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Tag: north korea
Results from the world’s large largest airline rating portal Skytrax give high marks in Asia: Exactly seven airlines in the world have been give five-star ratings: ANA (All Nippon Airways), Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Hainan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. But at the other end of the scale is another Asian […]
Embargo? Ha! The North Korean leader relies on an entire black-market system dedicated to getting around UN sanctions so he can enjoy the best the West has to sell.
Reports say the North Korean leader has made his slicked-back, shaved-on-the-sides coiff mandatory for young men in his country. Here’s how international VIPs look with Kim Jong hair.
Lopsided election results from North Korea to Crimea were among the notable numbers of the past 10 days.
-OpEd- BERLIN — Among the rituals that North Korea’s young dictator Kim Jong-un has embraced is saber rattling. And in the run-up to annual military maneuvers between South Korea and the U.S., he was at it again. He threatened an “unimaginable holocaust” or “catastrophe” that would destroy inter-Korean relations if the traditional army operations went […]
Nostalgia, illness and the pain of missing loved ones pushes some to try to ‘re-defect’ back to North Korea. But Seoul won’t allow it, and the risk of punishment upon their return is huge.
PYONGYANG — Mounted on the façade of the new Haedanghwa complex is a giant screen broadcasting slick propaganda messages. Just across the way, the “people’s ice rink” glimmers with its wavy modernist roof. On the opposite bank of the Taedong River, a dozen of 50-story-high residential buildings completed last year have helped give this area […]
KIM JONG-UN’S UNCLE EXECUTED North Korea’s official news agency KCNA announced that Kim Jong-un’s uncle and mentor, considered the second most powerful man in the country until his recent dismissal, was executed yesterday. Official media branded Jang Song-thaek a “despicable human scum” guilty of leading a “depraved life.” Read the full announcement here. CHEMICAL WEAPONS […]
Tuesday, October 14, 2014 KURDS RECAPTURE STRATEGIC KOBANI SITE Kurdish fighters battling ISIS jihadists in Kobani, Syria, near the Turkish border, announced this morning that they regained control of the strategically crucial Tall Shair hilltop following air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition. ISIS captured it more than 10 days ago. According to the Syrian Observatory […]
NOBEL WINNERS: MALALA AND SATYARTHIMalala Yousafzai, the now-17-year-old Pakistani activist shot by the Taliban on her way to school in 2012, has won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize alongside Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, the Nobel committee announced this morning. “Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right […]
TURKEY EXPECTED TO JOIN ANTI-ISIS COALITIONToday could see the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition expand, as the Turkish Parliament is expected to vote on whether to send Turkish troops into Iraq and Syria to fight against the terrorists and whether to allow foreign troops to use Turkish military bases, newspaper Today’s Zaman reports. Turkish President Recep Tayyip […]
After rejections by Austrian and French ski-lift companies, a Swiss competitor was set to supply Pyongyang the means to realize his Alpine fantasy. But then the state stepped in.
A recent visit to Beijing by a top Pyongyang envoy may be the precursor to reigniting of negotiations between the two Koreas. Eyes now on Xi Jinping’s visit with Barack Obama.
It was a symbol of the “sunshine policy” meant to ease tensions between the two Koreas. But now, the jointly-run Kaesong facility in North Korea has been shuttered. Maybe for good.
YONHAP, THE KOREA TIMES (South Korea), AAP (Australia) Worldcrunch SEOUL – North Korea fired its fifth test missile in three straight days on Monday, in the latest series of weapons drills that have been condemned by South Korea and United Nation chief Ban Ki-moon, reports the AAP. According to the South Korean Defense Ministry, the […]
SEOUL – The distance between the North Korean border town of Hyesan and South Korea’s capital Seoul is 440 kilometers (273 mi) as the crow flies. It took Park Kun-ha five years to complete the journey. His way turned out not only to be a lot longer but tortuous, taking him through the jungle of […]
KCNA (North Korea), AP Worldcrunch PYONYANG – U.S. citizen Pae Jun-ho who was recently sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea, has started life a “special prison,” state media said Wednesday. Pae, known in the U.S. as Kenneth Bae, has been detained in North Korea since last November. He was tried on […]
SEOUL – North Korea recently attacked newly elected South Korean President Park Geun-hye, making a jibe at the “venomous swish of her skirt.” The swish of South Korea’s long traditional silk skirts has long been used as a macho joke – if not an insult – targeted toward strong women. Aggressive women, women who do […]
KCNA (North Korea), CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK) REUTERS Worldcrunch PYONGYANG – U.S. citizen Pae Jun-ho, detained in North Korea since last November, has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, North Korean state news reported on Thursday. Pae Jung-ho, known in the U.S. as Kenneth Bae, was tried on April 30, for allegedly […]
BBC NEWS (UK), UNITED STATES FORCES KOREA, YONHAP (South Korea), REUTERS Worldcrunch SEOUL – As tensions mount on the Korean peninsula, a U.S. helicopter crashed Tuesday near South Korea’s border with the North while conducting routine flight operations. All 21 people aboard the helicopter survived. The exact cause of the crash is not yet known, […]
YONYAP (South Korea), JAPAN TIMES, THE DIPLOMAT (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – North Korea warned Japan on Friday that Tokyo would be its first target of a nuclear strike if it continued to maintain its hostile stance, reports Yonyap news agency. North Korea criticized Tokyo’s standing orders to destroy any missile heading toward Japan, threatening that […]
KCNA (North Korea), YONHAP (South Korea), BBC NEWS (UK), REUTERS, AFP Worldcrunch North Korea has warned foreigners to evacuate South Korea to avoid being dragged into a “thermo-nuclear war” – the latest in a series of provocative declarations that led Japan to deploy Patriot missiles in Tokyo on Tuesday. Here’s a look back at the […]
YONHAP (South Korea), CNN, (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch SEOUL – South Korea has backtracked from an earlier statement that said there was evidence North Korea was preparing for its fourth nuclear test. South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Monday denied earlier suggestions by South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae that a nuclear arms test was imminent in […]
Nuclear arms are more shield than weapon, so long as no one is suicidal.
YONHAP (South Korea), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch PYONYANG – North Korea blocked South Korean workers from accessing a jointly operated industrial park on Wednesday. North Korea banned South Korean workers from crossing the border to work at the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, only allowing about 800 South Koreans who stayed overnight at the border town to […]
KNCA (North Korea), YONHAP (South Korea), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch SEOUL – North Korea announced plans on Tuesday to restart a nuclear reactor it had agreed to shut down more than five years ago. Authorities quoted by North Korea’s KCNA news agency said the country had plans to re-open and refurbish all its nuclear facilities, […]
KOREA TIMES, YONHAP (South Korea), KCNA, (North Korea), AP, U.S. Military (USA) Worldcrunch SEOUL – Thousands of North Korean students and soldiers turned out for a rally in Pyongyang on Friday to support their leader’s call to arms, adding fuel to rising nuclear-charged tensions with South Korea and the United States, reports the AP. The […]
KIEV CRACKDOWN ON FAR RIGHT Ukrainian police launched a wave of arrests against the far-right nationalist group Right Sector, after members threatened to avenge the death of their leader yesterday, The Moscow Timesreports. According to The Washington Post, a senior member of the group described it as a “counterrevolutionary activity” that they cannot accept. An […]
KCNA (North Korea), THE KOREA TIMES (South Korea), AFP, REUTERS Worldcrunch North Korea announced on Tuesday that it had put its artillery and rocket units into “combat posture,” and threatened to attack South Korea and U.S. bases in Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. mainland. The Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army released a statement […]
Worldcrunch MOUNTAIN VIEW – Google has made it easier to search for GIFs and other animations on their Google image search engine. Enter your search term into Google images, click the search tools button and under Any Type, click animations on the drop down menu – voilà! In celebration of this, here are some of […]
KOREA TIMES, YONHAP, KOREA INFORMATION SECURITY AGENCY (South Korea), AP Worldcrunch SEOUL – Two banks and three major broadcasting stations in South Korea went into shutdown mode on Wednesday in what is a suspected hacking from North Korea. According to Korean news agency Yonhap, three broadcasters, three banks and two insurance firms reported to the […]
Why has Washington stayed so quiet about South Korean allegations of secret North Korean bank accounts?
KOREA TIMES, CHOSUN ILBO, YONHAP (South Korea) Worldcrunch PYONGYANG – A “large number” of soldiers are deserting the North Korean ranks due to the growing tensions with its southern neighbor, US sanctions and insufficient food supplies, according to a South Korean official source. The number of deserters stationed in the frontlines has multiplied by seven […]
KCNA (North Korea), AP, REUTERS, CNN Worldcrunch PYONGYANG– With the UN set to vote on imposing sanctions against North Korea for its recent nuclear test, Pyongyang issued perhaps it’s most virulent threat to date, saying it would exercise the right to pre-emptive strikes against Washington. “Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear […]
BEIJING – It has been several weeks since North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on February 12. The international community has condemned it, and the worry expressed is unprecedented. China, in a very unusual move, summoned the North Korean Ambassador to Beijing the same day. The UN Security Council immediately made a declaration condemning […]
THE KOREA TIMES, THE KOREA HERALD (South Korea), REUTERS Worldcrunch SEOUL – Park Geun-hye was sworn in on Monday as South Korea’s first female president ; she began her five-year term by urging an increasingly hostile North Korea to drop its nuclear ambitions. “North Korea’s recent nuclear test is a challenge to the survival and […]
KCNA (North Korea), REUTERS Worldcrunch North Korea has confirmed it “successfully” conducted a third nuclear test at a northeastern underground test site, in defiance to UN Security Council’s orders to shut down its atomic activity. “It was confirmed that the nuclear test that was carried out at a high level in a safe and perfect […]
THE KOREA TIMES (South Korea), URIMINZOKKIRI (North Korea), AFP Worldcrunch North Korea, which is expected to carry out a third nuclear test any day now, has released a video depicting a city that resembles New York under missile attack. The footage shows a dream sequence, set to the tune of Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie’s […]
GOOGLE MAPS (USA) Worldcrunch Thanks to its community of “citizen cartographers” who joined forces on Google Map Maker, Google says in a blog post, the U.S.-based Internet giant has managed to give its maps of North Korea a tremendous overhaul – including an updated bird’s eye-view of some the country’s most secretive locations, i.e. prison […]