The importance of the three short-range missiles launched by North Korea on Monday and the two follow-on launches Tuesday is being overstated in the press and by some politicians; this week is not about short-range missiles but about an apparently functional nuclear device design.
North Korea generally conducts several short-range ground-to-ship or ship-to-ship missile flight [...]
In an attempt to quell speculation about a possible ICBM (a missile that typically delivers a nuclear warhead) test launch, North Korea recently signed related international treaties and announced it plans to launch a satellite in early April:
An international maritime agency official said Thursday that the [International Maritime Organization] has received a letter from [...]
Via UPI: “A recent U.S. National Intelligence Commission report claiming that 1990s famines in the North have rendered many potential soldiers born during the period with “cognitive deficiencies” drew an angry official response from [the KCNA] Saturday… ‘They floated the cock-and-bull story… it is an open secret that the ill-famed intelligence and plot-breeding institutions of [...]
From the Korea Times (via ROK Drop): “The North Korean army should form part of peacekeeping forces to help reconstruct war-ravaged Afghanistan ― if Pyongyang normalizes relations with the United States, an opposition lawmaker said Thursday.” This from a South Korean Democratic Party (DP) member.
NightWatch has an interesting analysis of a statement issued by North Korea yesterday, which, “carries a credible threat of incidents at sea off the west coast, but omits many of the usual terms of threat.”
Predicting the future is a chancy business at best and rarely rewards either the prognosticator or the consumers of the fortunetelling. Nonetheless, I offer the following thoughts as a conversation-starter.
With the recent speculation of Kim Jong-Il’s ill health, incapacitation and perhaps death, it might be useful to conceptualize the political shape of the Korean Peninsula [...]
Update: As of last evening no English language sources had this story, but the AP and KBS Global have picked it up overnight, both with essentially the same details as the Chosun Ilbo article: Kim Jong-il has not been seen since 14 August, and five Chinese doctors are in country to treat him.
Original [...]
The Combined Forces Command (CFC) Ulchi Focus Lens (UFL) exercise is no more; it has been replaced by the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise, which started on 18 August and ends on 22 August. The change is more than just the name as this year the South Korean military took the lead role as [...]
This post is continued from last July, when rumors or Kim Jong-il having heart surgery had (again) brought up the question of who would lead North Korea should he die. That post basically covered dynastic succession and focused on his three legitimate sons, Kim Jong-nam (김정남), Kim Jong-chol (김정철), and Kim Jong-eun (김정운), none of [...]
Victor Cha, in the Chosun Ilbo, discusses the problem - the current lack of a joint plan should Kim Jong-il die and North Korea spirals into chaos:
In what would be the single most important contingency that could impact the South Korean economy and security for decades, there is no agreed upon plan for how [...]
Gizmodo has an excellent array of Kim Jong-il photos; In Which We Provoke Kim Jong Il in 77 Offensive and Hilarious Ways. Some are sure to become often used classics.
- #Missed it on the 30th as I was working late, but it's now been four years since DPRK Studies has been in blog format.
- #From the Japan Times: "Yasushi Chimura and his wife, Fukie, abducted by North Korea in 1978 but repatriated in 2002, expressed relief Friday that their children [now ages 27, 25, and 21] are adapting smoothly to Japanese life as they marked the fifth anniversary of their arrival in Japan."
- #Via the NYT: "Former President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea, who had been under criminal investigation for corruption, died on Saturday from a fall while hiking on a hill near his retirement home... it was unclear whether the fall was accidental or whether Mr. Roh had committed suicide ... Roh left a will, indicating that the death might have been a suicide." While the man never should have been president, it's sad to see what likely was a suicide.
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