Lawmakers in South Korea on Monday accused North Korea of masterminding the murder of dictator Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam in Malaysia. Meanwhile, an Indonesian official revived the theory that the killers were innocent women duped into poisoning the victim.
February has proven to be a big month for North Korea. In two very different but frightening ways, it has demonstrated a capability to strike out at targets. It has made clear no one is safe should Pyongyang wish to reach out and touch—or kill—someone.
In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, President Donald Trump expressed frustration that the previous administration did not take stronger action against Pyongyang and that China refuses to bring its unruly client state to heel.
Malaysian police have announced that Kim Jong Nam, the older half-brother of North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un, was assassinated with VX nerve agent, classified by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.
North Korea has lashed out against its most prominent ally in the international community, China, in a commentary decrying its “friendly neighbor” for adhering to United Nations sanctions and halting the import of coal from the communist hermit kingdom.
Strange developments continue in the politically-charged Kim Jong-nam murder case, which has created a good deal of tension between China, North Korea, and Malaysia where the assassination occurred.
China’s Global Times concedes that the suspension of North Korean coal imports until 2018, plus a ban on many Chinese exports to North Korea, is “unprecedented.”
Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia has condemned North Korea’s diplomats to the country as “diplomatically rude” in the wake of the death of Kim Jong-nam, brother of dictator Kim Jong-un.
The Washington Post reported that a New York-based think tank is seeking permission for North Korean representatives to visit the U.S.
Contents: China announces it will block imports of North Korea’s coal; Assassination of Kim Jong-un’s half-brother in Malaysia threatens relations with China and North Korea
Two poison-slinging female North Korean agents have reportedly assassinated Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of dictator Kim Jong-un.
At a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday night, held shortly after North Korea’s surprise test launch of a medium-range ballistic missile, President Donald Trump declared: “I just want everybody to understand, and fully know, that the United States of America is behind Japan, our great ally, one hundred percent.”
Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense, General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, has warned North Korea that any attack on the United States would lead to a retaliation that is both “effective and overwhelming.”
The Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times has published a column attacking President Donald Trump for his administration’s attempts to reassert Washington’s commitment to its alliance with South Korea, accusing Trump of increasing the possibility that North and South Korea “will be thrown into a war.”
Secretary of Defense James Mattis spoke with his South Korean counterpart on Tuesday in anticipation of his arrival to the region later this week, expressing commitment for the defense of the region against North Korean belligerence.
A new report on the status of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility indicates that Pyongyang has restarted its plutonium reactor, possibly to generate enough fuel for a nuclear bomb. North Korea has executed five nuclear tests, which have all received condemnation from the international community.
South Korean military officials have warned that they have evidence of North Korea preparing to debut a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) model in the twilight of President Barack Obama’s presidency. The communist government may test the new model, which officials have yet to identify, as a sort of “strategic message” to incoming president Donald Trump.
CNN reports that South Korea is accelerating plans to deploy a highly trained “decapitation unit,” a commando squad intended to take out the “wartime command” structure of North Korea in the “event of war.”
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un claimed in a New Year’s Day address that his military is close to testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
According to a high-level diplomat who defected from North Korea recently, dictator Kim Jong-un is “racing ahead with nuclear development, after setting up a plan to develop it at all costs by the end of 2017.”
While the freedom-loving peoples of the world, especially the Cuban exile community in the United States, celebrate the death of dictator Fidel Castro, the Cuban government has recruited a who’s who of leftist elites to mourn at his funeral, including delegations from Iran, South Africa, and North Korea.
North Korea is observing a three-day period of mourning for Fidel Castro, seen by the North as a rare comrade-in-arms against the common enemy of the United States.
The administration of outgoing President Barack Obama has committed foreign policy and economic failures driving the United States into its demise, predicts state-controlled media in communist North Korea, noting that the American leader failed to deliver the “great change” he promised.
Contents: Wife of North Korea’s child dictator Kim Jong-un has disappeared; Protests across Morocco after horrific death of fishmonger in garbage truck
Director of U.S. National Intelligence James Clapper lamented that convincing North Korea to denuclearize is “probably a lost cause” during a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations. He added that “significant inducements” to limit their nuclear program would be the only solution to eliminating the threat of an attack on one of its neighbors.
Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman said the United Nations should treat Iranian President Hassan Rouhani the same way it treats North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and suggested that “Tehran has more blood on its hands than even the regime in Pyongyang.”
On Wednesday, South Korea’s parliament asked Defense Minister Han Min-koo if his forces had a plan to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, should he make a credible attempt to deploy nuclear weapons.
South Korea and Japan are looking to China and Russia, permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, to aid in their quest to stop North Korea from conducting yet another nuclear test, following the nation’s fifth and most powerful one yet.
A South Korean military source told the national outlet Yonhap that his government is ready to reduce Pyongyang “to ashes” after the latest North Korean nuclear test, with “every Pyongyang district… completely destroyed.”
Contents: After North Korea’s 5th nuclear test on Friday, a 6th may be imminent; South Korea announces ‘Massive Punishment and Retaliation’ and decapitation for N. Korea
North Korea has announced its Vice Premier for Education, Kim Yong-Jin, was executed by firing squad last month. His crime, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, was “slouching during a meeting of parliament in late June presided over by Kim Jong Un.”
North Korea’s communist dictatorship had two reasons to celebrate this week: the anniversary of the imposition of its “military first” ideology and the allegedly successful test of a ballistic missile under the watchful eye of Kim Jong-un.
Contents: N. Korean officials reportedly alarmed at Kim Jong-un’s drinking and massive weight gain; North Korean missile strikes sea close to Japan, threatening radar base
Joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea are on the horizon, which means it is time for North Korea’s perennial saber-rattling. In this case, as the Associated Press reports, the erratic Communist regime is also furious that leader Kim Jong Un was added to a list of sanctioned individuals by the United States in early July.
Contents: China and Russia vociferously hostile to South Korea’s THAAD deployment; South Korea’s fears of an attack from North Korea; Problems, issues and capabilities surrounding the Thaad system
The government of North Korea has announced that it will cease communicating with American officials through its mission in New York and instead shift to “relations under the wartime law of the DPRK,” following the announcement of the first direct sanctions on dictator Kim Jong-un by the American government last week.
North Korea still has a perfect failure record launching ballistic Musudan missiles, according to American and South Korean intelligence reports, but one of two missiles launched on Wednesday reached an altitude of 620 miles, the best yet on record.
The government of North Korea has published a scathing editorial demanding that Kenneth Bae, an American Christian missionary freed after being sentenced to 15 years hard labor, “commit suicide” following the publication of a book in which he details his life in a North Korean labor camp.
An unnamed U.S. official has confirmed to Reuters that evidence indicates North Korea has begun to once again produce plutonium fuel, a key ingredient in nuclear weapons.
The North Korean government conducted its fourth failed launch of a medium-range Musudan missile on Monday morning local time, a sign experts are interpreting as indicating increased desperation on the part of the Kim Jong-un regime in the midst of some of the sternest global sanctions in history.
