Korean military concluded what it called "MOU on supporting news coverage of the DMZ" with 15 media organizations in a bid to let their reporters tour not only the DMZ but nearby frontline areas and prepare materials for anti-north smear campaigns and release them by means of newspapers, broadcasting services, internet, etc.
As already known to the world, Paragraph 9 of Article 1 of the Armistice Agreement stipulates that "No person, military or civilian, shall be permitted to enter the Demilitarized Zone except persons concerned with the conduct of civil administration and relief and persons specially authorized to enter by the Military Armistice Commission."
It is preposterous for the U.S. and south Korean sides to allow those who have nothing to do with the civil administration and relief to enter the DMZ, given that the Military Armistice Commission was completely demised and the military machines of both sides tasked to supervise and control the implementation of the AA in place of the commission have not been in existence for nearly two decades due to the deliberate moves of the U.S. to scrap the AA.
In the final analysis, all these moves of the south Korean military warmongers cannot be interpreted otherwise than deliberate acts to turn the DMZ into theatre of confrontation with the DPRK and a site of psychological warfare against the north in disregard of the AA and strain the overall situation on the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. is a signatory to the AA and responsible for implementing it.
It is, therefore, obliged to stop the moves of the south Korean military authorities to misuse the DMZ for meeting their sinister purpose.
The U.S. side should cogitate about the grave situation in which the security and order in the DMZ which have so far been observed for form's sake are disturbed and this area is turning into a total military zone and a theatre of inter-Korean confrontation and a site of psychological warfare against the north in contravention of the AA.
The Panmunjom Mission of the KPA clarifies the following principled stand to cope with the prevailing situation:
1. The U.S. side should force the south Korean authorities and military warmongers to halt at once their moves to disturb the security and order in the DMZ if it is interested in the peace and security on the peninsula as a signatory to the AA.
2. The south Korean military warmongers should roll back without delay their foolish plan to turn the DMZ into a theatre of confrontation with the DPRK and a site of psychological warfare against the north and stop their rash acts, if they want to escape the unexpected strike of the KPA.
3. If the U.S. and the south Korean authorities persist in their wrong acts to misuse the DMZ for the inter-Korean confrontation despite our warnings, these will entail unpredictable incidents including the loss of human lives in this area for which the U.S. side will be wholly to blame.
Intolerable is any act of disturbing the security and order in the DMZ.
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201003/news29/20100329-01ee.html
* Interpretation by K. Times: "NK Warning to Scare Away DMZ Tourists"/"Naughty N.K. scaring the tourists. Bad North Korea. Bad.", note by The Marmot's Hole(3.30)
"Enjoy" (well, you should memorize!!^^) the weekend lesson, entitled:
The Youth Captain, Comrade Kim Jong-eun is a Mt. Baekdu style of captain who bears the perfect dignity and qualifications of the great men in history and carries on the ideology and leadership of the Great General (*)
1. The Youth Captain, Comrade Kim Jong-eun is a good model of loyalty, one who displays the highest level of loyalty to the Great General (aka Kim Jong-il).
1.1 He is the one who faithfully carries forward the achievements of the Military-first revolution, which the Great General has enhanced.
2. The Youth Captain, Comrade Kim Jong-eun is a great figure who presents the ideology and appearance of the Great Leader (aka Kim Il-sung) and the Dear Leader.
2.1 He is a master of ideology and theory who has inherited the General’s nature.
3. The Youth Captain, Comrade Kim Jong-eun is a remarkably talented person who bears all the ability of a great general, which the Great Leader also bore.
3.1 He harbors military genius and leadership qualities as well.
4. The Youth Captain, Comrade Kim Jong-eun has all the human qualities, which are eternally moderate.
4.1 He is the one who takes care of the people’s lives with a warm heart and love.
5. The Youth Captain, Comrade Kim Jong-eun is well-versed in the Juche Ideology, military science, Juche politics and economics, Juche literature and arts.
5.1 He has a wide knowledge of all other fields like world politics, economics, the military and culture.
* "Education" material(**), released in late January for KWP cadres and KPA officers.
** Please keep in mind that absolutely nobody in the N.K. public (except a very tiny group around the "Dear Leader"/but of course they've nothing to do with the N.K. public!) knows something about the (f*cking)"Youth Captain, Comrade Kim Jong-eun"...
Somehow related:
☞ Signs of Big Bang in North Korea? (K. Times, 3.25)
☞ N. Korea threatens 'nuclear strikes' on S. Korea, US (AP/Ynet, 3.26)
☞ US-S. Korean Moves to Bring down System in DPRK Warned (KCNA, 3.26)
Enjoy the weekend reading!!
East of Siberia - A Trip to Cinema Paradiso
By Johannes Schönherr
Introduction: Scenes from the North Korean Film Front
1. My Pipe Dream is about to Come True
2. No Place on the Planet like North Korea
3. Vaguely Western and Not Very Good
4. Unbeatable Cinematic Propaganda!
5. The Manifestation of International Friendship
6. Cinematic Spy Accusations Fly
7. "To Prevent You from Making a Mistake"
8. The Legendary Pulgasari
9. Face-to-Face with the Great Leader
10. No Pulgasari on the Road to Freedom
11. Films from Another Planet
12. To the International Cinema Hall!
13. Two Trips to the Train Station
14. A New, More Interesting Guided Tour
The End: The Real Horror Revealed at the Death
Two days ago the International Crisis Group released the following report:
North Korea under Tightening Sanctions
Outwardly, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) appears stable. However, the country has been shaken by constricting international sanctions, extremely poor policy choices, and several internal challenges that have the potential to trigger instability. International sanctions have reduced foreign exchange earnings, while humanitarian assistance, which feeds millions of North Koreans, has declined due to political factors and donor fatigue. In addition to sanctions, Pyongyang has been dealing with the internal pressures of a disastrous currency reform as well as a chronic and deteriorating food security problem. The aggregate pressure is already taking a toll on North Korea’s human security and could have a number of unanticipated consequences for regional and international security.
Some analysts and policymakers believe international sanctions have pressured North Korea to seek a face-saving return to the Six-Party Talks and better inter-Korean ties. Although Pyongyang’s opaque policymaking process makes it nearly impossible to understand regime motivations, the pressures of cascading and overlapping “mini crises” are unmistakable just as the country has had to face difficult succession issues. However, the DPRK has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to survive under pressure. Any of the current challenges – as singular problems – should be manageable. The state security apparatus and the barriers to collective action make a “revolution from below” virtually impossible. But despite the loyalty of elites in the party and the military, a sudden split in the leadership, although unlikely, is not out of the question. Signs of any fissures would not be observable from the outside until a power struggle, a coup d’état, collapse or similar crisis was already unfolding.
The first half of 2009 was marked by bellicose and defiant posturing from the North, but in the latter half of the year, Pyongyang began to express a desire to improve ties with the Republic of Korea (ROK, South Korea) and the U.S. Frequent shuttle diplomacy has led to speculation that the Six-Party Talks could reconvene soon and that an inter-Korean summit could be held in 2010 or 2011. On the other hand, the [North] Korean People’s Army (KPA) has been conducting a winter exercise that is expected to last until late March. The KPA has issued several provocative statements and in late January 2010 fired live artillery rounds towards South Korean islands off the west coast. The shells landed in the sea in the vicinity of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the western sea boundary that Pyongyang does not recognise. Nevertheless, despite KPA rhetoric, there have been no unusual troop movements or mobilisations.
Human security has not been at the top of the North East Asian security agenda given the prominence of traditional security issues, historical legacies, and strong sovereignty norms. It is generally defined along two dimensions: freedom from want; and freedom from fear. Throughout most of East Asia, even undemocratic countries have sustained relatively strong economic growth for long periods; living standards have thus improved in many countries that have experienced little or no progress in expansion of civil liberties and human rights. In contrast, North Korea’s human security has been a long-term crisis. Human rights abuses and economic deprivation have been widely documented, but the international community has no effective policy instruments to produce improvements. The recent tightening of economic sanctions, compounded with domestic problems, is exacerbating the DPRK human security tragedy. This does not mean the international community is responsible for North Korea’s current plight, of course: the DPRK government itself holds the key to easing the human security crisis.
The Korean peninsula has lived with the threat of war for over half a century. Mutual deterrence is robust, but inadvertent escalation or miscalculation is always possible. The balance of power has shifted against Pyongyang, and the DPRK leadership is not likely to start a war it knows it would lose. However, the leadership’s motivation to survive could result in more dangerous proliferation activities as sources of foreign exchange – both legitimate and illegitimate – disappear. Kim Jong-il’s political machine requires hard currency to operate, and there are several signs that the regime is increasingly desperate to earn it.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=6562
The complete report you can read here (PDF file)!
Related article:
☞ Is the Dear Leader losing his grip? (Asia Times, 3.05)
The Day When the 'Dear Leader' Became Really Angry
While the 'Dear Leader' inspected the 'October 7 Pig Farm' under KPA Unit 534...
...he - really outraged - had to note: "Comrades, while we've not even one black sheep among our people - hey, keep in mind that the Korean race is the cleanest race in the world - why I've to see here a black pig among our rosy Korean pigs..."
Well, since short while later the (now former) Lt.-Gen. (on KJI's right) is sharing a cell with the "black pig" in Yodok... until they'll be executed, of course together!! (Photo released by KCNA on January 16, 2010)
For more please check out:
☞ On the Spot with Kim Jong-il (Boston Globe, 3.12)
Some days ago I'd to read following: “In general, U.S. cities frighten me, after 7 p.m. all the white people go home, and black people and beggars take to the streets.”
Well, sounds like a quotation of an American racist or German neo-nazi/fascist...
But actually it's just a part of an interview (*) with the president of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA).
His name is Alejandro Cao de Benos de Les y Pérez, he comes from a family of the Catalan aristocracy and is, today, the only Western official in the North Korean government. In his capacity as special representative of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, the thirty-five years old native of Tarragona travels the world as an ambassador, receives foreign delegations in Pyongyang and takes charge of businesses with companies of the advanced capitalism. As president of the KFA('조선우호협회'), which he founded in 2000, he proudly exports Kim Jong-il’s words and introduces the 'DPR'K to politicians and onlookers.
* Cao gave the interview to the Italian freelance journalist Enzo Reale, who translated the full four-part interview (**) into English and allowed OFK to publish the whole thing...
** MUST READ!!:
☞ Alejandro Cao de Benós Interview – Part 1
☞ Alejandro Cao de Benós Interview – Part 2
☞ Alejandro Cao de Benós Interview – Part 3
☞ Alejandro Cao de Benós Interview – Part 4
Related BS:
☞ Kim Jong Il Praised by KFA Chairman (KCNA, 3.03)
Only few days after N. Korea "Vows to Buildup Nuclear Deterrent" today's Korea Times counters with the following main headline:
Allies Ready to Remove N. Korean Nukes
Well, that's exactly the same what the Dear Leader has in his mind when he "Vows to Buildup Nuclear Deterrent"...
But possibly only after he shares Ceausescu's (Romania's dictator, toppled and executed in Dec. 1989) fate, as the current (reactionary) Monthly Chosun predicts...
Related article (MUST READ!!):
☞ Is the Dear Leader losing his grip? (Asia Times, 3.05)
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