Showing posts with label kim jong-un. Show all posts

Friday, June 21, 2013

Kim Jong-un Uses Mein Kampf as a Leadership Guide

North Korea threatens to kill authors of report claiming Kim Jong-un handed out copies of Hitler's Mein Kampf

North Korea has threatened to kill the authors of a report claiming Kim Jong-un used Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf as a leadership guide.

The article by New Focus International, an online news portal run by North Korean defectors, said Mr Kim gave copies of the German Nazi dictator's manifesto to his top officials.

The report, sourced to an unnamed North Korean official working in China, said the translated copies were handed out at the time of Mr Kim's birthday in January.

"Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in World War I, Kim Jong-un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it," the source was quoted as saying.

Mr Kim also stressed that sports had played a key role in cementing unity and spreading Nazi ideology in Germany, and called for policies to encourage sporting activities among North Koreans, the source said.

The report was picked up by all major South Korean newspapers on Wednesday.

But the North's police agency later called the report a "thrice-cursed crime" aimed at belittling its leader, and threatened to kill the "human scum" behind the article.

"We are... determined to take substantial measures to physically remove despicable human scum who are committing treasons," it said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

"Sordid human scum will never be able to look up to the sky nor be able to find an inch of land to be buried after their death."

It also vowed to launch "merciless punishment of justice" against Seoul and Washington, accusing the two nations of encouraging the defectors to defame its ruler.

PHOTO: Mein Kampf was written in 1924 while Adolf Hitler was languishing in a Bavarian prison (AFP: Carl De Souza)

Mein Kampf, which translates to English as My Struggle, was written in 1924 while Hitler was being held in a Bavarian prison before becoming a German leader.

It is both a vicious anti-Semitic tract and rambling memoir.

The Kim family dynasty has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for more than six decades.

Mr Kim took over the isolated communist state after the death of his father Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.

SOURCE: ABC

North Korea condemns Hitler Mein Kampf report

File photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (centre) inspects the Songchongang net-weaving factory in South Hamgyong province, North Korea.

The report said Kim Jong-un believed North Korea should draw lessons from the Third Reich

North Korea has condemned a report that its leader, Kim Jong-un, gave out copies of Adolf Hitler's memoir Mein Kampf to officials on his birthday.

The report, from a news website run by North Korean defectors, said that senior officials were given the book as a gift in January.

North Korea has denounced the defectors as "human scum" and threatened to kill them.

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in 1924 while in prison.

The book, which translates in English as My Struggle, outlines his early life and racist views.

News portal New Focus International wrote the original report, citing an unnamed North Korean official in China.

"Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in WWI, Kim Jong-un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it," the source reportedly said.

North Korea's Ministry of People's Security, which is responsible for policing, issued an angry response which was carried by the country's official news agency, KCNA.

It dismissed the report as a "smear campaign" written by "a handful of human scum... moving desperately to deter [North Korea's] progress".

The defectors were being used by South Korea and the US, it went on.

The ministry was determined to "physically remove [the] despicable human scum who are committing treason", the statement added.

The two Koreas remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Ties between the two are currently very tense in the wake of Pyongyang's 12 February nuclear test.

read more at BBC

North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un urges top officials to read Hitler’s Mein Kampf

By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 0:07 EDT

This photo shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visiting a machine plant in North Phyongan Province (AFP)

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un has reportedly given copies of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” to his top officials, urging them to study it as a leadership skills manual.

Kim handed out translations of the German dictator’s manifesto to select officials at the time of his birthday in January, reported New Focus International, an online news portal run by North Korean defectors.

The report, sourced to an unnamed North Korean official working in China, was picked up by all major South Korean newspapers on Wednesday.

“Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in World War I, Kim Jong-Un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it,” the source was quoted as saying.

Kim also stressed that sports had played a key role in cementing unity and spreading Nazi ideology in Germany, and called for policies to encourage sporting activities among North Koreans, the source said.

“Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”), written in 1924 while Hitler was languishing in a Bavarian prison before becoming a German leader, is both a vicious anti-Semitic tract and rambling memoir.

A North Korean businessman told New Focus International of persistent rumours within the Pyongyang elite that Kim had made a close study of Hitler during his time at an international school in Switzerland.

The Kim family dynasty has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for more than six decades.

Kim Jong-Un took over the isolated communist state after the death of his father Kim Jong-Il, in December 2011.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Is North Korea a Serious Threat or is This Just More Saber-Rattling?

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, attends the army's 81st anniversary ceremony at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang on Thursday. The state TV station released footage of Kim watching the military parade, and of young couples taking part in mass dances in the capital

South Korea issues Kaesong ultimatum

Government in Seoul warns of 'grave measures' if North Korea does not agree to reopen joint manufacturing zone

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 April 2013

A North Korean traffic policeman stands at an intersection in Kaesong where a joint manufacturing zone is run in conjunction with the South. Photograph: David Guttenfelder/AP

South Korea has warned North Korea that it faces unspecified "grave measures" unless it agrees to urgent talks on reopening the Kaesong industrial complex, a jointly run project that brings much-needed income to the North but has remained closed for almost a month.

The South's unification ministry did not give details of possible punitive measures but observers believe it could mean the complete withdrawal of the 175 South Korean managers still living near the plant.

Their withdrawal would effectively bring an end to the only remaining symbol of cross-border cooperation and mark a dramatic decline in ties already damaged by weeks of North Korean threats against the South and its allies.

U.S. Ready for North Korea Conflict: Dempsey

Apr. 25, 2013 - 10:35AM

TOKYO — The United States’ top military officer said Thursday that his troops were ready to act if North Korea turned its increasingly bellicose rhetoric into action.

“We are seeking to deter North Korea from provocation,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told soldiers at the Yokota Air Base, about an hour's drive west of the Japanese capital.

“I can assure you that we are postured with our Japanese allies in order to protect our citizens, their citizens, our facilities, their facilities.”

Dempsey's remarks follow a visit to South Korea and China, North Korea's chief ally, as regional tensions rise over fears about Pyonyang's recent threats to attack its southern neighbour and wage nuclear war on the United States.

The Korean peninsula was already engulfed in a cycle of escalating tensions — triggered by the North's nuclear test in February — when Pyongyang decided on April 3 to block all South Korean access to the Kaesong industrial zone, a rare joint project between the two countries.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Kim Il-Sung Was Declared North Korea's Eternal President. World On Edge With Nuclear Threat.

"The government follows the Juche ideology of self-reliance, initiated by the country's first President, Kim Il-sung. After his death, Kim Il-sung was declared the country's Eternal President. Juche became the official state ideology, replacing Marxism–Leninism, when the country adopted a new constitution in 1972...

...North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il adopted Songun, or "military-first" policy in order to strengthen the country and its government.^[18] North Korea is the world's most militarized country, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the 4th largest in the world, after China, the U.S., and India." -- Wikipedia (highlight added)

World on edge as nuclear North Korea celebrates long-dead leader’s birthday

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, April 14, 2013 21:31 EDT

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at a Workers' Party of Korea meeting in Pyongyang, March 31, 2013 (KCNA via KNS_AFP_File)

Topics: north korea

AFP - All eyes are on North Korea on Monday to see if it marks the birthday of late founder Kim Il-Sung with an expected missile launch, despite tension-reducing noises from Seoul and Washington.

North Korea has a habit of linking high-profile military tests with key dates in its annual calendar. The centenary of Kim’s birth last year was preceded by a long-range rocket test that ended in failure.

South Korean intelligence says the North has had two medium-range missiles primed and ready to fire for nearly a week, with many observers tapping Monday’s anniversary as a likely launch date.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, currently in Japan on the last leg of a whirlwind Northeast Asia tour, warned North Korea when he was in Seoul on Friday that a launch in the current climate would be a “huge mistake”.

The Korean peninsula has been in a state of heightened military tension since the North carried out its third nuclear test in February.

Incensed by fresh UN sanctions and joint South Korea-US military exercises, Pyongyang has spent weeks issuing blistering threats of missile strikes and nuclear war.

During his visits in Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo, Kerry talked tough on the North’s “unacceptable” rhetoric, but also sought to lower the temperature slightly by supporting a dialogue with Pyongyang and saying he would be prepared to reach out to North Korea.

He also urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to lead his country back to negotiations.

“We’re prepared to reach out, but we need the appropriate moment, appropriate circumstances,” Kerry said Sunday.

Kerry: North Korea must stop 'bucking history and common sense'

y Melissa Gray, CNN

updated 10:17 PM EDT, Sun April 14, 2013

(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that North Korea must stop "bucking the trend of history and common sense" in continuing with its nuclear program and that any unilateral action by the North "carries too great a cost" for the world to allow it.

Kerry spoke at the end of a three-day trip that focused on securing fresh commitments from South Korea, China and Japan for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and getting Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.

"The United States remains open to authentic and credible negotiations on denuclearization, but the burden is on Pyongyang," Kerry said in Tokyo. "Korea must take meaningful steps to show it will honor commitments it has already made" and the norms of international law.

Last month, North Korea scrapped the 1953 truce that effectively ended the Korean war and said it was nullifying the joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

It also recently pledged to restart its Yongbyon nuclear complex, including a uranium enrichment plant and a reactor that was shut down under an agreement reached in October 2007 during talks with North Korea, the United States, and four other countries.

"The world does not need more potential for war, so we will stand together. And we welcome China's strong commitment ... to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Kerry said.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

North Korea Testing Nuclear Missile Capabilities In Test Tunnel.

North Korea capable of new nuclear test 'within two weeks'

New study says test tunnel is ready and there is military pressure to go ahead, but Kim Jong-un regime is weighing political costs

Will he? Won't he? Kim Jong-un accompanied by officers of the Korean People's Army (KPA). Photograph: Kcna/ KCNA/Xinhua Press/Corbis

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a report on the likelihood of a new North Korean nuclear test, which argues that the Pyongyang regime has its ducks in a row technically to pull off a third test, motivated in part by the need to make amends for the humiliating failure of a space rocket launch in April .

The article is by Frank Pabian, an expert on satellite imagery at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory and a visiting fellow at Stanford University, and Siegfried Hecker, also of Stanford, who was taken on a tour of a hitherto unknown North Korean uranium enrichment site in 2010.

In their report, Pabian and Hecker, use satellite imagery of tunneling to try to pinpoint the location of the 2006 and 2009 North Korean tests, and point to evidence first published by the 38 North website in April of a third major tunnel in the same Punggye-ri area, which the authors assess is now ready for use.

It apparently has been under construction since 2009 and significant activity was reported at the tunnel site after the failed April space launch. Technically, North Korea could be ready to test within two weeks.

Pabian and Hecker think that any new North Korean test could involve both plutonium and highly-enriched uranium devices, speculating that Pyongyang will emulate the Pakistani experience and that it might have acquired blueprints for making small HEU warheads from the AQ Khan nuclear smuggling network, as suggested by the UN panel of experts.

However, the authors do not believe the regime has made up its mind to test, and argue that there is still time for the international community to weigh in on Pyongyang's cost-benefit analysis:

North Korea has strong technical and military drivers to conduct additional nuclear tests, and it is capable of doing so within as little as two weeks. It appears that Kim Jong-un's regime is now weighing the political costs it would have to bear should it decide to test...[I]t is imperative for Washington, Beijing, and their partners in the six-party talks to join forces to increase the costs on North Korea of continued testing. An additional nuclear test or two would greatly increase the likelihood that Pyongyang could fashion warheads to fit at least some of its missiles -- a circumstance that would vastly increase the threat its nuclear program poses to the security of northeast Asia.

(2nd LD) N. Korea may be preparing for nuke, missile tests: gov't

This is a well known symbol representing some kind of nuclear activity or material. This nuclear symbol is often seen on warning signs, especially near reactors and dangerous nuclear facilities.

SEOUL, Aug. 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea may be preparing to conduct a nuclear or missile test in the near future, a government report submitted during a meeting with ruling party lawmakers showed Friday.

   "The defense ministry claimed that the communist country was prepared to carry out tests with little preparation time," said a senior Saenuri official, who declined to be identified.

   The party official said while the report alluded to the communist country's capabilities, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin did not touch on the matter during the meeting.

   Pyongyang has conducted two nuclear tests so far, and launched several missiles it claims are designed to carry satellites into orbit. Most outside observers said such rockets are in fact missiles the country is developing to target the United States.

   Senior government officials and party members discussed negotiations taking place with the United States to extend South Korea's ballistic missile range. Seoul sees this issue as vital for ensuring credible deterrence against North Korea's military threat.

   "Every effort is being made to reflect our views, that call for missiles with a range to cover all of the Korean Peninsula," Kim told lawmakers.

   Rep. Ahn Hong-joon, who chairs the National Assembly's Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee, said the senior policymaker remained cautious about the outcome of talks with Washington but hinted at positive progress being made.

During the session, the defense minister, in addition, expressed concerns the North may try to interfere with South Korea's presidential election slated for December as it maintains a hostile posture toward its southern rival.

   Kim's said his assessment was based on "rare" moves by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

   "(Kim Jong-un) is trying to exercise control over the regime by taking such steps as visiting a military unit for the first time in 73 days," the minister said, referring to an inspection trip earlier this month that was widely interpreted as a morale booster for North Korean soldiers ahead of South Korea's annual military drills with the United States.

   Seoul and Washington have made clear that the annual military exercise, scheduled for Aug. 20 through Aug. 31, is defensive in nature, but the North has consistently claimed it is part of a broader plan to invade the communist country.

   The minister, however, did not elaborate on how North Korea might try to affect the South's presidential election.

   South Korean Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, who was also at the meeting, said he is still skeptical about claims by some analysts that Pyongyang has moved toward reforms.

    Kim Jong-un's recent dismissal of army chief Ri Yong-ho and his use of American cultural icons such as Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters fueled such speculations.

   "It's still early to conclude that (actual) changes are taking place based on a few signs," Yu said. "However, there's no reason to ignore those signs either."

   Related to developments in the North, the government and the ruling party said Seoul could consider offering flood aid to North Korea after the impoverished country was hit hard by a typhoon and heavy downpours that caused floods.
   Pyongyang claimed 210,000 people were displaced by the string of natural disasters.

   "Seoul is carefully assessing damage in the North and if it concludes there is a need to extend assistance, it can consider such a move then," a working level Unification Ministry source said.

   He stressed that for the moment, nothing has changed in South Korea's policy toward its northern neighbor.

   Policymakers halted all aid to the communist country after it was determined that North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship in the Yellow Sea in March 2010. The sinking resulted in the death of 46 sailors.

   The official said the ministry is looking favorably on a move by 21 lawmakers to visit the Kaesong Industrial Complex just north of the demilitarized zone, to mark the completion of a road and bus station.

   The road and station were built with Seoul's support and will make it easier for North Korean workers to reach the industrial complex where South Korean companies make various labor-intensive products.

Signs of new activity at North Korea's nuclear test site

By Jennifer Rizzo

A DigitalGlobe image taken on May 9, 2012 reveals heightened activity at North Korea's nuclear test site at Punggye-ni.

Activity is ramping up at North Korea's nuclear test site, a sign that the country is preparing for a test, according to analysis of new satellite images by the defense publication IHS Janes.

Mining carts and excavation equipment at Punggye-ri's tunneling area can be seen in satellite images taken by Digital Globe and GeoEye in the past month.

Earth and debris are being removed from the tunnel in the largest quantities seen so far, according to the Janes assesment.

An image from mid-April shows a full mining train, including an engine and several carts, outside of the tunnel.

And a more recent shot on May 9 reveals new road networks at the site along with carts and a vehicle at the facility.

"North Korea tested nuclear devices at Punggye-ni in 2006 and 2009. A third nuclear test by North Korea would be the latest move in restarting its nuclear weapons program, which it agreed to mothball in a 29 February deal with the U.S.," said James Hardy, an Asia-Pacific specialist at IHS Jane's Defence Weekly.

The top U.S. envoy for North Korea warned Pyongyang Monday against a possible third nuclear test.

"I think it would be a serious miscalculation and mistake if North Korea works to engage in a nuclear test," Glyn Davies told reporters following a meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Seoul.

Many analysts assume an atomic test by North Korea is just a matter of time following the failure of Pyongyang's rocket launch on April 13. Two previous rocket launches in 2006 and 2009 were followed by a nuclear test.

Davies pointed to the international condemnation following the recent rocket launch, saying Pyongyang knows what kind of response a further provocation would elicit. Pyongyang had agreed a deal with the Washington just weeks before the April launch, with the deal guaranteeing no rocket or missile tests and access for nuclear weapons inspectors in return for food aid.

"They've sent a signal that they can't be trusted to follow through on their own undertaking on their own promises," Davies said.

But Davies did leave the door open for further negotiations, saying the United States has a dual-track policy of engagement on the one hand, pressure on the other. He insisted that the "engagement aspect remains open."

G8 leaders meeting in the United States over the weekend agreed that North Korea faces further isolation if it continues its pursuit of a nuclear program.

CNN's Paula Hancocks contributed to this report.