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MA in North Korean studies, 1 year full-time study in the UK. Fees:£5000 (EU)/$11950 (non-EU). Discounts for alumni.   Only at NK News  North Korea fires on S. Korean loudspeakers North Korea fired on South Korea’s recently installed propaganda speakers on Thursday at 4 p.m. using counter battery artillery, according to local media. The attack was directed towards the Yoncheon 28th Division, but the loudspeakers were reportedly undamaged. People living in Hwangsan-li and Sanmgot-li, Yoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi-do have been evacuated from the area. South Korea reportedly fired back with dozens of 155mm shells, though there was no further response from the DPRK. Visit NK News for more Inside North Korea's cell network: ex-Koryolink technical director reveals all, By Chad O'Carroll North Korea’s Koryolink cellphone network includes a “third” network for use by high officials, a surveillance system based on technology found outside the North, and sees surprisingly active internet usage patterns.All this and more was revealed through an exclusive interview conducted by NK News with Ahmed El-Noamany, a former senior technical director of the network. Visit NK News for more The bustling North Korean consumer goods market, By Dr. Andrei Lankov North Korea remains very poor by the standards of the developed West, and for that matter, by the standards of all its neighbors. Malnourishment is still a problem for many North Koreans. Nonetheless, it is clear that within recent years, a large and growing part of the population can afford items that were completely unavailable 15 years ago and were not seen as necessities. Some North Koreans still worry about survival, but many can now afford to think about a comfortable life. TVs and fridges are commonplace, and many people can afford to eat meat on a regulat basis. Visit NK News for more S.Korea sends letter to UN over landmine The South Korean government submitted a letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday (EST) via its UN-based ambassador in New York criticizing the explosion of a landmine at the DMZ on August 4, which they blame on North Korea.The intent of the letter, South Korea said, is to prevent further provocations by the North. One expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “there will be a political argument behind closed doors as to whether or not (the Security Council) should consider the ROK letter.” Visit NK News for more S. Korean president ‘should be buried … as soon as possible’ – N. Korea South Korean President Park Geun-hye “should be buried in (a) cemetery as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for Pyongyang’s Joint National Organization of Working People has said. “What she should do for the nation is to leave Cheongwadae, the doghouse of the U.S., shut her unshapely mouth and get her crime-ridden body buried in the ceremony at an early date,” the statement said. One observer said that hopes the 70th anniversary of Korean liberation might have otherwise fostered warmer relations between Pyongyang and Seoul had been misplaced. Visit NK News for more A boat to nowhere: Trip to N. Korean border stopped by police Late last week Wesuck Kang, a controversial South Korean conscientious objector and pacifist, announced his plan to row all the way to North Korea on the 70th anniversary of Korean Peninsula’s liberation from Japan. Prior to the trip he had received an indication from authorities that his trip would not be considered a violation of the National Security Law and would be allowed to proceed. But his plan to reach North Korea on his boat was brought to an abrupt halt by South Korean authorities just 460 meters from the North. Visit NK News for more Top Stories Today S. Korean president to attend China's celebrations of victory (Asahi Shimbun) South Korean President Park Geun-hye will travel to China next month to attend a ceremony marking the anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II, her office said Aug. 20.  Pyongyang says abductions probe report is ready but Tokyo refused to receive it (Japan Times) A North Korean foreign ministry official has told a Japanese private-sector mission the investigation into the fate of Japanese nationals who emigrated there or were taken by force has been concluded. N. Koreans on visas to China drops (The Daily NK) Data on the number of foreigners who went to China in the first half of this year indicate roughly 89,700 North Koreans crossed into the country. Pyongyang comes alive with the sound of foreign rock music (The Guardian) With a 45-minute set that included covers from the Sound of Music, the avant garde Slovenian group Laibach on became the first foreign rock band to play a gig in North Korea. North purge may be tied to memoir (JoongAng Ilbo) Won Tong-yon, a senior North Korean official with years of experience in inter-Korean relations, has disappeared from public view since last December.  Connect with Us: FacebookTwitterNK News Website Contact Info: Phone: 202.697.9087 Email: pro@nknews.org

Bob Dylan - When the Deal Goes Down/ wonderful

Stand By Me, Ben E King, 1961. when the night has come...

Otis Redding-Sitting on the dock of the bay

A Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke, 1963/perfect

Tony Joe White : Rainy Night In Georgia/pure as the rain

Australia, Iraq, Syria, and the waste of hope.

-- ​from my blog today: ​I've been quiet on Blogger for awhile now, although I have collected a lot of fascinating and changing​ important​ information regarding North Asia, and the Koreas​..and indeed the future for the world, as we know it​. I guess I've been quiet due to my general malaise regarding interventions by the USA in Iraq and Syria, with Australia just tagging along, spending 2000 million dollars a year now in helping to bomb people that we apparently care about, rather than investing this good coinage in disabled and other Australians who we don't apparently care about​,​ and who could use the money. Our 'war effort' is all still there in costings as Australian Humanitarian AID to Iraq. I really can't get past the notion that somehow bombing people who we have never met or had any problem with, ​and making them homeless, ​and then restricting refugees from that bombing from coming to Australia, really, in any way, actually helps them​ or is humanitarian in any way​. I know, I'm just naïve. ​Good really is bad and black really is white, etc etc.​We bombed Korea and Vietnam for many years, to help them, you know, but I don't think it really did help them ​to lose everyone they loved and you know I don't think it would help us if that happened to us...​and it just, to me, seems silly to continue doing this, from our position, ​....​massive free spending of money as bomb waste ​and horror ​that could be best directed to our own people rather than killing foreign folk and making them homeless​...​ and so forcing them to try to get here, and then ​we have to cope with this by ​setting up impossible borders​ that cost a hell of a lot more than 2000 million dollars a year to turn​ that great human ​survival ​effort​,​ and their lives​,​ and journey​s​​,​ into some kind of criminal event​...​ caused by 'travel agents' or 'people smugglers​'​ as we choose to call them. The fascinating thing is that most people in Australia don't care at all​ about humans. ​It has taken a long time for humans not to care about humans, and Australia is up there, even though we are insignificant in every other way, in doing what we can to make other humans more insignificant than we are...and by choice. ​ It is not healthy for us, on any level, and yet I guess that it is a natural devolution process, to begin to demonise and devalue foreign folk and eventually to demonise and devalue ourselves, to allow something essential in the freedom of ourselves, our compassion, to be taken away, so we can go further backwards into that oblivion rather than face a reasonable future for everyone. Self hate on a national scale.​ We have good reason as Australians to love ourselves, and good reasons to hate ourselves but its not healthy to just hate ourselves so that we can grow less and diminish ourselves as human beings even more, if that's even possible now.