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North Korea

Report: North Korean Soldiers Deserting Front Line

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 to eight times in recent months, the official told the Korea Times, as a standoff hardens over the North's decision to test nuclear missiles and the West's response with tighter sanctions.

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A North Korean soldier (Edward N. Johnson)

The AWOL troops are reported to be mostly low-level soldiers displeased by the lack of food supplies and concerned by the joint US and South Korean military exercises. “Frequent training without offering enough food may have led to their desertions,” says the source relayed by another South Korean news outlet Yonhap.

Kim Jong-Un visited the front Tuesday to rally his troops, telling them to “drive the enemy into a fire pit if so ordered,” quoted Chosun Ilbo.

This desertions comes as the tensions rise between both Koreas: the standing non-aggression pacts have recently been revoked by the North Korean authorities and unprecedented airforce maneuvers have been launched.

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Society

Mapping The Patriarchy: Where Nine Out Of 10 Streets Are Named After Men

The Mapping Diversity platform examined maps of 30 cities across 17 European countries, finding that women are severely underrepresented in the group of those who name streets and squares. The one (unsurprising) exception: The Virgin Mary.

Photo of Via della Madonna dei Monti in Rome, Italy.

Via della Madonna dei Monti in Rome, Italy.

Eugenia Nicolosi

ROME — The culture at the root of violence and discrimination against women is not taught in school, but is perpetuated day after day in the world around us: from commercial to cultural products, from advertising to toys. Even the public spaces we pass through every day, for example, are almost exclusively dedicated to men: war heroes, composers, scientists and poets are everywhere, a constant reminder of the value society gives them.

For the past few years, the study of urban planning has been intertwined with that of feminist toponymy — the study of the importance of names, and how and why we name things.

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