Wednesday 6 May 2015
Tuesday 5 May 2015
. North Korea arrests S. Korean for 'illegally entering' DPRK territory Won Moon-joo, aged 21 and a current student at New York University (NYU), was arrested after “crossing the Amnok River from Dandong, China on April 22,” according to KCNA. Won has apparently confessed to illegally entering the DPRK, and may have done so with the assistance of a Dandong tourist agency. Visit NK News for more Kim Jong Un visits new satellite control center Given the previous use of satellite launches as a cover for missile tests, many experts are wary about the prominence given to this new center. North Korea has two known satellite installations, in the North and West of the country, and analysts are trying to connect images from the new center with satellite photos of existing facilities. Visit NK News for more Kim Yong Nam to visit Russia for Victory Day North Korea's nominal head of state will be replacing Kim Jong-Un for the Russian WWII victory parade, which is likely to be cold comfort for the Russian government. It is unclear whether any bilateral meetings are planned. Visit NK News for more Kim Jong Un might have canceled Russia visit over failed missile purchase: Report Hong Kong media are reporting that Kim Jong-Un may have cancelled his planned trip to Moscow in a fit of pique after Russia refused to sell surface-to-air missile systems to North Korea. Visit NK News for more Defection from N. Korea: A report from the war zone Rob York reviews Hark Joon Lee's book, Crossing Heaven's Border, which tells the stories of North Korean defectors in China. Lee reveals stories that are at once grim, poignant, eccentric and cynical, sources from within the secretive defector community in Northeast China. Visit NK News for more Reporting on North Korean defectors, struggling with objectivity Rob York interviews Hark Joon Lee, author of Crossing Heaven's Border, who describes his time spent as a South Korean living among North Korean defectors living secretly in China and reflects on the difficulties involved in avoiding taking a side in the conflict. Visit NK News for more Foibles and fears: Why Kim Jong Un cancelled his Russia visit Dr. Andrei Lankov assesses the recent news that Kim Jong Un's much anticipated first foreign visit to Moscow is not happening. Though many did foresee the "no show" there will be much more speculation and questions as to why. Was the decision made out of fear? Is the "domestic politics" rationale a ruse? And of course why did North Korea create the impression that Kim Jong Un’s visit was all but decided? Visit NK News for more
Friday 1 May 2015
North Korean Executions by Anti-aircraft Guns (Radio Free Asia) Satellite imagery of a military training complex near Pyongyang indicates that North Korea may have used heavy anti-aircraft machine guns in a public execution last October.
Satellite Imagery Suggests North Korean Executions by Anti-aircraft Guns
Satellite image of Kanggon Small Arms Firing Range, October 7th, 2014.
DigitalGlobe 2015 via the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
DigitalGlobe 2015 via the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
Satellite imagery of a military training complex near Pyongyang indicates that North Korea may have used heavy anti-aircraft machine guns in a public execution last October, experts on the country's human rights situation and military wrote in a report on Wednesday.
"Sometime on or about October 7th, 2014, some very unusual activity was noted on satellite imagery of the Kanggon small arms firing range," wrote Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and veteran North Korea military expert Joseph Bermudez Jr., of AllSource Analysis, Inc.
Kanggon Military Training Area lies 22 km (13 miles) north of the capital city Pyongyang, near an elite military academy, and is likely used by military academy students, military units and state security authorities, the report said.
On last Oct. 7, the authors said, "instead of troops occupying the firing positions on the range there was a battery of six ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns lined up between the firing positions and the range control/viewing gallery."
The ZPU-4 is an anti-aircraft gun system consisting of four 14.5mm heavy machine guns (similar to a U.S. .50 caliber heavy machine gun) mounted on a towed wheeled chassis, the authors wrote.
The satellite imagery, which the authors say appears to have been taken just before the executions, also shows either a line of troops or equipment, five trucks, a large trailer, and a bus.
Public execution most plausible
"This suggests that senior officers or VIPs may have come to observe whatever activity was taking place. Most unusual in the image, perhaps, is what appears to be some sort of targets located only 30 meters downrange of the ZPU-4s," the report said.
Using such heavy guns on the small arms firing range "is neither safe nor practical" because it would destroy the backstop downrange, the report said. Likewise, a live-fire test of the weapon on that range would be "even more nonsensical" because the ZPU-4 fires rounds with a range of 8,000 meters (yards) and can reach a maximum altitude of 5,000 meters, the authors wrote.
"Busing in senior officers or VIPs to observe a ZPU-4 dry-fire training exercise at a small arms range amidst North Korea’s fuel shortages would make no sense," they added.
"The most plausible explanation of the scene captured in the October 7th satellite image is a gruesome public execution," said the report, which said 24 heavy machine guns would leave the bodies of those shot "nearly pulverized."
"The gut-wrenching viciousness of such an act would make 'cruel and unusual punishment' sound like a gross understatement," the authors wrote.
"Given reports of past executions this is tragic, but unfortunately plausible in the twisted world of Kim Jong-un’s North Korea," they add.
The report by Scarlatoiu and Bermudez comes on the heels of reports by domestic and foreign media in Seoul quoting lawmakers briefed by South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Lee Byoung Ho as saying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has had 15 senior officials executed so far this year.
The Associated Press reported that Lee told the lawmakers in a closed-door hearing that a North Korean official with a rank comparable to a vice Cabinet minister in the South was executed in January for questioning Kim's policies on forestation, while another official of similar rank was executed in February for opposing Kim's plans to build a giant building in the shape of the Kimilsungia flower, named after his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.
The NIS chief also told the lawmakers that the agency also believes that North Korea used a firing squad in March to execute four senior members of the Unhasu Orchestra, a Pyongyang music and performing arts troupe.
N. Korean oil minister meets Gazprom exec North Korea’s Oil Minister Pae Hak met with the chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee in Moscow. In 2002 a Singaporean company discovered substantial reserves of natural gas off the coast of the DPRK, however, experts have expressed doubts as to the viability of any effort to extract them on a commercial basis.
Australian faces death in Malaysia for Ice smuggling
Australian mother Maria Exposto faces possible death sentence after chemist confirms she was carrying crystal meth in Malaysia
Updated
An Australian woman faces a possible death sentence for drug trafficking in Malaysia after a chemist's report confirmed the substance found in her bag was crystal methamphetamine, a prosecutor says.
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, a 52-year-old mother of four, was arrested on December 7 at Kuala Lumpur airport with 1.1 kilograms of the drug, also known as ice, court documents showed.
Prosecutor Hasifulkhair Jamaluddin told the magistrate's court that Exposto had been trafficking methamphetamine based on the chemist's report.
Magistrate Noor Hafizah Salim then ordered the case to be transferred to the high court.
Malaysia has a mandatory death penalty by hanging for anyone found guilty of carrying more than 50 grams of a drug.
Authorities previously said Exposto was trafficking 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine.
Exposto looked nervous when the amended charge was read to her.
The defence is yet to enter a plea until the case reaches the high court, since the lower magistrate's court has no jurisdiction to hear death penalty cases.
'Yes, I am innocent'
Later as she was being led out of the detention room in handcuffs, the Australian said she was innocent and nodded her head three times.
"Yes, [I am innocent]," she said with a smile.
No date has been set for the high court hearing, but defence lawyers said the trial could begin later this year.
"We are confident that we can show her innocence at the trial," Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, her counsel, said.
Defence lawyers say Exposto was duped into carrying a bag — which she believed contained only clothing — by a stranger who asked her to take it to Melbourne.
She had travelled to Shanghai after falling for an online romance scam by a person claiming to be a US serviceman, according to lawyers.
Customs officers discovered the drugs stitched into the compartment of a backpack.
Two Australians were hanged in 1986 for heroin trafficking — the first Westerners to be executed in Malaysia.
Few people have been executed in Malaysia in recent years.
AFP
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