The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, became emotional during a speech at a military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' party. Kim removed his glasses and wiped away tears in an indication, analysts say, of mounting pressure on his regime. He said his 'efforts and devotion' had not been enough to help all North Koreans
Category Archives: North Korea
‘Every boy’s dream is to be James Bond’: Inside North Korea with ‘Mr James’ and ‘the Mole’
Danish film-maker Mads Brügger’s latest documentary is an absurdly brave look at Kim Jong-un’s regime that has all the intrigue of a spy thriller
Physically, Ulrich Larsen doesn’t stand out. Polite, unassuming, his unmemorable 44-year-old face is how I imagine an efit template might be, what you start with before you add distinguishing features. You get to decide who he is. Perfect for blending in. Or infiltrating the world’s most secretive regime perhaps, which, as it happens, is what he did. Larsen is “the Mole”.
Jim Latrache-Qvortrup is the opposite. Forty-eight, big, bold, bearded, inked, with an expensive-looking set of teeth and an explosive laugh. Ex-military? Better still, he joined the French Foreign Legion at 19. Crime? Tick; he spent eight years in jail for drug dealing. International arms dealer, buying stinger missiles from North Korea for anyone who will have them? Actually no, but he does a very good job of pretending to be one, hardly has to act at all in fact. Latrache-Qvortrup is “Mr James”.
Continue reading...Kim Jong-un sheds tears as he delivers rare apology to North Korea over failings
Analysts say emotional speech suggests Kim is feeling pressures on his leadership linked to Covid and nuclear sanctions
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, shed tears as he issued a rare apology for his failure to guide the country through tumultuous times exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking at a huge military parade held at the weekend to mark the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ party, Kim removed his glasses and wiped away tears – an indication, analysts say, of mounting pressure on his regime.
Continue reading...South Korea to ask North to further investigate killing of official
South’s president Moon Jae-in faces growing public and political outrage over the shooting of the fisheries official
South Korea will ask North Korea to further investigate the shooting death of one of its officials, as public and political outrage over the killing grew.
After a national security council meeting on Friday, South Korea said on Saturday that it would call for a joint probe into the case with the North if needed, saying there were discrepancies in accounts of the accident from the two sides.
Continue reading...North Korea apologises for ‘unfortunate’ killing of South Korean official
Kim Jong-un says death ‘should not have happened’ after man shot in North Korean waters
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has apologised for the “unexpected” and “unfortunate” killing of a South Korean official this week after he drifted across the countries’ maritime border, possibly in an attempt to defect.
In a message to the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, Kim said he was “very sorry”, adding that the incident, which has raised tensions between the two countries, “should not have happened”, according to media reports.
Continue reading...North Korea officials to be punished after typhoon causes ‘dozens of casualties’
State newspaper reports leaders will punish ‘irresponsible’ city and provincial officials for failing to protect residents
North Korea has pledged harsh punishment for local officials it says failed to protect residents from a typhoon which caused a “serious incident” with dozens of casualties, the ruling party’s newspaper reported.
Typhoon Maysak brought heavy downpours across the country earlier this week, with footage showing a street inundated with water in the eastern port town of Wonsan, Kangwon province.
Continue reading...Trump told Sarah Sanders to ‘take one for the team’ after Kim Jong-un wink
- Ex-press secretary describes boorish remarks in new memoir
- ‘Kim Jong-un hit on you,’ Trump said, after gesture at summit
Donald Trump told Sarah Sanders she would have to “go to North Korea and take one for the team”, after Kim Jong-un winked at the then White House press secretary during a summit in Singapore in June 2018.
Related: Trump denies 'series of mini-strokes' after book reports mystery hospital visit
Continue reading...‘It’s terrifying’: can anyone stop China’s vast armada of fishing boats?
Ecuador stood up for the Galápagos, but other countries don’t stand a chance against the 17,000-strong distant-water fleet
The recent discovery by the Ecuadorean navy of a vast fishing armada of 340 Chinese vessels just off the biodiverse Galápagos Islands stirred outrage both in Ecuador and overseas.
Under pressure after Ecuador’s strident response, China has given mixed signals that it could begin to reel in its vast international fishing fleet. Its embassy in Ecuador declared a “zero tolerance” policy towards illegal fishing, and this week it announced it was tightening the rules for its enormous flotilla with a series of new regulations.
Continue reading...South Korea says defector who fled to North ‘did not have’ Covid-19
The case has triggered an emergency lockdown in the North, but officials in Seoul say the man had no record of infection or contact
South Korea has said that a defector who recently fled to the North does not appear to have contracted Covid-19, a day after Pyongyang imposed a lockdown near the border, claiming the man was its first recorded case of the illness.
North Korean state media reported on Sunday that the 24-year-old man, who was reportedly in quarantine, was displaying symptoms of coronavirus after returning to his homeland across the border separating the two Koreas last week.
Continue reading...North Korea declares state of emergency as Covid-19 case reported
Kim Jong-un imposes lockdown on Kaesong, calling it a ‘critical situation’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened an emergency politburo meeting after a person suspected of having Covid-19 returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border this month, state media said on Sunday.
If confirmed, it would be the first case officially acknowledged by North Korean authorities, who have so far said the country has no confirmed cases of coronavirus.
Continue reading...North Korea’s ‘ghost ships’ linked to illegal fishing by China fleet, study finds
Almost 600 North Korean ‘ghost ships’ have washed up on the coast of Japan in the past five years, some containing the corpses of their crew
“Dark fleets” of hundreds of Chinese vessels are fishing illegally in North Korean waters, according to a study, forcing displaced local fishermen to risk their lives in distant waters in unsafe boats, many of which are carried across rough seas to the coast of Japan.
In a report published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, Global Fishing Watch (GFW), says more than 900 vessels of Chinese origin fished illegally in the area in 2017, and 700 in 2018. Together it is estimated they caught more than 160,000 metric tonnes of squid, worth more than $440m (£346m).
Continue reading...UK on collision course with Saudis over new human rights sanctions
Measures target individuals in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Myanmar and North Korea
The UK set itself on a diplomatic collision course with one of its key allies after introducing long-awaited sanctions against human rights abusers, including a close aide to the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Long-awaited UK government sanctions against human rights abusers, including a close aide to the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, have been unveiled by the foreign secretary.
Continue reading...‘Magnitsky sanctions’: who are those being targeted by UK?
Forty-nine individuals and organisations from four nations are accused of rights abuses
The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has announced sanctions against 49 individuals and organisations accused of human rights abuses from four different countries.
Continue reading...North Korea suspends plan to increase military pressure on South
Kim Jong-un unexpectedly vetoes the idea to redeploy troops to the border amid rising tensions between the two countries
Kim Jong-un has suspended plans to increase military pressure on South Korea, in a surprise move that comes after weeks of mounting tensions on the peninsula.
The North Korean leader vetoed measures that are thought to have included the redeployment of troops neat the border between the two countries, apparently in retaliation for Seoul’s inability to prevent defector groups from sending propaganda leaflets into the North.
Continue reading...North Korea to send ‘leaflets of punishment’ over border as tensions with South rise
Regime creating piles of propaganda in retaliation for similar campaign from South amid worsening relations
North Korea is gearing up to send propaganda leaflets over its southern border, denouncing North Korean defectors and South Korea, its state media said on Saturday, the latest retaliation for leaflets from the South as bilateral tensions rise.
The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported: “The enraged people across the country are actively pushing forward with the preparations for launching a large-scale distribution of leaflets to pour the leaflets of punishment upon those in South Korea who are bereft of even elementary morality.”
Continue reading...North Korea accuses South of being like a ‘mongrel dog’ as relations worsen
Pyongyang news agency steps up war of words against Seoul as Kim Jong-un’s sister says South’s president has put his neck in ‘noose of US flunkyism’
North Korea has accused South Korea of behaving like a “mongrel dog” bent on confrontation in a state media report that explains the regime’s decision to blow up a liaison office – a move that has significantly raised tensions between the two countries.
A commentary carried by the state KCNA news agency said the South’s defence ministry was “bragging and bluffing, rattling the dialogue partner and stoking a confrontational atmosphere”, and warned that Tuesday’s destruction of the office – which opened in 2018 to foster better cross-border ties – could be a prelude to a “total catastrophe” in North-South relations.
Continue reading...North Korea blows up liaison office in row over defectors’ leaflet campaign – video
North Korea has blown up a liaison office set up to improve communications with South Korea in a row over defectors’ plans to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the heavily armed border. North Korea appears to have acted on a warning by Kim Yo-jong, the increasingly influential sister of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to destroy the 'useless' office.
The office opened in September 2018 to facilitate inter-Korean cooperation after successful talks between Kim Jong-un and the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in.
Continue reading...North Korea blows up liaison office in row over defectors’ leaflet campaign
Kim Jong-un’s sister had said office, set up to improve co-operation with South Korea, was ‘useless’
North Korea has blown up a liaison office set up to improve communications with the South, media reports said, in a row over defectors’ plans to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the heavily armed border.
South Korea’s unification ministry said the North had set off an explosion at the joint liaison office at 2:49 pm, in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. The reports, from the Yonhap news agency, added that military sources had heard an explosion and seen smoke rising from the building.
Continue reading...No future benefit in Kim’s relationship with Trump, says North Korea
Pyongyang says since summit two years ago US has appeared friendly but has instead sought regime change
North Korea sees no future benefit in maintaining a relationship between its leader, Kim Jong-Un, and Donald Trump, the country’s state media has said on the two-year anniversary of the pair’s first summit.
US policies prove Washington remains a long-term threat to the North Korean state and its people, foreign minister Ri Son Gwon said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.
Continue reading...North Korea to cut all communications with ‘enemy’ South
Pyongyang has said it will make Seoul ‘suffer’ during worsening spat over anti-North Korean leaflets sent from South
North Korea says it will sever hotlines with South Korea as the first step toward shutting down all means of contact with Seoul, state news agency KCNA has reported.
For several days, North Korea has lashed out at South Korea, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if the South does not stop activists and defectors from sending leaflets and other anti-Pyongyang material into the North.
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