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Well-known electronics joint venture terminated in Pyongyang A well-known joint venture between North Korea’s Hana electronics company and the foreign-owned Pheonix Commercial Ventures Ltd has been terminated, a statement published last week said. Hana Electronics JVC was once ranked as one of North Korea’s top performing joint ventures, with over 200 staff specializing in the production and distribution of DVDs, VCDs and associated playback equipment. Visit NK News for more U.S.-S. Korea conduct biological defense exercise amid criticism The South Korean Ministry of National Defense (MND) and Ministry of Health and Welfare (MoHW) conducted a biological defense exercise, referred to as "Able Response 15," in cooperation with the U.S. According to an MDN spokesman the training had been revealed to the public because of the spread of MERS earlier this summer, as well as the U.S. army’s shipment of live anthrax to a South Korean Air Force camp in Osan in May, which may have inadvertently exposed South Korean personnel to the agents. Visit NK News for more North Korea claims new credit card service North Korea has announced the launch of a credit card system which can already be used in certain department stores, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported today.Dubbed the “Sangyon," the new system can reportedly be used 24 hours a day and was developed by North Korea’s Institute of Commercial Science. however, experts have raised doubts as to whether North Korea has the infrastructure needed to support a credit card system in the true sense of the word, speculating that this is more likely to be a pre-pay or debit card. Visit NK News for more Trying not to starve in the N. Korean army, By Kim Yoo-sung In this week's Ask A North Korean, Kim Yoo-sung looks at military service in the DPRK. Despite the country's military first policy, soldiers outside of the elite units are often under-fed and expected to work on civil engineering projects when not training. Not only do soldiers often rob civilians in order to have enough to eat, but sometimes this is even done on the orders of their officers. Often, soldiers are even more malnourished than the general population, and have to be sent home to recuperate. Visit NK News for more Laibach rocks N. Korea: Scenes from a historic concert, By Oliver Hotham August 19-20 saw the situation on the Korean Peninsula ramped up to its highest tensions since 2013.In the aftermath of the serious injury of two South Korean soldiers by a landmine allegedly planted by the DPRK, loudspeakers broadcasting pro-democracy propaganda messages were placed on the DMZ for the first time in over a decade. But in the nation’s capital the mood was very different: the Slovenian industrial band Laibach were playing a concert to a packed auditorium, and as far as those attending were concerned, things couldn’t be more normal. Oliver Hotham spoke to those who were there. Visit NK News for more

Top Stories Today

Red Cross picks 1st batch of candidates for family reunions (The Korea Herald)
The Korean Red Cross said Wednesday it has conducted a computer-based selection for the first batch of 500 candidates for the upcoming reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

In IAEA session, S. Korea to seek support for its nuke agenda (Yonhap News)
South Korea will brief the international community next week on its non-military nuclear program and request support for its efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.

Sudden market crackdowns attempt to redirect interests to Party (The Daily NK)
After enjoying significantly relaxed regulations on market sales over the past few years, North Korean vendors are facing a sudden step-up in crackdowns.

65 N. Koreans cross sea, land borders to defect to South over 5 yrs (Yonhap News)
A total of 65 North Koreans have crossed the tightly-patrolled land and sea borders with South Korea to defect to the capitalist country since 2010 with 15 of them breaking the borders undetected.

Defense budget is rising 4% in 2016 (JoongAng Ilbo)
The government proposed on Tuesday a national defense budget of 39 trillion won ($32.5 billion) for next year, up 4 percent from this year, in the face of possible North Korean threats.