Category: Others

SEOUL – The mood in the North Korean port city where a warship launch went badly wrong last week is grim, local residents say, as authorities make arrests and officials scramble to find ways to salvage the 5,000-ton vessel. North Korean state media has reported that several senior officials have been detained, including Hong Kil Ho, the manager of the Chongjin Shipyard, and Ri Hyong Son, a senior military industry official in the ruling Workers’ Party. The May 21 launch was meant to be a signature event for supreme leader…

A newly built North Korean destroyer that was damaged during a launch attempt this week may have suffered irreparable harm, analysts said, as the communist nation’s authorities moved to arrest those responsible. According to a Thursday report from the Beyond Parallel project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, the ship “may ultimately prove to be a complete loss.” North Korea’s latest naval destroyer has been significantly damaged prior to its launch. In a rare acknowledgment, North Korea's state news agency KCNA reported yesterday an incident occurred…

SEOUL/WASHINGTON – Notoriously secretive North Korea quickly owned up to the botched launch of a 5,000-ton naval destroyer ship that listed sideways in front of supreme leader Kim Jong Un because the mistake was too large to conceal, experts said. State-run Korean Central Television, or KCTV, reported Thursday that the vessel lost stability during its launch at the shipyard in the northeastern port city of Chongjin, tipping into the water as the stern-side launch sled detached prematurely. The ship had taken on water and suffered hull damage due to poor…

One North Korean woman described how her father died of starvation. Another said her friends were publicly executed for watching and sharing South Korean television dramas. North Korea’s ambassador appeared unmoved. When he got up to speak, he described it as a political scheme and labeled the women as “human scum.” For the first time in its history, the United Nations General Assembly has held a high-level plenary meeting focused exclusively on human rights abuses in North Korea. Video: United Nations General Assembly holds session on human rights abuses in…

SEOUL – North Korean authorities have distributed high-performance handheld radio signal detectors to border security agents as part of an intensified campaign to block residents from making unauthorized phone calls to South Korea, local sources told RFA. A source in North Pyongan province, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said officers with the Ministry of State Security in Uiju County near the border with China were issued the new devices last week. “These portable detectors are designed to track down North Koreans who use Chinese mobile phones to…

SEOUL/WASHINGTON – North Korea currently has up to 10 intercontinental ballistic missiles and could expand its arsenal to 50 ICBMs within a decade, according to U.S. intelligence. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency released the assessment on Tuesday of nuclear-capable missile threats against the United States. The agency publicized a graphic as the Trump administration looks to build a missile defense system, dubbed “Golden Dome,” inspired by Israel’s “Iron Dome.” The graphic shows the primary intercontinental ballistic missile threats to the U.S. are China with 400 ICBMs, rising to 700 by…

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang on May 9 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War II — accompanied by his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, in her first-ever appearance at an official diplomatic event. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the embassy visit and, for the first time, referred to Kim Ju Ae as Kim Jong Un’s “most beloved daughter.” Until now, state media had typically described her using honorifics such as “respected child,”…

A fire that broke out in an apartment complex in North Korea’s Sinuiju city spread to neighboring homes, destroying over 10 units, after residents hesitated to call for help due to the high costs of dispatching fire trucks, two sources inside the region told Radio Free Asia. Rather than contact the fire brigade, residents tried to put out the fire themselves after a group of school children accidentally set off the blaze around 1 p.m. on April 27, the sources told RFA on the condition of anonymity for fear of…

South Korean nutritional supplements are becoming a desired luxury among the North Korean elite with parents wondering how they can get their kids to grow as fast as the young teen daughter of the supreme leader, sources told RFA. Kim Ju Ae made her latest appearance in state media on April 25, when she attended the launch ceremony for a North Korean warship at Nampo shipyard. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and daughter Kim Ju Ae at an event launching a “new multipurpose destroyer,” in this North Korean government…