region:north korea

North Korea reportedly cancels high-level talks with the South
▻https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/north-korea-reportedly-cancels-high-level-talks-south-n874396

https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/i/newscms/2018_20/2433431/180515-kim-jong-un-moon-jae-in-ew-258p_6e407714d817dc082aa5981580bd1cca.jpg

North Korea is calling off high-level talks with South Korea because of its ongoing military exercises with the United States, South Korean media reported Wednesday local time.

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency also cast doubt on whether the much-anticipated summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump could proceed as planned.

The regime believes that the Max Thunder drills between the South Korean and U.S. air forces are a rehearsal for an invasion of the North and a provocative move amid signs of improving ties between the two countries, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported.

#Corée #Etats-Unis

North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center: Major Activity at the Five Megawatt Reactor.
▻https://www.38north.org/2018/04/yongbyon040418

https://www.38north.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Fig7_Yongbyon-Upd-18-0404-AIR-crop-1024x768.jpg

Commercial satellite imagery from March 30 indicates that North Korea may have shut down the 5 MWe (plutonium production) reactor for the time being. A major excavation project has also begun near the cooling water outfall, which, when coupled with recent efforts to dam the river below this point to create a reservoir, could indicate an attempt to provide a more steady flow of water into the facility. This would allow for the reactor to run more continuously and safely in the future.

There is also new truck activity at the reactor, the purpose of which is unclear but could include maintenance or repairs, the movement of spent fuel rods to the Radiochemical Laboratory from the spent fuel storage pond, or the offloading of fresh fuel to the reactor. Despite the apparent reactor shutdown, there was no evidence (as of March 30) of plutonium reprocessing taking place at the Radiochemical Laboratory. However, this development should be monitored closely in the future.

At the Experimental Light Water Reactor (ELWR), work continues on an adjacent building that may be a laboratory or for engineering support, but there are no obvious signs that the reactor is approaching operational status.

#Air_Koryo steps up Beijing, Shanghai flight schedules | NK News - North Korea News

▻https://www.nknews.org/2018/03/air-koryo-steps-up-beijing-shanghai-flight-schedules

https://www.nknews.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/34213424445_889b218b4f_b_plane-540x360.jpg

Air Koryo steps up Beijing, Shanghai flight schedules
Shanghai route hasn’t flown since August 2017, NK Pro Aviation Tracker data shows

#corée_du_nord

U.N. Links North Korea to Syria’s Chemical Weapon Program - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/world/asia/north-korea-syria-chemical-weapons-sanctions.html

North Korea has been shipping supplies to the Syrian government that could be used in the production of chemical weapons, United Nations experts contend.

The evidence of a North Korean connection comes as the United States and other countries have accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons on civilians, including recent attacks on civilians in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta using what appears to have been chlorine gas.

The supplies from North Korea include acid-resistant tiles, valves and thermometers, according to a report by United Nations investigators. North Korean missile technicians have also been spotted working at known chemical weapons and missile facilities inside Syria, according to the report, which was written by a panel of experts who looked at North Korea’s compliance with United Nations sanctions.

The report highlights the potential danger posed by any such trade between Syria and North Korea, which could allow Syria to maintain its chemical weapons while also providing North Korea with cash for its nuclear and missile programs.

The possible chemical weapons components were part of at least 40 previously unreported shipments by North Korea to Syria between 2012 and 2017 of prohibited ballistic missile parts and materials that could be used for both military and civilian purposes, according to the report, which has not been publicly released but which was reviewed by The New York Times.
[…]
Though experts who viewed the report said the evidence it cited did not prove definitively that there was current, continuing collaboration between North Korea and Syria on chemical weapons, they said it did provide the most detailed account to date of efforts to circumvent sanctions intended to curtail the military advancement of both countries.
[…]
The report, which is more than 200 pages long, includes copies of contracts between North Korean and Syrian companies as well as bills of lading indicating the types of materials shipped. Much information was provided by unidentified United Nations member states.

#WMD, le retour. Ça manquait…

Northern accent: Urbanism and ephemera in North Korea | Thinkpiece | Architectural Review
▻https://www.architectural-review.com/rethink/reviews/books/northern-accent-urbanism-and-ephemera-in-north-korea/10027572.article

https://www.architectural-review.com/pictures/2000x2000fit/3/1/1/3098311_5256.jpg

Going beyond military threat, famine and dictatorship discussions, two new books give a more multi-faceted sense of North Korea

Pyongyang is commonly imagined as the ultimate Potemkin city. A supercharged amalgamation of Mao’s Beijing, Stalin’s Moscow and Walt’s Disneyland, arranged around stupefying axes leading to enormous monuments to the Kims, and to the ‘Juche Idea’ (roughly translated as ‘Self-Reliance’, Juche replaced Marxism-Leninism as North Korea’s official ideology at the end of the 1970s), with people starving behind the curtain. Explanations have to be sought for the apparent splendour of this capital in a country which is assumed to be economically dysfunctional. Urban myths are reinforced by the tight regulation of foreign visits – for instance, it was widely (and wrongly) believed that Pyongyang’s palatial Moscow-style Metro only had two stops, as these were the only stations tourists were allowed to see. Two new books try to go beyond the ultra-totalitarian surface, to give a more multi-faceted sense of what Pyongyang is actually like.

–—

Outrage: Zones charting unhappy political realities should not be turned into tasteless tourist spectacles | Thinkpiece | Architectural Review
▻https://www.architectural-review.com/rethink/campaigns/outrage/outrage-zones-charting-unhappy-political-realities-should-not-be-turned-into-tasteless-tourist-spectacles/10027679.article

https://www.architectural-review.com/pictures/2000x2000fit/6/2/9/3098629_belgiojoso_alessandro_koreaanimpossiblejourney_southkoreanguardsonthe38thparalleldmzpanmunjom_2006.jpg

Separating North and South Korea, the curious no man’s land of the Demilitarised Zone has become a political theme park

It was difficult to see the view from the panoramic terrace as the fifth coachload of tourists arrived at the Dora Observatory in South Korea, jostling to gawp at the evil empire to the north. A long rank of coin-operated telescopes stood lined up, pointing towards North Korea like a battery of guns poised to fire, while loud-speakers pumped out garish K-Pop tunes at full volume. ‘You’ll notice there are fewer trees in the north’, said one American tourist, as crowds of selfie-stick wielding visitors posed for photos. ‘That’s because people there are so hungry they have to eat them.’

#corée_du_nord

Koreas to march under single ’united’ flag in Olympic Games - BBC News

▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42721417

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/A11B/production/_99634214_korea_united_flag_afp.jpg

North and South Korea have agreed to march together under a single “unified Korea” flag at next month’s Winter Olympics in the South.

They also agreed to field a joint women’s ice hockey team in rare talks at the truce village of Panmunjom.

These are the first high-level talks between the two Koreas in more than two years.

The Games will take place between 9 and 25 February in Pyeongchang in South Korea.

#corée

’The Bridge’ El Seed at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea

–-> French-Tunisian artist @elseed tries to bridge the DMZ with Arabic calligraphy and Korean poetry

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Nine charts which tell you all you need to know about North Korea - BBC News

▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41228181

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/tt49pcj6q2ie4uq/Capture%20d%E2%80%99%C3%A9cran%202017-09-26%20%C3%A0%2009.44.32.png?dl=0

Je me demande comment sont calculés les chiffres pour la corée du Nord...

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/A686/production/_98003624_n_s_korea_leaders_640_v2-nc.png

As North Korea and the United States continue to trade threats, we have little idea how the war of words is perceived to the people of North Korea because the regime of Kim Jong-un maintains an iron grip over the population, carefully controlling access to the outside world.

The country is often depicted as isolated and thoroughly out of step with the 21st century. Statistics are hard to get and often based on estimates, but what can they tell us about life in the North?

#corée_du_nord

What North and South Korea would gain if they were reunified
▻https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/05/korea-opportunities

https://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/images/2016/05/blogs/graphic-detail/20160507_woc928.png

PREPARATIONS are under way in Pyongyang for a rare congress of the Korean Workers’ Party which rules North Korea, the first to be held in 36 years, on May 6th. It is something of a coming-out party for Kim Jong Un, its young dictator, who succeeded his father in 2011 and early on promised prosperity to his people, as well as leisure for its young. South of the border, President Park Geun-hye has been appealing to South Korean youth with the idea of unification as a “bonanza”; seventy years on from the peninsula’s division, most are disinterested in the idea. For the North, whose minuscule economy is roughly 40 times smaller than that of the South and is only beginning to show signs of reform, that would certainly be the case.

#corée_du_nord #corée_du_sud #réunification #murs #frontières

The U.S. war crime North Korea won’t forget - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-war-crime-north-korea-wont-forget/2015/03/20/fb525694-ce80-11e4-8c54-ffb5ba6f2f69_story.html

The story dates to the early 1950s, when the U.S. Air Force, in response to the North Korean invasion that started the Korean War, bombed and napalmed cities, towns and villages across the North. It was mostly easy pickings for the Air Force, whose B-29s faced little or no opposition on many missions.

The bombing was long, leisurely and merciless, even by the assessment of America’s own leaders. “Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — 20 percent of the population,” Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, told the Office of Air Force History in 1984. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops.

Puisque l’administration Trump se plaît à évoquer des actions militaires contre la Corée du Nord, après le NY Times qui s’inquiète à cause des très menaçantes parties de volleyball du régime de Pyongyang, le Guardian va directement à l’essentiel : « est-ce que la Californie doit commencer à paniquer ? ».

North Korea nuclear threat : should California start panicking ?
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/20/north-korea-nuclear-missile-could-it-hit-california-trump

In test blasts, military parades and propaganda videos that show San Francisco and Washington DC in ruins, North Korea has broadcast its intention to be a world nuclear power. Less clear, experts say, is how close the secretive nation is to realizing its ambitions to threaten the mainland of the United States.

As rhetoric between the two nations has ratcheted up in recent weeks, residents of major west coast cities such as San Francisco, Portland and Seattle have begun to ask out loud: should they be worried?

Et admire l’adresse Web (URL) pas moins putassière : « north korea nuclear missile - could it hit california - trump ».

C’est rassurant : la guerre n’a pas encore commencé, et la presse libre du monde libre est déjà au garde-à-vous.

South Korea provides over 376 billion won in Kaesong compensation | NK News - North Korea News

▻https://www.nknews.org/2016/09/south-korea-provides-over-376-billion-won-in-kaesong-compensation

Après la fermeture de la zone franche de Kaesong

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South Korean firms previously operating in the Kaesong Industrial Complex have received over 376 billion won in compensation from the government since the sites closure closure, the Ministry of Unification (MoU) announced on Monday.

The compensation, which is the equivalent of over 340 million U.S. dollars, follows the February 10 closure of the joint North-South run complex at which 124 South Korean companies were active.

“As of yesterday (9.4), a total of 376.7 billion won has been delivered to the GIC companies, which is a 74 percent execution rate out of the total budget scale,” MoU Spokesperson Jeong Joon-Hee said, according to the ministry’s website on Monday.

#kaesong #corée_du_nord #corée_du_sud

North Korea has 28 web servers

▻http://motherboard.vice.com/read/north-korea-has-just-28-websites

On Tuesday, apparently by mistake, North Korea misconfigured its nameserver, essentially a list that holds information on all of the domains that exist for .kp, allowing anyone to query it and get the list.

In other words, a snafu by North Korea’s system administrators allowed anyone to ask the country’s nameserver: “can I have all of your information on this domain?" and get an answer, giving everyone a peek into the strange world of North Korea’s web.

“Now we have a complete list of domain names for the country and it’s surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) very small,” Matt Bryant, a security engineer who found out about the mistake, told Motherboard in an email.

North Korea has only 28 registered domains, according to the leaked data.

#North_Korea #Corée_du_Nord

Art behind military lines: Korea’s Real DMZ Project – picture feast | Art Radar

▻http://artradarjournal.com/2013/09/06/art-behind-military-lines-koreas-real-dmz-project-picture-feast

Real DMZ Project 2013 pushes national boundaries, bringing contemporary art to the border of North and South Korea.

From 22 August to 22 September 2013, approximately two dozen international contemporary artists exhibit their art for the Real DMZ Project 2013 on the border area near North and South Korea’s demilitarised zone (DMZ).

http://artradarjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/07_Suntag_Noh_2005_01.jpg.jpg http://artradarjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/11_Suyeon-Yun_2005_01.jpg.jpg

#corée_du_nord #cartoexperiment

Link to report by journalist expelled from N.Korea removed | NK News - North Korea News

▻https://www.nknews.org/2016/05/link-to-report-by-journalist-expelled-from-n-korea-removed

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A report filed from Pyongyang by the recently expelled journalist Rupert Wingfield-Hayes appears to have been removed from the BBC’s website.

The link to the report titled “North Korea: Searching for self-reliance and ‘real people’ in Pyongyang,” was previously active on May 9 but currently shows a 404-Error saying the article cannot be found. Several other reports filed by Hayes from Pyongyang remain active.

While the reasons for the piece’s removal are unknown, the BBC is refusing to comment.

NK News inquired with the BBC to see when and why the link was taken down but the BBC said that it will not be commenting on the issue.

#corée_du_nord #bbc

Wildlife haven in the Korean DMZ under threat | Environment | The Guardian

▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/sep/06/wildlife-haven-korean-dmz-threat

Attention archive, article de 2012

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A distant waterbird flaps lazily along a strip of verdant marshy shoreline, the brown river drifting sluggishly alongside, while a young soldier stands looking on bored with his rifle. There are no sounds but the water lapping and a soft drone of insects – only the barbed-wire fence and the military presence give a clue that this tranquil scene is the centre of one the world’s most dangerous nuclear stand-offs.

The no man’s land between North and South Korea, surrounded on all sides by heavily armed watchtowers, has been in place since the Korean war ended in 1953. A narrow strip of land along the line that divides the country in two has been deliberately depopulated, to create a buffer zone between the two states.

#corée_du_nord #dmz #jsa #frontières #murs

The True Story of the Pentagon Spies Who Posed as Christian Missionaries to Surveil North Korea
▻http://m.democracynow.org/stories/16067

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you—-we just have a few minutes—on your fascinating story late last year on missionaries in North Korea.

MATTHEW COLE: Yeah, so last year we published a story about a Pentagon program that ended in—at the end of 2012, about a espionage effort that the Pentagon started in 2004, 2005, using and funding an NGO, an NGO out of Colorado run by evangelical Christians, who were doing humanitarian work around the world. And what it was, was the Pentagon funded this group in an effort to get the head of the group legitimacy in the NGO world, so that they could then get him into North Korea, so that they can move materiel, so that they could collect intelligence.

And so, for about a eight-year period, the Pentagon funded this organization that—by the way, the organization did—90, 95 percent of their work was legitimate. You know, nearly everyone in the company—or, the organization, had no idea that they were acting as a front for the Pentagon. And it’s important to remember that, because they were missionaries who were doing really important work all over the world. And they did very good work. And it was really sad, actually, to interview people who had worked there who were completely distraught about the—upon discovering that they were, in fact, being paid by the Pentagon secretly. And it goes to show the danger of U.S. intelligence agencies or the Pentagon trying to get in under the cover of humanitarian auspices.

#espionnage #Etats-Unis #missionnaires #Corée_du_Nord

Suspicious boats with decomposed bodies found drifting off Japan - Yahoo News
▻http://news.yahoo.com/suspicious-boats-decomposed-bodies-found-drifting-off-japan-134707754.ht

Japan is investigating nearly a dozen suspicious boats recently found drifting off the country’s coastline, some with decaying bodies aboard, officials said Friday, as media speculated they came from North Korea.

At least 11 cases involving wooden boats — some badly damaged — with 20 bodies on board have been reported during October and November, a coastguard spokesman told AFP.

Many of the boats have been towed to Japanese ports, but the bodies are yet to be identified, he said, adding that investigations were ongoing.

On Tuesday, one of the boats was pulled ashore at Fukui port after three sets of remains were found inside when coastguard personnel spotted it some 100 kilometres (62 miles) offshore in the Sea of Japan, private TV channel Tokyo Broadcasting System reported.

The body of water is known as the East Sea in North and South Korea.

TBS said the remains were badly decomposed and partially skeletonised, while Japan’s public TV broadcaster NHK said Korean writing was visible on the boats as well as clothes left inside the vessels.

Experts suspect the vessels are fishing boats from North Korea as the impoverished state prone to poor harvests is trying to expand its fishing industry to bolster food security, NHK said.

But a number of North Korean fishing boats have been lost due to a lack of modern equipment, including the Global Positioning System capability, it added.

Borderline views: Border tourism in Israel, Korea, Germany and India

Touring the Demilitarized Border Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, along with a group of border and geopolitics scholars, is a bit like a visit to a border Disney World. Visits to the area have to be arranged and coordinated well in advance, while the choreographed trip is taken over, especially in the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmujom, by the United Nations Forces, some of whom have clearly been trained as tourist guides rather than a fighting force.

http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?id=296708&h=530&w=758#.jpg

Illuminating North Korea

Faced with mystery, we project ourselves onto it — stretching our misapprehensions to fill the glaring gaps on the screen. For decades, North Korea has been the least illuminated of mysteries, the rare insights often stranded without context.

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Undeterred by purge rumors, women peace activists leave for Pyongyang | NK News - North Korea News

▻http://www.nknews.org/2015/05/border-crossers-leave-for-pyongyang

Je me demande comment elles vont faire, mais pourquoi pas ?

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BEIJING – With endorsements from North and South Korea, a group of women activists departed from Beijing on Tuesday for Pyongyang, where they will walk to Seoul in the hopes of the two Koreas signing a peace treaty.

The group departed amid controversy sparked by North Korea’s possible brutal execution of its Minister of Defense, Hyon Yong Chol, which raised doubts on whether the timing is appropriate. In their defense, the group argued that there has yet been any proof of the purge and they prefer not to link the two incidents.

“The timing is out of our hands,” Suzy Kim, a professor of Korean history at Rutgers University who is one of the organizers of the event. “Whatever happened domestically within North Korea, in some ways, is not something we can control.”

How North Korea, one of the world’s poorest countries, got so good at hacking

Even before a US government investigation confirmed suspicions that North Korea was behind the massive cyberattack on Sony Pictures, everybody has seemed to be asking the same question about even the possibility of North Korean responsibility. Can one of the poorest countries in the world, a country that has isolated itself into technological backwardness, where personal computers are banned and the Internet does not officially exist, possibly be that good at hacking?

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Archive avril 2013: Current Top Pentagon Official Urged Bombing North Korea… When He Was on the Sidelines
▻http://nation.time.com/2013/04/03/current-top-pentagon-official-urged-bombing-north-koreawhen-he-was-on-t

In one of those strange twists of fate TV writers love, Ashton Carter, the current deputy secretary of defense, advocated bombing North Korea seven years ago when he was safely in his bunker at Harvard University.

Along with Clinton-era defense secretary William Perry, Carter urged in Time in 2006 that the Republican George W. Bush Administration conduct a “surgical strike” on a North Korean missile as it was readied for launch

Ce matin: Obama Is Said to Pick Ashton Carter, Physicist and Ex-Deputy, as Defense Secretary
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/us/politics/ashton-carter-may-replace-chuck-hagel-at-defense-department-official-says.h

President Obama has selected Ashton B. Carter to be the next defense secretary, senior administration officials said on Tuesday, elevating a physicist and the Pentagon’s former chief weapons buyer to succeed Chuck Hagel, who was ousted last week.

Amid tourism boost, North Korea confirms domestic flights resumption | NK News - North Korea News

▻http://www.nknews.org/2014/07/north-korean-domestic-flights-resume-amid-tourism-boost

North Korean state airline Air Koryo has confirmed that it is resuming domestic flight services, as part of roster of changes that the DPRK hopes will boost tourist numbers.

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According to a promotional advert in the Pyongyang Times on Tuesday, domestic flights will resume in mid-July and will consist of three separate routes to the cities of Sondok, Orang and Samjiyon. Flights to each city will take place once a week with all flights will originate from the capital Pyongyang.

“The flights will take local and foreign tourists and businesspeople to scenic attractions and economic development zones,” the advert reads, which was posted on social media by Young Pionner Tours (YPT).

#corée_du_nord

N. Korea fires missiles from Kaesong | NK News - North Korea News

▻http://www.nknews.org/2014/07/n-korea-fires-missiles-from-kaesong

Kaesong, quelques kilomètres seulement de la DMZ...

North Korea test-fired two more ballistic missiles on Sunday, this time using the border city of Kaesong as the launch site.

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The missiles were believed to Scud variants with a range of 500 kilometers (about 311 miles) launched between 1:20 and 1:30 a.m. Korean time, a South Korean military official told AP. The firing follows a Scud launch on June 29 and KN-09 tests on June 26 and July 2.

What made Sunday’s launch unusual was the venue, as Kaesong is the site of the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, a symbol of cooperation between Seoul and Pyongyang. North Korea typically uses Wonsan, located further from the border separating North and South Korea.

The North’s last firing on July 2 took place even as it was meeting with Japanese officials over a committee to reinvestigate its abductions of Japanese citizens from 1977-1983 in return for reduced sanctions from Tokyo. The launch came even as Japan protested a previous test-firing during the meeting.

#corée_du_nord