The Official North Korean Thread.................

[mgt23]

Please post all north korean propaganda for analysis purposes here........

[liveleak:2wnvyqv2]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b2b_1340727022[/liveleak:2wnvyqv2]

Life in the People's Paradise of DPRK!

A video of a pretty Korean girl heaping praise on the socialist system of the DPRK has gone viral in recent months. Her message is clear: life in her country is a socialist paradise, while in West poverty and chaos are rampant. The young woman, Pak Jin Jun, introduces herself as a student at Pyongyang Teacher's University. Throughout the video, Pak's voiceover praises the Korean socialist system, which guarantees a life of happiness and serenity to all of its residents. Jubilant scenes depict the whole family clapping their hands and singing. A far cry, she tells us, from the misery of the capitalist world that conspires against the great Kim Jong-Il, and where the people kill themselves and die of hunger...

What the Human condition is under Socialism!

.....fit

[mgt23]

[liveleak:1i01j1g9]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=70c_1340726587[/liveleak:1i01j1g9]

Starving North Korean Girl Looking For Grass To Eat!

Her body was apparently already decomposing by the time it was found, but the local People's Safety Ministry agents were in no hurry to deal with it because she did not have any family, so it was left for a long time.

It's estimated that up to 3.5m people have died of starvation in North Korea since 1995 and up to 300,000 have fled over the border to China.

.......the REAL REASON I  FIGHT every FUCKING JEW/EVERYOTHERUNCOMPASSIONATE SCUM UNTIL THE DAY I DIE. pig tossers.

....we will remember you girl and others like you. always.

[mgt23]

[liveleak:327rwky9]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=00c_1341824168[/liveleak:327rwky9]

......maybe she should start eating grass and learn what other dear leaders have done to ordinary women. :evil:

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

South Korean Propaganda.  Their Choreography can kill...  ("cho shim"   )

[youtube:947gu0pk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgGpcQBFacM[/youtube]947gu0pk]


[youtube:947gu0pk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz-MaQobEPI[/youtube]947gu0pk]

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

The CSR respects Park, Chung Hee immensely.  

---------
Dictator's daughter seeks the Blue House
By Steven Borowiec

South Korea's most popular politician, Park Geun-hye, announced on July 10 that she will run for the country's presidency in December's national election, when she could become Northeast Asia's first female head of state. If she does make it to the president's office, no one is sure what kind of leader she'd be, and the fact of her gender isn't having the type of political echoes one might expect.

In her announcement speech, Park made the kind of fluffy political promises expected of someone in her position. She thanked supporters for giving her the strength to conquer life's challenges. "I was able to overcome all difficulties because of your support," she told the crowd.

She is the daughter of former South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee and took on the duties of first lady at age 21 when her mother was killed in an assassination attempt on her father, who was murdered by an associate five years later, in 1979.

Tuesday's announcement came as no surprise - Park has long been believed to be planning a run. Her ambition to be president is one of the few things anyone knows for certain about her.

On July 5, Park's campaign spokesman Lee Sang-il was quoted as saying Park "continues to deliberate on what her message will be". This quotation is a glimpse into Park's style: She develops her policy stances in response to the mood of the moment. In her campaign for the presidency, Park will likely have to break her habit of keeping mum when asked about important issues.

"She's not a good listener," said Kim Hee-jung, a 36-year-old mother who attended the event on Tuesday. "Her policies are too abstract and may not be practical."

In Tuesday's appearance, Park did make something of a platform proposal by highlighting three areas of importance: economic democratization, job creation and social welfare. These will all be popular with an electorate that is concerned with inequality and unemployment.

Those aren't issues that have always been championed by Park. When she last sought the presidency in 2007, she cast herself as a Korean Margaret Thatcher, a champion of business and small government. These choices show her propensity to adapt to changes in public sentiment.

According to a poll conducted from July 2-6 by Real Meter, 41% of voters said they would vote for Park, followed by 20% for software mogul Ahn Chul-soo and 15% for likely opposition candidate Moon Jae-in. Ahn has still not announced whether he will join the race. Both would be underdogs going up against Park.

While Park enjoys unequaled support levels, there are wide holes in her base. Much of her support comes from older voters who have memories of South Korea as an extremely poor country; her father is credited with leading the country's rapid industrialization. She lacks support, however, among urban sophisticates in the Greater Seoul area, home to nearly half of all South Koreans.

Almost all the attendees at her rally in Seoul appeared to be past retirement age. For those older voters who chanted her name on Tuesday, Park's lineage as her father's daughter is a benefit, an indication that she would get things done as president, as her father did. For many voters who couldn't attend the 10am weekday rally because they were busy at the office or in class, it's a detriment, a sign of disregard for democracy and a heavy-handed style of governance.

The possibility of a woman becoming president of a country that is still fairly patriarchal might seem like a boon for gender relations, but Park is unpopular with women who aren't in her age bracket. She never married, never had children, never had to struggle with Korea's masculine, boozy business culture. In short, she doesn't have experience with the issues that are important to most South Korean women.

With characteristic shrewdness, Park plays this to her advantage: She claims to have spent her life so consumed with the well being of the nation that she forewent marriage and motherhood. Such is the depth of her willingness to sacrifice.

Park doesn't go out of her way to emphasize her gender. Throughout her career, she has cast herself as a politician who happens to be female, not one who works according to uniquely female instincts. That may be part of the reason that her gender isn't a topic of much discussion in South Korea.

"She's capable of leading the country well, and it's because she's direct and honest. It's not because she's a woman," said Jeong Chun-joo, 76. "We're ready for a female president because we're a developed country," she added.

As the curtain rises on Park's campaign, it still isn't clear what direction she might take one of Asia's largest economic and military powers in if she is victorious in December's election.

South Korea's next president will inherit some of the coldest inter-Korean relations ever. No one really knows how Park would handle North Korea, a country she has visited, meeting then-leader Kim Jong-il. Park would need to decide how to handle the questions of food aid to and commercial exchange with the North.
Throughout her career, Park's pragmatism has been her greatest asset. She has been able to adapt to South Korea's fast-changing politics. She is finally about to take center stage, and we're about to find out if she can remain ahead of the curve with the eyes of the whole nation on her.

Steven Borowiec is a South Korea-based writer.

(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/NG14Dg01.html

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Jul 13, 2012

   
North Korea's culture of bribery
By Andrei Lankov

Present-day North Korea is often perceived as a tightly controlled Stalinist society whose life is arranged in strict accordance with countless regulations. That indeed used to be the case a couple of decades ago, but nowadays there are few countries where laws and regulations are broken with such ease and impunity.

There are many factors that make this possible, and corruption is one of them. Indeed, official corruption is endemic in many parts of the under-developed world, but it appears that North Korea is unique even in this regard - at least in East Asia.

Countless times this writer has asked a North Korean whether it is conceivable that a police officer or bureaucrat would refuse a bribe. My interlocutors always look at me with some bewilderment, since the question itself sounds strange - and
recently a middle-aged woman, a market vendor, said: "Are they crazy? How else would they stay alive?"

Contrary to what many believe, this was not always the case. North Korea of Kim Il-sung's era, that is, of the years 1960-1990, was not a nice place to live - as a matter of fact, it might have been the world's most regulated and regimented country. Nonetheless, it was quite clean. Officials and policemen enforced regulations and usually did not accept bribes. Indeed, until the late 1980s, it was often dangerous to offer a bribe to an official whom one did not know personally. Such an offer would not merely be rejected but might also have led to grave consequences.

The incorruptibility of the old bureaucracy has a rather simple and rational explanation: Most of the time, it did not pay to be a corrupt official under Kim Il-sung. Money was of surprisingly little use in the 1960s and 1970s, when pretty much everything was rationed and distributed by the state according to predetermined quotas and norms.

In those days officials lived significantly better than the average North Korean, no doubt. But they were affluent not because they had significantly more money (the wage differential between a top official and a humble worker was remarkably low), but rather because they had access to higher-quality goods and services that were not available to the common people. One of my North Korean interlocutors said: "Back in the 1980s, I did not care about money. Nobody did, since money did not buy much in those days." In those days, in the 1970s or 1980s, one had to be an official to drink beer every week, to smoke cigarettes with filters, or feast on pork a few times a month. But officials did not buy these goods at market; rather they received them from the state as part of their special (very special) rations.

In this situation, it did not make sense for an official to accept bribes as a reward for overlooking some misbehavior or violations of some rules. Money would not be particularly useful and at the same time there was a significant risk of being caught. If caught, an unlucky official would at best lose his or her job and at worst even freedom, and no amount of money would compensate for this disaster.

Things changed, though, in the early 1990s when the hyper-distributive economy of Stalinist North Korea collapsed. Minor officials were hit very hard by the crisis of the mid-1990s. Many of my North Korean friends have stated that during the famine of 1996-99, honest officials - those who sincerely believed in the official ideology, and operated strictly in accordance with rules - were usually among the first people to die. In most cases, their food rations were no longer delivered and, being loyal soldiers of the Great Leader, they did not want to involve themselves in any kind of illegal and immoral capitalist market activity. So a sorry fate awaited these true believers, and their colleagues learned a lot from their demise.

Indeed, an emerging market created numerous opportunities for self-enrichment.

Take the example of a police sergeant whose job in the late 1990s was to be a security guard on a train (in North Korea, all long-distance trains going to and from Pyongyang have a permanent police presence of one or two). Technically, he was supposed to arrest anyone who moved noticeable quantities of smuggled Chinese produce from the borderland areas to the capital of the revolution.

However, it did not work that way. A young woman trading in cigarettes would give him 500 won to make sure that nothing would happen to her or her sacks of cigarettes. That amount was roughly equivalent to five or six months of the sergeant's official salary. He did not merely accept the regular payments from the girl but also made sure that she would have a relatively comfortable seat, and even stood guard next to her sacks of merchandise.

By the mid-1990s, the old bureaucratic order had collapsed all but completely. People began to take bribes for anything, and this had much impact on daily life. For example, from the late 1960s, North Korea was remarkable for the level of control that was imposed on domestic travel; for any trip outside one's town or county, one would have to apply for a permit. This is still the case, but the trips have become much liberalized because a small bribe (the equivalent of US$1-$2) ensures that such a permit is issued immediately with no questions asked and no papers required.

We are conditioned to see official corruption as an evil, but in present-day North Korea, corruption might be a life-saver. The average North Korean gets most of his or her income (about 75%, if recent estimates are to be believed) from private economic activities - these include private agriculture, trade and small-scale household production, and myriad other things. Nonetheless, nearly all of these activities remain technically illegal. Unlike China, North Korea has never undertaken serious economic reform, so private economic activities are still considered crimes, even though they have long become, in practice, a universal norm (and without such activities many would be unable to stay alive).

The only reason these activities are able to exist is corruption. Without widespread corruption, many more North Koreans would probably have perished in the great famine because there would have been no way to have private agriculture, and it would have been nearly impossible for private traders to move food across the country, delivering it to areas where the food situation was especially dire. After all, trade in grain and long-distance travel for commercial purposes are both technically crimes. No markets would be possible had the local bureaucracy been serious about enforcing a multitude of bans and restrictions on commercial activities.

It is interesting that there are even some unspoken rules that regulate the way corruption happens. For example, at market, police would seldom, if ever, harass an obedient, generous vendor more than twice a month. Once a policeman is paid a bribe for overlooking some irregularities (say the sale of grain, liquor, blank DVDs and other prohibited items), he seldom pays attention to these activities for the next couple of weeks. Bribes do not just buy the vendor out of trouble in the moment, but also buy him or her relative security for a certain period of time.

Over the past decade, the corruption and vested interests of low- and mid-level bureaucrats are the major reason the government has failed to succeed in its dangerous attempts to revive the Stalinist economy. These efforts failed because of the quiet sabotage of these officials, who saw no reason to eradicate their major source of income: private and market activities.

Nonetheless, one should not be too positive about North Korean corruption. It might have saved many lives in recent times, but is also likely to create major problems in future. Corruption has become an inseparable part of North Korean culture, and has come to be seen as part of standard operating procedure. One has to be naive to think that this ingrained habit will disappear overnight, even in the case of a dramatic political change.

Even when the Kim family regime meets its eventual demise, when a new North Korea emerges, the culture of corruption may remain as part of its heritage. And perhaps eventually it will become a serious burden to a resurgent North Korean economy.

Dr Andrei Lankov is a lecturer in the faculty of Asian Studies, China and Korea Center, Australian National University. He graduated from Leningrad State University with a PhD in Far Eastern history and China, with emphasis on Korea, and his thesis focused on factionalism in the Yi Dynasty. He has published books and articles on Korea and North Asia. He is currently on leave, teaching at Kookmin University, Seoul.

(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/NG14Dg01.html

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Looks like the Wonder Girls have been lost to the J-Matrix (propaganda):

[youtube:2ssoz87a]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG2ClgXf1XU[/youtube]2ssoz87a]

2NE1 is looking borderline (but still kicking it out at the end of it):

[youtube:2ssoz87a]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUrUPzLm5SI[/youtube]2ssoz87a]

Sadly Official "Sell-outs" with the "headless INTEL USB man":

2NE1 - (So Just Shut up and...) BE MINE inspired by INTEL   :lol: (Punk K-American girls are just too sly...and they are just laughing at it all... --CSR )

[youtube:2ssoz87a]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZtd_m3VDJI[/youtube]2ssoz87a]

[LordLindsey]

I do know that North Korea is jew-wise.  I remember reading something--I think from Daryl's site a couple of years ago--about that.  

It may be that the new leader realizes that his nation can not continue like this and is implementing reforms, and that is why things are changing politically in his nation.  If people truly are starving, then there is no greater incentive to improve a situation than tens-of-millions of people knowing that they are doomed if something doesn't change IMMEDIATELY.

Lindsey

[Amanda]

For what it's worth, I just found this over at Wayne Madsen's site.  Not sure what to make of it, but it really doesn't surprise me that israel has connections over there.

Wayne Madsen Report July 18-19, 2012 -- Who is behind North Korean purges?

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is consolidating his power in the "hermit kingdom" as a result of purges of some forty senior military and Korean Workers' Party officials who were associated with the regime of his father, Kim Jong Il, who died under suspicious circumstances seven months ago. The latest purge was that of the defense chief of staff, Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho, who was said to have retired for "health reasons." Ri, who is, 69, appeared to be in good health during an official visit to Laos in May.

At the same time Kim Jong Un was named Marshal of the Korean armed forces and first chairman of the national defense commission, his sister, Kim Kyong-hui was named an army general. Her husband, Jang Song-thaek, serves under Kim Jong Un as vice chairman of the defense commission. None of the three have any prior military experience

WMR's Asian intelligence sources report that an Israeli-directed clique surrounding Kim Jong-Un is orchestrating the purge of those who are not deemed loyal to the young Kim and his closest family members and advisers. Our sources report that Ri was opposed to North Korea's growing ties with Israel and was deemed an obstacle to the relationship and was ordered purged by the Mossad, which has primary responsibility for Israel's secretive ties to Pyongyang.

Another key member of the Israeli-directed clique around Kim Jong Un is his "mystery woman" companion, Hyong Song Wol, a North Korean music celebrity. The word from Pyongyang is that Hyong is Kim's minder who receives her orders from Kim's aunt, Kim Kyung Hee. If the young Kim steps out of line, he will be as quickly eliminated as was his father, Kim Jong Il.

On February 13, 2012, WMR reported:

"WMR has received the first indications from Beijing that something did transpire at the North Korean embassy in the Chinese capital but it was not the assassination by gunshot of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. For days, Twitter and the Chinese micro-blogging site  Sina Weibo reported that the young Kim had been gunned down at the embassy during a visit to China. However, these reports were false.

According to our sources in Beijing, a security body double for Kim Jong Un may have been shot dead at the embassy. Why the double was in Beiijing is not yet known. Kim Jong Un is known to have a number of security doubles.

It is known that Kim Jong Un has been secretly working with the Chinese government to expel from the North Korean military elite those officers who reached an accommodation with the Israeli Mossad to cease supplying weapons to Iran and Syria in return for help in North Korea's nuclear technology.

WMR has been told that Kim Jong Un's aunt, Kim Kyung Hee, the sister of his late father Kim Jong Il, and her husband, Jang Song Taek, are the leaders of the pro-Israeli military elite and have been tasked by Israel to keep Kim Jong Un from reneging on the secret nuclear deal. There are numerous reports that Kim Jong Un's aunt and uncle are the actual leaders of North Korea and Kim Jong Un is a mere puppet.

However, Kim Jong Un discovered that his aunt and uncle were for responsible for the bio- assassination of his father, Kim Jong Il, and he is now out for revenge. Kim Jong Un then, apparently, struck a deal with China which has its own network of influence in the North Korean military."

WMR reported earlier on the secret Jerusalem-Pyongyang axis and its role in Kim Jong Il's sudden death.

On December 22, 2011, WMR reported:

"It was reported in 2004 by the New Zealand media that Mossad agent Zev William Barkan, wanted by New Zealand for illegally attempting to obtain New Zealand passports, turned up in Pyongyang as a security adviser for the North Korean government. Barkan and other Mossad agents were in Pyongyang to negotiate a deal to build a West Bank-style security wall, with Israeli-manufactured motion detectors and night vision equipment, along the border with China.

When Kim realized that the North Korean uranium enrichment program was a farce, he canceled it and began executing some of the principal officers involved. However, Israel, which benefited from leaks of intelligence on North Korean assistance to Syria in its nuclear program -- leaks that resulted in the September 6, 2007 Israeli 'Operation Orchard' attack on a suspected nuclear facility in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria -- wanted to put a stop to the taking down of its network of collaborators among the senior military and intelligence leadership of North Korea. Therefore, Israel, working with agents in North Korea, including some South Korean evangelical Christians who were able to blend into North Korean society, ordered that Kim Jong Il be taken out. The surviving North Korean military leaders who were part of the nuclear affair with Israel staged a coup and killed Kim Jong Il in the process. The present leader, Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il's 27-year old son,  despite the fact that his father made him an army general, is a mere figurehead who takes his orders from the now-ruling rebel military leaders."

Israeli interlocutors have managed to convince the Kim Jong Un clique that Koreans, as a Turkic people, are one of the lost tribes of Israel. The North Korean self-sufficency concept of "Juche" has melded nicely with Israel's policy of "kibbutzism," which also stresses self-sufficiency.

[Amanda]

And as for being jew-wise, I think that might be South Korea.  There's something about a Korean comic book (I saw it online a couple of years ago) talking about how jews control the US and the media (probably other stuff too, but I can't remember).  

Found this which kind of talks about it:

Rabbi Hier: "Passover: A Time To Make A Difference"

http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nln ... ct=5852831

This is the segment that talks about Korea, but the above article also brags about how the jews slapped down the out-spoken goyim in other nations as well:

In Korea: The Wiesenthal Center succeeded in removing from circulation a bestselling book containing antisemitic caricatures depicting  Jews as responsible for financing all wars and standing in the way of the advancement of  Korean Americans. We traveled to South Korea to ensure that the antisemitic materials were permanently deleted from a series that has sold over 10 million copies to date and we were successful in having the publishers agree to publish and distribute the Center's book, "Dismantling The Big Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in Korean.

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

And as for being jew-wise, I think that might be South Korea.  There's something about a Korean comic book (I saw it online a couple of years ago) talking about how jews control the US and the media (probably other stuff too, but I can't remember).  

Found this which kind of talks about it:

Rabbi Hier: "Passover: A Time To Make A Difference"

http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nln ... ct=5852831

This is the segment that talks about Korea, but the above article also brags about how the jews slapped down the out-spoken goyim in other nations as well:

In Korea: The Wiesenthal Center succeeded in removing from circulation a bestselling book containing antisemitic caricatures depicting  Jews as responsible for financing all wars and standing in the way of the advancement of  Korean Americans. We traveled to South Korea to ensure that the antisemitic materials were permanently deleted from a series that has sold over 10 million copies to date and we were successful in having the publishers agree to publish and distribute the Center's book, "Dismantling The Big Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in Korean.

Interesting.  People tend to forget that the Koreans fought on the Axis-Japanese side in WWII.  Many Communist Koreans fled to Russia to escape Japanese occupation, however, a Korean flag (TaeKuki)  is seen in Lenin's address to Jewess Rosa Luxembourg which was later airbrushed "out".  Millions of Koreans have died and have been separated, like Eastern Europeans,  because of the Jews and their puppets IMHO.  The J-Team is sensitive to stamp out "Protocolist" sentiments in Asia as it is their next hunting ground after the carcass of the Economic Superpower "USA" is discarded. -- CSR:

[Amanda]

Interesting--I had no idea about Korea fighting on the Axis/Japanese side in ww2...

The Cheonan Incident and the Continued International Isolation of North Korea
Two years on, scientists refuse to cease questioning Cheonan sinking

by Stuart Smallwood

Global Research, July 26, 2012

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=32075 (more iinks here)

The sinking of the South Korean anti-submarine corvette Cheonan has been a key reason for the ongoing international isolation of North Korea and contributed significantly to the increased tensions on the Korean peninsula in 2010. But doubters of the official explanation continue to resurface.

The South Korean government-commissioned Joint Investigation Group (JIG) said it was irrefutable that a North Korean submarine sank the South Korean vessel with a torpedo on March 26, 2010, killing 46 navy members. However, the debate has been reignited in South Korea over the last two months because scientists have persistently questioned the JIG report.

In late April this year, Dr. Kim Gwang-sop, former rotational program manager at the National Science Foundation in Washington DC, was invited to do a presentation about the JIG report at a Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers conference. His lecture was cancelled at the last minute because the institute told him it was "too political."

Dr. Kim said cancelling a scientific lecture for political reasons is unprecedented for a non-profit scientific organization.

"As far as I know, no scientific societies have committed such blatant misconduct as the KIChE," he said via email.

He isn't the only scientist who has been unable to contribute to the now two-year-old Cheonan debate. Dr. Sam Ahn (Ahn Soo-myong), whose American-based company Ahntech specializes in anti-submarine warfare and had top-secret facility clearance with the US Department of Defense between 1999 and 2008, wrote his own report this year about the scientific impossibility of the JIG's conclusions. He submitted a section of his report to the Seoul National University Alumni Association for publication but he says it was denied in less than three hours because its contents were too "sensitive."

Dr. Ahn and Dr. Kim are among a large minority who question the JIG report, other scientists among them. In the summer after the midterm report was released a poll conducted by the South Korean government showed 30 per cent of South Koreans doubted North Korea was involved. More striking, a Russian investigation after the interim report suggested it was unlikely North Korea was responsible.

All of this stands in stark contrast to the claim by US Secretary of Defense Hillary Clinton that the evidence of North Korea's guilt is "overwhelming."

Dr. Ahn – almost no chance Cheonan was hit by a torpedo

The JIG submitted "smoking-gun" evidence on May 15th 2010 in the form of torpedo parts discovered just five days before the interim report was scheduled for release – though North Korea's guilt was rumored long beforehand. The captain of the boat sailing one of the two ships that were present when the torpedo parts were dragged out of the ocean called the find "luck from heaven."

Yet the source of doubt for the skeptics is not simply the fortuitousness of the find. They say there are many irregularities in the report itself and the scientific basis of its conclusions. Doubters also question the impartiality and expertise of the JIG, which was composed only of allies to the United States and South Korea – the United Kingdom, Australia and Sweden (though purported to be neutral, Sweden has served as the US diplomatic arm in North Korea, is a member of the NATO military alliance, involved itself in the Afghan War and has sent prisoners to Egypt on behalf of the CIA for torture).

Most strikingly, Dr. Ahn says the very theory that a North Korean submarine hid underwater undetected by radar and fired a torpedo at the Cheonan is scientifically impossible.

The JIG report says the torpedo was "conclusive" evidence of North Korean guilt because it was the same design as the blueprints of torpedoes North Korea sent to other countries for the purpose of arms exporting.

It says the submarine undetectably moved within range of the Cheonan and fired the torpedo, which identified and tracked the vessel until it moved directly under the ship's keel. The JIG says the torpedo exploded prior to contact, apparently by design, and created a powerful burst of water that cut the vessel in half.

Yet Dr. Ahn says an engineer with minimal experience in signal processing could have spotted the "fatal flaw" of the "smoking-gun" torpedo described in the JIG report. This is because sound wave targeting cannot be done while a submarine is underwater and undetectable, so North Korea would have had to use an historic and unknown method. He says no ships have ever been sunk by an undetected submarine in naval warfare.

"The blueprint does not show any digital signal processing, nor does it address the algorithms which enabled the torpedo to detect, track, navigate toward the Cheonan and blow itself up to make a non-contact explosion," he says.

Ahn says the chances of the torpedo accurately targeting the Cheonan using sound waves emitted from the ship in the harsh environment described in the JIG report would have been almost impossibly low – less than 0.00001 per cent. There was too much noise coming from cargo ships, fishing boats and high current speeds.

"It is hard to believe," he says. "It is harder to believe the JIG 'experts' do not discuss the North Korean historic [anti-submarine warfare] achievement in the report."

Tim Beal, a retired professor of New Zealand's Wellington University and author of two books on the Korean Peninsula, also questions why an anti-submarine corvette would not have been able to detect the North Korean submarine if it did surface to launch the torpedo, particularly when other South Korean and U.S. Navy ships were doing training exercises in the area at the time.

"The Cheonan was no...easy prey for a modern submarine," Beal wrote in his 2011 book Crisis in Korea. "On the contrary, the Cheonan was a modern ship with other top-class ships, American and South Korean, in the vicinity."

No chemical evidence linking the torpedo and ship with an explosion

Dr. Yang Pan-seok of the University of Manitoba's department of geological sciences also wants the Cheonan investigation reopened. He says the report fails to substantiate the claim that the Cheonan was sunk by an explosion at all.

The JIG says a white compound they discovered on the Cheonan and the torpedo were both aluminum oxide – a common byproduct of high pressure explosions underwater. Dr. Yang says if there really were aluminum oxide on both the torpedo and the ship it would be clear the torpedo sunk the Cheonan.

Dr. Yang says the JIG report data proves the atomic composition and chemical compounds of the two materials are identical but the materials' ratio of oxygen to aluminum in their data (around 0.92) is different from the make-up of aluminum oxide (0.11-0.25). To be certain he obtained a sample of the white compound on both the torpedo and the ship and tested them himself.  

"Everybody agrees this material we are looking at is not aluminum oxide," Dr. Yang said. "What's important is the origin, not the same chemistry on the torpedo and ship."

Dr. Yang says the compound can be formed in many different ways. The JIG report says the aluminum oxide changed its chemical makeup after being submerged in the ocean for a period of time. Dr. Yang argues that is but one of a wide variety of possibilities that might explain the chemical similarity, including aluminum corrosion, a reaction to spilt diesel fuel or interaction with clay sediment – a well-known source of aluminum – common in the area.

"We will never be able to tell which path the compound took," he said.

Dr. Yang thinks the difference in the chemical compound is why the JIG conducted their own simulation experiment to try and produce similar results.

"Instead of trying to find out what the identity of this white material was, JIG simply tried to compare the chemistry of this residue with their explosion test," he said. "And they say the chemistry they collected matches with their experiment result."

Yet even the results of the experiment diverged from the samples on the torpedo and the ship. The JIG explained this was because the real explosion created more extreme temperatures and the metal on the ship and torpedo also cooled down much more quickly due to water exposure, but Dr. Yang says this doesn't make sense.

He says this because if there were aluminum oxide originally it would have formed a nano-sized diamond – another piece of substantiating evidence the JIG failed to find.

"The absence of this nano-diamond and aluminum oxide matches to what I'm thinking – there was no explosion whatsoever," he said.

Yang also wonders why the final report released in September relegated discussion of the chemical compound to the appendix when it featured so prominently as proof of an explosion in the interim report that concluded North Korea attacked the ship.

Russian report says torpedo attack by NK unlikely

Though the official investigation included only allies of the U.S. and South Korea, a Russian group of investigators were allowed access to the findings of the JIG after they had finished their report.

Professor Beal says the Russian investigation – little-discussed in Western media – appears to have been conducted by torpedo experts who were doubtful of North Korea's capability to create a bubble column explosion that could tear the Cheonan apart.

"The Russian investigation was the only outside investigation that had some access to the data, so it's important that their conclusions be noted," he said by telephone from the United Kingdom.

Their investigation concluded that it was unlikely a North Korean torpedo sunk the Cheonan. They were reportedly suspicious of this account already because North Korea could not even make their own torpedoes prior to 1995 and the kind of torpedo capable of making a bubble-jet explosion was in the possession of the only the U.S. and a few other countries. Further, the attack method itself had never been successfully conducted in real naval combat.

As for the "smoking gun" torpedo, the Russian investigation concluded that its level of corrosion suggested it had been in the water for six months or more – far more than the less than three months between the official date of the sinking and when the JIG said they had retrieved the torpedo.

The Russians ultimately speculated that the ship got caught in fish netting (found on one of its propellers) and, while trying to get free, may have dragged up a sea mine causing an explosion.

"This was conjecture, not proof," Prof. Beal said. "That might have been attainable if the Russians had been brought into the original investigation but no longer. However, what actually caused the sinking is of less consequence than what did not and the Russians were adamant on that."

The Russian investigators did not actually release their findings to the public. The report was leaked to South Korean newspaper The Hankyoreh and published on May 28 and May 29.

Professor Beal says the Russians likely didn't release the report because what they discovered would embarrass the South Korean government – something the Russians may have been particularly sensitive about, given their substantial debt owed to South Korea since before the fall of the Soviet Union.

Former Ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg also wrote in the International Herald Tribune on August 31, 2010, "When I asked a well-placed Russian friend why the report has not been made public, he replied, 'Because it would do much political damage to [South Korean] President Lee Myung-bak and would embarrass President Obama.'"

Suppression of doubt in South Korea

The South Korean government has worked hard to quash any Cheonan-related dissent within the country.

Even while the investigation was ongoing a civilian member of the JIG, Shin Sang-cheol was cast out for publicly disputing the existence of an explosion. He was eventually probed by the government under the auspices of South Korea's controversial National Security Act for sympathizing with North Korea.

Civilian groups have also faced heavy criticism for questioning the investigation. A group with UN consulting status called the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy was investigated by authorities for defaming the JIG and "benefiting the enemy." Their crime was expressing concerns about the JIG interim report by sending a letter to the 15 member-states of the UN Security Council on June 11, 2010.

"Obviously there is something there the [South Korean government] wants to keep hidden," Prof. Beal said.

"Most of the Korean academics who have criticized or analyzed the evidence have done so from the United States or Canada, not within Korea itself and the reasons for that are fairly obvious," he said. "You'd have to be a very brave person to do it."

Dr. Ahn and Dr. Yang have also faced strong condemnation for voicing their own opinions about the JIG report.

"If I say that underwater sound signal processing is virtually impossible from an engineering and mathematical perspective, I am not believed and I am declared to be a commie without any scientific learning," said Dr. Ahn.

Dr. Yang says criticizing the government in South Korea doesn't help anybody's career so it isn't surprising most South Korean scientists haven't entered the debate.

"If you don't accept the results of the government's report, they will put red paint on your face," he said.

Another retired scientist whose expertise is sound waves and seismic wave detection told The Hankyoreh that the explanation by the Korean Ministry of Defense that the torpedo detected the Cheonan using underwater sound waves "ignores science," is "fact-free" and "simply put is just incompetent." He asked to remain anonymous.

What really happened is still unknown

Dr. Ahn requested all the data related to the JIG investigation from the US Navy through the Freedom of Information Act in June last year. So far he has only received a copy of a separate report by Admiral Eccles, a member of the US Navy and participant in the JIG investigation.

Dr. Ahn says the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations informed him the information he requested would be in Admiral Eccles' emails, and told him he would receive them by June 11, but he still hasn't. The Office of Naval Intelligence said they couldn't confirm or deny the existence of the data he requested.

Both Dr. Ahn and Dr. Yang do not purport to have any grand theory for what did happen to the Cheonan, but they are both sure of one thing respectively: the investigation needs to be reopened.

Professor Beal agrees North Korea was not involved, at least in the way explained by the JIG report.

"To this day we do not know why the Cheonan sank, but we can be pretty sure that the claim by the South Korean government that it was sunk by a North Korean torpedo is fabricated," he said.


Stuart Smallwood is a journalism graduate of the University of King's College in Canada and currently an Asian Studies MA candidate in Seoul. He writes at koreaandtheworld.com. He can be reached by email at mailto:koreaandtheworld.com@gmail.com">koreaandtheworld.com@gmail.com.

[Amanda]

Wayne Madsen Report-- June 1, 2010 -- South Korean tale on ship falling apart

WMR's sources in Beijing report that the "evidence" displayed by the South Korean government on the alleged North Korean torpedo attack on the South Korean Navy anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvette Cheonan is seriously flawed. Two different torpedo propeller shafts - one bent and shown to the investigators, and another that was un-bent and in better condition and outfitted with support struts, shown to the media.

Beijing-based experts also noted that the torpedo's serial number was painted on, sloppily in apparent haste, and was not a hot-stamp into the metal.

The official inquiry stated that the explosive RDX was found on the Cheonan's smokestack and in some sand. It was also discovered that the torpedo recovered was not of North Korean manufacture but was German-made. It is also known that the Norwegians and Italians use the same German NATO-standard torpedo. The site where the Cheonan was recovered was very shallow, only about 40 feet over a muddy and sandy bottom. The aft section of the vessel was partially visible above waterline. China has suspicions that the blast that sank the Cheonan was engineered by the U.S., which maintains a Navy SEALS base at the nearby joint South Korea-US intelligence base on Baengnyeong Island.

There are indications that the Commander of US Forces in Korea Walter Sharp and U.S. ambassador to Seoul Kathleen Stevens have been involved in a major cover-up of what role U.S. SEALS and underwater demolition teams played in the sinking of the Cheonan. The role played by the civilian contract U.S. Navy salvage ship, USNS Salvor, which has previously been involved in covert mine laying operations in the Gulf of Thailand in 2006. The Salvor was participating in the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise involving a number of Southeast Asian nations. The cover story for the mining operations was that the Salvor was diving on the US Navy submarine USS Lagarto, sank during World War II.

At the time of the Cheonan's sinking, the Salvor was participating in the joint U.S.-South Korean Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise.

South Korea's government is taking strong action against those who doubt its story about the Cheonan sinking. Prime Minister Chung Un Chan's right-wing government is taking legal action against members of Parliament and journalists who have questioned the government's official explanation that it was a North Korean torpedo that sank the Cheonan. Some twenty-five percent of South Koreans polled do not believe the official story about the Cheonan and have rejected the findings of an international panel.

The actual target audience for the sinking of the Cheonan and the resulting heightening of tensions on the Korean peninsula was Japan, which is currently government by a center-left government critical of American foreign policy. The Cheonan sinking convinced Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to flip on the issue of maintaining a US Marine base on Okinawa -- he announced he would support the Marines staying on the island against the wishes of most Okinawans and Japanese -- but his Social Democratic coalition partners withdrew from the government, Hatoyama's favorability in the polls plummeted to new lows, and the opposition and pro-US Liberal Democrats are favored to win upcoming elections to the upper house of the Japanese parliament. All in all, the Cheonan sinking and its repercussions in Japan have been a win-win for the militarists in the Obama administration, particularly Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

[Amanda]

Also found this disturbing info in Madsen's archives on North Korea (he says lots going on w/US govt officials and sex trafficking of little kids in Cambodia too--sick bastards!!!):

Wayne Madsen Report -- October 13-14, 2008 -- North Korean children abducted into GOP sex slave ring

WMR has learned from a reliable Chinese intelligence source that the so-called "Franklin scandal" involving top Republican politicians that was centered in Omaha and was linked directly to the Bush 41 White House, involved the transport of kidnapped North Korean boys. The North Korean boys were trafficked through Shenyang, China and flown to Omaha. Some of the North Koreans reportedly ended up at the Boy's Town orphanage and spoke no English.

From Boy's Town, the North Koreans were pimped out to top Republican politicians.

The fate of the kidnapped North Koreans is not known.

The Franklin Scandal was the subject of a series of front page reports in 1989 in the Sun Myung Moon-owned Washington Times. Senior officials of the Reagan and Bush 41 administrations were implicated in the child prostitution ring. The scandal is known as the Franklin scandal because it was centered around Franklin Community Federal Credit Union in Nebraska CEO Lawrence E. King, an up-and-coming African American Republican politician from Omaha.

[mgt23]

[liveleak:21t3dx57]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f21_1343510503[/liveleak:21t3dx57]

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

[liveleak:fgkgy3x9]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f21_1343510503[/liveleak:fgkgy3x9]

That's why the CSR respects Park, Chung Hee.

With added bonus A.S. (literally the best of Asia I remembered   It's like "medals" in the Olympics of "Sexy"...   ):
[HD] After School (アフタースクール) - Rambling Girls PV
[youtube:fgkgy3x9]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr1tLZV36nY[/youtube]fgkgy3x9]

[mgt23]

[liveleak:2og953hv]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=aff_1344076047[/liveleak:2og953hv]
.....funny shit.

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Some typical travel photos included:



http://busanhaps.com/article/photos-exc ... orth-korea

North Korea is set to complete a 14-year-long face-lift this year, in spite of its people still struggling to survive in the countryside. Niall Cavanagh reports back with the story and an extensive collection of photos from North Korea.

PYONGYANG, North Korea -- In 1998, the late Kim Jong-il announced a new initiative with the stated aim of turning North Korea into a "strong and prosperous country" by 2012. The project was unveiled in the Rodong Shinmun (the official newspaper of the North Korean Workers' Party) and the year 2012 was chosen to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of the nation's founder, Kim Il-sung.

According to the South Korean unification ministry, their northern neighbor looked to spend over US$2 billion in 2012 alone to achieve their goals.

To put that amount into perspective, the 2011 state budget for the entire country was $5.7 billion and the total money earned from selling North Korea's resources to China, their sole significant trading partner, was $1.15 billion in 2011.

The project has, however, continued along, though their plans were dealt a major setback on December 17, when Kim Jong-il died and money was diverted to pay for his funeral, and to update national monuments to feature the fallen leader alongside his father Kim Il-sung.

    The only ray of light that can be seen in the North Korean countryside is the kids. Thankfully, the system tries not to force them into jobs too early, so they still have time to play outside and enjoy their youth.

The largest example of this was the addition of a 23-meter-tall bronze statue of Kim Jong-il in Mansudae on April 13, 2012, at an estimated cost of $10 million, along with modifications to the adjoining statue of Kim Il-sung that included adding a tie and glasses and making him look older to convey his seniority over his son.

These type of modifications are also currently being made to the 80 large statues of Kim Il-sung, as well as 20,000 smaller statues located around the country. In addition, each North Korean town contains a granite "Tower of Eternal Life" column, where the slogan, "Our great leader Kim Il-sung is eternally with us," had to be changed to, "Our great leader Kim Il-sung and dear leader Kim Jong-il are eternally with us." There are an estimated 3,000 of these columns throughout North Korea. The overall cost of the changes is estimated to be at least $40 million.

The net effect of Kim Jong-il's death was that the "strong and prosperous country" project fell behind schedule and work is still ongoing even though the official centenary celebration date was April 15. Work on the banks of the Daedong River in Pyongyang are nowhere near completed, and many of the new apartment buildings due to be unveiled are also still under construction.  

However, some of the projects did manage to find their way to completion, including a large set of modern-style apartments, as well as cultural and sports facilities near Mansudae Hill. This area was officially opened in June 2012 on Changjon Street.

In addition, the 105-floor Ryugyeong Hotel finally saw its exterior completed. This was financed by allowing massive Egyptian company Orascom to operate a mobile phone network inside North Korea. As part of the deal, Orascom installed exterior glass panels and telecommunications antennas, so now the building has become one of the largest mobile phone masts in the world, as opposed to the world's largest unfinished hotel.

However, none of these improvements to the showcase capital have had much effect on life in rural North Korea. Smaller cities are still virtually devoid of vehicles, and rarely, if ever, have electricity or running water. Most towns have crumbling apartment blocks or detached houses that the people work hard to maintain, as they have no materials for repairs.

In order to survive, villagers must travel long distances on foot just to get drinkable water. People are dressed in rags and have to hand-wash their clothes in the rivers and streams whenever there is enough rainfall. Most of the men wear plain gray pants and jackets while the women wear skirts or loose pants with faded floral patterns.

Most transport has ceased outside the capital, except when used by the military or party officials. It is common to see groups of people walking along empty train tracks or on roadsides to get home from work. In the stifling summer heat or freezing winter, just getting home from a factory or office is an arduous task. Even a bicycle is now a luxury item in the North Korean countryside that few can afford or maintain.

All farming and other work is done by hand, and because most young people are in the military or in factories, it is often left to older North Koreans to do these jobs. Most of this is backbreaking labor to try and get the best from North Korea's land without the use of fertilizers or modern equipment.  

People have to use anything they can get their hands on just to try and scrape together basic meals for their families. The recent floods of July 2012, followed by direct hits by September's typhoons, have only worsened a dire situation.

UN agencies estimated last fall that three million people would need food aid this year in rural North Korea.

The only ray of light that can be seen in the North Korean countryside is the kids. Thankfully, the system tries not to force them into jobs too early, so they still have time to play outside and enjoy their youth. They can be seen laughing and enjoying themselves in the fields and beside the villages when they are not in school. All we can do is wait and hope that they will have a brighter future than their forebears, if North Korea follows China's lead and opens up its economy.

 

Photos by Niall Cavanagh

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

[youtube:3t566b6r]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xatBOquGG74[/youtube]3t566b6r]



-----------

Keep an eye open...

North Korea's Artificial Intelligence Go Software


The World Best: Eunbyul 2010
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Choi Seong(http://www.koreaittimes.com/story/12367 ... o-software

[mgt23]

http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-korea ... 286os.html

North Korean minister 'obliterated'

Date
    October 25, 2012

Julian Ryall



http://www.ana.co.jp

No Booking Fees! Book online now Largest seat pitch on Economy Class
Dangerous times ... military leaders have reportedly been removed on the pretext of dishonouring the late Kim Jong-Il, right.

Dangerous times ... military leaders have reportedly been removed on the pretext of dishonouring the late Kim Jong-Il, right.

    Captive in North Korea, a journalist's terrifying story, watch on .tv

TOKYO: A North Korean army minister was reportedly executed with a mortar round for drinking and carousing during the official mourning period after the death of Kim Jong-il.

Kim Chol, the vice-minister of the army, was taken into custody earlier this year on the orders of Kim Jong-un, who assumed the leadership after his father died in December. On the orders of Mr Kim to leave "no trace of him behind, down to his hair", Kim Chol was forced to stand on a spot that had been zeroed in for a mortar round and was "obliterated", South Korean media reported.

The execution is just one example of a purge of members of the North Korean military or party who threatened the fledgling regime of Mr Kim.
Advertisement

So far this year, 14 senior officials have fallen victim to the purges, according to intelligence data provided to Yoon Sang-hyun, a member of the South Korean foreign affairs, trade and unification committee.

Those that have fallen from favour include Ri Yong-ho, the head of the army, and Ri Kwang-gon, the governor of the North Korean central bank.

Analysts suggest Mr Kim is acting to consolidate his power base and deter any criticism of his youthfulness and inexperience. He is believed to be either 28 or 29.

"When Kim Jong-un became North Korean leader following the mourning period for his father in late December, high-ranking military officers started disappearing," a source told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

"From information compiled over the last month, we have concluded that dozens of military officers were purged."

It also appears that Mr Kim told officials to use the excuse of misbehaviour during the mourning period to remove any potential opponents.

Other officials have been executed by firing squads.

Since being elevated to second-in-command by his father in 2010, Mr Kim has reportedly been behind the dismissal of at least 31 senior officials.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-korea ... z2AN8Tf6cV