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US General: North Korea May Be Able To Build Nuclear Warheads Small Enough To Fit On Ballistic Missiles

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north korea kim jong un

A top US general has told reporters that North Korea has likely achieved the capability of being able to miniaturize nuclear weapons that could be placed on top of a rocket, Felicia Schwartz reports for The Wall Street Journal. 

Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of US forces on the Korean peninsula, told reporters at the Pentagon today that he believes that North Korea is likely able to miniaturize a nuclear device. However, the US has not yet seen evidence that North Korea has actually conducted a miniaturized nuclear weapon test. 

Scaparroti said at the briefing that he believes North Korea has "the capability to miniaturize a device at this point and they have the technology to actually deliver what they say they have."

Although he is unsure of where North Korea may have acquired the technology necessary to overcome the technological hurdle, the general said that the advance may have been aided by proliferation efforts from Iran or Pakistan.

“They have proliferation, relationships with other countries, Iran and Pakistan in particular,” Scaparrotti said. 

The miniaturization of warheads by North Korea could lead to a serious rebalancing of power dynamics in the region.  

The Wall Street Journal

Such nuclear warheads would be small enough to fit on a ballistic missile and would be a major improvement to Pyongyang’s weapons technology. Gen. Scaparrotti said he believed North Korea also had developed a launcher that could carry an ICBM with a miniaturized warhead. 

However, successfully fitting nuclear warheads on a missile and carrying out a successful launch is still technologically taxing. Experts believe that an actual launch may be currently beyond North Korea's ballistic capabilities. 

This announcement comes on the heels of a recent charm offensive carried out by North Korea. Representatives of the Hermit Kingdom have visited South Korea and the EU, and Kim Jong-Un personally ordered the release of imprisoned American Jeffrey Fowle. 

SEE ALSO: Chinese state-run media has started attacking North Korea over the country's 'flip-flop attitude'

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South Korea's Spy Agency: Kim Jong Un Had Ankle Surgery

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Kim Jong Un

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's spy agency says it has an explanation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's mysterious 6-week-long public absence.

An aide for a South Korean lawmaker says the National Intelligence Agency told legislators on Tuesday that a foreign doctor operated on Kim in September or October to remove a cyst from his right ankle.

The aide to opposition lawmaker Shin Kyung-min said the spy agency disclosed the information in a closed-door briefing.

Kim's lengthy absence from public view triggered speculation about his health. He reappeared in state media earlier this month hobbling with a cane.

It wasn't immediately clear how the spy agency obtained the information. It has a spotty track record of analyzing developments in opaque North Korea.

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North Korea Is Using Infected Mobile Games To Hack The Phones Of South Koreans

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Kim Jong Un with a logitech mouse

South Korea's spy agency said on Wednesday that North Korea used infected mobile games to hack the phones of over 20,000 South Koreans. 

The Korea Times reports that the National Intelligence Service has accused the North Korean government of using its hacker army to disguise spying software as mobile apps. The games were linked to on websites popular in South Korea, and people then downloaded the apps.

The South Korean government hasn't released details on the hacked apps, which it now says it has removed.

However, nknews.org recently reported on a mobile game that does originate from North Korea. Nice Pigs is alleged to have been created by a North Korean citizen living abroad to gain IT training that will help the country. There's no suggestion that Nice Pigs contained malware, but it does show that there are app developers working for the North Korea government.

Nice Pigs North Korea mobile app

North Korea has consistently denied launching cyberattacks on South Korea. Instead, it says that any reports of the country's hacker army are fabrications intended to increase tension on the border between the countries.


NOW WATCH: 5 Apps That Will Do Chores For You

 

SEE ALSO: How North Korea Became A Hacking Superpower

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Kim Jong-un Continues Post-Absence Media Tour With Fighter Jet Inspection

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has taken time out from his schedule of visiting orphanages and restaurants to instead visit one of the country's airfields. 

Kim Jong-un plane

North Korean media reports that he watched flights take off at the airfield and perform "the high art of aviation."

Kim Jong-un watching planes

Kim Jong-un reportedly "feels whenever watching flight drills that our airmen are very good at flying."

Kim Jong-un in a plane

The North Korean air force uses a variety of Chinese and Russian planes. The country's most-used military jet is the MiG-21 PFM, which was created in Russia in 1967. North Korea's "People's Air Force" is reported to number around 110,000 personnel.

The country says that he sat in the seat of pursuit plane No. 550 to "learn in detail" the engineering data and talk to the pilot.

Kim Jong-un in a plane

Yesterday South Korea claimed to have "solved" the mystery of the North Korean leader's recent disappearance, saying that he vanished for 40 days while undergoing treatment for a cyst on his ankle. They claimed that his illness was down to obesity, smoking, and his busy schedule. However, the South Korean government and media often make claims about North Korea that have little basis in fact, so the new claim may fully explain why Kim Jong-un was absent for so long.

SEE ALSO: No One Really Knows What Happened To Kim Jong Un

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China And South Korea Expressed 'Deep Concern' Over North Korea's Nuclear Advances

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north korea flag missiles

China and South Korea joined Friday in warning of North Korea’s advances in nuclear technology that the US commander in South Korea has said could include the miniaturization of a weapon for a missile warhead.

After talks in Beijing, the nuclear envoys of China and South Korea agreed to cooperate in efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

“We exchanged deep concern about North Korea’s advances of nuclear and missile capabilities and, with a sense of urgency, agreed to continue to make close cooperation to curb such advances,” Hwang Joon-kook, South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy, told reporters.

Hwang’s comments after meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, came a week after Army Gen. Curtis “Mike” Scaparrotti warned of the possibility that North Korea had the capability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon for a missile nosecone.

“I believe they do” know how to make a small warhead, said Scaparrotti, commander of US Forces Korea and the Korea-US Combined Forces Command. “I’m not saying that I know that by any factual basis, but I believe they probably have the background to do this,” Scaparrotti said at a Pentagon briefing.

“I’m just saying as a commander, I’ve got to assume they have the capabilities to put it together,” Scaparrotti said. “We’ve not seen it tested at this point and as you know, for something that complex, without it being tested, the probability of it being effective is pretty darn low.”

However, the ability to reduce the size and weight of a nuclear weapon to fit inside a ballistic missile warhead required advanced testing and exacting engineering, and it was doubtful that North Korean technicians were close to attaining those goals, according to nuclear weapons specialists.

“For him (Scaparrotti) to be correct would imply significant progress over the last year” by North Korean technicians, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arms analyst at the Federation of American Scientists.

“Overall, the U.S. intelligence community does not agree with the assessment” that the North Koreans have made significant progress on miniaturization, Kristensen said.

Kristensen said that the US required “many nuclear tests to perfect a design” for a nuclear missile warhead, and there was no evidence that the North Koreans had conducted similar tests. “That’s why I’m very skeptical,” Kristensen.

A different view was offered by Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Fitzpatrick told the Yonhap news agency that: “My analysis is that North Korea could probably miniaturize a warhead that should fit for a Rodong missile,” a medium range ballistic missile developed by North Korea.

Fitzpatrick said it was “logical that [the North Koreans] would be making progress in being able to produce the miniaturized warhead,” but he also noted the need for extensive testing.

“Probably, the North knows how to do it based upon their technical abilities, but until they test the miniature warhead, they would not be sure,” Fitzpatrick said. “In the process of the warhead development, it takes several tests to get it right.”

SEE ALSO: Top US general: North Korea may have miniaturized nukes

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This Epic Map Shows The Border Disputes That Could Tear Asia Apart

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As the US makes a military and strategic "pivot to Asia," it is entering a highly complex and fluid geopolitical environment.

China's territorial disputes with its neighbors in the South China Sea have become a major point of contention in the region and maybe even a source of future violent conflict — and the rising superpower is far from the only country in the area with conflicts on its borders.

This map shows that the borders in Asia aren't nearly as fixed as they might seem. China and India, the two most populous countries in the world, have numerous simmering boundary disputes. So do regional powers like Russia and Japan, along with more peripheral players in central Asia and the South China Sea.

Asian Border Disputes_04

SEE ALSO: This map shows how the South China Sea could lead to the next world war

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North Korea Video Shows The Insane Training Its Body Guards Endure

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You have to be able to withstand insane physical tests just to train as a body guard for North Korea's regime.

Propoganda video from the secretive country shows just how grueling this training regimen is. Recruits have to smash their heads through tile, get hit in the stomach repeatedly with a mallet, and complete other painful-looking tasks.

A man who says he served as a body guard to late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il for 10 years before he rose to power as the country's leader talked to CNN about what boot camp was like.

Lee Young-guk said the training is meant to engender loyalty, since the guards will eventually be tasked with protecting North Korea's elite.

There's also plenty of anti-American indoctrination. 

"A hand gun doesn't win a war," Lee said. "Tae Kwon Do serves nothing but the spirit. It's being used to develop loyalty. They're trying to make them think that by training like this, they can beat the US military." Recruits were also reportedly brainwashed into believing that Kim was a god, Lee said.

Kim Jong Il's son, Kim Jong Un, now runs the country. They both have reputations for ruthlessness, and for not hesitating to kill off their enemies — whether real or perceived.

Here's what body guard trainees are expected to go through:

They have to withstand being beaten in the stomach with a mallet:

North Korea bootcamp 1

They have to break blocks with their heads:

North Korea bootcamp 2

They also have blocks broken over them:

North Korea bootcamp 3

And have their hands smashed:

North Korea bootcamp 4

Check out the full video below:

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North Korea Just Freed Two Imprisoned Americans

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Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary who has been detained in North Korea for more than a year, appears before a limited number of media outlets in Pyongyang in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 20, 2014.  REUTERS/KCNA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. citizens Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller have been freed from detention by the North Korean government and are returning to the United States, the office of the director of national intelligence said on Saturday.

Bae and Miller were being accompanied by James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, his office said.

Bae, a missionary, was arrested in North Korea in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against the state. Miller, who reportedly was tried on an espionage charge, had been in custody since April this year and sentenced to six years of hard labor.

"We are grateful to Director of National Intelligence Clapper, who engaged on behalf of the United States in discussions with DPRK authorities about the release of two citizens," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

"We also want to thank our international partners, especially our Protecting Power, the government of Sweden, for their tireless efforts to help secure the freedom of Mr. Bae and Mr. Miller."

(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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The One Surprising Thing Behind The Story Of The Americans Just Freed By North Korea

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James Clapper

According To Multiple Sources, as of 12:10 AM EST, The two Americans released seemingly out of nowhere by North Korea have returned to US soil.

ABC News and CNN have reported the news via Twitter.

Perhaps the most surprising piece of this whole story was the involvement of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. 

Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller, who had been doing hard labor for months in the reclusive country, were being accompanied home by Clapper, his office said. Their release comes less than three weeks after another American was freed by Pyongyang.

Bae, a missionary from Washington state, was arrested in North Korea in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years hard labor for crimes against the state. Miller, who reportedly was tried on an espionage charge, had been in custody since April this year and was serving a six-year hard labor sentence.

The United States had frequently called for the men to be freed for humanitarian reasons, especially since Bae was said to have health problems.

"He (Clapper) was not there to negotiate. And our position hasn't changed."

As Director Of National Intelligence, a job created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Clapper oversees the CIA and some 15 other intelligence agencies, making his involvement in the release surprising. U.S. officials said it was the first time a National Intelligence Director had been involved in such a high-profile diplomatic matter.

U.S. officials said it was the first time a National Intelligence Director had been involved in such a high-profile diplomatic matter.

An Obama administration official, who declined to be identified, said there was no connection between Clapper's trip and the issue of North Korean nuclear weapons, but that he acted as a presidential envoy with a broader mandate to listen to what North Korea had to say.

Arrangements for the release had come together in the past several days and North Korea had asked for a high-ranking envoy to be involved, the official said.

Clapper went to Pyongyang but there was no indication that he met personally with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The men were released just hours before President Barack Obama was to start a trip to Asia that will include talks with Chinese leaders about how Beijing can use its influence with North Korea to rein in its nuclear weapons program, U.S. officials have said.

"It's a wonderful day for them and their families," Obama said at the White House. "Obviously we are very grateful for their safe return and I appreciate Director Clapper doing a great job on what was obviously a challenging mission."

A senior U.S. official said: "The DNI (Clapper) did carry a brief message from the President indicating that Director Clapper was his personal envoy to bring the two Americans home."

Bae's delighted son, Jonathan, told Reuters from Arizona that he received a call Friday night and spoke to his father. "The brief time on the phone, he sounded good," Jonathan said. "I'm sure he will be back to his old self in no time."

"It came out of the blue. One minute he was doing farm labor and the next minute they are saying, 'You are going home.' Just like everyone else, he was surprised," he said.

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Israel's Nuclear Arsenal Might Be Smaller And More Strategic Than Everyone Thinks

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Dimona Israel

For decades, Israel has maintained a strict policy of opacity surrounding its nuclear arsenal. The country possesses some of the most powerful weaponry on earth, along with delivery systems that give it the ability to strike far beyond its borders. But its nuclear secrecy prevents it from even acknowledging those weapons' existence — and keeps experts and foreign governments guessing.

And some widely held assumptions about Israel's nuclear weapons might be woefully off-base, according to a recent study by Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, both scholars in nuclear security at the Federation of American Scientists.

Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that entered into force in March of 1970, even though Israel likely developed a nuclear capability before that treaty was signed and received significant assistance in its weapons-building efforts from France, a country permitted to posses nukes under the NPT. It hasn't opened its sites to international inspectors or officially declared an arsenal.

So Kristensen and Norris's study is an authoritative analysis of the available information about Israel's nuclear capabilities. Here's what they found:

israel f-16

Israel probably has far fewer nuclear warheads than is generally assumed. 

"Over the past several decades, news media reports, think tanks, authors, and analysts have sized the Israeli nuclear stockpile widely, from 75 warheads up to more than 400 warheads," the authors note.

But according to Kristensen and Norris, estimates that placed the Israeli arsenal in the hundreds assumed that all of the fissile material produced at the country's Dimona reactor would be put towards building nuclear weapons.

The country may have produced enough plutonium for as many as 250 bombs over the years, a number that would be even higher depending on the diversity of Israel's nuclear arsenal — if, for instance, it included lower-yield tactical or battlefield nukes.

But the authors believe that total plutonium production is a "misleading indicator" of arsenal size. The Israelis likely maintain a strategic plutonium reserve. And while very little is actually known about the design of Israeli nukes, the authors believe that based on available historical evidence, "Israel's nuclear posture has not been determined by war-fighting strategy but by deterrence needs."

In other words, the arsenal exists as a guarantor of the country's survival in a worst-case scenario rather than an integrated part of Israeli battlefield doctrine, meaning the country only has use for high-yield bombs that can also be delivered from hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. 

The authors assume that Israel wants to keep the size of its nuclear arsenal in line with its number of available long-range delivery systems — a number that doesn't even climb into the low hundreds. They believe Israel has 20-25 nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, two nuclear-capable fighter squadrons capable of carrying 20 bombs each, and possibly a small handful of nuclear-capable submarine-based cruise missiles.

The total number of deployable delivery systems comes out to around 80. The authors don't think the Israeli stockpile greatly exceeds that.

Screen Shot 2014 11 10 at 3.53.48 PMIsrael probably has fewer nuclear delivery systems than is widely assumed, too. 

Israel has hundreds of combat planes, but the authors conclude "only a small fraction" of F-16 squadrons, "perhaps one or two ... would actually be nuclear-certified with specially trained crews, unique procedures, and modified aircraft."

The authors use satellite analysis of suspected missile facilities at Sdot Micha in the Judean hills (see map) to rebut widely repeated estimates that Israel has 100 nuclear-capable Jericho ballistic missiles: "Images show what appear to be two clusters of what might be caves for mobile Jericho II launchers. The northern cluster includes 14 caves and the southern cluster has nine caves, for a total of 23 caves." They note that this matched the number of suspected Israeli missiles given in a 1969 White House memo.

While Israel is currently developing a third-generation Jericho missile, there are no proven additional facilities where they could store them, and no evidence of underground silos. They conclude that Israel has around two-dozen Jerichos.

As for submarine-based delivery systems, the authors say it's at least possible Israel has developed nuclear capable Harpoon cruise missiles but don't come down conclusively on either side of the question.

Israel may not have any battlefield nukes. Nuclear weapons can come in all shapes and sizes, although building smaller-yield tactical devices or multi-stage thermonuclear warheads requires a degree of trial and error. Israel has never carried out a confirmed nuclear test and the authors note that without a test history or nuclear testing infrastructure it's unlikely they would have the technical knowledge needed to build a diverse array of nukes.

And there's the issue of nuclear weapons doctrine, which has a direct bearing on the type of nukes Israel might develop.

Israel's arsenal is set up as a deterrent against an outside attack, or as a means of possessing a "second strike" capability in the event of an attack that could threaten Israel's existence.

The authors are convinced that Israel's nukes are not an instrument of warfighting, and may not be factored into Israel's tactical calculus. And they "cannot understand why a country that does not have a strategy for fighting nuclear war would need that many types of warheads or warhead designs to deter its potential adversaries."

Unanswered questions. Nuclear secrecy has its benefits. It prevents Israel from being able to carry out provocative nuclear tests, or mobilizing its nuclear infrastructure in other, equally-calculated ways — familiar behavior from nuclear-armed Pakistan, India, and North Korea. It forces Israel to act as if it doesn't have nuclear weapons and to deal with its neighbors as if didn't enjoy the greatest of all possible strategic backstops. Most of all, official secrecy preserves the veneer of a nuclear-free region (however unconvincing in reality) and gives Israel's neighbors an excuse not to go nuclear themselves. 

At the same time, the secrecy policy means that little is really all that conclusively known about the type of warheads Israel possesses, not to mention the country's specific doctrine for their use or their state of deployment or alert at a given time. For instance, it isn't really known whether all or even most of Israel's warheads are actually assembled at a given time.

And so for now, a report like this is the clearest sense of the country's arsenal that's available in public. 

Read the entire report here.

SEE ALSO: Here's where the world's nukes are stored — and what is says about global security

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China May Be Secretly Sending Oil To North Korea

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oil pump

China is secretly providing North Korea with oil, with shipments over the border either intentionally omitted from its export statistics or broadly identified as aid, according to South Korean intelligence officials.

Customs data released by Beijing indicates that no crude oil went over the border to North Korea in the first nine months of the year, although analysts in Seoul say that such a drastic halt in imports would have played havoc with the North's industrial capability and its military forces.

Instead, analysts point out, industry appears to operating as usual and the military has to be unaffected by any shortages of fuel.

"Without China providing crude oil, the operation of many of North Korea's industrial facilities and vehicles would have been suspended," intelligence sources told Yonhap news agency. "But there have been no such indications as yet."

China's refusal to provide Pyongyang with fuel was interpreted as evidence that Beijing had finally grown weary of the unpredictable and destabilising behaviour of its neighbour and ally.

crude oil north korea

Beijing has long supported the Kim dynasty in North Korea but constantly cautioned the regime against being over provocative. Kim Jong-un, installed as dictator in December 2011, has chosen to ignore that advice and has carried out an underground nuclear test, launched a rocket into space, fired dozens of ballistic missiles and carried out a series of provocative moves against South Korea.

In an apparent show of displeasure that was applauded by the international community for putting pressure on the Kim regime, China ostensibly halted oil shipments suddenly in January. Previously, the North imported around 500,000 tons of crude from China every year.

North Korea has been busy in recent months developing new trade and political ties with Russia, with the two nations pushing ahead with the development of industrial zones in the North and a rail link over the border.

South Korean government officials deny that Russia has replaced China as the source of the North's crude oil, pointing out that imports from Russia have come to just 100,000 tons so far this year.

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China Built A Bridge To Nowhere In North Korea

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china north korea bridge

The bridge was supposed to be a key link for trade and travel between China's underdeveloped northeast provinces and a much-touted special economic zone in North Korea — so key that Beijing sank more than $350 million into it.

Now, it is beginning to look like Beijing has built a bridge to nowhere.

An Associated Press Television News crew in September saw nothing but a dirt ramp at the North Korean end of the bridge, surrounded by open fields. No immigration or customs buildings could be seen. Roads to the bridge had not been completed.

The much-awaited opening of the new bridge over the Yalu River came and passed on Oct. 30 with no sign the link would be ready for business anytime soon. That prompted an unusually sharp report in the Global Times — a newspaper affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party — quoting residents in the Chinese city of Dandong expressing anger over delays in what they had hoped would be an economic boom for their border city.

The report suggested the opening of the mammoth, 3-kilometer bridge has been postponed "indefinitely."

Beijing and Pyongyang have made no official comment.

Foreign analysts have suggested the apparent lack of progress might indicate wariness in Pyongyang over China's economic influence in the country, which has been growing substantially in recent years as Pyongyang has become more isolated from other potential partners over its nuclear program, human rights record and other political issues.

Since its founding, North Korea has been exceedingly cautious of becoming too dependent on either of its superpower neighbors, China and Russia, preferring to play each off the other. That pattern seems to be repeating itself now.

The official media, while saying little about business with China, have lately been playing up the importance of improving trade and political ties with Moscow. On Monday, leader Kim Jong Un sent a powerful party cadre as his special envoy to Russia to discuss how to bolster such ties.

Better ties with Moscow could further dilute Beijing's leverage over the North, the limits of which became apparent when the North went ahead with its first nuclear test in 2006. Beijing has repeatedly urged North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons, to no avail.

china bridge north koreaPyongyang, meanwhile, has also moved quickly ahead with several major construction projects of its own, including the capital's new international airport and high-profile housing projects.

The bridge — which, from the start, appears to have been of more interest to China than to North Korea — is intended to provide a new connection between Dandong and the special economic development zone in North Korea's Sinuiju. More broadly, China wants to develop inroads with North Korea that will allow its landlocked northeastern provinces access to North Korean ports so its goods can be exported or shipped down the Chinese coastline more cheaply.

The old bridge, built in 1937 when Korea was a Japanese colony, carries a railway line, as well as cars and trucks. But the vehicle traffic can move only one way at a time. Normally it moves one direction in the morning, and the other in the afternoon.

Officially, at least, Pyongyang says it is still keen on boosting foreign trade in Sinuiju and elsewhere. North Korean officials involved in the Sinuiju project say the new bridge is an important element of an ambitious plan to bring foreign trade and investment to a particularly strategic corner of their country.

Hopes of attracting foreign investment to the 40-square-kilometer (15-square-mile) area of Sinuiju, much of which is still farmland, have yet to materialize. But one of the North Korean government administrators for the new zone, Kim Hak Yong, told APTN that hopes for Sinuiju's future remain high.

Hajime Izumi, a North Korea specialist at Japan's Shizuoka University, said the bridge delays come as Beijing and Pyongyang are rethinking their relationship, shifting from the past focus on alliance and mutual friendship to a more pragmatic one based instead on mutual interest.

He added that North Korea may also simply be waiting for the Chinese to chip in more money.

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China Just Built A Massive $350 Million Bridge That Ends In A Dirt Field In North Korea

North Korea Is Making New Threats Aimed At The US

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Kim Jong Un

North Korea has aimed fresh threats at the United States, reports The Associated Press. Specifically, it is sounding alarms that it will beef up its war capability and conduct a fourth nuclear test.

The controversial nation is pointing its accusations at the United States because of a recent UN resolution urging the Security Council to refer the North's rights situation to the International Criminal Court.

"It's the first time a U.N. resolution included the idea that the North's absolute leader could be targeted by prosecutors. Before the U.N. vote, a North Korean envoy threatened a nuclear test," writes the Associated Press.

North Korea fired back in the wake of this news saying that the resolution approval is a "grave political provocation" orhcestrated by the US.

The AP notes that an unidentified ministry spokesman says that North Korea's war response will be boosted up in an "unlimited manner" to match what they see as hostility coming from the US.

"The reality is the need for us to maintain powerful state capability in order to defend our people's human rights," said Choe Myong Nam, North Korea's UN representative, according to CNN. "The outrageous and unreasonable human rights campaign staged by the United States and its followers in their attempts to eliminate the state and social system of the (North Korea) is compelling us not to refrain any further from conducting nuclear tests."

CNN reports that China, Russia and Cuba are all against the resolution in question and they said the result of the vote was manipulated. China and Russia are among the five UN Security Council members who have the power of veto.

North Korea's leaders have been accused of using murder, torture, slavery, and other tactics to, as CNN puts it "prop up the isolated regime and exercise total control over its citizens." The country denies all human rights allegations that have come its way. 

 

 

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Brainwashed North Koreans Hold Huge Parade To Prove The UN Wrong

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Thousands of North Koreans gathered in Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on Tuesday to show their support for their government's rejection of a recent UN resolution on human rights in North Korea.

Kim Ki Nam, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea told the assembled crowd: "Our army and people will launch their fiercest and most intense battle on record to crush mercilessly the heinous and frenzied human rights racket against Korea."

Last week North Korea threatened to bolster its war capability and conduct a fourth nuclear test to cope with what it calls US hostility that led to the approval of the landmark UN resolution on its human rights violations.

A UN committee adopted the resolution last Tuesday - which was drafted by the European Union and Japan - urging the Security Council to refer the North's human rights situation to the International Criminal Court.

It's the first time a UN resolution included the idea that Pyongyang's absolute leader Kim Jong Un could be targeted by prosecutors.

Produced by Devan Joseph. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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North Korea's 'Princess' Moves Closer To Center Of Power

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SEOUL (Reuters) - In her slim-fitting trouser suits and black-heeled shoes, Kim Yo Jong cuts a contrasting figure to her pudgy older brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

On Thursday, state media said the younger Kim, 27, had taken a senior position in the ruling Workers' Party, confirming speculation she had moved closer to the center of power in the secretive state.

It named her as a vice director alongside the head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, which handles ideological messaging through the media, arts and culture.

Kim Yo Jong's title supports earlier reports from a North Korean defector group which said she may have taken a high-level role when Kim Jong Un recently disappeared from public view for more than a month, prompting speculation about his grip on power.

South Korea's intelligence agency later said Kim, 31, was likely to have had surgery on his left ankle. Kim has since reappeared, walking with a limp.

Kim Yo Jong's power has been likened to that of a prime minister, an unnamed South Korean intelligence source told the Seoul-based JoongAng Ilbo newspaper in April, even before her brother's injury.

"All roads lead to Comrade Yo Jong," the source said.

Kim Yo Jong has featured in state propaganda since her brother took over the nuclear-capable country upon the death of their father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.

In 2012, as state TV showed Kim Jong Un arriving at the opening of an amusement park in Pyongyang, Kim Yo Jong ran from one position to another between ranks of applauding party cadres and generals as if she was orchestrating the event for the new North Korean dictator.

Since then, the smartly-dressed Kim, her hair usually pulled back in a ponytail, has made several appearances with her brother, giggling at state concerts, presenting awards to fighter pilots or riding a white horse.

Women in patriarchal North Korea rarely become high-ranking officials or military commanders. They do, however, receive military training.

They are also vital to North Korea's moribund economy. With many men engaged in state-appointed jobs in factories and bureaucratic departments, it is often women who turn to black market trading to earn the income most families need to survive.

But for Kim Yo Jong, it is her family name and proximity to Kim Jong Un that supersedes any cultural norms.

"People who are nominally her superiors most likely defer to her," said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership.

 

A NORTH KOREAN PRINCESS

When Kim Jong Il ruled North Korea, his sister Kim Kyong Hui took a powerful role as a personal assistant with high-ranking military and party jobs.

She has not been seen since her husband, Jang Song Thaek, once regarded as the No.2 leader in Pyongyang, was purged and executed late last year.

Writing in his 2003 memoir about his 13 years as Kim Jong Il's sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto said the late dictator had a trusting relationship with Ko Yong Hui, his fourth partner, with whom he had three children: Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, and their elder brother Kim Jong Chol.

"Ko said she had traveled to Disneyland in Europe and Tokyo with her kids," Fujimoto wrote.

Not much is known about the elder Kim, who was once photographed at the Swiss boarding school all three children reportedly attended in a replica of Dennis Rodman's NBA basketball jersey.

Even at dinner, Fujimoto said, Kim Jong Il kept his eldest son at arm's length, preferring to place future leader Kim Jong Un and his sister, beside himself and their mother whom he called 'madam'.

"Kim Jong Il sits in the middle, and to his left, sits his madam," wrote Fujimoto.

"Prince Jong Un sits to the left of the madam, and the princess sits to the right of Kim Jong Il."

 

(Editing by Dean Yates)

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Sony Thinks North Korea Could Be Linked To A Cyber Attack Just Weeks Before 'The Interview' Hits Theaters

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An entrance gate to Sony Pictures Entertainment at the Sony Pictures lot is pictured in Culver City, California April 14, 2013. REUTERS/Fred Prouser

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sony Pictures Entertainment is investigating to determine if hackers working on behalf of North Korea might be responsible for a cyber attack that knocked out the studio's computer network earlier this week, the technology news site Re/code reported.  

The attack occurred a month before Sony Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp, is to release "The Interview." The movie is a comedy about two journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Pyongyang government denounced the film as "undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war" in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June.

Representatives of the North Korean mission to the United Nations could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday.

Sony Pictures' computer system went down on Monday. Before screens went dark, they displayed a red skull and the phrase "Hacked By #GOP," which reportedly stands for Guardians of Peace, the Los Angeles Times said.

The hackers also warned they would release "secrets" stolen from the Sony servers, the Times reported.

Re/code said in a report late Friday that Sony and security consultants were investigating the possibility that someone acting on behalf of North Korea, possibly from China, was responsible. Re/code said a link to North Korea had not been confirmed but it had not been ruled out.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Sony Pictures was investigating every possibility, adding no link to North Korea has been uncovered.

Sony acknowledged the computer outage in a statement on Tuesday. Emails to Sony were bouncing back on Saturday with a message asking senders to contact employees by telephone because its email system was "experiencing a disruption."

"The Interview," scheduled for release in the United States on Dec. 25, stars James Franco as the host of a tabloid television show that is enjoyed by Kim, and Seth Rogen as the show's producer. When they are granted a rare interview with Kim, the CIA wants to turn them into assassins.

KCNA, the official news agency in isolationist North Korea, quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman in June as promising a "merciless counter-measure" if the film is released. The government also wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama asking him to stop it, the Voice of America reported.

 

(Reporting by Ron Grover, Michelle Nichols and Jim Finkle; Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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North Korea Is In The Process Of Developing A Fleet Of Nuclear Missile-Capable Submarines

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kim jong un submarine

North Korea is attempting to develop submarines capable of launching nuclear armed ballistic missiles, Debalina Ghoshal writes for USNI News. 

North Korea is developing a new class of submarines based on the designs of the Soviet-era Golf-II class submarine.

Although these vessels have been surpassed by later US and European models and are basically obsolete by modern standards, North Korea is gaining technological insight from the submarines that could lead to a functioning ballistic missile vessel. 

As Ghoshal writes: 

[T]hese submarines would be able to fire ballistic missiles. In fact, reports confirm that Pyongyang already is developing a vertical-launch system for submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). Raising further concerns about that is the fact that North Korean ballistic missiles could be armed with nuclear warheads.

This interest in a sea-based missile capability comes not long after a top US general claimed that North Korea had made progress on miniaturizing its nuclear warheads, which are widely thought to be too large and unwieldy to deliver by the ballistic missiles Pyongyang currently possesses.

In October, US General Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of US forces on the Korean peninsula, warned that North Korea had developed "the capability to miniaturize a device at this point and they have the technology to actually deliver what they say they have."

If North Korea completes its reserve engineering of the Golf-II submarines, the Hermit Kingdom could field a fleet of nuclear-capable submarines that could function as an additional deterrent. 

There's reason for skepticism, though. For the foreseeable future, the threat of nuclear retaliation from North Korea remains isolated to the North East Asian region, and that's assuming its nuclear weapons are small enough to be practically deliverable. North Korea lacks a proven capability of launching a missile that could strike the continental US, although the country could possibly target US forces stationed in bases throughout the Asia Pacific region. 

But even in North East Asia, the threat from North Korean submarines remains low. Pyongyang is years away from creating a fully credible sea-based nuclear fleet, and that's assuming they master nuclear miniaturization. And after construction of this hypothetical fleet, North Korea's submarines would be outdated and potentially easy prey for more advanced submarine hunting equipment. Pyongyang would still be running a North Korean version of an outmoded Soviet model.

"Because the submarines have been reverse-engineered from the obsolete Golf-class submarine," Ghoshal writes for USNI News, "there is a chance that the submarine could be defeated by modern anti-submarine techniques." 

SEE ALSO: North Korea could easily target South Korea's largest airport

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North Korea Issued A Mysterious Message About The Hack On Sony Pictures

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Kim Jong-un computer

North Korea is not denying allegations made by US officials that the country was behind a massive hack on Sony Pictures last week that took down the company's computer network.

When contacted by the BBC, a North Korean government spokesman said: "Wait and see."

A group calling itself "Guardians of Peace" broke into the servers of Sony Pictures, an international movie studio owned by Sony.

The group took over screens inside the company, stealing files and even leaking unreleased movies online. Employees were left using pens and paper to do their jobs, unable to even attempt to log on to their computers.

Here's what screens inside Sony Pictures looked like after the hack:

Sony Pictures hack

It's still not known exactly who the Guardians of Peace are. They say they have a source inside Sony who had similar opinions and let them inside the computer network. But US intelligence agencies aren't buying that claim.

NBC News says it has knowledge of classified briefings that suggested North Korea was a possible source of the hack. It's not completely far-fetched, as the country has been tied to hackings in the past. According to Re/code, North Korea has its own hacking army division known as Unit 121, which is widely suspected of being behind cyberattacks on South Korea and the US.

North Korea also has a motive to attack Sony Pictures. The studio is set to release "The Interview" this month, which stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as celebrity journalists who land an interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un before attempting to kill him.

On June 25, North Korea's official news agency denounced the film as a "blatant act of terrorism and war." And on July 11, the country's ambassador to the UN accused the movie as being an "act of war."

An official from North Korea's London embassy refused to comment on the Sony Pictures hack, telling Business Insider that they were "not interested" in talking to the press.

SEE ALSO: North Korea Won't Like It, But Seth Rogen's 'The Interview' Is Hilarious

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PHOTOS: Inside The Luxury Chinese Hotel Where North Korea Keeps Its Army Of Hackers

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Chilbosan Hotel, China

North Korea has put together a secret army of computer hackers that it uses to disrupt South Korean military options and break into US military computers. 

It might seem strange that North Korea has a dedicated cyber-warfare army unit. After all, only a few hundred people in the country even have access to the internet. But the country has worked to establish an elite group of hackers.

North Korean defectors say that the country actively searches for schoolchildren who display mathematical talent, and then trains them up in elite universities to become experts in hacking.

We don't know exactly how many people work as hackers. One report claims that there are 17,000 members, but a North Korean defector has said that there are just 10 teams of hackers, each with less than five members.

The army division, known as Unit 121, is known to be spread between three different locations: A cluster of concrete buildings in Pyongyang, a training camp in India, and a luxury hotel in China near the North Korean border.

A 2009 report authored by Army Major Steve Sin, a senior analyst working for the US military in South Korea, reveals that some members of Unit 121 work from the Chilbosan Hotel in the Shenyang region of China. He claims that a North Korean defector said in 2004 that some hacking teams work from the hotel.

Before we get to the Chinese hotel, here is a typical North Korean hotel, so you can see what the hackers would be used to before their trip to China:

north korea hotel

Here's the outside of the Chilbosan hotel in Shenyang, China, alleged home of some of North Korea's hackers:

Chilbosan Hotel, China

Inside, the rooms are spacious.

Chilbosan Hotel, China

Rooms even have their own minibars!

Chilbosan Hotel minibar

This is what the bathrooms look like. 

Chilbosan hotel bathroom

The hotel also features free Wi-Fi, which is useful if you're a hacker.Chilbosan Hotel, China

The hotel also has its own band.

Chilbosan Hotel band

It's not clear whether North Korea's hackers are actually any good. But their reputation precedes them: In the West this week everyone is gossipping over the hack of Sony Pictures, which virtually shut down the company's officers. Some people say it was North Korean hackers who were trying to prevent the studio from releasing a movie in which Kim Jong Un is portrayed in a bad light.

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