In an article at the Asia Times, Riddles and enigmas from North Korea, Andrei Lankov speculates on how governments get intelligence from inside North Korea, and lists some of the other valuable sources of information from the country.
If reporting over the past two months has been accurate, it seems that Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke (or perhaps a heart attack), in mid-August, was in the hospital for a time, but is now recovering. A French neurosurgeon, Francois-Xavier Roux, is thought to have treated Kim, which would point to a stroke, […]
Update: For the apparently many who don’t know what an upside down American flag represents, here’s the answer; it’s a distress signal originally used by ships. That’s it. Distress signal. It is not disrespectful to the flag in any way. It is not anti-American.
This morning the lines were long, relative to 2004 when it took about 15 minutes to vote; I got to my polling place at 0700 and voted at 0820. My wife got there at about 1245 and waited only five minutes. My guess is that, fearing long lines throughout the day, many voted earlier, […]
A coworker purchased these weird post cards at Insadong this summer. The URL on the other side is; blueninja.biz, which has a lot of other strange art available.
“Welcome to Seoul, the City of Beauties”
“Wonderful Korea”
Today North Korea condemned the U.S. for allegedly conducting a raid into Syria that the Syrian government claims killed eight people, including a family with four children. The North described this as, “an unpardonable inhuman criminal act” and “terrorism.” Anonymous U.S. officials – aren’t they always, in cases like this – described the […]
From Mainichi and via the Chosun Bimbo, “In his first reported appearance following news of his hospitalization, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il lost his temper while watching a college soccer match, denouncing several players’ long hair as “disgusting,” according to a source close to the North Korean government. The outburst was followed by […]
A CZ 75B.
According to CNN:
The United States on Saturday removed North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
[…]
McCormack said the United States and North Korea had reached agreement “on an number of important verification measures” of North Korea’s nuclear program.
[…]
“Every element of verification that we sought is […]
South Korea has a “unification observatory” (통일전망대) along the DMZ at either coast. Odusan Observatory is on the west coast, while Goseong Unification Observatory is on the east coast, 60-70 km north of Sokcho. I’ve been to both an Goseong is by far my favorite; I prefer the views as well as the relatively […]
In an article at the Asia Times, Riddles and enigmas from North Korea, Andrei Lankov speculates on how governments get intelligence from inside North Korea, and lists some of the other valuable sources of information from the country.
- #From Mainichi and via the Chosun Bimbo, "In his first reported appearance following news of his hospitalization, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il lost his temper while watching a college soccer match, denouncing several players' long hair as "disgusting," according to a source close to the North Korean government. The outburst was followed by a nationwide ban on long hair for men." We'll all be watching the next soccer match to see if it's so.
- #Outward Bound, an international non-profit outdoor education program, is offering fully funded (including transportation to/from sites) outdoor adventure excursions to all OEF/OIF veterans. It doesn't matter what your current military status is (active, inactive, discharged, retired) - you're eligible to attend as long as you deployed in support of OEF/OIF combat operations while in the military.
- #Via AFP: “South Korea has lifted an overseas travel ban on Hwang Jang-Yop, the highest-ranking North Korean defector ever to come here and a harsh critic of the Pyongyang regime. . . Hwang, former secretary of the ruling Workers' Party and an ex-tutor of Kim Jong-Il, defected during a trip to Beijing in 1997.” His travel restriction was due to 10 years of pro-North ROK leadership, now over.
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